This unit's a beast. We're covering cardiovascular, respiratory and renal in 6 weeks. At this point, it's kind of like trying to decipher the meaning of life in a little over a month. I seriously need more brain cells.



I've got to say though, the kidney is EXTREMELY cool. Very complicated, but very very cool. I've heard the words glomerulus, nephron, Bowman's Capsule tossed around all year, and now I finally know what they are! The kidney is basically a ton of nephrons, and it's amazing how much goes on in those nephrons. I'm supposed to be able to draw a nephron and label all the ion channels in the membrane and discuss what's being transported in and out of every segment, which uh...I definitely can't do yet. Also, if you have to read multiple chapters everyday and learn each day's new materials, how are you supposed to review what you learned before? ECGs, preloads and limb leads are a faint memory now, and that's no good.

I think the most frustrating aspect of med school is wanting to leap to the end where you're a doctor, and everything is second nature. Can you imagine how great it'll be when you see a patient and you can reason out what's wrong with them, do a great physical exam and order appropriate lab tests? That's probably the bare minimum, but it just seems far away at times. We're only three years away from the M.D. though, which is pretty scary.

The best way I can describe my feelings at this point is that I'm a 21 year old kid trying to learn the ABCs. You know that there is so much out there, and you want to be able to read Milton and Tolstoy, but nope, you have to learn how to sound out letters and write a sentence first, and it's not easy. Somehow though, it all becomes second nature, but definitely not soon enough.