I'm still here.

Despite my absence for the last couple of months - I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth! Ok, so firstly - I hope you had a good Christmas and new year. Mine was great, it was really nice to go home and do no work for 3 weeks.

I don't really know how to update you on what's been going on since the last time I posted, med school is still great, my brain is still full (but there are some really interesting things in there). We're just coming up to the end of the cardiovascular module and I've gotta say that I prefered respiratory (despite all the sputum!).

My first set of exams had mixed results - the multiple choice questions (MCQs) went well, I got 74% (later put up to 76% after an error in the marking was found). The modified essay questions (MEQs) were a complete disaster - I totally panicked and couldn't get anything out of my brain and onto paper, I have never frozen on a exam before and I hope that it never happens again because it was awful. By the time I had got into the swing of things, I kept having to stop because my wrist was hurting (have I told you about my bad wrist?) and then I ran out of time. Anyway, I came out of that with 44% (which is crap but it's better than I thought I'd done). We had another MCQ in December, that went well and I got 82% in that. Next exams are in February (MEQs and MCQs), hopefully I won't get the yips again. We have clinical skills assessments too this time, they sound pretty scary as we could be asked to carry out any part of a respiratory or cardiovascular examination.

Not much else has been going on, we're changing pbl groups at the end of this module (2 weeks) and everyone seems to be dreading it. Even though we don't always get along with the people in our groups, we've been together since September and we know how we work. We've bonded and it's going to be hard to split us all up and put us with new people (well, not new people, but you know how the saying goes - better the devil you know than the devil you don't).

I should probably leave it there for now, I have a patient narrative essay to finish by monday that is still refusing to be beaten. It's just so fluffy - I've even used the word 'biopsychosocial' in there, bleugh! Makes me all quivery inside!