Out From Under My Rock!!!!

Words really can’t describe how busy this past week has been, but the weekend’s here and I'm happy that I will actually get to enjoy it! Last weekend was spent studying for this past Monday’s OMM written exam, and the previous weekend was spent studying for an exam, so I am just so happy to finally have a study-free weekend. I finally have time to clean up, wash clothes, do my hair, and relax! In addition to an OMM written exam on Monday, I had an OMM practical on Wednesday, a 30 minute case presentation on Thursday, and a major written exam this morning, so I have literally been studying all week. To make matters worse, I feel like I might not have performed as well on Wednesday’s practical exam as my previous others. I heard through the grapevine that over 100 students will have to remediate a station that was on the exam, so there’s a good chance I may be one of them :-/ On a brighter note, I did extremely well on my case presentation yesterday, and I passed today’s exam, so woo-hoo!

STEAM night at the little one's school :-)

I had to take a break from studying last night to take my daughter to a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) event at her school, and while I admit that I tried to rush through it so that I could come back home and study, it was actually nice to take a break and spend time with her for a few hours. There were math games, a station where she had to get a balloon to float halfway in the air, robotics, and a whole bunch of other cool and interesting learning activities. My school was also there introducing children to possible careers in healthcare, so that was nice. Passing today’s exam and seeing the smile on her face last night definitely made the study break worth it.

Moments like this make it all worth it!

As for today, after my exam I headed down to a local high school in the area to volunteer at a health fair. I had the chance to do cardio and pulmonary exams, along with ear, nose, and throat exams. It was my first time practicing on real people outside of our standardized patients at school, so I was pretty excited. We had some of our professors there to double-check everything, but thankfully I didn’t come across any problems. I will be making sure I take the time to listen to more heart and lung sounds online, so that I can get better at hearing any abnormalities in the future. The fair had a good turnout though, and aside from a lot of people commenting on how young I look and asking if I was in high school, I felt like a true professional. I look forward to doing more things like this in the future though, because patient encounters remind me why I am in medical school in the first place, and they make all these long hours of studying worth it :-)

Well, I’m off to pick up the little one, so I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!