Another day... sigh.. another day..

Well, I feel I am getting more and more behind again. I doubt I am the only one who feels like this. Apparently I didn't do as well as I thought on my biochem exam. I got an 85.4% (interesting that I mention the .4% eh?). Whatever... thinking through my different avenues of possibly subspecializing is simply making me depressed.

I will go back to the basics, take it one day at a time and try my best today for a better tomorrow. Sound good? For now... it certainly does so that I can get through tonight (for sleep) and wake up happy tomorrow!

So weird, I felt really good on that biochem exam and then didn't do as well as I had hoped, but I felt horrible about histo and did okay. Both with roughly the same grade. I am telling you right now, I am feeling the non-traditional status hurting me now. My Business Degree and Management Information Systems isn't doing much for me, and those extra classes I took in Science... are luckily keeping me above the water!

MUST FLOAT, CAN'T SINK! I will ride the tide home into my dreams for tonight. Until next time...

Mansoor Jatoi, MS I

Btw... Vote for me for Class Council President, October 1, 2008! :)

Biochem Exam #1! DONE!

Thank goodness, all this studying can partially be flushed for now. I felt that the biochem exam #1 was very fair and I felt fairly comfortable with it. We will see in the coming day or two how well or poorly I did in the exam. I felt pretty good about it though, so lets hope there is a good outcome.

Now on to start studying for my next biochem exam which is this coming Monday (7 days) and my Gross Anatomy Quiz the day after that (8 days). It doesn't end, it will simply get more and more worse before it will ever get better. I better start planning a nice trip to get away during the November break with the wifey (Love ya darlin!)

Ah, today I can finally say that I am running for Class Council President for my medical school class. I will keep you posted on the status of that in the coming days. The election for that is next week Wednesday (9 days). Next week will be a busy week!

Mansoor Jatoi, MS I

The more I study.. the more I realize...

Well, now into the third week of medical school, I realize that the more I study, the more I realize how much I DON'T know. Our tests are designed such that even the minutest of details can be and I am sure will be tested. After my horrible histo experience, I hoped to overcome my fears of doing bad on my biochem exam, but the more I think I have it down.... I get hit with a question I can't freaking answer! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! It's driving me damn nuts, and I am doing this while sacrificing Gross Anatomy, which will definitely crush me as most of this biochem is review and Gross Anatomy is brand spanking new to me. I am going to have put in some serious time for gross anatomy and quick before our first quiz over a bunch of anatomy hits us! I have said it before, and I will say it again.. the biggest enemy of a medical student.... TIME.

So, I sleep now to hit up biochem for another long stretched day and to hit the sack early, so that on Monday I can take this damn exam, be done with it, begin studying Gross Anatomy, so that I can also start studying for Biochem Exam #2. Which happens to be the following Monday, why two biochem exams? Because.. it's just that much material. :/

"That's just the way it is."

Mansoor Jatoi, MS I

Phew! Wasn't as bad as I had expected!

I received my grade today for my Histo/Embryo exam #1. I was pleasantly suprised. I didn't do stellar, but I didn't fail as I had previously thought. I originally thought there was absolutely no way I could above 75% overall. I felt horrible after completing that exam. I scored a 84% overall, which isn't great, but it wasn't the 60% I was expecting. I will definitely require some tweaking to my study habits to ensure I get a better grade next time and try to do more study group sessions to find out the topics / subjects that I am definitely weak on!

Now the grind towards Biochem Exam #1 which happens to be this coming Monday! I also have a little volunteer session scheduled for this Saturday in the morning where we are helping give physical exams to a little over a thousand high school students. I will be assisting by taking their blood pressure / vital signs. I am looking forward to my first clinical interaction since medical school started.

To another day of medical school!

Mansoor Jatoi, MS I

Coping... coping... coping.

Well, I am about to head back to the bed here! I got to start tomorrow strong as I study up for my next exam in biochemistry. A good friend of mine texted me a very nice quote after reading my blog...

"One must fall before one learns to walk, one must fail to be truly sucessful..." After reading that I had a big smile on face. It's such a true statement and I feel that I will overcome this nice hurdle. Now, the studying continues for my upcoming biochemistry exam and I await the horrid results of my first exam! AHHH!

Mansoor Jatoi, MS I

First Exam? W00t? uh.. no.

Well.. I took my first Histo/Embryo exam today. We entered into our classroom, anxious, nervous... the practical exam began. It honestly wasn't too bad, then the written portion of the exam immediately after. Wow... I think the only appropriate word for the exam is rape. That's how I felt, I thought it would be a little more broad of an exam, but apparently it was very detail orientated. Very specific/targeted questions. Well.. now I know and I suppose I will have to put every lecture under the microscope, LITERALLY. Sigh. Round 1, Histo/Embryo - 1 Mansoor - 0.

Mansoor Jatoi, MS I

No pain, no gain? :)

Well.. I suppose we are full speed now. Today we got three hours of embryology lecture, I thought I was just fine study wise until I got hit with these three lectures. I am good with about 1/2 of it (1 1/2 lectures), I will try to conquer the rest of that tomorrow. The only problem is.... a few hours of biochem lectures will be stacked upon my load tomorrow as well. I better be really damn good at managing my time so that I don't destroy one subject so I can accel in another. Cause it will come back to haunt me later. ACK!

Must keep a float.. or I will sink! It just sucks being in class most of the time until 5PM and then having to figure out how to cram / go over all this material everyday. I guess I have to sleep less and study more in the mean time!

Until next time.. PRAY FOR ME!

Mansoor Jatoi, MS I

First week down!

Well the first week of medical school is officially over. Thank goodness! Today's lectures seemed to last forever! Regardless, it seems we are starting to pick up speed. I am feeling anxiety for the exam that is next week already and it is more than a week away. Nonetheless, I am heading back to Tucson this weekend to study hard and spend some quality time with the fam! I will check back in on Sunday!

Mansoor Jatoi, MS I

First day in OMM Lab! 2nd day of med school!

I wonder how many days I can keep counting up.. so when I get to the 143rd day of med school you guys can tell me to quit it.

I got like 9 hours of sleep after being sleep deprived yesterday. Luckily, no sleeping in class today. I had biochemistry, OMM (osteopathic manipulative medicine), and OMM Lecture (on the history of medicine). Although I had only 4 classes today, class went from 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM.

Biochemistry was within the norm... went over myoglobin, hemoglobin, and enzymes. OMM lecture was about the history of medicine and osteopathic medicine. For 140 slides, it was rather long, but interesting nonetheless. The OMM lab was pretty freaking awesome. I am really excited that we are going to learn various manipulations. Our professor (a practicing DO) told us that we will be able to do many manipulations by December and that many of us will be doing them on family during our break.

We also got to be a patient from one of the physicians who performed some manipulations on us. I had a kink in my neck from laying on my stomach and having my head tilted to the side for a long time. A few manipulations later... totally resolved. It's kind of weird how it works, but there were quite a few people who had some complaints and had them resolved with the manipulations. My OMM partner, Aaron, actually had some muscle tightness in his lumbar back. It was off to the right side and I asked if he was right handed, he indeed was. I assumed this was additional muscle mass from playing golf (which he states he does a lot of). However, he failed to mention that this particular spot was bothering him as well. Lucky for us as a group, we got to see some manipulations performed on him and we felt this apparent muscle spasm or tension prior to manipulation and after. It was significantly softer after manipulation than prior. My partner said he felt much better afterward, it's kind of weird. I wasn't really a believer of the OMM stuff, but seeing it in action it appears to really work! I look forward to see how he is feeling tomorrow in class, hopefully that stayed loose for him.

That's the run of my second day.. I am tired, studied for a few hours today and now I am ready to hit the sack for day 3 tomorrow.

Mansoor Jatoi, MS I

First day of medical school!

Well... I finally made it! The first day of medical school. Today was a rough day for starters. Yesterday was the start of the holy month of Ramadan, where I fast from sunrise to sunset. This year it lasts about 14 hours! EEK! No food or water during this time. However, I do get up around 4:00 AM to eat breakfast, which I did this morning, but my wife was over visiting with my brother and sister. As a result, I went to bed at about 11:30 PM last night, then got up at 4:00 AM to eat and then helped my wife leave this morning for Tucson. As a result, I did not go back to sleep and before I knew it... it was time for me to get ready for school!

So on a few hours of sleep and unable to charge up with my daily Full Throttle drink, I found myself a little more tired than usual. The first sessions of biochemistry went just fine, then we had lunch, and then histology! This is where the problem begins. Near the beginning of histology I started feeling a bit tired. About 5 minutes into the lecture, I became VERY tired. Before I knew it, I was falling in and out of sleep consciousness! The bad part? Not me falling asleep on my first day of medical school.. the fact that I was sitting in the FRONT ROW!! I was recording the lecture for AZCOM2012.com (podcast), so I thought it would be smart to sit in the front.. apparently a bad idea for histology.

Regardless, after the first part of our histology/embryology lecture, I was able to take a break, stand up and move around. This got my juices flowing again and I was able to sustain through the second half of the lecture just fine. The problem again? The histology pictures that were shown in class.. not available online! So the slides that I DO NOT RECALL are only available in text format and that part of the histology leture is about 90% visual. Great Success! Now I will have to get the book out from the library on reserve and try to figure out all those slides! Oh well... life goes on!

Now I get home at about 5:00 PM, my head pounding from not eating all day and I am feeling really weak. All I can think about is eating. I am able to eat around 7:00 PM, I eat.. yumm.. then I feel much better! Now I can study right? Wrong! Phone call, after phone call, inquiries about the first day of school. I finally had to buckle down and study for a couple of hours and here I sit wrapping up my first day nearing midknight typing my first day's experience on my blog!

Lastly, this shout out goes to John Le, a fellow MS I who clicks his pen while we are all in class trying to record lectures. (inside joke) :)

So I am off to sleep now, with hopes of having a more sucessful day tomorrow. Not just in studying, but staying awake in MEDICAL SCHOOL!

Mansoor Jatoi, MS I