Catching up...

OK so its been a while since I last posted... I guess PA school took up most of my time! I will do a quick recap of the last few modules we recently completed. 

Woman's health

This was a really fun 3 week module. Obstetrics was up for the first week and it actually turned out to be a really tough test! I could, however, see myself working in this field, it was a lot of fun. 

The last 2 weeks of the module were Gynecology where we completed our first pelvic exam and breast exam. I won't lie... I was pretty nervous, but the standardized patients were nice and were very helpful. Ok, so I have to share my funny pelvic exam story:

The exam room where I was assigned to do the pelvic exam was on the 3rd floor with the PT program. The sun blazed its heat right into the windows in that small exam room, and made the place really hot. This added with my long-sleeve shirt, white coat, and nerves made it very easy to sweat. So when I was performing the bimanual exam on the patient I was dripping beads of sweat from my forehead. The patient actually grabbed some tissues that were within her reach and dabbed my forehead with them! Ha ha, it was really funny! All my classmates got a kick out of it. 

Men's health

This module was a lot of fun also. It was not as complicated as the woman's health module which was a big relief for all of us... We made a lot of jokes how men were a lot less completed than Women :) We also completed our first male genital exam and prostate exam... needless to say I wasn't as nervous for these exams, even though I hadn't ever done these exams before. It went really well, and it was a cool learning experience. 

Geriatrics 

Lets just say this is a population that we will be exposed to a lot! We learned some awesome information in this module. The most important probably being the understanding that disease and drugs effect the elderly different than they do a younger population, and one needs to be aware of these distinct differences. We also got to visit the Maryville facility which I already posted pictures of.

Pediatrics

I have always loved playing with children and acting goofy to make kids smile. I never ruled out wanting to work in pediatrics after becoming a PA-C. I found children are a lot more complicated than I anticipated... not that its a bad thing, it is just a lot to know and remember. This was also our first "comprehensive" module, covering all body systems and diseases. To add to the massive workload there were a bunch of diseases that only affect children and infants to memorize. This was one of the more difficult modules, however, it was also really interesting to me. Our professor did an awesome job of helping us to think about what decisions and choices we would make when we are in the clinic... when it rests on our shoulders... it was a little scary. But at the same time I understand that I am still learning, and still have a long year ahead of me on rotations... and of course for the rest of my career to learn!

I hope that was cleaned before...

We have started our final semester in didactic year and just completed Emergency medicine and are in the last week of Surgery... both have been a lot of fun hands on stuff including IV's, Injections, casting, phlebotomy... more on that and pictures to come!