A Work in Progress

One post to encompass an entire year?  Pretty much, yes.  Because this year was exhausting, exciting, interesting, overwhelming, and stressful at all times.  Information flies at insane speeds into your brain, and in most cases...right out again.  PA schools seem to know that it's important to lay a foundation, then when students start seeing patients, the conditions will be reiterated and solidified.  So far, that's working, but I still worry that I won't remember the right thing at the right time.  That, and there are literal books filled with the things I don't know yet. But...didactic year is over!  "The hard part" is over!  In ways I miss it.  I miss seeing everyone every day, and now we only see each other as a class once every six weeks. I do not miss the constant fear, looming tests, and constantly feeling behind.  Wait...constantly feeling behind is still there, but at least I can study whatever I want to catch up.  Silve...

I had meant to write a post for each of our rotations, but...clearly that hasn't happened, as my last post feels like it was a year ago.  But, let's talk about surgery.  To me,t here is no place weirder than an operating room.  It's not just the coldness, the sterility, the face that the patient is just unconscious while unspeakable things happen to them.  I had a great rotation where they let me see all kinds of surgeries.  Orthopedics, bariatric, vascular, and of course general surgery.  Some things to note about the OR.  They (as they should) take sterility damn seriously.  I can proudly say that after a combined 12 weeks in the OR I didn't have any sterility slip ups (that I, or anyone else noted) and believe me, they are watching.  No student is fully trusted (as it should be).  If your hands wander below your belly button or above your chest, everyone in the room knows it, probably before you do.  I got weirdly good at stan...

I liked pediatrics.  This seems to surprise many of my friends, but not having children doesn't mean that I don't like children.  This rotation was fun and frustrating, as at times I was seeing an entire family at one time.  I saw newborns and 18 year olds and everything in between.  I got close to memorizing vaccination schedules, milestones, and most importantly learned over and over what normal is.  Having this rotation in August led me to do so many sports physicals.  Oh, so many.  Pediatrics has its seasons and I am glad I got sport physical season and not flu season. Kids are fun and their parents aren't (typically) but I was surprised how much I liked interacting with the kids, joking with them, comforting them.  Unfortunately the office I was in didn't have anyone else in it so I spent 20 minutes examining patients, making them feel like the pediatrician office is cool and safe, only to return 5 minutes later and jab them in the leg....

New compost bin!

Snowing in Denver!

GoT finale at this beautiful theatre.

Colorado

My scoot.

New building..see you in 2 years.

The classroom.

Willis.

Some studying to do.

Love from home.

My Scout.

Lonely classroom on OSCE day.

Goodbye, terrible chair.  I'll see you in hell.

Loler

Precious cargo.

Scheming.

Country roads

Las day of H&P's.

14 Years.  The traditional gift is ivory, modern is gold.  Either way, whoever made these gift rules must think 14 years is a real accomplishment (or, I suppose that 15 years is impossible and needs some work to achieve.)  Considering my anniversary is with a blog, I'm not sure it needs much work.  Although it could use some attention as of late.  But, it turns out, PA school is hard and time consuming.  And now I prefer to fill free time with something other than blogging.  For example, last weekend, I went to a cat show.  It was absolutely everything I dreamed it would be.  Overly obsessed cat owners, fancy toys, a lot of brushing, and cat agility, which may have been my favorite part.  A cat doesn't care if it's accomplishing something, but it will jump over a log if you wave a feather on the other side of it (and that is the path of least resistance). But I digress.  This blog has existed for 14 years, which is something....

I just had the shortest "-mester" of my life.  By week 2 we were taking a 'midterm'.  Which was pretty funny.  We covered OB mostly, which I enjoyed and many were horrified by.  We did four credits in as many weeks, and it wasn't that bad. And I'm not saying this because I have already forgotten how bad it was.  It was okay!  In the last week we took ACLS which was a looooong 2 days for me, but will help me keep my paramedic cert up to date. And then spring started!  A week early even. We had one week of instruction a weekend off (technically) and now we are back at it for 15 weeks.  I am slightly concerned as my usual semester burn out time is about 11 weeks in, which will come four weeks early this semester, because really this is a long semester indeed.  But. The spring is different. It is a continuation of several classes from the fall, but also has some new things.  A lab class, where we will finally get to learn some new trick...

At times, you study and you study, and you meet with your group, and you go to the white board and you study some more.  And you goof off, and watch game of thrones, and study a bit more, but is it enough?  No one knows.  The formula isn't perfect. It's different for every student.  And that's all I want. All I want is 'enough'.  Is passing.  To be one up from the butt of the joke "You know what you call the guy who graduated last from med school?"  "Doctor". It's a funny joke because the person last in their class isn't dumb.  They didn't work less hard than anyone else.  In fact, that could be the person who worked the most hard.  Who had an instinct for patient care, but was was bad a chemistry.  The person who put the most hours in and still fell short of the person with an aptitude for pathophysiology.  In PA school, that's the person with 3 kids at home, a decades absence from full time schooling, or a 15 year career a...

Wow, work is weird after a six month absence  My first patient back was really sick and I was panicked,-"Somebody do something!"  I shouted in my head, but it's me- it's me, just like old times.  And I have be be the interview, provider, and advocate for this patient.  My assessment is twice as long as it used to bed (and half a useful in the prehospital arena).  I actively think that I should have more to offer patients by now. I'm a PA student now. I know some things.  But all they need was what I always had to give to them.  An IV, an EKG, and a recognition of sick or not sick.  That I can do.  That I sill have an instinct for.  Thank God.

The first full semester of didactic year did not disappoint.  It did not slow down, it did not let up.  I was, with out dramatization, the most difficult semester of my life.  This could be because it was really hard, or it could be because my undergrad is a complete blur.  I'm going to go with it was really hard....'cause it was.  It was something like 19 credits.  By mid terms, we were all swimming around, grasping at the information floating around and trying to get it into our brains in any way possible (sometimes with brute force).   Not to say it was completely without fun.  We had a really fun PA week, a great Halloween party, and I went home a few times for fun reasons.   I really an just writing this for posterity.  So if I look back in 10 years, or if someone who is thinking about PA school asks me, I give the right answer: "That semester sucked."  I have a tendency to forget how hard things are, maybe...