my first patient

Yesterday I met my first patient.  She was kind of the best first patient I could have ever asked for.  She lives in an independent living facility, is 96 years old and still sews.  In fact, she had sewn the very slacks she was wearing during our visit!  She warmed my heart, and overwhelmingly reminded me of my grandma.  Mostly she said she couldn't really complain too much (despite multiple medical problems that might hold a lot of people back), thought that people should really use their common sense more often, and said she must not have done too much that morning (aside from getting dressed, showered, ready for an appointment, making and eating breakfast, taking her meds, dusting her living room and raising the hem on her daughters skirt), because she hadn't even made her bed yet.  I told her I hadn't made mine yet either and she got a good kick out of that!

So you know what?  I think I can handle this whole patient thing.  I know I made some mistakes, and there were some questions we didn't get to or that I forgot to ask, but overall it went pretty well and really felt great!

She told my advisor that I was such a nice little girl and that I was doing a great job, but to be fair, to a 96 year old I probably still am a little girl.

white coats

We are knee deep in this semester by now, maybe even waist deep at this point with six exams behind us, and things are starting to heat up!  Just in school though, in life it is actually starting to cool down a lot and fall is in the air!! In any case, my attention span for things outside of school has gotten pretty short lately so I wanted to post some picture from my white coat ceremony before I forgot forever! 

My pops came into town for a long weekend at the beginning of September for a number of reasons, but come Monday afternoon chief among them was my white coat ceremony!  My school did an odd job of helping recognize us for our accomplishments, which was frustrating, and a lot of my classmates didn't have family come because the ceremony was at 4:30 on a Monday, so the presence of my own family meant that much more to me.  Emily came up from Vermont, Joe rushed back in to town from a gig, and JP even took the day off from work!  It was such a great feeling to have some of the people I love the most in the audience supporting me.  JP always tells me that I don't give myself enough credit for the things I have accomplished, so I really tried to take that evening as a time to recognize for myself all that I had done.  It was a long and extremely hard struggle to get to that point, and even though I know I am not even close to being done, putting on my white coat was such an honor and really helped to remind me what I am doing this for, and why I am right here in Portland right now.  I am just so grateful for all the support I have gotten from so many people in so many different ways! 

My dad brought his first white coat from Wake Forest as a surprise, and we proudly wore them to dinner together!  Having my dad at the ceremony was such an incredibly special gift for me.  It's hard to put into eloquent words how his fight with cancer has touched me, but to be able to share such a special moment with him, a moment that he shared with us when we were younger and he was in school, was just so moving for me.  My struggles and triumphs with PA school have brought our relationship to a different level somehow, and I am so grateful to have this time to experience this part of my life with him.  I am so, so fortunate.  If only my mom and Micah could have made it, the night would have been complete!  Although... since the ceremony was completely solemn and formal until they called my name to cross the stage and a small crowd loudly called out BOOOOOP! (in the Walsh/Buboltz tradition of embarrassing the graduate) I'm not sure adding two more voices would have helped the situation!

great diamond island

Midway through my second week and already I am dreaming of christmas vacation...  I suppose reliving last weekend will just have to suffice for now though.  Emily and I were lucky enough to stay at a beautiful house on Great Diamond Island on Saturday and Sunday.  Just a twenty min ferry ride away from Portland, we packed up yummy ingredients for a variety of meals, our swim suits and hats, books (both study variety and fun variety), art materials and the Oliver and had a little sister adventure.  My classmate's family owns the house and it just so happened that it was unoccupied, so we occupied it!  It was so nice to get away, and even though their house is right on the ocean with a perfect view of Portland, it felt like a different planet!  I was a terrible student, and we lounged around doing whatever we pleased.  This included swimming, swinging, ice cream eating, puppy playing, hot cocoa drinking, kayaking, mussling, nature viewing, and oh so much relaxation.  I both wish I could go there every weekend, and am glad that I can't because I would be so unproductive forever!  Luckily I didn't have too much to catch up on when I got back on Sunday night, and so I didn't feel too guilty for the break!  

 

Looking like professional ferry riders... no big deal

 

  

 

 O just likes to know what's going on...and then gets in the middle of it and licks it..

coming to a close

My, the past ten days have just flown on by.  It's hard to believe that I am starting my second semester of PA school in just a few short hours.  (and yes, if you are looking at the time, my first day starts at 1:00 and is a measly 2 hour orientation lecture)  Gotta ease into the routine slowly I think!  I think I might be apprehensive about starting again, just because of how different my two worlds of school vs vacation have been.  The truth is, I'm not the best at vacationing.  HAHA.  It's sad, but so true.  I get too angst-y and micro-manage-y, which is ridiculous in many ways, but ten days was a good amount of time for me and my sanity I think.  It certainly helped that the weather was mostly gorgeous, that my family was in town, and that I finally got out on a ferry ride to a near by island.  Joy!  Apprehension notwithstanding, I am excited about school too!  The nerd in me prevails, and first days are always kind of fun with new binders ready, pens and pencils gathered.  Although, I didn't really have to gather anything, I filed away my notes from last semester in my filing cabinet on my second day of break, and my fully prepared backpack has been hanging in the office ready in case I needed to learn anything at a moments notice..

Pictures from the sibling visit were kind of sparse on my end, but here are a few we managed to capture:

 Micah found a skate park super close to my house, so we checked it out.

Emily's car died on the way to Portland, so Micah and I went to rescue her... then the rescue car died as well.  We made the most of the situation and sat in the trunk of the car waiting for the okay to get back on the road.

Cooking at Joe's house...for some reason this is the only picture I have of the four of us.

I guess technically, that statement isn't true.  To the right of me, waaaay back on the stage is Joe playing at the Saddleback Bluegrass Festival.

1/6th of a PA!

Well folks, I did it.  The hellish last push that was finals weeks took a lot out of me but it's over now!!  Yesterday I slept until 8:40!!  It was like Christmas.  Felt amazing.  I happily spent the whole day cleaning and doing domestic things.  JP has been absolutely wonderful at keeping the house up, getting clothes cleaned and making sure I eat, but the last two weeks he was working crazy hours (like 3am-1:00pm for a website launch) and everything turned into a tornado disaster zone that our eyes just glazed over in order to ignore...  BUT yesterday I turned up some music and washed dishes and counters and did three loads of laundry..and that was also like christmas.  There is nothing like the lift of pressure that I now feel.  It sounds pretty silly, but whenever I was trying to wash dishes or do anything helpful towards our household during the semester, I was so stressed out about losing studying time, that I would rush through it and resent everything about it.  I know JP is super glad to have a partner back again, even if it's only for 10 days!

The grocery situation was getting dire...you can only eat so much hummus and probiotics..

In any case, it feels absolutely amazing to have my first semester of school behind me.  People from the program have said that the summer semester is like PA boot camp, and I am glad to be done with it.  I am actually super excited for the next semester!  I have learned SO MUCH, not the least of which includes learning that I can actually do this and succeed.  We are moving on to modules instead of a mis-match of classes that don't really relate to each other much.  By modules I mean when we do pulmonary, we learn everything pulmonary.  Pathology, drugs, presentation...etc.  All our classes focus on one thing, which will be a complete change of tune from summer, and I think works better with how I learn.  Plus I never have to step foot in a cadaver lab again, so that alone is worth it!

Just as dorky as ever...here I am practicing for my last final exam (a full physical on a "patient" classmate), playing the part of patient...with a stethoscope.

So, what am I going to do to fill all this beautiful free time?  My little brother flew in from Minneapolis last night!! True to form, we picked him up and went straight to a comedy club that had open mic last night.  It was a pretty ridiculous place, but Micah got up on stage and did great!  He works really hard on his stage presence and his jokes and timing, it's been so fun to witness his evolution from the first couple of times he went up to now.  Awwww.  In any case, the great sibling hang of 2012 is commencing in just a few short hours!!  Emily is arriving in Portland in time for lunch (even though she is in the midst of her own crazy grad school semester...no rest for the Walshes), and Joe is getting back in town later tonight.  We are going to a bluegrass festival for the weekend that Joe is playing in.  I found a great place for the pups to stay, and I'm super psyched for a little vacation!  Since I have to pack all of summer into these next few days, an outdoor festival seems like the perfect way to start!

it's time for finals

All I do is what I always do all the time now, and that is study.  I will return to real life on Wednesday at 4:00 for TEN WHOLE DAYS of freedom.  For now I leave you with the fact that I passed Neuro and Anatomy, a fact that I don't think my body has quite absorbed yet, and am so close to the end of semester one.  White coat here I come. 

a weekend off

So much has happened lately!!  First, can you believe tomorrow is the start of my eighth week?  Summer is flying on by, three weeks of classes to go and then finals and theeeeennn ten days of freedom!  The past three weeks were kind of the most insane it's ever been.  We had really huge exams, each requiring an obscene amount of preparation, and sacrificing of sleep both at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day.  It was a huge push to get through, and in the middle of it all my parents and sister came for a visit!!  In my head it sort of didn't register that they were in the same state as me until I finished my immunology exam that Thursday.  We had a super tasty meal out to celebrate, and for the weekend they rented a cabin on a lake about 45 min from Portland. It was so great to see them and hang out all together (minus Micah) for the first time since our move!  Unfortunately I spent all day Saturday studying and then all day Sunday in the cadaver lab, but I hear that they had fun swimming and kayaking around!  JP and I made it up for one night, and it was beautiful even if it was short-lived on our end!

Reading comic books in the morning while I studied...

We finished our third neuro/anatomy/practical exam this past Thursday (one more and done!), and I think they were the hardest exams I have ever studied for in such a short time.  It was one of those times that I could literally have flipped my notes open to any page, pointed to a topic, and focused a day's worth of energy on just that small detail.  For this exam we covered the brain, the skull, cranial nerves, muscles and vasculature of the neck, the eye, the ear and all that those subjects entail in both identification and function.  Sometimes I am in awe that my brain can retain so much, and pull things seemingly out of the blue that I didn't even think I would remember.  Every exam I think that there is no possible way I can keep all of that information straight, I have to call on so many new strategies but so far it's working alright!  I will be so happy to get to the fall semester, into more organized chaos than the crazy way things are in the summer!

In any case, after that gigantic push, I think most of my classmates, myself included, took this weekend off.  This is the first weekend that I barely did anything productive.  JP and I decided to go camping Saturday night, and I didn't even bring a lick of study materials with me.  I might have felt a little panicked Sunday morning thinking about how unproductive I was, but I squelched those feelings and let myself enjoy being outside with my boy and my pups, free of responsibilities.  It was so incredibly lovely.  We made a big fire, took the pups down to play in the water, and grilled meat and drank wine.  Lovely indeed, and just what we needed to gear up for these next few weeks.  

We wore out the pups with all the excitement.  You know it was a good weekend when it ends in pure exhilarated exhaustion like this: