First test: Pass!

First test went pretty well - certainly passed. Studied all weekend. I have a better study method now, so hopefully next time the cramming won't be quite so intense. I'm finally able to relax...a tad. Tomorrow I have a mini-practical in OMM, so I have to review those techniques, practice on my family, and then hopefully do a decent job tomorrow. The techniques we have learned so far are soft tissue techniques, inhibition mostly.

In addition to the midterm today, we also had several lectures. The woman who taught our neurohistology course was one of the two faculty who interviewed me, and she is definitely a cool lady. The other professor is one of the jolly OMM doctors. I think I really lucked out on my faculty interviewers - neither of them was much of a hardball.

Also, we had a lecture on lymphatics today, and there were a few interesting factoids presented. The one that caught my eye the most was the statistic that ~20 million people in the US caught the Spanish Flu, and of them 500,000 died. ~100,000 were treated by DOs with a mortality rate of 0.25%, whereas the portion treated by MDs had a 6% mortality rate. I think it probably had most to do with the fact that MDs were probably experimenting with a ton of medicines to try to determine their efficacy - not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, it was unfortunate for those who were given dangerous medicine, but there was so much quacky medicine out in the early days of the profession that it had to be ruled out somehow. DOs probably stuck with lymph-facilitating techniques, which at worst are harmless and at best a catalyst for recovery.

Gone Studyin'

Another day...

Well, the white coat ceremony was on Sunday - it went well enough. We all went out to lunch afterward. Very little to say about it, except that I am glad they did not make it longer than they had to. The pictures are up on facebook, for those of you I permit to see my profile stuff. Interesting little tidbit though - being a Jewish sponsored school, the rabbi did a talk at the very beginning and blew a shofar, or ram's horn instrument used for Jewish services. I've been steadily working through our class objectives - have to get through them all by Monday, as that is when our first major exams are - the midblock exams.

We also just started learning some actual OMM techniques in lab - this week we are focusing on soft-tissue techniques. I need to practice on my family a bit before Monday, I think we have a practical portion of the exam. The details about what is being tested is a little hazy. Also, today was Club Day, and there was a blood donation bus, so I donated and checked out what clubs there are on campus. I joined Internal Medicine, Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons of California, the CMA/SCMA (free, otherwise I wouldn't have), and Undergraduate Osteopathic Student Association of some kind - I don't remember exactly the abbreviation. I was considering SOMA, but it's a bit pricey compared to the others. All in all, it was nice to hang around and see what clubs there are.

Radiation, oh my!

In our radiology lecture today, we were discussing how x-ray machines work, from traditional film x-rays to angiograms and radioactive dyes. There was a chart I thought was interesting that compared the chances of getting cancer from a typical dose of radiation to the chances of other life-endangering conditions:

So basically, getting a chest x-ray is about as risky as spending 3 days in the US, or eating several spoonfuls of peanut butter. I definitely did not think peanut butter was so dangerous... Apparently there is a mold that grows on plants such as corn and peanuts, and it produces a toxin that can be highly carcinogenic. The bacterium is named Aspergillus flavus, A. flavus, and thus its toxin was named Aflatoxin. There is another species in the same genus that also produces the toxin, but A. flavus was discovered first so its name was used. I'm not saying we shouldn't eat peanut butter, I'm just surprised that there was such a risk.

Sunday is the white coat ceremony, and in the meantime I'll be hanging out with Kit - he's visiting for the weekend. We have been going over a lot of biochemistry, but most people in class are having some trouble with our professor's lecture style. I imagine it would be very difficult to understand the jumps from one cycle to another and the brevity of his explanations if one had never taken biochemistry. Lucky for me, most of this is old hat. I'll spend most of next week working on those objectives, and hopefully the first exam (August 31) will go well. I also got my approval to take the Medical Spanish elective, which doesn't start until September 31. On Monday I'll be finding the professor who is teaching the advanced nutrition course so I can take that, and also I'll make an appointment to get another tuberculosis test - the physician who did my physical doesn't think the stuff I sent from Kaiser is official enough, and I can't get the records unless I go to San Diego in person, so screw it - I don't mind getting a bubble in my arm if it'll finally end this ordeal. Besides, if I don't have all my immunization stuff in, then my grades won't be disclosed and I'll be left out of clinical activities.

Nearly Through Another Week

Amazing how much less reading it feels like I have this week compared to last. I got some OMM treatment today for my lower back, but apparently there is something going on by my left scapula that one of the doctors think I should get checked out. Alas, there was not enough time today, but perhaps next week. We had our third back dissection the other day, where we sawed open the spinal column to view the spinal cord. We're beginning to finesse the dissection a little better, after doing a rather poor job on the back muscles. We're in the middle of biochemistry, so lucky for me it should all be review. Our first exams are the week after next, and next week has a lot of short days! All the better for studying!

I'm sure it's different at other medical schools, but here all of our courses have "objectives," certain topics we are expected to master. For example: Know what an allosteric enzyme is, understand how it functions in Hb. There are lists for each class and I am going to go through them all and answer them as fully as possible. Also, for the record, birth control pills really mess with your head. Long story short, I was forced to go back to an old prescription and it sunk me into depression for about a week. I wanted to wait until my new health insurance came in, since the cost for the pills under my Anthem Blue Cross coverage is 70% the retail price, as opposed to a single copay. I decided I couldn't take much more of it, so I got a month's worth and started, and every day I feel better. I really understand the meaning of the symptom "no longer enjoys things that used to bring joy" - particularly now that I can enjoy them again. Also, if anyone's curious, Microgestin FE 1.5/30 was bad for me, Yasmin/Ocella was good. Though I've heard mixed opinions about both.

Anyhoo, this weekend will be packed - Kit is coming up for the weekend, my sister is getting back from camp, the white coat ceremony is on Sunday morning, and I'm going to go see Ponyo in theaters. On another note - I'm 1/3 of the way through my Japanese audio lessons! Sleep time now.

Good News

One of the programs offered at Touro, and many other medical schools, is the opportunity to go abroad and learn about foreign cultures, diseases, languages, and train as a physician. It was described vaguely by one of the directors of the Global Health Program, and it sounded like it would be the entire summer - two months or so. Anyhow, I met up today with a second year who I knew back in high school and she and her roommate both did the program and their internships only lasted 3-4 weeks - which is much more conducive to my particular goals. Also, they said the medical spanish program does not require very much fluency, so once I take that and the global health elective in spring, I should be all set! Hopefully I will have worked through most of my spanish audio lessons by then, so I'll be prepared! I'm excited, hopefully it'll all work out! I should bring some jars with me...I'll bet the insects there will be amazing.

Today we also had a stress management course, which seemed to try to prepare us to expect and prepare for the worst. I think I'm a little better off than some other students, who are either living by themselves or have families, and those who are type A individuals. I am definitely not a perfectionist, and in medical school it sounds like perfectionism is a bit of a curse. Anyway, I did not get much studying done last night, so hopefully I'll be more productive tonight. Plus, tomorrow we start Histology, which I'm worried will be a bit challenging.

More OMM and BLS

Today was my appointed 'basic life saving' skills course time. So, I got to spend a super fun 5 hours or so learning CPR... I wish they didn't have to train people in it every two years - maybe every five unless some drastic change is made to the procedure. We also got to do more OMM today - basically just palpated our randomly assigned partner on the back, neck, chest, hips, and legs. Tomorrow should be a decently easy day, since the only other course besides embryology is "Stress Management." I think I'm doing pretty well, to be honest - I seem to be more on top of reading than the average person here. It probably helps to have come almost straight from college.

We were assigned to watch a movie for one of the osteopathic classes - "The Doctor." I haven't watched it yet, but it'll be nice to watch in some down time. Other than True Blood, House MD, and a couple animes, I don't have much on my list to watch. I've been relying on caffeine a lot these days... One thing recommended by other students is to follow along in the USMLE First Aid as we go through certain topics in class, so that we know to what we should pay attention. Our embryology professor also mentioned that we don't need to memorize stages, that it's more important to understand disease and treatments. I don't know that I trust that though - I would want my doctor to remember how a zygote or embryo differentiates. Maybe I just hold myself to a higher standard than the boards. I find that unlikely. After a few more minutes of relaxing, it's back to the books!