Pre-Med Career Day at UMMC.

Yesterday I spent the day at the School of Medicine at the University Of Mississippi Medical Center.

They had several speakers. They had a lady who is on the  admissions committee telling us what they look at when deciding who to accept. They had a person from financial aid talking about ways we can pay for school. And they had the dean of student affairs telling us about student life on campus. During lunch, med students rotated from table to table, talking to us about what life was like during their year. We could ask them anything we wanted, and they were willing to tell us - EVEN their MCAT score, which it seems people don't like to mention. :)

Then we went to mock lectures. My friends and I were signed up for genetics and pathology, but the genetics professor never showed up so they came and took us to the pharmacology lecture - MUCH cooler, I'm sure. In the pharmacology lecture they had a patient simulator - and he had a heart attack. They went over which meds they were going to give him in the ER, and how you can administer nitroglycerin every 5 minutes, etc. Then the patient coded and student volunteers gave CPR and administered a shock. It was very interesting, the material was very relevant, and I think everyone was riveted. What a great way to teach pharmacology!

The pathology lecture was what really had me riveted. I loved the slides of arteries, he had some that were 90% occluded and then one that was occluded by a thrombus. He gave scenarios and showed us different slides based on those scenarios. I really really liked pathology.

After that we went to a meeting area where different student groups had set up tables explaining what they were about. They had a dummy and i got to intubate him. :) they also had fake arms to practice drawing blood but the line for that was too long. We got to pick up treats from various tables, including pens, bandaids and candy! :)

I really really enjoyed this. I felt like it made me excited to go to Med School. It reinforced the fact that I REALLY need to work on the MCAT study materials that i have this week while i am out for Spring Break. It made me see how badly i REALLY want to become a doctor.

Tomorrow i will be shadowing a cardiologist. I am looking forward to seeing some really neat stuff while I am shadowing him. Hopefully he will have procedures/patients all week so that I can get a lot of really good shadowing hours in over Spring Break. It is hard for me to find the time for volunteer work and shadowing this semester, with 17 hours plus research, and 3 kids and a husband. Hopefully next year will be a lighter schedule, but with Gross Anatomy on the agenda I am thinking it will not be. ;)

Super Bowl 2011

We had friends over for the Super Bowl. The food was excellent. The people were fun. The studying. . . didn't happen. My friend is in my organic chemistry class. We have a test in there Wednesday morning. We REALLY both needed to be studying. Before they came I had time to do my calculus homework, but I really feel like I took an evening "off". It was depressing hitting the button to set my alarm for the morning. Busy busy day tomorrow. Organic, calculus, resistance training, organic lab, and cell bio lab, then a review session for the organic test (which I WON'T miss!!)

Ugh. Makes me tired just thinking about it. And makes me so thankful that I have such amazing friends at school to talk to and keep the day light. They give me something to look forward to!

Busy. Crazy. Mom.

I mean well. I really do. But somehow the days are slipping away from me. 

The girls are great. Husband is great. I am CRAZED. I thought taking 17 hours would be okay. that I could handle it. I thought the extra 3 hour research thing could fit into my schedule. It does, but only if I am okay with having no free time. Which is fine, I guess. I miss having a relaxed life, though. I know it is only going to get worse. I know that I have to job shadow and study for MCAT during spring break. I know i have to take physics 1, physics 2 and the MCAT this summer. And then my senior year, and applications to med school. THEN there is the joy of finding out whether or not I am accepted, and whether we are going to try the cross-country move thing again, and where the hubby will be working. And I am just moving along, going on faith that it will all work out. That I will get accepted somewhere where the girls will be able to go to good schools and he will get a good job and it will all be fine. But it is CRAZY. :)

So that's me. And my family. I have so much on my mind and no time to blog about it! 

Semester Off to a Good Start.

I am horrifyingly aware that I am taking the MCAT in 7 months. . . . Eek!

This semester is off to a good start. Haven't had any tests yet but I have 2 this week, so I have been studying a lot today, and there will be more studying tomorrow.

I was offered an amazing  research role yesterday. One of my friends suggested that I do this. Anyway, each student involved in the research will get their own virus (I GET MY OWN VIRUS!!) and we do experiments on said virus using expensive equipment at our school as well as million dollar equipment at the med school *that we are not allowed to touch, seeing as how we are measly PRE-med students and all*. At the end of the semester we will write a paper and our professor will publish our work as a single-author work, as well as compile all of our work and try to get it published in a major publication, with our names on it.  I am SO excited!

So this semester I am taking Organic Chem 2 with lab, Immunology, cell biology with lab, and calculus. So far I am hanging in there but I am pretty sure as we get into this semester this is going to get hard. In immuno we have a test every other week. Getting pretty stressed about this class - it is pretty tough. It is offered to both grad students and undergrads but it seems like the majority of the students in the class are grad students and it is being taught at their level. I definitely feel like I have catching up to do.

Blog Reader . . .

I read many medical blogs at this point. I feel like the more I get to know about the medical field - what it is really like for those who are really in the trenches - the more prepared I will be when I finally get there myself.

One of my good friends is married to a resident, and I enjoy hearing her stories about being the wife of a resident, even though hearing about the long hours SCARE me. I am glad that when I make it there my kids will be quite a bit older and I will be quite a bit wiser! I just want all of the info as I go along so nothing will come as a shock.

Tomorrow my family and I are leaving for our Disney World vacation. When I come home I will be jumping right into the 4 summer classes I am taking. So this is my only break! Looking forward to starting the next batch of classes though!

Thinking Ahead.

Right now I am reading a book called "Match Day: One Day and One Dramatic Year in the Lives of Three New Doctors" by Brian Eule. It is about Match Day - when Medical School graduates are placed with the hospital where they will do their residencies. I am in the part of the book that talks about that 'Dramatic Year' - the internship year. I read about these brand new doctors visiting their patients, making decisions that will either help a patient or hurt them, and I feel a little bit jealous - because that is what I want to be doing - and a little bit scared. Okay scared isn't a big enough word - maybe terrified is more like it! What am I getting myself into?

When I read that laws have been put in place recently to limit a residents' workweek to 80 hours and guarantee them 4 days off a month it is a little disconcerting. And when I read that they are one of the most underpaid jobs, because when you divide what they make by the hours that residents work . . . .well it makes me wonder why I am doing this.

Then I remember that this is my dream. This is what I have been working for. Someday I will be one of those residents, just trying to survive on no sleep and save some lives, and reduce people's pain and it will be worth it in the end.