Hello everyone. I have decided to start a diary, as a way to reflect and also to share with other women especially pre-meds about my journey to becoming a physician. I am a 25 year old single mother of two, a 6 year old daughter and a 31/2 year old son. I am very blessed to be a mum.
I have always wanted to be a physician from the time I was seven years old. Due to life, I had to put my plans on hold for a while, made a detour and did nursing to be able to care for my children. I got married at 18 and after five years of not getting along with my husband, we went our separate ways. I am very blessed to have supportive parents who put me through nursing school and are now taking care of my children while I am in school. My school is a three hour drive from home, so I will be able to go home as many weekends as possible.
White Coat Ceremony was on Friday and it was one of the most exciting times in my life, save the birth of my children. Now that the excitement is over, reality has hit me. I opened the gross anatomy course pack which weighs almost as much as my three year old and it is scary. Like the dean said at white coat, 1404 more days before graduation, I guess its now 1401 days. (Not that I am counting :rolleyes: ). Its very exciting but I am so scared.
I guess for today I will stop here. I hope you guys all enjoy reading my blog as much as I have enjoyed reading everyone's diaries on this site. Have a great week everyone.

So, the long awaited first day of medical school has come and gone and I feel lost. First day of gross anatomy. After about an hour of lecture, my mind was wondering and I just could not concentrate. There is copious amounts of information and I can not possibly begin to imagine where I will begin. I never knew that school could be this hard. I have never really had to study, now I honestly have no idea where to begin. Lab was awesome. It looks like I will be spending most of my time for the next 6 weeks in the gross anatomy lab. I am having a hard time downloading my lecture from today on my laptop, so I will have to download it early in the am and listen to it. I have learnt that repetition is the key. My problem is figuring out what to focus on and what is not that important. I guess I will figure it out as time goes on.

I have started working out 45 minutes a day. I did 30 minutes of cardio, 15 minutes on the stationary bike and some weight lifting. I have only been doing this for four days and its amazing how much more energy I have. I miss my kids terribly, I can not wait until Friday after lab to go 'home' for the weekend.

I guess I better get back to studying if I am gonna be going home this weekend. I have already read through tomorrow's lecture, I need to wrap up on today's lecture and touch on the stuff that I was not sure of and move on. Like someone said, the key is to constanly be on the move. Here I go, moving right along...

My day of rest has ended and it is time for me to get intimate with my netter's atlas. I find it very helpful in putting stuff from lecture together. I keep telling myself that there has to be an easier way to learn all this stuff, I just havent figured it out yet. I went 'home' and got to spend some quality time with my children. I hate leaving them, but its the best for now. Grandma and grandpa are bringing them to me next weekend to save me the drive. My friend Jojo and I just got back from the gym and even though my body is tired, my mind is fresh. I am ready to tackle whatever this week brings. My first exam is in about a week. I am planning to go to the anatomy lab from 1pm until about 8pm tomorrow. Even though its all stressful and I am exhausted most of the time, it is such a wonderful experience. I really am enjoying myself. Its time for me to log off and listen to friday's lecture.

So, I woke up at 7:30am this morning, studied until 12:30; went to gross anatomy lab from 1pm until 8:00pm. Tired does not begin to describe how I am feeling. At least I now understand what we learnt all of last week. I am having problems with the nerve stuff, but I am beginning to see the light. I am going to put in 2 hours and if I am lucky will sleep at 2am. My bed is calling me but I have to resist the urge to crawl into bed. A cup of coffee with do wonders for me. I have to be up early for my 8am lecture. I am not sure if I will just spend all day at school and study or come home for a while. I have not decided what works best for me yet, studying at home or at school. I hope to figure it out by the end of the week. I have an awesome study group, we do not move on until we all understand the concept and that is awesome. I was telling my sister today that I feel so dumb; I am learning with some very very smart people.{sigh}. Its a lot of hard work. This is just the beginning. I think medicine is 95% perseverance and determination. I would not trade this experience for anything though; I am totaly happy with were I am in life right now. So off to study the thoracic wall vasculature and innervation. Have a blessed week everyone.

So, I ended up falling asleep on the couch listening to my last lecture, probably around 2am. Woke up at 5am to my professor's voice, and for a minute I thought I had fallen asleep in class. I was so relieved to find that it was my mp3. So I went back to sleep and woke up at 7. Rushed to my 8 am lecture which I actually understood. yay!! When I do not ask questions,I am not getting it; if you see me asking questions then the wheels of my brain are turning in the right direction. I reviewed today' lecture from 10 to noon after class and then had lab from noon to 2:30p. Came home, put my laundry in the dryer which I had left in the washer yesterday(found it this morning when I was looking for my scrubs); and ate. I am meeting my study buddies from 5:30 till 6:30 and then we will be in lab till about 10:30p. I am so enjoying this. I never thought learning could be this fun. It is so interesting to know the inner workings of the body. When I was driving home, I saw a construction worker shake his head 'no' and I caught myself saying aloud what muscles, joints, ligaments where allowing that action and what their blood supplies, and innervation are. How cool. Anyway, I hope everyone had a good day. Till next time.

It's Sat. night and I am getting ready to start studying for my first exam which is on Monday. I am Seventh-day Adventist, so Friday sunset to Saturday sunset is REST for me. I really now appreciate it more than I did before. Our bodies really do need rest. Today I went to what is going to be my new church and I totally loved it. The people were so warm and friendly, I felt at home. I met a couple of female docs and I am excited to have mentors. My parents brought my babies yesterday and they left this afternoon. I hate to see them go, but its a sacrifice I have to make right now.

My classmates think that I am crazy to take a whole day away from studying. My study buddies went to the gross lab from 8 am to 5 pm today and got a lot covered, especially since we have an exam mon, but I was just home chilling after church. I do not see myself at a disadvantage at all; it's just a part of who I am. I do try to maximize during the week and make sure that I do not fall behind. Spirituality is a very important ingredient to a healthy and balanced life (whatever one's spirituality might be), I am not talking religious stuff. My faith keeps me going through the rough times. Often times people ask me how I can be so calm and seem unaffected by the fact that we have an exam on 16 lectures mon and I spent all day sat. without touching a book. My answer is always that,I am not worried about the exam because the Guy who made my body; who knows everything about the human body will be sitting right next to me in the exam and will be showing me the right answers. There is no better way than to have the expert right there with you.

Anyway, I really have to go study now. The end of this week has been crazy. I was pulling 16 hour days. I was so tired on friday morning and decided to try an energy drink, 'rock star'; it made me so sleepy that I was wondering what kinds of reactions were going on in my body. I guess it had the opposite effect than expected. Someone suggested that I drink B12 energy drinks, I guess I will be searching for those. I am doing good with my exercising, 45 minutes 5X a week and drinking 2L of water a day. Major energy boost.

I have dili dallied long enough. Gotta go. May God bless everyone as we enter this week, faith is very important (whatever one might believe in). Like Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Faith is taking the first step when you don't see the whole staircase." And always remember that "Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance" (Samuel Johnson).

My brain is tired and I am ready to go to sleep. I slept at 3 am this morning and was up by 8am to study for tomorrow's exam. I went for a practice lab exam and did well, so I hope that means I know my stuff. I have a few areas that I needed to polish up on and that is done. For the lecture exam however, I do not feel as ready as I would want to be, I dont know if I can ever feel very ready. My two friends and I decided to take an hour and half break from studying and watched reruns of gray's anatomy. How awesome, I had missed the two episodes we watched so it was cool. I plan to retire early today so I can be refreshed tomorrow. For those of you who believe in prayer, please say a prayer for me for tomorrow's exam. My spirits were lifted today because I got to have a heart to heart talk with a friend of mine that I had not really talked to in a while. I am glad she is doing well and happy. God Bless everyone and I hope we all have a splendid week.

Exam day is over for me. It's official, I have taken my first medical school exam. Thanks to all who sent a prayer for me. I will find out my results in a couple of days. I felt that the lecture exam was better than the lab exam, I got to a few stops were I was not too sure what they were asking for. I hope I did well. It's such a big relief. My classmates are going out to drink and a few parties have been arranged, but since I do not drink and am not good with parties, I have decided to go and watch 'The Lake House'. I will let you know how it is for those who have not watched it yet. One exam down, 4 more to go; my final being on August 24th. I hope everyone had a great day. I am tired, maybe I will take a nap before I go to the celebration cinema.

Time flies when you are busy. I can not believe it's Thursday already. So; I did very well on both my lecture and lab exams. Did much better in lab than I expected, I was surprised at myself. Thanks again to all those who prayed for me. God has always and will always be faithful to me and its an encouraging thought everytime I feel discouraged. So I am above class average and I am very pleased. Well, I gotta go, I am rewarding myself with an episode of 'House' and some pineapple coconut Haagen-Daz ice cream that my friend Jojo bought me as soon as I finish my to do list which will be around 9pm (two practice tests and 2 lecture outlines). Gotta go

Rough day.. Just got home from exam #2, (abdomen and pelvis)... I came out of lecture wondering what the heck happened. It was very difficult to say the least. Lab; some questions I was not sure what they were asking but did my best. I could not remember (epiploic) for epiploic foramen and that threw me off, so for the rest of the exam I was trying to rack my brain to remember, it didnt help that it was my first station. I put down "lesser omentum foramen" so I would remember if I got time at the rest stop; and then right after I finished my last question it came to me. I was so relieved but I know that I spent way too much time stressing about it which was a detrement to my whole exam. I guess at that time it was more important to get that ONE right and miss the rest. :rolleyes:

When you are tired, your mind plays tricks on you. I was imagining myself getting to every station and not remembering the terms. A little dramatic, I know. I laughed to myself during the exam because I had been reviewing stuff with Sean on my way to the exam and I could not remember where the iliucus muscle was and he said to me, when in doubt, put iliucus. Guess what, it was iliucus. It seems as though "pudendal" has been every other word in terms of innervation and blood supply in the last two days and so when in doubt I put pudendal. I guess we shall see... I am exhausted. This past week and a half has been horrible. Averaging 3-4 hours of sleep a night and barely 2 last night since I was too anxious. I can not wait until this 61/2 weeks is over. So two exams down, 3 more to go. I might as well get started on Lower limb because we have an exam a week from today.

Thanks Dana for the well wishes, I hope you will settle in well with the kids. Moving is always tough, especially if you have to leave your support system behind.

Have a great weekend everyone. Until next time...