the perils of

Today was amazing for several reasons, namely because... 1. I got to sleep for ten consecutive hours. TEN!!! That's equivalent to the amount of sleep I get in three pre-exam days!!! 2. Those ten hours I got to sleep guilt-free, because I don't have any scary tests to study for or projects to cram. This weekend is an oasis in the middle of the harsh, desert wasteland that is med school. 3. I ate ice cream for breakfast, because I was enjoying my bed too much and I didn't want to leave the unit to get food (I must get my butt to the grocery soon). The ice cream was a mix of cookies and cream and coffee crumble, two of my most favorite flavors. 4. I got to design some fake posters for OBF (the ASMPH sem-ender party), which was extremely fun (mainly because I was under no pressure to make the posters look good. 5. Rap and I went out to catch a movie, our first time in I think two months. The last time we went out was to watch a Cin...

       As I've said previously, I've had no issues dissecting the arms, legs, back, and torso, but the face was a different story. Well, here's that story.       I was never excited to see her face. All along I kept picturing myself unwrapping her shroud to reveal her as she might have looked in her final moments: tortured, suffering in eternal, excruciating pain. With her eyelids peeled back, mouth permanently twisted into a silent scream, and dead eyes pleading me for help. Or with three bullets in her head (as has been found in a cadaver from a previous batch). Or, worse, that she would look enraged, scowling at me, swearing vegeance upon me for having cut open her body so carelessly.       But this is after all the head and neck module, and I had no choice but to, well, face  my fears (get it? Face my fears?).       I had prepared myself the night before by watching videos of face dissection. And on th...

The musculoskeletal module ended this morning but was followed immediately after by the beginning of the infamous Head and Neck. Oh God, who knew the skull had so many holes in it??? And each with its own name too!!! Lord, patawad. :( I'm expecting the next three weeks to be the most exhausting, physically, mentally, emotionally, spritiually. Hell I'm exhausted already just thinking about it. But when you're surrounded by such a supportive and generous group of people, it becomes easier to get by. For instance... The minute I arrived at school this morning, Ruth (from the Scholar's Society) handed me this. (Context: I designed the logo for the Scholar's Society) Then, outside the room where we would be taking our musculoskeletal finals, this was the sight that greeted Batch 2019. Hand-written notes for all 159(?) of us!!! How sweet!!! We don't know who did this, but whoever you are, thank you so much!!! And just when I thought things c...

        Week two of the musculo-skeletal module is over, which means that we're halfway done with the module. And the semester is half over as well! Wow. Time really does fly when you're constantly cramming for exams, freaking out about SGDs, cursing the name of your Management professor, studying, splurging on a new Stabilo highlighter, taking a break from studying by discreetly sniffing your new Stabilo highlighter, buying microwave dinners from the downstairs Ministop, getting your car scratched by an old lady, looking at yourself in the mirror and crying a little, rocking yourself to sleep in fetal position, regretting several past personal decisions, eating breakfast the next morning while crying a little, and secretly promising to never return the hangers from a certain horrible laundry place because they delivered your uniform late, consequently forcing you to wear the an old dirty uniform for three days. While crying a little.     ...

(Picture unrelated to the post. This is a harmless cerebellum slide seen beneath a microscope.)           The day started with a mass held in honor of our cadavers. Afterwards, we all gathered outside the anatomy lab for the blessing ceremony. "I'm prepared to see the body," said Dia as we lined up outside, "Just not the face." I felt the same way. I don't know what it is, but seeing a dead person's face is just so different from seeing a dead person's arm or leg. Extremities belong to bodies, but faces belong to people.                    Before I knew it, it was my group's turn to enter. I breathed in and walked calmly, taking in the sight of twenty dead humans. They were invisible - beneath the blue sheets, all we could see of them were the outlines of their head, feet, breast, and knees. Each one was a different size and shape from the other. As my group gathered around Cadaver #3, I could see that he...

        I think one lesson I learned today, however oversimplified and cheesy it may be, is that for every miserable moment that med school throws your way, there are little bouts of happiness to be discovered. Today in particular started with a lab exam from hell. And right after that came the lec exam from hell. Both were equally draining and depressing.         BUT after that, Dr. Banzuela treated all of us in the batch to UNLIMITED FISHBALLS!!! This was our batch's reward for having answered a difficult question during class last week (it was Dustin in particular who answered it, and all of us got to reap the benefits of his effort hahaha). The fishballs did wonders to boost our morale. Look at all these smiling faces! (Credits to Kamille from whom I did not ask perimssion to post this [hehe sorry])          Dr. Banzuela is one of my favorite teachers in ASMPH. I'm not just saying this because of the fishballs!...

      This week was wonderful partly because it was punctuated with two holidays. You know how, when you're driving in the middle of a crazy downpour and the rain is just so noisy on the roof of your car that you can barely hear yourself think, when you go into a tunnel everything just becomes so suddenly still and quiet? And when you drive out the end of the tunnel, the rain comes crashing down again on your roof. Those two days were like being in the tunnel: sudden, temporary, silence.       And thank God that there isn't an exam to study for on Monday, because now I can spend my weekend gathering my bearings instead of scrambling to memorize names of enzymes and co-enzymes.        Not that the workload this week has been particularly hectic. I mean it is, of course, but it's also very fun. On Friday, we had small group discussions (SGD) about the case of a young 12-year-old male named JVC. When the case came out on ...