So here it is, almost time for school to start again and I haven't updated this blog in forever! So much for using the copious amounts of free time i have to reflect and learn from the past year...nah, I did that. I just didn't blog about it! This summer has gone by so quickly, but so slowly as well. I've traveled a lot (Atlanta, North Carolina, Oklahoma), spent time with loved ones, camped a little, moved across the city, packed and unpacked (almost done!) an apartment, brushed up on a little school material, completed one rotation, and took up a new hobby. Now I have 1.5 weeks remaining of true break and then 2 weeks of a rotation that will take me down to Alamosa. Then school will start and all the leisure that I have in my life will disappear extremely rapidly. These are the things that I've learned from this summer that's almost over:

-Family is one of the biggest blessings in my life. I remember Mom always telling me that friends come and go, but family is always there. I'm so happy to find that is true and that my family is also my friend(s) (horribly awkward sentence, oh well.) This summer I felt so blessed to spend time with those I love, but now I'm feeling withdrawal. I find myself getting jealous (something I really try to avoid; it's not healthy and it's not appreciating where God has me) of those that I know who live in the same city as their family. One day, maybe this will happen, but until then, I'll work on being content with good, soul-quenching visits.

-I can't stay at home. I'm not sure why, but part of my personality means that I have to have a schedule that forces me to get out of the apartment and interact with others.

-A clean apartment=tidy mind. Which is very weird for me.

-I enjoy getting up in the mornings! Even MORE weird for me. I'm on break and I'm getting up at 6:30...WILLINGLY. Soooo bizarre. I just enjoy going for a run, then having a cup of coffee and eating breakfast on the patio and still having the whole day to do what I want.

-I can do something demeaning/be talked down to with a smile on my face and not a begrudging spirit. (However, this is still a work in progress)

-Finding something that I enjoy that is exercise, but I forget that it is is possible! I've always enjoyed running (after I get in shape), but have always still had to force myself to do it. I found something that I don't have to force myself to do and it's a great self-esteem boost.

Well, it's time to wrap this up. Steve and I are going to meet one of his work friends. I promise to post more again!

Summertime Is So Fine!

The semester is finally over and, more importantly, I survived! Finals week was as to be expected - horrible! Luckily, finals "week" was only 2 days long, with only my two time-consuming classes giving finals. Sadly, both professors took it upon themselves to try to outdo each other in roughness of the quality of the tests. Happily, I'm done with both of the classes AND the professors and won't have to retake anything. Here's what I've done on my summer break so far:

-End of the semester breakfast/book club meeting with PA gal pals. We started a book club this semester and actually kept it up throughout the craziness. We've read a variety of different books and had a great time discussing them. For the end of the semester, we ate at Snooze, a local Denver breakfast eatery renowned for their pancakes and all around breakfast yumminess.

-Had a wonderful visit from Dave and Ann for Steve's graduation ceremony. We did so much! We ate at Snooze, went to the Denver Botanic Gardens, rode the Georgetown Loop railroad (where we did a mine tour-so neat!), walked along Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, visited the Celestial Seasonings gift shop in Boulder (we tried to do a tour, but we were too late!), visited the Dushanbe Tea House, had a picnic by a mountain lake, and ate at the Buckhorn Exchange (as seen on Man vs Food; it has a RIDICULOUS amount of stuffed animals). Keep in mind, we were trying to keep the activity "light"....Dave and Ann were great sports!

-Watched Steve walk in his graduation ceremony and get an award for being the outstanding Philosophy of Religion student at Denver Seminary. It was the first time the award had ever been given!

-Got a manicure/pedicure with a Groupon at The Denver Nail Lounge, this incredibly cute little nail boutique on 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver. I'll be going back...but only because my groupon was 2-for-1. This place is booked for months!

-Got my hair cut, but nothing special. I've had some pretty bad cuts recently and just want it to be a basic haircut. As long as I can pull it back, I'm good. I got so spoiled in Stillwater!

-Celebrated our 5 year anniversary with Steve in Crested Butte. This was also a joint Steve Got A Job! Celebration

-Steve got a job! He's working in Broomfield, Co at a place that deals with mortgages...we're so happy! This leads to the next point...

-We found a condo to move to in Louisville, Co! My tutor for ISBM (one of my difficult classes) lives in Louisville and I used to drive up to meet her for tutoring sessions; I absolutely fell in love with it! We were very very lucky to find the place that we did; our landlords seem great so far. Steve will be able to bike commute to his job and I will be able to ride the express bus to campus. We will be 5 minutes driving time from our favorite grocery store and warehouse shopping AND 5 minutes walking time from this absolutely amazing biking/running path. Did I mention that Louisville is about 10 minutes away from Boulder, so we are super close to the foothills/mountains? This means that we have incredible scenery almost anywhere you look! (Until you look east towards Denver and see all the smog...yuck!)

-I have taken up exercising again-whew! Yesterday Stout and I went hiking up Mount Sanitas in Boulder. It's known as a "thigh-burner" but all those Boulderites jog up. I'm not even kidding. Since I'm so out of shape and Stout has so much fur (he's not out of shape anymore! Our overweight behemoth of a dog that we adopted at 110 lbs has transformed into a svelte muscular little puppy at 72 lbs!), we absolutely struggled up and didn't even finish. I have no idea how close we were, but Stout kept trying to lead me off the path, where it looked easier. Normally when we go hiking, Stout absolutely loves to run on the path. He'll get off and do some exploring, but when we call for him, he runs top speed to us...on the path. Even when it's a switchback and he could run straight towards us. So needless to say, we were both tired yesterday. :) I look forward to getting into shape. I want to be healthy and a good example for patients when I am a practicing PA...lifestyle changes are difficult, so I'm trying to do it at a time when there isn't too much stress around.

-Relaxed! One thing I never anticipated when I was done with school was feeling guilty when I want to sleep in and then lay around for a couple hours. I want to be able to enjoy life and for me, I need to be able to slow down to enjoy certain things. I'm working on relaxing, which seems so counter-intuitive. It's a process.

-I'm going to Atlanta this weekend for the national AAPA (American Academy of Physician Assistants) conference. I'll be going with some of my classmates to take in some lectures, etc. I'm really excited!

So far my summer has been a little busy. It will continue to be so, but I'm trying to enjoy it as well. I have plans to go to New Bern and Oklahoma and am really looking forward to seeing family!

Dreaming of Summer time...

This past week, Summertime Fever hit me. Hit me HARD. This past week we got our assignments for our 1st year buddy, signifying our impending movement into the status of a 2nd year. This is literally crazy to me. I can't believe that as of May 12th, 33.3% of my PA school career will be over. Hallelujah! I started thinking back over the past year when I was thinking about what to tell my buddy to expect for the summertime and I realized how incredibly tough this past year has been. I started thinking about what I'd like to accomplish this summer. Other than 2 rotations (1 surgery rotation in Orthopedics and 1 family medicine clinic rotation in Alamosa, CO), I have the entire summer free. So here's a top 10 list of things I'd like to accomplish this summer:

1. DE-STRESS. I'm serious here. I'm going to do a lot of prayer meditation, a lot of figuring out how to unwind. I know I'm not the most laid back person normally, but it has gotten BAD over the past year. I have a constant level of stress that is just not healthy. I've got to figure out some sort of regimen for this.

2. Exercise. I'd like to climb Pikes Peak this summer; definitely not in shape for that! I guess this will also be part of my de-stress regimen.

3. Read lots of books.

4. Hike. A LOT.

5. Camp

6. Bike. Learn how to mountain bike without fear. Well, maybe mountain bike with respect.

7. Go home for a visit

8. Swim and get a tan. In as healthy way as possible-I don't want skin cancer, thank you very much. Maybe put lots of spf 70 on or something. This is TBD.

9. Review some school subjects that I didn't get as well as I'd like to the first time around.

10. Clean the house and organize. Top to bottom. I love to organize and I just can't find anything around here. Unfortunately after I do this, Steve won't be able to find anything. It's a sad trade-off. :)

From Large and (Sometimes) In Charge Patients to Itty Bitty Patients

School is still just as crazy (and just got WAY crazier in an unforeseen tragedy), but the past month has been a breath of fresh air as far as my rotations go. This semester, our program has us in what they call the Lifespan Rotation. We literally see patients from birth to death. One month is spent doing volunteer work since they like to emphasize that PAs are supposed to be involved in service in their community. One month is spent in a short Parenting class so we can learn how to give advice on the common issues of having a child (sleeping, tantrums, potty training, etc). Two weeks is spent in a Long Term Care setting. Two weeks is spent in the Newborn Nursery. One month is spent visiting patients in hospice. All in all, a lot of stuff.

This past month was the month I spent in the Long Term Care and the Newborn Nursery. Surprisingly to me, I absolutely loved the Long Term Care setting. This patient population is absolutely not my cup of tea, but my preceptor really taught me a lot as far as what it's really like to be a PA. It's really easy to lose focus on the end goal when you're stuck in the mire of rude professors and seemingly silly projects. This preceptor allowed us to view charts and then examine the patient all on our own. It was a great learning opportunity with no stress; I could examine a patient, practicing my exam skills and then practice my charting skills. I was able to build confidence and to critique myself, thinking about what I could do different next time. It was like really being a PA (he rechecked the patient after us, just so you know we're not on the loose!). He didn't treat us like students, he treated us like colleagues. He's a pretty impressive PA himself; he owns his own business and actually employs his supervising physician. I thought that something like that wasn't ok in CO, but apparently it is!
After Long Term Care was the rotation I was looking forward to the most. I was SO excited! Finally, the Newborn Nursery. But our preceptor was sick the entire first week, so it ended up being a very different experience than the rest of my classmates got. However, I will most definitely try to get a rotation there my 3rd year. It was really nice to feel the confidence again at examining this baby without feeling overwhelmed or lost. Babies are one of my favorite things in life and it's nice to be able to calm an upset newborn down so that I can listen to their heart or lungs. It's nice to know what I'm doing and to feel comfortable examining this incredibly tiny person. And as much as I'm trying to not seek the praise of my preceptors (it's just not healthy for me), it's nice to have a preceptor tell me that I have "the touch for pediatrics". It's just nice.
So far this semester, these rotations have picked me up from getting bad exam scores and helped me to see that I just might be a good PA one day; and I know more than I think I do! I certainly know more than those test scores show. Heavens, they're not great! I'm learning to accept the fact that I know the material, even if a number on a piece of paper doesn't reflect that. It's hard, but hopefully I will get there.

And So It Begins...Again

Even though school started 2 weeks ago, I've still felt like I've been on vacation. A much needed vacation. Last week, I had class on Monday and Friday. And that was it! It was faaaabulous. It made me wonder what life could be like with only 1 class...and then I remembered it would be boring and the only reason I was treasuring it so was because I knew that in a few days it would all cut loose. It cuts loose tomorrow actually, with my day starting at 8:30 am and ending after 9pm, but the past few days have been so tremendously relaxing that I'm ok with a busy week.

Saturday, Steve and I went for a hike in Denver since the weather was cooperating so nicely. We had a nasty cold snap from what feels like October to January (but was really more like December to January 5; my memory is little on the melodramatic side), but the past few days have felt like spring, with sunny skies and temps in the upper 50s. We decided that we would just go somewhere near the city, since we slept in really late (criminally late; I thought that once I became an adult, I wouldn't be able to sleep past 10:30 anymore. Wrong!). Now keep in mind that we've had snow on the ground for over a month, which had just started to melt. Welp, it was muddy. Not too terribly bad, but bad enough that Stout's belly and all 4 paws looked like he'd been dipped carefully in chocolate. It was worth it! When I'm stressed to the max, I close my eyes and think of my favorite memories of being outside to calm me down. I always feel God's presence when I'm outside, just that warm calming peace that makes the whole experience sweeter. Saturday was definitely one of those days I'll pull back from my memory. Gorgeous!

We were able to go on another hike Sunday. It was cloudy and we were at a slightly higher elevation, so it was a little chilly and there was still quite a bit of snow that we hiked on, but still just glorious. Doing things outside always makes me feel like I've taken advantage of my time and used it well; even when our house is a wreck and a million other things need to be done, being outside is the one thing that for some reason makes me feel accomplished. On the flipside of that, Steve and I spent all day inside today, cooking and watching movies. THAT was a blast! It was nice to just relax and get ready for the semester to come. It was also nice to be able to avoid the parking lot that I-70 becomes when people are trying to return from the mountains.

Who Knew PA School Involved Pinky and The Brain?

I intend to start blogging again slightly more regularly than the rate I was achieving at the end of the last semester. That means with this one post, I have accomplished my goal! Anyway, this is a great way for me to remember the trials I have gone thru in school and also keep family updated with what's going on. So I hope to do a little better.

Last semester ended much better than I hoped for. During undergrad, finals week was always stressful due to the sheer amount of tests involved. However, in PA school, we had a week in October (which means it was midterms) that involved 7 or 8 tests plus class plus rotations plus a paper. In contrast, finals week was a beautiful summer day (despite the fact that the last day of class, when the temp outside was less than 10 degrees, we had to take a final in an unheated room. They are energy conscious here!) (not really, we have a classroom that we are the only program that uses it, so they never turn the heat on unless they remember to).

This semester has started and we are almost done with 1 week already. They are easing us into it, however, and we only have 1 class that meets sporadically. We start rotations next week, but I am lucky to have a volunteer opportunity first, which means that I get to play card games with the developmentally disabled and elderly for 1 month. Pretty great, so far. While my classmates and I like to moan that we weren't ready to come back, the reality is that this easy start means that we can get some material out of the way without being stressed out immediately. I really appreciate that!

The course that we are taking right now is neuroscience and the lecturer today ended the class time with a clip from Pink and the Brain, which I really encourage all to partake in. :)

**EDIT** Whoops, I meant to post this link! Enjoy it, Lindy - Pinky and the Brain are the best!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snO68aJTOpM

Stout Jumps...Only For Cheese

Here's Stout's only trick so far (other than giving Hi-Fives, Shaking Hello, and Touch) and his only motivation is cheese. He doesn't get to do this trick too often - because of the cheese.

Woah.

So it's been awhile since I've posted. That would be because things have been CRAZY around here. Crazy understated, really. This last weekend (48 hours, mind you) I studied for over 24 hours. I'm pretty sure I didn't do well on my tests, either. I'm not an overachiever, but I do like to do well. PA school has been yet another reminder that I'm not the greatest at things, but I do have a decent work ethic. However, sometimes, that's not enough. Sometimes you work and work and work and still don't do well. But I did learn more than if I hadn't tried at all. That's what this is about (even though my GPA won't be what I want).

Tomorrow I start my first rotation, which is in Dermatology. My preceptor (the PA I follow around) is supposed to be amazing and I'm supposed to be able to do a lot of things at the end, such as freeze warts and scrape moles for biopsy. I'm really excited, especially since derm isn't something I'm innately interested in. This will given me an opportunity to explore an area I might not want to do a rotation in later, or it might cause me to want to do a elective derm rotation 3rd year.

This week is literally full of insane tests. Since Friday, I've had 3 tests. I have another on Thursday and one on Friday. The one on Friday is going to be killer. Not only that, it's going to be followed up with a lecture on sexual abuse. Friday afternoon is going to be stellar.

Despite the hard stuff I'm complaining about, one thing I really enjoy about my program is the inspiration given. I have to search for it (it's not given freely). For instance, this last Friday, we had a lecture on child abuse given by the dean of our medical school. He is the head of the School of Medicine (which the PA program is in) and a renowned scholar in child abuse. It was a fascinating and heavy lecture, but I think I might want to do an elective rotation with the child abuse people at Children's Hospital. That inspiring. I know it's heavy stuff, but it's something I'd love to know more about.

Anyway, there are some exciting things that are happening. For instance, I (and the rest of EVERYBODY!) is anxiously awaiting the birth of Baby Girl Goeller. Already she's got the Goeller stubbornness and decided to go overdue. :) Steve and I have also really been enjoying Stout. He's currently lost quite some weight, but is still way obese. Especially since he's just discovered that he can "countersurf" and gain access to the bread on top of it. Anyway, here are a few recent pictures of Stout:

PA Profession

One of the neat things that my school does is bring in speakers they think will be beneficial to us. Since we have committed to giving them our time from 8-5 M-F, they can schedule speakers at 24hrs notice (although they haven't given THAT short a notice yet). Today we had a speaker who actually wrote the book on physicians' assistants. Really, she wrote The Manual to Being a Physician Assistant. She herself is one of the first PAs in the country and the program director of MEDEX, a PA program in Washington state. She gave us a history of the profession, speaking about the hurdles that had to be overcome in the first years and those that have come up since. I won't give a whole recap of the lecture, but will give a few interesting tidbits:

• There were 4 PA programs that got the profession started off (and all their founders were talking to each other about how they were going to get theirs rolling): Duke, MEDEX, University of Colorado, and a little school in Virginia.
• Each program started with a different student population in mind and different goal. Duke and MEDEX wanted to use corpsman to prove to medical residents that they aren't the only smart people in the world capable of doing what they do. Colorado wanted to use people with all different types of backgrounds to improve maternal-child wellbeing (why we have a pediatric focus, in fact). The little school in Virginia wanted to develop medical providers from rural Appalachian communities to stay in the rural Appalachian communities that they were from and were severely lacking in medical care.
• PA type roles have actually been around for a lot longer than the 20th century and in many different countries. The Chinese used to have what they called "barefoot doctors" that would travel around rural areas in China to provide medical care. Russians had "feldshers" that were basically PAs.
• Dr. Henry Silver, the man responsible for beginning the PA program I am in, actually started the first nurse practitioner program.
• The guys who started the PA profession actually meant to start it as NPs. However, when they approached the nursing community with this idea of training medical providers with skills like doctors from nurses, the nursing community shot it down, calling it a corruption of nursing. If they hadn't been so unreceptive to this, we would never have PAs!
• PAs are the medical professionals least likely to change careers.
• PAs are the happiest medical professionals with their jobs. This is influenced by the choice to change jobs and specialties if they aren't happy.
• The title physicians' assistant was chosen by the men who started the profession. None of them liked the name, but couldn't choose one they were all happy with.
• There was a controversy to call PAs Physicians' Associates, but the American Medical Association said that this was too collegial and not representative of the true status of PAs. By this, the AMA didn't want PAs to think that we were equals with doctors or even a co-worker. This was a long time ago.

After this lecture, I went with some of my classmates to the Ronald McDonald house to serve dinner to the families who stay there. If you haven't heard of the RM house, it's an establishment that allows families with children in the hospital to stay at a reduced cost. The families who stay there are usually from far away and can't drive back and forth to the hospital every day to see their child. It is a really neat establishment and I highly recommend volunteering there, if you live in a city that has one. These families are in a city they are unfamiliar with, with people they don't know, away from everyone and everything normal to them, and their children are sick. They just need some loving and a friendly face not always associated with the hospital. Also, food that is NOT hospital food is very much appreciated. It was awesome and really gave me a much needed lift for remembering why I'm going through this school stuff.

Back to studying!

Ahhhhh

This past week was again completely different than all the weeks preceding it. Missing Monday for Labor Day meant that I had a 4 day weekend, since I have nothing on Tuesday. I was completely thrown off the rest of the weekend, but it was nice. I enjoy things being different, which is excellent in this program. Lectures can get moved to different days and times based on the availability of the lecturer. This is excellent, since it means that we can hear people at the top of their field lecture on the subjects they are experts in. Luckily we have a fair amount of "flex time" built into our schedules to allow for things like this. What's flex time?, you may ask. Well, when I signed up for this program, I agreed to give them my life from 8am to 5 pm. They in return don't use all of that time, but do keep it scheduled as flex so I don't forget my agreement and get all huffy when they move a lecture to a time when I had something else scheduled. They are kind enough to give us advanced notice of when something does come up, but are constantly reminding us to be flexible.

Part of my week was becoming involved in the PA students bible study. This just started on Thursday and had an impressive turnout for those interested. There were so many people in that showed up that we didn't have enough chairs. The 2nd year students are starting it and they were just blown away at the turnout. One later told me that in the class above them, there is only 1 Christian. They saw how hard it's been for her and began praying last year for our class, that there would be a large number of believers. I was blown away by this and touched by the way God answered their prayer. For our Bible study, we're going to be going through a series about being in the medical profession and being a Christian. I'm really excited to do this, since it's been something I've been thinking about.

Steve is currently in South Bend, Indiana, fulfilling his dream to quarterback for Notre Dame, a la Rudy. Well, by quarterback I mean go to a philosophy conference. He and a classmate drove out their last Wednesday evening and have spent the past couple days being blown away by the philosophical bigwigs they are getting to hear. Also, Steve got one of his favorite philosopher's autographs. This is one advantage of enjoying contemporary philosophy - you don't see anyone with Plato's autograph these days.

Quick Share

Just had to write this quickly so I didn't forget; today in Microbiology, our lecture on staph and strep was taught by the man who was involved in discovering Toxic Shock Syndrome. Woah!

Labor Day: No Work Involved

This past weekend was the last break I'll get until Thanksgiving break. Luckily Mom and Dad were able to make the long drive up here for a very quick visit. I think that time with family is rarely long enough and this weekend was no different. However, I have been really needing some good quality time with family and have been lucky to have it two weekends this past month. We were able to take the dogs to the local state park and let them run around with the hundreds of other dogs that were there. (And we seemed to be the only owners that brought toys to play with - other owners preferred to let their dogs play with our toys. Odd.) Mom and I went to get our nails done while Dad and Steve watched the big OSU-Georgia game. Then we went for a little hike the next day at St. Mary's Glacier (the signs for this hike literally have it labeled as a "glacier", apostraphes and all, since it's technically just a snow field that stays all year long) and let the dogs swim in a "glacial" lake and run across the snow of the "glacier". Then Mom and Dad had to leave, since they have these job things people keep talking about. :) Steve and I just relaxed on Labor Day - putting the name to its full honors - and watched movies and indulged in some free Chick-Fil-A.

Tomorrow starts the daily grind again, but so far every week has been different than the week before it. Steve leaves tomorrow evening for a conference at Notre Dame. Tonight dreams of Rudy will dance in his head, I'm sure. As for me, dreams of BRCA1 and detecting breast disease will dance in mine. :)

So Many Classes, So Much TIME!!

Classes are definitely getting in the swing of things, but I am not! In my toughest class (by reputation thus far), we've got thru 2 lectures. We've had class about 9 times. I don't know how it's happened, but it really makes me bored. I have a sinking feeling I'm TOTALLY going to regret saying that, but this is the truth right now. Furthermore, I have all of Tuesdays off since I don't start rotations until the 2nd half of the semester (which is supposed to be the worst way to have it - I had no choice!) as well as Wednesdays after noon, every other Thursday off at noon, and Fridays off at noon. So far I've made use of that time studying, but have also done errands.

On that note, you may remember that I found out over the summer that my thyroid was enlarged. Just to give you a reference point on the mega-ness of this gland, you aren't supposed to be able to feel the normal thyroid. You can SEE my thyroid. Woah. Woah x 4. Finally got around to getting it checked out and I'm totally fine, just have a little autoimmune disease called Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Sounds totally intimidating, right? As one of my professors said, "If you have to have a disease called Hashimoto's anything, this is the one you want to have." So basically all is well healthwise in the Schley household. Our dog has even lost 15 pounds. (Hopefully he's kept it off. We've been accidentally leaving tempting food items in plastic bags on the floor level. I don't know why, but who can blame a dog for ripping into it?)

Feels Like FooooRRRReeeevvvveeerrrr

This past week was the first of my second semester in PA school. Right now I'm thinking, "REALLY? Only 1 weeks????" I swear it was the longest week of my life, bar none. There must have been some opening in the space-time continuum that made everything move at the pace of an ant's crawl. I have no idea HOW it happened, but it for sure happened. Slowly. Very very slowly. Anyway, the point of the matter it, it is now Friday and I am done with the first week. 14 weeks to go and hopefully they don't go as slow as this.

Last weekend, Steve's brother and sister-in-law made the short flight out here to good ol' CO. It was a good visit, with a fun little trip rafting down the Cache la Poudre river. They called it rafting, but I instead refer to it as, "getting stuck on rocks and making a skinny little guide move a big ol' boat all by himself with 4 people in it off said rocks". It was fun, but I definitely want to go when the river is a liiiiitttle higher. We did get to swim a little and the water was surprisingly not too cold. Many of you may find this odd, that in August the water would still be a little cool or that I would even comment on this. The rivers here have a lot of snowmelt in them, which = blue lips and nails in July. No joke, they're that cold. So, it was pretty nice to be able to swim without insanely cold 3 minutes after entering the water.

Steve's school starts next week, but he has been incredibly busy this week with work. The seminary had its orientation for new students today and he had quite a bit to do for that. So I even get home before him, which was a little odd last year. The extra money will definitely be nice, though! Steve also recently got a tutoring job, which will be a nice way to do something a little different than be in seminary.

As far as my classes, they are going to be difficult and exciting. I really do enjoy learning how things work, so the most difficult class that we have (Integrated Sciences Basic to Medicine - a combination of biochemistry and physiology) will hopefully be an enjoyable challenge. As opposed to anatomy, which I definitely didn't hate, but didn't love quite so much. We have to take 19 hours this semester, which means that I have so many classes to keep up with, it's going to be just plain interesting in seeing how it all works out.

Laura

Two Down, One to Go!

My finals week began today and I'm 2/3 of the way done! I had my last anatomy practical and written exam this morning, my Physical Diagnosis practical this afternoon. As far as how I feel about them, anatomy is so-so. I know I passed, so that's something! At this point, I just want to pass. It may sound pathetic and underachieving, but believe me, passing is great. With Physical Diagnosis, this afternoon was my practical final. This means that I went in on a standardized patient and performed an Ear, Nose and Throat exam as well as a Cardiac exam. I also did vitals, but anyone can do that! It was pretty easy and I think I rocked it. Oh, and had an almost brush with a sibling of someone famous. One of the standardized patients was the brother of Tony Shaloub, better known as Monk! I was not able to meet him, though. My friend who performed her practical on him said he looked exactly like Monk. Apparently he's kind of touchy about it and we were told not to say anything to him. You know, big brother's a big TV star and you are a standardized patient for physician assistant students. Ouch. :)

One more exam tomorrow for a class that is also our first exam in there. Yep, our final is also our first. I'm studying on that right now...or I will be soon. Then our class is having a picnic in the park as a celebration as the end of the semester. More accurately, a celebration that we SURVIVED the semester! On Wednesday, I'm going to finally fit in those doctors appointments I've needed as well as a much needed haircut. Then, Thursday, camping!!!!

Interviewing Skills...Check!

Amongst the many classes I have to take during school is Psychosocial Aspects of Healthcare. This class is responsible for imparting the skills necessary to be a good "touchy feely" PA. The school understands this is an essential component to being a great medical provider and essential in giving physician assistants their good reputation. Funny enough, this class professor doesn't really seem to like the grades so much. I like to think of this class as my ego booster, which is typically sorely needed in the world of poor anatomy grades after hours and hours of studying.

We've spent the whole summer learning about healthcare disparities among different people groups and how to take a patient's history. This past week, we got to practice our interviewing skills by taking a "patient's" history. These were not real patients, they were actors trained to act ill and work off a script to allow us to practice without spectacularly failing in the real clinic setting. They were also to give us feedback afterwards, letting us know what we could have done better and what we did well at. Luckily, my interview went great! The standardized patient just really pumped me up with tons of compliments and praise, only saying that I could have expanded on one point of patient education. Furthermore, he praised all of my classmates that he interacted with, saying how impressed he is with PA students and what a pleasure it was to work with us. I'm STILL coasting on that feedback!

Also, no more anatomy lectures! Just lots and lots and lots of studying. That's how it goes until next Tuesday.

Long Time, No Write!

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted what's going on! Things have gotten super crazy with school (where I'm at right now) and will continue to be crazy for the next, oh, 3 years. At least they eased us into it. As much as being in anatomy lab at least 10 hours a week can be a way of easing you in, it's still jumping in feet first!

A lot of things have happened since I last wrote. Steve and I moved into a new townhome that is much closer to my school. I now have a 10 minute commute versus a 30-60 minute commute. This means I can sleep in until the grand hour of 7am! We both really enjoy the new place, especially since we have a little patio and a little deck. They are extremely little, but we've never had either in our married life.

In addition to the move, we got a dog! I have been wanting a dog ever since we got married, but the timing just hasn't been right or we weren't allowed to have a pet where we were living. I always teased Steve that once we moved to a new place that allowed pets, we were going to get one RIGHT away. I was teasing, but it actually happened! We adopted a 3 year old Golden Retriever whose name is Stout. We didn't name him and chose to keep the name his previous owners gave him, since he knew that name so well. Also, he is quite stout. He weighs in at 108.5 lbs right now, although we are working pretty hard at getting that extra love off of him. He's sweet as can be, although stubborn at times. It sounds like his previous owners gave him up because of a history of seizures, which they originally told the rescue we got Stout from he had only had 2 in his life, but were possibly lying about. We knew he had seizures before we adopted him and are fine with it. He has had one with us, but was fine a few minutes afterwards and ready to keep going.

I'd appreciate the prayers that I'd end the semester strong!

Busy Busy bee

This last weekend was probably the last free weekend of the semester. Five weeks in and five weeks to go, but no more fun time. Steve moved us in to our new townhome on Thursday while I stayed at school, spending time in my anatomy lab and studying. It was great to have help from some of our friends and truly made me sad to be living away from where I know most of our neighbors. It was also very odd to sleep somewhere else on our bed. It was also odd to wake up to what sounded like little dogs running in the ceiling. Turns out our new complex has a "squirrel problem", meaning that one of our neighbors likes to feed the squirrels peanuts, causing the squirrels to run and jump in delight on our roof. As long as they aren't IN the roof, all's well.

I'll post pictures of our new place as soon as I figure out how to post pictures on this. :) I can't deprive the world of seeing our bathrooms; you'll see once the pictures are up!

On Friday, Steve and I were lucky enough to be able to get up pretty early, eat breakfast at our favorite bagel shop, and join the rest of Colorado in driving up I-70 into the mountains to go camping. Seriously, it took us 2.5 hours when it normally takes 1. We car camped off this little backroad right next to a little stream. It was wonderfully relaxing and much needed time away from school, even for only a night. The next morning we went hiking, which was also much needed. Sadly, I had to study for the rest of the holiday while Steve hung out with some of our friends.

I can't figure out if the next couple weeks are truly going to be as horrible as I'm anticipating or if I've just built it up in my mind as such. 3 tests, a few quizzes, a few papers, a project all due in the next 4 weeks. Goodness!

Only One Month????

This is the beginning of the 5th week of school, meaning I have completed 4. This strikes me with a serious sense of incredulity, because, seriously?!?!?!? Only 4 weeks? Not 4 months? By far the longest 4 weeks of my life. Don't get me wrong, they were very good weeks. I have really enjoyed school (even though it is definitely NOT the easiest), but so much has been packed into these 4 weeks that I can hardly believe it. Who knew 4 weeks ago that I would be able to do a Head, Neck, Lymph, Lung, Heart, and Skin physical exam? Who knew I would already have held not just the lungs, but the heart in my hands? Who knew I would have learned so much about the Upper Extremities (although definitely not enough, as evidenced by my grade on the exam)? Who knew? Not me, that's for sure. I knew I would be learning a lot, but had no idea how much.

That being said, I still really need prayers. Fitting everything in is a big struggle, especially since we are moving. Learning anatomy isn't easy for me and I struggled a bit at the beginning of the class. I want to do well, not for the grade, but so I know the material. I wouldn't want to go to a PA that didn't know what lung fields to listen to or where those lung fields are located, so why would I be one?

One big struggle is also not being able to do the fun summer things I love to do. Summer in Colorado is my FAVORITE. I haven't even gone camping yet this summer and it's almost July! I know that I'm giving it up for a worthy cause, it's just a little difficult. So please pray that I have the right mindset and don't get whiny. :)

Good Grief, Charlie Brown.

The dreaded anatomy exam is over. Now, I would like to share with you one cool thing that I can do (this is really more for me, so that I knew that I can do it). I can follow a drop of blood from the Left ventricle of the heart to the right index finger and back to the Right Atrium:

LV to aortic arch to right brachiocephalic artery to the right subclavian artery to the right axillary artery to the right brachial artery to the ulnar artery to the superficial palmar arch to the common digital arteries to the radialis indicis artery to the common digital vein to the superficial palmar vein to the ulnar vein to the brachial vein to the right axillary vein to the right subclavian vein to the right brachiocephalic vein to the superior vena cava to the right atrium.

Unfortunately, this was only one question on my anatomy exam. The rest? Multiple, multiple choice. What is that, you may ask? That would be a multiple choice question with possible multiple right answers. For instance, :

A:

B:

C:

D:

E:

F: A and B

G: B and C

H: C and E, so on and so on.

These are also known as the most heinous questions ON EARTH. I'm pretty sure they originated at the same time as the Fall of Man. Not only did sin enter earth, but so did the multiple, multiple choice question.

It's behind me now, though. It was pretty odd to study for HOURS and HOURS for 1 exam that wasn't even a cumulative final! However, I do know considerably more now than I used to 16 week days ago when I started anatomy. I do catch myself speaking anatomy when I have to give directions: "So you go posterior to Santa Fe and then anteriorly to Wadsworth....If you hit a tubercle, you've gone too far."

On another front, Steve and I are moving out of our current place soon. As in, next week. We found a townhome near my school that we loved and it was too good a deal not to jump on it. It's bigger than the place we are in now, has more storage, will let us have a dog (at no charge!), and AND AND has a washer and dryer! Now, you with washers and dryers just hanging out in your home may have forgotten the luxury that is to be had with such a wonder appliance. Steve and I have shared washers and dryers since we moved out of home to go to college, 6 years ago. These past couple years, we have shared these appliances with those who wash their baby diapers in them. This means our clothes smell like urine. Seriously, baby pee. It makes one feel awkward when their choice of clothing smell is a)formaldehyde and cadaver or b)baby pee. That being said, I'm all for saving the environment and cutting back on the cost by using cloth diapers. I just don't enjoy the sharing the washer machine with those that do. :) Anyway, we are moving soon and are very excited to be on to the next place. We do get to paint (and be reimbursed for the paint!) and will hopefully be starting on that this week.

Have a good one!