Test week 1 is finally over! Our exams were scheduled over a 4 day period and so we had Friday off. I woke up around 11 AM. It felt really weird waking up and not knowing what to do. I kinda felt lost. All week I’d wake up and be worried about the 8:30 AM exam. I tried to review a little before the exam. Afterwards, I’d have lunch and then back to study.

They had a pretty quick turnaround for the exam scores. All the scores were emailed to us. Most of them were emailed to us within a couple hours after turning them in. It was pretty nice. I did contemplate not opening any of the emails until after test week. But I caved and started reading them as soon as I saw one in my mailbox.

Overall it was a good week. All passing scores. I’m just glad it’s all over. And now, I get to do it all over again !

Earlier this month someone sent me an email about sleep deprivation. Here is a quote from the article (from About.com): “Poll results show that while many Americans enjoy the benefits of sufficient sleep, as many as 47 million adults may be putting themselves at risk for injury, health and behavior problems because they aren’t meeting their minimum sleep need in order to be fully alert the next day.”

Let’s face the facts. Medical students are not your average American. So while most Americans find that they have sufficient sleep (although I seriously doubt this… or maybe I just need to meet more “average” Americans), I’m sure that the percentage of medical students who received sufficient sleep is far less. This might be true for residents as well. Maybe I’ll write about that in 5 years….

I think my sleep cycle is messed up. During the first week of school there were two nights that I got to bed by 10 PM. I woke up at around 5:45, exercised, showered, ate breakfast and then got to class by 8:00. On those days I thought that I was much more alert and focused during the lectures. I think I really need to get back to that schedule instead of sitting at the computer after I finish studying till midnight.

Well here’s the update: I am no longer attending classes. Why not? Have I decided that I can learn better on my own than by listening to a lecture? Nope. Do I hate the teachers and profs? Nope. Do I have trouble getting along with the person sitting next to me in class? Nope. I am no longer attending classes because I have requested a leave of absence.

Last quarter was a challenge. I never got my “head into the game.” I could not get focused and struggled with motivating myself to study. It just was not working out. And so, two days ago I turned in my signed request for a leave of absence until this coming August when I will be joining the new incoming class.

I think it’ll work out fine. I now know what needs to be done. Well, I guess I now know how not to study.

In the meantime, I’m considering brushing up on some espanol to keep me occupied. It will give me an opportunity to re-energize and recharge for August.

Alright, well it has been over a month since I last wrote in. It was really good to have the 3 days off for Thanksgiving break. Although after the break, I was not ready to go back to school. Now I’m just looking forward to Christmas break.

But to get to Christmas Break, I have to get through another test week. Stress levels are up now. During our last set of exams, the class didn’t do so well on the Physical Diagnosis (Cardiac) exam. We need a 68% to pass the class. Class average for the exam was 66%. Yeah, there weren’t very many happy people after that week.

Fortunately, the professors decided that its more important for us the learn the material. They said that they will take all the questions from the first test and put about 5 in each of our tests from now until the end of the year. At years’ end, we will be able to replace the score from our first test by adding up the points from the cardiac questions that were scattered throughout the year.

Since the last set of exams we have also started Auscultation Lab. Its pretty cool. We sit in this amphitheater and each student is given a pair of “stethophones.” The top part is just like a stethoscope but there is not diaphram attached to it. Instead, there is a box that holds the battery, volume control, and IR receiver. The instructor then can play any heart sounds they want and we all hear the same thing. Next quarter we get to use the simulation lab with the dummy where we can listen to all the heart sounds, measure JVP, BP, and other vitals. Oh what fun $250,000 can buy you these days.