Money and Moving

So we've all just gotten our financial aid letters for the next year, and the amount is pretty similar to what it was this year, but it's still always shocking to see. So I calculated it out, and INCLUDING weekends and breaks, we pay $154 PER DAY to be in this program. So not including weekends and breaks, it's probably closer to $235.56/d. Wowza. We call that incentive! So I've been keeping busy, making my money work- lots of studying for our huge monster final last test tomorrow am, packing and selling furniture to get ready for clinicals, finding housing for my first rotation, preparing financial aid, studying for this weekend's ACLS class (Advanced Cardiac Life Support), and lots of other things. So here's the current countdown:

This weekend: ACLS
Next week: Whole Patient module
Week after: packing, moving, etc. Last break!
Week after: PPS (professional seminars)
Week after: BEGINNING OF ROTATION #1 (12 weeks of Family Medicine)

First Time in the Clinic...as a student

So a couple of weeks ago I had my first experience "working" in a clinic as a student provider. A couple other students and myself got to "shadow" a professor at a clinic in town. For the first patient we just observed, but after that we got to get a history (ask them questions about what's going on), do physical exams, and help with the thought process behind the diagnosis and treatment.

-first patient: coming in with hypertension for a medication refill. Ho hum.
-Second patient: coming in with a "strange itchy rash" that ended up being eczema, poor guy. The eczema (which is a chronic skin disorder) was on all of his extremities, huge, itchy and painful. Get that guy some steroids!
-Third patient: Lady coming in with knee pain. Another student did her physical exam, and the professor/PA and I agreed it was probably her lateral collateral ligament- so nice to have a PA concur with my "diagnosis"!
-Fourth patient: Got a history from a lady with an itchy dark rash in her neck creases amongst other places... Looked like Acanthosis Nigricans! That's a skin discoloration most often caused by diabetes- and she had a family history of diabetes. Got a blood sugar- way high! Referred her for follow up (and also treatment for a couple other things). That was pretty awesome to recognize something for what it really is instead of what it's being presented as. Wish I knew what happened with her follow up...
-Fifth patient: Lady in for a refill on meds... ho hum

Overall, a fun night! Very tiring though, considering that our buns are plastered in chairs for 90% of the day either in class or studying- all that walking around wore me out! How sad. I'm sure once clinicals start for real in a few weeks that I'll get used to it fast.

Skills

So lately we've been having a lot of skills labs in class, preparing us for the Emergency Room, Surgery, and just practice in general. It's pretty fun! So I thought I'd share some of the things we've learned to do:

-how to do a sterile scrub and prep for the OR (scrubbing into surgery to assist)
-how to do different types of sutures (stitches)
-how to start an IV
-how to draw blood

Those are just a few. Plus all the crazy stuff we're learning- how to clean up large wounds and burn patients, how to treat overdoses, what to do with heart attack/stroke/pulmonary embolism/respiratory distress/etc, and random other emergency situations. Next weekend after our test we're taking ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support). After that is Whole Patient week, then we're officially done with classes!!! It's crazy.