A good way to tell how stressful and busy a week is for my roomate and I is to look at our sink and see how many dishes are done...or not done. Normally we are good at keeping up on it...except during the heavy test weeks. This past week was the most exhausting one I have had so far. I had a physiology exam on Wednesday, a Physical Diagnosis S.P.A.L. (Simulated Patient Assesment Lab) on Thursday, and a Pathology exam on Friday. I spent an average of 10-12 hours studying a day and got about 4 hours of sleep each night( I tried to get 8 hours but my mind kept thinking about the next day's exam which hasn't really happened until this week). Physiology was all about the kidneys and G.I. which is actually quite fascinating, but when there are three exams in a row we turn into memorizing bots rather than being able to take the time to get a solid understanding of it all. But if anyone wants to know the mechanism behind vomiting, digestion or defecation i'll gladly tell you...mmmm. And did you know how much effect our kidney's have on our blood pressure? Anyway, my next exam, the Spal is my opportunity to take a history and perform a physical on a real person. I feel bad for the actors who sign up to let us practice on them as we learn to use tongue blades in their mouths and stick our scopes in their ears and up to their eyes...hopefully they are paid well! :) The history taking isn't too bad but it was a little intimidating to have a doctor in the room grading me on my techniques to inspect the eyes, ears, nose and throat. We are penalized for even the smallest error and are graded on everything from how we greet the patient to how I hold the otoscope and ophthalmoscope(what I use to look into the ear canal and eyes). I have gained an appreciation for how much doctors need to understand to perform a basic physical. But it really is fun to apply the knowledge and be able to put the puzzle pieces together to figure out why someone is sick or why the body is acting the way it is. Pathology was dealing with the basic cell function, inflammation reactions, and blood clotting. I'm excited for the next block when we learn about autopy's...a little morbid I know. But the reward for getting through this week was flying home to Utah! I LOVE seeing my family! I got to see my amazing sister Emily star in her high school musical "Will Rogers Follies" which turned out to be absolutely amazing and Emily stole the show! I also got to party with my nephew Zander for his birthday celebration today...he's a big 4 year old. I'm excited to allow my brain to relax this week and spend time with family, go into the mountains for rock climbing and four wheeling, reading a fun novel called vector by Robin Cook, and then vegging out and watching the NCAA tournament and seeing BYU make a deep run! Spring breaks are heaven sent and it's the perfect remedy for me to stay sane! Life is officially great!
3 comments:
I totally understand that pile of dishes . . . we've had many of those days! I'm pretty impressed, though, that the rest of your apartment in the background looks very clean. Have a great Spring Break spending time with your family! That's so exciting and really sounds like such a relief. Enjoy!
So has this week been all you had been dreaming of? I hope so! We sure had a great time with you, and your neices and nephew think you are certainly the coolest. Good luck with the next round of fire hydrant water swallowing!
Sprink break was awesome! There really wasn't anything out of the ordinary that I did but just reliving what normal life is like was great! Jenn, thank you and we try to keep the place clean...but you won't see any picts of my room anytime soon! ;)
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