Birthday come and gone

Not a lot has happened since I last updated this blog. We have had two rounds of tests. The way that they structure our classes can make for a brutal week of tests. At the end of every unit we have a test for every class which means that I have at least four tests in one week. It's like a finals week every 3-4 weeks. Luckily my studying has paid off and I have done well on all my tests. Well, at least I passed some and did really well on others. We just had tests last week so I have some time now to breathe and get some things done like laundry and grocery shopping. I tell myself at the beginning of every unit that I will change my studying schedule and plan out my time better, but I seem to always end up at the end of each unit staying up almost all night before tests studying. Well, at least it pays off.
I think that my house might be haunted. I was just down in my basement putting some things away and I thought that I heard some footsteps upstairs. I figured that it was one of my roommates so I went upstairs to investigate and nobody was there. Weird.
About three weeks ago I was sick with the flu. I went to the doctor and they tested me and the next day they said that I didn't have the swine flu. I had the seasonal flu vaccine a couple of weeks before. Who knows what I had? I guess a strain of the flu that isn't covered by the seasonal flu vaccine. Since then I received the H1N1 vaccine so now I can't contract it. When I was sick my good friend Beth was sweet enough to give me a great care package of soups, crackers, and juices to help me recuperate. I had to take a picture of the mountain of goodies that she gave me.

On October 24th I went with my friend to see Ira Glass, the host of one of my favorite radio programs This American Life. He spoke at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee about how they plan shows and gather stories for the program. It was a fascinating lecture. During the lecture he played music just like in the show. I decided that when you talk over hip, instrumental music that almost anything that you say sounds profound and important. We each took photos with him after the lecture. There were mobs of people who wanted to meet him and have him sign things. My friend had a camera so I took a picture with him. I was nervous, but he was very gracious and friendly.
Boy, I live an exciting life.....


Me and Ira


My house. My room is the top left. Sorry for the blurry image.

New leg!

I went to my orthopedist last Friday and he said that I don't have to wear my brace anymore. Yay! Now I just walk around with an aircast on and with pants on, you can hardly tell that my fibula is still broken. I won't be running for at least two months, but I can walk. Well, somehow I survived the first round of tests a couple of weeks ago. We had two tests on the Tuesday following Labor Day and one test on that same Wednesday. I studied really hard and did pretty well on my tests. We just started biochemistry a couple of weeks ago and it is pretty brutal. We also started an embryology course which is interesting, but difficult. We also started studying the head and neck in anatomy which is probably the hardest unit in human anatomy because of the extensive innervation and arterial flow in the face and head. We cut off the top of our cadaver's head and removed his brain last week. This week I broke into his eye sockets from the top to look at his eye muscles. Fascinating. I've actually gotten used to the burning hair smell of the bone dust that comes from cutting our cadavers. Well, I don't have much more to report. I keep really busy with studying, but still find time to have fun once and a while. People like to have impromptu parties at my house. Just tonight people started showing up at 9 pm telling me that there was a going-away party here. I guess I'm the last person to hear about these things even though I live here. We had a fun time anyway.

I received a request to take a picture of my leg in the splint so I took this picture today. Hopefully on Friday I will get a more permanent cast.

Broken fibula

Well last Thursday while going out to my car with some friends to go get custard, I tripped in the darkness on some stray boards that were sitting at the bottom of the stairs and rolled my ankle so bad that my ankle ligaments pulled on the end of my fibula, fracturing it. So now I am hobbling around school on crutches with a huge splint on my foot. I'm visiting the orthopedist on Friday and hopefully he will cast it. My anatomy professor took it upon himself to explain the intricacies of my fracture including which ligaments were involved and he told me that I would probably have a cast on for about six weeks. I hope that I get a walking cast because I have only been on crutches for two days and I hate it. It is so exhausting.
Well, I know that you don't read this blog to hear me complain. I really shouldn't complain because that won't do any good.
Besides the fracture, everything else is fine for me. We had our first quiz on Monday in genetics and I did really well.
Our cadaver dissection is going well. Today we used an electric saw to cut off a long section of vertebrae to expose and study the nerve column which is hidden inside. The bone dust from the saw sort of smelled like burnt hair when I breathed it in. Maybe I shouldn't breath it in.
Last Thursday we had our first medical interviewing class and I was randomly selected to be one of the first people to interview the standardized patient. It reminded me a lot of the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer has the job of acting out different ailments for medical students. My standardized patient didn't have gonorrhea though, just back pain. My interview with the patient went okay. It was weird because less than twenty four hours later the roles were reversed and I had the role of the patient being questioned. Even more ironic is the fact that on Thursday afternoon I saw a fellow classmate who was hobbling around on a walking cast and I thought to myself that I was really glad that I didn't have his problems. I guess that I jinxed myself because that night I broke my fibula.
It's late so I'll sign off. Thanks for the comments I appreciate them. Send me more, I need the encouragement.



Wow, the medical student interviewing Kramer is Jin from Lost! Sorry for my nerdiness.

First and Second Day

Wow, my first actual blog that I will actually update! I'm starting this blog so that friends and family can keep track of what I am up to while in medical school. Hopefully I can update it at least every one or two days, but I can't promise anything because of my busy schedule.

Well, the first two days of med school were predictably busy. A lot of lecture with tons of information that we are expected to learn. Luckily, the first topic that we will be studying for the first two to three weeks is genetics which I have somewhat of a background having taken a number of genetics classes in undergrad. However, topics that we would take weeks to talk about in undergrad are covered in one hour. I have quickly learned to review the day's lectures in the afternoon after class and also to read the materials which will be covered in the next day's lecture. I know that might sound nerdy to some people who might be reading this blog and I would have thought the same thing, but when you are investing over $50,000 a year into medical school, then you want to do it right and get the best education possible.

I'm loving Milwaukee. I'm meeting a lot of great people in my singles ward and I have some great roommates. One of my roommates is a second year medical student at MCW and the other is a first year resident. So I have the luxury of having some great advice-givers in the house.

We start anatomy lab tomorrow so will begin to dissect our cadavers. I'm really excited about the dissection and learning about all the muscles in the body. It looks like my lab group should be a great group of people that I will be able to get along well with.

Well, it's getting late and I have to get up early because I have a lecture at 8:30 tomorrow morning. I'll post a pic from our class white coat ceremony that we had on Friday. It was basically a symbolic ceremony where we received our white coats which we will wear while training in the hospitals our third and fourth years. We actually had the coats placed on us by other doctors so it was slightly awkward. I don't feel comfortable yet with the coat on because I know that it makes me look like I know more than I actually do about medicine. Feel free to make fun of my picture.