If this week were only a prelude to the next two!!!

So this past week has been amazing! Where to start? Well my clinical exams are over and they went well. I mentioned by physical exam assessment but after that I also had my clinical history assessment too. Basically we went in to our own little "offices" and was greeted by a professor and an 2nd semester student posing as an actor to be our patient. Everyone had a different case and our task was to take a thorough history and give our differential diagnosis. Mine went very well. My patient had a tension headache accompanied by GI problems due to his overuse of aspirin. Really the diagnosis isn't the hard part to get, but in taking a history you have to be sure to hit all of the right questions and rule out any other possibility. For instance, this headache could have been a multitude of things: migrane, cluster headaches, from high blood pressure, stress, etc - which you must ask about all of those through their possible symptoms. For his GI problems, one must ask: medications the patient is on, drug use, sexual history, stool characteristics, family history of cancers - and so on...

As far as my patient, I nailed it. My professor said that I did a very good job and would receive a grade in the 90s. So that made me very happy. She even used the actors opinion in my grade and he said how comfortable he was with me and how I seemed to come across as being genuine and very thorough. So that is another test down. Next was my paper... Again, things went well - it is not graded as of yet but I did ask for one of the 4th semester ICM professors to revise it and I believe that really helped smooth it all out - I am definitely feeling confident about that.

As for now, it is all studying (which after writing this blog I am going to start on) but some BIG news. Our newly hired Dean of Clinical Medicine came down to Dominica, introduced himself to us and allowed us to ask as many questions as we wanted. As most students were all eager to ask about their own individual states and what new things are happening, of course I asked about Michigan. So many lies, exaggerations and rumors are on ValueMD lately that it was great to hear someone first hand. So basically I wanted to know if there were any developments in Michigan rotations. I found out many things - all good. Seems like it shouldn't be too bad to get rotations to stay home (provided the timing works out) but then he said something amazing. While nothing is yet signed, there is a contract out in Michigan pending to begin a 5th semester in Michigan! "That's nice", I thought. Probably wouldn't happen for a year or two. He gave details about it and within the next couple months he was hoping that it would be final and that this January it would begin. Not to sound too wimpy but when he said that my jaw dropped and my eyes began to well-up. This January??? Are you kidding me?! What this means is that I may possibly leave Dominica this December and be home in Michigan for good! No Miami!!!! Of course, as Tony is trying to tell me, to not get my hopes up too much - and boy and I trying - but WOW! This would be an amazing end to my time away from home.

Even that doesn't end my good news. After all of this we had our SGA elections (Student Government Association), where I was running for Honor Council President. This was such a fiasco because we had complaints about how it was happening and after the elections were over we had to throw them all out and start over! I was so bummed. All my work to get people to go out and vote for me, ruined. BUT, elections were held yet again and to my surprise I won by a huge margin with 208 votes! I was SO happy - so after 3 semesters of being a representative - I have finally moved up to being President - and it is a good feeling. We are a pretty active council and I am excited to be in charge of it! So much will be on my plate next semester but most of what I am in charge of is running like a well-oiled machine, so I think I will be able to handle it.

Finally, we come to today. All I wanted to do was "close" all clubs for the semester - just be done!!! So, I needed to get all of our banking done to get our donations ready and let that be the end. OLAS was able to donate to two causes in Dominica - totaling about $4,000EC! RFDH was able to put in our 2nd wire-transfer for our medical equiptment for a total of about $9,000EC! Hopefully, all of it will get here by the time we get back so we may bring it to the hospital but - wow - I mean it isn't everyday that you get the privilege of donating nearly $13,000EC in one day!

Overall, I am so very pleased with how this past week has gone. But I can't forget about my studies! Still TONS to do - so I am going to go get started!!!! I hope that this past week is a good omen for the next two weeks of exams!!!!