The Final Sprint: Finishing Up My First Term of Medical School!

The GA-PCOM D.O. Class of 2018!

In exactly one week I will have completed my first term of medical school! I’m even more excited that afterwards I will have a little over a week to relax and do absolutely nothing! This term has been quite the experience, and although I wouldn’t change any of it for the world, I’m definitely looking forward next term.

Yesterday, we not only had our last lecture of the term, but we also had our last anatomy lab session until we hit neuroscience in the spring. One of my classmates came up with the awesome idea of getting together for an informal class picture, and our class chair pulled it off flawlessly. Anatomy lab is probably the only time that our entire class is in the same room together, so it worked out perfectly. Our professors even got in on the action which made it even better. I’m definitely going to miss my time in anatomy lab. I absolutely loved dissecting (even if it was for 4 or more hours at a time), and it really helped with lecture to be able to visualize the structures. Plus, it really was a nice break from lectures. Starting second term, we won’t have any labs to help bring up our written exam scores, and the entire day will be filled with lectures. I have no idea how I’m going to handle straight lectures from 8am-5pm :-/

The good news about next term is we will be going from SPOM (which covered anatomy, radiology, histology, physiology, and embryology) to the Cellular and Molecular Basis of Medicine (CMBM). CMBM will cover biochemistry, cell biology, clinical medicine, genetics, immunology, microbiology, pathology, pharmacology, and physiology. This will be way more subject matter that what we covered in SPOM, but I’m excited because I’m already familiar with most of the subjects. Here’s to hoping my master’s degree in biochemistry comes through for me!  

The end of the term also means final exams, and starting Monday I will have exams every day until Thursday, so I probably won’t post again until I am completely finished. My daughter’s birthday is also next week, so I will have to figure out how to celebrate and keep her happy with exams in the way. Oddly enough I feel really good about the upcoming written exam, but that can always go both ways, so please keep me in your prayers.  We also have an OMM practical along with a PCS final exam, so it’s going to be a very busy time. I hope you all have a fantastic week, and hopefully the next time you hear from me, I’ll be super happy :-)