-S to -C

I passed the boards! If feels great. I'll be completely honest. I really wasn't sure when I left the exam suite if I was going to pass. It was pretty tough. I have read that there are two versions of the exam. One slightly harder one, and another that is slightly easier, and exam questions are weighted. So you don't get a percentage at the end as your score. You get a number that is calculated. It took me the entire 6 hours (including breaks) to finish, and it never takes me the whole time to finish an exam. Boy was I tired after all that. I came home and crashed, hard, for about an hour and a half. But it is over, and thankfully I don't have to worry about it for the next 5-6 years!

All in all I actually did well on the boards. I think the reason I left the exam frustrated was because I could only remember the questions that I was sure I got wrong. It was hard for me to even remember any of the questions I was sure I got right. It was sort of the same feeling I had when I left my interview for PA school. I was so focused on the things I "should have said" that I thought it didn't go so well.

Oh well. I passed, and that is all that matters. Now I am just in a waiting game... and it isn't fun. The hospital I will be working at doesn't really count the temporary license as anything. (A fact I wish I would have known before paying the money for one.) And they also want a hard copy of my certificate from NCCPA. Those things are in the works, I just have to wait for them to get to me in the mail. I have done everything else I need to do to start. Now I am just sitting around doing basically... nothing. That might sound like a great thing, but consider this. I have been BUSY every day for the last 24 months. I have always had something I could be studying or brushing up on for something related to school. All of a sudden that all comes to a screeching halt, and it is weird... and... boring. Haha. I am soooo glad to be done with school. I just wish I could find a hobby or something to occupy my time until I start work. Oh well, I guess I'll have to get over the fact that I can sleep in everyday and do whatever I want... and not feel guilty about watching the TV for more than 20mins or playing video games at all! My life is pretty rough right now.... :-)

Til next time,
M-R

Graduated

Hello all,

It has been a really, really long time since I have posted. To those who were following along, I apologize. The last several months have been tough. Not only have they been tough mentally, but physically and emotionally. My loved ones have sacrificed a lot during this time, and I have been feeling like the last two years I was on a deserted island or something. Every time I got a chance to relax for a minute and get on the computer I only wanted to do something brainless because I could not think anymore. Therefore, writing in my blog became less and less of something that I wanted to do.

The good news is, I made it!!!! I graduated and got my big boy coat! Now all I have to do is take the PANCE next week, hopefully pass, and I don't "have" to study for the next 5-6 years. Of course I will be studying everyday. Reading at least an article or getting on uptodate to read about something. But I won't be studying because I have a test to take and I really have to make sure I know the most random knowledge, not necessarily stuff important for patient care, so I can pass. It will be a nice change of pace to read about something because I know it is relevant to my practice and patient, and not because it is on the exam.

Oh! Something I probably should have posted awhile ago: I did get a job! I have had a job for a few months now. I will be working in one of the local hospitals doing inpatient Internal Medicine. I am really looking forward to starting work, and making a paycheck. It will be a far-cry from paying to work ;-)

Anyway, I guess that is it for now. I am looking forward to seeing where this blog goes from here. I think I am planning on continuing to update as I go along. This will give those looking toward PA as a potential career, and those wondering what the first year out looks like, an idea of what they might expect. Good luck to all those finishing up this year too. It feels absolutely amazing!

'Til Then,
M-R

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!

Just wanted to wish everybody a safe and happy holiday. For those of us struggling through PA school, congrats on making it through another semester/rotation! Relax and enjoy the break. As one of my profs once said, when you're on a break BE on a break! We all deserve it, no doubt!

See ya next year!

M-R

We've Crossed the Half Way Point!

Well this post is way, way over due. I dont really know if many people are really following this blog or not, but I guess I will keep typing away. Maybe somebody will come across this sometime.

Anyway, my absence from this blog has been due to the fact that I have a lot of free time on my hands and have been spending it playing my guitar, video games, and spending time with my girlfriend ... .... Yea, yea I know you aren't buyin it, of course that is a lie. I have had my face in the books for the past month and a half now first learning about the kidneys, and then OB/GYN (female-land as my anatomy prof put it)!!

But there is some good news to be shared, we have finally made it to the half way point through the first year!!! That is definitly something to celebrate, and boy did we as a class after our OB/GYN module exam. It feels good to sit back and realize how far my class and I have come in just this short 6 month period. I gotta hand it to my program, it really does a good job. Despite all the bickering, doubt and reisistance on our part, I think I can say that I have finally come to the realization that this is just how things are in PA school. It's stressful, and at times seems impossible, but some how we are getting through it, learning a ton, and slowly but surely becoming clinicians.

Right now we are on Spring break which could not have come at a better time because I was starting to get a bit burned out, crispy even. I know what you are thinking, "Again M-R?" Yes .. again. I swear, it's a wonder that we made it through last semester. We went pretty much straight through until Christmas break (besides the two days we had off for T-Day) and had one of the more difficult modules (Cardio) right at the end before break. No wonder a portion of us were thinking we weren't going to be able to make it. That's a long time going at a constant 150mph with no stops along the way. -- I am enjoying Spring break, even though I did not actually go on a trip. It has been great catching up with friends/family and being able to actually see my GF for longer than a couple of hours before I would go to the library again. Heck, I even got a chance to pick up the ol' guitar and play a few songs. The other thing that we have been working on accomplishing is getting this house back in order. It got crazy there for a little while!! I mean I am no clean freak or anything, but there comes a point when enough is enough and that point came and went, but neither of us had the time to get on it. So that was definitly the first thing to get caught up on.

All in all things are going pretty well. I did really well on the renal exam (the second hardest exam of the year), which felt great and gave me a little boost in my confidence. I did well on the OB/GYN exam as well. I tell ya, I am really glad to be done with that module! The one nice thing about that module was I didn't have any moments where I was thinking, "Crap, I think I have that!!" during lecture :-)

I finished up my last week at the family practice clinic I was at for my mentoring. It was a great 6 weeks, and I am going to miss working with my PA and the rest of the staff, and patients. I hope that the rest of my mentors are as easy going and as great of a teacher as this one was. On my last day, I got to do two knee injections on my own!! That was pretty sweet I must say, and to add to it I didn't hurt the patient when I did it either! I was pretty nervous, but had to keep my poker face on and act like I had done it a thousand times before. -- I am starting to gain some confidence in my clinical skills and decisions, even though that isn't necessarily the point of mentoring. Yet, it still surprises me when I throw out a correct suggestion to my mentor of what a patient may have going on with them or what the plan should be. I swear I am going to catch the person who whispers those ideas in my ear one of these days!! :-)

M-R

And So It Begins

Greetings from my local coffee shop. I am typing this entry on my phone because I thought this place had free wifi and it turns out you have to pay for it. So since I am not going to do that let me apologize now for any misspelled words and aweful grammer.

With that being said hAaappyg NeW yeer! :-) OK, for real this time Happy New Year! Another year come and gone. Well classes started up again this past Monday. The morning before class started my gf had just gotten home from work (she is a peds nurse), and she asked me how I was feeling about classes started again. I was honestly having mixed feelings. Besides the fact that my stomach was upset because it had not required to work before 12pm over break, I was excited, anxious, sad, eeger, and scared outta my mind. I was sad because I knew that school starting up meant that the time I would get to spend with my gf, and friends, was going to be cut extremely short again. It was going to go back to seeing eachother for maybe an hour or so over dinner, if we are LUCKY!

I was excited and eeger because it meant that we would be working and getting closer to graduating. Also this semester we start mentoring. What that basically means is that for one half day a week we work/follow a PA or doc and actually get to start seeing patients and practicing exam skills we know and taking patient histories, and even practice writing orders and diagnosing patients! However, this is also the source of my feeling of anxiety and fear. Wait, you mean you are sending me out into the world?!? Hold it, you want me to see REAL patients and practice on them!?! Hang on, you want me to show my mentor what I am made of and be aggressive enough and put myself in situations that give me opportunities to do this!??! O....K... Ill do my best.

Lets be honest here folks, this is sorta terrifying lol. What if I look like a complete putz and leave my mentor wondering, "Is this kid really in PA school?" What if the patients I see think I am a fool and ask to see the actual PA/doc because I clearly do not know what I am doing? Am I ready for this? I guess I better get ready, because ready or not they are sending me out. If you get sick don't go to the clinic for awhile! :-)

To be honest, I do have those things running in my head, but I am honestly excited and, I believe, ready to get my hands dirty (so to speak). I have been told that it gets better and the more you DO the more comfortable you become. However, I've also been told that if you are not somewhat aggressive it is really to just sit back and sit in the corner watching and never doing. However, that isn't going to help anything. I WANT to get more confident. I WANT to get more comfortable, and I WANT to look back on my mentoring and know that I got out of it everything I could, and sisnt waste any opportunity or chance to learn and improve.

Well, we don't start that for a couple of weeks. Right now there is a more pressing issue and that is that we got a great welcome back gift from our program. We started dermatology, guess what the 'gift' was? Hey, welcome back, how was your break? here's your derm book and oh yea you have A WEEK to learn it, test is next Monday! Talk about not wasting any time, huh? Oh well, what better way to get back into study mode than being forced to learn an entire system in a week? Do you think some of PA school is like an initiation process, kinda like a gang where you get beat up for awhile before they let you in or a frat with hell week? ;-)

Anyway, its too bad that derm is only a week. Not just because I have no idea how I am going to learn this stuff in a week, but because the prof that is teaching this module is awesome! We don't get to have him teach us often because of his heavy involvement in the AAPA, and it sucks because he is a great guy and teacher. Oh well, I guess that's life right?

Until next time, hang in there, keep pushing forward and doing your best, that's all anyone can ask of you.

M-R