Whew!

Almost done with the first week of medical school. Here are a few of my thoughts concerning this epic event:

1. I am really, really glad that I took some advanced science classes in undergrad (I was an English major, so I wasn't required to take anything above the prereqs). While I do feel that I could have gotten away with just taking the standard prerequisites (biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics), I feel that my stress level right now would be much higher had I not gone the extra mile. The additional classes that I elected to take were biochemistry, cell biology, and genetics. Biochem and cell bio have already come in handy -- and this is four days into med school. Looking at the syllabus, I can see that genetics will be useful before the quarter is out. While I don't think it would have been the kiss of death to come in without them, it is nice that some of the stuff I am seeing this week is review for me... I would feel a whole lot more lost if I hadn't seen any of the material previously. As it stands, I've seen some of this protein stuff twice before, which gives me a feeling of confidence that I appreciate having.

2. I am finding embryology challenging but fun. I am not a very visual person and so I was apprehensive about histo/embryo stuff. Yesterday I was really frustrated because I could not make heads or tails out of my chick slides (a chicken embryo at 24 and 36 hours of development, both in whole mount and in sequential cross-sections). There is a website that the school gave to us to view but since I don't have a laptop yet I felt rather at a disadvantage compared to the students who were able to pull up the website while they were at their scopes. (Our lab manual has been relatively useless in this endeavor.) But I put in an hour or so on the site last night and over lunch today and lab went better this afternoon, so I am hopeful again. We are only spending 3 days on embryo stuff, but it's apparently about 40% of our first anatomy exam, so I really want to make sure I have it down.

3. I am stoked about physiology -- or, at least, I will be once we get through this initial membrane transport stuff. Yes, it is important but I have seen it before (thanks, cell bio!) and I am eager to get on to the cardiovascular system. I have discovered that I live for the clinical correlates, which is not exactly a surprise to me, but is something to keep in mind. Sodium transport? Zzzzzz. Why digoxin works for CHF?? Give me more!!!

4. The person who scheduled biochem after lunch should really be shot or otherwise disciplined. OMG. I never fall asleep in class but this has been dire. I catch myself falling into these weird half-asleep states in which Josh and Donna (my favorite West Wing 'ship) are interacting peptide domains... hopefully I will be better able to pay attention once we get to the hard parts!

5. I am a sucker for good salesmanship. We have our medical equipment sale tomorrow. The director of our Clinical Skills course is trying to talk us into buying really expensive diagnostic sets that I *know* we are not going to use that much. So spending $700 on a panoptic opthalmoscope and otoscope set doesn't really seem like something I want to do. Especially since I already have a diagnostic set. OK, so it's a hand-me-down from my boyfriend and it's from, like, 1972, but it still works! But then Dr. Harper starts going on about how our motto is that we are at "the forefront of medicine" and we should really equip ourselves with the best technology available, and I find myself ready to write the check. It *was* written into our financial aid budget, I must admit. I'd rather get a laptop for the money, but... I'm going to see if I can try one out tomorrow at the sale and make my decision then.

6. Speaking (tangentially) of my boyfriend, things are a little weird. I got a strange email from him this morning and I don't quite know what to make of where we are going. I know that part of our problem is that neither one of us likes to be the "vulnerable" one in relationships, having both been burned by that in the past. So we tend to try to one-up each other in the "I don't really need you" game. I thought I'd been doing pretty well at handling that part of us, but perhaps not so much. It would be a lot easier if there weren't so many solid, objective reasons as to why we as a couple are not a good idea. But there are, and sometimes just wanting to be with a person isn't good enough. I think we are both struggling with the decision of whether or not the cons outweigh the pros.

7. I have been working my ass off this week. I know that for me, beginning as you mean to go on is desperately important and as such I have been trying to err on the side of studying more rather than less. And so I have studied more this first not-even-over week of school than I studied pretty much all of last semester put together. :) Our first exams are about a week and a half away. After them, I will have a much better idea of what I do and don't need to do, I hope. The fire-hydrant meme is startlingly accurate -- I have been putting in a lot of hours and already I know that I could be putting in so many more, even now when most of the stuff is review.

8. I do think that I made the right decision in coming to this school. Med schools have a really vast range of curricula. I chose to go to a school that is really intense as far as classtime goes -- we are at school from 8:30 am to 5 pm, with a variable lunch break in the middle -- and I think that's good. I'm an excellent traditional learner and I *like* lecture, so it's working for me so far.

9. Now that I've made it all the way up to nine, I feel pressured to go all the way to ten. I have a thing about nice, round numbers that borders on the obsessive/compulsive -- I can't stop what I'm doing and go to sleep unless it's on a :00 or a :30 of the clock, for example -- and so I think I need to come up with a thought for number ten.

10. I am loving living in Hyde Park. I have a beautiful 15 minute walk to school, which is just about ideal in my book. Everything I need (groceries, office supplies, hardware store, wine shop, drugstore, take-out food, bank) is within a 3 block radius of my apartment (although it's more expensive than it would be if I had a car and could go elsewhere). I feel perfectly safe during daylight hours, and there are copious transportation options for the evening if I should ever need to avail myself of them. The residents of my building are friendly. My apartment, while small, is suitable to my needs and I can see myself staying here for another year or three (I just need *one* more bookcase for the scary amount of medical texts I have already and will need to purchase). It's really a good thing.

So, anyway, those are my thoughts for this first week. I really couldn't ask for it to be going any better than it is. I'm quite content. :)