Painful Learning and RICE

So Sunday was great, and Monday was great, and then Monday ended...and things have been a little less great, but I am trying to complain less in my life, so I will just say that things have been more challenging, which isn't a bad thing, just different!

I woke up Tuesday with a headache and on the walk to class noticed my left ankle was hurting when I stepped down on that foot. It got worse throughout the day, and since then it has maintained a constant state of dull pain when I walk or move it. Not very fun. My Dr. Mom told me that its sprained and I don't need to go to the other, less biased doctors. Hopefully she's right, and luckily, my ankle pain is a learning opportunity. So my treatment is RICE. No not the delicious white part of sushi, but...

Rest - Ice - Compression -Elevation

...RICE! So I have been RICE-ing my foot and trying not to walk much. Small problem - I live in a city, and my feet are my main form of transportation. I have only been walking from home to school (<2 blocks) and from the first floor of school to the library and back between classes and events, but even that is too much and by the end of the day my ankle is in bad shape. Ouch!

I have also had a hard time studying lately (lots of distractions and things to think about), but managed to put in a good number of hours and am only 3 classes behind as of this evening, which is pretty good considering one days worth of materials is about 3 - 4 classes, and each class takes about 2 hours to go back over. Also, based on classmates questions during study sessions, I am actually absorbing information!!! Yay!

BACKTRACK: So Monday we had our first Medical Ethics class. Luckily I was sitting next to my Philosophy Minor / genius friend Tim who helped me follow along, but all I learned during the first half was that medicine is exclusive and I need to join the club. Oh and that "our competitors" AKA chiropractors and naturopaths are fun to laugh at and that I am supposed to hate lawyers. I am not sure if my professor was trying to make a point or if he was serious, so I will reserve judgemnt. The second half was much better and I learned about Tuskegee, Mengele and other unethical studies, and we discussed some hypothetical situations (ex: woman with HIV doesn't want to tell the father of her child why the child needs medications) and how to potentially go about them. I also skipped a class to get a cold Sam Adams in front of a cold Sam Adams with Tim (Beantown Pub is in front of Sam Adam's grave) and watched the lecture I missed online - pretty awesome! But I still think I'll go to class...most of the time anyways.

Monday night my weekend guest departed and my fabulous and talented roommate cooked dinner for me and 10 of our friends - peppadew's stuffed with goat cheese, a caprese salad with a twist (tomatoes, basil, mozerella, balsamic, watermelon, and cilantro) and chicken tikka masala. SO. GOOD. After the feast, we played some games and Nami and I danced to Kesha / Katy Perry!

Tuesday is my long day, so I went to morning classes, went home to rest my foot during lunch, and then went to my MPH evening class. We had to take the Myer's Briggs again - now I am an E-N/S-F-J, (extrovert, equally intuitive/sensing, feeling, and judging). If you don't know what it is, here is a link to take the test, and from there you can find info (take it first though, and tell me what you got!!).

Myers Briggs Test - Click Me!

We also discussed techniques for working in teams while brainstorming solutions to obesity and had a guest lecturer speak about the "One Health" concept - how veterinary doctors, medical doctors, and environmental scientists should work together to solve public health issues.

Today I had class, studied, and then went to a Nutrition and Motivational Interviewing Training put on by TONE (Tufts Outreach for Nutrition Education) so that I can go out and discuss nutrition in the community.

Again I feel like it should be Friday, but its only Wednesday. I think medical school is just going to go by as one exhausting long blur of studying and activity. But I am learning so so much and getting great experiences already. Lets just hope the rest of the week is a little less painful and that at some point I actually catch up with my studying...