Pediatrics Rotation - my first rotation ever!

Today is the fourth day on my first rotation. I've been seeing patients by myself for the last two days. Naturally the docs will go in a follow-up after I give them my report. The place is really relaxed and collegial and they really want me to learn. Everyone is super nice and friendly - at least it seems that way to me. I am having fun seeing patients and learning the practical application of the past year of book knowledge. It is fun!

My back is slowly getting better an I am encouraged that stretching improves or alleviates my pain for a while. The more I stretch the better I feel, but I get tight very quickly. Many people have asked why I haven't gotten an MRI yet. My reasoning is as follows: The MRI will find something. That something may or may not be the cause of my pain. Other than PT, which I am doing on my own as much my schedule allows, I am not willing to consider any other treatment options (surgery) that might apply to the dubious finding on an MRI that is guaranteed to show something wrong with a 39 year old former football/hockey/martial arts participant who has had other minor infrequent back problems.

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!

Just a nice day

I sat through 3 hour of pharm and then we had a cook-out on the patio outside our classroom. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we had music and hamburgers and hot dogs (no beer though) and it was just really nice. 8 more school days left.

Pharm test went well

I was the first to finish - 20 minutes for 50 questions and I got a 92%. Yeah I was surprised too. This wasn't an easy test and some people barely passed. I just knew the answers to almost everything right away. That was a nice feeling for sure. I got up at 5 this morning and was at school by 6 so I could go over things one more time after studying for a few hours last night. I used the same study method for clinical medicine and got the class high score of 94% on that test. My grades are such now that I'd really have to hose things up to lose a B in any of my classes and A's are in reach for all of my classes except Pharm. I had a grin on my face all day today that several people comented on - I just felt great knowing that in less than 3 weeks this didactis year and its hassels will be history. You know when I first started school I wasn't sure if I could do it and now I am all but done with what is in my mind the hardest part of it. Still nervous but looking forward to starting clinicals in September.

3 weeks left

I can't believe that the didactic year has almost reached its conclusion. I'm not sure I am ready for clinicals but I'd much rather take a different sort of beating now.

We had a clinical medicine test last week that covered hematology, some oncology and ENT. The test was only 33 questions, like always. Somehow I managed to only miss two questions, which was a nice surprise. Usually if I feel good about a test I don't do as well as when I am nervous and study till 11 and get up at 5 to study more and feel like I don't know a thing going into the test. I have cemented Bs in most of my classes which is kind of nice. There's less pressure to sweat an A or freak out over getting a C or worse. I have to study Pharm till the cows come home because it is so much of what a PA does and there are plenty of chance to harm the patient if you don't know what you are doing.

My son's bedroom is 8 feet from my "office" and he is battling my wife over going to bed. He didn't take a nap or eat anything for dinner so he is an emotional rollercoaster now. No studying till he is sound asleep - I am guessing another hour from now. I probably have to go in and take care of some emergency he'll fabricate to keep from going to sleep. He is so much work but I wouldn't want it any other way. He offered to get his buddies together and catch the guy who stole my chaco flip flops at the gym. How can someone who pays big money to go to a really nice gym steal someone's shoes there? It pisses me off that someone has stolen from me again and that they took my really nice, every day attire chaco flip flops. We're talking $50 (I didn't pay that much) here damn it! Sometimes I really hate people.

I Tweaked my back months ago playing hockey and it just won't get better. It really hates it when I have sit for hours on end, daya after day in a chair that amanesty international wouldn't let a political prisoner use for one day. At least in three weeks that damn chair won't be able to torment me any longer. I am popping cyclobenzaprine and ibuprofen like they were tic tacs and to no avail. I can handle injuries to most parts of my body fine. But when the back is dinged it really screws up EVERYTHING. I like playing hockey so there is little chance of getting better untill the season is over. Besides I probably won't have time to play once clinicals start and I am driving/living all over the state. Gotta get my Herriet Lane handbook for my first rotation - Pediatrics. Should be interesting. I hope my preceptors like to teach and provide guidance. Time for more muscle relaxers and a heating pad. And back to studying pharm.