Complement Workshop, PBL, CHI, and Hospital Update

We could have really skipped today's seminar. Not only did it basically just go over exactly what I was about to cover for my PBL learning objective, but it wasn't really adding that much new information to what we had learned about complement a few weeks ago. On the bright side, it did make my learning objective presentation more interactive since my group members already knew most of the stuff I was going over. Also, the seminar speaker tried to make his session fairly interactive.

We didn't have POD today because the speaker had cancelled, but I still didn't go home because I was signed up to volunteer for CHI. I used the time in between to run some errands, one of which was to go over to the billing office to pay off my debt from visiting the ER three and a half months ago. When I got my initial bill two months ago, I was charged about $250 after my insurance was billed for about $1250. There was a number on the bill to call to request bill forgiveness for financial hardship, so I called it. On one hand, $250 isn't an astronomical amount of money, but on the other hand, I AM a student, and I don't exactly have a good-paying job. So it really is kind of a hardship for me.

The lady in the billing office took down my name and address and mailed me a form to fill out to request bill forgiveness. I got the form about a week later, filled it out, and sent it back. Then I didn't hear anything for over a month, until just last week I got a letter back saying that I had qualified for 3/4 of the bill to be forgiven. So I still wound up having to pay $62 and change, but it's better than having to pay the full amount. I am kind of amazed that being a full-time medical student does not automatically qualify me as being too poor to pay, especially when you consider what it costs to go to school here. But I figured at this point it was easiest to just pay the balance and be done.

CHI was kind of slow today, and I only stayed until 4PM instead of 5PM like I usually do. I was weighing patients and measuring their body fat percentages and BMIs. One of my classmates wanted to do the cholesterol checks, and I didn't really care what I did, so I wound up doing something different this time.

This weekend I need to get my homework done (as usual) and make sure my final portfolio is ready. I am going to come in on Sunday to print out all of my evidence from the CCLCM portal. It's kind of silly, but we have to print out all of the evidence plus our essay and file everything into a 3-ring binder. This binder is then added to our permanent academic records in some CCLCM office somewhere. I don't think that the MSPRC uses the hard copy, because we also have to upload an electronic copy of the portfolio essay to the portal, complete with hyperlinks to our evidence. At least Monday we don't have class, but it's not going to be a very fun Memorial Day weekend.