Finals Week in Medical School

Once you think you are ahead of the game......






Can't wait till Friday the 18th!!!

Matt in Medical School

And it is only First Year. So much more ahead of me!!!

6 days 18hrs 4 mins and counting

Hello Everyone,

It is another lonely and lazy Sunday here in the heart of West Des Moines Iowa. Today in particular has been a great day. The weather has been nice and sunny with slight blustery winds. And what is even better, is that my neighbors that smoke about 2 packs of cigarettes right outside my front door and windows have been gone all day so I could open the windows without consequences!!!! (any hints on how to tactfully get neighbors to stop smoking near your property....and theirs....too bad we are so close together)

This week was pretty good in school. I had my first Anatomy exam which was a rather rewarding experience for me. Anatomy was kind of my thing in Undergrad, I wasn't necessarily a genius at it like my older brother Zach, but I enjoyed living in his shadow and being somewhat experienced in it. I am really glad I listened to Zach’s advice and took both General and Advanced anatomy at the U of U. Because it has decreased my stress ten fold in the past 3 weeks of school. I feel sorry for the poor saps who never took it and found themselves having to learn in two weeks what I was able to not only learn, but teach over the past 2 YEARS.

The anatomy test was pretty long, it lasted a total of 4 hours…which can be rather draining. I started off in the lab were they do the practical. They would tag just about anything we’ve learned from muscles, arteries, veins, nerves, attachments sites, innervation, x-rays, connective tissues, etc. It was nice to be able to take that part of the test in TOTAL EASE. Because 4 months ago, I was setting up exams just like the one I was taking!!! So, THANK YOU ZACH!! Also, I’m really grateful for my old boss Annette Simmons at Mountain Orthopaedics. She promoted me to work as an X-ray technician right about the time that Chrissy and I got married. So for the past 3 years, I’ve had the opportunity to stare at X-ray films and understand a lot of what I am looking at….because sure enough, on this last test, Radiology accounted for about 10% of the questions! So, thank you Annette!!

Well, I miss Chrissy. I mean this just flat out sucks being alone. I feel as if a huge part of me has been ripped away, and every time I come home to an empty home I’m reminded that she isn’t here. Yesterday while I was talking to one of my friends who asked me how I was doing without Chrissy. I replied,

“Well, I haven’t been able to get a good night’s sleep for 3 straight weeks now because I don’t have anyone to cuddle with, this morning I spent 2 hours cleaning the house that could have been done much quicker with two of us, I’m losing my focus because I can’t stop thinking about her, and this is the 30th frozen burrito I’ve eaten in the past 3 weeks that she made before she left. So yeah, I miss her!”

But, I am so excited to have her ALL TO MYSELF again in less than a week!!!! I can’t wait till Sunday the 4th at 1:50 PM. COME HOME SOON CHRISSY!!

Its Official Now!!

Woo Hoo.....

So after 3 years of being married and living in make-shift basement apartments that had no space.....WE FINALLY HAVE A KITCHEN TABLE!!!!!! Here are a few shots of it, problem is, Chrissy has our camera back in Utah, so the pics don't do it justice. But, we are happy!

Hypoglycemia

This is the Face of Hypoglycemia

At Des Moines University we have this great Wellness Center to help us maintain our physical health during medical school. It has a basketball court, aerobics room, track, treadmills, cross-trainers, free weights and a few other things. Sadly….I cant say I’ve gone there yet. I guess I’ll stick to street running until it is too cold to do so. But, at the beginning of this semester they offered Personal Wellness Profiles for all of the students.

As part of the PWP, they drew our fasting blood levels to make sure we were doing ok, and as it turns out…my glucose levels were 44! Normal is between 70 and 100. So, mine were pretty low. It was kind of hard for me to accept though. Because being that low, I figured I would have more adverse symptoms, and I was feeling great. I followed up with the DMU clinic, and had a 3 hour glucose test done, (the one were you can’t eat anything for 12 hrs, they give you a sugar drink, and the check your blood once every hour.) Well, my results came back on Friday, and it confirmed that I indeed have, HYPOGLYCEMIA.

I’ve done a little bit of reading on the subject, and it really makes sense. Here are some of the symptoms:
· fatigue
· insomnia
· mental confusion
· nervousness
· mood swings
· faintness
· headaches
· phobias
· cold hands and feet
· forgetfulness
· dizziness

So, a lot of things that have been happening for the last few years…now make sense. Treatment has a lot to do with diet. Sadly they cant just fix the hormonal imbalance that doesn’t allow my body to build up more glucose, so I just have to be careful with what I eat…which I already do. And eat frequent small meals…which I also already do.
But, the best part is….now I always have an excuse. “I can’t I’m Hypoglycemic!” Hahaha. Just kidding. Take care.

Matt

For more information please visit http://www.hypoglycemia.org/

Take that! Computers.

When I first arrived to Des Moines University, I received a laptop “for free”…paid by my tuition. (Wasn’t that nice of them). The Laptop is pretty amazing. It is a Toshiba Tablet Laptop which has a stylus pen that can write on the screen as if it were paper. I really enjoy it and it is nice to finally own a laptop….however….I decided I’m going to greatly limit my use of it for the following reasons:

1. Up until this semester, I have never studied with a laptop, all of it has been done with a book, pen and paper. In other words, I had to be active with the way I studied. I had to write what I learned.

2. Windows Vista. AKA (one of the biggest failures of the century) My computer was originally installed with Vista, and therefore…has issues. For example, every now and then, the stylus will stop working, or the mouse pad will be overly sensitive, or documents fail to save, 50 minutes of notes get lost…etc. I can’t count the number of times during lecture that I get distracted from the lecture because I’m having issues with the computer.

3. Facebook/Blogging/YouTube/IM/Email – As much as I love all of these…they are so distracting. I really enjoy looking up everyone on Facebook, reading everyone’s blogs, and catching up on the latest funnies on Youtube, but when I’m bored of studying, they can be an enormous waste of time and distraction.

4. Grades – I need to do better, and I feel that by going back to my good old fashion way of learning, I’ll get the job done.

So, to my wonderful laptop, thank you for your time. You have served me well. I hope you enjoy my backpack and locker. I promise to use you for things such as printing notes, morning and evening email checks, and occasional facebook and blog updates.

Best,
Matt

First few weeks of school

Just thought I’d add a little bit more to the Blog. I am really excited for this Labor Day weekend. I now have an extra day tomorrow to study for school. I’m actually anxious to study tomorrow, because it I am pretty sure that I will be able to get caught up in my studies. From what I understand, this will probably be the only time I will be able to say this. Currently, this is the list of my classes

· Biochemistry
· Behavioral Medicine
· Gross Anatomy (why do they have to call it gross, it really isn’t that bad!)
· Osteopathic Manual Medicine (OMM)
· History of Medicine
· Standardized Performance Assessment Lab (SPAL)
· Introduction to Medical Ethics
· Fundamentals of Patient Care and Safety
· Introduction to Sociology

Overall, things are going rather well. I’ve really had to change my frame of mind with how I view my grades. In my undergrad, I never really had an issue getting in the top 10% of the class. It kind of just happened. Getting an A- was a shocking experience for me. Now, however, things are different. I find myself scoring the class average. In fact, I failed my first exam on Monday! (Of course I should mention that I during the test I had a temperature of 101, had a throbbing headache, pouring runny nose and my body ached had absolutely no energy and I had been sick for the previous 3 days, completely inhibiting me from studying) But still, I failed it. Luckily, the final exam will be able to cover that low score, so I still have hope. I must admit though, that it has really been hard to get into a good study groove. There have been so many occasions when I’ve studied for 4 straight hours and looked back and thought “Wow, I don’t remember a single thing I just studied!” My biggest issue now, isn’t so much the content, but more so the quantity. It is just difficult to be able to review an entire undergrad semester of Biochem, when I need to know the entire history of medicine from 10,000 BC to present, use the Transtheoretical Model on a patient (acting in the SPAL lab) to help him recognize why he should be a more responsible drinker, dissect the skin and superficial back muscles from my cadaver, and learn the new techniques for OMM. But, life is good. Just the Joys of Medical School. I bet Dad, John, Shane and Zach are laughing to themselves right now saying, “You think its hard now, just wait!!”

Later,

Matt