west point

This past weekend my mom and sisters came to Houston to go shopping. We had fun and got some good deals. We had to make sure and eat at Gringo's. Lance went to West Point and sent me pictures. It looked so green there and pretty. He is enjoying being in New Jersey, and I know he wished I could have visited him this past weekend in New Jersey. I only have a week and a half left in this rotation and Lance should be back this weekend.

I think I am coming down with whatever Lance came down with a couple of weeks ago. Believe it or not, but Nasonex really works. I hate spraying that up my nose, though.

Anyway, this is just a quick update.

flying by

Life is starting to go by fast! Lance just got offered a different position at work, where he will be workin on a project that is in New Jersey. He was told on Friday, and this week he is flying out to New Jersey for a week and a half. I am so excited for him. He will also be working 2-3 days a week where he is now, and 2-3 days a week at a company downtown. He is excited to do something new and different. I don't think there could be a better time for him to take this opportunity because I am out of town for this whole month too. We just have to give away our Maggie for 3 weeks! I will miss Lance and Maggie!

I just finished my first week in Bay City and boy do I have stories! At first I felt pretty lonely out there because it is a small town and everybody knows everybody else. Every patient I see asks me where I am from. My preceptor is also the sheriff of the county and has the attack dog in his office. The first day when I walked in his office he was standing in front of the cage and told me not to look directly into his eyes. It was a little disturbing. Now, I am used to it. Everyone talks about their guns and 'so and so down the road.' I also see patients that were trampled by a bull and I have seen some nasty dog bites. Now that I am getting to know people I am enjoying chit chatting while I am doing their history and physical. They are so friendly.

I am also living in an OLD house in an even smaller town about 35 minutes from Bay City. There is no TV and I can get internet sometimes, but it cuts in and out all the time. I get lots of studying done when I get home. The neighbor seems to keep an eye out on the students.

Heres to two weeks without my husband or my dog. I think I will make it.

Amy

ONE ROTATION DOWN, TEN TO GO!

YAY! I have officially finished my first rotation. It is amazing how much you can learn in one month. I plan to take everything I learned in cardiology with me to my next rotation, internal medicine. I am happy to say I got a great evaluation and the Dr. told me I would be an asset to any clinic or hospital I plan to work at. He also said he would be happy to give me a recommendation if I wanted one later on.

My next rotation is in Bay City. I am moving out on Sunday. I am happy that I will be working regular clinic hours and I will be able to come home every weekend. This past rotation I worked 7am to 8 or 9pm, so 8-5 sounds nice. I will also be able to go back and study and work on my paper. I did not feel that I had time to study this past month because I felt sleep was more important!

Everything is going great with Lance. I actually got to go to his work and eat lunch with him. His boss told me that he is doing such a great job and he seemed proud of Lance and the things Lance had done in this past year. I am proud of him too!

Everything is going great. I enjoy interacting with patients and my first rotation proved to me that I have definately picked the right career for me!

Amy

Cardio

Another week of cardiology is done. I am learning a lot, but at times I still feel clueless. I still see patients by myself and report to the physician. I read stacks of EKGs, and at least he is impressed with my EKG reading skills. I have to work on my presentation that I will give in less than 2 weeks. I chose to do my presentation on Atrial Fibrillation because I have seen a couple of patients with it. We were on-call this weekend, but when I called in he said that I didn't need to be there, so I get the weekend off. I am still working from 7 am until 8 or 9pm. I decided I should wear a pedometer and see how far I walk in one day. I probably walk twice as far as needed because I get lost! haha. It would be easier if we only went to one hospital, but we go to two different ones with the cath lab on different floors in each and I get them mixed up.
I only see Lance one hour in the morning when we are both getting ready for our day, and then an hour at night before bed. It has been kinda hard on us. We have to log in the patients we see that day, so I spend some time doing that. I have not been able to study, and that is hard on me. I feel like I could learn so much more if I could read more about the diseases and conditions I see. Next month I will be living in Bay City and I think I am working in a clinic so hopefully I will have plenty of time to study in the evenings.
-Amy

Absolute Exhaustion

I just finished my first week of my first clinical rotation. I have already learned to much. I am with a cardiologist. I show up at 7am at Clear Lake hospital and see patients, then around 11am we go to his office and see patients until around 6pm. We then go into Mainland hospital and see patients until 8-9pm. On the very first day I did not eat breakfast because I was nervous. It was so busy I only had half of a sandwich for lunch and by the time I got home around 9:30 I was so tired I just wanted to go to bed. So all ate the whole day was half a sandwich. I have been eating breakfast before I leave since then.

The very first patient the cardiologists gives me the chart and says, "here you go." I thought he would at least show me how he likes things done. I see the patient, do a history and physical, look up everything about the patient in the computer and come up with the assesment and plan for the patient. The doctor just signs off on my work.

I have got to help in cardioversion, heard every single murmur, bruits, done EKGS, interpreted stacks of EKGs, seen stents and pacemakers placed.
I am also learning about more drugs than we learned about in pharmacology and when to prescribe them.

Overall, I am enjoying my first rotation, but I am SO exhausted from the hours.
Lance took a picture on my first day. My pockets were stuffed with little books to help me out. I will have to post it when I have access to his camera.

AMY

DONE WITH DIDACTIC YEAR!

I just took my last exam of didactic year! yay! I then marched up to my professor's office and turned in our research proposal! Now, I hope I don't cry on my first day of rotations. I am to call the doctor I am with at 6:00 the morning of the first day and ask which hospital to meet him at! I am excited that I (we) have made it to this point. I feel like I know SO much, yet at the same time I feel that I have SO much more to learn.

This past weekend we flew to El Paso to visit Lance's grandmother. We painted the garage doors and some columns on the front of her house so she can sell her house. Lance said he had many good memories in her house and was sad that she was selling it. We ate lots of tamales, chicos tacos, enchiladas, and Lance had lots of menudo. We got back late on Sunday and picked Maggie up. We missed Maggie while we were gone.

Tomorrow we are heading to Longview. My mom had surgery and is recovering so I am going to see if there is anything she needs. Also, we hope to visit my grandparents. I don't know how crazy things will be clinical year and I don't know the next time we will be able to see any of our grandparents.

Lance and I have been reflecting alot lately and have come to the conclusion that we are very proud of the life we are building together. I can think of a better person to be my partner through life!

Later,
Amy

summer fun

This past weekend we went to Tomball to swim and attend a graduation party for some friends of Lances. Sunday we went to church and the headed to Galveston to look at the sandcastles. They were neat. I think I could get used to the summer schedule for PA school. Before I know it I will be freaking out on rotations.

This weekend we are flying to El Paso to visit Lance's grandma.
I have an exam Friday before we leave. Hopefully that goes well.
I am trying to finish this research before we leave because the presentation and paper are due when we get back. I am having trouble filling out the IRB form in order for UTMB to approve us for research. It is alot of explaining yourself!

This morning I won a $50 off $100 purchase at Old Navy. I then refreshed the page so I could look for the coupon I really wanted, the $75 off $100 purchase. Little did I know that refreshing the page caused me to lose the coupon. By the time I could go back for the coupon I just lost, they were all gone!! Old Navy has this game you play every week to try and win these coupons. People stayed up all night waiting for the game to come up, and I just happened to be on the page at the time it opened this morning. I can't believe I had the coveted coupon and lost it that easily. Oh well, I guess half of the fun is in the hunt!
-Amy