Dumb

January 27, 2012
Posted by YSP

source: tumblr.com

I still honestly believe that leaving the post-bacc program saved my sanity and my family. I was killing myself. But honestly? I still can’t think too much about it because walking away from it left me questioning some of how I see myself.

Be prepared, I’m about to indulge in some serious self-pity.

I’m smart. I got excellent grades my whole life, and did it without working very hard. It’s just the way my brain works. I got used to, and very much liked, being good at academics.

So when I consistently got mediocre grades in that program? I hated every second of it. I KILLED myself studying, slept WAY too little, drank WAY too much coffee in a desperate attempt to pull off the grades I was used to, the grades I still believe I would have needed to get into med school.

And? I just couldn’t. Yes, there were some extenuating circumstances like raising a toddler and, more importantly in terms of disruption, my five hour daily commute. I firmly believe that if I’d lived much closer to or on campus, like I believe the other students did, I would have had an easier time. It still would have been tremendously hard for me, but I think I could have pulled it off. And sometimes that really gets to me, that I’ve walked away from a potentially great path because of circumstances beyond my control. That being said, in the end I really don’t think it was the right path for me.

A good hard look at my priorities actually had me wondering why I’d ever chosen the program in the first place. At what point did I decide that making a lot of money would be worth spending years away from Evi, as she blossomed and grew? I think it might have been doomed from the start. I would have missed her too much.

Sometimes though, I wonder if I really could have done it. Sometimes I fear I was just not smart enough. I was literally giving it everything I had (and then some) and just wasn’t keeping up. For someone who has always defined myself in terms of my academic achievement, who has drawn much of my sense of worth from my perceived intelligence, how do I come to terms with academic failure?

I don’t know. I’m not even sure why I’m writing about this now, except that I’m hormonal and the (largely) useless job hunt I’ve been plowing through since September is starting to wear on my sense of worth.

#24: Control

December 24, 2011
Posted by YSP

What did you finally let go of in 2011? What will you let go of in 2012? (WEverb11)

I finally let go of my belief that emotional eating helped anything at all. I finally let go of my belief that working out was too hard. I let go of my plan to pursue med school because of what it was doing to me and my family. In 2012, I will hopefully continue the healthy choices I’ve maintained since September. I want to let go of my body image issues, hopefully let go of my current financial woes, and learn to relax more.

Of fall and fiction…

September 6, 2011
Posted by YSP

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte (I've had two today...)

Oh man you guys. THE PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE is back at Starbucks… and apparently the pumpkins are moustachioed. Cool.

I’m apologizing in advance for this post, which is simultaneously going to be a super long recap of everything in my head right now and also one of those irritating “why I haven’t been blogging” posts. So sorry, and if you make it to the end of the post, you totally get an imaginary cookie. Or maybe a real cookie…. if you don’t mind stale, sent in the US mail baked goods. So here we go…

Sarnac Pumpkin Ale: This tastes nothing, nothing like pumpkin, though it does have some nice spice to it. Overall, it was a little heavier than I generally like my beer, and I think I can blame the “ale” part… but it wasn’t bad. I probably wouldn’t try it again, but that has a lot to do with the fact that I now have like ten thousand other recommendations for pumpkin and/or fall beers to try.

Weight: So…. yeah… I’m fat again. I’ve gained back all but about fifteen pounds. It sucks. I’m cranky about it. I’ve not yet mustered the motivation/energy to do something significant about it. So… I don’t know. I’m still trying, sometimes. Some days I’m awesome. Most days I start out with big plans and end up with pastries. It doesn’t help that my back is still really hurting, and it’s keeping me from a lot of movement. Long term standing or walking really hurts my back, and any twisting does too. I’d love to swim, but we don’t have access to a pool unless we pay, which we’re FAR too broke to do. I don’t know. I’m ashamed. I’m embarrassed. I’m frustrated. I’m also, paradoxically, apathetic about the whole thing. We’ll see.

Chiropractor: Speaking of my back, I’m now seeing a chiropractor three times a week. He’s helping a lot, but the whole process means a lot of ups and downs, and sometimes my adjustment days are much worse than the days in between. Overall, I am definitely seeing some pain relief, but it’s a LONG process. I do love my chiropractor though, and going in to his office means fifteen minutes laying on a table with a hot pad on my back (among many, many other things… a fair few less pleasant ones) so I can’t complain too much, right?

IUD: I know a lot of you don’t care, but I figured I’d just toss in here that I LOVE my IUD. It’s so easy, so uncomplicated. I’ve had zero issues with any of the potential side effects, and being hormone free is making a HUGE difference in my mood/emotions/libido. So if you’re considering it? DO IT!

Fallergies: Y’all, it’s fall! I love fall! Except that this morning I woke up with the first sign of fall… horrifying allergies. My head is stuffy and full of pressure, my eyeballs hurt, and my throat hurts from the drip. I feel gross. It feels gross. I’m not sleeping well because I can’t breathe when I lay down. I’m off to get some Claritin today at my brother’s recommendation, since he has allergies too and thinks Claritin has the best effect. Otherwise though, I’m thrilled that we’re finally seeing some signs of fall. Even the rainy days don’t bother me. I can’t wait to be in scarves and sweaters… and then hopefully put off winter forever. Perpetual fall sounds like heaven to me.

Anxiety dreams: One of the biggest signs of serious stress for me is anxiety dreams. They tend to surface when I’m under a fair amount of stress and am, for whatever reason, not acknowledging it. They always follow a similar pattern too: the world is in some sort of apocalyptic crisis and it falls on me to save some very important person(s) from the crisis. Inevitably, I end up coming across some awesome tool/friend/resource that helps me get through the crisis in a way that means I do, in fact, save the person(s) in question, but the process is stressful and terrifying. I’ve had two this week that were so bad they woke me up.

Sunday night’s dream: I’m sitting in the large bay window of my San Francisco townhouse, where I live with Evi and my mother. I’m watching as mourners walk past carrying the coffin of a little boy who recently died, and I’m crying. As the funeral passes, I notice that there are hundreds of people suddenly walking down the road. As one, they all fall to the ground, have a violent seizure, then get up and start walking again. It weirds me out, and on instinct I go up to Evi’s room and carry my sleeping beauty down to our panic room. Oh yeah, we have a panic room. When I go back up and look out the window again, the street and sidewalks are FULL of people now, but they’re all children. (Why are children creepier?) I get super weirded out now, and lock the door. When the lock clicks, every creepy child stops, and every creepy head turns toward my house. I run to the back room to get my mom, and when we come back past the bay window on our way to the panic room, we see that the window is covered top-to-bottom in creepy kid faces, and the knob on the locked door is slowly turning. We run down to the panic room, where we lock the door. This turns out to be a serious panic room, actually a full-on underground fortress built by my (previously assumed to be insane and now deceased) in-dream father. There is food storage, an internal power source, and some system that makes the whole thing impenetrable and will protect us for 10+ years. There’s a fake “outside” with astroturf and a fake sun. So we end up safe, but god… the mental image of a bay window full of creepy, staring children’s faces…

source: ifeltit-poppiespoppy.blogspot.com

You’re welcome.

Last night’s dream? Aliens. This one worked out a bit better, as I ended up saving Evi by teaming up with my neighbor and his daughter, who just happened to have a HUGE work van full of supplies like bottled water, canned food, and camping gear. And (bonus!) the neighbor also happened to be a skilled spelunker (oh yeah!) who managed to get us and all of our supplies into this crazy inaccessible cave where we hid to wait it out. My neighbor?

Joe Manganiello (True Blood's Alcide) |source: truebloods.blogg.se|

You’re SO, SO welcome.

You made it this far? Really? Well, at least you got Alcide’s abs out of it. So here’s the bigger thing, the biggest reason why I’ve been lax about blogging lately.

Premed: I think I’m done. I’ve spent the last two semesters watching Aaron’s stress levels get higher and higher until he’s now at the point where he’s bouncing off of his maximum stress levels all the time now. Most of it is financial, and being in school still is making it SO much worse because it means not making any money and frequently costing us quite a bit. So although nothing is certain right now, I don’t think I’ll be continuing down that path. Instead, I’ve been looking for full-time jobs in a few places and following up on some leads from friends. I’ll be back with details if anything comes through for me.

It wasn’t an easy decision, and I’m still not at all sure it’s the right one. In fact, I’m nearly positive it’s the source of all of these anxiety dreams. But here’s the thing. Two things sold me on the possibility of abandoning the med school path.

#1 – Aaron asked me this question, when I was trying to decide what to do: Can you trade Evi from 3-9 for giving her everything she wants from 9 on? Not only was the answer an immediate, impulsive NO, but it also made me cry to think about it that way. So that’s a big part of it, and…

#2 – It’s not my passion. Would I be a good doctor? Yes. Would I enjoy it and find it fulfilling and satisfying? Yes. Would it be worth the hours away from my family, both in premed/med school and as an MD? No. Just no.

SO what does this mean? It means looking for a well paying, professional full-time job in a dismal, hyper-competitive job market. Awesome. I do have some friends in a few key areas who are trying to pull some strings for me, but until then I am spending my days at Starbucks/libraries working on applications and a few side projects that are bringing in trickles of money. It means I’ll end up with a more traditional job, hopefully at an organization I can feel proud of. It also means more time to write, to learn the guitar/piano again, to sing, to be with my daughter. It means eating dinner with her and tucking her into bed instead of killing myself with a chemistry book.

It’s scary. It’s stressful. I’m terrified of disappointing the people I love (which includes many of you). It also feels like the right decision. I hope it is.

Phew… so… there you go!

Pathways

July 29, 2011
Posted by YSP

source: desktopsecenes.com

”Is there a lesson to be learned here? Suppose you find that you are off course. You may, like the rocket, find it more fruitful to follow a course that leads to your goal as best plotted from your present position and circumstances, rather than try to get back on the course you plotted from a previous position and under, perhaps, different circumstances.”

I’ve been struggling. Struggling to find balance, to feel competent and intelligent, to make the schedule and pace of my life work, to keep myself feeling a part of my beautiful family.

Mostly, I’ve been failing. I’m a mess all the time, feeling maxed out on stress. I’m tired and worn out. I need a change.

I made some inquiries and discovered a small, public honors college VERY close to home. Transferring there in the Spring means turning a 5hr daily commute into less than one hour. It means saving ridiculous amounts of money on tuition. It means a slightly relaxed academic atmosphere that will cut back on in-class hours and out-of-class coursework. As soon as I got the facts, I already started to feel some relief. As soon as the Spring application is available (November), I’ll apply to the school.

The basic, introductory physics class I’m taking right now was very easy to begin with but has been getting increasingly more difficult. My latest test grade was a C. When I analyzed my wrong answers, I realized I m missing two critical skill sets. One: math. Two: attention to detail.

The attention to detail is just a matter of practice and slowing down, both of which I am working on constantly now. The math? Needs more.

So I’m taking the fall semester off. I’ve dropped my classes. I’ll be getting a private tutor to work with me on the math skills I’m missing, and I’ve also applied to an internship that I really, really want. It’s right in line with my professional interests and I am really excited for the possibility of being a part of something really cool dealing with reproductive health issues. We’ll see if I hear back from the company…

So. It’s a total redirect. It’s me realizing that I have to rethink my trajectory. The fall will be a chance to get a handle on the basic skills I’ve been missing, the ones that have been holding me up. The Spring will bring a whole new academic environment where I think I’ll fit perfectly and flourish. It still won’t be easy, but it won’t be killing me.

Also? I’m cutting all my hair off tomorrow. Maybe.

Grow Stronger

June 17, 2011
Posted by YSP

Oh hey there! I’ve imported all of my posts from Skinny Sushi and Dr. Girl. Maintaining more than one blog was just getting to be too much. One day, a million years from now, when I have time and money, I’ll redesign the blog so that it’s got a separate page for each of the three blog topics, but for now everything is done by author, so the Skinny Sushi posts (health, weight loss, recipes) are all written by skinnysushi, and the Dr. Girl posts (pre-med, med school) are all written by Dr. Girl.

The summer is… insane, so I think a weekly post is about all I’m going to manage. So here’s the update on everything that’s going on this week, all of it dealing with how I must GROW STRONGER!

source: explorativeapproach.com

Thanks, Mr. Banderas. The 13th Warrior (an awesome movie) is a lovely analogy here. I’m the underdog. I’m unexpected. I’ve got to find a way to WIN!

Now on to the recap.

Health & Weight Loss:

The whole health and weight loss thing? Down the drain. Seriously. I barely have time to function, let alone cook, and I’ve let the stress of my schedule and workload turn into an excuse to eat whatever. I’ve had poptarts for breakfast every day this week. I’ve eaten candy bars as a morning snack. It’s not making me feel good, and it’s not helping with my energy levels. My stomach hurts a lot. I’m gaining weight. I’m really struggling, and I just don’t know how to get back to healthy eating. I don’t have the time or energy to cook. I can’t bring anything to school that required refrigeration or heating things up. I thought about doing the once a month cooking thing, but even that just seems like too much right now. I don’t know what to do.

So… I’ll try to GROW STRONGER by getting back to 5-10 minute workouts at 4am, adding in 5-10 minutes at 9pm, and hoping for the best. I’ll get back to packing my lunch (and, potentially more importantly, eating what I pack) and I’ll just get through the summer.

Personal Life:

Bwahahahahaha!!! What personal life? I’m lucky my husband and kid still remember what I look like. I had social plans last weekend, and a few hours of social life planned for today, and I feel guilty about both. My workload is such that I honestly should be doing NOTHING except homework. All the same, I have to look out for my own sanity too, especially when I’m getting four hours of sleep most nights. So this weekend I’ll spend a few hours with a rediscovered friend and her awesome kid while talking about premed programs and her current med school applications. I’ll spend some time with my awesome husband, making sure he remembers how much we adore him on Fathers Day. I’ll blog. I’ll sleep. I’ll recover, and I’ll start all over again.

In Evi news, she continues to be ridiculously awesome. She’s smart and funny and happy. She loves to sing and dance, she (mostly) sleeps like a champ and will ask to go down for a nap or bedtime. She’s a teeny tomboy, loves daycare, and thinks pirates and robots and dinosaurs are the best. She’s learning to dress herself, has a scary vocabulary, is oddly well spoken and annunciates better than kids twice her age, continues to be as tall as most 3-4 year olds, loves spicy food, and is still maintaining only a passing, casual interest in the potty.

School:

Thank God for some seriously awesome classmates and lab partners. I have study partners, support from people going through the same class (and with similarly insufficient sleep patterns), and people who meet me for coffee and hugs. I love my fellow post-bac kids!

I’m actually sort of enjoying the lab section of chemistry. It’s fun to play with chemicals and watch reactions and try to understand the why of it all. It’s also fun to know that if you crush up Total cereal with water, you can pull iron filings out of it with a rare earth magnet (which, incidentally, is why the cereal contains 100% of your recommended daily intake of iron for the day, but you don’t actually process the vast majority of it, thus making it sort of worthless in terms of iron).

The lecture section is harder, of course. The workload for both is pretty insane. I get up at 4am. We leave the house at 5:15 and drive to the bus stop. I get on the bus between 5:45 and 6am, and I spend the time reading, doing worksheets, doing homework problems, and prepping for labs. I get off the bus at 7:30 and walk to the shuttle. I get to school at 7:45 and study/work until class starts at 8:15. I take notes during lecture and I also record the lectures, which I listen to on the bus on the way home. I do all of the required homework on time. I get 8/10 or better on the quizzes. I get 90% or better on the labs. I work on the bus on the way home, from 3:45 to 5:15. We drive home and get here at 6pm, when I get back to work in a halfway, distracted way while trying to simultaneously hang out with the kidlet while Aaron makes dinner. We eat together, and then I put Evi to bed with a story and a song. It’s the best part of my day.

I head to bed at 8:30, where I read and study and work until 11pm. My busy, stressed out brain means I toss and turn until midnight. I do it all over again every day and night until Thursday night, when I finally get some more sleep.

Long story ~~short~~ slightly less long? I’m working my a** off. I’m doing everything I could possibly be doing. And?

I got a C on the first exam. By med school standards? That grade SUCKS. I freaked out. I got depressed. I took control. I met with my professor…

…and there I learned that I am the ONLY student in the class who has never taken chemistry before. (Sidenote: why would you take it twice???) She also told me, as kindly as this could be said, that statistically speaking I’m destined to fail the course. It’s no reflection on my intelligence, my abilities, or my work. In fact, she specifically said that more work is not the answer. It’s simply fact, and her fifteen years experience teaching, that tell her that a grade that “poor” and a student with no prior experience WILL result in continuously dropping grades. She said I should just plan to retake the course a second time.

That had me reeling pretty badly. I freaking out. I got depressed. I seriously questioned my med school path. I briefly considered that I just might not be smart enough to do this. And then I talked to my lab partners.

God I love them. The pair that share our lab bench are some of the smartest, sweetest (and incidentally most gorgeous) girls I’ve met, and they were both quick to offer tons of support and smiles. They both said I’d be fine, that I’d get through. But the biggest help? Totally came from a sea turtle.

source: denverlibrary.org

Meet my lab partner, Crush the sea turtle. Oh wait… that’s not really his name. But he is a Los Angeles based surfer who came straight to the program from his time off to surf in Hawaii. When he talks, I pretty much hear Crush, which makes me smile, so thus he is dubbed Crush for blog purposes.

Anyway, Crush had this advice:

“Okay, you have three choices. You can go home, have some beers, and give up. You can go back to doing what you were doing before.”

In case you’re wondering, this sentence made me want to stab my eyes out. The thought of giving up offends my personal streak of extreme stubborn, and the though of going back to office work made me want to curl up and cry. So I really wanted to know what my other choices were.

“Your second choice is to drop this class but keep up in the program.”

Okay, this is a better choice, but still offends my stubborn streak. Besides, the class is already paid for, and dropping it now would mean a less than 50% refund. So what’s my third choice?

“Your third choice is to say F.U. and prove her wrong!”

You know what, Crush? You have an excellent, oddly surf-adjacent point. So I need to GROW STRONGER! I got a tutor. This weekend, I’m headed out to find some chemistry flashcards the tutor suggested. I’m spending the weekend buckling down (minus some family time) and getting a ton of work done. I’m going to keep trying, keep fighting, and finish the course. And hopefully, I’ll prove those damn statistics wrong.

Resolved

May 22, 2011
Posted by Dr. Girl

source: nataliedee.com

I haven’t posted recently because I was too busy planning the Toddlerette’s birthday party. I waited for the end of the semester, which meant her party was 18 days after her actual 2nd birthday, but it was well worth the wait since it meant being relaxed enough to get the party planned, the cupcakes made, and have a good time without worrying about studying or homework.

Waiting also means I saved you all from reading a panic stricken, defeated, Armageddon style post about this semester’s grades. I finished Calculus with a B and Bio 2 with a C, leaving my GPA at a 2.5. After meeting with the assistant dean of medicine at Georgetown a few weeks ago, I know that I have very little chance of getting into any of the medical schools I want with less than a 3.6, so I ran a few calculations to figure out what I had to do in order to raise the 2.5 into a 3.6 by the time I leave the post-bacc program.

The answer? All As. Okay, one B… but the rest? As. ALL As.

Commence panic. I spent the good part of last week freaking out, knowing that I’ll never be able to pull off all As, and that there is only a tiny likelihood that I can manage an MCAT score so stellar that it makes up for the GPA. I’ll never get into the schools I want to apply to (and, for many complicated reasons, need to apply to) and I may not be competitive for any schools anywhere. I’ll have a hard time getting in, which means several extra years of work or school to make it easier to reapply with some success. I’ll be spending even more time just getting to medical school, and the clock is tick-ticking as it is. The medical schools I could get into assuming a lesser GPA will require a complete overhaul of our entire lives, uprooting my family, asking my husband to take on even more stress and financial burden, costing us money, and likely taking us away from our only source of income. I’ve totally screwed us and our future plans by sucking at biology.

…and then I found myself at the zoo, sitting in the shade on a beautiful spring day with my arms wrapped around the most beautiful two year old on the planet as she snoozed, utterly at peace, on her momma who she loves more than anything in the world. My husband, my strong, supportive, loving husband smiled beside me, marveling at how much he loves our family. I watched my brother and his wife and son as they explored the zoo exhibits… and something occurred to me.

I can do this. I can do whatever it takes. I can work as hard as possible. I can revise my battle plans, change my study tactics, reinvent my academic skills, and I can do this. I will keep taking classes. I will do the very best that I can. When it comes time to apply to medical schools, I will evaluate my chances and plan from there. If it means a school I wasn’t originally considering, which also means somewhere that will turn our lives upside down, then we’ll figure that out when it comes. The best I can do is all I can do. I WILL get into medical school, and I WILL make a better life for my family, for that precious little girl.

So take THAT, potentially ridiculous academic panic. All the things I was panicking about may still be true, but the key is that none of them matter. I will do my best, and I will find a way to make that work. I have the best support system in the world, and with their help this is going to happen. It may not happen my way. It probably won’t happen my way. It WILL happen.

Bad

May 4, 2011
Posted by Dr. Girl

So… I had that meeting with one of the assistant Deans of the medical school… and now I’m sort of freaking out.

I asked him about only taking the prerequisite classes before applying. His answer?

Maniacal laughter.

Okay, not really… but he did say that I’d have to decimate the MCAT, get all As, and totally give up on the schools I originally intended to apply to. Without those two extra semesters, apparently, I have zero chance of getting into any of the schools I wanted to apply to.

End of the world? No… unless you consider that my choices were based on the places I could actually get to. Which means now we’d have to move, which we can’t, or buy a car, which we can’t.

So I should just take the extra classes, right? Yeah, except we’re barely getting by right now and another two semesters could literally be impossible from a financial standpoint.

I’m feeling overwhelmed and beaten, and I have two finals to study for.

Be the change…

May 4, 2011
Posted by Dr. Girl

source: all4myspace.com

It’s raining today and I’m crying in a coffee shop, thinking deep thoughts about the state of the world.

Yesterday I had a long talk with two different friends about the importance of being an informed patient. Specifically when it comes to young women (middle school through college) there is a sad and frightening lack of understanding. N one is teaching little girls how their bodies work, and without understanding they can’t make the best health decisions.

It’s your body. You should be in charge of the decisions made about what happens to it. But how can you do that if no one ever took the time to explain the basics? How can you make good decisions about birth control and safe sex when no one took the time to explain to you what a period is or how pregnancy happens. How can we expect teenagers to stay safe when no one thinks they’re capable of understanding the consequences of their actions?

Boys and girls should be raised to understand how their bodies work and what choices they have when it comes to safe sex and general health. Patients should be encouraged to ask questions about conditions, medications, and procedures.

I’ve had two laparoscopic surgeries, and I could essentially walk you through doing one now. Is it because I’m smarter or more driven? No. It’s because I sought out the information, and I did that because I was raised with the right resources. I had parents who taught me that knowledge was my right. I had teachers who encouraged my questions. I’ve had doctors who happily narrated every visit, checkup, and surgery. It should be that way for everyone.

And there’s more. It’s about more than physical health. It’s time we focus more on raising kids who have the tools to be their best selves in every way possible. That means supporting amazing things like The Trevor Project and It Gets Better.

Totally unconnected, right? I mean how do gay rights movements or teen sexuality support groups, or even suicide prevention movements relate to informed patients?

Here’s the thing. In my experience, and that of most of the doctors and medical students I talk to, patients aren’t informed because they’re intimidated. They hear a lot of doctor speak and don’t really understand what they’re hearing, but they don’t challenge. They don’t want to admit they don’t understand, or they don’t want to interrupt the doctor, or whatever. Although I hope patients do trust their doctors enough to feel that the doctors will make the best decisions even without patient input, patients should make it their business to know every detail. How else can they be sure they’re receiving the best treatment? Doctors are educated, skilled, specialized practitioners. They’re also just people.

Still don’t see how this links to movements like those I mentioned?

What creates the kind of patient who chooses to be informed? What separates me (who endlessly harasses ALL of my doctors with questions about why, how, what, when, where, who) from the average patient, who asks no questions and is dangerously unaware of their own medical history? (Yesterday a 3rd year med student told me she’d seen a patient who reported never having surgery. A physical exam revealed a massive scar running down his chest, which turned out to be from open heart surgery.)

source: marvinhimel.com

What makes the difference? Confidence. People who are indoctrinated from day one with the belief that they have rights. They have worth. They have responsibilities to themselves. Kids who believe that they are free to be their own beautiful selves, as flawed and broken as we all are, are kids who grow up convinced of their right to know, to make their own healthcare choices, to be informed and involved. I believe it’s a direct connection. If I had the resources, I’d study it to find out.

I want my own daughter to grow up truly believing that she can be whatever she wants to be. Gay, straight, doctor, bus driver, painter, engineer, astronaut, kindergarten teacher… what matters is that she grows up believing she has rights to her own health and happiness, and that she understands that everyone else deserves the same rights.

It’s bigger than wanting it only for yourself. It’s granting others the same right to know, thus producing doctors anxious to share the information with their patients in a respectful mutual dialogue. It’s believing that every person has the right to their best self, the healthiest version possible, both mentally and physically.

It is my sincere hope that one day soon I’ll be making a difference in this arena, giving young adults the opportunity to understand the world at their level. I’m more than open to suggestions about making that happen. I envision an outreach program that incorporates health and wellness experts and young people in interactive talks and presentations that make kids feel safe, supported, and understood.

One or two…

April 29, 2011
Posted by Dr. Girl

source: comicvine.com

Just this morning, thanks to a conversation with a fellow post-bac, I realized that what I thought would be a 2.5 year stint in this program could turn out to be only a 1.5 year stay. So now… I’m confused. I’m not sure what to do or who to believe about all of it.

I have a meeting next week with one of the deans of admission at the medical school here, so hopefully he’ll be able to help me sort it out to some degree…

Essentially it boils down to this: If I take only the essential classes, I will be done a year from today and will be able to apply for 2013 acceptance into medical school. If I stay and take the “extra” classes like biochemistry, developmental biology, and genetics, I won’t be finished until the following December, which would likely push my applications back to 2014.

Taking the extra classes would make me more competitive for medical school, and potentially A LOT more competitive depending on how my grades turn out. NOT taking the classes would get me on my way a lot sooner, which would be wonderful, and it would also save me a ton of money.

I’m going to look into the possibility of applying to med schools after I finish my critical classes, even if I decide to stay for more courses. That way, if I get in somewhere I’ll be set, and if I don’t I’ll already have classes underway to increase my competitiveness for the next round of applications.

So? More competitive (+more time +more money) or less time/money and counting on my already special status as a post-bacc for the extra application edge?

O hai!

April 5, 2011
Posted by Dr. Girl

source: cheezdailysquee.com

Here, have something interesting to look at, because god knows I have nothing interesting to say.

I’m still here. I’m trying to ignore my to-do list, which includes finalizing my list of medical schools to apply for and making game plans for outlining each school’s mission and my best fit chances, as well as detailing the particulars of attendance at each school including cost of living, tuition, moving cost, etc.

For now, though? I’m just trying to dig out from under fatigue and illness long enough to survive another bio exam on Thursday and the last few weeks of the semester.

Yummy Sushi Pajamas

It makes sense if you live in here…

Category Archives: Medical school