Studying

So for the past four and a half weeks I have pretty much been studying non-stop for Step 1. I had a few days off during the month, but no more than one per week. Boy, did I ever need those for my sanity! Now the test has creeped up on me in a big way and I only have two more study days left. It is both awesome and terrifying. I do not feel that I am ready to do as well as I would like, which is really disappointing. I am pretty confident I can pass, but thats about it. Hopefully things fall into place over the next few days or the test just happens to cover only things I've really gotten down. Either way, I just really hope some miracle happens really. I generally feel good one day and awful the next. Luckily with that pattern test day should be a good one. Fingers crossed!! 

Home!

I made it home to Walnut Creek without any problems! I got some studying done on the plane and got to go straight to In-N-Out with mom upon arrival in San Francisco. Great times. Now it is raining but I am warm and it's not snow, so woo hoo! I also get to play with Max and Koa so that's great. Not sick from allergies yet, so here's to hoping all the precautions taken will work this time :)

Today is biochem day 1 of 2, so I'm pretty bored already. I know it's important though so pushing through! Back to First Aid now!

Study buddy Koa wanted some love

Done with M2 year!

Over the weekend I took my Reproduction sequence finals and officially finished my second year of medical school! It's crazy to think that I will never again have a week of my life solely dedicated to lecture, studying, and taking exams. I will have all three components, but mixed in with seeing patients and being in the hospital. Both of my finals went well and I passed everything in my preclinical years, yay!

Now I get to spend the next five weeks studying for arguably the biggest test I have taken or ever will take in my life. The score I get on this test is not do or die, but largely determines which specialties I will be competitive in applying to residencies in. Here's to hoping it goes well! I'm not too overwhelmed yet, so that's a start! I go to California tomorrow for the rest of my study time, which is great because its the end of March and was absolutely freezing here today. How is it almost April and Michigan is still having days with temperatures below 20º?!

In other news, the NCAA basketball tournament began over the weekend and both Stanford and Michigan made it to the Sweet 16!! Michigan was dominant and expected to move on, but for Stanford to move on they had to upset both New Mexico and Kansas, so it was really exciting! I'm hoping to building in a little study break to watch some of the games next week.

So off I go into the abyss of Step 1 studying. I likely won't be able to blog much, but then again I won't be doing much other than study, eat, study, eat, sleep, repeat!

Last Water Polo Tournament

This past weekend was my last water polo tournament of the season since I am headed home next week for Step 1 study period. The tournament was at Miami University in Ohio and was a really fun weekend. We woke up bright and early at 5:45am on Saturday morning and made the 4 hour drive to Oxford, Ohio. I never get sleep in these van rides, but I actually fell asleep for once and then the driver pulled over and asked me to drive ten minutes later. So much for that.

When we got there we pretty quickly had our first game against Lindenwood, which we won. I then played a half of goalie for the B team against Miami and I wasn't super awesome, but I also got dealt a lot of hard situations that weren't all that blockable since the defense had a few early lapses. Anyways, after that game A team played Grand Valley and we won't that game too. After all our games were over we went to one of my teammate's Aunt and Uncle's home for dinner and then drove the 45 minutes to our hotel. At the hotel we watched Frozen and then I went to bed pretty early which was quite nice. It was also dark in the room for once, something I do not get in Ann Arbor.

Sunday we got to wake up early again, around 6:45am, to eat breakfast and drive back to the pool. We played Miami first and won and then three of us played down on the B team against Lindenwood since it was a better match up for us and we knew we wouldn't have an amazing game against Ohio University since they aren't quite as strong of a team (so three of the B team girls switched with us and played up where they would get more playing time). We ended up tying Lindenwood with a pseudo mixed team and I played quite well, scoring 4 goals. I then played 2nd quarter goalie against Ohio University and had a shut out quarter. Fun times.

Now my season is over and it's back to 100% focus on school, and catching up on the massive sleep debt I have accrued in the last week. Only three more days of Repro lectures and the final and then M2 year will be complete. It's so weird!

On to Endocrine

Here we are into the second week of Endocrine already. Molly is back in California for spring break being all warm and I am here once again braving the sub zero temperatures. Thankfully they are over for the time being as of this afternoon, though I will not rule out their return quite yet. I just keep thinking to myself, in just three weeks I will be back in California and the winter for me this year will officially be over since I won't be back here until the first week of May! I may have to study for the longest and most awful test of my life thus far (Step 1, ugh), but at least I will be warm while doing so and I will no longer see ice and snow!! Lets just hope winter doesn't decide to extend into May just to let me see snow one more time like it did in Minnesota last year.

Besides winter I am getting through the end of M2 year. It is amazing to think that I am almost halfway through medical school. The first two years are definitely shorter than the second two years, but since fourth year includes a lot of vacation it really doesn't sound all that bad. The twelve months beginning in May, however, will definitely not be a cake walk. I get to look forward to very long hours with very little time off. I hope I can handle it. Before I get there I have three more days of Endrocine plus those finals followed by two weeks of Reproduction and those finals (regular final plus pathology final for both sequences). Thats it! Then it's back to CA for five super fun weeks of studying and then JAPAN! I can't wait. I haven't really thought about it much at all lately (see mom it's not distracting me haha), but when it does pop into my mind I get very excited. Speaking of which, I have to remember to add passport pages so I can get into the country. Fun stuff.

Also, here is a picture of my finished quilt on my bed! Its been there a while, but I thought Ann might especially enjoy seeing it in it final place. My bedding doesn't match it well, but I don't really care. Too much work to find matching stuff :)

GI Studying Fun Times

The past week has been utterly un-eventful. I went to class and went to the library and studied for my GI final. Then come the weekend I did nothing but study all day long. Then Monday and studied, took a break to go to the airport to finish my Global Entry application process (TSA Precheck and special customs lanes for the next 5 years woot!), and then went to the library and studied even more! This morning I woke and and guess what! I studied! I have finished going through all the lectures now and just need to go over the notes I took during my first pass studying and then I'll hopefully take the test sometime before 5pm. I then get to study for the pathology test. Isn't life just so exciting?! Only 4 more weeks of M2 year before Step 1 study period. Terrifying.

Flu

This last week hasn't been the best, as I'm sure you gathered by reading the title of this post. I went to practice on Monday night and felt a little weaker than usual, which I just read off as being tired from having two tournaments on two consecutive weekends. Tuesday we didn't have pool time and by Wednesday night I felt terrible. I ended up spiking a fever up to 103.4º which really sucked. Fevers always give me bizarre dreams and I just remember thinking about ski jumping literally all night which kept me half awake and really out of it most of the night. On Thursday I saw the doctor and she said that she thought I had the flu. Luckily I got a flu shot and its not too severe for me because of that. Just a really bad headache, fatigue, some sore throat, and a fever. It's getting better now which is good, but I had to miss my tournament at Purdue this weekend. At least the games are streamed live online so I get to watch my team play. They won both games today against Indiana and Ohio State! Go Blue!

If you hadn't noticed based on my bizarre fever thoughts, I am also majorly obsessed with the Olympics happening over in Sochi right now. The Olympics plus class is never a good combination. I just wish they happened at the end of January when I had a lot more free time. So needless to say between being sick and watching some Olympic coverage I am more behind than I would prefer to be going into this last week of the GI sequence. Hopefully this week gets everything back on track!

Way too busy!

Life has been insanely busy recently. Lots of class, freezing cold temperatures (actually WAY below freezing getting down to -30 with the windchill), water polo, etc. I took a big exam of physical exam and patient encounter skills on Friday and had my first water polo tournament of the season this weekend. We won all our games which was great, but I was so exhausted that I forgot I was meant to shadow this morning, ugh. Oh well. I have to finish my open book written exam and have one more low key chill day before starting up with the GI sequence. Only three sequences left of M2 year! I can't even believe it.

Done with MSK!! Woo Hoo!

I have officially finished the musculoskeletal and rheumatology sequence, yay!! Tomorrow it's off to Toronto for the weekend to hang out with Taylor and have some Canadian fun times! I love that driving to Toronto is possible. Just four more days of class until this semester is finished! I can't believe M2 year is halfway over, eek!

It's been a while!

The past couple weeks have been kind of crazy. I eventually finished my neuro exam and passed the class, yay!! I also cooked a full Thanksgiving dinner for my family which turned out pretty great! The Ohio State-Michigan game was very exciting and came down to the very end when we went for two and didn't get it. Was a very sad ending, but Michigan fought very hard!

After a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with my family I started the musculoskeletal/rheumatology sequence. I just took my quiz and the pathology final over the weekend and now we are into week two of the sequence, which is the final week! I'm going to Toronto this weekend, and I am very excited about that, and then just a week of dermatology before winter break! I am so excited to have a few weeks to spend in California, and I will be starting my proactive Zyrtec tonight so I don't get sick, woo!

This past weekend was also Tag Day, which is an annual fundraiser one of the student groups I am in does to raise money for Mott Childrens Hospital and various other children's charities and organizations in Washtenaw County. I had to solicit money on the street for many hours (11 in total actually), but it was mostly fun. Some people were very generous and some were rude, but at least I was with my classmates.

This post was hectic and unorganized, sorry!

A lovely singing quartet that donated to us and then serenaded us

Tagging with Bella and Allen during Midnight Madness

We met a synchronized skater on the street who want to apply to Michigan