Week of November 8

This was the 14^th week of medical school and just when I thought that this block couldn’t get worse, it did.

Monday

I was feeling overwhelmed. I was not 100% sure how to study for anatomy this block because there was just so much information. I had already spoken to one friend who suggested to do a few muscles and bones a day because it was going to be difficult to learn everything, they throw at us (he was right by the way).

On this Monday, the dissection was focused on the upper extremity and specifically the brachial plexus. (According to many sources, the brachial plexus is high yield for board exams for various health professionals).

Fortunately, this Monday was not a preclinical site day so there was more time to sit down and start looking at the material. I spent most of this Monday trying to catch up on the material from the previous week to make sure I knew it well.

Tuesday

This Tuesday was pretty long. They informed the class that on the weeks we don’t have preclinical, we still have CAS sessions.

The CAS session was really great. It was focused on intellectual and physical disabilities.  We were given an educational session about how we should treat patients with disabilities.

For instance, talking directly to the patient and taking the time to make sure we can make them comfortable rather than just checking the boxes of what we need to get done. For this session, we had a few speakers who shared their experiences with disabilities.

They all shared a few opinions about their experiences with the health care providers. My favorite part of this session was how they were basically speaking the truth how many of us feel about healthcare. The long waiting time and not knowing if they are talking about you right outside the door were two things they said that I related to.

After the CAS session, I was able to figure out how to connect the controller to the Anki app on my iPad.

Wednesday

On this Wednesday, there was lecture for two hours and then two hours for dissection. We continued the dissection for the upper extremity.

From this Wednesday, I remember studying for most of the day because I was still trying to figure out how to study for the block.

Thursday

For this Thursday, there was Clinical Arts and Sciences. In this session, we learned how to test the upper extremities. In this session, there was a standardized patient who helped us practice many of the maneuvers.

After this session, there was some time to complete the FOM asynchronous modules.

In the afternoon, I had my research course. For these sessions, there was a biostatistics session and a journal club session. The biostatistics session was focused on parametric and nonparametric tests. To make this more exciting, we had an activity focused on determining what types of tests would used for specific scenarios.  

After the biostatistics session, there was a session for our journal clubs. Each journal club session is assigned to two students. Fortunately for me, I was leading the journal club with my classmate. It was a really great session! We went through the journal article based on aspects of the paper that we thought were important. For this paper, we looked at the tables and understanding if there were any significances.

Friday

On this Friday, there was anatomy lab for two hours. Right after, there was a weekly case session.

After this session, I went to the Bone Room where I studied a little bit more. I talked to my professor again this Friday and asked some of the questions I had about movement. I was really struggling with remembering the different movements and muscles associated with them. Here is a picture of me with one of the skeletons from the Bone Room:

After talking to my professor, I had my first therapy session!

That’s right! I finally scheduled a meeting with a therapist for this Friday. My school has a contract with a local group that specializes in therapy. With this contract, students have access to 12 free sessions, and I was able to utilize this resource.

This session was helpful because I was having so much trouble trying to process the events that happened in the weeks prior. It felt nice to talk to someone about everything that had happened. I am looking forward to future sessions.

After this session, my Sib group had axe throwing! This event was paid for by the Student Affairs because they want students to practice wellness.

The axe throwing itself was super fun and helped me release some anger. My friends and I went to a ramen place for dinner after which was also paid for by Student Affairs. It was a great Friday night. The following Saturday, I got dinner with another friend when I finally got my replacement AirPods. The first Saturday, the Apple store told me that they didn’t have any AirPods in stock.