Posts

April Post

Image
It is a bitter sweet moment that this school year has come to an end. Although it feels great to have completed my school year and receive my masters degree, I will certainly be missing my classmates and professors. I have gained immense knowledge and hard-working skills just from this year alone. I want to thank all my professors who were able to provide me with a smooth sailing school year. Living on my own for the very first time in New Orleans has been a great experience. I absolutely love the city and hope I can extend my time here in the future. One of my favorite activities this month was attending Crawfest for the first time. I am grateful for all the experiences and new friendships I have made throughout this year.  Academically April was a very busy month. I had to complete multiple presentations along with the stress of the NBME final hanging over our heads for weeks. Although the final was a difficult exam, it was rewarding to be able to solidify all the knowledge I have ga

March

 March was an eventful month. During our spring break, I visited one of my closest friends in Florida. It was a lovely few days to be able to recuperate before returning to class. Upon return, several classmates and I attended the Saint Patrick's parade. It was my first Saint Patrick's celebration in NOLA and was undoubtedly my favorite parade I've attended thus far.  As a psychology major, I was looking forward to psychopharmacology all year. This module was defiantly one of my favorites. Having an opportunity to learn about commonly mentioned antidepressants in our society was rewarding. We covered psychopharmacology, but we also covered toxicology this month. With CNS stimulants and hallucinogen consumption constantly on the rise, it was informative to learn how to administer treatment for different types of overdose.  This month I am thankful to have gotten an opportunity to volunteer for Covenant house again and do something I have not done before. Covenant house acqui
Image
 February felt more academically busy due to being back in person again. I enjoyed all the modules we covered this month: contraception and neurobiology. As a female, the topic of contraception is common either with a doctor or friend. However, I never truly knew how all these drugs work until now. Neurobiology was a more complex module with many diseases still having inadequate known pharmacological options. Anesthesia was the lecture I found to be most difficult but the most interesting. Growing up, I spent a lot of time at my father's dental office. I heard of procaine and nitrous oxide, which I referred to as "laughing gas" often. Hearing these terms again and having the opportunity to learn about them in detail and how they work was rewarding. This month the streets of New Orleans were covered in Mardi Gras decorations and constant parades. The spirit in NOLA this month caused anticipation for the weekend to come. I enjoyed my first Mardi Gras. It was everything I ex

January Blog

 Happy New year!!! This break was well needed after a rigorous Fall semester. It was pleasurable to return home to New York and spend a lot of time with my family and friends.  As January ended, we began the semester with thyroid and diabetes. Although diabetes was not as large a topic as previously covered, it was not easy. I was interested in learning about diabetes because it is commonly spoken about but not something I knew much about. This week we began the endocrine module. As a female, this is a topic I am greatly looking forward to learning about. I believe this module is not emphasized in society as much as it should be. Unfortunately, this month's classes had to be virtual. I was looking forward to coming back into the classroom and seeing all my fellow classmates. Thankfully covid cases have decreased, and we can begin February in person. Transitioning into February tomorrow makes me sad because it makes me realize the semester is, unfortunately, coming to an end soon. H

December blog

Image
It feels as though the semester flew by and unfortunately now it’s come to an end. Although it will be nice to recuperate and spend time with family, I will miss my classmates until next semester. I really enjoyed the last module we covered as a class that was GI and cancer. Although it was a challenging topic due to how many different types of treatments there are for cancer, it was rewarding in the end. I found all the topics we covered this semester engrossing and applicable to daily life. I now find myself constantly googling Brand names of drugs to see the generic name and saying to myself “Oh I know this drugs mechanism of action.” Even when I see commercials about drugs on the market I understand the toxicities and drug interactions mentioned much more than I did before this semester. I am looking forward to the next topics that will be covered in class, psych medications in particular.   After Thanks Giving there was not much time left for social activities, however, my classm

November Blog

November was a very busy month academically and socially. This month we continued learning about the cardiovascular system and then transitioned into renal/pulmonary. My favorite part of this months academics were the two CV exercises we got to do in class groups. The first CV exercise was in a hospital setting with a medical dummy who spoke. Our job as a group was to properly asses the patient and prescribe the correct medications. This exercise was very helpful because it gave a real life feel as oppose to learning about the medications from online resources. For the second CV exercise we were split up into even smaller groups and were provided with questions on case based modules which also provided a real life feel.   During spare time it is nice to be able to do social activities with my fellow classmates. We had a BMSSA event at the bulldog which was nice because I was able to interact with students from other programs. Another social activity we did this month was make holiday

October blog

 October flew by in the blink of an eye! It was nice to be able to transition back into in person classes. The benefits of being in such a small classroom is being able to easily make new friendships and make memorable experiences. I moved to New Orleans not knowing one person and I felt a little homesick in the beginning. This month has certainly strengthened a lot of new friendships for me and has made me feel like I now have a place in New Orleans. One fun activity we did was go to the Krew A Boo parade, it was my first parade in New Orleans and I had a great time. It's been a pleasure to get to know my classmates and I would like to get to know more of my classmates as the semester continues.  This month consisted of the learning about the neuromuscular physiology and the cardiovascular system/autonomic never system. In my spare time I enjoy exercising, lifting weights in particular. I found enjoyment in learning about neuromuscular physiology because it gave me a scope of how