Heart of the matter
Perhaps the most important thing I have learned this semester is that physiologist on this and that side of the pond do not agree on how the heart works. European physiologists think of the heart as a suction pump, and us physiologists think of the heart as a siphon. A basic concept.. how is blood moved around the body yet we can't agree on how it happens. I kind of like that. It takes me back to my days at the Zen center when I strived to achieve "not Knowing" as opposed to my days now that are filled with knowing more and more and more.
I hope that I remember that we can't agree on how the heart works, and just marvel every once in a while that it does.
One more final down..
I took my parasitiology final this AM and I think it went fairly well. In two weeks I have the “big” two finals--- Neuroanatomy and Physiology, and then a year end comprehensive called the BSE. I have descended into study fiend mode, and won’t be up for air much before December 14.
When words are not enough......
Finals
I have one final a week from tomorrow and the two biggest in three weeks. My brain has kicked back into gear after midterms and I have been hitting the books hard all week. I feel tired, a little behind (always a little behind) but like I have been working hard all week.
Post will be infrequent from now until december.....
Happy turkey day to you all.
Sarah
Post Midterm Celebration Pictures..
Thanks to my friend Christine.
The "bed" I am lying in with Molly is at a bar called Stewarts and is on a doc overlooking a harbour full of sale boats. The pretty lady in blue is Erika.
The Anis are back....
Chittering away in the tree near my bedroom window. I went out onto the balcony and was able to snap this as the last one flew away. I also hear one of the hawks the live in my little valley sending out lonesome Kee Kee's this morning. Perhaps lizards are in short supply for breakfast this am.
My immunology Final Grade
Yup, itsa B
Word of the day
So I am reading about hypoxia, and I learn the difference between oxygen responsive hypoxia and oxygen refractory hypoxia. Excuse me, I think, refractory? So I look it up in my medical treatment and find the definition of refractory- resistant to treatment, intractable, obstinate. So why, being the good the deconstructing former UCSC scholar with too much french structural linguistics in her head that I am, can’t they just write about hypoxia that is responsive to oxygen and hypoxia that is not responsive to oxygen? Why the special word? I am beginning to feel like it is to keep other non doctor folk out of the club, you know using language that no one else understand to make yourself look smarter. In most cases I do not think it is malicious, it just habit.. like all the folks who watch Grey’s Anatomy saying the word seriously every other minute. Now every other word I read is refractory so I am starting a little revolution. In fact I am feeling rather refractory about it. It your word of the day.. it’s a shiny word. Use it. Refractory. Go on I double dog dare ya.
Stuff that doesn’t necessarily suck..
The immuno didn’t feel like it went as well as I had hoped, but I feel good about what I did know about on it and the kind of problem solving skills I used. There was a lot more minute detail memorization than I expected (which receptor makes you crazy in the head CXCR5 CCL2 CD3 or the who the fuck cares about the third alternate name because if you aren’t doing research on it you need to be double checking those receptor names anyway) since this was supposed to be the exam that covered clinical material. The end message is I have a good functional background in immuno know and I know how to apply it.
And it is November. And I did spend my afternoon by the pool gossiping with friends and drinking wine spritzers. And the view from the pool was this one. SO life doesn’t precisely suck.
Gratitude coupled with Shameless self promotion..
First and foremost I want to send a big shout out to Michael B and Sylvia B for continuing the unflagging support of my medical school career through a constant supply of postcards. Said postcard coordinate most fetchingly with my banana slug magnet and as such hold a place of prominence on my refrigerator.
Another big thank you to Larissa, Mom, and Gina who have all graciously offered to fill their suitcases with offering from the states when they visit this December and January, and to my Dad who is ensuring that I will be outfitted with peperidge farm stuffing and sees candies for thanksgiving.
In case it has not been entirely obvious, Midterm season has rolled seamlessly into final season as I take my immunology final tomorrow (Monday). And despite the fact that I neither left my apartment or changed out of my jammies yesterday (or maybe because due to the fact..), I am feeling a bit ragged around the edges and having difficulty regaining my pre-midterm momentum. As a consequence I am once again asking you, my faithful readers, to show me your support by sending me a postcard. Actually I am expanding this term’s campaign to include letters and small care packages. Some of you are already aware of my deep, unchanging and somewhat disturbing love for cool office products. Cool post it notes? Unusual paperclips? neat pens? shiny pointy pencils? send em on down. Your latest fave ipod mix burned onto a cd would also be welcome.
Playing Chicken
I think I don’t have anything new or different to say to the folks back home and then I realize I do. Of course my immuno final is monday so this is yet again an advanced form pf procrastination. We never bothered to save our daylight here in warm and steamy Grenada so we didn’t change our time back this week. Still it is getting darker earlier here 12 degrees north of the equator and it has gotten cooler. I didn’t put my AC on for three whole days, and that is beginning to seem like a luxury. The other morning I decided to drive to school so I could do errands after class. (Riding the bus is generally cheaper, cooler and I get to listen to the local radio that often has a strange mix of hip hop, reggae and old US country music. This morning the DJ was playing and singing along with “Elvira” by the Oakridge boys. “Elvira, now that’s an unusual name! Come on everybody sing ELVIRA” ) Along the bumpy road to the main road, My neighbor Mr. Wilson who is a police man flagged me down and asked for a ride to the roundabout. He was heading into downtown Saint George and wanted to catch one of the local Reggae buses because there is never any place to park in town. He is the typical industrious Grenadian, a police officer who takes in tailoring and has informally adopted the SGU students along the road. He is also, he told me, the color guard for Parliament. There is a guy who likes to check students cars for change who seems kind of harmless, but Mr. Wilson chases him off with a few shots from his side arm any time he sees him. He told a group of us in our apartment to keep our lights on because “thieves love the dark” and he told us he wants to shoot the change taker guy in the foot so he can’t run away any more. Between Mr. Wilson’s 4 dogs, the mastiff I call cupcake who lives 2 doors down and the 5 other barkey dogs who live in the immediate area I feel quite safe.
After class I went on a little odyssey to find some frontline (a flea and tick treatment for shade). They were out of it at the veterinary teaching hospital so I drove down to Hubbards.. a kind of a catch all home store with pet supplies and stationary. Driving past I cut through Mon Tout.. a neighborhood considerably less upscale than mine on a narrow two lane road where folks just park in one lane and you have to play chicken with the chickens and oncoming cars to be on your merry way.
Lance Aux Epines is definitely the high rent district for Grenadans.. and even though SGU students think of themselves as poor and although most of us are living off loans, we import our US standard of living with us which is a lot of money by Grenadan standards. Mr. Wilson asked me if I would come back to Grenada to practice medicine and I told him the simple answer which is no. The truth is that I would like the opportunity to do that type of do gooder stuff, but I will likely have to take a job that will first and foremost allow me to pay my loans fast. Then I can run off to Grenada, South Africa, Darfur or my old hood in Albuquerque and put my medical training to good use.
What Nada's Shirt said last week
"I hope you make more than I can spend"
My appologies for my tardy reporting:
To complete the picture you should know that when Nada complained "Where was I when God was handing out height" I commented that he had amply gifted her in other areas she replied "Yeah he gave me flotation devises instead"
