After many months of long study days, thousands of practice questions, and more sitting than I ever wish to do again in my life, I AM DONE WITH BOARDS. (at least until Step 2).

Some people have been asking HOW I prepared for boards but I'm going to hold off on that until I know how well I did. I would hate to give out poor advice! I will say that my school provided us with a program that we were required to complete. Lots of pros and cons to this that I'll be happy to discuss in the future. I also supplemented with UWorld, USMLERx and COMQUEST question banks and Pathoma. My ultimate point of reference was the med school bible aka First Aid. 

I have NO CLUE how things went yesterday. COMLEX is known for being very vague. There were a ton of questions where I was able to narrow it down to two answers. Praying that I made the right choices! Throughout the test I just felt so strange, not sure how else to describe it. The exam didn't feel like any of the practice I had done.  

Another issue of note. It was originally my plan to take both the MD boards (USMLE) and DO boards (COMLEX) but I eventually settled on just taking COMLEX. I wasn't confident enough that I could hit my USMLE goal and I didn't want to risk performing below average. Better to focus all my energy on doing as well on COMLEX as possible, than risk having two low scores. I hope I won't regret it! Honestly though, after taking one 8 hour exam I'm not sure where I would find the mental strength to take another. 

So...now we wait. I'm trying to resist the temptation to look up the answers to things or dwell on what I could have done better. It's over. Board scores are a pretty important portion of my future residency application and obviously I need to pass them to graduate! At this point there is nothing else I can do so I'm just gonna celebrate and enjoy life!

The next few weeks are going to be so FUN! This weekend one of my very best friends from med school is getting married in Louisville! After that we are going to Cincinnati for a few days before boarding a plane to SEATTLE! Ahhhh I'm so excited! 

We didn't get to go on a honeymoon after the wedding last year so we're taking our belated honeymoon/anniversary trip now. Why Seattle? Why not? We aren't really big beach vacation people so we decided to check out somewhere different. Our goal is to visit all the Major League Baseball parks - two years ago we went to Atlanta and now we'll check another off our list. 

After Seattle, I have hospital orientation and on July 6th I start my third year rotations. Life is flying by and I'm another step closer to becoming a doctor!

Also, don't forget that Weigh In Wednesday has been passed down to Winter @ No Drama Little Mama so go check that out and link up! As for me? I've been maintaining my Whole30 weight loss and slowly chipping away at my goals. The last week has been hit or miss with my workouts but I'm looking forward to the study-free life.

A couple weeks ago we got the opportunity to do something pretty exciting... choose our 3rd and 4th year clinical rotation schedules!

It's really crazy to think there is a light at the end of this long,winding tunnel...and also kind of scary! In just a few short months (6 to be exact!) I will be responsible for real, live patients. They won't be actors presenting a clinical scenario. They won't be SIM patients that we can simply unplug or reset. These are people with REAL problems, real lives, and real...everything!

Side note: One of my fave apps is Resuscitation - practice being an EM doc!

This isn't my first rodeo in the patient care role. As many of you know, I worked as a nursing assistant (CNA/STNA) during my gap year but nothing too substantial. Even within that year though, I feel like I gained a fair amount of confidence in working with patients and families in especially vulnerable positions (bathing, feeding, assisting with wound care, etc). I guess what's so crazy to me is that my role will be a lot different than that of a nurse or tech. I hope I will still be able to create meaningful relationships with my patients and their families, even though I'm doing different things! Working as a CNA was one of the most intense situations I've ever been in. It is strenuous work but the patients really keep me excited and engaged. I know rotations are going to be difficult in other ways so I'll be depending on those moments to keep me going again!

So my schedule! Our school selects rotation schedules via a lottery system. We were all given a random number and then we all waited in our lecture hall for them to call our number (this was also random) - basically medical school BINGO. The clerkship coordinators released a list of 12 possible schedules and many of us prioritized the lists according to our interests.

There are a lot of strategies to creating your schedule:

• Do things you enjoy first/middle/last
• Do things you don't enjoy first/middle/last
• Start with Family Med or Internal Med
• Don't do Surgery during the holidays
• It doesn't matter at all, etc.

Basically depending on who you talk to, your schedule prioritization can be set up in a myriad of ways. The good and bad news is that it doesn't matter all that much in the end (again, just what I've heard).  My schedule strategy didn't end up working out (apparently everyone else wanted the same group as me) so when my number was *finally* called, I went with 4th choice. Whomp. Later on though, a friend and I realized we actually wanted to switch groups so I ended up with the schedule below! In the end, it doesn't really matter. I would've been fine with either in retrospect.

Study swag

For those who aren't familiar with how clerkship rotations work, 3rd and 4th year are the "clinical years" of my medical education. Each month I will rotate within a different specialty learning the ins and outs of patient care, diagnosis, and treatment. Likely I will stationed at a hospital or clinic and paired with an attending physician and will become part of the medical team. Lots of H&Ps and doing what people tell you to! These two years weigh heavily in the residency match process so it's important to do well!

Here is my 3rd year schedule:

• July 2015 : Emergency Medicine 
• August: Psych
• September: Pediatrics
• October: OB-Gyn
• November: Internal Medicine 
• December: Emergency Medicine 
• BREAK
• January 2016: Elective - TBD
• February: Surgery
• March: Radiology/ 2 weeks vacation
• April: Ortho/Sports Med
• May: Internal Medicine 
• June: Family Medicine 

Whew! I'm kind of bummed that I have EM first thing. For one, I'm very interested in EM and I feel like I won't know anything about it yet! Two, EM is pretty intense & requires you to know about many different areas. I hope it will go ok!  The good news is that we get TWO EM rotations. 

I am happy to have Peds and OB-Gyn early on because I'm really trying to figure out where I want to focus my efforts for 4th year rotations. Right now my specialty interest lies within Peds and EM but OB sticks around in the back of my mind, too. 

As for the second half of the year, not as interesting for me but I'm so happy to have Family Med and Internal Med for my last two months - hopefully those will help me study for Step 2 boards!

Speaking of boards. I have decided to definitely take USMLE and COMLEX Step 1 this June. So far I have COMLEX scheduled for June 8th at 8 am. Now I'm just waiting to get approved to sign up for USMLE (hopefully the week after COMLEX) and then I'll be set.  I have been advised repeatedly to take USMLE (particularly by EM residents) so I'm just gonna do it. :I

As promised, I will detail my boards prep plan in an upcoming post. My school is providing a board prep program that begins after Spring Break so for now I'm just using my question bank and trying to finish out my remaining courses strong.

I'm not going to share my 4th year schedule just yet because it is largely up in the air. We get a TON of electives which is great because 4th year is when you typically schedule "audition rotations" at places you may be interested in for residency.  For me, that means I'll be trying to set up a couple rotations in Ohio/Indiana/Kentucky.

That's all for now! 

<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.prettystrongmedicine.com/" title="Pretty Strong Medicine"><img src="http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g30/cheerxflip9/WIW-2013.jpg" alt="Pretty Strong Medicine" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Hello everybody! Welcome to Weigh-In Wednesday!

Please go check out my sweet co-host!

Ash @ A Step in the Right Direction

If you're new to the link-up, please leave a comment & say hi!

This weather is really cramping my style. I have been in the biggest rut ever lately - with school, workouts, and general life motivation. The lack of sun and warmth is really getting me down. I used to be a morning person that could hop right out of bed. Now I struggle with the snooze button and never get up at the time I want. I'm just hoping Spring is just around the corner - I need a break! 

This week I gained 3 lbs after indulging too much during my birthday last Thursday and Nick spending all weekend here and studying for my exam. I'm a mess. After every exam, I gain weight. I eat like crap & I don't get my workouts in which is the exact opposite of what I should be doing! 

I decided to make my own training schedule based on the one provided to me by my run club so I would have something to follow that fits my schedule! I'll share it later this week!

As I said, last Thursday was my birthday so now I'm officially in my mid-twenties -24! I'm old!

Birthday Flowers

Pacer's Game with friends!

Post-exam Fattening Food - it was for my birthday!

My long run was canceled last night so I need to figure out a time to make that up - I tried to run on the treadmill last night and it messes up my stride. My shins started to get really painful so I called it a night. You all already know I hate the treadmill - I'm going to avoid training on it at all costs!

I need opinions! Which of the following invitations do you like best? The photo includes the invite and the response card. HELP!

Don't forget to link up below!

<center> <a <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">href</span>="www.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">prettystrongmedicine</span>.com" target="_blank"><<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">img</span> alt="Weigh In <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Wedneday</span>" <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">src</span>="http://i52.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">photobucket</span>.com/albums/g30/cheerxflip9/<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">weighinbutton</span>-1.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">jpg</span>"/></a></center>

Hello everybody! Welcome to Weigh-In Wednesday!

Please go check out my sweet co-host!

Ash @ A Step in the Right Direction

If you're new to the link-up, please leave a comment & say hi!

I'm doing something completely out of character today - I wrote this post on Tuesday instead of 5 minutes before anatomy lecture like most Wednesdays. That said, the code box still doesn't work so add that to my list of offenses in the blogging word.

To say my life has been a whirlwind would be an understatement - I'm floating in the middle of the ocean, trying to keep my head above water and I only took a week of swim lessons. Yeah...something like that. 

I knew med school was going to be hard. 
I knew I was going to be tired and I knew what to expect based on what other people said but knowing what to expect and actually experiencing something are two totally different things. 

I find myself cycling between intense emotions of love and hate with school - 

I hate that I don't have time to do a lot of the things I love

I hate that I can't see my family and friends

I hate that I don't feel like I can give 100% to all the areas of my life. 

But...

I love learning! 

I love being (somewhat) knowledgable about the human body. 

I love that my classmates have already become a family

I love how freaking cool medicine and science are! 

Most of all, I love that I am finally taking real steps towards being a physician.

At the end of the day, I have to remind myself that I chose this life. If I didn't want to put the time and energy in, I shouldn't have chosen this profession. 

The next month is going to be hellish - the Monday after Thanksgiving I have two exams (Anatomy and Hematology). The next Monday I have a Heme final and my final for Intro to Clinical Medicine (history and physical on a standardized patient). The last week I have an OMM written, practical, and Skeletal Muscle final. So - 7 exams in three weeks. I die. (I'll update you all on school later this week - I will blog!)

Anyway, weigh in things. I've been pretty bad at keeping track of things lately. Being swamped is no excuse but weight loss just hasn't been at the forefront of my mind. I'm hoping to get through the holiday season without gaining (maybe losing some) and then start fresh at the New Year with my mini marathon training. As of today, I'm still where I was last week. :/ 

Speaking of running...Thursday I will be running my very first 10K race in Cincinnati! At least I'm still working out a fair amount...

This past weekend I was a little concerned about being able to run 6.2 miles since I've never done it. I know you aren't supposed to do the full distance before a race (I never understood that...I can't just pull a mile out of nowhere without practicing first!) but something got ahold of me and I ended up doing 6.2 anyway! I planned to do 5 but I was in a groove so why not?

My left foot is still bothering me a little after long runs so I'm sure it will be a problem on Thursday but I'm doing it anyway. I think I just need to strengthen it since my left ankle has always been kind of lame. 

Oh, by the way,  it was FREEZING! Helpful hint - bring tissues when you run in the cold! I had to resort to using my glove as a tissue and it was nasty!

So Thanksgiving - I'm going home today, studying, running my 10K, going to Thanksgiving festivities and driving back to school Friday morning to study all weekend before my two exams. No time for wedding planning, no time for relaxation. It's going to be...thrilling. So let's do this!

To the person who asked last week, yes - I will still be updating but no, I'm not going to sacrifice study time to write. Passing classes >>> blog. Obviously I can't balance everything but I hope to catch up on EVERYTHING over Christmas Break!

Hope you all have a fantastic week and thanks for sticking with me! I'll get my stuff together here eventually!

What are you thankful for this year?

Any special Thanksgiving plans?

I'm finally done with my week of exams! I decided to do a vlog to answer some questions and save some time! (It ended up being over 10 minutes of me talking and I don't know how to edit it...good luck with that!)

I took a long weekend off to travel back to Cincinnati to spend time with family and get away from med school for a few days. I probably won't be able to visit home until Thanksgiving so it was great to spend sometime with everyone and not have to think (much) about school. (Although I still studied!)

My Week in Pictures:

I spent most of my time the last few weeks here...

Studying things like this...

So my room ended up looking like this:

And after I was done with exams, I came home to these:

Then I went home to celebrate and relax which included a trip to Oktoberfest Zinzinnati:

With this guy who is growing a beard:

Then I hung out with this guy:

Nick and my mom collaborated to make me this:

My mom gave Nick her wedding ring to use towards my engagement ring awhile back (which I had no idea about). Instead, Nick had it made into a pendant that I could wear and always carry my mom (and dad) with me! What a thoughtful, wonderful gift! I don't have the words to describe how much it means to me but I love it!

So that's my weekend! I'm hoping to come back to school Monday revived and renewed and readying to kick butt with school & getting healthy!