counseling the patient

Our last standardized patient encounter for the semester was definitely one of my favorites. It’s basically what I spent a lot of my time in clinic doing, so to be able to do that again, even if it was with a fake patient, brought back good memories and reminded me of why I decided to go into medicine. As the student doctor, we were supposed to go over their lipid panels with them, to explain to them their values and what they needed to work on, and then to give them tips on how to work on dietary and lifestyle modifications that they could make in order to accomplish that. I absolutely love this kind of thing, so this is the first time I actually used up all my allotted time (and you better believe I had a crap ton more I wanted to discuss with her ;_; ).

Naturally, the feedback session went well, although when I’m excited about things, my mind tends to jump all over the place and I talk a lot faster (but don’t worry, I’m still comprehensible! :O ), so I think my SP mistook that for nervousness. She also said that in my nervousness, I forgot to shake her hand, which I clearly remember doing because I apologized for the fact that my hands were really cold. However, seeing as how I was given the last time slot of the day and I always operate on the philosophy of “the customer is always right” when I’m given feedback, I just nodded and thanked her for her feedback. She said she couldn’t think of much else that I could have improved on though, because I did a really great job in explaining everything, discussing options with her and including her in the decision-making process.

(If we were graded on these, I think my clinical skills grade would be a pretty effing solid A, haha. But oh well. Less stress this way.)

Current progress on fitness goals!
RHR: 62
Deadlift: 175
Squat: 180
Bench Press: 95

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bikram yoga

Since I no longer have a gym membership for when I’m home-home, I decided to buy a Groupon for 10 Bikram Yoga classes to use while I was back for winter break. It expires in April, which essentially means that I need to use them all this break (I have 9 days). Game on, my friends!

This was basically the second yoga class I’ve ever taken. The first was during “try before you buy” week at Davis and although I didn’t find it particularly challenging while I was in the actual class, I woke up the next morning and could barely move because my muscles were so sore.

Today was my first class, so I guess we’ll see how I feel tomorrow (I’m going to the 5 a.m. class. And perhaps the 4 p.m. class as well. haha.). It wasn’t as terrifyingly challenging as the reviews made it out to be, and I really liked it! I could actually do all the postures except for the situp (…yeah, don’t judge me). The room was heated to 105 degrees with 60% humidity, and since I just came back from the land of the cold, I actually didn’t mind the heat too much. I will say that I haven’t sweated this much since the last time I spent 2 weeks out of a summer in China (which was basically like walking through waves of sweat) though, and I think I could definitely stand to improve on a lot of the postures, but that’s what the next 9 classes (if I manage to stuff them all in) are for. :D

In other news, I had dim sum with my family today, browsed through a couple Asian supermarkets, and got to see several of my closest friends again (we got tea and went to a sushi buffet, where I basically ate 5 orders of rolls–since each order of just 1 roll is ~$11, I’d like to think I definitely ate my money’s worth). Currently attempting to plan out the rest of my week and maximize my time spent with family/friends, but it is proving to be somewhat difficult. x_x Definitely gonna do my best though, since this isn’t happening again until June. ._.