(no subject)
I felt like it had been a while again so I'm gonna post. I'll start at with more sad things as apparently my livejournal nature judging from my last post. So to add to the awesomeness my Grandma (mom's mom, wife of guy who just had heart surgery) now has breast cancer. When I was home for spring break (the beginning of March) she had a lumpectomy (they take out the lump) which went pretty well, she got really sick from the anesthetic, spent one night in the hospital, but was fine the next day. The report back was that they got it all but they found a cancer cell in her lymph nodes which means it was trying to spread. She just talked to the docs and apparently she has a 30% chance of getting it again in 5 yrs and more than that in 10. They recommended chemo but that only lowers her chance to 20% and I think would be 4 doses every 3 weeks. Meds make her sick, she's old, and she also has lymphoma of some sort which is so slow they aren't treating it, so as of now she's decided chemo is too rough and not worth the payoff. Things may change, we'll have to see, but I guess all we can do is hope for the best.
Onwards from sad things I guess another update-y thing is that I had my pre-med interview at Whitman. For some reason Whitman has this thing where a bunch of undergraduate profs pretend like its a med interview, then write up a recommendation letter to put with your other ones. You don't have to do it, but if you don't med schools wonder why. I was a little leary after having talked to one of them previously who was an English prof and told me to look at osteopathic med after hearing my grades (it's easier to get into, more whole body med, it is actually pretty legit now but it was kinda a dig) I was not impressed with their med school knowledge. The questions they asked turned out to be pretty good, I was actually amazed how a regular undergrad could know this crap, it was a lot of stuff I picked up this year. I think I did well, and they gave me feedback which was pretty nitpicky so my mom convinced me that that was a sign I was pretty good. Some things miffed me (like they said I should be quick and concise in my ethical decisions, have you ever talked to a philosopher? do they ever give you a quick, straightforward answer?) but it was kinda useful. I think I have a decent chance even though my verbal MCAT score wasn't that great (no idea, it's kinda arbitrary), so hopefully I'll get in.
What else, this semester has gone pretty well. I've actually not been very busy until recently as it's coming down to it. Finals are at the end of this month/start of may so it's almost over. I'm actually starting to make friends with some philosophy kids, I'm now on their softball team for this summer, which is cool. This summer I had planned to take an EMT class but the pre-med committee said that wasn't the best idea, and the one near me was canceled, so I think I'm going to take a class on ethics counseling, get a job, and volunteer at a free clinic if I can to look good for med schools.
Other random things: I helped one of my professors move one day and he gave me 140 for working almost non-stop from 11:00am to 5PM which was tiring but good money. He also taught me last semester, oversees my shadowing this semester, interviews people to our med school, and is now writing me a recommendation letter (score!). I also learned docs make crazy money from him. I think gps ~200,000, specialist ~400,000-600,000, and some surgeons (cario-thorasic) over 1 million. I didn't really realize this (I only knew I'd make a comfortable living) but that is just silly money. TBF I will owe a lot but still I think I might donate a lot, or give my kids a crazy college fund or something. I think if I actually do make that much my pipe dream is to put some of it in a savings and start a free clinic when I retire. A guy in town here started a free clinic here when he retired, and got lots of donations and such, so maybe I'll copy him. Anyways that is just stupid amounts of money. I'm slowly learning to play guitar, I can play all of the treble clef but I just hit chords and I fear my fingers may be too pudgy as they block more than one string. I probably just need to learn how to hold my fingers well. Anyways now I'm just blabbering. Done.
Onwards from sad things I guess another update-y thing is that I had my pre-med interview at Whitman. For some reason Whitman has this thing where a bunch of undergraduate profs pretend like its a med interview, then write up a recommendation letter to put with your other ones. You don't have to do it, but if you don't med schools wonder why. I was a little leary after having talked to one of them previously who was an English prof and told me to look at osteopathic med after hearing my grades (it's easier to get into, more whole body med, it is actually pretty legit now but it was kinda a dig) I was not impressed with their med school knowledge. The questions they asked turned out to be pretty good, I was actually amazed how a regular undergrad could know this crap, it was a lot of stuff I picked up this year. I think I did well, and they gave me feedback which was pretty nitpicky so my mom convinced me that that was a sign I was pretty good. Some things miffed me (like they said I should be quick and concise in my ethical decisions, have you ever talked to a philosopher? do they ever give you a quick, straightforward answer?) but it was kinda useful. I think I have a decent chance even though my verbal MCAT score wasn't that great (no idea, it's kinda arbitrary), so hopefully I'll get in.
What else, this semester has gone pretty well. I've actually not been very busy until recently as it's coming down to it. Finals are at the end of this month/start of may so it's almost over. I'm actually starting to make friends with some philosophy kids, I'm now on their softball team for this summer, which is cool. This summer I had planned to take an EMT class but the pre-med committee said that wasn't the best idea, and the one near me was canceled, so I think I'm going to take a class on ethics counseling, get a job, and volunteer at a free clinic if I can to look good for med schools.
Other random things: I helped one of my professors move one day and he gave me 140 for working almost non-stop from 11:00am to 5PM which was tiring but good money. He also taught me last semester, oversees my shadowing this semester, interviews people to our med school, and is now writing me a recommendation letter (score!). I also learned docs make crazy money from him. I think gps ~200,000, specialist ~400,000-600,000, and some surgeons (cario-thorasic) over 1 million. I didn't really realize this (I only knew I'd make a comfortable living) but that is just silly money. TBF I will owe a lot but still I think I might donate a lot, or give my kids a crazy college fund or something. I think if I actually do make that much my pipe dream is to put some of it in a savings and start a free clinic when I retire. A guy in town here started a free clinic here when he retired, and got lots of donations and such, so maybe I'll copy him. Anyways that is just stupid amounts of money. I'm slowly learning to play guitar, I can play all of the treble clef but I just hit chords and I fear my fingers may be too pudgy as they block more than one string. I probably just need to learn how to hold my fingers well. Anyways now I'm just blabbering. Done.