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...