Clinical Year Check in, and Baked! Vol. 5: The Best Chocolate Cookies Ever

Clinical year is full swing and I thought I'd share a cookie I've been making a lot that always gets requests for the recipe. A few years ago I started looking for a recipe for what I had in mind (a rich, chocolate cookie with a chewy crust and a velvety, truffle-like interior) and tried a few before I came across this Martha Stewart recipe for Dark Chocolate Cookies with Sour Cherries. The recipe here is with modification I've made (most notably, leaving out the cherries, though they're awesome with them as well!).

Baked! Vol. 5: The Best Chocolate Cookies Ever

Adapted from Dark Chocolate Cookies with Sour Cherries by Martha Stewart

Modifications from the original recipe are included here and consist of: omit dried sour cherries, refrigerate dough for 30 minutes after mixing, scoop cookies out to heaping tablespoons, roll in granulated sugar after scooping, and bake 7 minutes.

Yield: approximately 5 dozen cookies

1 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 1/4 cups unsweetened Cocoa Powder
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1/8 teaspoon Salt
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) salted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups Granulated Sugar
3/4 cup packed Brown Sugar
2 large Eggs
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
12 ounces Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar, for rolling cookies

1. In a medium bowl whisk together Flour, Cocoa, Baking Soda, and Salt. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream the Butter, Granulated Sugar, and Brown Sugar until fluffy. Add Eggs and Vanilla Extract and beat until well combined.
3. Add the flour mixture and beat until just combined. I usually do this in 3 parts and gather a wet dish towel around the top of the mixing bowl because as soon as you turn it on each time there will be a massive cloud of cocoa.
4. With a wooden spoon, mix in the Chocolate Chips by hand. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 350° F. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Scoop out cookies into heaping Tablespoons. Form gently by hand into a ball and roll in Granulated Sugar to coat. Place 20 to a baking sheet and flatten slightly to keep from rolling.
7. Bake 7 minutes. Cookies will be cracked on top and slightly under-baked; you might need to trial this in your own oven by baking and cooling the first pan to make sure you don't need another minute of cooking time.

A Spring Semester Check-In, and Baked! Vol. 4: Raspberry Sweet Rolls

Spring semester involves a 1-week spring break that is quickly coming to an end.

This past week has been a wonderful break from our regular school schedule, though not by any means a break from school.  Our game plan this week was for me to study during the time that I would normally be in class so that I could have my nights free to spend with family and friends.

The plan worked out pretty well, and the absence of class this past week was a welcome break from having another 12 lectures added onto my study load, but really there's never quite enough time in the day.

I needed lots of time with these toes.  And these chubby arms and legs.

Instead of fretting about how much extra studying I wish I had been able to get done, I will choose to focus on how nice it was to sleep in a few days (when my amazing wife got up with the kids and let me stay in bed), spend more hours of the day with my biological family than with my school family (though the latter makes fine company, I prefer the former ☺), and yes, have some time to catch up on school work.

So far this semester we've covered orthopedics, rheumatology, neurology, ophthalmology, and 

hematology, with nephrology, urology, and public health still to come before the semester's end.  Highlights have been getting to have more simulated patient days, our casting/splinting workshop, and with each unit realizing we're a little closer to getting to clinic in the fall.

After this semester we will have a brief summer (May-June) term followed by a summer break over July and August to work on master's projects and prepare for our comprehensive academic year final exam in October.  Assuming the exam goes well, we will start our first clinical rotation the following week.  

The clinical staff has been hard at work coordinating sites for our rotations and doing their best to grant our requests for our electives.  Over the coming months we should start getting some of our clinical assignments, and I'm excited to see what's in store!

Baked! Vol. 4: Raspberry Sweet Rolls

I baked these a while ago for Valentine's day.  They came up on my Facebook feed one weekend as a post a friend had liked, and I was intrigued - a cinnamon-bun style recipe but with whole raspberries rolled up into the dough, set off with a nice hit of lemon zest.

(9"x13" pan)

I got so caught up in the idea I committed the cardinal sin of baking and didn't read through the recipe before I had my yeast, coconut oil, and water going in my mixing bowl.  9 cups of flour and 2 trips to the grocery store later, these were well on their way to deliciousness.  I think my family (and my school family) would both agree these were a hit.

(Half sheet pan; don't forget to double-pan!)

Raspberry Sweet Rolls

Yield: 24-30 large rolls or ~80 small rolls

Ingredients

Dough

• 1.5 Tablespoons Yeast
• 3 Cups Warm Water
• 6 Tablespoon Coconut Oil (or shortening)
• 3/4 Cup White Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Salt
• 9 Cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (Yes, you read that right)
• 2 Eggs

Filling

• 3 1/2 Cups Frozen Raspberries
• 1/3 Cup White Sugar
• Zest of 1 Large Lemon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Cornstarch
• 1/2 Cup Softened Butter
• 1/2 Cup Light Brown Sugar

Frosting

• 4 ounces Cream Cheese, room-temperature
• 4 Tablespoons Butter, room-temperature (I used salted)
• 1 Cup Powdered Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Lemon Zest

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the beater attachment combine Yeast (1.5 T), Warm Water (3 C), Coconut Oil (6 T), White Sugar (3/4 C), and Salt (1 T).  Beat until well combined.
2. Add 2 Cups of Flour and beat until smooth; add eggs and continue beating.
3. Switch the the dough hook and continue mixing while adding in the remaining flour; mix for about 2 minutes.  This is a lot of dough for a stand mixer so be brave and keep stopping the mixer to push it down if necessary.
4. Remove the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead by hand.  Sprinkle with more flour if the dough is sticky.  Knead until the dough is smooth.
5. Put the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with saran wrap.  Leave in a warm area and let rise until doubled in size (about an hour).
6. After rising: remove dough to a lightly floured surface and divide in two parts.
7. Assemble Rolls  - preheat oven to 425 degrees F
1. Mix the Filling: in a medium bowl stir together Frozen Raspberries (3 1/2 C), White Sugar (1/3 C), Lemon Zest (from 1 Lg Lemon), and Cornstarch (1 1/2 t).  Keeping the Raspberries intact as much as possible will make for prettier rolls.
2. Large Rolls - grease a 9"x13" baking pan and line with parchment paper.  If your 9"x13" pan is metal and you have another of the same size - double pan.  The bottoms of my large rolls got "deeply caramelized."
1. Using a rolling pin roll out one half of the dough to a rectangle approximately 20" wide x 12" deep.  
2. Spread 4 T softened Butter evenly over the piece of dough, leaving about 1/2 inch margin along the edge farthest from you, and sprinkle with 1/4 C Brown Sugar. 
3. Sprinkle dough with 1/2 of the Raspberry mixture.  The berries will be somewhat sparse over the dough but it won't look that way once they're rolled up.  The final effect will be better if you make sure there are some raspberries close the the edge nearest you (this will be the center of the sweet rolls).
4. Gently roll the dough, starting with the long edge close to you.  I found this easiest to do by folding it back over itself just a little bit along the entire width of the dough, then folding that back again, until I was easily able to roll it all together.  Press the 1/2" margin not covered with butter into the roll to seal it.
5. Slice the roll into 1.5"-2" pieces, placing each onto the greased and lined pan as you go.  Mine were a little floppy and my Raspberries were threatening to escape, so slicing a few at a time did not work for me.  The rolls will rise a bit so you don't want them super close together.  See the picture above.
3. Mini Rolls - grease a half-sheet pan (18"x13") and line it with parchment paper (mine was only semi-lined since the paper wasn't as large as the pan; I just wanted easier roll removal and cleanup).  Double-pan (stick your pan inside a second pan of the same size) if possible to prevent the bottoms of the rolls burning.
1. Divide half of the original dough into two parts again (each will be 1/4 of the original dough).
2. Directions are the same as for large rolls with the following adjustments: roll out the piece of dough to approximately 20" wide x 8" deep; slice the roll into approximately 1" pieces.  When placing the rolls on the pan I staggered them in alternating rows of 5s and 4s (see pictures).  The smaller rolls will still rise a bit so you don't want them super close.
8. Cover rolls with plastic wrap (it's not a bad idea to grease the plastic wrap a bit so it won't be hard to remove) and leave them to get nice a puffy (the original recipe said they should double in size; depending on how big they came out of your roll, doubling could mean they are threatening to bust right out of the pan, so you be the judge.  They will also puff up a bit more in the oven, and they will be easier to separate the less they are pushing into each other).  This should take approximately 30 minutes for the large rolls and maybe 45 minutes for the small.
9. Bake rolls at 425 F for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 F and bake 5-7 minutes longer until golden brown.  I found my large and small rolls all needed more time than this to look nice and golden.
10. While the rolls are cooling beat together the ingredients for the frosting.  Frost the rolls when cool if you like your frosting to hold up a bit more structure, or when warm if you like it more like a glaze.

Fall Semester in Review

I first started this blog both to have a record of my time in PA school and, just maybe, to share this experience with someone else who's thinking about or going through PA school and wanted to see someone else's experience.

Coming from 12 years working in a bakery, I decided that each week I'd post a baking project along with my updates. I did OK over the summer - 6 posts and 3 baking projects... then fall came.  With it began the clinically oriented phase of our academic year and with it ended any hope I had of keeping up regular blogging.  I knew this before going into it, but, PA school is hard!

This semester we started up the three classes we will have for the remainder of our academic year: Clinical Medicine (learning about medical conditions), Pharmacotherapy (learning pharmacological treatments), and History and Physical Exam Skills (learning about patient interaction and how to do things like patient exams and education).

Since it's been so long since I've posted anything, here's a review of what we've been up to for the past 4 months:

SEPTEMBER

September brought about a big change: our PA program moved to space on a new campus in the Como neighborhood of St. Paul. This means a slightly shorter commute for me, easier parking, new lecture classrooms, and a lovely new exam classroom.  The campus is pretty small and there are lots of good places to study.

Our first unit was dermatology.  We saw a lot of nasty skin conditions and learned a lot about acne treatment.  We also had a suture lab.

No human arms were harmed during our learning.

After dermatology we started our cardiology unit, which was a BEAST.  And Johnny will not leave my stethoscope alone.

Just look at that technique.  He's a natural.

OCTOBER

We thought we were having a little too much free time on our hands, so in October we welcomed a big change into our lives - our baby girl!  I haven't been able to get quite as much studying done since her arrival but we like her anyway.

And he's barely put her down since.

I survived cardiology and we moved into the pulmonary system, which in pharmacotherapy meant learning the antibiotics.  Maybe you've heard of penicillin and vancomycin.  What about imapanem? Cephazolin? Moxifloxacin?  Turns out there are quite a few, each with their own uses, side effects, drug interactions, and contraindications.  Since antibiotics are such an important tool that we have as health care providers, it was really cool to get to learn about them.

My faithful study buddy.

We also had our first simulated-patient day in October, where actors come in and we hold a mock clinic to practice our interviewing, diagnostic, and treatment skills.  It was a great learning experience but was also exhausting.  It was made very clear to me just how far I have to go before I will have the knowledge and endurance to be a competent clinician.

I did get to look super legit though.

The guy playing "PA" will see you now.

NOVEMBER

We finished the pulmonary unit and moved into GI - hepatitis, ulcers, and colorectal cancer, etc. - then started ENT.  Part of the ENT unit involved a field trip to the clinic of a prominent ENT in the Twin Cities where we saw a demonstration of nasal endoscopy.  I volunteered since this is supposed to be a kind of uncomfortable procedure and I figured I'd like to know what I might be ordering for future patients.  It was kind of pinchy and made my eyes water quite a bit, but wasn't all that bad.

In November I got to do quite a bit of baking.

For Thanksgiving I made Butter Flake Rolls (L, from Dessert Now, Dinner Later) and a Sweet Potato Pecan Pie (R, from AllRecipes), and for our last week of class I made Apple Cider Donuts (Bites, since I'm lazy - C, from Smitten Kitchen).

DECEMBER

Representing on Team Tuberculosis!

In December we finished up our ENT section and had a Challenge bowl on teams with third years.  Seeing the third years was inspiring both for how much they've learned and also how close they are to graduating and being out in practice.  The last week was reserved for our first round of cumulative finals.

After our last final we were released to a 3.5 week break, which was amazing.  After this semester it was almost hard to remember what it was like not being in school, but we didn't waste any time.  The fact that the holidays are such a busy time made sure I had plenty non-schoolwork to attend to.

So here I am, the night before we jump into spring semester.  It's easy to feel sad that this break has flown by, but instead I'm going to be happy for being blessed by so many good times with family and friends, and excited to be be one semester closer to graduation and clinical practice.  Since there's a very good chance that spring semester will quickly get as crazy as the fall, it may well be another 5 months before I get back here again. For now I'll sign off, saying Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year from the Baking PA.

One Semester Down!

By my count it's been 7 weeks since I last checked in on this blog.  In case anyone was keeping track, a few updates:

• That business with the first Anatomy test?  Back and upper limb - tough.  Second test? Lower limb - not as bad.  Third test? Cranial nerves - very tough.  Fourth test?  Thorax, abdomen, pelvis - not so bad.
• I survived Pathophysiology and its three tests.
• I did NOT fail out of school (yet :) )
• I have not baked since making brownies the week of our first Pathophysiology test (I knew that I would need something to cheer me up after the test)
• I finished my first semester, and in doing so am one semester closer to becoming a PA!

Lab group together once again after our last test of the term is over!

Every day of summer class we walked by a tree on the West Bank of the U of M campus full of shoes left by past students.  We aren't really sure why people started leaving their shoes there (and it sounds like no one really is), but we decided that at the end of the summer we would leave our lab shoes there.

Mine are the glistening white ones front and center.

I learned a lot this semester.  Obviously.  I mean, of course I learned (most of) all the things I was supposed to learn for my classes, learned a lot about myself in the process, blah blah blah.  I also learned a lot of other really amazing things.  I learned that my classmates are some incredible people who I will be honored to share a profession with.  I learned that our professor has had a wealth of experiences in his life and I was lucky enough to hear just a few of his many hilarious stories.

I learned that sometimes PA school sucks.  I hesitate to say that about this experience that I have been working towards for over 3 years to participate in a profession that I am passionate and excited about, but it does.  I knew there would be long hours of studying and there would be time spent apart from my wife and son, but there are times when it really sucks.  On days when I would get home from class and have to go study for a test instead of build towers that my son can knock over.  On nights when my tired and pregnant wife would do bath time with our son so I could get through a lecture.  

There were so many times I would sit at my desk thinking "What am I doing?  I should be out there helping/playing/being a part of my family."  I know in my head that I am spending these long nights working towards providing a future for my family, but sometimes rationalizing this was harder than I thought it would be.  This is what spending more hours of the day looking at a textbook than at your wife will do to you.

I'm now nearing the end of my first week of my three (three!) weeks of vacation before fall semester starts, and life is good.

It's been a little less of this:

A little more of this:

A little less of this:

A little more of this:

A little less of this:

I never took my front-and-center parking spot for granted

A little more of this:

You get the idea.  In summary, summer so far has been good :)

So long for now,

The Baking PA

Week 3 and Baked! Vol. 3: Lemon Blueberry Scones

When we last spoke I was gearing up for week 3 and our first Anatomy exam.  I survived!  It was great to reach the first milestone of having a test to be able to learn more about what they will be like and how I should be studying.  I am moving forward from here.

Summer term involves good news and bad news.  First, the good news: while Anatomy consists of 4 tests, Pathophysiology only has 3.  The bad news: while the exams will not be doubled up in a single week (until we get to the end of the term that is...) this means that we had an Anatomy exam this past week, a Pathophysiology exam this coming week, and then an Anatomy exam the week after that.  Vastly preferable to having exams for 2 classes in the same week, but it's going to be a little bit of a marathon for a while.

Having our Anatomy test first gave a fresh start as we move into the lower limb, as well as some good perspective.  Now that I'm studying for Pathophysiology I long for the concreteness of learning bones, nerves, vasculature, muscles, and their function.  Depending on how Thursday goes (as well as switching gears back to Anatomy after Thursday), maybe I'll change my mind.

Yesterday was Father's Day, and my special treatment was being able to study all day.  It was great, and set me up to be able to take the evening off.

On Saturday I made some scones to take to brunch with some friends.  They were appropriately summery - blueberries and lemon zest on the inside, lemon glaze on top.  The real stars were some amazing quiche prepared by our lovely hostess, though.

Baked! Vol. 3: Lemon Blueberry Scones

Adapted from Buttermilk Scones from Alexandra's Kitchen

The original recipe yields 12 rolled-and-cut scones, but my dough came out a bit sticky so I did dropped scones instead, yielding 17 scones that were each about 1/2 cup.  Use buttermilk if you have on hand, or soured milk as indicated below.  I used the zest of 1 smallish lemon, but I would happily use a larger lemon next time or just do 2 lemons.  The tarter the better, I say.

Yield: 12 monster scones (or 17 moderately-sized scones)

4-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup white sugar

1-1/4 teaspoon salt

zest of 1 lemon

1 cup + 1 Tablespoon butter, cold cubed

1-1/2 scant cups milk

1 heaping Tablespoon lemon juice

1 pint fresh blueberres

Glaze:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

juice of 1 lemon, to desired consistency

1. Preheat oven to 400º and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  You may only need 1, but better to be safe.  Combine milk and lemon juice.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, and lemon zest.
3. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients using a pastry blender, a fork, your hands (as I did, though I maybe didn't end up with pieces as big as I should have), or a food processor (which I would use if I did it again).
4. Add enough soured milk and stir to get the desired consistency - if you want to do dropped scones it can be a wetter dough, so use all the milk; if you want to do rolled-and-cut scones you should start with a little less than all the milk and see if you need more to get a texture that is not too wet and sticky.
5. If rolling: separate the dough into two equal parts and roll each out on a floured surface into a 1/2"-thick circle.  Cut each round into 6 equal pieces and arrange on lined baking sheets.  If scooping: scoop dough out to desired size (I got 17 scones that were each about 1/2 cup of dough) onto lined baking sheets.
6. Bake for 25-35 minutes, though mine were looking nicely browned at close to 20 minutes so I took them out.
7. Combine powdered sugar with enough lemon juice to get the desired consistency.  I wanted a glaze that was light and fairly runny, so this meant most of the juice of a small lemon.  Glaze scones when they are cool.

Week 2 and Baked! Vol. 2: Rhubarb-Berry Crisp Bars

Is it the end of week 2 already?  Is the the end of the weekend after week 2 already?  Our summer professor, who teaches both pathophysiology and anatomy, assured us at the end of week one that in our second week we were really going to pick up speed.

This was kind of a surprise to all of us, since we hadn't realized that the pace of our first week qualified as "taking it easy."  Week two took us from the cell into tissues, systems, and an extremely comprehensive lecture on cancer in pathophysiology; in anatomy we moved on from the back to the upper limb and pectoral region.

If that sounds straightforward - think again!  The upper limb is a fascinating and complex world of the shoulder, arm, forearm, and hand.  There are more bones, muscles, nerves, and blood vessels than you can shake a stick at, all of which work together in intricate coordination to perform the actions we take for granted.  

Have you ever considered the complexity involved in being able to use a pen?  In a healthy body you can hold a pen, know that it is in your hand, not hold it so tightly that you send it flying across the room, maintain enough pressure to write without tearing through a sheet of paper, and coordinate all of this while making a series of detailed, meaningful marks on a page with a speed that is really quite surprising, no matter how slow you write.  

You have fingers with multiple articulations, hand, wrist, arm, elbow, and shoulder all working together.  This is all thanks to our friend the brachial plexus, the network of nerves of the upper limb that hangs out in your armpit.  Here is a video that helped me study it, given by a guy who is basically Tom Haverford from Parks and Rec with a PhD (disclaimer - this is probably not worth watching unless you are actually studying anatomy):

So yes, week two has been a crazy week, made all the crazier by gearing up for our first test this coming Wednesday.  I am quickly making 2 realizations: First, studying is my life now.  My wife and son are my life, but studying is my second, kind of more time-consuming life now.  I am at school during the day, and aside from dinner and helping out with bedtime (and the occasional blogging), I need to be studying.  Second, I really need to step up my studying game.  There just isn't any time to be wasted.  I am spending all my time studying for an anatomy test this week, kind of neglecting patho, but then we have our patho test the following week, so I'll need to totally switch gears, only to again being preparing for another anatomy test after that.

The second years (sidebar: every time I say that I feel like I should follow it with "from Ravenclaw house") have all been super cool and encouraging, and told us that while the fall will be more intense, spring semester is a slight reprieve, and summer second year it's actually possible to take a weekend off now and again.

In the meantime my wife has been making our family survive.  She is taking care of our son, taking care of me, keeping our house presentable, teaching her own lessons, being super pregnant, and doing it all with grace and poise.

Yeah, I'm a lucky guy.

This week I did my first baking for school.  Since it is summer in Minnesota, rhubarb is all over.  I made Smitten Kitchen's Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp Bars.  I did a 9x13 pan and a slightly larger bar pan, so I quadrupled the recipe.  I had no idea what to expect - were the PA students going to be shy Minnesotans and not even try them, leaving me with a ridiculous amount on hand?

I had intended to make them all-rhubarb (meaning eight cups of rhubarb after quadrupling, instead of half rhubarb/half strawberries as the recipe indicates), but after going outside twice to chop down more stalks and getting down to the thinner, scrawny ones, I did the last cup with a berry blend we had in the freezer.  They were a hit and I didn't take a one home.

Baked! Vol. 2: Rhubarb-Berry Crisp Bars, from Smitten Kitchen

I had quadrupled it to make two large bar pans, but the recipe below is for a single 8"x8" pan, like the original.  Since I was splitting it between two pans, I also diverged from the original recipe's layering of berries, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice, and just mixed this all together in a bowl before splitting it up between the two pans since this seemed easier.  Also, since my fruit ratio was heavier on the rhubarb, I also slightly increased the amount of sugar and lessened the amount of lemon juice.  My 9"x13" pan ended up with a slightly thicker crust, which I think was right-on - for this, double the recipe.  If making this for a bar pan also double the recipe, but be prepared for a slightly thinner crust (which was still awesome!)

1 cup Rolled Oats

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

Heaping 1/4 teaspoon salt

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (I used salted)

1 teaspoon Cornstarch

Scant 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

Heaping 1 Tablespoon Granulated Sugar

1-3/4 cups small-sliced Rhubarb

1/4 cup Mixed Berries (chopped if any are big)

1. Preheat oven to 375°.  Lightly grease a 8"x8" baking dish; fold a piece of parchment paper to the width of the bottom of the dish and place it inside as a sling for the bars.
2. In a bowl whisk together oats, flour, brown sugar, and salt.  Pour melted butter over the mixture and stir until clumpy.  Add 2 Tablespoons more flour at this point if your mixture looks overly damp, although I didn't have to.  I was a little worried that my mixture looked too dry and wouldn't hold together, but it came out great.
3. Set aside 1/2 cup of the crust mixture and pour the rest into the 8"x8" pan, flattening it out evenly in the bottom out to the sides.
4. In a bowl combine rhubarb, berries, cornstarch, lemon juice, and sugar.  Stir to combine and then spread over crust.
5. Crumble reserved 1/2 cup crust over fruit.
6. Bake for 30-40 minutes, "until fruit is bubbly and crisp portion is golden and smells toasty and amazing."

Alex, PA-S

We are called Auggies!

This was the week.  I took a jump, made the plunge, attended orientation, and started PA school.

The whole experience was a little surreal.  The whole time I was taking my prereqs I would see Augsburg off the highway and think maybe, just maybe, I would end up there some day.  After I was accepted 6 months ago, every time I've driven by the exit I've thought "some day soon I'll be getting off here for my first day of school."  And this past Monday, it happened.

Day 1 was orientation.  They had the day filled with introductions, information sessions, tours, ID pictures, a potluck lunch provided by the staff and second years, and a small smattering of goofy team-building games.  I got to meet my assigned mentor in the second-year class, the professors and staff upon whom so much of my future will depend, and the 27 other dewy-eyed new PA students I will be sharing more time with than with my family for the next 16 months (once we start clinicals I'll have new people to see more than I see my family).

We only have class Monday-Thursday, so after Monday's orientation it was a 3-day week for class.  Anatomy will be everyday, and Pathophysiology will meet Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  The instructor who teaches these classes heads the MBA program for 10 months out of the year using his years of experience in the business world, and oh yeah, just happens to have a doctorate in anatomy and cellular biology and used to teach medical students at Harvard, so this is how he relaxes over the summer.  He is staggeringly knowledgeable.

Week one of Anatomy has consisted of learning the bones, muscles, nerves, and other tissues of the back, along with all of their unique structures and functions.  Now that we've got the back down, we just have the whole rest of the body to go.

I asked him how this class compares to what a med school student would be taught.  He said we are getting the same level of detail.  It's going to be a busy summer.

So far Pathophysiology has been a review of everything you ever learned about cell structure and function, times infinity.  We are picking up speed quickly and will spend the summer learning about how disease works in the body.

So far making and dedicating myself to studying has been a bit of a challenge.  I am not someone who can sit down and read a book for hours, committing everything to memory.  If you are one of those people:

One week in and I'm hanging on.  It's going to be a busy summer.  

Gulp.

Off to school on my first day.