April: Hey Look Ma, We Did It

April Hours: 12

Total Hours: 30

Caption: Kennedy, a black lab, preforming a place on a bed while a distraction cat and ferret run in the background

    

    This month has been a crazy feeling of being almost done and almost there and also still so much to do. While we finished the NMBE the first of the month, we still had several of our elective classes to finish up. We had our elevator pitches in environmental, which was really neat to see all the social justice issues linked to health that my classmates are interested in. We had several sessions of neuropharm, which greatly increased my ability to read and understand scientific papers and endocrine pharm, where I learned what stressing about stress does. We also had several advances classes and seminar guest speakers, which continued to be really interesting. Today, I took my last exam in the graduate program. I did not finish with as big as a bang as I hoped, but I still am really proud of my performance this semester and in the program over all. During this last week of April, I started my full time job for my gap year(s), where I am working as a rehab tech in a chronic neck and back physical therapy clinic at Ochsner. I love learning about the other side of health care and the rehab and healing processes my future patients will go through. I really think it is important to have a full grasp of all aspects of healthcare to be good physicians. We need to understand the time, energy, money, and dedication patients go through besides their quick visits with us.

    I also continued my service ventures. I worked 2 shifts so far in the Emergency Department of Touro. Being back has solidified my love for Emergency medicine. While I mostly clean rooms after patients leave, restock kits, give COVID tests, and occasionally help patients with other tasks, it really is fun working with all the staff and being a small part. I also get to 'shadow' the nurses and doctors, so I continue to learn and apply things from medical pharmacology. It truly is awesome watching what I learned in the classroom be applied in the clinical setting. I also love working and helping the patients, and watching the doctors put together symptoms to come up with a plan of care for patients. I also did 4 hours with USVSD, continuing to train their professional training dogs. Because of several graduations, there are only 3 dogs right now. This meant we really got to spend time working out little kinks in commands, tasks, and behaviors. My favorite is distraction training, because it generalizes all their skills and tasks that they are learning to environments that are more similar to where they will be working besides a quiet training room. We had the three cats and ferret out and about playing, while the dogs had to learn to ignore and work around them. I included a video of us introducing one of the dogs to them. As I continue raising my own service dog for this organization, it is really cool to see what he will continue to do after I finish raising and he goes into training. It is also amazing to see directly how what these dogs do mitigates peoples' disability and promotes independence. The ability to be in public as a veteran with USVSD is quite amazing in the difference between social isolation and mental health issues to being able to hold down a job, see friends and family, and continue to live the life that they want to live. 

 

March: Marathon not a Sprint

 March Hours: 8

Total Hours: 18

    This month marked a change in classes from previous semesters as we finished actual classes for Principles and Med Pharm during the first week. This meant that my mornings became time for studying instead of classes as we take the NMBE the first of April. It definitely was a weird change to not have morning classes, but it was nice to get into a study mode and look over and challenge myself on information from the previous semester. There are a ton of drugs to remember and look over, but I am finding myself remember more than I thought.

                I continued my work with USVSD this month and volunteered one morning with the professional training dogs. I worked with two dogs who had their final evaluation before going into graduation weeks with their forever person. It was really exciting to see all the hard work turn into a cumulation of well defined tasks and commands. One is going to be a PTSD dog for a vet, and the other is going to be a mobility dog for a vet. I recently decided I am going to continue on with my volunteer position to also include fundraising intern, as they do not have a dedicated person to that, and I really am interested in running some fundraisers to help financially support these dogs.

            It also was an exciting month because Touro reopened their volunteer program. I was a volunteer in the Emergency Department, and I was able to come back on in that role. I was the first volunteer cleared, so I got to be the guinea pig to find the new normal. I LOVE the Emergency Department, and it was so exciting to be doing that again. I worked on stocking IV carts, assisting patients to the bathroom, doing pregnancy tests, taking COVID tests, and delivering drinks, foods, and blankets to patients. Without anymore COVID patients really coming through, it was a lot calmer than when I last was there. My favorite part of the ED is working with the patients and nurses, and watching the doctors evaluate patients, so I am excited to continue helping out as well as learning from the healthcare workers. 

February: Every Where Else It's Just Tuesday

 February Hours: 4

Total Hours: 10

The W Litter having outside playtime

    This is my fifth year living in New Orleans, and my first time with February not being my favorite month of the year. Every year, decorations line the houses and parades make it take double the amount of time to get anywhere in the city. Mardi Gras quickly became my favorite tradition with the lights, the floats, and just the overall friendliness in the streets. I have never made so many friends than during Mardi Gras. In true New Orleans fashion, the city came together to create new traditions. Many houses were turned into floats using decorations from previous floats. I live Uptown, and the St. Charles houses (more like mansions) were creatively decorated. While creeping down St. Charles traffic, it truly was amazing to see what people came up with. The actual Tuesday came with the second coldest temperatures I've ever experienced in this city, with 28 degrees. Thankfully, this year there was not a boil water advisory. It was the perfect year to have that weather on Mardi Gras.

                This year for service, I continued my work with United States Veterans Service Dogs. I worked with the professional dogs with fine tuning their tasks, including force fetch. It is extremely helpful for the trainer I work with to have me there, so she can make sure the dog's skills are transferable. This ensures an easier transition when the dog is placed with their veteran. We also took a dog who has great tasks but poorer house manners and took him into a home environment to works on it. A lot of house manners comes down to impulse control like not grabbing the remote or stealing food from the counter. A dog not behaving in the house will not help mitigate a disability, and can in fact trigger it depending on the levels of mobility that veteran has. After that, I worked with the neonates. There is a lot of work that goes into the puppies from the time they are born until they are 8 weeks old and go with their raiser. They get introduced to potty training, the kennel, other animals, comfortability being handled and picked up, and exploring new environments so that when they do leave the neonate care, they are not reactive and scared in new places. The video at the beginning of my blog was us working with the puppies on outside environment and manners. 

January: New Year, Same Pandemic

 Total Hours: 6

Jan Hours: 6

    This semester started out the ground running with our endo/repro pharm module. It was a challenging but engaging module for me, and definitely had me thinking outside the box in order to understand the pathways. It also was an exciting time, because I got my second vaccine the first week of classes. Being at the point where I have most likely reached full immunity, I am so grateful to get to witness this cutting edge of science and be a part of it. We are now in our neuro pharm module, which is followed by the psych pharm module. I am most excited about these two modules, as I was a neuroscience major in undergrad and psychopharmacology was my favorite class I took at Tulane. Thankfully, school did not keep me too busy to not do service hours this month. On a very frigid Monday, I took my roommate's service dog to work on public access while running the farmer's market with one of my classmates, Mary Neil. We supported the Hager's house, a shelter for women and children. The women can make candles, herbal teas, and other fun things to sell at this market, and the profit we make is returned to them. We had a very successful day, running out of most of our candles. It was really exciting to get back into the community. Seamus also behaved well and helped us with candle sales.

    For my next four hours, I went to the headquarters of United States Veterans Service dogs (USVSD) in Marrero. I worked with their professional trainer to train and work with the 6 dogs that they have in professional training. Professional training is the last step of an organization service dog before they go with their person. It is where they shape up obedience issues, refine commands they learned with their puppy raisers, and learn tasks that will mitigate the disabilities of their graduate. I worked with the dogs on force fetch, so that they will consistently pick up items for their handlers, even if they do not want to, and block boards which teach the dogs to block or cover for their graduate. Then, we went to Lowe's and worked on their public access and doing commands and tasks in public. It is extremely important for a dog to focus on the handler in public, and not be distracted by external stimuli. The dog needs to be able to task when needed, and alert dogs can miss important alerts when distracted. I am excited to go back and work with them more. 

With Seamus and Mary Neil at the Farmer's Market

training with Zazu

training with Zazu, working on eye contact

working with Zuma on eye contact

working on go in with Touro

go in with Zuma

doing let's go with dogs teaches proper positioning for eye contact and being ready to complete any tasks a graduate needs when on the go 

It is important for service dogs to be inconspicuous in order to help their graduate. Having a dog tuck under the legs ensure the dog is out of the way from getting tripped over or distracted 

November: The End of the Beginning

 Picture of Sarge, yellow lab puppy with a Christmas Plaid Bandana 

    This month brought around the end to what felt like one of the quickest semesters' of my life. We finished up with renal/pulm and the GI/neoplasia modules. I really was able to secure my studying to a level I felt comfortable and satisfied with and noticed the difference in my grades paying off. Personally, I think I struggled the most with the fact that our lectures were taught by multiple different faculty, who all test and word questions differently, so I really had to be confident in the material. However, I think it made my studying better, and I enjoyed learning from so many different professors. They bring in so many different perspectives about medicine.

    Furthermore, I also did two big things for my community service. The first is the next chapter of a long volunteer journey. In mid- November, I welcomed in Sarge, my next puppy in training from United States Veterans Service Dog. I will have Sarge for 14-16 months and teach him many commands to prepare him to be a service dog for a veteran. This is especially dear to my heart, because the organization donates the dogs to the veterans. Most trained service dogs cost $30,000 to $50,000. We have started our basic training with learning his name, sit, potty training, kennel training, and basic socialization. I am not paid to do this, so it is a huge commitment, but the most amazing experience. I learned I was getting Sarge the same week I learned that my first dog, Ramsey, graduated as a skilled companion for a girl in Atlanta, Georgia with the organization Canine Companions for Independence. With my break, I will continue to train Sarge, and use the free time to socialize him to various public places. We also get to give them their vaccines, which is hopefully great practice for my future.

    Additionally, I helped work with a Honduras drive through Ochsner Therapy and Wellness. Hurricane Iota, a category 5, completed devastated Honduras and Nicaragua this past month. We organized a drive to get baby clothes, baby formula, medications, food, water, and other basic supplies to the people of Honduras. I both donated some baby clothes and non-perishables, and worked to collect the items and organize them to be sent. I was able to use my very basic conversational language to work and communicate with the hispanic community around here to help raise awareness. We sent all the items a week ago, and I just got word that it as delivered. 

Service Hours: 7

October: The Continuation of Hurricane Season

Onyx: USVSD Service Dog in Training 

       This month reminded us and taught us the importance of adaptability, an important life skill and medical school and career skill. We were threatened by several hurricanes, with one directly hitting us. This required moving around lectures, lecture cancellations, and reading by candlelight. I am still without power after day 3, and am capitalizing on the graciousness of classmates to let me charge devices and use wifi to write this blog post. This month's service required a combination of creativeness and resourcefulness, as I have not heard back from my several pen pals from last month, and social distancing is still in place. I worked with United States Veterans Service Dogs based out of Marrero as part of service work. We fostered several of their dogs in professional training for the storms, as they are outside the levee system and had to evacuate all three times. I attached a picture of one of the foster dogs. Onyx actually matched with a veteran, and she is perfecting skills before she goes home with him. Currently, we have Beaux, who is a crazy sweetheart that loves to hold things. We fed, groomed, and worked on commands and tasks with the dogs so that the storms would not interrupt their training. I also joined them to help out with socialization at the World War II museum. I worked with a dog in preforming tasks around other people, and getting them used to crazy sounds and noises that come from the unique exhibits at the museum. It is such a special experience to participate in the training and upkeep of the dogs, as they get to go on and provide independence to veterans. These dogs are incredible smart and talented, and is truly is amazing what we can teach them to do to help out. I raised a previous service dog for Canine Companions for Independence as well, and his brother recently matched with an 8 year old girl with cerebral palsy and her mom. The graduate team was exposed to COVID-19, and had to quarantine. I put together a care package to send to them, with the help of my classmates, and we prepared treats, cards, and other toys to help their quarantine experience. Her mom is a single mother, and had to work from home, while being a teacher, nurse, physical therapist, and mom, so we hope that the care package helped make things a little brighter.    

    School has been going well. I have seen an increase in my test score grades, and feel very comfortable with my refined study techniques. I have found a great little group to Zoom study with, and it is so helpful to have people to bounce off material with and break up the monotony of only being able to study at my desk. My cat, Hazelnut, also loves to join in on our studying and in lectures. The joys of Zoom learning! I am so grateful for the opportunity to participate in this program, as the professors are teaching us so much more than curriculum material. I hope the global pandemic is over soon, as I would love to get to know them more.

Here's to hoping the Gulf is done with storms.

Happy Halloween!

Total Oct Hours: 6

 

September: The Beginning

Photo of letters sending to my pen pals!

 

As we are closing in on the first month of classes already, it is time to reflect back on the past month. After having two modules down, I have solidified study habits and a study group. The famous anki has become my favorite study aid, and I enjoy swapping decks with my friends. Going forward, I plan on dedicating more time to learning the mechanisms of drugs, as that seems to be my weak spot. Luckily, I have friends who do not struggle as much, so we can both help each other with our areas of difficulty. One of my favorite things about this program so far is how collaborative it is. It is difficult to become as close with COVID19 and social distancing, but I can already tell some of my classmates are going to be friends for life.

With COVID, there is also a change to the way we are doing community service. I am hoping to get involved with reading to kindergarten classes virtually when the schools open up again. Because I went to undergrad at Tulane, I have lived in the New Orleans area for over four years, and working with education and kids is extremely important to me. There are great disparities in education between the charter school system and the private school system, and as education is extremely important in opening up opportunities and the mind, I want to contribute to this in a positive manner. In the meantime, I have made two pen pals with seniors. In one of my current jobs, I am a patient care tech on the general surg unit at Touro Infirmary, so I see older people coming from many senior and assisted living homes, who are oftentimes more lonely than anything else. So, the opportunity to share words with people, especially when friends and family cannot visit, is a wonderful experience. My grandfather lived in a nursing home for the last few years of his life, and I know even before COVID, that many of the residents do not have anyone outside to communicate with. I know it brings them a lot of joy to receive letters, especially because I received one of my cards immediately. It does not seem like a service when you are making friends. I definitely plan on keeping up with my two new friends throughout the semester, as we share about cats, books, and mysteries!

Community Service Hours: 3 as of 9/21/20