Semester 1...DONE!

Semester number one done! The sacry thing my friend Julie pointed out is that in a mere 7 semesters they unleash us onto the world as doctors. That is a humbling thought I'd I ever had one.
You all may have noticed the lack of posts recently mainly due to the overwhelming load of information being packed into my head. I was desperately worried that if I attempted to use my English skills the bulk of that information would tumble out of the files in my brain. Now after taking a bit to decompress I feel it is safe to write.
Over the past semester I have taken Principles in Clinical Medicine, Osteopathic Practices and Principles, Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms, Musculoskeletal, Cardiorespiratory, and Gastrointestinal. A semester of 6 classes totaling 32 credits. Well that is as long as you trust my math! The average week had over 30 hours of lecture and lab plus studying after that. I tried to keep it under 14 hours a day but at times I failed on that front. I wish I could say it was going to improve bu t in looking at the schedule for next semester I don't believe it will.
The one thing that will improve is my ability to deal. This past semester was an exercise in learning study skills. During myundergrad I studied (and stressed) the night before the test maybe a couple of days before a final. Unfortunately that doesn't work in medical school. It's ok though because I am figuring it out.
Our school was generous enough to give us finals for our last 3 classes over the month or December. Finals started out with a written and practical exam for the Osteopathic Principles class. The practical portion put our semester of skills to the test, of all the techniques we learned our exam came down to one. As it seems to work I ended up with the one I felt weakest in! Next we had our unit test and anatomy practical for GI which was rough for the whole class. The next Monday we had a written exam for clinical medicine followed by a standardized patient experience. The SP is a chance for us to practice our clinical and interviewing skills with trained patients. Many students have mixed feelings about it, but I love it because it is what I came to learn about. For those who have done EMT it is like an extended scenario. Finally on this past Monday we took our final exam for GI! Now I have until the 2nd to decompress.

Oh Anatomy...I don't know how I feel about thee.

Anatomy…where do I start. Well, the first thing is DO not get behind, regardless of wildfire or any other natural disaster. When I should have been getting a jump start on the muscles of the back, I was cutting trees in Gold Hill. We have our first anatomy exam on Monday; it will cover the back, skin, and much more. The past two weeks we have been dissecting our cadavers and trying to uncover the secrets held inside. We are fortunate that there are generous people in this state who have donated themselves to science so that as medical students, we can gain first-hand knowledge of the body and the differences that run rampant through our lab. The body we have the privilege of working with has small, frail muscles. In order to be successful our group will have to learn patience and gentleness. After Monday, we will start to dissect the upper limb. As we continue, we enter a season where there will be exams each Monday. Get ready to buckle down!

Perfect Storm

Two things I would never like to combine again: wildfire and medical school. Last Monday, Labor Day, I was coming back from a camping trip up by Mount Evans. As I passed through Golden on my way to Gold Hill my pagers, both my Boulder County and my Gold Hill pager, started going off. I found a stopping point to see what the message was, and was directed to a small wildland fire in Four Mile’s fire district. Because Gold Hill is an automatic mutual aid partner I turned on the radio and began to listen, hoping it wasn’t a fire, unfortunately that was not the case.
As I came into Boulder I talked to my dad up in Gold Hill and decided to head straight to the fire after picking up a couple of other firefighters. I rendezvoused with Karl and Kerry in a parking lot where all three of us quickly changed out of civilian clothes into nomex, boots and helmets. For anyone on the outside is must have been quite a site, three young people trying to be as modest as possible when changing clothes in a parking lot, that was probably the last of the humor all day. We loaded up into my trusty Subaru and headed up Four Mile canyon (yes it IS two words). We never made it to the initial scene because the fire advanced and we were forced to turn around and head for the staging area in Boulder. Once in the staging area, chaos broke loose.
It was evident from the radio traffic that the fire was not going to stop in Emerson Gulch, Gold Hill Fire had been toned and I could hear my dad on the radio implementing a back burn to save as many houses as possible. Resources were streaming into the parking lot, engines, crews, single firefighters; as strike teams and hand crews were being dispatched I could hear my dad’s crew struggling. There was nothing we could do from Boulder; it was too dangerous to send anything up the canyons to get there. The rest of the day was a blur for me. I checked resources in, sent them out, reorganized them, worked with logistics and probably more. Sometime in the afternoon I heard the ominous news that Gold Hill probably was not going to survive, I shut down after that. Fortunately I was given some direction by my Sergeant at the Sheriff’s Office and went to assist him with evacuations in the Carriage Hills Neighborhood.
By the end of the evening, my brother had arrived at the ICP to meet with my mother (he was evacuated from Gold Hill to Nederland) and I had briefly spoken to my dad. We talked just enough to find out that he was okay and so was home, for now. I attempted to sleep Monday night, but didn’t have much luck. Tuesday morning I headed for Gold Hill with my mom and brother. Once up there we did what we could to work on hot spots and keep each other safe. It was a long day, but I ended it in Parker attempting to study in the RVU library with my friend Julie.
The one thing that I have not mentioned up to now is that I had my final exam for my Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms class on Wednesday. Fortunately, I had done well on the first two exams, but the pressure was still on. Julie attempted to help me focus Tuesday night until I went back to my apartment, and my very grumpy cat and collapsed into bed. I made it to my Wednesday exam, though I am not sure how. The test was an excruciating combination of early morning, little breakfast, not enough caffeine and no sleep. There were points during the test where I was closing one eye to let the other rest—in the middle of my test. Fortunately I had a good grasp on the material and did okay on my exam.
The rest of the week has been more of a blur, somehow I woke up this morning and it was Monday. I drove back and forth between Gold Hill and Parker more times than I would ever care to, but I was able to help my department. I have made it through the ordeal with my family and my home intact, but there are many others that have not. It still makes me cry to think about walking through the rubble of my childhood friend’s home to do a damage assessment. I can remember playing in the greenhouse and sitting in the kitchen eating goat cheese quesadillas with my friends, today all that is left of the house is the chimney and the garden. My thoughts and prayers go out to those who have lost something in this fire.

Fire

Holding up despite the fire. Just so you all know, the town of Gold Hill is standing and the surrounding area was heavily damaged.

My classes

This week we have our second exam. I never thought I would have so many details of Molecular and Cellular Mechanics smashed into my brain at once. We are taking EVERYTHING I learned in my undergrad and organizing it into concepts instead of having a string of facts that are not connected. In my mind it is a much better way to learn and to deal with data.

The other 2 classes I have, Principles in Clinical Medicine and Osteopathic Principles are my sanctuary from the massive amounts of biological data. In PCM we are learning how to take comprehensive histories on patients, it is a lot of great information. Much of it is something I would like to teach the EMTs on my department, because I know the way we were taught to take a history in EMT school was kind of disjointed. Our OPP has been a lesson in learning how to use our hands. I feel that am lucky to have been working with my hands for most of my life, finding some sort of dysfunction in muscle is very similar to determining if your cantaloupe is ripe or adjusting the pressure in a hose when you don't have any gauges.

Now it is going.

It appears that it's possible to find a rhythm in medical school. I wake up early (or rather the cat wakes me up early), have some tea and breakfast. Then I head to school, stay there for the majority of the day and then I come home. At this point I try to work out, but the recent weather patterns of large thunderstorms in the afternoon have been thwarting my efforts. The evening consists of dinner, studying, and maybe a movie. We have a quiz this week and an exam the next week, it seems we are settling into a schedule of testing.
I am finding there is not a whole lot going on in Parker. They have a small farmer's market on Sundays and there are some good restaurants around. It seems that many of the second year students moved up north where there was more going on, but they generally have the whole routine down better than me.
The flat tires on my bike finally got fixed and I have been riding my bike to and from school which is a great way to wake up, but not so great when you have a lot of stuff. On Tuesday we were given a box of flash cards and a Kaplan USMLE review book, which is much appreciated, but I ended up having to use a carabiner to hold my backpack shut. I felt ridiculous riding my mountain bike along E-470 with a loaded backpack in a skirt, such is life.

Week One...done!

Now I sit in the library on a Friday afternoon, planning my studies for the evening. I have survived the first week of medical school and even had fun. I think the administrators scheduled it so that the first week was not too overwhelming, we had 3-4 hours of lecture each morning followed by labs or more lecture in the afternoon. One mode of study that seems to be working out well for me are when they schedule in time for what are called DSA (designated student assignments), which are hours blocked off on the schedule where we have specific reading assignments. By far my favorite part so far is that each lecture or DSA comes with objectives so it is easier to understand what needs to be gleaned from a 40 page reading assignment, which is easy for me because my books all arrived at my apartment this morning (or so amazon.com says). So reading up to this point hasn't been a possibility.
We are on a block schedule where we will go through one major system at a time, this was a huge relief to the gal from the quarter system. I wasn't terribly excited about having to remember 18 weeks of information from 6 classes for a final exam. We have other classes that run through the semester called Principles of Clinical Medicine and Osteopathic Principles, both of these involve lectures and labs. It should be exciting!
Outside of school I am slowly exploring the Town of Parker, it is still pretty slow because I rode my bike through a bramble patch and currently have 2 flat tires on my bike. The tubes to replace them sit at my apartment, but I have been too focused on studying for my first quiz to do so. Parker is an old town, incorporated in the late 1800's (I am not sure of the exact date). There are 2 distinct areas, one is the old town district with nice brick buildings, parks and sidewalks. The other area is where the big-box stores reside. You can get anything you could possibly want, there is a Target next to a Wal-Mart next to a Lowes next to a Home Depot with other smaller chain stores interspersed around the parking lots.
There is a nice bike path that runs south from my apartment and as far as I can tell I may be able to make it almost to Castlewood Canyon State Park. On Monday, I attempted to go North because I found a sign that said Cherry Creek State Park was only 5 miles up the path, unfortunately the path ends abruptly into a drainage where I found myself wondering why there were no warning signs. I am sure I can make it to Cherry Creek, but it may be more complex, I will investigate!

Of course.

I love my 1994 Subaru, but it has its quirks. The air conditioner works most of the time, but on Sunday when I was moving the cat to Parker it decided not to work. As I descended the hills I realized the air temperature was increasing and the cat was beginning to pant, so I turned the AC on, no problem. The problem was that I needed fuel, when I turned off the car to get gas that was the end of it. From Boulder to C-470 we were without AC, the cat was yelling because the bumping of the windows freaked her out and without the windows open the car was just too hot. Fortunately I was persistent at trying the switch and it finally turned on. The rest of the move happened without incident.

Early Monday I woke up ready for the first day of orientation. I had felt a flood of other emotions but had yet to be nervous. As I got in my car to drive to school (because I do not yet know the bike route) I became so nervous that I almost went back inside. The day was inconsequential, a lot of talks about how the curriculum works and how the next 4 years of my life are going to be ruled by school.

The school itself is housed in a brand new, state of the art building where each lecture is recorded and posted on a website to recall later. It is a block schedule with the firs unit being Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms, basically all of undergrad molecular and cellular biology in six weeks. I am so excited! In addition to the block portion of the schedule there are clinical medicine classes that extend through the whole semester. The schedule looks pretty packed right now and so we will see how chaotic it really is!

Last Week of Work

Today I began my last week of work as a free and easy wildland firefighter. After this it is school, books, and learning...I am so excited (it is okay to call me a nerd). It appears that everything is in place to head down to school, most of my stuff is in my new apartment and I realized that I have to buy over $1,000 in books. No adventure worth taking ever started off without major speed bumps.

It will be a rough transition from the forest to the classroom, but worth it.

The beginning...

I am officially in the last weeks before I head off to Parker and start my journey as a medical student at Rocky Vista University. As my summer winds down I will spend my time moving, hiking, wrapping up my underwhelming fire season and thinking about what is to come. At some point this winter it would have made me anxious to be moving and starting school, but meditation has been a wonderful addition to my life. It seems I am ready to go, I have an apartment, a student loan, everything but books!
I can’t wait to start my journey.