Re-Energized Mom

Wow! It has been 7 years since I last wrote on here and ALOT has happened. In an effort to avoid leaving my audience in a cliff hanger let me begin by letting you know, I PASSED my USMLE Step 1 Exam, the first time I took it! Yay Me! 🙂 Then I moved back home and things slowed down.

From 2013 to 2015 I traveled up and down the East Coast doing 3rd and 4th year clinical rotations. IT WAS THE BEST EXPERIENCE EVER! I enjoyed every part of the 2nd part of my medical education. I did my rotations in South Hampton NY, Washington D.C., Baltimore MD, Atlanta GA, and Augusta GA.

I took the Step 2 CS and failed. 😦 But I recovered, got professional tutoring, and passed with flying colors the 2nd time.

While I was in the process of finishing my last rotation and beginning to study for Step 2 CK in Augusta GA, I got into a terrible car accident, which left me injured. So I paused and worked on me, while also finishing up my MBA program.

Near the end of my MBA program I had to get an internship, so I looked for a job. I applied for jobs for almost 6 months and finally found one at Augusta University as a Clinical Research Quality Review Coordinator for the CBD Epilepsy Study. I graduated the MBA program and continued with the study for 3 years. At present I am in the process of closing out the study, it has been successful and patients are transitioning back into standard clinical care. Ive also been in the process of transitioning myself… but Ill let yall know more about that in the next blog.

So back to Step 2 CS prep. I finally got into a good head-space to study for step 2, about 2 years ago. I studied and took the CS, and failed. 😦 I contacted my school who got me enrolled into a prep program and I was excited. Then about a month into studying I found out I was pregnant with twins!

I will write more about my pregnancy journey in a later blog, but to sum it up, one of the baby’s didn’t survive (early in the pregnancy) and the other is was born at term, and is happy and healthy. The pregnancy was pretty rough and my studying when on pause again .

Wow! That was ALOT. So now that you’re mostly caught up and I will end the blog here. I didn’t want to make this blog post too long, but that was a good basic summary of the last 7 years.

Its Snowing!!!!

Hi everyone….

It’s been a while… Well as you can see I’ve moved to the “polar opposite” (pardon the pun) of the spectrum of where I’m living. I’m in Moose Country, USA… also known as Portland, Maine.

So I’m studying for the USMLE Step 1 Exam. My school chose one of the most isolated places in the US to bring us to get the most out of this time. … And it’s working! There is NO escaping from this weather.  Lately it’s been a cold 20-30 degrees F, which is cold to the normal person, but to the “locals” it’s been unseasonably warm. I’m not looking forward to knowing what they mean by that.

So I’m going to make the most of my time now… and get grinding into those books!!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Hello World,

I realize this is kinda late, but I was celebrating Halloween last night. In the last few days, Ive been quite because it was midterm exam time and I needed to study. Im am really going for that “long lost A” in my class and i have to work for it. So on to more popular things, I saw a really good movie last night, In Time. For those who dont know what it is, here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdadZ_KrZVw. BTW, did i mention it was a really good movie? Im just hoping for a sequel.

This week should be interesting… Ill tell you about it later.

Again… HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Organized…

Don’t you love those times in your life that you have to “micro- manage” you life for a few weeks? Well, I’m back to that point in my life. I recently set some goals in my life, but I was falling short of those goals because of a combination of procrastination and laziness. So the inner responsible me told me I need to get really organized again. I’ve done this before, the summer I finished undergrad. I had a course overload, but I was able to get everything done because I was focused and scheduled to the hour (I like to give myself some breathing room…lol). So now I’m working on a 13 week schedule that probably will be extended until I take the boards.

MBA break…Yay!

Hi Everyone,

I’m working on an online MBA degree in Health Care Administration. I thing is, it can be a burden sometimes because i’m also in medical school. So i chose an option to take a  7 week course per semester. So it allows me to have a break from the online workload for the other half of the semester. I love this option!

So i just finished the class this semester and now i have a break from it to focus on medical school for the rest of the semester.

A Room with a View

 I’m looking out to the Caribbean ocean. Each morning I see cruise ships come in and each night I see them leave. I always imagine that I’m on those ships. They look magical. Even the fact that I’m in the Caribbean is amazing. I grow up in Maryland, where we have all four seasons, and I strongly dislike the two coldest. So I absolutely love living in the Caribbean. Its paradise! Warm and slightly cool tropical breezes with sea salt in the air. Annoying birds squeaking and squawking each morning. The dog’s next door bark at every single person that ever dares to pass their property. Its great living in St Kitts.

Mail

Ok  world…

I have to confess, I’m getting a getting frustrated with the speed of mail to and from the island. I seems like the only way to get/send something in a reasonable amount of time (1-2 weeks), is to pay an outrageous amount of money for something that weighs half an ounce.  I don’t want to bash the government postal service, but I’m tired of these freak incidences (3xs) in service that I pay for (ie losing my mail, taking a whole 2 months to get anywhere).  It is becoming almost unreliable to send sure via the government postal service. I’m just saying… PLEASE GET BETTER….

Relief….

So today I took my exams…

And I’m feeling good! This is the first time in a long time that I feel completely prepared for my exams. I tried something that I strayed away from, just because developed some lazy habits. I STUDIED EVERYDAY! I actually didn’t need to cram the weekend before; I reviewed my material and quizzed myself. I knew what my task was; I prepared myself, and performed. It feels really good being 90-100% prepared for something that you’re doing. Words don’t look so foreign, formulas don’t look so scary, and everything just falls into place. I’m grateful for failure and mistakes, because it shows you what not to do next time. I like the revived me, it feels good to be back.

Block 1 Friday

Hi everyone!

For those of you who don’t know, my medical school has 4 testing blocks each semester. We study the whole weekend before our exams away to make sure that we are on point with our information. Then on Monday, we just release and relax. We get all jittery the next days to follow until the grades are posted. When they are up we relax again… all the way until the next week and weekend before BLOCKS.

If it sounded like a rollercoaster ride then…. you’re right! It is, with all the pressure and anxiety, followed by thrill and suspense. We don’t do it for fun; we do it because we know it’s going to pay off in the future. 

Hello world… I’m medpope!

I want to change the way the world sees me. In fact, I’m rather private, so this is a new thing for me. Yesturday I listened to a speaker and I decided i was going to take his advice. I posted my Facebook status as this:

” I am proud of myself for having attended online leadership siminars with The National Society of Leadership and Success. This last speaker, Tom Krieglstein “Leveraging Facebook, Twitter, and Your Digital Identity”, was awesome! i will be making some real changes to improve my digital identity because of him.”

So Ive done it, Ive joined a professional networking site Linkedin.com, and I’ve started a blog, medpope.wordpress.com…

Ttyl