March Blog

March: 1

Spring Cumulative: 7

March has been the fastest month of all. In just four weeks I feel like our schedules have lightened tremendously preparing for our NBME final, yet the more time we have the faster it seemed like this month went. We concluded the Medical Pharmacology course with the psychiatry module. Treating psychiatric disorders is very complex and filled with lots of trial and error most times, due to the unpredictability of a patient's response to the medications. 

In our environmental signaling course, there has been one common theme I have picked up on, the importance of clean water. What many people who live in New Orleans do not know is that the potable water, treated by the sewage and water board, comes from the Mississippi River. One might initially think that is great because there is an endless supply of it. Although there is an endless supply of it, there is a problem. The EPA regulations for clean potable water are very specific for chemical and microbial contaminants. The difficulty is the enormous amount of unregulated contaminants. The Mississippi River is the second-largest drainage system in North America. 10 states directly border the river, and 16 states are known to drain into it. So for miles from the top of the country, enormous amounts of toxins are draining into the river and don't to the Gulf of Mexico where Louisiana is the last state it runs through, so we are getting water from a river where 16 states have already dumped their toxic contaminants into. I have been working on filing forms with Crystal, my class co-representative, to see if chain grocery stores, like Target and Walmart, can donate water filters to local family homes. Hopefully, we get a number of donations and can buy some as well and the class will join Crystal and me in passing them out around the community. 

February Blog

February: 3 hours

Spring Cumulative: 6 hours

February comes to an end and we only have 2 months left of the program. My heart is heavy that this program is coming to an end. I have grown to love my classmates and every one of my professors. Stress has also been building up. Next month we have multiple meetings with different Dean of Admissions to medical schools so we can get advice on building our application, so this is exciting! This month we had 2 modules on reproduction and another on neurological diseases and pain management. Incorporated with the neurology module we had another SIM session like we did in the fall for the cardiovascular system. I really like when we do these outside exercises, not only because they are fun, but they help you with active recall and get a glimpse of a real-world scenario when treating a patient. 

Our patient was Mr. Thobodeaux who was shot in his left leg and complained of right eye pain from possible shards of glass in his eye. So as "physicians" we had to choose medications to treat his pain without causing other complications somewhere else. It was very informative and helped tremendously in applying and differentiating between the various opioids and other pain management medications. 

Towards the end of the month, we celebrated Mardi Gras, which was my first one here in New Orleans. "Laissez less bons temps rouler" (let the good times roll) was filled all weekend during our Mardi Gras celebration. I got to spend it with lots of my friends I've made in the program who were also experiencing their first Mardi Gras as well. It was the best experience so far. 

Prior to Our break for Mardi Gras, it was fitting for our neurology module, we learned the most frequent and common injuries during the span of Mardi Gras are head traumas. Which is also noted to increase the incidence of other neurological diseases like Parkinson's Disease or even Alzheimer's Disease. Nevertheless, every bit I have learned so far is easily applicable to everyday life. 

This month I went back to Covenant House and helped organize the donation room again. They have recently bought a new building to expand their mission in helping young children and adolescents who are homeless or victims of trafficking or even abuse and things alike. I will be going a couple weekends in March to help with cleaning up and reconstructing the new space so Covenant House will be able to provide more services to the greater New Orleans area.