I should probably be studying

I  am distracted. Very distracted.  I did my best to make my "free" time at least somewhat productive. Tonight, I put on my chef hat and made some 4-star chicken cuisine. Yes, I realize that this looks terrible, but it tastes delicious. To this concoction I added brown sugar, seasoned salt, garlic, pepper, oats, a tiny bit of butter, peanuts and some corn oil. I mixed this splendorous meal with some egg noodles and it really hit the spot.

Afterward I began my attempt on research for a side-class called SGL. (I spent at least an hour stuck in a string of youtube videos...). SGL stands for small group learning. Starting last week, myself and six others were given a theoretical case that we need to discuss and pool our knowledge to make decisions. We analyze all of the information that is given, place it into categories and discuss it. Many times there will be conditions or vocab that we don't understand, or maybe someone in the group is an expert in that field or has experience with that specific item. The objects of these exercises is to think critically, present information, discuss information and be professional. My case involved a supposedly pregnant woman of advanced maternal age. Most of the discussion was centered around the possible risk factors of being above age 35, having children and the additional risk of Down syndrome. Other topics  we discussed included genetic disease, amenorrhea, pregnancy precautions, pregnancy tests, etc.

One topic I brought to the table was a memory regarding cats and pregnant women. After doing some research I found information on toxoplasmosis, a bacteria carried by cats in their feces. There are some studies that show severe birth defects or miscarriage as a result of infection during early pregnancy. So pregnant ladies, don't change the cat litter! Tomorrow I will be enlightening my classmates on this and other things pregnant women should avoid during pregnancy to increase the chance of a healthy birth. I enjoyed this process and look forward to the upcoming SGL session tomorrow where we will be presented with a new case. Needless to say, this process makes me feel like Dr. HOUSE.


Let's turn back the clock to last Saturday. Last Saturday I was blessed to take part in something called Kid's Sports Day here on campus. During sports day I more or less got to be a kid for a few hours. I did not deserve to have this much fun! I got to play soccer, dodge-ball, basketball , tag and you name it with these kids. They had a riot pegging me in the head playground balls. Most of them were worn out after several games of tag. (Mostly me, in part because one version of tag is having 8 kids as "it" while they chased me down) I need to work on my Barry Sanders skills. In the event of the zombie apocalypse, I'd be as good as (un)dead.  I got mowed over by the group of hungry youngsters. And here is what I got for losing...  arm and face paint...

 My name and a heart...  (Sarah, she was 8, you don't have any competition, I promise!)

 A tree and an orange snowman.

(I found the snowman cool because the girl 

that drew has never even seen the snow.)

Meanwhile, I know back at home everyone is

moaning and groaning about the snow. :-P

Later that day I went to my friend's house for a group study session and dinner. My walk took me to the infamous "Moo Cow Trail" whose name was a hit back at home when I told my family about it. At home I couldn't imagine why they would name it as they did. It was more than aptly named for these jolly milk maker's wandering the entire length of the trail!

Lately I've been doing some studying near the annex. Outside there are these friendly felines.

 One morning this week I woke up to make some coffee and in the process I moved my book bag. To my surprise, I disturbed the sleep of this little guy. I promptly caught him and escorted him outside. (I would keep half of these guys if I were allowed pets in the apartment)

Is it just me or does this bush look like an enzyme ?

It appears to have an active site and an allosteric site!

 And here is a true charm that I feel some people can appreciate.  Let me start by saying that I have odd passion for random graffiti, although I have never done it. Below is a picture inside a library cubicle where I sat once the first week of class. I saw the writing and tried to make sense of the hieroglyphics. I had no idea, and thought "I really hope that I don't have to deal with something that difficult just yet", and continued on with my business. The best part about random graffiti is that some feel the need to comment on things written on the walls. If you look really hard, on the left someone wrote "EASY" and an arrow pointing to the chaos. And next to that was another person writing "FU" pointing to that arrow. Believe me when I say, I agreed with the latter.  (FU)

That day had long since past until I happened to stumble upon that very stall again today (3 weeks later).  I sat down, looked up and verbally chuckled to myself  in the library. (it's a quiet zone and people STARE at you if you make a peep of noise, sorry guys!). I laughed because I remembered that day when I last sat in this stall. Since that day, I had learned to read the message and exactly what everything meant. It was like I had learned a new language. I recognized the words and the lines as the brachial plexus. I had learned the nerves and the muscles they innervated, where they came from, and where they branched. I understand what happens when one nerve is injured. I understand so much from this drawing.
 This was my first point in med school that I actually felt like I had conquered something. It was a truly wonderful feeling. I laugh now because I realize that I have grown since I first arrived. It really is the little things in life that make me the happiest.  Now, when I look up to see this structure on the wall of the cubical, I can smile and see how far I've come in such a short time.  I have to say, now I agree more with the person who wrote "EASY" rather than the other hooligan :-)  (I promise it wasn't me)

Thanks for reading my blog!  Please comment if you have anything to say! I want to hear from people!



Nick

FIRST EXAM RESULT, and other stuff.

When you last read I described my fun experiences that I had after my first exam called a "mini." I PASSED. I am happy to say that I have retained some amount of information from studying these long hours. So where do I go from here? I had to stop and analyze what I did right, and more importantly what did I do wrong? Let's start with the "rights". 1) I woke up every morning, ate a good breakfast and went to class.  2) I studied the lectures multiple times 3) I went to bed around midnight to ensure I would have enough rest to wake up at 7am the next day and have adequate rest to repeat the process.  Now for the wrongs: 1) I spent too much time pre-reading the lectures, and taking pre-notes. 2) drinking the water straight from the tap.-rookie mistake.  3) walked alone at night thinking I was safe.

Explanations:

 Let me put this in layman's terms.  I feel like the person that joined the gym after the New Year.  I made the resolution to get fit,  go for a week and then completely forget I even have a gym membership. You know these people. Trust me.

Here's my issue. This week, the"rights" rarely happened. My sleep was poor, I took lots of naps, my attention span was shot, caffeine stopped working, and I was overall felt like I got hit by a bus. It was not for a lack of motivation, because everyone here has that. But rather just being burnt out and not realizing that one night of staying up late (being productive of course), can domino effect the rest of the week. Lesson learned.


 As for the "wrongs," I learned my lesson's AND QUICK.  I completely changed my approach to studying after day 3, abandoning all prior techniques and adopting the rewrite until you know it technique (just like Bart Simpson at the beginning of every episode of the Simpson's)  Click the link if you're curious. :-)

 Details in med school are everything. If a professor says, "understand this from conceptual point of view", it means know this backwards, frontwards, inside-out, in mandarin Chinese and smoke signals. There are no shortcuts (besides mnemonics) here. The second lesson about the water was easily learned from the Hershey squirts (diarrhea). (I've also learned about several reasons why diarrhea happens in regards to epithelia cells in the gut, but I'll spare you). So bottled water it is. Also! -side note- We had an "emergency" water crisis here which I secretly think is a political move from the company that has a monopoly on the bottled water industry on the island, but once again I'll spare you.
 And finally the third "wrong" is regarding walking alone at night...  I did this several times before one of my classmates got mugged and lost all of his/her electronics, not to mention is probably distraught in other ways (trying to keep the identity safe). The night it happened I couldn't sleep out of sheer anger. So, lesson learned the easy way, unfortunately at someone else's expense. (Many people from the community came together and helped the individual out).

So here I sit, with an open coconut, in a study hall where the monthly movie is about to start (Argo).  I can finally relax and have some real life fun. (Aside from talking to my family and dearest Sarah on Skype of course)


Another aside, SKYPE!!!  I am calling you out.  I appreciate the idea for your service, but what I do not appreciate is the hypertension associated with trying to connect a call a dozen times only for it to cut out after 3 seconds just to repeat the process. In reality I have no reason to complain because I'm not paying for it, but c'mon man!   All of these issues have led to this mosaic of skype related issues seen below (Copyright Sarah 2013)

This weekend I will be attempting to take on my new list of  "wrongs" I encountered this week. And at the top of the list is 1) DO NOT GET BEHIND.

 So right after the movie, a bottle of diet coke and it's right back to business.




Here is the fun part of the blog:  

 The new annex residents. There are five kittens :)

Don't let this fool you, this isn't really Neverland. 

Ironically, we learned about a leprechaun syndrome in class today.

This is serious business.

11:00AM  Scrappy studying at the library... waiting for lunch time

Noon.  Why you not give me food?

I'm so stuffed...  ugh.    What does that sign say again?

 I can't read... I'm a dog!

Thanks for reading :-)

FIRST EXAM and other adventures.

I'm back again with a fresh new slate to elaborate on my adventures. Here it goes. I will take you back to last week. I promised more pictures of what the campus looks like.  Here are those.

In addition to these pictures, I want to show everyone how I have been eating. Now, at home I was always tempted with the fast food joints on every corner. Here however, is a totally different atmosphere. The closest thing to fast food is eating at the shacks (see below), and even then you can make your choice between pizza, BBQ chicken, and tacos. But there are healthier options like the island "big mac" like my chicken sandwich. And it is really hard to call any of the food here fast... because nobody is in a hurry to get your meal or your drink. The fastest food here on the island are the random chickens and roosters wandering about.



















Even before I came to Dominica I began losing  my large appetite, and that continued here. I have been eating a diet that is high in rice and vegetables, and I get my protein from chicken, tuna, and eggs. It's quite simple really. The best part about this process is that I'm learning to cook. I'm learning to use (and not use) spices and juices in my cooking. Let me tell you, too many lemons can ruin fish.  So here is my buffet of foods I have eaten in the past week or so.

Also, an interesting point to note. When I came to the island, I weighed an even 200 pounds. I still felt healthy, but I want to be fit. Like really fit. So I joined a group on campus called "ROSS LOSS".  More or less, it's a competition similar to the biggest loser, but it's based on personal performance. So if a larger person loses 20 pounds and I lose 15, I could actually still  do well. (It's all for personal pride). So after being here only two weeks,  I weighed in for the first time at for the competition to see my starting weight. I was at 191 lbs, and I didn't even start the competition yet. It's like a catch 22. Why couldn't I have lost the weight, after the start of the darn thing... Oh well.  So that was a happy surprise. all thanks to this guy here:



The dreaded hill.

 It' doesn't look like much, the picture doesn't give it justice.

So I was lucky enough to have a 3 day weekend to prepare for my "MINI" also known as my first med school exam.  I spent most of the day studying Friday, Saturday and Sunday with my eyes glued on two weeks worth of PowerPoint's- approximately 8 hours each day or more. The exam was this morning  and I woke up at 6:30am to look a few last minute things over before my exam started at 8. The policies for test taking are pretty strict and some policies are just outrageous. For instance, we are not allowed to use mechanical pencils during the test. Why you ask?, because someone in ROSS's history tried to use a mechanical pencil that had a camera in it (so says the word on the street). I had to find a willing soul to lend me some pencils, but all I got were "fufu" pencils for the exam. I swear they resembled "my little pony" or the Easter bunny, yet they got the job done. The test was generous with it's "gimme" questions, but was even more generous with it's "I have two right answers, good luck punk" questions. I feel that (I dread saying this in fear of superstition) I at least passed the first exam, but the scores have yet to be posted.

After the exam, we all walked out with a sigh of relief knowing that we had the whole day ahead of us to do whatever we wanted before we got back to the grind. My group of friends and I made the walk to one of the two "decent" establishments called Tulips.  I had a quesadilla, which was tasty, but not filling. The others had choclolate cake, "pancakes" (looked more like crepes to me), alfredo pasta and things like that. Afterward, we took a stroll and realized yet again that the beach is actually a real place. Who would have thunk it? I couldn't resist going into the water.  I wish I could post  a video, but my DSL connection yells at me if I try to do absurd things like that, so I won't. Some of these waves were 10-12 footers! They literally swept me off my feet and threw me. I had a blast, and took a beating. I also threw around a Rugby ball for a while (which is super awkward having only thrown a normal football), before I had enough sand in my britches to call it quits. I took a walk back up the hill,(with sand in places I'll learn about later in my medical education), and took a shower.  I realized the nasty scrapes on my back from being drug  along the pebbles in addition to the sunburn, was not a pleasant combo. (Ironically, my last lecture was about the effects of UV rays and how it alters your DNA in skin cells and causes cancer). I should have listened or been more prepared but I'm trying to learn.

After returning home I watched some clips of TED. (Not the new movie that just came out over the summer).  By TED I mean the educational talks given by awesome people that introduce a fascinating discovery or topic for your brain to munch on. Then I started my post-MINI dinner of rice and Tuna that I cooked up. Ruth made corn beef and rice, Kanwar made mac n' cheese, Anthony brought cake, Michelle made brownies and I'm not sure what the other brought. Nonetheless, we had a nice meal.

Post-dinner I joined Anthony for a workout, (it turned on to be a boxing club). I learned some basic stuff and had a blast getting my butt kicked for the third time today. (The exam, the waves, and boxing). After learning stances, punches and combinations, I got to use them! I was geeked about hitting the pads and blowing off some steam. But the "fun" only got started when I was told that the ab workout followed the routine. (I then realized that meal prior was a terrible mistake). So here I sit with scrapes on my back, a sunburn, and swollen muscles, and I couldn't have expected a nicer day after the exam.



Here are some other pictures of stuff   I didn't mention:

 Lunch.

 Dinner

 Silhouette ,sunset

 campus flowers near the library

 Lizard found in my room.- his tail missing is my bad...- I released him outside

What do these hardworking students all have in common?-

They are ALL studying facebook. It's a terrible neurodegenerative disease that is preventable!

And, my favorite picture of the week, 

The human body as seen by master's of painting.

Thanks for reading!

First Anatomy Lab

For the past week or so, I have felt that the days have flown by (which could be a good or a bad thing depending on the angle). Good, because it feels like the semester will  be done before I know it. Bad, because the semester will be done before I know it. (Yes, I realize that I used the same point). Let me explain. I feel like I don't have enough time to finish what I need to complete, and then the following day I get an entirely new set of complicated material to consume. (And this is  before I even get done chewing, let alone swallowing and digesting the previous day's buffet). I see med school like a competitive eating competition. If you have a tiny stomach, learn to stretch it or it's game over. I will be PAC MAN. waka waka. :-)

This leads me to today, which has been my "longest" day of instruction yet. In this particular case, in a very good way. Today was my first day in lab with the cadavers. Now before you get all "eww gross" on me, I want to say that this has been a shining experience for me. I loved it. Before we did any dissecting, my group had to decide who will do what, each week for the remainder of the semester (switching off duties periodically). I of course, am really into this type of stuff so I eagerly volunteered to be a dissector today. Before we even got started, I managed to split 2 different gloves on my left hand. One  caught on my dissection tool and the other broke just being put on my massive Hercules-esque hands (I wish). So after my mishap, we took a look at the vertebral column of the cadaver. While trying to avoid any of the graphic descriptions ( I could have a field day describing texture and smells but I won't go there), we removed the portion of the "spiny" part of the back. If you feel your spine from the outside (go ahead and feel for it, you're learning something), the bony protrusions is called the "SPINE- US  PROCESS" (spelled phonetically for the non medical folk). So we basically took that off.  No, it didn't just pop off like K-NEX or LEGOS, it was removed carefully by a professional anatomist using a precision instrument.(I am not referring to myself, and I'm not that egotistical). Just think about what could cut a bone in two and that's the answer.
  Beneath the removed bone is the spinal cord. You can see lots of  stuff protruding from it like rami, ganglion, cauda equina, denticulate ligament, conus medularis etc. (for the medical people reading this, don't judge me for using dull terminology). So after identifying the structures, my group recorded  me explaining the different structures, where they are found, what they look like and so on. IT WAS AWESOME.  Sorry to disappoint  people but it is forbidden to take pictures of anything in the anatomy lab  (which I believe is a good thing) for the sake of the families of the cadavers. So I will not take pictures during anatomy.  This was a great learning tool for me and really helped me visualize what I had been learning all this time. I have a lot of respect for the people that donate their body to medicine, and thank you for giving me this chance to learn from you.

On a goofier note, now I'm going to add  some images of stuff  from the past few days.

 I met this guy studying in front of me. Its not too often I meet 

someone with red wings gear thousands of miles from home.

 A stall in the men's bathroom.

 Me in the green "Anatomy scrubs"

 My dinner yesterday, and lunch today. Spiral Mac n'cheese

 Image of my chicken sandwich from the shacks. I've gotten it 3 times now. It's about 1.5 times the size of the big mac. Take that McDonald's.

 This one needs an explanation. So I opened my loaf of bread and it smiled back at me. It was my bread's way of making me laugh, ( I added the third hole for the eye) and poof! Bread face.




 I hope you enjoyed my bread face!... and maybe my blog too.

So long!

Nick

A Run to the Cabrits

A quick 2 day update before I get back to this bear I need to tackle called studying. So yesterday concluded my first weekend and I finished it off with a nice 5 mile run. I joined a group on campus called the "Ross Runners" or something like that.  I met Mike, Kristen, and Claire who led the way to the Cabrits. I'll post a picture later as to where this is in relation to campus.

 The beginning of the run...

 ...and the connected part that looks like an island is the Cabrits

 To this point it had not rained all day. When we left, I was drenched head to toe before I had run the first quarter mile.  So we started our journey running north through Glanvilla and eventually through Portsmouth. We passed the Indian River (where I took an earlier tour, see my other posts) and then later passed the street where the farmer's market took place last week Saturday that I attended (also see other posts). The Cabrits is quite a ways past that. At the Cabrits I was told that it used to be a base for protection from invaders and whatnot hundreds of years ago (similar to Scott's Head which also had cannons) but now it has been converted to a nice place to hangout, with a pavilion, a bar and some good places to snorkel. I however didn't bring a camera on the run or do any of these fun things, but at least now I know about them. Also, on the way to the Cabrits we had a nice young fellow join our 4 man pack who I've named Bruce. He was a feral dog that wanted to have some fun. I wish I was joking, but he joined us for at least two miles of our run. It was quite entertaining to have him there and oftentimes he would zoom in between us to get ahead and then look back at us as if thinking "Come on you slackers! Get a move on!" But he would eventually stop to drink out of a muddy puddle or pee on the occasional bush to give us a chance to catch up. He was quite the entertainer.
 An hour later I arrived back home, took a cold shower to cool off (It already was the coolest day of the year here at 70 degrees). Then I began my studying for the night.


Today was yet again another wake up call. I had the (not so) brilliant idea to wake up early to look over some slides before class. I did, kind of. I was too incoherent to see straight. so after half an hour I waited for my real alarm to go off to make some oatmeal and drink some TANG I made. (It's the best substitute for orange juice and I can still avoid scurvy by getting some vitamin C) Class this morning reminded me of early morning biochem at Albion. I love the subject, but I wasn't awake enough to grasp anything. So here I am now, studying the same stuff I "heard" this morning. I understand it mostly now though which is a plus. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to "intake" the information. I'm worried that I'm not testing myself enough to see what I have retained, but we will know come this weekend. I have my first big exam called "MINI 1" next Monday so pray that I can answer the convoluted MCAT -like questions and survive.

Sorry that I had no pictures to update you all with today, I hope that my stories are descriptive enough to paint your imagination a nice picture.


a friend of mine recently wrote this and I feel that it summarizes med school nicely:

(stu)dent + dying = studying!

That is all


Nick :-)

My first real weekend!

My first well deserved weekend. (preorientation weekend didn't count). I woke up at the first time at 7 am  to a strong stomach ache, after going to bed at 1am (WHATEVER IS IN THE WATER STOP DOING THIS TO ME!) Then I actually woke up at 11:30am and made some pancakes. So, let's be honest. I hate the pancakes I have here. They don't taste like home so I might abandon them. It didn't help that I read an article on how margarine is essentially an atom away from being plastic (which doesn't actually make a difference. I know because I understand basic biochem)  and guess what I used on my pancakes? Margarine.  After this I took a run to campus to the bank only to find that they are closed. One day I'll take a picture from the top and bottom of this hill for reference. So I trotted to the gym and had a nice workout. I returned home, took a shower and started my studying. For lunch I realized that I didn't have anything in my fridge so I made a ham and cucumber sandwich... which I actually enjoyed. It was refreshing!

 I'm glad I took this while studying  :-P (and not on facebook)

 After several hours of faceb... I mean studying I took another trip back to campus to hit the ATM and go to the beach to watch the sunset. Well, on the way to the beach I  couldn't believe my eyes... I had to rub them to make sure, but there was a pick-up hockey game being played. YES of course I joined in and had a good time. I met a few people and now I look forward to playing intramural hockey. SCORE!   After putting away the equipment I walked to the beach where the sun had just set over the Caribbean sea.  And here are the pictures:

When I returned home I stopped at the store and bought some cheese, coca cola, and a large water jug for emergencies, and TANG to make pseudo orange juice. My breakfast has been missing something!


Some people have made the comment in the last few months like "how are you going to study when it's like summer all the time?"  Others have said " oh, med school is going to be real tough in a tropical paradise" The true answer is discipline. I will need to assert an outrageous amount of discipline. But when you see the pictures above just down the street, sometimes I wonder myself how I am going to study. I am beginning to like it here. The best part about being here is that the real distractions (aside from facebook) are really at a minimum. For that reason especially is why I think I have the capacity to do well here.


Here's my buddy back again!

who needs a pet when they just keep coming back!

Thanks for reading :-)

White Coat Ceremony!

So here I am completely done with my first week of medical school! This week was the week of the "rude awakening." Each day I woke up at 7am, ate breakfast either consisting of oatmeal with brown sugar or a peanut butter sandwich. I may be starting a debate, but crunchy peanut butter tastes better.  Anywho. My average  day consists of lecture on various subjects like anatomy, micro anatomy, and genetics from 8am until 12. One day this week I even got a taste of home!

 Then I'll grab lunch at the shacks ( I cannot believe I haven't taken pictures there yet). So far I have tried the chicken sandwich at shack 14 (muy deliciouso) and the iced coffee from shack 18 and a veggie humus wrap from another one. Which reminds me, on Wednesday I had an enlightening occurrence. So I ordered my humus wrap and was standing around waiting when the Dean of Ross comes up and orders his food next to me. I introduced myself and we chatted and made small talk for a little while. I was standing with my money in hand waiting to pay and a guy behind me asked me for change in a thick accent. Somehow in the miscommunication I handed him $5 in EC (Eastern Caribbean dollar) expecting to get 5 individual dollar coins in return. So he reaches into his pocket ( I thought for the change) and proudly stuffs the 5 dollar bill into the bottom and walks away! I was stunned. I had no idea what had just happened. I chuckled because I plainly got robbed of my lunch money... And that will be the last time I ever make change for someone I do not know.  You're welcome sir. Now don't spend it all in one place! (It was like $2 US... )

The rest of my days usually consisted of spending a solid 5-6 hours of studying, reading and going over powerpoints. I have never studied for any class for six hours until this week. Never. Not only did I do that once, but 5 days in a row for six hours. Med school is not easy. It will wear me out. By 3pm I'm mentally pooped, by 7pm I usually have a headache, and by 11pm I look like a zombie when I'm skypeing. I am doing well aside from all of that. I'm staying healthy, working out, eating well and most definitely staying out of trouble. There isn't much else to do beside study and go to class, so I hope I don't get burnt out to quickly. I bought a case of Red bull yesterday and I got a lot of funny looks. But listen up all you lookers! I was looking at you too, when you all slept though class or parked your head on your book in the library hoping to learn through diffusion... Here's a wake up call (no pun intended), you won't learn by diffusion. Technically, even though the knowledge concentration gradient between the book and your head is substantial, diffusion won't work here. And in the case for those I saw drooling, it doesn't work for osmosis either   :P.

The idea is there, but this is "simple diffusion"

Osmosis is diffusion through water.

Moving on. So today was the day of the white coat ceremony. It was a very exciting and symbolic day for me. It helped me realize that it is actually happening. I am so thankful to have a great group of friends (both new and old), a great family at home, and a wonderful girlfriend. Here are some pictures from the last few days:

 Here's my coat! I never put it on until the ceremony.

 Outside the hall before the ceremony

 Eagerly waiting for the ceremony to start

 My first seconds with my coat on

I like this one. Makes me look professional!

 Reception tent

 Scrumptious.

 Med students are hungry!

 My group of friends.

 I'm really upset.

A room full of future doctors.

And a cool little sticker someone had on the back of their mac...

Thanks for reading!

Nick