Let's get the whole world to dance!

So, I've been kinda blue lately. The cold weather and lack of warm sunshine sure doesn't help my mood (not to mention the ridiculous number of hours I've clocked bent over my notes studying!). But then I saw this great video on Friday. For those of you who don't live in the youtube world, I want you to see this. It's super precious and also just makes me smile. Plus, I love to dance. And so does he! I've watched a few times now and I still can't help giggling during some parts. Enjoy your time with Kid President! 

P.S. This post is dedicated to my good friend, Evin, since he informed me that he was disappointed in my lack of blogging lately. I hope this makes up for my absence from the blogosphere! 

Suture Clinic

Today we had a skills practice day and learned how to tie square knots as well as put in simple interrupted stitches into a wound. Our wounds were provided by the generous donation from several pigs (their feet in particular). It was a pretty fun time!

I suppose all those years learning how to sew paid off...let's be real, I never sew anything. My mother is  FAR too good of a seamstress for me to actually do any sewing of any consequence

Here are some of my stitches. With pig skin, it's hard to get a consistent depth, but I tried.
Not bad for the first time trying! I may not have a (successful) career in plastics ahead of me though. 

Tonight is two nights before our exam so Megan and I are carbo-loading. Sushi tomorrow!

presently

This past week I started reading a blog during my down-time (aka whenever I'm eating and need a brain break). The blog is all about living like you only have 37 days left to live. I've really enjoyed reading it because the lady that writes it has a very interesting point of view on life. She is not only a writer and motivational speaker, but also a mother of several children. She writes about the books she's reading, poetry, and things she finds beautiful. It's refreshing to read something positive juxtaposed against the majority of depressing news I read daily.

One of the posts I read was about living in the present moment. She talks about taking a positive pause every once in a while. I think this little break was definitely something I needed. I've been feeling behind in my studies and quite discouraged about how my upcoming exam would turn out, but one small reminder about the beauty of the world around me was just what I needed to put things into perspective.

This blog has me thinking though (dangerous, I know). What am I concerned with presently? Am I living in the current moment?

Absolutely not.

Truthfully, I am terrible at living in the now. I generally spend my time planning for the future. I've been trained to do so. Even now, I've been told that I should start considering where I want to do my residency (which is 3.5 years away), so that I can get an externship there my 4th year in med school, so they fall in love with me, pick me as a resident and so the rest of my life is perfect...yada, yada, yada. I've had to think at least 3 steps ahead of where I am for most of my academic career so that I could actually get into school and continue on my educational path. So what is it that is currently occupying my mind?

Presently, I am...

• worried about my upcoming exam.
• wishing it were summer so that I could travel!
• wondering what I will be doing over Spring Break.
• planning to make chex mix and puppy chow tomorrow. (I've been going through this odd period where I am always craving Chex Mix.)
• making a to-do list of all of the things I need to accomplish this weekend.
• thankful for the day off from classes on Monday.
• looking forward to sleeping on Thursday night after my exam...I have a feeling that this week will be exhausting! 
• excited to see my wonderful friend Beau in February when we go to the Harry Potter musical, Potted Potter!
• wishing I somehow (miraculously) understood cardiovascular physiology so that I didn't have to study anymore. 
• determining which days in the coming semester will be the best to go visit my preceptor.
• reminding myself to sign up for STD screening at the jail this semester. 
• wondering what I will do this summer to make an income and pass the time. 
• daydreaming of going to bed early tonight...although that's highly unlikely.
• looking forward to sushi this week as part of our pre-test ritual!
• thinking about makeovers/decorations for my apartment that someday I might have time to complete.

And the list goes on...none of those were now things. I really am terrible at the now. I always have been. Or at least I have been for as long as I can remember. 

I am vowing, here on the intrawebs where anyone and everyone can read it, to work on living in the now. I'm sure it won't be a quick transformation for me, but I am only vowing to work on it, not to perfect it. Here goes nothing! 

Cardiovascular Physiology

We're already a week into the semester. Not to worry, I'm feeling overwhelmed and behind on my studying already. It really is incredible how much information scientists know about the way our bodies function. It's less incredible when you try to stuff all of that information into your tiny little brain and comprehend it all though! Yikes.

In honor of all of our ECG lectures for the past week, I thought this picture fit perfectly! Just a little medical school humor for you...

P wave, QRS complex, T wave: I'm not sure that they are appropriately spaced.
Perhaps there's a bit of pathology present...?

Admittedly, most of the people reading my blog probably won't understand why that lovely little diagram is funny, but it made me smile and really that's what counts, right? It actually is pretty accurate as to how the semester flows as far as cramming, sleep and the studying lull in the few days between the beginning of a new unit and when you pick up the results from the previous exam. 

During our lectures on Friday we covered hemostasis (the process of blood clotting and anti-clotting for wound healing). Towards the end of one of the lectures our professor referenced two pages of "in a nutshell" diagrams and said, "This is all I want you to know about platelets. Is it too much? Probably." Oh, thanks. That's it? Don't worry, we've just spent the past two hours going over every single nitty gritty detail about platelet aggregation and you can just conveniently condense all of that information into 11 diagrams. I'll just memorize every single letter on each of these pages, no biggie. In actuality, it was pretty funny when he said that. At least our professors have a sense of humor! 

Unfortunately this picture isn't large
enough to be able to see all 150 billion details
that I should be memorizing. But you get the gist... 

Just the second page of "nutshell" information.
This "nut" must be stinking huge if the shell is this in-depth!

Our professor, a vegetarian, also spent a bit of time telling us about how beneficial omega fatty acids (found in fish) are for the body to reduce the incidence of heart disease. Well, I pride myself on being healthy, so I just had to have fish for dinner on Friday. And obviously it couldn't just be any type of fish, but it had to be sushi (Japanese people have a low prevalence of heart attacks because of the sushi they consume!). As I was oh-so-conveniently in Hastings for dinner, I convinced my parents to take me out to dinner (not having to pay for sushi makes it taste all the better! Clearly I'm not a spoiled only child at all....) at a sushi restaurant in Grand Island. It was absolutely delicious, as most sushi is! 

I swear it was all in the name of good heart health though... 

Don't fret Dr. Mehta, I plan to have a super healthy ticker for the remainder of my life! 

Now that my heart is in tip-top shape, I'm off to do some work on my brain and catch up on lectures!

Back to the Grind

Well, Christmas break is over now and school has started again. I'm not going to lie, it's been quite the upheaval to motivate myself to get back into the swing of things. The next 16 weeks are sure to fly by ever so quickly though, so I'm diving in head-first to tackle second semester.

Break was wonderful although I found myself missing medicine and school (as much as I hate to admit it!). So much so that I started (and may or may not have finished) watching Grey's Anatomy on Netflix. I hope that my residency experience isn't actually like anything at Seattle Grace Hospital, but it's still sort of medicine-y, so it was nice to watch to pass the time.

Physiology, here I come! More updates and excitement about cardio to come in the following days...