RESP Documents, Shin Appointment, and Assault

Today I sent in my RESP documents and so I should know if I'm eligible to receive my funds by Monday August 10th. I'm kind of concerned because these RESP companies only profit when students 'default' and don't pass their year level. I did pass my year level, but of course I've failed courses so hopefully that doesn't become an issue. But we will see.

My pain in the side of my shins still hasn't gone away and actually seems to be worst, so I saw a sports medicine doctor today. I actually thought he was a GP because I assumed all the doctors at UBC student health were GPs, but when I ended my concern to ask if he could refer me to a sports medicine doctor, he promptly smiled and said "I am a sports medicine doctor". That was convenient because it saves me time by going to one less appointment. He examined me and said that I have early signs of a stress fracture. I believe that was the term he used. Basically I did too much too fast and my bones in my shin couldn't keep up, because they haven't worked that hard in a long time. My good intentions to lose as much weight ASAP have backfired on me. The positive is that the doctor said for me to try running again in a week, but to SLOWLY incorporate running. For example do 30 seconds of jogging followed by 4 minutes of walking. I assume I can do that for like 20 minutes or 10 minutes. Hopefully once I start icing my leg and stretching, that will help me heal faster. Also the doctor in the meantime said I can go swimming or do the exercise bike at the gym. So I’ll be doing both of those to try to keep up with my cardio. My future for the track team for this September is up in the air right now. But I'm just praying that I can join the team later, in say January. If I'm fast enough, I don't see why not. Although there might be regulations in the league that they compete in, because I know there are academic requirements to be in full time studies in their league, but I'm also wondering what other requirements they have in terms of when new recruits can join the team. But I'm still going to aim for January if September is no longer a possibility. Injuries are just such a wild card, it's really annoying.


Another thing that happened today was that I saw an altercation with a guy bicyclist and a guy in a truck near my house. That got me thinking about what would happen if I got into an altercation like that, not now, but when I'm older and say I had a prominent medical position within the community. The guy in the truck and the male bicyclist were stopped at a crosswalk activated intersection light, and I guess they were very close to each other on the road, with neither one of them giving each other space. The guy in the truck rolled down his window and the biker said "why are you not giving me enough space" I couldn't hear what the guy in the truck said, but they then both went straight when the red light had traffic stopped in the perpendicular road, and then the biker hit the guys truck with his hand and then kicked the truck with one foot as he was on the bike. The guy in the truck then cut off the biker and got out of his truck and pushed the biker and then threw one punch that didn't really connect. The biker comically made a lot of noise so that people would stop and help him from getting beat up, although I'm not sure what he was expecting when he decided to try to damage the other guy's truck and be very disrespectful to him. The guy in the truck just drove away after he threw one of the punches. Now I don't condone violence unless it is to defend yourself or someone else. But as a man, I'm not sure if I would react differently from the guy in the truck. I mean I wouldn't try to knock someone out because if they fall and hit their head they could get brain damage or die. But I mean, if someone clearly disrespects you and your property, at what point do you say enough is enough? I mean you can't just let people walk all over you. The analogy I like to make is with Germany and England pre WW2. Germany was invading all of the smaller countries as well as committing other atrocities and England finally said enough is enough. I think getting physical has a time and a place. But here's where things get tricky, what if I have a very prominent position within the community? Let's say I'm the chief of surgery at BC Children's Hospital? That obviously wouldn't look good if I basically assaulted another man. I mean it could easily get in the news and there could be public backlash if people didn't know the whole story. I also wouldn't want my patients to think that I intentionally hurt someone else. But on the flip side, I would want everyone to know, including my patients, that I will stand up for myself and others when I am "wronged". So I don't know? I'd love to hear people's opinions, and maybe enlighten me if this sounds like it might be extreme. I just want to get a better sense of what to do in these situations. I grew up in a semi rough neighbourhood, so the 'old me' is saying to stand up for myself. But the new educated me and future physician and hopefully 'prominent member of the community'-one-day-me is telling myself to just stay calm and think of my career and reputation. Is it better to stand up for yourself even if no one was harmed simply because they disrespected you? Or is it the old saying to be the bigger and better man and to just walk away? I'd love to hear people's opinions, just because as I said, I am probably very bias because of the way I was raised (by mostly men) and also the rougher than average environment that I'm from. So please enlighten me everyone! Leave a comment or email me at premedpostfailure@gmail.com

Sports Massage

I've been going to the gym with a friend, and when we were stretching she mentioned to me that I felt a little tight in my muscles. She recommended that a massage should help, and I had already heard about the beneficial effects of massage on sports injuries, so I figured a registered massage therapist could help me out. I've kind of developed this soreness in the front of my shins just medial to the front bone. It did affect my running last week as it was hampering my run. Sports injuries are nothing new to me, but I think I was a bit naive thinking I would be able to do all of this training without my legs saying that all of this is too much. To be proactive against my soreness and injuries, I decided to get a sports massage. Note that I'm calling this soreness an injury because it is affecting my speed when I run, and it's also in kind of an unusual place to be just a 'regular kind of sore'.  I went to a place in Burnaby called Fortius, which is part of a larger sports medicine center. This place is a real top of the line facility and you can tell all their practitioners are highly trained. They have every type of practitioner you can think of, including sports medicine physicians, orthopaedic surgeons, and registered massage therapists. I only saw a registered massage therapist at my appointment.

The massage itself was fantastic. It felt so good when she pushed on the pressure points near my hips. Those must've been tight, and I could tell they really needed that. I chose the therapist I chose because her past clients have included the Canadian National Track team, as well as professional sports teams.

On the Mayo Clinic website, it mentioned that massages are no longer about 'pampering yourself', and that they actually have a lot of health benefits. I haven't done the research on the health benefits myself yet though, but I'm inclined to believe it from what I already know. If I had a partner I'd suggest that we give each other massages semi regularly. Aside from the health benefits and the intimate connection, we would also save some money. Then once in a while we could augment it with a professional massage from a registered massage therapist. I'll probably go back for another massage at Fortius in about 2-3 weeks, hopefully that should help me out a lot.

In order to reduce impact I might do more of the elliptical at the gym instead of running at the track. I thought it'd be cool to get my body to the point where I can do cardio twice a day. Depending on how much stress consistent elliptical work puts on my legs, I may be able to incorporate 'two-a-days' sooner rather than later. That would be great. It'd also be great if I could get in the pool to do some laps too. When I was doing my cardio today I noticed that my cardiovascular and respiratory systems felt a lot more efficient than even a few weeks ago. Even though my body getting more efficient will mean it is burning less calories and thus it is harder to lose drastic amounts of weight, I need to be more efficient so that I can run faster for track. Also I'm sure that the weight will all come off eventually. When I saw my aunt on Sunday, she said I had lost a lot of weight from stomach area. Despite everyone saying I look good and have lost a lot of weight, I'm not letting up. It's all about the end game for me. 

Speaking of two-a-days, I should be in pretty prime shape by the time the NFL season starts. Whenever I think I'm training hard, I just watch videos on the NFL training (or college football videos or Kobe or LeBron videos) and I truely believe that they are some of the most prime physical specimens in the world. It is actually so inspiring for me. I've felt this way about the NFL for so long, and I'm so happy that I'm finally strongly acting on my athletic dreams and ideals so that I can then make my dreams into goals and my goals into reality.

Still Alive and The Colour Green

Well I made it home safely and am happy that I'm still alive after two nights of camping on the west coast of the island. I really thought I was going to see a bear though because there were warning signs saying that the site is in black bear country. Plus I was sleeping in a tent with food in it as well. I realized after that you're supposed to keep food that isn't being used in the vehicle or food cache. It was a great beach we camped on and I had a great time with my friends and we had a lot of laughs, so it was an all around good time. I loved the drive, and especially loved the nights on the beach. I slept so well with the sounds of the waves crashing on the beach at night. I really love the ocean and being right on the Pacific is so beautiful. I didn't take any pictures though because I had my phone off because there was no cell service. But I'd highly recommend camping at Sombrio Beach to anyone who is interested in camping in BC.

The colour green in the title doesn't refer to the forest when I went camping, (there was a forest by the beach) it refers to my money situation. Despite the fact that I don't currently have a student loan this semester, I still have a decent amount of funds for the summer, a lot of which was from grants. In addition, I got my first payment from the rental of my grandpa's from my aunt and uncle. The only caveat is that the house is going to be empty next month, and I won't be getting any money until it is rented again, which could be a couple days or a few months. I did post about potential rental income last year, but the thing is that the house is so old that we had to spend all of the profits on upgrades to the house. But still, the upgrades are essentials like roofing and plumbing, not things that increase the rental value like a new kitchen or bathroom. As such, the rent is quite low because the house is old and no one wants to put significant capital into the house and I don't have the money to do so. Maybe when I'm in residency I will though. If not, definitely when I'm an attending though. But anyways it's good to see that my agreement with my family is being honoured and that I'm getting at least some money. I noticied myself getting significantly thriftier though with this rental money, as opposed to my student loan money. Maybe that's a good thing. I think I'm going to be putting the money into a fund to save up to buy some real estate. I think that would be a smart investment. And it's also quite practical too because I'm not the sole owner of any real estate yet. Given these Vancouver real estate prices, I might be waiting a while though.

Another green thing is that I should be getting an RESP payment within the next month. It should be about $6600. I haven't had that much of my own un-loaned cash since I was working in 2013. It will definitely be nice to have that as well. I may just lump this RESP money with my rental income money from this month ( and hopefully future months! *knocks on wood*) and have a decent amount of cash available, if need be. I actually also have a small share as a minority owner in some real estate that my mom, brother, grandpa and I bought a few years ago. My share only comes out to a minimum of $5000 but it could be more than that.

If I add all of this up, I'm well on my way towards a down payment. A down payment is important because having my own place (that I owned) would allow me to go to university and take classes as much as I need to. If I want to pursue any higher education, having more money will also allow me to do that, in addition to any potential medical school line of credit I get.

All in all it's been a great day. I used to have a significant amount of money stress, but I feel like that has kind of melted away. This is obviously a great thing for me, although, I'm not going to fully relax until the RESP money is deposited into my account. So I'll post any ongoing activity for that once I know.

Out in the Wilderness

So I'm going camping this weekend. I haven't been camping overnight in 13 years. Most people I meet think that I'm into camping and outdoorsy stuff since I'm from a small rural town. I am somewhat into outdoorsy stuff like hiking, but I'm not really into camping overnight. I'd say beaches are my favourite outdoor activity. I'm not exactly sure where we are camping yet though, although we did talk about camping on a beach on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Sombrio Beach. Despite the fact that I'm not that into camping, I actually am looking forward to going. I think it should be pretty fun since I'm going with my friends. I think we are only going for 1 or 2 nights so it won't be that bad.

Group Studying and Midterm Mark

So this is a inquisitive post to everyone out there in premed land (or higher!) about how you go about your group studying? I'm hoping to meet with a study group for one of my classes and I'm the one who is leading the group so I'm trying to structure the group study sessions in the most productive, yet enjoyable way possible. I am friends with two of the people in the group, so I'm hoping to find a way to find the right balance between studying and talking/socializing. Really, I'd hope we could keep socializing to a minimum though. An idea I had was to study for maybe 2 hours together, and then go for lunch together, then study for another hour or two. I'm thinking this way we can be productive during the study time and then relax and have fun during the lunch time. Also, I've heard that one of the best ways of learning material is to create questions on the material and then test yourself or each other on those questions. So I was thinking I would create a test bank of questions of at least 100 questions. Then bring them to the group and everyone take turns using the questions to test each other. And lastly, I was thinking that just plain old talking about the material with each other would help hammer home the ideas. I know that generally speaking, the more active the learning the better. So if myself and my group of 2-4 other people get a really good discussion going on the course materials and talking about all of the different aspects, it could not only help us reinforce those ideas, but also act as a sounding board with each other as to what you know and don't know.

Anyways these are just my starting thoughts. If anyone has any ideas or experience with effective group studying techniques then please comment on this post or feel free to email me at premedpostfailure@gmail.com!

Also, I got my biopsych mark back and I was quite disappointed. I got 75%. Although the class average was 68%, so I guess I did do better than average, but not by much. Also, I did write a different version of the exam than almost everyone in the class except for a few students, so it's also not really a fair comparison. I got an almost perfect mark on the essay questions which make up 25% of the exam, but then I did average on the multiple choice and awful on the short answer. I did find the exam hard, and everyone I talked to thought it was hard too. But that's just an excuse. I should've started studying earlier (as always) but I guess it could have been worst. On the bright side of things, I can still get a pretty high mark in this class. I think I will definitely get over 90% in this class. I've already written the hardest exam, because the instructor said that exam I just wrote was the hardest of the course. So with me studying more, and writing easier exams, you would think my mark would only go up. I have to be careful not to ease up either. But I find this course too interesting to be disengaged.

I was thinking about when I would write my "Why I love Psyc 304" post, and I think I will do one within the next week because this is about the half way point of the class. And then at the end of the course I will do a "Why I love Psyc 304 - Part 2" post as well. I'm also looking forward to sharing my thoughts on the course content as well, as I find it so fascinating. This course is definitely the most fascinating course I have ever taken, so I'm looking forward to blogging about it.

Not enough hours in the day

Right now, I'm debating whether or not I should go for a walk and run or if I should just stay home and study. I have an exam on Tuesday in my biopsych class, so I should probably study. But then I think I might be more efficient and relaxed if I exercise today. But then I think about the time it takes to exercise, because I take the bus to run and walk at UBC because it is so utterly boring to run in my neighbourhood, it takes me like 35 minutes on the bus to get to UBC. So there is over an hour of travel, plus an hour for walking, plus 45 minutes for running. So just under 3 hours just to do some simple exercise, which won't even include weights. I could get a lot of studying done in that time.

I'm pretty motivated to exercise because everyone has been saying that it looks like I've lost weight. And I have because as I said in the last post I'm the lightest I've been in 2.5 years. My diet is strict and even though I don't enjoy the taste of eating healthy, I feel very crappy if I eat something unhealthy, so it's almost not even worth it to eat unhealthy anymore because my good feelings around eating it are so reduced.

For school, I'll post my midterm mark after I get my marks back, which I'm thinking will be late next week. We also have an opportunity to get bonus marks as well, so I'll post if I got those. The topics for my next exam are the visual system, mechanisms of perception (the other senses) and attention, sensorimotor system, and neurodevelopment. I think neurodevelopment is my favourite topic, so I'm looking forward to that chapter.

I'm also trying out a new study strategy. If I do well on my next exam, I'll post the new process that I use to study, as I got it from a particularly good resource, and I'm quite optimistic about it.

I was hoping I would decide whether I should study or exercise over the course of writing this post. And I have. I'm going to go exercise, because I feel like not thinking right now (I've been studying all day), and also because I can't even afford to miss one day of exercise if I want to make the UBC Track team this fall. I know I can make up for lost time studying by studying efficiently over the weekend and maybe even tonight after I get back from my run and walk. I'm looking forward to what I can accomplish this weekend in terms of studying because it will be a big test for me. I haven't performed well in a 3rd year course before. So I'm looking to start changing that this summer, and that starts with getting a good mark on my midterm on Tuesday.