Misterioso Ojos

As previously disclosed, I am currently doing a mini-rotation (1 week) in ophthalmology. Just to clarify, an Ophthalmologist is a medical doctor who goes to medical school and is able to perform surgery on the eye as well as diagnose all kinds of disease. Whereas an optometrist goes to optometry school and mainly only deals with correcting vision with glasses/contacts. I watched about 6 cataract surgeries this morning lasting about 15-20 minutes each. A cataract is a clouding of the lens of the eye which is a normal aging process. We will all get cataracts if we live long enough. The treatment, make a small incision in the cornea(which is the front window to the eye) and gain access through the pupil (or iris) to scrape out the cloudy portion of the lens. Then, simply slide in a new synthetic lens(looks similar to a contact lens). It was pretty neat, but also a little routine and boring after watching a few. I am really starting to enjoy my experience better though. Dr. Peterson knows that my interest is in emergency medicine so he gears his teaching towards the pertinent subject matter. Most of all, I have enjoyed the interaction with the patients. I don't think I realized how much I missed dealing with patients since I have been in the classroom. Almost all of our patients this week have just been a real delight and the average age is probably 70-75.
Dos mas dias and we are on our way to Texas! I am excited about the trip. Maybe get a chance to do some non-school stuff for a change and just be a man again. For me, that means working outside, maybe hunting and you know..man stuff. Also, only 3 days until Aub and I have our 6th wedding anniversary. Wow. I am glad we waited until this year to have a baby. I don't think we had each other, or married life semi figured out until about 3-4 years into it. But of course, it is still a growing and learning process. Can't wait to spend some needed 1 on 1 time with the better half this weekend though. Until next time.

"And Boom Goes The Dynamite"

Whew, It is finished..the first year of PA school that is. As a little bonus for all my followers out there, I counted how many power points I have saved on my computer since I started this program. I have sat through at least 490 powerpoint presentations! To wrap your head around that, I estimated we had 50 slides per powerpoint and that comes to 24,500 slides I have read this year! That doesn't even include the hundreds/thousands of pages I have read in books and from online resources. In case you didn't notice, I am oh so impressed with myself and obviously narcissistic. Mainly because I ain't the head in the books kind of guy. Well, maybe I am now. The question is, how much of those 24,500 slides did I retain? I think the real learning starts now. After all those thousands of patients I will see next year, I should feel a little more legit as a clinician. I shall check out for now so that I can hold the Lydia for it is difficult to hold the baby girl and type. Peace.

"Baby it's cold outside"

Tis the season..for cold weather. It has been in the teens every morning I go to school which forces me to wake up a little before class. 1 test down and 3 to go for this final semester. I have restrained excitement for the end of this semester, not what I expected at all when I thought about this moment back in January. I think it is due to the intense, beat down session I just endured over the past 3 semesters. Looking back, the 1st semester was the easiest, followed by the Summer being the "most enjoyable" and this last semester was just more or less painful.
Lydia is watching "mommy" make Christmas presents. Her mommy not being a very crafty one, but I think she is capable of doing anything she sets her mind to. Like getting up 15-20 times a night and still functioning during the day to take care of baby and all the other chores. Well I got busy and forgot I was writing a post. Therefore I will end it here and pick up on a new post soon. See you all when I am a 2nd year PA student!

It still feels right..

After nearly 6 years of marriage, I still love to just sit and have a conversation with my wife. She is amazingly understanding. I stayed at school all day "doing my thing," but my favorite part of today were the few moments I sat on the edge of the bed, in the dark, just chatting with my wife before bed. I'm so blessed to have such a strong and supportive spouse. She is the inspiration for the title of this entry. Meaning, those seemingly unimportant, mundane moments that felt so exciting during the early dating period, still feel right after 11 years of being together.
School. That is the other, distant second thought on my mind. 7 days left in the classroom. It could not come fast enough. Either the program I am part of is really lacking some major elements, or I have just had enough and reached the "I am tired, every flaw is magnified" state. Either way, I am about 12 months away from becoming a PA-C and that is all that matters in the grand scheme of things. This next phase of learning is pretty much all on me. I am very comfortable with that since I feel the majority of my instructors are incompetent to teach in a reasonable manner. My one week rotation after finals will be in ophthalmology. Not a strong area of mine, so maybe it will help me learn some vital info for my future ER job. Then after a 2 week Christmas break/stress I get thrown in to a family practice clinic. Talk about hitting the ground running. A busy FP clinic during Flu season, ouch. More to learn I suppose.
Well I am tired and have an emergency medicine test tomorrow. I also suspect Lydia may be waking soon, so I mustn't tarry any longer. It is off to bed and I will give the last shout out to my Dad on his birthday. Happy Birthday Pops! (it's not like he reads my blog though)