Ghost in the Oaks

Monthly Community Service Hours Completed: October : 9 hours

Cumulative Fall Semester Service Hours Completed : 10.5 hours

                    

    Ghost in the Oaks is a seasonal family-friendly fundraiser that takes place in the Carousel Gardens Amusement Park located within New Orleans City Park. The festivities include a pumpkin patch, decorate your own trick-or-treat bag, hot dog roasting station, and trick-or-treating all throughout the Storyland portion of the amusment parks. Patrons also have access to unlimited rides on all of the attractions. Some of the rides that most patrons seemed to enjoy were the Scrambler, Fun Slide, Coney Tower, and the Rockin' Tug. 

               

    My responsibilities included handing out the blank trick-or-treat bags to the children and helping them decorate their respective bags with the arts & crafts supplies. It was amusing getting to see all of the fun costumes that people dressed up in. One family was dressed as characters from Alice in Wonderland and the person dressed up as the Red Queen kept going around shouting "Off with his head!" It reminded me of the mnemonic we are using to remember the symptoms associated with anticholinergic poisoning:

Mad as a Hatter
Blind as a Bat
Dry as a Bone
Hot as Hell
Red as a Beet
Full as a Flask

    Overall, it was a very fun experience and a new way for me to enjoy New Orleans City Park.

    With respect to the Pharmacology program, all of my focus right now is continuing to learn more in the lab and preparing for the upcoming Principles of Pharmacology and Medical Pharmacology exams next week on the Autonomic Nervous System. Wish me luck!

Anesthesiology Residents Cooking Class

Monthly Community Service Hours Completed: October : 4 hours

Cumulative Fall Semester Service Hours Completed : 5.5 hours

                       

This time around, I got to volunteer with Tulane University School of Medicine Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine. The Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine offers cooking classes for the community to learn various recipes ideal for children, for patients who may be looking to lower their blood sugar level, and those easy on the wallet just to name a few.  The student population for this particular class was Tulane's own Anesthesiology Residents taught by Chef Heather Nace who is a Registered Dietician. 

The class began with a classroom portion that covered topics such as the nine-point scoring system and the Mediterranean diet. Next, Chef Heather covered how important incorporating fiber content into the diet is. She compared energy dense food versus nutrient dense foods, and how sometimes a food item can be both. One interesting point she made was that if you keep a well-stocked pantry, you can focus a shopping trip to simply the perimeter of the grocery store paying particular attention to the produce, proteins, and dairy sections. 

Black Bean Veggie Burgers, Hummus Sandwiches, 

and Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette

Next, the students got to practice making an assortment of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even some snack/dessert recipes to go along with it in various teams. My duties and responsibilities including assisting with the cooking, bringing items to the different cooking teams, bringing dirty dishes to the sink, washing dishes, and clean-up in general at the conclusion of the class. A nice perk to the volunteer work was that we all got to try some of the food produced by the different cooking teams. Some of my favorite items prepared by the students were the Black Bean Veggie Burgers, Balsamic Marinated Mushrooms, and the Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal Cookies. Everything I tried was pretty yummy and I look forward to the time I get to volunteer with the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine next month!

Overall, the Pharmacology program has been going well. I got to perform microdissection of a murine lymph node and then image the tissue using immunofluorescence staining under confocal microscopy which was incredibly exciting! The lecture content can be a bit challenging at times, but I think that is because it is just the first time I am being exposed to it. For instance, I used to work in an Emergency Department at Advocate Trinity Hospital in Southside Chicago, Illinois, and I have seen a lot of EKGs before as it was my role to document the recordings. However, this is the first time I am learning about what the different leads, waves, and intervals mean. Nevertheless, I am enjoying learning about all of these new topics and will keep on working hard to reach my goals.