Scrappy the Wonder Dog!

After his antics today, Scrappy has earned his own blog post!  When I first arrived on the island in August and was showing Amelia and Carter around campus, we had a local dog become attached to us. He would follow us around.  I didn't think much of the whole thing besides that the dog really liked being petted.

As the semester has progressed, I noticed that the dog was EVERYWHERE on campus.  Always prancing around like he was on a very important mission and always going up to groups of people. Almost like he was checking up on the students to make sure they were ok.  One time even even made it up the huge hill to De Champs (the local restaurant/hotel/bar that a lot of students hang out at).  He sat down with a group of students while they had dinner.  It was then that I learned the dog's name....Scrappy. It turns out he has many nicknames as well. One of my personal favorites is Scrappy-doodle.

Scrappy is the perfect name for this dog. When I looked up "scrappy" in the dictionary, I found at that there are two parts to the definition. The first part is that scrappy applies to something that "consists of disorganized, untidy or incomplete parts" and the second part described scrappy as "determined, augmentative  and pugnacious." The first part fits because the dog is clearly a mutt (hence the disorganized parts). The second part  (determined) fits because he is always on a mission and he sometimes gets mad when you stop petting him.

Scrappy has been known to come into study rooms with students.  He will sit with them for the whole time they are studying and never leaves until they pack up their stuff.  Today, he reached a new level.  He decided to come to class with the first semester students.

Scrappy going to class. Note how excited he is--the tongue is out and tail is mid-wave. 

Imagine this scene, a classroom filled with students who are there for a mandatory lecture.  All of a sudden a dog comes trotting in, down the main aisle. Of course he looks extremely proud to be inside (I personally think he likes the air conditioning and loves being in large crowds of people).  When people try to usher him to the back of the room, he starts running through the rows.  Once people stop trying to catch him, he walks back to the main aisle and just stands there wagging his tail.  Finally someone catches him and brings him outside.  A couple of minutes go by and voila! There's scrappy again! He managed to get back inside.  This probably happened two or three times until finally Scrappy got the message that he needed to stay outside.

That all happened today. Scrappy the wonder dog decided he wanted to take a class and decided that since all the action was inside, he needed to be inside as well. After all, it is his job to make sure everyone is alright.

Sequestering and Exams

Hey everybody!! Sorry for the long delay between posts, I had a crazy exam schedule.  Monday I had a histology practical and an anatomy practical and then today I had a comprehensive exam.

So the one really crazy thing about tests here at Ross is the process sequestering.  When I initially heard that we were going to be sequestered for our histology and anatomy practicals, I was sooo confused.  But then because of my amazing last name and the fact that it starts with K, I didn't have to be sequestered.  The middle of the alphabet really lucked out.  I didn't have to take my histology practical until 9am (instead of 8am) and I was able to walk right into the practical without having to be sequestered in a classroom for 4 hours.  For the poor people who were sequestered, they were pretty much kept under constant guard (seriously, there were 2 security guards outside the door checking IDs and ensuring that only the proper people got into the classroom).

We, the non-sequestered, did have to stand outside in the 90 degree, extremely humid weather for about half an hour while the rooms were reset.  I have to tell you that nothing adds more to the "enjoyable" exam experience like sweating profusely the 30 minutes before an exam. Everyone had visible beads of sweat on their foreheads.  You knew it was bad because we were excited to walk into the cadaver lab.  Even though it smells awful, the air conditioning was AMAZINNNGG! I have to say standing outside in the heat made me extremely jealous of all the lovely fall weather you guys are experiencing back at home!  

Pretty much how I felt when I was waiting for my anatomy practical. 

So thankful that those three exams are over because it meant I had this afternoon free. No classes, no assignments, and no academic thought necessary.  I spent the afternoon catching up on sleep (awesome nap in my hammock!) and then watching the Netflix that comes from some Latin American country.  The Netflix plays on my iPad but not my computer. Everything has Spanish subtitles and I have to actively choose English as the primary language (just one of the strange nuances of living down here).

Not my hammock but I have pretty much the same setup and I see palm trees from my balcony. 

 

Are you in the 14%?

Time for a fun science fact of the day.....

While studying the anatomy of the forearm and hand, I came across a nifty little muscle that I wanted to share with everyone.  It is called the "palmaris longus" and goes from your elbow region to your palm.  What I thought was really cool about this muscle is that around 14% of the population is missing it!!

There is an easy test to see if you have the muscle or not...
1.  take your thumb and pinki tips and bring them together
2.  flex your wrist slightly (move it towards your elbow)

If you have the muscle, you should see a little cord standing up in the middle of the inside of your wrist.  The reason why this happens is because the tendon that connects the palmaris longus muscle to where it inserts on the plam, does not go through the carpal tunnel.

That little cord thing in the middle means that you have this muscle.

 It turns out that I am one of the 14%! I don't have the palmaris longus muscle.  There aren't any negative affects associated with absence of this muscle, so no worries if you are like me and missing it!

My Typical Day

I figured I would write a post about my typical day so that everyone can get a feel for what a "day in the life of a med student" is like.  Be forewarned.....if you did not like the movie  Groundhog Day, you might not like this post.  My life strongly resembles this movie...take the below schedule and apply it to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with slight variations on Saturday/Sunday (aka no class on those days).

Here we go....

6am:  Wake up (sometimes I will snooze until 6:30/6:45 which means I don't have time to shower.  I know Megan and Claire used to absolutely love my habit of snoozing for an inordinate amount of time).

7am: Make my coffee, find something to eat for breakfast.  I strongly dislike breakfast so it is always  chore to find something to eat.  If I don't have anything, I am absolutely starving by the time I get done with classes for the day.

7:30am:  Trudge to class (generally it is already 80 degrees).  Sometimes I am lucky and the shuttle drivers take pity on me and pick me up.  One positive of the walk is that I have a gorgeous view of the rain forest covered mountains.

8am-Noon: Class.  Sometimes we get lucky and start at 9 or 10 but sometimes we go from 8am to 2pm.

Noon to 1:  Lunch/Nap in my hammock

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have either anatomy lab or just a lab demo.  If I have the actual lab, I can be in the lab until 5 or 6pm.

Once I am done with all my required parts of the day, its time to review the lectures and make a study product.  We are supposed to take between an hour and two hours to make the study product per each hour of lecture.  After making the product, you have to review material from past lectures and preview the next day's lectures.  So basically I am doing something academic almost every waking hour.  I don't let myself go to bed until I finish all the lecture material from that day (This hasn't caused any major problems.  I have been able to go to bed around midnight each night which is decent).

The weekends I have a little more free time because I am not getting any new information.  (This why I always video chat everyone on Saturday or Sunday!!)

So now you know my typical day.  I know you are all probably EXTREMELY jealous of my exciting life lol.  I just tell myself I am always chugging along to the goal of becoming an MD and that eventually I will accomplish my life-long goal.

"Open Chest"

Yesterday we had our first patient interaction!  We had a video conference with a patient who was in Roseau and had the opportunity to ask the patient questions regarding chief complaint.  During the course of the interview, the patient stated that she had suffered an episode of "open chest" when she was a child.  Now you say this to a room of brand-new med students and you couple it with a chief complaint of chest pain, you should expect the entire room to gasp and automatically draw the conclusion that the patient had an open chest surgery.  Nope!  Not at all! When my fellow students started asking the patient questions about the surgery and what exactly happened with it, the patient was utterly confused!

It turns out that "open chest" is a saying here in Dominica that means chest tightness/pain and is generally given to symptoms that are diagnosed as Costochondritis (which is basically a painful inflammation of the cartilage that connects your ribs to your sternum). Needless to say this condition does not have quite the same severity that open heart surgery has.  Once our teacher explained that "open chest" was not in fact open heart surgery but rather the painful inflammation, we were mildly embarrassed.  I think that this experience taught me that whenever my patient's say a phrase that I am not familiar with, I will ask them to elaborate.  This way I will understand exactly what they are trying to tell me and that I will not include faulty information their history.  I am definitely learning a lot about how culture factors into medical practice.

First Med School Test Done!!!

Survived my first med school exam and I have to say it was not nearly as bad as I expected.  It was nice to take a test where your studying actually pays off!  While I studied my butt off, it was worth it.  I had a general idea on what the questions were asking and there weren't any moments of total confusion (unlike my experience with Orgo...).   I don't think I got a perfect score on the test but I am confident that I passed with a room to spare.  Of course during the test, it starts monsooning. Horizontal rain and thunder so intense that it shook the building.  Thankfully I love thunderstorms so this didn't faze me, but some people were definitely distracted by the weather. 

After the exam I went on a hunt to find frozen chicken breasts with my friend Lisa.  It is a rarity to have boneless, frozen chicken breasts, so when you find them you need to stock up!  The IGA for example won't have a new shipment of frozen foods until the beginning of October.  The rain made our adventure to find frozen chicken breasts particularly exciting (Amelia, you will be happy to know I didn't get swept away even though I did get absolutely soaked).  We got the chicken breasts and then headed up to campus to the coffee shop.  I have decided that this coffee shop will be my new guilty pleasure on the island.  I had such a good chai latte!  Almost CTB quality :) So overall it was a good day.  I survived my first exam, found frozen chicken breasts, and found a fantastic coffee shop.  

How much can you handle?

This past Sunday/Monday were my two worst days on the island so far.  I was fighting a very bad sinus infection that not only gave me a 100 degree fever, but also resulted in such bad sinus pressure that my eyes and teeth were hurting too.  Since I had been spending time during the week studying and doing various other activities, I was out of groceries and was almost out of electricity.  This was a very bad combination.  I went to the IGA and realized they didn't have any normal food (only pigs feet, smoked fish, various canned goods, etc) and they had somehow ran out of electricity.  So Sunday night needless to say I was not in a very good mood (thank goodness I had my roomies to video chat with or I would have been even more stressed out).

I finally gave in and started the antibiotics (which I definitely should have started early. I was just being stubborn).  So after a really bad night of constantly waking up (I was worried that my electricity had shut off in the middle of the night and therefore my alarm was not going to go off), I head to class.  This is when the infamous centipede-crawling on me episode occurred.  Clearly this made me even more happy (please note the sarcasm).  I finally went to the store after class, get restocked on electricity and bought some groceries.  Also the antibiotics started doing their job so I could finally breathe again.  At one point during this awful series of events, I was about ready to throw in the towel.  Thankfully I took some deep breaths, realized that this was just life in Dominica, and settled back into studying.

What I realized from this instance was that if you just keep trudging along, you can get through pretty much anything.  If I can survive being really sick, having disgusting bugs crawling on me, and scrounging for groceries, all the while studying, then I can survive pretty much anything!  The saying "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" definitely applied to the beginning of my week.   But now, here I am, on Friday night, feeling much better and now have a wonderful, entertaining story to tell everyone.  So I learned I can handle a whole lot and still get through it. 

I hate centipedes/millipedes

I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate these vile centipedes/millipede things that are all over the place.  Not only do they freak me out on my way to class (I keep thinking that one is going to come and bite me because I am only wearing flip flops) but one was crawling on me in class today!!!  BLECCHH.  Of course I was sitting in the front row so I couldn't get up and shriek because I didn't want to make a major scene. ( Inside I was screaming like it was the end of the world!)  So my class on gene expression got that much better because I was stuck envisioning all sorts of creepy crawlies on my back for the rest of class. After flicking it off my neck (yes the nasty creature had some how crawled all the way up my back onto my neck without someone telling me there was a bug on me....whatever happened to good Samaritans!!)  I then trapped it beneath my water bottle on the floor where it stayed until the break which is when I smushed it with the Nalgene.  Needless to say, I am becoming quite adept at killing bugs/not screaming whenever I see them.

I found this on the internet and I think it sums up my experiences today fairly well...Ross Insect Repellent.  While I haven't gotten to the point of throwing knives, my Nalgene seems to make a wonderful club to go "all caveman style" on the bugs.

White Coat Ceremony

Now it finally feels real.  As soon as I got the white coat, I truly felt like I was in medical school and that eventually, if I put in enough hard work, I would make it.  It used to seem like I was endlessly trudging towards an unobtainable goal.  Now I know it will happen!

The white coat ceremony was a very nice affair.  We had the Prime Minster, the President as well as some of the other Ministers of Dominica as well as high-up representatives from the school.  My favorite part of the ceremony (besides getting the actual coat) was when the honor guard came marching in to pick up the flags without any sort of warning.  We were all sitting there and then BAM, six military personnel came walking in with guns.  It kinda freaked me out at first until I realized what they were doing.  I also really enjoyed hearing Dominica's national anthem being sung.

Getting my white coat!

My Dad made it down for the White Coat which I really appreciated.  Since it was such a major day, I loved the fact that he was there supporting me.  He ended up staying for a week and bought me some much needed supplies (aka a bookshelf, a printer that has a scanner attached, and more colored pencils!).

  

Dad and I at the White Coat Ceremony  

During the ceremony they had us all read the physician's prayer which was pretty moving (even for me who is not particularly religious)...

"O God, Let my mind be ever clear and enlightened. 

BY the bedside of the patient, let no alien thought deflect it

Let everything that experience and scholarship have taught it

be present in it, and hinder it not in its tranquil work.  

For great and noble are those scientific judgments 

that serve the purpose of preserving 

the health and lives of Thy creatures.

Keep far from me, the delusion that I can accomplish all things.

Give me the strength, the will, and the opportunity

To amplify my knowledge, which yesterday

I would not have dreamt of,

For the Art is great, but the human mind presses untiringly.

In the patient, let me ever see only the man.

Thou all-Bountiful One, has chosen me 

to watch over the life and death of Thy Creatures.

I prepare myself now for my calling. 

Stand Thou by me in this great task, so that it may prosper.

For without Thine aid, man prospers not even in the smallest things."

My new favorite things

I have discovered that I am in love with the most random things here in Dominica.  Things that I used to take for granted have become my new favorite things.

1. Tupperware/Rubbermaid containers--They are FANTASTIC!  After waging a constant battle with ants my first night, I decided that the ants weren't going to win.  So the next day I went to the store and bought a Chinese bootleg version of tupperware and guess what!  No ants the following morning. So I have basically outsmarted the ants.  Occasionally I will see one small one wandering forlornly across my counter searching for a crumb but no more ant trains.  Lesson learned--tupperware + clorox cleanups= no ants.

2. Zipolocs--Not only are they great for my war against ants but they provide cheap waterproofing.  A quart -sized one is my dry bag for my little camera and a gallon-sized one is the dry bag for my iPad.  With the random, intense rainstorms we get down here, ziplocs are essential for quick, non-bulky waterproofing.

3. Black Leggings--It is hot here (almost Dante's Inferno hot--I guess my Western New York blood isn't used to constant humid heat).  Because of this heat and humidity, I would choose to wear as few clothes as possible.  Unfortunately this is not socially acceptable (example--when videochatting my old roommates, I was wearing a questionable outfit of a tank top and sarong.  Megan's statement of "What are you wearing" made me realize that this outfit was not going to fly).  Hence the black leggings, they are cool enough and decently socially acceptable but they also provide more warmth than shorts. Now you might be asking, why is she talking about warmth? She was just complaining about the heat down there...well the classrooms are super air conditioned.  I am talking Ice Station Zebra level of coldness.  So I wear a tunic and leggings to class and then throw on a sweatshirt after the air conditioning cools me down.  Black leggings= Dominica's version of skinny jeans.

4. Education--During one of the optional orientation lectures on the food of Dominica, the lecturer was giving a brief synopsis of the island's history.  When she grew up in Portsmouth (the city that the school is located in), the area consisted of sugarcane fields and a few houses.  She spoke about how special it was to own a book and how she had to leave the island and go to boarding school in order to get a high-school level of education.  She credited Ross with "civilizing the island" and bringing education to the island's people.   The state-of-the art equipment at Ross (the 6 simulation dummies for example) show how far this island has progressed in the past 50 odd years. I never truly realized before how amazing it is to be able to read and to have quality education readily accessible and have a new found respect for my parents who always said that an education was the best thing they could give me.  It definitely has a way of opening doors and exposing you to a way of life that would not be possible without it.

Made It!

Safely arrived in Dominica after only about 18 hours traveling (from time leaving my house in Buffalo to arriving at 3am, I arrived to Campus at 7pm).  Some major shout-outs go to the amazing Amelia and Carter who helped me lug my extremely strangely packed bags through the airport and into my apartment. Also, US Airways was amazing.  When the lady at the front desk realized I was heading to school and desperately needed my bags to get there, she made sure the bags were checked all the way through to Dominica.  If she hadn't done this, I would have had to pick up my bags, recheck them and go back through security in San Juan (of course this would have all had to be done in my 40 minute layover).  So you can see why I was so excited that she did this for me.

Plane flight went well.  No delays, only slight turbulence.  The only semi-strange thing was our "layover" in Antigua on the supposedly direct flight from San Juan to Dominica.  This direct flight was actually a 2-leg flight with a weird stop in Antigua which included going through a lame attempt at security (Their level of intensity varied from passenger to passenger...some passengers got through with two entire bottles of water, while others got pulled aside for interogation because they had packages of tea and a wireless router. Because...ya know...that tea and router are dangerous things! Especially immune-boast tea which this was).  After passing through security, we were held in a seating area which was surrounded by lots of little shops.  Then we had to walk SUPERR far out onto the tarmac to an entirely different plane.  Yup, a different plane!  Basically don't trust LIAT (the Caribbean airline when they tell you that it will be a direct flight...expect to change planes at least once).

We arrived in Dominica just as it was getting dark so unfortunately Amelia and Carter weren't able to experience the gorgeous scenery. But they did get to experience the night-time version of the roads...the roads that have the oncoming traffic blazing straight towards you).  Before getting in the car, the driver warned us that "If you feel sick, tap on the roof and I will pull over...You do your business, and we start driving again."(I really hope there is a story behind this statement!)   After the 50 minute drive, we arrived safe and sound with ALL of our bags!

Ross had a nice welcome meeting in which they gave us dinner.  Everyone was thrilled to get food because many, like me, hadn't really eaten anything all day because they had been traveling since early morning.  At this meeting all the new students received welcome bags which included a binder with orientation week details, a USB, a pen and of course the extremely important umbrella!

Today I had an IT orientation to get my computer all ready to go for the wireless internet on campus (super intense...you need to have a specific anti-virus and there is a gazillion steps you have to go through).  So worth it though! I now can print from my laptop, can access all the lecture vides online, and get all of the files I need to download.  The orientation also meant I didn't have go out in the TORRENTIAL downpour (I am talking sideways rain here that is so intense you can't see far out inside of you).

Speaking of torrential rain, tropical storm is coming through tomorrow!  I am excited because it means a massive thunderstorm.  Hopefully my Dad will get in safe and sound and won't get stuck in San Juan.  We have loaded up on water and crackers in case we lose power or can't get outside for some reason.

Alright thats it for now.  Wanted to give everyone a brief description of whats been going on so far and wanted to let everyone we got here safely.  Let me know what you think/what questions y'all have!

Dominica Trip

Last week I traveled to Dominica to get a closer look at Ross University and I was very surprised by what I found.  Reading the various forums online as well as looking at both the University's and the Island's websites does not give an accurate description of what life is like down there.  I was pleasantly surprised in many of the aspects surrounding the actual school.  The classrooms look high-tech and all the lectures are recorded and then put up online.  The anatomy lab is huge and state-of-the-art.  Also I was able to meet some of the faculty who were very friendly and did not appear to have the "attitudes" that many of the comments on the internet forums implied.

However, nothing prepared me for how rural the island is.   The area surrounding the school as some basic things such as a grocery store, taxi service, and some restaurants.  The apartment buildings surrounding the school are much more developed than the nearby town of Portsmouth.

The roads are so ridiculous that I am going to write a separate entry about them so everyone can get a clear picture of how TERRIFYING they are! The rest of the island, including the capital of Roseau, is definitely different than what I am used to.  People live in buildings that are not completed/ buildings that would not pass fire code.  Most people get their food from their little plots of land or from the local markets. In general though, I think it will be eye-opening and I will learn a lot about a friendly new culture.

Alright stay tuned for more fun stories about my trip!