Get out your violins and play me a sad song!

On Thursday, I woke up to one of the worst omens ever, especially for a medical student.

I woke up

with

the

dreaded

sore

throat. 

I immediately checked for swollen lymph nodes, and Oh! Poor me! I had some. I refused to believe that I was getting sick because I had a Pharmacology exam the next day, so I went to school, studied from 10 am to 2 am, woke up at 6am Friday morning and studied until my 8:30 exam. I took my exam and came home, where I immediately realized how tired I was and how much my throat hurt. I decided to take a nap, and then woke up to repeatedly hit refresh on the school website so I could check my exam grade (gotta love that moment when you realize you passed, never gets old). Friday night my friends and I went out to a huge concert and had a great time. In true Party Like A Med Student fashion, we actually rocked white lab coats and goggles, because we are that cool... and no... I'm not kidding. If you've never worn a lab coat to a festivity, you should really do it sometime. There are so many pockets for drink-holding and what not!

Anyway, I wake up on Saturday, and I have my moment of truth. No, I am not hungover. Yes, I have a sinus infection. And, lucky me, a fever. And, oh, what is that? A chest cold? Check, Double Check! When it rains, it pours!

So, I thought about what pre-med-school-me would do about this situation. The answer was sleep it off, chillax on the couch, and watch movies in between naps until I felt better.

So, that is what I did.

And now, it is Sunday night and I did nothing but rest the past two days, and I am freaking out.

Pros: I do feel slightly better, and I attribute most of it to the massive amounts of sleep I got this weekend. I didn't study for two days. I got to watch TV.

Cons: I DIDN'T STUDY FOR TWO DAYS. I DIDN'T DO MY LAUNDRY, OR CLEAN MY ROOM, OR GO TO THE POST OFFICE, OR DO ANYTHING ELSE I SAID I WOULD DO THIS WEEKEND.

Now, pre-med-school-me would be like, "ehhh! Who cares! I can do it this week after work or during my lunch break!"

Med-school-me is like, "OMGGGG WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO!? HOW WILL YOU CATCH UP!? YOU ARE ALREADY BEHIND (note: we are always behind)! I HATE YOU RIGHT NOW!!!!"

Think about it. We have exams every week. Each of these exams requires hours upon hours upon hours of learning. Rough estimate would be ~17 class hours, 40 hours outside of class... if not more. If you fail one exam, you spend the rest of the semester working even harder (possible?) and freaking out even more (possible?) to make up for it. And, if you fail one class, in most cases, you have to decelerate an entire year. Now, what person wants to be sick as hell and study for at least eight hours a day? No one. And, even if that person did, it's not great studying because what sick person can really retain a ton of info?

But, name one other career, in which if you get sick and fail a test, it could potentially cost you $70,000 and one year of your life?

This is one of those times, where normal life trumps med school life, hands down.

Now, go wash your hands and never get sick.

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