Origin of Swine Flu

Just in case you didn't know where Swine Flu came from.



Any questions?

Turds and marks and other things

I now have all my marks for second semester, including the mark for the turd of a History essay that I handed in a week late. I was given a 90% on that essay, which was quite a pleasant surprise. The History final, that only took me 15 minutes to write, was given a mark of 92%.

I did better than I thought on my Pathophysiology final. My mark for that exam was a 79.41%. My course mark for Pathophysiology, was my worst one at 81.75%.

My marks are a bit lower than last semester but still respectable. My highest mark was a 95.17% and my lowest mark was an 81.75%. Keep in mind that for everything but the History course, a pass is 65%. My mark for the dreaded composite exam was 74%. They made the pass for that one a 60%. I suspect that a lot of people would have failed the composite, if a pass was 65%. A lot of people found that one hard. It was mostly about applying fundamental concepts and a lot of people in my class don't like doing that.

Most of the students in the year ahead of me, start their clinicals next week. I wish them luck, even thought they don't need any.

I'm actually doing some studying now. There are a few things that I only have a vague understanding of and I would like to rectify that. I was a bit surprised yesterday when I found it completely unnecessary to read a certain part of my favourite anatomy textbook because I knew all of the material.


I"ll be taking an elective, that starts on May 5th and ends on May 28th. The course is called "Excursions in Modern Mathematics". The course is described as a "liberal arts math" course, which seems to mean that it's a math course that doesn't have much math. It sounds like a good course for boosting my CGPA.

One of the local universities has a correspondence math course that I'm almost planning on taking. I'm planning on getting a degree after I finish RT school, so I need to strengthen my Math skills a bit.

Waiting for marks

My History couse mark should have been posted last night. It still has't been posted.

I was told that the results for the Composite Exam might be posted today. That hasn't happened yet.

The final marks for this semester's RT courses should be posted on Monday afternoon.

I hate waiting for marks.

Done (7 down 0 to go)

I'm finished first year!

I think the Composite Exam, that I wrote this morning, actually went well. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting. If you understood fundamental concepts, and could apply them, you were in pretty good shape for that exam. I walked out of that exam feeling pretty good about myself. Lots of people didn't think that the exam was fair. I call those people the "it's not fair" people. They never do well when they have to answer "applied knowledge" type question and "it's not fair".

I'm pretty sure I passed. I might find out my mark for that course tomorrow. The final marks for everything else ,will be released on Monday.

A new outlook

I just got a coffee from Tim Hortons. I'm listening to some music and I'm studying for the supplemental that I probably have to write next week. As far as I'm concerned, today's composite exam is just a part of the process for studying for the supplemental.

I only have one chance to pass the Composite. If it's really easy, or they artificially inflate the marks, I should be OK. If none of that pans out, I'm going to be writing a supplemental exam next week.

Survival strategy

If I fail the Composite Exam today, I should be allowed to write a supplemental exam next week. I'll find out how bad I did on Monday. After I write, and probably fail, the exam today I'll have at least 4 or 5 days to study for the supplemental.

That's called looking on the bright side. At this point, that's all I've got.

I think I'm screwed

I give up. I'm too tired. I can't study anymore. Studying for an exam that covers everything that I was taught this year, is ridiculous. I didn't even come close to studying what I thought I should. I think I'm screwed.

I write the Composite Exam at 9AM tomorrow.

Studying for the Composite Exam

I don't have time to actually learn anything new, while studying for the composite! I'm just reading through everything, to refresh my memory about things that I already know. If I don't already know it, that's too bad. No time to learn stuff, just time to do a refresh...

The composite exam is at 9AM tomorrow.

6 down 1 to go

The Pathophysiology exam today wasn't a pleasant experience. I think a lot of people got spanked on that one.

Now I have to study for the composite exam, which is at 9AM on Thursday. That exam covers pretty much everything that I'm supposed to know. I think it's 3 hours long.

5 down 2 to go

I just finished my History exam. It took me 15 minutes and I think I did quite well.

Pathophysiology exam at Noon today and Composite exam on Thursday...

Early bird

They say that "The early bird gets the worm". I guess that's why I like to sleep in. I don't really like eating worms. They taste like dirt.

It's 5:30AM. I should be able to study for my 8AM History exam and still be able to study another 4 hours for my Pathophysiology exam, that's at Noon.

4 down 3 to go

I wrote my Patient Care exam today, at noon. I'm not sure how it went. I was planning on staying at school, and studying, until about 11PM. At about 3PM I gave up and went home. I was so tired that I couldn't study any more. I think I'll head back to school in about 20 minutes.

I have to write an exam for History and one for Pathophyiology tomorrow. I only need a 32% on my Pathophysiology exam to pass the course, so I'm constantly reminding myself of that fact whenever I stress about how much studying I still have to do for that exam.

I can start studying for the composite exam tomorrow afternoon and spend all day on Wednesday studying for it, as well.

I want this semester to be over. I'm not really caring about marks, at this point I just want it done.

Finally finished my History homework

I finally finished all of my History homework. History homework goes a lot faster when you use Google and Wikipedia, instead of hunting through a lame History textbook.

Reading a chapter of a textbook so that you can answer a homework question = Waste of time

Doing a Google search so that you can answer a homework question = Not a waste of time

Now I can focus on studying for exams that matter.

Study frenzy

The pace of studying is a bit frenzied now. I have one exam on Monday, two exams on Tuesday and the dreaded composite exam on Thursday. I'm actually kind of enjoying the pace. The frenzy seems to be progressing well. Some things that are making things go well include:

• Getting security to unlock a classroom, so that a bunch of us SRTs can study in isolation and away from all the rowdy hooligans in the Library.
• Studying with fellow classmates, who are serious about studying.
• Going to school early and staying at school until well after dark, even though I don't have classes anymore.
• Going home to take a nap, in the afternoon.
• Studying outside in the sun and laughing at the antics of the geese, that live and play on campus.
• Walking around in the school's hallways while I'm studying my notes. For some reason I'm more alert, don't get tired and can study faster.
• Yep, I'm walking around and talking to myself and I think it's a good thing.
• Those two beers and good laughs that I had last night.

3 down 4 to go

I just finished my take home exam. The last question asked about the ethical and professional conduct of RTs. The last sentence in my answer to that question was:



"RTs shall support their local Tim Horton’s, by purchasing and drinking copious quantities of caffeinated beverages." If you don't know about Tim Horton's, read this post.

2 down 5 to go

2 down 5 to go. I'm working on exam #3, which is a take home exam. I hope to be finished with that in a few minutes. After I finish the take home exam, I get to do half a semester's worth of History homework...

Final Exams start tomorrow

Studyfest has begun.

Studying for Ventilators I (and the composite exam)

I completely forgot about all the stuff that we learned in the first part of Ventilators I. That's the part that has all of the so called "critical numbers" that I'm supposed to know like the back of my hand. The studying for that final is taking a really long time.

I'm starting to get concerned about having enough time to study for the composite exam. The composite exam will cover material covered in the program to date. In addition to studying for final exams, I also have to study first semester material. All I can do is keep studying and hope for the best.

So that's what failure feels like

I almost failed my last Patient Care Procedures test (67.5%). I failed my last Ventilators test (64%). Sleep deprivation make me stupid, stupid like dirt. I'm so glad that I can sleep well again. Too bad that I seem to need about 10 hrs of sleep a night, at the moment. I guess I have some sleep debt to take care of...

Lectures finished

I am now studying for final exams. Other than a History class that I have to go to on Tuesday, I only have to study for and write exams. The semester is almost over...

Lab competency exams

I did my lab competency exams on Friday. I still get stressed by those things. They're each only 10 minutes long and only worth 5% of a course. If you fail a competency, you get a second chance to do it again. If you fail on your second attempt, you fail the course. What's odd about the competencies is the fact that my stress level makes them much more difficult than they should be.

With the lab competencies out of the way, I can now focus on studying for my final exams, the dreaded composite exam, and getting my Ventilator assignment finished.

Brownian Noise

I still haven't been able to get that annoying, and intrusive, noise taken care of yet. The apartment in my building that seemed to be the likely culprit, isn't so likely any more. The person who owns that unit has been in Florida since November! The annoying noise started in March. The new building Superintendent is on the case and actually seems to have some fairly decent troubleshooting skills. I suspect that we will never be able to figure out where that damn noise is coming from. Most people can't even hear the noise that I'm talking about.

I can actually get some sleep now because I have figured out how to mask the noise. I tried using white noise, which didn't really help that much. I'm now using an application on my IPOD, which generates something called Brownian Noise, that's able to mask annoying low frequency sounds very well. I hook the IPOD up to my speaker dock and all is better. The IPOD app only costs $0.99. There's also a lite version that's free. If you're interested in the application just go to the Itunes store and do a search for White Noise (it's a lot more than just a white noise generator).

Being able to get a good nights sleep again, sure is nice.

You also know you're an RT student when...

TCT doesn't stand for Total Christian Television anymore. It stands for Total Cycle Time.

You start thinking about really stupid things related to RT, instead of studying for your Ventilator test that you're going to be writing in a bit over two hours.

You think that drinking 4 cups of coffee before 6AM is a good idea.

You blog about completely random things, instead of studying for a Ventilator test that you're going to be writing in a bit over two hours.

You start giggling to yourself, for no good reason and think that's ok...

You know you're an RT Student when...

you sneeze all over a ventilator math problem, you've been working on, and immediately evaluate the colour and consistency of the snot that's now all over your paper.

Sleepy ventilator math

I'm learning a lot of the concepts and formulas that I need to know for the last Ventilator test of the semester. This is probably going to be the hardest test and the one I'm going to be least prepared for. The test is at 8am (it's about 4am here now).

The math isn't all that hard. I'm now literally learning how to do it while half asleep. It's a lot of variations on simple concepts, with simple math, that you can screw up pretty easily. I'm a bit concerned that being half asleep during the test might not work out so well on the test though, if there are some "thinkin questions".

Fortunately I'm not to stressed because I've done well on all of the previous tests, the midterm exam and still have the final exam to write.

I am feeling sleepy, very, very sleeeeepy.....

What I know about babies

I have a test in a couple hours on pediatric and neonatal airway disorders. At this point all I really know about babies is that they are like little adults with big heads and floppy necks. They also have pretty odd normal values for blood gases and vital signs.

I hope that the test has stuff about big heads and floppy necks. LOL...