Today I have bot med, otherwise known as botanical medicines. As a naturopath, I know that bot med is something that I want to be very skilled at, and an area that I’d like to focus in. For the past three years, I’ve also been hearing that the teachers are disorganized, that there are gaps and overlaps in the material, and that the teachers run through things at about a million miles a minute. What’s a girl to do? 

Well, the first thing I did is think about how I want to be able to pull the information up later on, studying for boards or in practice. I want to be able to pull things up to study by the individual plant name, by the family, by the type of plant that it is, and finally by condition.  This means that I need all of that information as a scaffolding before I ever get in to class. I’ve been working on getting that set up in my little vdp wiki for botanical medicine. Next, I added pictures of all of the plants that we’re supposed to cover for the entire quarter, so if a slide comes up randomly I’ll have a shot at getting to the right page even if the teacher doesn’t start off with the name “because everyone already knows what This is, right?” . 

This gives me several advantages: 1, I already have a plan. Having a plan is critical for synthesizing information in this quantity. 2, I already have the scaffolding for notes for an entire quarter. Adding details to a plant is only clicks away. Even if an herb comes up randomly weeks early or late, is talked about twice or not at all, all of my notes have a designated place to be and I already have a decent amount of information written down about each plant. 3, it will be easy to see where the holes are, to study in my own time. 

Sometimes we forget that as students, we can only get out of a class as much as we’re willing to put in. Having a wonderfully organized and eloquent teacher makes getting a lot of information and learning out of a class easier. Having a good work ethic and plan gets a good framework even with a bad or disorganized teacher. 

We’re playing for keeps, folks. This isn’t about passing classes anymore, it’s about helping people live the most healthy and best quality life that they can have. 

Well, I know it’s only the first of December, but I’ve already got a good feeling about this month. As November closed out, my husband left his hospital to see a double rainbow extending towards our apartment. My car is finally out of the shop, and not only did they fix more than was caused by the fender bender, they detailed the inside. I won the apartment bingo and got a giftcard to starbucks (which I normally avoid because there are so many more deserving, local coffee shops in the area, but hey, free finals week coffee.) 

I have totally finished all papers and projects associated with two whole classes in the last 24 hours, which is refreshing. I feel like I can breathe a little more. I’m really proud of the clinical black book entry I created regarding the treatment of hypogalactia- I feel like it’s better than the up2date article, and that’s a gold star for me on the calendar.  

This is the first year that I haven’t decorated for Christmas on the 1st, but the feeling of relief that I got from deciding to put it off spoke for itself. Now I just have a couple more big study projects to complete, and then a small break to prepare myself for returning to school full time (and leaving the baby at home, sob!) 

Anyone else totally relieved that it’s finals? We’re almost there, guys!

-4am wake up
-7:30 class
-9 am traffic
-9:30 am obtained cold days
-10 am ceiling in bathroom turns into a waterfall. This proceeds into no-nap thirty because of maintenance and general scrambling.
- 10:45 am cat vomit everywhere. Just everywhere.
-11 am baby tries to eat secret cat vomit treasure trove.
-11:30 am baby tradeoff so I can go back to school.
-12:15 pm finally get in to class. Forgot my stethoscope and all other important equipment.
_1:43 pm a patient who I’ve seen 4 times in the last 3 months asks me if I’m pregnant
-3pm finally done + traffic
-3:30 pm find out other bathroom flooded too.
-4:16 pm baby finally takes a nap. I’m running around the hous trying to mop and do laundry.

I think I’m going to have a drink after bedtime today.

Saw someone cheating in class- copying a test that we had to hand back in because they were going to use it next year. Tried to email the teacher about it, system returned: permanently undeliverable.

Told the teacher after class. The way that the teacher handled it both singled me out as a whistle blower and penalized the whole class. Awesome.

On the one hand, I totally didn’t need any more animosity from my class. On the other, people could actually die if their doctor didn’t know this stuff and I signed a contract to be academically honest. It’s a pretty standard interview question for med school: What would you do if you saw someone cheating?

My answer remains the same. People can die because of a test handed around. There’s no shortcut to becoming a doctor. Cheating in any form is totally unacceptable.

The people who were mad about me telling the teacher are people who didn’t like me anyway. I’m still not looking forward to being twice punished for doing the right thing.

Someone asked me why I practice more and let other people practice on me even when I know most will have a problem with me (like in drawing blood).
I gave some politically correct for the situation answer, but here’s the reality: I was in and out of hospitals, specialist appointments, and my gp for about 8 years before I had any answers and 12 years before anyone found a solution that helped me. I can count the number of good doctors I saw on one hand.
I practice because I don’t want to suck at my job, and I’ve seen a lot of doctors who were really, really bad at their jobs. Just because it’s possible to get by in med school without doing something doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done. You know what your ‘it’ is.

Don’t suck. Improve the state of medicine.

- eavesdropping on legit polyamorus gold diggers at the next table over.

-wondering why there are so many male model types casually lounging on all the couches

-thinking about getting a little strawberry tart

-the internet is balls. No flashcards for me. Still rereading all my notes.

-gyn notes make for awkward faces on the people who screenpeek me. Serves them right, too.

I added the midwifery certificate classes to my schedule for the next three years today. I’ve been on the fence about this for two years, but I’ve really fallen in love with the first (required for everyone) class. I’m still on the fence a little bit, but I’d rather have the classes and be able to take the NORM exam (for CPMs) than wish I’d added the classes the whole time and have to go back for 2+ years after I get my ND.

Hurray for jumping off and taking risks!

A glass of cabernet sauvignon from educated guess (my favorite), 27 dresses (my second favorite) playing in the background, and gynecology flashcards (my current least favorite).

J: What did you do today?

Me: Took Ro to the library, made flashcards on vaginitis treatments, and practiced fitting diaphrams on the gyn models. How was your night last night?

J: all of my patients are crazy as balls. One of my patients ran headfirst at a glass wall and when I was mopping them up afterwards, they had no idea that they’d hit the wall. We almost had to put them in restraints for non-intentional suicide attempts.

Me: Want some soup? I made soup too.

(I love my little family. And how crazy our normal conversations are. If you’re just tuning in and would prefer to see more of the family crazy and less of vagina town, please check next door at babydescant )

Still not sure where naturopathic doctors fit in and sick of reading my “intro to naturopathy” posts? Check out this article for a nice basic overview.