Three Weeks

It is down to that, 21 days and I will be sitting in the first day of classes for school. I am going to do a dry run for the metro sometime next week and see how that goes. I am concerned about living so far away. But, I am going to try to use the time to study and not just veg. I also decided that I want to study late 2 nights a week. I am going to try to come to my side of town and then go to the library which remains open later. I am not sure that I want to change from the train to the bus downtown at night alone. It is funny how the Metro lines really only cater to a couple of areas and the rest are left to fend for themselves. Or make weird transfers in bad neighborhoods. I will just have to walk a couple of blocks downtown to make the exchange.

I have been reading some of the books that I ordered. The material appears to be manageable, that is until I realize that I am taking something other than the one class that the book is about. Everyone is being really supportive and wants me to succeed, so I think that we will be able to work out a working plan. I also have bought a bag to take to school since the last post. It was too expensive, but I think it will last me a while. It rolls and has a shoulder strap and while I wanted a backpack, it think that this will be a good medium with the distance that I need to cover each day. I won't be able to just run home at any time. I am trying to decide what to load into it, the essentials without weighing myself down too much. I am going to have to work on that since I like to have a lot of stuff available. It is the pack rat in my genetic makeup coming forward.

I also said farewell to my study buddy for the MCAT. He is headed to the American University in Beirut for medical school. He has a lot more guts than I do, travelling around the world to follow his dream. He inspires me in that he wants to do the medicine that would make me too uncomfortable - poor countries, war torn villages, situations of despair. I find that very noble, but something that I would not want to pursue. I just find the challenges to big and the situation too heart rending. I also have a feeling that I won't have to go very far to find people in desperate situations in my own city and eventually in my own practice. I find that it is a unique reflection of the individuals who are selected for medical school and how there is a adequate distribution of students entering each specialty because of the desires of the student to practice a certain kind of medicine.

I have also been watching the HOPKINS series on TV this summer. Quite interesting yet the producer of the program had the ability to cut and fast forward and alter based on what he wanted in a 1 hour show. I am intrigued by the bias that might have been shown and also what was left on the cutting room floor. I wish that the Houston Medical series would have been picked up for a longer run 5 years ago. I enjoyed that series, too.

My daughter has learned how to spell the word "doctor" and likes to write Doctor Mommy on things. I really like that and I know that she is proud of me. She also has taken to drawing a brain with spinal cord that is really cute. It looks like a rose and stem with no leaves. I am more amazed by my kids abilities each and every day. They make me happy and truly make me feel loved. Any problems that I am having melt away in one of their hugs. I will have to remember that after a long hard day of studying.

Sticker Applied!

I placed the UT-Houston medical school sticker on the back of my Jeep yesterday. Kind of spooky looking. It keeps getting more and more official! Some of my fellow compadres are in the pre-entry program which started last week. I had been invited, but with mom and daughter's surgeries, there would not be any way. I wish I could have participated and get the rust out, but we will have to just start at a run. I am trying to put "my house in order" for the beginning of school.

It was interesting to go through the caregiver side of medicine. I hope to remember from this that while working in the hospital each day can become very routine for the doctors and nurses, it is not that way for the patients families. I certainly appreciated the confident and assertive people I ran into instead of the folks who were laughing and joking. Maybe it is just me. There was a doctor talking about his daughter thinking about getting her nipple pierced at one location and a nurse calling the man who had just cut on my daughter an "ass." You have to remember that you never know who is listening or how that message will be taken. One thing that I found interesting was the post-op pain management and how it works for adults versus children. While NO pain is impossible, it is so important to lessen the burden of pain to allow for healing, but it is such a narrow line to walk.

I still have a massive list of things to do before school starts and I try to work on things as they come up. I am trying to enjoy all of the remaining free time before all of our lives really change!