Back to the Med School Grind

Thanks to everyone who kept up with my first medical school semester last fall.  The semester ended on December 21st.  We took the Gross Anatomy Board exam and the Biochemistry board exam.  Both of those are standarized exams that ranks you nationally on a percentile.  I usually am a little scared of standarized tests because the MCAT gave me such a fit and the ACT and SAT were not my strongest performances either.

Fortunately, the board exams went much better than my previous standarized test experiences. To any aspiring med student don't let the MCAT determine if you can go to med school or not...I had to take it 4 times and believe me--the MCAT doesn't determine if you will be a good medical student/doctor or not.  If you want to go to med school the MCAT is just another hoop to jump through, don't let it get you down.

Back to last semester, so we finished Gross Anatomy (hallejuia!) and Biochemistry (again...hallejuia!)  Both those classes went fine and I'm glad to say they are officially behind me.  I will continue to say that Gross Anatomy is the "Holy Grail" of medical school.  It is the worst, best, hardest, nastiest, most fun, most dreadful, so necessary, so stressful, amazingly rewarding, completely gratifying, and truely unique experience of my first semester.  I am not sure any other class will be able to top the emotions gross anatomy envokes.

Nonetheless, today is my first day of second semester or week 20 of medical school.  We started the semester with Histolgy (the study of tissues and body systems at the microscopic level).  Histology is most important to Patholgist.  The T.V. show "Dr. G: medical examiner" is a good example of histology.  When Dr. G takes tissues samples and looks at them under the microscope-that's what histology is.  We have a histology lab this afternoon, we are going to look at heart muscle, arteries, and veins under the microscope.  After lunch we pick up with Medical Physiology.  "Med Phys" will run all the way through Spring Break and will be the bulk of this second semester.

I hope each of you had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Again, thanks to each of you for reading and praying for me during this first year.  I appreciate it more than you know.

Salt and Light,

Kelly