November Blog

November: 3.5 hours

Fall Cumulative: 6.5 hours

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you! I hope everyone reading this had an amazing holiday and had a chance to eat lots of food. I was fortunate to get a week off of school after our Renal and Pulmonology exam the Monday before thanksgiving. It was a much-needed break and I was happy to go spend some time with my family and take some cute holiday pictures on my family's property. 

November was definitely a busy month with school even though the lectures were spaced out more to give us time to retain and understand the dense material. The first week of November we were wrapping up our in-depth Cardiovascular System module. Compared to the previous module dealing more with the autonomic nervous system and its effects on the cardiovascular system, this module focused on treating cardiovascular diseases and comorbidities which are common conditions most physicians will see in their practice. Needless to say, this module was extremely important. We had a really cool simulation exercise to end the week, where Dr. Ledoux, a cardiologist at Tulane, guided us on caring for our patient Mr. Boudreaux who presented to the Emergency Department with chest pain. Dr. Ledoux surprised me when she called me up to Mr. Boudreaux first, to try and get more information about his chest pain but I was so nervous I couldn't think! Participating in the simulation helped everything we had been learning about the cardiovascular system come full circle and really make sense. We were able to look at "real-time" ECG recordings and how Mr. Boudreaux responded to different medications we administered. I especially liked how Dr. Ledoux would call a "time out" during different time points and ask us questions to keep us engaged. The simulation exercise definitely gave me insight into how quickly things move in a clinical setting while also exhibiting how fundamental pharmacology is in treating a patient. Even though Mr. Boudroux wasn't a live human patient, it definitely helped me appreciate the intricacies of pharmacology because I will soon be in a position where I am the one prescribing/administering medications to my patient and Dr. Ledoux will not be there to call a "time-out" and help. It will be ONLY me! A scary but also exhilarating thought.

The week before our Thanksgiving break, I worked with my class co-representative in facilitating a holiday card-making event as a class service project. I was extremely appreciative of the idea from a fellow classmate and almost everyone in my class participated. We had a great time listening to Christmas carols and crafting cards that will be delivered to the Louisiana Methodist Children's Home, whose goal is to provide services "of strengthening individual, family, and community life". It was fun bonding with everyone and having a small amount of time where we were not stressing out. 

After returning to New Orleans after my thanksgiving break, I volunteered at Covenant House New Orleans. Over the break, Covenant House got a lot of large bags of donated clothes that needed to be unpacked and sorted through. As I was working, I had a chance to visit with the executive director Mrs. Rheneisha and she explained how these donations, which are majority clothes, help the kids feel more confident in themselves and when they go for job interviews. Even some kids at Covenant House have children of their own, and with the help of Covenant House, they are able to care for their own kids, get the medical care they need, and counseling in areas like tutoring for school, job counseling, trauma therapy, etc. 

This semester has flown by and I cannot believe there are just two weeks left. I feel like it was just a couple weeks ago that we were on zoom with everyone having our first meet and greet.