Thinking...

A few days ago I came across a list of questions which supposedly create intimacy between two people, even strangers. That's not the point of this post. The point is, one of the questions was "If you knew you were going to die in a year, would you keep doing what you're doing now, or would you change something about your life?"

And my immediate answer was "I would be on the next plane to Tchad, helping people and making sure my life mattered."

That brought up a few things, as you can imagine. I have a giant exam in a few days, and that's obviously stressful. And I do know why I'm doing this. Med school. I am quite clear on that, and I'm enjoying it. But... wouldn't my time be better spent learning by doing?

I don't ever want to feel what I felt when Salomé died in front of me in Tchad. I still tear up when I think of it. But is 6 years of book learning better than going off to the bush right now and seeing first hand... everything? Is a framed piece of paper (diploma) really better than 6 years of learning by actually working with patients and saving people on a daily basis?

In case you're wondering, I'm actually doing pretty damn good in med school. That's not why I'm thinking about all this. I just really miss Tchad, and all this book learning so far has taught me nothing I can use *in Tchad.*

I need to actually *do* something here pretty quick. I love books, but I'm going stir crazy.

Thoughts, anyone?

Last week of 1st semester

Hey guys,

Sorry for the radio silence. Med school kicked into super-sonic high gear lately, and I've barely had time to breathe. We had a major problem with our community, they were going to close the health center where we go!! But by sheer luck, we managed to talk to the right person at the right time and prevent it from closing (major win!!!)

I also had my mom for a visit, which is great, but eats up a lot of my time and it's not what you want, 10 days before finals. 

This week we have a million things to turn in, I'm currently on a bus to the community where we're giving a workshop to the school about sexuality (community has high rate of teenage pregnancies) and next week we get our "continuous evaluation" grades which will in part determine whether we have to take giant monster cumulative exam in  July or not. 

To say I'm stressed out is an understatement. 

But such is the joy and the pain of med school. Work hard. Help people. Sleep when you can. And we already accomplished more than I ever thought we would, with the health center. 

All in all, my first semester of med school flew by. It's tough, but that was expected. I'm loving it. 

Cross your fingers for me, so things go well on finals!!! :) 

The thing about stress...

We've been seeing a lot of things about stress lately, and how much it affects your quality of life, mental health and physical health in general. In Uruguay, the leading cause of death for those above 40 years old is cardiovascular problems.

Well, high levels of stress cause high blood pressure, increased heart rate and even mess with your cholesterol levels. Stress also disrupts sleep, which is what the body needs to recuperate and keep us healthy and sane. And I guess there's no need to mention that stress also damages our mental health and influence our lifestyles in a negative manner (people who smoke and/or drink, usually smoke and/or drink more when they're stressed, don't have time to exercise or relax, etc.)

For the two weeks before my exam, I was very stressed. I wrote about this a couple of posts down, but I didn't give many clear examples. You guys, I was really stressed. I was yelling at people for no reason. I was not sleeping well, which made me tired and cranky on top of stressed. It was not good. And the worst part was that I knew I really didn't have to be that worried about the exam, because I had been studying and knew the material, but I could not reassure myself.

So this time, I am trying to do things differently. I have 3 1/2 weeks before my second midterm, and my goal is to not become a horrible stressed out person. I made myself a schedule and I'm keeping strictly to it. It includes time to relax, time to go for a walk/run, time to see friends. Obviously, it includes lots of time for studying. But I think that if I keep to my schedule and remember that my study techniques apparently work (so far, cross your fingers!), I can keep the stress at bay and make it through the exam and on to my month off in July (here's hoping!).

This schedule, of course, may not be the "stress cure" for everyone, but I think it might work for me. I just want to encourage each of you, whether you're a med student, doctor, nurse, or nothing at all related to medicine, but as all human beings, still vulnerable to the stress of life: Try different things and see what works for you. There are lots of different things that can help with stress management, and definitely improve your health and quality of life. Your present and future self will thank you. Chances are, your friends and family will too.