"14 Presentations To Go!"

Dr. Epright began the morning by reviewing with us what surrogacy is. It is important to remember when a surrogate is involved they are only to make decisions on behalf of the patient who is incapable. Meaning, the surrogate will think about what the patient would choose for themselves; not to be “selfish” as JoeJoe called it. I learned that there are so many unreasonable state laws when it comes to this stuff. For example, one of the laws prohibits the father of a child to be a surrogate if he wasn’t married to the mother when the child was born. Other laws are in place for when the opposite happens; for when the children need to make decisions for a parent. Imagine being in the room with the rest of your siblings and coming up with a unanimous decision that your parent’s life depends on. Another thing physicians do is reach out to any person that they believe is reasonably in close relationship with the patient, especially if they are a relative. Just because someone is related to you, doesn’t mean they know everything about you. Personally, I feel like my parents don’t understand me. I’ve always had the parent role in my family so I don’t even act like myself most of the time. How would they possibly know what I would want in case of surrogacy. I don’t even know what I would want. While walking to lunch, Kasey and I talked about neurological death, specific to Jahi McMath’s case. She was a thirteen year old girl who got a surgery done and subsequently became brain dead. Now, when someone is “brain dead,” it means they are also dead. You can’t have a non functioning brain, but a functioning body. However, her family refused to come to terms with that. Kasey shared with me an experience she had in high school where she had a classmate passway. Although Kasey heard about it and even went to his funeral, she still can’t wrap her head around the fact that he is no longer present. Kasey wasn’t super close to him and is still in denial, now imagine it was your own daughter. I would be in denial for years too.

After a yummy lunch and a ping pong tournament, it was time for health profession presentations! As a tier, we complain about listening to a lecture or two a day. Today we listened to over 43 presentations… Still, I enjoyed every second of it. If you ask me to summarize anything, I will tell you no because I don’t remember a single bit. For me it wasn’t about the information presented, it was more about the spotlight. I loved seeing every single one of my tier mates get a designated time where they can be in charge. Although each of us were extremely nervous, when we were in front of everyone our confidence took over. This was a reminder that I am truly surrounded by the most amazing people I have met. I can’t wait to see what amazing things these wonderful people do. I am also writing this while sipping on my brown sugar iced bubble latte alongside my roommates and Julie while we all catch up on our Wixs. I did in fact just interpret, told them I love them, teared up, and went back to writing.

Can’t wait for tomorrow!!

man spreading 😩