Onward To Spring Quarter!

Whoa! I guess I haven't posted in awhile! I've been in a super flurry of events as of late! Let me give a brief rundown of all that's been going on! First, finals week was like none other! It was absolutely insane! Through the first week, I ended up doing really well on my OMM exams, getting solid A's on both the written and practical portions. However, my intro to clinical medicine final didn't go as smoothly. Typically, Dr. Schwartz asks pretty surface (albeit sometimes obscure) questions, but apparently he was really mad that hardly anyone went to his lectures on the morning before one of our killer Anatomy/Histology/Embryology block tests, so he had a ton of questions on that information. Fair, I suppose, but pretty stupid. It's a good thing I had a hefty cushion in that class. Then, as for the real finals week...it went okay. I didn't sleep a lot, but I manages fairly well. I received my best test score in Physiology of the whole quarter on the final. Then the Anatomy/Histology/Embryology block came pretty hard. I received my best grade of the previous two quarters in Histo and Embryo, but at the cost of Anatomy, which was a sub-par score for my anatomy standards. But it didn't bring my average down too much. Next was Human Behavior, which was a typical crapshoot human behavior test. Psychiatrists, go figure. The last final was Biochemistry, my arch nemesis. However, this exam's material was very interesting to me, as it dealt mostly with human nutrition, and of special interest, nutrition during pregnancy, and infant nutrition. I did pretty well, earning my best score from the past two quarters in that class! It was a good thing that was the last final, because we were all looking pretty ragged by the end! The best part was that we had a week off!

My "Spring Break" flew by so fast! I was able to enjoy most of it by just being with Meghan and Braylei, my two favorite people in the world! Bryalei just cracks me up! She is so clever and smart. She has also fallen in love with the movie Cars. I probably watched it 20 times over this past week! She mainly likes the racing scenes, but loses interest during the middle. It's hilarious because she'll point to the TV and say "Ideo" and "Carsh!" She is getting even better at her animal sounds, recognizing both when she sees a picture and by name. We've also been including her in helping out. She'll go put things away, or hand something to Meghan or myself. It's really unbelievable how fast she is growing. She also will point to Meghan's tiny little stomach when we ask her where the baby is, or where her brother is.

Alas, the week has come and gone. And now Spring quarter is upon me. I am excited to be done with Anatomy, histology, embryology, and biochemistry. Now we start neuroscience immunology and our early clinical experience preceptorships! I guess I'll find more details out tomorrow at orientation! 11 more weeks until summer vacation!

The Wonderful World of Coagulation!

Every time I have a break from school, it is so hard to get back into the swing of things. This time, though, I do not have a choice, as our first Biochemistry exam is tomorrow! It is really unbelievable how much information they cram into such a small amount of time! A test over lectures 1-10 and workshops 1-3 doesn't sound like a ton, but the breadth of the material is really incredible. Especially deep are the first 3 lectures on the inflammatory response to injury and the coagulation/healing process. At first I thought, "oh, no big deal." I remembered covering that in my undergraduate athletic training classes. I can still vividly recall my professor Ben Davidson spitting out terms like prostaglandins and neutrophils, but it came across like a magical process! We have learned every step of the way, a the systematic process by which blood clots are formed and resolved. The same thing with my athletic training pharmacology class. In undergrad, it was just knowing names and what they did. I knew COX-2 inhibitors like aspirin, ibuprofen, vioxx and celebrex, but now I know what they do and how they do it! The more I learn, the more I see the interrelation of all things, and although very complicated, the up and down regulations of these processes really testify to me that we are divine creations. It really is amazing!

I have put in a tons of time in my studies, but there is still more that I would like to cover before the 8am test! Then I can look forward to a patient simulated male invasive (rectal) exam! Doesn't that sound spectacular? I hope Midwestern is paying these people well! That means yet another late night here, but at least that gives me plenty of time to study for my 3 exams next week!

Sundays are really nice for me. Establishing that I will keep the Sabbath day holy and not study was at first a trial, but now it is a huge blessing. Sure, I get up super early on Mondays to prepare for my tests, but I love spending time with my family and being able to take care of church responsibilities. I stayed home from church today since Braylei was not feeling too well and Meghan was teaching a lesson in Young Women's. I will take every opportunity to spend time with Braylei since I hardly get to see her during the week. She is really getting so clever and smart. Her beautiful personality is coming out and she reminds me more of Meghan every day! My family truly lights up my life and I wouldn't trade anything for that.