Hope everyone had wonderful holidays and Happy New Year! Here's to 2010!
Thanks for the recent messages, guys. I've gotten back to some of you today and like always, I'm still working through my inbox. I'm so sorry my lack of recent updates has left you hanging for so long. I'm still currently halfway through the next chapter for Through Me, but I'm really not in love with it at the moment and I have a serious case of writer's block.
Plus, I had an extremely short winter break (Those blissful month long breaks typical college kids enjoy no longer exist in our schedules these last few years. Think two weeks. Think a week. Think - ugh ...) And unfortunately, happy joy joy, classes start again tomorrow. Pharmacology, ahoy hoy.
I wish that I could just pound out the final chapters and I hope to do so soon sometimes in the near future, but at the moment, my classes are a bit distracting and even when I do sit down the document, I'm in the state where I hate everything I'm typing. I'll try to hopefully finish the story some time in the near future though and I hope to continue to update my blog in a more timely fashion to inform keep you all up to date. Thanks again for your message and I'm sorry I have no real concrete news about the next update at this time. I really appreciate your reviews and support though and I'm always glad to hear from you.
Interesting bits from the Behavioral Med class we just finished:
Anorexia (an eating disorder characterized by extremely low body weight, distorted body image and an obsessive fear of gaining weight) affects not only women. We watched two clips in class, including one about "manorexia". Both cases were shocking, especially when you compare the before and after, and it's important that anorexia's not treated lightly, like some switch the patient can just switch on and off.
We also learned about Tourette syndrome, autism, ADHD, and so forth. Behavioral Medicine was definitely one of the most interesting classes we've had so far.
At my ongoing training at the community health center I've been assigned to, I also got to perform my first rectal exam.
Friend: "So how'd it feel sticking your finger up someone's ass?"
Me: "Warm."
Also, slightly awkward, yes, but the male patient was game and he took it in stride. I wish all patients were this nice and understanding with two medical students hovering in the background. I don't think even I as a patient would have been so comfortable with the idea of a bunch of strangers grouped in the corner, listening in while the doctor's conducting his interview. But the patients we observed were all friendly and no one had a real problem with us being there after our roles were explained to them. Great experiences so far and here's hoping that they'd continue that way.
