Winter Unity Summit

 It's Sunday night with only 3 weeks of classes left, and then exams are coming! But let's forget about that for a minute and do another retrospective post, because that's always more fun!

So I've posted in the past about my own Unity Summit here, but this one was a little different for a few reasons. First, instead of being a new student, this time around I was a 3rd year student, and on the student's association helping to run the event. Being in charge is really cool, because you have responsibility for helping others have a good time, which is quite rewarding, as I described when talking about my blue mountain trip.

Second, the experience of unity summit is very different when you are a student leader, because you are coming in already having some friends, are more comfortable, and as a leader, it's your job to be really open and friendly with everyone. As a result, you end up pushing yourself to meet lots of people, and get to make lots of new friends. This a really awesome part of the experience. I would have to say that being a student leader over the past two years has been really fantastic for many reasons, but pushing myself to connect with more people is one of the big reasons.

Finally, one of the really cool things about this Unity Summit is that it was the Winter one, meaning it was a completely different setting. The Summit in the fall is always at the YMCA camp up north, and that is cool, but it's a little different for the winter. Instead we go to a smaller camp in Halton Hills (west), and there are way fewer people, as the January intake is usually about 1/3 the size of the September intake. The smaller group is a little bit more intimate, there is a lot more free time, plus, it's during the winter! This means snow, and ice, so activities like snowball fights, ice skating and hockey are all part of it. Plus I got to go horseback riding, which was pretty cool, even though it was just a slow tour, because I've never been riding before. And with the really relaxed environment, we came up with an awesome NSA skit that I will remember forever, a ton of fun to do, and ended it off with a really fun dance party. This is the 4th Unity Summit dance party I've been to now, but it was a really special one, because when Dr. Turk played Bohemian Rhapsody, literally everyone in the building started singing it together. Really cool experience.

I thought I was going to write about Medgames, but this post has become long, so I'll save it for another time. Hope you enjoyed your Easter long weekend! I can't remember the last time Easter was in March, so weird to me, but it was a pretty relaxing weekend. My nephews Erik (almost 3) and Andrew (almost 1) came over to stay all day Saturday and Sunday, and they are just adorable. Plus we finally had some fantastic weather, after the ice melted on Friday of course. I even got out for a couple long walk/jogs on Saturday and Sunday. Anyway, have a great week!

There's me with the horse I rode, Cujo. He got a little crazy partway through, started bucking a little bit and maybe almost killed me. But we're cool, he's a good guy...I mean horse.

      

Winter Blue Mountain Trip

So this is one of my retrospective posts, a little more on CCNM life.

Something that I wanted to do throughout my undergrad, but never got a chance to do, was plan a ski trip. The great thing about planning a trip is that: you get a discounted price for yourself for booking, you get a lot of responsibility, and thus satisfaction from helping everything come together, and of course, you get to set up a trip doing something you enjoy, with people that you like.

It was finally this year that I went ahead and did it, and I'm really happy that I did. The trip that I planned was really difficult to pull together. I first started looking for people interested in late October, and once I had a lot of people, I started looking for a place to book the trip. Suddenly, people started dropping like flies, and then there were issues with dates because of other events, a lot of different factors made it really difficult. However, a lot of hard work and persistence allowed things to finally come together, and for my post-midterm Blue Mountain trip, I had just over 20 people signed up with money paid to come.

We had a fantastic time on our trip, leaving for Collingwood just after we finished our exams Friday morning, and staying until Sunday afternoon. We skied in beautiful weather on Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday. We had a wonderful time enjoying a big chalet, spending time together in the hot tub and sauna, playing games in the big great room, and talking late at night. We also went out to the Village Saturday night and created our own party at a small club, having a lot of fun there too. Sunday we went to the spa at the hotel at the Inn at Blue, and enjoyed going from hot tub to cold pool, to massage, and finally a really nice sauna. And a big part of the enjoyment was from spending time together and talking about lots of things, most of all not talking a lot about school. The 2 hour drive there and back was also a great time to talk and enjoy each others company.

Now I'll mention that this was not actually the only trip. Another friend of mine booked a trip to Blue for us to a similar type of chalet just at the end of Finals in December. Same thing, we drove to Blue right after finals were over, and went up to have a great time. The only difference, is that there was no snow in December! So we didn't ski at all, I didn't even bring my skis! That being said, we still had a wonderful time, getting away from the city and just hanging out with each other.

So I guess the reason that I wanted to write this blog post, aside from reminiscing about some great times with my friends, is to talk about the importance of getting out. Escape. This works for people in areas of life of course, but I think this is really important to CCNM students. Depending on how diligent you are or how important going to lectures is for you, CCNM students can spend well over 30-40 hours a week at the school, many more of course if you live in residence (I'm fortunate enough to have my home close enough to school, and a car, so I do get away). There are many wonderful people at CCNM that you get to become friends with and connect with, but when you're at school, we are in a little bit of a bubble. It's not the same as the outside world, and the things that you talk about are very different. Realizing this, it is vital to get out of the school and experience the world with these wonderful people. I have found that the connections you create become much stronger, and the experiences you get to have are amazing. Whether it is going out to a bar on a Friday night, taking in a museum, going to a Harry Potter Trivia night (yes I did that in February, it was really fun!), or going on a ski trip, it's just awesome to connect with your friends in a different setting.

I hope that you, blog reader, take my message to heart, and ensure that you take opportunities to connect with people outside of your bubble. If it is CCNM, push yourself and your friends to participate in activities outside of the school. If you have friends that you work with, offer to do things outside of there. The connections that you strengthen, and the experiences you will have are worth the effort.

Fun picture from the first Blue Mountain trip. Since there was no skiing to do, we wandered and enjoyed the village together, and ended up taking a picture with Santa Clause. It was a really happy and fun day!

Student Leadership

Quick post today because it's late and I've gotta get to bed. Today we had one of our roundtable meetings for the NSA executive. The meeting obviously has some tedious points, but it also reminded me why being part of student leadership is so great. I really enjoy getting to spend time with lots of like-minded students who want to be involved, and work together to improve the student experience for all our colleagues and classmates. It's also great to hear about all sorts of different activities and initiatives you may not have heard of and learn how to get more involved. And of course, after the meeting, we had an awesome potluck dinner where we got to just hang out and rap about anything.

There's a lot of different aspects to being a student leader, and I'm happy to talk about any of them if someone wants to comment with a question. In general though, I think that being a student leader is an amazing thing that you can do at school. We only have limited time here, and I think that you get what you put into your experience. As a student leader, you have a lot of opportunity to make a difference, both for other students and for yourself. And it's important to note that being a student leader is not restricted to being elected on student government, or as a class representative. There are always opportunities available for those who are interested, all you have to do is ask.

On a quick school note, crazy assignment time has finally quieted down a little bit. After finishing my RCIA last week, having my live patient DRE and GYNE exams, my Health Psych Case Formulation, Homeopathy Case Analysis, Primary Care PEP (busy week because as Scribe I was in charge of ensuring everyone got their work done and doing final edits) and Phys Med Practical Case, it was nice to have a little bit of a break this weekend; some time to chill out and not worry about much. We did start our partner cases in Asian Med this week, so I took the case of a classmate, and I need to workup the case, come up with a differential diagnosis list, and a treatment plan for my classmate this week. I'll present that to my TA on Thursday, and if its approved, then I'll start treating my classmate in a couple weeks. They're also going to do the same for me, which is pretty cool, hopefully we can see some good results with each other.

Alright off to bed, have a good week everyone!

The Importance of Community

Back again for my second "regular" Sunday post. I'm kind of procrastinating doing some work tonight, it's been a long day, but I'm going to do my post as promised.

This has been an interesting week as always, with our first ADNSA meeting, practicing CBT on standardized patients in Health Psych, trying out moxabustion and cupping in Asian Med, the Jays clinching the playoffs (woo! I'm such a bandwagon fan but boy is it a fun energy to be part of! Plus my grandfather loves the Jays and it's really nice to share something with him), and a really big one, the Proclamation Celebration on Thursday. That's right, the Naturopathy Act of 2007 has finally been proclaimed in Ontario - Okay, well it was actually proclaimed in July, but we're finally celebrating it. As with anything politically related, this is just one step on a long road, and you can't appease everyone as many people are a little upset about certain things, but overall, this is really great news for NDs in Ontario and across Canada and the US really. Improved regulation and legal rights leads to better patient care and protection, and better outcomes for doctors in the end. It was great to celebrate this occasion with fellow students and doctors, and to look back on how far we've come as a profession.

Anyway, onto the topic of my post for today. Community. An awesome TV show (well at least season 1-3); but also, an important word. A quick google definition of the word shows the following: "a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals." Coming from a large family, I think I've always taken for granted the importance of community, but it was really while reflecting on my last week, and doing some digging into some old psych notes that I got a greater understanding. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is an interesting concept based upon what it takes to find your purpose in life: self-actualization. I think this is something that everyone should and eventually will want to achieve, to answer the big question, "why am I here?" Maslow posits however, that in order to reach this point, you first need to attend to your most basic needs. This starts with physiologic needs like food, water and air, and then moves on to safety. How can you worry about your purpose if you can't eat, breathe, or drink, or if you don't feel safe from harm? But the next part of the pyramid is actually a feeling of love and belonging. We as humans have always survived and flourished because we build communities; we work together to help each other succeed; together. 

Of course being aware of this concept has led me to reflect on my recent past, going through this difficult program of Naturopathic Medicine. Could I have done this all by myself? Without a strong community? I really don't know. I do believe that we are all amazing beings with tons of potential for success, but I also think that we can all be better with the help of each other. In my first two years of CCNM, I was provided with endless resources from older students to help me succeed in my classes. I was given motivational speeches, invaluable tips, and people to talk to when I've felt overwhelmed. The help this community provides extends beyond just the older students though; my friends and classmates, future colleagues, are always there for each other. We all know that we have what it takes to succeed, but sometimes we need help to get through certain aspects. Individually, we are strong, but as a community, we are unstoppable. It is because of this that I am so glad to be a part of the NSA executive - my goal is to always help foster this sense of community among the students in years below me, and also students in my year and the one above me. 

This week I really appreciated the opportunity to give talks for the 1st and 2nd years on how to approach midterms, as it can be a little daunting. Having been in their position before, I know that it's tough, but I also know that they have what it takes. And more importantly, I know that they have what it takes to help each other get through. I have been pleased to see lots of sharing of resources and responsibilities among these students, sharing notes, creating study groups. This is the benefit of having a strong community, and I hope to continue to help build it stronger and stronger.

That's all for now, I've got work to do and my ability to write well is kind of flopping, but I'll leave you with this quote from Helen Keller: "Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much."

- and okay fine I'll put a funny cartoon this week!

But I swear I'm going to do my work today!
.... But maybe a quick break since I just wrote this blog post...

Wednesday, and Some Fantastic News!

Back again for Wednesday's classes. Without further adieu, here they are:

Physical Medicine - This is a pretty cool class, it's taught by Dr. Tebruegge; he teaches functional anatomy in 1st year. As an RMT/ND, he has a lot of experience with more hands on physical medicine stuff, so he's got a great perspective. We learn about stretching (both solo and assisted), strengthening exercises and exercise prescription (my favourite, exercise is the best medicine! except maybe food haha), of course all sorts of useful orthopaedic testing and range of motion stuff, and last but not least, machines! There's lots of really cool machines that can do wonders for muscle pain and strains and all sorts of physical ailments. TENs, ultrasound, laser (which by the way is actually not a word, its an acronym for light amplified stimulated emission radiation, who knew), even UV light. We've got this on Wednesday and Friday mornings, but every few Fridays we'll have a practical to actually practice the tests and movements, so that'll break it up a bit.

Radiology and Advanced Imaging - Not my favourite course, but definitely an important one. This is taught by Dr. Fritz who is a chiropractor, so he has a lot more experience with this stuff. We're going through x-rays and will also look at things like MRI and ultrasound, which are of course important diagnostic tools for many conditions. It's going to be good to have a decent understanding of how these work, even though we'll always get reports from radiologists or other technicians when we get them, so I understand why we have it.

Common Time - Wednesday's common time is a little shorter than Monday, only an hour as opposed to two; by the way if I didn't mention, common time is a period where all four years and the IMGs have no class, so different talks and events can go on during the day that everyone can attend, or people can just hang out together. I had a meeting today for class rep training, it's great that so many people want to get involved in the school (especially the first years, awesome on them!).

Botanical Medicine 3 - This is a full year course in botanical medicine, as we've already got a bunch of basics, we're just diving deeper (class of 2019 reference!) into the medicine, and looking at more conditions and doing more intense cases. It's a bit of a tough class to get through, not my favourite, but there is a lot of awesome stuff you can do with botanical medicine, so it's definitely going to be useful.

Now for the good news.........




I passed NPLEX1!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been a pretty stressful week since we heard the letters were sent out last week, and since Monday I've been hearing results from friends (some good and some bad). I got home today and my dad was out and hadn't checked the mail yet, so I went to the mailbox, and the second I looked in the box I knew it was there. I walked back home with the letter and the rest of the mail, and didn't even walk in, I went to the backyard to my garden. I knew that I needed to be somewhere calm so that regardless of the news, I could feel kind of okay. I took a seat next to my favourite plant - the cherry tomato plant of course - took a couple deep breaths, and then opened it. I figured the letter would be folded up and I'd have to open it, so I started pulling the piece of paper out...and was greeted by three large Ps! The wave of relief that came over me was fantastic, and I followed with a nice little meditation in front of my garden, thanking myself for the hard work I did in the summer, and so damn glad that I don't have to write the exam again.

Anyway that's all for tonight, maybe I'll go to bed early for once......
Edit - forgot to add a silly cartoon for the day (oh and it's 11:30 and I still haven't started getting ready for bed!)

Tuesday! And I'm back for the second one, telling the truth!

Back again to summarize Tuesday's courses. I actually just finished doing some homework, the first homework I've really done all year! It's only the third week, I'll get in the groove I swear.

So the classes for today:

Health Psychology 3 - As our third health psych course, the expectations are getting a little higher, and there is a fair bit more practical work. This year is interesting though, because we actually have 2 SP cases for our group, and every practical, we will continue with those patients. Our first session was today, I fortunately didn't have to go as doctor (I'm a little too nervous to go first!), but it was a great experience to watch my classmates work with the biopsychosocial interview, as opposed to the more clinical focused one we watched yesterday in primary care. It was also interesting to see some of the homeopathy interviewing skills we've learned come into play here. Psych is cool though because you have a little more freedom than homeopathy to probe in different areas, but I find using those homeopathy skills helps really dig deep into what a patient is feeling, and what they actually mean when they speak. I'll also note that CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) is a big focus this year, so we'll be working on that type of therapy with our patients in future sessions. Lucky for me, I got the textbook for free - it was actually a gift from a family friend of mine, cool enough he is a social worker who actually knows the author Judith Beck (her father is kind of the "father" of CBT as it is, and she has played a big role in it's development and popularity. I'm sure he'll be a good resource if and when I get more advanced and want some help getting better at using CBT. Oh ya I forgot to mention the professor - this one is taught by Dr. David Denis again, our professor from 2nd year. He is really great, a true counselling focused ND. He provides such a great presence when doing demos, and when helping as he floats through the different practical rooms. A wonderful resource to have in this course.

After health psych, we have a 3.5 hour break until nutrition. During this time, all the breakout rooms we use for primary care are scheduled out for the 3rd years, so we can use them for whatever we want, with IT and primary care work the main focus, if we want of course. Today however, I had to go to an exam policy meeting - 1 of my duties as one of the VP Academics for the NSA Executive Council. I'll definitely remember to do a post in the future reflecting on my experience on the exec council so far, as it has been pretty great. The meeting was a little boring, but also interesting. You can really see the faculty working hard to develop good policies to benefit the students, and also push them to better academic success. It's also interesting seeing professionals work in discussion group like this, because even though they are older and more experienced, they still have disagreements, multiple conversations and multiple people speaking over one another, all that fun stuff that happens when you do group work in school. A little more professional for sure, but it's interesting.

Nutrition 3 - Our final nutrition course is taught by none other than Dr. Prousky, who is the chief medical officer of the RSNC. It's pretty cool, because he is just a huge wealth of knowledge with many years of experience, and lots of scientific data. He is similar to Dr. Phil (from second year nutrition) in his strive for evidence based treatment, but he is also a little less intense, and worries about using a combination of evidence based medicine and individualized medicine. He is also big on orthomolecular medicine, which generally involved very high doses of vitamins and nutrients for therapeutic benefit. So this year will have a little less focus on diet and lifestyle that Dr. Phil provided (fish oil, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a handful of nuts, and 30 minutes of walking a day will fix anything!), and instead look at more therapeutic use of nutrients. I think that a combination of these two courses will provide a pretty good foundation for using nutrition to effectively benefit many patients for many different conditions.

That's all for today, back to a little more homework before bed, but I'll be back tomorrow to talk about Wednesday. For now, enjoy this funny CBT cartoon I found.