sometimes, perfect days do happen...

RCSI's Intermediate Cycle end of semester assessment has just vortex-ed one month of my life, and one of my 22 christmas-es and new years. it really took a toll on me,
physically (i was so exhausted day in day out, and pimples popped out reminding me of the vast spread of my pores!),
mentally (my mind was tax-ed to the point that very often during the day, i'd just blank out, like my mind's way of rebelling!),
emotionally (when i manage to complete what i set out to do, i'd be the happiest person in my circumstances, but when i'm pressed for time, i'd take on a personality so bitter that no one in their right mind would wanna be in the company of!)
No matter what i studied, everything just seemed so foreign when i read thru it again. i think my brain really just might be shrinking. before the exams, i freaked out countless times (i cried definitely more than 10 times), everything just felt so overwhelming. I was desperate. We had one written paper on thursday night, then another one on friday morning and yet another on friday afternoon. i think i slept two hours on wed night and only one on thursday night! not that it helped, cause my brain just shuts down after a lack of sleep.
then when my OSCE came, the nights leading up to it, i felt so dejected, like nothing i did could better prepare me, i felt doomed to flunk it, that nothing was gonna make a difference anyway. i was angry. frustrated...
my OSCE turned out kinda ok actually. wanted to document what happened, so bear with me k...it's a 9+1 station thing, 4.5 mins per station, and we prep ourselves for half a minute between stations.
history taking was ok, the kind lady told me i shud have asked more closed questions regarding associated symptoms for the guy's raised intracranial pressure. discussion with dr nick mouwad went quite well, though he has everyone gushing about how kind he is... left me standing outside the station cause he dismissed me early. i hope thats a good sign!
micro was... er... haha well i think i guessed the correct species though.
clinicals with Dr Barry was about sensation of the lower limb, including vibration and proprioception. i always forget to ask about pain, but hopefully it wasnt necessary this time. also exited the station early, ended up standing outside again! (either they decided early on that im hopeless or it could be a good sign... hehe will update when i get my results!)
oh communication skills was a very interesting station. it started and progressed quite fine i think, the lady was very friendly and helpful.. UNTIL... hehe she asked if there was an alternative to injecting herself as she wasnt comfortable with it, i very nicely and spontaneously quipped "oh sure, there are tablet!" hehe it wasnt till the next station that i realised i just gave her wrong information! and the examiner was Dr Alice Stantion, the very same lady i fumbled and was dazzled by the hot simulated patient at my last OSCE! hehe
the next clinical station the examiner was another newly qualified doctor. he came half a minute late, and usually we're only expected to know how to demonstrate the physical exam, but he asked me to test the trigeminal nerve. so i did, then he asked for the facial nerve, and he asked which 3 muscles i was testing with each test. then when the buzzer went, he asked me to very quickly just run thru the motions of Rinne's and Weber's test and what kinda lesion would be tested. wow, that 4 mins extracted so much information and i was quite happy it came out spontaneously, and even happier it was correct! hehe was rewarded with a very good from the super strict examiner (though quite a lot of examiners like to make us feel better by giving positive responses, till we dissect it in our heads after that and realise what blunders we made!)
pathology pots was quite interesting. hehe i got a specimen of a dissected breast, that was ok. but the mammogram and the slide of the oestrogen receptor test really caught me offguard. i got the correct answers, but need prompting so not wholly satisfied.
but the good thing is, for something i was so sure i was gonna screw up, i was quite happy :-)
then i was a zombie the rest of the day. but yesterday....
yesterday was probably the closest i could ever get to having a perfect day! i had a bunch of backlogged chores so...
i got up at 10 and yakked with my mom. then i headed to JPA to collect my Garda claim.
then yakked with En Jamal for about an hour.
then i headed to Reads to buy some magazines for Dan and for myself.
then i went to the bank, where i completed two chores, i banked in my Garda claim and paid my electricity bill! and hey, JPA had just banked in our allowance. i was elated!
i got home, then headed out to donate blood, though it was rejected cause i went to the malarial zone of malaysia for the summer. hehe
returned mercer library books, national library books.
and since i had downloaded my project paper for safekeeping and reference the night before, i finished 70% of my chores!
when i got back, my letters for reference from Dr Alice McGarvey were waiting for me.
oh the day could not have gotten any better!

Desmond was supposed to search for a replacement for our lease but he figured it was more trouble than it was worth.
So it kept me up the whole night, restless with worry, as it meant foregoing our deposit though i was fully prepared for it, but it WAS a lot of my Daddy's money... so i took matters into my own hands.
got up to sort through my stuff and pack them off for shipping. thats done. :-)
so now im blogging...
have a farewell for us in the beautiful, grand Board Room later. so will update with photos later!
im blogging again!! :-)