The heavens aligned, and then decided to giggle

So I was historically crying this morning. In a good way.

I got accepted!

Four years of trying and going back for a masters and it finally happened! I am accepted into medical school! I seriously cannot believe this happened!

For anyone ever struggling towards their dream all I have to say is keep trying, if you work hard it will happen.

And then I went to work to try and finish a western blog while being super excited. I put the ECL devloping chemical on and then forgot to add the film for this 10 minute incubation.

Whoops :)

I'm in!!!!!!!!

I made baby heart cells!

And not baby as in I'm pregnant by any means, I made heart cells in a dish! Mouse heart cells! And they beat! I am calling them "baby" after the discussion with my PI over how these cardiomyocytes (ie baby heart cells) are not mature while the ones we have beating in our bodies are matures (and use a different system to beat than my baby heart cells).

Needless to say, cool way to end a week!

In other random news, due to my ambiguous status at local university, I have taken to introducing myself as "PI's student" for lack of any other way to describe myself seeing as I am a) not a med student there or b) a PhD student and thus lack a true status.

Anyways, more on life soon, I promise an EMS post!

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.

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...

Step 3, Done!

In truth, I have had my secondaries for medical school (step three (this round) in this step process. One was another round of MCATs and round two was the primary application) done for a while, I just haven't had time to write about it lately! There is also that lurking worry that I won't get in this time around (with as much as I have changed my application to be more competitive (yay better MCAT score!), I sure hope this is not a problem!)

I am not sure if I have mentioned it before but this is yet another round of me attempting to get into medical school. I was really close last year, interview and a spot on a waitlist! Unfortunately, in a fairly unusual event, the waitlist I was on did not move.

I think it is things like that that worry me the most. So many people are applying to medical school that even really qualified people are not getting in, people who have just as much merit as those who didn't. Many of my friends who are in medical school this year (I miss you guys!) have even said sometimes it seems like a crapshoot as to who gets in and who does not.

So needless to say, this whole wait to hear back thing does not suit me well. I don't the waiting thing well. Perhaps why I enjoy things like surgery and emergency medicine so much, because there is little waiting in those specialties. You get in, you figure out what is wrong, you fix it, the patient (is hopefully) better (minus complex cases that have so much back history it seems like one thing builds on another).

Anyways, I am now stuck waiting for step four (interviews) to happen or not.

Please let it be this time!

So close...

And yet so far away.

One more year.

I WILL get in this time.

I have fixed the problems that I had before.

I have even taken the MCATs... again!

The hardest is when my professors keep going "Wow, you didn't get in this year? I would have picked you."

Thanks, it is encouraging but its frustrating. Why can you see my potential but the admissions committees can't? Can you please go tell them to just cut to the chase and let me in already? You, my peers, are the ones I will be working with in the future, can't you please talk some sense into these people and let them know that I am someone you would LOVE to have around?

One more year...

The Draw

One of my family friends is currently in medical school, ending her 2nd year so I overheard a conversation about how she is planning her 3rd year clerkships by chance today. This of course lead to me hunting down my medical school of choice's 3rd and 4th year schedules and oggling the rotations.

Surgery, ER, internal medicine, transplant, oh how you tempt me!

Just reading about the rotations makes me want to be there, getting the experience and doing what I know I love.

Just means I have to study a bit harder to get in I guess, so back to the pre exam waltz through the renal system!

Exhaustion

I was doing good, I was working on studying, I was almost on top of things.

And now I a, overwhelmed. I still have secondaries. I have cardiopulmonary lectures that need studying piling up left and right. I got sleep but it feels like it wasn't enough.

I had a busy night on the ambulance. It was good, I got to see things that I had not seen yet and learned a lot. But then something as simple as ice now has me feeling guilty that I couldn't have done more. I feel like a should have warned someone, even if it was 4 in the morning.

I want time to pause. I want break to be here. I just want to make it through this holiday season and not break down.

Time. I just need some time.

A Brief Moment of Venting

I am my own worst enemy. I know exactly what I have to do to get where I want to be in life. EXACTLY. And yet, I procrastinate. I still haven't finished several secondaries that I REALLY need to do. I have a lab notebook still because I told myself, 'Oh, I can get this done in between classes'. HA! Right. Have I touched it? No. So now I feel horrible that I am months later giving it back to my lab and needing to ask for recommendations at the same time. And I know I have done it all to myself. Why? Why on earth can I not get my act together? I am loving being in class but if I can't get myself together to study and you know, do well on the tests, what was the point of going to class? ARG!!!!

And Fructose 6 Phosphate is converted by PFK 1 to...

I love science, don't get me wrong, but there is something about having to memorize metabolic pathways that I just haven't mastered yet. Ugh. That was a brutal exam. And its sad that I am excited to get back to endocrinology (because endo really doesn't excite me all that much other than I know it fairly well being the ooooh, fourth time I will be doing it now).

However, it has made me realize (yet again) I have some serious study habit issue I need to resolve. This is my last chance into medical school, I had better not waste it. I may be pretty absent for a bit till I get this studying thing down, but I promise the next post will be an EMS one!

The Masses

I started at this school during the summer in hopes I would get into the program that I am in now. The library was quiet, the campus was fairly depopulated and I only had to worry about lunch when there were camps going.

The classes started.

All the med students came back. I was there taking classes with them. And the library was packed. I thought that many people in one place was nuts.

Then the rest of the campus started classes.

Undergrads started/came back. Grad students appeared. The library became packed (though still the best library ever because it lets you take in food and drink).

I miss the summer not because of summer, but because it was quiet on campus!

Happy Day!

I got in! I got in! I got in! I got in!

No, not to medical school, unfortunately, but to a Master's program that is going to be my next step to medical school!

Haven't had time to post much due to a class I was taking (which, by the way, physiology rocks!) but I do plan to get back into the swing! And still find time to ride the ambulance. We have been having a really slow summer but it does allow us to train!

I got in!

Yes, I am geeking out over this...

I started taking classes recently at Local University which happens to have a medical school attached. And a hospital. So I am on my way to lunch, starving, and notice there is an ambulance just chilling on this little hill. Now, I know what this hill is and promptly rush to get the quickest food I can find and get back outside.

So I just missed the first one landing...



but much to my surprise, a second one landed!



Here they are together with the ambulance for the second one. This totally made my day.