I Should Probably Be Studying...

MCAT: Check

2011-04-10T22:06:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I took the MCAT, I signed up for the 8 a.m. administration and it went pretty well. I took a few practice exams and self-studied for the exam using a schedule I found over the past several months, and kind of hybridized it. Before taking it and after taking it you're reminded that you can't disclose any information regarding the material on the exam, i.e. what specifically the questions were or what the prompts were for the writing sample. So I'm not doing that, of course.

On the elevator ride up, it was just me and another guy, about my height but Asian. We chatted a little bit, since we were both going to the same floor, and wished each other good luck. I forgot to mention I don't believe in luck, I believe in good preparation. Maybe that's the Boy Scout (actually Eagle Scout) in me? So what was my impression of the administration? Check-in was easy, it's a computer-based test, so I gave the desk person my ID, they checked it against my registration, and they gave me a tray to put my wallet/extra stuff in, which I put in one of their lockers. The only items allowed on my person during the exam were the locker key and my ID.

They told me I would need to show my ID to get in and out of the testing room, and sign out/sign in each break. They take biometric data at this testing center, namely digital fingerprints of my left and right index fingers, and then took my photo. The worker said if I had to take another exam there, check-in would be a little easier and they'd only have to take one fingerprint to verify my identity. That's pretty useful, I thought to myself, in case I lose a hand or something. That would be a pain in the ass to try to check in as a one-handed man when they require a fingerprint from each hand. Now I'm going off on a tangent, but one of the things I think that is interesting about me (physically) is that the lines on my hands are different. I mean, I'm aware that no one has identical markings on both hands, but the lines on my hands look different from each other. If I got my palm read, would I go by the dominant hand or the nondominant hand? Not that I'd put much stock in it.

The format is the same for every MCAT administration I think, in that physical sciences is first, then verbal reasoning, and then the writing sample, and then finally biological sciences. When I was taking the test, I would get to the 10 minute breaks between sections, and just kind of sit in my chair, try to disengage a bit, think about happier and less stressful activities like trying not to drown--just kidding--and then forge ahead. Actually, each break I would close my eyes, say a little prayer, and then continue. I don't think any of the breaks I took was longer than a minute, and I never left the desk/chair in the testing room where I was taking the MCAT. When I checked out for good the worker was surprised, making a comment about how I took no breaks, and I said, "The quicker I finish, the quicker I can start drinking." I had one beer on Saturday after the exam at my sister's house - she made my favorite dinner, which our mom always used to make for me on my birthday, so I was pretty happy with it. 8D

How do I think I did? I felt pretty confident walking out, at least about the PS, VR, and the writing sample. I didn't feel as confident about BS, and they mentioned I had to wait 30-35 days before I could get my score. I told my friends that feeling confident is either a really good sign or a really bad one. :)

I'm hoping it's a really good one.

Cliche

2010-10-04T21:15:00.004-04:00

I wanted to write an entire post in cliches but I just couldn't do it. Cliches really bother me, and maybe because I listen to sports talk radio on my drive to school but I feel like they are drowning in cliches that while they're appropriate I guess, they're overused and surely there must be a more elegant or clever way to describe an event, a play, a player, whatever.

The biggest one that comes to mind, and it's used in many areas, not just sports talk, is "game-changer." The entertainment industry and corresponding media that covers them uses this cliche a lot. "Blah blah occurs in the second episode and it's a real GAME-CHANGER!"

There has to be another way to say that with the stories they break, write, produce and film are innovative in comparison to what the audience has previously seen or expects. Cliches are shortcuts. Maybe I will try to invent a new cliche? I'll get to work on that. I think the main tie-in to pre-medicine for this point is to avoid cliches in your personal statement and secondary essays. Also, avoid quotes from Mark Twain, Emerson, or Thoreau. If you must use a quote, maybe go with Richard Pryor? Just kidding.

I'll have more posts up later, I'm in the middle of writing two papers, plus a different blog for a class assignment, so this blog has gotten no love from me recently. I will get in the habit of updating more soon, once things calm down a little bit, and once more notable things actually happen, i.e. I take the MCAT (which I've started to study for but have not settled on a date to take it), and when my application cycle starts (next year).

Fall 2010 is Here!

2010-09-14T10:35:00.006-04:00

The Fall 2010 semester has started. I am taking 14 hours and it seems like it will be a great semester, I like all of my professors because they all seem passionate for once about what they teach, unlike a few other classes I've taken when the professors are inaccessible or seem like they couldn't care less about whether students learn in their class or not, just that they can keep their job and keep doing research. I wish the fall season itself would hurry up and get here as well, I can't see it yet but I can feeeeel it. I'm running the Marine Corps Marathon this year for the 4th year in a row, on October 31, and for the first time I am not running it for charity. I had run it the previous three years on behalf of an organization that my mom was involved with for nearly ten years, but I decided not to run on their behalf this year for a variety of reasons, but one of the biggest reasons was money. Look at the bright side, at least I won't be propositioning everyone to make a donation! Yay!

As a student, and a non-working one at the moment, living on my savings account, I do what I can to save money and stretch my dollars. This organization over the past four years has allowed the minimum amount of money that participants must raise to climb precipitously. When I started running for them, I think it was $750, then it was $900, then it was $1000, this year is it over $1200.

I know the money is for a good cause, and in the past they gave the participants up until a month after race day to raise the money. This year participants have up until race day, and the drawback is when you register to run on their behalf, you fork over your credit card number, and if you do not meet the fundraising obligation, you are charged the difference between that and what you actually raised. I think everyone understands this concept, but in case you don't, if you are required to raise say $1500, and you only raise $750, then they will charge your card $750 on November 1, the day after the race, to meet your expected commitment. It kind of saddens me, because it seems like it has become all about the money and less about providing support for people who need it, and to participants who are trying to raise awareness and visibility first and money second on behalf of a great cause, we're sorry, you get the shaft. While this organization is requiring prospective participants to raise over $1200, and to their credit, they are very clear about that up front, some of the other charity partners of the marathon require participants to raise lesser amounts such as $300-600. I haven't done the math but I'd say the average charity requires probably $600-800 out of its participants, I'll do the math later.

Ironically, earlier this year I was a member of the planning/steering committee for this organization, but I had to step away from my involvement as I learned more about the plans and requirement of participants this year. Since I was active with this organization in memory of my mom, I thought maybe in the future I will become involved with an organization in honor of my dad, but I haven't decided anything for sure yet.

As far as running goes, I'm looking and feeling like a new man, and I think I am on track for a PR (personal record) at the Marine Corps Marathon this year. My long run this past weekend was 18 miles, in 2:33. That felt like a good pace, and I think on race day I'll actually run faster, but we'll see how it goes... I am feeling like I should finish somewhere in the neighborhood of 3:45-4:00. Ohh... and since the MCM this year is on Halloween, should I wear a costume? Last year it wasn't on Halloween, but there were a few costumes to see, I distinctly remember running elbow-to-elbow with the Flash. I thought he would have been faster but I passed him. Any ideas? My costume may just be North Face Voracious Short (they're 2-in-1, they have a built in compression liner which is pretty awesome and also makes it so you don't really need to BodyGlide your crotchal region), and a technical shirt TBD. Maybe I'll go sleeveless. It's not like there's a red carpet in the starting corrals and the reporter asks you who you're wearing. If they did..

"So, who are you wearing for this year's marathon?"

"Trash bag by Hefty to keep warm before the race, I'll probably shed it sometime before I cross the starting line once we get moving, shorts by North Face and singlet by Armani Privé, just kidding it's also North Face. Shoes and socks by Asics."

Family

2010-07-22T22:06:00.008-04:00

I love my family. I have two older sisters who have always taken an interest in my life and ambition, and my father has done the same as well. You may notice my mother is missing. My mother was incredible as well, she was a paragon of encouragement, and not just of her own kids, I loved her very much and if you're new to reading my blog (people actually read this?), I'll fill you in. She passed in 2007, after originally being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, then going into remission a year later and metastases occurring a year after that to her liver, lungs, and bones.

I was watching my oldest sister's dog, a Yorkie named Theo, since she had to go out of town for work, for a conference where she was a featured speaker for a presentation, for which the organizer had allotted an hour and twenty minutes. She got back into town today and we went to Macaroni Grill for lunch. We both ate healthy, in case you were wondering. They are nice enough to put the lower calorie options on an insert in the menu, and we both picked things under 600 calories, which is pretty decent. When we were deciding where to eat, I decided not to go to Chili's, following Steve Carell's lead, mainly because I looked up their nutritional info on the web a week or so ago because someone had given me a $25 Chili's gift card for my birthday back in May, and my "research" revealed ridiculously high calories and sodium in pretty much all of the dishes there with a few exceptions.

Getting back to my family, I can always count on my sisters for good advice. If I was really smart, I'd go into the same career fields they are in, as the barrier for entry is much lower (i.e., I could drop this non-trad pre-med course I'm on and start ASAP), the opportunity cost not as high, and they're both doing well for themselves. They're supportive, and they understand why I'm doing what I'm doing, and I am so thankful for that. It was good to hang out with my oldest sister today, since she had just gotten back into town. Lunch was good, and she wanted to buy a new laptop since her work one crapped out on her trip. While she was waiting on a new one for work, she decided, like I decided not to eat at Chili's, that she wanted a personal laptop to use, since she has not had one until this point. And she's over 30. I told her maybe we could find a Fisher-Price "My First Laptop" somewhere.

We ended up getting her a laptop at Best Buy, and the associate was nice enough to do the whole Geek Squad thing, loading up the antivirus, MS Office, etc., while we browsed the store. We both like the same entertainment for the most part. We looked at TV shows on DVD, and were commenting on the shows we like, Psych, Dr. Who, etc., when I saw the cover for "Being Human" which is a BBC show. I've never seen the show, but apparently it features three roommates, a ghost, a vampire, and a werewolf. Vampires and werewolves are definitely a big part of pop culture at the moment, but I digress. While I was looking at the box art, I feigned ignorance and put on my best puzzled look and asked my sister, "Which one is the ghost?" (Picture below, and note it's easy to see the vampire, since he has a bag of blood attached, the ghost is ethereal and diaphanous or maybe you've just seen a photoshop or two in your day, and by process of elimination the werewolf is generic glasses-wearing white guy... which sounds strangely familiar). My sister looked at it, was about to identify the ghost and then realized my joke. I love playing dumb sometimes. I definitely have the freshman grades to prove it.

After we stopped laughing we had a conversation about, if we were shapeshifters, what animal would we shift into? We've both watched True Blood and read the Southern Vampire Mysteries they're based on, so we know pretty much everything is on the table, werewolf, werebat, werepanther, etc. She couldn't decide, I said maybe I'd be a were-aardvark, except I'm not really sure what aardvarks look like, and my sister said she always pictures armadillos. Then I said maybe were-anteater? I think subconsciously I seemed to have been working my way through the alphabet, with the "A's" first, just not in order. I'd probably be some kind of animal that wouldn't scare people or that people would want to shoot. I settled on were-dolphin, but then my sister said it would probably be a drag to phase into dolphin form on land. Because then people would go nuts, and probably wonder what the hell a dolphin is doing in the middle of a Best Buy.

I love these random conversations we can have, it always happens with my sisters and I never know where it will end up.

Specialty Assessment

2010-07-16T23:29:00.005-04:00

This is definitely putting the cart WAY ahead of the horse, but I took one of those specialty assessments. There are a few online, and after reading the thread on SDN, I took the assessment after weighting different factors about what I prefer and do not prefer. The assessment takes into account the factors that you adjust via a sliding scale, I'll have to find the link for it, but essentially a "low number" in the results is good, and a "high number" in the results is bad as far as matching your chosen preferences. The factors include the following, and this list isn't all-inclusive:

caring for patients
continuity of care
autonomy
diversity
personal time
expertise
income satisfaction
creativity
certainty of outcomes
clinical decision-making
patient decision-making
(several others)

The most important things to me were diversity, autonomy, creativity, clinical decision-making, interacting with other physicians/members of health-care team and sense of accomplishment. I noticed that my results tended to skew towards a bunch of surgical fields. I'm not really sure how else to interpret the results, and some of my top results were specialties I had not really thought about, for instance my number one, pulmonary/critical care medicine I hadn't really considered. As I've mentioned before, this is mainly a thought exercise since I have not even applied yet, and I'll have a much more solid idea of what specialty to pursue if and when a) I get accepted somewhere and b) once I start clinical rotations and get more exposure to them.

Here are my top 10:

Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine (16.85)
Radiation Oncology (19.04)
Vascular and Interventional Radiology (21.31)
Otolaryngology (21.39)
Neurological Surgery (21.62)
Emergency Medicine (22.16)
Gastroenterology (22.93)
Orthopaedic Surgery (23.4)
Urology (24.76)
Sports Medicine (24.88)

I wasn't really thinking much about #1, #2, #3, #5, #7. To be fair, I hadn't given much thought to specialty choice in general, other than knowing a particular specialty I'm not particularly interested in, due to dating a woman during her intern year in that field.

My bottom 10 (worst to least-worst for me according to my preferences, I suppose?):

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (134.53)
Psychiatry (117.45)
Radiology - Diagnostic (84.63)
Pathology (79.89)
Obstetrics & Gynecology (78.87)
Medical Genetics (77.64)
Preventive Medicine (76.74)
Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism (74.11)
Geriatric Medicine (68.18)
Infectious Diseases (67.52)

I guess psychiatry is just not a good match for me. If I matched into psychiatry I must be wearing Bad Idea Jeans. I didn't think it would be that wide a discrepancy, but damn those are some big ass numbers™. I didn't have a high preference for schedule, or continuity of care, or certainty of outcomes. I'm okay with ambiguity (kind of like the ending of Inception, lol).

I have a wide band of specialties that seem like good matches outside of the top 10, from the low 20s to 40, including vascular surgery, plastic surgery, cardiology, neonatal-perinatal medicine, general surgery, nephrology, anesthesiology, thoracic surgery, ophthalmology, family practice and physical medicine & rehabilitation. After that it gets more spread out from 40 to to "bottom 10."

What does this all mean anyway? Hell if I know. While I was dating the intern, it was a game to guess what specialty I would end up in. I guess if I get in, we'll find out, a few years from now!

Inception

2010-07-16T23:27:00.001-04:00

Inception is awesome. Go see it. That is all.

Turning Thirty

2010-05-15T21:55:00.011-04:00

My birthday was May 2. I turned the big 3-0, and while I remember when I was a kid, 30 seemed ancient, now it does not seem so old. It probably seems old to some of my cohort in the classes I've been taking. Speaking of classes, I apologize for the lack of updates, around finals time my priority list is: studying > should probably be studying. :) As it is, I have all A's this semester BUT (and this is a big "but" like Brenda's got) I'm still waiting on my grade in my organic chemistry II lecture and my physics II lecture grade. Three grades are in, and I have three A's. While I'm optimistic for good grades in organic & physics, and I'd be disappointed in less than an A/A-, I won't be disappointed with Bs. They were difficult classes and I don't think they will make or break my application.

People get too hung up on age. However, it seems like the older you get, the less it matters. One of the best observations I've seen on age in pop culture was the "Murtaugh" episode of How I Met Your Mother, link here: How I Met Your Mother. What the show is about, is the Danny Glover character in the Lethal Weapon movies, named Roger Murtaugh, and his catchphrase, "I'm gettin' too old for this shit." Of course, since it's network TV, and the central premise is the narrator explaining the story of how he met their mother to his kids, "stuff" was substituted for "shit." During the course of the show, one character makes a "Murtaugh" list as it were, of things that at 30, you are "too old" to do, like attend a rave, pierce your ear, help someone move furniture four flights of stairs, etc., and a sort of "anti-Murtaugh" list is made by another character of things that you are too young to do at 30, such as wait six rings to answer the phone, wear reading glasses, eat dinner at 4, go to bed at 7, etc.

The take-home lesson they eventually realized was that while Roger Murtaugh was consistently spouting his catchphrase, "I'm gettin' too old for this shit," HE WENT AHEAD AND DID IT ANYWAY. I've never felt like I was too old to do something, and even if I did, I did it anyway, much like Murtaugh. When I started thinking about going back to school to do prerequisites, I was 28. Now I'm 30 and my prerequisites are finished, but I'm waiting a year to apply. I did at times think, "Okay, maybe I am too old for this shit," and someone reading this may think that too, but unless you have been featured by Willard Scott on the Today Show for your last birthday, there has probably been someone older that has gone down this non-trad path to medicine successfully before you. You're not too old. A lot of it comes down to your outlook on life and how well you take care of yourself.

What did I do for my birthday? I had originally planned to eat at the chef's table at this wonderful restaurant in the DC area, but unfortunately it didn't work out, and I ended up getting an early dinner with one of my sisters and doing a low-key thing. I figured maybe I'll have a blow-out when I'm 40. That may be better anyway, because looking forward from 30, at 40 I hope to either be done with residency (if it's three or four years), or nearly done with it (if it's five or if I end up doing some kind of fellowship after a three/four year residency), and that would definitely be cause for celebration and the proverbial "pulling out all the stops." Today I finally did the real "family" celebration with both of my sisters, my brother-in-law, my nephews, and my neighbors, who were really like a second pair of parents growing up. My sister made meat loaf, which is without a doubt my favorite dish, and what my mom always made for me on my birthday, so it was nice to keep that tradition going even as Mom is no longer with us. There was also cake, which my sister laughed about and my neighbors kept giving me shit about. I'll explain that in a second, I am going to grab a drink.

Okay, so yesterday I went up to National Harbor in Maryland. It was my friend's birthday that I had worked with in the intellectual property field, which I had worked in before going back to school. She is also turning 30, and her birthday is tomorrow. Happy Birthday Courtney, if you're reading this! Anyway, our birthdays are two weeks apart and we went out to Ketchup at National Harbor, and when we were initially seated it was Courtney, another girl, and me, and one of the appetizers was a "Threesome" - it is three types of fries - waffle fries, sweet potato fries & seasoned curly fries, and six types of Ketchup - normal ketchup, a smoky chipotle ketchup, a barbecue type ketchup, maple syrup ketchup, a mayo-based ketchup, and a spicy chili ketchup. So of course when the server asked if wanted anything to start, I said, "We were really looking forward to a Threesome." Hilarity ensued. After Ketchup, our group, which at that point had included the original threesome plus five other people, we paid the bill, making sure the birthday girl did not have to pay for her birthday dinner and drinks, and we headed to the dueling piano bar Bobby McKeys, which was a lot of fun, all though it was mainly boogie woogie, they did some cool older songs, covering Elton John, John Cougar Mellencamp (or did he drop the Cougar part recently?? I dunno!), to Ke$ha's "TiK ToK" which was pretty awesome. I'm getting off track. I was going to explain the cake thing.

I really dislike carrot cake. I like carrots, and I like cake. I just do not like the two together. I will eat it, but then again I will eat almost anything, but I'd prefer a different kind of cake if I had the choice. My sister sent me a text asking what kind of cake I wanted for my family birthday celebration. I said anything but carrot cake, carrot cake can go to hell. I had forgotten that my neighbor, who was really like a second mother to me, had given me a piece of carrot cake along with a Mexican-style chicken and rice dish a few weeks ago and I had eaten both. So she kept giving me shit about it tonight, and I said yes, I ate the carrot cake you gave me (because I did), but I kept backpedaling and having to qualify that I do not hate carrot cake (I'd just like to eat something else if I can choose, and it's really not so bad!). For some reason, my sister and I also brought up that we don't like coconut on cakes. For me, it's a texture thing, not a flavor thing. I like coconut milk and coconut flavor, I just don't like the coconut flakes/fleshy pulpy bits on stuff. Yeeeechhhh. Oddly enough, our parents both loved coconut.

I guess my message is I turned 30. Go me! I don't feel different, I don't look different, I've always been good about putting on sunblock so my skin looks a-ok, and lastly, you're never too old to be what you've always wanted to be, unless of course you've always wanted to be a child actor. At 30, it's too late.

Shadowing Basics

2010-04-05T21:04:00.002-04:00

I saw a recent discussion about shadowing so I wanted to throw out my two cents. I think shadowing is fantastic. You get exposure to the real work a physician does, and often it isn't glamorous. It's great at giving you a perspective into different specialties, and I almost think it should be required that you should shadow a primary care physician in addition to a specialist.

What I've done as well, is try to shadow physicians at different points in their careers. I have shadowed a specialist who is close to retirement, a mid-career specialist in a different specialty, and a primary care physician a few years removed from completing her residency and becoming board-certified. One of the great benefits of approaching it like this is getting different perspectives. For example, while they all agreed that universal healthcare is a great idea, and healthcare access needs to be improved, they all had different ideas about the healthcare reform passing through Congress, and what kind of an impact any reform would have in the U.S.

My shadowing was all very enjoyable, particularly just to see the rapport that the physicians had developed over time with their patients, where it seemed like two friends meeting and oh-by-the-way let's talk about your blood pressure, or do this quick test and then we can get right back to talking about your kids and how great they're doing. I could almost pinpoint who was a newer patient without knowing any of their history by how open or guarded they were in their discussions with the various physicians I shadowed.

Here are the basics though, in my humble opinion, in seeking out physicians to shadow and how to behave well:

For starters, try to contact physicians that you either know by being their patient or have a friend who is a patient of theirs, or a parent who is their patient, and explain your intentions. A great resource here is if you have a good relationship with your PCP, if you have one, and ask them about specialists they frequently refer to, in addition to seeing if you can set up shadowing with them.
It's pretty important to set up expectations at the outset when you first make contact and set up the shadowing experience. Let them know your availability and ask if there's anything you should know before the first day.
Unless you're shadowing in the OR--which I haven't done, but maybe it's possible from an observation room, I doubt you're going to scrub in for a surgical shadowing experience--you should wear business attire, which for men means slacks and a tie. Maybe throw a shirt on underneath the tie too, unless you look like one of the guys in the Handsome Men's Club. For women, I guess you know what business attire means, probably no open-toed shoes, conservative, hair up/out of your face, etc. That goes for dudes with long hair, too.
Keep track of your shadowing hours, I did this when I got home at the end of each shadowing day. I'd write the date, the hours, anything interesting I learned or any interesting patients/cases I saw without many identifying features, i.e. "saw a patient with DM and HTN" not "saw a 67 y/o Caucasian female with Type II DM and HTN who was the divorce lawyer for (insert celebrity here)."
Whether you are shadowing in the office or hospital, follow the physician's lead, but don't follow them around like a lost puppy, especially if it seems like they are going to the bathroom. That's just awkward. You can be pretty sure they don't need help making a pee-pee. If they're heading to a patient's room or exam room or to get some coffee, by all means, follow them.
If you're uncertain about something, ask a question - just don't do it in front of the patient unless they say it's okay to do so. Example: if you shadow an ophthalmologist and they ask the patient if you can look at their eyes through the slit lamp, and the patient okays it, and they ask you if you see some feature about the patient's eyes, it's okay to ask a question about it if you don't understand what you're looking for. Use discretion though, some are a lot more laid-back about it, and I would say it's probably the physicians that aren't constantly having students come in to shadow them - they usually enjoy the opportunity to teach you something.
Make sure you thank the physician at the end - a simple thank you note or card will usually suffice, but also thank the office staff, and any other clinicians that were around, you interacted with, and maybe taught you something.

You can get a lot out of shadowing, and some last bits of advice: stay humble, be grateful you have the opportunity to shadow and stay out of the way. That's pretty important, actually. Ask questions, especially if it's encouraged and it seems like they enjoy teaching you something. In some cases you'll be more of a passive observer and in others you can be more proactive and not just a "fly on the wall." Lastly, here's two thoughts: first, don't be in a rush to leave the office/hospital, even if they say, "We're done, I just have dictations to do" etc., and if they offer you some kind of reading material pertinent to their specialty, take advantage of it - it will make the shadowing make a little more sense even if you have only a rudimentary understanding of what's going on. I had two different docs where one gave me some journals to browse and the other gave me a textbook related to the field and a specific thing to look at since I would see it later in the week. It was useful, and I got more out of the experience that way.

April Fool's Day

2010-04-01T17:56:00.005-04:00

I love April Fool's Day. It gets harder and harder to pull off a good April Fool's joke, and it's a thin line between hilarity, cruelty and just plain mean.

Hilarity: if you're in a sugar daddy/sugar mommy relationship, and you are the previously mentioned sugar daddy/mommy, tell the freeloader you have an itemized list of your gifts to them and need them to start paying you back with interest for each and every gift that took you over the Federal gift tax cap of $12,000/year. Drag it out and see how many awkward facial expressions they make.

Cruelty: Call all your exes and inform them that you have herpes, but you're on Valtrex, and you didn't think you were having an outbreak when you hooked up in the past but there's really no way to know. Also tell them it's really not so bad, you've found plenty of other herpes singles to date since finding out you had it.

Mean: Tell your friends you are dying, and Make-a-Wish foundation does not make wishes come true for adults. I have no idea if that's true or not. Regardless, see how many free drinks you can squeeze out while you commiserate over the "time you have left."

I haven't played a lot of April Fool's Day jokes recently. In my first pass through undergrad when I was living in a dorm and had a roommate (this was before everyone used their cell phone as an alarm), I set his alarm clock ahead two hours so he would panic when he "overslept" for classes, and oops he actually had a court date... he was pretty pissed but we laughed about it later. :)

Self-Discovery is Overrated

2010-03-30T22:40:00.004-04:00

My birthday is looming on the horizon. I'll be 30 in May. What I'd like to do for my birthday is go to Volt in Frederick and eat some of Bryan Voltaggio's delicious food. Table 21 would be even better but I'm pretty sure they are booked solid through like 2016. Thanks, Top Chef!

The entire process of being a non-traditional pre-med causes you to be more introspective than usual. I'm sure it helps you get into personal statement and essay writing mode when you can examine yourself, what your strengths and weaknesses are and what your motivation is for pursuing medicine. You have to figure out what motivates you, why are you doing what you're doing, and if it's worth it to you.

However, I think self-discovery is a little overrated by the time you're close to 30. By this time, you're pretty set in your ways. You can change small details here or there, but it's exceedingly difficult to make wholesale changes in your life, attitude, and lifestyle, if they are necessary. I don't think I'm being cynical - far from it. I just think I had a strong sense of self from early on. If you have to make changes, which will help you be more successful in your path, nontraditional premed, runner, or any other path, it's better to and easier to make small changes at first instead of trying to deliver a shock of changes that completely changes you or the way you live.

I'll give an example. I think I've previously mentioned I was never much of a runner. I guess you could argue I'm still not much of a runner depending on your perspective since I've run four marathons but none under four hours yet, or three and a half hours, or BQ'd (qualified for the Boston Marathon, which for my age group is a 3:10 marathon with :59 seconds of grace period added in). I played a lot of sports growing up: basketball, football, wrestling, baseball... never ran track. Running was either conditioning or punishment. I was a casual runner at times around the neighborhood, with the longest distance I had run prior to 2007 being probably three to three and a half miles. Prior to 2007, I guess I had lost the joy of running that you have when you're a child. When you're a child, running is exhilarating. You don't think about your own perceived flaws in your technique, your inefficient arm swing, your non-relaxed shoulders, the jarring oscillation of your bounding stride, whatever the case may be, you just let it rip, enjoy the wind through your hair and the grass beneath your feet and smile. Then, my mom passed from cancer.

I wanted to run a marathon before I was 30. I was 26 when my mom died. I figured four years is plenty of time, but I didn't try to shock my body and system into being a runner. When you try to make those wholesale changes, your body will protest vehemently, most likely by getting injured. I started out slowly, and gradually built up my stamina by increasing my mileage no more than 10% a week. But... I've also been the type of person who doesn't dip their toe in the pool to test the water; I get a good two or three step start and bust out the cannonball.

Pop Quiz: Knowing what you now know, before that first marathon in 2007 did I race:
A) a 3K
B) a 5K
C) a 10K
D) a half marathon
E) none of the above.

If you answered E), you are correct. I cannonballed the marathon. By the way, I wouldn't recommend that approach. The next logical progression as a runner was to start eating better. I'm still working on that one, but doing much better now than I was even a year ago, and a big reason is because I have the joy of running back, and I do a fair bit more cooking than I did in the past, when I tended to stick to things I could just toss together in a skillet or saucepan.

Bottom line: take small steps before you take bigger ones, get acclimated to the small changes that you need to make before you try to make the bigger ones. While I gave the example about my running, it's probably applicable to more than one area, even say study habits for the MCAT or your post-bacc classes. If things aren't going the way you had hoped, figure out why you're doing it, figure out how you're going to do it, and make it work.

Contractor Shmontractor

2010-03-27T10:32:00.004-04:00

In the D.C. area we were fortunate enough to have a really bad snowstorm, which was around 30", and then a week later we got an unrelenting rain that lasted for three days. I live in a house that was built in 1976-1977. I guess it isn't unusual that your home is older than you are.

The house sustained some damage though, so in addition to my post-bac classes I've been dealing with contractors to fix the various issues associating with some of the damage that's been caused. It starts with the roof, where the brick fireplace is, and the brick fireplace is adjacent to my bedroom. Unfortunately, over time the brick has worn down and it's starting to flake around the chimney, and water has slowly seeped in towards where the brick chimney abuts the drywall of my bedroom. Initially I had thought it was just the flashing that needed to be shored up or replaced, but I was wrong.

There's a water spot, and possibly mold I guess if I had let it go much longer, and additionally the ceiling of my room has developed a few cracks in it. The general contractor came out, measured the floor to ceiling at the outer edge of the room, and the floor to ceiling at the center of the room, and the difference was over 3", meaning that there's some impressive sagging going on here, much like a retirement village for naturists. So that's another thing that needs to be fixed.

Homeowner's insurance will pick up the tab for my room, the adjuster came out, looked at it, and wrote a check for what they would pay. The contractor is going to put up new drywall and two coats of paint where there is the water damage, and right now my ceiling is braced by some 2" x 4"s that the contractor came out and placed since he was worried about the ceiling collapsing.

So let's see:

new drywall in my bedroom
painting in my bedroom
repairing the sagging ceiling in my bedroom
repainting my sagging ceiling once it's fixed
oh yeah, complete rebuild of the upper portion of the brick chimney

Sounds like fun. Thank God for homeowner's insurance. I think the brick chimney rebuild will be out of pocket but at least that seems like the only major thing.

Maybe I'll add some pictures later.

Levaquin

2010-02-23T18:02:00.005-05:00

I like to say I'm on an antibiotic tour over the past twelve months. Before my root canal, I was put on Penicillin VK, which worked to minimize the abscess on my gum underneath the affected tooth. For my strep throat infection, I was put on amoxicillin.

My latest foray into antibiotics for my sinus infection is Levaquin. My doctor gave me a $25 coupon to give to the pharmacy when she gave me the Rx for it. I have health insurance through a private PPO plan, and yes, of course the premiums are always going up, but perhaps I do not have the best prescription benefit, because even with the coupon the prescription was over $100. Ouch. One fun thing I like to do whenever I get a Rx is to look at the potential side effects. She explained some of the more major side effects in the office, like muscle & tendon soreness, possibility of tendon rupture, and she said, "some people say they feel like they have just run a marathon."

I had told her I just ran the Austin Marathon when I was coming off my strep infection, and she mentioned my lungs were clear, sinuses were a little tender/swollen, but not unbearably, therefore it was just a sinus infection with the post-nasal drip/drainage that was irritating my throat and causing the cough. We talked about the marathon a little bit, it turns out she has a personal connection to it, which was cool, and kind of laughed about the feeling-like-you-just-ran-a-marathon comment. I don't doubt the soreness side effect, I just doubt there was a control group who had run a marathon before and were asked about soreness, you know?

So far, so good though - I have no muscle or tendon soreness but then again I've only been on it for two days, and it's a q.d. Rx (once a day, from the Latin quaque die) unlike some of them that were b.i.d. (2x/day - the amoxicillin, from the Latin bis in die) or q.i.d. (4x/day - the Pen VK, from the Latin quater in die). I knew my Latin would come in useful some day, and now you know what those abbreviations on your prescriptions mean if you already didn't. Even though it's only been two days, I feel much better.

In regards to some of the side effects, here are some of the ones I read:
constipation, diarrhea (wow, would hate to have both of these at once!!), dizziness, gas, headache, lightheadedness, nausea, stomach pain; these next few are contact your doctor immediately side effects:
bloody or tarry stools (like meconium?), chest pain, decreased or painful urination, fainting, fast or irregular heartbeat, hallucinations, inability to move or bear weight on a joint or tendon area, mood or mental changes, seizures, shortness of breath, suicidal thoughts or actions (if you're successful, how are you supposed to contact your doctor?), symptoms of nerve problems e.g. change in perception of hot & cold or decreased sensation of touch or unusual numbness/tingling/burning/pain/weakness in hands legs or feet, etc.

Can I just say that I feel lucky I'm not the "lotto winner" on these potential side effects?

I looked up some Levaquin "testimonials" on the web, and some of them seem a bit far-fetched. Some people mentioned going into a deep depression while on Levaquin, insomnia, sporadic inability to concentrate. What's unusual though is people do not often list what else is going on, i.e. the person that experienced depression as a side effect, were they depressed to begin with? Was it under control with an SSRI or some other medication? The person that couldn't concentrate, do they have some other kind of chemical imbalance or disorder that isn't under control? I don't doubt they experienced those things, but it seems disingenuous to try and assign causality between a particular side effect and the new antibiotic you're taking. You never know what kind of pharmacological interactions are occurring between other medications they're possibly on or supplements they take. At least I didn't see one that said, "When I took Levaquin, I immediately rocketed up, up and away off the ground. - C. Kent, Metropolis, Kansas." That would be akin to what was above - the levaquin did not bring out the ability to fly, it was your Kryptonian heritage. Duh.

The only mild side effect I've had so far was with my ears. I had that feeling where you're in an airplane ascending to cruising altitude and your ears haven't adjusted yet, i.e. the pressure on both sides wasn't equalized. Even that was shortlived though, it only lasted for a few hours. Hopefully I only have a few more days of being sick and then my usually robust immune system will come back online.

Austin Marathon Recap

2010-02-22T17:17:00.006-05:00

Note: Sorry about the delay in getting this posted. I wrote this over a week ago, but in the meantime I've been getting over that strep infection (yay amoxicillin!), getting ready for the three exams I had last week, and trying to get over the sinus infection I have now (yay levaquin!). - ASK

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Austin Marathon 2/14/2010

I'm writing this aboard my express flight from Austin to Charlotte, and will do some copypasta to get it on the blog later. :)

The race was supposed to start at 7:00 a.m. The wheelchair and handbike participants were scheduled to start at 6:55 a.m., and I think they pretty much took off on their own after the National Anthem without being prompted. Speaking of the National Anthem, I wasn't paying attention to who was singing it, but they sounded an awful lot like Randy Travis. Maybe it was Randy Travis? I have no idea. I did take my hat off though, so kudos to me. They also made an announcement that Texas Gov. Rick Perry was going to be running, but I didn't hear if he was running the half or the marathon.

The hotel I chose to stay in is situated about half a mile from the starting line so I had a short walk when I woke up to head over there. It was about 0.7 mi from the finish line, so that wasn't a huge deal breaker either after having run 26.2 miles to get back to the hotel.

Sidebar: this was the fourth marathon I've run, and every time prior to this I set a new personal record (PR). I don't think of it as a badge of honor though, if anything I'm like that Russian pole vaulter who kept moving up the world record 1/8th of an inch at a time. What I am trying to say is that perhaps I have set the bar low for myself, and I know I'm capable of running much faster.

Okay, and we're back. I did not set a PR today. For the past several weeks I have been battling a strep infection and a general malaise, i.e. not sleeping well due to the strep, because of the coughing from the irritated throat. It seemed like leaning forward or laying flat exacerbated the symptoms, namely a chest-rattling cough. In the past, I rarely got sick, so I don't know what's up with me the last few weeks. I'm good about washing my hands, and not touching my eyes, nose, or mouth with my hands.

When I woke up, I was not feeling that well, and like I said I had resigned myself to the fact that I would just see how the race went, how I felt, and take it from there. I didn't want to get my first did-not-finish (DNF), which I think can be the SMART thing to do if it's needed, because you know your body better than anyone else. They actually made an announcement before the National Anthem in the morning that if you had diarrhea or were vomiting in the past 24 hours, do not run the race. Regardless of how I felt, I still headed to the starting line and ran the race, and decided it wasn't going to be a day to push myself, so I took it easy on the course even though I had been training smarter and faster than I had in the past. I wasn't disappointed in not setting a PR considering I didn't push myself and wasn't trying to, and in fact, I finished 7 minutes shy of my PR, despite "not pushing myself."

If anything, this tells me I am capable of so much more. There's another thing about this Austin course: boy, is it HILLY. I read race reviews on the marathon calendar site here: US Marathons Races Directory and Schedule, and several of them mention the hill factor. I love running hills but I did not work in a lot of hill training leading up to Austin. I didn't even look at the elevation chart until I was sitting in my hotel room. This is yet another example of my preference for wearing Bad Idea Jeans™. I mentioned the hilliness in a FB status update, where I said, "if Samuel L. Jackson had run this race, by mile 11 or 12 he would have said, 'Enough! Enough! I've had it with these MF'ing hills on this MF'ing marathon course!'"

It was that bad. There were hills around every corner. It was so hilly that when we got to the flat sections of the course, you thought you were going downhill because it was easier and you had forgotten what flat looked like since it had been so long. The finish was nice, it was another short hill to the Texas State Capitol, where you looped around it and then headed downhill on Congress Ave. for the final 0.2 miles.

I ran in my old Asics, which not surprisingly have a ton of miles on them. The newer model I tried in the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) gave me a sweet blister I had mentioned in an earlier blog entry, anterior and medial to the ball of my foot, so I went to the older ones even though they are worn down. Not surprisingly, my feet are a little sore, but I think the good thing about running in older shoes is that you can be confident in the fit and that they'll work well for you. After I started getting a little plantar fasciitis (PF) in my right foot, back when I switched to the newer shoe, I went back to the old one and it pretty much resolved itself. The soreness/tightness went away shortly after I started using the old shoes again. I think that when the midsole breaks down, you rely more on your foot to stabilize itself instead of relying on the cushioning, which possibly makes your foot weaker. I read something about it in Christopher McDougall's Born to Run, so I decided to try out the older shoes and it did help clear up the PF.

Here are a few notes about the Austin Marathon, and keep in mind the only other marathon I've run is the three times I've done the Marine Corps Marathon, and in my estimation the MCM is the marathon par excellence as far as organization and execution, which is to be expected considering it is run and staffed by the Marine Corps. Oh, one cool thing I saw: someone was recording video on their iPhone pretty early on, like within the first five miles, talking about so far so good with the race and stuff. I kind of wonder who that was, they most likely have a blog or Twitter. Here goes!

No food on the course. Really? At the MCM there are orange wedges, ClifShot gels, JellyBelly SportBeans, and of course the random spectators that offer up stuff like candy, goldfish, etc. There were no food stations along the Austin Marathon. I guess they decided to leave it up to the spectators, some of whom made beer available, champagne, orange wedges, Jolly Ranchers, even Valentine's Day candy. Much respect to the mom & young daughter that had gummy hearts, those hit the spot when I needed it. After I realized the lack of food stops, thinking about food and what I was going to eat after the race began to consume ME. I stopped listening to my body and started wondering how delicious a greasy cheeseburger and salty fries would be after I got my medal and finisher's shirt. And it's hilly.
The water stations were well-stocked and well-organized, volunteers offered encouragement along with the liquids, and were clear about who had water and who had Powerade. There was a water station at more or less every mile, usually not at the mile marker but between 0.2-0.6 miles into each mile, which was nice, and they alternated Powerade every other mile. There was also water at each Powerade station, which was nice for people like me who think Powerade is too "sweet" while running and opt to mix it with some water. The water stations were relatively flat, not hilly. One was even on a downhill!
I like how they will print your name (or probably anything, within reason) on your bib under your bib number. I can't tell you how many times I felt like crap or was dragging a little bit and a spectator would call out my name, tell me I was looking good or looking strong, or yelling "go go go," or "keep moving!" or "finish strong." I think that is a nice touch to put names on bibs. I'm sure this happens at other races too.
Speaking of crowds, several segments of the run reminded me of the Hains Point stretch in the MCM. The crowd support at MCM covers the route much better. I thought the route was fairly scenic but for a long stretch we were running around neighborhoods, I think this was between miles 18-24ish, before we ran by the University of Texas campus around mile 25, which was nice. I like architecture, but all the houses looked the same. I saw a lot of columns, craftsman bungalow-type houses with wide porches and chain link or wooden fences around several yards. People in Austin were great about bringing their dogs out--it seemed like everyone has a dog in Austin--and it worked out great, because if the people got tired of cheering, the dogs never got tired of barking. I guess that's what I would do if I were a dog and a bunch of lunatics decided to run by my house, or it could have just been their way of cheering.
The finish line was kind of a disorganized c.f. I think a little of that is to be expected since you may have a crush of finishers at once, so it's not the hugest deal. At the MCM, Marine Lieutenants and above place your medal around your neck and you get your "space blanket" to warm up. In Austin, I don't know if they went over what to do with the volunteers but the medal was just handed to me. Maybe I'm nitpicking, but I did just run 26.2 miles and it would be nice to not cheapen it by handing me the medal instead of placing it around my neck. I think it's nicer to recognize the accomplishment by doing the whole bowing the head and placing the medal around the neck, instead of just of handing over the medal like it was a receipt at the grocery store. Maybe it's just me that feels like this? I saw it happen to other finishers as well. It was pretty warm this afternoon in Austin but I quickly cooled down when I stopped running. I didn't even get a space blanket handed to me. The nice thing about the finish was H.E.B. furnished a light post-run spread under white tents, so you could grab some mini-bagels, a banana, some Powerade or water, some chips and I think there were Snickers marathon bars as well. There was also food court outside of the finishers' area that had local places supplying the food, like mmmpanadas!
Oh, and another thing--the marathoners and half-marathons run the same course until it diverges around the 10 or 11 mile mark, when they told the half-marathoners to get on the right side of the road and the marathoners to go to the left side of the road. The marathoners headed to the west hills of Austin (hey, I mentioned it was a hilly course!), and the half-marathoners headed to their finish. The volunteers handled the bifurcation very well in telling the marathoners and half-marathoners which way to go. I think the half-marathoners party a little bit more than the marathoners do, at least before the race. I guess that's understandable. I'm not completely basing this on my own observations, one of the cab drivers I had mentioned it on Saturday night. I don't think it's a bad idea to have everyone run it together, but I will admit I was a little jealous when I realized the half-marathoners were heading down the relatively flat home stretch to their finish, aside from a similar hill prior to the Texas State Capitol, but on the other side before heading down Congress Ave. to the finish, and the marathoners were heading for the hills. Literally.
This is pretty shallow but the female spectators in Austin were a pretty attractive lot, especially around the UT campus. :)

So overall, would I run this course again? Yes. I would definitely do more hill work before running the race, and think about packing my own gels/some kind of food for the race considering they do not supply any. I probably could have found that out beforehand, and it would have been nice to enjoy the run more than to obsess over what I was going to eat when it was over... hmm, hamburger? NO! Cheeseburger! Maybe pizza? Nah. Empanadas? Possibly. Ooooh, maybe a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich. YEEEEEAHHH! You get the idea.

If I think of anything else, I will add it later. Next race: TBD. There will be pictures incoming later.

Austin Marathon - Day One

2010-02-12T21:27:00.008-05:00

Let me preface this entire post by stating my amazement that the D.C. area got dumped on by consecutive snowstorms. For the first one, I was snowed in with my sister, brother-in-law and nephews Johnny and Christopher. Speaking of Christopher, can you guess his nickname?

If you guessed "Chris" then you'd be wrong. His nickname is Dino, as in "DINO-saur" not "DEEN-OH." His big brother Johnny has given him several nicknames, including Christo Dino, which got shortened to just Dino, and Baby Godzilla since he stomps all over and destroys everything in his path. Nicknames are great, the only bad part of course is you can't really nickname yourself, or at least most people cannot do that. I wonder at times though if Christopher will respond to his real name when he is a bit older, since everyone (Mom, Dad, Bro, uncle ASK) calls him Dino. It should work out okay though, he'll probably be a soccer player like his mommy and daddy and he can just put "Dino" on his jersey instead of his last name. That would be kind of cool, like the Brazilian players tend to do - Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka, etc.

I'm getting way off track. So the D.C. area had these snowstorms, got around 30" of snow total, and I was snowed in with my sister's family for the first one for several days. I also happened to have a strep infection which I was taking amoxicillin for - I'm pretty sure I got it from my sister, my nephews had ear infections and my brother-in-law had bacterial pneumonia he was getting over, so it was essentially a house of people on antibiotics.

Here is one of the small bits of shoveling snow I did, and it was a damn important one: I cleared the path to the hot tub!

Mission accomplished, other than needing to clear off the cover to use the hot tub.

For the second snowstorm I got snowed in at home, but it was really a lightweight, fluffy snow, unlike the first storm earlier in the week. I think I remember reading somewhere that the Inuits have over 30 or 40 different words for snow. Virginia usually does not get this much snow, and we actually set a new record, with the most recorded snowfall since 1898 (or something, I didn't fact-check while I'm writing this, my bad).

Sorry if it seems like this post is a misnomer, it really is about the Austin Marathon. So I flew out of Reagan (DCA) into Chicago (ORD) this morning to connect to Austin (AUS). I ended up staying with my other sister in Shirlington to be closer to the airport, and got there without a hitch. Security is always fun, I got to leave my belt on at least. And my pants and shirt. The first leg of the trip to Chicago went well, I always worry I'm going to get seated next to some 350 pound sweating mouth-breather. Fortunately, I had the window seat to O'Hare and was seated next to a skinny 10 year old and her mom. Here's the approach to Chicago, which just struck me due to all the ridiculously tall buildings on the lake front and the sprawl of low-slung (comparatively, of course) buildings filling in the rest for as far as the eye could see.

Hello Chicago!!

I used to work with a woman from Chicago. She was absolutely in love with Chicago to the extent that I wondered why she left Chicago for D.C., but apparently it was because of love. I couldn't really fault that. I wish I had her number so I could have texted her when I landed like, "Guess where I am?" She was pretty much an awesome "bullpen-mate" at this job I worked due to the overshares she consistently let slip. One particular overshare that seared itself into my long-term memory after she got back from lunch: "Oooh I think I ate some bad fish, my stomach feel like a washing machine!"

I had a short layover in Chicago, went around looking for something to eat, found it at Wolfgang Puck Express, which ended up being a pretty simple chicken salad.

Got to the gate for the flight at O'Hare (K terminal?? WHERE THE HELL IS K ??) after quite a walk from the "A" terminal since my flight from DCA to ORD was on United, and the ORD to AUS was on American Airlines. After quite a hike I got there with 10 minutes to spare after lunch (plus reading the new Runner's World with Kara Goucher on the cover at Wolfgang Puck Express). Quite a few people were on standby trying to get to Austin from Chicago. I guess the snow screwed over a lot of people on a lot of fronts, but hugely on travel.

Ended up getting to Austin early, and the airport is a little farther from downtown than I had expected, the approach before landing is below.

Hello Austin!!

Since I didn't have any checked luggage, I was able to hustle out and catch a cab. I talked to the driver a little bit, told him I had come from D.C. where we had SOOO MUCH SNOOOOW, and he said it was unusually cold for Austin, and he had heard there was snow in Dallas. When we were pulling up to the hotel, he also mentioned I should go to 6th Street because that's where the girls from UT go, and I said, "MUCHAS GRACIAS AMIGOOOO" and he handed me some condoms and said "buena suerte" whatever that means.

(Just kidding about the very last part about the condoms and him telling me good luck).

Unfortunately, I am still getting over strep, and I do have exams the next two weeks for which I really need to study, so I am writing a blog to take a break from the studying and I figure maybe I will see some live music tomorrow. I talked to a friend that lives in Austin and she recommended I check out the Warehouse District around 4th Street, saying it was less of the college crowd than 6th Street is, and smells less like puke. So we'll see what happens. I wish I could stay in Austin a bit longer, it really is a great city.

Tomorrow I will head to the expo, get my packet, etc. Hopefully I am fully recovered from strep, and I won't lie, I have had to scale back both my training and my expectations for this race, but that's the smart thing to do. It's usually not a good idea to have unrealistic expectations for a race and set yourself up for disappointment. I do not want to have my first DNF, but my Dad reminded me on the phone that my health comes first, so I will run on Sunday but most likely I will not push myself too hard. I have heard this is a hilly course, and I am sure that will play a part as well.

The last few pictures I wanted to share were the ones I took from my hotel room on the 16th floor. The two pictures were both taken without flash at the same time of day, which can seem odd considering the Texas State Capitol is so well lit in one picture and the sunset-backlit buildings in the other seem so dark. I'll let you be the judge, I need to get back to studying, and of course I have the Vancouver Olympics Opening Ceremonies on in the background. I thought it would have been way cooler if Robin Sparkles had sang "Oh Canada." :(

Texas State Capitol

Hidden Sunset

More to come...

Running Tip #2

2010-01-29T19:14:00.011-05:00

Before I ran my first marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon in 2007, I was a spectator at the MCM in 2002 or 2003 I think. I was a student athlete at my university at the time, and as a team we went to the course to cheer on the runners and offer whatever encouragement that we could. One teammate in particular was pretty hilarious with some of her encouragement, like "You're almost there!"

Bear in mind, we were at mile marker 20 of a 26.2 mile race. They were not "almost there." Marathoners joke that a marathon is just a 20 mile race followed by one of the hardest 10K's of your life. Ultramarathoners joke that a marathon's just a warm-up. I guess there's always someone higher on the pecking order, (and in medicine too, sweet!) huh? Spectators tell runners lies all the time, and rarely the truth.

Sample lies:

Lookin' good!
You're almost there! (this looks familiar huh?)
The beer's close!!
This is the last hill, c'mon you can do it!

Sample truth:

If it were easier, I'd be doing it!

You get the gist of it.

Anyway, my tip is: use BodyGlide or some other kind of lubricant. If you have never run longer than 2-3 miles, lubrication usually doesn't come up. It can be a lifesaver to use it though, especially on long(er) runs. If I am doing less than 10 miles, I just put it on my feet so I don't get blisters, even though I missed a spot at this past year's MCM in 2009 and got a sweet blister as a result. If I am doing more than 10 miles, my nipples get the BodyGlide treatment. You know why one of the lies quoted above is "Lookin' good!" ? I can tell you, if you are bleeding from chafed nipples, which BTW has never happened to me but I saw at that MCM back in 2002 or 2003, you are most definitely NOT looking good. The guy that dropped a deuce in his shorts was also not lookin' good back then, but at least we didn't know it until he ran past us. Talk about dedication. I know at the MCM over the years several different groups have been around offering up vasoline on tongue depressors (aka popsicle sticks?), for all your anti-chafe needs.

I wish I had known about BodyGlide when I taught camps for several summers in 80-100 degree weather throughout the Northeastern United States (Virginia to Pennsylvania with some NC & SC thrown in). Some of the dudes I worked with always swore by Gold Bond, or Gold Bond Medicated (saying Medicated was like a cooool breeze~! on your junk). BG washes off, it's awesome. They have my full endorsement.

So running tip #2: lubricate, especially on longer runs. Especially especially if you're overweight, or your thighs rub together. Anywhere there is going to be skin-on-skin or skin-on-sock-on-shoe upper, it's a great idea to use BodyGlide or your other favorite lubricant (wonder how KY Jelly works.. just kidding).

Austin Marathon blog post will be up sometime this weekend.

Budget Cuts, Spring '10 First Impression

2010-01-27T15:21:00.006-05:00

Budget cuts are in full force at my post-baccalaureate institution. To make up the difference, lab fees have been increased, tuition will undoubtedly increase in the next year, class sizes are larger, and the list goes on. One thing I noticed quickly last week, in the first week of classes, is that all of the physics recitation sections are now on Friday, and I think the same instructor has the 4 sections. Last semester, recitation sections were covered by several different instructors on several different days, and there were no more than 25-30 people in each recitation, which makes the recitation quizzes easy to administer in a pen & paper format.

This morning in organic lab, one of the TVs did not work, so two lab sections of around 50-60 people, some of which I think were hoping to add into the sections, which seemed full, crammed into one lab to watch the safety video from 1993 (yay protective wear/knowing what you are doing/asking questions if necessary, boo drinking/eating in lab/pouring waste down the drain/siphoning liquids with your mouth/playing practical jokes/doing your own experiment in lab). Someone should really update the safety video. Also, we were watching an informational video about NMR, which IMO was a colossal waste of time for the people not directly in front of the 25" TV. I'm sure the volume was all the way up and still it was hard to hear anything, and not just because I am getting older--hey! I'm only 29!--but because of the overall din of everyone's side conversations, texting, laughter, etc.

This semester, like I said, all recitations are on Friday, each recitation has around 70-80 students in it, and the quizzes are no longer going to be pen & paper but online, or via iClicker in class (multiple choice). MC kind of defeats the purpose of physics in my opinion. I thought the whole point of studying physics was being able to set up the problem correctly, drawing a picture if necessary, drawing out the vectors and then doing what is asked, i.e. physics is one of those "journey" not "destination" type classes, where you are learning how to problem solve systematically, but where you must have an understanding of what is being asked and what assumptions to make in setting up and solving problems.

I'm taking the second part of physics, organic chemistry, and plant biology. There's a new professor for the physics lecture which will be nice, having some new blood and a different lecturer. I have nothing against last semester's physics professor, but like I said it's nice to see a new face and get a different perspective. Another component is online homework that will be rolled into a quasi-participation aspect of our lecture grade (lecture and lab are separate grades in physics, recitation is rolled into lecture). Organic is the same as last semester as far as the lecture goes, I'm assuming that the class average on the exams will be uniformly low like the end of last semester, i.e. 9-10/21 correct on most of the exams, considering there is no "easy" part like nomenclature, acid/base strength, and so on, like the beginning of organic chemistry I had. Plant biology doesn't seem that bad, the lab looks like it should be interesting and not time-consuming, which is nice since I'm taking organic & physics together, I feel like the bulk of my time will be spent preparing for those, but I will have to be mindful to not neglect plant biology. Speaking of plant bio, the lecture is straight from slides, but there is still a participation component via classroom response system/iClicker so it will be fun to see everyone straggle in to maximize possible points.

18 days until Austin! That's two long runs, one flight, stopping in Chicago and switching planes before flying into Austin/Bergstrom, and 26.2 miles. Can't wait. I'll update pretty soon with an Austin-specific blog, and I'm still deciding if I want to live tweet/take pics during the Austin Marathon. We'll see.

Running Tip #1

2010-01-25T19:18:00.008-05:00

Don't eat chili the night before a long run, for obvious reasons. Ooh, wait, there's a proviso: if you regularly eat chili, you're probably safe to eat it before a long run.

Of course that isn't actually the real chili we ate - we used ground turkey for meat, but the beans are the same, there was minced garlic in it, chili powder, diced onions, tomatoes, etc. There were also oyster crackers and the cheese we had was more finely shredded than above, just so we're clear.

Backstory: I went over to my sister's house on Saturday night to catch up, play some Beatles Rock Band, and help her make and eat some chili. I showed her the easiest way to dice an onion, and considering she's in her 30s, I'm surprised she didn't know it already, and also how to cut fresh basil leaves. So, at least she learned something new, and I did as well (something about cost-plus). I use two knives when I cook, and I'm a firm believer that you can get by fine for most tasks with just two simple knives: 1) chef's knife (preferably 8") and a 2) paring knife. Anyhow, so we're making the chili and we sit down, start eating and catch up on her DVR, at least the shows she watches that I will watch too, like Supernatural, Burn Notice, Fringe, etc., (no Grey's, thanks!). Her Yorkie is begging next to me on the couch. The one time this dog is well-behaved is if you have some savory nom-noms on a plate or in a bowl in front of you.

Post-chili, we christened the Beatles Rock Band for Wii I had bought her for Christmas. I think I like being Ringo the most--shocker. We played quickplay for a bit then started story mode to see what things we could unlock, but it was getting late and I decided to head home.

Fast forward to Sunday morning, it was raining and cold, and I'll run when it's cold, or run when it's raining, but I don't run outside when it's rainy and cold. I have my principles (if principles = comfort level). So I went to my other sister's house to run on her treadmill, and of course my nephew comes down to the basement, he's 4, and asking what I'm going to watch on the TV while I run.

"Psych!"

"Psych? I thought you were watching 'How I Met Your Mother?'"

He is such a well-spoken four year old. I explain that I rotate what I watch whenever I use the treadmill, all though he was right, I was watching HIMYM for a while.

Anyway, long story short, about 8 miles in I get the severe feeling right in my core, where I feel like I'm at SHITCON 2, I mean this thing is close to imminent, but I gut it out, no pun intended, and get to 9 miles before I take a break and handle my business. That was about the hardest mile I've run in my life, even though it was only at 8:20ish pace...

Anyway, lesson learned, and without going into gory detail, don't eat chili the night before a long run, and further, don't change your diet at all before a long run, don't throw your stomach a curveball, a slider, or especially a knuckleball, or you'll pay for it.

Shadowing Part Deux: Electric Boogaloo

2010-01-17T22:19:00.005-05:00

So the past two weeks I had shadowed a specialist.

One thing I noticed - quite a few of his patients were older and on Medicare/Medicaid. Another thing I noticed was that the older the patient, typically the more positive and happy the patient's outlook. The younger patients (younger as in, 50s/60s), weren't too bad off, but it was really the 80s, 90s and the 103! year olds that had the best outlooks on life and attitudes.

It made sense to me. People that are constantly negative, bitter, and bitching about their lot in life are probably the ones that are not survivors, and do not make it to 70, 80, or 90. Some people may get cancer, or have a heart attack, and succumb to the illness... but I think it's typically the people with a negative outlook and pessimistic tendencies that do not make it over the long run. So lesson learned: stay positive. I feel like I am an optimist at heart and want to find the best in people and situations but it is not always easy.

Several patients had faced adversity over their lifetimes - sometimes disability, a heart attack or quadruple bypass here, cancer there, diabetes and high blood pressure everywhere. Still, they had a positive outlook on things and that seemed to make all the difference in that they were still there, smiling, catching up with the doctor in the exam room and wishing each other well. Even the patients with disabilities, like reduced vision, etc., seemed to get along okay, for one older gentleman, as long as he could do his crossword puzzle and play tennis, that's all he cared about. In my mind, that's great!

More to come later... along with what else I will be up to a month from now: running the Austin Marathon!!

Hi, 2010. Nice to meet you!

2010-01-12T22:27:00.004-05:00

First, Happy New Year to the three people that read this! I hope you each have numerous blessings and great stuff happening to you this year. You deserve it.

What's been happening? Surprisingly, not much. For the past week and a half, I've been shadowing a specialist physician. My dad is actually a patient of his, and the last time my dad was in town, I asked him to see if it was cool with this doc if I could come in and shadow him, he offered up a two week window between New Year's and when he is going on vacation, so I said yes.

I haven't shadowed before, and my main experience with clinical medicine had either been as a patient (rarely, as I am lucky enough to enjoy good health overall and I'm thankful for it... I think if you have good health you are rich in life, because if your health sucks you aren't going to be happy, but I digress), or as a family member, mainly with my mom during her eight year battle with cancer.

This was a different beast. As we entered the exam room for each patient, the doctor would greet the patient by their name (i.e. "Hello, Mr. Smith" not "Hi, John!"), and introduce me, "We have a student/young doctor-to-be with us today, this is ASK." Most of the patients have been with this doctor for a long time - some for thirty years. Over the past week and a half, all of the patients were very cooperative and seemed okay with having me in the exam rooms. It was odd the first time, after asking if she had any more questions and finishing up with a patient, and when we were leaving the exam room and wishing her well, telling her to stay warm, when she thanked me and said, "Nice to meet you, Dr. K."

The first time I corrected the patient and said, "I'm not Dr. K yet, but hopefully will be one day." Of course I liked hearing it, it had a nice ring to it. After that first day, I stopped correcting the patients if they ever said, "thank you, doctor" or "nice to meet you, doctor" to me. I realize that while I look the part, and while I want to be one, I am not a doctor yet, but in the grand scheme of things, while I was introduced as a student, not "medical student," it doesn't matter to the patient, and I did not feel like I was being disingenuous or misled any patient. I did not offer any medical advice, since I am unqualified to give it, but I was lucky enough to take part in certain non-invasive parts of their exams. A few times, I was encouraged to start taking a history, informally, just to get more used to speaking in a "doctorly" capacity with patients.

I have definitely learned a lot this past week and a half. I feel like now more than ever, after seeing the rapport of this doctor with his patients, most of whom have been under his care long-term, I am convinced that this is what I want to do and will be satisfying to me in so many different respects as a career.

But, man! How much would it have sucked if the first day I went in to shadow, after doing all of these prerequisite classes as a post-bacc pre-med, that I realized I hated clinical medicine? I'm glad I really like it. I like this specialty in particular too, but I am still keeping an open mind and looking for other opportunities to get clinical exposure in any capacity... not to make myself a stronger applicant all though it would definitely not hurt, but just to be around the patients more and see what the different practices are like on a day-to-day basis.

I will update more on shadowing later. :)

Treading Water

2009-11-17T20:59:00.005-05:00

I feel like I am treading water. It reminds me of the quote from Van Wilder: "Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere." I try not to worry, and I'm not overwhelmed by my classes, I'm only taking physics and organic chemistry and the accompanying labs, but I can't wait to move on to the next step - which at this point would be studying for the MCAT. It still feels at times like I'm making very little progress in my goal of being a physician, but I realize it's a marathon, and not a sprint, so I am in it for the long haul, and I've run three marathons... so I feel like I'm capable of staying on track towards my goal.

I will probably start studying for the MCAT this spring and try to take it in May. I still have not decided if I want to apply for the entering class in 2011 or entering in 2012. It may be a better idea for me to wait a year to apply, that way I can work and try to save a little money during the application cycle. I realize I may end up having to reapply, and if I don't get accepted anywhere, I definitely will try to strengthen my application and reapply, but I think waiting a year, having more experience and a better application is better than blowing a lot of money on an unsuccessful application cycle.

My classes are going well. However, I cannot believe the class averages and curves that will be used for them. The class average on the last lecture exam in organic was 9/21 questions correct. Nine. The first exam's average was 12/21. Luckily I have been well above average both times, but still... is the class really that hard? Do my fellow classmates not understand the material, which would indicate either poor attendance, poor teaching, or lack of effort, or some combination of the three? Physics isn't much better... the averages on the exams have been in the low to mid-60's: 62 for the first exam and 66 for the second exam. If that gets normalized to a 75, which is going to be a C, as the professor said, then I should be in A territory since I was in the mid-upper 80s on both exams. That's the thing too about being a post-bac, whether you are traditional or non-traditional: getting As is expected and it's what you have to do if you want to give yourself the best chances of getting in somewhere.

What else is new. I got the Motorola Droid. It's my first smartphone. Before that I had a Motorola MotoRIZR z6tv. So far, I love my Droid. Why didn't I get a smartphone sooner? I find myself less tethered to the computer checking my e-mail when it gets pushed to my phone, which means I'm wasting less time on the internet and generally being more productive™. Yay!

Reunion!

2009-10-30T21:16:00.003-04:00

I just saw on Facebook that some of my middle school classmates were proposing a middle school reunion! It sounds good in theory. Maybe I can draft a letter to feel out my fellow classmates from the early 90s. It would go something like this:

"Dear Middle School Classes of '93-'95,

I hope you are all well! Now more than ever it is time to reconnect with our former fellow students, and reminisce about all the wonderful memories we shared together in the early 90s. Some of the wonderful things we got to experience include:

annual measurement and marvel of Mr. H's ear and nose hair growth, one of the few truly old school 70 year old gym teachers who could still hack it with prepubescent 12-15 year olds! Remember how it seemed like his moustache grew out of his nose?
we all developed body odor together! Some of us figured out how to use deodorant, some of us did not, but I hope most of us have now for this reunion, because hey, it could end up in a crowded, hot bar, and no one wants to remember the smell of gym clothes.
speaking of gym clothes, if you can still wear your gym clothes, you are entitled to free drinks all night. Don't try to squeeze into them if you are grossly overweight or just way bigger than you were in middle school, no one wants to see muffin-top action.
making ambrosia in home ec? That shit was delicious! Much respect to Mrs. D., she looked like she stepped out of "Leave it to Beaver" but homegirl was on point with her 50s curls. She probably got up at 5 a.m. every morning to maintain it - see the sacrifices teachers made for us??
the gangly girl with the braces and bad hair? Remember her? Yeah, she's a model now... and a successful businesswoman. She remembers you, and if you were nice to her before she "got all hot." Hope you were nice, if you're a guy or girl. Rumor is, she plays for both teams.
the field trips! How fun was it to go to Philadelphia! How fun was it to go the Air & Space Museum for the 10th time? Am I right or am I right?

These, and many more memories are available for strolls down memory lane. Let's make this reunion happen, it will be sweet sweet nice! We will have drink specials, but in keeping with our middle school roots and remembrance, we will have a somewhat unorthodox system of ordering drinks. You must tell a friend that you think the drink is cute, and the bartenders will try to determine from your friend's description what drink you want and who you are. If the drink feels the same way, congratulations! Enjoy your time together, and don't worry about what other people say about you two - you were made for each other.

Come on down, details will be forthcoming, we are shooting for a reunion at the Four Seasons, but we may have to settle for Del Taco. I hope that will not be a problem for anyone. Do you want to come:

____ YES ____ NO

Sincerely,

ask

P.S. To sweeten the pot, some of our former teachers, some of whom still work at the school, will be attending if at least 50 people sign up. Has it been your lifelong dream to grind on Mrs. Y, the hot Spanish teacher? She's still hot. We can make it happen."

I smell success.

MCM Recap - 34th Annual Marine Corps Marathon

2009-10-25T20:29:00.015-04:00

Today was the 34^th Annual Marine Corps Marathon. You could not have asked for a more perfect day to run on, humidity was relatively low, at the starting howitzer. Yeah, by the way they use a howitzer at the Marine Corps Marathon, not some lame starter’s pistol. Sen. Patrick Leahy from Vermont was there to say a few words before the start, which was the wheelchairs/handbikes at 7:50, with the rest of the field starting at 8:00.

I do not have a lot of gripes about the MCM. The organizational skills of the Marine Corps are second to none. It is marketed as the “People’s Marathon” and as such there are a lot of novice first-timers in the marathon. That is fine, everyone has to start somewhere; I started here in 2007. In fact, I’ve only run Marine Corps Marathons, in 2007, 2008, and today in 2009, so I don’t have a lot of basis to compare it against, outside of reading race reports from other races.

My main gripe, which is about something that I have noticed this year and last year, is a lot of people place themselves and start in improper corrals. I think one way around this is a wave start, and maybe that is something they should consider in the future. I like the openness of the corrals, and that you pick the one you feel is best for your pace, but either a) a lot of people have no clue how fast, or more likely how slow, they run or b) people try to run with friends when they have significant divergences in their training and ability. I am by no means a gazelle, I’m pretty much a standard middle of the pack runner, but it kind of sucks having to bob and weave around people after the first few miles because they started too fast. Everyone knows the first few miles kind of suck, and it takes some distance to get some separation in this massive chain of humanity that seems to collectively ebb and flow, speed up and slow down, in discrete segments at a time.

I think one of the biggest clues that someone is a first time marathoner is they do not check behind them before they dart over to the water tables, which happened more than a few times today, even once when someone went from the far left in the road to the far right to get Powerade or water. I thought the commonly accepted practice/etiquette is look behind you, and if necessary speed up or slow down to find an opening if you need to cross over.

I am not going to recap every mile of the race. I ran as a charity runner for the American Cancer Society. I packed some Sport Jellybeans into my shorts, a gel, and some Endurolytes.

Speaking of the Endurolytes, I had them in a ziplock bag in my shorts’ pocket, and over the course of running, the flimsy capsules seems to slip apart somewhat and release some of the powder. That wasn’t a big deal. What was funny though is that I was taking them every 45 minutes or so, and cramping was not an issue for me as much this year as it had been in the past. I still had some relatively minor cramps, and I realized that trying to walk it off did not work. It only seemed to make it worse. Continuing to run seemed to be a better option in alleviating the minor cramps that I had encountered today. Getting back to the Endurolytes, I was taking them every 45ish minutes, conveniently whenever there was a water stop, and the ziplock bag became more and more coated in the powder that was leaking out of the capsules. I wondered what I looked like to someone who did not know what they were – I realize most people focus on their body and their race, but if you see a guy pull a white baggie out that looks to be full of white powder, what do you think? Does he use blow as a pick-me-up instead of gels and the like? Hmmm…

The Awesome:

The Marines were awesome. Lots of 2LT, 1LT along the course along with an occasional captain that I noticed. I think it was mainly lieutenants handing out finisher medals.
Some of the participants are truly inspiring. Especially amputees/double amputees, some of whom are service members who were wounded in action, and they have the ability to get out and run 26.2 just like the rest of us. It goes to show you that life is really what you make of it, and you shouldn't let setbacks or obstacles, even as serious as losing a limb, hinder you in planning to meet your goals.
The day was beautiful, the scenery was and continues to be inspiring, the spectator support was incredible. Caveat - SEE: Hains Point, below.
One of the bands along the route began playing Everlong as I was running by, which happens to only be my favorite song ever! It’s not a particularly hard song to play on drums, once you get the hang of the constant 16^th notes on a closed hi-hat.
Early on, I was running with the FLASH! Yes, the Scarlet Speedster ran the Marine Corps Marathon. If the “real” Flash ran the Marine Corps Marathon (if there were a “real” Flash), and if his top speed was the speed of light in a vacuum, or 299,792,458 m/s, we can convert that easily to figure out how long he would take to finish the MCM. A marathon is 26.2 miles, and 1 mile is roughly 1.609 km. 26.2 miles/marathon * 1.609 meters/mile (cancel out miles in nominator/denominator for meters/marathon) is approximately equal to 42 km, 42.16 km if we want to be a little more accurate. 42.16 km x 1000 m / km (cancel out km’s) is 42160 m. 42160 m / 299,792,458 m/s is 0.00014 s. Alternatively, the average blink takes about 0.3 or 0.4 s. So literally the Flash would be done before you could blink. Yay, science! And sorry, I’m taking physics. So anyway, what was the Flash doing with me in the middle of the pack at the 4 mile mark-ish, instead of kicking his feet up in Rosslyn at the Finish Festival with a cold one?
I think some spectator was dressed up as a Pokemon in Crystal City. WTF?
I know some spectators were dressed up as a bee and something else. Ehh?
I don’t feel that sore. I was walking normally after the marathon after getting my finisher’s photo and I definitely saw some people that were genuinely hurting and probably sore in places they didn’t know they had. I’ve been there.

Not so Awesome:

People in wrong corrals. See above.
Got a hot spot posterior to my big toe, anterior to the ball of my foot. Hot spot means you’re getting a blister. So I basically ran with a blister from miles 14-15 onward, and I think it slowed me down considerably. I just could not get comfortable with it.
Hains Point, as per usual, sucks. If ever there were a place to conserve energy this is it. Very few spectators, and even though it is nice and flat, the lack of spectators and lack of scenery, other than grass, an occasional public restroom hut, and planes taking off and landing at Reagan is dismal and depressing. People running this year and last were blessed in that Hains Point has been earlier than in the past – it used to be around miles 17/18 and is now around 13/14. Yay?
Got a PR, but was disappointed with my time – 4:41. Like I said, I’m a middle of the pack runner, but I think once everything comes together, i.e. my nutrition improves and I can get more quality miles and workouts, especially some speed work, I will do much better. So maybe that’s awesome, since I know I haven’t nearly reached my potential. I remember I’m hard on myself and I’ve only run three marathons and was never a runner growing up outside of conditioning for teams or being punished, i.e. more conditioning. I played baseball, I wrestled, I played football, and I was a cheerleader, not a runner.
I think my lips are sunburned.

Too Awesome Not to Share

2009-10-21T18:58:00.005-04:00

Behold. If there weren't enough reasons to think Africa and South America are cool (especially if you're going to go there--preferably Africa--and do volunteer work before you cure cancer so you're a shoe-in to get into medical school), what makes them ever cooler is they combine to form a T-REX! Awesome.

Irritated

2009-10-19T20:39:00.005-04:00

I am trying to finish my lab report for tomorrow, it's about infrared spectroscopy. The lab report itself isn't hard, I have the rubric in front of me, so I know what is expected, and that isn't what's irritating me. I have gotten two calls within the past week from strangers.

Normally, I like interacting with strangers and meeting new people. However, both of these strangers were calling about a part-time "business opportunity" and asking if I wanted to make a little extra money. They both got my contact info through people I'm friends with on Facebook that I know from high school. Maybe I'm stupid for putting my cell-phone number on my profile, but I felt like with my privacy settings, only my friends can see my info, so it was no big deal.

Buuut, I guess my "friends" are giving out my info for other purposes. I'm more than a little leery of friends who do this without asking first. It is probably the type of "business opportunity" that means they get more money for referring people into the business. I don't have the time or interest in anything that sounds remotely pyramid scheme-ish, so I politely told the callers I was not interested, they thanked me for my time, and I removed one of the friends and blocked them. Why do people do this?? I think it's similar to not asking someone to be a reference for you and having them be blindsided with a phone call later. It's one thing if they mention it to me, but both didn't beforehand, so I didn't know it was coming. WTF?

Maybe I am getting all bent out of shape over nothing? It probably doesn't help that I am a little sore from my last long run this week before the marathon, mainly in my calves, and that I am actually doing schoolwork when this last guy called about fifteen minutes ago. I'm definitely going to ask the friend I haven't blocked what the deal is, or maybe I should just take all contact info off my FB. Ehhh... exhale.

Oh yeah, donate if you can. The marathon is in SIX short days and I'm still short of my fundraising goal!

My Charity Runner Page

Injuries

2009-10-13T21:49:00.006-04:00

Injuries happen with marathon training. It's a fact of life for some people. Luckily, and let me knock on wood here for a second, I have been fortunate to dodge most of the common runner ailments. I think the biggest reason I haven't been affected is that I'm a biomechanically efficient runner. I do not supinate or overpronate, my pronation is normal so my gait is neutral. That definitely helps avoid injury, but that isn't exactly the best advice since everyone's anatomy and gait vary. The most frequent runner injuries I have heard of or seen are:

1) plantar fasciitis - inflammation of the plantar fascia that runs from the heel to the forefoot, and a common overuse injury. I think I've had a mild case of it, but it hasn't bothered me lately, when it did bother me at first, I did some exercises like scrunching up a towel with my toes, and running the arch/sole of my foot over a tennis ball. The pain I had wasn't excruciating, and more directly posterior to the ball of my foot on the medial side, not under/around my heel like it commonly presents (or so I've heard).

2) shin splints - no experience with these. I guess I have tibialis anteriors of steel. You can see how they could be prone to be injured though since they can bear a pretty big load during dorsiflexion, and some people are more predisposed to these as well, but I haven't read up on why.

3) patellar tendinitis - I see and know a bunch of people that run with the bands around the knees to help with this. Again, I feel lucky to have avoided it. It's an inflammation of the patellar tendon that connects the patella (kneecap) with the tibia (shinbone). It's more common in activities that involve jumping, and is sometimes called jumper's knee - basketball, volleyball, some track events, but happens a lot in runners as well.

4) iliotibial band syndrome - I have no experience with this either, but it caused my brother-in-law a lot of pain when he had it a few years ago prior to the first Marine Corps Marathon I ran in 2007. He was going to run it as well, but the pain was too much and made running too difficult. The iliotibial band stabilizes the knee during movement, for example as the knee is flexed and extended repeatedly during running. It runs from the outside of the hip to the inside and just below of the knee, and commonly causes lateral knee pain in runners, but can cause pain throughout the tract wherever it is inflamed.

Muscle strain/fatigue is about the worst "injury" I have had over the past three years that I've been running, but that happens with any weight-bearing activity, especially distance running. The worst is quad fatigue after long runs when you have to go down stairs sideways, unless you feel like crumbling/buckling your knees sounds like an awesome idea, because you're wearing Bad Idea Jeans™. This week someone told me, "Running marathons is the worst thing you can do to your body."

I said, "I'm pretty sure smoking is worse for you than running."

Bottom line: my advice regarding injuries is to listen to your body. If you tweak something, you know yourself best. If it's something you can deal with and continue your workouts without it worsening, then try to keep moving forward. If it's something you can't deal with, get it checked out and hopefully have a speedy recovery.

My last bit of advice: it's fine to take a day off from time to time. You won't sabotage your training by missing a day if you aren't feeling it--physically or psychologically.

I'm crossing my fingers, cutting back my mileage and enjoying my taper. There's only 12 days until the Marine Corps Marathon! I'm still accepting donations but additionally will take any moral support or encouragement as well!

Charity Runner Donations Here - American Cancer Society

34th Marine Corps Marathon!

2009-10-07T21:34:00.008-04:00

Believe in me.

I promised some big news, here it is: I'm running a marathon, and not just any marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon, for the third time. The first two times, I ran for charity - for the American Cancer Society both years. I've blogged about running occasionally, and here is some nutshelling: I was never a runner, I played baseball, I cheered, running was for conditioning or punishment. Is it odd I've never run a 5K but I have run two marathons now? I guess I would just rather be a marathon man. (rimshot goes here). The main thing you need to run is a good pair of shoes, and you just need to replace them every 300-500 miles. Your mileage may vary, literally, depending on the surface you run on, your biomechanics, and your build.

I took up running after my mom passed due to breast cancer. I wanted to do something to change my life for the better, and I didn't want to succumb to the effects of the typical office drone lifestyle of a ballooning waistline and the associated medical issues that go along with it. So I thought, "Well, I could ride a bike." Bikes are expensive. You need a helmet. More importantly, you need a bike. You may end up wearing spandex. You probably need to switch out the stock saddle that comes on the bike, because they're usually pretty stiff. Some of them are so stiff I think the model name is the "Violator."

Anyway, I decided I would run. I heard about the concept of Charity Running and decided to look into being a charity runner. My mom passed in March 2007, and sometime around early May after my birthday, after some introspection, I decided to run the Marine Corps Marathon, as a charity runner for the American Cancer Society. The MCM had a lot of things going for it: I'm a Northern Virginia native, so it was local, starting in Arlington and taking a scenic route through Washington, D.C., including the Palisades, Hains Point and the National Mall, it is relatively flat, and it is pretty newbie-friendly, having the nickname "the People's Marathon." Plus, it's run and supported by the Marine Corps. You think they're going to drop the ball on running a great race? I don't think so. On top of that, the finish is up a slight hill (okay, it isn't slight, but after running 26 miles and change you aren't going to stop because of it), but the vista is inspiring - the Iwo Jima Memorial is at the finish, formally known as the Marine Corps War Memorial, seen below.

When you finish, a Marine places a finisher's medal around your neck, congratulates you and hands you a space blanket (the silvery mylar blanket to keep warm), and directs you to where the water and massages are going down. You can also get a coin, which is a big military tradition (as seen here: Challenge Coin).

I've enjoyed my experiences as a charity runner. I am looking for donations. The following is a link to donate, and I will update more in the very near future. In the interest of full disclosure, I am obligated to raise $1000 by November 25, which gives me a month after race day, which is October 25, aka 18 days from now, or I am on the hook for the remainder of the amount. It is a worthwhile cause - you can read my participant page, I wrote the top part but once you start seeing bold text, it's straight template from the American Cancer Society. I think it is when you see "can make a difference" like twice - I wrote the first one, then somewhat to my chagrin, noticed they use the same phrase directly after that, in boldface no less. Maybe I subconsciously wrote it, who knows? So please, help me out if you can - every dollar makes a difference.

If you don't, I'm going to pull a Matt Damon. Just kidding. That's probably funny only if you saw the season finale of Entourage. I appreciate your support, as cancer is very personal to me and it is to a lot of people. Thanks!

The American Cancer Society - My Charity Runner Page

The Results Are In!

2009-10-04T11:09:00.004-04:00

We got the results of the first organic chemistry exam on Thursday. The exam was 20-ish questions, as I said earlier. The professor waited until the end of the class to announce the exams had been graded, which, in hindsight, is a really smart move on his part, because if you hand them out at the beginning of class, then a lot of people will want to:

A) leave lecture since OMG it's Thursday and the weather's nice OR
B) go over the exam with a fine-tooth comb and not pay attention to the lecture.

I was fine with him withholding until the end, but I know some people can't wait to see how they did. I used to be a pretty impatient person, but I guess I have just mellowed out as I'm in the downward slope of the back end of my 20's. The class average was a 60%. That was far better than I had expected. Everyone has heard the stories about how it's a weed out class, the exams are so difficult, the class average on exams can be in the 40s/50s and everything gets scaled to make the class average a 75, and funny enough only about 2/3 of the section showed up for class.

The professor noticed it too, as usually in our lecture hall when everyone shows up we're seated shoulder to shoulder in the auditorium, and aside from the first 3-5 rows packed with the gunners, there were a lot of empty seats. He said, "It looks like 1/3 of us have already given up hope!" I don't sit with the gunners by the way, I don't think I will ever have that mentality. I obviously want to do well, but I sit in the middle 1/3 of the auditorium with the other people who are not high-strung.

So long story short, class average is 60, meaning 60=75. He explained there was a number on the second page of the exam that would have our raw score, meaning, how many we answered correctly out of the 20-ish questions. With the class average being 60, that worked out to 12 or 13 right. I got 18 right, for an 87 (without the curve). With the curve, I guess my grade for the exam is 102. Yippee! Exhale.

Most Likely To...

2009-09-30T15:25:00.006-04:00

My high school was relatively large. My graduating class had over 600 seniors walking, and a bunch who were not walking. I didn't win any senior superlatives, you know, like "Best Dressed" or "Best Smile" or "Most Likely to Succeed." I could tell you one I would have won, hands-down, had it been offered and voted upon.

Most Likely To Be Walking Around With Fly Down.

I catch myself like this a lot. I don't know what it says about me. Am I absent-minded? Am I in such a hurry, go go go all the time, that after urinating I rush to wash my hands and gtfo of the bathroom? I don't think other people notice nearly as often as I do, or at least I don't consciously check OTHER people to see if they left their fly down. Maybe that is a good thing?

The sad part about it is that a lot of the time I have no idea how long it's been down. Did I pull my pants/shorts on that morning while getting dressed and completely forget, or was it just after the last trip to the bathroom?

In unrelated news, I had my first organic chemistry exam yesterday, and my first physics exam this morning. I felt pretty good about organic chemistry but there were a little over 20 questions, so there isn't a lot of a margin for error. You figure you miss 2-3 and you're already in B territory if there is no curve, BUUUUUUT....

Apparently there is a huge curve in the class. This professor's exams are multiple choice, but known to have class averages in the 40s. Is organic chemistry like this everywhere?? Like I said, I felt good about the exam, out of the 20ish questions, 7-8 I knew cold without having to draw out a structure or really take a close look at, but I did anyway. These were questions like, "What's the name of this?" (insert picture of some bicyclohexane), or "Put in the correct order of base strength" (easy enough, think about the conjugate acids, position on periodic table, electronegativity, inductive effect, etc). Then there were other questions that you had to draw out (which one is NOT a resonance structure of x, etc.). Overall, though, I think I did well. I should find out tomorrow or next week, and I'm going to call my Dad and tell him, because he asked, and because he wants me to do well.

The physics exam was problem-based, just a handful of multi-part problems on kinematics in 1-2 dimensions including velocity, acceleration and vectors of course. There was no formula sheet, so of course I'm scribbling the formulas I remember on the scratch paper, like v = v(sub)0 + at, v^2 = v(sub)0^2 +2a(x-x0), x = x(sub)0 + v(sub)0t + 1/2at^2. If you have done a lot of practice problems though, all of the problems tend to look alike after a while in that you identify the knowns, and the unknown, or "the-big-bad-they're-asking-for." I think the professor said the grades would be posted Friday sometime, so we'll see how I did.

Big news coming soon-ish.

Specialties?

2009-09-21T22:10:00.006-04:00

I haven't given much thought to what specialty(ies?) I am most interested in at this point. I know some pre-meds, both traditional and non-traditional, are gung ho about a particular field. One of my lab partners in the second half of general chemistry last year was gung ho about obstetrics & gynecology. She talked a lot about shadowing in L&D and seeing some really bad lacs. I wonder if she told her boyfriend all about it. He probably loved hearing about it.

For me, I'd like to think I'm being open-minded about specialty choice. Besides, it's kind of a moot point until I am an actual medical student, and I start getting exposure to the specialties, especially in the clinical years. There are certain stereotypes for most of the specialties, but I am sure there are exceptions to them as well. I don't mean to say I don't care what kind of doctor I become, I do care. I am pretty interested in the different surgical specialties. However, the fact that I'm 29 now, but a "young" and unattached 29 (I have a lot of energy, stay fit and I'm not married & I have no kids) and most likely 31 or 32 when I matriculate if everything goes as planned, that the length of residency may be a factor as far as what specialty I pick to pursue in the match. If I graduate around 35 or 36, I don't know if I'm really going to want to do say five years of general surgery (and potentially fellowship on top of that), you know? That won't be the only deciding factor.. if not much changes at that point, the main things being my chronological age and my education of course, then I may still be looking at surgical specialties. If I'm married at that point, plans may change. It's good to have a plan but life often throws you curveballs. I think without a plan at all though, you're essentially like a ship without a sail and you drift to wherever the currents take you. So I have some semblance of a plan. :)

I know there is a 130-ish question test on the University of Virginia medical school's website somewhere that ranks the specialties based on your response to questions, like "I tend to ...." with the answers being "Agree" through to "Disagree" with "Neutral" in the middle on the scale (5 options to pick from total). I think I started taking it before but I didn't finish because something shiny distracted me. Maybe I'd be good in emergency medicine? Totally kidding. I read a lot of different blogs and there are definitely some ED attendings' blogs in there.

I dated an ob/gyn resident a year or so ago, and when I told her I was going to do the postbac thing, it became a game where she would guess what she saw as my specialty. I think the most common ones she guessed were emergency, ortho, and general surgery. She said I didn't "seem like" an internist. Whatever that means.

Root Canal'd

2009-09-14T13:26:00.005-04:00

My first, and hopefully last, root canal was this morning. I was a little late getting up to the dentist's office, and I hate being late but the traffic in Northern Virginia is truly unpredictable. I love Northern Virginia & the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, but the traffic is both unpredictable AND horrible most of the time. My appointment was at 8 a.m. and I left my house at a quarter to 7, which theoretically should have given me plenty of time to get to the dental office, considering that's one hour and fifteen minutes to cover a little over 20 miles. Guess what... I was a half hour late thanks to a crash further up I-395 near the 14th Street Bridge, further up from where I had to go.

Moving right along, I get to the dentist's office and the dentist numbs me up with the good stuff, not sure what, other than it wasn't Novocaine since he said it's "faster acting than Novocaine" and then gave a Novocaine shot after that. Soon enough, that side of my face was numb, from just under the orbital bone of the eye down to my mandible and the midline of my chin. Wow, okay, that really is the "good stuff." He left to check on a different patient and the assistant put the rubber dental dam in place around the affected molar. I'm not going to play-by-play the entire procedure, if you are curious look up "root canal therapy" at Google, but suffice to say, it got done. Honestly, the worst part of the entire procedure was I drank waaay too much water this morning before leaving the house and I had to pee so bad the entire time I was in the chair, which was around two hours. I was hoping I didn't fall asleep in the chair because if I did, I totally would have woken up with wood, and you really wanted to know that. Right?

Root canals aren't so bad after all. However, with that being said, I hope this is my last one. :)

Second Impressions, Root Canal Yikes!

2009-09-13T20:26:00.006-04:00

The second week of classes is over. Due to the Labor Day holiday, my organic lab didn't meet. Our first meeting is this week, which means I should probably do the reading and pre-lab sometime tonight or tomorrow. I do a fair amount of practice problems, if a fair amount equals I see myself running through reams of paper. I'm sorry, forests! I'm sure there is a direct correlation between your grade in organic chemistry and physics, as it is with most math and physical sciences/chemistry classes, and the amount of paper you expend doing practice problems. I do the textbook problems for organic, plus I use the Klein book, which is excellent. I'm going to e-mail him sometime this semester and tell him how much he rocks at explaining stuff.

Physics is going well. The recitation is interesting, and we get to see any problems we have difficulty with solved by the instructor. She is very good at explaining things, but so far it isn't that difficult - we are only doing kinematics in 1 or 2 dimensions, non-rotating. Basically it is a lot of velocity, acceleration, time, etc. Some problems give velocity and time and you have to find the acceleration, but there are about four equations we use and depending on the given quantities, you pick which one is appropriate, and they recommend drawing a picture. The instructor for recitation is also good about posting grades on Blackboard pretty quickly. Each meeting is worth 20 points (10 for attending the entire time, 10 for a quiz and up to +3 for participation, good explanations or good questions, but can't exceed 20 points in a given meeting). I got a 19 for the first meeting, so I assume I got 9 points on the quiz. I probably got points off for taking shortcuts, not including units or using the wrong amount of significant figures. I guess the important thing is I know how to do the problems but I need to include everything they will be looking for to show my process in getting to the answer. I will have to see what I did.

Tomorrow, I am having a root canal at 8 a.m. sharp. I swear my dental hygiene the past few years has been as good as a dentist's kid's, but I admit for a long time I did not floss regularly, but I did brush and use mouthwash. What that lead to was that I had an inlay done on one of my back molars a year or two ago, and recently developed an abscess on the gum underneath it. After calling my dentist, but speaking to the office manager/scheduler, she said the dentist had looked at the panoramic x-rays from my last cleaning a few weeks ago and thinks I will need a root canal. He called it a prescription for Pen VK for me, so I have to take 500 mg tabs every 6 hours, for 10 days. It kind of sucks not being able to sleep for more than 6 hours since I don't want to miss a dose, but the abscess has grown smaller. The office manager said the worst-case scenario was that they would need to do a root canal, which we went ahead and scheduled, and then crown it. I get a 15% discount since I'm a cash patient, since I have no major restorative dental insurance, just 2/year cleanings and oral exams, so the root canal, if it needs to be done, will be a little under $1k. The post-fill and crown would be an additional $1500ish. I hate the D.C. area sometimes, but I'm sure some other areas have higher dental costs.

I complained about the $2500 quote, considering he hadn't mentioned the possibility of needing a root canal at my last cleaning when the panoramic x-rays were taken. She talked to the dentist and they agreed to drill through the inlay and try to put a filling in its place post-root canal.

I've never had a root canal. Should I be scared? :(

The finale of True Blood is tonight. I admit it, I watch it. I watched the first season and I've read all the books too, my sister got me hooked on them. It's interesting to see how Alan Ball adapts the books into the series, I think he has made some great choices so far (sparing Lafayette, turning Tara from an olive-skinned white woman into a black woman, and a few others). Maybe I'll do the organic lab stuff after True Blood, if I don't watch Hung. Remember, it's not TV... it's HBO™.

First Impression: Organic Chemistry

2009-09-01T20:17:00.024-04:00

Today I had my first lecture in organic chemistry and first meeting of the organic chemistry lab. The professor in the lecture seems like a pretty laid-back guy, he was wearing Asics running shoes with his khakis and blazer so he already gets a thumbs-up from me. I'm an Asics kind of guy. I like that their name is derived from the Latin expression "Anima sana in corpore sano" which means "A sound spirit in a sound body." The original quote from Juvenal was "Mens sana in corpore sano" which means "A sound mind in a sound body" but I guess ASICS sounds better than MSICS. High school Latin rears its ugly head again, sorry. Alea iacta est. Sorry, I think it's out of my system now! I'm sorry for the diversion, let's get back to organic.

Unlike the physics professor in our 50 minute class yesterday, the organic professor went over the syllabus in about 10 minutes, leaving most of the hour and fifteen minute lecture to actually lecture. He made a few introductory comments about organic.. it is the chemistry of carbon, and then went into depth in the language of organic and the myriad ways with which to depict the molecules we will study, some of which was review, like Lewis dot structures, but also dash line models (wedge represents the plane heading towards the viewer from the paper, dashed line represents plane heading away from the viewer). We started off with something simple, which was this:
Yes, it's good old methane, CH4. There are a bunch of ways to depict methane, including the 3D ball/stick model above, and we drew it a bunch of different ways, talked about nodal planes, lobes and phases, and how phases are depicted by + or - signs, which he admitted can be confusing, since they don't indicate a positive or negative charge.

Then we talked about line drawings like /\ could represent propane and it's assumed that each angle and each endpoint of the line represents a carbon atom and the hydrogens to fill its orbitals. We talked a LOT about atomic orbitals and molecular orbitals near the end of class. We also hit structural isomers very briefly near the end, talking about the line drawings, which seem to me like the easiest shorthand to use in organic chemistry. Then we talked about propane and specifically how this:

is not propane. You always have to assume the endpoints of lines are occupied by C's (carbons) he said, with the hydrogen necessary to fill out the rest of the orbitals present as well. So instead of the above being propane, this has a longest chain of 5 carbons, making it a pentane, with methyl groups at the 2,2 positions, 3,3 positions, and 4,4 positions (six methyl groups total) making it 2,2,3,3,4,4-hexamethylpentane. At least I'm not confused. Yet. Yay!

The lab was pretty straightfoward in that we did not do anything substantive. Our instructor introduced herself, she's originally from somewhere overseas (I know where she's from, I was paying attention, but forgive me for being intentionally vague), but has been in the US for over thirty years, and says when she gets excited she can be hard to understand so if that happens, we are to tell her to slow down. Next, we went around, everyone introducing themselves with their name, major, and something interesting about them. I just said I graduated years ago, I'm a post-bac. Not so interesting. In my lab section there are a few other pre-meds and a lot of sophomores and juniors. In addition the interestingness included a guy that has played the guitar for several years, a Redskins fan, an expert diaper changer and a girl that loves to dance. Gotta love those icebreakers!

We had check-in for our drawers, signed that everything was present even though no one really checked, student, lab instructor or even the director of the labs. I guess if something is missing at the end of the semester we're screwed. Oh well. The last thing we did after turning in our paperwork (sheet confirming we've already taken the organic chemistry I lecture somewhere or are currently enrolled in it, lab rules/safety sheet agreement, and combination personal info/emergency contact and medical Hx sheet), we watched a dated safety video that looked like it was produced in the mid-90s. I know at least a few people in the lab, one that I worked with in my genchem II lab, and he was a smart, dependable partner, which is always a plus. I don't get anxious about who I get paired up with, but it just sucks so hard when your lab partner does not know what they're doing or how to do the simplest of calculations (even in Excel!), which happened to me last year a few times. This one girl in question, one time she sent me a text wanting to compare my lab report to hers and WE HAD NOT WORKED TOGETHER! I hate being passive aggressive, but even so, I just ignored her text, thinking to myself, "Yes, why don't you 'compare' your nonexistent lab report to mine. That sounds great!"

First Impression: Physics

2009-08-31T11:18:00.002-04:00

Physics seems interesting. I had my first class meeting for the lecture this morning, my recitation and lab meet on Wednesday, since I figured I would schedule them both on the same day and knock them out in one shot. The expectations don't seem unreasonable, there are 8 multi-part exams (multiple choice and problem-based where you have the problem and have to run through, show your work to the solutions). 2/8 of the exams will be dropped. That doesn't seem so bad but I swear my first time in undergrad it was rare for a professor to drop exam grades or even let you make it up. I still stand by my assertion that today's students are pretty coddled, or maybe professors are just more accommodating to students' needs now more than they were "back in the day."

The physics professors is a hoot. Yes, I said hoot. After we got through the administrivia of the class, and he broke out the powerpoint slides for chapter 1, the first slide said "What is physics?" at the top, and he said he didn't know. So he looked it up on Wikipedia (nice joke) before hitting enter and letting the next bit of the slide materialize. We didn't get that far since most of the first 50-minute session was spent going over the syllabus and expectations, along with a stern admonition not to be Twittering during class (tweeting?).

Sunday Long Run, August 30, 2009

2009-08-30T17:17:00.007-04:00

Today I ran 16 miles in a little over 137 minutes, which... carry the 1... is a little over 8 min 30 second miles. The marathon itself is 26.2(ish) miles, and I've run two now. I am progressively getting faster, which is cool, and easily explainable. The first year I ran the Marine Corps Marathon, I was a little under-trained. I had done a fair amount of long runs, but never longer than 18 miles, but no speedwork and no tempo runs. I think my sheer stubbornness, despite the cramps, got me to the finish. In my experience, stubbornness can be a huge asset or a huge problem. On one hand, I think stubbornness can spring out of self-confidence and persistence, but on the other hand it can spring out of ignorance, i.e. you don't know what you're getting yourself into but keep on going anyway, despite conflicting evidence. I think the first year I ran it, it was more of the latter, and last year, it was the former. It's such a cliché, but experience really is the best teacher. Last year, I was a little better trained, and the stubbornness plus better (or smarter) training got me to the finish on a roughly similar course layout 25 minutes faster.

Realistically, I am looking at at least another 25 minute drop this year, but possibly DOUBLE that. Last year I ran a 4:56, but I am taking the training more seriously this year and also eating much much better. When I ate like crap the first two years, I felt pretty bad the days after my long runs, which was confusing at first. I wondered why I was sore when I wasn't shocking my system with much much longer runs than I had previously done. I had progressively and gradually increased my mileage, but my running economy had not improved much due to the lack of speedwork and tempo runs. During my long runs I had done a good job (I thought) of staying hydrated with water and getting some calories on-the-run, I tried pretzels for the salt at first. Have you ever tried to eat pretzels while you are running? Let me just say that I could easily understand that President Bush pretzel fiasco if he had been doing laps around the Oval Office. They were too dry. I switched to kid's fruit snacks - the theme ones like Scooby Doo, Spider-Man, Batman, etc., and eventually gels. Now I use jelly beans on long runs, and they're awesome.

The long runs I have done getting ready for this year's Marine Corps Marathon, which is on October 25th, have been faster than I have previously run and I feel fine the next day.

I'll let you know how I feel tomorrow!

Time Flies

2009-08-28T16:09:00.009-04:00

If anyone is actually reading this, I apologize for the lack of updates! The fall semester is about to begin, I'm taking just two classes - Organic Chemistry and Physics, for a grand total of 9 hours. Everyone tells me Organic Chemistry is a weed out class, i.e. it's difficult, takes a lot of time... and so on. The physics I'm taking is an algebra-based physics, since I haven't had calculus in quite a while and that class seems more oriented towards the engineer-types.

You make the time in your life for whatever you think is important. I think it's important for me to do well in organic, so I will take the time and study and do practice problems for it so that I can keep up with it every day. I read ratings of my school's professors on RateMyProfessors, and from reading some of the ratings it's almost like you can tell what people don't want to take personal responsibility for their performance in a class and want to blame a professor that teaches a difficult subject, such as organic chemistry. Now I know that some professors make themselves more available to students, love to teach, and have an easier time connecting with students and making the subject matter interesting and relevant, while others would rather avoid students and be doing research. When the ratings vary so dramatically on certain professors though, it's almost comical to read the reviews and I also wonder just how big of a problem grade inflation poses, especially to me as a non-traditional student. It seems like today's college students want to earn all A's but they don't want to work for it.

Newsflash: "C" is average. If you are an average student, you'll get a C. B's and A's are reserved for good and excellent students.

The real world doesn't just hand you things because you think you deserve them. The sooner you learn that lesson, that you learn you have to work for what you want, work to accomplish your goals, the better off you will be in the future. Take it from me, I was not the world's greatest student my first trip through undergrad and I have the record to prove it. There aren't any shortcuts to success (aside from being well-connected or a trust-fund baby). Most of us that reach success or will reach it is through the sweat on our brow and our hard work towards what we find important. Keep your head down and let your work speak for you.

Two Years Later

2009-03-17T20:41:00.004-04:00

Two years ago, on March 17, 2007, my mom died. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, and after a harsh round of chemotherapy, she was in remission for a year until 2001, when the cancer metastasized to her liver, lungs, and bones. She lived with a serious enough cancer that has a five-year survival rate of 5% for eight years, so she beat the odds just living into 2007. Knowing what I know now, about "the science" and the immune and lymphatic systems, the human body, anatomy, and physiology, granted that I have only had two semesters of it, does not make the loss any less significant.

The first year was pretty easy. I was mostly numb but realized there was a gaping hole in my life. If you knew my mom, she was the person that was always putting others before herself, finding any excuse to send a greeting card to someone, whether they were celebrating a birthday, an anniversary, some other happy occasion, or a get-better-soon card to aid someone in their convalescence from serious illness or surgery, etc. She was the person to take up the cause of people who needed help, including others with cancer, or survivors, and offer support and encouragement, or just share her story and try to comfort others. I wonder if the fact that she was a chronic worrier and probably stressed a lot about things she couldn't control contributed to her cancer and the fact it came back. I wonder if the surgeon didn't get a clear margin in the original biopsy or lumpectomy, didn't biopsy the right lymph nodes, or if he just didn't do the best possible job he could have done. I'm not stressed or worried about the past, while I am my mother's son and I have many of her attributes, I am definitely not a chronic worrier or stress out about things with which I can have no meaningful impact.

This second year without my mom has been more difficult. I have kept busy, but the numbness wore off, and I can't pinpoint the day, but it was as if a sudden realization washed over me that I would never get to talk to her again, to laugh with her, to share my tears and triumphs, to share my life with her. I could always be myself with my mom, completely open, vulnerable, and not worry about being judged. That isn't to say I'm not myself with other people, but you know as well as I do, that we're all a little more guarded when we're around people who aren't either A) close family or B) tight-knit friends. The shields come up when we're in mixed company, and it seems like it has to be that way, not because we are afraid of offending someone but because it's expected. I'm rambling. I was, and continue to be, a good son.

My dad remarried this past summer, to a wonderful woman. I am the youngest of three kids, with two older sisters, and we realized that it would be good for Dad to have a new woman in his life, and that if left to his own devices, his health would probably suffer, considering he is diabetic. My Dad is home now, and two years ago, he lost the love of his life. Dad, my sisters and I went to Mom's grave this evening to visit, along with one sister's husband and two young sons (3 years old and almost 4 months old). Dad admitted that he's thought a lot about Mom over the past year especially, and while he didn't say it outright, the sentiment was clearly there that he really misses her, even though they didn't have the perfect Ozzie and Harriet marriage. But honestly, who does?

The funny thing is my youngest nephew, the nearly-four-month-old, was laying in his car seat by Mom's grave marker, and I told him, "I'm sorry you didn't get to meet your Grandma, she would have loved you so much."

He smiled at me, and somewhere, I think Mom was smiling back.

Eastbound & Down

2009-02-15T22:59:00.005-05:00

I just watched the series premiere of Eastbound & Down, a new series on HBO starring Danny McBride, who was in Tropic Thunder, where he played Cody, the demolitions/pyro guy on the set, and Pineapple Express, where he played Red (and had that sweet sweet fight scene with Seth Rogen and James Franco), and the awesome Foot Fist Way.

McBride plays a down and out pitcher, who broke into the bigs with Atlanta, and the montage had him end up a journeyman in Seattle, and he lost a lot of pop, or velocity, off his fastball when he was off steroids (high 80s off steroids versus "101" on steroids in the stock radar gun shot). So the show opens with him back in his hometown (not sure where, but apparently they filmed in Wilmington, NC... I've been there, lovely town), and he has to have a job so he can have his wages garnished, so he takes a job as a substitute teacher at a middle school where an ex-girlfriend teaches (and is engaged to the yoga practitioner, nice guy principal), and is living at his older brother's house with his brother, brother's wife, and brother's kids (and his jetski). The premiere sets up a lot of nice tension and opportunities for conflict, and it seems like a pretty ripe setting for comedy, and I can't wait for more episodes. I love his catch-phrase, I guess he closed out a World Series-winning game as a rookie, and after striking out the final batter with a full count and the bases loaded, he yells "You're fucking out!" and throws up two middle finger salutes, and later in the montage in his career, at first the crowd yells with him when he accomplishes great things pitching, and finally they turn on him, yelling it against him at his final appearance pitching for Seattle.

I pitched in middle school and high school, along with playing pretty much every other position other than C & 1B. I can only imagine the reaction I would have gotten in 7th grade, after striking out a batter and yelling "You're fucking out!" at him. If I have a son, maybe I can get him to do it? Just kidding. One thing I loved about pitching is the game is literally in your hands. I'm not a control freak, but I liked being able to dictate the pace of the game, and I was a pretty accurate pitcher with decent velocity. I realized pretty quickly though that I didn't have what it takes to make it past maybe Div II ball in college so I focused my time and energy elsewhere.

Getting back to the show, I liked it a lot. I'm not one of the people that think the Apatow gang or Will Ferrell can do no wrong, and that includes Danny McBride, but I've yet to see him in something where he didn't give a great performance (other than he has bad mechanics for being a major league pitcher in Eastbound & Down). He looks like more of a slinger than a talented pitcher as far as his mechanics look. I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I liked it a lot.

Snoooooooooooow

2009-01-28T23:12:00.003-05:00

On Tuesday morning early, it started to snow, like maybe around 5 or 6 a.m. Snow is pretty awesome usually. I have class on Tuesdays from 7:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., two lectures followed by two labs. At the end of my second lab, someone mentions, "Oh yeah, by the way, evening classes are canceled." Awesome, I'm so glad the university came to that decision AFTER my full day of classes.

The roads iced over pretty bad though, and classes today were canceled until noon, other than the law school's classes. I thought that was pretty unfortunate, today was the first meeting for my microbiology lab, which I was really looking forward to. On Tuesday, I realized my chemistry lab professor is awesome. He has a good sense of humor, but is also no-nonsense about lab safety. He is a stickler for the rules and from what I've heard, he's definitely kicked people out of labs before in the past, and he told a story about a girl who was taking a quiz in the class, leaning over the lab bench in front of her, and her hair wasn't up, it fell down and rested on the bench. Smart quiz-girl then proceeded to take her hair, which previously had been laying on said lab bench, and thread it into her mouth and chewed/sucked on it. I'm sure everyone has seen this done before. Anyway, he was shocked by it.. he didn't kick her out of the lab, but he asked, "Do you know what's been on that lab bench??" She said, "No..." and he said "Yeah me neither! But whatever chemicals used in the experiments in the lab you've now ingested." Whoops. Remind me to tie my hair back if I ever grow it out. Thanks.

Appraisal

2009-01-25T01:29:00.005-05:00

Well, my first week of classes is finished. Due to the inauguration, most of my labs were canceled, or didn't meet since Tuesday classes were canceled. Previously, I think I had mentioned that the classes I'm taking this semester are the second half of Anatomy & Physiology, General Chemistry II, Microbiology and Animal Biology. All of the lectures have met other than General Chemistry, but I am taking the same professor for it that I took for Gen Chem I, so there are no surprises there. I know what to expect when it comes to him.

My honest appraisal is that I like all of my professors and the one TA I have had so far. My animal biology lecturer is very straight-forward with his expectations, and very internet-savvy and connected. Responsiveness is always something that I appreciate from a professor. I know they may have 200 students per section of some courses, but I honestly like it more when they say "Don't call me, either e-mail me or stop by my office hours." Maybe that's just me?

The one lab I have that met was for animal biology, and the main thing we covered was taxonomy and getting reacquainted with microscopy... in this case it was microscopy of red blood cells of different animals. We did a blood count for leukocytes, which BTW was not a complete blood count or "CBC" by any means, we were told to count and classify the leukocytes until we hit 100 to make it easy to calculate the percentage present of each of the types, i.e. neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils, lymphocytes and monocytes. My method was just scanning the slide from left to right, top to bottom until I hit 100, and my percentage observed seemed to be pretty close to what's expected.. which is always good, I suppose. I definitely noticed that the majority of the leukocytes present were neutrophils, over 60%. We were also given about twenty animals and one plant to write down the complete nomenclature from kingdom to species, and then organize them in a chart.

One of the questions in the lab manual asked which two species were more similar - human and a particular bat or a particular fish and the great white shark. It turns out the human and the bat are more similar due to both being in the Mammalia class. One funny thing was that the lab I signed up for meets right after the lecture on Thursdays, so when our lab TA was asking us questions, we were all primed with the right answers from the lecture, i.e. she would ask something like "Who came up with the current system of nomenclature used to classify organisms?" and the 1/2 the lab section said "Linnaeus. Next!" Just kidding about the next.

The other interesting thing about my animal bio lab section is that at my lab bench, 3/4 of us already have our degrees and came back to school for something else. Next to me, is the 1/4 who is an undergrad pre-med biology major. Across from me are two pre-dents, one a woman with a degree in business, a husband and children, and the other with a degree in English. I guess my table is the non-trad friendly one, all though there is another non-trad in the section at a different bench, I guess she didn't sit with us because we were all filled up by the time she strolled in. This is kind of an aside, but it doesn't seem odd to me that we tend to seek each other out, especially in the labs I've been in. My lab partner for general chemistry last semester was a non-trad pre-med like me, with a master's in statistics and she was 30.

My microbiology class looks very interesting to me. The professor is a virologist by training. We didn't cover much other than the rules of the road in the first meeting on Wednesday, but on Friday we got into the methods of how microbiota are named, by their shape (coccus/cocci, etc.) and arrangement. I learned a fun fact, "staphylo" originally comes from the Greek and means a cluster of grapes, so now we know why Staphylococcus aureus gets its name, the organism is spherical and arranged in an irregular clump like a cluster of grapes. The only thing that sucked on Friday is "The Hills" sat in front of me - three girls that talked the entire time, like they were giving a running commentary and I wasn't eavesdropping but I could tell it had nothing to do with the class. I actually care about the lectures, I actually care about not being able to hear, I actually care for once. I want to do well. I don't want to feel like a grumpy old man, especially when I'm only 28. Did I say something? Yes. I could care less what they think. For all I know, they're probably pre-med too, or pre-dent or pre-pharmacy. Hope it works out, but they should think about saving the socializing for outside of class.

My anatomy & physiology class looks like more of the same. We talked about what we're going to cover this semester and got into "the special senses" a little bit - vision, balance, hearing and all that jazz. The professor said she really likes the second half of the class more so than the first half even though it's about equal as far as learning new vocabulary, but the first half is really bogged down at the cellular level and the second half is more of a systems approach, and after the special senses, we'll get into the immune and lymphatic systems, the cardiovascular system, the urinary and the reproductive systems, and I'm probably leaving something out. Oh well, time to hit the hay, or watch Burn Notice and try to. :D

Throwback

2009-01-20T04:03:00.009-05:00

I used to coach an all-girl all star cheerleading squad. If you are completely unfamiliar with the cheer world, all star programs have proliferated in the past 10-15 years. It's basically the same thing as a travel team in soccer, it's a bunch of kids from different schools that cheer on a team outside of their schools' cheerleading programs, which they may or may not participate in as well. On the whole, the talent level and dedication on all star teams is somewhat higher than those for most, but not all, school cheerleading programs. I know that is a huge generalization, but there are definitely exceptions to that, i.e. incredibly talented and dedicated school programs.

The main difference is that the focus in all star cheerleading is competition, compared to the focus for school teams is promoting school spirit and cheering on teams at games. Competition is a possible pursuit for schools to consider outside of and after those primary goals. All star teams practice with one goal in mind, which is to compete. The program I coached for, which is now defunct/was absorbed by another program, generally focused on no more than 1 competition per month, with the major ones near the end of the season. The season in all star cheerleading is essentially year-round, with tryouts for most programs in April or May, practices through the summer, and finally the arrival of the fall season marks the start of the "competition season."

I'm sorry for all that exposition if you already knew all that! Anyway, as you may or may not realize, coaching, providing guidance for and at times trying to corral teenaged girls is no small feat. One year, I had to sit them down for a "heart-to-heart" kind of chat because I had perceived I wasn't getting their best effort. I made an agenda, which I found just now as I was cleaning out old files and storage, with a list of "business" to discuss with the team. They were all good kids, but at the time they were playing around too much, not applying themselves (God, I am starting to sound really old) and like I said, I wasn't pleased with it. I admit I was partially to blame as well for not providing more structure, guidance and direction. I wrote down the "business" as bullet points to flesh out in our little "heart-to-heart." In hindsight, maybe it was a little tough love-ish but I think they respected me more for it in the end.

This was my "philosophy" or the "business" I had listed:
1) The difference between arrogance and ignorance.
2) Commitment (huge).
3) Impatience/self-importance
4) Omitted.
5) Let Jen do it. [Note: Jen was a workhorse on the team, she did everything asked, she did it well, and she did it without complaining.]
6) Why are you here?
7) Excuses?
8) Corrections
9) Putting the team before yourself.
10) Do something with your whole heart or don't do it.
11) One drop of poison in a well kills the entire village. [Note: I was trying to stress having a positive attitude, pulling for each other, etc.]
12) Expectations
13) Value of hard work. "Do you think it's luck when teams hit their routines? It's hard work."
14) Limitations - we don't limit what you're capable of, you do it to yourself.
15) Faith - believe in your abilities.
16) Comparisons - don't worry about what other teams are doing.
17) Let things bother you. Take it seriously when something isn't working out. Don't get frustrated though, get some perspective, ask for help.
18) I'm never disappointed in how you do unless you're disappointed in yourself.
19) What are you doing today that makes you a better member of this team?
20) It should be fun, but it's only possible to have fun when you're taking care of business. Take care of business before business takes care of you.
21) Need to be detail-oriented. It's the little things that separate good teams from great teams.
22) When we laugh, it's usually at my expense, but occasionally it's really at yours. It's okay to laugh. :)

There is a lot of overlap between some of the points, but that was because those in particular were the ones that I wanted to hammer home the hardest, which was to dedicate yourself to it, do the best you can, not worry about everybody else, try to continually improve your skill set, and last but not least to have fun doing it.

Pre-Inauguration/Pre-Spring Semester

2009-01-19T17:22:00.005-05:00

Tomorrow was supposed to be the first day of the spring semester. However, there is kind of a big deal historic event going on tomorrow in the D.C. area (where I live, actually Northern Virginia), the inauguration of our 44th President, Barack Obama. The actual oath of office is pretty short, "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States," and is mandated by the Constitution, Article 2, Clause 8, and historically the President-elect adds "so help me God," even though it's not in the Constitution. I'm excited for a few reasons, I voted for Obama, I'm looking forward to his inaugural address even though I think a lot of people may have overly high expectations of it, and I'm also looking forward to see how he pays off his campaign promises.

The weather is supposed to be in the lower 30s, and they're expecting about millions of people on the mall, in the ticketed area in front of the western side of the Capitol, and all along the parade route between the Capitol and White House in the general vicinity. Here's a picture of the layout, courtesy of the Washington Post, for anyone unfamiliar with D.C. I will be watching from my warm couch.

I had a dentist appointment today for my semi-annual (is that the correct word for twice a year?) cleaning. On the dental front, everything is a-ok, even though after I left my job with the intellectual property law firm, I lost my insurance. To continue the work insurance, via COBRA, it would have been around $400+ a month for my health insurance and dental insurance. That seemed like a rip-off to me, and I know that when you leave an employer, they are no longer required to subsidize the cost of your insurance, so you get to bear full freight for it. I have no pre-existing conditions, and I'm generally healthy so I figured I wouldn't be denied. I thought I could get a better deal elsewhere, so I got insurance on my own and it's about $151/month and includes a dental rider. I can't complain.

Due to the inauguration, and the gridlock & congestion they are predicting, tomorrow's first day of classes were canceled, so the first day of class will now be Wednesday the 21st. This semester I'm taking the second half of anatomy & physiology, animal biology, general chemistry II, and microbiology. I have the same professors for gen chem II, and the a & p lecture and lab. I'm excited, but I also am taking 4 labs, versus the 3 labs I took last semester. I think I'll be able to handle it, and do well, and after the spring semester the only prerequisites I will have left to finish are organic chemistry I & II and physics I & II, and I will be ready to apply to medical school. One of the gifts I got for Christmas was a whiteboard/dry-erase board from my sister, which will come in handy this semester, I will be able to do practice problems, draw diagrams, etc. on it which can only help in reinforcing and consolidating what I'm learning, and it's plenty big enough to keep track of a bunch of things. I guess that's pretty adorkable of me to get so excited over a whiteboard, but hey that's me!

In another note, there are a few internships I'm interested in applying in, one in particular is nearby, has a $3500 stipend, and the deadline for filing an application is February 1, so I better get on it if I'm going to do it.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-24T20:04:00.002-05:00

Happy Holidays everybody out there. Whether or not you observe a holiday, I'm sure the time off from work/school/whatever is appreciated if you're lucky enough to have it. I got my chemistry grade in - an A-. I'm pretty satisfied with it, considering it could have been worse, I probably did pretty well on the ACS-provided final exam.

Unfortunately, I am sick. My sister, brother-in-law and nephew were all sick, and I had gone over to watch my nephew. I think they're all on antibiotics and my sister & brother-in-law were diagnosed with bronchitis. I don't feel like I have any lung involvement. I ran nearly 4 miles yesterday and didn't have any problem with my lungs, so that's why I believe that. There's no wheezing/cackling/crackling involved, and not really any coughing either with whatever I've got, just a runny nose and sinus congestion. If it's anything, it's either just a common rhinovirus or a sinus infection. :(

Anyway, I just wanted to say Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah/Happy Kwanzaa/etc. Gotta go!

Cruising Along..

2008-12-16T23:07:00.003-05:00

I keep checking the university website like a hawk on the lookout for my chemistry grade. I keep crossing my fingers and hoping that, above the 45 I'm pretty sure I got right out of 70, I was a pretty decent guesser on the rest.

I was so excited earlier today, a delivery truck came by and dropped some stuff off. One of my sisters asked what I wanted for Christmas, I said I wanted a white board (dry-erase board). I figured it would be useful for a few things: keeping me organized, and being able to work out problems on it for chem, and "teach" myself concepts in my post-bac classes, you know, or diagram a certain system or even a metabolic pathway. So I got my white board, now I have to mount it on the wall. She kicked it the markers, eraser, and cleaner set as well. Awesome!

I ran tonight over at my sister's house (Chris's mom!), since she has a treadmill, only 3 miles. I got over there and my sister says she was going to get Chinese food, her treat. The last time I ate Chinese BEFORE a run, it wasn't pretty. Needless to say, I had to cut that run short, so I resolved to eat after the run. I was looking forward to cracking open the fortune cookie and seeing what my fortune was, but I had a run to do, and my sister had Chinese food to pick up. I asked for beef chow mein, and I said thank you later after I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Lately I've been watching the seasons of Supernatural on DVD while I run on the treadmill. Love that show: the humor, the GOOOOOORE at times, and they always have plenty of hot women on the show. I usually do 3-5 miles a day, more so when I'm training for a marathon. I've run two marathons: the 32nd Marine Corps Marathon in 2007, and the 33rd Marine Corps Marathon in 2008. I plan on running it again in 2009, but I'm also thinking about running a marathon in the spring. I know that the Music City Marathon is in Nashville, in April, I believe. The good thing about that, is most of my mom's family lives in and around Nashville, so it would be awesome to visit them since I don't get to see them that often. I am not sure if registration is closed, I need to get on that and check it out, and if it is, maybe there is something else I can run in the spring, full marathon or a half.

Coincidentally, I told someone the first "race" I ever ran was a marathon. They seemed kind of surprised and said, "Don't you usually do like a 5K, or 10K, or a half before biting off marathon?" What can I say? I'll leave it to the fortune cookie I cracked and ate before the beef chow mein, which said, "You like a challenge."

I guess that's me. I baked brownies tonight too, for the first time. I guess it's a result of wanting to use stuff up around the house and not having anything to do since classes are out, and at least brownies aren't that challenging. Well, maybe they are, to your gut!

First Semester Back = Done!

2008-12-16T00:53:00.002-05:00

My first post-bac semester is done. I took cell bio, anatomy & physiology, and general chemistry. At first, it seemed like taking three labs at once could be a result of wishful thinking and/or possibly wearing Bad Idea Jeans™. Honestly, when you take a lab, it really is like taking two classes instead of one, but most of the lab sciences I have heard of, the lab is only worth 20-33% of a course's grade. The problem is that even though it's only worth that relatively small percentage, it frequently takes up just as much time to prepare for the lab and study, as it does for the lecture portion.

I have two grades in, which I did well in - cell bio, and anatomy & physiology. I took the cell bio and a&p exams last Wednesday, December 10th. The grade for a&p was posted by last Friday, and the cell bio grade was posted by this morning. Tonight, I had my last exam, a nationally standardized general chemistry exam provided by the American Chemical Society. It was 70 questions, and from what I understand, statistics are applied in determining the exam grade. My professor had mentioned that in the twelve years he's been teaching, he's rarely seen people score in the 60s (out of 70), including people like me who had come back to school, even some people who had taught chemistry in community college or high school. I divided up my studying since it was a comprehensive exam for first term genchem, and felt like I was well-prepared. Out of the 70 questions, I'm pretty confident I was right on 45ish questions, like dead certain I was right. Some of the other questions, I was able to eliminate an answer or two and improve my odds in making my educated and not-so-educated guesses. The jury's out on the chemistry exam. I'm sure the grades will be posted within a day or two, but it will probably be my lowest grade of this fall, and I'm signed up for general chemistry II for the spring semester.

My take-home lesson: I really need to go above and beyond in studying for chemistry and getting help if I need it. It doesn't come as easy to me as the biology stuff does. On a brighter note, remember the A&P muscle practical I was mentioning a few entries back? I got the sheet/score back at the A&P final last Wednesday. Just like I thought - 38/40 right, and she just gave me 48/50 possible points for it. Hooray. :)

Welcome to the World, Chris, You Have 1 New Message!

2008-12-04T15:59:00.004-05:00

Today my second nephew was born. He registered for life today, so here is his welcome message. His name is Christopher Matthew, to go along with his 3 year old big bro John Thomas. The picture above is the him getting a bath from his nurses, his first real bath aside from being cleaned up post-c/s. They are rolling him over to wash the back of his body. He arrived at 11:07 a.m. EST, weighing 8 lbs 3 oz, and was 20 inches long.

Chris,

Thank you for registering with Life™. You have a completely blank slate coming into the world. You are capable of doing great things, and capable of doing terrible things. My only hope for you as one of your uncles, and your mother's only brother, is that you grow up to be a good man, that you are kind, charitable, help your fellow man out when possible, and that you maintain your integrity. Do not let other people compromise the values and teachings your father, mother, brother, and extended family instill in you. You were born with a great set of lungs, a healthy body, and I know that everything is overwhelming now.

You're used to being sheltered in the warm cocoon of mommy's belly, but you're out in the world now, where it is bright, and cold at times. You're getting used to the light, and to the noises, which are clearer now, but there is oh-so-much to take in and process. Just keep your eyes and ears open, except for when you need a well-deserved nap, because growing to be big & strong is hard work. Take it all in, it will start to make sense.

I love you.

A&P Muscle Practical Final

2008-11-30T14:42:00.003-05:00

On Tuesday, I have my practical final for my Anatomy & Physiology class, and it's on the muscles. We have to know the muscle name, origin, insertion, and action of each muscle we were assigned. The origin of a muscle is pretty straight-forward, it is where the muscle originates, and the insertion is where the muscle terminates, or ends. When a muscle is flexed, like the biceps brachii for example, the insertion moves towards the origin. There are 42 in total we are responsible for, and it has been pretty ambiguous as far as how the practical will be set up. We had a bone practical for our midterm grade, which was pretty straight forward: different bones were set up around the perimeter of the lab's benches, with features tagged A/B/C/D, half the class had an A/C practical and half had B/D, where they were responsible for identifying A&C or B&D. The reason I'm not sure about the muscle practical final is that there are a lot of models in the A&P lab but we haven't had time or access to become familiar with them, which could potentially be a problem, especially for people who aren't so spatially-oriented that they can look at a picture in a lab text and relate it to a 3D model, pointing out origins, insertions and actions. Here are the muscles I'm responsible for (I realize this could be a lot worse!):

frontalis (epicranius - frontal belly) O: galea aponeurosis / I: skin of the eyebrows / A: raises eyebrows
orbicularis oris O: muscles around mouth / I: encircles mouth, inserts into corers of mouth / A: closes mouth, purses lips
orbicularis oculi - O: frontal & maxillary bones / I: encircles orbit; inserts into tissue of eyelid / A: closes eyes for blinking, squinting
masseter - O: maxilla and zygomatic arch / I: ramus and angle of mandible / A: closes jaw, elevates mandible
temporalis - O: temporal bones / I: coronoid process of mandible / A: closes jaw; elevates/retracts mandible
sternocleidomastoid - O: manubrium of sternum & medial clavicle / I: mastoid process of temporal bone / A: flexion of neck w/ both, head rotation to opposite side with one
pectoralis major - O: clavicle, sternum / I: intertubercular sulcus of humerus / A: arm flexion
deltoid - O: clavicle, acromion process and scapula / I: deltoid tuberosity of humerus / A: arm abduction
pectoralis minor - O: anterior ribs 3-5 / I: coracoid process of scapula / A: draws scapula forward and inferiorly
external intercostals - O: inferior border of rib above / I: superior border of rib below / A: elevates rib cage
internal intercostals - O: superior border of rib below / I: inferior border of rib above / A: depresses rib cage
diaphragm - O: inferior border or rib & sternum, costal cartilages and lumbar / I: central tendon / A: increases thorax for inspiration
rectus abdominis - O: pubic crest and symphysis / I: xiphoid process & costal cartilages / A: flex & rotate vertebral column
external oblique - O: anterior of lower 8 ribs / I: linea alba, pubic crest & iliac crest / A: flex & rotate vertebral column
internal oblique - O: lumbar fascia, iliac crest & inguinal ligament / I: linea alba, pubic crest & costal cartilage of last 3 ribs / A: flex & rotate vertebral column
transverse abdominis - O: inguinal ligament, iliac crest, cartilage of last 5 ribs / I: linea alba & pubic crest / A: compresses abdomen
trapezius - O: occipital bone, C7 spine & thoracic vertebrae / I: clavicle, acromion & spinous process of scapula / A: head extension, raises, rotate, adducts scapula
latissimus dorsi - O: spinous processes of T & L vertebrae / I: intertubercular sulcus of humerus / A: extends, adducts, medially rotates arm
infraspinatus - O: infraspinous fossa of scapula / I: greater tubercle of humerus / A: lateral rotation of humerus, stabilizes shoulder
teres minor - O: lateral scapula / I: greater tubercle of humerus / A: lateral rotation of humerus, stabilizes shoulder
teres major - O: inferior scapula / I: intertubercular sulcus of humerus / A: extension, medially rotates, adducts humerus
supraspinatus - O: supraspinous fossa of scapula / I: greater tubercle of humerus / A: stabilizes shoulder, adducts humerus
subscapularis - O: subscapular fossa of scapula / I: lesser tubercle of humerus / A: medial rotation of humerus
rhomboid major - O: spinous processes of C7 & T1-T5 / I: medial border of scapula / A: retracts and stabilizes scapula
rhomboid minor - O: spinous processes of C7 & T1-T5 / I: medial border of scapula / A: retracts and stabilizes scapula
triceps brachii - O: infraglenoid tubercle of scapula; posterior humerus; distal radial groove / I: olecranon process of ulna / A: forearm extension
biceps brachii - O: coracoid process; intertubercular sulcus of humerus / I: radial tuberosity / A: elbow flexion, forearm supination
brachioradialis - O: distal end of humerus / I: styloid process of radius / A: forearm flexion
brachialis - O: distal anterior humerus / I: coronoid process of ulna / A: forearm flexion
sartorius - O: anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS) / I: medial proximal tibia / A: flexion, abduction and lateral rotation of thigh, flexes knee
gracilis - O: inferior ramus & body of pubis / I: medial tibia inferior to medial condyle / A: adducts thigh, flexes & medially rotates leg
rectus femoris - O: anterior inferior iliac spine / I: tibial tuberosity & patella / A: knee extension, thigh flexion @ hip
vastus lateralis - O: greater trochanter & linea aspera / I: tibial tuberosity & patella / A: extends, stabilizes knee
vastus medialis - O: linea aspera of femur / I: tibial tuberosity & patella / A: extends, stabilizes knee
vastus intermedius - O: anterior & lateral femur / I: tibial tuberosity & patella / A: extends knee
gluteus maximus - O: dorsal ilium, sacrum, coccyx / I: gluteal tuberosity of femur / A: thigh extension, laterally rotates & adducts thigh
gluteus medium - O: upper ilium / I: greater trochanter of femur / A: abducts & medially rotates thigh
biceps femoris - O: ischial tuberosity; linea aspera & distal femur / I: head of fibula & lateral condyle of tibia / A: thigh extension; laterally rotates leg; flexes knee
semitendinosus - O: ischial tuberosity / I: tibial shaft / A: thigh extension; flexes knee; medially rotates leg
semimembranosus - O: ischial tuberosity / I: medial condyle of tibia; lateral condyle of femur / A: thigh extension; flexes knee; medially rotates leg
tibialis anterior - O: lateral condyle of tibia / I: 1st metatarsal bone / A: dorsiflexion, inverts foot
gastrocnemius - O: medial & lateral condyles of femur / I: calcaneus / A: plantarflexion

To All the Veterans

2008-11-11T10:14:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to say thank you to all the veterans of the U.S. armed services for the sacrifices they've made in the service of our country. Some have made the ultimate sacrifice and left behind wives, husbands, parents, children, siblings... you are not forgotten. It is because of you that I am free to sit here and blog about whatever thought pops into mind. Thank you.

1 Down, 2 to Go

2008-11-10T08:24:00.002-05:00

I just finished my anatomy & physiology exam this morning. There were under 50 questions, but also a "short essay" section where we were required to fill in the blanks concerning the events that lead up to contraction starting with the neuromuscular junction, i.e. impulse sent, ACh released via exocytosis into the synaptic cleft, binds to receptors on the motor end plate, Na+ floods in, depolarization, etc. through to acetylcholinesterase breaks down the ACh into acetic acid and choline. I found out that the way a lot of nerve gases, for example sarin, work is by the use of an ACh inhibitor, which causes ACh to flood the synaptic cleft, which leads to paralysis and death.

I feel like I did pretty well on it, but when I got up, I had dropped my scantron but had my stapled exam papers. The professor looked at me like, "Aren't you missing something?" Someone was nice enough to bring me the scantron even though she was still taking her exam, but my scantron probably fell in her lap. Whoops.

On another note, after I parked this morning, I saw something interesting in the parking lot: an empty box for a home pregnancy test, very classy. I'm not going to read much into it, people have sex in college and accidents happen. Maybe it wasn't an accident, who knows. Maybe it was a practical joke, but why waste money on someting like that? Anyway, I have to get back to studying, I have my cell bio exam this afternoon and I need to get back to it.

Sympathetic Nervous System

2008-11-09T18:33:00.004-05:00

One of the things we recently began studying in A&P was the nervous system - the CNS, PNS, sympathetic, parasympathetic.. and we'll be tested on some of the very introductory material we covered in the last class that met this past week when we covered it. Tonight, I got a pretty good example of the sympathetic nervous system response. I was studying my chemistry in my dining room, working on reviewing stoichiometry and just doing examples, and I heard some rustling in my family room. I was startled, my heart started racing a little bit, you know, the whole fight-or-flight sympathetic nervous response to the unknown stimulus.

Maybe I should call it a rec room instead of a family room, since I live by myself? I'm going off on a tangent! I'll get back to the matter at hand. So I heard a rustling in the family room. I went in to check it out and I'm waiting to see motion, something. I had two freeloader mice a few months back, which wasn't a big deal considering they were trying to eat the plastic wrap around disposable plates in the pantry. I got rid of the mice before by catching them and releasing them outside, but then they got back in, so I got one of the traps that anesthetizes them and kills them. At least I tried to go by the philosophy of "live and let live," right?

I live in the suburbs, so field mice can get into the house. This isn't a subdivision, but it isn't completely rural. It's nice and woodsy, I'll leave it at that. Immediately, I assume I have another mouse that got in. Sure enough, this huge mofo of a mouse is hiding behind one of my bookcases by my fireplace. He pokes his head out and tries to grab something off the fireplace, and he's periodically scurrying up the side of the fireplace, like he's exploring but always running back behind the bookcase. There is no fire in the fireplace, if you're thinking I'm about to burn him to death.

I grab a flashlight, and shine it on him and he gets the whole deer-in-the-headlights look. He's not moving. I'm guessing he got in via the fireplace. I thought about smashing him in the face with the poker from the fireplace "tool kit," but I really couldn't bring myself to do it. I guess I'll never have a career as a serial killer since I can't even finish off a mouse. I opened the fireplace gates and told him to get out. He ran back on top of the fireplace, into it, and up the chimney, I suppose. It's nice when people and things do what you tell them to, isn't it?

[Edit: It was a squirrel, not a mouse. The fact that it was "scurrying" up the sides of the fireplace should have been a dead giveaway. Regardless, it got out. :) ]

Introduction

2008-11-09T10:38:00.002-05:00

I started this blog today, I have some of the social networking sites, i.e. Facebook, MySpace, and have written notes on FB and blogs on MySpace but haven't really kept up with either one. I'm 28, male, and a student again. I graduated with a BA in Government and worked a few years. I'm now doing an informal post-baccalaureate completing the prerequisite classes for medical school before taking the MCAT & applying to medical school. My lab science my first trip through undergrad was geology, aka "rocks for jocks," no offense intended for geologists out there - I know it is a serious field that makes interesting contributions to society, but it gets written off as "easier" than biology or chemistry.

I'm currently taking anatomy & physiology, which was not required but I was interested in taking it, cell biology, and general chemistry I. I've signed up for my next semester's classes of animal biology, gen chem II, and biology of microorganisms. I will most likely take summer classes too, but it's looking like this will take 2-3 years to get done, but I'm in no rush, and it's important I do well to be a competitive applicant. The classes are going well, and I have THREE exams on Monday, so an exam in each of my classes (the cell bio and a & p exams are multiple choice, scantron, the chemistry is not). I should probably be studying, so I'll cut this short.

Some other information about me: I am a brother to two sisters, uncle to one (soon to be two) nephew, marathoner--I ran the Marine Corps Marathon last year and this year--Eagle Scout, and I like long walks on the beach, Diet Coke/Diet Pepsi (whichever is cheaper), HBO, and learnin' stuff!