Hmmmmmmm, inchoate thoughts secondary to sleep deprivation

The following post is not very OT-centric so if this is your first time here, you may want to hit the archives or I’ll end up scaring you away with a rather off-topic post. Sorry.

This morning we had a lecturer come in to discuss cardiac issues like congestive heart failure, as well as coronary artery disease He was a good presenter and people asked a lot of questions. We then had a quick research project design class. It really is hard to come up with focused research questions. I feel like I’ll never grasp how to do research – I’ve had a thousand classes about it in undergrad and still don’t get it. After that it was a looong lunch. At the last minute, four of us (Brooke, Allison, Virginia, me) ended up deciding to go to a local Mediterranean cafe, which was quite the enthralling hummus-filled experience. Then we went back to the school to work on various projects. We had an SPSS lab in the afternoon, which again is something I struggle with truly understanding – statistics was a class I frequently cried about in undergrad. Give me anything involving numbers (applied calculus, chemistry, stats) and I assure you I’ll end up crying. I can handle anything without numbers, though. Advanced neuroscience and immunology tests, no biggie. Hard, but not cry-worthy most of the time. Just for fun I went back and looked at some of my old tests and found answers I had written where I totally don’t even know what it means anymore…stuff like ” To determine if TRAIL is absolutely required for anti-CD3 antibody-induced thymocyte apoptosis you could use a soluble form of the DR5 protein. “

Okay…Yet while taking insanely hard classes like immunology, I was also in Chemistry 101 with a bunch of freshman and I cannot tell you how many tears I shed over that class because I JUST DIDN’T GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m mostly an A kinda person, some B’s, but in my undergrad career I got three C’s – Chemistry 101, Chemistry 102, and Cell Biology. I was lucky to get the C’s in Chemistry, even. I had a tutor and everything.

I’m a people person, not a cell person. That’s why I’m in OT! I am so grateful I will never have another chemistry class. Pretty much the only reason I have a B.A. versus B.S. is because I couldn’t handle the thought of taking the extra required year of organic chemistry so I settled for the B.A. (This is one of my pet peeves btw, people who have B.S. degrees who didn’t have to take organic chemistry for a year!!!) My undergrad had a VERY rigorous science program and I cannot tell you how many hours I spent in a lab at 2am. I am so glad those days are over. I’d much rather be up at 2am analyzing psychosocial issues in various clinical populations than analyzing functional genomic tests on unicellular eukaryotes.

I guess I got off on a tangent there, just trying to explain I have SERIOUS math/stat weaknesses! But I’m proud of my science background, even if I don’t remember anything I learned…it makes all the OT learning seem easy in comparison because it rarely requires as much brainpower to grasp. In fact, one of my issues lately is that in some classes it seems we are learning common sense things. I don’t like to tell people about things I learned when their response can be “But isn’t that common sense?” (Hi Mom). Although I guess a lot of OT is common sense & energy conservation/efficiency.

Since class let out, I’ve been to the mall to help a friend pick out a top, worked out at the gym with Allison, forced her to go to the store with me, fed cats, turtles, and chickens at a friend’s house, watered my landlord’s plants, showered, and am now writing here for leisure time…I’m fighting some allergies, a few days of sleep deprivation, and my body is rebelling a little bit against the high-impact jogging and stuff I’ve been doing, so I’m not feeling so hot right now.

I think I’m probably not going to do anything productive for school tonight. Tomorrow I am meeting a friend to work out in the morning, and then have wood-working at 2pm. That’s it! Of course I also have a ton of errands to run and work at 9pm, but it is wonderful to have a little time outside of class to get stuff done. This weekend I’ll be reading the new Harry Potter (I hate you NY Times for your spoilage), cleaning my house, meeting some non-OT friends, and organizing my school binders/catching up on reading for next week.

I continue to have a wonderful time with my classmates. While every day may bring a little new drama, it’s mostly SOOOOOOOOO MUCHHHHHHH FUNNNNNNNNNN. Like today, trying not to laugh hysterically at Brooke’s disgusted face as a highlighter exploded on her hand during a guest lecture.

HA! Wow, rereading this post, I probably need to be on Ritalin or something. Sorry, I promise to be more coherent tomorrow after some sleep. Going to bed now…

Jul 20, 2007 | Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 1