Part Four: Psychosocial Health

This is the random left over blog post. Honestly, this post could be much longer because there are a million awesome articles out there, but I'm trying to be concise (yeah, I realize I'm terrible at it, but at least give me some credit for trying!).

• 20 Things Poor People Do Every Day: There's lots of misinformation out there about poor people and that they are lazy and doing nothing all day. These are the things that are actually done: find food, find shelter, find warmth, try to stay safe, live in chronic pain (and poorer health outcomes), and do everything in their power to stay alive. 
• Appendectomies are Expensive in the US: This person posted his bill for his overnight stay in the hospital after getting his appendix removed on Reddit. Apparently it's about $55,000. His insurance covered the bulk of it, but still. That's a lot of monies! Our healthcare reform isn't perfect by any means, but hopefully it's a step so that people don't have to pay these enormous bills! 
• Med Students Save Lives!: Remember those OSCEs I talked about taking? Well this student at Virginia found out something that was really wrong with his fake patient during one of his OSCEs and he saved his life! Sometimes medical students are idiots (myself included), but sometimes we are awesome too! 
• Inactivity Changes Your Brain: I sort of alluded to this already yesterday. But here's some science to back it up more! Being a lazy bums changes your neurons. And not for the better. Inactivity leads to greater sympathetic nervous activation which may causes higher blood pressure (due to vasoconstriction) and ultimately leads to heart disease. So work your little body...Make Your Day Harder!
• Vaccinations...good or bad?: This is a post from someone who grew up being unvaccinated. And why she decided to vaccinate her children. And why she suggests that you do too! Her parents lived the organic, healthy lifestyle (let's be real...this is not me condemning that lifestyle. I love organic foods!) and yet she contracted measles, mumps, rubella, viral meningitis, scarlatina, whooping cough, yearly tonsillitis, chickenpox, HPV, and penicillin-resistant quinsy by not being vaccinated. She says, "If you think your child's immune system is strong enough to fight off vaccine-preventable diseases, then it's strong enough to fight off the tiny amounts of dead or weakened pathogens present in any of the vaccines." I someday will be having children and plan to vaccinate them! But here's a side of the argument that you don't often hear! 

All of these things affect health in some way. Take a look! I have lots more posts planned, so keep your eyes peeled!

One week closer to break...!

I have survived the week. I honestly wasn't sure that I would at some points, but I'm writing to tell you that I have. It's been crazy, but really awesome and fun! (As an aside, there is no way I could have survived the week with social media and my phone distracting me at every turn, so thank you to everyone I ever text or talk to for being patient with me for the few hours that I actually do use my phone!)

Quick run down:

• Clinical skills exam (OSCE) Wednesday: I think it went alright. All of my standardized patients seemed quite nice, so that was wonderful!
• Conference: Today we presented at the International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement for the jail project I work with. It went amazingly and we had several people asking really great questions and interested in starting their own programs at their respective colleges/universities. The conference had people representing 12 countries, so it's pretty amazing that it was conveniently located here in Omaha! One of the other organizations from UNMC, Bridge to Care, also presented. They serve the refugee populations of Omaha (there are an estimated 20,000 refugees from several countries living in Omaha currently...and that estimate is probably teeny tiny compared to the actual number of refugees we have within our great city!). They did a wonderful job presenting and also do an incredible service to the community!

Some of my fellow presenters! Two of us had already headed back to
jobs/clinic rotations by the time we got around to taking the photo,
but this is us in front of the room where we presented!

• Anatomy grades: I passed! Woohoo! 10 weeks officially done with school! Well actually today marks the end of the 11th week, but 10 weeks officially done and graded. 
• This really awesome video: Ash Beckham talks at TedxBoulder. I highly recommend you watch it! It's about coming out of the closet. But not necessarily "coming out" at GLBT. "Coming out" in the sense that sometimes we have secrets or bad news to tell and that's hard. I think she does a good job of normalizing the telling of difficult news. It's something to look into from a healthcare perspective because often we have to tell our patients news that isn't awesome. Although it stinks, it's our stinky reality. Well anyway, watch it!

Okay, I think that was my week in a nutshell. Tonight I have a really hot date with acid/base titration problems. And perhaps some DNA transcription, if I'm lucky! 

Excuse me, my nerd is showing.

Here's another really awesome science video! DNA replication!

And don't worry, I survived my OSCE (clinical skills exam) this afternoon just fine.  I even stopped by Jones Bros for pumpkin cheesecake as a reward. Yummy!

I think I need to learn how to make this. It was honestly so much
more delicious than normal cheesecake or regular pumpkin pie...it's the best of both worlds!

Endings and Beginnings

I am forever finished with taking anatomy in medical school (I have this really odd feeling that somehow, someday I will regret saying that, but for now it's true!). It really is a wonderful feeling! I adore our professors; they are so much fun and are very knowledgable, but I can't handle smelling like formaldehyde any longer!

Just some anatomy/pop culture humor. I wish our anatomy was as easy at this! 

We are now beginning Cellular Processes (aka biochem). It's the bane of most med school students' existence. We shall see how it goes...

And now some biochem/psychology humor! Complex carbohydrates...baha how punny!

And now for other life updates...

• We've been having several long meetings about do juSTIce (the project I'm president of that works with the incarcerated population on STI education as well as chlamydia and gonorrhea screening) and planning for the future of the program. I'm SUPER JAZZED about the direction we're heading! There are great things happening in the realm of STI education and prevention in Douglas County--which is good because our rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea transmission are unreal! I have the most wonderful board working with me and incredible community partners to make these things happen for us! We've also had some really great feedback and questions from the inmates hearing the presentation, so we can use that information in future planning for the program. 
• Speaking of do juSTIce...some of the gang is presenting at an international conference this Friday about our program. Go us! The program really has made a huge impact since its inception in 2008. We are struggling to get all of our awesomeness into a short 20 minute presentation. 
• My poster was delivered for my other conference (the one I'm presenting at about Mild Cognitive Impairment in DC). It's B-E-A-UTIFUL!! I'm getting pumped/nervous for that presentation as well. I suppose I'll quit stressing quite a much about that one and get through this week...
• This week we also have our OSCE (Objectively Structured Clinical Examination). Basically it checks our understanding of the clinical skills practices. This is week 4 of 7 for tests/conferences. As soon as I finish the OSCE, I will have survived 1/2 of the crazy fall testing/presenting schedule! Thanksgiving break is coming up very quickly and I'm quite grateful! 
• I've been going to my preceptor regularly. I get to see all sorts of things this year and do more physical exams and patient interviews than I was able to last year. It's really great fun! I'm sure everyone that knows me is utterly surprised that I prefer being around people to being around books and studying...not! 
• Challenges: I finished last month's stretching for 15 minutes/day challenge. It was hard towards the end of the month to carve out that time because I was busy and tired, but I know that I always felt refreshed when I did. This month's challenge is a technology and social media fast. It's been sort of hard (sort of like going through withdrawal!) so far, but I am also plenty busy this month, so I imagine that I'll survive just fine. The silence of not having technology around you is actually quite deafening, if that makes any sense. More on that later though... 

Just a quick and dirty update of the things going on in my world. I'll keep y'all updated on how the conferences and the technology fast are going as the weeks progress! 

Finally...an update!

My apologies for taking so long to write an update. The past week or so has been absolutely nuts! I am officially finished with October (thank God!!) and with the 4 weeks of testing that it entailed. I survived anatomy and we've moved on to "Cellular Processes," a.k.a. biochemistry. The biggest transition between the two cores is that we now have 4 hours of lecture each morning instead of only 1-2 hours of lecture with 1-2 hours of lab. I realize that 4 hours is only half of my day and that it truly isn't that long in the grand scheme of things, but sometimes it's a little rough to get through. Even though biochem isn't the most thrilling topic I've ever studied (not that it's the most boring subject I've studied either), I'm learning quite a bit. Actually, the more I study cells and the longer I'm in school, the more I realize how truly incredible it is that our bodies work and work correctly (for the most part) all the time. It's hard for me to not sit in class in awe of the biochemical processes inside of me that are taking place without me even noticing or controlling them. 

Beyond lecture, this week has also been a busy one. Wednesday morning I got my flu shot. This really wasn't anything that took much time or kept me all that busy, but there has been some talk between my classmates about whether or not they were going to get one. Although this was actually my first flu shot (I'm really not sure why I haven't been on top of this in past years), it was a no-brainer for me. Several of my classmates don't want to get one and quite the ethical conversation has sparked from that. I personally think it is our ethical responsibility as healthcare providers to be up-to-date on all of our vaccinations, the flu shot included. This year they were offered at no cost for the students (well I'm sure the cost was worked into our tuition somehow...) and they were given right on campus, so there's not even an excuse that you couldn't make it to the clinic site. I think that as healthcare providers we have a responsibility to our patients to protect them from any sort of diseases that we could give to them. For me, it's akin to washing your hands before an examination or using sterilization procedures before a surgery. We spend quite a bit of energy protecting ourself from diseases that we could possibly acquire from patients by using standardized precautions (basically if it's wet, sticky and not mine, I am to wear gloves/mask/eye protection/gown/etc), I don't understand why we wouldn't give our patients the same treatment. But in the end, each of us get to decide whether or not we feel comfortable getting the shot. 

On Thursday, I visited my preceptor for the third time. I actually got to interview and examine a few patients on my own before the doctor came in. As we progress in our education, we get more opportunities to do this. I know that each of us are thankful for these patient-encounter opportunities. There was nothing truly that remarkable about this visit...nothing to write home about, at least. Regardless, it was a great experience!

Friday wrapped up my hellish 4 weeks of examinations with my first "Objectively Structured Clinical Examination" (OSCE). Truthfully, I didn't even know what OSCE stood for until I just googled it. But essentially it is a clinical skills examination. We will have one more of these this year and then two during each the 2nd and 4th years. They get progressively more complicated as our training develops. This OSCE was supposed to represent "normal" everything, although some of the standardized patients actually didn't have normal examination results. I don't think I can actually talk about the questions on the examination because questions are used for several years and it's a test required for medical students across the nation...I know that some of my friends reading this will be experiencing an OSCE in next few years and I don't want to give away all of the fun! I didn't realize I would be as nervous for it as I ended up being, but I think it went well! The standardized patients and the M4 students who graded us were all very nice. After our OSCEs (Megan and I just happened to be scheduled for the last exam period on Friday afternoon...what luck!) we enjoyed some cupcakes from Jones Bros cupcakes. What a great way to celebrate the end of a difficult month! I also supported the students fundraising for their medical mission trips over spring break by going to a wine tasting at a local wine store. It was quite fun!  It was also a nice way to celebrate the end of a tough 4 weeks, and more importantly the official end of our first core of our M1 year. I'm still trying to process how the past 11 weeks went by so quickly! It's absolutely mind-boggling!! 

This morning I had quite the wonderful experience. As many of you know, I have been involved in HIV/AIDS prevention education for the past 7 years or so (holy moley, has it really been that long?!?). When I came to UNMC, I was worried that I wouldn't have any time to continue with peer education of that sort because it had become a real passion of mine over the years. Luckily, there is a program associated with Douglas County Correctional Facility where med and nursing students from UNMC and Creighton go and complete chlamydia and gonorrhea testing. There's actually a program that they're implementing within the next year in association with the state department and Nebraska AIDS Project (NAP) to do HIV testing, which is totally awesome! But anyway, Douglas county, for whatever reasons, has the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea in the country!! The numbers for Douglas county are astounding...significantly higher than the national and state average. To try and reverse this, the Do JuSTIce program was created. It was so much fun! We give a short presentation on common STD/STIs and prevention methods, and then test those who would like to be tested. It's quick and completely pain-free. The best part of the whole situation is that we test for the STDs that can be treated...and treated easily. This is great news from a public health standpoint so that, hopefully, overall rates of infection decrease within the county. I seriously feel lucky to be part of this group! Earlier this week I attended the training for the HIV testing program and am excited for it to get started soon. I know that many of my classmates are nervous about the idea of being in a jail with inmates talking about that icky, awkward subject of sex, but I found this morning that actually the men I talked to were far more interested and mature than many of the college students I gave presentations to in the past 4 years. It's interesting how that works out, eh? Later this week we will go back to give treatment to those who need it. Love, love, love! I finally felt like I was back in my element for the first time since school started. I may have also used my stunning good looks to convince a few men to get tested...I guess you have to use the tools you have at your disposal...? Haha I'm so hilarious, I crack myself up. 

This upcoming week will also be a busy one, but thankfully one without an exam. Thank you to each of you that has supported me throughout this transition to school. I'm still doing the best I can to get used to this whole graduate school thing and not a day goes by that I don't thank God for each of you. Happy Mo-vember y'all (No-shave November?...whichever floats your boat!)!!