Dora...maybe next year

unfortunately Dora did not happen :(  Don't ask, its a sensitive subject :)  Not really, I just didn't dress up.  I will use the idea sometime.  Anyone need a Dora for a birthday party?

Gold Fish

What a stupid pet!  They are dirty and TOTALLY boring, and I have one.  Why you might ask?  I agreed to "babysit" the thing in July while one of my friends went on vacation for two weeks.  Now it is November and it is still living with me.  I was dealing ok with the unwanted houseguest until I was cleaning its bowl the other day.  I was cleaning the rocks in the bottom and wasn't using my brain and before I knew it some of them fell into my garbage disposal!  CRAP!  I don't know how to get them out and I am afraid when I turn it on it is not going to go well.  

How long is this thing going to live?  It is already over 2 years old.  I am not new to having goldfish as pets, I won my fair share at South Weber Days and the like in elementary school and NONE of them lived longer than a few months.  Has this fish found the fountain of youth?  

Dora the Explorer?

I want to be Dora the Explorer for Halloween.  I know, I know, it is already 4:00 pm on Halloween and you are thinking I should have started planning this before now.  Oh well, so is the life of a LAZY medical student.  This is a totally dorky idea but I have been brushing up on my basic spanish words just in case I find a household item that may need identifying.  

This should be fun.  She actually had a really simple costume and for all of you who remember my "first grader" red backpack it seems to have found a place where it just might come in handy.

Pictures to follow if I really decide to go through with it...do you think people will know who she is?

Will Dec 12 ever come?

School is not my favorite right now.  I actually like the stuff we are learning but I just can't wait to get a break.  Thankfully we get Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving and then just a couple weeks until winter break!  

In other news, my condo remodel is complete (as of 2 weeks ago).  It is so nice to have all new paint and floors and to have my house really feel like my own.  

No boy news...I add this because it seems to be a hot topic :0  There isn't even anyone I am interested in...that never happens :)

Wow...reading this makes me feel like I live in a world of monotony (that looks wrong...is it spelled right?).  Oh well, I think it is better that way!

NEUROANATOMY IS OVER!!!

Yesterday was my final for neuroanatomy!  That class was way interesting but I am glad it is over.  Neuro block is over a week from friday.  Just one more test and on to learn about hematology (blood) which should be awesome (not!)  

For those of you who read this and live in Utah you should go see Body Worlds before January when it leaves.  It is not gross, I promise and awesome.  Especially the babies.  That was my favorite part.  

This year of school has made me feel TOTALLY out of the loop.  I hate it.  Update your blogs because I read them when I am bored in class.  

Half way through Neuro block....

Today we had test #2 in our neuro block.  I seriously can't believe all the stuff we have to know, but if anyone has schizophrenia or bipolar I can properly diagnose them...let me know if you are in need of my services :)

I feel like I don't have a life...

I am going to New York this weekend for a conference though which should be fun!  

Well...that's about it...

School, I am over it

My first day of school came and went.  We were told we should expect to study at least 55 hours/week.  Med school may be harder than I thought.  With that said, get ready for another long hiatus from my blogging (not that I really have a whole lot to blog about...see my prior posts if you don't belive me).  

Wish me luck!

School starts tomorrow...

My second year of medical school officially starts at 8am tomorrow.  We start with neuro block.  Everyone I have talked to says it is really hard, so I guess we will see how it goes.  We start with neuroanatomy, physiology, neurology, pathology, and pharmacology, and to top it off, our first test is one week from friday...good times!  

Wish me luck!

25 things for my next 25 years

I turn 25 on Sunday and it is totally freaking me out, so I though I would come up with 25 things I want to do in the next 25 years... (not in any particular order)

1. Finish Medical School
2. Get married
3. Have kids (4 perhaps)
4. Go to Africa
5. Scuba in New Zealand
6. Learn to play an instrument (I am not sure I am capable but who knows)
7. Go to cooking school (maybe one of those in Italy or something!)
8. Run a marathon
9. Learn spanish (again)
10. Travel through South America
11. Finish my residency (in whatever that may be)
12. Give back to the community
13. Learn to manage my stress better
14. Scrapbook
15. Figure out what is really important to me...
16. Spend lots of time with my family
17. Do research on something that matters
18. Watch my kids grow up
19. Help them to reach their dreams
20. Appreciate my parents more
21. Learn to ski better
22. Skydive
23. Travel, travel, travel
24. Work hard to better other peoples lives
25. Live well so I can be around another 25 years!

Cheers to getting old! :)

My second patient...

This could be an interesting summer...I enrolled patient number two in my study today, and new interesting problems arose!

My patient was at Huntsman Cancer Hospital today and he was scheduled for surgery at 8:45 this morning so I got up early and was at the hospital by 6:00 am. This would not have been so bad if I had not stayed up until 3:00 am due to a fun date and not being able to sleep because my allergies are horrible, but that is another story.

Anyway I arrive at the pre-op room and go in and talk to my patient. He is a great guy, really funny and way nice. 8:45 rolls around and the patient before him (who was scheduled until 8:30 am) was still in the room.

I went in the room to talk to the Anesthesiologist and the CRNA (certified registered nurse anethsitist) about the study. The anesthesiologist was in the hall and he knew all about the study but he told me to go tell the CRNA so she would know what to do. I had never met her before and after my first experience with her I wish I could have kept it that way....are you seeing a theme for this week Natalie vs. Nurses? She was rude and acted like it was this huge burden to follow the two settings specified for the ventillator on the protocol and if I had a nickel for every eye roll I got from her I would be a rich girl!

Anyway she was a jerk but I dealt with it and when I came out the clinical nurse coordinator was laughing at me, apparently it is not a joke that this lady is a total b@&%$! I guess I better get used to it.

Then the waiting began...by 10:00 am the first patient was still in the room and I had to go do other stuff, so I called the Anesthesiologist at 1:00 pm to see how the case was going (it is a 5-6 hour surgery) and he informed me that they had not even started yet!!! FUN!!! To make a long story short, my patient finally got into the OR at 3:00 pm, over 5 1/2 hours late, and so here I am waiting for him to get done so I can follow him post op for an hour and I should get home about 10 pm. Good times, nothing like 16 hours of sitting around and waiting!

I am sure this will get better, but it is quite humerous to me now...how else would I want to spend my summer? Verbal abuse from nurses and waiting all day for a surgery is my definition of living the dream :)

I hope you enjoy my pain, I hope to have more of a life soon so you don't just hear about my research study, but for now that will have to do! Look on the bright side, at least I am blogging!!!

My first patient...

Yesterday I enrolled my first patient in my reseach study. I was totally excited and nervous at the same time. I got to the hospital about 7:00 am, changed into my scrubs so I would look legit and went to talk to the patient. As soon as we got in the room she started talking. He told me everything! I knew all about her, her life, her kids, her medical problems, you name it, she told me. Anyway after ~20 minutes she let me and the clinical research nurse introduce ourselves and we told her about our study and to my surprise she told me she would do it (after explaining to me why she was such a good reseach candidate).

My project was going great until I arrived in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) where the patients go right after surgery before going to their room or being discharged. Then, everything sort of fell apart. One of the nurses was just plain rude to me and told me my project was stupid and it was never going to work, although everyone else seemed to think it would, and the nurse taking care of my patient gave her so many drugs (unnecessarily in my mind) that the part of my project that was supposed to be completed in the PACU was pretty much impossible.

This is supposed to be a learning experience I guess, and I can tell you I LEARNED A LOT! I learned to control my temper and not tell the nurse where to go :)

Anyway, I am getting ready to follow up with my patient and start all over tomorrow with a new (hopefully two) patient(s). Hopefully the PACU experience goes a little better!

White Coat Ceremony

I have decided to start at the beginning of my first year of medical school and work back to the present for my blog. I know I am going to want to remember this stuff later, so while I sit in my office waiting for something exciting to happen, I figured I would go back to the time this awesome journey began....

Each year before the first year class starts classes there is a white coat ceremony. This year it was held in Libby Gardner Hall in President's Circle at the University of Utah, but it is usually held at Kingsberry Hall. Anyway, this is where we recite the Hippocratic Oath and get our first white coats, and stethoscope.


Dr. Larry Reimer, the dean of curriculum spoke as well as Dr. David Renner a Neurologist we will have in our neurology block next year. Dr. Renner is a great speaker and he talked about how scared he was while delivering his first baby. I don't know if any of you know this, but I am ABSOLUTELY terrified of having to deliver a baby. I always tell everyone I just know it is going to be slippery and I am going to drop it, and then what? Opps, sorry I dropped your baby? I am sure that would go over well! Anyway, everyone I tell this too is like "oh no that would never happen, thats nothing to worry about." I was starting to feel like a freak, and then, Dr. Renner professed it was his biggest fear too! Now I know that probably won't happen, but mark my words when 3rd year rolls around I finally have to do it, I will report back and let you all know if there is even an ounce of a chance it could happen!

Now back to the ceremony....it was time for the white coats. You know, I thought people who make it to medical school are supposed to be smart! Apparently the deans office has a few too many instances where this was not the case. We had to practice walking across the stage before the real thing and Amanda, the queen of the deans office lectured, warned, and threatened us with our lives if we got to the Dean on the stage and our coats were buttoned so he looked like an idiot trying to get it on us, we would live to regret it! Anyway, here are some pictures of me getting my coat (I listened well and it all went smoothly!)

After the ceremony there were refreshments and then we went to the Spaghetti Factory at Trolley Square.

Thanks Mom, Dad, Sean, Grandma, and Tobi for your support!!!

Ireland

For my spring break Sean (my brother) and I decided to go to Ireland. He works for Jet Blue and they just started a partnership with Aer Lingus, an Irish airline so tickets were less than $100 round trip. We figured we could not miss out on a deal like that, and off we went!

I had the delight of being surrounded by a bunch of jr high and high school kids on the way there. They were totally crazy and we flew all night so needless to say when we got there I was tired. Nevertheless, we got off the plane around 5:00 am, took a bus from the airport into Dublin, and found our hotel. The guy at the front desk could not find our reservation so we sat in the restaurant in the lobby and waited until the receptionist showed up at 8:00 am. When she finally got there, we gave her our bags, ate a quick breakfast in the restaurant and we were off to explore Dublin. We had hoped we could check in early but there were not any available rooms so we made the best of it!

We started off the day walking through a beautiful park in the middle of Dublin. Dublin is a pretty small town, especially considering I spent a few days in NYC before, and we figured out we could walk it in a couple of hours. It is surrounded by the River Livvy which drains into the ocean, and the architecture is amazing. The buildings are all hundreds of years old and Dublin houses the oldest college in Ireland, Trinity College. It is a really small school, but it makes Dublin feel like a college town. Here are some pictures of the buildings with in the college. The streets are all cobblestone and the library houses all the ancent Irish books and manuscripts:



After touring the college we took a half day tour around the coast. It was nice to sit and listen to the tour guide, but I had a hard time not falling asleep! We drove through cute neighborhoods and along the beaches with our final destination being............................

I have been tagged...

ABC Tag...
A-Attached or Single? Single
B-Best Friends? That's a tough one
C-Cake or Pie? Both!
D-Day of Choice? Saturday
E-Essential Items? Water bottle
F-Favorite Color? Green
G-Gummy bears or worms? Worms...they are a staple
H-Hometown? South Weber, UT I guess
I-Favorite Indulgence? Navajo Tacos lately
J-January or July? July
K-Kids? I hope soon :)
L-Life isn't complete without? Family and Friends
M-Marriage date? TBD
N-# of brothers and sisters? 2 brothers
O-Oranges or apples? Apples
P-Phobia or fears? The dark, loud noises in the dark, scary movies, haunted houses, get the idea?
Q-Quote? " Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure."
R-Reason to smile? Getting up in the morning
S- Superman or Wonder Woman? WONDER WOMAN!
T-Tag someone? Everyone I talk to has already done it!
U-Unknown fact about me? I hate eggs
V-Vegetable? Mashed potatoes
W-Worse habit? Procrastinating
X-X-Ray or Ultrasound? neither...
Y-Your favorite food? Lasagna lately
Z-Zodiac Sign? Cancer

100 Things

I loved this idea from Ashley's page! Let's see if I can think of 100 things!

1. I just finished my first year medical student at the University of Utah
2. Lately I have been thinking I want to do something in peds
3. I love cheesecake
4. I am doing research with the Anesthesiology department this summer
5. I live in Salt Lake City
6. I would love to go on "What not to wear"
7. I secretly want a nose job but would probably never do it
8. I wear flip flops until there is too much snow on the ground and people start to look at me funny
9. I can't wait to have kids
10. I may die single
11. I am starting to love pilates
12. I crave ice cream daily
13. Sometimes I don't think I am smart enough to be in medical school
14. I love to run ouside
15. I live for warm weather
16. I am addicted to zip up hoodies
17. pedicures
18. greek food
19. and pencil skirts
20. I love ice cream
21. I want to go to culinary school
22. I can't miss One tree hill
23. Prison Break
24. Ace of Cakes
25. Brothers and Sisters
26. or Desparate Housewives
27. I am afraid I will be alone forever
28. I love to learn
29. I drive a Nissan Rogue
30. I love the musical "Wicked"
31. and I can sing every song on the sound track
32. I like to try new recipes
33. My personality is sometimes overwhelming
34. Sometimes I am not sure who my true friends are
35. I want to learn to rock climb
36. make ecliars
37. belly dance (started this a few weeks ago)
38. play an instrument
39. and learn to speak spanish (again)
40. I would love to travel to Australia
41. New Zeland
42. Scotland
43. Denmark
44. Ireland (check)
45. and Africa
46. I am a chicken and do not like scary movies or stories
47. I used to like rollercoasters but now they make me sick
48. I think I am a good listener
49. I need to get in better shape
50. I am considering getting extensions for my hair
51. I have a consultation next week for lasik
52. I am a home body
53. I love to talk on the phone
54. I miss my friends and family that have moved away
55. I wish I could spend more time with my friends
56. I have a blackberry and I am attached to it at all times
57. I love to be tan
58. My Ipod only has ~50 songs on it
59. I can't ever remember who sings songs to download them
60. I am not very good at blogging
61. I love to read my friends blogs to stay up on what is going on in their lives
62. I like to watch movies at home
63. The last movie I saw in a movie theater was "Sex and the City"
64. I fall asleep in movie theaters sometimes
65. I need to get better about reading my scriptures
66. I want to move somewhere warm
67. I can't wait until I can treat patients
68. I need to eat better
69. I can go to the store 3 times a week and still have nothing to eat
70. I like pink starburst
71. and twizzlers
72. I have a Diet Coke addiction that I am working on kicking
73. I wonder where I will end up living
74. I don't like to do laundry because I never feel like I have accomplished anything
75. I love to take baths
76. My mom is one of my best friends
77. I wish my brothers lived closer
78. I like to go to lunch with friends
79. I can't wait until I actually get to see patients in the hospital
80. Sometimes I wish I had gone to medical school somewhere else
81. I love to listen to my grandma's stories about her childhood
82. My favorite movies are for the love of the game
83. dumb and dumber
84. Steel Magnolias
85. Fever Pitch
86. and any good chick flick
87. I am a hopeless romantic
88. I enjoy real conversations
89. I feel like a lot of the people in my life are superficial
90. I like to go to bed early
91. Express is my favorite store
92. Earings make my ears hurt
93. I like necklaces and big rings
94. My favorite places to eat are Emigration Market
95. California Pizza Kitchen
96. Aristos
97. and Crown Burger (best hamburgers!)
98. I am glad my parents are close and supportive
99. I crave pizza a lot but don't really like it that much
100. I like pickels and peanut butter

That was hard! Hopefully you learn a little something about me you didn't know before!