Oh, where to start??

Well I would have to say that this past quarter caused me the most pain--both mentally and physically! I struggled though most of the quarter, and I don't exactly know why. Things were okay after the Thanksgiving break, but we were only back for a couple weeks before Christmas break. Having that much time off really can affect a study groove. It was tough coming back. Granted, Winter quarter of the 2nd year is notoriously the toughest in medical school, but this was no joke! But I made it through okay and now I get a week off to rejuvenate before going into the final quarter of didactics. Our course load will ease up over the next quarter so that we can turn our focus to board exam prep. I have my test scheduled for June 12th. After that, I have a week of clinical prep classes, and then I start my first rotation at the beginning of July.

made me a little flower heart bouquet out of straws, paper, and a cardboard dowel for a vase. On the vase says "I love Daddy because..." then each heart-flower has a little way she loves me. Of course Meghan helped her, but Braylei came up with them all on her own! I didn't really get to celebrate my 25th birthday too much, which was on the 21st of February because I was in the midst of finals! But ITo backtrack a bit, I wanted to note that for Valentine's Day, Braylei did get a great birthday present. I mentioned in my last post, that my old brick iPod kicked the bucket, but I now have a sweet new replacement... a 32GB iPod touch! It is incredible! Once all the 3rd party applications come out in June, it will be not only an awesome iPod, but a totally rad PDA as well! I'm so stoked about it!

My Spring break of course just flew on by! I had to finish putting in my requests for my clinical rotations. AZCOM has a lottery system where we select our top 3 choices for each of our core rotations, and then the computer figures out where we will go and when. We should find out the results in a week or so. We also did some final touches on our side yard, including some rock, putting in a bench, and cleaning our grill. I also got a chance to visit with a mentor of mine, Dr. Mitch Kasovac, who is now the director of Family Medicine at AT Still University in Mesa. He showed me the new medical program out there and the innovative curriculum that they have. While out in the east valley, I was also able to swing by my old work at Mezona Orthopaedics. They have a brand new facility where the docs and the physical therapy are together, which makes it really nice for the patients. Then I was able to stop by and see my dad for a few minutes before heading to my old high school, Tempe High, where I helped out an old friend, Eric Greenhalgh, who is now one of the softball coaches there. I went out do do some strength and conditioning drills for the team, which centered around core stability. Most of all, I really enjoyed spending more time at home with Meghan and the kids! During this time, Braylei got her first haircut! It was just a trim, but we took her to Cool Cuts for Kids, where she got to sit in a car and watch the movie Cars while she got her hair cut!

We also made a return trip to McCormick Ranch's Railroad Park in Scottsdale. We had some leftover tickets to use from Christmas break, and they were having Kid Appreciation Day, which was way cool! They had carnival booths, face painting, jumpy castle things, and some craft centers. Braylei got to make her own choo-choo whistle, and colored some blocks which will be put into a big mosaic at the Children's Art Museum. Braylei of course loved riding the carousel!

The kids are doing great. Tayscen continues to grow by the day. He is becoming a connoisseur of fine foods, developing his favorite baby foods, as Meghan makes all sorts of fun combinations for him to eat. He is rolling around all over just has a permanent smile on his face! My favorite thing that he does, is that every night when we put him down for bed, he will always end up in the top left corner of the bed, regardless of where we lay him down! It's hilarious! Braylei is of course my little princess. She is so smart. I've noticed her speech continues to improve even more that sometimes I forget that she's still just two! She can look at almost any word and spell it now, and I have the feeling that pretty soon she'll be helping me with my board review studies!

Oh, and then Wednesday night, when I was playing basketball at the church, I ended up injuring my foot pretty bad! Early in the game, one of the guys on the other team had a fastbreak, but I caught up to him and got an amazing blocked shot, but I must have got too much hang time, because I had a bad landing on my left foot. At first I thought it was just a little sprain, so I just loosened it up a bit, changed up my running pattern so I wasn't running on the ball of my foot as much, and it seemed fine. But the pan kept worsening throughout the game, and by the time I got home, it was hard to move and was pretty swollen. The pain was exponentially worse the next day. I couldn't put any weight on it, and I couldn't get into the doctor until Friday, forcing me to hobble around everywhere. I still thought it would resolve in a few days, but I was starting to get worried. It hurt a lot worse than any sprain I've ever had. So Friday morning I went into the Podiatry clinic at my school, and it didn't take me too long to figure out something was up> Whenever a doctor asks for more X-rays numerous times and then returns to have more physicians and podiatrists exam your foot, chances are good that you have something wrong. Turns out that I most likely have a Lisfranc dislocation, which is a rupture of the ligament between my 1st and 2nd metatarsal in my midfoot, and there was a separation between the medial and 2nd cuneiform, which are other small bones in my foot. Chances are excellent that surgery will be required, but the decision will be made tomorrow when the results of the MRI come back. If I do, the return to activity timetable is 6 months to a year, with me being completely non-weightbearing for 6 weeks. In the meantime, I've been crutching around with this giant immobilizer boot feeling completely useless. I've also realized how rough it is to live in a 2-story house! But I will be sure to update everyone when I find out more info!

That that didn't stop the fact that on the 8th, Meghan and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! It's crazy to think we've been married 5 years already! And then add in the fact that we've known each other for almost 11 years now and it's like we're an old married couple! We obviously couldn't do a lot given that we have two small kids, one of whom is still nursing, I'm in school, and I have a gimpy foot! We did go to dinner and a movie, and it was nice to get away for just a few hours, if nothing else!

January Recap

What the scrud? It's February already? Where has the time gone? Oh, yeah, I just got through "Black January" at school, which is probably the worst stretch of my medical school career. It is called this because of the ridiculous slew of tests, quizzes, and other requirements that preclude you from seeing the light of day! It has been very draining on me physically and mentally. But I only have 1 more test before finals! It really has been a pretty solid butt-kicking for me this quarter. Yeah, it's busy, but it seems more like I've been in a funk since returning from Christmas break and I haven't been able to get into my groove. But I've squeaked by okay. It's also been busy trying to figure out what I am going to do for my 3rd year clinical rotations. We have to try to schedule where you want your cores, what elective you want to take, not to mention trying to set up military rotations. I'm also applying for a predoctoral fellowship program in osteopathic medicine. In this program, I would be helping teach the 1st and 2nd year OMM labs at school, as well as spend every other month working in the school's osteopathic specialty clinic, where I would be seeing my own patients! It's a totally awesome experience, and would be a huge asset to my clinician skills! But, as a tradeoff, my clincal rotation period that normally lasts 2 years (the 3rd and 4th years of med school,) would be extended an extra year so that I would be able to alternate working in the clinic as well as completing all my normal rotations. I would be receiving excellent training, but even if I am selected, I am not sure if I will be able to do it due to my obligations with the Army. They are paying for 4 years of medical school and want me in one of their residency programs as soon as I graduate. I am trying to convince them that by giving me an extra year, I will be able to be an even better Army doc. My request is currently going up the chain of command, which is no speedy process, unfortunately. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

One of our school requirements is to do a rural rotation, and I have decided to return to Cedar City, one of my favorite places on earth, and the home of my undergrad, Southern Utah University! I love that place and it will be fun for us to go up there for a month and see everyone again! I tentatively have it set up for March 2009 (a peak time to see some gymnastics meets), but that might change depending on the outcome of the fellowship position.

I have also completed my solo OSCE's (orientation to student clinical experience), which was very nerve wreaking. It was like being in a real doctor setting and we had to apply all the information we've gathered over the last year and a half to patient scenarios. We are in a real exam room and are monitored and evaluated by a facilitator behind a 1 way window. There is a simulated patient in the room and we complete an exam based on our findings, then write up a SOAP note, which documents our findings, our diagnosis, and our treatment goals. It was a really good experience for me to see where my strengths an weaknesses lie, and try to improve upon them.

On the home front, Tayscen is now 7 months old! Isn't that crazy? He has truly discovered the joy of food and eats a ton! Meghan has been making his babyfood, but he is eating a lot more than we expected him to! He just loves to eat! He also loves the biter biscuits and Zwiback toast! Braylei never liked the babyfood that much! He is also finally rolling over a lot more now and is growing more aware of his surroundings by the day! Braylei has loved being potty-trained and is doing so well with it! She has a little sticker chart where she gets a sticker and a little treat each time she goes. She is also making leaps and bounds with her alphabet. She knows all her letters and what sounds they make, and can spell her own name! Meghan has been working with her every day, as she focuses on a letter each week and does numerous activities that go with that letter. At the end of the week, Braylei has a little letter book that she made and she even traced the letter B by herself! That was crazy to me!

On a more sober note, Gordon B. Hinckley, prophet and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, passed away on January 27 at the age of 97. To his last days, he was filled with joviality, kindness, wit and compassion. Through his leadership, the LDS church has grown so much. President Hinckley was the prophet since well before I joined the LDS church in 2002. Even before I joined the church, I had the utmost respect for him. A kinder, more genuine individual I have never known. He was truly a disciple of Christ and a champion of humanity. Regardless of religious affiliation, no one can say a negative thing about Gordon B. Hinckley. He was loved by all, making himself open to the media, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, which is the highest award given to a civilian. I know that I am a much better person because of his leadership, counsel and wisdom, and I know that he was a true prophet of God.

On a lesser note, I suffered another loss this month. My 4th generation 60GB iPod Photo, which I have had since 2005, went caput for good after a multiple month battle with freezing. "Old Bricky" was a hard drive based iPod, and was subjected to a lot of jostling, as it was a daily running companion to me. I was deeply saddened by this loss, and neither my workouts or daily commutes have been the same since.

Also this month, one of our good friends, Jill Stevens, competed for Miss America 2008! Jill, who was Miss Utah, was one of Meghan's roommates our freshman year, and was a Presidential Ambassador with me at SUU! Jill is also a medic in the Utah Army National Guard, and had completed a tour of duty to Afghanistan. It was so fun to watch her in both the pagent and on the TLC reality show leading up to the contest. It is always nice to see someone of such genuine character stand so firmly in her morals. She was even voted as America's Choice finalist! Of course we thought she should have won, but she represented not only the state of Utah, but the United States Army as well! Great job, Jill!

Another Break Ending Too Soon!

My Christmas break was far too short. I resume classes tomorrow, with an with a gauntlet of tests ahead of me. I have a big quiz in my clinical correlates class over an entire board review book that we were supposed to read over the break (yeah, right), then a Micro test on Monday, our clinical correlates midterm that Friday, followed by a Path test 3 days later! But, that's my life in med school! Thankfully I only have a little ways to go before my clinicals are through!

This break has been very good for our family. Christmas was so much fun! Braylei was so excited and had so much fun! She wanted to stop and and play with each present and thus she was opening presents forever! Tayscen was just chillin out being the happy little kid he always is. He got a cool little musical book that he likes to play with and has been good for tummy time with him. Braylei has been having a hard time deciding what she wants to play with and runs around from one thing to the next, whether it be playing with her Cinderella doll, pushing her shopping cart or vacuum, playing with her kitchen, coloring or riding her bike. She has had an awesome time.

We also used this break to do our planning for our "side yard." Since we live in an urban housing development, we don't have a back yard and our front yard is maintained for us, so we have a little 10 x 40 side yard which is in between our house and our neighbor, with our neighbor's house acting as the far fence, while their yard is on the opposite side, and so forth. Plus, with all the houses being two story, it doesn't get much sunlight, which adds to the difficulty in planning out our space. We want a fun area where the kids can play, but since our yard gets about an hour of sunlight a day (high noon), grass won't be able to grow. And even if it did, it wouldn't be worth it to install a sprinkler system or get a lawnmower for such a small area. So, we are going to use synthetic grass. At first, I thought this would be like astroturf, but most of the good stuff looks really good and is real soft and durable. There's no watering and no maintenance either! Some of the lower end stuff, though, did look like a flattened Christmas tree! We also are going to have a small area where we will put in mulch and a bench. And we just had some concrete put in for a barbeque area and a little pad by the gate. I'll be very excited to use it!

On the 29th, we took the kids to Railroad Park in Scottsdale! It was a really neat place! Braylei rode the carousel 3 times! I had Tayscen in the Baby Bjorn the whole time and he was as happy as could be! He was just kickin his legs and waving his arms! Of course, there were two train rides that we went on and a huge park! Braylei had a lot of fun going down all the different slides! It was a lot of fun for the kids!

Yesterday was another big day, as Braylei made the leap to "big girl panties!" We had been warming her up to the idea of using the potty to go to the bathroom for awhile now and she had picked out little mermaid, Elmo, and Dora underwear. She loved the potty videos we got from the library (they are weird, let me tell you, but she was mesmerized by them)! But yesterday, she told Meghan that she wanted to wear her mermaid panties and so we went for it. We spent most of the day in the bathroom, but it really paid off! She only had two big accidents, and they were the first two. It didn't take her long to realize the feeling and be able to tell us when she had to go. The following times she just wet her underwear a little bit before pinching it off and holding it. Then she went really well before her nap and stayed dry in her pullups through her whole nap, and went again after she woke up! It's really neat to see how quickly kids catch on and how they can regulate their systems and gain control. She had another good day today and has continued to improve, so we had a potty party at Chuck E Cheese, which was where she wanted to go. The key was to get her excited about it and have her take ownership in it. It started with her picking out her "big girl panties" and have her want to wear them over diapers. Then the potty videos helped a bit warm her up to the idea. Then each time she went on the potty, she would get a little treat that she got to pick out that was special and only used for that purpose. She also got to put a sticker on her potty chart, and when that fills up, she will get a toy (she wants a baby doll). Then we told her that if she went on the potty all day and would tell us when she had to go, she would get a potty party where she wanted to go. It's been a lot of fun!

Tomorrow, Tayscen is getting his 6 month pictures taken! His hair has gotten pretty long already, so today, we trimmed his little hair for the first time. It is way hard cutting a baby's hair! They don't exactly sit straight, you know! But we got it trimmed so we can spike his hair for his pics. He looks so much older, too!

The hard thing about going back to school is with the kids, I love spending time with them and this break especially, I felt like I really bonded with Taysce. I was barely around for his birth, as that was right in the middle of basic training over the summer. Then I missed that whole 1st month of his life. When I got back, we moved into our new house and had to get situated there and everything, and then I started school again. He goes to bed around the time I get home from school and so I really only get to spend time with him on Sundays. But with him older now and interacting more, it was really fun to spend so much time with him. He's still a mama's boy by far, but I feel like he really knows me now. Hopefully I won't ever lose hold of that!

I also posted some more YouTube clips that you can access via the VideoBar to the right or by visiting my YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/thejschro

From our family to yours, we hope you all had a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a very Happy New Year! We always love to hear from you by leaving comments, too!

Merry Christmas

I have survived the return to med school following Thanksgiving break, and although the stretch of tests were not fun, I manage to scrape decent marks. The tests were all pretty fair and straightforward, so I can't really complain about them. The quirky schedule, having our last test on Monday, yet having class through Thursday, was not conducive to my, nor most of my classmates' learning. All of our motivation left after the Pharm test Monday and for all intents and purposes, break started then. Even the professors partially checked out by then too! Oh, well, I'll have plenty of study time over the break after Christmas. Since last post, I have also had a few OSCE's (simulated patient experiences). My last interactive session (in teams of three) was Thursday afternoon. We had a sore throat module, which through differential diagnosis we determined to be strep, a bacterial vaginosis case, which was altogether confusing and weird, especially since our facilitator/patient was a male. It was quite the surprise to me as I was gaining a history to say the least! But we had a pelvic model to run the pelvic exam, but it was still weird! Then my third case was a low back pain, which as osteopathic medical students, we destroyed. There are actually a lot of differentials with low back pain. We have to rule out cancer, kidneys, visceral problems that would refer pain to the low back, or vertebral injuries such as compression fractures, spondylolysis (Scotty dog fractures), spinal stenosis, osteoporosis and so forth. Then of course there's back pain that is musculoskeletal in nature. Now most physicians would just diagnose this as nonspecific low back pain or mechanical back pain, but using my osteopathic training and anatomical knowledge, we can find the muscles or muscle groups that are affected. For example, if the patient says that they feel better bending forward or lying in the fetal position, it is likely the pain is stemming from a psoas/hip flexor problem that is pulling the upper torso forward. If however, they are backbending to find relief, the spasm/injury is from the erector spinae/paravertebral muscle group. And, in addition to prescribing muscle relaxants or pain killers, we can treat the patient right there with soft tissue work, then follow up with manipulation of the vertebrae if there are somatic dysfunctions that are facilitating the pain. We can also refer to physical therapy the strengthen the core abdominals to relieve the load on the low back! So there's a lot to think about with each patient you see in coming up with a differential diagnosis. It takes a lot of time to get this down, which is why we spend our entire 3rd and 4th years in clinical rotations with patient interaction to practice this over and over again! Speaking of, we also have to plan our 3rd year rotations, so I've been trying to get information about it. We have a number of core rotations we have to do such as family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN, general surgery, rural medicine, etc. Midwestern has a lottery set up where we look at student reviews and can pick the top three places where we want to rotate, and the computer will sort it all out. The tricky part comes when you are trying to schedule military rotations or an away rural rotation. For instance, I am trying to set up my rural rotation in Cedar City, Utah, where I did my undergrad, but I have to set it up myself, find which month I want to go, and make sure the computer blocks that time out so I don't get scheduled for another rotation at the time. And the same is with my military rotations. I can do an early experience Army rotation, which is tailored for young students who haven't had a lot of experience to do at the beginning of the 3rd year, to get used to military hospitals and their system. I'm looking to do mine in August at Ft. Carson, which is near Colorado Springs! It should be a lot of fun. And Meghan and the kids can come for a good portion of it, as Meghan's mom's best friend lives right by there and they can stay with her. So I am very excited to start my clinical experience, albeit a little nervous.

More importantly, Christmas is looming so near! As Braylei is 2 now, and knows what's going on, we really want to emphasize the spiritual aspect of Christmas and why we celebrate it. So one family home evening, we each wrote down what we wanted to give to Jesus this year. Braylei decided that she wanted to give Jesus a birthday cake and work on sharing with others! It was so cute. She drew Jesus a picture, then we put all the little papers in a small box and put it under the tree. On Christmas morning, we will open that little box first and read them all in order to keep an emphasis on the Savior. We have also been reading Christmas related scriptures each night and sing Christmas songs. Braylei has learned Jingle Bells pretty well, too. This past week for family home evening Braylei made a little gingerbread house with graham crackers and icing. I think she ate more of the candy decorations than actually got on there, but she had a lot of fun, and there was a lot of mess to clean up, too! Another thing we did this week was take names off of the giving tree at Walmart and Braylei helped pick out toys for underprivileged children that otherwise wouldn't have anything for Christmas. As Braylei gets older (and Tayscen too), we will give them more responsibility and ownership into an act of Christmas service.

On Saturday, my mom, sister Suzi, along with her husband John and daughter Elizabeth, came out to the house to spend some time with us! It was good to see them. Braylei had a really good time playing with Elizabeth. She loves the Little Tykes drawing table that her grandparents got for her, too! Then today, for Christmas Eve, Meghan's parents, along with her little bro Jon cam out to the house to see us! We had a white elephant gift exchange and reenacted the nativity. Tonight we went to see the downtown Glendale lights, which were really nice. We came home and Braylei put out cookies and milk for Santa and a special magic key for Santa to be able to get into our house since we don't have a chimney! I'm sure excited for Christmas tomorrow and I'll post again soon with pictures and video of our Christmas!

Going, Going, Back, Back, To Med School, Med School

Oh, how sweet my short-lived break was. But alas, I have been back in school for two weeks, and I feel as though I won't get back in the swing of school until we get another break for Christmas in a week and a half! It's not easy to jump right in and study like that after enjoying a nice break. And I even studied a little bit during the break for my board exam coming in June! It's nuts!

But classes are good, nevertheless. Everything seems to continue to grow more and more clinical. We are in the midst of scheduling our clinical rotations for next year, which is insanely confusing, as they only talked to us for about 10 minutes regarding the process, thus making our lives even more frustrating and stressful than they already are thanks to Pathology, Pharmacology, and Microbiology! We have 3 tests over the next week. Tomorrow we have a Pathology test on the GI system. I love that my professor prefaced this with being a super short test, covering only 14 hours of lecture. However, the amount of material this test covers is extensive, and our objectives packets are longer than in the past, irrespective of how much she covered in lecture time! Oh, well, I guess we'll have to see how this one turns out. Then we'll turn around and have a Micro test on Friday and a Pharm test on the following Monday. Hopefully I'll do better on that one than I did on my final!

After the Pharm test on the 17th, we still have classes through the 20th, but no tests until after the new year. So a bunch of us are going to go see the new movie "I Am Legend" with Will Smith Monday afternoon at the IMAX by our school! Then on our last day, Thursday the 20th, I have my last interactive OSCE (simulated clinical experiences). Those have been very helpful for me with my clinical skills! We are paired up in 3's and we see a simulated patient who has a group of symptoms. We share responsibilities in that one student performs a detailed history and asks the questions, then another student performs a focused physical exam according to the information gathered in the history, and then from that the third student gives a patient presentation with an assessment, differential diagnosis, and plan of action. since we have 3 of these, we rotate responsibilties each time. After break, we will have 2 individual OSCE's where we are by ourselves and do the whole exam before receiving feedback from a physician facilatator. Yikes! It should actually be really fun. I'm looking forward to it! The clinical aspect of medicine is what really excites me. My Osteopathic Medicine class has also been more clinically focused. We went through a low back pain module and walked through different clincial scenarios and how we can treat those problems. That's what I love about osteopathic medicine. When someone comes in with neuromusculoskeletal pain, we can actually treat the pain and the underlying problem and not just mask it with medications. But we can always augment our treatments with pain relievers or muscle relaxants! It's awesome!

But, going back to the break, it went way too fast! We had a really nice Thanksgiving, though. In the morning, I went and played in our ward's turkey bowl, which didn't have a good turnout at first, but people slowly showed up, including the Elder's, and we had a fun game! Later in the day I took Braylei swimming, as the pool is heated (and we live in Arizona and it hasn't been that cold, anyways). Then we had our families over to our house for dinner. It was really nice not having to take the kids out and about, especially with both families close by. It's so hard to take them out all day and into the evening when they go to bed. It throws everyone's schedule off and then it's harder to get back into. Then of course came Black Friday. This has been a longstanding tradition with Meghan's family. Thanksgiving evening we go through all the ads, decide what everyone wants to try to get, and then we split up to the various stores. I went to Best Buy to try to get a computer for Meghan's parents. I got there around 2:30 am, thinking that would be enough time to get a good spot. Oh, how I was wrong! When I arrived, an incredible line was already formed past the outside of the store plus 2 adjacent stores! Apparently, people had been waiting in line since about 7pm the previous night! How insane is that!? At least they handed out tickets for the various door buster items around 3:30am so by 4am I knew for sure that I was out of luck so I could go home. Meanwhile, Meghan and her dad were out at Toys R Us really early too, and had slightly better luck than I did, but not much!

And finally, we enjoyed the opportunity before I headed back to school to put up the Christmas tree and holiday decorations! Braylei was a big help and had a lot of fun. I invite all to see some of the video clips that are on the YouTube bar at the top right of the blog! Or you can see all the videos post on YouTube at http://youtube.com/thejschro. We have tons of decorations for the inside of our house, most of them Meghan has made herself! But we are lacking in the outside ornations. I think we will wait until after Christmas and buy stuff while it's 90% off and save it for next year!

The kids are doing well. Braylei continues to grow and astonish us all with her development. Last week, Meghan had some of her file folder matching games she had made for when she taught preschool, which are 3-5 year old level, and let Braylei play with them and Braylei did them all! I can tell she has so much of Meghan in her! Meghan is the master of memory games and stuff like that and Braylei is definitely following in pursuit. Tayscen continues to be just a happy-go-lucky kid. He loves his jumperoo so much! And he just got in his first tooth! We saw the ridges of it yesterday!

On a sadder note, my uncle, Ron Hottman, passed away recently from small cell carcinoma of the lungs. He was able to spend his last days at home. Our thoughts and prayers are with my aunt Janet (my dad's sister) during this very difficult time. Also, Meghan's uncle, Jay, recently suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Luckily, doctor were able to find it before it ruptured. He has since, however, had many complications from the various procedures and treatments and our prayers are with him as well, hoping that he will recover soon!

Update: Zoo Pictures

I just added a bunch of pictures to the post "Whew! I'm out of my hole now!" There are also some pics of when Braylei fell asleep reading a book in her bed, Tayscen eating rice cereal for the first time, Tayscen in his Jumperoo, Braylei loving the ducks at the Wildlife World Zoo and many more!

Whew! I'm out of my hole now!

I am now 2/3 of the way through my didactic studies of medical school! I finished the horrible, horrible finals week on Friday and now I get to enjoy 2 weeks off! The rest of the quarter went relatively well. I survived a group of Monday/Friday/Monday tests including the terrible trio of Path, Micro, and Pharm! It will only get worse next quarter, though, as nearly the whole quarter is Monday/Friday/Monday exams.

For Halloween, Midwestern put on a really cool "Safe Halloween" for the kids. All the departments had things set up for the trick-or-treaters to visit. This was Braylei's first time trick-or-treating. It was a different concept for her, and she was a little scared at first, but once she realized that she would be getting candy by saying "trick-or-treat," she seemed to be much happier. Of course, she wanted to be "Dr. Braylei" as she was dressed up in little scrubs. Tayscen was also dressed up in little scrubs, but he of course was a little more chill in the stroller.

Finals week went pretty well for the most part. Because I needed to pull later hours, Meghan brought Braylei and Tayscen to school to have lunch together every day. It was a lot of fun to see them during the day. Braylei loves coming to my school. I think she feels like such a big kid! Ever since Halloween, when she saw a girl dressed up as the little mermaid, as soon as she gets to my school, she'll say "I want to see mermaid!" It's hilarious! On the Saturday before finals began, we went to Chuck E. Cheese's for dinner. We had Meghan's niece, Aliya, with us too. Braylei had a real good time being able to play some of the games and ride the little rides! She is really getting to be a grown up little girl.

The previous week held my Osteopathic Medicine written and practical final, which being my favorite class, went really well. We also had our Clinical Correlates final, which was nice to get out of the way to free up more time for study during finals. That test was tough, but I ended up doing well. Ironically, I had the most time to study for my Pharmacology final, which was on Monday, but that test did not go well at all. I totally tanked it. I don't know why. It was weird. I had been through the material quite a bit, and felt pretty decent about it. But about a hour and a half before the test, something happened to me and it seemed like I lost everything. I wasn't able to go through the drugs in my head like I had been, and it felt like I knew nothing! It was crazy! I tried to regain it, but it was definitely a struggle. The class average was only a 71% on it too, so in addition to my brain spasm, it was a ridiculously difficult exam. Then we had two finals on Tuesday: Clinical Medicine and Topics in Medicine. The clinical medicine final was tough to me, but again I did relatively well, but the Topics final was by far the most ludicrous test I had ever taken! With these tests, they are written by physicians rather than PhD’s, so sometimes the questions don't make sense or there are multiple answers that are correct, or none that are correct. It can be a real crapshoot sometimes. For a relatively minor class, a lot of people struggled on that final. I surprised myself and did better than I thought. But then we had to turn around and take the Microbiology final 20 hours later. Now I had been through the material already but with virtually 2 weeks of finals, it was like a week ago, and new material was presented in the meantime. So we have to assimilate all this information so fast! Again, for the short amount of time we had to prepare, I was pleased with my results. Luckily, we didn't have a final Thursday since we took our clinical correlates final the previous Friday, giving us more time to study for my arch nemesis, Pathology. Path is actually a really good class, and the information is so vital to being a physician, but so much info is crammed into the course, and the professors don't have time to go over all the testable material in class. I took a big hit on the first test, which wasn't too horrible due to the fact that for one, I had no idea what to expect, and also that it was Braylei's birthday, and my Saturday studying was greatly truncated. I don't what the scrud happened on the 2nd test, but I ate it on that one, too! That was another beastly test, with a really low class average. Then I scored a nice A on the third test, which brought tremendous relief to me in securing that I would have to get like a 40% on the final not to pass the class! So things were up in the air about this final. But I ended up getting a 98%! That was the highest grade I've ever received on a major exam in medical school. I had gotten high grades like that in human behavior and clinical medicine last year, but this has been my hardest class and I nailed it! I was very pleased with myself. I've said this before, but sometimes it's hard not to compare myself with my other classmates who don't have a family with kids and a spouse, who doesn't study on Sundays, and has life responsibilities. All those things draw time from studying, and I do the best I can with the time I have. But I am not going to sacrifice not seeing my family and spending time with my kids for a higher GPA or class rank. It just isn't worth it. So it's nice to see that like during finals week, when I did put in that extra time, I can do really well too.

Meghan is my hero. She took up even more of the superfluous slack I usually leave her over the last few weeks. Since I stayed late during finals week, she not only got the kids dinner, but bathed them got them both ready for bed, fed Tayscen, put Braylei down and red her stories and sang songs all by herself. Granted, she usually does most of that, but most of the time I was home for dinner, would give the kids baths, and would have one of the kids while she had the other. But she does this all day, every day. It's really disappointing to me that society places such a negative connotation on the stay-at-home mom. I know it's hard for Meghan because she worked so hard for her education and is insanely intelligent. I always tell people that she would do much better in medical school than I would! I don't know, do people think homemakers just stays at home and watch TV while the kids run around? Meghan is constantly working with Braylei and Tayscen on developmental skills. It's because of Meghan that Braylei has a flippin enormous vocabulary and that she speaks in full sentances as a two year old when normally at 2 kids are just beginning to put two words together and have a 20 word vocabulary. Braylei also loves to color and gets to do that everyday. She works with Tayscen and gets down on the floor to do exercises with him and continuously interacts with him, which does wonders for a child's development. Plus, they go to the library every week for story time, and Braylei picks out new books and learning videos to check out, and they have a rotating playgroup with a couple other kids in her church nursery class. Seriously, they have such busy schedules and they are immersed in stimulating activities all day long. I am so grateful for Meghan's sacrifice to stay at home with the kids.

But she does get me for the next 2 weeks. Honestly, though, it's more as if she has 3 kids to deal with now rather than another parent to help out. She always tells me that she's so much more efficient when I'm at school! On Friday afternoon after my test, we went to go see the Bee Movie. Braylei had been wanting to see that for a long time. It was a really good little movie, too! Then on Saturday we went to the Wildlife World Zoo that's only about 15-20 minutes from our house. I remember going there in middle school. It was so much fun! It was nice because it was much less crowded than the Phoenix Zoo, the exhibits were more accessible for Braylei to see the animals, and there was less space in between the exhibits and every in between the big exhibits were smaller ones with different birds or monkeys. We had a really good time there. I'll get pictures up soon.

And now for these 2 weeks, we have lot to get done around the house and various tasks to accomplish. I'm doing half days of studying as I need to begin preparing for my dreaded board exams coming up at the end of May/early June. But I'll be home by 1pm every day so I can spend more time with Megs and the kids and get stuff done around the house. It should definitely be a lot less stressful, for sure!