Friday, August 31, 2012

No More Studying!

So I can't study anymore, I have a legitimate excuse I swear! 

When I study I get stressed out and my body temp increases. The change in temp signals all of these neutrophils and what not and they head for the source of infection (my brain) once there a respiratory burst occurs releasing reactive oxygen species, which cause lipolysis of the cell membranes, blebbing of the ER, increase intracellular Na+, and most importantly damage to the cellular DNA. Which begins the process of liquefactive necrosis. But, then after a day of freaking out over an upcoming test the macrophages come in and are like "OH NO, DAMAGE" and they continue the mayhem started by the neutrophils release cytokines, growth factors, and more stuff and bring in more leukocytes. When I take a break repair is able to start, but it doesn't matter because the next day I have to study...and so the condition becomes chronic!!!! And then fibrosis begins, because there really aren't enough stem cells in the brain to make any difference.

Thus, slowly I become less able to focus on what I'm doing, and I forget things I've just read making me more stressed and causing another increase in temperature which as it happens could be causing brain damage.....so that is why I can't study or take the test.

They say it's a terminal condition...I hear it could also be a contagious environmental factor....



Tuesday, August 28, 2012

So Happy and yet so Insanely stressed out!


I passed my first pathology test!!!!!!!  I'm so happy!!!! After two weeks of what seemed like 24/7 studying and reading about 200 pages of everything, I finally get to take a break! It's short lived obviously, as I have another test tomorrow and one on Friday as well (and maybe one on Thursday now that I'm thinking about it). But, I don't care!!! The amount of people from previous classes who said that pathology was insanely hard and terrible was enough to have me rocking back and forth in worry. They said that no one ever passes the first time, and yet most of our class succeeded in doing so (and I did excellent for a change). I know it was only the first exam, but I think it says a lot about our class or a little about theirs....

Of course they also said that the head professor was a terror, and I think she's great. She's the nicest professor we've had yet! She's volunteered on more than one occasion to help us out and she tells the greatest stories. Yeah she's yelled at some people and can be strict, but she's old school and she just wants us to learn. You give her respect, she gives you respect. Of course lot's of people in my class and in others have no idea what respect even means.
Some say she's a wolf in sheep's clothing, I think she's my grandmother in disguise. After all she's done for me and my lab group, I'm more than happy to stand up for her!

Okay, relaxation time is over time to figure out the kidneys for my pathophys test... now where did I put that book?

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Starting Second Year


We started classes two weeks ago at the end of July. Unlike most US schools we only got about three weeks of actual vacation, and when we returned we had a test in our first new class of the year - pathophysiology. Seeing as we were only warned about this test three days before it took place, and seeing as no one had the text at that point it's easy to surmise that a majority of the class failed. I guess that was our "Welcome Back" gift.

Usually, I like classes that are medically oriented but the professor for pathophys is interesting to say the least. Last week, because he was mad at the world, he gave us a particularly difficult worksheet about the kidney and gave us about five minutes to complete it; which was only enough time to complete the first question (and even then barely). Upon returning he began to question us about the sheet and when someone asked for more time he exploded. Basically, he told us that we were dumb and didn't deserve extra time because we obviously don't care about the class. Lovely man. Anyway, he proceeded to read the remainder of the questions and then stormed out of the room without a backwards glance. We were stunned.

This year also has some other changes. We've lost four members of our class. One couldn't get a visa, one was removed from the university under mysterious circumstances, and another is going into another less stressful profession. The final person, one of my best friends has decided to transfer to a school in the Caribbean.

Personally, I can't blame her, the school has done more than enough to make everyone want to leave at some point or another. My friend severely broke her leg the first year she was here and apart from ending up with MRSA and having an allergic reaction to the vancomycin, she also had a pulmonary embolism, and almost died on more than one occasion in the various Polish hospitals. On top of that she was given no pain medications for the duration of her hospital stay and when she returned to the US they had to basically reconstruct her ankle. The school was little help with this situation seeing as she slipped down the school's tile stairs while it was raining, and there was no hand rail or anti-slip grips. And then last year the school "misplaced" about $10,000 from her loans which was supposed to pay for rent and food and miscellaneous; she got it back after threatening to call a lawyer. Finally, during this summer the school expelled her and four others for allegedly not passing anatomy because they hadn't taken the test yet (which coincidently was scheduled for last week). After they all got reinstated to the university all of them also put in applications at other schools.

So you can see why she left. Even so I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do without her here. She was my study partner and we did everything together. I hope that I'll be able to see her again, and that she has better luck than the rest of us!!! One of my other friends who helped see her off yesterday morning made a statement that while morbid, reflects the truth of the situation, "It's like someone has died, but in this case she really has gone to a better place."

Welcome back to Purgatory...