Med school now taking over dreams?

So i was taking a power nap today....and then all of a sudden i'm driving my car and an 18 wheeler is on my tail, and then it taps me, and in the dream, i think to myself "oh man, here come my sympathetics" and without a doubt (in real life) my heart rate started increasing. I then started to have some flashing anime in my head (yeah, i know that's weird, i'm not into anime, and i'm not asian or anything, really just weird) and then i forced myself up. I was actually conscious at the time that if i opened my eyes it would all be over, otherwise it would likely continue with flashes of anime.

I'm thinking subconsciously my body told me to wake up so that I could study (It was only 7 PM), so now I think about med school stuff, such as sympathetics, even in my dreams. I wonder if I will be like this when I'm in a real life situation where something similar happens.

Anyways, I was reenergized though right afterwards. I then went for a run and am now at Beaner's coffee shop getting a decent bit of studying done. Maybe one day this respiratory physiology will make sense.

Been a long time

So I realize that it's been many months since my last post. I guess its a good thing I didn't have too many regular readers, otherwise people may have gotten pissed.

Well, what has happened over the past few months? Well, I finished semester one of med school, came back to school, and the economy has been a little rocky. Every day that I go to class I keep on thinking how good its gonna be when we get to go to the hospital and aren't in class all day long.

This semester has been different for sure. We seem to spend less time in actual class, usually start around 10, but everything just seems either more difficult to understand or is taught less effectively. But whatever, I will get through it because I have to.

In other news, I am trying to wrap up my summer plans which will hopefully consist of India, Europe, and a project in New York or Michigan. Everyone seems to put a lot of emphasis on these "experiences" for CV's and residencies, I guess I will try to get them.

And that's the Gulati Opinion...

Trying to Get r' dun

Well test block 2 is over and we are done with test 3 for Devo as well. I haven't been a huge fan of the whole Jeff Foxworthy type Get R' Dun, but right now I am just trying to Get R' Dun. Now what exactly is that saying, I mean, I think if I grew up anywhere other than the south, I would have no idea what the heck that was talking about and would probably also think that the South is full of country hicks. BUT I am glad that I am a Southern Boy. Its an easier transition from Indian culture to Alabama than it would have been to New York, even though there would have been more indians around. I guess I am just thinking about family life and southern culture/traditions etc.

I am going to Tuscaloosa this weekend for the Alabama Tennessee game and am pretty excited to be back in town and also to get to visit my friends. I don't know how it happened but at some point I fell in love with that place. I didn't think I'd be one of those alums who would follow our football team or even want to go back and visit. But its like once you go there for school, you love the place.

My next set of tests don't start for 2 weeks but I am trying to stay motivated right now so that I can be ready for the next set of tests since it will kind of be clutch time. Its definitely hard to keep writing on the blog. Its really exciting and stuff at first but I just start getting tired of having to type everything. If only I had someone transcribe it for me. I'm sounding like a doctor already....

And that's the Gulati Opinion...

Test Block 2 Begins

Tests - a way to prove to yourself and to your teachers that you know what you are talking about.

As I embark upon the second test block of my first semester of medical school, I can't help but think about how fast time is really going by. In about a month and a half, I have learned a lot about various subjects and memorized it enough to be able to perform decently on tests. I remember the first week or so of med school when I thought it couldn't get much worse, but I think for the first time today, i realized that I am getting used to the workload.

Why do I say this? Well, after the first developmental test, which coincidentally was the first test of med school, my brain was fried and I wasn't able to do anything school-related for a couple of days. After the test today, I didn't really feel too burnt out, and felt like I could go to class and complete the rest of the tasks that I had to (however, I did get a nap in).

Somehow, I am adapting to what I need to be doing. On another note, taste of nations is really taking off I believe. Apparently there are enough people in our class that share the love of food with me, which is pretty awesome. We are all planning on going somewhere tomorrow even though we do not know where we will go as of yet.

I think its really interesting to see the dynamics of a class work themselves out. Some people will associate with each other because of similarities in education, hometown's, culture, and the like. And even though they said that we don't need to be forming cliques (not sure if that's the correct spelling), it seems that they are somehow forming. Its funny that we are going through professional school but the social aspects of our relationships are very similar to high school students. How can people so smart act so adolescent? I attribute it to the fact that we are given so much information to memorize, we forget common sense and end up doing stupid things that we thought we had outgrown.

So I learned I got used to the workload, people love tasty international food as much as me, and that med students are really like high school students.

And that's the Gulati Opinion...

Down Time

I am not sure if down time is really good for me right now. Since I got finished with my first round of tests, I don't think I am studying that hard. I just feel that I am going through the motions and information isn't sticking as well. I actually thought it would be the other way around. I figured that once I got through one test, I would have a better idea on how we are tested and so I would be able to perform better on future tests. However, that doesn't appear to be the case right now because I feel even more lost than I did the first time around. I'm not sure if everyone else is going through similar stuff in my class, but i'm going to make the assumption that they are.

On another note, I have found out that my OCD is going insanely crazy now that I am fed lots of information in a short period of time. Sometimes I will just be sleeping or about to sleep and then think of what structures are in a certain triangle or what a specific nerve innervates, and I can't fall asleep until I get up and actually find out the answer. I am thinking that the next step of this will be dreams where somehow I get quizzed, freak out, wake up and then look up information about my dream. This does not sound like something fun to do for the next 4 years, but i can't really get around it. Once again, I am assuming other people in my class are going through similar situations.

Thinking outside of medicine, the Fed lowered interest rates, the market went back up, it is close to 14,000 again (I love how people have internal points on where they think the economy should be. some people think things couldn't get much better, and others think it couldn't be much worse. It really is all subjective). I'm not sure what I think about that move right now, I sometimes wish I could talk to some leading economists to figure out how they think certain moves will impact the US and the rest of the world. Its just so hard to be involved with it since at this moment I feel that any federal policies will have a minimal impact on me personally since I am not really in the right state (e.g., I have no money) to invest.

So basically, down time has the possibility of hurting you, med school makes you go crazy (or at least seem it), and the stock market remains confusing.

And that's the Gulati Opinion...