Holiday E-mail update
Well, it's been a while since I sent out a mass email to people letting them know how I've been. So I sent one out today, now that I am blissfully in christmas vacation mode. Most of this is probably stuff you already know, so don't bother to read it if you check my livejournal regularly... but I have to post it here for posterity anyway :) I'll summarize for you: I'm doing well in school, I don't have much time for hobbies but now I'm spending it playing video games, and I found out Jamie's going to propose. YEAY!
Here's the email:
I haven't sent out an e-mail for a couple months, abjectly failing at my goal of sending out lots of juicy updates filled with scintillating details about how fascinating gastroenterology can be. I know this has not gone unnoticed, as several people have commented on my silence this year. I'm now on winter vacation and can afford a break from the obsessive all-day study I am becoming accustomed to, in order to send out an email! Besides, I'm currently home in Canby, so it's either send out this e-mail or be put to work making more cookies. Yikes!
So let's--briefly--review.
In school, we have covered Cardiology, Pulmonology, Kidney-ology, All things digestive, and we just finished Endocrinology and nutrition. Cardiology has been my favorite, I enjoyed learning about electrophysiology and EKG's so VERY much. A lot more than learning about the physics of blood flow and resistance of vessels last year. Also, I'm working in a cardiology preceptorship this term and it is fantastic. He is a great teacher, and I am learning a lot. I've heard grade 1/6 murmurs (VERY hard to hear), done very sensitive physical exam covering the wave rhythm of the pulse at the write, and I've even heard a heart valve so loud I could hear it without a stethoscope, across the exam room! My preceptor may well win me over from family practice to cardiology--Oh, the perks...hour-long appointments! To cover one single medical issue instead of six complicated chronic diseases in 15 minutes! Oh, the luxury of being a specialist. (snicker.) However, I am still heavily involved with the Family Medicine Interest Group and am beginning to settle into leadership in that group. Primary care and health policy are still my first passions, so I doubt I will be switching to the "Cardiology Interest Group" any time soon.
My second favorite subject was renal physiology, which was also the most challenging subject for me. For some reason, the regulation of water and salt in the body is intuitive to me, but the test questions used to cover the material are not. Oh well. With regard to endocrinology, I have this to say: please, please, please DO NOT DEVELOP DIABETES! It hurts everything in your body and the number of test questions on it alone was astounding! If you would all just fix yourselves, so diabetes was less prevalent in this country, it would make the lives of future generations of medical students MUCH easier. Just sleep on it, you don't have to cure yourself today. (And if you ask me how to cure yourself, I will honestly tell you I do not know. That test was so last Friday.)
Our next subject is Neurology. We received our syllabi on Friday after our endocrinology exam. I am excited to cover Neurology, although it's reputed to be one of the more challenging courses this year. I've always found neurology fascinating, although over my head. I'm also looking forward to covering psych and mood disorders, which are distressingly undertaught in medical schools, given how much they will affect my practice as a primary care doc (thanks to my mentors at MFC for at least teaching me to look out for the mind-side of mind-and-body medicine early on). The only part of next semester I am *NOT* looking forward is brain anatomy. We covered this briefly at UofO's anatomy course, and I enjoyed it. I like brain anatomy, don't get me wrong. I will NOT enjoy getting back into scrubs and smelling like formaldehyde again, though. *sigh*. Hopefully it won't be as bad as I fear and the smell won't be as strong as I remember. . . well, it's possible, right?
I've been doing well this year, too, despite the very hard material. I'm still worried about my boards, but I got honors in my last class and went into the final for endocrinology with a near-honors, and I may have even kept it, diabetes exam questions aside. But doing well as I go through my classes reassures me that I won't completely fail the USMLE 1 in June. And now I need to start thinking about it in real concrete terms: we had our first MS2 meeting where they told us about study schedules and that we need to register by January. Somehow, registering and putting my signature on the application (and paying the $480 upfront to take the exam) makes it a lot more real. And makes me want to study over winter vacation to get a head start. But don't worry, I'm resisting the urge and I won't take the syllabus out of its plastic until January 3rd. ... I think.
The downside of all this intensive study is that I've got less time to do other things. I'm dancing less because I'm usually studying while the dances happen. Sad, yes, that's sad. Especially when it's a weekend before a test and there are TWO dances, including my favorite dance of the month, and I SKIP THEM BOTH in order to study. It shows, I've gotten a lot worse, but I guess it's more important to get my MD than my dancing shoes polished. Still, all this textbook reading has ruined my eyesight, I swear. I've got an eye-doctor appointment tomorrow and I think at that time I will surrender and get glasses, because I definitely see less well than I used to. Lots of close up reading. Also, it doesn't help that I have been slowly converted to a video-game player and will occasionally spend my study breaks shooting some monster in a ridiculous game instead of staring off into the distance resting my eyes. Oh, and I haven't done a lick of holiday shopping thanks to school stress, so now I'm scrambling for gift ideas and the urge to fight shoppers at the mall. Eek!
In quite possibly the biggest news I have to share, big things are happening in my personal life, even with so little time. Jamie joined my family (and the H's and the E's for a huge dinner at my parents house) for Thanksgiving. While my mother and I were puttering away in the kitchen he snuck into the back room and asked my dad's permission to propose! And my dad said yes, too. Jamie later blabbed the whole thing--he had sworn my father to secrecy but couldn't keep the secret himself, he was so relieved. I am SO INCREDIBLY HAPPY, I did a whole little happy dance all weekend and was bubbley at school the whole next week! He hasn't asked yet, and I don't know when he will (he's managed to keep THAT a secret)--he's out of town so much in California for his new job I don't know when he would have time, frankly. But he and I both know what my answer will be when he does, so the timing doesn't really matter. Incidentally, apparently my parents have kept Jamie's secret even when he couldn't. I mentioned this passingly in an email to my sister in law, assuming she'd already heard, and she immediately called me and aid "what? Jamie proposed? WHEN?" so if you have not heard through the H family grapevine, never to fear.
So, that's that and all my big news. I'm relaxing and on vacation, and dog-sitting while Jamie is out of town (I'm secretly trying to buy Kerouac's love away from Jamie by giving him lots of bacon-flavored treats), and completely guilt-free about coming to my parents house without study material. It is shaping up to be a very good holiday season. Very good indeed.
I hope you all have WONDERFUL holidays. Find a snowball and throw it at somebody in my honor, or drink hot cocoa for me. And give yourself a big hug for me. AND call me if you want to hang out!!
Holiday cheers from your temporarily unsassy but well-rested medical student correspondent,
Melissa
Here's the email:
I haven't sent out an e-mail for a couple months, abjectly failing at my goal of sending out lots of juicy updates filled with scintillating details about how fascinating gastroenterology can be. I know this has not gone unnoticed, as several people have commented on my silence this year. I'm now on winter vacation and can afford a break from the obsessive all-day study I am becoming accustomed to, in order to send out an email! Besides, I'm currently home in Canby, so it's either send out this e-mail or be put to work making more cookies. Yikes!
So let's--briefly--review.
In school, we have covered Cardiology, Pulmonology, Kidney-ology, All things digestive, and we just finished Endocrinology and nutrition. Cardiology has been my favorite, I enjoyed learning about electrophysiology and EKG's so VERY much. A lot more than learning about the physics of blood flow and resistance of vessels last year. Also, I'm working in a cardiology preceptorship this term and it is fantastic. He is a great teacher, and I am learning a lot. I've heard grade 1/6 murmurs (VERY hard to hear), done very sensitive physical exam covering the wave rhythm of the pulse at the write, and I've even heard a heart valve so loud I could hear it without a stethoscope, across the exam room! My preceptor may well win me over from family practice to cardiology--Oh, the perks...hour-long appointments! To cover one single medical issue instead of six complicated chronic diseases in 15 minutes! Oh, the luxury of being a specialist. (snicker.) However, I am still heavily involved with the Family Medicine Interest Group and am beginning to settle into leadership in that group. Primary care and health policy are still my first passions, so I doubt I will be switching to the "Cardiology Interest Group" any time soon.
My second favorite subject was renal physiology, which was also the most challenging subject for me. For some reason, the regulation of water and salt in the body is intuitive to me, but the test questions used to cover the material are not. Oh well. With regard to endocrinology, I have this to say: please, please, please DO NOT DEVELOP DIABETES! It hurts everything in your body and the number of test questions on it alone was astounding! If you would all just fix yourselves, so diabetes was less prevalent in this country, it would make the lives of future generations of medical students MUCH easier. Just sleep on it, you don't have to cure yourself today. (And if you ask me how to cure yourself, I will honestly tell you I do not know. That test was so last Friday.)
Our next subject is Neurology. We received our syllabi on Friday after our endocrinology exam. I am excited to cover Neurology, although it's reputed to be one of the more challenging courses this year. I've always found neurology fascinating, although over my head. I'm also looking forward to covering psych and mood disorders, which are distressingly undertaught in medical schools, given how much they will affect my practice as a primary care doc (thanks to my mentors at MFC for at least teaching me to look out for the mind-side of mind-and-body medicine early on). The only part of next semester I am *NOT* looking forward is brain anatomy. We covered this briefly at UofO's anatomy course, and I enjoyed it. I like brain anatomy, don't get me wrong. I will NOT enjoy getting back into scrubs and smelling like formaldehyde again, though. *sigh*. Hopefully it won't be as bad as I fear and the smell won't be as strong as I remember. . . well, it's possible, right?
I've been doing well this year, too, despite the very hard material. I'm still worried about my boards, but I got honors in my last class and went into the final for endocrinology with a near-honors, and I may have even kept it, diabetes exam questions aside. But doing well as I go through my classes reassures me that I won't completely fail the USMLE 1 in June. And now I need to start thinking about it in real concrete terms: we had our first MS2 meeting where they told us about study schedules and that we need to register by January. Somehow, registering and putting my signature on the application (and paying the $480 upfront to take the exam) makes it a lot more real. And makes me want to study over winter vacation to get a head start. But don't worry, I'm resisting the urge and I won't take the syllabus out of its plastic until January 3rd. ... I think.
The downside of all this intensive study is that I've got less time to do other things. I'm dancing less because I'm usually studying while the dances happen. Sad, yes, that's sad. Especially when it's a weekend before a test and there are TWO dances, including my favorite dance of the month, and I SKIP THEM BOTH in order to study. It shows, I've gotten a lot worse, but I guess it's more important to get my MD than my dancing shoes polished. Still, all this textbook reading has ruined my eyesight, I swear. I've got an eye-doctor appointment tomorrow and I think at that time I will surrender and get glasses, because I definitely see less well than I used to. Lots of close up reading. Also, it doesn't help that I have been slowly converted to a video-game player and will occasionally spend my study breaks shooting some monster in a ridiculous game instead of staring off into the distance resting my eyes. Oh, and I haven't done a lick of holiday shopping thanks to school stress, so now I'm scrambling for gift ideas and the urge to fight shoppers at the mall. Eek!
In quite possibly the biggest news I have to share, big things are happening in my personal life, even with so little time. Jamie joined my family (and the H's and the E's for a huge dinner at my parents house) for Thanksgiving. While my mother and I were puttering away in the kitchen he snuck into the back room and asked my dad's permission to propose! And my dad said yes, too. Jamie later blabbed the whole thing--he had sworn my father to secrecy but couldn't keep the secret himself, he was so relieved. I am SO INCREDIBLY HAPPY, I did a whole little happy dance all weekend and was bubbley at school the whole next week! He hasn't asked yet, and I don't know when he will (he's managed to keep THAT a secret)--he's out of town so much in California for his new job I don't know when he would have time, frankly. But he and I both know what my answer will be when he does, so the timing doesn't really matter. Incidentally, apparently my parents have kept Jamie's secret even when he couldn't. I mentioned this passingly in an email to my sister in law, assuming she'd already heard, and she immediately called me and aid "what? Jamie proposed? WHEN?" so if you have not heard through the H family grapevine, never to fear.
So, that's that and all my big news. I'm relaxing and on vacation, and dog-sitting while Jamie is out of town (I'm secretly trying to buy Kerouac's love away from Jamie by giving him lots of bacon-flavored treats), and completely guilt-free about coming to my parents house without study material. It is shaping up to be a very good holiday season. Very good indeed.
I hope you all have WONDERFUL holidays. Find a snowball and throw it at somebody in my honor, or drink hot cocoa for me. And give yourself a big hug for me. AND call me if you want to hang out!!
Holiday cheers from your temporarily unsassy but well-rested medical student correspondent,
Melissa