A snails pace....

It seems that just a few short weeks ago, I was pulling out my hair due to lack of time for study etc., and now I can barely figure out how to keep myself awake. Although I better enjoy it now I'm sure, as when June next rolls by, I'll have a new munchkin to keep me preoccupied.



Classes will reconvene on the 11th of January, although the class that I'm sure I will find the most challenging, will only start in February, which is nice, as it'll give me a month of peace to concentrate on my other three classes, sign language, badminton, and acoustic guitar. The sign language will be of great use I'm sure as a nurse. Did you know that American Sign Language comprises the 3rd most widely used (I actually wrote "spoken" here until I realized my gaff, haha) language in the US. So there stands a good chance, that at some time in my career I'll come across a deaf patient, and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to communicate accurately with them. Honestly, I can't wait for class to start.

As for the badminton and guitar classes, yes, they have nothing to do with my nursing classes, but they have everything to do with my college experience. I had actually wanted to continue with my swimming class next semester, but none of the times they had available would work with my schedule. Perhaps in the summer I'll be able to take it again, for now I'm happy with the badminton class as it'll help me keep physically active, which is what I need. The guitar class I'm taking because I'm 27 and it's high time I learned how to play a musical instrument. I say this because I love music, so why not learn how to make some myself? I had always wanted to learn to play the violin, but alas, things never came together that way, so instead I'll learn to play my little six string.

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Lose weight, or lose your job....

Today there was an interesting topic being discussed. They were talking about how a study had shown that people would lose more weight when they had money as an incentive (big surprise). Their next point is what got me thinking. They suggested that this may be a good way for companies to lower their health care cost, by offering incentives to employees for losing weight.

My first reaction was that it was genius, the second image in my mind was of people beefing up before starting a job just for the extra money they'd get for losing the weight, which without proper implementation I'm sure many would try this.

If the companies instead decided not to offer incentives for people to lose weight, but rather to maintain a healthy weight. But what about those who are happy without the extra money and would rather stay overweight? Simple, give existing overweight employees a set period of time based on how much weight they must lose, to actually lose the weight. If within this time they fail to lose all the weight, they will begin to pay a percentage of their health care cost to the company, also based on how much weight they need to lose. New employees would face the same restrictions, and would pay a percentage of their health coverage until they reach their goal weight.

The flip side is the bonuses that they would receive for maintaining that goal weight once it has been lost. Which from my own personal experience, that I'm sure has been shared by many, is that it's much harder to to keep the weight off once you've lost it all (ironic, considering all the work you've put in). And I honestly think making those who don't lose the weight more responsible for their health care costs, while rewarding those who do lose the weight, and try to remain healthy would be the incentive that many need to finally shed those pounds.

Lets just hope that some companies wont go to an extreme and fire those people, like some companies have done in the past to get them to quit smoking.

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It's a boy!!

Well, last night, my wife and I had our 16 week ultrasound. Although I think the doctor had wanted to just do a quick listen to the heart. He had said however 4 weeks ago that we could check, so I reminded him, and he said we'd have to wait in line. Which translated into a 10 minute wait, that was nothing compared to the last 4 weeks I spent waiting to find out.

Almost right away it was obvious it was a boy, to me it didn't matter either way if we had a boy or a girl, but my wife wanted a boy, so she was really happy (as was I of course, but I'm happy already to just be having a baby).

Now we can finally start choosing a name (I refused until we knew if it was a boy or girl, I didn't see the point) and we can start looking for things to pick up, or put in the baby registries. At least I don't have school to worry about for the next few weeks, maybe we can get some of that stuff done before I start.

Anybody have any good suggestions for things to pick up?

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An Aspirin a day, keeps the Doctor________?

This used to be an easy fill-in the blank type question. But recently, the wisdom and logic behind taking an aspirin a day as a preventative measure against heart disease/attacks or strokes has been taken in to question.

It seems that the daily intake of aspirin greatly increases the risk of developing gastrointestinal bleeding, and even carries a risk of hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in to the brain). So new guidelines are being released in order to help guide decisions on the matter. As the risk of having a cardiac event or stroke must be weighed against the internal bleeding in the intestines or brain.

The guidelines are as follows:

Men less than 45, should NOT take aspirin on a daily basis to prevent an event.
Women less than 55 are in the same boat.

Men between 45 and 79 should take a daily aspirin, if the risks of an event outweigh the other risks.

Women between 55 and 79, shouldn't take a daily aspirin to prevent a heart attack, but may take one if the likely-hood of a stroke outweighs other risks.

They said there were was no evidence either way once you've passed 80. I guess they figure you've made it this far, so you've probably earned the right to pop some pills.



The article may be found here; Aspirin Article

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Flipping the Bird

Today was my last Microbiology exam, the final, the one I've been dreading since day one. Usually, my feelings
about my tests, but with this class, my "Grade'o'meter" has been off, so I have no real clue as to how I did. All I know is I needed my best, which is what I gave, hopefully it translates in to a good grade.

For those of you expecting a bashing of my class, especially due to my title, I'm sorry up disappoint, that will have to come another day.

I get weekly allergy shots, and I was on my way, and almost there in fact, when the following happened. I had just gotten off the freeway (3 left hand turn lanes), I was in the right-most lane, preparing for a right turn I needed to make in a couple of lights. A lady in the left most lane that this would be an appropriate time to suddenly cross 3 lanes of traffic, and almost cause a collision. I was the last car she cut off, and I had to break, hard......

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Flipping the Bird cont'd

.....I gave her a short "open your eyes & watch where your going" type honk, I didn't lay in to it or anything. What did the trouble earn me? Besides a near miss accident, she gave me the finger on top of it all. What a card.

I then started to think, of all the times that had happened to me, and I came to the following conclusion: women are quicker than men at making that gesture to others. I can honestly counting both hands, the amount of times a guy (adult) has flipped me the bird. I couldn't begin to recall how many I've seen from women.

This is my theory as to why this happens. I think that guys as they grow up are exposed a lot more the possible consequences (usually physical) of someone taking exception to such a friendly gesture, whereas women don't. And this is why at least in my opinion women are more prone to giving the finger.

Too bad there isn't a way to help them realize, they shouldn't just go around doing that, oh well, what can you do.


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Swimming in lard?

As I was searching for a health article to review for a makeup for swim class, I came across one that detailed the correlation between the high percentage of calories we consume from fats on a daily basis and gaining more weight. Or more importantly, that there is none. I always hear people talking about how you need a certain amount, for example 2000 calories on a daily basis, but only a certain percentage of that should come from fat. And I suppose that there is definite logic to consuming the proper amount of calories a day but from varied sources, as opposed to sitting down with a tub of lard (pardon the mental image, yuk!) and consuming the same amount of calories that way.


The neat thing was that they said it didn’t matter where the calories came from, calories, are calories, and getting too many, even if they’re from carbs, or protein doesn’t make a difference. Finally I have an argument against those “I eat 20 bowls of salad a day and I’ll give you a dirty look for eating a PB & J sandwich in public” kind of people. The article’s main point that was highlighted, was that the important thing was to find a healthy balance (intake/output), and focus on a healthy lifestyle, including, regular exercise, which oddly enough was a regular theme throughout class over the semester.

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The article may be found here Article

The next guitar hero?

Ok, I know, that title was cliche, but I couldn't resist. Anyways, this is my new piece de' resistance, that I just picked up last night...

Starting in January, one of my classes will be "Beginner acoustic guitar". And I can't wait to start class. I've been wanting to get a guitar for awhile, and to learn how to play it. I don't want to be one of those people with a guitar on a stand in their house, but have no idea how to play it, or even keep it in tune.

I bought a 3/4 size Marlin, or a "Little Martin". Came with a really nice carrying bag, and I thought I would be great especially due to being smaller, for camping trips and the like. So long as I can work it into my schedule, the classes I plan to repeat next semester (summer), barring my having to return to work or something like that, would be my sign language and guitar classes. Along of course with whatever medical/nursing classes I take. We'll see how that turns out.

For now though, I think I may try to mooch some guitar lessons from some of my friends ;). I already started to learn a picking style called Travis picking, it's a lot of fun.

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He peed in my house!

Can you imagine? We have a guest staying in our house, and yes he isn't a spring chicken (late 50's) but still, that's no excuse.

My mother walked in and said "look who's here...", I walked in and saw him struting out from the living room. I found it odd that the first thing did when he got here, was to cross my house alone to the living room, and then return to the entry way. So I went and took a quick look, and there it was, a huge puddle against the wall. I was furious! Worst part is, this wasn't the first time he's done it.

He's been our guest several times, and this is the second time I've caught him peeing.
I took a picture of this guy, so just in case you spot him coming towards your front door, you'll think twice about letting him in.





This is Rocket, he's an adorable 8-9 year old Westie who we take care of once in awhile. He's a great dog, and well trained for the most part, except for this peeing thing.

Oh well, here is his little lover girl Avi later on showing him who wears the pants around here....
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I'm a 27 year old male pre-nursing student, currently pursuing my pre-requisites for a nursing program. This blog will deal with the challenges I face on a daily basis on my journey to, through, and perhaps even beyond nursing school. This blog will look at struggles and hurdles I face, from the perspective of a married soon to be first-time dad.

I have the loving support of my wife who is the sole bread winner for us at the moment due to me being laid off a few weeks before I started school full-time, which was a mixed blessing I guess, being that we were getting a lot less money, but there were a lot more classes that were now accessible to me. Of course her help isn't completely altruistic, I'm sure she can't wait for the day my course is done, and she can stay at home, and I'm ok with that :). Besides, if we get a couple of rug-rats, It would be nice to have my wife raining them other than some stranger.

I have several hobbies, including snowboarding (I'm a member of the National Ski Patrol ;) )camping, hiking,and hunting. I also love to drive my Subaru WRX wagon wherever and whenever I can, as well as baking occasionally and gardening (we had some amazing tomatoes this year). I love sitting down with a good book, and I'm currently going through "The Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan which I like a lot.

Thanks for taking some time to get to know me better, please feel free to look around, and comment.


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A Fieldtrip

Today for my last microbiology lab, I'm going on my first field trip in possibly 10 years. I even had to sign a permission slip, what a flashback.

The icing on the cake? We're going to a brewery. Quite possibly the bright spot in this otherwise dreary semester. Afterwards a discounted lunch there with class, maybe we'll quiz each other for the exam on Tuesday.

Should turn out to be an interesting day :)
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Maybe I should saty home with this little girl, Avi, one of our two adopted "kids".

The Color Blind Chemist

I guess my brain is getting bored with studying for this test. As I was reading a lab write up posted online about a similar test that I ran my self in class (citrate test).
I was perplexed when I read where they wrote that the agar starts off yellow, when citrate agar actually looks deep green, even in a picture he posted next to it.

Sure, that could have been an honest mistake, but I say no! This poor chap (I say chap because color blindness is extremely rare in women)loves his chemistry, but can never reach his true mad scientist potential. What a tragedy. Yes, he is the bumbling smart guy in the corner, who seems unsure of himself, asking others to verify his results, well now you know why. He's the color blind chemist.

Interestingly enough, after a quick Wikipedia session, I learned that there are various causes of colorblindness. It could be genetic, coming on anytime between childhood and adulthood, but if it doesn't run in your family, you should be safe. Unless you suffer some trauma to the head, or more importantly the occipital lobe, which can bring it on. It can also be one of the many problems associated with shaken baby syndrome. Last but not least, it can be caused by ultraviolet light damage, which interestingly enough it said happened more in childhood, so tell your kids not to stare at the sun, or they wont be able to see colors anymore! Well, I mean, that's if they're able to see at all after staring at the sun ;).

Well, I needed this mental diversion. Back to studying.

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Candle Lit Reading

I can honestly say, I don't think I've actually every used just a candle to read by. I do however, remember those late nights I used to spend, hoping my mom wouldn't notice the light from under the door, and that I would be able to go about my late night, novel reading fury. I like finding a book like that to read, it's so enjoyable, almost sinful it's so good, although I've come quite a ways from my younger years in that I can control myself and even though I don't want to put that book down, I know that at 27, pulling an all nighter just to read a good book, isn't quite as much fun as it used to be.

And now, here I am, typing away at 4 am, hoping the wife isn't disturbed by the noise or the light from the office, much the same feelings I had as a kid, with none of the joy I might add, as I whittle away the hours before my Microbiology lab final. I'm up this early to get in some last minute studying for the test. Not my favorite thing to do this early in the morning, but then again, I don't have too many "favorite" things to do, that I would like to squeeze in before the crack of dawn, haha.
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Butterfly Effect

It's truly amazing how some things no matter how small, can have such a drastic impact. An incorrect angle on a small facet of a diamond, and now instead of being sold at de Beers, its sold at Sears. A small snowball thrown down a hill rolls to the bottom and in the meantime grows exponentially, on its way to crushing a car. And the small embryo growing in my wife's womb for example....which will arrive next June.

I can simply wait and wonder at the earth shattering impact this first child will have on my life. God knows this is something I've wanted for a very long time, and quite honestly, I can barely contain myself. I'm excited and scared at the same time. There are so many things I want to do, and share with them, and yet so many things in this world scare me, let alone my baby. Not to mention just all of the things that could go wrong.

I am determined however, to try and maintain as positive an outlook as possible. Although some worrying is warranted and necessary, I'm sure in the end, I'll have succeeded in getting more gastric ulcers, and probably shortened my life span from all the stress. So from here on out, it's all gummy bears and gum drops for me!

And for those paying attention, I had my Anatomy lab final today, and I think I did very well on it. It was a 100 question exam, with 33 questions on histology presented on power point slides, and the rest were on human models, or cat cadavers.
It was pretty straight forward, and only a few curve balls. we'll find out soon enough about my grade, and I'll post up as soon as I do.

Thanks for reading :)

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Crunch Time

This is it, down to the final days of the semester, today I have the first of my 4 finals for 2 classes. I consider the tests this week as separate finals because they're for the lab portion of both classes. Last night I was up until 11 to finish some work, and I'm going to have much more work later on this night. I have a project that's also due tomorrow that I have yet to complete, it's coming along though, I'm just about 2/3's done. All that's left after that, is just pure study. My lab exam today is worth 100 points, and my test tomorrow, 50. But I'm more worried about performing well tomorrow, than about my test today. I don't have to do as well today, as I need tomorrow, so I've been devoting most of my study time to tomorrows test, and I feel like I'm neglecting the one for today. I hope I'm wrong, but there's only one way to find out.

I can't wait to get to my swimming class today, although it's always cold around the pool, it's so nice to be in the water, and it's the only time I feel non-medicated relief from my back pain. Too bad I can't live in a pool. Unfortunately I couldn't work another swim class into my schedule for next semester, which kind of bums me out. I'll try again in summer semester, hopefully there will be a more convenient time slot.

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Allergic to Micro?

Well today was my last lecture class for microbiology, and couldn't be happier. This class has been a thorn in my side since September.

I started out the semester with an open and interested mind, but it's amazing how an instructor can alter ones perspective. I want to be very careful not to turn this into a typical "bash my professor" type rant.
So I'll set the scene:
At registration I had a choice faced by many frustrated students, take the last professor available, even though they have negative points @ www.ratemyprofessors.com/, or wait a full semester, hoping for a better registration date. I took the first choice.

As I said, I went in completely open minded, hoping, that she was merely a tough teacher, but a good teacher, I've had a few of those, and they've always been my preferred sort anyways. I was wrong. So very wrong.

It started small, her showing up for lecture 15 mins. late everyday, next she wasn't posting the power point slides that we had fill-ins on (or you wouldn't get the all the info), until 1 hour before an 8 am class. From there she decided to heap work on us toward the end of the semester be laying giving us information on something we could have started the first day of the semester. Then she gave us a project, giving us experiments to do and telling us to write notes for later grading, without giving us the instructions on how to catalog and present everything, until 3 CLASSES LATER!!! so we were doing everything blind. By this last lecture, she had 5 student other than myself, asking her why they were missing point off they're exams.

The class average for our first 3 lecture exams were, D, F, D (the F one she later bumped up by giving everyone 10 extra points). Her study guides she rips-off the internet from a different instructor, and when you ask her a question, she doesn't even seem to know whats IN them. If for some reason you can't find something in your notes from her lectures, or the power point slides (the only stuff she claims you'll be tested on), to answer one of the study guide questions and you ask her about it, she'll tell you to look it up on the internet. The internet?

I'll be honest, her lectures are like a guided study group, and her labs are like a supervised lab. That's for the most part about as good as it gets. Like having a senior student around, although they know some stuff, you don't feel like your in the presence of a person knowledgeable enough on the subject to be teaching future health care workers.

A guy in my Anatomy class got stuck worth her next semester, and I already warned him to be prepared, and I'll give him some more pointers before he heads off in to the pit of despair that is this classroom @ IVC.

2 exams left, 1.8% away from an A ....this close......

Something out of Star Trek?

Well, maybe not so much, although when considering some of the technologies used today in medicine to scan, probe and decipher the human body, it makes you wonder how far off we may be. They even have portable ultrasound machines you carry around in a little case.

*Beep, beep* "You're going to have a healthy baby girl!!".... amazing when its happening in a remote village. Well, it's amazing period.

Anyways, I'm talking about this because I'm scheduled to go in for a bone scan and MRI today. They're both going to be done on my mid-thoracic spine, between the T-6 and T-9 vertebrae. I have to go and get an injection first thing in my back, to give contrast I imagine to the image they'll take later when I'm due to return for the Scan and MRI. I'm happy to finally be getting some tests done on my back, and I hope that some answers will soon follow.

The only gripe I have about doing the tests today, is that I'm most likely going to miss my swimming class (although it is raining today and it's an outdoor pool, so that's not a total loss), and worst of all, I have a feeling the tests may eat in to my Anatomy class, and being this is our last lecture, it's not something I would like to miss. I should at least be able to make it to my lab, so that's not all that bad.

Funny thing is, there is a shocking similarity between the tests today, and with some of my microbiology exams.......... I'll have to wait 10 days for the results!

Begining at an end...

I've tossed around the idea of starting a blog for awhile now, although I wonder at who would be interested in the daily events and odd thoughts I decide to share.

I'm a male college student in southern California, which already makes me a minority, not to mention the obvious, I'm getting myself into a female dominated field. Which I'm totally OK with, I'm just mentioning this due to the unique obstacles and experiences may encounter.

I had been going to school part-time since '06 while working 50+ hr weeks, until the downturn in the economy saw me get laid off at the end of '08. I've been a full time student since.

This January I started the necessary pre-requisites to start my road to nursing school, as until then I'd only been able to take some of my classes for the general education requirement. I took intro to bio for nursing students, but couldn't take any of the other pre-req's until this fall, although I took an EMT course and became nationally certified as one. That was a great experience which I would recomend for nursing students, due to the unique perspective you learn as an EMT, besides, it only takes a semester.

This fall I've been taking Anatomy, Microbiology and a swim class (need that regular exercise). I don't recomend taking those two classes at the same time unless you're a strong student, and have no life or family. With a week and a half to go, I have a 92 in Anatomy, and 88 in Micro, so it's down to the wire.

That basically brings everything up to date, I'll need stuff to post later as well, lol.

Thanks for reading.