Study Weekends are Fun!

Hello all! Phii here! Phii is my new online persona for the foreseeable future. Mainly because I can't shake the feeling that his wide eyed look most closely mirrors my state of mind lately. At any rate, I don't have anything particular interesting or funny to impart today. I just thought I give an update and didn't want to leave a Monty Python video on the top of my blog for too long. ~.^

I've been hitting the books hard lately and instead of making me feel productive it's been increasing my stress level almost exponentially. I mean, I was only half joking about counting down until finals in my previous post. I'm not joking anymore. I'm seriously starting to freak out. I know, I know, I've been through it all before (the last few months). But now half my points are set in stone and I know exactly how well I need to perform on the finals to ensure good grades in my first medical school classes. Add to that the constant advisements from everyone that the second half is hard because of, drumroll now, the head and neck in anatomy. My general unhappiness about my biochemistry study time from the first half of the term has led me to dramatically increase the time I've been sacrificing to it. I'm obsessively attempting to memorize every freaking detail since the midterm illustrated quite vividly how it is indeed possible to have a fifth degree multiple choice question in clinical vignette format render completely simple biochemistry concepts into almost an alien language. @.@ Now. Keeping count? Add to that the somewhat horrifying fact that histology is venturing into territory that is, while not unfamiliar, not among my current easily recallable knowledge. So it's as if an entirely new class has, like a nuclear missile, suddenly appeared on my radar. And it's beeping insistently for my attention. It's a shame I'm already engaged in a bloody two front battle. Ugh. Sorry for slipping into the war metaphors again. At least I managed to make them vague and not Star Trek related in some way.
The life of me is moving apace but I'm definitely feeling the pain of medical school fairly acutely.

And for a small glimpse into just exactly why there are so many acronyms in science/medicine!
ACAT = acyl CoA cholesterol acyl transferace
HMG-CoA = beta hydroxy beta methylglutaryl coenzyme A

And a short sentence (no, really) off of the back of one of the 55 notecards I made today! (yes, I counted)

"..phosphatidic acid reacts with CTP to form CDP-diacylglycerol which can react with phosphatidylglycerol (which itself is formed by condensation of glycerol 3-phosphate and CDP-diacylglcerol) to form cardiolipin, aka diphosphotidylglycerol which is a component of inner mitochondrial membranes..."

You get a cookie if you realized that I was studying lipids. Unless you have a PhD in chemistry (or molecular biology *grin*). Then, no cookie. Then you have to find mistakes to get the cookie. :p Shouldn't be too hard considering how fried my brain is after this long study weekend.

And on that note, until later!

Listening to: 夏目友人帳 音楽集 おとのけの捧げもの

Go SGU!

http://www.sgu.edu/about-sgu/caribbean-leader.html

Hello! I live!

I just wanted to let my (few) loyal followers know that I am indeed alive! The midterms did, in fact, attempt to murder me in my study induced stupor. I did manage to shake out of it in time to avoid the deadly blows and strike back with my trusty highlighter. Tis but a flesh wound I tell you!

At any rate I survived to continue the fight! There are now six and a half weeks until finals. Yes, yes I'm already counting down. That is both sad and scary at the same time.

I promise a handful of decent blog entries soon but I have to catch up from last weeks material since I spent most of the week in a post midterm haze. :P

Today you guys will get my study analysis. The key that I missed was constant revision. It's not enough to keep up each week with the material because since we were choking down new material a mere 48 hours before our anatomy midterm revision time was essentially zero. I came to the sudden realization that two days was drastically insufficient for revision of the massive amount of anatomy we've learned so far. So I stress to those of you going into med school soon: constant revision! It's absolutely vital. This goes for all classes. Because even though you've finished a class you still have the usmle's and clinicals and life as a physician beyond that. Medical school is fundamentally different than undergrad. You have to know everything that you are learning. Period. It's not as if you can tell one of your patients that you always forget the innervation of the flexor carpi ulnaris so could he please go injure a different muscle? It's a completely different way of thinking towards school. You can't afford to have 'bad' subjects. It's kinda scary at times. There's a professor here, Dr. R, who is excellent at bringing this point to our minds. He has a habit of starting all his lectures with pictures of stab victims and then quizzing us on our knowledge based on the picture. Anatomy = relevant

Almost There!

2 down, 1 to go! Anatomy and Histology Midterms are done! Biochem, like a sleeping monster, remains.... Must persevere!

This little creature is an excellent representation of my brain at the moment:

The bear trap is medical school. I'm currently at the 'holding on to the edges to keep from being crushed' stage. Hopefully in time I will be as lucky as him (her, it?) and turn the trap into my advantage. *toothy grin*

ahahahahahahaha

That my friends is the insane laughter of the damned. The damned I tell you!

I oftentimes have random panic attacks about the brachioradialis. I don't know why. But I do. Probably because it's my locator muscle. I use it to figure out all the other muscles of the forearm so if I mess it up I'm ruined for the rest.

Iliocecal junction! he he

Urachal fistula. he he ^squared

Attempts to rupture my spleen have thus far proven unsuccessful. Destruction of my radial artery with a plastic comb also a no go. Should've gone with the femoral. 14 seconds flat.

It was nice knowing you all! Goodbye! Goodbye! Soon I will be no more (anatomy midterm awaits me in place of a hike across the Himalayans).

Anatomy Midterm

This will be an informative post for those of you curious about the details of my anatomy midterm. (aka, reason for me to take a study break).

The midterm is a total of 140 points (~43% of the total points for the class). There are two portions, a wet lab practical and a written portion. The written portion will take place in the morning from 8-10:50 and will consist of 115 questions. The breakdown is as follows:

1-25 virtual (25) 21.7%
26-44 embryo (19) 16.5%
45-67 abdomen (22) 19.13%
68-75 back (8) 6.96%
76-94 upper limb (18) 15.65%
95-115 thorax (20) 18.26%

The wet lab portion is the last 25 questions and since there are so many of us they are shuttling us through in several different groups and sequestering those that have finished until the remainder of the groups have completed their practical. So after a grueling day I get to spend almost two hours cooling my heels on the balcony of the science building. I'm sincerely hoping that the ocean isn't too accessible in terms of a suicide jump. No doubt everyone will be talking about the midterm and I just hate sitting around rehashing test questions and finding out things I missed and trying to calculate my grade in my head as despair builds up....

Right. I'm less than 48 hrs pre-midterm. Can you guess my state of mind?

You Know Midterms are Approaching When:
-Everyone you run into on campus in the rare moments you venture outside have a somewhat haunted look
-All aforementioned haunted people are clutching either note cards or lecture printouts somewhat desperately
-IGA sits fully stocked as students attempt to live off peanut butter and canned pineapple
-review dates are pushed back again and again as you realize one more area that you've completely neglected to learn before a comprehensive review
-The following comments were overheard outside the lecture hall:
"I need a shirt that says 'rainbows are shit'"
"What doesn't kill you....will hurt."
-you spend twenty minutes staring at a sailboat lazily making it's way by the shore wishing desperately you where on it
-the cheering of 420 people after being told that two anatomy lectures won't be on the midterms is almost deafening
-the thoughts of post midterm life is like a far distant dream in the hazy distance

My (potential) Doom Awaits

Note: Star Trek references ahead. You have been warned.

I feel as if I'm on the eve of some great battle. The battle of course being this weekend and my preparation for my anatomy midterm. And peripherally preparing for my biochemistry midterm. Anatomy would be like, say, a full scale Dominion invasion with biochemistry only ranking a minor Klingon attack. Something you could probably survive provided you didn't get into hand to hand combat. Then you'd be in trouble.

Augh. Today was the last set of lectures before midterms. That makes it seem so very...close. So I'm doing my absolute best to pretend that I'm not about to be hit with several tricobalt explosives. V_V Oh dear.

I've found that the Dominion war arc of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a wonderful backdrop to my upcoming midterms.....