3/8 of a Doctor

One more semester down! We had a hematology exam today and we're FREE if only for 10 days. Just 1 week for break this year which stinks but it's better than nothing. Shawn and I are heading out to Delaware tonight and will be there until Wednesday. It'll be nice to get out of town for a little while and not think about school. YEAH!!!!

Well Taken Care Of

I'll likely be talking about these people a lot so let me introduce you. From left to right is Shawn (my boyfriend), Meg, Beth, Jeff, Caleb, Don holding Mishka, Tasha (Mishka's amazing mommy), and Me.
This was last friday, such a GREAT night! We had a lovely dinner, helped Meg and Caleb (they're married) put milkweed on their Christmas tree (SO Pretty!), and then they all surprised me with an awesome little pre-birthday birthday party. Meg made me a great cake, I got a beautiful cinnamon candle, and Mishka gave me a plane ticket to go see my new niece Anna in Kansas in January. Then we played Balderdash girls vs. guys and the women kicked ass!!
The point is... I couldn't have done all of this without the support of these amazing people by me everyday. Meg, Beth, Don, and I are all in school together and our significant others are great enough to take us away from school once in a while and make us feel somewhat normal. It's my own Maine family, I'm SO lucky!

I knew this was going to get interesting...

We just got our schedule for a new skills workshop after we get back from break in January. We get to perform the male exam and the rectal exam. Can you believe people volunteer for this, kinda scary! I'm sure there will be stories to come after that! Hopefully it'll be as good as our last skills lab. Last week I got to draw blood from someone for the first time. I got it on the first try and then people became scared of me as I looked for more people to practice on. It's awesome to finally get to do some of this stuff instead of just reading about it.
I also just registered for my board exam... June 15th is the BIG day!! It's a 9 hour exam and it costs $445 to take. YIKES. It's scary though because now it's real.
Step-by-step.
One more exam friday then down to Delaware with Shawn and Angus for 10 days of break. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!

Climbing back up the face of the earth

Yes, I fell off. For some time now. I thought I'd give this a shot as a way for family and friends to keep up with what I'm doing since I'm not very good, ok, I'm AWFUL, at keeping in touch with everyone that I'd like to. There's so much going on with school and it's only going to get worse as I start studying for boards in a couple of months. I cannot believe I'm already done with my first year and a half of medical school!! I've had SO many people that have been a part of this journey and in getting me here that I want to make sure they know I haven't forgotten about them.
So the point is, I'll give updates every once in a while and hopefully fill some people in and reconnect with others. I'm LOVING medical school and there are so many awesome things I'm learning everyday that I'd have to have a week worth of phone conversations to catch everyone up. And since I hate the phone and can type pretty quickly this looks more promising :)