School's Out

for some more Alice, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHr6GbWPBVQ
(thanks to Malu for the clip)

I find myself in quite a memorable stretch of time right now -- I have officially made it through my didactic year of PA school! I get a small break before starting the next phase of my education, the clinical rotations. I am still in amazement at how fast the time went by -- I'm not sure a year in my life has ever passed so quickly, like a thief in the night. I stand here looking at bulging folders and endless stacks of written 4x6 notecards and can scarcely believe that I somehow covered all of that material. It just doesn't seem possible. It took a few days before I could even really relax and celebrate -- I find that lately I have almost forgotten how to relax and unwind. However, despite my humble leanings, I have to say that I have never been more proud of myself and what I was able to accomplish. There were ups and downs during this last year, to be sure. Countless hours of study, many nervous afternoons waiting for test scores to be posted, many draining finals weeks and the dreaded "hell weeks" that sporadically fell in between finals, early morning lectures that required every ounce of effort to remain attentive and conscious when every fiber of my being wanted to just sleeeeeeep. It wasn't easy, by any stretch of the imagination, but boy was it fun.

I've toyed with the idea of starting a new blog to chronicle my year of clinical rotations -- any opinions from my faithful readers? (that means you, Aaron & Nala) More than likely, I'll just continue with this blog, but maybe change it up a little to signify the next step in my quest for world domination.

And since I got some positive comments from the last installment, here is another Medical Term of the Day: Epistaxis
(this clip demonstrates the most common etiology for epistaxis, as well as a brief illustration of the anterior packing treatment at the very end)