Sunday, September 5, 2010

11 Months...

In 11 months from today, Stephen will be officially done with PA school. While my mom often reminds me not to wish my life away - I want to make it clear that I'm not wishing it away - I am merely wishing that the fast-forward button be pressed YESTERDAY. That's all.

Stephen is half way done with his first clinical rotation. He has been at Elite (where he previously worked before PA school). He has followed Dr. Willers, their foot and ankle specialist, where he got to stitch up patients at the end of each surgery he observed. Then he spent time with Dr. Dovan, the hand specialist, and Joce, my sister and nurse practitioner, for a week each. You are probably thinking: awkward! Believe it or not, Joce and Stephen get along really well. It helps that they are both pretty laid back. The next three weeks will be with Dr. Elrod, who I think Stephen is looking forward to spending time with the most.

School has definitely been less intense since clinicals began or Stephen is beginning to get "senioritis," not sure which one. All I know is the ole debit card has been swiped quite frequently at golf courses lately. He continues to say almost daily that he is behind, but those are words that I have been hearing for 18 months. When he first started school, I would get nervous that that meant he wouldn't pass a test - and freak out! Now I just say, "You can do it!" with a smile and move on with my life. The day I found out about my blood clot and was admitted to the hospital, Stephen started studying for his Pharm final at about 9 pm. I think he studied until 1 or 2 in the morning, and then got very little sleep that night in the hospital. He ended up getting an 81% on the final, the class average being an 80%. Needless to say, I don't waste my time worrying anymore.

During clinicals he has to document most of the patients he sees, complete courses online and such, and prepare a research project that he will present in the spring. He decided this last week to do his research on lateral epicondylitis (a.k.a. tennis elbow). The plan is to research/learn about new treatment options for people with this condition. Very exciting, I know.

When I say 11 months left of PA school that also means only 11 months left of my graduate education. Be prepared to hear loud yelling and ridiculously annoying, high-pitched honking from the Civic on August 5, 2011. It will be us - you can pretend you don't know us for that brief celebration. But don't come knocking on our door when little Jimmy hurt his leg and/or can't read. We will ignore you! Ha! Just kidding!

My grad school took an interesting turn this semester. I persistently tried to get in contact with my advisor for about a week with no luck. Once I got in touch with her, she said that we decided last spring that I wouldn't take any classes this fall. I thought the plan was to take 6 hours during the fall and spring semesters and 1 hour in the summer - which equals 13 hours left. She informed me that our plan was to skip this semester and take 6 hours in the spring and 9 hours over the summer, which equals 15 hours left. Whatever! It wasn't worth arguing. I asked her if there was something I could take this semester. She said one of the classes I needed is offered, but it started the previous Saturday. It only met three times - so I had already missed 1/3 of the class - not an option. They were offering the same class in Knoxville at UT that would be half online and half face-to-face for 2 Saturdays from 8 - 5. I signed up for the class to prevent taking so many hours over the next two semesters. I got an email on Friday informing me that the class was cancelled due to too few students signed-up for it. I am back to zero hours. At least I made an effort to take something AND I don't have to drive to Knoxville now! I’m just hoping I will still graduate in August…

Here's to 11 more months of educational bliss!

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