Woohoo! Thanksgiving Break!

It's not often that we get a whole week off from school so my classmates and I are overjoyed that we get the week off. Although most of them have left Morgantown to be with their families or are vacationing in warmer climates a few of us will be here in Morgantown. It's been gray all day and now it's raining, but nothing can dampen my spirits.

It seems contradictory to be in such jubilation if going to school is so wonderful. School is going along just fine and although I enjoy studying, studying for tests isn't all that enjoyable. I like WVU and the PA Program here but as I've said before, even people like Tiger Woods need to take breaks from golfing.

Nonetheless, I will still get some studying done this week. There's a 4-5 page microbiology report that I'll be writing and a couple of other subjects that need some studying up on. Once we get back to school we should only have a few weeks left until we are finished with the year. And that means we'll also be finished with classes! I can't believe that this could possibly be the last time I sit in a classroom and take a traditional course. Sure, learning goes on, but my classmates and I have been in the educational system for so long (the majority of our lives in fact) that the classroom environment has become something of a second home. I need to rent a 'mental U-Haul' and make the transition from my former home, the classroom, to my future home, the laboratory.

My roommate has invited me to spend Thanksgiving with her and her family. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and eating some tasty food. I'm fortunate to have found such a kind roommate.

This winter break I'll be looking into the immigration and naturalization process so that Hanako and I can finally be together again. It's been six months now since we've last seen each other, but thanks to technology, email and SKYPE it feels like we aren't too far apart. I'm still worried about her situation because radioactive elements are still being emitted from the nuclear power plant and are possibly leaking into the ground water. I'm also very disappointed that the major media outlets have completely ignored Fukushima and kept everything hush-hush. I'll bet that the majority of people don't even realize that Fukushima is a level 7 nuclear accident, the highest rating possible and on par with Chernobyl. There are so many things in this world that I want to fix and set right, but I realize that the only thing I can do is to remain vigilant and care for my friends, family and those who will lend an ear.

In the meantime, I have some relaxing to catch up on.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

There's Never a Good Time to Get Sick

I came down with a cold yesterday and it's just in time for my test tomorrow in laboratory management. I'm actually not too worried about it because my grades in that class have been fairly solid and I would have to flunk it for it to have a significant impact. But nonetheless, despite our two big tests last Friday and on Monday, the study material is once again piling up.

For me, the worst part about having a cold is not the impact that it has on your health, but how the cold disables your normal functioning. This is only the second cold that I've gotten this year so I don't get sick often, but when I do it just saps all of my precious energy. Precious energy is what is needed for studying.

Yesterday, as I was walking home from school after studying late in the scope room, my whole body just felt so exhausted that once I arrived home I couldn't study anymore. Later that night my pharynx began to get sore and I knew by midday today that I was sick for sure. Thankfully, I don't have any cough. Today after school I tried to catch up in the scope room again what I wasn't able to complete yesterday, but I was just so exhausted from the cold that I couldn't concentrate. No matter how long I stared at the slides I couldn't connect the dots or recognize what I was supposed to see. So after about 15 minutes of sitting listless I decided to head home, call it a day and try again tomorrow.

In high school, when our class graduated, my friend received an award for "Most Likely to Make a Cure for the Common Cold." He's studying physics now, but I need to pester him to hurry up on that cure.

Fingers, Abuse and Blood, Oh My.

Despite the misleading and grisly title this entry has little to do with what you're probably thinking.

So we've finished a big endocrine system physiology test today on Friday just in time to study for another big microbiology test on Monday. But at least this short break has given me enough time to write a little today. I focused most of my efforts this week on studying for the endocrine test today and it paid off well, but to my detriment a huge 16 lecture microbiology test awaits me in just three days. So, I already know what I'll be doing this weekend. In a twisted way, one perk of being in graduate school is that you usually know your plans are for weekends. Studying.

In addition to our normal studying, we've been busy fulfilling the requirements for working next year in Pittsburgh. We had already done our fingerprint requirements and vaccinations before we entered into the program, but unfortunately those results aren't transferable to Pennsylvania. So we have the pleasure of doing it all over again. Our program has switched over to a third party this year who will store all of our information and release it to any organization that we authorize. That third party is "Certified Profile" and we scan and submit our required information to their website. I believe that the PA students for next year in January 2012 will be going through Certified Profile as well.

There are a number of things that are required before we can start our clinical rotations. The hospitals want to make sure that we aren't child molesting, disease carrying ex-convicts. One would think that being in a Master's Program would pretty much be proof enough that you have no major offenses (after all how would you have been admitted to the program in the first place?) but rules must be followed for the sake of rules it seems.
The four requirements are:
1) Pennsylvania State Background Check
2) FBI Finger Print Background Check
3) Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Check
4) Proof of Immunizations for:
     -Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR)
     -Varicella
     -Meningococcus
     -Tuberculosis Skin Test (two PPD step test)
     -Polio
     -Tetanus, Diptheria
     -Hepatitis B

Hence, the title of this post.

In between our studying and exams and classes we've been getting these requirements done one-by-one.

1) The Pennsylvania State Background Check was the easiest. It was just a simple matter of printing out a form, sending it in the mail, waiting for the reply in the mail, scanning it and uploading it.
2) For our FBI Background Check, we needed to get our fingerprints done at a place certified to carry them out. There are a number of places in Pennsylvania which will take our fingerprints, but the most convenient place for us was in Washington, PA. There's a place there called "Mail Boxes Plus More" and it's located in a renovated train station, so it's got an awesome historical feel to it. They were open on Saturday so that's the reason we decided to go there. Anyways, the finger scanning laser machine was having trouble for the first customers but once it warmed up we got ours done in about 7 minutes each. I didn't know it but there's a special rolling technique to having your fingerprint scanned. You've got to roll with the right force, at the right angle and at the right speed or you aren't rewarded by the satisfying beep of success. Finger rolling is certainly an undervalued art form and deserves further study.
3) The Child Abuse Form was easy to do, just like the State Background Check. We just filled out a form, sent it in the mail, waited a week or so to get our results, scanned the result and uploaded it to the certified profile site.
4) Immunizations were a pain to do, but I am happy to say that today I should be finally finished with all of them. Because the cost of these immunizations was prohibitively expensive here in Morgantown, we drove to Fairmont to the clinic to get them done. The clinic has some of the nicest staff that I've ever met and it was a pleasure to be there. It's located just across from Fairmont State University and is called Monongahela Valley Association of Health Centers. In addition to our immunizations, I had some blood work done at the laboratory there on Wednesday and got my results today.

I've always had high cholesterol. Despite my slim BMI of ~18.5 my cholesterol has been over 200 for my entire life. Way back in early May I had my cholesterol done and didn't like my results.

                                                  normal
Total Cholesterol - 210 mg/dl     (<200)
Triglyceride -         163 mg/dl     (<150)
HDL Cholesterol - 35 mg/dl       (>40)
LDL Cholesterol -  143 mg/dl    (<130)

I was glad that my total cholesterol was down from around 230 earlier, but I still wasn't satisfied. I decided to eat less fattening foods, exercise more and take fish oil tablets. I'd eat more fish but it's just too expensive to eat a serving everyday, and although I love to eat tuna I don't want to introduce heavy metals (within reason) to my body. In addition, with the nuclear power plant in Fukushima continuing to spew radioactive cesium, iodine and even more harmful isotopes into the Pacific Ocean I'm even more wary of eating seafood. (I just hope that the fish oil tablets come from fresh water fish.) I had changed my daily regimen and it looks like it had a positive effect! My results that I got today are as follows:

                                                  normal

Total Cholesterol - 205 mg/dl     (<200)
Triglyceride -         85 mg/dl       (<150)
HDL Cholesterol - 46 mg/dl       (>40)
LDL Cholesterol -  142 mg/dl    (<130)

I can't be sure which change to my lifestyle brought about the most change, but I believe that the dramatic drop in triglycerides and slight rise in HDL are due mostly to taking the fish oil tablets.

BUT!

The physician who saw me had the foresight to order a variety of tests on my blood while I was getting my cholesterol checked and I found out that I have my first deficiency! (At least that I know of.) I don't know why I'm excited over it. It must be because I'm always looking to improve my health and now that I know about it I can do something about it.


It turns out I'm quite deficient in vitamin D (20.6 ng/ml, normal 32-100). We just covered vitamin D on our endocrine physiology test so I know quite a bit about it still. Vitamin D mainly comes from our skin when we're exposed to ultraviolet radiation, but it can also be found in fish, eggs and some meats. Well, I don't really get much sun exposure because when it's cold here (everyday in the Spring, Fall and Winter) I wear a sweater and pants. I also don't eat much fish (too expensive), eggs (too much cholesterol), or meat (too much other bad stuff).


My deficiency is such that I have a prescription for vitamin D now. I'll pick it up tomorrow in between my studying for microbiology.


Vitamin D deficiency is usually associated with impaired intestinal absorption and renal re-absorption of calcium and phosphate which are needed for your bones. I'm glad that it was caught before it developed over the course of many years and I suffered an unexpected fracture. In the end, I've got to thank having all of these extra requirements for going to Pittsburgh. There's a bright side to everything.