Day 177 - Plugging Away (35 Days Left)

In Pathology tonight, we took our last quiz and turned in our homework. I ended up getting a 15/15 on the quiz and a 98% overall grade for Pathology, my nemesis class. It's tough, but with some studying, I was able to pull off a pretty high grade. Yay!
After all that got taken care of, there wasn't much else to do, and with the expectation of a pouring rain storm with flash flood watches, I decided to go home early. So, here I sit at home on my couch when I would normally be in class.
It's kinda nice, I gotta say.
On other note, there's something I've been thinking about for the last few days. WGH and I hardly see each other through the week, but I have to give him props because he's so encouraging and helpful to the things I can't do because I'm at school. Also, because he leaves before the crack of dawn and I don't have to leave for another few hours, and then when I get home from school, he's already asleep, our communication through the week is sporadic at best. Sometimes, when he actually reads this blog, he can actually find out what's going on in class and at the J-O-B, since we barely have 15 minutes otherwise.
So I just want to give a shout-out to WGH and say "Thank you" for all the support. Also, I need to thank my sister, who has been available and willing to help out when WGH has needed a ride to drop off a car at the shop - or pick it up. She's also very supportive of this endeavor, despite her initial misgivings.
And to all of you, my friendly readers, all four of you, thank you for your ways of encouraging me and inspiring me to get through this.
Wow...kinda mushy or something tonight.
Back to my usual tomorrow.

Day 173 - Cram It In (42 Days Left)

Back when I was in college, I don't remember too many times doing "all-nighters" in cramming for exams. Or even writing papers. I did my work and I think I studied some, but not necessarily all-nighters.
I remember some parties that were all-nighters, though.
Well, mostly remember. I definitely enjoyed the extra-curricular college-life back in the day.
Anyway, fast-forward to today.
While I've been in class, sometimes I feel like we are just putting stuff into our brains. And we're cramming it all in there. Sometimes, pieces fall out, though.
Tonight's menu of cramming was pathologies of the digestive system and the urinary system. Because we had so many issues with previous classes of pathology, our instructor felt very behind and after a certain amount of panic and consultation with TPTB, she gave us the notes for the two systems and helped us review for our quiz next week. And so we crammed.
Not much else to report.

Day 170 - I Just LOVE Friday Night Classes (Gag!) (Oh, and 47 Days Left)

Since we didn't have class last Monday due to Presidents Day, they made us come to class tonight. And it couldn't be something a little less intense or more fun like a bodywork class. Nope. It had to be Pathology. And we were combine with another class - again. And we took a quiz (13/15). We handed in homework, and had a little lecture.
We learned about some pathologies of the respiratory system. The most exciting part of class for me: when the instructor was describing how the common cold is a virus and there are many mutated viruses of the common cold. However, our body's immune system recognizes only the ones it has experienced before, so when it sees a familiar virus, it says (quote from the movie "Taken"), "I have a special select set of skills. I will hunt you down. I WILL find you. And I will kill you." Take that, Bad Virus!
Best part of class.

Day 167 - Snow Path (50 Days Left)

This morning, we woke up to a lovely blanket of snow over our fair county and surrounding areas. It's lovely, anyway, until you have to shovel it and then drive in it. I spent 45 minutes shoveling our driveway this morning and digging out my car, making me 45 minutes late for the J-O-B. Oh well. Not too concerned there.
At the school, however, they didn't have classes during the day, but went ahead and had the evening classes, which meant there was confusion among the students and/or instructors about who was to be there.
As it turned out, due to said confusion, an instructor didn't show up, making our Pathology instructor go teach another class, in turn, making our class get combined (again) with another class in one of the smallest classrooms in the building.
Putting that many people in a small space and actually trying to teach them something is probably about as effective as putting an open can of tuna fish in front of a cat and not expect the cat to eat it.
I think all things considered, we ended up learning at least something and we were released at 9:30 so as to avoid any ice that may have frozen as a result of the water that had melted earlier in the day.
Over the weekend in clinic, I had four clients (yay me) and things went about as smoothly as they could, seeing as how the Director of Student Clinic was released from employment a couple weeks ago, the assistant that has given out clients was out at a funeral, and the Director of the Campus who had been running clinic had just quit last week. They got in a couple of the regular classroom instructors and had them do the best they could with running the clinic and by mid-afternoon on Saturday, I think they got their groove.
My last client looked like a 12 year old boy and when I picked him up in the waiting room, a young woman came with us. I asked if she was his mom, she giggled and said that she was his girlfriend. I didn't know what to think, but went about my duty and did my pre-massage interview and must have been a little flustered by the situation and didn't explain how to get onto the table well enough.
After two attempts, he was finally on the table, wearing his jeans and tank top and the sheet over top of him. I had let him know to "disrobe to his level of comfort," so I assumed that he wasn't comfortable taking off his clothes and worked over top his jeans to massage his legs. By the time I had him turn onto his stomach, he asked if it was ok to take off his tank top so I could work on his back.
All the while, the GF watched what I did.
He seemed to enjoy it from the feedback I got from him afterward.
I'm also guessing that this was his first massage.
I have two Student Clinics left, and it should be very interesting to see what they bring.

Day 164 - Won't Learn (57 Days Left - 56 Probably By the Time You Read This)

In tonight's Pathology class, we discussed disorders of the cardiovascular system, like leukemia, anemia, and atherosclerosis. Our teacher seemed really good at getting across what each of the diseases/disorders was about and talked about how athersclerosis is a very preventable disease because the majority of causes are lifestyle related. Diet, stress-level, smoking, and such are probable causes of it and it can be mostly avoided by changing our lifestyles.
After hearing this lecture, I thought to myself, "Well, I probably won't live past 50." I can very much say that when it comes to a healthy lifestyle, I could definitely do better.
Upon returning home from school, I had a piece of fried chicken and some buttered bread.
Eh...there's always tomorrow to make better choices.

Day 137 - Almost There

One of my classmates said that whenever I mention anything lately, it's about the time off we have. Yeah, I'm a bit (a lot) excited about it. One more final tomorrow night.
Anyway, about tonight. I have been studying for this pathology quiz we had tonight for the last couple days. I think I did ok. I won't know the results until probably the new year. I may have actually gotten my first "B" out of this class. Wow. I'm just preparing myself for the possibility.
One thing I wish: I wish that when our Pathology "Textbook" talks about an abnormality, it would talk not only about what it is, where it came from, the functional significance, and the stuff it has in it now, but also how the Massage Therapist handles it - do we work on it or not?
After the quiz on the nervous system, we began learning about pathologies of the endocrine system. By the way, our "regular" teacher (still trying to figure out who our regular teacher is) was out sick so we had a TA teaching us the material. Since we aren't being quizzed or tested on this, and I was/am tired as an old coot, I left at the last break.
I'll have to make sure that I study endocrine pathologies before I take the national certification exam.

Day 136 - Shiatsu Takes My Breath

We had our final exam tonight for Shiatsu - a written portion and then a hands-on portion. I was quite confident in the written portion and highly confident for the hands-on portion.
We took the written portion first, and when I first got the exam, I brain-dumped the meridian circuits and any other pertinent information onto the back-page for reference. From there, I completed the hand and foot meridian points portion of the exam and then finally, to the rest of the exam. I was so confident in the whole thing, that I believed that I got a 100%. Later discussion revealed that I got a 99%.
I can live with that.
After I finished the written portion, I made a field trip to the gas station and filled up the tank. On a side note, since October 13th, when we purchased the commuter car, we have put approximately 7,000 miles on it. That's 7,000 miles in less than two months.
Wow.
Well, that's why we got that car. To put miles on it and not care.
Anyway, after returning to the school, I studied a little bit for the Pathology quiz tomorrow night and then began preparing for the hands-on portion of the Shiatsu exam. My partner went first performing the exam. She did well, I believe. Then we took a break and switched partners doing the work and it was my turn.
As soon as I started, I felt like I was breathing heavier than normal and my heart was beating faster than normal. I'm not usually one to get nervous over this sort of thing, but I had a pretty hard time trying to catch my breath while performing my protocol on my partner. Besides the fact that it's a very physical modality, if you don't center yourself just right to begin with, it takes way more effort to get there. I was "there," but my breath wasn't following me.
Well, I guess I should just keep working on getting back into shape and practicing yoga to help with flexibility and strength.
All-in-all, I think I did pretty well for both portions of the exam.
Another thing that we have learned in this class is that gas happens. Because of the physicality of this modality, sometimes gaseous expulsions have occurred, courtesy of fellow classmates. Tonight was no exception. And the best part: while the perpetrator of the expulsion was laughing because of the first expulsion, further expulsions ensued, which made the rest of the class lose their wu wei (beingness).
I guess this is better to happen in class, where we can get all the giggles out, rather than when it's our client on our table or on our Shiatsu mat.
In the meantime, WGH has been his wonderful, goofy self and been putting together our Christmas cards to get ready to mail out. Yeah, Christmas is in 10 days and we're just getting around to the cards. Considering that I was trying (unsuccessfully) to convince WGH that we didn't need to send out cards this year, I think we're doing pretty well.

Day 135 - Getting on My Nerve

Over the weekend, during clinic, I had four clients! I was tired after my shift, but I guess that's to be expected. My clients were quite pleasant, generally speaking.
One piece of advice, though. If you go get a massage, do the therapist a favor and bathe beforehand.
Thank you for your attention to this PSA.
In tonight's Pathology class, we learned more about abnormalities of the nervous system, both the Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS).
I found my nervous system starting to shut down around 9:00 tonight, though. Maybe it was the howling wind and cold outside and the warmth inside. Not sure, but at least I was able to get my notes down as best as I could.
Now I shall go let my body go into a parasympathetic state.

Day 133 - Pathologeez

I have to say right now that I enjoy my classes, my classmates, and most of the teachers and even some of the substitutes. And as you know, there is always a BUT. BUT I'm really looking forward to not seeing any of them for two weeks over Christmas break. I need to just sit and stare* for awhile and not think about massage, anatomy, pathology, shiatsu, russian, acupressure, structure, cranialsacral, or professional development. If that's wrong, sorry.
At any rate, our teacher - I'm not really sure is supposed to be our "regular teacher" for Pathology anyway - wasn't there, so we got the joy of having one of our favs teach us tonight. She definitely knows how to handle our class, and I think that she is one of the only teachers that all of us respect and enjoy at the same time. And I'm not just saying that because I know she reads my blog.
Anyway, in our class tonight, we had a quiz first thing. Apparently, the majority of the class didn't do so well on it (I got seven out of 15), so she gave us the option of retaking it. I took the lifeline.
And ended up getting a 14 out of 15 in the re-take!
I have to say, Pathology has a lot of diseases/abnormalities that all sound the same, and it's really hard to remember which symptoms go with which name.
We then learned some pathologies of the nervous system. Some of them were very familiar, like ischemic stroke and intracranial inflammation - which is what happened to my dad almost exactly three years ago, but that's a whole long story in itself.
We also learned about seizures and some symptoms of the different types of seizures. Like muscle spasms or staring*. When we were talking about the symptom of staring, all I could think of is one of my frequent status updates on facebook: *blink*blink*stare*...meaning that I'm just so tired or out of it, that's all I can manage to do right at that moment.
Also of note, since we got CC (the Commuter Car), I fill it up with gas every night right before class or during the first break. Hey - with 200 miles a day between WGH and me, go figure. Anyway, oddly enough, the gas station I usually frequent next to the school was out of gas tonight. So I went to one down the street and found that it was also out of gas. What's going on in Linthicum that there is no gas???
There are a couple of guys that work at the gas station I normally go to. They are a trip. I was minding my own business a couple months ago, pre-paying for my gas with cash, and when I came back inside to get the change, Rashid told me that they don't give out change on Mondays. *blank stare*
The next night, he told me that they don't give out change on Tuesdays, so I said, "I thought that was Mondays." He said, "Monday is Kumail's night. Tuesday is my night." So we started a little rapport about it. Well, I had built up so much change from them, that one night, I took all of the one dollar bills to pre-pay for my gas and he was quite surprised and said something about all the ones. I told him that it was from all the times I worked the pole. I told him that I needed to get a better club where they throw fives and twentys. Yeah, I enjoy picking on my guys there.
Then there's the young lady that works at the Subway. She sees me and knows exactly what I want. Wow! Now that's service!
Anyway, a little long-winded tonight, but I remembered all these things that I wanted to share. Have a great night and a pleasant tomorrow.

Day 128 - Pathology of Arthrology

We got to take a quiz tonight in Pathology class on abnormalities of the Intgument system! Exciting, right?
I got 12 out of 15. Pretty good for not really studying, I think. I've been so focused on doing stuff for Shiatsu class that I've sadly been neglecting Pathology and Anatomy. I better get on the schtick, then, eh?
For our lecture tonight, we studied more of the Musculoskeletal system, in particular Arthrology - or the study of joints. I guess in this case it would be the abnormalities of the study of joints.
I guess I learned something. We'll see, I suppose.

Day 124 - Musculoskeletal Pathology

In tonight's class, we studied some of the pathologies of the musculoskeletal systems. We also got our assignment for next class, in which we take "SOAP" notes on a client and then put a pathology on them (that they don't really have) and describe how we would change our SOAP notes based on that pathology.
SOAP notes are the typical way that people in a medical-type profession keep notes on clients/patients. It has nothing to do with hygiene and getting clean.
It stands for:
S - Subjective (what they say is the problem or what they are presenting with)
O - Objective (What the practitioner sees)
A - Assessment (what the practitioner does)
P - Plan (what the plan is for next time or in the mean time)
That's about all I have for tonight.

Day 120 - Pathology - Kinda Like a Review

In last session's Anatomy class, we studied the Integument system (skin). In this session's Pathology class, we studied the Integument system - or more of what can possibly go wrong with the skin.
We learned about fungus on the skin, parasites on the skin, burns, frostbite, various STD's, and cancers that affect the skin. We got to pictures of examples of a good number of them. And I just gotta say - EWWWWWWW!!!!
All that to say that should I have you on my table and I say, "EWWWWWWW!" You might want to see your dermatologist.
Or if I just simply say, "I see this thing, and you may want to see your dermatologist." You might want to see your dermatologist.
Before these classes, I would not have called myself a germophobe. After all, I'm one of those people that pretty well thinks that we're too clean and too anti-bacterial. If you don't have some germs for your body's immune system to fight, it will just attack whatever foreign stuff it sees. Right?

Well, after serveral months of being classes, I started noticing that if I didn't wash my hands after a certain amount of time, or I was in a public place, touching railings or handles, I really had the desire to wash my hands. I especially noticed this feeling when I was in New York City a month ago.
Today, one of my co-workers at the J-O-B went home sick after making a technicolor offering to the toilet gods. After her departure, I got out the handy-dandy Clorox wipes, wiped down her desk, then sprayed everything around her desk that I could find with Clorox disinfectant spray. Then washed my hands twice, sprayed down everything in the restroom, washed my hands again, sprayed the door handles for good measure, and then washed my hands again.
When I arrived home after studying pathologies of the skin this evening, I washed my hands.
I think the classes are starting to affect me.

Day 98 - Which Class?

Tonight's class was Pathology and we had our quiz. Oddly enough, there was not a final exam in the class, but it was the last quiz, only worth 15 points. Which, I got 15 points, BTW.
At any rate, after the quiz (10 minutes), we didn't really have much else to learn, so the TA from our Acupressure class came in and reviewed for tomorrow night's final exam. So, I got slightly confused as to what class I was in this evening.
Also, since we didn't have much else to learn, I left about a half hour early. Rebel, I tell ya. I'm such a rebel.

Day 94 - Got My Sentence

I figured it out yesterday. Between work and school, I think I'm gone from the house about 60ish hours a week. Wow!
Tonight, I got my schedule for Student Clinic beginning October 16th. For the most part, I'll be there Saturday's from 1:30 until 6:00. So, my 60ish hours, will be jumping to 65 hours.
And I wonder why I impersonate slugs on Sunday's. (/sarcasm)
We also had Pathology class, where we learned the importance of nutrition and more information on how to take SOAP notes. SOAP stands for "Subjective, Objective, Assessment/Action, and Plan. It's a way that we can keep notes on our clients and track their progress through their therapy. Yes, we even keep notes on people who are just there for basic relaxation. I think even doctors take a version of SOAP notes, too. Theirs are probably illegible. Mine probably are, too.

Day 90 - Environmentally Healthy

A huge topic in the media these days is about being environmentally friendly and keeping the earth green. Businesses advertise their products as "being green" or "environmentally friendly" or "Made from recycled materials." Conscientious people are looking for more organic products, provided without the use of pesticides or hormone-enhancement or harsh chemicals.
In this evening's Pathology class, we discussed "Environmental Health" - basically things in our environment, whether by choice or involuntary exposure - and their effects on the body. Things like radon, carbon monoxide, smoking, alcohol, cocaine, and even delved into substance addiction. Quite eye-opening. We heard statistics like Baltimore has the highest heroin-addiction ratio in the US, with one out of ten people being addicted. I'm so naive when it comes to that stuff. I've never even seen anything "harder" than marijuana, "the gateway drug" - and I haven't even seen that for almost 20 years!
We also discussed some aspects of Pharmacology that we may need to know as Massage Therapists, as we need to understand what medications our clients are taking and the potential harmful effects massage may have on them.

Yes, your medications may affect your reaction to massage, so be careful and let your Massage Therapist know everything you're taking!

*Stepping down off soap-box now*
In other news, WGH has asked me what I want for a graduation present. I told him, "A Vacation."

Day 86 - Study of Stuff We've Studied Before

I feel like tonight's class in Pathology was a repeat of stuff we've studied in Anatomy class - oh about six weeks ago. I guess they have to make up 768 hours teaching us something, so they may as well make sure we know it by repetition.
Immune Systems and Transmission of Disease. However, we did study a section on Neoplasia, which I was impressed to find out had nothing to do with the Matrix Trilogy of movies. It's actually about cancerous tumors.
I hate cancer. It's taken away far too many friends.

In other news, while rinsing out the shampoo from my hair this morning, my doorbell rang. Being totally unable to get to the door, I basically ignored it. After I finished my shower and was drying off, my phone rang. Somebody obviously wanted me. It was the roofing company asking me to move my car parked in the driveway so they could toss the old materials into their dumptruck. All that to say, we now have a new roof on our house.
Other random thought: Cheerios at 11:00 pm (2300 hours for you military types) are delicious.

Day 84 - Another Day - Another Quiz

We had our Pathology quiz this evening on our introductory information. I ended up getting a 13 out of 15. After the quiz, we learned about Inflammation, Wound Repair, and Hemo-something. Basically, it was all about how the body tries to heal itself. There is a lot of information covered in these classes and it's almost impossible to remember all of it, let alone share everything here. As if I'm sure you want me to share all of it.
Usually, when I get home from class and write this blog, I'm still trying to remember all we did. It hasn't been committed to long-term memory. I also don't consult my notes or books when I write this, so that's why it seems like I make up words. Well, I do, actually. Because I just can't remember all of it.

Day 82 - Logic of Path

There have been way too many Saturday nights in which WGH and I have been the epitome of non-excitement. Instead of going out to a movie, going miniature golfing, bowling, dinner, or something else exciting, we would stay home and watch Forensic Files on TV. The premise of the show is that there has been a crime committed (generally homicide) and Forensic science points in the direction of the suspect. This science is sometimes also called Forensic Pathology.
In tonight's class, we had an introduction to Pathology for the Massage Therapist. Basically, we're going to study diseases and how they can affect the therapy treatment we provide for our client, based on their medical condition.
As I said, it was an introduction. We learned some words. And we learned stuff about cells. And free radicals. Which have nothing to do with those in the Baby Boomer generation protesting the Vietnam war.