Just checking in

We've had deceptively little to do over the past few days - the week of a mini is always like that. I go from panicking about not cramming as much learning and reviewing as I can into every minute, that, as soon as the test is over, I catch myself going - "what do I do now?" Of course, there's relaxation to be done and sanity to be recaptured, but it's still a bit of a strange feeling. This past week, though, we truly didn't have much class - a bit of microbiology (most of which was review), some hardcore epidemiology, and a little bit of behavioral science. Oh yeah....I forgot about the pathology.

Here I have a tiny complaint - after spending 15 minutes telling us how qualified he was to teach, our professor for hemodynamic dysfunction then proceeded to make the subject boring. I'm sitting there thinking "How DARE you!" Look at it this way - no one cares what an E-cadherin is, or about the innervation of the stylopharyngeus muscle, or which pyrimidines are made. Everyone, though, knows someone who's had a heart-attack or stroke. How blood works and what happens when it doesn't (clotting, thrombi, emboli, shock, etc) strikes me as TERRIBLY important, and I'm a little offended that it wasn't done justice - this is something that, no matter what specialty I go into, will kill some of my patients. However, I can't really rail against the professor; I should be placing the blame on whoever built this schedule.

Though I've felt like there really hasn't been that much to do (even though I still haven't finished Stephen King's novel Lisey's Story), I'll tell you one group of folks who are running around like newly decapitated fast-food fowl right now - the second semester. You see, this Friday, they have their practical over head and neck. That means that I'm going to be pulling some extra TA shifts, just to make sure they've all got it down. It should be fun; I'm perhaps the only person I know who enjoys going into the lab.