So I have decided that once one enters into medical school a great deal of time and energy is spent concentrating on that one part of ones life. Learning new things, studying the body, researching topics, going to class, going to histo/anatomy lab, trying to not feel guilty whenever you are not studying....etc, etc. So, medical school is really consuming. I try to have balance in my life and to continue to do things that make me happy. So far I have been pretty going at doing that. I am keeping a pretty good workout schedule, I am for sure keeping up with my love of food, I have been able to visit family and friends and attend several events and weddings also. I have really cut down on the amount of time that I watch tv. I let myself watch one show per week. During the first unit, CRR, I was watching House. Now I have switched over to my favorite show EVER Lost and have stopped watching House. Tonight, for the first time in a long time, I have let myself have the tv on in the background while doing work. It is kind of nice.
Okay, on to what I have been up to for the past 5 MONTHS!
CRR unit went pretty well. It was hard to get adjusted to the curriculum, but about half way through I was getting used to it. I found this unit to be hard because the lung, heart, and especially the kidneys are just so darn complex! I did enjoy everything I learned though. I made it through the mid-unit exam fine (which was a big relief) and also conquered the end-of-unit exam. The end of unit was really hard though and I thought that I did horrible. The day the test was over I headed home for Thanksgiving break which was such a great week off from school! I was relieved to find out that I got an "S" for the first unit (Satisfactory).
Then SSB started. SSB is like a foreign language to all of us. We hear of terms like superior colliculus, inferior colliculus, tectum, midbrain, and brainstem (to name 5 out of about a billion). Later we realize that the tectum is the superior colliculus plus the inferior colliculus and they are part of the midbrain (which looks like Mickey Mouse on a CT scan) and the midbrain is part of the brainstem! This unit has been more interesting to me than the last unit. I like learning about the cranial nerves and the spinal cord and brainstem is pretty cool too. The amount we have to learn for anatomy this unit is really out of control and I am worried about not being able to learn all of it. I have been having thoughts that I think I might really like to follow in my dad's footsteps and do ENT. I like the head and neck anatomy, CNs, anatomy and physiology of the ear, nose, etc. also.
A couple of weeks into the unit we had Christmas break, which was awesome! Bill, mom and I got to go to Augusta to visit my dad. That was really fun. New Years was good too! I did have to study over break, which kinda made it not quite so much fun. Since we have been back in school, we have been going full speed ahead. We were supposed to have our mid-unit exam on Friday, however, 2 snow days have forced us to change the schedule and now we will have the test on Monday. I can't wait for it to be over with so I can take a mini-study break! I ran out of gas today while studying, so I decided to update this journal!
Wedding stuff has been going slowly. It is really hard to plan a wedding in a place where you don't live while you are really busy focusing all of your efforts on different things. I would love to be able to devote more time to wedding stuff, and I really want to, but it is just not going to happen. I will have to do a lot over our spring break. We have the wedding party finalized, the bridesmaid dresses picked out (and most all of them ordered), a DJ picked out, and in the process of finding a videographer and working on the wedding registry.
Okay, I am getting tired and not sure if my sentences are making sense anymore. I must now get back to finishing going through the cranial nerves and then start my plan for what to study tomorrow. BYE!
