Glad to be Home!

It is a beautiful fall here in the great northwest. I'm excited to be home and have the opportunity to see everyone. It was fun to go up to the hospital and see all of my old coworkers. I was on the south hill today and it was BEAUTIFUL! I am so lucky to come home to all of this beauty. I colored my hair red today….now I have a new autumn color on my hair. I’m just a festival of fall!

I don’t usually love Halloween, but I’m excited to see the little guys this year. I hope we get lots of trick-or-treaters. I think I’m going through children withdrawal; however, I’m not going to have any kids of my own any time soon!!!

Home at Last!

I started this post in the Chicago Airport waiting for my connecting flight to HOME to Spokane. It was over 90 degrees in Miami when I left. But, it was rainy, cloudy and downright crummy in Chicago. My flight into Chicago was a bit late because there was so much fog that they had to make the spacing between the planes larger. It was rainy and cold. Luckily, the flight out of Chicago wasn’t too choppy and the four hours went relatively quickly.

I’m happy to be home. Last night was the first time I’ve slept for eight hours straight in months. It’s funny how the little things make me happy. I probably shouldn’t get used to sleeping through the night as I head to Dominica in January. As a good medical student, I’m taking these two months to do a little extra studying—you know, to try and review a little bit before the storm of studies hits!
I have so many people to see. I can’t wait to catch up with all of you!!

Good Bye Miami

On Friday, I went to the post office and dropped off four boxes of books, Miami goodies and such. I think I went a little crazy with the Miami food. Oh well, at least I’ll have some fun things from Miami once I’m home. After the post office, I went to a movie then to my favorite gelato place for one last GIANT scoop.
I’ll be leaving Miami tomorrow and I’m shocked to say how excited I am to get home. It’s been great fun down here, but I’m too old for some of these antics. I have no desire to go to clubs or to drink until I’m sick and I feel like much of Miami is overwhelmed with this party mentality. I’m excited to sleep in my own bed (with my 500 thread count sheets—boy, did I spoil myself when I had a job!).
I’m using my last day in Miami to do important things, such as catch up on Grey’s Anatomy and pack. I still have medical jargon all over my mirrors in my apartment so I’m still reading my mirror and seeing things like “the portal triad is comprised of the branch of the hepatic artery, branch of the hepatic portal vein and the bile duct.” Helpful information when I’m watching Grey’s anatomy.

The final is done!

We took our final yesterday and I think it went well. I could hear James Brown singing, "I feel good" for the first 171 questions, but then there were a few questions that I thought were tough. I think doing a THOUSAND practice questions helped me keep my staminia throughout the exam. It can be exhausting to sit for four hours and do 200 questions. It was worse taking the MCAT (8 hours of exam) and the the USMLE Step 1 will be worse (U.S. Medical Liscening Exam--Step 1, which is taken after the second year of medical school). To become an MD, you take the USMLE step 1 after the second year of school and USMLE step 2 (two day exam) after the fourth year of school. The USMLE Step 3 is taken during your intern year (first year of the residency) and the third step is also a two day exam. Then after you finish your residency, you have to take exams to be board certified, which you retake every seven years. Yup, the rest of my life is going to be filled with exams!!!! In fact when I woke up this morning, I thought to myself, "I wonder what I should be studying."

I was so tired last night. I could barely enjoy a nice night at the wine bar, and I love a nice glass of wine so that tells you how tired I was. It is still almost 90 degress down here. Boy, am I going to have a shock when I get home next week! I keep thinking it is sill July or August. I like the heat, but I miss the four seasons---I'll probably be eating my words next week. I am getting a bit excited to come home, sit by the fire, knit, read about GI physiology and drink tea. Can't wait to see you all next week!!

You know you’re a nerd when…

I was so excited and overwhelmed with joy when my copy of the “Board Review Series: Physiology—Cases and Questions” arrived this week. It is a book with case studies of patients and how it relates to the basic sciences (first two years of medical school) and specifically how it relates to the physiology for the first two years. All of the testing in medical school is in multiple choice format and this book is in short answer essay format. It is the most fun I’ve had in a long time. It’s like playing doctor. For example, last night I read about poor Melanie who had traveler’s diarrhea (more scientifically, she had Escheichiae coli with the enterotoxigenic toxin.) She got dehydrated which messed up her electrolytes. My job was to figure all this out. It was super fun! I am such nerd. I considered working on this case file (which is over topics for my final) as a study BREAK! Yup, I’m a nerd.

Well, I spent seven hours at the library on Friday, 11 hours at the library Saturday and almost 12 hours Sunday. I’m off to school to do a 200 question “pre-test” before the final today. Just another fun day in Miami, but I’ll be home before I know it! I’m sure I’ll be freezing my tail off!!

Less than two weeks....

Our final is less than two weeks away (October 18th). I have my plan of attack documented and I'm ready to study. So far this weekened, I've done about 200 reivew questions and I think I can do another 700 before the final in addition to reviewing everything if I can stick to my schedule. Our final is 200 questions (50 from Microbiology/Immunology, 50 from Physiology, 50 from biochemistry and 50 from histology and anatomy). We have four hours to complete the task. I get a little tired after an hour so I'll have to put in extra practice talking exams (and of course you can take a minute or two break during the exam to relax).

Anyway, I better hit the books. I can honestly say that even though it's 90 degrees out, I'm excited to get home and away from my terrible apartment (I'm sure ALL of you know what I'm talking about!!).

By George, I think I'm becoming a doctor!

Last Wednesday, I had a bad start to my day. I looked and looked and couldn’t find my keys. Since I have a roommate, I was off to class. However, I didn’t concentrate as well as I should have because I was wondering WHAT I could have DONE with those stupid keys. Once I finally got back in my apartment, I started looking and looking and looking. I emptied my bag, looked in the refrigerator, checked the cupboard, looked in my laundry, under the bed, between my books but I couldn’t find them anywhere. FINALLY, after another twenty minutes, I found them underneath a paper by my night stand. I must have looked right past them twenty times.
Well, I headed back to school for a review session and decided to grab a cup of coffee and some soup. I made my order then asked the man to stop. When I was cleaning out my bag looking for my keys, I left my wallet at home. The gentleman owns the little shop (with white hair and I’d guess is in his 60s) informed me that I was going to have my soup and coffee and that I would just bring him the cash in the morning. I told him it wasn’t necessary and he insisted that I take the meal. It isn’t often that people are that nice anymore.

Well, it’s been raining down here a TON! I mean by the buckets! It is still so strange to me; it is warm! If I walked to school in a real downpour (which is six blocks away), I’d look like I just took a shower. I’ve been awoken several times in the last week from the sound of raining and the lightening, which lightens up my room enough to read a book, even in the dark of night.
I was down at the health district today and I’m sure that I’m becoming a doctor. A woman came in with a todler who had been exposed to TB and had a positive skin test (meaning you have antibodies). I think I could have counseled the woman on the differences of having a positive skin test and being VERY sick from TB. I felt so proud. However, I also was a little afraid of the little, cute guy because he started coughing and TB particles can go up to 10 feet when someone infected coughs! So, if you have to take the public transportation anywhere, stay away from people who are coughing or sneezing because they have a ten foot -circumference surrounding them full of germs!!!