July 5th, 2009

Med School has already got me on my knees, panting hard and clutching at my breast. And it had only been 3 weeks. I still li ke, have 7 more semesters to complete if I ever got through this one. Whew. Talk about toxicity.

But I honestly think those 3 weeks had been full of fun, albeit exhausting and all. Here are the highlights of it:

We have already started working on our cadaver. It wasn't my first time seeing a dead body, but it was my first time to dissect one. I felt really sorry for the dude we're working on, but we have to do it to learn. I pray for his soul to find peace, where ever it might be right now.

In our group, I was the only girl with enough bravado to join the dissecting party. See all the boys there? I'm one of them, LOL. I have to say it was a thrilling experience. I'm really glad I took up Medicine. :D

BTW, i'm not winking in that photo. My eyes were hurt because of the strong formaline fumes emanating from the cadaver. Di ako nagpapacute no! :D

Our Gross Anatomy is pretty hard. Compared to this, my college ana-physio looked like child's play. Besides from all the stuff you have to memorize, you also have to correlate them to the actual thing. And i'm telling ya, studying from the book and going to the model is no walk in the park. The 3-dimensional perspective is a lot more confusing than the pictures the books and atlases offers. And the specificity, God! Even if you got the name of the bone correctly, it still won't be counted unless you specify it's proper anatomical orientation. I learned that the hard way in our practical exam.

Example:

Question: Identify the bone with the <color> pin

My answer: Metacarpal

Correct answer: 4th Metacarpal of the right hand.

And the best part is that you only have 30 secs to answer. y_y Oh well. Bawi bawi na lang next practical. :D

MicroHSB. It's not easy but I've got a trump card on my sleeve. I am also a Medtech and microscopy is my turf. Harrrr. :D

What i like about our Micro is that we have our own microscopes. No more viewing in turns anymore, harhar. Though our microscopes are ancient, they still do the job. And they run electricity-free so i get why FEU still lets us use these when they have those sophisticated microscopes. Just maintaining the energy and the bulbs of those electric microscopes costs a fortune and our already sky-high expensive tuition fee will increase yet again. So i'm not complaining with my microscope. At least it's mine and mine only for the semester. :D

That's a Microscopic view of the Spinal cord btw. Another good feature of those old microscopes is that they enable us to take pictures on our camera phone sans the glare the usual electric microscope gives. It doesn't look bad, does it? : D

We also had a practical quiz on MicroHSB this week. I only got 2 mistakes, the one being a simple mathematical question. Ack. I hate numbers. The question was 15x45 and i answered 60,000. Hahahaha. Super bobo! :D

Shifting exams, we had already 4 of them I think? Well, i've been studying enough to prepare for them and I'm glad to say that i've been getting good scores. Yay for studying! It's the first time that i'm seeing studying in a new light. It's actually fun. Seriously, it is. Although the whole process of reading books and memorizing stuff is droning, the feeling that you gave your best and got the right answers in return is worth it. Every time I get a passing grade or a high score in a difficult exam, the feeling I get is like winning the lottery. Again, this is another pro of going into medicine for me. The con however, is losing sleep. But it's okay. Someone told me that something worthwhile is never easy to obtain; so i'm ready to sacrifice few hours of sleep just to get through med. :D

Here we are, studying for our upcoming quiz in Biochem. Or should i say nagpapanggap? Wala na ring pumapasok sa utak namin nun e. :D

Tin, see anyone you recognize? Haha. :D

Small group discussions, these are our laboratory work for Physiology. Instead of doing lab experiments (thank God for that), we are to sit on a conference table and discuss topics like doctors. There's no pressure in it, as long as the proctor's nice. But still, you'll never know when you'll come across the terror doctors so we take it pretty seriously just to be safe. I really like SGDs. I feel like a real doctor already when i'm in one. :D

These guys are like my permanent groupmates ever. And i'm thankful for that. All of them are really nice and hella smart, so I feel confident when i'm with them. This photo was taken after our SGD, but we were also discussing about our upcoming reports and stuff. The only disadvantage of this group is that we always come first, being the group 1 and all. Unfair! Lol. :D

And that's what these past 3 weeks had been all about. For the next week we have 2 reportings, 3 shifting exams, and 2 practical exams coming up. I'm gearing myself up to fight for my survival yet again for this week but the question is, kaya ko pa ba to?

Kakayanin. :D

Ciao~