Melissa's Bio

Melissa's Diary

My final weekend of freedom has come and gone. I’m ready to go back to school, but I’m sure I’ll be wishing for another break in a couple of weeks! Here’s a preview of my next semester. I’ll be taking physiology, microbiology/immunology, neuroanatomy, clinical skills (both standard clinical skills and OMM), and medical information sciences (basically epidemiology & biostatistics).

I spend one day this week shadowing an otolaryngologist (aka: ear, nose, throat physician--ENT). This physician spends part of the week doing surgeries and part with office visits. The day I was with him was an office visit day. Many of the visits were routine: post-surgical check-ups (a couple of ear tubes in children), ear & sinus pain, etc. A number of patients had earwax and other debris caked in their ear canals and on their eardrums. The Dr. used a specialized microscope while cleaning the ears out and this process can take quite a while.

There were some patients that really piqued my interest. An elderly couple (married for 56 years) were each in for an appointment. The wife had had her maxilla (upper jaw bone) removed due to cancer a few years ago and she was in for a check-up. She had a specialized prosthetic denture and when she removed it her mouth opened up into her sinuses! Fortunately, she was doing well. These two chatted with the Dr. about college sports, children and grandchildren (pictures on hand), and their flower garden from last summer (more pictures). They were absolutely delightful people! Another patient came in because he had been hoarse since November and was having coughing fits when he tried to talk. The Dr. looked down his throat and determined that one of his vocal cords was paralyzed. I was so excited, partly because it was pretty clear to see that when he tried to talk only one vocal cord moved, but mostly because I actually knew what nerve was affected!!! (Thank you for the anatomy class, Dr. Taylor! It was the recurrent laryngeal nerve!) The day was quite interesting, even though at this point I don’t plan on going into ENT. I got to look at a bunch of ears, throats, and sinuses. Yes, even sinuses! The Dr. uses a long probe with a light to get into and look at them. I even looked into a sphenoid sinus (which is nearly in the middle of the head)! The Dr. pointed out that every type of primary care physician sees tons of ENT-type appointments. When I get around to scheduling my elective rotations during my 3rd & 4th years I plan on spending a month in his office.

The other thing I have been working on is a nutrition seminar for the MS1s and MS2s. Our school offers an elective nutrition class, but many people don’t have time to fit any extra classes into their study schedule. We have 3 people in my class who have backgrounds in teaching nutrition, and we volunteered to do some lunchtime seminars covering the basics of nutrition. I’m supposed to cover nutritional recommendations for different age groups and make up a sheet overviewing the vitamins and minerals. Since I have taught all of this before it isn’t too big of a deal, but I am having to re-do my materials to make them appropriate for medical students. Hopefully I’ll finish before the weekend is over.

Other than that day, the rest of my week has been normal life-type stuff. I’ve been cooking and freezing, had some car repairs done, and have gotten caught up on laundry (for the moment). I went to lunch one day with a couple of classmates and another day with a friend who will be attending medical school next year. On a disappointing note, I got a note from my struggling classmate. She did not pass enough classes to be able to return next semester, but she will be starting over again next August. It is sad to lose our first classmate, although I’m glad that she is preparing to start anew.

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*Some names have been changed.