One final down!  Two to go!  Can she make it?  I dunno...  Gotta keep my eye on the prize...

http://www.sucasabb.com/

No cats or birds waking up early in the morning and demanding to be fed.  No textbooks or 3" binders of notes in the corner, mocking me.  No internet access to start working on Board preparation or any other studying nonsense.  Just me, my man, a few books of FUN reading, a local lake to walk around, some of my favorite food from Whole Foods, and a hot tub with bubble bath to melt away the stress.  Just two more finals, just two more finals...

Another big weekend of studying.  "Quiz" monday, then finals next week.  Yikes!  I dunno if I can pull this off!  Studying neuro all summer wouldn't be so bad, right?

Still love neuroscience.  It brings up all sorts of philosophical questions.  What makes a person a person?  What extent of brain damage has to be done before you can consider someone no longer human, or decide that it's OK to let them die?  Is an anencephalic baby human?  Of course, I think anyone with human DNA is human, and that brings up some interesting correlations concerning the way I will have to treat babies with severe deformities or adults with severe injuries or dementia...  One lecturer gave a great diatribe on why, although she is a neurologist, she has NEVER ordered a genetic test for Huntington's disease for a patient.  Basically, someone dealing with that needs to be, along with their whole family, in for serious counseling in a qualified center, by someone more proficient and available than she is as a neurologist is.  Suicide to SO common in those patients, even if they test negative for the disease!  Guilt, I guess.  So sad.  So untreatable and incurable... sigh.

The brain is unbelievably cool.  Did you know that people who never learn to speak can never think in abstract terms?  and they don't think the way we do, they don't have any sort of inner monologue.  That's why Helen Keller was SUCH a big deal.  And why if babies get ear infections, we load them up with antibiotics, because it's SO important that they can hear correctly and develop their speaking ability at that key age.  It's almost like speaking and communication is really what separates us from animals.  It's such a big jump in evolution.  It's our SOUL.  k, maybe not, but still cool to think about...
 
Anyway, it all just makes me wonder whether I should be a neurologist (probably not, too competitive...) or a psychiatrist.  I just see a population of people who could really use some love, but are hard to love.  I mean, mental illness can be weird and gross and seem unhuman.  I think it's this desire to love the unlovable that leads me to a lot of my desires for weird specialties - pediatric oncologist and hospice, in particular.  I know that being in those fields would require a really special heart.  And I want to have that kind of special heart, and use it.  But I'll probably wind up being an ob-gyn or in family practice.  Oh well.  It's all good.

Still alive and kicking, and doing well this week!  I've worked out every day, haven't watched TV during the week, and am totally on top of my studying!  I even have to spare time tonight to clean the kitchen, get in an extra workout while I review at flash cards, and I also hope to memorize some more neuro pathways.  phew.

I did want to post this article since it contains not only a new pro-choice perspective that I'd never heard of before and rather liked, since it really actually made sense, but also a pro-life response to that argument that I was even more impressed with.  What a day!

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=13751

The weather is cooling off and I'm really appreciating it.  Sure, summer is the season I long for most and miss most when it's gone, but in general the seasons are really great.  Nice work, Lord.  Keep it up.