Sunday, December 22, 2013

First Semester Fun (Photos)

My study buddy :)

Movember! Megan only let me grow it out for a week haha


The school gave us a Thanksgiving Lunch, but we didn't get the day off since we're in the Caribbean and Thanksgiving is not an official holiday


 There is one main road on the island, and when the bridge goes up to let the boats pass through, all traffic stops completely and there's no way around it. It really is a small island.


St. Maarten is considered by some the "Yacht Capital of the Caribbean." Right now (December) there are about 30-40 "mega yachts" parked in the lagoon! The one in the picture is the nicest one I've seen so far....it's Steve Jobs' yacht! The picture doesn't really do it justice because it was HUGE and beautiful!


When there's a break from studying, we love family time on the beach!


There's a lot of fun things to do on the island, including riding a waverunner in the ocean! It's a lot of fun to hit some big air on the ocean waves!



Finding Success

First off let me apologize to those who have been waiting desperately for a Caribbean update! I think Med School is a little higher on my priority list than keeping my blog up to date ;)

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts" -Winston Churchill

Well lets rewind a bit and look back on what has been a successful first semester. I want to reiterate what I said in my last post about how learning is a gift. I'm so grateful for what I am learning in med school, even though it is very difficult. I especially love how I can relate what I learn to the real world. Here are a few examples:

1. One day I randomly came across  this article in Fox News and realized that we had just talked about The disease mentioned in the article: Epidermolysis Bullosa. I saw it and was able to relate it to all of the Epidermis Bullosa diseases that we had learned about in class, along with all of the details that we learned about in class. It was nice to see that these kinds of things actually happen and it's not just something the professor is making up.

2. I also saw this tweet:
Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter)
Titans believe QB Jake Locker suffered a Lisfranc injury that could require season-ending surgery.


I was able to recognize a "Lisfranc injury" right away as a dislocation of the metatarsal bones from the tarsal bones of the foot.

3. In embryology we were talking about apoptosis (programmed cell death) during development of the embryo. When the hand and feet develop they start out as flat, fan-shaped masses of cells, and then programmed cell death allows for pieces of that "fan" to be eaten away for the fingers and toes to gain their shape. One consequence of improper apoptosis is cleft hand and foot. Here is an inspirational story of a girl with cleft hand and foot:


4. Here's one that's funny. I noticed right away that in this video clip that Mr. Ecklestone Lamaze has "Drop Wrist" which is caused by an injury to his radial nerve haha! 



I am so grateful to come across these stories and to be able to completely understand them!
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Now as far as classes go, block 3 and 4 were both long and grueling, hence no blog posts until now! The only break/holiday we got all semester was St. Maarten Day, which I'm pretty sure is like the 4th of July back home. But the problem with St. Maarten Day is that it came right before our big block exams which were held the day after the holiday. So, like you probably already guessed, I spent the holiday studying! It's also funny how I now consider waking up at 7:30am on Sundays "sleeping in."

Anyways to make a long story short, after a rough start to the semester in block 1, I was able to do very well on the rest of my tests and I ended up honoring anatomy and getting solid grades in the rest of my classes. It took a lot of hard work, dedication, and focus, as well as a lot of help and support from my wonderful wife! I know I've said it before, but I wouldn't be able to get through med school without her! True story.

I look forward to semester 2 and to continue learning about how to help people! Oh and Merry Christmas!