Not sure

I'm not really sure if I am sorry about being lazy or not. I'm not like Bo who isn't super busy yet still doesn't update. I'm pretty dang busy. In fact, Matt and I haven't gotten through very many movies on our Netflix lately.

We had our first Cardio quiz last Tuesday. I had heard that 60% of the class failed the first quiz last year, so that didn't really motivate me to study too much. Lucky for me, I did pass. A few of my mistakes were "I read the question too quickly" type of mistakes. Those are always frustrating. The class average was a 73, which is the lowest I have seen for a quiz. We had Monday off as our "fall break," so the weak was nice a short.

I had an OSCE on Thursday. They don't tell you right there if you pass, but I am pretty sure I did. I almost forgot to take her BP, but I figure that is because I never do that at clinic. We had 1 patient simply to interview for 15 min and one to do a focused interview and physical as well as a SOAP note. My SOAP note wasn't awesome I am sure, but it was my first one. Always like to leave a little room for improvement.

Matt and I had a handful of people over on Friday night for a "Death of the Bugs Party." Matt doesn't like bugs and likes to celebrate their death. He also wanted a turkey, and I refused to cook one just for the 2 of us. Pretty much we had Thanksgiving in October. We did the turkey, and everyone else brought side dishes: mashed potatoes, stuffing, cornbread, dessert, salad, etc. It was delicious. It was also the 1st time I cooked a turkey, but it turned out great. Yay me! We have tons of leftovers, so that is what we are eating tonight.

Matt then got sick. Not just too much to drink sick but actually sick. Trust me, he isn't a little bag of sunshine when he is like this. Hasn't been too bad though. Lets me get stuff done. On a brighter note, we finally got some great photos up on our walls. Yay!

Movies
The Mist
Reviews of this said it was horrible. Now, I'm not going to say it was awesome, but it wasn't awful. It was your typical creature horror movie. It was a little predictable in the beginning, but most horror movies are that way. You can tell who is going to die. You can tell who is making a stupid mistake. That sort of thing. The end took me a little by surprise. If you don't want to get hints about the ending, you may want to skip to the next review. As a litte FYI, I would never ever ever shoot myself or kill someone else even if asked unless I know 100% for sure that death is inevitable. I don't mean stuck in the desert or on a raft in the ocean. I mean I am floating out in space and I can't even see any planets or moons. It would have to be that bad people. Not just my car runs out of gas even though we haven't seen the creatures in over 12h. Really people? Really? Anyway, it was decent entertainment. I'll give it a 5.75/10

No Country for Old Men
If you like this movie, please stop reading now and don't call me your friend. Okay, we can still be friends, but I won't respect your choice in movies (as if you respected mine to begin with). I did not like this movie. How did it win best picture or whatever? The premise was stupid. I am pretty sure no one would think about taking a jug of water to a man he saw only 1/3 alive in a hot desert 8 hours ago. Duh he is going to be dead. No, I can't suspend reality for just this one second. Also, I just felt that there was a lot of killing going on for no real reason. We never understood the motivation of that dude. I didn't even know his name. Tommy Lee never really wrapped it all together like he was supposed to at the end. The bad dude wouldn't get very far w/ an open fracture like that. I think he had a messed up childhood. I wasn't clear on a lot of the relationships throughout the film. I just thought it wasn't as great as people made it out to be. If you have it sitting around and there are no small children or inteligent people around, go ahead and watch it. Otherwise, save your 2 hours. 2.5/10. Oh, also, it didn't have enough dialogue for me.

Me

Sorry, no movie review today. I've been pretty busy lately. Grrrrrr. Cardio, while interesting, is a lot of information. I am having a hard time stuffing all the physiology, pathology, and clinical aspects into my head. This weekend is going to be busy w/ studying for the quiz for sure. Frustratioiin sets in.....now.

Ever since I went to Regis, I probably have at least one person every 3 or 4 months or so tell me that I look like someone/remind them of someone. Everyone thinks they know me from somewhere. Now, do I really look that nondescript? Personally, I've never seen anyone (other than my cousin) who looks like me. I don't get annoyed at the comments; I just find it funny

Please stop me if I have talked about this before, but I really think this needs to be addressed. Omaha has a red-light-running problem. I think it has for a long time and is afraid to admit it. Let me give you some numbers because I know all of you are asking "what is a 'problem' to you?" I pass through probably about 25 lights or so on my way to school (okay, I really have no clue, but it is over 20). On the average drive, I would say I get stopped at about 15 (Omaha also has issues with light timing, but that is for another blog.) In stopping at 15 lights total, I probably see about 10 people run a red light in total. This isn't just questionable running. This is "it is green my direction and you are still in the intersection" running. I have seen 5 people run a single light. No, not 5 in an entire cycle. 5 in 1 light turning red. The other problem is that drivers just expect it and tolerate it. No honking. No cursing (except from Matt and myself of course). I have almost been hit (as a pedestrian) several times already. It is ridiculous. The thing is, it is easy to get caught up in. I know you are sitting there saying "I wouldn't get caught up in it," but you would be surprised. As I approach a light, I find myself saying "I can still make it" rather that "I can still stop." This crazy attitude is contagious and dangerous. My solution: red light cameras. Now, I have never been a fan of these just because. I am finally advocating them here. I know there may be rules against them, but at least threaten to put them in. I know it takes a lot of money up front, but I am pretty sure they would pay for themselves. Time for some math:

I expect to see 1 red light run if I sit at a light for over 1 minute. (Keep in mind this applies to small and large/busy intersections. Omaha-ians don't make exceptions). If that is just my short time there, I would venture a guess to say that at least 30 red lights are run a day on big intersections and 20 on smaller ones. We'll make this simple and just talk about 1 light. Okay, so 1 light, 1 day = 30 runs. What, is it a $50 ticket? I have no clue. Let's assume it is that much. That is $1500 for ONE INTERSECTION for ONE DAY. For a week? $10,500!!! 'nough said.

Mid October

It is crazy to think that it is already mid-October. Basketball practice starts on Wednesday. I have found myself missing basketball a lot more this year. Not sure why, but I have. I swear for us the 15th always fell on a weekend day, so practice would start at 730. Blow/kind of miss that.

Bub is doing a better job updating his blog, so I am not carrying all the burden of family updates. yay! Bo still sucks.

Cardio is in full swing. So far it hasn't been too bad. We will see though. The stuff in the 1st week was pretty basic, but they may quiz really hard on it. I hate that. Also, this course is...interesting when it comes to my classmates. This is technically our 4th block (neuro, ID, hem/once, cardio), but this is the first class in which people often enter med school wanting to be. Did that make sense? A handful of people, when they go into medicine, want to be cardiologist whereas a desire to be a neurologists, infectious disease-ists, or hem/onc person sort of develops later on. This being said, you can tell the people who want to be cardiologists. Never before, no matter how interesting the professor, have people answered questions in class. Now all of a sudden, people are talking. The same people too. And people are coming to class who usually don't. And are answering questions. It's weird. And funny.

Nothing much else going on here. The weather is trying to cool down except for yesterday. Matt wanted to do something fall-ish yesterday, but the 80 degree weather really didn't make anything seem very fall-ish.

MOVIE REVIEW!!!!!! War
I'm not the biggest fan of mixed martial arts movies. Maybe that explains why I kept falling asleep during it. That didn't make Matt very happy. It was okay though. A lot of action....I'm not an action movie fan. The plot was decent w/ some twists and turns that make it really hard to follow when drifting in and out of consiousness. The ending left me confused. It was almost like they were setting it up for a sequal. Who knows. If someone brought it over and wanted to watch it and you like this type of movie, I guess you could watch it - 5/10

Done!

With Heme/Onc that is. The final was today!! Didn't do quite as hot as I wanted to, but that is okay. Let's just say I'm not going into this field. As a little side note, my jaw dropped when I found out that there are some leukemias that we don't treat. We just "observe." That just seems weird to me. What if the patient really really wants treatment? I just find it strange. We start Cardio tomorrow. It is our longest course at 5 weeks. I hope/think I am going to find this more intersting, so I think that will make it easier to study...maybe. I just had a hard time getting excited about blood. Maybe that is just me.

Speaking of blood...what is up with HBO lately. I feel that they have really gone down hill lately. Firstly, they rarely show movies anymore I feel like. They still show a lot of sex shows, which really isn't that out of the norm. They have been showing tons of this vampire crap though. Why are vampires so hot lately? Then they'll have specials on making the show, and they interview these people who I am pretty sure really believe in and follow vampire mythology. They say things completely seriously such as "Some vampires sleep in coffins, but not all of them do." Completely straight faced. These aren't vampire historians. These are people who "know and love" vampires. Wow HBO. Wow

Highlight of my week last week was breakfast for dinner on Thursday. Is it sad that that is the best part of me week? Kind of. Matt and I went to a "Young Adults" group thing for St Leo's on Friday night. It is interesting to see the differences between a Catholic small group (we met at a Mexican restuarant and were told about happy hour specials right away) and the non-Catholic one. Both have their positives and negatives though.

Movie review!!!!!!!!! Twelve Monkeys
I had never heard of this one. Therefore, it was Matt's choice. Has Brad Pitt in it. And Bruce Willis. This is kind of another apocaliptic film. Bruce Willis is a convict in 2035 and has to travel back in time to try and ID a virus that wipes out 4 billion people in 1996. Of course as with most time travel films, it had some flaws. Brad Pitt did a good job of playing a crazy person. With the whole time travel thing though, it really gets you thinking about destiny. That is about as deep as I am going to get. Now don't get me wrong, this wasn't a quality film. I'll give it a 3/10. If you find it sitting on your doorstep and have a free afternoon, go ahead and watch it.

Heat Rash

You know how I said I thought I was allergic to Gain? Well, that rash came back...twice. This last time, it was awful. I went to the dermatologist because it was so bad. Turns out it wasn't contact dermatitis, it was/is heat rash. He asks me "have you been sweating a lot lately?" And for any of those of you who know me or who have seen me play basketball, you know the answer is "when is Becky not sweaty?" Well, sweaty Becky stuck in a humid place got heat rash. They gave me a shot in my butt and a tub of steroid cream. Just waiting for the 'roid rage to kick in.

Not much has gone on. Matt and I went to Swing Thai w/ Betsy and Jon on Friday night. It is nowhere as near as good as Lennie's. I miss Lennie's. I need to get around to making Gang Garee Gai soon. That will require finding an Asain market. Hmmmmm. Anyway, after dinner we went to Betsy's to watch the debates. That was really just to ammuse the boys. They like politics. We then headed to Oktoberfest...which was packed. There is no cover thank goodness because it was crazy busy. Too busy (and expensive) to get a beer. Sad face. We were there for a short time. I am going to go ahead and say that Denver's was way better.

I watched a movie last week that isn't even worth the effort of a review. I apologize, but at least that says something about the quality. Death Proof. Awful. Don't do it. You will regret it. This may have replaced Nothing as the worst movie of all time. Has Kurt Russell ever been in a good movie? Question for the ages.

M1s have their first anatomy exam tomorrow. I don't envy them. We have a quiz on Tuesday. Better get my butt in gear. Adios.

1 done

We had our first Heme/Onc quiz today. I did way better than I thought I was going to do. I did way better than I felt I was going to while taking it. So many of them I just answered and didn't mark because I knew thinking about it more wasn't going to help. Onto the rest of the week.

I am lazy about updating. My apologies. It really isn't that I am busy; I think it is more that I don't do that much and feel bad boring all of you. I forgot to mention in my last post that we learned to draw blood. They showed us a video and then said "have at it." No hands on instruction, just the video. We partnered up and began. I have never drawn blood and neither had my partner. I decided to draw first because I didn't want to get psyched out. After feeling for the vein about 7 times and making her arm fall asleep, I got the needle out and did it. Success on the first try! Yay me. When I reached for the cotton at the end, I moved the needle a little and she bled a tiny bit. It didn't hurt her though, so it was okay. What I learned: you don't have to push that needle in very far, those tubes are pretty hard to push on and pull off...that is about it. I then had clinic on Thursday. We saw a wide variety of patients including some thrush (something we just learned about), some possible anemia (something we are currently learning about), and...some other stuff. Then it happened. A patient needed some blood drawn, and the nurse grabbed the kit to go in. Dr. Paknikar then asked me if I had learned to draw blood yet. I could have lied and said no, but I told her that we just learned. She told me that as long as I felt comfortable and as long as the patient was okay with it, I could draw the blood. I went in w/ the nurse, asked the patient, she said yes, and then I started getting nervous. I could see her veins easily though. I told her I was nervous; I didn't tell her that it was my first time though. It all went fine though. Yay me! I definitely like how much hands on experience I am getting there.

Now....2 movies!!!!!

Funny Games
Matt's poor poor choice. This is a remake of some German film. It shouldn't have been remade. It is sort of one of those thriller "torture" movies...but super slow...and with barely any blood. The main villan talks to the camera randomly, and you aren't sure if he is supposed to be doing that. Apparently 10 year old boys can't jump over fences. I bet if he had siblings and wasn't an only child, he would have been able to escape. He was bad at hiding too. I blame a lot on people being only children. I think it is fair though. Back to the movie. It looked like we were going to get a little justice in the movie, but then the dude hit the rewind button. Really? Really? Oh my goodness. This was 2 hours of my life I can't get back. I give this a 1.2/10. 'nough said.

Donnie Darko
I've tried to watch this movie several times before, but I've fallen asleep every time (imagine that). Well I stayed up. I really like this. It was unique. Other movies have done similar things, but not in such a weird, off the wall way. I think they developed the characters really well (that is my attempt at sounding almost smart). I was a little confused as to what the end/last chapter of the book meant. If anyone has an opinion, please leave a comment. I would recommend this movie. Don't be on drugs though during it. I say...8.1/10.

Heme/Onc

I survived ID!!!!! Yay!!!!! Final was yesterday. It went just fine. I'll be interested to see what the class average was. The quiz average was pretty low, but I think that is because the style of question is much different from last year. They are much more about applying your knowledge and not just route memorization. With one quiz under our belts, I'm sure the average for the final will be quite higher. We'll find out though

Today was the first day of hematology/oncology. Last year it was 4 weeks. We cram the same number of lectures into 3 weeks this year. Oh fun. Also, they planned this really "well." I go from thinking I have some sort of virus that is going to wipe me out to thinking that I have cancer. Thanks guys. Really, thanks. The first day was rough. I haven't heard a lot of these words before, so I need to get the basics down before I can actually know what they are talking about. Annoying. We are starting to get into areas now, however, where I feel no one in the class has a strong background. More even playing field I feel like.

Even though I studied all weekend, I managed to watch 2 movies.....

Gone Baby Gone
I liked this one. It wasn't as action packed as I thought it was going to be, but I still enjoyed it. The girlfriend was a bit annoying and rarely added anything good to the conversation, but that was the only character I didn't like. They totally got you thinking that you figured the "twist" out...and then the real twist comes. It was good. I wasn't expecting that at all. It really got you asking whether or not it was okay to bend rules in certain cases, but then you have to do that whole philosophical "if everyone bent the rules" thing. Whatever. I hate philosophy. I give it a 7.8/10. I would have liked a little more action.

Michael Clayton
Matt had seen this one, but he wanted me to see it too. This one starts you out 4 days later and then goes back 4 days to show you how we got there. I kept forgetting all that and would get really confused. As with the previous movie, I would have like a little more action. A bit slow at times for me. I thought the plot though was very original and confusing enough to keep you watching. Thank goodness Matt was there, or I would have had to watch it twice. I was pretty confused for a while. I'm going to go ahead and give this one a 7.5/10. To tell you the truth, I have no clue how consistent I am with those numbers. I'm just kind of making it up each time.