Go Bucks!

Tonight I hosted an Ohio State football party. I invited my group of friends over to watch the game. Here's a pick of the gang. From left to right, Meaghan (my study buddy and friend from Toronto), Kola (Minnesota and Nigeria), Torey (Wisconsin), Ankur (Cinci and University of Dayton) and Mohita (Texas...yeah, I know Texas, but don't worry I tease her about being from Dubya's state on a daily basis).

Everyone brought a snack (I had Sun Chips), Meaghan brought coffee cake and chocolate cake that she bought at the shacks earlier that day and Torey brought pudding.

We watched the game, played scattergories and laughed a ton. It was good break from all of the studying that we've been doing. It was also good to kick back for a bit since we have two HUGE exams coming up very soon.

Tomorrow...back to the grindstone. I meet Meaghan in the gross anatomy lab at 8:30 AM. After a couple of hours of brachioplexus and pectoral/breast region we will probably head to the library to study on our own and then over to peer tutoring from 1-3 PM. Once that's over, back to the library to a room that has a dry erase board so that the two of us can go over biochemistry and histology. Once we finish that, we will probably head back to the gross anatomy lab for a bit and then home for some shut eye. Now that's what I call a productive Sunday.

Before and After

Before all of my packages arrived...here's what my refrigerator looked like. Many of you have been asking what I've been eating. Well, the answer is, oranges (on the door, yes, the oranges are green here), tangerines and mangos (on the top shelf, yes they're green too), couscous (in the pot) and hard boiled eggs (on the second shelf in the bowl).

Tahdah! Here is my refrigerator after all of my care packages arrived from my Mom, Staci and Susie. All I have to say is, "I have food!" Thank you, thank you, thank you. You might be wondering why I put the boxes of dried goods in the refrigerator. Well, that's because there are so many tiny little ants that crawl everywhere on this island. These ants can scent anything (similar to the way that macrophages picks up the scent (aka chemoreceptor) of bacteria thanks to the formyl-methyl group that is attached at start codon, f-methionine).

Anyway, it's just so nice to have good food. The bottom drawer is filled with Clif bars. I can't tell you how grateful I am. Down here, an expired Clif bar costs $8. I am thrilled to have peanut butter and jelly, noodles with tomato sauce, dried fruit and trail mix. I could go on and on, but I won't because I think you all might get the picture.

You know you're in medical school...

When you can eat your lunch and watch a dissection video at the same time...find it interesting enough to palpate the area that's being dissected on your own body (after you set your spoon down, of course.)

Arrested!

This blog entry has nothing to do with medical school. I just thought it would be funny to post a picture of Staci and me locked up in Alcatraz. We went to Alcatraz the day after I ran the San Francisco Marathon. No, it didn't bother my legs at all to climb up nearly 13 stories. And it didn't hurt my swollen ankle (I rolled it running on the Golden Gate Bridge at mile 5 or so) to stand for a few hours during the audio tour. Actually, going to Alcatraz was great fun and probably the best thing that I could do for my battered body and for my friend Staci who loves anything that has to do with criminals. You can see the fear in both of our eyes as we stand behind those steel bars. They say on the rock, "when you do something bad, you go to prison. When you do something bad in prison, you go to Alcatraz." We must have done something really bad...

Sutures

Okay...so I joined AMSA...American Medical Student's Association. I am also joining a hospice and palliative care group too. But, back to AMSA. When you pay your dues, you get access to all of the events that the group hosts. For example, last Friday, AMSA held a suture clinic. My friend Meaghan signed me up for it. **Let me preface this by saying that I hope that I don't have to practice the kind of medicine that requires me to suture open wounds. It's just not my thing. I mean, I would do it if I had to, I don't think its gross, but it's just not where I see myself going or the kind of medicine that I want to practice.** So, we get to the gross lab, I have my scrubs on and look very professional, hair pulled back, gray hairs sticking out, black tee shirt underneath the light blue scrubs that my friend Nickie gave to me...we walk in and as usual, all of the bodies are covered in their light blue body bags and the smell of formaldehyde pierces my nose and my eyes instantaneously begin tearing up. But something is different. What the heck? Oh, there's huge chunks of skin (various pieces/parts) laying on top of every body bag in the lab. AMSA people are walking around and making incisions on these 6" X 6" flaps of fatty, hairy pieces of skin. I turn to Meaghan and say, I don't know if I really want to be doing this. She laughs and can't wait to get her sutures into the flap. Needless to say, I stayed. I learned how to do the most basic suture and I did it pretty darn good according to the facilitators. I have to admit that going back to a suture clinic is not on the top of my list. But, it was a good experience and I learned something new.

Afterwards, Meaghan and I opened up my little old lady and quized each other for two and half hours. I am becoming more and more comfortable with working on the cadaver. It's quite interesting. I wish that some of the groups that dissect her when my group isn't there would be a little more careful of structures and of hacking everything away. But, what are you gonna do?

This week we start to dissect the brachial plexus. This should be fun. So many nerves, veins, arteries and muscles to learn. And to top it all off...our first practical exam is a week from Friday. Whew! Better get studying.

Here is what I've learned...

• Cows don't like to be interrupted while eating
• You don't have to necessarily understand...just be sure to memorize
• Having eye surgery was the best choice in the world for me (especially during gross anatomy lab)
• Missing people means that I know who I really love
• Being far away from home doesn't get easier, but adapting does get easier
• Cow dung looks nothing like human or dog dung...it doesn't smell like it either
• Hot sauce is really hot on Dominica
• Iguana's are amazing animals that move meticulously through everything
• People segregate regardless of where you are located on the earth. Apparently most people like to hang around people who look and act the same way that they do. Disappointing.
• Coconut trees have coconuts and Palm trees don't
• Running up mountains gets easier after doing it several times
• Fiber is very, very important
• Lettuce on Dominica should not be eaten because worms lay their eggs on the leaves and then humans ingest them and get worms.
• Sending laundry out for someone else to do rocks!
• Skype...its free to talk to anyone who downloads it onto their computer
• The human body is the most amazing piece of machinery around
• Pre-reading before a lecture is a must. Concept mapping after a lecture is a must.
• Writing a blog and getting responses...priceless!

Amino acids: properties
Sung to the Beverly Hillbillies melody:

Come an' listen to my story about the a-mi-nos
Five Al-i-phats kick off our show
Glycine, Alanine, Valine and then
Leucine and Iso make up half of ten.

Well the next thing you know are three aromats
phenylalanine(F) is right off the batt
Tyrosine has alcohol next to its ring
And tryptophan(W) has indole double ring thing.

Sulfur in Cysteine; it loves to bond
Sulfur Methionine is much more a snob
Alcoholic Serine, well wouldn't you know,
And Threonine's OH gives a warm glow.

Acid-aspartic(D) and glutamic(E) are ionized
With pK of 4, their protons are lysed,
asparagine(N) and glutamine(Q) play a different role
With amides they're neutral but they both have poles

lysine(K) and aRginine are the basic kind,
But Histidine's imidazole can't make up its mind,
Proline, the last one, coming at the end
It's imine, an oddball, proteins use to bend.

Week 3

**this picture is from my trip to Boston with Staci in Fall of 2006**
Hello Everyone, it's week three and its starting to set in that I am finally in medical school. Whoa. I am enjoying learning all sorts of new and interesting things. For example, most of you might not know how intricate and delicate our epithelium is...I would be thrilled to tell all of you when I come home in December. And connective tissue, now that's some interesting stuff. DNA and RNA...genes, mutations, abnormalities, etc. Last but certainly not least, my anatomy lab group dissected the suboccipital triangle today. Remarkably it took us three and a half hours to dissect an area of the neck that is only about one inch by one inch...reason being, we had to cut through several layers of muscle first (trapezius, splenius capitus, semispinalis and then finally the triangle which is made up of obliquus capitus inferior, obliquus capitus superior and rectus capitus posterior major...oh and the greater occipital nerve, suboccipital nerve and vertebral artery were hanging out there too). Okay, that's all from memory so if I'm wrong, tell me because the first practical is in two and half weeks.

It's after midnight now and I really need to get some rest. So hello to everyone! I miss you all and love sharing my experiences with you.

Oh and that picture of me with a wonderfully tasty Guiness in hand...well...let's just say that I can barely remember what good beer (or any kind of beer) tastes like. I miss a good beer, ice cream, vegi burgers, bread, stinky cheeses, a good cabernet or malbec and risotto. I miss running on flat surfaces (non-mountainous climbs). I miss restaurants where you can actually sit down and order something. I miss living in a bug-free house. I miss driving in a car and having RiteAid on the corner. BUT WHO THE HELL CARES...I AM FINALLY IN MEDICAL SCHOOL! There will be plenty of time for the rest of everything else in seven years! Whoohoo...I'm still excited.

What a Week!

Hi everyone! Sorry that I haven't written in a while. This week has been incredibly busy with classes and studying. Let's just say, the "shtuff" started to pile up (or hit the fan, if you will). There's so much going on now that most days consist of waking up, going for a run or lifting, showering, class until noon or 4, labs and then study time. I have been trying to get home by midnight every night. Whoa am I tired.

This week we started working on our cadavers. What an amazing and humbling experience. The people who donate their bodies for medical students to learn on are remarkable. My cadaver is the smallest cadaver in the entire lab. She is a 75 year old female who died from complications of Alzheimer's. Most of her muscles have atrophied and she has barely any fat on her entire body (which is good for us because there's less cleaning up for us). Still, it makes me reflect upon the fate that she experienced and what her family must have gone through during the process of disease. I am grateful that she gave us her body to learn from.

Okay back to some cell biology...I am categorizing all of the organelles in a cell and what they do and don't do. FUN!

Hope you all are doing well. Keep sending emails! It's always good to hear from home.

Saturday Studies

Today I was able to pick up a few lost hours of sleep. I slept in until 8. Whoohoo! Then off to the library until 4 PM. I decided that I needed to decompress and give my brain a little time to breathe. So, I grabbed a chair out of my apartment and headed up to the roof. Eventually, I think the landlord plans to add a second level to the current building. For now, it makes for a nice flat space to enjoy the view and the sun. Check out the video and the view.

As I was walking up to the roof, I came upon my always mooing cow friend. She was a little closer than usual. And by closer, I mean about 20 feet away. I headed down to say hello to her. She gave me a look that I will never forget...it basically said, "get the heck away from me, you're irritating me. All I want to do is munch on some grass and trees." So I took her picture before she moo'd at me and then left her alone (after saying thank you, of course).

White Coat Ceremony

When you enter medical school, there is a ritual or ceremony called the "white coat ceremony." Today was mine. The class of 2011 filed into the Annex (where all my classes are held) and for today, the Annex was call a "hall." We carried our coats over our forearms, shoulders, hands and in our bags until it was time to have an M.D. put the coats on us and a PhD faculty member add a pin to the lapel that symbolizes our commitment to providing compassionate and excellent patient care.

We had many, many speakers at this event. The Ross School of Medicine Dean, Dr. Mary Coleman addressed our class. She is a fellow Buckeye who taught at Ohio State Medical School. Before the ceremony began, Dean Coleman shook everyone's hands and asked them their name and introduced herself to us.

The President of the University, Vice President, etc. all said a word or two. This is a picture of the the Honorable Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister, Commonwealth of Dominica. He addresed our class, welcomed us to the best medical school in the world and wish us all luck. Afterwards, during the reception, he went around and shook everybody's hands.

After the keynote speaker, Dr. Joseph O'Donnell from Boston, we finally got to put our white coats on. So, here are a few pictures of me with my lovely farmers tan and white coat. The white coat is short for all medical students. Once we graduate and are M.D.'s, we get to put on the long coat. Enjoy!

Thanks!

I just want to thank everyone for your posts and replies. It means so much to me that all of you read my blog and take the time to reply. Thank you so much!

I haven't written much because I've been in class all day and studying. My studies have kept me quite busy. This week was biochemistry, anatomy, gross anatomy, histology, cell biology and doctor, patient and society. Whoa! It's a lot, but I am certainly trying.

Well back to the books. Thanks for reading this and I will update it as soon as I can. Keep writing! Love you all!

Maddie Girl!

Gosh this dog is so cute. I miss my Maddie. Just thought that I would share her with all of you.

My Address

If anyone wants to send me anything here is the address:

Amy Rak c/o Ross University
Portsmouth Campus
Picard, Commonwealth of Dominica
West Indies

It will probably take a couple of weeks. But, hey, thanks for thinking of me!

First Semester

This is the building that I will be spending the vast majority of my lecture time. It's called the Annex. All first semester students have class here. It holds all 400 students that are in my class. That number will drop by 40-50% within the year. Remarkable, isn't it?

Everything around here is pretty state of the art. For example, we all bring our laptops to class, plug into the network wirelessly and access our professors lecture notes. We can also get our school email as well as any other pertinent information. The school installed a program onto our laptops so that our professors can ask us a question, we open up the program and choose which answer we want, he receives the answers from us within seconds and that will give him feedback on how we are undertanding what he is lecturing on. Todays lecture was biochemistry and anatomy (the back). I am off to study now. I have to start memorizing all of these muscles and nerves. Love it!

• Thanks to everyone who's been reading and posting replies, I love to read what you all think of this adventure. I really appreciate it.

Island Tour

Okay...I went on a tour of Dominica today. Just to start things off, I thought that I would show you all my wonderful flip flop tan.

Above is the town of Scotts Head. This is where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Caribbean Sea. It's quite spectacular because the Atlantic side of things is choppy and rough, but the Caribbean Sea side is calm. Above, the Atlantic is on the right side of the land barrier.

This small pool of water is a hot spring. Dominica has them throughout the island. It's a result of volcanic activity. Below you can see that I took a dip in one of them. The water was very warm and yummy.

The picture to the right is at Trafalger Falls. We hiked a little bit to see this stunning waterfall. There is another one about 200 feet to the left of this one. Dominica receives 300-400 inches of rainfall each year...gorgeous waterfalls are the result of all of this rain.

We went to a botanical garden and saw amazing trees. Below is a Banyan Tree. The Parrot Conservatory was very interesting too. Parrot's are protected species in Dominica.

To the left and below are pictures of the capital, Roseau. So far its the heaviest populated area of the island. Everything is very colorful. The stadium is for cricket and soccer.

It was a very interesting tour. It lasted nine and a half hours. It took that long because there is basically one road to everywhere. So we had to travel the perimeter of the island to get wherever we were going. But, it definitely was fun.

Off to the Market we go

Every Saturday morning, the town of Portsmouth has a market. The locals are selling all kinds of things. For example, coconut, carrots, spinach, various fruits and vegetables as well as fresh fish that they chop with their machetti's (sp?) right in front of you. That was a bit much for me.




A few of the new people that I've met gathered at 6AM to walk into Portsmouth. It's about a 25 minute walk from my house. I enjoyed the walk and getting my legs moving. It was still dark as I ventured out of my apartment. The sun was trying so hard to peak through the morning mist. I saw a cute lizard on my way to meet people.


Here are a few shots of our walk into town.













After we turned the corner and passed the Iguana Cafe the town was in our grasp.




















The market is cash only. The monetary unit down here is the EC. And the locals speak Creole and English. The price of things seem to go up and down depending on what time you are at the market (the earlier the better). If the booth owner feels like charging you more or less, she will. They sell food out of the back of their truck or they have a booth with a table set up. It's pretty intense.



There were tons of roosters and hens walking around the streets. Here's a rooster that was eating a plantain. Roosters, cows, goats, cats and dogs roam freely around here. It's really interesting.




Anyway, I have a feeling that I will be posting less frequently once school starts, but I will try to stay up on things to keep everyone posted. If you have any requests, let me know. Thanks for reading!