I figured I better post something this weekend, as it is kind of like the “calm before the storm” around here.  We have three weeks left in this quarter, and the last two are completely jam-packed full of exams and practicals.

Not a whole lot is new in Kirksville.  We had a block exam on Monday, which went okay for me.  Definitely not my best, but I managed to squeak by.  The biochemistry portion of the block was worth nearly 40% of our grade in the class, so I’m glad I at least passed.  Smart people fail out of med school all the time, so I try to remember that “C’s get degrees,” although the gunner in me still isn’t satisfied.

As excited as I am to be almost done with second quarter, I’m really not looking forward to next quarter.  We start taking some new, more difficult classes, such as neuroscience, medical microbiology, and pathology.  Then it will be summer, and I have two weeks of “preceptorship.”  I still have yet to figure out what that entails…  The good news is, I will also be going to Ireland to visit my brother, so that should be motivation enough to make it to summer.

The upcoming week isn’t too bad.  We have our last histology image exam on Monday.  It will be so nice to be done with that!  I’ve spent the entire day looking at tissue slides, and I’m ready to move on to something else.  Which, sadly, means preparing for anatomy lab.

Dissection of the head and neck is not going so well.  We dug through Walter’s parotid gland for an hour and a half on Friday looking for branches of the facial nerve, and we found absolutely nothing.  Luckily, after that I got to use the bone saw to cut through his mandible, which was pretty fun.  I am just so lost in this region, and I don’t have the time to go into the lab and study more before the practical in a few weeks.

I am just trying not to freak out about all of the exams coming up…D.O., OTM, ultrasound, immunology case presentations, anatomy practical, block, finals….AAAAHHHH!  I know it will all work out, but I just don’t see how!  The key to keeping your cool in med school is just not thinking ahead.  Just take it day-by-day.  Tomorrow is Sunday, and I am going to spend the day with Nick pretending that I am not a med student for just a few hours.  And then come Monday…it’s ON!