Holy Crap!

Wow, so seven weeks eh? Where does the time go? This week is completely ridiculous for me, I had an exam yesterday, another on Friday, and then one on Monday. So, I'm keeping busy. I left the exam yesterday 100% certain I'd done poorly, only to find out that I am a much better guesser (yet again) than I give myself credit for. Luckily, though, when I got home from the exam I was still feeling like a failure, so instead of taking it easy I got all caught up from last week and got organized for this next round of exams. So, for the first time ever, I was not completely worthless after an exam. This is good because I don't really have time for that just yet. That'll come in 7 weeks! Anyone from around D-town who has ideas about what I should do on a Wednesday night after the most grueling exam of my life....please leave a comment! And if you want to accompany me to said locale, even better! The exam starts at 8 and overall we have 8 hours to complete it, including break time. I would like to tell you that I am a very thorough test taker who always takes all the time allotted to make sure I didn't make stupid mistakes, but this is simply not the case. I am an incredibly fast test taker. I am the speed racer of test takers. For better or worse, the longer I stick around in an exam, the more right answers I change to wrong ones. So, I will likely be done a bit early, but not too early. I'm already starting to formulate a plan in my head of how this test taking should go. We have a total of one hour of break time and 7-one-hour sessions of test time. I've never been one to enjoy lunch breaks. During the MCAT it only served to make me anxious for the upcoming sections. I think my strategy will be to take a break, probably about 15 minutes, after ever 2 sections, with a longer break after the 6th section to collect my wits before the final leg. We'll see how it goes.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about OB/GYN yet again. I spent a long time at my preceptor's office today talking about the field, what I think about it, would I want to do it, etc. I'd probably have to change the name of the blog to obstetric medic, but let's not put the cart before the horse. OB is my first clerkship of 3rd year. It's a bummer in some ways, but I actually requested it. I figured I actually know a tiny amount about that field and so I won't look like a complete moron, and at the time I requested it, I didn't have any desire to do it. I don't really think that's true anymore, but it is one of the more dreaded clerkships so it will be good to get it over with I guess. Ultimately when I decided while I was talking with Dr. B was that I will just have to try it out during 3rd year and decide for myself.

Well, I'm off to do some practice questions. I can't completely neglect the boards studying with all these other exams on the horizon. Plus, it's the one thing I can do while I watch Top Chef.

Med Updates and Other Tasty Treats

So, went to Doc Neuro yesterday to get the scoop on my latest MRI. This MRI didn't take nearly as long; the last one was 2 hours and I couldn't move my head, all the while wearing this:



This time I just had to wear the little face cage of mri gear, so that wasn't so bad. The only bummer is that, since I needed contrast, a doc had to be on the premesis, and she was called away on an emergency right before they gave it to me; so I got an extra 20 minutes of hanging out, again not moving my head. But at least he pulled me out of the machine.

Since I'm a medical student, and have spent a fair amount of time thus far looking at MRI's, I was pretty excited to have a CD of the images to look at on my own. I wanted to see if I could pick out any problems. Imagine my surprise when I saw something that looks like this (not my mri, found on google images):



Now, mine looks more like a well circumscribed circle, but you get the drift. No one likes to see a big lump on one side of their brain. So obviously for two days I was freaking out and googling everything I could think of that might be back there. When we went to Doc Neuro yesterday and he said everything looked great I was totally confused; how does a giant brain tumor look great?! Well, turns out it's something called an arachnoid cyst, and was found only because I had an mri. It won't ever cause any problems, just an "anomaly of development." I always new my head developed abnormally.

Anyway, the rest of the news at the doc was similarly good. It seems that the hand issues my be an adverse reaction to the drug I was prescribed for my optic neuritis. Hopefully within a few days of not taking it, the hands will get much better. The only unfortunate thing is that it appears I may not get my complete vision back in my right eye. I may be stuck with a blue hole in my vision for good. It's a rare but unfortunate complication of optic neuritis. But, other than that, all should be good!

Last weekend we had J's parents over for dinner, so I decided to make some dessert. I made these tasty red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. They are so delicious!

A Few Pics

So I did take a few pics of the dogs in the last few months, just not many! Some of my favorites are from New Years, when I tried to give both dogs a celebratory beer. Rocky is pretty used to this tradition. In fact, I give him beer whenever I can find a reason! So he pretty much attacked the bowl and drank it as fast as he could. But when I set the bowl of beer down for Mugs, he freaked out and backed away. He was really scared of the beer! Rocky took it upon himself to rid Mugs of the threat though!









As you can see, I tried to give the Mugs a taste for it, but no dice. He has been giving my beers a sniff a lot, so there is hope. Afterall, we can't have a non-beer lover in this household. Just wouldn't fit in.

Hope all is well!

Wishing for warm climates

I can't believe that little test is less than two months away! You know what that means...two months from tomorrow I'll be on a plane headed to San Francisco! Wahoo! This morning, to make myself happy, I'm watching all the pictures we took the last time we went. I love to look at these pictures because both J and I looked SO happy. It was probably the best trip we've ever taken together. So, to get excited, motivated and happy I'm watching the pictures and listening to some of my favorite music. And drinking lots of coffee. Over the weekend I spent a lot of time listening to pathology lectures for board review and watching these pictures yet again. I've been so distracted with my health lately that I feel like it's been really helpful to watch this and get my mind focused back on why I'm doing this.

On this trip, rather than take a bus tour up to wine country we are renting a car and spending a night up there. I found a really good "winter" deal at a hotel/brewery and I'm really looking forward to heading up. I think on the way up we'll stop in Sonoma, then hit up the northern wineries via the VINE shuttle system, then the next day on our way down we'll go through Napa. If anyone has been and has some favorite spots, send'em my way!

One of my classmates is every bit as countdown-happy as I am and sent out this link, http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/customcounter.html?month=3&day=13&year=2009&hour=11&min=00&sec=00&p0=75. It counts down the time to the end of our last final. Which happens to be my birthday! Wahoo! It's coming fast, I can hardly wait!

Looking foward to it!

So, as everyone knows I am so pumped to get to San Francisco after boards. One of the days we are there we are planning to visit the anchor steam brewing company. It's a small, fun microbrew, just like we like'em. The big deal is that their tour is A)free!, and B)so busy you have to make reservations....a month in advance. So today I called 'em up and made reservations for Monday, April 13th! I am so pumped. Our trip is shaping up and it's fun to have a reward for this goal that is so huge!

Also a bonus, today I was able to get out and take a walk with the boys. I've been fairly immobile and tired lately, so getting out of the house and soaking up some Colorado sun was fantastic. It did wonders for my mood and it's gotten me ready to spend the afternoon studying for boards. I know I can do this. I've been pretty distracted, but anything I put my mind to I know I can get there. Just need to get my will power behind it as much as my good intentions!

You know it's bad

When you turn on House Hunters and you've seen the episode before....wow.

9.1

Wow, has it been almost a week already? Well, another test is over and I have to say I feel like a crazy good guesser! The test went much better than I initially thought after leaving school and the rest of the day was nice and relaxing. Who schedules an 8am exam after the Superbowl anyway?!

The exam next week is not a real exam for credit. Actually it's a practice USMLE that the school makes us all take. It's supposed to be pretty predictive of your ultimate score, but I can't help but think our scores should actually increase seeing as we still have a lot of time to study. Though that time is slipping away a lot faster than expected!!!

On the home front, lots of exciting stuff. The first is the worst, though. It seems that whatever immune process took it upon itself to attack my eye, has elected to do so to the muscles of my arms/hands as well. So, needless to say, I'm back in the care of my trusted neuro guy and I'll keep you all updated. When I know, you'll know, as they say. It's been a bit more than an annoyance but less than an emergency so while it's stressing me out, I don't want it to stress anyone else out. Rest assured that I am really doing fine, albeit annoyed, and hey, it's the perfect reason to get out of microbiology lab. What could be better!? The thought of all my classmates elbow deep in MRSA while I sit in front of the fireplace reading notes and watching lecture does tend to make me forget any discomfort I might be having.

Less exciting...dentist appointment. Ugh. Yes, I know I've fallen off the floss wagon. I swear I will get back on it...just don't make me bleed!

I'm also super pumped up for Denver Restaurant week! It's Feb 21-27th (or 28th, I forget) and J and I are going with a friend of mine from med school to this cute Euro-bistro in Larimer Square. Double super bonus...they have a crazy cool vodka bar that has tons of different types of infused vodkas. Since my buddy is rustling up a date, the vodka should rid us of that awkward "getting to know you" period! We'll probably just go once, but it's definitely something to look forward to. For those who aren't familiar, Denver Restaurant Week is when a bunch of (usually) expensive restaurants put together special menus, usually 3 courses, for two people for $52.80. I'm really looking forward to it! Extra super bonus..no exam that week!

Valentine's is also coming. Not overly exciting, but who DOESN"T want a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's?

Probably the most exciting thing for me right now, though, is the fact that January is over. I think I may have mentioned how much I hate winter, and even though that little rodent sees his shadow every damn year I can't help but feel relieved when bitterly boring January reaches its end. It feels like spring must be coming soon, even if it really isn't.

Well, I think that's about it for now. Still no pix of the Mugs, I know. I'll get the camera out one of these days so you can all see his cuteness. Hope all is well!