it's official.

med school ate my life.

want to know what i did today?  got up at 5:45.  worked out.  showered, ate, ran to class.  sat in a chair for FOUR hours and soaked up knowledge about valvular disorders.  ate.  studied pharmacology for 45 minutes during my lunch hour.  sat in that same chair again for FOUR MORE hours, 1 and a half of which was about statistics (during which i studied cardiology) and two and a half of which were about shock.  went home.  ate.  went to starbucks.  studied for four and a half hours until they kicked me out.  came home.  studied for an hour.  cleaned my room.  danced around for like 3.25 minutes before i got exhausted.  decided to blog before i hit the sack.

typical day.  the people at starbucks, panera, the library, and soon to be caribou coffee all recognize me, i recognize them, i know who works what nights at starbucks and what kind of music they like to play.  i also know who makes which lattes the best.  i have certain places i sit in all of these locations and i rotate through these locations pretty much on a daily basis.  it adds a little spice to my life.  

it's okay though.  work hard, play hard.  it's just been one of those "work hard" streaks for the past... week.  friday i get to play after my pharm test.  ...and then spend the rest of the weekend studying for the test i have on monday and the two other tests i have on tuesday.

oh, and ps. pharm sucks.  so many different drugs all with crazy foreign names.  yikes.  and i'm highly doubting i will remember the names of these drugs when i'm actually practicing.  especially since we're learning the real names... which no one actually uses.  //shrug.

off to bed.

intense day.

53 out of the 62 people in my class are female.

we spend around 7 or 8 hours a day in class with each other, 5 days a week.

seeing that almost everyone one of us moved here from somewhere else, after school, we often hang out with other also.

...i'm wondering what it would be like if we weren't all on birth control, and all of our cycles synchronized.

eek.

lovin it.

i really am loving PA school.  i could eat this *ish for breakfast.

i think that i'm going to make an awesome PA.  i really feel confident about it and about all of the knowledge i'm attaining and skills i'm learning.  i want to do so many things.  i am so glad i chose this profession, i think it's perfect.  i get to do everything i want to do, get to be elbow deep in the medicine, like i wanted, and still get to switch around and work different types of jobs and in different fields so that i can get a little taste of whatever i want.  AND i get to have a life.  don't get me wrong, i LOVE medicine.  LOVE it.  but i don't want it to define me.  i want to do other things too.  i want to hang out with my family and my friends, go on vacation, have hobbies, maybe even volunteer here and there.  and i love that i can still do that with this job.  i think it fits me really well.

we got our dermatology tests back today.  i looked up my number and looked next to it and saw that i got a 79.  my reaction was a little disappointed because i thought i did a little better than that, but overall i was okay with it, because i felt comfortable with the knowledge i had gained and that i could treat someone with a skin condition... but then i looked again a minute later and realized i was looking at the wrong number and i had actually gotten a 97.  i'm not going to lie, i felt better then.  :)  haha.  but really i've noticed a huge change as far as my study skills and test taking.  first of all, i don't stress much at all.  there's moments here and there, but overall its just steady going as it comes and not too worried.  i think part of it is that we have at least one test every week, often two and sometimes three.  so it's difficult to stress out about one in particular, because there's always another around the corner.  the other part is that no one is like looking at my report card.  i don't have to get straight As to make sure i get into such and such program or school.  which is SUCH a nice feeling.  now the only reason i strive to get straight As is because i want to and because i know i can.  and the material i'm learning is interesting and applicable.  i'm learning it, because it's going to help me treat a patient in the future, not because i have to get suchandsuch grade on the test.  i like that so much better.  and it's somehow helped me review the material in pieces on a regular basis, rather than in one huge chunk before the test.  it's pretty stress free, just slow and steady.  after all, slow and steady wins the race!

white coatedness.

today was the first time i got to wear my white coat.  rachel and i went to the VA hospital to do a comprehensive history on a patient.  he was a vietnam vet and chatted with us about his life for about 45 minutes.  i figured i'd let him talk a bit, since it's not like we had other patients to see and he seemed to be enjoying himself.  i definitely got a VERY comprehensive history.  he took two tours of vietnam and lost his hearing because of a bomb explosion and was riddled with bullets all the way from his lower left leg up through his abdomen and left flank.  no good.  he also bragged for a bit about his big truck that could got 150 mph and was a "chick magnet".  i felt pretty spiffy when i left my apartment in my white coat with my IDs dangling, but once i got to the hospital i just felt regular.  i guess that's good, but much less exhilarating.  ;P

in our interprofessionalism class today we actually had a pretty good chat.  it was the first time i felt like we were getting some insight into each other's positions.  we each shared about why we chose are particular profession and we got into some good discussions and interprofessionalism -- how it is today, how it should be and what could be the potential benefits or problems with it.  we also chatted a bit about how health professionals are viewed on TV, and what kind of qualities should be in a health professional.  as far as the interprofessionalism, what it came down to is pretty much we really need to be more knowedgeable about what each other does.  so that way we know what we each can do for a patient and what we can't, and also to help us have a little more humility and not to be afraid to send a patient to get more help from someone else, rather than trying to handle everything ourselves.  //shrug.  will it all actually happen?  unlikely, but maybe one day...

back in action.

hello, hello!

so due to popular request... i've decided to try to remember to blog on a fairly regular-ish basis.  :)

we are a month into the fall semester.  so far so good, but when i stop to think about it, it is a little overwhelming.  our first gen med unit was neuro... so basically in two weeks we learned everything we need to know about neurology to practice medicine.  weird, right?  i mean don't get me wrong... it was intense.  we had between 2 and 8 hours of neuro everyday for those two weeks.  after neuro was derm (which we were tested on today).  a week and a half of nausea-inducing pictures.  eek.  and now we're in the midst of cardio.  so far, i've decided i don't want to do neurosurgery, and i definitely don't want to work in dermatology, despite the fact that everyone raves about the hours and pay.  neurology itself is okay, but i wasn't in love or anything.  

the other classes we are taking are...

research and stats (ugh).

medical documentation (ugggh).

(fortunately both of those are only once a week).

psychosocial -- which i like.  we start each class with a medical related story or poem and watch a lot of movies.  most of the work we do is reflection, so that appeals to my social science/psych interests.

complementary medicine -- pretty interesting.  so far we've done acupuncture/chinese medicine, massage therapy, chiropracty and tai chi.  and the class enjoyed tai chi so much that we've decided to incorporate it into our weekly routine, having a course in it every wednesday morning before class.  :)

pharmacology (eek.)

EKG (piece of cake).

clinical lab medicine (merr...)

interprofessional healthcare teams -- the idea behind it is good, we get together with students from all the other programs (MD, podiatry, physical therapy, path asst, clin lab, psych...) and we have to work on a project together and discuss various things, including the current system of health care.  but in reality, it ends up being kind of a joke and a waste of time.  i don't think we are really gaining any interprofessionalism through it, which is supposed to be the goal.  pretty much most of the school still thinks that as PAs we can't write prescriptions, probably can't diagnose, don't do any surgery, and some of the med students were even surprised that we "actually got cadavers to work on in anatomy".  oye vey.  we've got a lot of work ahead of us...

so there you have it.  nine classes.  wow.  most of them are only a couple credits though, besides gen med and pharm which are the big ones.  gen med mostly.  i am thoroughly enjoying gen med and going through the different areas of medicine.  i find myself actually enjoying lectures.  and i love that everything is so directly applicable to what i will be doing (starting in less than a year!) as well as in my personal life.  i've already diagnosed my family with a handful of skin conditions.  i'm sure they're appreciative.

so yeah, overall... it's great.  intense, but great.  we have class technically from 8 - 5 everyday, but in reality we usually have at least one day that don't have to come in until 10 and one or two days that we get out by 3 every week.  i have to say that thus far, it's not nearly as difficult as i was expecting.  although i feel like i'm losing touch with everyone outside of the 61 kids in my class that i see everyday... i am completely able to handle the work load without freaking out, and still able to take a break and have fun a couple days a week.  work hard, play hard.  :)

thats enough for now.  i've got to save stuff to talk about later, seeing that my day-to-day is pretty much indistinguishable from week to week.