Great vacation. Too short, too expensive. But fun!

Got back from Sedona yesterday. My wife made arrangements at what turned out to be a really nice place. I'll post some photos soon. On Memorial day I spent the day with Vince Vaughn. What I mean is that he sat at the table next to us for breakfast and lunch and we even spent some time together in the steam room. Like 2 minutes. Anyway, I am not one to follow celebrities and such but I do like Mr. Vaughn's work and feel I can relate to the characters he plays. Very unpretentious. My wife and I went on a long hike, ate some great, expensive food, drank $15 margaritas with prickly pear in them and layed by the pool and got massages. Oh, and I spent a lot of time in the steam room trying to heal my back that I injured playing hockey last week. I have been injured severely on more than one occasion playing hockey, but I keep coming back for more...hit in the throat with a stick, two concussions, re-dislocated shoulder, separated ribs, and numerous contusions. It goes to show you that one doesn't really have to be too bright to get into PA school.

Sedona, here I come

Going to Sedona tomorrow for a few days of R & R with the misses. ACLS & PALS went fine. I noticed that I heard the preceptors describing a patient a certain way but my thought process would hang on something else unrelated. Sitting back as a "team member" in megacodes I could easily and correctly think through the algorythm , but as a team leader I would have dumb little brain farts. It was interesting to watch my classmates respond to the stress too. I am an observer - by that I mean that take pride in and enjoy observing people and their behaivor and quirks and what not. Observing my classmates in these scenarios was interesting and seem to corelate with previous observations. It was fun to see some of them try to figure out what sort of antibiotic they were going to give to some baby in septic shock during the megacodes.

ACLS and PALS this week.

So we have ACLS today and tomorrow and PALS Wednesday and Thursday. Today went by quick and tomorrow we practice and test for ACLS. It sure has changed a bit since I last took it in the late 90s. It seems to be going well and I am told it was simplified a great deal since I took it. I had no problems then so I don't anticipate any this time around. It is nice to be learning and practicing some "real" medicine finally.

ACLS & PALS this week

So we have ACLS today and tomorrow and PALS Wednesday and Thursday. Today went by quick and tomorrow we practice and test for ACLS. It sure has changed a bit since I last took it in the late 90s. It seems to be going well and I am told it was simplified a great deal since I took it. I had no problems then so I don't anticipate any this time around. It is nice to be learning and practicing some "real" medicine finally.

Whew!

The second semester is in the books and I couldn't be happier. Looks like I got mostly Bs with a few As. all things considered, it couldn't have turned out better.

My wife did a really nice thing for me this past weekend. She used some of her Marriott points and got me a suite so I could study without any distractions. I think it helped and I really do appreciate her giving me all that time to myself. Thanks a lot.

My classmates are out now celebrating and drinking. I am at home having ice cream with my son and celebrating the fact we both had a good day. Yep, a good day.

4 more tests to go

Unfortunately 2 of them are going to be brutal (Pharmacology and pediatrics) and all four come before wednesday. At least when Wednesday rolls around I'll be done for a few days before ACLS and PALS start. Then a week off before summer semester begins.

I am lucky to have the classmates I have

My program is one that requires a significant amount of direct, hands-on patient care. As a result my classmates are older and well, more experienced. I have people in my class to go to with questions about sports medicine and orthopedics, EMS and emergency med, phlebotomy, cardiac care, PT and OT, alternative medicine, mental health, women's health, radiology, cytology and hospice. Since everyone has been around the block a few times there are no head games or overt competition. No holding out on your classmates if you know something they don't. Everyone really does help everyone else out. There a certain cliques as is expected in any situation like this this, but I don't feel overly excluded by any group. Much like in high school, I belong to no one group but hang out with all them.

5 tests this week and 4 next week. I just have to remember how much I really wanted to be in this position this time last year and how fortunate I felt to be accepted. This semester really is as tough as our instructors told us it would be. Fortunately everyone in my class feels about the same way I do and are just trying to push through and learn something along the way.

I also have all but one of my clinical rotations set up for next year and wee are planning a celebration for our white coat ceremony. I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel!