Successful Week

Well, the week is drawing to a close. Actually, let me rephrase this, the week is over only to reveal an even more hectic 'weekend'. I can't officially call it a weekend because my Saturday and Sunday will definitely be filled from morning to night with biochemistry. I can hardly wait to tickle my brain with a hundred-billion metabolic pathways. Doesn't it just sound like a joyful way to spend a weekend? :) Actually, I hope that I can stuff all of the pathways (and the associated material) into my brain by Monday morning at 8:30AM. Then I will be able to have my 'weekend' and take the rest of Monday off from studying. I can hardly wait!!!!

Now to the point. I have had a successful week. I managed to survive my first (standardized) patient experience. We have these labs called SPAL (for Standardized Patient Assessment Labs) where we are paired with an actor patient and we have to learn how to respond as a physician. It was fun to play doctor! I felt so professional in my new white coat :) Awesome. Except for the fact that my patient decided to uncontrollably cry for my entire 15 minute appointment with her. My initial reaction was to get up and give her a hug. Can you just imagine your doctor jumping out of his/her seat and hugging you when you are crying? So yeah, it didn't happen. But I fumbled around for words and could barely think of what questions to ask. It was pretty stressful. I was all sweaty after! Hopefully I did alright. I have to watch my video that the coordinators taped and assess myself within the next week. That'll be good to see myself and see where I went wrong and what I did well.

I wrote and got my second exam back today. I had a behavioural medicine exam this morning. I was really nervous about it but it ended up alright. I was 10% above the class average so I am pretty pumped! Well, I should go head on over to campus to get some studying in before I crash and reach my maximum-amount-my-brain-can-handle-get-me-into-bed point.

Until next time,
Me