4 days and counting...

That's right...in about 2 hours there will only be 4 days left of this semester! I'm starting to feel so relieved, which probably isn't good because I still need to study for finals!

Studying is what I did most of the weekend. Friday we had class in the morning, came home and slept, then studied intermittently throughout the afternoon and evening. Saturday was Mom's birthday, so we went to the Orchard in Bloom which is this really cool garden show basically. There's some exhibits of landscapers and then booths galore with plants and all different decorating things. Mom got some flowers for the yard and I got a dwarf euonymus which I love. It reminds me of my old Bonsai tree...in a cute little pot and it looks like a mini tree. Hopefully I'll do better with this one though, Greg used to joke that my Bonsai tree had lived 70 years and then met me. In my defense, I left it in my dorm over Christmas break with the dry heaters going.

Let's see, got home, did some studying with breaks here and there, then went to dinner at Villagio for Mom's birthday and ate wayyyy too much. It's this little Italian restaurant in downtown Zionsville that has a real 'homemade' feel to it. I had the lasanga which was incredible. Then we came home, had some cake and I did a little more studying before just basically passing out.

I've gotten a little more in the groove of studying today. I'm still only working on disease which isn't probably the best idea. I have to work for Jill tomorrow till noon, so I think I'm going to have my stuff already packed and leave straight after work for school and stick myself in the library for a good few hours. My goal is to stay at least till 7 or 8. That's long for me :-) My finals schedule is:

Tuesday -- Cardiopulmonary Diseases

Wednesday -- Pediatrics and Neonates

Thursday -- Life Support Lecture (basically ventilators) and then the Lab Practical

Friday -- Pharmacology

The only two I'm really concerned about are Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday just because there's a lot of info and his exams are hard enough as it is without being cumulative. Thursday is worrying me because it's the instructor that I always seem to have a hard time with and I'm never as prepared for her exams as I think I should be.

Ok, off to bed. Try to get a good night's sleep so I don't have any excuses not to study hard tomorrow!!!

she believed she could so she did

Today's reason to drink:
It's National Beer Day in Germany! Need I say more?


After what seemed like forever, I got a call today from St. Vincent hospital and they offered my the job!!! This is the hospital I really wanted. It pays the most, is in the part of town I wanted, offers more hours, and on top of all that...it's been my favorite place during clinicals. I never had a bad experience or preceptor there and all the patients even seem nicer. I think that's partially because at St. V's they don't have to share rooms like they do at the other Indy hospitals.
http://www.stvincent.org/default.htm

Mom got me a cute little plaque that I had seen at Hallmark awhile back and said if I got the student job I wanted that I'd buy myself. It says "she believed she could so she did". Reminder that I didn't quit a real job and go back to school for nothing!

So, that's one thing taken care of! I officially am employed there on July 2nd and will start orientation on July 6th. I go in for a physical and drug screening on June 25th...I think I'll pass ;-).

JM was in town this weekend. He didn't get in till late on Friday because he took his Grandpa to the Cubs game. I babysat for the same people I did last weekend in which I had a horrible experience. Luckily, they were much better. Still had some problems with the son, but I just made him go to bed and that took care of it! Saturday we were supposed to go look at a couple of apartments, but it was beautiful out so we just went and got my old couch from my old house, walked the dogs, played with the neighbor kids and cooked out. My parents went out on Saturday night so we got to watch a movie on the big tv...fun times! Sunday we went to brunch and started looking at some living options on the west side of town. JM got a call later in the day that the 3rd roommate who was going to move into his house now backed out...so we're not sure if he'll be able to move out in July or if he'll have to pay for August as well. If that's the case, we can't get a new place until the end of August...we can't afford two rents!

Jill cancelled my babysitting this morning which worked out well because I was very tired. I slept in, went to the doctor's, and then went down to school to practice my lab checkoff for tomorrow. We'll have 4 different checkoffs: intubating a pediatric patient, intubating an adult, extubating, and inserting an LMA tube. I think I should be ok. My friend Tom and I scheduled our checkoffs for the last time slot, so we'll have a couple of hours before our checkoff to go over things in our heads. Afterwards we're going to head down to Acapulco Joe's for $4 margaritas to celebrate our last checkoffs of our student career and our last lab!!! Woo hoo!!!

For those who don't know, I was chosen for a marketing trial of a new FDA approved weight loss drug that comes out on the market in June. I got the pills in the mail last Monday and started them on Thursday. They work in your digestive tract, so there's no phen phen or anything crazy like that. You're supposed to try to limit your fat intake to about 15 grams/meal and you can't save them up for one meal or anything like you can in Weight Watchers. The pill (alli) will help your body rid about 25% of the fat you intake. So by decreasing your fat intake, alli will get rid of quite a bit of the rest. I think they say that alli will help you lose up to 50% more than dieting and exercising alone. For example, if you were to lose 10 pounds, alli would help you lose 15 instead. Anyways, since Thursday I've lost a pound :-) I've done really well and become accountable for what goes into my mouth. The more fat I intake, the more 'treatment effects' I get with alli...including oily gas and nice things like that. Motivation to stay on track! If you want to check it out, the website is: myalli.com

Ok, I need to hit the hay. Have a good night!

Mutts

Tromboning and Lube

Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.

-St. Francis de Sales

Today was rather uneventful. I missed my first class because I didn't feel so hot, but I felt fine later so I think it was more psychological. I did go to the next two...nothing to fun about those. I had my lab this afternoon and for the first time in a LONG time I LOVED IT!!! We learned how to intubate a patient. I'll try to add some pictures as to what that is at the end. It was amazing. It's more surgical and you feel very important. Can I say I loved it again? And more than that...I was good at it! It's a lot like a skill I had to perform as an EMT, so I already had the feel for it, but this is so much more intense. You have 30 seconds to find the vocal cords, flip the epiglottis, and then guide the endotracheal tube into the opening, take they stylette out, inflate the cuff and then resume bagging the patient. I was timing myself, and I got it down to about 10-15 seconds. I definitely want to work at a hospital that allows the RT to do this. Up until now I haven't really been sure about what field I wanted to work in, but now I'm definitely leaning towards the OR and ER.

Anyways, I have lab now with a group of people that I adore...Tom, Lauren and Lindsay mainly. I'm no longer allowed to sit near them or across from them. We all know how immature I can be (i.e. I laugh every time I go to 'Dick's sporting good store'), but I was way over the line today. First off, anytime the word 'lube' is said I would get the giggles (with intubating, you lube a lot), then I'd see Tom or Lauren or Lindsay giggling and it would make me laugh, then laugh harder. Then one of our naive instructors defined the word "tromboning", and not only did I find the word hilarious, but the action was even funnier. Then there was a whole issue about the baby dummy with balloons as lungs...it was a fun time in lab. Either RT school is becoming more fun, or we have officially lost our marbles.

This is what we use to move anatomical structures and flip open the epiglottis, a laryngoscope.

In the left hand is the laryngoscope and in the right is the endotracheal tube being guided into the trachea.

Another shot of insertion.

And this is what it looks like when we're looking down into the trach! I think this is amazing!!!

Adventures in Babysitting

Besides that, my weekend was great. JM snuck away and came up on Friday which was excellent because I thought I wouldn't see him till next weekend. It's been a few weeks since we last saw each other so getting to see him was much needed. We looked at some apartments, found a couple we like, went to Lyndsay's nephew's 3rd birthday party, went to dinner, then looked at some more apartments. So far, these two are the ones we're liking...
http://www.homeisoaklake.com/
and
http://www.aimco.com/Communities/default.aspx?PropertyID=039613

The first one is a better price and has things we like in the apartment. One bad thing is that our bedroom window is on (and I literally mean on) the walk into the other apartments. Another bad thing is the area, it's not as nice as I'd like. Inside the complex is nice, but outside the complex leaves some things to be desired. The second one is a higher price, and more utilities, and no washer/dryer hookup. But, it's a great area. And it has 2 80-acre stocked lakes and the community is huge. For those of you who remember, Kodi and I lived there when I first moved back to Indy and I loved it. But, it has to be what's best for both of us (JM and I, not Kodi and I!). JM's coming back up next weekend so we'll get to look again and hopefully get it narrowed down. Just looking this weekend really helped out weed out quite a few. We drove through some neighborhoods and were able to cross some out due to the quality of people walking around and a busted car window. JM's taking his grandfather to a Cubs game on Friday so we'll have Saturday and Sunday. Speaking of which, if anyone's interested in some Cubs tickets for Friday let me know...JM has extra!!!

Hope you had a good weekend!!!

Today's reason to drink 4.13.07

April 13, 2007


It's New Year all over again! It's the first day of the Thai and Cambodian New Year!

Job Outlook

I went to a "woo-ing" session today after class at St. Francis Hospital. We call them woo-ing sessions because hospitals are so desperate for RT's right now they feed you and give you little souvenirs and try to talk you into working for them. I can start working as a student RT after my clinical session this summer, which will be towards the end of June.

St. Francis was ok. Itr's not the hospital I thought it was, though! I thought it was the one when you take 65 South that's on your right...the really nice, new, big one. Nope, it's this smaller one in the ghetto of the southside. It's a very old hospital and kind of creeps you out.

The lunch was nice and the people were incredibly nice and easy to talk to. It seems like it would be a good place to work as far as the staff and management go. Thing is, they're paying almost $3 less an hour than St. Vincent...and, it's further away. I'm not sure exactly where we're going to move it, but we've been planning to stay on the northwest/west side of town. I did schedule my interview with them though, it will be next Thursday afternoon. I figured I might as well go as many places as I can and find out what they have to offer. Maybe they'll love me and offer me more :-)

I had my interview at St. Vincent on Monday. It went awesome...I've never had an interview go that well. She said they'd let me know within 2 weeks, so I'm anxiously waiting. I would love to work there. I've heard some bad things from the seniors that worked there, but I liked the people and loved it when I did my clinicals there.

Keep your fingers crossed that I find something!!!!

Cardiologist Joke

We had a cardiologist as our guest lecturer in Naum's class.

He said he's always been jealous of Respiratory. They get both the A and the B while he only gets the C.

In case you're not getting it, the first step in any patient care is the ABC's...airway, breathing then circulation.

Maybe you have to be in the respiratory field, but I found that hilarious.

Reuters Prenatal Smoking

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USCOL06627420070411


Prenatal smoke exposure tied to attention problems
Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:25PM EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teens whose mothers smoked while pregnant with them and are themselves smokers have a harder time paying attention and focusing than their non-smoking peers who were not exposed to smoke in the womb, a new study shows. The researchers also found gender differences in the effect of nicotine exposure, with exposed girls showing both visual and auditory attention deficits, while the boys only had difficulties in listening.

Nicotine is known to bind to receptors involved brain development and studies have identified both intellectual and auditory problems in smokers' offspring. Both the prenatal period and adolescence are critical times in brain development and smoking has been linked to memory and attention problems in teens.

To better understand the effects of nicotine exposure on attention, Dr. Leslie K. Jacobsen of the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven and colleagues had 181 teens perform a series of tests to evaluate how well they grasped visual and auditory cues. Sixty-three of the teens had brain scans while they took the tests.

Among the 92 who had been exposed to cigarette smoking in the womb, 67 were themselves daily smokers. Forty-four of the children of non-smoking mothers were current smokers, while 45 didn't smoke.

Smokers who had also been exposed to nicotine in the womb performed worst, while non-smokers who weren't exposed in the womb performed best. Study participants who either currently smoked or whose mothers had smoked fell in between.

This pattern was seen for both auditory and visual attention tasks for girls, but only appeared on tests of auditory attention function in boys.

Certain brain regions worked harder during the tests among the nicotine-exposed teens, suggesting that the exposure had lessened the efficiency of brain circuitry involved in processing during the tasks, the researchers note.

The findings suggest that males' auditory development may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of nicotine exposure, while females are vulnerable in terms of both visual and auditory development, they write.

"The present findings underscore the importance of developing smoking prevention programs that target women of childbearing age and of developing effective programs for tobacco dependence that do not involve nicotine replacement," the researchers conclude.

They point out that up to 16 percent of female smokers who become pregnant are unable to quit.

SOURCE: Neuropsychopharmacology, March 21, 2007.