It's Spring! (8/30)

Looking out at Marblehead Light from near Fort Sewall 

       It's April! It's spring! Finally! Just a few weeks are left of my first year of PA school before my summer break. This time next month I'll be in Kentucky celebrating the graduation of my sister and brother-in-law from college. Before I can frolic about in bluegrass fields while chugging Ale8 and saying "bless your heart," I must first make it through 3 more "normal" exams and then 6 final exams. I feel I should mention that by the end of this term I will have taken 31 exams. That's right people: 31. That's just this term too, not the entire year. Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone thought I was lying when I've said that my daily activities are determined by when my next exam is. ;) 

       Summer is coming though! Knock on wood, but after months of teasing, Massachusetts seems to have finally made the transition to spring and given up on acting like the comic below. Just last weekend my roommate and I finally made it one town over to Marblehead, one of 24 small New England towns Buzzfeed seems to think everyone needs to visit. We picked a perfect day to go, when the sun was shining and the water was so clear and blue it seemed fake, and it was even warm enough that we could get ice cream! Plus, we even found a beach that's open to the public. This may seem like no big deal to my Oregonian friends since almost all beaches back home are public access, but many beaches here are for residents of the closest town only, or everyone else has to pay. Honestly. You have to pay just to walk on a beach. It's ridiculous. Anywho, I do hope the nice weather sticks around. Warmer temperatures may mean that weekends at work are already getting crazy busy, but I can handle that if it means I can actually go outside and run or study. 

       Speaking of running, the Boston Marathon is just one week away. Obviously everyone's feeling a bit emotional after the tragedy last year. This is Boston, though. The people here don't just curl up and cry when they get pushed down; they get up and push right back. You can see it in the "Boston Strong" t-shirts, banners, and signs all over the city, or in the $61 million raised in just 75 days by the One Fund for the survivors of the bombings, or in the fact that the entire city shut down just to catch the perpetrators. The video below by JJ Miller sums up the attitude of Boston pretty darn well. Boston is one tough city, and I'm excited that I get the catch to help out at the Marathon this year. I've never even been able to attend the Marathon before, but come Patriots Day (a holiday celebrated only in Massachusetts by the way), I'll be at the Finish Line, ready to medically assist any runners who just can't go any further. I'm excited. 

#WEWILLRUN - Boston from JJ Miller on Vimeo.

My Life in GIFs

     I have an exam each day for the next four days, so I decided to have a bit of fun before that starts. Thus, in lieu of a normal post, I'm taking notes from the fine people at whatshouldwecallme and Pleated Jeans and pairing GIFs which some scenarios that describe my life this term. Enjoy! 

How I've felt walking outside most days for the last few months

When I it was only my third week of classes and I already had four exams in a row

When my roommate and I joke about being single

Feeling ready to take on a pharm/anatomy lecture and then quickly being overwhelmed by all the terms and new info

Dealing with rowdy teenagers on the T when the high school gets out

When I'm not sure about an answer on an exam but go with my instinct and it's right

All of New England when we heard we're getting 3-6" of snow tonight

When I get home and put on my fluffy robe

When I'm running low on food, but I have to study for exams instead of go grocery shopping

Dealing with Bostonian drivers as a pedestrian

When I dress for the weather I want, not the weather I have... and then I walk outside

After coming home from a long day at school

Leaving class/work when it's sunny

Getting through Grad School*

*taken from http://howdoiputthisgently.tumblr.com/. All others are originals.

Also, in case family members are concerned, I promise you I'm not actually starving. I did get groceries. I have food. It's ok. 

A Long Overdue Update (7/30)

Ice castle at Loon Mountain

This is my life now.

     Well, well, well. It's been quite a while since I updated this lovely blog-a-log. I knew second term would be busy and intense, especially with having classes 5 days each week, but I still wasn't quite prepared. Before I started the program, I'd been told that PA school was like drinking water from a fire hydrant. I'd thought I understood. Nope. There's nothing quite like the moment in a pharmacology or gross anatomy lecture when the professor has just listed off so many terms or drugs that it's like your brain couldn't even hear them all, let alone process their meanings and connections. You might as well forget trying to type or write anything down either because you just can't keep up. Not every lecture is like that, but when they are... oy. Strangely enough, despite being sometimes overwhelmed with everything, my classmates and I have all had to fight with apathy a bit. Coming back to school after Christmas break was a bit rough and it took a while to get back into the rhythm of studying. Luckily I'm part of a good class and most of us prefer to work as a team rather than compete all the time, so between recorded lectures, shared study guides, and helpful links shared on our class site, I think we're making it. 

Nashoba Valley in MA

     This is not say that this term has been all work and no play. I've managed to fit in some recreation in the little free time I have. There's been some game nights, some bowling escapades (including candlepin bowling, which I'd never heard of before I came here, but that didn't stop me from winning my first game!), a trip to ice castles in NH, and some other scattered shenanigans. The big thing for me this winter though has been snowboarding. I brought my gear back east after I went home for Christmas, so I've been able to do that a few times. I actually tried to go on weeknights a couple times because there are "mountains" close enough, but I was repeatedly foiled by winter storms, getting out of class late, or just having too much work to do, so it's pretty much just been a weekend thing. It's been a lot of fun. Calling the ski areas in Massachusetts "mountains" is a bit of a stretch, but I was introduced to Pats Peak in NH this year and that's decent. It makes me a little homesick for Mt. Hood (as well as very eager to introduce my friends to the joys of skiing in the Cascades), but it's been worth it. I think the season's just about over now, so last Saturday's trip might have been my last hurrah, but maybe that means that spring is finally coming!

Our most recent snow in Salem

     The weather here has been a bit of a tease. We've had some really lovely days, mostly Saturdays, but by the next day or so the weather always seems to turn bitterly cold and nasty again. The warm days almost make it that much worse when it gets cold again. I should clarify here that "warm" means above freezing. Heck, even 20 degrees feels warm if it's sunny and not windy. The wind's a killer. It's so bad sometimes that the weather app on my phone will give me alerts just about the wind. In February there were three days in a row when I got a new alert each day, and each time I just thought, "what fresh horror is this?!" First it was "winter weather." The next day it was a "blizzard." The last day was "gale force winds." I'm rather tired of seeing that last notification. I love the snow, but I could do without the wind, and now whenever I see pictures of my sister hiking in the mountains of northern California, or my father in Oregon mentions that it's a warm spring day that feels almost like summer... well, let's just say I'm ready for the next season. Besides, I just had my Spring Break (a much needed respite), so I feel like the weather needs to catch up with my school schedule. Otherwise it'll just be turning warm as I get out for the summer. 
     Anywho, that's an update for everyone. I worked on a couple more posts during break so hopefully I'll manage to get out the next post sooner than I did this one. 

  

An Appreciation for Apricity (6/30)

The aftermath of Winter Storm Hercules in Gloucester

     Three years ago I read the book Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,370 Pages by  Ammon Shea. It's an excellent book that I fully recommend. Shea creatively and humorously tracks his journey of reading through the massive Oxford English Dictionary by focusing on a different letter or two each chapter, and describing what was happening in his life as he tackled that section of the OED. I really loved that Shea began each chapter by highlighting some of his favorite words of the chapter's letter because it introduced me to so many words I'd never heard before. Some words were funny, some should be used more, and some were quite lovely. "Apricity," which means the "warmth of the sun in the winter," fits into the latter two categories for sure. I think the definition and the word are both beautiful, and in the years since I read Reading the OED, my family and I have started using it when we can.  In fact, it was my brother-in-law who recently reminded me of the word and inspired its use in the title of this post. This winter I've had the chance to gain a greater appreciation of the word.

     The cold weather has been full of learning opportunities and new experiences as I adjust to life in New England. First, I got to learn how what to do during a snow ban during the couple of snow storms in December (including one on the day I flew home for Christmas). When I returned after Christmas, I spent a chilly New Years Day in Boston, hitting some favorite spots with friends before going for a walk on the frozen pond of the Boston Public Gardens. As I'd never walked on a frozen pond before, I was pretty excited.  There were even ice sculptures and sparkling lights around the pond.It was magical. The only thing that could have made it better is some snow. We didn't have to wait too long for that though. 
     The very next day Winter Storm Hercules arrived. That night brought about 1 1/2 ft of snow to the Salem area so I woke up to a world of white. Luckily for me, I didn't have to work the next day and school hadn't started yet, so I spent the morning bundled up with some hot cocoa. In the afternoon I got some excellent experience in shoveling out my car, as well as some good practice driving on snow. In retrospect, driving all the way to Gloucester when the roads still weren't totally cleared was probably not my smartest idea, but I had a lovely time with friends, despite the white knuckle driving and a bit of a mad dash to get gas before the stations closed. I've learned that my car seems able to predict snow storms because they always seem to arrive when my gas tank is almost empty. I'm still working on remembering that when I get the "winter storm alert" on my phone, it means that it would be a good idea to get gas and groceries now... and not the day of the snow storm. After Hercules had a bit of a reprieve before Winter Storm Janus arrived. I even got to spend an evening snowboarding with friends before classes resumed on the 13^th. Unfortunately, Janus cut short my plans for another snowboarding trip just over a week later. That was probably for the best as exams started early this term and I needed to get some studying done.

This sums up a thought I've had many times living in MA.

         It was definitely a bit easier to convince myself to study when it was so cold outside. No one wanted to go outside then. I’d say it was freezing, but really it was below freezing for days on end. When I did my undergrad at Gordon I experienced these sorts of temperatures as well, but I lived on campus and really didn't have to walk too far to get to classes. Now though, I walk one mile when I go to work (unless it’s really bad weather and I decide to pay for parking), and every weekday I walk just under a mile to the train to commute to school. I now understand why people wear ski masks even when they’re not skiing, and on bad wind days I've even had moments of jealousy towards the bearded fellows I see. It’s not fair that they've got a built in wind protector. It really is the wind that’s the worst part too. 14° with no wind chill feels vastly different from 14° with. I've been taking screenshots of some of the recent weather reports I've had on my way to school, and when you compare the stated temperature with the “RealFeel®” temperature, you can see the difference the wind makes. It can be brutal. It might not be as bad as the weather and wind the poor people of Chicago and the Midwest have been having (I’m suddenly rather glad I decided against going to a school there), but worrying about frost nip after a quick walk outside is cold enough for me. The exclamation mark in some of the photos is because my phone thought I should know that the weather was concerning. The bottom left is the current weather as I write. 

 

     We did get some "warm" weather a week or so ago and that was the inspiration for this post. Massachusetts is certainly much sunnier than Oregon in the winter (a fact I greatly appreciate), but just because it's sunny does not mean that it's warm outside. Your face can still freeze off while the sunlight reflects brightly off the snow. I hadn't really noticed that the weather had gotten a bit warmer until I was waiting for the T and realized that I could feel warmth and realized I was standing in the sunshine. It was a rather faint warmth, and you only noticed it when you stood still in direct sunlight, but still, it was there. It was the clearest example of apricity that I had ever experienced. It was lovely. Since then the weather has fluctuated up and down again, but at least we've had a few days above freezing. My classmates actually got really excited when we saw that the high for last Friday was supposed to be almost 40°. Here's what two of them had to say: 

As for me, I enjoyed going snowboarding on Friday without losing any limbs to frostbite, but I also enjoy the cold, clear days and the snowy ones. I've realized this winter that the human body is great at adapting, given enough time, which is why I found myself walking home from class wearing just a t-shirt under my windbreaker on a day when the thermometer said 17°. It just felt much warmer than the 4° days. Today I'm lucky enough to have both warmer weather and a snow day, which is much appreciated after having 6 exams in 9 days. It's finally time to catch up on work, do a bit of cleaning, and watch the final episode of season three of Sherlock. :)
     I hope everyone reading this is staying warm and enjoying moments of apricity, wherever you are. If you need a little music for this winter, here's a new song by Kylie Marble, the lovely lady who sang at my sister's wedding last summer. Her whole album is also available for free on Noisetrade here.

Summing Up Semester II (5 Days In)

     Everyone knew going in to semester II that it would be tougher and busier. We thought we were prepared. Nope. First there was the announcement that our pharmacology final for this term would be cumulative for the ENTIRE YEAR. It makes sense, but that announcement still was not taken well. In our next class, things looked up a bit when the teacher mentioned that she knew how busy we were for other classes and said she’d purposely tried to go a bit easier on the assignments. Then we actually looked at the schedule and realized that, per class period, she’d given us almost twice as many assignments as any other class. The biggest shocker came with anatomy though. It appears that some faculty members thought our class would be divided into two groups and one group would have lab on Tuesday and the other would have lab on Thursday. Even the registrar seemed to think this way, with the schedule initially saying we’d have lab on one of the two days, and which day would be determined “by arrangement.” No one seemed to have talked to our actual professor though. It turns out that we actually have lab on BOTH Tuesday and Thursday, as well as lectures on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (we knew about those ahead of time at least), and dissections occur after lectures in our “free” time (that was a shocker to some people). Really, had we just had accurate information about labs ahead of time, we might have been a little upset or disappointed, but we would have accepted it. Instead, it felt a bit like they’d suddenly added 2-5 hours to our weekly schedule without warning. It was sort of like hitting a wall. Now that the initial shock has passed, I think we're all ready to buckle down and prepare for a crazy semester, but it was certainly a rough start. 
     On a positive note, Wednesday we began our cadaver dissections. The reason we'd been split into groups was because only one group dissects for each lab, and another group helps them. Then the group that dissected gives presentations to the whole class during our lab time. I was in the first group to dissect and was able to do the head and neck. I always loved dissections in previous anatomy classes, but this was the first time I was working on a human body. I wasn't sure how I'd handle it. It turns out that I was fine. I was most worried about seeing the donor's face, but once I did, I just felt thankful that she'd decided to donate herself so that I could learn. Then the whole dissection was quite simply fascinating and rather fun. It's one thing to see muscles in a cat; it's quite another to look at the muscles and tissue of another human and realize what you look like under your own skin.

    By the way, the picture at the top comes from this Buzzfeed article: http://www.buzzfeed.com/joannaborns/realistic-inspirational-sayings

PSA: Donating

     Although I realize that we're already two weeks into the new year, I know that some people are still trying to finalize their resolutions for 2014. May I make a suggestion? Perhaps a way to help others that will also leave a lasting impact and probably improve your mood? Become a donor. Blood, bone marrow, organ... it's up to you, but consider literally giving a bit of yourself to help someone else. In this post, I'll list a few methods, with descriptions, and explain how to become such a donor, if you so choose. Consider it. 

Donate Blood

     This is probably the easiest, and most common, method of donating (at least when it comes to donating parts of yourself). There's a constant need for blood too, especially after a disaster. Typically blood donation is simple, easy, and relatively quick, yet very few people in the US actually do it. Here's some facts for you (all of which come from the official Red Cross website). Each day in the US there are over 41,000 blood transfusions, which means someone needs blood approximately every 2 seconds. Despite this great need, only 38% of everyone in the US is eligible to give blood (I'll get to that in a second), and less than 10% actually do. Each blood donation typically goes to three different patients, so if you donate just 6 times this year, you could help save the lives of 18 people! So by this point you may have some questions. The Red Cross has an entire page of FAQs that I'm linking to, but I have some quick answers. Firstly, not everyone is eligible to donate because donors must meet certain height, weight, and health criteria. There are also limitations based on where they have traveled or lived in the past, as well as lifestyle criteria pertaining to sexual conduct and drug use. All of these criteria can be found here. 
     The donation process itself is typically fairly quick. Any potential donors must answer some questions to prove their eligibility, and then a nurse will take them to a bed and begin the donation. All the donor has to do is lie there and squeeze a ball every few seconds (this helps the blood flow) for about 15 minutes (some people are slower or faster than others). I usually bring a book to read. Some people are turned away by a fear of needles, but as someone who used to be terrified of shots, I can really say that this a good way to help you overcome that fear. Besides, the prick in your finger to check your iron (too low and you can't donate), often hurts more than the actual needle for donation, and you don't have to watch the needle if you don't want to. When the donation is done, you get free snacks and drinks before you're sent on your merry way. Sometimes companies or radio stations will also team up with the Red Cross to provide other prizes for donors like T-shirts, coupons, or a free pound of Dunks coffee. There's really a lot more I could say about this, and I'm sure there are plenty of questions left unanswered, but if you're interested, I'd direct you to the Red Cross website. It will not only provide you with tons of information, but also help you find a place to donate. Check it out here: http://www.redcrossblood.org/

Donate Bone Marrow

     Another very important way to donate of yourself would be to become a bone marrow donor. Bone marrow donations are necessary when a patient's body no longer creates new blood cells, or at least does not create enough of them. This is commonly caused by blood cancer. In the US, a patient is diagnosed with blood cancer once every 4 minutes, and another patient dies of blood cancer once every 10 minutes (info found here). The tricky part with bone marrow transplants is that donors and patients must be very closely matched, much closer than a blood donor and their recipient. Often the family members of a patient who needs a bone marrow transplant will be tested, but sometimes none of them are a match. That's why there's the National Marrow Donor Program. Anyone willing to be a donor can enter the program and they will potentially be matched to a patient in the future. Entering the program is easy (they just need a swab of your inner cheek) and only 1 in 540 program members ever actually donate. Most are just never matched. The exact donation process differs depending on what is required. Most patients just need peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) which will begin forming new blood cells in the patient. The donation process for that is very similar to giving blood. Some patients require bone marrow itself, and that is a more invasive procedure requiring a surgical withdrawal of liquid bone marrow from the pelvic bone, but anesthesia is always used and those donors are usually back to their usual activities within a week. Right now there is a great need for bone marrow donors, particularly those of ethnic minorities. It really takes no time to enter the registry, and while you may never be asked to donate, you can always spread the word, and if you do donate, you could radically improve someone's life. To get more information or to become a donor, go here: http://bethematch.org/

Donate Organs

      This method of donation will most likely (but not definitely) be used only after your death. Frankly, you don't need your body once you die, a statement I'm sure doesn't come as a shock to anyone. So if you don't need your body, and it won't hurt you at all to lose some parts once you die, why not sign up to be an organ donor? There are so many people waiting for a heart, a kidney, a liver, or other organs, and you can give it to them. In fact, your organs will likely be given to multiple people, not just one. Think of how many lives you can touch and improve through this one simple act! Also, organ donation doesn't have to wait until after death. If you so desire, you have a few organs you can donate right now. In fact, you could start a donor chain, like this guy. Often when someone needs an organ, like a kidney, their friends and family may be willing to donate, but aren't matches. A donor chain fixes this problem by saying that a stranger will donate an organ to Patient A if one of Patient A's loved ones donates an organ to a Patient B whose loved ones are also not a match. One of Patient B's loved ones then continues the chain by donating an organ to another patient. When Rick Ruzzamenti started a kidney chain in August 2011, the end result was an unbroken chain linking 60 people and providing 30 patients with kidneys. It only ended because the last kidney recipient's only living relatives were too old to donate. So if you want to be alive to see the results of your donation, this might be an option. Otherwise, you can always sign up to be an organ donor after death by going here: http://www.organdonor.gov/becomingdonor/

Donate Your Entire Body

    This last method has been particularly on my mind this week as classes resume. This semester we finally have a course on gross anatomy, including a cadaver lab. Tomorrow we begin dissections, starting with the head and neck. I think many of my fellow students are wondering if they will be able to handle dissecting a human body without passing out, but the one thing I know we are all feeling is a deep sense of gratitude to the donors and their families. They have given their bodies so that we may learn the intricacies of human anatomy and better care for our own future patients. This wasn't something they were paid to do, but something they chose to do. One of them even wrote my class a rather touching letter explaining her reasons. Now it is up to us to treat the donors with dignity and respect, and to make the most of their enormous gift to us. If you want to contribute to the future of medicine and give an extraordinary gift after your death, perhaps you should consider donating your body to a medical program. This would mean that your family could not give you a traditional burial, but most programs will cremate the remains of donors once dissections are done and return the ashes to the families. I don't have one easy link that explains the process for every school, hospital, or research center but if you have a place in mind (like an alma mater) you can often contact them directly, or this link provides some basic information:  http://www.retirement-living.com/how-to-join-body-donation-programs/

     I have one final note on both the organ and whole body donations. Some people may be interested in both and find it hard to choose between them. For those who feel that way, it is possible to do both. If you donate your body to a research center or hospital to be used specifically for research, then any viable organs can be removed and donated first. If this is your desire, then that should be made clear before your death. If you wish specifically to donate to a school however, it would not be possible to donate in both ways because medical programs require any whole body donations to be completely whole. 

Christmas Time in Oregon

     I know that Christmas is long past now, but during my little break before classes resume, I made a quick video of my week at home for the holidays. I wish I could have had a longer time with my friends and family back home, but even the short time was wonderful, and I hope I captured some of that in the video.