A Roller Coaster

OOHHHH THE PAST 24 HOURS!

It's official: Block 2 nearly killed me. The tests? ehhh, they're done. The lack of sleep? Kill me.

Current score: Sleep 1, Catharine 0

This is what happened.

As I said earlier we have 2 exams on Monday and 2 on Tuesday. So inevitably the first 2 exams put you through the ringer and you go home to 12 hours of cramming last minute studying for the next 2. Well, smart one over here stayed up 'til 2 am studying on Tuesday morning. I set my phone alarm for 5, I set my alarm clock for 5:04, and (just to cover my bases) I set my phone to continue to go off from 5 until 7:30 at 15 minute intervals. I knew I was tired but it's grad school and my body knows that so it will push through, right? Wrong.

Cut to 8:45 (STINKIN' EIGHT FORTY FIVE!!!) this morning. I wake abruptly to my sister-in-law standing over me saying that it's EIGHT FORTY FIVE and she and my brother will drive me to class and I just need to get dressed. Good thing my classmates have already been taking the exam for 45 minutes. Holy mack. Anyway, HALLELUJAH I have the best SIL in the world and she noticed that my car was still in the driveway when they were leaving for class and she came and woke me up. My brother got us from Mt. P to downtown in record time and my SIL gave me her coffee (seriously, a gift of gold!) and they had some random cereal in a ziploc so I ate that and with their encouragement and a seriously good coffee in my belly I was able to face walking into a silent room of 66 people in the midst of the hardest block exam--oh it was painful making eye contact with those people. Anyway, my professor was so kind and let me have the full 2 hours though I in no way deserved it!

Then I again holed up until 2pm pacing with my little notecards (that I have begun to tear in half because the demand  is pretty high these days and it could bankrupt me) and listening to my white noise app (another Godsend). After that I ran down to grab a healthy lunch of Nekot crackers from the vending machine with the 60 cents I was able to scrounge from the bottom of my bag (I forgot my wallet in the chaos this morning), and then it was on to my Pharmacotherapeutics exam. And now I. AM. DONE. (with block 2).

A little group project meeting action and some $3 margarita and taco action and a brief break to catch up on DWTS from last night (That freestyle? The one to that ever so teeny-bopperish song "Call Me Maybe?" Ah-mazing!! [Please go YouTube it. If you're into that kind of thing.])  I am now back at home with Mims asleep by my side and, having done the reading for the lecture tomorrow (for BLOCK 3. . . Way too soon...), I'm going to set 50 alarms and catch a few winks.

Mims says "Goodnight!" 

Heme, Endo, Family, Life, and Meningitis.

Monday I have a block test--this one on Endocrine and Hematology. I should be studying right now but I just need a second.
This block has been crazy, not just because of the subject matter but because of life. It seemed like the first block I was able to put life aside and focus, but I'm realizing life won't stay on hold for 2 years while I'm in PA school. I'm missing a lot--my entire family is in Clemson right now and my friends are celebrating the win. I'm so thankful I don't have a family of my own to worry about right now because I simply wouldn't be able to put them aside for this.
I'm not taking time and family for granted right now because my sweet Aunt Deedie passed away last week suddenly. She was actually a great Aunt but I was closer to her than many people are to their grandparents and my grandfather loved her so much and had such a close relationship with her. She passed away suddenly from pneumonia so we knew a day or so before it happened but no one was prepared for it. She had celebrated her 88th birthday with us just 2 weeks before, she'd been married 69 years, she had 4 children, 17 grandchildren, and 18 great grands (the last just arrived 2 days ago, and there is another on the way). She was blessed and she knew it. She loved the Lord and she was extremely joyful. She loved telling stories and she could sit and listen so well. She was an amazing woman and loved by so many!
Life just seems too precious to be studying right now.

Showing off her birthday pedicure at her birthday dinner 2 weeks before she passed away. 

My grandparents got her a toilet seat because she said hers was too cold--they all thought it was hilarious and she wanted a "serious" picture framed by the seat!

Thankfully I didn't go the med school route--I would never have have had the drive to put my life aside for 4 years and then at least 3 years of residency!

Oh and a classmate has meningitis and is in the hospital. We got an email entitled "Potential exposure to Meningitis" tonight. I've been hypochondriaclly checking my neck for stiffness the entire evening. That would be top on my "Last thing I need right now" list. . .