Sigh of relief

Med school is turning out to be everything I hoped it could be. Granted, I am very much in the "honeymoon" phase, but I am loving every minute of it. I'm pretty convinced that I've found the perfect program for me - all of my 'classes' are so interesting and so far, nothing has felt like work. I'm so lucky to have found a school where the emphasis is on self-directed learning, with topics interesting enough that self-motivation isn't an issue.

I had my first 12-hour day on Wednesday, and I had been dreading it. So many things to do, so few breaks - I expected utter exhaustion. Instead, I found exhilaration. The day started off with learning some clinical skills - we were presented with a 'patient' (an actor/volunteer) and learned how to take vital signs such as blood pressure, heart rate and respiratory rate. Next, got my line of credit (and a free Tim Horton's gift card! woo! Take THAT, massive debt load!), and had about 20 minutes to grab a sandwich before my first ever Anatomy lecture. We seem to be blessed with the most amazing profs - I could imagine that Anatomy runs the risk of being an extremely dry topic, but this was fascinating. The lecture was followed by a more hands on application session - we looked at chest cavities and lungs (surprisingly, I'm not bothered by the cadavers). I definitely felt like I didn't know anything, as so many people in my class came from Physiology programs and are anatomy pros, but I think I'll be able to catch up.

Next, a 20 minute break, and then another clinical skills session - this time with some first-year residents who, in their sleep-deprived states, will teach us the skills we need to not come across as ignorant fools when we first start dealing with patients. We talked about history-taking (apparently 95% of all diagnoses can be reached from an accurate patient history) and then got a tour of the emergency room! By the time we were done, it was 8:30 pm and I was not the slightest bit tired. Horray for exceeded hopes!