On to week NINE!

I am in week 9 of the 16 week semester...over the hump.  My Anatomy midterm went well...180 out of 200.  I am very happy with that grade and relieved it is over.  Now we are on to nutrition, electrolyte balance, the urinary system, genetics and the reproductive system to round out the end of the semester.  I honestly love it all, or love to hate studying it... if that makes sense.  It is so insanely interesting and I love the moment when I finally get it.  The journey from thinking I am reading something in a foreign language to being able to explain it to someone else is in a way magical.  I am learning how the body works and I love it.  All the systems are really coming together now which is exciting, too...how all the body systems function as one whole unit.  It really is so very cool.

My other two classes are going well, too.  For my Interpersonal Communications course, I needed to enter into a culture different from my own and study the different communication methods and any bridges or barriers that I experienced.  The assignment was to attend a cultural event or religious event that was out of my comfort zone.  I decided to study, instead, the communication issues between people with cancers and those without and the difficulties that people have talking to people about their illnesses or talking to them at all.  It was a very enlightening and wonderful experience.  I learned a lot through my research that I will be able to use in nursing.  For example, did you know that many breast cancer patients are overwhelmed with all the pink ribbon products on the market?  Many times they say that they try to forget that they have cancer for a moment, but they can't because they can't even buy a box of cereal at the grocery store with out there being a pink ribbon on it.  I also learned that the LIVE STRONG movement is difficult for many cancer patients...the whole...YOU CAN DO IT!  We will beat this together attitude.  Many times, they find this kind of talk annoying because no one really knows if they are going to beat the cancer or not.  A lot of times they want just a simple, "I'm sorry.  This is so unfair."  Very cool assignment and I hope to do more about nurse-patient communication in future.