Dex's Blog

Welcome back! That had to have been the shortest 2-week break ever. I can't complain; I had an awesome break. I had never been to California, so over the break I shipped off to San Francisco for 5 days.

Wednesday morning, my pals Joe, Alex, Meghan, and I walked off the plane in San Francisco to mountains and water surrounding us. We did everything in San Fran, from dive-bar hopping through Chinatown at night, to renting bikes and biking through Golden Gate Park. As if San Francisco wasn't enough, we also hit Sausalito, Napa, and Sonoma, all of which were a wine-tasting blur.

I hope everyone had a great time celebrating Mother's Day. My mom is the sweetest person alive. I have no idea how I turned out the way I did (HaHa). My younger brother Zack and I washed Mom's car in the morning then took her to lunch in the afternoon. All in all it was a pretty great day, and most of all Mom loved it.

Last trimester we had to say goodbye to our 10th tri interns Mark and Katie. It seemed so empty in the office after they left. All that changed last Monday morning when we welcomed the incoming student interns, Khong Lamvichit, Brandon Fields, Sue Bedair, and Rachel King, along with our Lombard classmates Jeff Bourguignon and Dan Johns. The office is filling up almost as fast as our patient schedules, so I'm sure this tri's blogs will be full of helpful "Do's and Don'ts" for seeing patients. 

The break was one to remember, but it's time to throw my intern hat back on and get these patients better. It's easy to fall into a somber groove, but one must always remember why we are here--to help people. So as difficult as it is to get back to the grind, pull up a chair, open up a book and get the trimester off to a good start.

Cheers,
Dex

Hello everyone, and Happy Easter! I hope everyone had a great weekend, and got a lot of studying in for finals this week. By now everyone should know my stance on being prepared for exams. When you're confident you know the material, no exam is too daunting.

Baseball

My weekend started with a big Rays win over the Yankees on Friday, and finished strong with 2 more. I was even present (sitting behind home plate, no big deal) for part of the sweep on Saturday.

National Public Health Week

As I'm sure everyone was aware, last week was National Public Health Week. The Florida campus' resident public health guru, Dr. Jaya Prakash made sure this week was honored to the fullest. Dr. Prakash printed out fliers to be passed out to our patients in clinic, and even organized a lunch-in with a panel of speakers to field questions and provide insight on how to make small strides each day towards a healthier lifestyle.

The panel consisted of Dr. David Seaman, Dr. Jennifer Illes, Dr. Rudy Heiser, and Dr. Derek Schramm. This illustrious panel shared easy ways to make each day healthier.

• For instance, Dr. Seaman shared his infamous anti-inflammatory diet with us (can be found at deflame.com), and how by avoiding bad oils, sugar, flour and trans fatty acids, you can spare your body from the stresses of inflammation.
• Dr. Illes shared some helpful tips on eating healthy on a budget, by buying fresh produce from local stands and markets.
• Exercise is a vital part of staying healthy, and Dr. Heiser offered some suggestions in this regard. Thirty minutes of moderate exercise is recommended each day, which for some of us is hard to fit into our busy schedules. Dr. Heiser spoke about the sprint 8 exercises, a 16-minute alternative that might help you squeeze in some cardio each day. (By biking on a stationary bike moderately for 2 minutes then sprinting for 30 seconds for 8 repetitions, a sufficient work out can be achieved in half the time.)
• Finally, Dr. Schramm wrapped up the session by reminding everyone that there is no one solution to the problem. A combination of diet, and exercise is key and to mix it up to keep your road to health an interesting one.

Goodbye to Another Trimester

Another trimester is in the books. I'd like to thank and congratulate our graduating 10th trimester interns from Illinois, especially Mark Bencivengo and Katelyn Intres. Mark and Katie took us 8th tri interns under their wings through the past few months showing us the ropes in the clinic, helping us treat patients, write reports, and most importantly keep Dr. Heiser happy. I have the utmost respect for you guys and have all the confidence in the world that you both are going to make incredible physicians.

I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing break. GO RAYS!!! 

Catch ya on the flip-side,
Dex

Hello, everyone. The end is near; I can see the light at the end of the tunnel getting closer and closer. This trimester has flown by. I'm not sure if it was board exams in the middle of the tri, or making the shift to clinic, but I can't believe there are only three weeks left. We all have to make the final push here soon, so gear up for a strong finish. 

Last week I spoke with an incoming student, and he asked me why I chose National over the other chiropractic schools in the country. I answered that it was the right fit for me. Making a decision to attend a program like the one I'm a part of took some planning and research, after all, the choice ultimately affects the rest of my life.

The prospective student should do their homework when they are looking at schools to attend. I had always wanted to be a dentist, when I realized that choice wasn't the right one for me, I had to do some serious thinking. I began shadowing everyone I could in the medical profession. I knew I wanted to help people, I just wasn't sure how, or to what capacity. After sampling the allopathic profession, I took a look at the alternative aspect of medicine and shadowed my cousin, Dr. Valdez, a chiropractor out of Brandon, Florida. Obviously, that is where I found my fit. Realizing what kind of doctor I wanted to become, was step one; step two was choosing were I would sacrifice the next three-plus years of my life.

This step took some time to work out. I started off researching exactly what was "chiropractic" and then who taught it in a manner I would understand and make sense of. I found I leaned toward a more "mixer" mentality of practicing chiropractic, as opposed to a "straight" chiropractic style. Granted, to an extent, schooling is only as beneficial as you make it, but putting yourself in the correct place to succeed, makes a world of difference.

At this point I started looking into different schools, their philosophies on chiropractic, and the opinions of practicing doctors in my area about those schools. After taking all these factors into consideration, I settled on NUHS. The emphasis National places on evidence based practice and the scientific proof behind what it is we do as chiropractors sold me. In hind sight, I would make the exact same decision again. The decision is always yours, and the more informed you are the better. I'm not saying National is the perfect fit for everyone, but if you're a prospective student, at least give us a look. 

The two-week break is almost here. Do your best to stay focused and knock out those finals, and then it's time to party. If you're worried about finals, and need a study plan refresher, take a look in the past blogs for my awesome three-tiered study plan; it may help.

Have a good week,
Dex

Good Morning all, I hope everyone had a killer weekend.

I did my best this weekend to make up for losing a weekend to Boards last week. Aside from having to write a paper and answer a few homework questions, I set the books aside and took a break from NUHS and hung out with friends. I've said it over and over, if you work hard, you deserve to play hard. The demands of this program are intense and the stress builds up fast. If you don't have a few days to blow off some steam here and there, you'll gas out before hitting the finish line.

The view from 7 rows up on center ice at Saturday's Tampa Bay Lightning game
where my pals and I were blowing off some steam from the week.

This past week I was talking with some 7th Trimester Florida students at lunch (yes, I humor them and eat lunch with them every now and again; it gives them something to look forward to HaHa), and I was asked if I thought we had enough adjusting time under our belts before hitting Student Clinic.

This question was asked as we were recapping some of the points Dr. Mark King, from the Motion Palpation Institute, made a couple of weeks ago. Dr. King made the point that as chiropractors we should master the trade, and part of the trade that stands out to most is the chiropractic adjustment. True, National instills in us the tools for becoming a primary care physician, but our patients will almost always associate the "DC" after our names with an adjustment. Dr. King made the point that now, as students, is when we should master this skill, before we hit the real world and real life expectations of patients.

So, back to my answer to the 7th Tri students' question--yes, we get enough time! We have 2 years to practice before patients hit our table in Student Clinic. We as students often forget that we are not in an undergraduate program any more. As a doctoral student, a lot of what we learn comes from the classroom, but there's much we have to learn ourselves on our own. Now I'm not saying to hit the streets with a portable table and start handing out black-market adjustments. Just as we take advantage of study groups for exams, or going to see teachers after class to review material, we need to make time to do the same for adjusting.

Yes, our E&M courses eventually stop, but there is ample opportunity to practice your skills. Students should take full advantage of the open lab times set aside each week for supervised adjusting practice. Motion Palpation Club, every Wednesday from 1:00-2:00 p.m. (shameless plug), is also a great time to review and hone your skills on palpation, and just get more time for some hands-on experience. No one is going to hold your hand here and force you to practice, and they shouldn't have to. We became physicians to help people, and the only way to provide the best care possible is to master the skills we're being exposed to here at school.

OK, OK, enough lecturing for this week. I can't believe this trimester is drawing to a close; seems as if it was a blur. I know as these trimesters start to wind down, so do we. Do your best to keep those heads up and make the final push to the end of the tri a hard one. You can only get out of something, what you put in, so put your best foot forward now, it will only pay off in the future. 

Oh, and if you find yourselves in Orlando with some time to burn this weekend, stop by the Sheraton Orlando from 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. for one of National's information sessions on the Florida DC program--and, you can listen to me speak around 11:25 a.m.! Register online at /landing-pages/hotel-info-session/.

Later,
Dex

Good Morning. Another set of board exams are in the books! Congratulations to all the students who completed their boards this weekend. As soon as I walked out of that last exam on Sunday afternoon, it was as if a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. 

Being that I just took Parts II, III, and PT Boards, I figured I'd take the time this week to provide some insight on what the experience is all about, to hopefully save some of you some anxiety when it's your turn around.

First, the board exams are national standardized exams used to test the minimum competency of chiropractic students. These exams have no bearing on your scores or standing with NUHS; these are your licensure exams. Being that these are nationwide exams, there is a broad scope of questions, that are for the most part, a little more generalized than your specific class exams.

Each exam, for Parts I, II and PT, includes 110 questions and covers the entire scope of the specific subject. For example, for a Part I physiology exam, all of your trimester of physiology will be examined in 110 questions. What I'm trying to get at here is to know the underlying mechanisms of each subject and be able to reason out answers because there's simply too much information to cram into 110 questions, so the exam is somewhat general. This holds true for every Board exam I've taken thus far.

This past weekend the rest of the Tri 8 students and I ventured to Palmer Florida (the only Florida test site) near Daytona Beach to take our Part II, III, and PT board exams. We decided to get to our hotel the night before the exams on Thursday, rather than trying to drive into Daytona and go straight into exams. We also did this for Part I; it's not worth it to drive 3 hours and then try to take an exam. Just spend the extra money for one more night at the hotel; it will be cheaper than having to retake the exam.

Friday morning kicked off the first day of Part II. These exams are focused more on the clinical sciences and diagnosis and management. I felt very prepared for this part; National does a great job preparing us for this. (Not to knock the Palmer students, but I heard a lot of growls and complaining from some of them after these exams.) We finished up our Part II exam Saturday morning, and closed the afternoon with PT (physiotherapy). Saturday was probably the least stressful day, and Guy, Margot and I ended it celebrating St. Patty's Day with a few green beers.

Sunday rolled around and with it came Part III. Part III puts together Part II and PT in a more case-based aspect, testing your clinical knowledge on diagnosis and treatment. All in all, I felt pretty confident walking out of the test center on Sunday afternoon. I treated the exams like all tests I take, by preparing far in advance, and walking in confident that I know what I know. If you can master this, the pre-test anxiety is kept to a minimum.

I hope this entry helped, and if anyone out there has any questions on Boards, please don't hesitate to send me an email. I'm happy to answer any questions or provide any help I can.

Cheers,
Dex