Letting Go

Food for thought. Another excellent article in The New Yorker by one of my favorite medical writers, Atul Gawande.

Modern medicine is good at staving off death with aggressive interventions—and bad at knowing when to focus, instead, on improving the days that terminal patients have left.

There's just not enough time in my day to read all the amazing articles found online and in my magazines. I still haven't finished this article, but hope to enjoy reading the rest of it today.

Options

Interesting talk about how different cultures regard choices. Sometimes I think having too many choices make for a demanding, arrogant, and entitled person. Then again, do few choices make for a stagnant, unenterprising person and narrow thinking? Probably a little of both.

I enjoyed listening to how Sheena Iyengar speaks. I wish I were as eloquent! Her voice reminds me a lot of the writer Sarah Vowell, who was also the voice of Violet in the Pixar movie, "The Incredibles".

Exam from Hell

3 tests were slotted for this week: 2 lab quizzes, 1 exam. Three days in a row. Fortunately, one of the quizzes was rescheduled for next Tuesday. But the fluids and electrolytes portion of the exam just wasn't sticking in my head, no matter how hard I tried. I managed to eke out a B in the exam, which I sort of figured I'd get. I'm still kicking myself for one question I should have known, but just read the question too fast and assumed too quickly. It cost me 2 points. :(

Fortunately, the last week left of this class should be a little easier. There's one quiz, one lab practical, and a final exam based on the reproductive and endocrine systems.

Language Influencing Culture

I found this article from the WSJ in Editor's Picks in my iPhone app, Instapaper. Fascinating stuff. I've always loved languages and noticing their similarities/differences and how they influence thinking.

In addition to space and time, languages also shape how we understand causality. For example, English likes to describe events in terms of agents doing things. English speakers tend to say things like "John broke the vase" even for accidents. Speakers of Spanish or Japanese would be more likely to say "the vase broke itself." Such differences between languages have profound consequences for how their speakers understand events, construct notions of causality and agency, what they remember as eyewitnesses and how much they blame and punish others.

Hospital #1 Volunteering

Earlier this week, I had my medical visit for Hospital #1 where I'll start volunteering at this fall, provided all my tests go well (as I expect they should). Hospital #2, where I've been volunteering and will continue to volunteer at (while taking a short break this summer), had pretty straight forward and simple medical paperwork requirements. However, Hospital #2 has many more tests they do. So it took me 2 hrs for my first visit. I brought all my paperwork that showed previous tests and vaccinations, hoping to avoid bloodwork.

I have to say I'm extremely impressed with this hospital. It is no wonder they are one of the top hospitals in the country. Their clinic is run pretty efficiently, I might add. Each health worker who saw me (and I was called in at least 3 times while waiting), was very professional, followed an identification protocol, and was super friendly and unrushed. And this is just the employee health clinic!

As I mentioned, I was called in about 3 times. 1) for a general physical, 2) to give a urine sample and then determine what blood tests I needed. I had records for a recent MMR vaccine, so they only took blood for the Hep. B and C tests. The nurse got it in one stick despite having to move it around a couple times. My arms are not easy to find a good vein, so I was even more impressed! Lastly, 3) a colorblind test, eye test, and then the first part of the PPD (TB) test.

I returned a couple days later to have my PPD test read and will have to return end of this week for another injection for the 2nd step of the TB test. Then I return again for a final read. Fun times all around! Once this is done and I"m placed, I think I get fingerprinted and receive an ID. Wheee! :)

Wha?!?!

I received 100 on the last lecture exam! I'm still a bit shocked and can't quite believe it. I naturally expected a couple wrong answers, so I didn't see the 100 below the 50. My jaw dropped thinking I had scored a 50 on the exam. Realizing my mistake, my jaw dropped again and my eyes widened. It was entirely unexpected. I'm not sure there will be many of these in my life, so I'm really relishing it now. :)

I now have 3 tests to prepare for next week. There are 2 lab quizzes (instead of the usual 1), and the lecture exam. So all but one day of class will have some sort of test! It's not going to be a fun weekend. :( It's a lot of reading and scary looking chemical reactions to understand. Off I go to study...

Still No Sleep

Tonight was lecture exam #2. I feel pretty good about it. I know I got one wrong. I may have gotten a couple others wrong as well. Next exam is going to be tough because it's more the metabolic reactions and scary looking complex cycles. :( The 3rd lab quiz is tomorrow, so I have to do much better on this one! At least I know what I have to study.

iPhone App Goodness

I'm obsessed with my iPhone. Although, I admit the novelty is wearing off. I've spent so much money on just trying to find a good finance app to budget/balance my spending. In the end, I realized I really don't trust any app that syncs to my online accounts, no matter what they say about privacy. So, I've stuck with one app that pretty much stays on my iPhone or syncs to my computer.

So here are my favorite apps over this past week:

Accounts - Checkbook - see above comment.
Switzerland Memory Game - beautiful Swiss vintage memory cards in an app game. Free!
Tiltshift Generator - Can't take the designer out of me entirely! This is a great photo effect app
iTalk Recorder - Fantastic recording app. I have to thank my classmate for this. It's been great for my class to refer back to when studying. 3 of us use this in lecture! Creates some big files, but just download them to your desktop through their easy link. Free!
Dragon Dictation - Credit goes to my co-worker who was looking for an easy way to talk your txts or emails and then paste them into another app to send. Works great, and again, Free!
Pulse - Great news aggregator! But in a visual way and allows you to choose your content. Works best with sites that post a visual with each entry, but still a good way to get your headlines for the sites you frequent. Very easy to set up, intuitive, and sure beats boring bookmarks!

Last, but not least. This one is fun. Talking Carl. It repeats everything it hears but in a higher, cuter squeal. I like holding it up to clear song lyrics. Also, it's fun to make it repeat something in another language. This YouTube video illustrates another funny and original way of getting even more fun out of it! Enjoy!

No Sleep

So I've been a little absent from posting lately. Why? Because I've been studying my arse off for this class. Material is tougher and there's a lot more to absorb due to the shorter summer session. :(  As I suspected, I didn't do so well on my 2nd Lab quiz. But the good news is, I got an A on my first lecture exam. I was a little surprised since I didn't think I did that well. But I'll take the good surprises!

iPhone!!!

I finally have my iPhone! After putting one on reserve only last Friday, I was surprised to see it arrived already. But there it was! An email announced it available for pick up, so off I went! Apple Store handled everything so easily and smoothly. They ported over my number, my contacts on my previous phone, and got me all set up on AT&T. After seeing my old Nokia clam shell phone (on it's last legs of battery life and usefulness), the Apple Genius guy welcomed me to the 21st century. Yeah, I'm late getting into the smart phone world, but I wanted to wait until the iPhone had gone through a few more iterations with some better features. It helped that I was still tied to my old cell phone contract until earlier this year! I've only had it for a day, but I'm loving it! It's really a gorgeous piece of design.

In order to sync my iPhone to my MacBook at home, I had to upgrade my OS. I guess I could have just sync'ed with my PC netbook, but all my music files were on my MacBook, and it just seemed to be a headache to try to figure out how to move and sync all those files (not to mention downloaded apps and podcasts) to the netbook. I really don't want to saddle the netbook with too much either. Turned out I didn't have enough room on my computer to update my OS! So I decided to move all my iTunes files to an external drive. It was something I've meant to do for a while, so it was as good a time as any. Amazingly, it cleared out 44 GB off my hard drive! Wow! I also moved my iPhotos to the external, although, I'm not convinced they're really there! Since they didn't take much room, I decided to also keep the copy on my MacBook, just in case.

I downloaded some essentials like TextFree. What a great app! It's much needed since I signed up for only 200 txts/month. I want to keep my cell phone plan costs at a minimum because it always adds up! I also enrolled in my company's discount AT&T plan. It's not a lot, but it'll shave about $5-6/month. I'll take what I can get! That, in itself, will pay for the texting plan.

Here are some other great Apps I've downloaded:
MyPDFs Mobile PDF Viewer - for all those pdfs I'll be viewing for class
Brushes - express your inner Picasso!
Memari Match - been addicted to this for years from the creator's web site! Glad to see it on iphone
NYSubView Pro - great subway map
Shift - crazy game. I can't seem to get past the 4th one!
Dropbox -  I can't live without this! Access and view PDFs and notes across several desktops. Very useful when you're using a MacBook, PC netbook, work computer, and an iphone. This links all the files you need in one place so you don't have to keep track of multiple versions of files where you work on them.
LED Light for iPhone 4 - nifty light using the iphone 4 LED flash
Pandora - love, love this music app!
Med Calc - not that I'll need this very soon, but hey, it's free!
Epocrates - another one that's free. Good for browsing different medications, interactions, etc.

Off to enjoy more iPhone goodness! :)

Off Running

Well AP II started by hitting the ground, running. With me chasing. Two days after our first class, we had our first quiz (lab). I received 20/21, so I'm happy about it. Nonetheless, the first week has been a crazy blur. The professor moves pretty fast and my notes are all over the place for lecture. Our first lecture exam is Wednesday!

The material for the class focuses on the systems. Right now, we're on the circulatory system and already dissected a fetal pig last Thursday. We were only looking at organs and circulatory system. Compared to high school, it seemed somewhat of a waste as I remember we had our pig for weeks, moving layer to layer. However, our last lab test is the fetal pig practical, so we had better know what everything looks like!

Tech Gadget Obsession

I'm loving my Asus netbook! It has some serious battery power! The small size is great for class, although I wish I could see more of the page and web browser. Ah well, that was to be expected, however.

Good news: I reserved an iPhone! Now, the question is when it actually arrives. Could be a week, a couple weeks. :(

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July! And happy end of A&P I! Thursday was the last day of class and the last quiz in lab. There were the usual 25 stations with numbered flags on a part of the eye or brain that we had to identify. It wasn't so bad, but I got tripped up at a couple stations of the brain. By the time I had moved on and we were finishing up the test, I realized I had the same answer for two. And worse, I couldn't quite remember which number went to which flagged part of the brain. Plus, we weren't allowed to go back to any of the stations (we'd all rotate to the left until all stations were met). I did some quick mental visualizing and looking at the remaining brain in front of me to try to remember. I ended up with 25/25. Whew!

And...I'm proud to announce I got an A in the class! This is a milestone for me. Mainly because I haven't taken a science class since college and really wasn't sure how I'd do. But I also realized that I have never aimed to get in A in a class, including in college. I told M. that I couldn't even remember how I ever made it through final exams in college. I don't recall how I studied and I'm sure I didn't retain anything once the exam was over. This going back to school however, seems to be a whole new experience. I'm completely opposite now!

So I am going to enjoy my first weekend in a month, when I don't have to study for anything. However, it will be my ONLY weekend, as A&P II starts up on Tuesday. :( I have a feeling it's going to be more difficult material and a more difficult professor. Wish me luck!