"I'm No Photographer, But..."

What a day of learning! It was odd getting back on Zoom for lectures but we started the first topic of the day with cardiovascular imaging online with Mary Wingold. We talked about ultrasounds and then echocardiography, their advantages, and what they look at. Just from the one hour, we learned a lot about the anatomy of the heart and even practiced diagnosing a few scans. The heart’s anatomy is so intricate that it comes down to the width of the ventricular walls and the flapping of the valves to have a properly functioning heart. Deep vein thrombosis, atherosclerosis, aortic aneurysm are all things that can be indicated with the help of an ultrasound. The transducer is placed on the surface of the skin and it produces a picture of the hearts’ arteries and veins by releasing high sound waves that vibrate and receive other sound waves back. Transesophageal is another imaging process that produces much clearer pictures. This lecture was so fascinating to learn about and to make it even cooler, we had a microphone on each table so it made it exciting to ask and answer questions.

From 9am-12pm the tier divided into ethical topics groups to brainstorm points of discussion for our presentation. My group and I ~argue~ against physician–assisted death so we first read about all the state regulations and found out that we definitely have the weaker side of the argument. We also have to work harder because there was a video released by a brain-cancer sufferer who advocated for physician-assisted death and had very valid points. As someone who is so easily touched by others’ stories, it is hard to claim something and fully stand by it when I put myself in others' shoes constantly by nature. Hearing Brittany’s story of why she chose “dignity,” which is the choice of peacefully dying, I now get it so there's a lot of work to be done to build our argument.

Simultaneously, students had their one-on-ones with Mrs. Correa Allen, the Furman Healthcare Advisor. I had mine at 11:20am so we caught up (since she is my actual advisor) and then we talked about my plans for the next year and what I need to focus on in terms of opportunities or parts of my resume that I can still work on. Right after the meeting, Sarah and Caroline were pulling each of us aside to talk about the scholarship they give out to help with the summer’s expenses. I am so incredibly grateful that MedEx goes out of its way to not only provide us this wonderful opportunity for FREE, but to also offer us financial help based on what we indicated in the survey. Sarah was so kind to even ask if the money the survey suggested looked right and if there was any hesitancy of the amount not being enough. They understand that working in the summer is something a lot of students do to save up and help cover expenses throughout the year when they are students full time. I am just so grateful for MedEx each and every day.

After a very yummy lunch in the lounge, of course we had to play some pong and pool. Around the world and skittles are the tier’s go tos when it comes to heated competition. We went back into the learning studio sweaty but ready to hear about what SC LEND is. It was not at all what I expected. I thought it was an internship type deal where students get to work with professionals in the healthcare field. Instead, what the speakers talked about was something we all needed to benefit from. This is a three series talk where this first one was focusing on developmental disabilities, mainly autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is mainly when a person has a deficiency in social communication and the diagnosis is based on the DSM5. Some of the myths we busted were that autism is: “caused by vaccines,” “it’s the result of poor parenting,” “can be cured, and “is violent.” I think it was really important to be reminded that just because someone is on the spectrum, doesn’t mean that they are not normal or “atypical.” Those with ASD simply think about things differently. It was so awesome to see that some of our tier-mate shared their experience of their thought process as they deal with ASD first hand.

After a day of lectures, it was definitely time for HUMPDAY HANGOUT! We chose to go to Gather GVL this week. We got there, got food, and ate. To spice up the day, Lydia and I decided we should suggest playing Paranoia. The instructions are you sit in a circle, whisper a question to the person next to you, wait for them to answer with a name of a person in the circle, flip a coin, if it's tails you expose the question out-loud and if its head you never tell so now the person who heard their name is ~paranoid~. To make it even better, we decided that if someone couldn’t resist but to know why their names were said, they would have to go say one of the many pickup lines that JoeJoe has in his notepad to a stranger to hear the question that was asked. Just in the first round, my name was called three times. By the second time, I told JoeJoe to bring out the list. I walked up to the first stranger I saw and said “I am no photographer, but I can picture you and I together.” I stuttered a little and then said “I am just messing with you,” fist-bump him, and ran back to hear the whole tier clapping for me. I asked Landon what the question was and he said it was “who’s the most outgoing person?” It was so ironic because I proved it by doing the dare hahah. All I know is I love these people and can’t describe how much fun I have with them every single time.

Can’t wait for tomorrow!!