Sunday, January 3, 2010

What Winter Break? Exams. Rectal Exam.

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.

3 comments:

  1. I understand about the next chapter... you sound very busy and it stinks that you have such a short winter break compared to everyone else!

    Good luck with your med school stuff. Btw, love your response... "warm." Lol. I would've fainted if I had to stick my hand up someone's butt. I just couldn't imagine that kind of contact with someone, especially just some random person, who you don't even know all that well! Good thing the patients were nice and friendly! :)

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  2. hello :) I'm kinda new to all this (posting comments, reviews etc. though I think I should; it’s good to be appreciative :D) but anyway, I wanted to tell you that I love "Through Me", it's amazing! I prefer it to "False Façades", which is good, but Through Me is far better (though I maybe slightly influenced by the fact that Tristan is gorgeous ;))
    also, I couldn't resist but find some character pictures when I saw the others, though it's not the type of thing I do normally. I don't any other way to get them to you but by posting links (I don't know how to do HTMLs, I'm technology illiterate that way :D)

    http://surfme.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/afplivetwo831297-us-cinema-hannh-mo-lucas-till.jpg

    http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=2062845

    I think the first one is such a great Tristan, he looks as classy and handsome as I imagined Tristan to be. The second is just plain cute, he looks like a softer side of Tristan, the one with a wicked sense of humour, but whose sweet all the same :D.

    http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/2442/kd012007ah0.png
    She’s half-Korean. I think Adel would be pretty, look a bit like her, though not completely (I.e. the expression :P)

    http://img3.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire1/de52b917e82bd5b28b80e4692c9eddb71233440234_full.jpg
    ahhh! Cute or what?! Tristan and Adel? Though I think that her hair would be better darker (if she was Adel), but other wise I think she would be amazing as her! Her name is Emi Suzuki. I like my other Tristan better though :).

    http://media.photobucket.com/image/half%20chinese%20emi/lilo_hmong_baby/1209234524.jpg

    Emi again, though she looks a bit young.

    And now I shall end my (extremely) long monologue. thanks for reading it.:D
    Tabz.

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  3. Thanks for the comments! Yes, it's definitely a good thing when patients are cooperative. If they get agitated or aggressive, it's like tiptoeing around a landmine.

    And thank you, tabz, for your lovely comments - I'm so glad you like TM - and taking the time to send along some pics! I love seeing what readers think and I'll try to post them up in a separate post pretty soon. Thanks again!

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