Back in Full Swing

Well, back in full swing we go.....well, except for today off :)  Gotta love a Memorial Day weekend filled with nothing but sun!! This weekend consisted of studying, reading, cooking out, ice cream sundaes, relaxing with family and friends, boating, and sleeping <--all of my favorite things!

Been back to classes for two weeks now and so far so good for summer semester!   But there is a dark side to PA school that I had not really put much thought into before the first day back from break.  I walked in my normal self, excited to be back (to some extent) and ready to not only learn but catch up with my friends.  I was not expecting to see some of my fellow classmates gone.
One of my good friends in the program is no longer in our class along with two others who I did not get to know as well but still was friendly with.  It never passed through my mind that some of my classmates would no longer be continuing this journey with us and it kind of shook our framework as a united class.  We are very much a cooperative program, helping everyone through it as we go and we just never expected this.  I hope to see their faces back next year.

 Okay, next, here is a quick run down of our day to day classes of this 12 week summer semester:

Mondays:
  10-12: Pharm
  1-2:30: Patient Assessment
  3-5: Clin Med

Tuesdays:
  8-9:30: Patient Assessment
  10-12: Patient Assessment Lab

Wednesday:
  8-10: Clin Med
  10:30-12: Pathophys
  1-3: Health Care Issues
  3-5: Clin Med

Thursday:
  8-10: Pharm

Friday:
  8-10: Pathophys
  10-12: Clin Med
  1-4: Recitation Time (time for extra classes/makeups which is used pretty much every week to squish in more info as needed)

So luckily, they have a few days in our schedule that allows us to enjoy our summer as well (or at least study outside).  These past 2 weeks we have started our cardiology module, focusing mainly on hypertension, cardiovascular disease and heart failure.  This is a lot more intense since the heart can have so many things wrong with it (which then causes a domino effect it seems) but so far it is really interesting and the pharmacology makes sense.  Looking forward to this next week to see how it continues!
Also, some exciting news, next Monday (or the Monday after that depending on circumstances), I will be watch an autopsy!  I am very much looking forward to this if you can't tell already :)  The pathology professors at my school both happen to be state medical examiners and have invited us to watch an autopsy in groups of four and my group is the next to go.  So pending there is an autopsy scheduled, I should be going on Monday!   I will definitely keep you all up to date on how it goes.

But for right now, we have our first two exams of the semester starting this week.  Clin med on Wednesday and pharm on Friday.  I just finished an assignment for pharm and a bloodborne pathogens quiz for health care issues (which is required to be completed before rotations, so out of the way nice and early).  Now, off to get some sleep to be ready for the 4 day school week ahead.
Hope you all got to enjoy your Memorial Day! Let me know if you did anything fun!