Well, I passed my first Block. Although I did very poorly (as I expected) on the anatomy practical, the rest of the exam was reasonable.

This is a new phenomenon for me, just passing. Just passing hasn't been acceptable for me since I got my first C in college in Astronomy. You can't get into med school by just passing. You have to have above avg grades and test scores. Then you get to med school and there are all these brilliant people all landing on a bell curve!

It's a bit embarrassing to say that I spend most of my weekend studying and several hours a day, most days of the week to achieve this Pass. I'm below the average for the class. And yet, it's not that I haven't learned. It's that there is sooo much material and many students with degrees in basic science (I'm a BA)with an advantage over me and I guess most of them don't have 3 kids or a traveling spouse. All that sounds like an excuse to me when I say it, but I also know it's true.

So here's what I've learned so far.
#1. You may be the cream of the crop going in to med school, but that only makes you avg among your med student peers.
#2. You should take your joy where you can find it. Med school is tough. Finding happiness and looking for opportunities to smile or laugh is just about imperative

I prepared in advance for anatomy lab. Went in ahead of time to look at prosections and went through my Rohen's Atlas. It helps! Lab wasn't nearly as intimidating or disorienting today when we dissected the heart.

Also, we learned how to use our stethescopes and perform cardiovascular exams yesterday. Can't wait to try it out at clinic next week!

onward and upward.

I was prepared to talk about how difficult it is to be a wife/mother/med student, about how little help I get during the week, and how I sometimes wish I had fewer responsibilities. Then I read mummedics's blog. So, I'm on easy street compared to what she has been dealing with. Here's a hug for mummedic :ouch: <--patch should be over his eye.


Best wished to all the moms (and mums!) here who are dealing with difficult things, whatever they may be. :grouphug:

Did slightly better on this midterm than last block. In the middle of the passing range. (our passing range is an incredible 18pt range! from 68-86. 87-92= HighPass, 93+=Honors) I can't say I'm happy with my score exactly, but I'm pleased that I'm improving. *shrug*

One of my professors today insisted that I need to be spending 5 hours studying outside of class time. I think I average 2 hours on the weekdays, more on the weekends. The weekend before an exam I can spend upwards of 8 hours a day truly studying. Still, I think he may be right. I need to put in more daily hours. So today I got close to the 5 hour mark. I tell you what, it doesn't leave room for much else!

I find I'm reluctant to give up the other little things I do, like watching my fav tv shows and reading leisurely. I suppose I do need to give some of that up in trade for more study time. *sigh* I can't spend any less time on the kids during the week. They seem to be getting the bare minimum from me as it is. Not that they are needy. I just seem to have quit cooking almost entirely. Mac-n-cheese and quick dinners have become the staples around here.

I miss my husband. He just found out about an interesting job opportunity here in Houston that would be challenging and a step up on the corporate ladder. I don't ask God for much, but I'm tempted to ask Him for help with this one. Over 2 years he's been away every week. I've forgotten what it's like to have him home during the week... sometimes I just get so lonely I want to cry when I hear my favorite song on the CD player in the car. Just like a teenager, sad isn't it?

Med school is incredibly intense. The only people I can really share this with are a handful of classmates. Sometimes I feel a bit isolated because I'm older, married, have kids. I don't go to the clubs and parties. I don't socialize outside of schoool with anyone. (no time!) My hubby is so busy during the week that we are lucky to have a 15 minute long conversation on most days.

ah, I'm in "poor me" mode. Don't get me wrong, I love what I'm doing. just wish I had him home to share the day to day stuff with me.

Tomorrow I take blood pressures at my preceptors office! I'm positive I'm going to annoy the crud out of everyone with my fumbling and mistakes! :laughing: Nothing like that short white coat to make you feel like a complete imposter.

This last week has been a reminder of how much I have to be grateful for. It's been a grueling weekend. I'm still the person my extended family turns to when things get rough. Now that my parents are retired (more or less) I'm not only the emotional support, I'm becoming the financial resource as well. I love my family and I'm grateful to be the person they turn. I now, however, have to make up for a lost weekend of studying. And believe me, those lost hours are precious ones. God grant me the wisdom and patience I need...

The same professor who told me I needed to be studying 5 hours a day spoke to me again on Thursday and reassured me that while this semester is difficult and I am not doing as well as I'd like, I'm still doing well. The pep talk was greatly appriciated! :goodvibes:

Oh yes, I was able to take blood pressures in clinic! I thought I'd made some stupid mistake when I got a 160/100 BP for my first patient. I wrote the # on a scrap of paper (instead of in the chart) and showed it to the nurse. She laughed and went in to retake the pressure. Sure enough, she got the same numbers!!! (I'm not stupid!) Of course, this meant the 21 yr old patient has very high BP and needs to get it treated immediately. I'm getting more comfortable around the adult patients. (It's always easier with kids, for me)

Hubby has interesting job possibility in town. I'm torn between praying like crazy that this takes and trying to continue to be nonchalant.

This is going to be a good week. :scratchchin:

I've survived another Block! We just finished the Cardio/Resp/Renal block on Tuesday with written and practical exams. I'm pretty certain I passed and I know I did much better on my anatomy practical. We won't get our actual grades until Thursday next week, but I've seen the answers to the written exam so I know where I stand.

At the end of blocks, we get a few days off. In my days off so far, I have gone shopping, lunched with a friend, spent the day with my hubby, been to the theater to see A Chorus Line, and not looked at a single textbook! <--- scary face???

I'd forgotten what a great resource MomMD is. Think I'm going to order myself a tshirt after this post and make sure it gets seen at school.

I love my school, but my class is very traditional. Okay, there are lots of amazing things that people have done, and not all are premed majors, but the avg. age is still 22.6 and only about a dozen are married. I'm one of 3 moms in the class, the only with 3 kids. We do have 2 pregnant classmates.

so, what I'm trying to say is, sometimes you have to go a bit further afield to find women who share your story.

Thanks, Sethina.

Took the boys to their flag football game and then we went to the museum of medicine and health.

Things are going well, aside from my nasty allergy attack. The allergies seem to be worse since school started. I don't know if it's the new area we live in, the old carpets in the classrooms, or just the stress. :rolleyes:

Got the official word last week that I have passed my second block of med school. we are now on GIMNER, that's GI, metabolism, nutrition, endocrine, and reproduction. Just when I think I've got a handle on things, there's more! :crossfingers: :crossfingers:

I need to find my way back into a pedi clinic sometime soon. It really recharges my batteries for all the studying I have to do. I would really like to go back to the genetics clinic despite the fact that it seems silly to hang out there when I have nothing to offer. It's just so satisfying listening to the patients and their families and try to solve medical puzzles for them. I may, indeed, have a future in Genetics. I'm wondering, though, how much research that will require and am I cut out for it? I know I'm reasonably smart, but am I research smart? :rotfl: (that's probably only funny to me)

No idea why I'm in such a good mood with a sore throat and a headache. Must be I'm counting my blessings today. Plenty to go around. :cloud9:

First of all, thanks to the wonderful people who send me pm's about my blog. The feedback is so nice! :goodvibes:

Hubby found out today that the job offer he will be getting on Monday will include a base salary slightly below his current one, but with a big opportunity for bonuses. Essentially, he can expect to make his current salary with satisfactory performance and could well exceed it if he "kicks butt." He's thrilled. He wants so badly to be back in town and this job is a huge leap in responsibility and opportunity. I'm very happy for him and I'm crossing my fingers like crazy that this happens and that it's the right thing for us.

And in other news, I am overwhelmed with both the numbers of opportunities as med students and the complete lack of knowledge about what to do!! :rotfl: If he doesn't see the irony in that...

But this is life. Sometimes it's messy and confusing and we make the best of it that we can.

My brother has a job again. Huge relief. I've been sending him money but I was so afraid I wouldn't be able to keep it up. It's been a tough, tough time for them. The least of which is their youngest daughter's bout with leukemia. (currently in remission!)

Like I said, life is messy sometimes. I'm so thankful for what I have and the opportunities I've been given. (can you hear the joy about hubby's job spilling over?)

I'm having a less than gracious moment. My son is sick, a cold I think, and I asked my mom-in-law if she could stay with him tomorrow morning until the sitter could get to our house around noon. She said no becuase, "I have a hair appointment and it's already a week late."

I was nearly speechless. What do you say to someone who turns down a request for help with the haircut trump card??? :rolleyes: I said the only thing I could think to say. "Okay."

She left me a message (I didn't answer the phone when she called, I was "busy") a few minutes ago saying to give her a call because she has an idea about what to do with my son. I haven't returned the call yet because my ungracious self wants to tell her that if her hair is so :laughing:

But I'm a good wife and I will not start trouble with the MIL. Lord knows we've been through the ringer with her on more than one occassion.

Thank heaven's my own mom is nothing like this.

In other news, my husband got the official job offer today!!! :cloud9: He needs to negotiate a couple of things, but all in all, it's a done deal. He should be working in town by Dec 10! Merry Christmas to me and the kids.

There are so many other things I could write about, but it would take too much time and space. Suffice it to say my brother is employed again and my best friend's very serious bf left her without warning this weekend, and my best bud in med school just discovered a giant crack in the wall of the house they have been trying to sell since March. (she commutes 90 min each way!) And all these wonderful people count on me to one degree or another, at least as a sympathetic ear. And my husband wonders why I have trouble studying in the evenings...

Block midterm next Monday. I should be working! :yikes:

I've struggled with Anatomy lab all semester long. Not only is all the memorization difficult, and the smell nauseating, but I hate what I'm doing. There are times when it's not so bad. Dissecting the abdominal cavity is fairly easy. I think it's because of the very impersonal nature of the gut. It might not even be human, it certainly isn't something I see and identify as human. Hands were tough. My cadaver's hands reming me of my great grandmother. And the initial days of dissection, when we had an intact human being, that was deeply troubling for me.

Now, though, now we're doing the pelvic region and the external genitalia. I've been reviewing the chapter in my Rohen's atlas and the anatomy text. I can't seem to desensitize myself. I flinch when I read the instructions for tomorrow's lab. I don't want to do it.

Overall, I'm overwhelmed this week. I resolved to get in more study time because I feel I'm just not putting in the necessary hours. It's hard to do. I've never worked anywhere near this hard before. College (13 yrs ago!) was nothing like this. Premed courses were nothing like this. The speed at which we learn everything is just amazing. We cover topics in 3 weeks that take a semester in college.

So yes, I'm tired and overwhelmed. I feel like there's no way I can keep this up. I called my husband, all tired and discouraged, and he can't talk because he and the guys are playing poker. This did not go over well with me. I didn't say much about it to him, but a big part of me wants to jump up and down and yell. :banghead: Here I am, working so hard, getting up in the middle of the night to see about sick kid/nightmares, and he's playing poker.

Okay, now that I wrote it I don't feel so bad. But I still want to pout about the part where I'm staring at preserved body parts that really ought to remain hidden while other people are watching tv and reading books and talking to each other.

Okay, pout done. Heaven knows things could be so much worse and I have the world to be thankful for. Besides, I chose this form of torture all on my own. ( and I still wouldn't change it for the world)

Funny how writing here usually brings things back into perspective.