Yep... there is another tropic wave coming off the coast of Africa... Its like lining up now! Better figure out how to line up so that it doesn't interfere with my flights home or, Somebodies gonna get a hurt a reallll bad!
Monday, August 1, 2011
Emily??? Update
Well so far Emily has not blown up into a full fledged storm yet. No matter what she does, we are gonna get a lot of rain come Monday Evening and into Tuesday... Browsing thru the weather sites this evening showed me something I don't like seeing...
Yep... there is another tropic wave coming off the coast of Africa... Its like lining up now! Better figure out how to line up so that it doesn't interfere with my flights home or, Somebodies gonna get a hurt a reallll bad!
Yep... there is another tropic wave coming off the coast of Africa... Its like lining up now! Better figure out how to line up so that it doesn't interfere with my flights home or, Somebodies gonna get a hurt a reallll bad!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
It's Hurricane Season...
Once again, I find myself in the middle of the Caribbean during hurricane season and the first storm of the season for our area is heading this way. Currently still a tropical wave, all the forecasts are predicting it to intensify to a Tropical Depression then at least a Tropical Storm before it passes thru the Windward Islands (thats where I'm at btw..).
Once she strengthens, you will see her being called Tropical Storm (Depression) Emily. More than likely will bring sustained winds of around 60 mph to our area. I'm getting ready to go with my roommate to the store to get some water and what not. Someone suggested to us to take water bottles, freeze them and then if (and more likely WHEN) then power goes out, we can place them strategically throughout the fridge to keep all of our food from spoiling. Hopefully if we do lose power, it won't be for to terribly long. I'll prolly end up camping out at the school because they have a backup generator and we will still have power and A/C!
As far as communications go, I got no clue what could be instore! Can the island internet go down in a storm? You betcha it can (and has before)!! If we lose power, I don't expect the cell towers to work either, so texting and what not don't really seem like that would be possible either! But who knows! Its all a toss up, but for now, we wait to see which direction Emily will take. Last I heard she was forecasted to pass directly over Dominica and that would put us about a hundred miles or so north of the center.
But like I said... its a toss up right now. Will know more as the day goes on and into tomorrow.
Supposed to arrive here on Monday night or Tuesday morning, so my 4 day weekend could be extended to a longer one. Not against that, but with only 16 days til the semester is over and I leave the island, I'm not interested in days off because my behind will be on a Winair flight to SXM on Aug 16 at 6:30, come hell or high water!! :)
I am right around where the Green arrow is pointing!
Once she strengthens, you will see her being called Tropical Storm (Depression) Emily. More than likely will bring sustained winds of around 60 mph to our area. I'm getting ready to go with my roommate to the store to get some water and what not. Someone suggested to us to take water bottles, freeze them and then if (and more likely WHEN) then power goes out, we can place them strategically throughout the fridge to keep all of our food from spoiling. Hopefully if we do lose power, it won't be for to terribly long. I'll prolly end up camping out at the school because they have a backup generator and we will still have power and A/C!
As far as communications go, I got no clue what could be instore! Can the island internet go down in a storm? You betcha it can (and has before)!! If we lose power, I don't expect the cell towers to work either, so texting and what not don't really seem like that would be possible either! But who knows! Its all a toss up, but for now, we wait to see which direction Emily will take. Last I heard she was forecasted to pass directly over Dominica and that would put us about a hundred miles or so north of the center.
But like I said... its a toss up right now. Will know more as the day goes on and into tomorrow.
Supposed to arrive here on Monday night or Tuesday morning, so my 4 day weekend could be extended to a longer one. Not against that, but with only 16 days til the semester is over and I leave the island, I'm not interested in days off because my behind will be on a Winair flight to SXM on Aug 16 at 6:30, come hell or high water!! :)
Monday, July 4, 2011
SIGECAPS
SIGECAPS is a mnemonic that we went over in Pharm while learning about Anti-depression medications. It stands for the following:
Sleep disturbance
Interest (lack of)
Guilt
Energy (lack of)
Concentration (lack of)
Appetite changes
Psychomotor retardation
Suicidal ideations
So if you have 5 out of those 8 criteria, you are clinically depressed and should be treated for depression.
Now, I share that with you to share this. Call it Med School Syndrome, or hypochondriac or whatever you wanna call it, but I would say that over 50% of med students have at least 5 of those 8 (Suicidal ideations may be a little over the top for most however).
Since I have been in med school have I had:
Sleep disturbances? CHECK
Lack of interest in things I used to love? CHECK
Guilt (maybe from not studying, or failing an exam)? CHECK
Lack of energy? CHECK
Lack of concentration? CHECK
Appetite changes? CHECK
Psychomotor retardation? Nah... ok there.
Suicidal ideations? Nope.
So, lets count that up shall we? 1...2...3...4...5...6 6 out of 8. And I said earlier that 5/8 is clinically depressed. And I guarantee I could find you AT LEAST 50% of my class that would have to say yes to at least 5 of those criteria as well. If many of them say no, they are lying.
Needless to say, Med School can easily make you clinically depressed. Not to say that you actually are depressed like some other people who suffer from depression, but the signs point right to it!
Studies have shown that 1 in 5 medical students do suffer from depression. Now, if you apply those criteria more generally to anyone, not suffering from depressed moods, those numbers would go up a lot!
I will tell you that I am by no means depressed, but as far as the criteria are applied, I fit the mold.
Just some food for thought! :)
Sleep disturbance
Interest (lack of)
Guilt
Energy (lack of)
Concentration (lack of)
Appetite changes
Psychomotor retardation
Suicidal ideations
So if you have 5 out of those 8 criteria, you are clinically depressed and should be treated for depression.
Now, I share that with you to share this. Call it Med School Syndrome, or hypochondriac or whatever you wanna call it, but I would say that over 50% of med students have at least 5 of those 8 (Suicidal ideations may be a little over the top for most however).
Since I have been in med school have I had:
Sleep disturbances? CHECK
Lack of interest in things I used to love? CHECK
Guilt (maybe from not studying, or failing an exam)? CHECK
Lack of energy? CHECK
Lack of concentration? CHECK
Appetite changes? CHECK
Psychomotor retardation? Nah... ok there.
Suicidal ideations? Nope.
So, lets count that up shall we? 1...2...3...4...5...6 6 out of 8. And I said earlier that 5/8 is clinically depressed. And I guarantee I could find you AT LEAST 50% of my class that would have to say yes to at least 5 of those criteria as well. If many of them say no, they are lying.
Needless to say, Med School can easily make you clinically depressed. Not to say that you actually are depressed like some other people who suffer from depression, but the signs point right to it!
Studies have shown that 1 in 5 medical students do suffer from depression. Now, if you apply those criteria more generally to anyone, not suffering from depressed moods, those numbers would go up a lot!
I will tell you that I am by no means depressed, but as far as the criteria are applied, I fit the mold.
Just some food for thought! :)
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
1/3 of my way home!
With Block 1 being officially over now, I am 1/3rd of my way to going home in August. So far, this semester has been going by pretty quick. I think the next 2 blocks will prolly go quickly as well.
I'm relieved that the first exams are over and they went fairly well. Pharm was tough, but I passed it (unlike many other ppl). Micro and Neuro went well and I'm off to a good start! :)
I'm pretty sure after the exams were over (I skipped Neuro class due to the fact that I wasn't going to class right after taking 2 tough exams... Neuro exam was Monday and Pharm and Micro were Tuesday) I took like a 3+ hour nap! It was amazing!
I'm sitting in my classroom right now getting ready to start my second class of the day... Micro. Already had Pharm and we jumped straight into Anemia meds. I'm actually 4 days behind already for Micro because he finished block 1 info early and just started onto block 2 last week... of course I didn't pay attention to any of that because I had other things I had to study!
Well, bout time to start class, so I'll update more later... not much new happened since last update due to exams! I'm definitely relaxing this weekend! :)
I'm relieved that the first exams are over and they went fairly well. Pharm was tough, but I passed it (unlike many other ppl). Micro and Neuro went well and I'm off to a good start! :)
I'm pretty sure after the exams were over (I skipped Neuro class due to the fact that I wasn't going to class right after taking 2 tough exams... Neuro exam was Monday and Pharm and Micro were Tuesday) I took like a 3+ hour nap! It was amazing!
I'm sitting in my classroom right now getting ready to start my second class of the day... Micro. Already had Pharm and we jumped straight into Anemia meds. I'm actually 4 days behind already for Micro because he finished block 1 info early and just started onto block 2 last week... of course I didn't pay attention to any of that because I had other things I had to study!
Well, bout time to start class, so I'll update more later... not much new happened since last update due to exams! I'm definitely relaxing this weekend! :)
Monday, June 6, 2011
T-7 days til Block 1 (Edit: Pics added)
Alright, its go time for hitting the books hard this week. Block 1 exams are a week from today and its gonna be intense. I'm feeling ok right now on the material. Pharm is intense, but luckily for me I have multiple choices for drug Tx's. My roommate and I have been studying almost every night together for Pharm and both of us agree that if we had to just name a drug off the top of our head it would be a whole lot more difficult than a multiple choice answer! On a similar note... I think I have found out why you can't read a Dr.'s writing on an Rx... its because we can't spell the drugs very well, so just give the Pharmacist a gist of it and let him figure it out! haha!
Micro is boring and I have learned nothing... gonna be one of those classes that the review I do for the Step will teach me the important things for the course (kinda like Biochem because of the awful prof at Saba I had).
Loving Neuro! The prof in there is great! He has a different way of teaching than most... he doesn't use PowerPoints at all! But it makes you draw out and take good notes in class where you learn it well that way the first time! So far so good anyway!
Well, gotta get to it. Prolly won't be updating much if at all for the next week or so. Might be meeting up with some Saba friends on St. Maarten the weekend after blocks for some R&R on the beach. Then after next block (Block 2), my parents and my sister are coming down for a vacation to visit and I'm gonna spend that weekend in St. Maarten with them! Yay! :)
I'll get some pics posted in a bit...
Micro is boring and I have learned nothing... gonna be one of those classes that the review I do for the Step will teach me the important things for the course (kinda like Biochem because of the awful prof at Saba I had).
Loving Neuro! The prof in there is great! He has a different way of teaching than most... he doesn't use PowerPoints at all! But it makes you draw out and take good notes in class where you learn it well that way the first time! So far so good anyway!
Well, gotta get to it. Prolly won't be updating much if at all for the next week or so. Might be meeting up with some Saba friends on St. Maarten the weekend after blocks for some R&R on the beach. Then after next block (Block 2), my parents and my sister are coming down for a vacation to visit and I'm gonna spend that weekend in St. Maarten with them! Yay! :)
I'll get some pics posted in a bit...
One of the beaches on the Caribbean side.
White Wall
View of the Caribben (right) and Atlantic (left) from White Wall
Looking up towards the Quill (volcano crater)
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