End of Break Blues

Well, as you can tell by the image above, our next module is endocrine. Fortunatly we had some endocrine already throughout the year, and especially during the ob/gyn module. However, I started reading the beginning of the first chapter in our patho book and HOLY CRAP this is gonna get complicated ... fast!

I have to admit though, one of my biggest down falls in PA school is that I learn best if I understand/know WHY something works, rather than just memorizing THAT it works. Hopefully that makes sense. Innately that may not seem like a bad thing, and on the surface (and maybe about an inch deep), it may seem like a good thing. It is ... to a degree. However, sometimes I get so wrapped up in having to know exactly what is going on that I waste WAAAY too much time trying to find the answer to a simple step, which we most likely will not be tested on anyhow. I know that some may be thinking, well at least you know that REALLY well. ... Yes, true, I do. However, with the amount of material we have to get through in the short period of time alotted, you really can't afford to get hung up on minute details.

Now listen carefully all you pre-PAs, Sometimes knowing THAT it works is good enough. Trust me, you dont want to spend most of your precious study time on what is happening at the cellular level in a disease, ESPECIALLY if it isn't all that clinically significant. -- I'm trying to walk a fine line because I don't want to discourage people from learning all they can. I'm simply sending out a suggestion that if you are finding yourself beating your head on the patho book/Cecils and getting incredibly frustrated move on and ask about it later in class. Just trust me!

Sorry, that was a bit of a tangent/soap box rant. Helpful? Hopefully. I think the reason I said all that was because endocrine is a lot of minute things going on that have major effects, hence the reason I am a little timid going into this module. I just hope I can get myself focused on the bigpicture/clinically important aspects and not get hung up on memorizing what proteins are being activated exactly and in what order. Otherwise this is going to be a rough next few weeks!

On another note, I am a little sad. Break was good, and even though I was getting a little bored there for a bit because I am so used to being busy all that time, it's still a little sad that it's over already. Eh, when does a break seem long enough though, right? I guess I am dredding going back because we have a couple group projects, a patient research project, a SOAP note write-up, and a full H&P write up (along with the usual quizzes and module exams) that are going to be due throughout this next ~5 weeks. It's gonna be a lot of work, and to tell ya the truth I really don't want to do it. Oh well though. I gotta do what I gotta do to get to next year.

Anyway, 9AM the fun begins again!! Hope your week is exciting and fun-filled as mine will be!! :0)

M-R