busy, busy, busy

I've been in clinical rotations for three months. I need to post something about my experiences and I will but not now. I am soooo busy with this rotation + all of the school work with my extra class + the school work for my current rotation + I am sick right now.... I will write something soon :)

Two Down, One to Go!

So I wrapped up yet another semester and feel pretty awesome. There were definitely some dark times last semester. It was getting dark before we even got out of class and making myself come home and study was no easy feat. There seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel sometimes, with one test coming right after another. I would talk to friends and apologize for not having more time to chat because I had a big test coming up. Inevitably they would call back the following week and I would give the same response. There was really never a time last semester that I wasn't studying for a big test. We had fewer tests than the first semester which made them all a little more important. Overall I finished strong and gradewise, did better than the first semester.

We have only one more semester in the class room, thank God! That room is depressing, cold, and crowded. I can't wait to be out of there. Also, the summer semester is only 2 1/2 months!

I am planning on doing a lot of nothing for the next week! We are going to Vegas for a few days where I will continue to do a lot of nothing, maybe a little beach reading, and most likely gain back all those pounds I lost (Vegas kind of does that to you!) It will be worth it though :)

So It All Started When.....

It seems that as of late, many of my friends are having relationship difficulties. I'm not sure why this culmination is happening at the precipice of summer, but it is nonetheless. Natalie joked that maybe it is something in the air, something comparable to M. Nights "The Happening", only instead of out right suicide, some of us are committing relationship suicide.

I always thought that relationship counseling was reserved for couples that were married or had at least been together for a really, really long time. Not so. Relationship counseling is for anyone in a relationship in which both parties have come to a stand still, communication wise, or for couples seeking to iron out or even find out some of the areas in which improvement is needed.

For the record, I think counseling is a good thing. I think it can provide a couple insight into their relationship that they may never have had otherwise. It doesn't "fix" anything and I think a lot of people enter into counseling with impossibly high hopes that counseling will magically " fix " everything. What counseling does is provide the right environment and the right questions to lead a person down a path that might provide them with the right answers (i.g. Is this person I'm with really the right person? Can I make the sacrifices/changes needed to make this relationship work? Is the sacrifice/benefit ratio in my favor?) I think often times the individual's past allows the therapist to draw conclusions about why the person might be doing the things they do but at the end of the day, the responsibility still lies with the person in the relationship to make or not make changes.

In my opinion couple counseling can be good but it's only as good as each person's willingness to accept criticism. Both members must be willing to hear some things they may not want to hear and also be willing to accept advise about how to change. Whether they change or not, an openness to the process is a really big step.

It's hard to let go of something that you've put so much of yourself into. For a lot of people, when nothing else seems to be working counseling is a life line. However, I think that the line is only as strong as the couple's willingness to see it though, to listen to what is being said and to have the ability to follow through with whatever steps are necessary. Otherwise, you're just paying some geek to tell you how to run your life and that you are kind of a piece of crap for not realizing these things on your own. Oh ya, that'll be $160 bucks....

Amber Has A Message For You:

I have felt a bit of social awkwardness since PA school started for me. Before PA school I was on a softball team, a bowling team, and a regular Fan - o - saur. I used to go out to dinner with good friends, play board games till all hours of the night and play rock band like nobodies business!

Now, I see no one. I don't go to softball games or bowling nights, I don't get into the latest and greatest video game craze that has everyone talking and gathered together on weekend nights. I feel like I have lost some part of my life and it makes me really sad. I miss all of the social gatherings I used to be a part of. It never really mattered what we were doing but the atmosphere was always one of good friends and good times.

Now when these kinds of events occur and I am actually able to attend, I feel like the new kid in high school. I want to be able to just fall right back into the easiness of being with good friends but I have nothing in common with my friends these days. I have nothing to talk about except school and my dogs and that really sucks. I know that it won't always be this way, but it still sucks. I miss my friends and miss all of the fun and all of the laughs we used to have.

If any of you are reading this, I promise to return Amber in a little over a year.... Please don't give up on her :)

Never blog when you've been drinking........ ;)

I am happy to announce that since the beginning of this semester I have lost 10 lbs! I definitely took advantage of every little calorie that my Christmas break had to offer and by the end of it I could barely fit into any of the clothes I own. But instead of going out and buying a bigger size pair of jeans I was determined to fit into the ones I had. I think it will get even easier as summer nears. The days will be longer which means hopefully I can stop going to bed at 8:30! Also, more daylight for hiking and fun activities.

I have been hiking quite a few times this year with Bella and Daisy. It's funny to watch them because they both have such distinct personalities on the trail. Daisy is fairly conservative. Most of the time she stays on the trail and never gets more than 25 yards in front of me before she stops to wait. I never have to worry about her seeing a wild critter and bolting after it. Bella, on the other hand, is quite a different story! She is ALL over the place! She has no idea what a trail is or what purpose it serves. She is running through the woods constantly, trying to scare up birds to chase. I am having to call her back frequently because she gets so excited and runs too far ahead. There is never a dull moment on the trail with her :)

School is going well, just chugging along. We have the BIG test this Wednesday. It's nice because I have tomorrow (tues) off so I will definitely be using it! Other than that I have just been soaking up every second of sunlight that I possibly can. I have already gotten a blistering sunburn on my chest! I think I was being a little too greedy :)

Our class had the privilege of visiting the CAPE center on Wednesday. This is a place of hands on learning that is available to medical students, Nurse Practioner students and PA students. It's located in Childrens Hospital which is kind of near the airport.

We were scheduled to get hands on practice doing female pelvic exams and male penis, testicle and rectal exams. I was a little nervous to say the least! How it worked was the class was divided into groups of 3 and 4, and we were directed into an exam room where a "model" was waiting for us.

My group began with the female exam. The "model" was in her mid 20's and very friendly. She taught us how to do breast exams and then we each got to practice on her. Then she taught us how to do a pelvic exam and we each got to practice on her again. She basically guided us through the entire process making sure that we were feeling and seeing the right things. It was pretty amazing. Also, I can't believe that she does this for eight people a day times 2 to 3 times a week! That's like 20 pelvic exams per week! No Thank You!

For the male exam it was pretty much the same routine. We sat in an exam room with a 50ish year old guy who taught us how to properly examine the penis, testes and rectum. I think we were all much more nervous than he was. He was completely professional and very knowledgable!

I was super excited to be able to get this opportunity. I can't imagine having to do either of these exams for the first time on a real patient!

Well we have five more weeks until the semester ends then its off to Vegas for some much needed fun in the sun!!

Also, no new incidents to report with the truck :)

The craziest things seem to keep happening to me and unfortunately, my truck seems to be involved as well. Last week after dropping off my car pool buddies I get a call from one of them asking if I know how to jump start a car. I say sure and ask if she has jumper cables. She does so I turn around and pull up facing her car. She has a 98 Volvo and has been told that her battery connection isn't the greatest and something like this might happen.

Both of us are "pretty sure" we know how to hook up the cables but to be on the safe side she calls her boyfriend to double check. While she is on the phone with him we hook the cars up, black to black and red to red. My car is running and she gets into her car to start it but nothing happens. Her boyfriend suggests that I rev my engine a little and she try again. I get in and rev the engine and she tries the car again again nothing happens. As soon as she gets out of her car I get out of mine and we both notice smoke coming from the place where the cables are connected to her battery. I quickly turn of my truck. Unfortunately, this does not solve the problem.

The smoke is getting worse and worse and eventually we see smoke coming from the connection of the cables to my battery! The situation is escalating quickly. The smoke is now a visible plume that can be seen from a distance. A few people passing by stop and stare. Within seconds the cable catches on fire!! Katherine and I are running down the street, she on the phone with her boyfriend and I on the phone with 911.

Out of nowhere I guy runs out of the apartments across the street with a fire extinguisher and puts out the fire, takes the keys out of Katherine's car (her car was not on, but I guess this is what your are suppose to do) and yanks the cables off of the cars. The police and the fire dept show up, but the mystery hero had already fled the scene.

After calming down we try to think of what the heck could have caused this to happen. The fire dept stuck around for awhile examining the batteries and the cable, and came to the conclusion that it must have been a bad cable. I think they were also pretty upset that the fire had been put out before they arrived!

Anyways, there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the internal operating system of either vehicle. My truck does have a "shiner" to the driver side headlight and bumper where the cable melted into it. Did I mention this happened just days after I picked up the truck from the body shop?

So the next incident happened yesterday on the way home from school. Once again, it was me and my car pool buddies. Now, I know that the windshield wiper on the driver side of my truck needs to be tightened and its worthless otherwise. Its something I have been putting off but I know needs to be done. I just avoid driving on days that there is inclement weather. Little did I know that the mother of all storms would be hitting us yesterday on our way home. I tested the wipers before we left school and as I predicted the driver side wiper didn't do anything but what I did not predict was that the passenger side wiper would fall off completely!

Long story short, we ran into some major weather on the way home and had to pull off on the side of the road and tape the passenger side wiper back onto the arm so we could at least stay on the road! I'll keep the blog updated if I have any new adventures!

I got my truck back!! The total bill for repairs came to $13,500!! Thank goodness for car insurance. It's definitely one of those things I hate paying for every month. I consider myself to be a pretty darn good driver but I have to say that so far, I think the car insurance companies are in the red as far as I am concerned! Also, my truck looks better now than before it went in to the shop :)

Thanks State Farm!

I'm Drowning!

Okay, I'm officially humbled. After spending about 16 hours studying for my most recent Pharmacology Exam I received a devastating 74%. Ouch! I have a "History and Physical Exam" test on Monday. I got up at 7 a.m. this Saturday morning and put in 7 hrs. I need to do at least another 7 hrs tomorrow in order to feel slightly ok about this test.

I don't know what it is but I feel like I am barely staying afloat. It's one test after another and I am frantically cramming for each test. I don't have time to get ahead because we have at least one test every week. If I don't put in at least 16 hrs of studying for each test, I feel unprepared.

I just feel anxious all the time! Hopefully during Spring Break I'll get a chance to get ahead and I won't feel this constant pressure.

Hello World!

I'm a couple of weeks into the second semester and it's going pretty well. I think that I learned a bit about time management from last semester and hopefully I will not be so stressed out in the next few months! We are learning about some pretty cool stuff right now like heart and lung physiology and pathophysiology! I think I am probably having a slightly easier time with these subjects than some of the others in my class because I am really fascinated by it. Also, having been on an ambulance for a couple of years isn't hurting either :)

In other news, Paul has been out of town since school started and there is really no word on when he will be back. His endeavors have not been without compensation though! He won his very first tournament and is very fired up to to win a few more :)

I found out the hard way that Panera will allow you internet access for only 30 minutes between the hours of 11 and 2. I thought I had found the perfect place to study...too good to be true!! It is almost impossible to find a coffee shop with a place to sit in Boulder at around 5 pm!

I wrecked my truck but it isn't totaled thank goodness!! It will cost about $8500 to fix but it should be fine. I am okay, I was very lucky. Stupid icy roads! I didn't think it was possible to do a complete 360 on a straight freeway .... but it is! ;)

Oh ya, and I'm completely hooked on the show House. I could watch it all day long. I kind of even sorta know what they are talking about some of the time! Yay