Time for a real blog entry again…

I revamped my blog the other night when I switched over to the beta version. It is so much easier to use, except I hate how you have to constantly re-log in every screen change, despite selecting “remember me” – gets a little frustrating after a while. Hope you guys like the improvements – now to try and make it a little more interesting and on topic now that I am a member of the nurses blog ring! Just wish I had an interesting life to fill in my blog with ;-)

So I found out on Friday where my January clinical placement will be – unfortunately it isn’t just a couple blocks from my house this time; it’s actually about a 20 minute drive. Normally that wouldn’t be a very big deal, but considering I usually don’t get to sleep until 3:30 am, and will need to be at clinical for 7 am, those extra few minutes that I could have been sleeping really do make a difference (especially after what happened last year!) Hopefully my request for modifying my hours a bit (coming in half an hour early each day all week so I can leave work 2 ½ hours earlier the night before clinical) will be approved. I guess worst case scenario is that I can use vacation time again this year, but I get so few vacation days as it is, and I work so hard all year long, it really sucks to have to use precious vacation time for school. I usually have to give up 2 – 3 days around exam time as it is. Oh well, the sacrifices we make to try and better our lives.

Wrote my anatomy bell-ringer exam today. I studied my ASS off for this exam; probably the hardest I ever prepared for an exam. Almost every waking moment for the past 2 weeks has been in preparation for this exam; from coffee breaks and lunch hours, flash cards between screen changes at work, flash cards at red lights in my vehicle, having friends give me spelling tests on the really complicated words - like chordae tendineae (no way I was losing 10% on spelling on THIS exam!) I had company from back home that I hadn’t seen in over a year stay with me last weekend, plus worked at a craft show Saturday, and my flashcards never left my hands. So I went in thinking I would get around a 90% cuz I KNEW MY STUFF! Unfortunately came out of it a little less certain…

Pathetically enough, I think I did the worst on the male reproductive system – I blame it on the fact that the model was so small (hee hee – no pun intended) that I had difficulty landmarking the internal vessels/structures... I also had a little difficulty with some of the circulatory system too, especially in the neck and face, as once again the models were so confusing. Most of the models were colour coded (red for arteries, blue for veins, {except obviously for the pulmonary arteries and veins} yellow for nerves, etc) but on some of the models everything was just pink, and in 30 seconds per station, there wasn’t a whole lot of time for landmarking so at times I just had to guess…




(speaking of the pulmonary arteries, it just dawned on me that I got that question wrong! I just realized I labeled it as a vein – DOH! I went in prepared for the trick question, and the 30 second time limit screwed me up!)








I’m positive that I passed THIS exam, so there is still hope of me passing this course yet so I am not giving up on my dream of applying to medical school just yet. And my final lecture exam is next Thursday, which is worth 45% of my final mark, so as long as I can do really well on it, I will make it………..

Sorry this wasn’t the most exciting blog…but literally nothing new in my life as every waking moment has been used studying, and every thought has been regarding anatomical landmarks! 10 more days until I am done school for a month! What will I do with all that free time?????