Week 2 - Let the overwhelmingness begin

So, week 2 just finished a little while ago and we are already about 1/5th of the way through the quarter. It's flying by, but that sure doesn't mean that we aren't busy.

Our first exam was on Tuesday, and I'm happy to say that the studying I did pretty much all weekend and Monday paid off. Our exam was at 7 in the morning and we had to be there by 6:40 to start "checking in" to the testing center...which is basically just a big room with a couple hundred computers on desks with separators between each space (which is kind of nice...no one looking off your papers, no distractions if you keep your head down). Since I live about 10 miles away, I left pretty early so I could get there in plenty of time to still look over all my notes one last time, so I got there before 6. Ugh.

And if having a test at 7 in the morning wasn't bad enough, we started another unit in the same class the same day with 4 hours of class. All of us were pretty dead tired and starting new material right after was the last thing we wanted to do.

So now, Friday is here and we're all gearing up for our next exam that is on Tuesday again (these tests happen every week). This is our exam over Metabolism and supposedly one of the hardest from what we've heard from all the upperclassmen. So guess what I'll be doing all weekend? Not relaxing, I guess. However, the test is on the morning of my birthday, so I plan on taking that night off from any studying/homework/etc. and just enjoy it.

We've all been busy making ourselves "study aides" too to help with this exam. Here's my laminated "study" board I made last night.

This is our "metabolic map" where we have many of the reactions going on throughout the body with your metabolism. We will be given this on the exam, but what's missing are all the "enzymes" that take place of the little arrows between each thing. So I have dry erase markers to practice filling them in over and over so that part of it will at least be a little easier next week.

I think we're all a little overwhelmed with this material, mostly because we've never gone over this stuff in this much detail even in undergrad, and there's so much of it (13 lectures over 3 days time). I'm also definitely starting to feel that feeling I had when I first started at U of A.

You know how when you first start high school and realize how easy you had it in junior high? And then you get to the college level and realize that you really didn't have to do much in high school? Well, the same concept definitely applies here I think too. I feel like I didn't have to do half this much each week at U of A. Just with how often our tests are for this class, we are pretty much having to study every night of the week just to keep up.

It's definitely a change. It's a change I was expecting though. But I still feel that you can't quite imagine what it's like till you're actually experiencing it.

On a more optometry related note (not basic science classes), we did learn how to ask patients about their health histories, whether eye related or medical related information. So we all took turns being both the patient and the doctor today in our Methods lab. From knowing how to deal with super anxious patients to angry patients to super obnoxious/talkative patients. We got to watch some amusing videos and a few of my classmates that were randomly picked had to demonstrate what we learned with some of our third year TAs (teaching assistants) who were playing the part of one of the said patient case scenarios. It ended up being super hilarious to watch, but I'm just glad I wasn't one of the ones chosen, haha.

Aaaand, that's about it for this week. We were done by noon today, so I picked up some Subway on my way home (for my lunch and leftovers for dinner) and am about to dive into some study time.

And since I haven't changed out of my "attire" yet...here's a silly photo shoot.

Scrub a dub dub

My new running shoes! Since everyone wears the same thing, it's nice to have
shoes that stand out. 

And the sides. I love them. A lot.

Until next Friday, have a good week!

Optometry Fact: (I learned last week)

Retinoblastoma - Rb protein: The Rb protein functions as a tumor suppressor protein in the cell cycle - i.e. it keeps cells from replicating if there's something wrong with the cell, like a mutation.

So, children that present with a retinoblastoma (a malignant tumor growing in the back of their eye on the retina) most likely has something to do with a problem with that protein in their cells and so a cancerous tumor develops since there is no Rb protein (functioning properly anyways) to tell the cell to not duplicate (since cancers are basically uncontrolled cell growth). 

As seen above, the tumor can be seen with a camera flash or light and will give their pupil a whitish appearance.