10 years later...

leading an educational session at the jail in 2014

I've been doing sex education stuff for right around 10 years now. I started by teaching my peers at Hastings High School and then at Hastings College and have continued into my time at UNMC. Honestly, it's probably been one of the only constant things in my life for that length of time (my love for Dally's is another). I predominantly volunteer between three facilities now providing education, testing, treatment and counseling about STI transmission and risk behavior reduction (reducing partners, increasing testing and condom use, etc.). 

It's been a whole decade now and still I'm too frequently shocked at how little people know about such an important aspect of their health.

Last night, an adolescent was stunned that a female had to take a birth control pill every day for it to be effective (I guess he thought it was a one and done thing...?). Last week an adult male was shocked that he could have passed a STI on to his wife after an extramarital affair 8 months ago. I've had people much older than me explain that you can use Welch's grape jelly (must be name brand) instead of a condom to prevent STI transmission and unintended pregnancy (**for the record, that's straight up NOT true**).

But then sometimes you find out that some of what you teach is sinking in too. It was amazing to have youth in a detention facility explain to me what consent meant last night. They could list which STIs were curable and where to go to get tested for them. It may have only been 11 teenage boys, but they are a high-risk population and its especially important for them to understand. Another opened up about the experience of finding out his girlfriend was pregnant and the next steps they were able to take because they had worked through these scenarios in our educational sessions previously. These youth remind me over and over that they are desperately wanting to learn about their health in a safe environment and in an accurate way.

youth corrections volunteers

I've had clients/patients/inmates/detainees teach me plenty too. I hear new slang terms all the time and I also learn ways to better tailor a presentation to a group's needs based on their life experiences. Some of those moments are more memorable than others. Probably the most personally emotionally difficult experience was a few years ago at the adult jail with a group of incarcerated women. 

The educational session with the whole unit went smoothly; excellent questions and participation from the women. Then we split up to take individual risk histories and to offer the chlamydia and gonorrhea testing. One woman came to me to tell me about her storied past as a victim of all sorts of domestic violence and sexual assault. She was infected with HIV at some point during the abuse and also had a child (he was HIV-) whom was taken away from her as she tried to flee the abuse. We continued talking for quite some time and at the end she declined being tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea and instead told me something I will never forget... "I just wanted to come talk to you so you could hear my story and so that someone will remember me some day." Hers is/was an all too common story of many social factors working against her, but that wasn't the point she wanted to make. 

She just wanted to emphasize the fact that providing a place for these conversations is imperative. 

And now, ten years later, I'm more convinced than ever that sexuality education is important. But I know now that it's much more than just teaching facts and dismantling myths. People of all ages, but teens especially, are craving a truly safe and nonjudgmental space to discuss this deeply personal piece of their lives and to ask questions in a meaningful way. 

The misinformation and questions can still shock and frustrate me, but nonetheless I'm honored that people welcome me into conversation about this part of their lives. Here's to another decade of facts, myths, risk reduction counseling, and outrageous questions. 

presenting our research at the International
Association for Research on Service Learning and
Community Engagement Conference in 2013

presenting our research at the Society for the Scientific Study of
Sexuality in 2014

oh, that's right...I have a blog

Full disclosure here: I have honestly been so busy and wrapped up with school and other life happenings that I completely forgot about the blogging. My apologies to my faithful readers! Here's a seriously quick breakdown of the happenings over the past few weeks!

• Technology fast: I am back in the social media realm. I think the fast was a really good thing for me. And honestly, I didn't miss much while I was gone for a month. Still considering deactivating everything all together...
• Challenges: This month's challenge is write a letter/note/email to someone every single day! As it turns out, I am UTTERLY failing at this challenge. Like I've only written two letters. And I wrote them both on the same day because I forgot to write one on the first day of the month. Sooooo it looks as though I'm taking a break from the challenges this month. No worries though, I shall start up again at the first of the year! Perhaps I will do both January (get up early) and December's challenges...I could write my letters early in the morning! 
• Ambur Lane: Mister Justin had a show with his band and I went back to Hastings to surprise him! I also spent some quality time studying at Morrison Reeves Science Center and Perkins Library. Needless to say, I miss both of those buildings immensely! 

  

  Ambur Lane! 

• Celebrations with food: I celebrated Thanksgiving 5 times this year. I think that means I'm extra thankful! :)
• Frozen Tundra: I continued to have class in the frozen tundra. Thank goodness for my orange blanket and snuggle buddy! 
• do juSTIce: Lots of great meetings and partnerships in the works for the jail/youth facility.
• Christmas sing-a-long: Dr. Binhammer has a sing-a-long every year. This year's was as fabulous as expected! 
• Holiday parties: Potlucks and Ugly Christmas Sweaters. Gosh, I LOVE this time of year. I have a perpetual stomachache from all of the sweets I've been eating...absolute perfection! Oh and an excuse to wear Christmas socks (btdubs, I fit into children's sized socks apparently...if you're looking for a good Christmas gift, socks are always welcome!).

  

  I <3 potlucks!

• NAP: Always an adventure at Nebraska AIDS Project. Last week was no exception!

• The Nutcracker: Ballet Nebraska outdid themselves with an INCREDIBLE production of The Nutcracker! And my wonderful friend and dance teacher was THE most beautiful sugar plum fairy!
  
• Husker Volleyball with the fam bam and roomie: we watched the 'Skers beat San Diego to continue on in the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately, they lost to Texas the following night. But it was fun to go to some games! 

  

  Papa, Mama and I!

• Test week: I keep telling myself that all of the sweets I've been eating are preparing my body for all of the energy I'll use up in the next week studying/taking my final test of the semester! This one is still on biochemistry, but focused on metabolism, the immune response, cancer and clinical genetics. 
• Christmas concerts: a capella jazz concert with my mama. Pure awesomeness. 

• Gingerbread Village: Mister Justin finished finals last week and returned the surprise favor by showing up on my door late one evening! It was really wonderful to hang out. We even made this nice gingerbread village. Straw poll...do you or do you not eat your gingerbread villages after creating them? 

Note: I did not do all of the decorating. So, if you are upset that things
are not symmetrical and/or without a nice pattern, I am not the person to blame.
If you do not care how your gingerpeople live, then this is the village for them. 

In other news: I like this video... Take a look!

Just a seriously quick review of what I've been up to since Thanksgiving! I hope all is well with everyone! 

The award for "Worst Blogger of the Year" goes to...

ME!

I have been slacking on a serious level on the blogging. It's been a whole month since my last post. Yikes, bikes and trikes! Sorry about that!

I have not been slacking on other things, however. I have been a busy little bee over the past month. I'll save you from another long post about the rundown of my life and throw out some highlights.

Just a little humor to start you off. 

SMDEP
So as I've mentioned before, I am a TA for the Summer Medical and Dental Education Program. It's a program for undergraduate students interested in healthcare. It's been really fun so far. The kids (okay, they're like a year and a half younger than me) are from all over the US, so they bring all sorts of excitement to our great city of Omaha.

They had lots of orientation stuff last week, so we only delved into actual classwork towards the end of the week. One of the mornings early last week, they took assessments about how they learn and their personalities and such. They had some extra Myers-Briggs assessments so all of the TAs took one too. As it turns out, I am an ENFJ. According to the website, these are my traits.

Warm, empathetic, responsive, and responsible. Highly attuned to the emotions, needs, and motivations of others. Find potential in everyone, want to help others fulfill their potential. May act as catalysts for individual and group growth. Loyal, responsive to praise and criticism. Sociable, facilitate others in a group, and provide inspiring leadership.

I do hope that the description runs pretty true to me because it makes ENFJs sound like pretty awesome people! It would have been interesting to do some of the other testing too, but I had other work to get done instead of taking the assessments.

The program is pretty awesome for the students. They get the chance to see all sorts of different researchers, professors, clinicians, etc. They get two shadowing experiences, plus all sorts of other great things. This past Friday we were in the cadaver lab at UNMC. The TAs were helping to show them specific things on the cadavers. I taught about the brachial plexus. The BP was covered during the third week of our anatomy core and so it was a little bit of a stretch to call on that information again. But alas, I survived and the students learned something!

The keynote speaker for their "opening ceremonies" was a clinician who works with the College of Public Health in Healthcare Disparities. She showed them this PSA about public health. It's a pretty good one! It highlights many of the issues we need to talk about for an effective reform to our healthcare system.

HIV Counseling
So, I've wanted to become a certified HIV Counselor basically since I started doing HIV Prevention Education about 7.5 years ago. And this weekend, I finally did it! I'm CDC certified! Whooohooooo! Yay me!

I did the training through Nebraska AIDS Project and so I will begin observing other counselors for a short period of time and soon I will be testing and counseling clients all on my own! I actually have tested several individuals for HIV before through a program that UNMC did earlier this spring, but we weren't CDC certified.

Much of the training was stuff that I already knew between my years of HIV Prevention Education and my clinical skills class in med school, but it was still a good refresher. Oh and there were some specific slang words that I learned (and maybe didn't need to ever learn...). It was a good time overall. Great to meet new people in the HIV prevention community!

Ethics of Treatment
You'd practically have to be living under a rock to not hear about Angelina Jolie having a preventative double mastectomy (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/14/double-mastectomy-angelina-jolie-_n_3270390.html) because she had a >80% chance of having the BRCA1 cancer gene expressing itself, which puts her at a high risk of breast cancer (and some ovarian cancers).

Well anyway, my question is at what probability of disease do we suggest that it's a possibility to undergo radical treatment options as a preventative measure? Which surgeons feel comfortable at which percentages? Is there a golden line we cannot cross? I feel like surgery (3 surgeries at that!) was very drastic for Angelina, but it was possible for her because she had access to great care (genetic testing and counseling) and the means to pay for those doctors. But that's not realistic for everyone.

And then we get into just the general ethics of treatment. Do we give certain antibiotics as preventative measures? Who deserves these treatments? Who are we to decide who is worthy to treat? Who bestows this great judgmental knowledge on physicians? What sorts of preventative treatments are too radical?

And now I'm just onto general ramblings and wonderings about ethics. But my point is, was Angelina's preventative surgery too far? What about all sorts of post-disease diagnosis extreme measures? At which point does natural selection take over when humans are always trying to dupe it?

Well, that was a happy note to end my post... Adios for now. Let's hope that it doesn't take another month for another post.

Miscellaneous

There have been so many things going on lately that don't really fall into a specific category. I'm not really sure they fall into my journey of becoming a healthcare professional either, but they are still things that I want to write about. So here's a post about the miscellaneous things in my life.

Taize. I've written about Taize before (cliff notes version: Taize is a ecumenical monastic community in the Burgundy region of France. The worship style popularized there is filled with silence and meditative musical chanting). I adore that place so stinkin' much. Among plenty of awesome things, you get chocolate sandwiches for breakfast. So. Awesome! I was hoping to make it back to France this summer, but alas, I am too sick to travel abroad. Well anyway, Brother Emile from Taize is in the US for a few months to prepare for a retreat of sorts that will be over Memorial Day weekend.

And now I finally am getting to my point...my good friends at the UNL Lutheran Center had a Taize worship service last week and invited Brother Emile to join them. It was really nice to have a mid-week reminder to slow down and be present in the moment. Taize is always refreshing and renewing to my spirit!

Brother Emile gave a little homily during the service and brought up an incredible point. He talked about another brother, Brother Roger, who was the founder of the Taize community. Brother Roger loved statements that were incomplete; statements that ended with ellipses. The one he talked about in particular, which I am continuing to consider was, "If you begin with a trusting heart, then...". If I began my decision-making process about medical leave with a trusting heart, how would it have been different? If we begin with a trusting heart when we approach those that are different from ourselves, how would our interactions be different? If we began with a trusting heart, maybe we wouldn't stereotype people as terrorists. If we began with a trusting heart...

I challenge each of you to begin each of your future encounters and decisions with a trusting heart. It may seem naïve, but in reality it's radically wise. And it's so hard to do.

Choir. Well I haven't officially sung for any reason in several years, but the church I'm currently attending is having a big celebration this month in honor of their 140th year as a congregation (holy moley, 140 years is a LONG time!). And so they've asked me to join them in the choir to sing a cantata. It's been fun to be in rehearsal again and it's nice to meet different people in the church.

Alice in Wonderland. This past weekend I went to an incredible ballet performance of "Alice in Wonderland" with a few of my friends from my med school class. My dance teacher was actually the lead, so it was fun to see her really dance in a context outside of the studio. Watching everyone on stage got me really amped up about my recital. It's been over a year since the last time I performed anywhere.

AIDS Walk. Megan, her boyfriend, and I went to the Omaha Nebraska AIDS Project AIDS Walk this weekend. It was a MUCH longer walk than any of us expected...we actually walked all the way to Iowa! I've been involved with the walk in some context since my sophomore year in high school--many of those years helping to plan it--so it was a little bit weird to just show up and walk with no other responsibilities  The weather was GORGEOUS, which made it all the more enjoyable.

Research. I've finished the first rough draft of the introduction and methods section of one of the papers I'm working on. As it turns out, I still am excellent at procrastinating writing when I feel like it. But I think that what I have is actually pretty good. I'm not looking to publish this study, but at the very least, it's good practice for the ones we're hoping to publish!

SMDEP. I can't actually remember if I've written about this yet, but I will be a TA for a summer program for undergraduate students that are hoping to get into med school. We had an organizational meeting for all of the TAs and RAs this week. I'm getting excited for the students to get here! It means spending my summer in Sorrell (I may grow to resent this place someday...), but it should still be plenty of fun!

Celebrate Sound Walk. My parents are coming up to Omaha this weekend and we will all be walking in the "Celebrate Sound"walk. For those of you who don't know, my dad is well on his way towards being deaf (what did you say...I couldn't hear you?). We've been involved as a family in a service organization that specifically caters to those who are deaf and/or hard of hearing since before I was born (my first actual meeting was when I was like a week old!), so we'll be walking to raise awareness and some dollars for the cause. I haven't seen many of the Sertoma gang in several years, so it'll be good to see some of them again!

Wow, there have been quite a few things going on lately. Sorry for the randomness of the post, but I suppose that's how life goes. I'm looking forward to next week when all of my classmates are done with classes and can actually be fun people again (as opposed to book worms)! There may even be a zoo trip in my future as long as the weather cooperates!

giving thanks.

I took this past week off from blogging (and from studying.... :/ whoops!) for Thanksgiving. It has been a really great (and necessary) break! And now, I'm sitting in Starbucks re-listening to a lecture and catching up on my studies. I'm not sure I'm ready to head back to school for the final 3 weeks of this core/semester. At the same time, I cannot believe that we only have 3 weeks left of the first semester of our 1st year! I don't think I could have ever imagined the year going this quickly when we started school 14 weeks ago.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've had some excitement interspersed with my studies. I've decided to give y'all a quick review of the highlights.

Stanley Hauerwas. He's an American theologian who is at Duke University. He came to UNL to talk about the "Church as a Politic". The lecture sort of ended up as a medical ethics lecture, which I totally LOVED! I miss that portion of my medical education...I need some humanities mixed in with my hard science. It was also great to see my friends/roommate from Lincoln!

NAP. I had a brief meeting with the Omaha office of Nebraska AIDS Project about volunteering as an HIV tester and counselor. I've been involved with HIV/AIDS prevention education for 7 years now and it's definitely become a huge part of my life. I just can't imagine giving it up in the future, so I'm happy to be partnering with them! Speaking of HIV/AIDS awareness...this upcoming Saturday (December 1st) is World AIDS Day. I will be spending the morning at Douglas County Corrections presenting about STD/STIs and testing for chlamydia and gonorrhea (Douglas County has the highest rates of infection of any county in the United States) and will definitely be wearing my red ribbon. You should too! You can do a quick google search to see if there are any World AIDS Day events in your area to attend to increase your own knowledge AND general awareness of the epidemic.

Sunny D's 2.0. Closely related to my meeting with NAP, I am actually working on a project with a local group of AmeriCorps volunteers to create a group which would give HIV/AIDS prevention education presentations at a local high school. When I was in high school, I was in a group called Sunny D's and they're trying to model the program after that. We will be in conversation in the coming months as they work to shape their program to fit their particular needs, but they are excited to use my experiences and knowledge of groups of the like (I was also in PHIVE-O, Peer HIV Education Organization, at Hastings College, so I have several years of experience with teaching this demographic and the administrative difficulties that sometimes arise) in the meantime. Perhaps I will even get to co-teach with some of their volunteers!

Do JuSTIce. I was lucky enough to volunteer at the jail again to test for chlamydia and gonorrhea. I led the short presentation this last time which was actually a bit nerve-racking. I made it through it without any major slipups. I'm excited to go back this weekend also!

EMET. We had a short information meeting about the "Enhanced Medical Education Tracks" at UNMC the other day. There are 6 tracks: Aging and Integrated Medicine, Auto-Immune Diseases, Clinical Quality and Patient Safety, Comprehensive HIV Medicine, Medical Humanities and Arts, Preventative Medicine, and Underserved Health Care. They are "an opportunity to perform in-depth study of an interdisciplinary field of medicine that enhances the required curriculum without extending the time needed to graduate from medical school." I haven't decided whether or not I will actually apply, let alone be accepted, to a track, but I really like the idea of them. Of course I am interested in several of the tracks, so we shall see what will happen. The applications don't open until the end of the week so I still have some time to think about it.

Student Delegates. Well, I joined another extracurricular group (...no one is surprise, I'm sure). I had some help getting there though. My good friend Paul convinced me to join the "Student Delegates" after he read my blog post about healthcare reform. Essentially this group goes to our local political representatives to discuss/lobby our positions concerning issues about medicine and even issues that students deal with, such as Pell grants. I do have a passion for this sort of thing and the first meeting was fun, so it wasn't hard to convince me to join. I'm excited to continue learning more about the topics that will be covered in the upcoming legislative session!

Dance. I'm sure some of you are starting to think I'm a broken record, but I still really love going to dance class. It's such great stress relief and even better exercise! This is really the first time in about 10 years that I haven't been dancing for some sort of team performance or competition, so it's definitely something that I've had to get used to. I look forward to that hour and half of not studying/not thinking/not stressing/not sitting every week!

LCE. I spent another afternoon in the clinic this past week. I always enjoy my time with patients, so it was a good way to end a short week of classes. This upcoming week I will have my final visit of the semester. Don't worry, I will be back for 5 more visits next semester too!

Thanksgiving. Even though I'm a vegetarian, I was absolutely looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. Seriously, what could be better than green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and pie!?? Nothing! As an added bonus, I got to spend time with my wonderful family and take some time off from studying to relax. Lucky for me, we celebrated Thanksgiving over an entire week this year, so I got to spread out my food-induced comas. I'm also looking forward to the leftovers I have since home-cooked food is just so much better than some of the meals I make for myself on a regular basis.

Christmas Tree. Our Christmas tree is up! The weather has started getting colder practically overnight, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and December is just around the corner! I can't believe it's already the holiday season. This year I will be spending some time in Memphis and then time traveling around Nebraska catching up with friends and family. Just 3 weeks of classes and 2 tests are separating me from break...