I can't sleep! Caffeine + xanthine + fructose = no bueno

So What Was This Sh*t Year?

I find it hard to recount the Year of The Crap. From what I remember, it all started after finals week during Spring/ Summer 2009. Some details that are worth remembering...


-No summer break- I studied for the MCAT right after finals week Spring semester. Started working at the VA Medical Center as a volunteer research assistant for The Laboratory of GI Injury and Cancer. Took The Berkeley Review MCAT Prep course.


-MCAT August 25th. Crash and burned. Took the exam with chills, fever, and a cold. Voila. A fucking 28.


-Started Fall Semester 2009 the Monday after. What transpired in between the MCAT and Monday? Las Vegas. Couldn't remember most of what happened over there. All I know is that it involved binge drinking.


-Rest of the semester- stress, burnout, death by biochem II, genetics, neurobiology, ecology. GPA dropped down to a 3.8. Dammit. There goes my bid for Summa cum laude.


-Winter break: SLEEP. WORK. CHILL.


-This semester: we'll see.

Status Update

So it's been considerably less crazy after the shit year. This is how my typical week looks like for this semester:

M- PE class 7am. MCAT 9am until God knows when

T- Tutor 8:30-10. MCAT again. Class 2-3:15. Eat. Slack off. Class 7-9:15pm. Pass out.

W- Repeat Monday. Add research lab 10-5pm. Then MCAT until I don't know.

Th- Research 10-1. Class 2-3:15. MCAT until whenever.

F- Tutor 8:30- 11. Research until 5pm. Work 6pm until next day.

Sat- Get off work, sleep. Study when I wake up.

Sun- Sleep-in. Dim sum. Study.

Then lots of gym and basketball and leisure reading in between. So far, I've read the following books (since the semester started):

"The Game" by Neil Strauss

"The Art of War" by Sun Tzu

"The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande

And I have a "pending list" of books to be enjoyed:

1. Hitler's Pope

2. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

3. Body of Work

4. Blink

5. Freakonomics

6. Outliers

That's all.

Kbetch

Something tells me I should write again... so here I am, taking a quick break from a fun chapter in Neuroscience, spitting out randomness from my drained cerebral cortex...

Well, it's been a while and all that's percolating in my mind are just plain rants... It's been a really frustrating stretch dating back from my summer MCAT quest (which turned out horribly wrong) up to this day, where I am still feeling the remnants of an untimely burnout.

Well since it's really close to Thanksgiving Day, I'll turn this inside out. I thank the Supreme Being for all these killer challenges that will mold me into becoming a good doctor in the future...

-Summer MCAT review...been doing real great on AAMCs and The Berkeley Review Practice Exams. I've hit a few scores as low as 27 and as good as 34... been averaging 32-33.

-Night before the MCAT- Aug. 24th, 2009.... Been really bored and kinda freaking out- I SHOULD BE STUDYING! Decided to go to a coffee shop. Sipped coffee outside while going over material. Decided to JOG at Cerritos Regional Park. It was 9pm, a little foggy, and cold for a summer night. BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER.

-Exam day, August 25th. Woke up with chills. Took the exam with chills, fever, and an irritating runny nose. Realized the inevitable outcome. To temporarily remedy this, I went with my friends to a baseball game that night at Angel Stadium and got piss-drunk.

-Later that night, went to Sharkey's in Newport Beach. Had no recollection of what happened.

-Later that week, went to Las Vegas. Returned home Sunday only recalling about 1/3 of what happened in the trip. Oh shit. FALL SEMESTER BEGINS THE FOLLOWING DAY!!!

-Burnt out.

-Sept. 29, 2009. Afternoon. Studying for a midterm. Checked AAMC. Saw MCAT scores. A plunge to a 28. Did not study anymore. Got teary-eyed.

-Downward-spiral in classes. Did not talk to anyone for a solid week. Developed extreme acne. Hated the world.

-TODAY- time to recuperate. Time to repair borderline A's. Time to raise B+s to As. Time to think. Time to rise again...

It's been really tough. But I have one more chance to patch things up. One more chance to let resolute diligence to take over.

MAPS 1st Premed Meeting

Cal State LB Premeds!!!

Todd Bennett from the UC Irvine School of Medicine will be coming to talk to us about UCI SoM Admissions and the Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program...

Also, this is our FIRST committee meeting...we will be introducing our newly-revived group and we will be giving out information about our activities for the semester. This is a great chance to network and mingle with fellow premeds on campus!

See you at USU 204 12-1pm

Free Pizza!!!

MAPSPremedCommittee.Gerry.Reinier.Juan.Monica.Shrey.Esteban

Who cares?

I'm drunk and it's normal for a premed student who just took the MCAT. Yes, I am checked-in at the Treasure Island at Las Vegas and I am abusing the unnecessary brain cells utilized during my MCAT review, So yeah. F yeah.

MCAT day tomorrow...I am counting exactly 8 hours 45 minutes before I click "start" and take the dreaded exam.

Am I prepared? Yeah. I am aware that although I couldn't stash every bit of information and every bit of test tactic in my limited brain, I can still score great on this exam. Rational optimism is key at this point. I've spent the entire summer preparing for this exam and I have absolutely no plans on retaking it.

So for now...chill.

Tomorrow...KILL.


rest assured more sensible blogs detached from inner emotional predicaments will be posted in the future, after tackling the hurdle that is the MCAT and after settling the ever-apparent heart-mind discourse on that person that has definitely struck me hard in so many ways

Lesson From A Kid

A 32 y/o lady was brought in to our ER via advanced life support ambulance. She had a blood glucose level of 51. It was a really crazy night- all our nurses were busy and the priority at the moment was not this patient. I helped the medics unload her into the gurney and I started taking her vitals and started the history for the nurses. She was not that sick sick but boy, she really was in bad shape. 203/105. 102bpm. 96% sat. 96F. She was diaphoretic and very cool to touch. I had everything ready when the nurse came in and I then stepped out to get her warm blankets.

"Who called the ambulance?" I thought to myself. Obviously there might be family members around. Such a dumb question to myself. Why that question popped up- I had no clue.

"Hey Jasmine thank you for calling the ambulance, okay?" The patient uttered with a heavily-detectable hispanic accent. Who is Jasmine?

I turned to her bedside. Jasmine is her 10-year-old daughter.

Tonight, my greatest mentor and teacher wasn't Dr. Shapiro, MD, nor the ER Nurses, nor my MCAT textbook and flashcards. It was a ten-year-old girl. She taught me presence of mind- the ability to act deliberately and correctly given the circumstance, however pressing it may be. How amazing is it that a child like her can be taken for granted and blatantly overlooked, yet the same child could teach you a very important lesson that you'd only expect from seasoned adults.

"Good job!" I told her. She had the biggest smile I've ever seen in such a long time. And I know that it stems beyond my adulation to her. It saved her mom...The only one she's got.

Blog Hiatus

Looooooooooooong time!

Finals are over, but the actual work has just begun. So I started studying for my MCAT and it's been frustrating. The material is okay, obviously, but what is killing me is the verbal section...I just couldn't make the connections between the passage and the questions...the process of elimination is very helpful, but I can't solely rely on that.

Ugh.

At this point, I'm really burnt out. Not just from MCAT stuff, but also from the recent semester. Everything's taxing heavily on me, at the most inappropriate of times.

5.0 quake

After getting saturated with a crapload of diuretics while studying, I felt the natural urge to empty my bladder. I went to the Student Union restrooms and did my thing. While I was keeping my kidney, ureter, bladder, and urethra happy, I felt the room shaking...

Hmmm...the walls look like they're moving

And why is this going on for forever?

Holy cow! An earthquake!

I stayed calm and finished my physiological response. Damn. It's still shaking.

I let the shaking settle, and I ran outside the restroom. Everyone was up from their tables and were uttering WTFs.

Scary.