Asymmetrical feet, and my other faults.

So as you facebookers may know, I recently found out that I am is the small population of humans that do not have the Palmaris Longus tendon in either arm. I don't think it's a "deal breaker", health-wise, but it is an interesting peculiarity nonetheless.

So this got me thinking: what are some of my other oddities?  Here's what I determined.

Let's start at the bottom. I am quite flat-footed. Like, basically a duck. No arch whatsoever. I've tried shoe inserts, and if I were wearing more tennis shoes, I might consider getting some. But for now, I'm basically in sandals all the time, so I just need to make sure the ones I wear give me good support.


Also, as alluded to in the title, my feet are not symmetric. My second toe (or Pointer toe, if my big toe counts like a thumb) is longer on my left foot than the one on my right. In fact, it's longer than my left big toe, while my other pointer toe is not. 

Interesting stuff, I know.

Another strange fact is that I can bend my wrists forward so far that my thumbs completely touch my forearms. It looks much more painful than it actually is, trust me.

I am incapable of rolling my r's. Some claim that it merely takes practice, but I don't know about that. I'm pretty miserable at it.

This seems to be tailing off a bit, so here's one last bit of trivia, per se. If you take my first and middle names (Eric Paul), and rearrange the letters, you get the word peculiar. Not the greatest of words, but I think it's cool that there's actually a word there, and not gibberish.

(Note: I realize in the grand scheme of things, there are many, far more interesting physiological oddities that normal people may possess. But this isn't their blog. It's mine.)

Keep it real, y'all.

Eric

Makin' some mad edits!

So, I've been doing some hardcore work on all of the various settings for this blog of mine. Please notice my new favicon (which sadly is not animated like I wanted...) and various other small tweaks as well. Although Sara, I can't seem to find the setting to change that will make it easier for google+ users to find it. At least, I don't think I can find it...

Ok. That's all. Oh, apparently I can post this way too! Crazy!

-Eric

2^3

Man, we've been getting rained on like crazy here!  Today we only had one little shower in the afternoon, but the last couple of days have been quite precipitatious. 

New rule: precipitatious is a word. Continuing...

So Melissa got her results from her first test. She passed! Unfortunately for you, she doesn't want me to post her score for some reason. I dunno. She's pretty pleased with herself, and for good reason. She worked hard for that score, which I still can't tell you.

Maybe if you ask her discreetly, she'll tell you. Who knows?

Funny story: so, I've been volunteering at the prep school, where I sit in on a 6th/7th grade class as well as a 3rd grade class. One of the 3rd-graders is my downstairs neighbor, and he always does this funny thing where he remembers that he knows me. It's this sort of unspoken interaction we have, like, "hey, it's you." Anyway, now whenever he sees me outside of school he thinks he needs to raise his hand to talk to me. I don't have the heart to stop him, though. It's good for my teacher ego.

So yes. The title of this blog is supposed to just be "2 cubed", but I don't know how to get superscripts to come up in the title.  There isn't any significance to that other than this is the 8th post I've done so far. I like numbers. 

So there you go. Hope everyone is doing well!

-Eric

Melissa's Mini Monday!

So, as you may know, today Melissa had her first exam of medical school! They call these tests "minis", because they are smaller than the final. 

Fair enough. Still I think they could come up with a better name. You know, something that doesn't sound so, well, diminutive.  Because you really can't take the minis for granted. 

Anyhow, we won't know how she did for a couple days at least, but I can say with certainty that her disposition has improved drastically since she's been finished taking it. 

Like, a lot. I think it cured her cold even.  Maybe, maybe not. I just hope we don't see this same fluctuation between stress level (and health level) for the next mini. That mini is three weeks from tomorrow (the 9th of October). 

And she has 2 practicals that Monday the 8th. Better stock up on cold meds...

So yeah. We'll let you know how it went after the scores come in (probably Wednesday?).  I'm about to head off to my first training session as a Standardized Patient! I hope the rain stays away though; our hill is awful when it's wet.

Ok, that's all for now.

- Eric

Latest Updates

Hey all,

Sorry about slacking this last week. I wanted to wait until I had things to say in terms of work and school stuff, but that was probably Wednesday. Yesterday I was just ridin' the lazy train. Well, not all day. I did stuff in the morning.

So here's what's new.

This coming Monday, Melissa has Mini #1, part 1 (it's a two-parter, I guess). Minis are tests, generally smaller and less weighty on grades than the Final, but still significant benchmarks. The funny thing is, the minis don't have a consistent number of questions on them. The tests are made like this: for each hour of lecture during the chunk the mini is covering, 2 questions will be put on the test. So depending on how many hours of lecture there have been, that's how many questions you have. It also means that for studying purposes, it's advantageous to spend more time on the subjects that you've had more lectures on (and they can't surprise you with 10 questions from one random lecture). For timing, they give you 70 seconds per question. Just like that. So every test is potentially a different length, but you can figure out how long you'll get. So that's basically what Melissa has and will be doing this week/weekend. Studyfest.

Not that I won't be busy on Monday as well. I have my first training session to be a Standardized Patient, or SP. As an SP, I will be given a 'script' detailing a certain patient with some disease/disorder, and I will learn the part of this ill person. Then med students will have to interview me and take a patient history, as well as practice their patient rapport. For each session that I do, I will be required to give feedback about how they did. I'm not sure if this means that I have a part to play in the grade they get, but I'm working under that assumption for now. So basically they're paying me to act sick in a specific way. Good times, I'm sure. 

Also, I've officially put my foot in the door at the Prep school. I've started volunteering on Thursdays with a Social Studies/Math teacher, and I'm pretty sure they have me scheduled as a substitute on a day when the new hires have to go to a training seminar. Also, the principal sent my information out to the parents as a certified math tutor, for a little extra money on the side. The trick there is just finding a price that works for both me and the parents. The kids I've met so far are pretty good, but it just takes a little while to readjust to elementary/middle school students. 

Also, I emailed the IM cricket coordinator. The first step has been taken...

Anyway, those are some new things. I hope you found it illuminating. 

- Eric


P.S. Fun fact: I cannot spell "hour" right the first time I type it ever. I always write it as "our". Those darn homophones.

Pictures from our first 2 weeks!

I realize that it has been a few days since I mentioned putting pictures up 'soon'. What I failed to mention is that now I'm on 'island time'. You see, in island time, '10 minutes' means '20 minutes, at least', 'be right there' means '10 minutes', and 'soon' means 'about a week or so'.

I hope that wasn't too confusing with all the apostrophes. Full quotation marks looked too intimidating.

In any case, here are some pictures to hopefully give you some more context.

This is the dreaded hill that leads to our apartment. We hate it. We hate it with a burning passion.

Here we are on a hill overlooking Roseau, the capital city, with the other med students that were on our bus. Fun fact: this picture was taken by a former Ross SA president!

This is really cool. At the southern end of Dominica, there's a tiny peninsula (is there a word for tiny peninsula?). The water on the left is the Atlantic Ocean, and the water on the right is the Caribbean Sea. As you can see, the ocean is a lot rougher and grosser looking, while the sea is green and calm. And it's only separated by, what, 10 meters? We also hiked up that hill you see. Almost as arduous as our demon hill, but a really nice view.

This is one of Dominica's famous sulphur springs. It's constantly bubbling, and smells like old eggs. We literally looked at it for 15 seconds, then got back on the bus. Quite noxious.

This is a sort of memorial to the last hurricane to truly hit Dominica (1979, as you may recall). The wind knocked a tree over onto an empty school bus, and they decided to leave it be. It's in the middle of a garden, too, which makes it all the more surreal.

This is the place to go for all of your Dominican sporting events! And by all, I mean football (soccer) and cricket (hence the roundness). Mark my words: I will learn the game of cricket. Whether I can get to a match is a different story; I guess Roseau is NUTS on a cricket day.

Funny story about the white coat ceremony: when we got down to the "Annex" (1st-semester lecture hall), I was told that there wasn't room for family and friends inside the hall, so I got to watch it via a projector outside. This is the best shot I could get of Melissa during the ceremony. Not sure what she's looking at. I'll have to ask her later.

So proud of her!

 

 

So there you go! There are many more pictures, but this post is PLENTY long already, so I'll put some more up next week, probably.

 

Let me know if there's anything specific you'd like to hear about. The more this works like a conversation, the easier it'll be for me to write.  Hope you're all doing well!

 

-Eric

 

No-Fly Zone (I wish) and the Introduction to Melissa Mondays!

Today we have had 2 distinct massacres in our apartment. In the morning, I slayed a legion of ants in the sink, and just after dinner we waged war against some flies that had camped out on our kitchen light.

There were no survivors. Except us. 

Luckily none of the pests we've run into are any sort of dangerous. We heard about these nasty centipedes that are big (a foot long), red, and sting from both ends. Definitely avoiding those. No question. But even the ants we have are microscopic. Just annoying really. As long as we don't they don't get any bigger, we shouldn't have problems.

Anyhoo...

I decided back when I was first thinking about this blog that I would dedicate one day a week specifically for Melissa's adventure in med school. And what better day to use than the one that alliterates with her name so nicely? Hence, Melissa's Medical Mondays. And, maybe once she starts working with the cadaver, Melissa's Macabre Medical Mondays. M's for everyone! She'll basically dictate things for me to include to help you get some perspective of how things are going.

To start, here are some numbers to maybe help you conceptualize: 

Melissa, along with 430 other first semesters, just got underway with classes today. Those 400+ students are broken down into 3 groups for Anatomy lab, which are then divided into groups of 5-6 per cadaver. Most mornings, she will head to the "Annex" for morning lectures (8-12ish), then eat lunch, and study into the afternoon. From what she told me, today was mostly review from courses she took during her post-bacc program at Dominican University in River Forest, but she isn't taking anything for granted. Right now, in fact, she's prepping her books for tomorrow's lecture. I think. 

Speaking of tomorrow, Melissa's White Coat ceremony happens at 2:00 ET, so if you'd like to see what exactly that is, here is the link: https://ch1prd0202.outlook.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=EaDEcNtG1UKswz8nVJAycV-z6JEJXM8IFUYanUykHS4NfZ1aTR_njVtcqQYI4Ltmai7Kw-HrVaI.&URL=http%3a%2f%2fexmediasite.rossmed.edu.dm%2fwebcast 

(note that it probably won't start working until 1:30 tomorrow when they begin the broadcast)

Well that's all for now. Until next time,

-Eric