Huh? What??

Mini 1 was less than four weeks ago and now Mini 2 is in less than 5 days. WHAT?! Needless to say, the amount of information we have received in the past 3 and a half weeks is mind boggling. However, I won't complain because the material has been VASTLY more interesting since Mini 1. We've covered all of the muscle (skeletal, cardiac, and smooth), nervous tissue, bone & cartilage in Histology. We've also covered the development of the placenta, and the development of the brain and spinal cord in an embryo in Embryology. In Anatomy, we have learned and dissected the hand, the thigh, the knee, the gluteal region, and the foot. In Biochemistry (ugh...), we've covered the TCA cycle, glycolysis, oxidative phosphorylation, hemoglobin/myoglobin, and all the proteins and enzymes in the blood. This picture to the right explains how blood clots. Looks like fun, right?! And in Physiology (which I am currently taking a 5 minute break from), we have learned how the heart and the other muscles of the body contract. As of right now, every first semester can (or should!) read an electrocardiogram. We have also learned about tons of new diseases that are so numerous I can't even remember a single one to write about. As you can see, the material we are learning about is slowly becoming more and more clinical. I'm starting to see the light at the surface again and I'm once again reminded of why I've always wanted to study medicine. Plus, I've always hated all that DNA garbage like replication, transcription, and translation that seems like we spent years covering. So, I can say I'm much happier with the material since Mini 1 and my brain seems to agree because it has all been sticking pretty well so far. I hope I didn't just jinx myself.... now I'll probably wake up with amnesia tomorrow.

So, yea, here's our Mini 2 breakdown. People say Mini 2 tends to make or break you. Regardless of how you did on Mini 1, this test pretty much determines if you can still pass your classes. If you do better on this Mini, then you should be in pretty good shape to pass. If you do worse on this Mini, well, let's not talk about this scenario.

Anatomy (Gross Anatomy + Neuroanatomy) = 15% of our final grade in Anatomy
Histology = 18% of our final grade in Histo
Histology Lab Practical = 7% of our final grade in Histo
Biochemistry = 20% of our final grade in Biochem
Physiology = 25% of our final grade

So, I've got to go now because I have a lot more physiology to study and we have our histology lab practical tomorrow at 1:00 PM. This means I'll be spending some of tonight and all day tomorrow looking at Histology slides of cells and tissues that are all pink and all look the same.

Regardless of how I do on my exams this time around, you will not find me at home sulking and dwelling on it. Come 4:00 PM Monday afternoon, you will find me on a Caribbean beach in the middle of nowhere. For the first time since school has started, I'm going to do something fun and I won't feel guilty about it because I've earned it! 14 hours of lectures and studying per day is enough to buy me some beach time... I hope!

The next time I write (probably Monday night), I'll write about our snorkeling/beach adventure at Secret Beach and I'll post some pictures, of course.

Good night everyone and please continue to pray! Despite all of our hard work and the COUNTLESS hours of studying, its always nice to get a little extra help from the Big Guy upstairs!!