I'll have to think of a better title later

Wow, sometimes I have to remind myself that I have a blog. When I started this, I had the goal of posting at least on a weekly basis. That has since dwindled down to monthly, yikes! New goal: biweekly? Baby steps.

Studying Microbio with my favorite mug by my side.

Yours truly made hummus from scratch.

HuGE Valentine's Week at school. Aka the best college to be part of :) LOVE these chocolate roses.

This week, I got to see college friend S who is in med school on the East Coast. It was so great catching up and seeing her. I think I hadn't seen her in person for at least 1.5 years. :) And I also learned you can tie individual challah rolls with a surgical knot (ha!). See below for beautiful result...not that I can take the credit, though.

Homemade brownies and challah bread. Thanks for such a great night!

Block 2 has actually been a little more stressful than I anticipated, especially with the added clinic responsibility. I really love some of the classes, but others have been a little more challenging and I've had to devote more time to study those and adjust my way of thinking. But I think I'm getting better and the material is much more clinically relevant so I actually feel like I am in med school and can go through cases. However, to combat that stress, I brought back some books (YA fiction, of course!) from home when I went for the long weekend and am trying to read at least a chapter every couple of days or so. 

Block 1 Reflections

Block 1 is over! It really was a 20-week marathon...and I passed every class above average, bam! I figured I should write my thoughts about each since it's still fresh in my mind:

Physiology - I seriously thought this would be my easiest class, oh you know since I have a degree in it and all. It started out pretty easy, but once we got into the organ systems, things got super detailed and I was spending more time on this than I anticipated. I also went ahead and royally bombed the renal quiz. I mean hardcore failed it. Seriously. Which is sad since I felt like I had the best grasp on renal material in comparison to the heart or pulmonary sections. The problem was that the quiz was one case only and I missed a key physical exam finding (bad!) so I came up with the wrong diagnosis (very bad!) and my explanations therefore were tailored to this completely wrong conclusion. Oh well. It was sort of a wake up call in the sense that I don't think I was studying physio the way I should have. I was focusing too much on details and not considering the big picture or what physical exam findings would indicate. So in a way this was a good thing in that I really really really studied for the next module and reviewed very thoroughly for the final. I still ended up getting the lowest grade in this class among all of my block 1 classes, but oh well. The irony is not lost on me.

Anatomy - what a wonderful class. I feel sorry for other med students who have to study anatomy without our instructors. I mean they are seriously wonderful and stay waaaaay after class or come in just to review material with you if you need it. At first, I was annoyed that we had to do dissections and figured prosected bodies would make life and learning so much easier. But looking back I understand the importance of doing these things on your own and taking care of and learning from your person. Dorothy was such a great teacher. (Obviously her name isn't Dorothy. Maybe it is, but I don't know. My group thought she looked like a Dorothy so we named her that.) We wrote little notes for her and left her flowers after our final.

Histology - oh dear. This was my least favorite class (sorry!). Slides, slides, and more slides. What is there to say except that I coasted through the first 15 weeks of this class (like barely missed a question) and then missed A LOT of questions on the last couple of quizzes. So just like for physio, I rage studied for this final and did super well. Yay!

Biochemistry - it's biochem. What more is there to say? This year, the curriculum was adjusted slightly so that the genetics portion of Block 1 was switched with the Metabolism portion from Block 2. I think this was fine. Although the metabolism section was heavy and done in a very short amount of time, the clinical correlates really made the material stick for me, so I was happy with it.

Doctoring - I can do a full physical exam. Which is basically what I've been bragging to my friends back home and they probably want me to shut up and stop repeating that statement. But I can do a full physical exam. Oh yes. I can.

Overall - I do think I overstudy, but I also think that that is part of my personality. I like to be very thorough. It was the same in high school and undergrad. If a teacher said not to worry about a certain topic because it wouldn't be tested, I still studied it for my personal knowledge. There were quizzes where I triaged certain topics but I still studied everything (just not as thoroughly as I would like).

I am a little worried about Block 2 in the sense that this will be uncharted territory for me. I had already taken most of the classes offered in Block 1 but EVERYTHING in Block 2 will be new material: Pharmacology, Pathology, Microbiology, Immunology, Endocrine/Reproduction/Nutrition/Genetics (well maybe I know a little bit of ENRG after all). Just have to take it one day at a time and adjust things if necessary.

Goodies for finals from my Big Sib!