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!

Back From Another Hiatus and 3rd Year Winter Courses

So unfortunately I fell off the wagon with blogging again after Finals in the Fall semester. I can't promise that my consistency will be back, but I'm going to try to be a little more consistent again, at least until the end of the semester. And while I'm doing that, I'll try to give a bit of a recap of all the stuff that has happened this semester.

At the moment I'm busy working away at some assignments, but I did finally get something done that I've been meaning to do for weeks. I created a Facebook Page for myself as an intern at the RSNC. Oh by the way, I'm an intern at the RSNC now, that's something new for Winter! I'll write more about that in a future post, but here is a link to my facebook page, which I'm hoping to keep a little more regular than this blog with posts, at least once a week.

Now I've got to get back to my assignments, but I'll give you a quick overview of the courses that we have in 3rd year Winter.

Integrative Therapeutics 2 - This is the same idea as IT 1 from the Fall, just teaching based on the cases we do in Primary Care here, a little bit of OSCE prep, and thankfully, no big annoying paper to write!

Primary Care - As a full year course, this is the same as in the Fall, except that we switch timeslots (in the Fall I had Mondays from 2-420, so now I have 430-650), and we get a new group. In addition, there is an OSCE examination, which I had just last week, I'll write about that in a future post though.

In Office Procedures - This class has a little bit of didactic lectures, but is mostly a practical class where we learn phlebotomy, injection therapies, sample collection (urine, saliva and skin), ear lavage, and nebulized glutathione and magnesium, as well as some basic theory about intravenous therapy (this is a full continuing education course with extra certification required, but we do learn some basics).

Maternal and Newborn Care - Dr. KBT (Kimberly Blyden-Taylor) teaches this course, a great overview of care for mothers and newborns, all the way from preconception through breastfeeding.

Asian Medicine - As a continuation from the Fall, we learn more about TCM formulas, TCM theory on Western conditions and run through lots of practice cases. We also have a big research paper similar to IT in the Fall, except this one was done as a group of 4, so it wasn't nearly as time consuming.

Asian Medicine Practical - A continuation from the Fall, we do 2 partner cases where we take a case from a classmate, come up with a treatment plan for them, and then initiate that treatment plan over 2 visits. We also have several group practicals to further practice our skills in tongue and pulse diagnosis.

Manipulation - In 2nd year Winter we learned all about motion palpation and assessment of the body from head to toe, here we get to learn how to actually perform chiropractic manipulations/adjustments to fix joints that are out of alignment. Keep in mind that "out of alignment" doesn't literally mean the bone is in the wrong place, it means that joints are not moving as well as they should due to spasms and tight muscles, so we help them move with specific adjustments. And the cracking sound that you hear during an adjustment? That is not the bone cracking! It's just gas escaping from the joint as you move it.

Emergency Medicine - This course is a lot of review of Standard First Aid, something that I have a lot of experience with as a former lifeguard and camp counsellor. This is important though because only CPR level C with HCP is required to be a student at CCNM, Standard First Aid is not. So students need to get some training in emergency management. In addition, we learn about the emergency drugs that NDs are allowed to administer such as epinephrine, and we also learn about the use of oxygen. There is some full class lectures and a group assignment, but this course is mostly small group practicals.

Pediatrics - This course is focused around care for children from 0-18, looking at growth from all aspects of health including physical, mental and emotional, as well as the social connections with family and the environment. We have didactic lectures for the first half, and then after midterm (which is multiple choice), all the classes are case based where we work in groups on specific conditions in different age groups. The final is going to be open book (including computers), so I'm a little worried, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. This course also includes a "lab" component - in early January we had the Pediatric Open House at CCNM where parents brought in their children to be assessed by 3rd year students in groups of 2. We then had to also observe a pediatric appointment either at the RSNC or through some sort of preceptorship. Then we needed to write a reflection paper based on these 2 observation experiences.

Homeopathy - A continuation of last semester with focus on acute remedy prescriptions, as well as practical sessions where we work on case taking. In addition, we've continued following our live case that we saw our instructor do last semester.

Botanical Medicine - Again a continuation of last semester, just going through more body systems and also working on 2 more group cases.

Clinic - Finally, what should be the most interesting course of the semester, clinic! In this course we have 1 clinic shift on a Tuesday-Friday night (2-8pm) or a Saturday morning. I personally got a Wednesday 2-8pm shift with Dr. Ragbir, who was actually my TA in first year health psychology if you remember from this post. On the shift we get a mentor 4th year student, and follow them as a secondary intern for the semester. This means that we see all their patients with them and are slowly incorporated into the visits, helping with physical exams and intake, as well as some treatment. We can't do adjustments or injections, but we can do acupuncture if the supervisor is there. In addition, we work with our interns on charting and treatment plans as well as patient research. Unfortunately my shift and my intern specifically hasn't been that busy, but I have still definitely learned a lot from this experience so far, including from shadowing Dr. Ragbir and seeing a bunch of different patients on the shift.

Alright so that's it for today, I'm going to get back to my assignments for now, but I'll try to be back for another post soon to review some of the events that have happened this semester so far.

I know I've been gone a while, but hey, this owl is pretty cute right?
And I'm a night owl, so maybe that's me?

Almost Free!

Here we are Sunday night at 12:50, and I'm writing my review of the weeks exams. Overall it was a pretty tough week, it was definitely a challenge to get through everything. Really just emotionally it can be tough, after going through so many exam periods in my life, and so many at CCNM specifically. This is the second last major exam period though, with midterms and finals next semester, and then I'll be in clinic! It's almost surreal how fast this experience is going by, and also how much I've learned and how much I've changed as a person.

So anyway, the exams this week were definitely tough, but manageable. With only Primary Care and Health Psych tomorrow and Tuesday respectively, I was able to actually have a great weekend. The exams aren't worth too much and I'm not too worried about the difficulty, so I was able to do a lot of fun things. Friday night, was the night that I, and many people have been waiting for for a very long time. Star Wars Episode VII! It was fun first of all just to go see a movie, because I don't get a chance to go see movies very often anymore. And as a huge Star Wars fan, I was really happy with the results. Was it the best movie ever? No. But did it reach everything that it should be? Absolutely!
Saturday night I went out with some friends, we had a nostalgic night watching Superbad and just laughing like crazy, and then went out to a nearby club. And then today (Sunday), after studying for Primary Care all day with friends, except really slowly and mostly just joking around, I went to a really awesome concert at the Danforth Music Hall. One of my all time favourite bands Silverstein came back. I've probably seen them over 10 times, but it is always a great time to see them. They also brought with them Cancer Bats, a band I used to really enjoy and haven't seen in a long time, and Beartooth, a band I really like and have never seen before. It was a really fun concert, and a great way to end off a super fun weekend.

So tomorrow its Primary Care exam and then Health Psych on Tuesday, and then I'm off to Blue Mountain with a bunch of friends for a couple days. Unfortunately there's no snow there...but we have a lot of fun people and I'm sure we'll have a good time. I'm just excited to get out of school mode for a little while and just relax and have fun. So I'm not sure if I'll post anything during the break, so Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all of my readers, I wish you all the best time and hope you enjoy yourselves with family and friends. And I'll throw out a PSA that the singer of Silverstein said tonight - "Put your phones away, just like, turn them off. Spend time with your friends and family and actually be there, those opportunities are the best."

Holiday Play and Exam Time

I'm sorry I missed my most recent post, it's been a busy weekend, and exams are coming!
Friday I went to a really awesome concert, one of my old favourites Protest The Hero did a reunion show and played their entire album Kezia from 10 years ago (one of their best songs if you're interested). They haven't actually broken up, but two members left the band, so it was nice for them to come back and play this old stuff. It was also fun because I went to the show with a friend from school, and I've never gone to a concert with anyone other than my older friends and my brother.

Saturday night was the holiday play which was a lot of fun. Every December the 4th years put on a holiday play - no actual holiday theme here - and use it as a fundraiser for Grad. This year the theme was Inside Out at CCNM, and it was absolutely hilarious. Instead of emotions, each character was a part of a human, like MSK, GI, Brain, etc. They had really funny characters with a lot of silly jokes - I could especially understand most of them being in 3rd year now! - and even a couple great songs. I don't know what capacity it will be in, but I'll definitely be involved in the school play next year for my 4th year, it's not something I could miss out on!

So anyway exams are coming up, it's going to be busy, but not horrible I think. Definitely manageable, a lot due to the fact that in 3rd year, we have lots of assignments and practicals during the year, so our exams are worth a little bit less. I think I'll be able to manage. Next week I've got Integrated Therapeutics, Botanical Medicine, Radiology, Mens and Womens Health, Clinical Nutrition, Asian Medicine and Physical Medicine exams. The following week I have Primary Care and Health Psychology. So that's 9 exams in 9 days. Seems like a lot, but I'm used to it by now. Also Physical Medicine is a short practical, Nutrition is open book, and Psychology is not worth too much, not to mention I have pretty much perfect from the practicals and assignments. So I've got a fair bit of work ahead of me for some of the others, with IT, Bot and Asian Med consisting of a lot of information, but it will be manageable.

I kind of doubt I'll have a post on Sunday because I'll be really busy studying for exams, but look for a post the following week - I'll still have two more to write, but I think I'll be in a much better state and be able to make a post, not to mention being really excited about being almost done my 2nd last semester as a full time student! (we have one class a semester in 4th year, I don't really consider clerkship being a student, not the same at least).

For those reading who currently have exams or exams coming up, as they say....

Primary Care - Doctor Week!

As usual, it's late on Sunday night and I really should go to bed, but I said I'd do these posts, so here I am. I was actually going to write this earlier, but I decided after 3 years, I'd finally give Game of Thrones another try. I tried watching it years ago and just couldn't get into it, but everyone is always talking about how good it is, plus it's almost December, so you know, "winter is coming." I know I technically saw it in the past, but watching the first episode just now, it was actually really good. I'm excited.

So anyway, a couple cool things this week. First off, I was finally the doctor in Primary Care. I think I explained in the past, but in Primary Care the class is set up as a practical with groups of 8. Every week someone acts as the doctor, we have a standardized patient come in, and for 45 minutes the doctor does an initial intake with questions and physical exams. The kicker is that as we are still learning, your group is available to help guide your thinking if you get lost, or are making a mistake on a physical exam, or miss an important question. This week was case 7, so we've been doing this for a while, but I was only just the doctor this week. It was a very humbling experience. When you're watching the case and doing research in your notes and online, you're disconnected enough that you can really think about stuff. As the doctor, I felt so connected and in the zone with the patient, I almost lost focus sometimes, and of course missed a couple really important questions. Thanks to my group though, I got on track, and I think I did well enough, getting a good amount of information to work with. It was definitely a cool experience, and I'm excited to do it again next semester, of course also doing more of this stuff with real people in my clinic shift. Also side note, I'm also going to be the doctor in Health Psych this week, so that should be interesting too. It's still a 45 minute visit, but a bit of a different focus. I'll talk about that next week.

So another cool thing this week was that it was Men's Health Week. We started off the week on Monday with Suit and Sunglasses day. It was a lot of fun, I usually come to school in joggers or sweatpants, so it felt pretty cool to come all dressed up. At common time we ran a Men's Auction, and raised a lot of money for our charity. I auctioned off some personal training services, so I was glad to be involved. Our charity by the way is Eva's Initiatives for Homeless Youth, a great cause for homeless youth in Toronto that really need help. You can check them out at here.

There was also a really great talk I went to on Wednesday, by Dr. Yashar Khosroshai, ND. He's one of the TAs for health psych at CCNM, and in addition to his practice, runs a company called MindShift Ninja. He has some pretty cool outlooks and perspectives to talk about. His talk this week was very intersting, called "Don't Be A Man, Be A Leader." I thought this was fantastic, because in our society today, there is too much focus on men being this stereotypical character, who is strong, closed off, and doesn't need anyone's help. I have lots of notes on this topic that I'm happy to share if you're interested. He also referred to a cool TED talk I finally watched today by Brene Brown on vulnerability, and how important it is to be vulnerable in order to succeed. To be a leader, to be connected to others, it all comes down to being self-aware, and being strong enough to be vulnerable, to be open and to be able to put your ego aside, asking for help when you need it.

I could talk about this stuff for hours, but I really should get going to bed, it's another long day tomorrow. Fun things for this week? Tomorrow we've got dance practice for Medgames, something I'm really excited about, and hopefully I'll have a video to link for you in January after it happens. I'm also going out to Costco to buy food for the MOSCE, an event I attended last year, but this year as one of the VP Academics for the NSA, I'm actually running! So that's on Tuesday, and I'm hoping it'll be a great event to help support the second years and prepare them for their OSCEs. On Friday I'll be shadowing the Fibromyalgia/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis shift, which should be pretty interesting. Speaking of that, my application was accepted and I got an interview! My interview is next Friday (December 11), so I'm hoping that will go well - we're a few weeks off, but I think I'll know if I get on the shift around the end of December.

Alright, long enough post, and it's almost 1! I'll leave you with a picture of my Mo progress for Movember. I don't do the 'stache only thing because it looks pretty bad on me, but it's been a fun month anyway.

I think I took the original picture really late on November 1st, that's probably why I look so out of it.
Or maybe I planned on making the Mo picture look a lot happier, strategy!

Focus Shifts

Another pretty relaxed week this week, though focus shift applications were due on Friday, so that was a bit of a stress. The Robert Shad Naturopathic Clinic (the school clinic at CCNM) has several different focus shifts that students can apply to. The purpose is to have a focus on a specific patient population during their shifts, and also to learn from supervisors with extra training in that area. The following shifts are available at the RSNC:

Pediatrics
Sports Medicine
Adjunctive Cancer Care
Fertility/Reproductive Health
Fibromyalgia/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis

I decided to apply for the FM/ME shift, so I'll keep you posted on what happens with that. The applications included a CV (I haven't made one of these in forever!), and an essay. The essay was really tough because I haven't really done a lot of personal essays. Give me a research review or a scientific paper to write, sure thing. But writing about myself, and why I want to do something and would be good at it? That is a little more difficult. So it was a bit of a struggle, but with some help from my dad (who is a pretty great writer), I was able to put something together that was pretty good, and hope it'll get me the interview. There's an interview process in December I think, or possibly early January, and we'll see what happens.

Anyway, real quick about FM/ME so you know what it is. Basically they are two very complex conditions that do not have the best diagnosis and treatment right now. Both of these conditions can be very debilitating, and pull people away from work and the things they want to do in life. Naturopathic Medicine has a huge potential to help these people to improve their quality of life, and I'm very excited about the opportunity to help these people. In addition, I want to be the best doctor that I can in the future, and I believe that the challenge of working with complex cases would be a valuable experience. Here is a quick summary of FM and ME if you'd like to read more into them.

That's all for now, and oh ya this week is actually Men's Health Week! A very important time, remembering the importance of Men's Health. By the way, it is Movember, and I did shave clean at the beginning of the month, and I'll have a picture for the blog next week to show how far I've come. Hopefully I've helped raise some awareness and money for good causes as well.