A Day of Many

The day started out really well, mainly because I got to sleep in for a bit. Since it was Saturday we only have a short two hour class. As usual we all walked to class and prepared for some teaching by Jake. 

The first hour of class was spent with Jake teaching us more about diabetes and its treatment. Usually patients get Metformin to help control their blood sugar. If that doesn't help then insulin is the next stop. There are a few types of insulin that can be used to recreate how your body would produce insulin. For example, Lantis is a type that is used to mimic a normal person's base insulin level throughout the day. Then there are others that can be used to follow how your insulin would naturally arise when you are eating. Jake then gave us a case and asked us to help him "treat the patient." So a 57 year old lady come in with numbness in her feet, she is overweight and her blood sugar is a bit high. So naturally we gave her Metformin and send her on her merry way. She came back some months later in worse condition than before. We then had no choice but to suggest insulin. She gets Lantus to keep her steady but she would still have to log her daily blood test. She was fine for a while until her next visit which showed that her fasting blood sugar is over 250. So we asked her to use another type of insulin along with Lantus and test her blood sugar in the morning and before dinner. She didn't get better at first because the insulin wears out before she can take the next dose. So taking a fast boost of insulin before dinner helped her use the glucose she ingest better.

The next part of the class was spent doing a blood sugar test. We were each given a little monitor that diabetics usually used to test our blood. Since Jake was teaching by himself today, he had to run around the room to assist the others with setting up the finger pricking stick. I was really scared to prick my finger, I knew it wouldn't hurt much but I couldn't help the irrational fear. I mustered up the courage and finally pushed the button only to have the needle scrape my finger. I had to set it to a higher depth level so it would break my skin. The second time was harder because I knew that it would hurt for a bit. Finally I was able to squeeze a drop of blood out of my finger and put it onto the test strip. I had a fasting blood sugar level of 107 which is pretty normal considering that I ate not long ago and this was a random test. After we were all done with our test, we just relaxed for a bit since we finished earlier than expected. One of the girls decided to draw a real heart on the board and wrote " My heart lub-dub for Jake". Lub-dub basically mean heartbeats and the dedication is for Jake because he was hash tagged as best instructor. 

We went to lunch after class which I thought was dumb because we had breakfast not too long ago. I didn't have the appetite yet so I spent my whole lunch reading in the quiet lounge instead. After lunch we had from 1 PM to 5 PM to explore the campus and surrounding area. I chose to accompany some friends to the bookstore which turned out to be really fun. Vanderbilt is a great campus if you can look past the heat and random rainstorm. Everyone is so nice and fluffy here, they are always supportive of everything you do. After the bookstore we went to Au Bon Pain so I could get some soup. I spent the rest of the free afternoon reading for a bit.

Today our dinner was shorter than usual because we were going to the movie. My friends and I chose to watch R.I.P.D. because it seemed interesting and we wanted to show Maggie some good American humor. Since it was a Saturday night, the theater was really packed and the line for food took forever. Compared to California the drinks were huge, their small soda is about the size of our large. The movie was really funny but I felt that it was a little fast paced and cheesy. Overall I really liked it while others didn't seem too pleased. Okay so I went to the ladies' room and saw the weirdest thing ever! Chewable Toothbrush! I have never seen anything liked it before and even my friend from the south thought it was weird. 

We spend a good thirty minute in the first and second floor lobby before we were allowed to go to our room. My friends and I passed the time by taking weird photos of each other. We all chatted and laughed and we turned something boring into something fun. The day was plagued with the dreadful Vanderbilt heat but I ignored it and the day was more fun than I imagined.