PA school - All done, time to get to work

[Dino]

Thanks Troy!

[Dino]

All done for now. One more semester to go and then it's time for a year of clinical rotations! I can't tell you how much I look forward to treating patients again instead of sitting in a classroom.   

I'm going to take it easy for the next two weeks. I'm beat. 

[Dans 68]

Well done!   

Dan

[Dino]

Thanks Dan!   

[Chad L. Magee]

How is school going, Dino?  I have been off the site for a bit of time, so I thought I should check to see how things are progressing with your studies...

[Dino]

Hey Chad! Thanks for checking in! I hope all is well with you.   

School's going great! I had a bit of a rocky start with one of my courses early on but I got back on track. I'm now in the third and last semester of the didactic year so it appears there's a light at the end of the tunnel after all!   

We have been seeing a steady increase in hands-on training as we are working with standardized patients a lot. These are volunteers in the profession, or pre-pa students. It's not the same as working with actual patients, but it's a great learning tool nonetheless.

[Chad L. Magee]

Good to hear that it is going well for you.  I moved to a different state last semester, so I really did not have much time on my hands.  I like it much better than what I was dealing with before...

[68 BENGAL R/T]

Hey Dino,
        Glad to hear your semester ended well and it sounds like your rested and looking forward to your next semesters.
        your doing great - keep it up.  I never asked before, but what was your occupation in your previous life that lead you
        to want to become a PA?
Chris

[Dino]

Thanks Chad! I'm glad to hear life has improved! Where did you move to?

Chris I worked in rehab; first as a physical therapy aid and later as a certified orthotic fitter with orthotics and prosthetics. I worked with several PAs over the years and always thought they had the best job of them all. I never considered med school because the work/life balance doesn't work for me, but it does as a PA. When I went back to school in 2010 it was with the idea of becoming an orthotist/prosthetist but that changed when I started comparing it to PA jobs.

We're in the last didactic semester now. It'll be intense as usual but that's okay. After the semester we'll have a 3-4 week intense boot camp where we get prepped to go out in the real world, meaning tons of practical exams. Then it's time to go on clinical rotations from 05/17 - 04/18. With a bit of luck I may even have some time in there to work on the car!

[Chad L. Magee]

I'm in Denver now...

[Dino]

Ooo pretty up there if not a tad chilly. 

[Chad L. Magee]

It can be.   We are getting snow showers today (up to 5" possible), so it was slick walking to work this morning.  As strange as it may seem, I did not bring a car with me when I moved here.  There was a 6+ month waiting list for parking spaces at my apartment building, plus finding an open parking spot even with a permit is a *%&#!  At least I am getting some good exercise walking everywhere I need to go.  Last Saturday, I probably walked at least six miles getting my shopping done before the winter storm was to hit...

[Dino]

Getting some good exercie AND not having the stress of owning a car in a big city sounds really good for your health! Just don't slip and fall. 

[Chad L. Magee]

Trying not to.  The mornings are the worst for black ice, as you cannot see it on the sidewalk.  Good thing Denver is going to have some 50 degrees F days this week...

[Dino]

We've had a few of those days but we're back in freezing territory now!

It's been an interesting semester so far. We've been studying endocrine and we've started some neurology. The latter is going to be the bulk of the material for the next 6 weeks or so and this stuff ain't the easiest!

Endocrine is pretty damn cool but the exams were not easy. Well as if any of them are.   
I kicked ass on the pharm exam and we took a patho exam today that I feel pretty good about. It's nice to have a strong start. Almost there, I'll be done with this semester in 3 months. Then we'll do a 3 week intense boot camp where we'll be prepped to go on rotations. And then finally we can go out and get some actual experience!..and maybe some time to work on this damn car of mine.   

[Chad L. Magee]

I hope all goes well for you this semester!  I got to teach an Organic I Lab today about separations using solvent polarity and recrystallization techniques.  Two of my favorite molecules to get the point across about polarity differences are CHCl3 and CCl4.  Since you are in the medical area, you should really know what they are and what they do without googling them. (Hint: they had different medical uses over the years.)....

[Dino]

Aww man you're making me think back now and without looking even! Pretty sure the first one is chloroform and the second is definitely carbon tetrachloride because we were talking about the latter one in class not that long ago. There's a lot of very interesting compounds that we touch upon, but usually it's very briefly. We don't go anywhere near the depth as we did in organic chem. We are all clinical based now. I do miss the chemistry sometimes.

Excellent news that you're teaching! I can see myself becoming a teacher at the end of my career.   

[Chad L. Magee]

OK, you got their names correctly.  Now what do they do?....

(Hint: One of them used to be a drink of choice of some alcoholics near the end of their lives a century ago.)

[Dino]

Drink of choice?? You got me there!

I know chloroform as an anesthetic, and we talked about carbon tetrachloride as a very potent hepatic poison. Anyone drinking the latter to push that cirrhotic liver over the edge?

[Chad L. Magee]

Back in the early 1900s, there were people who mixed chloroform with their drinks to help them get their buzz on.  Some of them got to the point that they were drinking strait chloroform.  However, the habit eventually caught up with them....

As for carbon tetrachloride, it sometimes was used as a substitute for formaldehyde to preserve specimen samples many years ago.  It worked quite well in that it tended not to bleach out the sample colors as much over time.  But, the production (and most usage) of CCl4 was eventually banned from many places because the C-Cl bonds can be broken by exposure to uv light in the higher levels of the atmosphere, causing the formation of free radical species.  (Freon-12, a CFC molecule, is a relative of carbon tetrachloride and met the same fate.)  Unfortunately, the free radicals catalyze the conversion of ozone over to regular oxygen many times over.  This process caused the dreaded ozone hole in the atmosphere that you occasionally hear about.  As you mentioned, carbon tetrachloride is a toxic poison to the liver, as well as being carcinogenic due to the potential for free radical formation...

I used to have to harvest CCl4 for a professor who had been given many specimens by a local medical school for disposal.  That was not a fun job to do by any means.... 

[Dino]

Thanks for that Chad! Always happy to learn. 

Drinking chloroform...that's just...wow.

That job you did seems to scream for a hazmat suit!

[Dino]

Week 6 of the final didactic semester and still haven't failed any exams. I'm on a roll here! 

2 more days of school and I will have 9 days off! Woohooo! Sure I have to study during that time but I will definitely take the cover off the Charger and at least do SOMETHING with it.

[Dino]

4 more weeks of classes followed by 1 week of finals and the didactic year will be over. Man I'm tired... I feel like a zombie minus the taste for brains.

After finals I'll have a week off, followed by 3 weeks of "boot camp" where we'll be prepped to go on clinical rotations. I'm a bit nervous to go out there but I can tell you I'm very happy this didactic nightmare is almost over. What a year this has been!   

[Dans 68]

Great to hear! A good trip you are on...it is inspiring to follow your journey.

Dan

[Dino]

Thanks Dan! I'm actually considering writing the whole experience down so prospective students can see what it's like to go through this. I've never done a blog before.