Blog killer...

I'm figuring out that the best way to kill anything is to just not feed it. This can be the case with your favorite pet, your favorite friendship, your favorite sin, and yes... even inannimate objects like your blog.
I think I killed my blog by not blogging.
I'm going to try to resuscitate it with some pictorial and written inspiration.

This picture is of a piece of paper that used to be the back of the Switchfoot CD - "A New Way to be Human." Yesterday it was magically transformed into a piece of paper that has JOHN FOREMAN'S SIGNATURE!!! :) Thing is... it would look a lot more dramatic if I'd offered him more than just a fine-point sharpie, and if he'd written more than just "john." Oh well... you can see it for yourself if you don't believe me. Actually I didn't even meet him, I just have to thank my mom for it.
In other news... my nose has abandoned me and is currently running like crazy. The last few days have been less than fun at least in terms of that. Started some antibiotics today but after learning about antibiotic resistance mechanisms in microbiology it makes me scared to take them for fear of creating some kind of mutant bacteria that is going to infect the rest of the human race.. . not cool.

I feel like I've pretty much adjusted to post summer-in-Africa living. Honestly, I felt like because of the way things ended in Uganda, that it was easier leaving than I'd expected. In the last week I was there I had gotten what looked like malaria. On top of that, my last patient in Uganda died on the table and it really hit me hard, especially considering the way that it all went down. It made me realize that medicine is a good thing, but it can't fix everyone; and even if it can fix people - it's only a temporary thing.

Finished the first test block - wow. This year is like riding a 7 hill rollercoaster... with the last hill being the biggest (USMLE Step 1.. the big test). Every six weeks consists of five weeks of class followed by a week of tests. More or less. In one sense, it gives us more freedom to do things at our own pace in the first few weeks, BUT the last few weeks of the block feel like lockdown. It's just wearisome and then you just hope your effort paid off in the ways you had hoped. During those couple of weeks at the end, it's easy to lose perspective of what's important when everyone is dropping everything to get hours in the books. Sleep, friends, relationships, exercise, and anything else at the time that seems superfluous. It's during these times that you see what is truly important to you. Do I "have to read" my Bible? Or is it that I won't make it through the day if I don't? I have to admit, I've felt both ways - depending on my self-reliance at the time.

Well, this post is a good start. Hopefully I'll get back to blogging more often soon.
-Roberdeau

Africa Presentation

Hey guys,

I don't think I've e-mailed since returning to the States... So if you weren't sure, let this be confirmation to you that I am alive. School has started back and it has taken me a few weeks to get to where I can actually organize my thoughts and pictures from the summer.

I wanted to let you know that I'll be presenting about my trip this past summer to East Africa on THIS Wednesday after Wednesday night church at Highlands Presbyterian. By all means, feel free to come whether you go to Highlands or not - I just figured it would be a time and place that was somewhat convenient and would hold a decent number of people.
I'll be telling a few stories as well as sharing some of the things I learned. I'm hoping not to spend too much time flipping through a bunch of random pictures (i.e. here is a giraffe, here is a person, here is a building, here is a tree, etc...).

Details:

Where: Highlands Presbyterian Church (1160 Highland Colony Parkway) (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH: Highland Colony Baptist, Highland Chapel, or Church of the Highlands...)
Drive to the back of the church and there is a Youth building called "The U" that we'll be hosting it in.
When: 7:40pm, Wednesday, September 15, 2010
For whom: Anybody! This is not a closed invite.
And the most important question... HOW LONG? 15-20 minutes.

Thank you for all your prayers this summer. It was very encouraging to know that the Body of Christ was praying on my behalf.

Roberdeau

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your parnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:3-6

A little transition...

I'll be updating throughout the summer at http://roberdeau-uganda.blogspot.com/
Hope you'll check it out- I leave tomorrow a.m. - wouldn't mind you lifting that up for me.
Thanks!

Too close...

I don't know why I feel a compulsion to update my blog when I'm looking down the barrel of the next 48 hours of exams with Neuroanatomy and Physiology. Maybe it's my altruism that wants to update you on my life - but I would bet it is more likely my concerted and tenacious effort to avoid studying.

I am currently an M1.97 (.o3 refers to a neuro test, neuro board, and phys test). Can't wait to be an M2!!

Interesting things I've learned lately.
"Sleep may be the cost of staying awake."
"You can fall asleep in most any position if you're sleep deprived enough."
"Sleep is like a reversible coma state."

Don't you wish YOU were in med school? All this esoteric information that the general public would never be able to get their hands on. Haha

On another note - Africa preparation is going very well. I just wish I could be wholehearted in my preparation right now instead of having to study for finals right now. I fly to Pearl River, NY which is the main office of African Inland Mission on May 24 to train for a day or two and then fly to Kenya! (indirectly... you have to fly through Europe first.) Can't believe that it is less than 2 weeks away.

I'll leave you with this video (it comes highly recommended):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2BgjH_CtIA

Taking on the role...

It has been truly fascinating to me how in the past year - even BEFORE I started medical school, people have begun to consult me about medical information. After I'd finished at MSU and had not started school yet, I still got asked what I thought about "this bump on the head" and "that kind of pain."
The reason this comes to mind is that in the past week I've been around when two people sprained their ankle. People turned to ME and asked ME what to do. Ha. - I'm the first one to admit that I am "just an M1 and not a doctor." Fortunately, I have never sprained an ankle bad enough to have to do anything about it. Unfortunately, I didn't know much about what to do about it. Thankfully, the first lady whose ankle was sprained had experience in wrapping her own ankle, - she was able to instruct me on how to wrap it. -Last night while at a church "lock-out" I was on my own when a student turned her ankle. It is amazing the confidence she and her friends had in me.
This is something I'm going to have to get used to - instilling confidence in my patients. I'm getting small opportunities to get to do this at times. I'm sure this will happen a LOT this summer. It is not that I will always know the answer - but that I am willing to investigate what the answer is. I'm discovering it is not necessarily the good doctors that know everything - they are just willing to find out the best answers.

On another point - Please keep Mississippi in your prayers. It is so sad to think about all that has happened right now. Tornadoes near Yazoo - oil spill on the coast. They've compared this oil spill to Hurricane Katrina in terms of it's impact on the gulf coast. It breaks my heart to see that area have more struggles than they've already had in the past few years. I know the economy has struggled a lot down there and jobs are so dependent on the waters. Pray that the Lord would minimize the damage as the oil slick approaches today.
On a statewide level - this is just one more thing that hurts the MS budget even more when we've already had a terrible budget crisis in this state. I don't know how this is going to be handled.

What to do when you should be studying?

Update your blog that you haven't posted since December! Sounds good to me...

Easter is here. I am sad that I haven't reflected more on it up to this point. We didn't get Good Friday off, which was a first, and then I have to study all day today to get ready for the 6 hours set aside for tests on Monday. I have noticed that the test days seem to get longer and longer....

Just for a quick update - went to Colorado over Spring Break. Went skiing at Arapahoe (sp?) Basin with Mississippi College's RUF. Had a GREAT time and we DROVE the WHOLE way there. I am sad to report that I don't have any pictures to speak of because my camera "done broke." Actually, there is little evidence that I'm even alive this school year seeing as my social life has diminished significantly and I live in a library. I do try to pop my head out every once in a while though.

Since spring break, we've jumped into hyperdrive at school taking Neuroanatomy and Psychiatry. Both proving to be rather interesting on most days. Like most things in school, few of the things are "hard" - there's just a lot.

I REALLY do want to start blogging more - and I've even set up another blog for the summer! http://roberdeau-uganda.blogspot.com/ I hope you'll keep up with what is going on during my trip this summer.

1 semester down... 13-21 to go..

This post is a bit premature, but I am certainly feeling like the semester is over.
I came into this semester prepared to be utterly miserable. It has been far from the case.
Granted, there were weeks that were pretty ridiculous, but it has surprised me how it hasn't been as bad as I expected. This is only true though because I expected the worst.

Christmas seems so far away, not in terms of how it is already December 10, but in how it has hardly crossed my mind yet because I'm still in school. By this time of the year for the past 5 years, I've been out of school for several days. Guess that is just a change in pace I'll have to get used to.

We just finished a big block of tests (physiology last Thursday, Histology written and practical on Friday, Developmental Anatomy and Gross written and practical on Monday...) and even though Biochem hasn't wrapped up yet, things feel so much lower pressure right now. We've got a week to prepare for that board exam.
Last night was our "coat-burning party" and I was really impressed. When I finish a class, it never feels like a big deal, but they really made a big deal about being done with Gross and I'm thankful for that. The school didn't hold back, and they had a huge turnout of the class at Luckett Lodge - look on facebook and you might see some evidence of what went down. It wasn't a night to forget, ha. Nothing like standing by a fire that is stoked with the lab coats, books, and shoes of 100+ medical students. Thankfully there was some wood in the fire so I don't just smell like formaldehyde (sp?) but theres a campfirey smell to my clothes too.
It's been a while since I've posted, maybe I'll get some inspiration during the holidays to do more posting.