Hypochondria

I took a week off of blog posts.  I have been rather busy, and just couldn't seem to take the time to post.  However, I am back! Lately in school I have observed that I am feeling like every symptom mentioned pertains to me.  Theory class is especially bad for this, as we are talking about the Organs of the human body, and how they can cause pathology when out of balance, the Zhang Fu organ theory.  I am now convinced that all of my Organs are out of balance and I am a big mess, while still maintaining decent health from an outward perspective.  And my teachers say the imbalance will only get worse in school because I am going to be working so hard, and not be able to pay attention to the rhythms my body wants.  But, at least in the end, I will know how to heal myself a bit better! :)

Though the study of Traditional Chinese Medicine Theory (TCM Theory), I have been feeling reaffirmed in why I chose this medicine to study.  I like the holistic nature of it.  I like the idea that a pathology in one area affects all other areas of the body in one way or another.  I like the notion that this medicine derived from centuries of observation, and trial and error.  This medicine has a very scientific approach even if it wasn't always written down in the jargon of "double blind study", or "case study". Ancient Chinese philosophers organized data from doctors, found patterns, and compiled them in huge texts such as the Huang di Nei Jing for future practitioners to use and study. It is funny to me that people in this modern age disregard this medicine just because they can't understand the theory of it, and most of those people that I have met, have never taken the time to try and read about or understand the theory themselves.  This makes me want to understand the theory well, so that I may be able to bridge the gap for people as a practitioner.

A few things I have noticed my first term at OCOM are:
 1. I feel a tremendous pressure to understand all of my classes well because they are all so relevant, the western medicine classes just as much as the eastern medicine classes. In undergrad I was pretty sure some of the classes I was being forced to take as pre-req's were total B.S. and I just needed to pass a test then I could forget it.
2. Whenever I have free time, or even when I am at work, I think to myself, "I should really be studying right now", I didn't so much feel that way in undergrad.
3. Getting used to being in a college that is pass, fail, it is still hard to detach my ego from the concept of a high GPA. :)

More to come later.....