CEEEEEELLLLEEEEBBRRRAAAATIIIOOON.

I didn't post last week. I was bizeee doing stuff, if you to get specific about it. A lot has happened in the last two weeks. I'll do my best to catch you up with as few words as possible (You're just here for the pictures anyways, right? I know it, you know it, we all know it.)


I suddenly came to the realization this week that I live my life in cycles. As in, I live my life based on days until an exam. How am I doing? You might as well just ask me how many days till my next exam. More days till my exam typically correlates to, "I'm great! I love my life and I love med school and I love my friends and I'm getting 8 hours of sleep a night and I love my life." Less days till my exam typically correlates to, "I don't know about this whole doctor thing and I'm exhausted and I'm sick of studying and I may or may not be seriously considering an alternate profession and also I'm sick of studying if I didn't emphasize that enough the first time."


That being said, I finished my first neuro exam two weeks ago (as mentioned in my previous post), so the last two weeks, this has been me:

Having a lot of fun, mixed with a tidge of distracted studying, as depicted below:

Ok, so it hasn't been exactly like that. I still study every day. Thing is, though, I study LESS every day, so it feels like that. Here's a rundown of what's happened since my last exam:

•  I celebrated finishing my exam! After taking my test, I drove straight to the grocery store to grab some celebratory snacks. While I was self-checking out, I ran into a friend/classmate. He had just finished his exam, too. I asked him what he was up to, and he replied that he was just getting ready to celebrate. I know it's rude to look at other peoples' stuff, but I couldn't help myself. I glanced in his cart and saw this:

Ok, yeah, nothing unusual there. Post-exam alcohol is pretty standard in medical school. He asked me what I was up to, and I told him the same thing, that I was getting ready to celebrate. I saw his eyes flick down to my cart. And this is what I had in my cart:

Yeah. If he didn't know then, he definitely knows now. Mormons celebrate a little differently than most people. For the record, the popsicle were delicious. I ate six before I even put the box in the freezer. Oh, and I played this song really loud in my room while I ate them. It's the little things.

 

• What else have I been doing? Hmmmm. Well, for starters, I've studied a lot of brains. Like the one below. I actually know what all that stuff is!:

• I also went up to DC to hang out with my friend, Ben. We had a blast cruisin' around Georgetown and DC on bicycles. He was most excited to stand in the middle of all the bikes, and I was most excited to pop a wheelie in front of the Capitol Building:

 

  

  

On the way home, I stopped in Manassas, Virginia to get a pork burrito at Cafe Rio (one of favorite restaurants form undergrad) and enjoyed the beautiful drive home:

 

• This past weekend, I also hiked Old Rag, the most famous mountain in Shenandoah National Park, with some classmates. It was a good time. Especially the not-walking-up-a-steep-incline parts:

 

Ok, this is getting long. I better wrap this up. Last thing. On Thursday, we had a class session entitled, "Substance Abuse," which was all about, you guessed it!, marijuana and alcohol and PCP and cocaine and all that kind of stuff. Being a lifelong Mormon, all of this was news to me. When I started reading the handout for the class, I'm pretty sure I did this after reading about every single drug:

Seeing as I had zero life experience to draw on (Thanks, mom!), the class was educational to say the least. So...now I know about drugs! I'm sure that'll come in handy at some point. Well, that about does it. Sorry it was so long. I had a lot of stuffs to talk about! Next post will be shorter, promise!

This and That

As per usual, my thoughts are all over the place. Here's some of what's floating around my brain right now:

• I finished my first neuro exam yesterday! I'm really liking it so far. Guess I may become a brain surgeon after all. Wonder if these come in a larger size. If so, I'm totally buying one and wearing it to class...

• While I was studying for my exam this past week, I listened to a lot of music, including Native, OneRepublic's new album that came out two weeks ago. My favorite song on the album is "Preacher." It's about Ryan Tedder's (the band's lead singer) grandpa who was a preacher (the song title is making a lot of sense right now, huh?). Favorite line from the song: "He was a million miles from a million dollars, but you could never spend his wealth." 
•  Good stuff. Life is about so much more than having a prestigious career or buying a big house or going on lots of vacations. It's about treating others with love and respect. It's about realizing our goals. It's about leaving our families and friends and communities and countries better than we found them. It's about finding happiness and helping those around us to find it, too. That's real wealth. Here's the song:

• Apparently, there are a lot of vampires reading my blog. I know, I know. Exciting, right? Sounds crazy, but it's true. I guess I better start off with a little background. When you have a blog, there is a page that show's you all of your "blog stats" (How many people look at your blog, what type of browser they use, where they access your blog from, etc.). And according to my blog stats page, 21 people accessed my blog via vampirestat.com. Yeah, this is for real. Check it:

• So....shoutout to all my blog-lovin' vampire buddies over at vampirestat.com! I don't know you personally, but here's what I imagine you look like while reading my blog:

Photo credit: Googleimage search, Transylvania

• In my clinical group this past week I gave a presentation on medical apps (Apps as in applications. Apps as in apps for a phone or computer). Technology is really amazing. I was particularly excited about this portable ultrasound probe/iPhone app combo. It works well and is about 1/10 the cost of a conventional ultrasound machine. It has some serious potential for use in ER's, rural medicine, and medicine in developing countries. I love that the field of medicine is constantly progressing. Gold star to whomever created this!

 

• Last thing. Life is great! Spring is here. Charlottesville is beautiful. School is interesting. Lauren and I are dating (about time, am I right?). Aaaaaand I bought my plane ticket to Rwanda this week. Like I said, life is great! So great, in fact, that I wrote this entire blog post while doing this:

Brains and Neurons and Personality Disorders, Oh My.

Hello, my people. Good to see all of you again. I must admit I'm a little surprised you keep coming back. Sometimes I feel like I just ramble. Like, I just type and type and write and write and type and type and say a bunch of stuff without really saying anything at all. You know? To warn you, I'm probably going to do a large amount of rambling on today's post, so feel free to check out right now if you don't think you're up to it.

Two weeks ago we started the "Mind, Brain & Behavior" system, which is fancy-talk for the "Neurology & Psychology" system. So far, I've thoroughly enjoyed the system. The human brain is incredible. I remember the first time I held a real brain in my PdBio 220 class way back during the winter of 2010. As odd as it sounds, it was a very spiritual experience for me. I can't help but think that the designer knew what He was doing when He made it.

Ok, enough serious stuff. I've got some funnies for you. You know when people say, "Well, it's not brain surgery?" Well, neurology isn't brain surgery, but it's getting pretty close. As you might imagine, some of the things we've been learning about are incredibly complex. Sometimes (and by sometimes, I mean every time) my professors open their mouths, this is 110% how I feel (skip to 0:40 for "Dr. Cleese's" "explanation" of the brain):

*Video-scavenging credit to a classmate whom I cannot remember. Makes me laugh every time.

Anyways, that's how I feel. But in a good way. Like I said, I'm really enjoying the system. So that's the neurology. As far as the psychology goes, I've enjoyed it, not so much because I like psychology, but because 1. Dr. Cohen (the psych teacher) is hilarious, 2. We get to watch videos of crazy people during every single psych session (see below for my reaction when Dr. Cohen turns on a video),:

 Aaaaaaand 3. Because we get to take personality tests and psychoanalyze ourselves and every person we've ever met. Example. Last Thursday, we had a 2 hour class on personality disorders. As preparation for the class we were assigned some readings (if you're into that sorta thing) AND a personality test. If you've never taken a personality test, you should. They are almost always a good time (assuming that you have a good personality). The most commonly used personality test by psychologists is called the Big Five. It assesses your extroversion, orderliness, emotional stability, accomadation, and inquisitiveness. Here are my numbas (click picture to enlarge):

Apparently, I'm super orderly (Which, I think, is pretty accurate, though the articles of clothing tossed haphazardly on my bedroom floor may disagree) but only moderately emotionally stable (Which, is also probably accurate, seeing as I have never committed a hate crime but I did tear up at the end of Toy Story 3). At the bottom of the page (but cropped out in the picture above), there was a link for a more detailed description of my personality. Here that is:

And here are my thoughts on my the above description of my personality:

The good: "Believes in human goodness (Preach it, Global 5 Type Descriptions!)," "believes children need firm discipline (Hello, of course they do. I don't want my future children to end up on Judge Judy.)," and "physically affectionate (haha. No comment.)"

The bad: "Overly nice (Maybe that's not a bad thing)," "finishes most things they start (Only most?), and "prone to panic (Guess that means you shouldn't yell "Fire!" around me.)

The ugly: "Manipulative (So I'm overly nice AND manipulative? Those seem exclusive to me.)," "swayed by emotions (So you're saying I'm not a robot? This is actually good news)," and "prone to addiction (Well then, good thing I'm too poor at this point in my life to buy 100 kilos of cocaine)."


The personality test also included careers I should and shouldn't go into:

I'm glad they added this to the results. This really cleared things up for me. Number two under favored careers? Medical doctor. Yessssssss. I'm doing what my [likely inaccurate] personality test thinks I should be doing! I feel good about that. Plus, becoming an assassin is listed under my disfavored careers. I also feel good about that. I'm not really into the whole killing people thing, so that works out well. Anyways, I had a good time taking my personality test. If you want to give it a try, here's the link: Big Five Personality Test.

 Last thing. Use your brain! Not everyone does. And be grateful for it! Not everyone has one.

From the OR to the Tomb: My Thoughts on Easter

Most of the stuff I write about on my blog is funny and, to be honest, relatively inconsequential happenings from my life. I do that partly for you (because I think that's what people want to read about) and partly for me (because I need a comedic outlet to deal with the stresses of medical school).

Today, though, is Easter, and my thoughts are on things that are not inconsequential. Although faith is important to me every day of the year, Easter brings a special and specific reminder of why I believe the things I believe and why I live the way I live.

As a med student, I study non-stop about the presence of physical health, the absence of it during sickness, and how the medical community attempts to restore it. Trillions and trillions of dollars and millions and millions of lives have been devoted to the restoration of physical health to the sick.

Even so, physical health is of secondary importance to spiritual health. Why? Physical health, good or bad, is ultimately temporary. Spiritual health, though, is everlasting. Our physical existence is but a small dot on the endless timeline of our spiritual existence. For me, that really puts things in perspective.

One of my favorite scriptures is Mark 2:17 (also found in Luke and in the Book of Mormon). It reads,

 "When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole  have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

And there you have it! Jesus Christ is the great physician. In fact, He is the GREATEST physician. His mission was to provide us with a path, and He did. With the helping hand of our Savior's Atonement, the prognosis for our spiritual being is eternal happiness. This Easter, I am grateful for Him and to Him. For all that He did and all that He is. He is my rock. He is my physician, and He knows exactly what I need when I need it how I need it. The tomb IS empty, and that means everything to me.

HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE!

 Here are a few relevant extras.

This picture (Painted by Greene):

 This video (by LDS Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland. What is an Apostle? See Definition of an Apostle.):

From the video above, 

"May we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not only in the flush of comfortable times but in deed and in courage and in faith, including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to bear. This Easter week and always, may we stand by Jesus Christ “at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death,” for surely that is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone."

The Last Summer

For the past few months, I've been trying to lock down my plans for this upcoming summer. The summer between the first and second year of medical school is often referred to by med students, residents, and attendings as "the last summer," due to it being the last ever scheduled summer break. Lots of med students do research (for the experience and as CV padding), some do humanitarian work, some study for the Step 1 boards exam (taken after second year),  and a handful just relax or go on a vacation.

After weighing all my options, I decided that I wanted to do a little bit of everything. Classic me. I have a hard time choosing between good options. Nothing new about that. So what will I be doing? I'm proud to announce that this summer I will be...  drum roll please [click on the video]...

Working on a research project in Kigali, Rwanda!!! How exciting is that?? I'll get to travel, do some research, relax, and possibly study a little for boards. Ok, let's be real. I'm probably not going to study for boards. But all of the other stuff is definitely going to happen! 

As for the research stuff, I'm still narrowing the focus of my project, but it'll be something along the lines of medical professionals' perceptions of domestic abuse in a developing country. I'll have to come up with a catchier title, but you get the idea. Until then, I'm in full Rwanda mode. We had an orientation dinner on Tuesday, where we talked about our research, Rwandan history, travel tips, etc. I leave at the beginning of June. Pretty sure I'm going to listen to this song every day till I leave....

   

First Official Med School Snow Day

Play this song before you start reading. Trust me. One of the most underrated intros in rock history. Plus, the name of the song is the same as today's blog topic. Ladies and gentlemen, "Snow" by the RHCP:

We had a snowstorm this week. Having lived in Russia for two years on my mission and in Utah for four years while I went to BYU, I've seen my fair share of snow. That being said, I still get super excited every time there is snow in the forecast. Having been raised in a part of the country (Tennessee) where snow = no school, I can't help it (see, Pavlov's dogs). Leading up to Tuesday night, I'd heard there was some serious snow in the forecast. 6-10" was the word on the weather.com street.

But even though snow seemed very likely at that point, I was skeptical. Weather people are wrong a lot of the time, and, between you and me, I don't think they even care. Case in point: The other day it said that the high/low for the day was 47/32 and that the current temperature was 28. Anyone else see a problem with that? I certainly did. The math did not add up. Aaaaaaaanyways, long story short. I do not trust weather people. Never have, never will. Which explains my surprise when I looked out side and saw that it had begun to snow.

And then this happened....

 

And then this....

 

And then a little bit of this....

And then some of this business....

Next thing you know, we have more than a foot of snow and my FIRST OFFICIAL UVA MED SNOW DAY!!! Happy winter, everyone.

Medical School Truism #296

Sometimes, the more you study, the dumber you get.

Although it seems counter intuitive at first, it's completely true. I'll give you a quick little example. Earlier this week, after a late night studying, I slept through my alarm. Blast. Upon realizing I was late, I jumped out of bed (literally), threw a hoodie on (And pants. And shoes. And all the rest of the stuff.), put on my glasses, and ran out the door. While I was riding the bus, I noticed that my vision seemed a little....off. For some reason, my left eye seemed like it couldn't focus correctly. Being a medical student, this scared me to death. 

So...I need to make a comment here. For the record, I do not have a monopoly on thinking I am going to die from a rare medical condition. Generally speaking, most medical students are hypochondriacs. But hey, when you study diseases all day every day, it's impossible to not think you have some of them. Plus, just about every disease includes symptoms of fatigue, headache, blurry vision, diarrhea, fever, rashes in weird places etc. And I can tell you from experience that most med students have a lot of those symptoms pretty regularly. haha. So, it's only natural to think we are dying.

Ok, back to my story. We haven't studied optic or neurological stuff much, so I just used my medical school imagination to diagnose myself right there on the bus. I decided I had a tumor on my my optic tract. I mean what else could it be?  After that, my mind jumped to other questions. Had it metastasized? What stage was the tumor? I looked at the guy on my left. Could he give my eulogy? Uh, no, definitely not. Guy on my right? He looked pretty respectable.

Right as I'm about to ask a complete stranger to give my eulogy, I noticed something. Even though my left eye seemed out of focus, it seemed clearer at the same time. I took off my glasses and looked at them. In my hurry to get out the door, I had knocked the left lens out of my glasses, and somehow (really not sure how), I didn't realize it. So.....the good news is that I don't have an optic tumor. The bad news is that I wore my glasses without one of the lenses for an hour and didn't realize it. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how, studying a lot can make your brain dumb. Like I said earlier, it's counter intuitive, but it's totally true.

Quick hitters

• #1. I ain't got no money, honey. As a college student (when you have zero dollars in the bank), and even moreso as a medical student (when you have negative dollars in the bank), you keep an eye out for good deals. I can still remember the day I found three avacados for a dollar. One of the best moments of my time here in medical school. This happened several times that week: 

Anyways, my friend Sarah told me about an all you can eat gelato deal that only happens on Wednesdays in February. Being a gelato lover, I had to check it out. When the smoke in the air cleared, I'd eaten $32 worth of gelato, which was definitely worth the $7 price of admission. Here are the flavors I tried: salted caramel, blood orange, mint chocolate chip, coconut, chocolate, raspberry, nutmeg, pistachio, and a bunch of italian flavors that I can't recall at the moment. It was delizioso, as they say in Italia. Here's a picture of Sarah and me, post gelato gorge. Apparently, one of the side effects of eating that much gelato is that your eyes turn into deer-in-headlights eyes:

• #2. GI is going to kill me. So, I studied fooooorrrreeevvver for my GI quiz this weekend. We've only been in the GI system for 2 weeks, but it feels like we've been in it for three months. Guess this means I'm not going to be a gastroenterologist. Anyways, I thought I did a good job preparing for my quiz. I definitely put in a lot of time. As soon as I opened the quiz, though, this is basically what happened:

Apparently, GI is a little tougher than I thought it would be. That being said, in the beautiful words of Gloria Gaynor, I will survive!

• #3. Partypartypartyparty. On Friday, I took a lil' time out of my study schedule to go to the EBSP. What is the EBSP you say? Well, officially it is the End of Basic Science Party, a black tie event celebrating the second year students' completion of classes and Step 1 boards. Unofficially, it's an open bar, loud music, "we haven't been outside our apartments for weeks because we've been studying for boards and now we are trying to get un-awkward before rotations" type of party. Since the second years were gracious enough to invite all the students in the med school, I decided to swing by for a few minutes. Even though Mormons don't drink alcohol, I had a ton of fun hanging out with all my classmates. Unfortunatly, I'm the worst at taking pictures, so all I have is a grainy shot from a nearby security camera with an overzealous flash. But yeah, this is me on the way to EBSP:

 

• #4. Study Song of the Week: 

  
  "Bleeding Out" by Imagine Dragons
  

If you couldn't tell, I love Imagine Dragons. I listened to it on repeat the whole time I was studying about upper and lower GI bleeds. Seemed appropriate. haha Here it is:

• #5. Medical word of the day:
  

Esophagogastroduodenoscopy

  Try saying that five times fast. I certainly can't. We normally just say EGD.

• #6. March Madness. I've always loved college basketball. It's probably my favorite sport to watch in person (Sorry, college football, as much as I love you, your five hour games in mid-November are borderline unethical). This week I attended the Duke-UVa basketball game. I got there 15 minutes early, but ALL of the student seats were taken. We ended up all the way up in the back. If our seats had been any higher up, I think I would've gotten altitude sickness.  But UVa won! The students, of course, had to rush the court. Sports have definitely been one of the highlights of coming to UVa med. Students get in to every sporting event for free. Soccer, football, lacrosse, badminton, wateraerobics, chess, world of warcraft. You name it. All free. It's a dream come true. Here are some pictures from the game. Five points to Gryffindor if you can spot Mike Krzyzewski.