Another Successful Term of Medical School Completed!

Snow in Georgia!

Wow, what a week! This was the last week of the term, but it was anything but predictable. Tuesday morning we were greeted with snow, but luckily nothing was closed. Coming from Louisiana, my daughter had only seen snow once in her life (although she doesn’t remember it), so she was super excited to see and play in all the snow. As you can see in the picture above, even though it was seven in the morning, she was all smiles. On Wednesday, we had a winter storm come through the area, and while my daughter’s school made the decision to close the night before, I didn’t receive notification from my school until around 5am that morning. Having both schools closed definitely saved me the headache of trying to find her a sitter while I went to mandatory case discussions (since the daycare centers were also closed in the area), and I appreciated the study time. The professors also found a way for us to complete the assignments together online, so it didn’t interfere with us missing questions on today’s exam. Yesterday, my school had a 2-hour delay though, so that meant taking an exam that was originally scheduled for the morning in the afternoon. Luckily, my daughter’s school didn’t have a delay yesterday, so everything was business as usual.  

Notes from my 2nd term of medical school!

Today I completed (and passed) my final exam of second term, which means that spring break has officially begun! The past few months have been a bit of a blur, but I am happy to have conquered yet another milestone, and I am actually looking forward to what next term has in store. To give you an idea of how intense this term has been, I took a picture of my note stack. Although most of my notes were typed out, front and back, it still stacked up to be almost a foot tall! I think last term’s notes only measured about five inches, so it is safe to say that this term was way more intense. Oddly enough, I felt this term was way more manageable than the last. I don’t know if I finally managed to adapt to the course load or if it was because the material was more interesting, but I really loved this term. I also feel like I had a lot more free time to do things I enjoyed, and I definitely was a lot less stressed out during my exams which were reflected in much better grades this time around. I hope I can keep up the good streak next term, but that will also be when we hit all neuro subjects, so I am slightly nervous. For now, I am going to take the week to really enjoy myself and mentally prepare for the final term of my first year. Right after today’s exam, I went to the movies to see Focus (which I enjoyed), and this evening will be spent watching Netflix. I managed to get into House of Cards over the winter break, so I am super excited that the new season was released today! I also plan on having a ton of mother-daughter bonding time this weekend, because there wasn’t as much of it as I would’ve liked this term due to Monday exams always being around the corner. No worries though, because I will definitely be putting up a few posts within the next week that will hopefully help out both pre-medical and medical students.   

Anyway, I am off to enjoy my evening. Just a heads up to any medical or pre-medical students that tomorrow is the last day to register without late fees for the SNMA national conference on April 1-5, 2015 in New Orleans. Not only will I be in attendance, but I will also be a part of one of the workshops (more details to come once confirmed), so I look forward to meeting you guys! And if meeting me doesn’t convince you to attend, then CLICK HERE to see why this is such a wonderful opportunity that shouldn’t be missed. Until next time!

Almost Finished with Term 2!

There are only six more lectures, five case studies/discussions, one lab quiz, and two more exams that stand in the way of this term being complete, and I am counting down the days until next Friday at noon! After I complete the last exam that day, I will get to enjoy a worry-free, one week vacation where I can just unwind and not have to think about anything. Unfortunately, my daughter’s spring break isn’t until much later, so I probably won’t be taking any trips, but I will openly welcome a week full of sleeping and watching Netflix all day :-) 

Earlier this week, I was feeling pretty down about not being able to celebrate Mardi Gras (ie not having a three-day break) for the first time in about ten years, but since classes were cancelled on Tuesday, I got the chance to stay home and relax anyway. It had rained the night before and the morning temperatures were below freezing, so there was no way I was going to go out and risk running into black ice on the road. Instead, I slept in, made my daughter chocolate chip pancakes, did some pleasure reading, and attempted to update my blog, but freaked out when it disappeared on me for a few seconds. For that reason, I’ll wait until one night during my break to update and hopefully make things a bit easier to find. Right now, I am about to get back on the study grind so that I can enjoy a little “Shonda Land” break tonight, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t get too busy that I missed out on my weekly post goal. Oh, and for all my pre-meds and fellow med students, don’t forget to file your taxes and complete your FAFSA if you haven’t done so already!

Out From Under My Rock!!!!

Words really can’t describe how busy this past week has been, but the weekend’s here and I'm happy that I will actually get to enjoy it! Last weekend was spent studying for this past Monday’s OMM written exam, and the previous weekend was spent studying for an exam, so I am just so happy to finally have a study-free weekend. I finally have time to clean up, wash clothes, do my hair, and relax! In addition to an OMM written exam on Monday, I had an OMM practical on Wednesday, a 30 minute case presentation on Thursday, and a major written exam this morning, so I have literally been studying all week. To make matters worse, I feel like I might not have performed as well on Wednesday’s practical exam as my previous others. I heard through the grapevine that over 100 students will have to remediate a station that was on the exam, so there’s a good chance I may be one of them :-/ On a brighter note, I did extremely well on my case presentation yesterday, and I passed today’s exam, so woo-hoo!

STEAM night at the little one's school :-)

I had to take a break from studying last night to take my daughter to a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) event at her school, and while I admit that I tried to rush through it so that I could come back home and study, it was actually nice to take a break and spend time with her for a few hours. There were math games, a station where she had to get a balloon to float halfway in the air, robotics, and a whole bunch of other cool and interesting learning activities. My school was also there introducing children to possible careers in healthcare, so that was nice. Passing today’s exam and seeing the smile on her face last night definitely made the study break worth it.

Moments like this make it all worth it!

As for today, after my exam I headed down to a local high school in the area to volunteer at a health fair. I had the chance to do cardio and pulmonary exams, along with ear, nose, and throat exams. It was my first time practicing on real people outside of our standardized patients at school, so I was pretty excited. We had some of our professors there to double-check everything, but thankfully I didn’t come across any problems. I will be making sure I take the time to listen to more heart and lung sounds online, so that I can get better at hearing any abnormalities in the future. The fair had a good turnout though, and aside from a lot of people commenting on how young I look and asking if I was in high school, I felt like a true professional. I look forward to doing more things like this in the future though, because patient encounters remind me why I am in medical school in the first place, and they make all these long hours of studying worth it :-)

Well, I’m off to pick up the little one, so I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

My Birthday Recap

A Birthday Gift From My Little Love :-)

First, I just have to say thank you for all the birthday love! All the comments and e-mails I received from you guys completely made my day, and I will make sure to respond to every message. I managed to pass both Monday’s and today’s exams, so all the weekend studying was definitely worth it. If you follow me on Instagram (@LSUsweetheart), then you already know that the best moment of my birthday came from my daughter. She not only stayed fairly quiet and out of my way this weekend, but she surprised me while I was studying with lunch and the cutest note ever! It really made me realize how absolutely blessed I am to have a child who is so caring and understanding of my goals. I wouldn’t trade her for the world!!!!

Blessed to be Going through medical school with these amazing people!

After my exam on Monday, I decided that I needed to take a break from afternoon classes, so I headed over to the nail salon for a relaxing mani-pedi. While there, some of my classmates came and surprised me with a cake and roses. I was one happy girl! I’m just convinced that I have some of the best classmates in the world and I am happy to be able to call them family :-)

A mini spa break done right :-)

I was also gifted a spa package from a close friend, so today after my exam (and a little OMM practice), I headed to the spa and received a nice deep tissue massage and facial. It was the perfect end to this week’s exams, and just the start I needed to get back into focus for next week’s exams. It was so relaxing that I didn’t want to leave, and I just loved the cake and sparkling apple cider they gave me at the end.

That’s basically it for my birthday recap. I might not have jumped out of a plane or attempted to do anything crazy this year for my birthday, but the love I felt far exceeds anything fun and spectacular that I could do. I am thankful to be around people who not only support me, but understand my goals, and like I’ve probably said a million times before, I am happy to be fulfilling my dreams even if that does involve some sacrifices. With that being said, there will be two major exams and a practical next week, so I’m not sure if I will have the time to do a pre-med post between now and then, but I wish you all a week as amazing as I know you all are :-)