3rd semester is winding down and I have finals coming up. We are in our last days of classes before finals hit. 6 days left and 8 more exams. I have a radiology final tomorrow, then we are taking a practice PACK-RAT. The pack-rat is like a mock boards in a way. It lasts 4 hours, and we dont get a break at all. It is supposed to gauge how you will do on the actual boards, so we will see. I am going to go over some cardiology and renal thursday night just to brush up on those concepts.

Next week we have two finals a day then a 10 day vacation. I can't wait for vacation..I am just really looking forward to no stress, no exams, and just relaxing. My family and I were going to go out of states, but my mother realized her passport wasn't updated. Then, we also had the issue of taking our dogs with us. I guess I was just not meant to go out of the country this time around. Everything happens for a reason right?

If everything pans out this semester, I may end up with 1 b and the 8 a's..I will take that. Not sure what my cumulative GPA with the other two semesters will be once everything is put together. Sadly, I am too tired to calculate it, so I will just wait until the school does that. :)

Today I am going to the dentist to get my tooth fixed. I went a few weeks ago and got a filling done and they didn't shave it down enough, so I am biting too high. I havent been able to eat on the left side of my mouth in a while. I am really excited to get it fixed. Oh the small things in life that make us happy right? While I am on that side of town, I am going to go try and find a kitchen table because I havent had one for almost a year now. I am tired of eating by sitting on the floor, couch, or bed.

I can't believe didactic year is almost over! It has been fun/hard/stressful/ but I am really looking forward to rotations. I am ready to get away from this classroom and meet new people and new faces.

I finally got my first three rotations on Friday. I was so excited! The whole class has been waiting for some type of info for rotations.

The rotations that I am dreading most: Psych
The rotation I am most excited about: Dermatology and Emergency Medicine, and Surgery

My first rotation is.......PSYCH. I kinda giggled at this just because I was like great...the one I was dreading most, is my first one. On the bright side, it is good to get the worst out of the way first.

My second rotation: Family medicine about 88 miles from my house. So, I will be staying with another student at a house the school rents out. It will be at a health center..so it should be intersting.

My third rotation is in Pediatrics at a children's hospital.

I am pretty excited so far but also really nervous. I can't believe rotations are so near! I feel like I still have so much to learn, and I can't believe people's lives will be in my hands.

Last Thursday, we finally had the gowning and gloving lab. I was excited to do this because I felt comfortable with doing this. I have never gowned and gloved myself, so I was fortunate enough to learn this.

We walk in and a see a sea of blue across the room.. mimicking an OR. A PA-C that graduated from the program a few years ago. She was previously a surgical tech for 11 years. First we put on masks, booties, and, caps. My father always taught me, put the metal strip across your nose first, and then pinch down, then tie it. This way, its not sliding down your nose as you are trying to tie the first tie around your head. Second, tie the last tie around your neck loosely. You will get hot in all the gowning.

Now, we learn how to scrub. A good scrub should be a total of 3 minutes. You are to treat your hands like quadrants. Each finger has 4 sides that you should scrub for 10 seconds on each side. You always start with your fingernails first, then hands, then forearms, up to your elbows. As you wash, you want your hands to be the cleanest, so you let the water drip down to your elbows. You will dry with a towel from your hand first to your elbow. You will then flip the towel and dry the other hand.

Next is your gown, whomever invented the way to folds these gowns, is a genius! There are these little pockets you stick your hands in, and the gown just unfolds the way its supposed to. It is pretty awesome. Just make sure you don't stick your hands all the way through the sleeves! You gotta get your gloves on first. Getting the gloves on was the most tricky part for me, however, I did take some gloves home to practice. ;) I would type the way to put these on, but it's kind of detailed. Either way, I am really excited for my surgery rotation...which reminds me, I got my first three rotations! I will write that in another post!!

Enjoy the pictures of yours truly :) (Click the thumbnails to enlarge).


Scrub a Dub


Drying my hands off


Getting those gloves on!


Standing the proper way


Being gowned by the PA-C to show the other students