Back from vacation

We went up to the cabin my wife's grandmother has in MN. Right on a good size yet very quite lake. TV reception stinks and no cable worth a crap. It was really nice. My boy did some swimming in the lake and he drove the pontoon boat we rented for 2 days. I went fishing, played hell with my new rod, caught 2 tiny fish and gave 'em back. Ate at Zorbaz pizza the last night there. Slept with my boy on the air mattress - he peed the bed each night and took a bath in the lake each day.The drive was a real and literal pain in the ass. It sure didn't help my back much either. Mostly the pain is confined to my right ass and leg, consisting mostly of muscle spasms that clamp down on my sciatic nerve creating a searing pain that forces me to limp around like an old coger. It is getting better, at least that is what I am telling myself.

My first rotation starts the 31st. Ill be doing pediatrics in a town 60 miles away. The housing scheme is run by another school and they have not gotten back to me yet so it looks like I may be commuting each day for at least a while. My neighbor who is a nurse got me a women's helth rotation with an OB/GYN she works with so I hope that pans out. Otherwise I'll have to go to a much 'less desirable' city to do my WH rotation. White coat ceremony is tomorrow - gotta go iron my coat........

Year One is over!

Yesterday was our last final. It was tough just beacuse it tended to cover all things we didn't go over in class and we had a lot of interruptions by the instructor. That said I think I did well enough to keep my B in the class - had no way of getting an A however. In total this semester I got 4 A's and 4 B's. My goal this semester was to keep stress to minimum and to help make my wife happier when I could. This meant less studying. Overall I am satisfied with my performance.

I feel like I should be really excited and celebrating like crazy that this hellish year is over. Really I am just plain tired and my back is not helping anything right now. My PA wants me to get an MRI but I don't want to because I am not willing to do anything about what they might find (e.g. surgery) and I haven't had any time to go either. I have been stretching, one of my classmates gave me acupuncture treatment and another has been doing some deep tissue and muscle energy work on it. It really is nice to have classmates with such varied and valuable experience. I'll miss not hanging out with them, I really will.

Pediatrics is my first rotation and it starts 8/31. Peds was not one of our stronger classes so I have some level of anxiety about it. I like kids and they like me for some reason so I am just going to approach it all with that kind of attitude and work my butt off to learn as much as I can. We go up to the cabin tomorrow and I look forward to some peace and quite on the lake.

Thanks to all who left comments/questions. I appreciate the support a great deal.

My back is a pain in the ass and vice versa

So Thursday my back just went crazy on me for no good reason. I didn't play hockey (I am done for a while so I can heal). All I did was play ping-pong with a classmate on Wednesday. I missed class Thurs. and went to see my PA - she was really off her game by-the-way, and an MD who does acupuncture. I took 40-some needles, she did some cupping on my back that left pepperoni-like bruises and she also did moxabustion - burning some balled-up herb on my back. Went to massage today, but still walk with a limp. My ass has taken to a rivalry with my back to see who can cause me the most grief. 1g of naproxen, 3 flexaril and 100mg of tramadol per day and I still hurt. My PA wants an MRI but I am going to have to hold off until after finals and vacation to the cabin. The real pain is 6 cumulative finals in 4 days!