Packing up my life

It's amazing what you find when you're packing. I've found pictures from jr high and high school I thought I'd lost. I've found umpteen cassette tapes... cassette tapes ?? who uses those anymore?? I even found an old broken discman I used to use in high school. In a way it's rather sad. I've lived in the house off and on for fifteen years. It'll be even sadder for my parents who are moving without really knowing which direction their life is heading. My father's job prospects are dwindling.

Now my game room is more organized as I condense boxes of things. I can definitely fit everything in my car and my mother's van.. no problem. Even with my bike and the huge doggie crate we'll be okay.

I finished running today after helping my parents load our dining room set into someone else's truck (we sold it since my parents won't need it if they move to Florida). It was rather melancholy looking at our empty dining room... although i can understand why we needed to sell the set.

Now, I'm reviewing the notes for my clinical board exam tomorrow morning. Me and a clinical board examiner in one room with a standarized patient. Whoo fun !! I'm sure i'll have lots to say about that tomorrow. It's the last of my national board exams. Yipeee! Then, I just get to wait to take Florida's.

Making Money

I'm exhausted. I've spent the last three days working contact lens studies and seeing patients in vision rehab. I've made four hundred dollars. Whoo hoo !! I really REALLY needed that money. This is what's going to tide me over until I start getting paychecks in Florida. I don't want to have to rely on G for money.. even though I'm sure he'd help me out if I asked him. Hopefully I will get all of my checks before I leave for Europe.

For about two hours i practiced for clinic. I ended up doing gonio on leeann with my new gonio lens (had to test it out).. she has the TIGHTEST lids.. the lens kept coming off. I also got to practice punctal plugs, which I kept dropping. So, i'm VERY nervous about doing that on the exam, since that was the only time I've ever done it.

The big event for the day was going over to the student bookstore to pick up my cap and gown. It still doesn't feel that offical since there's no hood, but it's getting closer. I'm graduating in two weeks !! wow.

I've started getting replies from the annoucements I've sent out. My aunt and uncle sent me a very nice card and one of my mother's best friends (who's like a second mommy) sent me a hundred dollars !! I couldn't believe it !! She's getting the nicest thank you card ever !!!! I didn't send out annoucements to get money, but it sure does help when you're moving to a new state. Those expenses (and the gas to get there) sure do add up.

Done with Clinic

It's official !! As of yesterday at 5pm I am OFFICIALLY done with clinic for good. No more patients at UHCO. It's very exciting and somewhat bittersweet at the same time. The good news is I get to move on, go to Florida, tour Europe, and get my life back in order with Greg. The bad news is, I'm leaving friends, saying goodbye and starting a new chapter in my life outside of Texas after 13 years in the state.

I spent the weekend relaxing, playing with the dog at the park, and seeing movies with friends. Saturday night I witnessed a movie called "Kung Fu Hustle" which if you haven't seen and appreciate a good slapstick laugh... go check it out. If you're looking for serious, don't see this movie.

I ran into a guy in my class at the movie theater. He introduced me to his girlfriend as "Dr ". It kinda freaked me out. I'm just not used to hearing it yet. When I commented we hadn't actually graduated yet , he cocked an eyebrow and commented that we're done.. and walking across that stage in two weeks isn't going to change much. But, I guess in my own mind, walking the stage with the gown makes it official. THEN I'm a doctor. Not really before. Maybe then it'll actually sink in as well. As of right now it sure hasn't. I'm still me.. the dork who feels like she doesn't know much more than four years ago, but in actuality has changed tremendously since four years ago.

Today and tomorrow I'm working yet another contact lens study (yay money!) Thursday and Monday I'm working in low vision clinic (yay more money!) And, some time in there I'm going to have to practice for clinical boards on Sunday. I know I can do the cinical stuff, I just have to make sure I'm ready for all the little details the NBEO is looking for me to perform. (blah) It makes me nervous just thinking about somebody watching me for three hours while I examen a patient.

Tonight I head over to my last CE lecture for my elective class. I only need one hour, but have to sit through all two so that I"m not rude to the speaker. I'd hate it if someone walked out on my lecture. Another milestone tonight when I type up and turn in my last UHCO project. DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE !!!

It's a BOY !

My brother and his wife found out today they are offically having a boy. (She's due in September) Congratulations David and Keri :)

Almost there !

My last day of family practice, DONE ! It's so very strange to be saying good-bye to attendings and faculty. I got my final evaulation in family practice and even though my grades in clincal rotations don't really matter at this point.. I still had to smile when Dr M gave me an "excellent" rating.

I also got recruited to work two night of contact lens research for TERTC. So, I worked that Tuesday afternoon and last night to get some extra spending cash. (doesn't hurt when you're 90k in debt with student loans). I know what I'm making is peanuts compared to what I will make, but it keeps me busy and also keeps me from spending money.

Today in family practice, Dr Jose found LeeAnn and me to see if we'd be interested in working two extra days of open low vision clinic. Since they have such a backlog of patients on waiting lists for appointments.. they're going to open up two days in the next two weeks to see more patients. Dr Jose offered LeeAnn and me money to work all day next Thursday and a week from Monday on the 2nd. I told him definitely.. I love low vision and now I'll get paid to do it !! Sounds great to me !!

In the meantime, my dog is still waiting for me to throw his toy.. so off I go to be a good doggie mom. :)

Chronic Angle Closure Glaucoma

That's the title for today since it was the last patient I saw before my practice management test. this morning started off uneventful enough in specialty pediatrics with only one patient. YAY! Not that I don't like the patients.. most of them are adorable. It's the random completely un-disciplined ones i have issues with. Today's patient was a very adorable, well behaved, four year old hispanic boy. He only spoke spanish and we had a great time. While he was dilating he insulted my drawing ability and we had a good laugh. Apparently my drawings of dogs in chalk "esta malo".

I was scheduled for three patients in glaucoma clinic this afternoon and somehow wound up with four. Fortunately, my friend Stephanie helped me out and took the fourth one when she saw how long the third one was going to take (it wasn't a straight forward primary open angle case).

First two patients: easy IOP checks.. drops doing they're thing.. Go Xalatan !

Third patient: Is handed to my by and attending as I'm wondering to the conference room to finish assesments on my first two patients. She's a referral from this morning from family practice. Her IOP in her left eye is 42. For those of you NOT eye docs.. 42 is BAD !!

When I greet this patient and her daughter-in-law it's clear the patient has been crying. She's also been waiting since her family practice appointment, through lunch, til 115pm when I pick her up. (almost three hours) Hopefully she got lunch in there before I saw her, I forgot to ask. :(
This patient also speaks no English. All I have to say is.. if you live in the south and plan on being in health care.. TAKE SPANISH !! Screw French, German, and Latin. NOT useful !! I'm SO glad I did. I never have to wait an hour for the translator to show up (since our school only has one and she's mainly the insurance biller)

My poor patient's ocular angle is synechied shut from chronic inflammation. she's not in pain right now, but she has been off and on for FOUR YEARS !! In the meantime, this woman has had cataract surgery in mexico and apparently no one mentioned to her, or never looked into the fact that this woman has REALLY BAD GLAUCOMA !! So now, at 65 she's legally blind in her left eye. Almost no peripheral vision. her C/D's are 1.0 in all but one quadrant. BAD BAD BAD !! Poor thing is in pain and had no idea what was going on. I'm just REALLY glad she finally came in. I felt so bad for her. I wish someone had told her what was going on before she went blind. If we can't get her pressures down with drops.. she'll have to get a filter.. since laser surgery won't correct for her mangled angles. She was very appreciative, gave me a HUGE hug when she left, and thanked me for helping her stop her pain and taking the time to explain her problem. (diagrams never hurt anyone) ;) Days like that make me feel really good about what I do.. even though i was almost too late to help. She's still 20/100 thank goodness.. if you saw her nerves you'd be shocked she sees that well.

After all this.. practice management tests seemed like a joke.

Bizzaro dog

My dog has some really bizzaro habits.

Weird doggie behavior number 1:

My dog can remove the inner cardboard tube from a roll of toilet paper, while it's STILL ON THE DISPENSER !! Don't ask me HOW he does it.. I have NO idea.. but he's quite proficient at it. He only goes after the roll in the hall bathroom so now I have to remember to close that door when I leave to go somewhere. What does he do with the cardboard roll you ask ? well, it turns out it's a group effort. Tiger removes the roll, Jackson shreds the roll, and then Tiger eats it. yes, my dog is a freak.

Weird doggie behavior number 2:

The pool Polaris is out to get my dog. It's some kind of conspiracy. He's certain of it. On nice days, when I leave the back door open, he stalks the Polaris and attempts to grab the tubing as it cleans the side walls of the pool. Clearly, it's coming to attack him and MUST BE STOPPED !! It's quite funny to watch the Polaris tail flip up and spray water and my dog in the face in the process. Hehehhe.

Bizzaro dog behavior number 3:


Tiger will not jump into the pool like a normal retriever. he has a bucky-ball type pool toy with two tennis balls in it (so it'll float). The funnest game EVER is to chase the pool toy round and round the pool until it gets close enough to the side to streeeeeeeetch foward and grab with our teeth. Then, drop the toy in the pool and begin said insane process over again. he'll entertain himself for HOURS this way and it is quite amusing.

All these bizzaro doggie traits just makes me love my mutt even more. He has personality.. yeah , that's it.. personality.

The best laid plans...

Well, i was going to read by the pool with a book, but the sun decided not to cooperate today. I think I'm going to shower and head to cafe express to read with a salad outside. :) Then, I will return to my regularly scheduled room cleaning. (ugh)

Donating Blood

This will be my public service annoucement for the week:

GO DONATE BLOOD !!!

I know, many people are scared to donate, but there really is no reason to be. yes, it's a fairly large needle, which I admit I myself am not a big fan of. But, there's an easy way to combat this. TELL THEM! Tell the center you're apprehensive and they'll help you out. They always cover my arm so I can't see the needle and they don't tell me when they're going to stick me. I turn my head so I can't see and they just do it. It's much easier on both of us this way.

There's a terrible shortage of blood in this country. I remember after 9/11 and the Florida hurricanes everyone rushed right out to donate. WHY can't people do this ALL the time !!?? Does it really take a national catastrophe for people to get off their asses and roll up their sleeves ?

And, don't give me the "it takes so loooong" schpeal. I left my house at 3pm and was back in my house by 4. That includes drive time and time for juice and cookies. The actual blood donation took 5-10 minutes with maybe a 10 minute interview pre-donation.

So, if you're reading this and haven't donated in the last two months. PLEASE go to your favorite search engine, find out where your local donor center is.. and GO THERE !! Your blood is desperately needed. especially if you're type O (like me) :)

Thus endith the PSA !!

Three Day Weekend

After two days of clinic I have a three day weekend. I plan on enjoying it.. I just wish it were a little warmer. It's only 70 , which isn't really primo pool weather.

My two day work week was good. Vison rehab was intersesting in that non of the patients showed up when they were supposed to. My first patient cancelled and then I ended up with another patient that showed up 45 minutes late. so, by the time i finished the first patient it was five minutes before my second patient. My third patient (the one I was supposed to have at 145) showed up at 9.. so someone else had to see him. It was a very crazy day.

Thursday went very smoothly. I taught in the morning and it was my last day teaching before their final practical. it was very weird having all my students hugging me and telling me good luck in Florida. I still dont think it's hit me that I'm leaving. Truly actually graduating.

My family practice afternoon was slow. I only had one patient and he was very straight forward and easy. A nice Turkish graduate student from across campus. LeeAnn and I had fun hanging out with Dr Markus and catching up with our work for glaucoma clinic in Monday afternoon.

Today is lazy day. I got up and went running with Tiger and now I clean the house. JOY!

Busy and then not

I haven't posted since Friday and SO much has happened since then.

I rolled into Austin Friday night to meet the flyball team for our competition. The plan was to have sushi Friday night so we can have a team dinner Saturday night. After i got in, through nasty Austin I35 traffic... I settled Tiger in and went to mark and liz's room. The three of us went to sushi at our favorite place. The service was WRETCHED but the food is SO good. I love their Texas roll. So, to anyone in Austin I HIGHLY recommend Origami on 35 and 620. (in the Albertsons shopping center)

Caroline as running late as she's really busy at her vet office. So, we took her back some sushi to go so she could at least eat something. Poor thing. After dinner we sat in Sam's room chatting and drinking wine. It was a very nice evening. It got my mind off the upcoming boards on Monday. Since Caroline, three dogs, and I were sharing a one room suite at the Candlewood we divvied up the beds. I volunteered for the sofabed since Caroline was paying for my room and I felt obligated. In hindsight it was FREEZING sleeping next to the AC vent. We had to crank the AC so Caroline had some air in her room. We couldn't leave the doors open because of the dogs. Max and Tiger get along great, but her female dog (mimosa) can be a little "in your face" which would be bad around a dog as big as Tiger. The interesting part of the evening happened about 130am. Tiger spooked and ran under the bed. Which, isn't normal for Tiger. Then, I felt his head hitting the bottom of the bed.. so i peeked over the rail to investigate. OH SHIT !! He was having a seziure UNDER the sofa bed. So, i vaulted the side of the bed and dragged him out from under the bed while yelling for caroline. I yelled in case I couldn't get him out and needed some extra hands to help move the sofa bed. All I could invision was him smashing his poor doggie head on the metal bars and springs under the bed. Poor thing. So, he stopped seizing rather quickly which is great. I didn't sleep Friday night at all. I wasn't sleeping even before the seizure and every little noise bugged me after the seizure cuz I kept checking on Tiger to make sure he wasnt having another one. STRESS !

Racing went alright Saturday and Sunday. Tiger wasn't running really fast, but after the seizure I didn't really expect him to. He can get kinda stiff, but he was acting fine. He really wanted to play. The whole team pulled together to try to get Tiger to his FMCh title. 15,000 points. He needed 312 going into the weekend. which, after the first day it didn't look like he was going to get that many. But pulling together we did. They presented me with a trophey complete with the ball Tiger brought back on his final point run to FMCh. It was very special to me.

Saturday night the team all went to Saltgrass for dinner. I ate WAY too much. I had the steak and coconut shrimp. YUM! Afterwards we all went to Sam's room agian to drink wine. While we were talking Sam said some words about having me as a teammate (which of course made me tear up) and they presented me with a GORGEOUS painting of Tiger hudling which was done by my friend Jenn in Omaha. (she's also on our flyball team) They called Jenn to find out my reaction and I almost couldn't talk when they passed me the phone. It was so beautiful and meant so much to me that they got together to do it. The picture of the painting is posted below this post.

Between races I tried to study for boards in my deck chair. Every once and awhile someone would look over my shoulder and go "eww". Yeah, i expect that with nasty eyeball slides.

Boards were Monday and they're over. That's pretty much all I want to say about that. They weren't terrible.. and I'm just glad it's done. They really don't matter for me for Florida. They don't accept part three. It was practice for me and there in case I need it for some other state if I move out of Florida.

I had lunch with Erin, Ashley, Kendra, Amanda, and Stephanie at Cafe Adobe. It was really great to get to see all of our classmates again. It's so weird that i'm not going to see all of them every day after next month. But, on the up side.. I will get to see G every day !! YAY !!

I spent my day off today getting out my graduation annoucements. I also laid by the pool and played with the dogs. It's been very relaxing and I'm really enjoying having some time to myself. Since my parents are out of town it's very quiet and I'm enjoying the alone time immensely.

Tiger painting the flyball team gave me at my last Texas tournament. Painted by Jenn Davis (a teammate in Nebraska) 

We're not "stupid women"

So, after a YEAR of calling the water company they've finally decided to listen to my mother and me. There's a pipe under the street that's been leaking and flooding the area in front of our house going to the storm drain. This has been going on for almost a year. Every time I go to our mailbox I have to straddle a puddle of water.. and forget stretching on the curb before I run without getting my shoes soaked.

The water company has come out three times and dug up our neighbors yard. Each time, my mother and I have gone out to show them where the water is bubbling up UNDER THE STREET !! Which any idiot with eyeballs can see. The water company workers each time have rolled their eyes at us and insisted it's our neighbors pool. Now, there are several reasons this can't be true. One -- the neighbors have noticed no spike in their water bill. Two -- the neighbors even went as far as to drain their pool and there was STILL water on our street. Three --- if it WERE someone's pool leaking.. after a year.. the street runoff area would be bleached white by the chlorine which, wasn't the case. The stagnant water was clear and doing nothing to the street but cause it to grow mold.

Now that my mother has called the water department four times (which in one year isn't bad) and got together with the neighbor they're trying to blame this on.... it's making us smile really big right now that there's a backhoe down the street tearing up the street to fix the problem.

That's right guys.. sometime's women AREN'T STUPID !!!!

Stupid Blogger

I had a really nice post yesterday about my experiences in clinic Thursday. But, Blogger went down and ate my post. So, now y'all have to wait until i have the time to re-type it before I can talk about how interesting Thursday was. Oh well. Sometimes that happens with internet sites.

Study study study

I'm finally done grading all the papers for contact lens lab. It took me over four hours to grade both classes. *whew!* I made a whopping 20 bucks doing that.. I love how they barely pay me minimum wage.

I felt really bad having to turn down working the contact lens study tonight. I really do need the money... I just need the study time more. I told Dr Bynum I'd work the next one in two weeks. I don't have anything to do then and it'll be a quick 80 bucks. (yay money!!)

So, now I stare at slides ... and stare at more slides.. and go through Mass Eye and Ear. Fortunately, it looks like an easy day tomorrow in low vision since Dr perez is in London. So, only one patient for me tomorrow with Dr Jose. It'll give me time to finish my referral letter to TSO and study some more for boards. I'm very ready for boards to be over. *sigh*