Posted by alexandra_k on March 31, 2016, at 4:12:44
In reply to another year down, posted by alexandra_k on November 26, 2015, at 0:04:02
I'm sick. And grumpy. And horrible.
Actually, think I might just be coming out the other side of sick. Have had a pretty horrible couple days where the faucet wouldn't stop and hard to sleep... Taking lots of cold and flu tablets... Maybe losing track of time a little and double dosing... My face would feel pretty numb. Like I couldn't feel whether my mouth was open or closed or whether my face had been rotten away by flesh eating bacteria...
Classes are intense. Really full on. So very much to learn. Even when they say 'this isn't anything we didn't teach you last year' and I know they are telling the truth... I don't know that I could pass last years exam, right now. So much has been forgotten. Even when I got scared about that and worked most of the summer to keep the knowledge intact... So much has been forgotten...
The workload is really intense... Especially since I don't have the science background... Still... Sigh... One class on mechanisms of disease which is pretty heavy on the biochemistry. Learning about different ways cells can get hurt or different ways they can die etc. So many ways to die or get hurt. So many abbreviations... Reactive oxygen species and types of radiation... A class on microbiology and immunology with HEAPS of labs where we grow throat swabs and swabs that we've rubbed against door handles and the like. seeing if we've got a bunch of things... flesh eating bacteria and so on. feeding them horse blood because they are fastidious... Physiology... Boron... A HUGE freaking textbook. And it tries... But it is pretty freaking dull... But it's not that Boron is boring it's that the class is mostly about labs and mostly about lab reports. And I hate messing about with graphs in Excel... Really... And writing lab reports is a pain in the behind. And an anatomy course... Which I like... But I can't spend all my time on it, much as I'd like to... And it's all okay, I guess... But I'm grumpy and sick... Really sick. Was really awfully sick. And I missed some study time because of that and... It makes me feel kinda scared.
It was weird before... Last year they all assumed that everyone wanted to do medicine - and they didn't even ask. I mean, people went into the year already knowing they were Chemistry majors or they wanted to be pharmacists or optometrists or whatever... This year... It was like they assumed we all wanted to be scientists to start with... But now that things are getting a bit harder (the work is mounting up) they have started to go on about 'in your professional lives'... In your professional lives the number of people who have turned themselves into human foie gras can only increase...
Occasionally I'm like 'why do I want to learn about this'? I mean... Pathology is awfully morbid. And kinda disgusting, honestly. I mean, sick people, ugh. I got Robins and Cotran's pathological basis thinking it would do me for immunology and pathology for years to come and, well, I don't need to go to the gym if I carry that and Boron around... It's so freaking dense... I mean... I can barely parse it. Them. Either of them.
Apparently things come together nearer the exam. Because it is learning a new language... I hope so. I hope it does. I need to draw out family trees of bacteria, or something, because I can't seem to keep them straight...
It is pretty great, yeah. But my noisy neighbours are only pissing me off even more (and more) over time... The weather hasn't turned properly yet so they are still outdoors.
I need to get some noise cancelling headphones... I know I won't be able to sleep in them... Damn neighbours... They make living here unbearable for me.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1076978
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20160101/msgs/1087690.html