Update on Us - Summer plans!

I've once again let too many weeks go by without blogging! However, I think I have a good excuse. Like always, we've been busy, but we've also cut back on our eating out around Philly. The reason: J and I both will be traveling internationally this summer! J will be teaching in South Africa and I will be providing medical care in Haiti. We are very excited and thankful for these opportunities. So we now have our summer plans finalized, which means we have been trying to save our pennies until then; hence not much eating out. However, we've found some inexpensive things to do around the city, so I'll blog about them in the near future.

Until then,  since J has been much better about blogging and has created his own blog to document his journey to South Africa, you can check his out :) 

So I've almost completed my 1st year of medical school...time really flies. We have just started our renal/pulmonary block and after 3 more tests, I will be done for the entire summer! It has been a difficult year, but I have truly been happy and am loving Philly more than ever. Some days I still don't think it's hit me that in a little over 3 years I will be a doctor. Until then I'm just taking it day by day and taking in as much knowledge as I can. 

Update on Us

Happy New Year! I know I'm a little late, but better late than never, right?

2009 was a great and eventful year for us and it looks like 2010 might bring some of the same. We're still loving Philly and exploring new areas, restaurants and events...when we have time!

J is still enjoying teaching even on his challenging days :) I think he has a love-hate relationship with his students. He works long hours, but has made great relationships with his students and comes home to tell me funny stories about them.

I'm still enjoying med school....most days. I literally study all day, everyday, but I can't complain too much. Our classes are starting to take more of a clinical focus and we're learning about pathology, disease and medications, which is very interesting. However, I guess I have a love-hate relationship with med school, like J has with his students.

We were able to take a mini vacation to Miami a couple of weeks ago. It was just the relaxation that we both needed. The rest of 2010's travel plans are somewhat up the air. J and I both have possible travel opportunities for work and school during the summer, so once those pan out we can plan the rest of year.

We hope that 2010 is just as adventurous as 2009.

For now, J and I are off to indulge in another delicious meal at a great Philly restaurant. Restaurant week here we come!

White Coat Ceremony

Well now I actually look like I know what I'm doing. We got our white coats this weekend! Throw my stethoscope around my neck and I could fool some people :) There was a nice ceremony at my school in which we received our coats and that was followed by an open house.

For those that don't know, students get short white coats and once you actually become a physician you'll get a long white coat. So next time you're in the hospital or at the doctor's office, you can tell the two apart and hopefully you won't give the student physician such a hard time :)

I won't have a lot of direct patient contact until my 3rd year. I'll mostly wear my white coat during my standardized patient assignments and a few shadowing opportunities. Until then my coat will mostly hang in my closet, but the symbol of receiving my white coat makes this whole experience sink in a little more.

And J was so sweet to have a beautiful bouquet of roses waiting for me at home for my accomplishments.

The first 3 weeks of med school

Well I survived! J survived and things are going well. But wow life has changed! I think J and I are adjusting because he has a pretty busy schedule too (he didn't get home from a meeting until 11 pm one night) and making the most of things.

I typically have class and anatomy lab from 8-4 every day. I take the bus to school which allows me to nap or study and not stress about traffic. It takes about 20 minutes to get to school. I find myself taking every opportunity I can to review flash cards or review my notes. I'll be standing at the bus stop or waiting in line at the post office reviewing information.

Once I get home from class around 5 I begin studying for about an hour until J gets home. We eat dinner together (I've been cooking and freezing meals during the weekend) and then I get back to studying by 8 or so. I try and go to bed before midnight, but a couple of nights I was up until 1, which isn't always ideal when J gets up at 5 and I get up at 6 the next morning. I got sick after the first week with a slight fever and typical cold symptoms, that are just now going away. This reminded me how important it is to take care of my body. I typically don't study on Friday nights as J and I go out to dinner or watch tv together at home. But it's back to studying all day Saturday and Sunday.

I really enjoy anatomy lab. There are 5 of us to a body and I really like my partners. In the 1st 3 weeks we've dissected the entire back, down to the spinal cord, the shoulder, neck, chest, arm, forearm and hand regions. At the end of the trimester we have to present any abnormal findings about our body and a possible cause of death. So far we haven't found too many abnormalities, except what we assume to be poor circulation, which lead to some decay in her arm muscles. Other groups have found breast implants, colonoscopy bags, stitches from heart surgery and various scars.

On Friday we had our first test. I think it went ok. I don't feel doomed, but I wouldn't say I'm confident that I got an amazing grade. The test was 2 parts....one practical part in which we had to identify nerves, arteries, body parts, etc on the bodies, as well as look at xrays. The other part was written with about 80 questions.

Thankfully we don't have class the day before tests, so on Thursday I woke up at 8 am and studied until 12:30 am. I typically set a timer for 60 minutes and study that entire time and then take a 15 minute break.

This is my binder for the 1st 3 weeks filled with notes and powerpoints. Most of the pages are printed double sided too! It's a 2 inch binder and yep it's already full. I'll be buying a new one tomorrow.

I got creative with my studying by the end of the night. In order to remember which nerves innervate which muscles in the hand I drew it out on my hand. I'm a very visual learner and I think it was effective as it helped me not get confused to which nerves run on which side of the arm.

A few people asked me to take pictures in my scrubs :) I was home alone and didn't know how to make the self timer setting work, so this is as good as it gets.

I'm enjoying Labor Day weekend, as I didn't study at all yesterday :) I'll do some studying today, but tomorrow J and I are going to head to the mall, so that will be a nice treat on our day off.

1st day of School

Well we survived! Yesterday was a pretty momentous day for J and I. We both had our first day of school. I headed to med school and J headed to teach middle schoolers. I'm not sure which one is considered worse because I don't think I could handle being a middle school teacher.

We definitely jumped right into things and I'm actually at the library right now, but thought I'd take a short study break. We had about 3 hours of lecture and 3 hours of lab. We didn't do any dissections in lab, but we prepared the cadaver. Most people said they were nervous about that part, but once we got into the lab and started talking about anatomy it wasn't bad at all. I guess you kind of detach yourself and focus on the task of anatomical learning. So for the rest of the trimester I'll be spending hours upon hours in lab dissecting and learning basically every bone, muscle and nerve in the body. Sounds fun, huh? Oh yeah and that's just until November....I can't believe I'll know all of that by then.

J had good reports about his school day. He didn't actually meet the students he'll be teaching because yesterday was just a day for new students (5th grade students) and he'll be teaching 7th and 8th grade. He mentioned to me that he couldn't handle teaching the little ones and much prefers the older students, but still had a good day.

Since yesterday was such a big day for both of us, we decided to celebrate by going out to dinner. We couldn't help ourselves and had to return to Devon Seafood, which we discovered on our first night in Philly. Although we are trying not to eat at the same place twice, we just couldn't help it and the food was just as great as we remembered. J and I talked about our days and our goals for ourselves over the next 10 or so years. It was a good night. Then, we returned home and both retreated to our laptops to study/do work for 2 more hours. Welcome to our new life! :)

So that's a little mini update. I better get back to the books before my next class in 45 minutes.

I'll post pictures from the rest of our summer next time. How time flies!