School

So I really haven't said much about school in a long time. I could really say that I have been too busy to write, but the truth is I just haven't felt the desire. Sometimes I have found writing to be very therapeutic and helpful in dealing with patients or various overwhelming circumstances in life. Sometimes I compose blogs in my head for days prior to writing them and sometimes those compositions never make it to the big screen.

So a lot changed before the semester even got started. I moved. I live in Brentwood now. I sleep in a different bed in a different room in a different house. I drive a different route to school and have to park in a different area of the same level in the same parking garage. I walk the same walk to class.

Classes have been very different this semester though. Last semester I carried 16 graduate hours. They were heavily didactic. In 14 weeks I had 20 tests, wrote a 20 page paper, a 10 page paper, completed 3 case studies, completed a complete head to toe physical exam, and spent five weeks in the SICU. Last semester was by far the hardest semester in my entire life. I humbly learned what it means to live day by day. I was under so much stress that I was brought to tears in ways I never have before. I spent 5 months studying in my "naughty chair". I didn't make a lot of A's but I also didn't end up on Academic probation like 40% of my cohorts did.

This semester has been very different. Classes have been much slower. I've only taken 2 tests. I've already spent 5 weeks in the ICU and loved nearly every minute. I had a patient whose carotid artery exploded. I learned a lot about arterial lines, CVVHD, life sustaining drugs, the importance of breast tape, the importance of bubble tape, etc., etc., etc. I love love love love it.

Last week I started a new 8 week rotation in Manchester, TN. I'm in an internal medicine rotation. So basically I'm in a doctor's office all day. We get to see everything from tick bites (yes, in the coldest February ever), to neck/back/leg/foot/hip/chest pain, to possible CVA's, to sore throats and headaches. We get to see it all. I got to write my first drug prescription today. Yes, it was cosigned, but I got to order drugs. I fumbled through it and was completely taken off guard, but I did it. Amoxil 875 mg 1 po BID.

Do I want to work in a doctor's office? I don't know - never really thought about it.

One thing I learned from the ICU is that nearly all really sick people smoke.
One thing I have learned from the doctor's office is that all people who smoke smell.
One thing I do know is that smoking is stupid. I have learned that beyond measure in the past year. And it infuriates me beyond words.

Laura tagged Chara. Chara tagged Me.

So you have to go to your pictures. Look in your 4th folder and post your 4th picture. But I prefer the number 5. So I looked in my 5th folder and I am going to post the 5th picture.

So when I graduated from my Internship I woke up one morning and found my car like this. I later sent an e-mail out to a lot of people with a lot more pictures of the car which read:

To all of you whom I called this morning and to those of you I didn’t, I just wanted to let you know what all the fuss was about. Last night, in the middle of the night and to my parents knowledge, my car was molested.
Two unnamed friends shrouded my car in such a manner so that I could not even open my car doors.
They littered the inside with a gargantuan amount of toilet paper, feathers, beads, and little fluffy balls. Additionally, they sprayed silly string around the perimeter, and know it is dried up like dead worms.
And if that wasn’t bad enough they placed signs all over the car and on my mailbox.
I was absolutely shocked when I went outside.

I eventually found out the two who did it.

I tag Tia Coffee.