donedonedonedone

With 4th term!! YEA!!!!!

A tad crispy

I hesitate to use the phrase 'burn out' since that implies that I'm no longer able to study (a fact of which would cause me considerable stress) so I'm sticking with "crispy". Just a bit, around the edges. Nothing a little scraping can't fix.

This past week was an exercise in stamina. We had lab every single day as well as class every freaking day. We whipped though bone and neuropathology (oh, and there were a few cpd lectures sprinkled around just to make sure I couldn't sleep in). When the visiting neuropathologist lecturer made some comment about his topic being 'an afterthought' for the course I choked a little bit. Afterthought??? Sorry, but seven lectures this close to the exam is not an afterthought, it's a freaking eulogy to any free time I might have had this last week. I spent every evening in Taylor studying like a good little study zombie (it only took be a year and a half to finally be sucked into Taylor studying) and I still have bits and pieces that I haven't made a first run through of yet. Oi vey. To say nothing of the endocrine monster from the previous week. My study sessions in the car on the way to class may be the only time I ever review adrenal gland related things at the rate I'm going. I hate it when I make the same goal every day and never even get to it. "Oh, I just have those last fifteen pages or so of endocrine to get through, I'll do it this evening...." And then bone path happened, and then neuropath happened. Then I remembered that I still hadn't gone back to finish up studying MGT (remember my total lack of recall on bladder cancer?). Oh, and now cpd has assigned us yet another pointless piece of busy work. What? We have ANOTHER concept map due in path lab tomorrow afternoon? That'll have to happen today too.

.....

It's not wonder I can't seem to shake this headache. So I've been trying to memorize the differences between types of ovarian cancers while very carefully not moving my head to much. Which is hard when I'm looking at the computer screen and then looking down at my book. I keep forgetting my little brain isn't happy and end up clutching it in pain.

So of course I decided to type another blog entry (head not moving!). Good plan. Right.

I am SOOOO ready to go home right now. As each day passes I start thinking more about 'leaving related things'. What I'm going to pack, what restaurant I should go to first when I get back to the states, how utterly wonderful it will feel to be finished with 4th term. Invariably I have to come back to reality though. Yes, I'm really close to leaving but in between me and that wonderful Boeing 737 is a week of tests. Ugh. Stupid tests.

And on that note, I will be returning to my path notes. Onward!
Listening to: old music from Dec '08

Just Keep Swimming

As I come down to the last two weeks before my final path test I find myself alternating between burnout and mild panic (neither of which is particularly pleasant). Especially when my roommate skypes me to ask about the difference between squamous and transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder and the link with schistosomiasis and all I can do is stare blankly thinking "Did we learn that???". NOT a good sign. I clearly need to go back and review MGT. *sigh* It was only two lectures but the path department has long since proven they can fit an inordinate amount of material into a mere two hours.

I think I'm in better shape now than I was the last 2 week pre-test (which, now that I think about it, wasn't all that long ago). But it's hard to tell. I think that now I know how incredibly fifth order the test is going to be (damn you second path test!) I'm prematurely convinced I'm doomed. Hmm, perhaps that's a bit harsh, but that second test seriously whipped me.

For comparison, the first path test was like this:

What profession are you studying for? a) medicine b) nursing c) lawyer d) janitor

The second test was like this:

Long ass clinical vignette where they give you lots of non-specific symptoms and muddy the waters as much as possible with no diagnosis with the questions being something like "Now, what is the underlying genetic basis of the rare complication that only 1% of the patients present with in another disease that has a similar histological presentation to the one that that the above patient has (whatever the hell that might have been)?" And then if that wasn't cruel enough, it was following by a second linked question! So if you didn't get that one, which, let's face it, you didn't, there was no hope of getting the second one.

Ugh. I'm making myself queasy just thinking about it. Perhaps I exaggerated a bit, but not by much. That stupid test made almost visible waves of unhappiness in my term.

ANYWAYS. That is behind me, I barely scraped by and will be making a much better showing on the third test (I hope) now that I've been made painfully aware of the level of complexity required.

Sadly, I wrote this as a form of procrastinating. I was about to drag myself to Taylor to study (if I don't remove myself from my computer this evening will be a complete wash) and randomly decided to type a blog entry. I really hope this last few weeks moves by painlessly. Although if the past few weeks are any indication....they won't.

So, my fellow fourth termers, just remember the following and keep swimming!!!

On Nutrition and the Never Ending Path Story

It's been brought to my attention that people apparently still read my blog, even with my spectacular lack of entries. And taking into account that today is a holiday (thank you religious grenadian people) I have a smidgen of 'free time' (in quotations since there is no such actual entity in my sphere of existence anymore). So I thought I'd type about the latest one credit wonder, Medical Nutrition. We had our final on monday, which already feels like a small universe ago so if I don't type about it now it'll be regulated to 'that thing that happened after micro that made be get up early'.

So, just a bit about the class in general. As I mentioned it's the next in line of one credit wonders. After micro finished *angels sing* they replaced it with two solid weeks of nutrition. We had two classes mon-friday from 8-10. There were two lecturers for the class, both were guest speakers from the UK. I was pleasantly surprised by both speakers, especially Dr. Grimble. I'm not sure if it was the are of Britain that he was from but the man was spot on for the narrators of the Nova documentaries. I just kept expected him to break out into "....and then the female lion leaps out of the brush towards the hapless zebra who has caught her eye as...." and so forth. Accent aside, he was a wonderful speaker who had obviously spent his entire life researching the field. I'm a sucker for a good research paper and so really enjoyed that much of the data he presented was from his own projects.

As expected much of the class was common sense (hmm, eat more fruits and vegetables? ya think?) but it was nice to have it all laid out in a more scientific manner than what the media and GNC try to feed us. Supplements? Totally not necessary except, obviously, in situations were you have an actual deficiency or are pregnant/trying to be pregnant (take folic acid! It can't hurt and can do serious amounts of good). I'd always held this particular belief (that supplements are universally pretty much a bunch of crap) and it was a relief that my medical education agreed with my assessment. Here's the thing people. Because of some stupid ruling some years ago the FDA does NOT have jurisdiction over anything considered a 'supplement' so the companies that make said pills/powers/elixirs etc. are essentially on their honor to do the proper research and then present their products accordingly. Hmm. Who here thinks these profit driving totally unaccountable companies are trustworthy? Let's see a raise of hands. No one? I thought not. Also, if you look carefully at the concentrations of 'active' ingredient in many of these supplements and do the math there isn't even a significant amount to have any effect on you! You might as well eat dirt. Actually, the dirt might be better, what with all the trace minerals and such.
Ok, perhaps that was a tad of an exaggeration but I think I've belaboured my point enough.

Ok, what people want to know about. The test! It was very straightforward and pretty much directly from the note packets we were give. Make sure you know the meaning of all the graphs - it will come up. It's also a good reason to go class, so you can get the explanations. Granted, the graphs are not exactly rocket science but it does shave time off your studying to have them explained (and they really aren't in the the text of the handouts).

So, that was nutrition. Good bye, we hardly knew ya and will probably not think about you ever again - unless I need to step up on my supplement soap box again ;)

Also. Path. Need study more. Go now. >_>