Halfway Done with My Second Term of Medical School!

At the time of my last post, I oddly wasn’t aware that we were about to be hit with yet another brutal schedule. One practical exam and three written exams later, I can happily say that I made it through the storm! The major exam that I took today completely wore me out, so I am happy to be done with exams for the moment, even if the next major one is in a week in a half. I was so drained that I ended up skipping the four hours of lecture that were immediately scheduled after the exam. I went grocery shopping, got an inspection done on my car, and even took an uninterrupted nap so it was well worth it. Luckily, our lectures are recorded, so I’ll make sure to play catch up this weekend. Tonight there will be absolutely no studying though. I cooked a full dinner and I just put my daughter to bed, so as soon as she actually falls asleep, I plan on baking some cookies, opening a bottle of wine, and watching Empire tonight. Oh, the joy!

But aside from not posting recently, I got on here tonight because I wanted to share a really cool experience that my class had last week. We underwent the “Ebola Simulated Clinical Experience”, where we were trained in donning and doffing N95 masks and gowns in the event of an infectious disease situation. The coolest part was actually getting to work with our on-campus simulated patient known as Stan. Stan is basically a human-like robot that breathes, blinks, goes into shock, and talks (among other things). He is typically used by the 2^nd-year medical students, so it was nice being able to really see why everyone likes using him. My school also has a female counterpart that can experience contractions and even give birth, so I’m really looking forward to working on her next year. We also will be learning how to do FULL exams on actual human patients next year, but that’s another story, LOL. Anyway, that’s all I will post tonight. I’m about to relax as if I’m not a constantly stressed out medical student!