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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Day one, Rotation one

Well it's offical- I am a second year student whether I like it or not! Today was my first day at the women's health clinic and I can already tell that I will love the next six weeks! We had a pretty relaxed day (which was good considering my nerves) but I already feel very comfortable with the staff and the job. I am also loving Acadia National Park! We went hiking yesterday and it was the most outdoors activity I have had in over a year!

Saturday, May 24, 2008

My life in my car...

Well I have packed my car up to head up to Bar Harbor Maine tomorrow. I just hope that no one gets a smart idea and tries to steal it tonight! That would be NO good. Somehow over the last year I have accumulated a lot of crap- even after giving away a ton of stuff, it still all barely fit! My biggest fear (other than a stolen car) is a flat tire- knock on wood! I can just picture myself on the side of the turnpike unloading my trunk (which has about 50 pounds of books in it not to mention all my clothes) just to get the spare tire. What a story that would be... My first day at my first rotation is Tuesday. I will be at Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor Maine working in Primary Care/Women's Health. I am looking forward to it mostly because I heard that it is an easy rotation to start out with. I have some classmates that are starting out in surgery or the ER- If that were me- I would be crazy nervous! I am fortunate because Bar Harbor is located inside Acadia National Park and its the perfect time of year to be up there! I hope to get some good hiking in during the six weeks that I will be living there. I am still not sure where my second rotation will be- I think they like to keep us on our toes, much to our dismay! Anyway- next time I write, I will be three hours north of Portland in the middle of nowhere Maine! Wish me luck!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

YAY!!!

Life is survived one small surprise at a time, for example today- I thought it was Friday (and I am moving on Sunday) so I thought "I really need to get my act together". Then about an hour later I was checking my E-mail and low and behold-- ITS ONLY THURSDAY!!!! Back to my coffee and book I guess, I will worry about moving tomorrow!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Graduate School

I never would have imagined just how hard Grad school was going to be, I mean they say it but you never really understand it until you are there. For me, "there" is Portland, Maine, I am attending the University of New England and I am going for my Masters of Science as a Physicians Assistant. Fortunately, I have completed my first year already- but far the most difficult year of my life! We spent 8 hours in the same class room for 11 months and countless hours in the library until the wee hours of night. I worked harder than I have ever worked before- I mean I never really had to "study" before this- and all that hard work paid off. I passed all my exams and apparently learned the basics about everything I will need to know to be a clinician. I say apparently because you could ask me a question from anyone of the many exams and I would most likely have no recollection of ever having learned about it. Yikes!!! They say that we will remember so much more than we think and that the information will just come flying back to us once we are in practice, we excuse me if I am a little sceptical of this- I mean I can hardly remember how to do long division and my calculus almost never comes back to me while I am trying to figure out if I can beat the train through the intersection. In fact, I took 48+ exams, 58 semester credits in in 45 weeks of class- now that its over, I am not sure how we managed to do it all. We learned how to do everything from a complete physical exam- including a rectal and/or a pelvic exam- we learned a little bit about pretty much every area of medicine from Rheumatology to Dermatology to Cardiology- we learned how to intubate, splint, suture, scrub into surgery, draw blood from arteries and veins, we learned how to talk to patients and doctors, we learned more than I ever thought possible. The tricky part is that now, I have to start using all those things on real people! In just under one week I will be starting my first clinical rotation...