Football Saturday

Today was another great college football Saturday! I didn't get to go to the Michigan game today because my friend was in town and she didn't want to go to the game, but I still got to watch some of the game. Michigan ended up winner a thriller in overtime which was awesome. Now we just need to win out and hope Penn State stays up over Nebraska and we can be in the championship game! Stanford also just won over Oregon State in another really good and really close game!

Besides football I showed my friend around Ann Arbor today and we walked around school, central campus, and downtown. We stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the end of the Michigan game and to have an appetizer, which was fun as well. I hadn't seen a lot of main campus either so it was nice to see (though I'm sure it made me a terrible tour guide when I could barely name any building). 

The rest of the night will be spent with friends, and tomorrow is a study day since I still need to take my quiz this weekend.

Happy Birthday Molly!!

I meant to post this yesterday, but I was gone most of the day, so a great big HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY to my sister yesterday! I hope you had a fantastic day and I hope my card came in the mail for you too! Can't wait to go Christmas shopping with you in NYC next month, and hope there aren't too many more storms out there after the hurricane and blizzard this past week. Love you!

MSK

Yes, our current sequence and I share initials! Clearly we were meant to be. We started the musculoskeletal sequence on monday and it's made for quite a hectic week. We have had anatomy three times in the last four days (all involving the arm) and there is just so much to learn! I think I am finally getting the brachial plexus down, so the arterial supply to the limb is up next. Other than anatomy we are learning some muscle physiology and metabolism. So fun to be learning glycolosis and the citric acid cycle yet again (can you sense the sarcasm there). Basically there is a lot more memorization of information this sequence so it's a little different than our other three thus far.

Besides school I have been doing my normal stuff. An M4 led a clinical case for us on Monday night that we talked about, and I had water polo on my normal Monday and Wednesday. I watched a mixture of the election and a movie on Tuesday night, and my friend stayed with me last night and will be back again tomorrow night after her interview in Rochester Hills. Tonight I'm hosting an applicant interviewing here. Fun times.

Just over a week until I get to visit CA for a week! Can't wait to see my family and my puppies!!

Happy Birthday Christine!

A big happy birthday to my cousin Christine who is out in Scotland! Miss you and hope you had a fantastic birthday! Can't wait to see you at Christmas!

Emergency Medicine Day

First of all I successfully passed the cardiovascular/respiratory sequence, including a 100% on my anatomy practical, woo!

This morning I went to the hospital for EMIG Day (EMIG stands for Emergency Medicine Interest Group). It's a day put on by the interest group and people in the emergency department at UMich to get some exposure to the field and get some hands on practical experience. The beginning of the day started with a short lecture about emergency medicine and then we split off into groups to go to different stations.

My first station was IV. I was basically freaking out from the very beginning because I hate needles going into me and we would be practicing on each other. I lucked out however and got paired with an M4 who didn't need practice and my arm was spared from pain. This did not make it an easy station for me however, as I hit some unexpected obstacles. I felt really bad to begin with because I felt awful putting a needle into someone who didn't need it just for practice. Silly, I know, but I felt bad anyways. I then very successfully placed the IV on my very first try, yay! During the placement I started feeling a little light headed and hot, and by the end of the placement I felt like I was going to puke, pass out, or both. Luckily I did neither and after putting my head down on the table for a bit and a cup of water I was fine again, but the feeling was awful. I am definitely going to need to get over that in the near future!!

Out next station was ultrasound, and that was pretty cool. We got to do some ultrasound on each other to look at our hearts, livers, kidneys, bladders, etc. I even got to see my inferior vena cava change diameter with each breath to determine if blood was flowing properly which was cool. After ultrasound we went to a wilderness medicine activity where we learned about assessing a patient in the wilderness and did a little simulation in which I was the victim of falling out of a tree. We then got to tour the Survival Flight helicopter, which was really cool! It's a huge and very high tech helicopter and the things Survival Flight is able to do are awesome. After that we went to another station and learned about backboards and neck collars and intubation. I think practicing the intubation on the dummies was my favorite part of the day.

So I had a really cool morning and I'm glad I went (and extra glad I didn't get an unnecessary IV this morning). Now it's time for football!! Michigan is beating Minnesota at the half and Stanford plays later today. Go Blue and Go Card!

Sandy and a Final

So due to the crazy hurricane (Hurricane Sandy) that just passed through NYC and the fact that I have a final that opens tomorrow I have been bad at blogging lately. I spent most of my free time helping my sister find a place to go since she has had no power now for two days and who knows when it will come back. All of manhattan below 40th street pretty much lost power and much of the cell service.

I also ran a lot of errands for one of the student groups I am in, I shadowed a family medicine doctor, and I met my pediatrics mentor who is totally awesome. It also got cold here, so welcome to the midwest I guess. I am learning to turn on heaters in my apartment finally, though I am still trying hard to hold out!

Cardiovascular/Respiratory final coming up! Not sure when I'm taking it, but definitely before Sunday! Woo. Musculoskelatal System up next, which means a crazy amount of anatomy memorization.

Ok so update... I turned on the heater and its amazing. I amend my position, I am now pro heater :)

WORLD CHAMPS!

This weekend we had a Halloween  party put on by one of the medical fraternities here. It was pretty fun and I went as Pikachu. Saturday was subsequently made for sleeping a lot and watching football and game 3 of the World Series. Michigan and Cal lost, but Stanford won and moved up in the polls and the Giants won too!

Yesterday was full of errands at Costco and Meijer, raspberry picking in Ypsilanti, some inner tube water polo (we won our first game!) and watching game 4 of the World Series. The Giants ended up winning a thriller in 10 innings to become the World Champs! It always drives me crazy that they call it the World Champs when it's only pro teams here, but since 5/20 of the post season roster is from Venezuela for the Giants I guess I can go for it. Anyways it was super exciting!

TGIF!

Yay, it's finally the weekend again! I finished my quiz early tonight and that means that unlike last weekend I actually have two full days to relax. I have a few errands I need to do, but otherwise I am excited to relax. We have a school wide Halloween party tonight at one of the medical fraternities, so that should be fun times. The World Series is also coming to me tomorrow and I am stoked to root for my SF Giants! So far they're up 2-0 so it's going great! Two more games to close out San Francisco's second ever World Series title! 

Busy day

Today started as all other days begin. I went to class for a very long time. I listened to a few lectures and heard from a patient who has a LVAD, which was really interesting.

After class I played nine holes of golf. I am not a good golfer. I did, however, bogey two holes and double bogey one. The other 6 were not so good. I actually hit one of my tee shots onto the green, but I proceed to three put, so I did not make par.

After golf I ate dinner and watched the first inning on the World Series Game 1. I saw enough to see Pablo Sandoval's first home run of the night before heading to water polo practice. When I got home from practice I was stoked to see the Giants up 8 to 1 over Detroit (being a Giants fan and living in Michigan is quite something right now). Panda (Sandoval) also hit three home runs AND a single tonight. 4 for 4 OMG that is amazing.

After the game I did a little work and now I'm going to bed because I have mandatory class at 9am yay. Wearing my Giants shirt for sure tomorrow! Go Giants!! 

Huron Hills Golf Course

CHAMPIONS!

This morning I got up and studied for my weekly quiz and took it around noon. During most of the quiz I was just praying that I was going to pass, but when I hit submit and waited those awful moments for the score to load I was rewarded with quite a good score. I freak out a little too much sometimes.

After the quiz I went to Mitchell Field to play in the Co-Rec A Championship intramural soccer game, and guess what... we WON! We are officially the IM champions, and we got a shirt to commemorate it! Super fun time.

We also played in a playoff volleyball game this evening, but unfortunately we didn't win that one. We still had a lot of fun though. Now it's time to watch the SF Giants beat the Cardinals (I hope). Go Giants! I need a Detroit-SF World Series because I want to go and cheer for my home team!!

The IM Champions! (photo taken by Michael Kemp)