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...

Time really flies when you are busy. Exam #2 did not go as bad as I thought. Passed with a little cushion so I was very glad. Exam #3 went very well and I just got my scores today. It was lower limb and I did way better than I thought, really boosted morale. So now we have started head and neck and it is promising to be very difficult. There is a lot of information already. I feel behind and it is only day #1. My exam will be next thursday and then we will have upper limb and be all done. Cant believe we are more than half way through. The kids are doing very well. The youth fair starts next week and so I will be going home to take them to the fair. It would be a sin if I did not go. Cant wait for August 24th when I am all done with gross anatomy. We get three whole days off and then fall starts. At least it will be minus gross. Anyhoooo, I really need to get going. I hope to update more often than I currently am. For my fellow comrades, hang in there; we can do it. May God bless you all through out the week.

Head and neck is over with. I really enjoyed it. Did well on my lecture exam and good on my lab exam, not as well as I would have liked. Upper limb is the last topic and next Thursday will be my upper limb exam. Less than one week before gross anatomy is over. This has been a crazy 61/2 weeks, never thought my brain was capable of learning stuff at such a fast pace. Anyhow, I hope everyone is doing well. Until next time....

Anatomy is finally over. I had a 3 day vacation and fall semester has started. There is so much to do that right now I am still trying to figure out my schedule. I hope by the end of the week I will be knowing were I need to be without having to consult my schedule every hour. Its promising to be tough, but hey, I know I can do it. I went to a bible study tonight with a few other students and I really enjoyed it. It is very easy to put God in the back sit when you get very busy but its nice to know that there are others dedicated to putting God first no matter what. I met some really cool people and I am really excited to get to know them. Other than that, the kids are doing well, coming to see me Thursday for the long weekend. I last saw them yesterday but I miss them tons already. Anyhoo, its late, I should be sleeping since I have lecture at 8am. Goodnight everyone.
"The most rewarding things in life are often the ones that look like they can not be done" -Arnold Palmer-

Its been a while since I have posted. School has been busy, really busy. Two physiology exams down, three more to go. I have my second biochem exam tomorrow covering all the dreaded pathways and then will have my final in a couple of weeks and then the switch from biochem to genetics. Our program is structured such that histology and physiology are together, its brutal. I just hope I do really well on this biochem exam so that I am not stressed when its time for the final. My other classes are cool. I have an exam wed. in my doctor-patient relationship class and I love OMM, its awesome. Epidemiology starts in a little bit, a week, dont look forward to that. I am keeping up with my excersise regimen, keeps me sane during my most stressful times. I am cooking a lot too now (casseroles) and still making it a point to spend time with the kids every weekend. Our exams are most mondays so I usually have all day Sunday to prepare. The kids are healthy and happy and we are all kinda getting used to our setup. Oh well, more news next time.... After the biochem exam. Have a great week everyone and keep up the good work. Never give up on your dreams...

So, biochem really kicked my butt. I did ok though. I guess they were right when they said sometimes you will study your butt off and not get the results you expect, I really studied hard. Anyway, I need to learn to be content with passing and not always have to get an 'A'. After all we are pass/fail system and no honors. Anyway, enough mopping around, I have so much to get caught up on before tomorrow and I have a DPR exam Wednesday and my first simulated patient interview thursday. Kinda excited about that. Hope all are well..

I just took my biochem final exam today. I was going on two hours sleep and my brain was refusing to function well.. But Thank GOD I passed. I am so done with Biochem and its such a relief. On to Genetics now. Anyway, cant dilli dalli too long I have a physiology/histology exam on Thursday and have some catching up to do. God is good. Hope everyone has a great week...

Hope everyone is doing well. Physio exam went very well. My best score so far in all of my 4 months of med school. I am slightly caught up, but still have lots of studying. 6 more weeks till Christmas break; I can not wait. Off to studying genetics, I have a quiz Tuesday. May God be with everyone during this week.

I have not been feeling my best these past few days, but I am feeling much better now. Just had my pbj sandwich and I will be going to the gym since I haven't been there in 4 days. Just called my friend to see if he would go with me coz I hate going there by myself since there is mostly guys. I had two hours of genetics lecture today and then histology lab. I also had my information giving interview, I just viewed the dvd and thought I could have done a better job. I had to tell my patient that he had Diabetes Type II. I feel as though being a ccu nurse puts me at a disadvantage because I am used to doing things and presenting information a certain way.

I have a genetics exam on Monday and no classes tomorrow so, I will be studying all day before driving home. My kids are so excited about me coming home because we are going to chucky cheese and curious kids museam. Always fun. My three year old son called me yesterday and said, "Mom, I am getting ready to be very busy." So I asked him, "Busy doing what?" "Busy doing nothing." I laughed my heart out because I realize he has heard me say that a lot. I guess its amazing how we sometimes say things that dont make sense and we do not realize it until someone else says it. So currently I am busy doing nothing.

Sometimes its hard to keep motivated in med school especially when you feel as though you will never get caught up regardless of what you do. Its a relief that we don't have anatomy currently, next semester is promising to be brutal. This semester has not been too bad, I have had time to study, and even read the text books. So, off to the gym I go and then I have a genetics review from 7-830.. God bless everyone.

"The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor." - Brian G. Jett

Its Tuesday night around 2030, I just got in from school and I am getting ready to go to the gym; thought I would update my diary. Sunday I studied most of the day taking a break to go and support my dear friend A who was getting baptized. It was a wonderful ceremony, her boyfriend officiated the baptism. Very warm people at the church, I felt very welcomed. Then of course, I went to the gym and did more studying until about 0330 Monday morning. I had planned on waking up at 5am but ended up waking up at 0630. After a quick shower, I went for my first genetics exam which was at 0730. I honestly think they set us up for failure by making our exams that early in the morning. Anyway, I had a genetics lecture and then a physio lecture and was done for the day. By noon I was in bed ready to catch up on some much needed sleep and did not wake up until 1730. I was kinda tired and was starting to have a cold, feeling miserable. My friend brought me some dayquil/nyquil; took the nyquil around 10pm and did not wake up until 0900 this am. Felt well rested and good, despite my hoarse voice. Went to lecture, had genetics, then physio and then OMM, my most favourate class. Its nice to finally know what is going on.... Stayed at school and studied until 1940 then came home and did my dishes. Dinner is in the oven, I just ate my sandwich and soon will be attempting to exercise. I can not do more than 10 minutes on the stair master, I will try for 12 today. Anyway, have biostatistics and epidemiology to study for, final next week and another genetics quiz monday and need to read over my physio notes from today and yesterday. Anyhoo, hope everyone is doing well, God Bless you all.

Its been a while. Busy does not begin to explain my days right now. Finals in a week and they are accumulative. It was nice to get Biostats and Epi out of the way. I have my OMM practical on Tuesday and final on Wednesday. The next mon its Physio then Tuesday is DPR and Wednesday is genetics. Cant wait for December 13th. Well, I best get back to studying, its going to be a busy busy week and a half.

Hello, its good to be back. For those who read my blog, I am sorry I have been MIA. I started writing a weekly devotional for my friends and family and that has been taking a lot of my time as I research the Bible. Its quite challanging, maybe in a few years I will be a pro and write biweekly. I will try not to neglect my blog as much.

Anyway, Christmas break was refreshing. I went to visit a really good friend in minnesota, he is doing his 3rd year at a small rural hospital in very very rural minnesota. It was a great trip, really enjoyed myself. I was there for 3 days and then I went to my parent's home for a week. My 4yr old was visiting his dad in Toronto, so my daughter and I drove down there to pick him up. My daughter wont stay for a visit unless I am with her so we spent 4 days there. It was quite challanging to share a home with my ex-husband and his new wife. I for one wanted to see how they interact so that I feel ok when the kids are there. I really like her and she is very sweet. My ex and I are starting to get along better now. One big happy family, ha. :rolleyes:

My last week of vacation was fun packed with all sorts of activities. (Trying to make up for the next four months when I will hardly spent quality time with my kids; not that you can actually make up for lost time.) We went to the Kalamazoo air zoo, it was so much fun. We went to museams, drove to a lot of places and just had a good time, and lots of photos to remind me that I actually have a life out of med school.

Classes started on monday. My schedule is packed this semester. Mon and Wednesday I have classes from 8-5 and Tue 8-3. Thur and Fri are my short days, 9-12. Its so so cold out and I do not like to leave my apartment when its cold. I do want to attend class everyday, I have not figured out where I am going to be studying. I could go a whole week without seeing anyone, just cooped up in my apartment, but thats just too depressing. May be I will try the Law library since its really nice. I need to find a nice confortable place to study.

Anyway, thats all I have for now. May God bless everyone as we start this new semester. Until next time

These past two weeks have been crazy. A very close friend of mine had a tragedy last weekend and since we did not have classes on MLK day, we drove to Dallas to be with her. It was a gruelling 19 hour drive, ice and rain the whole way. I had planned to do a lot of reading that weekend but it did not happen. I have my first exam in Physio on Monday and Micro on Wednesday. Other than that, life is good. I will be studying until the wee hours of the morning and then spending all day studying tomorrow. I hope to be done by 10pm. Its amaizing how God works in our lives. There are some people who come into our lives for a season and we are really sad to see them go, but I believe its all part of God's plan. He always sends someone else to comfort us during those times. God bless everyone and hope you all have a great week filled with God's blessings.

(Mwana wangu; that was for you.)

So, the physio exam came and went and thank God it was not difficult; aced it. (Lymp and endocrine).. I have not been very motivated to study for micro and its tomorrow 0730. I am sitting here staring at my scribes wondering how I am going to remember all this stuff by tomorrow. Anyway, instead of me dili dalling I better start my coffee and get on with it. I am contemplating taking a nap and then just not sleeping until post exam. I know its not good but its worked in the past. And then after that I have to catch up on more physio lectures as I have my next exam on Monday. Anyhoo, gotta go. :wave:

So its Friday. I decided to skip classes today and stay home and study. I was at school for 14 hours yesterday and its way too cold to be outside. My week was a little crazy but by God's grace I made it through. I did really well on my micro exam, i was actually very surprised as I felt that it was a difficult exam and I did not feel well prepared. I thank God. I should be studying as its Friday and I race with the sun to get in as much as I can before sunset. I have a physio/histo exam on Monday covering GI. Immunology is proving to be quite a challange. Oh well, break time is over, off to GI system. Have a great and safe weekend everyone.

I so have not been motivated to study. I guess I have too much going through my mind. I had told myself that I would not get involved in any relationships until after med school but 'accidentally' found myself in one. Long distance with a great guy who also happens to be in med school 800 miles away. Well, things didnt work out and now I find myself not concentrating and wondering what happened. I know man come and go and that's a part of life, but this is the first relationship I have had since my divorce (2yrs ago). I am just really sad and I am annoyed at myself for being sad. The bad thing about it is I dont really know what happened because he wont talk to me, everything seemed to be going well. Did I miss something; apparently. Anyway, that all will not get me anywhere. On the other hand I have immunology, neuroscience and physio to catch up on. Life keeps rolling on, it wont wait for me to get my emotions in check and pull it together. OH well. Thanks for reading my venting I am off to school till about midnight. Have a great day everyone.

School work has piled up on me. I have a physio exam bright and early tomorrow, and exams Wednesday and Friday, and then Monday again. I can not wait until this week is over. We stated Neuroscience about two weeks ago and since then it seems as though I can never be anywhere close to being caught up. I see the second years struggling and I wonder how I will manage when I am barely keeping up now. I will just have to trust God to carry me on eagles' wings. Gotta go back to the reproductive system...

I have been doing a good job of going to the gym. 20 minutes on the stairmaster and weights. I feel really good. BUT, I have started back on coffee. I had gone a whole month without coffee, endured the withdrawal headaches and now I am back on it. I have a headache after my first cup, not quite sure what that is all about. Well, anyway, I am planning to pull an all nighter since I dont really have anything mandatory for tomorrow. This way I can get caught up on immunology, our final is on Friday and then we have a physio/histo exam on Monday on renal and skin. Renal is proving to be a pain. When I was working as a ccu nurse I always used to say nephrologists were the smartest doctors around. I guess I was right all along.

Anyway, I was treated today by my OMM instructor for a Left unilateral extension. I can not tell you how good I feel. I was in a lot of pain today and after the treatment a little sore but now, I feel soooo good. When OMM works on you you start believing it more. My personal physician is a D.O and she often used manipulative medicine to treat my migranes after a number of prescription medications would not work; I was a believer then and now I am an even more believer OMM is fun. I am starting to enjoy it very much because now I understand the stuff and actually know what is going on. Its about time, we are 7 weeks into the semester.

Spring break is coming up in 2 weeks. My two good friends and I are driving to D.C for the weekend and I can not wait to relax and not think about exams for a week. I guess I better get back to studying, its gonna be a long night. Have a splendid week everyone and thanks for reading.

I have been gone way too long. I hope everyone is doing well and plugging along. Four more weeks till this semester is over. So, Neuroscience kicked my butt big time yesterday. I passed and I am grateful for the pass/fail system. I am getting tired though, maybe need to manage my time better. I dont get time off before summer semester because I am doing my intensive preceptorship course that week. It wont be so bad, I just have to think positive. We finished Physio and Histo beginning of march and we have path now instead. Microbiology is going well. We have female genitalia exams this week. Anyhoo, better get back to my books. chao. :wave:

It seems as though I had fallen off the face of the earth. Well, I am back and will try my best to post on a regular basis. I will divide this summary of my activities into months for easier reading.

April

What has happened to me since my last post??? WELL, we did our female genitalia exams and it was ok, just that on the bigger women I was having a more difficult time finding their ovaries. I guess its another thing off my list of what I want to do when I grow up; definitely not gynecology. I actually did not mind doing the pap smears, I understand how uncomfortable it is and I think as women we can really be empathetic.

The semester ended well. Did very well in my classes. It was nice going to take the finals with a little cushion and not worried about having to ace the exam to pass the class. I was very excited to be done with first year. I did not get a week off because I had my preceptorship that week which I will talk about in my next post. In the mean time between school I started doing volunteer work/research at the Infectious Disease clinic. There are two docs I work with and a nurse practitioner who is exceptional. One of the pecks is that I get to attend all these dinners hosted by pharmaceutical companies and get to meet some of the coolest ID doctors from around the country. I learn so much and hope someday to put that knowledge to use in my home country where there is an abundant need. Recently one of the pharmaceutical companies hosted a dinner for the HIV/AIDS patients in the community in a very nice restaurant and we had a turn out of about 35. It was nice to listen to a lecture in more layman terms because I was able to better grasp the concepts on genotyping. I hope to continue to work with these amaizing doctors at least through out the summer.

The munchkins are doing great. Healthy and Happy. :wave:
Until next time.

MAY.....

I did my one week of intensive preceptorship in rural Michigan. It was a nice place but being a woman of color, it was disheartening because there were no non-caucasians there. When I arrived at the doctor's office, the nurse manager said to me, "We do not have black patients because of our location." I guess it was her way of warning me. I had a wonderful time though. The doctor was very nice and his wife is his nurse and they are all such wonderful people. After the first two days, I was able to go in to see the patients before him and then discuss with him my findings. This is were my experience as a nurse came in handy. I loved every minute of my time. It's interesting that at the end of my week the doctor sat down with me and said, "Don't go into family practice, specialize." My school is top 5 in family practice, uuumh. Well, I guess that is something to think about. Overall, it was a good learning experience.

May 14th we started summer semester with Radiology, Neuromusckuloskeletal I (othopedics and pmr mostly), OMM and Pharmacology. I had to put in quite a lot of work in pharm but ended up doing really well. I just hope I will remember what I learnt as I go. We had the whole month of August off, it did not seem like a lot though. I was ready to start classes on August 27th. NMS II(Neurology), Pediatrics are our first classes. We are system based and I love it. Most days we have classes from 8am to 5 pm. It used to be painful, but since I started drinking coffee again, its a lot more tolerable. I have been sick with a horrible cold for the last two days and have not been to school. I am going to spend today trying to catch up. We often have exams twice a week and its brutal. We have our third neurology exam on thursday and monday we had our first peds exam. Until next time........

Oh.... on a very pleasant note. My four year old son started kindergarten a week ago and my seven year old daughter started 2nd grade. They are adjusting very well and I am just very excited especially for my boy. He is having the time of his life. I sure hope he continues to like school... My daughter told me yesterday that she has a major problem she has to deal with. Upon questioning her what the big problem was, she said, "Mom, there is this boy named Noah in my class, he has a huge crush on me. He is in love with me. I have to always run away from him." She said that so dramatically that I couldn't help but laugh. Good thing she didn't tell her father that; when she was four and the next door neighbor's five year old son kissed her, her father banned him from ever coming to our house to play. He is one over protective father. Just thought I would share the kinds of things that distress seven year olds.

May the good Lord bless each and everyone one of us this week and may He give us enough strength for each day. May we take one day at a time.

Two more weeks of school and then its Christmas break. We have our last two classes, fem. Repro and Behavioral and of course OMM. We finished Neuro, Peds, Endocrine, GI and I excelled in GI more than I even expected, but also I am interested in general surgery so that could be why. Its been hard adjusting from getting very high 90s in GI and trying to keep that up in OB, which is not anywhere close to being my favorite. I have my OMM practical on Thursday and I need to practice for that, this is the most stressful time for me. I don't like OMM practical exams. I like OMM, and written exams are no problem its just the performance anxiety that gets to me. It's snowing out and I need to motivate myself to get out of my apartment. I did not touch a book last week while I was on Thanksgiving break, now I am gonna pay for it as I have about 8 lectures to make up. Anyhooo, Hope everyone has a great week. The semester is almost over and for those 2nd years out there, boards are looming and I am petrified. I probably need to lower my standards a little and I will not be so stressed. Chao

OMM practicals came and went. Its over. I always end up performing very well but I am so very nervous prior to the exam. Anyways, I have two finals next week and one the following monday and I will be halfway through second year. I really need to get studying so that I am not trying to cover too much material at once. I have three lectures to catch up on in Behavioral and one paper to write and I will be ready to start studying for the Thursday exam. Have a great and safe weekend everyone and may God Bless you.

Wow. So I last blogged in 2007, it seems as though it was just a few months ago. procrastination is a bad habit... Where do I start??? On a personal note, my children are doing great, just started summer vacation. My daughter is going to be 10 in 2months and my son is 7 1/2. They seem so grown up now. My son said to me yesterday, "mom, I know you really enjoy being a doctor and all, but I don't really enjoy it because I don't get to see you as much." It broke my heart. Well, I guess he will not be going into medicine.... Anyway, I got married to a wonderful man who I met in medical school. Unfortunately we matched in different states, he will be in New York and I will be in Michigan; it will be difficult but like always I know it will work out well. So on a personal note, I am thriving and could not be happier.

I graduated in May, it was nice to see my classmates again. I matched in General Surgery in Michigan and will be starting orientation next week on my birthday. I am very excited and can't wait to get this show on the road. God has been gracious to me and I am so grateful to Him for everything that He has done for me. So this is year one of five and we shall see how it goes. I know this year will go by fast and I hope to learn and grow and always strive to be a better person each day.

until next time, ciao:)

Hi mom of 2,
Congratulations!! It is inspiring to hear about your life and future plans. I wish you the best for the next five years of general surgery residency.I am a mom of two little girls one is about to be 6 mos and another is 18 mos. I am starting my med school in a month. I would like to ask you how did you balance your studies and personal life? Any word of advice will be greatly appreciated.