Musings of a Mind on Medicine

I learned today that the registration deadline is February 12th, so even though I’m not planning to return to clinical rotations until March 15th, I need to get the approval from the right people to allow me to register.  I have two weeks to make it happen.  EEK!

I’ve been spending more time studying lately.  I decided that my pharmacology textbook would be my best friend for the next few weeks, and I’m basically just reading it and hi-lighting the heck out of it.  I can’t say that I’ve retained a ton of the information on the 200+ pages I’ve read, but I also bought some nice pharm flash cards that I need to start using.  I don’t expect myself to learn everything that I’ve missed, but since the pharm book reviews physiology and pathophysiology before talking about the drugs and their mechanisms, I figure it’s a decent place to start.

In other news, I got a job through a temp agency, and I’ve been doing clerk/secretary type stuff at a small insurance agency for about three weeks now.  I’m vastly underpaid (especially for the area), but I think it will be enough to make ends meet, which is all I really need.  It was kinda funny – one morning I was wondering to myself whether any of my faculty were clients of the agency, and that afternoon, one of my faculty walked in to sign something.  That answered THAT question!

On the home front, I’ve been moderately obsessed with my small fish tank.  An old roommate had been keeping it for me in Utah, but since the fish that had been inhabiting it finally died, I took the tank back to NY with me after Christmas.  I’m now impatiently waiting for it to “cycle,” or grow the ammonia- and nitrite-eating bacteria that I’ll need before I can safely add any fish.  I’m planning to get a show-quality betta from a breeder in NYC when I go into the city on the sixth.  Red cherry shrimp also sound like a fun addition, but rumor has it that they would end up being an expensive snack for the betta.  I’m still deciding whether I want to try it.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a picture of my little tank!

I think that’s all for now.  I’m hoping to be back in school and writing about school and medical things soon!