Wednesday, September 24, 2003

 

feeling better...

Feeling better today. My mom is stable, and they're running tests and such. I got to talk to her tonight for a tiny bit, so just hearing her voice made me feel better and concerned at the same time - I could tell she was a little out of it and sounded very tired. Thanks to all for your prayers and thoughts...

So I'm going to go home this weekend. We've got a 3-day weekend this weekend, so I figured buying the plane ticket was justifiable, especially considering yesterday's events. I know my family probably wouldn't want me spending the money, but I figure 1) I'm in a crapload of debt to the Dept. of Education as it is, so it's but a drop in the bucket, 2) I don't get to see my family much while I'm in school, and 3) seeing my family and being able to at least maybe make them dinner or do their laundry or give the dog a bath to help out would ease the burden on them even a little. Therefore, it's worth the money to me. And I figure, it'll be a nice surprise for them. So yeah, anyone who reads this and talks to my family, don't tell them. Well, Fatima knows, so go ahead and tell her. Just not the parents.

Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers... keep 'em comin...

Claud 9:40 PM 

Tuesday, September 23, 2003

 

prayers, please...

I'm requesting your prayers once again... this afternoon, my younger sister Fatima called me and asked if I was sitting down. At this point in my life, I've not received one phone call that began with those words that ended well. This morning, my mom had a seizure. If you don't know, my mom survived breast cancer a few years ago, but has been battling a second round of cancer for over a year now. So if you would, please, pray for her. Send her strength. Send her good vibes. Keep my dad and my sisters in your thoughts as well. Christine is out in Cali with her husband, so she feels just as helpless as I do. And Fatima and Dad are holding the fort at home, so they are dealing with everything there.

I hate being out here sometimes. I'm relatively close to home, but yet so far. And I can't go home whenever I want to (no car, and my parents would kill me if I bought plane tickets to fly home all the time). Besides, I know Mom (and the rest of my family, probably) would kick my ass if I ditched school to go home. Dan reminded me just now that the best way I could probably help her is to do well in school. It's one of the few things she wants from me, and it makes her happy. And as much as I know that that's true, it kills me that I can't do much more than that for her right now.

So please, keep her and my family in your prayers. Thank you.

Claud 4:50 PM 

Sunday, September 21, 2003

 

oy vey...


T-minus 20 hours until my next GI exam. With my GI SPAL to follow it (albeit the SPAL is at 3PM). EEEK. Not good. Must absorb all there is to know about the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas.

So sleepy. But I slept a lot Friday night, slept a decent amount last night. Yet sleepy nonetheless. That is irritating.

Had a cup of coffee this morning. I should've eaten more, I think my body has decided that there's a bit too much caffeine or something in my system and I'm getting kinda squirrly.

Off to forage for food... then back to the books.

on a different note...


I didn't mind Jessica Simpson much until I saw parts of the show "Newlyweds" on MTV. It's documenting her and Nick Lachey's life as newlywed popstars. I actually thought she had a good voice (although I think her handlers have her singing stuff that doesn't complement her voice all the time), seemed like a nice kid. And now I am just irritated by her. Spoiled. Whiny. Somewhat clueless. Sheesh, I thought I was messy.

Claud 10:26 AM 

Thursday, September 18, 2003

 

What do you mean it's already Thursday???


That's not cool. I still have too much to do.

Got my schedule up till December. Not pretty. To those at home - Yeah, I'll be seeing y'all around Christmas. Then after that, Boards hell begins... so I'll see ya in July when school lets out...

Head is still swimming from Hospital Day - too much info in my head. Too many decisions to make, even though that decision is a year away. Before I know it, decision time will be here. Oh, Hospital Day is when a bunch of hospitals come tell you about their residency programs and clinical rotations/clerkships. I'll explain tomorrow.

Ok, off to study and go to bed.

Claud 8:27 PM 

Monday, September 15, 2003

 

the novel about last week, part II...

Please read yesterday's blog if you haven't already for part I...

Friday night... AKA Why Claudine will never bet on horses again...

Friday evening, Dan was getting a little cabin fever (he was in my little apartment all morning while I was in class and at meetings), so after a WalMart run we went to Prairie Meadows Casino and Racetrack to watch some horse races. I love animals, so he figured I'd get a kick out of watching the horses, and learn to place a bet. So for the first race, I tried to be all logical and selected a horse based on his recent win record. He came in last. So Dan said to listen to my gut feelings on a horse, to pick a name and look at the horse and go with it. So I look at the horses for the next race, see a horse named "Soup for Lunch" and I know, that's my horse. So we go to the area where the horses are being walked and take a look at him. And this horse has yellow socks on!!! Well, it's tape, but it looks like he's wearing socks! And his headpiece thing is yellow with red flames on it! That was it. Soup for Lunch was the horse for me. So I make the bet. And he comes out of the gate in last place. But then during the final stretch, he gets this burst of speed, and he's coming up to 3rd, then 2nd... and he's angling to take 1st with only a few yards to go, and....

his ankle snaps. I shit you not. I didn't realize it at first. He's within yards of coming into first place, and he pitches forward, throwing his jockey to the ground. Another horse gets spooked and pitches its jockey to the ground. The two get trampled. And Soup for Lunch is just bucking back and forth, whinnying, then I notice it - his front right ankle is dangling at a weird angle. Soup's jockey gets up, kinda dazed, but the other jockey is still lying there. She eventually got up with a little help, so that was encouraging. They load Soup into a horse trailer and whisk him away. And the whole time I'm thinking, "They don't rehab racehorses... I just killed a horse." I've never seen anything like this on TV, let alone live, only a few yards from me.

I am now scarred. Dan calls his mom and my sister. His mom says, "I think the racehorses of the world don't want you to bet on them anymore" and Christine says "He's glue now. You killed a horse. What did he ever do to you?"

And that is why I don't ever want to bet on a horse again.

Things finally start to look up...

Saturday me and Dan had a lazy morning, well, Dan did. I got up relatively early to study while he slept for a few more hours. After some breakfast, more studying, we headed out to Taco John's for some lunch, then to the Metro Ice Sports Arena to watch the Buc Bowl. The Des Moines Buccaneers are in the USHL, which is an under-21 hockey league. Some players get scouted for the NHL, some for college, etc. Every year, they host the Buc Bowl, where all the other USHL teams come for a tournament weekend. So from Friday until Sunday there were games from 10 AM until 10:30 pm. We caught about a game and a half before we headed out to Taki, a Japanese sushi restaurant and steakhouse, to catch some dinner.

At Taki, we caught up with Liz, Jamie, Jenn, Nate, Pokey, and Ian for some teppanyaki and sushi. Teppanyaki is kinda like dinner and a show wrapped up in one yummy package (think Benihana). You're sitting around a flat top grill (3 sides of the rectangular grill have a table/ledge for the diners, and the chef stands at the 4th side), and the chef cooks your meals in front of you, with neat knife/spatula/fire tricks, audience participation, and general entertainment galore. It was a lot of fun, and everyone had a great time. Our chef was way more fun than the guy we had last time we went, and the food was delicious. See my review at redpac.com.

So I felt much better by Saturday night, needless to say. And Sunday was just a lazy, football-watching Sunday afternoon. It was nice to just lie around and watch TV. Then Dan left to go home. =( But I'm ok. =)

And now I'm going to eat some dinner and hit the books again.

by the way...


I hate Celine Dion's latest hairdo.

Claud 6:58 PM 

Sunday, September 14, 2003

 

a crappy week capped off by a faboo weekend... AKA the novel about last week, part I


It's been a while since my last post. Been busy. School is driving me bananas. I now understand why last year's 2nd years (the 2005's) complained so much. Look out, this is a long one.

Monday...
Monday's Preventative Medicine exam was sucky, and when I went to the exam review

[interruption for explanation] After most of our exams, there is a review session where we can view the exam questions and inquiry/challenge questions that we feel were poorly worded, misleading, outright incorrect, not covered in any of our materials, etc.

back to the exam review... I have never challenged a question. I look over my notes, look at the questions, and generally understand what I did wrong (which is usually to become illiterate in the middle of an exam). But this test was different. There were some pretty misleading questions, some that were worded such that the question seemed vague, etc. There were even some questions that I got right and still felt that they were bad questions - I wasn't sure what he was asking. So some of my classmates and I actually inquired about a couple of the questions, and the professor got really defensive. I didn't think that we were being disrespectful by any stretch of the imagination, but he just got very terse with us. I was not happy with that at all. On a bright note, though, I did okay on the exam.

Wednesday...

The day before our Gastrointestinal (GI) System exam, we were supposed to have 3 GI lectures. Yes, 3 new lectures less than 24 hours before an 80-question exam. 20 lectures in 7 days (there was a weekend in between, but there was also a preventative medicine exam and an OMM practical exam in those 7 days). That whole 20 lectures in 7 days thing wasn't anything surprising to me (sad, huh?) and isn't what I'm about to vent about.

So at 8 am on Wednesday, the day before the GI exam, I go to class. It's supposed to be a Radiology lecture. Now as some might remember from May, I had a brief crash course in Radiology which was a slight nightmare as apparently teaching is not high on radiologists' lists of things to do. Our course coordinators had problems finding people to teach the lectures. So I figured this time around, it's not a whole class, it's just one lecture, and no one said anything about any schedule changes. So I went to class. 8:10 AM, the class is present, but nary a lecturer to be seen. 8:20 AM, same. We figure, if it's a clinician teaching, he/she might just be running late. Finally, our class VP calls the course coordinator to see what's going on. He comes back with news that just pisses us all off. If figures that they never found anyone to teach the lecture, and they must simply have forgotten to tell us. So we'd been wasting our time sitting there wondering where the teacher was. Mind you, we then get an email from the course coordinator's secretary telling us that she was on vacation last week, got back to work Monday (this lecture snafu was Wednesday), and (this is the part that pissed me off to no end) that apparently telling us about the schedule change apparently "wasn't high enough on the priority list" of things to do. Ya know, better that she should have just said sorry and left it at that, because that sh!t about not being high enough on the priority list just made me angrier. Secretaries of the world, don't hate me, I know the job's not easy, but you just don't explain a mistake by telling someone they're not high enough on the priority list. It's not exactly diplomatic.

It just kills me, this class has been so disorganized and there is such a lack of communication between all parties.

But on a bright note, my OMM practial went well. I made some stupid mistakes, but it went well.

Thursday...

The GI exam. I'm scared out of my pants, feel like crap. Feel like I know nothing, but can't absorb any more information. Take the exam. Feel like I might have failed, one of the lecturers asked questions from out of nowhere and the only reason I got one of her questions right is because I knew the topic she lectured on. On a pleasant note, I didn't fail the test. Didn't do fabulously, but I didn't fail. Trying to absorb 20 lectures in 9 days is not fun.

But on a bright note, Dan arrived around 11 PM as me, Jenn, and Liz were drinking at Wellman's. Suddenly my week wasn't so sucky.

but I was kinda wrong...

OK, I'll admit, I'm becoming a bit more girly these days. So I figured, Dan's here, I don't have a test today, I'll look cute today. So I wore a skirt and a cute top to class (gasp!). And with that cute outfit I wore my cute leatherish strappy flip-flop platform shoes. Yeah, so that 2-hill hike to class helped me discover that these shoes hurt. And now I have blisters across the tops of my feet. They hurt so much that before walking home, Jenn let me borrow a pair of her flip-flops to wear home. Sucky, because these are really cute shoes. And now I have ugly feet. Temporarily, I hope.

And then during Dr. R's lecture, she tells us that someone approached the Dean and complained about how she lectures, and the Dean asked her to change her lecturing style. She always tells us if something she is talking about has been on the board exams (by saying stuff like "This is on the boards, part 1, part 2, part 3, and USMLE - which comes out sounding like "you small"), which generally helps narrow down what material she will likely test us on. Apparently someone likes to have to have a lot of stuff to study. This is part of our GI class - there's a lot of lectures to learn in a short period of time. I personally always read all the notes as much as I can, but I admit, I pay special attention to stuff she and the other lecturers emphasize. The entire class groaned, she said "I know, I know, but apparently I cannot lecture like that anymore". So we found a compromise. Now she just says "This is important!". =) I love this lady.

I shall continue this saga tomorrow, as it is now bedtime.

Claud 9:04 PM 

Thursday, September 04, 2003

 

i hate being dizzy...


Luckily, I'm not feeling that dizzy anymore. I'm still kinda not all there yet, but I'm definitely able to function now. So Tuesday me and Jenn went out to Starbucks around 4:30 to study. We left around 7, and when I got home, I was just a little dizzy. I figured I just needed to eat, maybe my blood sugar was a little low. I had no prepared food in the house, so I had to make something. By the time I ate, my hands were kinda shaky so I figured it had to be that I was just getting a little hypoglycemic (big word for low blood sugar). After eating, I was still pretty lightheaded so I figured I'd take a nap, let my blood sugar work itself out. Apparently that wasn't the problem, because when I woke up 45 minutes later, I felt even worse. So I tried to study. Wasn't going to happen. Couldn't focus. Kept thinking I might puke. So finally I gave up and went to bed. I figured I'd wake up the next morning and feel better.

Sure, I felt a little better the next morning, but apparently I didn't look better. Pokey and Liz were incredibly sweet and ran to the grocery store between classes to buy me a 2-liter of ginger ale ("they didn't have anything smaller!"). Luckily I don't get this way overly often, but it's just annoying. When I'm dizzy, I can't concentrate. Quick movements make me feel like I'm going to puke. Dry heaves abound. I'm doing infinitely better today, but I'm still a little lightheaded. Thank goodness I can concentrate now. I have 3 tests next week.

Oh, and to those of you who are thinking that I'm not eating, don't worry. Skelly has in fact been shoveling down food, thinking that it's a blood sugar sugar thing (my blood pressure is fine).

just like a tita, she is...


So Dr. R, one of my professors at school, sooooo reminds me of all of my titas (aunts, in Tagalog) and my mom all rolled into one little lady with a hip replacement and a cane. It kills me. Her notes are really long, and she talks really fast sometimes, but she just KILLS me! She's hilarious. She's adorable. She says stuff like "you're so gooood" and I feel like I'm at a family party with a tita pinching my cheek. Anyone out there with a filipino tita probably knows at least kinda, if not exactly how she pronounced "good" in that statement. She was a nice breath of fresh air today after our crappy 8 am lecturer.

Claud 1:53 PM