End of an Era.

Well, tonight is my last shift as a PA student. I'm here in the resident lounge, waiting for traumas to make my night go by. I've finished my paper, my 2 drug summaries and am almost done Typhoning. Tomorrow I walk out the doors and into the great unknown.
So how do I feel about it?
Relieved, unsure, scared, ecstatic, exhausted, fired-up, etc. The same feelings the rest of you have, I'm sure.
I've learned a lot at Legacy - the hours are tough, but I've gotten to do so many procedures, become really familiar with hospitalist medicine and even got some more surgery practice that I actually enjoyed! I'm thankful this was my last rotation.
CJ is pretty thankful this is my last night. Apparently I've been quite grumpy. My plans for the summer are as follows (so far):
This weekend: Sun Valley, ID
Next week: Hillsboro, paper crap
July 4-10: Seattle
July 11-23: Paper
July 24-26: Tri-Cities for Boat Races and an MMA fight
July 27-Aug 7: Paper

Oh, and somewhere in there a great job is going to land on my plate magically.

I hope you're all as twitterpated as I am.

Jen

Party-Pooper

So after trying to rally the 09-ers with Curtis to go to the PA picnic today, I slept through it.

I set my alarm, and from what I can tell, my alarm went off....I just didn't wake up.

I also didn't wake up for the alarm I set to by UFC Portland tickets, and now the cheapest seats available are $200.

Madness.

I'm very disappointed on both accounts.

The uni(handed)bomber

The guy on the news from Salem who blew up his hand...

I (HIPPA)'d his (HIPPA) and helped (hippa) his (HIPPA). His (HIPPA) is MESSSSSED up!

...that's all I'm gonna say.

Lucky Number Seven

That's it...after tonight's shift is over (4.5 more hours), I will only have 7 more shifts left of my whole clinical year. Legacy has been a difficult rotation to end on, because working 72 hour weeks with a nasty case of senioritis is difficult to do. I can only imagine how worthless my clinical project is going to end up being.
I've got some anxiety brewing at the moment about a lot of different things: finding a job, moving to Bend, wondering how CJ's job is going to play out, etc. I always assumed when I graduated that there would be an abundance of jobs to choose from. I hadn't anticipated moving to central Oregon, where I've barely driven through, nevermind made business connections. It's ruffling my feathers a bit, and I'm trying to brush it off, but it is difficult.
One thing I am really looking forward to is the last weekend in June. I will finish my last shift at 6am on that Friday morning and will be on a plane by 1:30pm with CJ heading to Sun Valley, Idaho for Kate's (my stepsis) wedding weekend. Not only will I be heading to a sunny spot with my man, but my dad and sister will be there as well, in addition to other good family and friends, with whom I cannot wait to celebrate and relax. I need some good "life is more than work and money" vibes, and I think this vacation will be just what I need. I'm bummed I'll have to head back so soon in order to complete clinical project week, but the sooner I get that whole mess over with the better.
So, that's me. Sitting around in the Legacy resident lounge, waiting for a trauma or 6am, whichever comes first, running on fumes at this point.
Jen
PS - also excited to see some of you at the PA picnic this weekend?!?!

Hot June Nights....

Finally on the night shift at Legacy...3 weeks away from being done with rotations FOREVER!

Started the night shift last night (Saturday) which was super rough...I hadn't managed to sleep in as late as I wanted to, so I had already been awake for 9 hours before I started my 12 hour shift. We had 11 traumas last night, which means that aside from a 45 minute lull where I ate a sandwich at 9:30pm, I was running around in the ED all night. There wasn't anything too exciting, the usual drunk suspects, including an 18 year old kid, who while celebrating his high school graduation with his friends, accidently got stabbed. I guess that's why mom says "don't play with knives." I sewed up a couple of facial lacs on a drunk guy who kept telling me (in Spanish) that my eyes were beautiful (and then would laugh hysterically for no reason), and I got to do the whole trauma evaluation (head to toe) on the kid who got stabbed, because it wasn't really a trauma (so the attending left almost immediately), and the PA was busy closing up his wound. Overall, a good night. By the time 6am rolled around I felt as though I was actually being more helfpul than not, which was nice.

I went home today and closed all the doors, shut the curtains and slept for 8.5 hours straight. Got up, quickly walked/ran the dog, showered, and back to work I went. Tonight I'm on with a different PA, who I'd initially thought was a bit cold, but as I've gotten to know her better, I've really enjoyed working with her. She's been a good teacher tonight and friendly, so despite no traumas (yet), I've quite enjoyed myself. We did get to go in on one surgery (she assisted, I observed), which was an emergency repair of a ruptured AAA. About 40 minutes into the surgery the time of death was called. The guy had lost so much blood, and the PA told me the rupture in his aorta was huge. His BP got down to 17/13, he was in v-tach and not responding to transfusions, epi or atropine. I'd like to say I was deeply saddened and really affected, but I wouldn't be cut out for this job if I was. I do hope he had the opportunity to say goodbye to his loved ones prior to the surgery.

So, for now I'm signing off and going to try and catch some shut eye...should probably be working on my assignment....

PS....this paper writing thing sounds awful, not looking forward to rotation 10!

Update

My Legacy trauma experience so far:

1) I actually quite enjoy this rotation most times...it was a bit of a steep learning curve coming off a buttload of family practice that seem cushy in contrast, but now that I'm more in the groove, there is a lot to soak in and learn.

2) My dream of looking cute in scrubs was shattered by the horror of how I look when I am forced to get up at 4:30 in the morning. And I have to wear my glasses all the time, and they make me look like I'm 12.

3) Green food cards. Brilliant. Just fantastic. Free food is underrated.

4) Sleep is precious, I go to bed early (when I can block out the fact that it is still sunny outside).

-Jen

Wax Poetic

I should probably make some mention of how we've all come so far and its been a year since we started our rotations.

Let me tell you, I'm just not feeling that poetic.

I want to be done. Truth is though, I'm not ready to be done, which makes the wanting to be done that much worse.

Next up is Legacy Trauma (I think I can, I think I can). I'm either going to love it or hate it, this I know. I've been working on a major attitude readjustment and am now leaning much more towards thinking I'll love it. Why?

I look cute in scrubs. And Sugar-Free Red Bull is cheap at Winco.

BRING IT ON, BITCHES!

Jen