dia uno y dos.

First year - check. Week long break that needed to be one more week - check. ROTATIONS!!

Let me tell you about this new chapter in my life. Austin Sinai clinic is a free clinic available to Chicago. Doors open bright smackin' early at 9am and we start to see patients at 1000am. We take care of 4 patient rooms in the front of the clinic. The back of the clinic is taken up by little munchkins not excited to be poked and prodded to put it nicely (it's only day two and I've already learned how to zone out the crying!). Sharif, our preceptor, is also an alum of RFUMS so he's dropped us off the deep end and then thrown a rope after us to help us back up. His teaching skills are exceptional while challenging us to be autonomous and learn as we go. The staff is laidback, fun in their own ways, and quite fiesty by the end of the day, which makes each day something to look forward to. I'm in this round with another classmate of mine, so a friendly face appears in the doorway every morning! Did I mention this is my family med rotation? No? Well, there you go then. Hypertension, diabetes, asthma, school physicals, women's health screens, bacterial and viral infections only scratch the surface of what we have the potential of encountering. Austin Sinai is also involved in a weight loss program and opiate addiction rehabilitation so we see just a touch of everything.

Two days down, six weeks to go!!!
And in the meantime... somebody please fill my noggin with anatomy and suture notes?!?!

More to come as we go folks! Drop a line, say hi, and update me on your life!
luuv.

the itch

I've officially caught the itch to travel! Two of my friends are currently exploring Germany with hopes of adventuring through other parts of Europe if possible. Might I add that they're both on personal travel!!! The countdown's still on for Belize and I'm getting more and more stoked since this will be the start to my tales of international adventures (240 days!!!). Still need to get immunizations galore, prophylaxis and the most important... a passport! No updates yet on flights but I'm debating a straight shot to Punta Gorda or a flight + bus choice.

On an even better note.. the times of sitting in a windowless classroom, studying until information flows out my ears, and trying to sort out a year of eevrything I'm supposed to know is ALMOST OVER! One and a half weeks left which includes a ceremony to get a white coat, pre-boards exam, and MOVING (the latter being probably the best part)! Then one week of testing and I'm on out of town to visit an old friend and explore the east side of the US! Gotta love it..

In lieu of Boondock Saints (my motivation for the week)... The question is not how far. The question is, do you possess the constitution, the depth of faith, to go as far is as needed?

ciao.

life lessons

35 days until family med rotation starts...
25 days until my last final exam of 1st year...
15 days until I relocate to Chicago...
(Not that I'm counting or anything)

Tonight's life lesson from Kate's perspective..
I've learned in the past two weeks that despite life, despite stress, despite whatever rolls you over... you can get by if you ask for a rope, stand back up, and walk with a little stronger stride in your day. They say tough times only make you stronger and I think whoever said that might be right. One year is almost over and I look back at what's happened so far and I'm shocked and amazed. What a rollercoaster, but that's the most accurate description of life right?! Every day I think I discover something more about myself whether it be some new hobby I desire to try or something that I don't really care to have in my life anymore. The biggest thing I've learned in this year of PA school is how to be me and be okay with just that. Although Chicago is considered my actual "home", North Chicago is very distant from that. It's not much of a town excluding the fireplace at Starbucks where I've lived for the last year! I've had moments of thinking I'm going to completely fail out of PA school, sleepless nights of wondering how I'm going to make it through, and moments of complete giddiness realizing that I'm almost done and I can do this! It's a bit of a relief knowing that I am where I need to be right now, that I've found a nitch in something that I can do for the rest of my life, and one piece of my life puzzle that finally fits into place. The rest of the stuff.... well, it'll fall into place sooner rather than later hopefully. Funny how Mom's are always right though, because I'm pretty sure mine's been telling me that since I was a little munchkin and it's taken me almost 25 years to finally listen to her and take it to heart.

Back to studying burns, toxicity, and obstetics for the night (of course, not all related)... philosophical lesson over.

one month later...

So it's been one month since my last blog (SORRY!). RFUMS is getting crazy but the light at the end of the tunnel is shining bright. I'm not sure many of you know but I'm a philanthropy co-chair for our program. This week we're actually hosting a huge event I've been working on for weeks: salsa benefit for Multiple Sclerosis!! Today we've put together a shoe sale with discounted Brian Atwood (Italian designer) shoes and Thursday is the salsa concert. So needless to say, it's been crazy! Lots of last minute, pulling strings, getting everything together... but come Thursday at 9pm - phew!

I've had the adventure urge lately, which isn't helping me study and get through classes but that's spring fever for you! Urban adventure races, backpacking trips, road trips to Miami to visit Chris (who comes home in ONE WEEK!), anything and everything has crossed my mind. AND BELIZE!! I'm actually starting to get excited.. One of the second year students just returned to the US from Hillside with a handful of words of wisdom for us! There are plenty of excursions to take on the weekend - I'm looking most forward to the kayaking. I've had the itch but unfortunately I don't own a kayak around here nor do I live close to a lake quite yet. Someday...

So, needless to say, Belize planning is on the go right now! I have to stop and thank the people who have been such a huge blessing already to me. I never expected anyone to donate and those who have were such a surprise! Thank you to Kim & Jet, Sally, Kate & Ken, Kristen & Jeff, Carol & Galen, and Tony & Helene!! Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Still to come is plane tickets, immunizations, prophylactic medicine (mostly for malaria), and a passport. Currently, tickets are running $680 for a direct flight down there - thanks to the airline economy - but I'm crossing my fingers that those will go down soon! I'll keep you posted as plans develop!

HIGHLIGHTS:
One more month of class until finals..
May 15th - moving to Chicago to the edge of Logan Square and West Bucktown with two great friends of mine in a beautiful 4BR condo with a fireplace!!
http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/apa/1120563505.html
End of April-beginning of May - BIG BRO COMES HOME!!!! :)
June 1st- family medicine rotation starts - it all becomes real finally!

Ciao, and much love...

bagged & intubated

Our Friday classes now consist of three hours of learning clinical procedures that we will hopefully perfect next year in rotations, but for now we just practice on one another and get our mistakes out of the way!
We started with venupuncture (or blood draws) as well as finger pricks, EKG placements, and arterial lines. Moving through a week of practicing injections of normal saline into muscle, subcutaneous tissue, and into other areas was a lot of fun! We will definitely perfect this skill in our pediatric rotation - kids need immunizations!

THIS WEEK THOUGH... we topped it all off learning how to put in an endotracheal tube for intubation! Unfortunately we didn't practice this on each other... but we did practice on models of infants, children, and adults. It takes a lot more force to move the tongue and position the tongue blade to visualize the vocal cords, but you could feel your adrenaline rush starting up the second you assembled the materials and placed the head in the right position. As awful as this sounds, I cannot wait to intubate my first patient!! With a small interest in trauma, I'm excited to just work off of adrenaline and not have to think twice about what I am doing.

One more step towards saving a life!!

less than 3 months... 80 days to be exact!!

ROTATION SCHEDULES CAME OUT!!!!
Tentatively here's the gameplan come June 1st!

1st up - FAMILY MEDICINE
2nd - SURGERY @ Northshore Hospital in Evanston (very excited about this)
3rd - Women's Health @ Alston in Chicago
4th - Internal Medicine in Arlington Heights, IL
5th - Emergency Medicine at Mt. Sinai in Chicago (also very excited about this)
6th - HILLSIDE HEALTH CARE INTL IN PUNTA GORDA, BELIZE!!!!! (Have you heard?)
7th - to be determined - possibly my pediatric rotation or my last elective
8th - to be determined - possibly my pediatric rotation or my last elective

THEN BOARDS!
Then I can save your life... well that's my end-all goal!

More information to come.... and it's all still very tentative possibly!

Only fate will tell..

I think it may be a sign...
Check out the homepage as well - http://www.eddiebauer.com/home.jsp.

Although my Belize trip will not require me to be decked out safari style, it's kind of interesting how they portray a "outfit fit for Belize". I'll be in scrubs during the week and casual lay-low, stay cool gear all weekend for any excursions we run off on. You won't find binoculars hanging from my neck or a safari hat shading my face!

But it's all still about Belize!! :)

kate down under

Hillside Health Care International..
I'll be here (http://www.hillsidebelize.net/) for four weeks in January 2010!

CDC suggests many precautions.. 1:40 adults have HIV/AIDS (yikes!). Thank goodness for universal precautions!!

And to feel like a local, check out everything you could want to know about Belize!
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bh.html

SOOOOOooo EXCITED! :)

So... welcome!
This is my attempt at one, staying in contact with people despite the crazy mess of a schedule of PA school and two, to document all the fun and madness of rotations! Drop a line, say hello, or just kick back and enjoy a little update from me!

And ps. for all of you wondering... andiamo means "let's go" in Italian. Kind of fits huh?