NOW it feels like I am coming home!

ICM IS OVER!!! Wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be - as expected, haha. I had one senario, two tasks and Harvey (our patient simulator). So today I was asked to examine a patient complaining of breathlessness (pretty much a reinactment of what I did in 3rd! Haha!), examine the thyroid and for hyperthyroidism, visual fields and identify a murmur, mine was innocent, haha. It could have been so much worse! Even typing them out right now I know how easy they are! Of course I managed to mess up a couple small things but it went really well and am hoping I made the A! Now, I am cramming for my pathology lab exam in the morning. I am not too worried about it as I am planning on staying up all night so it will all get done. Hmm, what else?

Oh yeah right after my ICM exam I was in my first earthquake! The epicenter was in Martinique at a 7.3! Sana and I were in the library and I started feeling some shaking (I have felt this twice in my own bedroom but not to this extent!) and all of a sudden it gets worse and worse! The walls of the library start shaking and everyone starts rushing towards the exits! We were outside only a few minutes before heading back in but it was wild! Mother nature must be getting back at me for missing out on the hurricane a couple months ago!!! Very interesting though because we even saw some of the staff squirm about! Usually they think it is funny how we all over-react to things, like the hurricane. They have been through it all before and know what to do! So that was interesting.

Anyway, I have like 15 hours before my path lab exam so I better get my butt into gear! After tomorrow morning I am down to 5 exams from 7! Five exams keeping me from all the loves back home!!! Happy days sooooo soon to come!

Exam marathon begins tomorrow...

I decided to write this blog on the eve of my bunch of exams when I am feeling most confident. I figure this way I can look back and hopefully get the confidence on the days when I am feeling a bit nauseated about everything - like tomorrow. Well, to me at least, ICM will be my hardest exam in the sense that I am being graded for examining 4 patients. I know that I have it all in my head but it is just a matter of not choking up and getting all nervous. Of course, the other exams will be hard but for some reason after doing an exam like ICM, multiple choice exams seem so wonderful. Haha, well I will have six of them after tomorrow so let's see if I stick to that!

As of right now I am done with ICM. I feel pretty confident I know what I am doing and that I will be able to answer the secondary questions that will be coming along with each patient. We will see though. The exam begins at about 1:30pm but we are all being sequestered in the classroom - so who knows when I will actually get in there. I hope I go first!!! I want it over with! Then, after that exam I have to get my butt in gear for my path lab exam which is the next day. Ah, cramming - how I missed you... I am acutally working on it now in hopes that I will not need to pull an all nighter tomorrow night, but if need be, I will do it.

After that I will have the whole weekend to prepare for my shelf exams and mini. The shelf exams, like in second semester - well, you just do what you can do. It is so much material to remind yourself of and cram into your head that you can just do your best. I am really glad I chose to take the COMP in January. For me, getting ready for that on top of the classwork I have now plus my extracurriculars just wouldn't be wise. So, I am figuring after my lab exam on Friday I am home-free. I will be studying alot but I won't be so pressed for time!

So I better get to my pathology before my last little ICM review. Just have to keep that confidence!!!

475 days down to 17...

Tick tock... Ugh, I just want the ICM practical to get here! I am in the very last group Thursday afternoon and I think I am working myself up for nothing. I was at the gym earlier today talking out my examinations and it was going just fine! I know I will do alright but just the anticipation and anxiety I can feel (not to mention the nerves) when the profs are watching me examine patients just makes me queezey. Of course, once I am actually in there doing the exam I am okay most of the time but still.

Then I had a new thought to calm my nerves: If the only thing that is standing in my way to getting home to my Tony is this exam - bring it on. You know what? It works. I am just ready to get it over with. I have alot of exams after (6) but none of those bother me as much as ICM, seeing as they are multiple choice exams, haha. Sigh.... Thursday, you here yet? Nope. On the upside, I am studying in my apartment in my PJs all comfy-cozy. Nice knowing I don't have to move except for the gym and exams!

Just countin' down the days...

Well that night was alot of fun - so much so that after the Kubuli blocked half of my memory and got me sick in the middle of the night - I feel that I now have had enough until I get home, hahaha. Funny how power hours were so easy in college... I did think I was getting old but then again Kubuli is a stronger beer - yeah we will go with that excuse!

Anyhoo - so yesterday went okay just worked on bits of things here and there. I got to talk to my baby today while some of our friends were over the house! Seeing them all made me so happy! I just wanted to squeeze them all! Ah well 18 days. YES - We have hit the teens!!!! 18 days to go and I am home free. I am really trying to figure out what I am going to miss from here. I'm sure that will be in another post to come, as of right now I can't think of anything!

It is going to be so weird tomorrow when I don't have to go to class! I never have to go to campus again - only to take exams! Slowly but surely, the excitement is building as I am realizing this is mere DAYS away from being over... Wooooohooooo!

Classes on the island - FINISHED.

It's over! Lectures for my first two years of medical school are over! Now only 7 exams stand in my way from finishing my second year! This is so wierd. After 18 years of learning in the classrooms, I am finally done. While in 5th semester is between 2nd and 3rd year and we have a few lectures here and there - I can't help to extrapolate a little and say to myself that I will be beginning my 3rd year, forever done with the classrooms and now continuing my education in the hospital (Of course to my patients, I will be a "5th semester student"). Such a great feeling!

So what's on the agenda today? Well, I'm thinking I will study a bit for today, head on home then get ready for a fun night out. Why not! Been waiting for this day a long time and at times I never thought it would come! Studying this weekend will mostly be at the apartment I'm sure but it is definitely time to get the nose to the grindstone. I have been able to pump out some good work but I know it is near impossible to finish all I want to before the Shelf exams. I will get it done before the COMP which is ~1.5 months away luckily but I am darn well going to try to do as much as I can. I figure, the more I get done before the shelfs the more time I will save myself for when I come home to study for the COMP!

Just gotta keep pushing and not get too down when time runs out - I can only do what I can in one week. So, back to it so I can get out tonight! Hopefully, I will get a good sleep and wake up semi-refreshed, haha!

Happy Thanksgiving from the island... again.

Wow, a year has passed. Thanksgiving is here again. I wish I was home for it so bad to see all of my family. I am trying to keep a more positive attitude than last year but it was honestly the worst day here on the island last year so today is second to only last Thanksgiving, haha. I have quite a few things to do today to keep me busy so I am hoping that makes the day fly for me. Ah well, now I am on campus to study all day. I thought it would be easy to think of other things but I just think about my family and friends, fooooooooood, parades, cool and crisp weather... Sigh...

Let's see what am I thankful for? Family, friends, everything from home... lol. Down here? Well I am grateful I made it through these 16 months. I am grateful that I have been privileged to really be a part of Ross as a leader in so many different clubs. Grateful too that I now have knowledge to teach others under me (like today I am a TA for 1st semesters). I am grateful that while I have had to cram so much in my head, that even though I feel like it's so hard to retain it all - I still have my determination and passion for medicine. I know I am grateful for so many things, especially that this is the last holiday I have to sacrifice in my time here. 3 weeks from tomorrow I leave for good. That is one the greatest of all things to be thankful for.

I love you all SO very much and don't know where I would be without all of your love and support. So close to coming back home to you all and words can't even explain how that makes me feel. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Last week of classes ever...

Strange. So strange. After this week I will never be in the classroom again. Of course, we will be having a few here and there for 5th semester but nothing like the setting I have had for my first two years of medical school. Friday I will be bringing my video camera just to capture the last glimpse of us as we finish our last lecture! I am so excited this to be all over and behind me. Just knowing I am coming home 3 weeks from Friday is just blowing my mind!

Today, I am just in class then hitting up the gym before I head home. Most of my studying now is for the COMP exam (which will also help me with my Shelf exams) and the mini is going on the back burner for now. Exams start off next Thursday and don't stop until the day I come home! Tomorrow is our last day for ICM and it will be dedicated to practicing different scenarios they will be throwing at us for our exam. Sana and I have been studying really well together so my anxiety about that exam has really lessened.

So... 24 days to go. Tony and I can barely believe it! I am so incredibly happy how well we have gotten through the past 16 months apart! Finally we will be together again and not have to worry about me moving 2,000 miles away after 2 weeks visiting. It is going to be such an amazing feeling to wake up after being home for 3 or 4 weeks and realizing that I never have to leave him again. Of course, I do have 5th semester but I will still be so close to home, just 1.5-2 hours away from him. So much better than >24 hours of travelling to get to him. Being 2 hours away for just 3 months will be a BREEZE compared to this - so much so that I am not even thinking or worrying about it at all. I will be home in Michigan and that is what matters.

Well I better get back to class, after today only 2 more days of classes to go!

Goodbye Roseau!

Today was one of the best days I have had here in Dominica. You might remember when I made my first donation to Princess Margaret Hospital for the neonatal ventilator early in the year. Well, since then - alot more fundraisers and such with RFDH (Ross' Foundation for Dominican Health) and we have been able to make another! This time we delivered two pulse oximeters and a neonatal incubator.

Last time a donation was made, it was very quick. Just a quick "handing over" of the equipment and we were back on the hour drive to campus. This time? SO DIFFERENT! It was a big deal. I am so glad that in my time running the foundation I was able to have an awesome E-board! We had about 7 of us go to the hospital along with our faculty advisor, dean and much other faculty and staff of PMH! It was so great. Not only that - but there was media there for Dominica! The presentation was going to be broadcasted all over the island! Everyone on the E-board that went had a great time and I am so glad. There is nothing more that I want from this than for those I worked with to feel like that really made a difference and I think this experience will stay with them for a very long time. It has been so nice to be in all the extracurriculars that I have been in and have them pay off as much as they did. But in RFDH's case, it has so much more meaning. It is nice knowing that I didn't just come here to Dominica to study but that the donations we have made can really be put to use to save lives and help in the health care here. Just to leave a little bit of our work back here makes me feel like I made a difference.

Not to toot my own horn but without taking over the foundation after the two girls had founded it - RFDH would not exist. Kinda makes me feel good knowing that. I always have the feeling that "Well, if I didn't do it - someone else would have.", which isn't true for this. Sure, someone might have done another club like it years later, but no one else knew about RFDH after that semester and it was up to me to keep it going. I am just so glad I did and got to work with so many of my classmates. It was just so nice to be recognized for the hard work we are all putting into the foundation because it really means so much to us all.

I am so happy that I was able to record everything with the camcorder my Mom left so that will be a nice memory to have. But alas, once all the fun was over and my time with RFDH pretty much had come to an end - we had to leave PMH and the city of Roseau for the last time. Next up will be leaving Portsmouth and the island forever... in just 27 days! It can't come soon enough...

Less than a month...

28 days to go and trying to motivate myself to plow through some material. I am slowly moving studying back to my apartment. After sitting in the same seat for nearly 3 months everyday, I am officially getting sick of it. Not to mention most of my extracurricular duties are just about over so I am so excited that I can do what I want with my own time again.

It is strange though with the end so near I was thinking about the day I leave. My mini 3 ends at 11am and then the taxi is coming to get me at noon! That give me an hour to rush home, chug a couple beers (hehe) and head to the airport! With all that rushing, I just kept thinking how I will be rushing out of campus not even realizing that it will be the last time I will be there! Not that I am looking for a great goodbye but just strange how quick I will be leaving.

Time flies I guess and almost time to leave here. Who knows if I will ever come back - probably not. But hey - Tony and I still need to figure out where we are going on our honeymoon :P! Yeahhhhh... Ah well, back to studying - oh wait I've been lazy all day... Here goes nothing...

Coming to an end!

Time spent with my parents was very short but also wonderful. I really am glad that I had been able to see them even if only for ~20 hours. They are on their way back home now, back to good 'ole Michigan. Me? Well, I'm only 30 days behind them.

Things still are going full speed but luckily with an end in sight. 10 days until my classes here on the island are forever over and then I just have to plow through a handful of exams and I am home free. It seems so long since I have been back. I guess it will be - I haven't been on the island for the whole semester since my first semester here. Thanksgiving is coming up too and I don't even want to think about it. That was the worst day I think that I have had on the island was last Thanksgiving and not being there for it. This Thanksgiving I hope I will see the good because it is the LAST holiday I will have to miss because I am here. Ah well...

So anyway, I am back in the health groove - wanna look nice for my man when I step off that plane ;). Started going to the gym yesterday and am already looking forward to going back. It's so nice just to take an hour of the day for myself and to straighten out my head. Today, Sana and I are making a study schedule and we are sticking to it!!! I hope it works out. I just think things will work out better if I am not doing it alone and am able to get more thoughts in my head than just my own. We'll see how that works out.

Classes end next Friday. Then what? Here we go: ICM practical exam, Pathology Lab exam, Pathology Shelf exam, Microbiology Shelf exam, Pharmacology Shelf exam, ICM Shelf exam and out Mini3 the day that I leave! Whew. Seems like alot but I know it will fly by. So - better get back to it! Missing you all tons... I mean TONS!

Dominica and her good humor...

The day is finally here! The day my parents come down to move my things out of Dominica!!! Oh wait, they missed their flight. Thanks for waiting for my parents American Eagle, grrrrr. Well their two day trip here is now cut down to 1. I am still be thankful for my ~20 hours I will get with my parents but I still wish there was more time. It was heartbreaking hearing my mom cry about it. After all, she planned and planned for this trip and was so excited just as my stepdad and I were. Ah well, what's done is done.

Tonight is the 4th semester banquet so campus is so quiet. I am just finishing up a couple lectures then heading home at 7pm to start packing up bits of my room so it doesn't take very long for us to do that tomorrow... Sigh, what a day.

On the upside I got my mini scores back and I did SUPER well :D 2 As and 2Bs (very close to As but yes, a B is a B :P)! I know for sure that I am getting out in 33 days. 33! I need to get out. I know I say this all the time but I need my friends and family back. It's just time lol. Only about another 12 days and my classes here are over forever! Crazy besides a few classes here and there with 5th semester this is pretty much the end of me sitting in a classroom! Just about time to move up and start working in the hospitals! Sooo weird.

Okay, well time to go pack my things!!!! I'll write again soon hopefully after a splendid time with my folks!

After 16 months, finally on the homestretch...

It's over! I can't believe it. I think the mini actually went really well - like really well. But of course I will never know until I get my scores back. I hope I'm not wrong about this one. It would be so great if it all paid off... Sigh... No sense lulling, I suppose. I'll just have to wait.

So, now I am pretty much all organized again and ready to finish off this semester and my 2nd year! What is left? Well, I have my ICM practical exam, pathology lab exam, 4 Shelf exams and my mini #3 exam. Seems like alot. Our classes end 2 weeks from Friday and after that the exam marathon begins! I am actually excited about it though. So close to coming home - it is hard to believe I am going to be cramming all of this into 36 days but bring it on - because this chica wants to get out of here.

4 days until my parents get here! I CAN'T WAIT! I hope we are able to just relax and have a nice time catching up! They are only staying Saturday-Monday but I know that will give me a huge boost, which is much needed. This week is pretty laid back and I am sure the weekend won't be productive at all - but I'll make up for it with my new energy that I know my family will be bringing me! YAYYY. By the way, did I tell you I had 36 days left? Oh yes. 36!

Tick, Tock!

It's about 5:30pm the day before mini #2 and I am just killing time now. I'm looking over a few things here and there but feel pretty ready to take it - or at least as ready as I am going to be. I just have been thinking all day that next time it is the day before the mini, it will be the day before I leave the island forever! So excited.

I am really looking forward to this week, too. Tomorrow after the exam I am planning on taking a nice loooooooong nap. After that, I think Sana and I are going to sit around and watch some tv, get some dinner then go OUT! :D Last after-mini party for me in Dominica! Wednesday will be alot of catching up from last week but I'm not too worried about it and then just waiting for the weekend for my mom and step-dad to arrive! WOOHOO!!!!

Ugh, what to do - what to do! I guess more studying and tv... I'll write soon to let you know how it all went!!! :D

Just about ready to rock the mini!

Studying has been going oddly well the past couple days. So hopefully that's a good sign! Since there is the Dominican Independance Day on Monday, we get an extra day to study and take our exam Tuesday. After that - the homestretch of not just 4th semester but of my time here on the island! It is nearly all over! Unbelievable.

After the exam? Of course, playing some catch up with lectures I've missed - but not before some celebrations!!! I am not going to be able to stay after mini 3 to party with everyone (oh yeah because I am moving off this rock :P) ... so this is it!!! I'm sure I'll get my work done among my catchin' up but then Saturday will be rolling around and my folks are coming down!!!!

2 whole days with my folks are going to be pure gold for my spirits! I can't wait!!! I can't tell you all enough how much it is going to do for me to see them! I don't want to think about them leaving but after they do? Just about less than a MONTH till I am back home restarting my life among my family and friends! I almost get too excited to even think about - it gets distracting - but in the best way possible!

Well, I got home around 1:30am and it's already past 2, so I should get to bed soon! Miss you all and I'll write again soon!!!

My last full month on the island!

It's November! :D I can't remember being this excited since... well, LAST November!!!!

What does November mean?
*My parents are coming in a matter of days!!!
*Classes forever end on the island THIS month.
*I can finally say that I am moving back home for good NEXT month.
*It is officially time to start playing Christmas music!!!

So much! I can't imagine how I will feel a month from now (a month!!!!) when I realize I have 2 weeks left of this place - forever. It's so crazy! Studying is going... ok. I'm visiting some professors to get things down for sure but my pharm professory says that I know things very well. I was laughing in my head. Suuuuure ok. We'll see how it goes Tuesday. Maybe I do know this stuff? Even now, over 15 months since I got here I doubt myself. At least now it is mostly in a joking matter and not driving to tears anymore lol.

I'm taking a break from pharm and moving onto micro... Then probably back to pharm. Wow, my life is SOOO interesting, haha. Okay, back to it so I can get this test over with and start writing more interesting posts!!! :P