Not much to add

I don't really have much to add at this time to the blog but I thought I would post seeing as Bubby is napping and I have the laptop open.

I downloaded the Grammarly app, which I can thoroughly recommend. The free version is good.

I have been nominated for the OUM Students Association. I'll update how it goes over the next week or so. I don't really have the time to do it but there is a group of Australian students that are very driven to improve the course and circumstances for students. That requires people to put their hand up for nomination and to represent the other students There was a hole -> I stood in it.

I'm HATING having Bubby in full-time care atm, but what can I do? It's only for another 6 months this year so really I need to keep a good perspective and devote myself to making the most of the time I do have at home and to make sure this investment in my education pays off long-term.

I'm still using my Law of Attraction planner and can thoroughly recommend it, or at least, the Bullet Journal method (please Google). Maximum time efficiency is what is required in med school, especially if still working and/or raising children.

IM placement

I'm in week 2 of my IM placement and it's going really good.

The others (students, interns, registrars, consultants) have been very friendly and accepting of me as an "outsider", or "elective" med student, especially seeing as they rarely get international electives at the particular hospital where I am training.

My knowledge: there are gaps, but they're not HUUUGGE huge. Just bigger than I'd like. Not so embarrassing that my position as a final year medical student is questioned. Not at all. Well, not to my face.

Some things I have been doing have been seen as more advanced than expected for an average medical student and that has made me feel a lot better about myself. Those things include: writing the progress notes during ward rounds, reading the obs/drugs charts, placing IVs, and being eager to learn more than the bare essentials. Some med students do that, but it's not expected until intern year.

Some things that make me look a bit behind include my lack of in-depth knowledge on certain pathophysiology and pharmacology questions. Some of the rarer diseases, I also don't know as well as the local medical students. When it comes to the more common stuff, I think I have a really good grasp on the basics, thanks mostly to my paramedic background. For example, the Intern asked the Consultant why she didn't start her Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus patient on metformin (a Type 2 DM drug).

I am learning a lot about how ward rounds work, I went to an M+M session (morbidity and mortality), am generally keeping up with the discussion about patients and their management, and generally not looking TOO stupid. Whew.

Apart from the hands-on and clinical observing experience, this rotation has (so far) given me the boost in motivation that I really needed to get me back into the books and focused on up-skilling myself in the areas I need to improve. The first half of med school is all about keeping up with the pace of the course; been told what to study and when. The second half is all about (finding and) attending placements, consolidating knowledge, and filling in the gaps as you go along.

So, today is exactly six years since my first day of medical school! Wow! So I always knew it would take me five-and-a-half to six years to do a four year course. The reason being: the first two years I did part-time. This was always my strategy from the beginning (financial, mostly). It turns out that it is probably going to take me seven to seven-and-a-half years! GASP!

**Goes into cardiac arrest

Killing 17 birds with one stone - my current study plan

Here's my current plan of attack:

• study all day at work. Also, catch up on rest, sleep, meal prepping, and laundry and work. Also, clean car at work. Also clean boyfriend's car at work. 
• do placements when not at work. Try not to look like you've had no days off. 
• tell placements that placement is your priority. Tell work that work is your priority. Family is actually your priority.
• make sure to go through all the points you jot down in your mini-notebook while on placement in case you get asked the same question again. Looking dumb once is forgivable; looking dumb twice for the same topic is embarrassing.
• cross-reference the topics you need to study for IM exam with AMC MCQ prep material, Tally and O'Connor, and OUM set readings. 
• try not to cry.

I'm making my own hand-written notes and if I'm successful, I'll upload them somewhere.

OUM student conference Melbourne 2016

The conference was amazing. I really enjoyed meeting my fellow students. I am so proud to be a part of this group of extraordinary people. Now when I say I am n OUM student, I hold my head up high with pride.

The keynote speaker was Dr Johannes Wenzle and he is an expert in the Australian Medical Council exam that IMGs need to take to practice in Australia. I learned so much from just one weekend.

I took my daughter along for the Sunday session, which was a significant distraction, however, I still go a lot out of it.

That's all I really have to comment right now. Maybe I'll post about it later.

OUM Students Conference 2016 - pre-reading

Just some pre-conference pre-reading.... About 50 pages.

The students conference is on this weekend in Melbourne. 

Finance secured

Woohoo.

I've just received a phone call from the bank notifying me that I have been approved the money I need to pay for the remaining fees for the course!

Yay!

The financial stress of medical school has, overall, been more intense than the study load, job uncertainty, and placement-finding combined.

This is great news.

The repayments are completely affordable (spread over five years but I hope to have it all paid off within two years) and is a major milestone for me.

Australians are not entitled to any sort of student loans for overseas courses. Australian-based courses, such as medical degrees, are supported with either Commonwealth Supported Places, FEE-HELP loans, or a number of other government-supported schemes.

Studying medicine at OUM, for Australian students, is a huge financial commitment. Students cannot continue with their study unless they are up-to-date with their dues, paid module-by-module. I'm not sure how much I have paid in total (the fees changed - decreased, in fact - half-way through), but I think I have just bought myself a $136,000 degree over the past six years. Very competitive in the realm of medical degrees, but scary when I think of what else I might've done with that sort of cold hard cash.

I am very proud of myself for earning, and borrowing, that money over the past six years. Who knew I had that sort of economic potential.

Anyway, I have said before and still firmly believe that education is the best form of investment one can make. It's an even better investment if the odds are that that education can increase your earning potential enough to recoup the financial investment and even have greater returns.

So, I'm going to divulge some slightly personal information to you to show you how I did in the hope of assisting others:

• Completed the first two years of tuition over 4 years. Paid a monthly payment plan of about $1800 for 4 years (about $86,000)
• Refinanced my house for the first half of the clinical placements (about $25,000)
• Loan for final clinical fees ($25,000)

So, you need to bear in mind that I have continued to work full-time for the majority of my degree. The first four years we tough but I managed. I was also paying a brand-new mortgage off at the same time. Also about $1800 per month. I earn about $4000 per month, so simple maths shows I was pretty short on cash. I worked overtime whenever I could and got pretty burnt-out in the process. I also travelled and managed to make a bit of extra cash here and there to maintain a lifestyle I liked. 

I actually took a personal loan out at one point to help as I got behind. I paid that off about two years ago. When I took maternity leave, that is when things got really financially tough. I was able to refinance my home which increased my mortgage repayments which I am still, literally, paying for now. The best thing about this FINAL loan is that this is it. No more tuition fees coming next year to compound on the top of the financial pressure. I can take the full five years to repay it if I want. 

Ok, I hope me telling you all my personal financial business helps someone. I remember when I started I thought to myself that I had NO IDEA how I would afford everything but I just took a leap of faith, and worked really hard, got a little creative, begged, borrowed, and...refinanced. Somehow, it happened.

(I never did win the lottery, though...)  

Week 6

Well I'm in my final case-based week for Renal. Whew. It's actually been ok for me this term so I feel a lot more encouraged. I can't say I'm getting the bast grades in the world but I at least feel it is possible for me to pass with a grade >75%. For me, I think that is acceptable.

I'm also feeling well financially which is such a huge component of studying somewhere like OUM. I thnnk I have what it takes to finish off my pre-clinical module back-to-back and be done with them by June 2014, and then take a few months to prepare for the Step 1. Excitement!

We've been really busy at work this week so I haven't been able to do as much as I want. I woldn't be so worried except for the fact I am planning one being away for the weekend for a taekwon-do tournament so I doubt I'll be able to catch up then. But it's only Wednesday now.

Ok I hae to go learn everything about renal calculi (nephrolithiasis).

Money, med school, and mouth pain

I'm over two weeks with Invisalign and I've gotten used to them. They don't hurt any more and I'm actually beginning to prefer to have them in. With them in, my front tooth gap is closed and my teeth look shiny and glossy from the plastic veneer, and the scratchy button are protected. I put in my new tray next week so it will be interesting to see if they hurt again from another adjustment.

This is my last week of acting up in high duties and on the weekend I do my taekwon-do competition. After that, I'll be just going back to regular tkd training for my next belt grading, hopefully netball will begin again, and I can begin preparing to return to study.

I contacted OUM a few months ago about what to do with me, seeing my situation, and it was as if it was a bit too hard to think about that far ahead. So, next month, I will contact them again. When I know what I am doing (I return half way through a term and need to do remedial for neuro) then I can ask my previous mentor if she is willing to continue mentoring me. If she says no, I hope to get clinical rotations at her hospital so I can prove my worth once again and not completely lose the excellent contact I have for my possible future career. I hope to NOT do my first rotation there so I get some sort of experience in-hospital and not look completely clueless.

Samoa has finally opened their new training hospital and I can't wait to check it out.

I went through a period of about a week where I was meditating every morning and I had a lot of mental clarity and came up with some solutions to the clinical placements vs money problems. I am hoping to get in a least a few clinical rotations while still working full-time as an ambo. A year would be ideal. After that I will be refinancing for my last clinical rotations. I am therefore planning to either do overseas rotations/electives (4 weeks each) during my annual leave form work while still being full-time employed and/or after finishing up full-time and using some of the money for tuition fees to support myself OS. IF I left my trickiest placements (to obtain) and Samoa to the very end, I could rent out my house (ie move my stuff out and get the renter to cover my mortgage) and simply stay there seeing as Internship is guaranteed for graduates. I'd then stay on and work as a low-paid doctor over there - just enough to live reasonably comfortably in Samoa. The last piece of the puzzle is my pets. My bf can easily follow me (he's looking forward to living overseas for a year or so). I'll have to meditate more to come up with that solution for the pets. Possibly my parents would take my dog, ad the bf's parents take his dog back for a year, but I'd have to build and pay for a fence at my parents and more my dog interstate AND my folks don't really want pets due to wildlife and lifestyle but they might suck it up for a year to help me sooooooo I'm hoping the untapped powers of my subconscious can come up with something better.

If I had unlimited money then I'd have a lot more options. I could continue to have my boarder who'd look after my dog, but she alone doesn't cover the mortagage. I could possibly get a second boarder in, but then that's a bit of a long-shot finding someone appropriate but then again it is a possibility.

Every body visualise me coming into great amounts of wealth.

One good thing, apart from my epiphany, is that I will soon have enough money from my lovely tax return to cover my owed tuition fees at OUM! Hoorah. So back to the 12-month payment plan I go (hopefully).

Prospective OUM students

Dear Prospective (and new) OUM students!

I have heard through the grapevine that this blog may have helped a few of you decide to study at OUM! That's great!

OUM has a program in place where if a student recommends/refers a new student to OUM and then that new student goes on to study for more than 3 modules at OUM, the old student can get a reduction on their tuition fees.

If this blog has been your "referral" to OUM, then I would appreciate it if you would put my name forward. This is, of course, only if yo feel it is fair to do so. If you would like to inbox me, then as I have said from the start, please feel free to leave me a comment with your email address and I will email you quite promptly. I always do. And I wont publish your comment if it is obviously intended only for me. Other students helped me in the beginning to get the low-down on what's the go with this school.

From the start of this blog I have been very honest and frank about my studies (and other aspects of my life). I have tried to keep this blog anonymous in an attempt to be able to speak freely from my heart. This has also enabled me to comment on the pros and cons of studying at OUM. I just wanted you to know I am not getting any sort of kick-backs from OUM for this blog or anything absurd like that!

I have been engrossed in other endeavours as late and have been unable to maintain this blog. When I go back from my LoA, you never know, I might need a special place to vent again!

In case you were wondering what I'm up to atm, I have been focusing on my health and fitness, but also revising what I have studied thus far at OUM. Today I didn't feel like reading my notes or the textbooks so I watched Dr Najeeb lectures. I've dedicated a calendar month to each module. MArch is biochem month. It's the 25th and I haven't even covered a quarter of what I wanted to. I'm finding it difficult to balance to focus on my own health and my studies at this stage. I hope to resolve this dilemma before I return!

Anyway, good luck to you all out there, med students or wannabes, or whatever you are up to.

Edit: 19 Aug 2013: I've been informed that this blog does not consitute a referal and if you get to OUM via me and my blog and decide to go there because of what I have told you here, then this does not count at all and I'm not eligible for any kind of tuition reduction for doing so. I think that sucks, but that's the way it is. I obviously don't write this blog for any sort of kick-back and I will keep writing it when I can be bothered and be as honest as possible as always. Good luck!

My journey through medical school - the story so far

Above is a picture of all (except my neuro which is at work) my folders from studying medicine at OUM so far.  I have got them together to go through while on deferral before returning later next year.

I'm not sure why I only have one Endocrine folder. Also, I have not yet done GIT (gastrointestinal) but I have a folder there as I was trying to get ahead with some study between terms previously. I'm not sure what's going on with the "extra clinical lectures" at OUM any more since their course revisal.

So what have I achieved in 2 years at med school? 6 out of 10 of the pre-clinical modules. That's right, I'm only just over a quarter of the way through! Bear in mind that - I'm only doing 3 out of 5 terms per year before deferring, and I began my academic year in March (not January) in 2010.

One of my favourite rules of life is that everything takes twice as long and costs twice as much as initially thought. Med school seems to fit quite nicely into this idea.

The good news is - I'm super-keen now to get back into it. I'm totally motivated and ready to focus on this one degree only!....

Well, I can't blog anymore as I am due back at work from my fatigue break. 

OUM update

New MD curriculum chart

Old curriculum chart (my course of study)

So I finally thought "Hey, I should email OUM for an update of my request for deferral" and as I searched my inbox I found a reply from 6 weeks ago! It said my request was approved until 31st August 2013! Yay! This is wonderful news.

My plan is now to revise what I've studied so far, especially neuro as I need to retake that exam (if I stay in the MD program as their cut-off for a pass is much higher than that for the MBBS ie 65 vs 50). I generally need to revise everything as I'll have the OUM in-house end of pre-clinical exam to pass before attempting the USMLE Step 1.

As for IUHS, I still have my application in progress over there so I'll see what happens about that.

I have that motivation for study feeling coming back! So good! Just as I began revising my neuro modules it was as if everything seemed easier.

In other news, Maria (my VA) is doing exceptional work. My business is coming along well. Now the truth will be told as to whether it is at all profitable!

OUM special announcement

Today, OUM announced they are reducing their tuition fees to $5000 per module.

Wow.

What a game-changer.

So, currently, my situation is it would be cheaper to remain at OUM.

Wow.

Right now I'm in discussions with OUM where I sit in regards to Good Standing etc so I hope to get some answers shortly.

Stay tuned.