Allergies: love-hate relationship

The fresh smell of spring… it’s beautiful unless your nose becomes congested after you take that first sniff. Unfortunately for me, I am one of those poor souls with spring allergies. For the next month as the temperature slowly keeps rising, all I can expect is sinus headaches and post-nasal drips. Just yesterday, I had the pleasant experience of bending over and feeling all of the fluid floating around in my sinuses rush towards my face. It’s actually much more painful than you would think. My mother and I also have the unfortunate symptom of vertigo every time spring rolls around. I also experienced that yesterday, which caused me to sit on the couch with my eyes wide open in wonder. How on earth can my body feel like it’s moving in circles while my eyes are telling me I’m perfectly stationary? It’s almost supernatural.

While I do absolutely hate my allergies, I also can’t help but think they are the funniest things in the world. I am currently taking immunology, and just this past week we discussed how allergies work. It was hilarious to write out all the categories of allergies and realize that either myself or someone in my family has an allergy in every single category. I mean, I’m allergic to hay, ragweed, mold, dust, nickel, jojoba oil, salicylic acid, latex, some medication that I probably should know, most perfume-y things, and even bananas. One of my brothers is allergic to cats, while the other is allergic to dogs. My mom has all the same allergies as I do, while my dad is deathly allergic to poison ivy. My sister-in-law is even allergic to the sun. Now what makes this even more amusing is that fact that all of us grew up living on a farm (ie. allergy central for someone who is allergic to many plant pollens, small particles, and animals). During my immunology class, my instructor stated that those who grew up on farms have fewer allergies than those who didn’t. While it made sense, I couldn’t help but wonder what the heck happened with my family. Then my professor proceeded to say that allergies may in fact be genetic. Bingo.

While this is quite entertaining, I think the cause of allergies themselves is the funniest part of all. You see, we all have this wonderful, complex immune system. Surprisingly, we have a ridiculous amount of things in our immune system that fend off parasites/helminths, and certain things in our environment, like animal dander and plant pollen, resemble these critters. So next time your eyes get red and your nose starts running because of allergies, it’s because your body thinks worms are attacking your eyes and nose. Pleasant thought, right?

Photos: Forbidden from riding bikes, fearless Afghan girls are skateboarding around Kabul

A Volunteer’s Guide to Fingernail Polish

During my spare time on the weekends, I spend a couple hours at my local hospital. I volunteer in the inpatient pediatric ward doing things like sanitizing toys and making Play Doh. Today, however, was a little different. When I walked in, the activities coordinator  prompted me with a question. “Are you any good at painting finger nails?” For the first time since I’ve volunteered there, I was asked to go to a girl’s room to paint her fingernails. Ecstatic, I wheeled the fingernail painting cart off to her room. This girl (she had just turned sixteen) was so excited to see me come to paint her nails. While I painted her fingernails and toenails bright sparkly purple, we talked about how she played flute, how she loved to swim, and how her treatment sometimes hurt. It felt like we talked about everything, and when I was done, she asked me if I really had to go or if I could stay. We ended up walking together to the childlife playroom and playing a game of Would You Rather. By the end of my shift, the activities coordinator came up to me and thanked me for spending time with her. “She hasn’t left her room for over a week, so getting her in this playroom is a big deal. Thank you.” In such a small, seemingly insignificant position, I forget how much of an influence I can have on someone’s life. I consider my time with the girl today as another force pushing me towards my career in medicine. She only assured me that my passion lies in helping other kids like her live the healthiest, happiest lives they can possibly have.

And so, for those painting the fingernails of kids in pediatrics here is a quick guide for success.

1. No matter how little or how much experience you have with painting fingernails, the kids don’t care; they’ll think it’s great no matter what.

2. Be prepared to find fingernail polish in places you didn’t think you would find it. Like your hair.

3. Talk about movies, pets, TV shows, seasons, sports, colors.. and be prepared to be spontaneous!

4. Remember that some of these kids have only seen their parents and the hospital faculty during their stay, so it’s nice for them to talk to someone new.

5. Lastly, bring out your inner child. That’s the only way to make kids feel comfortable, especially when everything seems so serious in their life during their medical difficulties.

Rainy Day

Living in Minnesota has it’s ridiculous downfalls; one of the greatest ones being snow. Last year during the month of May, we experienced snowfalls up until the beginning of June. Nothing truly ruins your day like waking up expecting green grass and 60 degree weather and actually finding two feet of fresh snow. This year, however, has had a fairly good start. During this past month, we’ve had sunny, warm days up in the 70s. The grass is already green, the trees are showing leaves, and we’ve already had rain storms. Today in particular is a beautiful, rainy day. The only appropriate course of action for a day like today is to curl up with a good book and a large cup of tea.

Sleep? What’s Sleep??

While working on some homework sitting in bed, a spider came crawling across my sheets. In a panic, I flicked it off the bed and now I can’t find it. There will be no sleep tonight. No sleep once so ever.

Well isn’t this embarrassing: Capstone style

At my university, there is a rite of passage for all the upperclassman called the Capstone. This process, though it is required to graduate, is cause of many exclamations like, “What am I doing with my life?” or “Why can’t I just graduate without doing this thing?” or “Is this a way for my university to hold my degree hostage?” Needless to say, everyone considers Capstone a large, complicate, and sometimes unrealistic en devour. However, this experience does have its benefits, even if they aren’t apparent to us now. Basically, Capstone is the process by which upperclassman make themselves unique candidates for graduate/medical school applications. Some may chose to do their Capstone on furthering their experience in research, while same take upper-level classes, and others travel to foreign countries. They then connect this experience to a theme of their choosing and then present this theme in addition to the activities they did for it. It sounds easy, but the process includes submitting a proposal to the vast majority of the faculty at my university. The thought of having one’s Capstone proposal rejected is terrifying because it basically equates to “you don’t know what you’re doing with your life anymore.”

Luckily for me, I had my Capstone approved the first time! As you may have read, my plan basically includes moving to a new city to earn a minor in public health. I’m also in the process of applying for medical scribe positions as another aspect to my Capstone. Throw in volunteering at a hospital and researching at a clinic, and I have my complete plan. I’m crossing my fingers hoping that it all works out. As for the theme of this plan, I described it along the lines of, “Communication and Healthcare: Foundations for Effective Treatment.” Exciting right?

One of the hardest parts of this Capstone process is the hurdle that I came across today. Just recently, we were informed of our faculty sponsors; these are faculty members that are there to help us with any hiccups during the course of our Capstone. Not to mention, they are also the professors that are going to grade the presentations of our experiences. I was actually fairly lucky with my sponsor; out of the 8 or so members who were minoring in public health, I was one of two students who got a professor of public health for a sponsor. Today, I had to make the first contact with her. This brings me back to one of the things I hate most: first impressions. Nervously typing out the email, all I could think was that I’m am making myself sound like a fool and that I’m going to fail at life because I couldn’t even connect with the one person who was supposed to help me during the course of my most intense year. Whether or not that is true, we can only wait to find out.

Nerves of Steel and Baby Steps

With the end of the semester quickly approaching, I can’t help but feel the stress kick in. It’s strange because, out of the years that I’ve been here at my university, this one has been by far the lightest. While most of my courses have been intensely science, physics, biology, and calculus based, this year has been ridiculously focused on communication. Instead of finals and quizzes, I have large amounts of group projects and presentations. Most people would love this, but as someone who has an intense fear of public speaking, I would gladly take a cumulative exam in its place.

However, the end of the tunnel is within view! It ‘s exciting and terrifying all at the same time. This summer will be bringing enormous amounts of change; I am living in an apartment for the first time with one of my best friends. Specifically, we both are moving towards another branch of the University of Minnesota in order to finish our minors. To save money, I have been living with my parents who conveniently reside in the same town as my university. Moving out, living on my own, paying bills, fending for myself entirely… it’s all terrifying but necessary. I guess this is another step towards official “adulthood.”

The definitive guide to taking the MCAT

Good advice for these next couple months!

Hello… well isn’t this embarrassing

There’s nothing I hate more than to try and make a good first impression. The first time you meet someone, the first time you present on a topic, or the first time someone reads your gibberish – it gives me great anxiety. If I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that the anxiety I feel can’t get in the way of a new beginning. Hence, this awful post must be made! And so it begins with an introduction. Hello. My name is Melissa and I’m in my 20 somethings. I am currently an undergraduate studying at the University of Minnesota (or at least one of it’s branches). I am earning a bachelor’s of science majoring in health sciences with a minor in public health. During the course of these past 4 years, I’ve held around 5 different jobs, with a time where I was working 3 part-time positions on top of being a full-time student. Money is always a problem as expected for a college student. Of these jobs, I’ve held titles as menial as a department store associate and as advanced as a student researcher at a prestigious clinic. What I want to do with my life is complicated and involves a ridiculous amount of years in school. The goal is to pursue a career in the medical field in a specialized branch of pediatrics. What that says about me, I’m not quite sure. All I know is that I love children, I love to learn, and the human body is fascinating. I think that will suffice for introduction, don’t you?