Hello all,
Another week has gone by and it has honestly been one of the busiest weeks I've had except for maybe finals week last semester. Started out with my first CPP (clinical practice preceptorship) shadowing experience on Monday. Since it was MLK day and we had no school, I went to shadow my doc. He's an ortho hand specialist. We had clinical stuff all morning. We saw about 6 patients all morning, but he said it was a real slow day. His PA had only 2 patients all morning, so it must have been. There wasn't anything too interesting there, just a few broken bones and crazy people. There was one guy who wrote on his history that he was on too many medications to remember and the ones that he could remember were Valium and a few other heavy painkillers. My doc, Dr. Johnson, kept saying that he was a little suspicious of this guy, which is understandable. The guy was a little loopy. He had trigger finger in his thumb, which is where the tendons get stuck on the tendon sheaths that surround them so the fingers get stuck in position. He then told us that it didn't bother him and he didn't really know why he was there at all, meaning the office. So we said goodbye. Then we looked at an old lady's x-rays who had fallen and broken her hip and elbow. Dr. Johnson fixed the elbow and a few weeks prior so she was just in for a checkup. However, we were just looking at the work she had done. When looking at her hip x-rays, there was a large dark spot in the middle. Dr. Johnson informed me that it was simply some "poop and a prefart, nothing to worry about." Haha, it was hilarious. Really nice lady, though. Then at noon we went into surgery mode. He only had 2 surgeries in the afternoon, so it wasn't too busy. The first was removing a benign lump on the thumb metacarpal (thumb bone in the hand). We were literally in surgery for 15 min. He just cut it open, chiseled the bone lump off, sewed it up, and we were done. The second was a lady with a trigger on her thumb, middle and ring fingers. She was also having a carpal tunnel release, all in one procedure. It was pretty cool because the patient was basically laying down with her arm sticking out on a board, more or less. Then he was on one side of the arm and I was on the other. So I held the retractors and repositioned the hand when he needed it. It was cool because he was constantly asking me what tissues he was cutting through and what vessels and nerves he had to watch out for in the regions he was in. Good review of old anatomy for sure.
Then I went home and spent the next 4 hours of my afternoon/night in the anatomy lab cutting up the abdomen. This went on pretty much every day this week. I have spent a minimum of 3 hours in lab every day. Needless to say I have fallen a little behind in some of my classes, but that's what the weekend is for. Unfortunately it is Jenna's birthday this weekend so I have to squeeze in studying when I have time, I guess.
Other than lab and school, nothing really has been going on this week. It snowed about 3 inches before I went to class this morning, so I, of course, rode to class. Took a little longer than usual, but it's so much fun. I also ran a 10k on Tuesday when it had rained all day and then dropped below freezing so the sidewalks were very very slippery. On the last mile or so I was trying to speed up. I was trying as hard as I could to sprint, but my feet would just slip out behind me. Somehow, though, I did beat my old time for the same route by like 7 or so minutes. Last time was in the snow, but still, I was pleased.
That's all I've got for ya'll this week. See ya!
Take a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrQpFy7grtY
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
dreams...
I was supposed to be at the gym this morning at 6:30 to workout with the guy I always work out with. I set my alarm last night without looking at the time it was set for b/c we had worked out yesterday and I assumed that it was the same time. However, it was set to go off at 6:30 instead of 6:00, so I was, of course, late. No biggie, I can workout on my own. Also, when my alarm went off I was awoken (is it awoken or awakened or awokened or woke up or woken up or waked up or... never mind) out of my peaceful slumber in which I was having quite an involved dream. Having spoken to Mr. Pearson a last week about how we have crazy dreams I decided to write it down so I could remember it in full later. So, for your reading pleasure, here is an insight into my sleeping brain. Side note, I did write this just as I woke up at 6:30 this morning and my brain was not fully functioning. Also, I have not edited it at all so it may be ugly in parts, I don't know. Here goes:
Started out I was in a 7 11 looking for plastic cups. Then this girl was saying something about orange soda so I decided to get some. However there was no sugar free orange soda. It was all either diet or regular or orange soda with iced tea in it. So I just took the cups and went to the register. Then the guy at the register wouldn't let me pay with my card cause he said he wouldn't take my id, which was a little fuzzy but you could still tell it was mine. So I stormed out pissed and put a nano iPod that was from the store into my pocket thinking it was mine cause it was already in my hand. I got just outside the door and forgot my coat, which they checked when I walked in, so I had to go back and get it. When I walked in the security beeper thing by the door went off cause of the iPod in my pocket. But I just grabbed my jacket and left. Then I went to jennas house which was this awesome mostly glass house that was just off a golf course. We were sitting inside and I could see her mom hitting golf balls out of the back courtyard into the golf course but she was yelling something at the golfers before she hit each one. Then a baseball broke through the window and hit me, but I don't remember where. Then Jenna and I tried to get rid of the security thing on the back of the iPod I swiped by just throwing it tin the garbage. After a bit I wasn't convinced no one would find it so I went back and got it and Jenna and I put it inside of a box and pit it back in the garbage. After a while I wasn't happy with that so I got it out again. This time I ripped the pieces of the box apart and put the security thing between them (it was just a paper clip with an orange plastic thing at one end). I still thought the police cold find this so I wandered around the other side of their house looking for somewhere to put it. The place was filled with all of jennas stuff for her new house. Mounds of stuff was everywhere. Eventually I just put it back between the box pieces and put it in the garbage. Then jenna and I were sitting in the floor with Jenna sort of on my lap and a golf ball broke through the window and hit me on the inside of my left upper thigh. I didn't react at first. It took like 2 seconds for the pain to hit and then I twitched. I told Jenna that i just got hit by a golf ball and she didn't believe me. So I showed her the spot on my leg and the hole in the glass. The ball also glanced off the coffee table and made a long dent that was for some reason filled with water then. Then Brian gave me some ice in a ziplock bag. He told me that he would have given me his nice ice pack but it was too close to my "junk" he called it. Jennas dad still didn't believe me that I got hit. I also had scrapes down both legs but I don't know what they were from. Then we watched I think it was Cory playing with his dog jersey in the courtyard in the back. But then jersey couldn't lift her butt up anymore to bring the stick back to Cory. It reminded me of sandy when she couldn't get up and I had to leave. A short time later a bunch of people came over for dinner. I was at the table because I couldn't walk because of the golf ball injury that I had to tell everyone about and show the damage to the house. Then I got up to go to the bathroom and had to walk to the opposite end of the house which was pretty big. When I got there both bathrooms were side by side and both taken. So I waited until my phone rang, but it was really my alarm going off so I woke up.
I have said before that I have crazy involved intricate dreams, and this is a perfect example. So there you go.
Also, big news from the lady friend. First, and I think most important, Jenna did achieve her goal of a pullup!! Not only that, but she did so more than a week ahead of schedule. So congratulate her for that. Also, a minor side note, she did buy a house in St. Joseph, MI where she will be working next year, just as she had planned.
In regards to medical school. All is well. I spent a lot of time in dissection this week, but got a lot done and taught a lot of people a bunch of stuff, so all is well. I also found this week that you can download an Amazon Kindle app for your computer, mac, iProducts, etc that lets you download books to that device. I used it to download a few medical sciency nerd books including a sample question book for the Step 1 exam and a few just plain interesting books about life as a new doc and old surgery texts. Spent about an hour today reading stories from a young doc's memoirs ish. Pretty interesting stuff. Oh and by the way all of this was free. I mean the only reason I downloaded the books was b/c they were free. There's actually a good number of free books on there. Cool beans, cool beans.
Think thats all I have for you for now. Welp see ya later!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g1KcOw7zas
(watch me)
Started out I was in a 7 11 looking for plastic cups. Then this girl was saying something about orange soda so I decided to get some. However there was no sugar free orange soda. It was all either diet or regular or orange soda with iced tea in it. So I just took the cups and went to the register. Then the guy at the register wouldn't let me pay with my card cause he said he wouldn't take my id, which was a little fuzzy but you could still tell it was mine. So I stormed out pissed and put a nano iPod that was from the store into my pocket thinking it was mine cause it was already in my hand. I got just outside the door and forgot my coat, which they checked when I walked in, so I had to go back and get it. When I walked in the security beeper thing by the door went off cause of the iPod in my pocket. But I just grabbed my jacket and left. Then I went to jennas house which was this awesome mostly glass house that was just off a golf course. We were sitting inside and I could see her mom hitting golf balls out of the back courtyard into the golf course but she was yelling something at the golfers before she hit each one. Then a baseball broke through the window and hit me, but I don't remember where. Then Jenna and I tried to get rid of the security thing on the back of the iPod I swiped by just throwing it tin the garbage. After a bit I wasn't convinced no one would find it so I went back and got it and Jenna and I put it inside of a box and pit it back in the garbage. After a while I wasn't happy with that so I got it out again. This time I ripped the pieces of the box apart and put the security thing between them (it was just a paper clip with an orange plastic thing at one end). I still thought the police cold find this so I wandered around the other side of their house looking for somewhere to put it. The place was filled with all of jennas stuff for her new house. Mounds of stuff was everywhere. Eventually I just put it back between the box pieces and put it in the garbage. Then jenna and I were sitting in the floor with Jenna sort of on my lap and a golf ball broke through the window and hit me on the inside of my left upper thigh. I didn't react at first. It took like 2 seconds for the pain to hit and then I twitched. I told Jenna that i just got hit by a golf ball and she didn't believe me. So I showed her the spot on my leg and the hole in the glass. The ball also glanced off the coffee table and made a long dent that was for some reason filled with water then. Then Brian gave me some ice in a ziplock bag. He told me that he would have given me his nice ice pack but it was too close to my "junk" he called it. Jennas dad still didn't believe me that I got hit. I also had scrapes down both legs but I don't know what they were from. Then we watched I think it was Cory playing with his dog jersey in the courtyard in the back. But then jersey couldn't lift her butt up anymore to bring the stick back to Cory. It reminded me of sandy when she couldn't get up and I had to leave. A short time later a bunch of people came over for dinner. I was at the table because I couldn't walk because of the golf ball injury that I had to tell everyone about and show the damage to the house. Then I got up to go to the bathroom and had to walk to the opposite end of the house which was pretty big. When I got there both bathrooms were side by side and both taken. So I waited until my phone rang, but it was really my alarm going off so I woke up.
I have said before that I have crazy involved intricate dreams, and this is a perfect example. So there you go.
Also, big news from the lady friend. First, and I think most important, Jenna did achieve her goal of a pullup!! Not only that, but she did so more than a week ahead of schedule. So congratulate her for that. Also, a minor side note, she did buy a house in St. Joseph, MI where she will be working next year, just as she had planned.
In regards to medical school. All is well. I spent a lot of time in dissection this week, but got a lot done and taught a lot of people a bunch of stuff, so all is well. I also found this week that you can download an Amazon Kindle app for your computer, mac, iProducts, etc that lets you download books to that device. I used it to download a few medical sciency nerd books including a sample question book for the Step 1 exam and a few just plain interesting books about life as a new doc and old surgery texts. Spent about an hour today reading stories from a young doc's memoirs ish. Pretty interesting stuff. Oh and by the way all of this was free. I mean the only reason I downloaded the books was b/c they were free. There's actually a good number of free books on there. Cool beans, cool beans.
Think thats all I have for you for now. Welp see ya later!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g1KcOw7zas
(watch me)
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Back to it
Well the week is half over now and we're back into the swing of things. Normally it probably would have taken a few days to really get going again, but I am a dissector now so I am forced to get a lot of work done early. I am dissecting the abdomen and will demo the first portion of the dissection tomorrow to my classmates. So far all we have done is peel the skin off, remove the fatty layer and membranous portion attached to it, reflected back the different layers of muscle under that, and find a bunch of other things that go along with that. It seems like it would be a quick dissection, right? However, I have spent 8 ish hours in the lab in the past 3 days getting it done, so it has not been super quick. Also, after we demo the exterior structures tomorrow we have to dissect into the abdominal cavity and find another page and a half of structures so that we can demo it on Friday again. Basically we're thinking probably about 4-6 hours of dissection tomorrow. Luckily I am completely caught up with lecture reviews and that kind of stuff, so I'll only fall a day behind, or so, so no big deal.
Dissection actually has been pretty cool, though. I would much rather have done almost any area of the body (except pelvis and perineum), but it's not too bad. There's a lot of fat that we have to basically pick through to get to the muscles. Also, a lot of the muscles on our body have atrophied a bit, so they are very fragile, which makes the dissection more difficult. But the time spent in lab has forced me to get on top of my other stuff early, which is good. I have even had time to work out in the morning and afternoon all 3 days so far.
It snowed a blizzard on Monday night and through Tuesday. However, I decided to get up at 5:30 so I could run for an hour before class. It was a lot of fun. It wasn't too cold and only windy in one section. Luckily I have my Yacktrax down here so it made the run easier. It's pretty nice being on campus without all the stupid undergrads, too. I can basically go to the gym at any time without worrying about it being packed. Too bad they all come back next week. Stupid undergrads....
I kept thinking that I had a bunch to write about, but apparently I don't so I guess this is it. I hate goodbyes...
Scott
P.S. this guy's got the right idea...
Dissection actually has been pretty cool, though. I would much rather have done almost any area of the body (except pelvis and perineum), but it's not too bad. There's a lot of fat that we have to basically pick through to get to the muscles. Also, a lot of the muscles on our body have atrophied a bit, so they are very fragile, which makes the dissection more difficult. But the time spent in lab has forced me to get on top of my other stuff early, which is good. I have even had time to work out in the morning and afternoon all 3 days so far.
It snowed a blizzard on Monday night and through Tuesday. However, I decided to get up at 5:30 so I could run for an hour before class. It was a lot of fun. It wasn't too cold and only windy in one section. Luckily I have my Yacktrax down here so it made the run easier. It's pretty nice being on campus without all the stupid undergrads, too. I can basically go to the gym at any time without worrying about it being packed. Too bad they all come back next week. Stupid undergrads....
I kept thinking that I had a bunch to write about, but apparently I don't so I guess this is it. I hate goodbyes...
Scott
P.S. this guy's got the right idea...
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