This has been stuck in my head all weekend...

This makes me laugh because its so close to the truth! A never ending string of studying! This was also very close to what my master's program was like. We were med students light, only not that light.

Cartoons!

One of my my recent blog-to-read finds has been A Cartoon Guide to Becoming a Doctor by Dr. Fizzy. It has been hilarious and gives me much to look forward to when I finally get into medical school!

Even better, she has a book! So check out both and have a good laugh! Purchase a book too!

But I still haven't found what I am looking for...

Love U2, love that song, and it so aptly applies to my day! I naively assumed that since the antibody list said my antibody of interest was in the red box in the -20 that I would find it there. Sooooooooo has not happened yet. I froze my fingers going through enough red boxes for an army and still can't find the darn antibody! So much for proper antibody organization. I may have to let some OCD go and get the best of me and reorganize all the antibody boxes.

In other news, my new set of students for this semester are making me really excited about teaching! I have doubled my class size (16!) which for me is huge and they all seem really engaged. I was particularly proud of two moments in the first two days that I have been teaching them this semester. First, I already have several students asking if I will teach the second half of this class (which I taught last semester) over the summer! Always a good way to start! Second, I was on a clinical tangent over how it can be really bad not to have pain receptors in your skin (CIPA, as found here) but could not remember the name of the disease at all. Suddenly, one of the students in the back of the room who had been looking incredibly bored perks up her head and raises her hand, asking if the disease started with a 'C'. I answered honestly with the fact that I could not remember but by the end of our break that day she came up to me with a huge grin saying that she looked it up and it did start with a 'C' and was called CIPA.

Moments like the second, where I take a student who seemed bored and not interested and manage to pull them into being interest, particularly by a clinical correlate of all things, make me enjoying teaching more than I ever thought I could!

In medical school applications news, I have been rejected by two school, invited for an interview by one (the at the top of my list at that!), and spammed the rest with update letter. I got this email back and it made me smile.

"Dear EMT GFP,

Thank you for your email and your update.  The format is perfect!  We will place an electronic copy  of your attachment with your file.

We appreciate your continued interest in the School of Medicine.

Regards,

SOM"

I love it when I can make someone's day by correct formatting! It may also speak to the number of times I have gone through this darn application process!

Sadly, the EMS front has been fairly quiet.

How to procrastinate productively

A) Study for the class that you are taking this semester (because what else do you do when you aren't in medical school yet? take more classes!)

B) Do/study for the classes for EMT-B recert

Yeah, I am putting off the fact that I need to help clean the lab and play with my cells today. And that I need to revamp my lectures for this semester. Just not feeling it yet...

In the End

She stood waiting for us at the door, quiet and composed though visibly in pain. We had been here once before, for a fall that ended up with a trip to the E.R. thanks to the chemo he was going through. She greeted us and took us to the bedroom, neatly kept just like the rest of the house.

He was lying in the bed, silent and still, on that snowy day. We had of course brought the works into the house but I knew the moment I saw her we wouldn't need any of it. He looked so frail on the bed, blankets piled up to keep him warm, frailer than when we had seen him several months ago for that fall.

The cancer had not been kind to him. He had lost his battle and we were left comforting his wife.

She was stoic, having cared for him at home this entire time, refusing to let him be in the hospital unless absolutely necessary. She had known that it was coming but that didn't lessen the blow.

"I had just closed my eyes. I didn't mean to take that nap."

I thought to myself that her nap was probably exactly why he had chosen that moment to go. You could see the love the two had throughout the house, I had seen it during our call here for the fall. He didn't want to burden his wife with his illness and yet she had refused to let anyone else care for him. He had to have been grateful for that, perhaps wanting to spare her the last pain of watching him die in front of her.

We left only once we were sure she would be okay. Sadly, it would not be a merry Christmas Day for her.

When your PI...

Tells you to do something, its probably for a good reason.

Like the fact that antibodies really do need to be at the correct pH. So when he says you need to check the pH BEFORE you start the blotting, its not just to make you do another step, its so that you both don't have the headache of checking it later.

Lesson learned. There is a reason (9 times out of 10) why you PI wants you to do something a very specific way.