I praise the Lord that we can’t actually see in the future, because if we could, we probably would never get out of bed, knowing the kind of day we would have. This whole week has just been crazy. The teachers truly see that they haven’t taught enough, and they are just piling it on. You know, my gross anatomy class really isn’t hard. I can memorize all that information, but the problem arises when I have stupid papers to write in World Literature, or projects in other Gen. Ed. classes to complete. Then it gets much harder to actually focus on the class, and you end up trying to memorize the stuff the night before. I was feeling kind of down after my gross anatomy midterm, but you know, the Lord is always faithful. I ended up scoring an 18/25 on my written exam (which I’m not too proud of), and a 68/75 on my practicum. So really it didn’t turn out too bad, which I can only attest to divine blessing.
In terms of dissection…..I’M LOVING IT!!! This week we sawed off the calvaria (which is the skull cap), and removed the brain!!! I’m telling you, this stuff was so cool that it was probably better than sex. Although I didn’t get to cut the skull open (I will next year as a lab instructor), I did have to pry the stupid thing off the rest of the skull. Taking that calvaria off reminded me once again about how wonderful and awesome we were made. After chipping off the remaining bone at the cut site with my probe, I tried to pry the skull cap off and it wouldn’t budge. This was due to the dura layer being stuck to the inside of the skull cap. Man I had my foot on the gurney and I was pulling with all my might to get the skull cap off. All I heard as ripping and tearing and I was just sure that I had completely destroyed the dura (which means hard mother by the way, lol). After about 7 minutes of battle, the calvaria came off and the dura layer laid there on top of the brain, completely intact, except where the saw cut it. I could not believe it. That dura layer is so tough, yet very easy to bend. You just have to know that a loving, caring, intelligent God created us. Once I had reflected the dura layer and part of the arachnoid layer, I got to start cutting the different cranial nerves and other structures that were attaching the brain to the bottom of the skull. The teacher made me stop because class was over, but I really would have stayed for another hour doing that stuff. All that dissecting of the brain made me truly think about neurosurgery, but that residency length scares me. In fact, it was all that learning about the brain at the MITHS program when I was in high school that got me interested in all this doctor stuff. Anyway, who knows what the future holds, only time will tell.
The post that Nicole left in my last entry (I tried to comment by its not working for me for some reason) was truly God sent. Brittany and I are going through a little uncertainty, which we haven’t really felt before. She’s retaking the MCAT, but so far the practice tests don’t seem as promising as we want them to be. That poses a problem…because “OUR” plan was to apply to med school, get into the same medical school, get married, take a year of to do mission work, go to medical school, become doctors, have kids, etc. The whole Brittany not going to medical school thing would truly throw a wrench in all that. Now I’m not losing hope, because so far, all the practice tests have been Kaplan tests, which I stopped taking because they were depressing, and unlike the real tests. I stuck with AAMC tests, and was alright. I just haven’t thought of the prospect of both of us not being in medical school. Anyway, we had plans, but God may have others plans for us. And where God wants us to be, is where happiness lies, so we’ll go with the flow. I guess will know what’s up once she takes the April MCAT. But I’ll be praying big time for her (I want her to get higher than me), and I want you all to pray too.
Today, we had a double whammie for the Oakwood Biomedical Association. Representatives from the University of Illinois School of Medicine and Dr. Nhiradyi, the Dean of Admissions from Loma Linda School of Medicine came to speak today. We held two separate programs for them, and I attended the Loma Linda one. You know, its weird, the more and more Loma Linda gives presentations at Oakwood, the more I seem to like what I hear about the school. In his presentation, he highlighted their Step 1 passing rate, which hasn’t fallen below 97% for a good while, and which was actually 100% in 2003, and their average board scores, which were around 220. They also showed us a Clinical Skills test that all the California medical schools undergo, to see the caliber of doctors they are putting out, and Loma Linda has won for the past 12 years, beating out Stanford by almost 10 points!!! They also had 97% of their students match their first time. Some other interesting tid bits of information include the fact that Loma Linda graduates make it into high positions also. The chair of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) is a Loma Linda SOM graduate who is an Adventist. The chair of the American Medical Association (AMA) is also a Loma Linda SOM graduate and an Adventist. This I guess reveals that Loma Linda graduates go on to great things. I really like the fact that Loma Linda stresses their service, more than anything. They have so many avenues for service that its just amazing. I also found out more about their mission work program that I was interested it, but I’m going to have to do more research myself.
Tomorrow, an Oakwood College graduate who went on to Harvard University, the to The Hill is coming to speak, which should be interesting.
Many more things are happening, but my fingers are getting tired. I’ll write in a couple of days. Peace.
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