Regaining some sanity

So as Rachel said, I have made it through my first set of exams. I recognize that none of you have gone to medical school, so I'll tell you kinda what I'm doing. I am currently taking three main classes and one course that is quite complex in structure called "Practice of Medicine (POM)." I am taking Gross anatomy, which consists of a three-day a week 2-hour lecture and a separate 2-hour gross anatomy lab with the cadavres, also three days a week. Next, Microanatomy - which is histology (study of tissues) and cell biology; this is similar to gross anatomy in structure but the lab is online slides of tissues (kind of an online microscope). Last, is Neurobiology - structure is same as other two, a couple lectures a week with an online lab.
POM has several parts to it. First part is small group sessions where we go over medical cases, and for the next few weeks we research that case: how to diagnose and how to fix it. For example, our first case was an older woman with a hip fracture. We studied things like what diseases or conditions could have caused the bone to be weak enough to break, what problems could arise from the break, and how to fix it (ie. surgical repair vs. replacement); last we talked about how to help her manage her life after the break: could she continue to care for her grandaughter or do we need to help arrange a care taker, etc. The next part of the class is a separate small group session to learn how to do the acctual medical interview, how to ask questions and find out what's going on in the person's body. The same class also teaches how to do diagnostic precedures like routine physical, etc. The third part of the class is where we are assigned to a doctor in the area (mine is in Bethesda, MD) who will be our mentor. Every couple weeks we spend the day there and observe, and eventually help to treat. For example, last year a student did 5 rectal exams on his first day...CAN'T WAIT!
So that's what my life is right now. I'm having a blast and loving every minute of it. I still get tickled sometimes that I'm acctually here, which is great that I still feel that way after exams. I seriously studied more for these exams than I ever did at BYU, even including finals and all. The way they grade is not with letters, there's Honors (same as an A), Pass (69.5-89.5), and Fail (anything lower). The good thing about that is, there's no curve and so no competition. We havn't gotten back our acctual scores, but they posted the correct answers and I'm pretty sure I got honors on all my tests! That's especially nice considering that the word on the street is that our last test was "insanely difficult." Anyway, I don't say that to brag, it's just a really nice feeling that a little BYU grad can hang with the Stanford and Columbia grads!
Anyway, I'm glad that we're doing this now, it's gonna be fun. Congrats on working doing cool stuff before even graduating Christian! Also, I fully support Roxanne being the team mascot.

I'm Ryan McBeth and I approve this message.