Wednesday 2/ 5 /03

5:30 am  Wake up.  Sad, but true, I give the dog a bath…she needs it and I don’t know when else I’ll have time!

6:15 am  Head to the gym for a cycling class and some weights.

8:30 am  Breakfast

9:00 am  Check email and send replies.  Follow up on a few things from last night’s Student Council Meeting. 

9:30 am  Studying begins.  I review my lecture notes from Monday and Tuesday and read a few related articles.  I finish reading the section that I wanted to in the required text, then study the OMM material.  I’m not sure if we have a quiz today, but I’d better be ready anyway.

11:30 am  Head to school.  Check my mailbox.

12:00 pm  Pathology Board Review Session by Dr Jenkinson.  I loved this!  We basically sat in teams and he presented a case history, and we were responsible for giving the diagnosis.  I think we all end up with mixed feelings.  We were proud when we got them right, but it is a little worrisome when you don’t even remember the names of some things!  Just a sign that there is a lot more work to be done before the test.

1:00 pm  OMM Lab.  Today Dr. Eland talked about visceral manipulation.  There were more mixed feelings by the class, as we released deep abdominal fascia and achieved better motility in our GI systems…don’t laugh, it’s true!  It was interesting, and there were obviously great applications for patient care, but it was a very new concept for us because we are used to dealing with more musculoskeletal problems than visceral problems.  Rumor has it that it was an interesting evening for many.

3:00 pm  Endocrinology Lecture by Dr. Schwartz on Diabetes and Insulin therapy.  We also discussed the clinical applications of what we are studying at the cellular level.  Again, great lecture with a lot of relevant clinical information.

5:00 pm  Lecture is over so I head home.  I stop at the grocery store because I need a few things.

5:45 pm  Get home, put groceries away, eat dinner, and catch up on the news…and take a break.  Exams are next week, so I usually slow my studying down for a few days so I can put forth a better effort closer to the test. 

7:00 pm  I begin preparing for CBL tomorrow.  We had a case of Lithium-induced Diabetes Insipidus and a case of Diabetic Ketoacidosis, and tonight I need to decide what treatment and follow-up is appropriate in these cases.  Tuesday we went through differentials and labs, so now I need to make sure I understand the pathophysiology behind everything and figure out how to help these people.  I also have our self-generated learning issues and discussion questions to answer.  As usual, I find other things that are more interesting to read about and I get sidetracked.  Oh well, it is all learning, right?  I guess I can justify it that wayJ

9:30 pm  Finish CBL.  Start working on my objectives for my group.  The class has organized a note service for lecture, as well as an objective group.  Each block we have around 700-800 objectives that we are supposed to cover, and you learn quickly that it is impossible to do it all on your own.  We split them up, type them out, and exchange them every week.  I have been assigned some objectives covering nutrition, and some covering OMM. 

11:00 pm  Finish my objectives.  I take my 10 question board review quiz for the day.  I have realized that I rarely have time to sit and take full tests, so I am now doing 10-20 questions per day.  It mostly just helps me see what I need to spend more time on. 

11:20 pm  Call my husband and see how his day went.  He is still in the lab, which I find unbelievable.  I’m going to bed!

11:45 pm  Bedtime.

                                                    

 Friday 2/ 7 /03

5:00 am  Wake up and Stretch

5:30 am  Check email.  Most people send their emails before bedtime, and they definitely go to bed later than me, so I always have plenty to read first thing in the morning.

6:00 am  Go for a run.  It is snowing like crazy, but this run is long overdue.  The people driving by thought I was nuts, and I can’t say that I disagree. With my tremendous grace, I stepped in a puddle 2 minutes into the run…I didn’t think my feet were ever going to thaw.

7:00 am  Eat breakfast

7:30 am  Get ready for school

8:30 am  Go over to school and get treated by one of the OMM Fellows.  This is definitely a perk of going to a D.O. school!

9:30 am  Go to the LRC.  I don’t have anything to do for a ½ hour, but I know I’ll find someone to distract in there, and I do. 

10:00 am  Meet in the Histo Lab for a special presentation by Dr Jenkinson, a pathologist.  We recently received two cadavers that died of brain neoplasms, and Dr J is going to dissect them and discuss what we see.  I was asked to present one of the cases of Malignant Glioblastoma.  This was really a great experience to get to look at the anatomy with all of the specialists around to answer questions.  It almost made me forget how much I hate neuro-almost!

11:00 am  I head over to Parks Hall to meet my mom who came down for the day.  She has an appointment with Dr Eland, one of the OMM docs here.  I usually go and watch her treatment because Dr Eland teaches as he goes along. 

11:45 am  Walk uptown to Skipper’s for lunch with my mom.

12:45 pm  Walk back to school for class.

1:00 pm-3:00 pm  Synthesis and Integration.  This is when we discuss the cases that we talked about in CBL, and have the faculty panel address our unresolved learning issues.  We then cover an unknown case presentation and take a quiz, which usually consists of constructing a differential diagnosis for the patient, and ordering the appropriate labs.  As long as you justify the answers, everyone usually does well on these quizzes.

3:00 pm-5:00 pm  Simulated Patient Lab.  Our patients today present for a follow-up visit regarding their Diabetes Mellitus.  We each get to go in and do the History and Physical Exam, and then we are responsible for documenting our findings in a SOAP note.  By now, this is fairly routine for us, but I really like labs like the one we did today, because all of the patients really have Diabetes.  It makes it more realistic and conversational. 

5:30 pm  I head home and make dinner, just in time for Erik, my husband, to show up.  He has to go back tomorrow morning, so I spend the rest of the evening hanging out with him.  Next week is exam week, and I’ll be hitting the books pretty hard, so I figure a night off will do me some good-plus it is Friday!