Christian's Blog

Hey National,

This blog post is going to be short and sweet. I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving feast and stuffed your stomachs with turkey, pie, wine, and everything else in the cornucopia. The week of Thanksgiving is usually a bittersweet one, not because of the cranberries, but because it's an awesome holiday followed by the sobering realization that finals are right around the corner.

Flights during the holiday cost your first-born child so I stayed at my house and my roommate and I had some people over for a BOMB gluten-free feast! Couple that with football and red wine and I couldn't have been more grateful.

My buddy Mike and I on a friend's b-day.

For those not in 6th Tri, Dr. Solecki, who teaches Functional Rehab, will put you through a "Filthy 50" workout from hell! Why? You get bonus points for completing it. I was sore for 4 straight days after!

The workout from H-E-double hockey sticks:

• 100 dead bugs
• 50 box jumps
• 50 burpees
• 50 pushups
• 50 pullups
• 50 inverted rows
• 50 squat and presses
• 50 deadlifts
• 50 snatch and cleans
• 100 mountain climbers
• 50 dips
• 50 lunges

Yeah, it almost looks fake. I swear that's what he made his labs do. Most don't end up finishing as you can imagine but he still gives you the bonus points for trying.

On another sidebar: I'd like to send cyber wishes to one of my best friends from high school. Travel well.

Always Be Thankful For Today,
CC   

Hey NUHS,

During your tour here at National you will indefinitely come across many different journeys and maturity opportunities. As I write this blog for students and perspective students, I enjoy giving you some ideas and tips from some of my experiences to make their journey smoother.

Freak Out, Depression, Burnout Cycle

One thing I've noticed while attending is the impending Week 5 and Week 11 "Freak Out, Depression, Burnout Cycle." (I 1000% made that term up.) Let me explain. At the beginning of the trimester, everyone is excited for the new classes but still hasn't gotten into the rhythm of studying again after a satisfying break. Come Week 5 you are freaking out that you haven't studied yet, but also depressed that you let this happen again (my 7th time now, haha). The good news? Just buckle down and grind it out for 4-5 weeks through midterms and learn the material and you will be fine, all else held. It's merely the feeling of unknowing exactly what to expect and being underprepared in the material, so your brain's natural reaction is to FREAK OUT.

The "burnout" part of the cycle is located at the end of midterms and before finals. Your brain and body is exhausted from burning the candle at both ends and you're dreading the impeding sleep deprivation that takes place for finals. Wow, that sounds terrible!! You can do it! The first step is accepting! The next step is writing down your tests and printing out/gathering the material on those tests, and the final step is cranking it out until you've learned it! Rinse and repeat! You're not alone; you're human!

Physical Diagnosis Class

On a class note, Tri 6's staple class, Physical Diagnosis has many lab practicals split throughout the trimester. It feels like the finals week of your earlier tri E&M classes all trimester long. Despite the nerves on being put on the spot to perform exams, I love that we are getting great practice on examining patients and getting out all the nerves now before we actually have real live patients that depend upon us. I am completing my Regional Lab Practical on Monday. It includes a variety of different regional exams: Cranial Nerve Exam, Peripheral Nerve Neuro Exam, Vitals, Head and Neck Exam, Eye Exam, ENT Exam, Cardiac Exam, Pulmonary Exam, and Abdominal Exam. The hardest part of those is that Dr. Gidcumb expects it to be done in exactly the order that he lays out in the notes. So you may evaluate and examine everything in the section, but still fail because you did it out of order. I've prepared well, but fingers crossed I remember. :)

Food for Thought

Have you ever thought about your position on drug prescription rights being incorporated into Chiropractic Scope of Practice? It's an extremely interesting topic of debate. I encourage you to look up a few articles and decide what you may be leaning towards. It helps hearing both sides of the argument, however chiropractic's one glaring problem is our profession is so eclectic that nobody agrees on anything across the board! Oh well. :P

Cheers,
CC

Hey!

I still can't believe we are back at school! With the mayhem of Boards behind us, we need to get a good schedule going again. As you know, I am in Tri 6 now and I'm so excited because we get to take a lot of 'doctor' classes. Finally, all of the information and science that we have been learning for over a year is coming together in our clinical classes and we are learning procedures and techniques to diagnose and treat patients.

The AK (Applied Kinesiology) board. They cropped me in 'cuz they thought
it would be funny and I was at boards during the picture, lol.

Physical Diagnosis

Physical Diagnosis is definitely my favorite class so far. It is 8 credits. You read that right. 8! Holy cow! I enjoy the class so much because we go through the whole body over the course of the trimester and go through the clinical setting that you would do with a patient. You learn physicals, vitals, ortho tests, etc., and how to determine what diagnosis to give the patient. Getting the proper diagnosis is not only important, but also essential to your TREATMENT. Why? If you don't know what the patient has, how do you know what to put in your treatment plan? Exactly!

Tumors

The notoriously scary class of Trimester 6 is Tumors, taught by the infamous Dr. Bogar. The class is similar to Dr. Darby's Trimester 2 Neuroanatomy class, in that this one you have to take very seriously, probably need some tutoring, and many people have been known to fail it. With that said, going into it you know you're going to put your game face on to pass. 

Dr. Bogar's humor, I've noticed through the first couple weeks, is extremely dry, but hilarious when you actually listen to how he does it. He will say things like, "I hear people say they don't ever see tumors in practice and not to worry about them in a DC office. Well, I BET THEY DON'T! They don't know what they're looking at! Tell that to the judge when you get sued!" He tends to be a little extreme, but he is a fountain of knowledge in this area so I respect him.

Many people are intimidated by him, but all he really requires is you come to class on time and pay attention. Boom! Dr. Bogar will also have you believing that every patient that walks into your office might be indicated for an X-ray series, which I don't necessarily agree with, but he is a DACBR (diplomate in radiology), so you bet your marbles I'm listening to him about the conditions that necessitate imaging.

Functional Rehabilitation

One of my other favorite classes is Functional Rehab 1 taught by Dr. Solecki. National is extremely fortunate to have Dr. Solecki teaching here. He is a BOSS. Dr. Solecki was extremely successful in practice and now works with Northwestern, DePaul, and a few other college athletic programs. You know that what you learn in that class is cutting edge and will deliver results to your patients. While you don't have to be a "rehab guy" in practice, it is essential you learn rehab from this doc and pick his brain about building a successful practice outside of class.

More updates and some fun posts are planned, so stay tuned to the blog, and if you have any questions as always I'm an email away!

Peace,
Christian

Hey Everyone, 

Midterm season is upon us--as Cardio with Dr. Bill Hogan was this morning featuring a 60-question variety of heart, EKG and interpretation problems. If you've ever watched a medical drama (and chances are good you have), you will probably find yourself staring at the monitor trying to pick out abnormal P waves, a spiked T wave, or a depressed ST interval. I know I was excited when we learned about atrial fibrillation and later that night I was watching a show where a patient was crashing and the doctor yelled some combination of A Fib and STAT! (sick life bro..)  

For those of you who don't know Dr. Hogan--well, he is an interesting man. He comes across quite 'militant' and 'in your face'. My tip is: DO NOT BE LATE TO HIS CLASS, or he will yell at you and call you out right in the middle of lecture. He yelled at my buddy going to restroom and told him to sit back down. What I do appreciate about Dr. Hogan is that he is a very passionate lecturer; he practically yells out during the lecture and provides quality analogies, which maintains my attention throughout lecture. On top of that, the cardiovascular system in general fascinates me so I enjoy the material.

Me teaching how to palpate a sacrum in club.

The following is a recipe I'm passing on after RJ Burr recommended I try it.

Paleo Cookie Dough (no wheat, added sugars)

• 1 jar of garbanzo beans
• 3-4 tablespoons of almond butter
• 1 scoop of chocolate whey protein powder
• Stevia
• 85% dark chocolate crumbled up
• ¼ cup coconut milk

Ideally, blend all ingredients in a food processor and let sit in the fridge. I don't have one so I added coconut milk and garbanzo beans in a blend until smooth and then took it out and added in the almond butter, chocolate whey protein powder, stevia, and folded in the pieces of dark chocolate. Throw it in the fridge and chill and eat it as is. No baking. Test it out. I thought it was delicious.

What my friends and I noticed was the longer you've been eating healthy and paleo, the better it tasted. My friend who eats McDonald's a couple times a week hated it. My friend who ate decently healthy thought it was 'pretty good'. RJ and I who are strict paleo eaters absolutely LOVED IT. Funny, eh? Just an observation...

Peace,
CC

Hello, Cygnets (baby swans...who voted on a wimpy mascot? lol). 

We have a few things on the plate this week--midterms, immunity, travel hacking, March madness, and DJ Bifero!

Midterms

Midterm Season continues to drag on. This week features Pathology 2 and Microbiology 2. Hypertension, thyroid, adrenal, pituitary, Ischemic heart disease, and all the crazy micro bugs will be on tap all week. I do enjoy studying these subjects but the shear volume of bizarre bugs to memorize in micro drives me bananas, considering we won't be treating a vast majority of them, or even see them in our offices for that matter. Well, you have to cooperate to graduate (ha ha).

How to Catch a Cold

Many people assume that they simply 'catch' a cold by being around virus/bacteria. While the germ theory has much proof for it, I came across this fact in the "Science of Diet and Nutrition class.

With just 2 cans of SODA you DECREASE your immune system function by 40% for 5 hours after!!!!! Holy shitake mushrooms! This is true of all sugars, added Dr. Kristina Conner! This includes excess fruits, grains, and obviously junk foods. No wonder the paleo diet has such good clinical success. It's low sugar, which allows optimal immune function. Anyways, I thought I'd drop some knowledge since I thought it was a fun fact of the day.

Travel Hacking

Recently, I stumbled upon a concept or dare I say, cult, called 'travel hacking.' There are legions of people who sign up for all sorts of bonus credit card deals for tens of thousands of frequent flyer miles. They have tactics for saving hundreds on flights, hotels, etc. It's sort of an underground following but if you're interested in long term world traveling (I am trying to do this for a few months after I graduate from NUHS to recharge my batteries), I recommend checking out the Frugal Travel Guy, Chris Gulliebeau, and this cool article I read: How to Travel Around the World for $418.

Teacher DJ

This past weekend our microbiology teacher, Dr. Antonio Bifero, DJed at a club and a bunch of us went to support his musical talents and hobby. It was really fun since we brought a bunch of NUHS people and the shenanigans were in full swing. Picture below.

So who's your pick to win March madness? I have Syracuse winning it all! Go orange!

Till next time,
CC