What a week!

We had our usual biweekly exam on Monday and our first anatomy practical on Friday. Suffice it to say that I triaged other classes to make sure I had everything down for anatomy. I felt like I knew the material lecture-wise, but it might be tricky to identify structures on other cadavers. I haven't been doing a good job of going around in lab and viewing other people's work. I mostly stick to our cadaver and know her super-well. But I looked around the night before the practical, hoping that was enough.

Of course, by the random luck of the draw, my group was the last one taking the practical so I had plenty of time to just hang around. :/ Oh well; we actually get to go first next time and get it over with! I came out of the practical not feeling good at all. I felt very pressed for time and kept second-guessing some of my answers. I kept thinking about it throughout the night too. I was so anxious that I even woke up extra early on Saturday morning to go to school and pick up my results from my locker. Imagine my surprise when I saw my score. I have to learn to be less hard on myself and trust that I know the answers. I think a big issue with knowing so much material is that you keep thinking of the what-ifs and overthink questions.

But, on a lighter note, to ease the tension of the very first major anatomy exam, our instructors had us wear hats! It was even a question on the exam! Here's what I wore:

As one of my classmates astutely pointed out: Of course you would wear this hat. ;)

No, I actually do not own such a contraption. Thanks to my friend S for letting me borrow this. I made sure to bobby pin it to my head so it wouldn't accidentally fall into a cadaver, ha!

And then I went to clinic on Saturday. This time, I went to Clinica Tepati, which is definitely much bigger than Bayanihan. But I felt okay. I still need to practice some more blood draws before I feel comfortable doing them on patients. Next clinic appointment in a couple of weeks!

Of course, non-quiz weekends means dinner prep consists of more than heating frozen meals and/or leftovers. Here's cilantro-parsley-pine nuts coated tilapia with garlic-rosemary potatoes (with the skin on!).

Medical school is hard

People tell you that when you say you want to be a doctor. They tell you again during undergrad. And again when you are applying/interviewing. And again during orientation.

And you don't believe them.

Until it hits you smack dab in the face. Medical school is hard. It's Day 4 and I've felt overwhelmed, exhausted, and behind my schedule since Day 2. We have had more lectures in four days than two weeks' worth of undergrad. To be fair, the material isn't that difficult. What's overwhelming is the volume of information thrown at you and the pace at which you need to keep up. And it's not just studying the material covered for the day. You have to prepare for the next day's lectures so that you are able to keep up with the lecture and understand the material. Needless to say, the amount of sleep I've been getting is significantly less than I've grown accustomed to.

To be honest, I thought I would breeze through Block 1. We are taking Anatomy, Physiology, Histology, Biochemistry, and Doctoring. Since I was a Physiology major, I figured that I have already been exposed to most of the material, albeit not in the great detail at this level. Plus, the first course you take as a Phy Sci major at UCLA is Anatomy, and Biochemistry (lecture course AND separate lab course) is a graduation requirement as well. But, again, it comes down to the pacing. We'll usually have multiple lectures from a course every day, so that's been a little adjustment. Everything is videocasted though, so I might consider staying home for certain lectures and going at my own pace to see if that makes a difference. Time is such a precious commodity!

And then, there's Anatomy Lab. I don't think there is anything comparable to Gross Anatomy. I do want to talk more about this, but think it may be best to save for another post, after I've had a few more sessions in the lab.

We have our first quiz (more like a midterm, if you ask me, ha!) on Monday...stay tuned.