Hi everyone! Today was my first day at my first rotation. My first rotation is psychiatry at a local hospital.

Today, I just got acquainted with the nurse practitioner, the 2 doctors, and all the nurses. I also got a look at the computer system.

I see a lot of patients with depression, schizophrenia, paranoia, etc. So far so good but it is just my first day. I will update you on it more in the week.

The school requires us to log all of our patients so I started doing that. I need to read more about the Baker act and update myself on some psych drugs.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Life...life is an amazing gift made by our almighty creator God. It happens in a flash..when a sperm and and an egg meet and start dividing by meiosis. Certain cells make specific things. Some cells form bone, some the eyes, some the muscle, some blood vessels. Each cell works 24 hours for 9 months to make a human being and they work the rest of our lives.

Then, life can be taken in an instant. The heart no longer beats and the lungs no longer breathe the fresh oxygen. Life can be taken from us at any moment.

I always think about that. That life can be taken at any minute. Were things said to that person that I would/wouldn't regret if they passed? Did I tell them how I felt about them? Did I say I loved them? Was I nice to them? Mean to them?

Our actions always have consequences.

I guess ever since I dated someone with a life threatening illness (cancer), I always thought about these types of things. I never wanted for us to go to bed angry at each other. So next time, when you want to get angry at a friend, have an argument, etc; think about your consequences. If that person died, would you be okay with how things were left off with them? It's time you will never get back...

Love fully, and remember we all have feelings and emotions. Don't be selfish, and put others before yourself because you never know when that person will be gone..

Shame on me for not updating since July 20th. I will hit all the major points that have happened since finals week.

Finals week-what a doozy. 6 finals in 3 days. I did well on all my finals, got A's on all of them except for emergency medicine which I got a B on. I ended up getting 8 A's and 1 B. I was happy with the outcome of the year. I can't believe that my didactic year is over. It felt so good to just be done with school work...I honestly still cant believe it. I know I wrote about the mock boards aka PACK-RAT. We had that the finals before finals. I ended up scoring a little above average which makes me feel more secure about the real boards--PANCE. Especially when I haven't even done rotations yet.

Vacation- I had a lovely vacation with my parents in siesta key. It was wonderful to have nothing to think about and nothing to do. We dined and wined and and had some beach time. There was also a ballroom competition in the hotel the whole week I was there. Overall, it was a much needed time off and I enjoyed every second of it.

Medical Spanish- We had a week of medical spanish. 8 hours a day for the whole week. By the end of the week we had to be able to ask a whole history in spanish. We also needed to be able to do 15 physical commands, and educate our patient in spanish about nutrition, stroke identification, taking their pulse, and how to reduce their stress. It was overwhelming at first because I haven't had a lick of spanish. By Friday, I was able to do what I needed to do, and pulled off an A in the class.

Clinical Orientation- Our first week was last week, and I can't say this week was the most exciting week of my life. It was a lot of talking, and being read to. Lets be honset, I can read, I am a big girl, but thanks Uni for reading to me. During the last couple days we got to do casting, IVs, Caths, and Respirators. I will post the pictures below.

I start rotations on the 29th! I can't believe it. I am not really nervous but excited. I think the Lord is just calming my heart and keeping me focused on learning as much as possible. This is the time to learn, time to enjoy, and time to evolve into a better future physician assistant!

Enjoy the pictures!! :)

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

My ex was in a motorcycle accident recently and was killed. This piece is a work in progress for him. It is to show the love we shared, happiness, the grief of death, and anger. It has been good for me to do this piece, but I have noticed it's hard for me to let my emotions out. It's a protective mechanism for me. It's hard for me to really express what I am feeling while doing the dance..but I will get there as the time goes on.