The Final Push...

Yesterday was my last first day of school. Weird. And crazy. Crazy weird? When I started grad school a little over 2 years ago, I thought I was going to be in school forever. Literally forever. I mean, it has been 7 years of college. (I signed up for this?) I thought these 3 years were never going to end. Now, here I am, starting my last term of classes and soon I'll be moving on to the next phase of my life. Of course, I don't feel like I'm ready to be out working with patients under my own license, but maybe I am. Good thing I still have a while before that actually happens. :)

This term we only have 2 classes. Another dose of pharmacology (no pun intended), and a class called Physical Diagnosis Screening. Sounds like fun, huh? Basically we're learning all the other medical screening skills for the day when we get direct access. What does that mean? Well, the goal for our profession is to one day be part of the first round health care professions. In short, people won't need prescriptions to come see us. But, we need to be able to recognize when there are other things going on with someone that is beyond a musculoskeletal condition and know who to refer them to. Or at least when to send them back to their physician.

We have class only 2 days a week:
Pharmacology: Mondays 1-5:30
Physical Diagnosis Screening: Wednesdays 1:30-9:30

We also have a thing called a Professional Portfolio, which consists of multiple "fluff" essays that we have to write about what has made us into the professionals we are, our visions for ourselves, etc. An APU requirement, not a program requirement. And trying to wrap everything up for our thesis. I'm hoping to find a renewed sense of motivation to push through this final 9 weeks. It was almost easier when I was busier beyond belief.

Update on Jeff's knee: no torn meniscus. I was wrong. Well, there's "some junk" in there, but I guess not really badly torn. (This is from Jeff) So he's now a victim of physical therapy (muah ha ha) for 6 weeks, and we'll go from there. No surgery though. Let's just get this all finished up so we can have fun in Hawaii.

Happy Earth Day. Ironic how it's raining and making everything green. I'll leave you with a little something on how Disneyland stays "green".