Round 1: Kyle heads to work (last day of work! woo hoo!), Jasmin heads to the eye doctor for her contact fitting. I chose this doctor because my good friend, Mackenzie, sees her and says she's fabulous. Let me tell you: she is nothing short of wonderful! Now I have a great ophthalmologist (for my icky eyes) and a great optometrist (for my contacts)! Not only that, but my new prescription came in a 10 day (I wear daily lenses) sample, which means there's no rush to order new ones since I have enough for the Honeymoon!
Round 2: Clinical skills Complete Physical Exam. What does that mean? Well, it means I had 30 minutes to do a complete physical exam on a standardized patient - head to toe. This was our first clinical assessment of the year, and my main man (i.e. guinea pig) was stuck in Mexico! I didn't think this would be an issue...but I definitely hadn't run through the motions since my last practice session with the standardized patient was cut short...and it showed. First of all, my patient seemed depressed. I'm sorry, but if I have a patient that seems depressed...I'm not going to start with a physical exam. I wanted to reach out and talk to her, but I was timed and we weren't even supposed to be taking the history or anything today...strictly the physical exam. So I tried to push through, but all of a sudden I was laying her down on the bed to look at her jugular venous distention. In my head I thought what are you doing?! You haven't done the chest exam yet! So I made a note of that and decided to proceed to the abdominal exam since she was already laying down. Let me pause. Everyone has a way of doing things. There may be a certain way you put the dishes in the dishwasher, or a certain way you fold laundry. Physicians have a certain way of going through the motions, as well. Since I haven't had very many opportunities to go through all of the motions, it's hard for me to remember them unless I do them in my order. Resume. So once I had skipped the chest exam, my next steps made less sense. I felt for her femoral pulses. After that, I would normally check her carotid pulses and then her pedal pulses (i.e. go to neck and then go to feet). After this, I would start at the head and go to the toes with a wisp of cotton to test sensation. Instead, I went from femoral pulse to carotid pulse, and then stopped to do the chest exam. Not a problem - perfectly done. However, since my whole flow was thrown off, I then checked her pedal pulse and tried to remember what happened next. I decided to go with the whole "inspect hands and upper extremity joints." What this means is: I had skipped the entire sensory portion of the exam. Without doing the wisp of cotton thing (3 points for face, upper limbs, & lower limbs), I then didn't have my cue to check her sense of position in her feet or vibratory sense in her ankle. You see, by being thrown out of sync...I missed 5 items out of the 76 that were on the exam. After finishing everything in 15-17 minutes, I felt like something was wrong. So I tried to explain to her everything that we did, and then realized it was just awkward. I didn't want to get points taken off, so I looked over all the tools to make sure I had used them (if I hadn't touched the reflex hammer, that would mean I hadn't checked reflexes - 6 items). Everything looked good to go so I concluded the session and headed to the hallway. After thinking everything over in my head, it clicked. Unfortunately, they don't let you go back and test more things (like you would be able to in the normal hospital/practice setting). This whole situation really upset me - not because of the points (it was only worth 8 points and very little of our final grade) - but because this was something I had been very good at over the past year and a half. Clinical skills was something I either did perfectly, or at least above average. This class was the one thing I could do well in medical school, so it was very upsetting so see that I could even fail at that (not literally, but you get the point). Trying to search deep for a happy point: this was the first time in my life that I have seen an optic disc!!! Not only in one eye - both eyes! It was magical; I wouldn't mind having pictures of tasteful optic discs in my office someday. Art!
Round 3: I was very upset about my skills session, so when our new dinnerware arrived at the front door I was less than thrilled to have to lug that big 43lb box up our stairs. I noticed a Zappos box, too, and was very confused by it. I didn't order anything...and Kyle hadn't mentioned purchasing anything... I figured it must be something to do with his new work boots (which he ordered from there before he left). Now back to that 43lb box. I am not a fragile little girl. Ok, I might be little, but I'm strong. I knew the package was going to be 43 pounds. I thought - no big deal, that's less than I used to bench press in high school (I had to weight train for soccer). What I didn't take into account was how big that box would be. I figured it would be a heavy compact box. Not a giant box with another box (or two? I haven't even opened it yet) inside of it! As you enter our house, there is a little landing and then it's straight up the stairs into our living room. I maneuvered the box onto the landing and up a couple stairs so that I could close the door. Then, the box was between me and the stairs...and there was no way for me to go back up the stairs without taking the box with me. There were many moments of panic which were followed by moments of "I'm going to get this up the stairs even if it kills me - hoo rah!" I was almost able to just carry it up the stairs, but the area I was holding started to break and the last thing I wanted was for our new dinnerware (i.e. fragile! breakable!) to be totally ruined before we could even see it. I was able to get my legs under the box (literally crouching with my legs under the box) and then I moved slowly up the stairs, my back to the wall, box sitting on my legs, legs acting as hydraulics to get the box from one step to the next. It was ridiculous. I almost lost my balance and toppled backwards with the box on top of me. I was angry by the time I got to the top. Oh, by the way - that little Zappos box was in the way the whole time. See, I'm lazy. I didn't want to leave the Zappos box at the bottom of the stairs and have to walk back down to get it...so I made the bad decision of trying to take it up with me and the obese box. Anyway, I made it to the top and have left the giant box at the top of the stairs. It can just stay there until Kyle comes home tomorrow. Maybe I'll move it into the living room...but I'm going to wait to open it with him.
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| The giant box at the top of the stairs. |
Round 4: After I was settled at the top of the stairs, I grabbed the Zappos box and shook it again. I couldn't figure out what it would be. It was sent to Kyle...and then I realized...two nights ago was when we had been talking about dresses and he was ready to order me one from Zappos! So I jumped up, ran to the kitchen, ripped open the box, and sure enough - there was the dress I wanted! It instantly melted away all the sadness and anger from the past two hours. I know I should have just said some prayers, but this was a pretty great alternative. ;) I tried to snap a photo of me in the dress, but unfortunately we don't have a floor-length mirror and I am alone so this is the best I could do:
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| Puma Dress |
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| One happy wifey! |
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