oi!

Second block is going to be harrrrrdddd. oi!

You are going to be a...

"I can't quite read you," he said to me. His questioning gaze revealed nothing, yielded no more knowledge than I relayed to him. He was refering to what kind of doctor I would become. Good. I don't like to be figured out. :)

The med school workout

My eyes open. Theres still sleep left in me, but the day must start. I rub my eyes, and roll off the bed landing on the floor, catching myself with my palms. I lay still. AAA I think, do i have to do it. I do this everyday so i have some leeway to skip it today. Why should i do it everyday? I'm hungry. I could be making some eggs, add some cereal and toast some of my favorite raison bread. Yes that sounds like a plan. I catch myself. Whoa. Almost psyched myself out there. eh. I think of the nike slogan.

Just do it!

I push down on the floor, lifting myself up. Thats one. Thats two... three... four... 300... aaaaaaaa. Yes. done. Well, not yet, but I'm in the mood now. I roll onto my back I do my crunches. Then I do two more sets of the above. I feel good now.

I stand up. Stretch a little. I punch the air lounging at an imaginary opponent. My punches flow out in a certain rhythm. Straight, straight, cross, hook. I mix in some kicks. Then I go into my Wing chun forms. I slowly do Siu lum Tao, and then chum kiu... I've not advanced enough to do the Biu jee but I'm fine with just these.

I look at the clock its an hour since I started. I'm wide awake and ready for the day.

While studying Molecular cellular biology, my brain saturated with info. An idea hit me. Studying is just like a workout... Just a work out for the brain. The more you work out the better you get, the more you practice the more things are recalled with little effort. Everything flows. And just like working out, you have the nagging voices in your head telling you to skip work today for numerous silly reasons. You can't conquer those voices, but you can ignore them. The best way is to do the nike slogan.

Just do it!

Going high Tech in my fitness training!

The past two days, thursday and Friday, I did all my activities wearing a "forerunner 305". On thursday I played soccer with it. Then right after playing soccer for one hour I run a mile and change with it around campus. Then on friday I run around around campus with it on. I was running a bit faster than normal (a mile in 7 minutes) I felt the strap around my chest as i attempted to take in larger breaths. I love this watch soo far.

Vincenza bought me this little gadget as an early birthday present to help me prepare for a martial arts competition that I'll be partaking in come a month.

The forerunner 305 monitors my heart rate as i run: I can tell how high my HR goes during exertion and then i can monitor how fast it goes back to resting stating. Additionally, it has a gps system on that tracks distances and more specifically saves courses that i run. Later, I can run on that same course and see if I'm behind or in front of the time I used to run the course the prior time. (theres a simulation map that with two triangles: one of me while i'm actually running and the other of me when I run the day prior.)

One word: HOT!

MCB!! and... other stuff!

MCB takes forever to cover! From now on I'm covering physio first, then immuno and lastly MCB. This would minimize the amount of time I spend reading MCB... I think i spend way too much time on the little details in MCB, this will hopefully minimize that kind of waste.

-------------------------------------------------
Got some soccer into my schedule this thursday and a run afterwards. Then yesterday, friday I got another run in. Felt great to be on the soccer court again.

First block went well.

All exam grades are finally out. I did good in all my subjects. Awesome! Gonna follow the same routine, with a few tweaks.

Thanks be to God.

Crossed Check point 1

Of the five check points, I can finally cross one of: Block 1 is done! Only 3 more blocks and a final to go before the end of the semester. Time seems to be flying now. It seems like we just started 2nd semester a few days ago and now we're already done with the first block.

Already, two of our grades are up: MCB and Immunology. Literally, MCB was up 2-3 hours after we took the exam. When it comes to grading exams and letting us get our results this department seems to be the fastest everytime, since first semester. Now, I'm just waiting on Physiology now.


Today, I do some much needed grocery shopping. Ahaaa. My fridges empty enough to play soccer in. Well... maybe not thaaaat empty, but it definitely needs some replenishing. My ramen diet's got to be broken:)

A snapshot of my day in medical school

As usual, I wake up around 4 am all thanks to Vincenza, who wakes me up in the morning. I spend an hour per subject to review the material that we've covered during the block. So I spend an hour studying MCB, an hour doing Physiology, and an hour doing immuno. Somewhere in between I lose an hour but thats not a big deal.

Around 750 i hope an my bike and bike to class. Then I'm in class till 1 pm.

After classes, I nap for an hour or so. Then I start studying. I go through all the material that was covered during that day. I try to not just read through it. I attempt to truly understand the material, so it takes me a while to go through each subject. For now, MCB takes the longest to assimilate because of the quantity of material. I also make flash cards as i go along.

I study till 10 pm, and by that time i'm itching to get out of the study hall. haha. I'm a very active person so I bike back home and hit my swimming pool for an hour. Then I spend some quality time talking to my girlfriend, Vincenza. Then its lights out.

Thats how my days have been going during this exam week. It is exhausting but fulfilling in the long run. ok.... back to work...

P.S. pardon the spelling errors, I'll go through this and edit it later.

Things are just getting started (rambling)

Semester started a week ago, and everything is already in full gear. Already there's a ton of material to learn. In the tradition of continuously tweaking my studying routine, I have embarked on a new journey, a journey that involves reading the days material and also reading ahead. It is getting more difficult to maintain this routine especially with an increase in things that I want and need to do: soccer (keeps me sane), martial arts (same as soccer), Student Government Association, exercise/cardio (building up my stamina for a competition I would like to participate in), tutoring sessions, learning swimming... etc.

Juggling everything will take some serious time management. Still, it is doable and will be fulfilling once everything is done

I feel rejuvenated from my break. Although short it served its purpose. I stayed on the island and got a special visitor. Vincenza, my girlfriend, made it up to St. Maarten to enjoy the island with me. It was good to see her in person again and not just talk over skype. We went adventuring on the island and explored what it had to offer. We went ziplining with Benji, his girlfriend Irene, and Claudia; went to St. Maarten Zoo; had great meals at different native restaurants; partied at a few clubs; went to a soca concert and then to a reggae concert, in which Beenie Man, Busy Signal and Ja q performed; relaxed at the beach and then by the pool in my appartment complex; and just slept in at times. We squeezed all of this into my week and a half break.

This break was short but still good enough. Now back to work!

Lessons from the toils of a 1st semester moving to 2nd semester

Lessons from the toils of a 1st semester moving to 2nd semester:

My first semester in medical school can be described with one word: rough. I wasn't adequately prepared for the quantity of material. I knew that there was a lot more material to assimilate versus undergraduate and graduate school, however what I had in mind was short of the actual quantity, and then some. The volume to be learned put my studying out of sync. Actually, I changed the way i studied, changed it some more, changed it some more again, revamped my studying technique and then changed it, and then modified it and modified it and modified it till the very end of the semester. I will keep tweaking the way I study to optimize my studying technique because there's always room for improvement. Medical school is more fun this way; I would be bored if I simply figured everything out without any hardwork. That said here's what I learned in 1st semester.

1st semesters lessons:
1) Histology is not an easy class: I put this first because if you play around with this subject you can easily fail. It is taught by two good professors. They do the best they can to make the material easy to understand/assimilate. The material isn't difficult because it is hard to comprehend rather it is just dense and volumous. Do not procrastinate because the material looks familiar/easy, do not put it off. Start studying right away. Study everyday.
2) Do not listen to upperclassmen when they say a class is easy. Maybe it was easy for them. Study hard for every class everyday... everyday!
3) Anatomy notes are good... if you can decipher the diagrams. I took the time to decipher the notes, while most people didn't. Thats fine since there are different ways to study... from the BRS, from the notes, from tutors notes etc. Regardless of how you study FINE TUNE YOUR KNOWLEDGE. I put this in caps for a reason. If you want to do well in the "written anatomy" section tuning what you've learned is vital.
4) Pick one or two comprehensive resources and stick with them. In every class there many books and videos to study from. Different books / videos work well for different people. Every upper semester you speak with will have varying opinions as to which is the most useful and which they used to pass their classes. Your job as a first semester is to figure out which one u like and stick to it. If you don't, you will be overwhelmed and waste a lot of time.
5) FINE TUNE YOUR ANATOMY KNOWLEDGE: This is critical so it gets a bullet of its own. There are three ways to tune your knowledge of anatomy.
a) BRS questions
b) University of Michigan questions (found on angel)
c) Tutoring slides (from you anatomy TAs)
I have listed the above in order of importance with the most important at the top (a). The way to use the BRS questions, is to get a note book and write down the questions and then write the answer to the question... In addition to the answer other relations between other structures are pointed out. write these down. Then study these answers and relationships together with your other material. (remember this is fine tuning and is not sufficient on its own.)
6) The way to study anatomy: a) learn position of structures, b) know your insertions, attachments, innervations, and blood vessels. c) Then and this is very important know the relationships between different structures. This will help you do well in the written section of your anatomy block. An example of a relationship is that the bladder is right above your pubic symphysis so a gun shot to right above the border of the pubic symphis would strike what structure( the bladder.) Another example is the external laryngeal nerve runs with the superior lthyroid artery so if one of them is cut what other structure is most likely to be cut... Duh... the other structure running with it. This is how your anatomy questions are structured so know relationships
7) Use your TA's. Ask them for questions... Ask them what they remember about past exams. Ask them what's important. Ask not just one TA but numerous. (they all remember different things) Whatever you're told do not take it in passively... write it down in the same note book and study it...
8) Make a plan on how you'll study.
9) Stick to your plan. do not put off what you learn. If u miss a day, just skip it and keep up with the rest of the material.
10) Study everyday! (except sunday or one day...)

I said first semester was rough but I can say looking back that I liked it. It was enlightening and brought out the best in me. I put myself to the test and came out a wiser student. For everyone that helped me thanks: Benji, chanudi, Ada [histo TA- big shout out to her], classmates, and most importantly thanks to GOD.

Anyways, onwards to 2nd semester for me. Welcome and good luck to the incoming 1st semesters!