I have had three weeks of final HELL. Two weeks full of practical exams that stretched over days for some (arrgh... Micro... specimen prep, culture, ID and susceptibility testing took the whole damn week) and one week of solid freaking back to back theory exams that stretched for hours at a time. Total count, all exams included: 15.

Not including final papers, presentations, and lab reports.

Needless to say - I'm beyond dead. My brain is paste.

I think I'm going to be doing a lot of sleeping in the next few days.

As of today, Midterms done. I'm not sure on the mark of my seventh and last midterm, but looking at the averages of my other six exams, I'm sitting on an 83% average overall, which means currently I'm on Dean's list standing for this term of Medical. Not quite a comfortable margin, and it means I'm going to have to work my ass off to maintain my Honours standing for this semester. I'm pretty sure I passed this last exam, but by what margin is the question.

I want that 'with Honours' on my post-grad degree quite badly.

Rememberance day is an off day for me, yay!

Got called in for relief work at the hospital last weekend. Would have posted about things sooner, but with school and such, things are what they are. I was working in Transfusion Sciences (Blood Bank) doing relief work when I wasn't running around the wards doing EKGs, and got a few comments about how fussy, anal, and down right stubborn we folks who are in there are about how things are done.

Blood Bank Bitch. Wearing it with pride, for it saves lives.

So what should greet me as I gowned up to enter the microbiology labs today? Big, as in gallons, bottles of sheep and horse blood.

Sounds like we're going to be making some special media very, very soon in house. Sweetness. We've got some fastidious pathogens coming in, though they haven't mention just what yet.

Apparently they used to make the plates from donated bottles of human blood, and they worked better, but hell, given all the viruses running around I can see why that was dropped.

But still, the next few days promise to be interesting.

Dear person who used my Transfusion station before me:

Okay, I have a BONE to pick with you. A) Restock the supplies before you leave - that means more test tubes and transfer pipettes. B) Restock the REAGENTS before you leave - this means fresh anti-IgG and anti-C3, and for goodness sake, leave a decent supply of screening and check cells in the rack in the fridge. Having to run three times to the reagent fridge during an examination - GRRRR. C) Clean the serofuge and cell washer before you leave with Presept. Seriously, with all the dried blood splashed around, it looked like Freddy Kruger went to town in my instruments.

Oh and if you could turn off the heating block after you do antibody screens?

No love,


Rai

Three midterms down, four to go.

I'm hitting burnout point at this time. I've got prep for two labs and studying for my next midterm on Monday on my plate, and I can just only drive myself to do studying. It's tissue identification for Pathology and heck, looking at pictures is about all I can do. I'm trying to force myself to do the workup for my Gram Positive Bacilli lab, but the motivation isn't coming. Which is sad, because one of the isolates tested is supposed to be Liseria. No Anthrax though, sadly.

I should just be contented I got to play with MRSA and VRE. They won't give us the more difficult bugs like Yersinia pestis or Salmonella typhi till Winter session.

I feel pretty damn guilty about not being able to do more. My fellows in my program are a driven, perfectionist lot and keeping up with the rest seems impossible at times. Not that I'm doing too badly, no, I'm pretty damn good in some disciplines, but in this economic climate, only the best get jobs.

I think what's contributing to it is the lack of weekends to recoup. I work those, then come home and study. Five days commuting an hour and a half to school for eight hour days, and then an hour and a half commute back and then homework and study, and then on the weekends it's work and then homework and study.

I'm tired, and fighting off illness. I haven't been to a movie for months nor hit the gym or pool. The usual nice thing I have to look forward to is a glass of beer (pumpkin ale this month... so good). My temper is suffering for it, and God knows I'm an A-type, obsessive, driven bitch that can swing into a dark mood in a second when I get going good.

Best knuckle down and get back to it. Term ends in December. That's just over a month away. I hope I can hold out for that long.

And Wednesday I turn 26. It's hard to believe it's here already. I've been so freaking busy it's not funny, and I've desperately want to do something that does not involve schoolwork that day.

Maybe curl up with something nice to read. Yeah. That would be pleasant. I haven't had a good read in a while.

So I got in touch with one of my Lab Instructors about the Transfusion handouts, and she promised that there would be extra copies outside the lab for me to grab when I make it in Monday morning (If there is not, then I have to go teacher stalking). Thank god for that.

I have to profess a hell of a lot of annoyance at having to do the tests for the Histology and Microanatomy course (of my pathology bundle) online and on the freaking weekend. Weekend! When I'm dragging myself home exhausted from work and am facing homework and prep for labs on top of that. And freaking timed. My dear instructor, some of us have jobs - I had a ten hour day today, got home, had to entertain guests, start my readings and my prep (to say nothing of my other homework, like my research projects) and you make me take a freaking timed test? FAIL!

Current prep right now is Clincal Microbiology as I got Histology out of the way earlier this evening for lab and ugh... testing (research project is on hold). Let's see, I need to do my testing and troubleshooting flowchart, and get my case studies out of the way. I'll tackle Clinical Chemistry and the work I'm going to need to do for my epic BATTLE with the CX3 discrete analyser tommorow as well as my readings and questions for Hematology.

I'm still reminded that my textbook entry on basement membranes and my diabetes paper is creeping up due date wise. Urgh, I'll have to continue with those Monday after I scramble to prep for transfusion.

Oh and yes... Microbiology test Wednesday, and Transfusion quiz Monday, and Histology lab quiz lurking sometime this week... and what's this? Molecular starts Thursday.

And I still have a full shift of work tommorow.

FML.

Brand spanking new transfusion lab handouts with all sorts of things that need to be read, and planned, and answered before lab on Tuesday. One extra large cup of coffee because, hey, perk of being at my school is that you can get free beer at some times, which I indulged in earlier and needed the caffiene to even look at some of my work this weekend.

Result?

Transfusion handouts completely destroyed thanks to my stellar clumsiness sending coffee everywhere. Fail, Rai, FAIL.

And here I was hoping I could get a visit to the chiropractor covered under my extended medical.

Fucking hip.

1) Clean house
2) Buy school textbooks and supplies
3) Pay school fees
4) Study
5) Tackle garden
6) Work like fiend at job
7) Cut out the mats in the cat's fur (note: have bandaids on hand)
8) Buy new scrubs and labcoat
9) Invite Nana over for dinner one night
10) Proper grocery shopping spree (need more OJ stat!)
11) Attempt to get into proper exercise regime
12) Squeal like a little kid over something fannish

All in all, considering everything I learned, experienced, and dealt with in my practicum?

I know this.

I NEVER want to enter the psych ward and take blood samples from patients there again. Ho maaaaan.

I'd like to take this chance to apologize to anyone I'm owing anything (like art) to. Finals, and my rotation in the hospital just after, have been eating up my attention for the last month or so. I've got two down, five to go... and then it's time to face my rotation through the ER, phlebotomy, pathology, and accessioning.

I need to go EEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! for a sec.

*deep breath*

So I'll actually be appearing online at the end of the month. If I'm alive or a brain dead zombie at that point is entirely up to debate.

... do not mix.

Ugh, what a time to get infected. Thank god I don't have any more labs with patients this week.

So all of the midterms are out of the way and all the final projects are due before finals and my practicum begins. Gyaaaahhhhh.... some of these things are insane. I don't know where I'm going to find the time to finish them.

Mrmph... and I gotta think about finding a better job in the middle of all this.

Is it summer yet?

So far anyway...

So, flats done tonight artwise. Background was worked on and I learned the fine art of incorporating speedlines. Decided to do this a little different and present it like a panel from a comic to better serve the dramatic/humourous effect of it.

Otherwise known as the "What're you looking at?" picture.

The cat gave us a bad scare this weekend. He went missing Friday night after we let him out to eat his food, and we couldn't find a trace of him all throughout the weekend. No blood, no fur, nothing to indicate an animal had got him, no sign of roadkill on the nearby streets, and no trace of him in the small (I mean small) area he roams. Strange not to see him for so long as he tends to stick to a daily schedual.

Thankfully he just ran in not less than 10 minutes ago. I wonder what happened to make him stay away so long.

I managed to finally get ink, though it's not my favorite Speedball brand. The quality... wasn't as good as my regular stuff, given it tended to smear more easily than what I'm used to, and I had to spend more time in Photoshop cleaning the whole thing up. However we are finally in coloring stage on the 'two guys acting normal in a comic book shop' picture. Not to spoil much, but I doubt the elder approves of what the younger is wearing, even this version of him, I think the younger is probably taking his life in his hands with that smug move, and the elder has no room to harp on the younger's choice of Red Arrow, given what he's reading.

Normal father-son bonding moment in other words.

So I have to work with cadavers on my practical in pathology. I can deal.

And people wonder why I's trying to get into that DNA bank position.

After much swearing and bleach, I've finally gotten the black stain on the linoleum scrubbed to a slightly discolored patch. I don't think we'll be able to get it any cleaner. So, tommorow I will attempt to get another bottle of ink and I'll put it somewhere where it won't be knocked to the floor.

Back to business.

So dad got the Speedball ink for me. Left it on the table for me to grab tonight for a little therapeutic inking after dinner.

I find my inkwell exploded on the kitchen floor this morning. While I'm racing to the car to try and beat the rush hour madness to get to class.

CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone have tips on getting ink off linoleum?