Hell Week (one) is over

This was, as the title suggests, hellacious. Four practicals in four days. LAWD.  It goes something like this:

Tuesday: Neuro practical -- 50 questions, 25 chosen carefully from about 3000 slides that we have to identify (and of course correctly spell, not that I'm opposed to that...). Following that was 25 wet brain samples whereby the professor would put pins or a probe in random places about the brain. We spent three days studying for that one because it was going to be the most difficult as a) my Neuro grade would benefit from a healthy injection of a high A (I'm not failing, but would like to be doing better) and b) it wasn't multiple choice.

Wednesday: Immediately following the neuro practical it was time to study for the Histo practical. About 300 slides from which 50 questions would be plucked...A friend and I were studying at my apartment because it's closer to the Annex (where the exam would be given) and we had eaten lunch at Rituals. We were due to take the practical at 2. At about 1245 I noticed a slide that we hadn't covered during the two days prior, and realized, AHHHH, there was an extra lecture we had forgotten about! Ducky, just ducky. So, we spent the last hour going over that one. Thankfully we were pretty familiar with the material anyway from studying it for Minis. We just had to know what it looked like...Good thing too because because about six questions came out of that lecture and we would have been SOL. Thankfully I think I got them all. After THAT practical we went back to my place so my friends could get their stuff, but we were exhausted from the weekend, plus the stress, plus all the studying. We ended up watching a movie and I'm pretty sure I conked out for like thirty minutes of it. I was finally woken up by a very loud "MORNIN' MISS DAISY!" coming from Morgan Freeman. It sounded like he was screaming right into my ear. After that we went to grab some dinner, and then did a bunch of nothing for a few hours while you brains healed. I then scribbled out something for my DPS practical the next day. It was supposed to be short, so I happily complied.

Thursday: DPS practical. I'm not a fan of this class. They want to teach us how to interact with patients, but that entails only limited instruction without actually interacting with PEOPLE. As a result it seems like they just end up grasping at straws as they end up repeating the same hogwash over and over and over again. Often it seems like they also make up stuff. Every time you think you get it though, they change the answer to the same question. It's a moving target. Makes you wonder if they even know the answer...We've discussed this, and we get the feeling that they want to teach us behavioral, but since that's not scheduled until next semester they end up propping up their egos by preaching at us about nonsense. Thankfully that practical took fifteen minutes and I was done. On to anatomy!

On Wednesday I had attempted to go into the lab to look over a few things, mainly the liver and the arteries of the mesentery. Unfortunately there were 700 people in there who all had the same idea. (side note, I just typed the word "idear" for that one. Inside joke, but it's making fun of a Trinidadian professor who says "aorter" and "placenter". I didn't know Trinidad was in Kentucky until I came to Dominica...). All I really wanted to do was look at the liver, as apparently the lectures and dissections had done nothing for me...Well, a rather annoying individual latched onto our group of four as we were starting to open up the bodies, and it all went downhill from there. He wanted to run the show, as opposed to everybody working together (we have a system). He also was one of those people who have no concept of HEY-YOU'RE-IN-MY-BUBBLE. I would take a step back because HEY-YOU'RE-IN-MY-BUBBLE, and he would just step right on with me. HEY-YOU'RE-IN-MY-BUBBLE jerkwad. Anyway, I went off to a different body while they were playing this really loud and annoying video that was done on a body that had every possible aberration and rarity that you could find in the human body. I went over and checked out the colic arteries because I had botched those on the practice practical as well. I was on that body literally thirty seconds before the smell just knocked me down. Imagine, if you will, roadkill covered in bowels and boiled with chitterlings. That's how that smelled.  I held my breath and did a mad dash for the colic arteries and covered that one back up. I then decided that between the rotting, moldy bodies, body preservative, and 637 of my fellow classmates that this was a lost cause. I went home and watched dissection videos.

Thursday, after the DPS practical I didn't even bother going near the lab. I just reviewed the dissection videos again and looked over the list of whatnots I had made for myself

Friday: Because a disc jockey-squirrel who had a speedball habit made the exam schedule, the D's ended up going first, while the O's and Q's went after the Y's and Z's who went before the M's....anyway, my exam was at 1645...yipeeeee. I spent the morning going over radiographs and reading a little biochem. I'm not sure why I bothered to go over the radiographs. All of the radiographs that were included in the practical were changed, and I swear she threw some in there from lectures we never had. Oh well, I only missed one. One of them turned out to be the stomach, though I saw it on the computer screen when I entered the lab, and had no clue what it was. I stared at it for five minutes as I made my way down the line to that question (we have 45 seconds per question) I kept staring at it. At first I thought it was the pancreas b/c two of the choices were Superior or Inferior pancretoduodenal artery (say that five times fast please). Then, FINALLY, the little hamster got on his wheel and I noticed, OH, there's duodenum...this has to be the stomach. And where they're pointing could only be left gastric artery. Patting myself on the back as I went to the next one, which I saw from literally across the room as situs inversus. Thankfully that was one of the last things we looked at thinking, well, really, if they put that on there then they're being jerks. Well, chalk one up to the jerks. I walked out of there with my tail between my legs. But today when I looked at the answer sheet, I think I only missed 4, which is pretty darn good on a mad-dash practical!
Note: I ended up missing 6, for a still solid 85, not complaining as it puts me in a very good position going into the final.

Word for Hell Week being over. Now, 4 more, and then I can begin the sure-to-be-stressfull journey home. Why oh why couldn't American have added that extra flight when I was rearranging my travel plans. Oh well, the plus side is I have to overnight anyway, and do not have to entrust LIAT to get my baggage any further than Antigua.