Mentor

I met with a fourth semester mentor today.  This was one of my assigned mentors through the Organization of African Students.  I've been putting off meeting with him for a while, probably because I simply don't like asking for help.  And because of my poor performance last semester, I was embarrassed to share my struggles with anyone.  Also, I didn't really know if he would be able to fit me into his schedule.  However, I decided that there's never any harm in attempting, and there's always more knowledge to be gained.

He just finished his last mini yesterday, so he was in a good mood.  As is the case with most upper semesters, he is glad to be leaving the island, but he is now in the stage where he is starting to really appreciate the relationships and unique experiences he's had on the island. His main piece of advice to me was develop good time management habits. Especially in his case, as they have 6-8 hr lecture days a couple times a week.

 I would say I use my time efficiently most of the time, but sometimes I get caught up in trying to be a perfectionist.  For example, if I start off my morning running, previewing the material, and everything lines up for my schedule for the day then the day usually goes really well.  However, if some distraction comes about or unexpected event, such as having to ask a professor a question during office hours, then this may throw off my schedule.  This causes me to sometimes look as if I have "failed" for the day, and start to think that I won't be able to finish all that I have scheduled.  I need to become better at adjusting my schedule throughout the day and the week.  I also find that if my schedule is too detailed, then I tend to not follow it.  My best results come when I'm scheduling by the hour.

He also gave me different resources such as supplementary videos and question banks to assist in my learning, and advised me to invest in resources such as Usmle Rx and Picmonic.  It is great to have these resources, but sometimes they're almost paralyzing.  There is so much material out there that it becomes hard to pick which ones to use.  Hopefully, I'll figure out what works best for me soon, I'll try to go through them over the break.

Ultimately, the advice came down to be efficient with your time, take time to do an activity outside of studying every day (gym, reading outside material, etc.), and go into each lecture being somewhat familiar with the subject matter that's going to be presented.  He showcased his time management in action, as he said he had to leave exactly as his watch showed 2:30.

Daily schedule

My ideal schedule looks something like this:
5:30 AM prayer/ devotion
5:45 run to the shore/ push-ups, pull-ups
6:30 shower/ breakfast
7:20 look over notes/ watch you-tube videos for overview of lecture
   (khan academy, handwritten tutorials, etc.)
7:50: walk to class
8-12PM: Class (with 10 min breaks between each 50-min lecture)
12-12:30 or 1: Lunch
1-2: Make study products for 1st lecture
2-3: Study products for 2nd lecture
3-4: Study products for 3rd
4-5: Study products for 4th
5-6: Dinner
6-8: Finish study products (with a 20 min break somewhere in here)
8-10: Meet with study group in multipurpose room, go over concepts for the day.
10-11: Get ready for bed/ chill

However, this usually varies, as other activities are included:
For example:

On Friday my group does anatomy lab dissection, which goes from 2-4:30, and each group that dissects demonstrates their dissection to the other 2 groups on another schedule day.  On Thursday and
Friday I attend a demonstration from 1:30-2.

If I'm really tired, I'll nap for about an hour after class.

This Wednesday we have a DCM session, where we do clinical training, such as blood pressure tests, abdominal exams, auscultation, percussion, etc.  Our DCM's are usually either weekly or biweekly.

This week I have an intramural football game on Tuesday from 4:30-5:30.  We usually have one game per week.

I am satisfied with 6 hours of studying on the weekdays and 8 hours on the weekends, using a timer to account for bathroom breaks, FB, youtube, and other distractions.  However, I generally fall short on lab days.

Mini 3 Results

I did much better on the 3rd mini than last semester.  I got an 83% on this one.  I was happy with the score, but I missed a few questions that were fairly easy, just a few issues with simple recall.  I didn't have too much time to rest though, as there was a Black Scrub Anatomy session that Monday afternoon.  Our practical was the week after the Mini exam.  The Black Scrub session is when professors and professional assistants, with masters or phD's hold sessions addressing any questions we might have in the Anatomy Lab.  It was very helpful, and it helped me realize what I needed to focus on.

This practical was harder than the last one for me, as there are so many structures in close proximity in the pelvic region.  The gastrointestinal tract wasn't as much of a problem.  I felt myself switching between two answers in my mind on multiple occasions, and this sometimes affected me when I moved on to the next station.  It's tough when there's only 60 seconds to identify the targeted structure.  I was most fascinated by the branches of the internal iliac and how neatly they correlated with the sacral nerve plexus.  We also learned about the embryological development of the urogenital tract and how similar male and females are during the development and begin from a common origin.

Mini 3

We had out third mini exam today.  I felt that it went well, it definitely seemed to be the easiest of the three so far.  Last semester this exam was my worst exam, i scored in the bottom 3% for the class, so hopefully this exam goes much better.

After the exam, a few friends and I went to Kathyrne's to eat, I had my first quality burger on the island!  I wanted to rest, but there was a black scrub session, which is when the anatomy professors and lab TA's clear up any lab practical questions, and these sessions are far and few between.  It was very helpful, as one of the professors quizzed a group of us and demonstrated different features of the abdominal cavity such as the branches off the abdominal aorta.  The anatomy practical is on Monday.  Then I took a nap, cooked, previewed some material for the upcoming week, and watched youtube videos.

I found the fetal heart development and blood supply to be the most interesting material from this block, which included: gastrointestinal anatomy, epithelium, connective tissue, lung anatomy, and nervous tissue.  It is interesting to see the heart develop from such a tiny tube.

The major concept we leared about the blood flow to the fetus were the three shunt systems: ductus venosus, ductus arteriosus and foramen ovale.  The ductus venosus allows the umbilical vein from teh mother to bypass the fetal liver while still providing blood for the development of the liver.  The ductus arteriosus connects the pulmonary artery to the aorta.  Generally the pulmonary artery will bring oxytgenated blood to the lungs, but in the fetus, the lungs are filled with fluid, increasing the resistance.  Therefore, the blood that would be going to the lungs, gets shunted to the aorta to be distributed throughout the body, as the blood is mostly oxygenated (coming directly from the mom's placenta).

After the baby is born, these shunts are closed due to the lack of prostagalandins, which are distributed by the mother through the umbilical vein.  However, after the umbilical
vessels are removed, prostaglandins are no longer distributed leading to a closing of the shunts, essential to the development of the functional circulatory system.  The image below shows an abnormality called "patent ductus arteriosus" which leads to a mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood.  This can be  fairly easily resolved by surgery.

River tubing

After our last meeting, our study group decided to take a much needed break.  We took in the beautiful scenery and decided to go river tubing.

The trip lasted for about an hour.  It was very relaxing and provided a rare opportunity to just clear our minds and not think about anything in particular.   Most students, myself included, don't make enough time to take advantage of the unique opportunity we have to attend medical school in the Caribbean.   It was nice to just float without a concern about the what material i need to catch up on or what I need to study next.  Most times the river wasn't very rapid, so we were mainly cruising at a slower speed.  However, there were stretches of rapid water, and this is where things started to get funny.  During one stretch, i ended up getting stuck on the river bank.  Then about two minutes later, I heard a shriek, and turned around to see a tube flipped upside down.  She had hit a rapid stretch and flipped over into the river, so much for not getting her hair wet.  Another classmate flipped over about a minute after that.

Afterwards, we ate lunch that was prepared by two ladies in the group.  A chicken pita sandwich with cucumber, and other goodies.  It was a great afternoon.  

Test results

There's still room for improvement, but I performed much better on the anatomy practical and mini examinations this time around.  I got an 82% on my mini (average of 71%) and an 86% on my anatomy lab practical (avg. 64%).  The change in strategy of taking my notes seemed to help.  I tried a new technique of trying to condense each hour of lecture into one page.  This really forced me to make connections I wouldn't have otherwise and be able to quickly refer to the information in a condensed form when answering questions of studying with a group.

Grange Elderly home

A couple weekends ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Grange elderly home with other members of Ross Christian Fellowship.  I came in not knowing what to expect.

As we arrived, we were greeted by large mosquitos and a bull mooing loudly.  The assistant who was on duty at the home was busy running around attending to the residents.  Then we were directed to the back where the residents were seated.

They all seemed inattentive, except one lady who was saying something about her daughter.  I was wondering if they would respond as two of the members started playing guitar and we sang a few songs.  The first song, they did not respond and kept the same expression on their faces as when we first entered.  The second song, one of the ladies slightly popped up her head and with a significant amount of effort tapped her hand on the chair to the music.  Then she started tapping with both hands.  The man to her right with a  disability saw her and then started to shake his hand, almost as if he was seizing.  Then he too joined in and started clapping and smiling.

It was a fun experience, and we had a good time fellowshipping with them.