Pathology

The life of a med student wife can be lonely sometimes, but the life of a med student is downright miserable.

This morning C.J. is taking his first pathology test. Pathology is known to be one of the most grueling classes of med school, and that's saying a lot. An excerpt from a page of C.J.'s path notes:

Hemodynamics

• Hemostasis is the process which prevents abnormal clotting as well as deficiency in clotting by regulation pro and anti-thrombic factors; depends on three main components - endothelium, platelets and coagulation cascade

1. Intact endothelium will secrete PGI(2) NO (=EDRF), thrombomodulin, and t-PA
2. Damage endothelium will exposure vWF in ECM, and secrete tissue factor and PAI (plasmminogen activator inhibitors which inactive t-PA)

Here is some map thingy that C.J. has to draw out for pathology:



Here's a picture of his desk that I took after he left for school this morning:

He has a packet of notes for each week he's been in pathology. Each packet is over 10 pages long and the font is about 8pt and single spaced. There are pages upon pages of sentences just like the ones I typed above. And that doesn't include the lecture PowerPoint slides and the practice quiz questions and the pictures of cells he has to memorize. There are not enough highlighter colors in the world for all these notes.

He's been studying at least 16 hours a day for the past week or so. That is 8 a.m. to midnight every day with maybe a 10 minute break here and there to eat or go to the bathroom or call me.

Pathology counts for 13 credit hours so it is a big deal. We know a scary number of people that have to repeat pathology. They elect to drop it and retake it if they are worried they won't pass because 13 hours of a failing grade can really damage the GPA.

The thing that makes pathology especially tough is the lab. In addition to lecture every morning, there is a pathology lab every afternoon Monday through Thursday where students are required to present material in their lab groups.

Which means every night they have to prepare said material. This is in addition to microbiology lectures and clinical skills lab, so after a full day at school from 8 to 5, C.J. comes home and has to prepare his lab presentation before he can study.

That leaves precious few hours to actually review and memorize all the lecture notes. In past semesters, there is a lot of material but a lot more time to study it.

The real killer is that C.J. also has a microbiology midterm this Friday. Since most of his time is tied up in lectures, labs and homework, he hasn't been able to devote much time to micro. This is another common problem with this semester. A lot of people end up repeating microbiology too.

So, when C.J. gets done with the path test today he has to cram like crazy for that test on Friday. And cramming is not something that you can really do in med school. There is just too much material to learn in three days. Even three 16 hour days.

Not to mention that he never gets a good night's sleep. He came to bed last night at 1 a.m. and woke up this morning at 6 a.m. so he is exhausted.

Why does anyone put themselves through this?? I don't know. Some things I am just not meant to understand.