It has been a while since I did my last post and I have so much to talk about. It's been so long since I did a post because of how busy I am! I am currently writing this on a Saturday night at 11 o'clock. It's partially my fault, though. It turns out that the fall semester when all of the students come back, there are fun things to do around town! That, and the 16 credits of classes we are taking, lead to a heavy work-load.
The start of this semester brought about a noticeable change. There are students everywhere! I was so used to the quiet summer where we ruled the health science center. Now it's hard to find a table to sit at in between classes, and the library is crowded as ever. The stores are always crowded and now the gym is, too. I miss having the city to ourselves. But it's not all bad that everyone is back. This is technically the beginning of the school year for returning "normal" students. Organizations are providing a lot of fun (free) things for students to do. Not to mention, football is back! West Virginians take their WVU football team seriously! Tailgating has been a lot of fun, and being able to witness a win at the football game leads to singing "Country Roads" at the end of the game. I tell you, there is nothing like singing that song in unison with 50,000 other people. It gave me chills the first time I heard it. I definitely recommend taking advantage of the free student tickets and witnessing at least one win. My classmates and I have also been to many other free events provided by the school. In the past month, I've been to a baseball game, a tailgate with food and drinks provided, a welcome back event for students, and most fun of all, some of us went to a zip-lining and ropes course! I can't recommend enough that you take advantage of these opportunities to blow off some steam and have some fun. This is probably the last time you are going to be a student if you're in this program, so leave this program without any regrets.
In order to leave without any regrets, of course the most important thing is your classes. That's probably what you want to hear about anyways, if you're reading this. I will go class by class and give you insight on what the classes are like this semester. One huge difference this semester is that we are now taking classes with other students in other programs, including dental students, mls/cls, and other students. We are no longer alone.
Physiology: Monday and Fridays, 2 hrs and Wednesday for 1hr
This class takes place in a large lecture hall and has the most students. With 5 total hours of lectures each week, this class has a ton of content that it covers. I think you can imagine what a physiology course is like. It is taught by 5 different professors over the entirety of the course, so it may be difficult to predict what each exam is going to be like. So far the main topics we have covered are the physiology of cell membranes, neurons, the central and peripheral nervous system, and now muscles. I wouldn't say the content is difficult, but the amount of material abundant. We have a lot of two hour gaps in between classes this semester, and it is a great chance to review what we have been going over, as it is a must. There are a total of 8 exams, each with it's own different percentage of the final grade and amount of questions. There is a cumulative final exam worth 10%. As you can tell, exams are very frequent. You absolutely cannot get behind. We also have weekly Q&A sessions to help answer any questions that come up. I did really well on the first exam, and I hope to keep that up.
Microbiology: Four days a week for one hour
This class is pretty similar to physiology in that the topics are closely related, and that it is taught by a bunch of different professors. There are 4 hours of lecture each week, and I feel that this material is a little more dense. You have to understand concepts pretty well, just as you do in physiology, instead of just memorizing things. Topics we have covered so far have been about immunity, antigens and antibodies, cytokines, hypersensitivity, vaccines, and now bacteria. There are 5 exams, including a cumulative final. They are all weighted the same and the P.A. students have to write two research papers (instead of taking the lab that the dental students take), which is 10% total. I did poorly on my first exam in this class, so I've got to kick it in gear and study more for this class.
Laboratory management: Tuesdays and Thursdays for one hour
I don't have too much to say about this class. It's a required class in case any of us have the opportunity to manage a lab one day. It's not hard, and as long as you do the homework and study a little bit for the exams, it shouldn't be a problem at all to complete this course with little amount of stress. We have a couple of homework assignments, like creating a resume, and 3 exams.
Advanced Microanatomy: Tuesdays for 2 hours
This class builds off of what we have been doing all year in the scope room with all of the microscopes. This time, we are adding pathology to the slides, though. It is important that by now you know what normal tissue looks like. There are 3 exams and a final that is worth a very large percentage of the final grade. We haven't had many of these classes this semester yet, due to scheduling so in my next post I will be able to tell you more.
Surgical pathology and Autopsy procedures: Thursdays for two hours and many extra sessions outside of class
To me, this is the most important class of the semester subject-wise. Everything we learn is directly involved with our careers. It's kind of like an extension of our anatomical techniques class that we had in the first semester and is basically job training. This class is complicated to describe as it is not your typical lecture class. We still have a two hour lecture once a week like a normal lecture class. We discuss techniques we use during autopsy and grossing techniques based on tissues with pathologic processes. One of the big differences with this class is that the three exams and the cumulative final are all oral exams. Yikes! I am anticipating this to be a little nerve-racking. From what I understand so far, we are to take the exams in the autopsy suite and are presented some tissues and we will have to describe the procedures to properly gross them and be asked about questions about them. This seems like it's going to be difficult to study for because I am not sure what to expect yet. On top of that, we have our daunting frozen practical in November. Throughout the year, we have had opportunity to practice this high-stress, timed procedure, so we should all be getting somewhat comfortable with this. I even was able to perform a successful frozen procedure during one of my gross room rotations. Along with the exams and practical, we also have a required project. During our gross room rotations, we are to do a project on a benign specimen, and a specimen with a pathologic process. We have to take photos of these, make a gross description, get patient history, and eventually get the results and make them into a 10 minute powerpoint presentation. On the day of the presentations, it will be chosen which one of our presentations we are to give. So we have to prepare two 10 minute presentations and we will present one of them, but we won't know which one it will be. I will be putting a ton of energy into this class this semester.
We have four opportunities this semester for gross room rotations that are two hours long. I have already had two rotations and both times I only grossed my specimen for my projects. I ended up with a benign uterus and an esophagogastrectomy. The uterus wasn't too difficult, but it took a while because I was learning how to take pictures with the camera in the gross room. The GI specimen, which was part of the esophagus and the connecting portion of stomach, was a little complex to me as this was my first cancer case, but it was a post-treatment specimen, so there wasn't any mass left, just remnants. Hopefully during my next two rotations I can work with more cases during my time.
One last thing that I have to talk about may not seem like a big deal to you, but it is to the people that "live" at the health science center. This fall, something earth shattering opened up inside the building. At least that's what some people make it out to be. A Chick Filet has opened up inside the health science center. Now I know people around here go crazy for this stuff. Every time I drive by one the line is crazy long, and this one is no different! It's at least 30 people deep every time I walk by at lunch time. And you may be appalled at me when I say this, but I think it's the most overrated fast food restaurant of all time. I've yet to be impressed. But do you know what sucks? I still wait in that line sometimes to get a chicken sandwich. I don't even like it that much, but it's just so convenient, you know? I personally think it's a bad idea and it's bad for my health and everyone else's. But this shows you, "build it and they will come." Maybe you will find this exciting, as do many other fellow students.
I have some more fun things coming up in the next couple of weeks. My parents are coming to visit for the first time since they moved me in. We also have a two day fall break, where one of my friends is coming to visit for that duration. I hope to do some more frisbee golfing and real golfing before the weather gets bad. I am currently 10-2 in my four fantasy football leagues through 3 weeks, so that's a good start. My Lions, Spartans, and Mountaineers have all had good starts, too. School is starting to really get a heavy workload, and I am really going to have to buckle down to get through this semester, though, I have no doubt that my classmates and I will be able to take on this last didactic term.
