Today marks a day to end an era. Today I walked out of the hospital as a medical student for the last time. Today, medical school ended.
I have matched into the most amazing Pediatric Residency in Danville, PA and have graduated medical school. I am officially Dr. Stefanie Paulson, MD – it feels so strange and so utterly exciting.
Today I submitted a summary of my entire life accomplishments to 83 different hospitals with hope that at least one of then will hire me for next year.
That is crazy!
Now, it was actually not even that simple. After weeks and weeks of carefully preparing my application, groveling for letters of recommendation, and reading every word I wrote 12 times over – when it came time for the 9am submission time, the website crashed. To say I was devastated would be the understatement of the year. Instead, I spent the next six hours watching New Girl, eating ice cream, and hitting refresh.
Fast forward – after a few tears and some deep breathing exercises, I am all submitted. Honestly, I am trying to just let it all go and pray. It’s all in the Lord’s hands now.
So please, pray for these next few weeks and pray favor on my application. The next few months will be filled with running around like a crazy person on interviews.
Here is to hoping and to finally being done!!
Today Stefanie completed the USMLE Step 2 CK, her last exam of medical school. Tonight we’re off to Long Island to celebrate with cocktails and lobsters!
Well, the New Year is here and I have almost made the habit of writing the date at 2014. Still feels weird though.
Even though the New Year crept in unsuspectingly at the Paulson home (we may have been in bed by 10), it carries all of the same feelings of new beginnings as anyone else. We have evaluated 2013. Made goals for 2014: eat healthier (detox from the holidays), be more active, more time with friends and God. We are staring into a long 257 day trip through the rest of this year year head on.
In many ways this year is likely to be one of the hardest of my life. I know this. Between tacking the 3 hardest rotations (OBGYN, Surgery, and Internal Medicine), taking both parts of my USMLE Step 2 exam, plus applying to and starting to interview for Residency. Its a LOT for one year. It will be great come the end when my work load lightens up and I have time to breath, go out, etc. But it seems daunting right now. To say I need a lot of strength and guidance would be an understatement.
And Tyler is no less busy with all the work he does with his company, the ministry work he is involved in, plus being the most supportive husband ever and always putting me first even when he doesn’t need to.
We are excited for the future which is coming. But know that it will take a strength far greater than ourselves to conquer. After 2 weeks of vacation at home and trying our best to relax (we failed) we are playing a “ready or not, here it comes” with life.
Among the list of things for 2014, we are hoping the blog will finally get its makeover which should make posting more easier. We really do regret to be so sporadic. Much of what I do day-to-day is a bit hard to write about with HIPPA and all that. Plus we just get so busy. Following myself on Instagram is likely the best way to stay up-to-date with more day-to-day things. But we promise to work harder at sharing our adventures. There are so many to share. 🙂
I know, I know – updates are WAY too infrequent. Year 3 is the busiest and most challenging year of medical school in many ways and living in NY not only keeps us extra busy, but provides us with lots of other fun things to do to fill our time as well. I promise I am hoping to get it together soon tho!
The year has flown by and I am already over half-way into my second clinical rotation. First I did Family Medicine which was likely the most low key of all of the rotations. On one hand it was nice to get to ease into things. On the other, after all of the studying I was a little anxious to get super hands-on. However, it was a good rotation. I like the hospital I am placed in and the doctors are all super invested in teaching and that is great. It was nice to get the basic lay of the land of patient care and learning how to balance having “my own patients.”
I am currently completing my Psychiatry rotation at a hospital in Manhattan. This rotation has proved to be quite a few more hours a week as we round quite late into the day. And the commute from Sunset Park to Lower East Side is not my friend most days. However, the rotation has been great. I have had so much direct interaction with attending doctors which is unique and I feel like I have learned a ton. This is a specialty that I find immensely fascinating even though I am not sure if it is really for me. I have seen so many cases and I feel like everyday I get more comfortable with what I am doing. And bonus, I have some GREAT stories!
Tyler has been busy busy at work as usual. Tyler is working out of a co-working studio up in South Slope about 10 minutes from our apartment. He loves it. He just recently moved into a private corner office he shares with another guy and this gives him 24 hour access to the office which I think he really likes. The separation of work and home I think has really been beneficial for us both. And typical Tyler, he is always deep into new and exciting project for work. He is one dedicated and busy boy.
We have been living up fall over here. The lows in the night are starting to be about the lowest it ever gets in Cali in a typical winter so we are sure in for some dramatic weather changes before long. So far though, we love every minute of it! The cold weather is currently in the refreshing stage and during the day it is usually sunny which is so beautiful. We have tried to take in the season to the full by going pumpkin picking a couple weeks ago in Jersey and this past weekend we took a fall foliage road trip. More on that and LOTS of pictures to come of beautiful, colorful, fiery trees.
Oh, and one last thing. My good friend is pseudo-living with us for a little while right now. She just moved to NY and is crashing in our office/guest bedroom. It’s tight quarters at times as it is still a tiny NY apartment, but it has been quite fun. It has been fun to catch up and have someone else to talk to if Tyler is working or someone to take my side in silly debates about life. HAHA.
That about sums it up for us. And for those that are more curious of our daily going-on, I highly recommend our Instagram feeds while we work on updating our blog to allow from-phone photo posts!
I know, I know. We have been way too MIA. But I promise we are alive. Busy, but alive. And I am vowing to break this blog silence and resume more regular posting now that we are FINALLY starting to settle into our new routine around here.
Since so much happened this summer, I am just going to give some brief recaps of the highlights just to catch everyone up.
June
This month was literally a blur. Between the stress of studying for my USMLE, getting used to being in Brooklyn, we were totally spent. We found ourselves so exhausted from all of the moving that each day was a struggle to get things done. This was probably felt hardest by Tyler who found himself more behind in work that he would have wanted.
July
I took my exam on the 12th and after it was over, it was so great to finally breathe. We went our to celebrate that night at the coolest restaurant ever, the Bookstore, in Bethlehem PA. I found out later that I did quite well on my exam too, which has made me ever more confident and happy about this next part of medical school. Mid July we spent in Canada exploring Quebec City and Montreal. I will write more about that and give lots of pictures in another post. When we got back, is was full-force apartment hunting which was a stressful experience all in itself that we are hoping to avoid ever doing again in NYC.
August
The majority of this month has been spent moving in. Not owning anything has made this process painfully slow. Plus we are both busy and way exhausted from life. It is finally now mostly together. We love our apartment very much and think it is perfect for us, but owning nothing was a bit of a struggle. A virtual tour and lots of pictures will come soon, once we finally finish the last touches.
I also started my first rotation of 3rd year August 20th. It has been great and scary and fast. I am lucky because I started family medicine and it has not been too intense, but there is a lot to do and we are still both getting our routine down. But, I love it. That much I am sure of.
We are finally starting to feel at home in the new apartment, new neighborhood and with our new schedules. Me working at the hospital and Tyler working in his new co-working space. It is a new and exciting adventure and we hope to see and do a lot. We visited a bunch of Tyler’s family over the last few weeks so it is nice to know that we will be home for a while now so we can really settle in and explore NYC.
BTW – this is our 100th post! Hard to believe we have had 100 interesting stories thus far. 🙂
Thursday was my last day of classes – forever!
Medical school is not over, but the classroom part is done. The lectures and classes and finals are over. Now it is time for the fun stuff. Hospital rotations, patient care, learning by doing. Sure feels like medical school just started. I am 2 exams away from being 1/2 of a doctor! Now to push through one more tough week before a brief vacation and a hardcore summer full or preparing for the most important exam ever. No pressure, right?
Here are some pictures of my class (most of us) from our end of term mini celebration.
This is big. This is HUGE! I have officially scheduled the most important day of my career. The single day that will determine what kind of job I will get, what specialty I will do, where we will live – everything!
July 12, 2013!
…July 12th.
This day felt forever away and now it is too close for comfort. But I think I will be ready – I can do it. I will have to live in the library but I can do it.
We should all start praying now. Pray for strength, pray for stamina, pray for wisdom, pray for peace, pray for calm. Pray it will go well and pray that I will remember that everything will be okay no matter what.
106 days to go! Lets do this!
So I probably should have written this post a few weeks back, but we have officially sent in our preference form for clinical locations. I am expected to start sometime around mid-August (provided we get the location we desire at least). That should give me about 1 month off as a “break” after studying for board exams. Hopefully we can make time for some good R&R before packing up and moving to where-ever we are headed.
We should find out in late July where we have been placed. We have selected New York area as our number one choice and are really hoping to get placed at New York Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn. The neighborhood, the hospital, the location – it is all perfect for us. Nothing is certain, but for now we will keep praying that we get placed in our first pick! And you should pray too! Everything lies in the hands of the placement coordinators. We are so excited and have each shamelessly spent a few too many hours googling all the cool things around our potential new home.
Fingers crossed! Did I mention things are sure getting real super fast? Only 54 more days and this term is over! Although, I must say I am SO looking forward to vacation.
Alright, so this is one of those posts about school.
Mostly because I keep having the following thoughts like 5 million times a day….
“Holy Moly, I am in 5th term!”
“Wait, I actually survived 4th term?”
“Crap, I have to go to the hospital and know stuff” (p.s. I do know stuff, promise!)
“Oh, Boards…yea lets not think too hard about that one”
“Oh my gosh, we leave Grenada in like 4 months!”
Anyways, the point is – time is flying! It is hard to believe the classroom part of this whole adventure of med school is ending. We are quickly approaching all of the exciting hands-on learning. And in like a year from now I will be researching residency slots and filling out apps and starting to gear up for interviews! While the thought of another round of interviews and applications makes me slightly nauseous and our bank account weep a little, it is still crazy that we are flying through this life stage rapidly barreling towards the next.
The first wake-up call came in the form of an email greeting.
Yep, that says Doctor. I mean, it is technically premature since I don’t exactly have a degree, but that is clearly not the point. Now this also represents the stupid application for my Board exam (USMLE Step 1) I take this summer which will only be THE most important exam I ever take in my life!!!! No pressure!
Anyways, all of that is to say that I think I am getting excited to see the light at the end of the tunnel showing its (while very dim) head reminding me that there is in fact an end.
This past Wednesday was my first rotation here in Grenada at the hospital. I landed myself in Orthopedics. We spent the morning with an orthopedic surgeon doing post-op visits and examinations. Not only was our first patient awesome (6 weeks post major vehicular trauma with some x-rays that even made my skin crawl) but it was great to be thrown in an exam room with a patient and left to put to good use all that we have been learning and practicing. We still have a lot to learn, but real patients are SO much better than fake patients and textbooks.
This should be an exciting term ahead. Hard, exhausting, but exciting. It is nice to be rounding the final stretch, the downhill coat to the finish line of what I am calling Med School, Part 1.
As always, be praying for us as we spend yet another few months being ridiculously busy and exhausted. But also be prayerful and thankful as we finish this life adventure and move on to a new one.
I have been a student for a long time. First there was 7 years of elementary school, 2 years of junior high, 4 years of high school, 4 years of college, and now we are just over 1 year into med school and I don’t think I have ever worked so hard or been so busy in my life. And trust me, that is saying something! I have remarkable capabilities for being busy. I have been likening Term 4 to a perpetual state of drowning. I feel like I am drowning and I am just hoping I will be alive by the time the Term ends in December.
I feel like I have always worked a lot since starting school here, but the amount of material we are supposed to master in a week is unfathomable. And quite frankly my brain is rebelling. I am hoping now that the requisite term sickness is out of the way (even if it did plaque me the 2 weeks leading up to exams and during exams) I am hoping that maybe, little by little, I will feel more on top of things and hopefully this next set of exams will go better than the last ones (please no illnesses) and I will have enough energy to keep going until December.
Its been even more tough with Tyler being gone. He is a breath of fresh air to my soul most days, and usually my only contact with a non-med student for weeks on in which is so needed. We all like in this work-filled bubble and sometimes I need him to remind me there is a world outside of the library. And he washes dishes – I hate washing dishes and hate even more having to take the time to do it now.
But Tyler, from what little communication we have had, seems to be doing well and I am so excited for the things he is doing. Its kinda like my heart is divided. I selfishly want him here to keep me company and entertained in my down time, but really want him to go. As he said, he is serving as an ambassador for our family and I am just as much represented in his efforts and he is.
With any luck maybe he will get a chance to post a little more soon. Things should be slowing down and returning to normal and he will get more into a pace of working. If not, I know he will at least have a large follow-up post to write once he gets back.
That’s all for now. Please keep praying for endurance through what feels like an impossible term. And that maybe I will find some time for a little more sleep.
Another term down. In fact, a whole year down.
It is hard to believe that my first year of medical school is finally finished. It was a long and brutal road the last 18 weeks. But I am proud of how I did and I feel like I truly glorified the Lord by working to the fullest of the abilities He has blessed me with to finish the term strong. And I am so grateful for my amazing husband who stuck it out in the trenches with me even when that included late nights in freezing cold study halls (yes, they way overuse AC here).
We were blessed to celebrate our 1 year anniversary too – of course right in the middle of exams. But that is okay, we took it in stride and we leave Saturday on our 1 year anniversary trip! We could not be more excited. We have such a fun and exciting adventure planned of exploring all around our little Caribbean paradise.
This last week Tyler and I have been taking it easy. I have been napping, a lot. And indulging in all of my favorite post-exam activities like getting my requisite massage and a mani/pedi. And of course my first trip to the beach in ages (so sad, I know) left me a bright red lobster and from what I can tell I am starting to peel at the moment. My back still hurts, but oh well. That is what happens when you don’t put on sunscreen. I wasn’t exactly planning on being there for as long as I was.
I also took a trip around the island up to Belmont with a bunch of friends from school that had not left the island left. It was my first time really driving in Grenada so me and our new car got some time to bond. I unfortunately don’t have any pictures from this trip, but it was a blast – rain and all! We have an amazing lunch and got to stock up on some more delicious chocolate.
Tyler and I have been trying to get out together as much as possible. We are being so healthy and he is going swimming in the morning while I go the gym and we even made it down to the beach for a nice sunset drink and stroll last night. It feels so nice to not have to be working at all hours.
Here are a few pictures to enjoy. More to come after vacation!
Love this guy!
I just walked out for a minute. Really. As long as it took to walk from the study hall to the library where the clean bathrooms are and come back. And it was gone. My beautiful, wonderful, still new feeling laptop was gone.
Yep, my poor laptop was stolen from the study hall what was now two weekends ago. In the time that my study buddy and I stepped out for a quick break and someone swiped it. Surprising considering the hall was full, and everyone knows that I am the girl with the laptop with the ridiculously awesome and ridiculously cute monkey sticker on my computer. So our weekend and really, the following week, went straight down the toilet. The process of reporting the theft and figuring out what to do was nothing less than awful. Plus I lost tons of work that I had done – sure made me wish I hadn’t chose to be so productive that week and stay up so late that I was forgetting to back-up my computer at night.
Long story short, and an unexpected flight to Florida for Tyler, I have a shiny new macbook and the studying carries on. I am even getting over all the upgrades since switching to Lion and my computer is starting to scare me less. I was so blessed during the whole ordeal that one of my classmates let me borrow his laptop for a few days while Tyler was gone. And since we had just upgraded my dropbox account to the fancy paid version, I was able to start using cloud syncing as what is now my third backup system, just in case.
But, life moves on and even though it was two weeks before finals began and I was computer-less, finals didn’t stop coming closer. Test 1 was today and it went well and the study marathon is on. So hard to believe that in just 10 days I will be 1/4 of a doctor!
5 more tests to go and then a much needed break will be had. And in 2 weeks from tomorrow Tyler and I fly off to Carriacou to celebrate our first anniversary! So excited. 🙂
Now back to studying.
The epitome of post-exams: cocktails along the perfect blue sea
Another exam week has come and gone. I am pretty sure that school is measured in exam weeks, not terms. Sure, 5 term until I leave Grenada. But what I really see is 5 midterm weeks and 5 final weeks. My life revolves around the exam cycle. The lull right after exams end, the continual work in the inbetween, the intense seeming 24-hour blur of studying the couple weeks right before and then the amazing feeling of relief the minute you put the pencil down and hand in the scantron of the last exam. And no matter how aweful the week was, it always never seems half as bad the weekend after (and certainly not once you receive good marks)
With each round of exams it gets both easier and harder. The material gets harder. There are more complex things to learn, more diseases and drugs to memorize, more material covered, and of course more to integrate. But it also gets easier. I get better at it. I learn how to pace myself better, how to motivate myself. I learn what work to do throughout the term so I enter exams in a better place. I learn how early to start so I am not rushing and cramming at the end. And most importantly for me, with each exam week Tyler learns how to be a more supportive husband. Living with a med student during exam week is not easy. I don’t even like being around my fellow students during exams sometimes. But he handles my stress better, helps me relax better, calms my nerves better, and learns not to take my short temper to seriously when I have only had 4 hours of sleep and one cup of coffee. And I too learn to maybe lay off the stress-induced rants about the dishes or curtains, or really whatever it is that I feel so frustrated by. We work better as a unit, learning to have a little grace and to try and bite the tongue when needed.
I am currently in the post-midterm lull. Exams finished last week and I am quite happy with how I did. However, trying to recouperate about 3 weeks of shortened nights and living in a continued state of stress and busy is hard to do in a weekend. It seems quite cruel to give us but a mere two days off. But alas, Tyler and I sought to make last weekend fun and relaxing. And as Tyler said, he was just happy to have me around again and to not have to spend any time in the study halls.
Friday started off with me and my study buddy getting massages. We have now decided that this will be a post-exam tradition and are pretty sure we will book now for after finals. So relaxing! And it gave Tyler a chance to finish up his work day without my distraction. Friday night we decided to go to dinner at a nice restaurant up near Grand Etang called the Spice Basket. We had never been there before but it was supposed to be a nice local food restaurant that forms part of the cultural center of Grenada. In true Tyler and Stefanie fashion, we decided we would take the local buses up there (changing buses in downtown and all) instead of taking a taxi. And of course it was rainy, we never get good weather when we want it. So we headed into St. George’s at about 6:30pm on a Friday night to be the only 2 white people there (seriously!) and to stand in the crowds of people waiting for buses to take them home.
Now I have long complained about how pushy the students are when getting on the school buses. People push and shove and rush the bus, and it is simply ridiculous. Well, apparently I hadn’t seen anything yet. The way the locals behave, I am surprised that people don’t wind up injured. After about the 4th bus came by heading the way we needed to go, we managed to get on. And naturally, we were the “odd white people sitting in back that wanted to get off way before everyone else did.”
The restaurant was truly lovely. We were the only ones there, likely due to the rain, but it was still lovely. The food was amazing, the drinks beautiful and tasty and we had a great time. And had great service since we were the only 2 customers for all 5 servers that were there that night. We loved the food and discovered a new local favorite, Callaloo lasagna. I think I am going to have to try my hand at whipping one up. Maybe in time to impress Tyler’s parents when they come this summer.
Our trip back was naturally no less adventurous than the first one. We can sum it up by saying that we were impressed that our driver was driving a stick shift in the pouring rain, drinking a beer, and watching music videos. I know, you are all probably terrified for our safety but like it or not, that is typical around here.
Saturday was a day of relaxing and adventuring. We went out to breakfast at the most adorable French Cafe! We love going out to breakfast, but it is not a typical thing to do around here. This is now my new favorite place, we will be going back for sure. The food and the coffee was delicious. I have never had better french toast in my life. And Tyler told me that he will by me the sweet Le Crusset ramekins so that I can make him the eggs en cocotte he so loved once we are back in the States. After a delicious and filling breakfast we decided to head to St. George’s to walk around and explore.
A delicious Latte!
The best french toast!
It turned out to be a weekend full of crazy bus experiences because while riding in the bus to town, he suddenly started blaring his horn, sped up and zoomed through traffic the wrong way down the one way street and powered up this stepp shortcut up the mountain that leads to town. It wasn’t until I recognized the route from taking it when I go to the hospital that I realized where we were going. It turned out that once of the passengers was having an asthma attack so the bus turned into an ambulance. And once we got the the ER, the weirdness continued as some random man came up to the driver begging him to take back this shirtless SGU student. It is against the law in Grenada to be in a car without a shirt so the bus driver graciously decided to take the guy, who likely was brought there in some sort of post-exam drunken stuppor, home. The guy swore someone at the hospital stole his short, so it was quite an amusing scene.
Once we made it to town, the real fun part began. There are so many little stores and we never have time to just walk around. Our day ended up being not only fun to walk around and see new things, but we came home with the most beautiful, huge canvas painting. We had been talking about buying a painting by a local artist from the art gallery for a while, and when we saw this both one we both died! It is all wrapped up now, but hopefully it will have a spot to be displayed in our new apartment and we can post a pic then.
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Saturday ended with some sunset coctails at Dodgy Dock and watching a movie over some of my homemade taco bowls. Tyler missed my cooking I think. It was great! While Sunday was mostly cleaning and all that productive stuff, it was great as always to forget about school.
Thanks for all your prayers during exam week! It paid off, I did great. 🙂
So I have been meaning to write this post for quite some time. There are so many updates to be shared, but then exam time snuck up and I have been spending every last hour I am not sleeping studying.
First big update has been my selective I am doing at the hospital. I started a couple weeks ago making regular visits to the hospital as part of the selective where we work with physicians and take patient histories and do patient exams – a basic H&P. It has been so cool. I spent over a year volunteering at a hospital in Long Beach before coming to SGU which, in some ways, I was able to see way more than I will ever see in Grenada. However, I love how much we now know. It seems that with each patient I see, I have a pretty decent idea of what is going on. I understand the lab work, I can read and interpret the x-rays and imaging very well, and now I can even understand and start to interpret EKGs. I think the part I enjoy the most is that I can start to see how all of this knowledge I am stuffing into my brain really works together. I work with two different doctors, one who is in ER and one who on a basic medical ward in the general hospital. So far it has been so much fun and so rewarding. The 8+ hours out of my week has been draining, but I think totally worth it. And since we have the next 2 weeks off for exams, I can through myself back into school.
The next big thing I have been doing is leading DES review session for Anatomy. I am pretty sure everyone here knew that I wanted to lead these session by about our 4th week of classes last term. Peer tutoring and explaining concepts is something that I love to do. Perhaps in another life I would make a really good teacher, but I want to be hands on way too much to be able to do that long term. Nevertheless, it has been such a wonderful experience to sort of guide the new class of 1st termers through their hard classes. And as a plus, I think I now know my anatomy about 5 times better than I did after exams last term. Something about seeing it again makes it set in, plus I am constantly surprised by how many of the small details I still remember.
Thirdly, in a non-school related matter – Tyler and I have found a new place to move into this May. We decided last term that our current apartment was simply a little too quirky and a little too small for our likes. Plus, we knew that we could find a nicer place for a lot cheaper rent, so we decided that we would definitely move this summer. We found the most wonderful apartment that is sort of “off-route” as they would call it here. Since it is not on the main road to campus, the rent is almost half of what we pay now. But, it is on the water of the bay, has great big open windows to let the breeze in, is within a gated yard with fruit trees, has a little patio right in front that is all ours. Plus, the property has a big deck and pool that will be fantastic to have on those occasions where we can just sit outside and relax. When we started looking for places, I came up with a bunch of lofty desires for our new place in hopes of being sure that we spent time finding one we would really be comfortable in and that would easily accommodate us both needing to do work and school at the same time. And amazingly enough, we found a place with all of them (minus the hammock, but I will live.) Oh, and it has couches. 3 of them! I cannot wait to move and I am already coming up with ways to craft some cute decorations to make it more homey.
I feel like those are the big highlights. Exams are not too far off, starting a week from Monday. This term is just flying on by. Your prayers as I prepare would be much appreciated.
And for those of you that read regularly, it is spring on the blog again! Since the blog kicked off with our lovely green spring tree (our wedding tree I might add), I feel like we have come full circle. And it also means that our first year of marriage is quickly coming to an end. Crazy how fast life moves sometimes.
It had been particularly windy here the last few days. Why, I am not really sure. It is usually breezy, but the wind has been particularly strong recently. So much so, that these eerie sounds get made from the way it whips around our apartment that I can hear at night or in the early mornings.
Not much more has happened recently. It has been a week of dealing with lots of little annoying things. This school has been sending me round in circles. Wednesday I attended a training session to be a facilitator for review sessions for new term 1 students. I signed up months ago and was assured that it was a for-sure thing if you pass your classes. I go to the training and my name is not on the list. They have no record of my sign-up (even tho I have proof I submitted the application) and wrote my name down to add-in. I have yet to hear if I got scheduled and when my group will meet. They start Monday and it would be nice to know if I need to be preparing, etc. Unfortunately, I feel like I have pestered them enough today so I will have to wait until Monday and hope that I don’t have a session that starts on Monday.
Secondly, they posted grades today for my finals I took Monday and Tuesday. When I originally checked my parasitology grade, it said I failed. This seemed crazy to me, so I frantically emailed the professor and then worried ran to the office. I was thankful to see a friend of mine sitting there frantically looking through scantrons which gave me the reassurance that it was most likely an error. Fortunately it was just that, an error on their part, and my grade is supposed to be corrected to my rightly earned A. Sigh of relief there.
And thirdly this week I finally turned in my selective papers. SGU offers optional extra classes that are usually clinically oriented. I am (hopefully) taking a community health selective that will allow me to get some experience visiting the Grenada general hospital and taking patient histories, etc. I am really looking forward to it and one of my friends and I decided to sign up together. After finally finding the office we needed, the person we needed to speak with was not there so we handed our papers to a secretary to hope the class is not full. I really hope we get in, we are very excited about taking the class. It sounds like a great opportunity. I guess we will see, lets hope they can be prompt about letting us know. I think it starts in a week!
Anyways, prayers that everything will work out are much appreciated. I am looking forward to getting to do a few things outside of just class to help gain some extra experience and course review.
Tyler and I are hoping to head to St. George’s on Sunday for some Independence Day festivities. There seems to be a sort of national fair thing happening. I am sure that will warrant some stories you can look forward to!
Today I finished final number two. Can you believe that it is only week 3 and I have already taken two finals!
We had only two classes the first two weeks which all ended today and tomorrow my other 4, much harder, classes begin. It has been nice to transition in slowly, but a super bummer that I have been so not busy and Tyler has been playing catch-up with work. He says that starting next weekend he shouldn’t have to work on the weekends anymore, just when I will be back to studying all weekend. LAME!
But anyways, we are enjoying being back to normal life here on the Island. Back to a nice sunny 85 degrees everyday with sporadic rain showers. In fact, I think that this afternoon I will hit the beach. And maybe if I am lucky, I will pull my husband away from work this evening to come join me and we can get some fun, fruity drinks at Umbrellas.
But we are actually very thankful that Tyler is now working full time for one company. God has blessed us there and he loves his job so much, so that makes me very happy. I am looking forward to time changing again so we will only be 3 hours ahead of home, then 5pm there will be only 8pm here. And you can pray for school as real classes start up. I am also leading DES review sessions for 1st termers this term for Anatomy and Biochemistry plus, which some luck, will be taking a community health selective that will allow me to round at the Grenada General Hospital a couple times a week. It will mean that I am really busy, but it should help me really solidify and integrate all that I am learning.
With love from us here in Grenada, we hope you are all enjoying your cold winters and snow storms. If you need a sunny break, come visit!
This is a picture I took of everything I learned in the past 18 week of school. 18 week! I took all of the textbooks (leaving out the couple I never opened) plus all of my lecture notes plus any additional notes I took or made and – Voila! It is hard to believe that I actually went through that much material. I cannot believe I studied all of that – even if you just take everything that was paper (which I read over many, MANY times) – that is a lot of stuff to learn in one semester. People must think Doctors should know a lot or something. And I hope the post-its you can see in the pages of the texts prove they were well read and used. As I told Tyler, if anyone doesn’t understand why I was so MIA, this should make it clear.
But the massive pile of textbook and notes (that I have no idea where to store now) aside, this term was a lot of work. It was a lot of work, but flew by. And I am, in the end, really happy with how it went. I did extremely well on all of my final exams, including my clinical skills exam, and I feel like I really have gotten back into the swing of school and am loving it.
On a different note, after a week of cleaning the apartment and enjoying a little of the caribbean sun – we boarded a plane on Saturday and flew back to California. So far it feel big, cold, and a little weird. But at the same time, it is so good to be at home. The food and beer is so much better! Plus it has been nice to see Tyler’s family these few days, and we will see mine later this week.
As we took off, I took some sweet shots of Grenada. We were on the wrong side of the plane to get a view of the whole island from above, so these are just of the south side near the airport. It sure looks its small size as soon as you leave the ground.
I am not entirely sure where October and November went, but it appears that December is just a few days around the corner. And while it seems hard to believe that my first term of medical school is soon to be behind me.
The last week or so had been a whirlwind of pre-final preparations and all of the stress and work that goes into exam prep. Last Friday I had my first OSPE exam, which is a clinical skills examination that tested not only diagnostic skills, but our physical exam skills. The exam in itself is actually part of a 4th term class, but it was actually one of the more fun exams to prepare for. There is something about starting to master the techniques and skills that I will actually use everyday of my career that is really exciting. The exam in and of itself was a little disorganized which led to a long day of being sequestered, but it was a worthwhile experience. And it is nothing like heading to an exam wearing a white coat and carrying a stethoscope to make you feel really legit.
This weekend was a weekend chocked full of studying – as usual. But considering I have been staying fairly on top of things since the midterm, I decided to set aside some time for Tyler and I to get a little R&R while he had a light workload due to American Thanksgiving and before the sheer madness of studying 18 hours per day of finals fully sets in. Saturday we pulled ourselves out of bed nice and early and made it to campus to get to work. But at 1pm we had plans with a friend to go jump off the cliff. There is a cliff behing the Caribbean house at SGU that is perfect for jumping off into the ocean.
After a fun time hanging out in the pristine blue ocean, we braved the climb back up – which I have a few battle wounds to show for as my wingspan is much smaller than my fellow male cliff jumpers and my upper-body strength leaves something to be desired. But have no fear, I made it back up after a few tries.
Before
Later Saturday night after some more studying and such, Tyler and I had carved out our epic Christmas date night in. We had made plans to do all of the things I associate with the beginning of the Christmas season, even here in Grenada. So first step was to close the curtains to hide the weather and lower the AC a degree or two, and then we put together all of our creative spirits and created a paper Christmas tree. It is beautiful! I was quite impressed on what we were able to make out of a couple paper presentation folders and some glittery fabric paint.
After
After we “decorated” the apartment, we commenced part 2 of our date which included baking chocolate chip cookies and making Grenadian peppermint hot cocoa from scratch. I will admit we had to cheat and buy cookie dough, but considering we don’t eat cookies around here, they were amazing! And since Tyler had brought home some good Grenadian cocoa sticks, we were able to make a pretty good try at hot cocoa. My recipe might need a little perfecting, but it came out pretty good if I may so myself.
And then part 3, after we had made the appropriate snacks, was to watch the movie Elf. Tyler had never seen it, which was of course a tragedy, so we enjoyed our cookies with hot cocoa while watching Elf. We probably ate way too much, but that is okay.
Pure Christmas Joy
It was a great, fun, and relaxing night that really helped to give me the energy to push through finals. And it is hard to believe that in something like 10 days I will be done with finals, term 1 of medical school, and we will be preparing for our trip back home. For now, pray for energy and strength and peace of mind and pray that I will rock my finals.
So Midterms start in just under a week. In fact, I think to myself that sitting here writing that in a sentence is such a terrible waste of time. Midterms make it feel like 24 hours in a day is simply no where near enough time to review everything there is to know for the exams. And our professors kindly remind us how many pages of objectives they have given us and how sleeping is for after midterms.
Sadly, as I get busier I also tend to get exhausted. Stress, hours of studying and the transient feeling of being overwhelmed tends to zap my energy pretty good. But of course, having no energy only makes the problem worse. Then today, I am feeling a lot groggy and a little like that could be my immune system conceding to something. Being sick, or being tired really in general, needs to not happen over the next week and a half so I hope that this will pass quickly. Emergen C and coffee will be my friends and hopefully will do the trick to not send me into the land of being sick. So, if you’re thinking about us then please pray for my exams next week and pray that I will have inordinate amounts of energy to tackle and learn and review all that I have learned in the last 8 weeks. Then I can sleep and enjoy Grenada on the hopefully really awesome fun day-after-midterms-date Tyler is planning for us.