Neuro drawing to a close

Our last neuro exam is on Friday. It will emphasize diseases, radiology, and pharmacology. This is great, because most of us totally forgot about the pharmacology part due to being overwhelmed by the neurology part. As such, due to our fear of failing neuro, we're all going to fail pharm. We clearly planned this well.

I wrote a haiku.
"Primary brain lymphoma / ring enhancing pics / periventricular spread."
Clearly, I've lost my mind. But I remember things about primary brain lymphoma now...

You know you live in a small town when...

Your bank calls you to wish you a happy birthday, and it's not an automated call.
Dogs sleep in the middle of the road and cars drive around them (this happens when I drive to school periodically).

In other news, neuro is grinding to a finish; our last exam is on October 2nd. I think it's safe to say that we're all pretty much ready for it to be over, although there are certainly a few budding neurologists in our crew who have emerged triumphant and glorious over the material. I, however, am not likely one of those people.

Tomorrow I have the second of three tests for our Neuroscience class. This one is purported to be the most difficult; as such, my classmates and I are finding ourselves both panicking about the amount of material and lacking in motivation to study the material. Case in point - I'm writing this right now.

So I posted a note on facebook, asking people what was one memory they had of me. My brother (who I didn't grow up with past the age of about 2) replied, saying that I "wore a tiny little football helmet and didn't make eye contact."

I think it's interesting what his 7 year old self noticed about me before I vanished from his life.

When I grow up...

Here are (in no particular order) the things that I am thinking of being when I grow up.

*General pediatrician - I like kids. They are fun to care for.
*Pediatric palliative care doctor - I like kids, families, comfort care, and counseling. Also, I have an "in" at one of the fellowship sites.
*Palliative care doc - this is the non-pediatric form. I like it for pretty much the same reasons as the pediatric form.
*Physical medicine and rehab - helping people regain function is awesome.
*Child psychiatry - this is actually the thing that set me on this long, circuitous path in the first place; I took general psych when I was 16 years old, loved it, wanted to do more and go to medical school, and very shortly thereafter convinced myself that I wasn't smart enough to do so. Then, five years later, I took a neuroscience course that made me realize that although I might not be smart enough, I am determined enough.
*Neurology - I like brains. They're fun. I like puzzles. They're fun.

Basically, I like the notion of comfort in medicine. This is what I get from this. With the exception of just being a general pediatrician, all of these options would require either a 3 year residency and a fellowship (usually 1-2 years) or a 4 year residency (PM&R, combined peds-psych, combined peds-internal meds) or both.

Yikes.

I haven't written in a while; there are a number of reasons for this. The most compelling is that I am in the midst of learning everything humanly possible about neuroanatomy and neurology in six weeks. Additionally, I'm lazy. Also, there are some strange things occurring around me. Suffice it to say that medical school is keeping on keeping on, and there is minimal drama (ok, so the lack of drama is a lie).