Day 35 - Monday, March 9, 2009

I was mistaken about one of the grades I thought I would get this past Friday.  Two of the grades were A's but the one for Spinal Anatomy ...the take home test that I stayed up until 2:30 a.m. completing ended up being a very middle of the road C.  Grrrr!  :(

I don't understand it.  People who did far less and copied straight from previous semesters study guides ended up with 100's and A's.  The teacher wanted us to do our own work so I made sure I did and cited references for every answer I gave so she would know I looked everything up.  Kind of sucks - can't spend too much time dwelling on it because other matters are pressing.

On a scale of 1-10, I'd say my stress levels are back between 10 and 12 right now - very much in the red-line.  

Major thanks go out to my Mom and Dad for all the extra work and help they've given me.  It's definitely made a difference and allowed me to more fully focus on my school work.  I guess I should also give a shout out and big thank you to that discrete little angel that drops off goodies and school supplies to my door while I'm at school.  Everything has been useful and used.

It's after 2 a.m. and I've just been studying over and over for my anatomy test tomorrow - I have to get an A or I don't get to shave and everyone will know I did poorly on my anatomy test.  

I was so wiped out after I got home today I fell asleep around 4 p.m. until 8 or so - fully dressed and forgot I let my dog outside before collapsing on my bed.  I'm thinking of getting another hour or two of sleep before heading back to school to study some more.  

We had our Philosophy midterm today and I don't believe I did as well as I would have liked to have done.  I just gotta keep plugging along.  I made up some flashcards using a new site on the Internet called rememberize.com which has been very useful.  It's a no-frills kind of site which is perfect because flashcards aren't supposed to be frilly, they're just supposed to see if you can remember what's on the back of the flashcard.  I still have learning to do with my current set of 30 flashcards.  

I also need to get down a few bordered areas of the deltoid region to have any chance at all of getting an A on tomorrow's test.  

If I can just hand in there a little longer then this trimester will be over.  There's only about 5 weeks left until finals.  I'm not sure how much longer I could make it otherwise.  

I'm tired, hungry, frustrated & stressed out to the max 

but - maybe that's not all such a bad thing, especially if there is adaptation to the stress (which I hope there is)

We did have our CPR & first aid training today and got to practice on some very advanced manikins.  These manikins are hooked up to a computer and measure the depth of compressions as well as the timing and retraction of the compressions to make sure that the CPR compressions we're delivering are adequate enough to give the best chance at saving a life.  It's kind of remarkable.  My timing and compressions scored a fine 98.1%

Many of the girls had to take the test a couple times before scoring high enough to pass.  The test consisted of 5 sets of 30 compressions with two breaths given by a partner every 30 compressions.  We also learned how to give CPR to an infant, proper use of an AED (automated external defibrilator) and basic first aid.