"...Trying to Drink with your mouth over the end of a Firehose."

The title of this post is something that I was told by a physician in reference to what med school is like. I have already come to the conclusion that he is right! It's pretty intense with all the information thrown at you in such a short amount of time!

Our first block exams were last week and they went pretty well. Didn't do as well on my Histo block as I would have liked, but it wasn't horrible and it's easily reversible with a little more studying. I made the mistake of studying too much for Anatomy and neglected Histo. On the other hand, Anatomy went pretty well! The lab exam was HORRIBLE, although I didn't do terrible. Only 16 people passed the lab exam which is 40% of the first block of Anatomy. (By the way, to pass the block, you have to receive a score higher than 75%... anything lower is failing. It's a lot higher standard than in the States where you only have to be above a 60%.) But I did really well on the theory part of the block and the average equaled out to a solid B. 45 students failed the first block in Anatomy which was a pretty high number. The average was about a 77%.

So, overall I am ok with the block. I now know how they test and what to focus on, et cetera. I have also adjusted some of my study habits to be more useful of my time. After the block, I went down to the port and swam in the ocean with some people which was nice! Felt kinda weird to not be doing anything school related all night. But that feeling was short-lived... Wednesday soon arrived and we were thrown into 2 days of a double Embryo lecture with Dr. B. His lectures are VERY overwhelming! There is soooo much content and he just reads through it very quickly and it does me no good to listen to the lecture because there is no time to digest the material before another slide full of information comes. So, after those lectures, I have to go through the PowerPoints on my own and teach myself the material, which sucks because I spent 4 hours in class not learning this so I have to spend 6 outside of class teaching it to myself.

This block (exam is on June 7 and 8) for Anatomy covers the Embryology of body cavities, the cardiovascular system and the respiratory system, as well as the Upper and Lower Limbs. We are finishing the upper limb lectures tomorrow and jumping into lower limb on Friday. There is sooooo much we have to know for this block because we have to know everything from the brachial plexus and shoulder to the tip of the fingers and everything in between (muscles, nerves, arteries, veins, lymph, bones, tendons, ligaments, joints and fascia). Its not just a know what it is a where it is, but we have to know all the intricate details which makes it a lot of work. For example, a possible test question would be...
A 14-year-old boy falls on his outstretched hand and has a fracture of the scaphoid bone. The fracture is most likely accompanied by a rupture of which of the following arteries?
A) Brachial Artery
B) Ulnar Artery
C) Deep palmar arterial arch
D) Radial artery
E) Princeps pollicis artery

(the answer is D incase you were wondering)

SO, its kinda overwhelming and we are only halfway through the material for the first block. A ton of information in less than 3 weeks! You can't get behind... it's as simple as that! But the thing is, it is doable, you just have to have focus and know how to study efficiently.

The island experience for me right now is pretty much limited to looking out my window to the ocean in the distance and then walking down to class and back to my room to study. I got to take a break this past weekend and played flag football on Saturday then hung out with some friends in Windwardside after. I then walked back from Windwardside to The Bottom which was a pretty intense walk with a major change in elevation between the two towns (I should remind you that Saba is a volcanic island).

Well, I could blog more about the past few weeks, but the medial cutaneous nerve of the forearm is calling my name... wow, I'm a nerd now! haha Until next time, Keep it classy North America!

Cheers from Saba!