Mickey's Turn-ish!

Alright, I know it's a few days late, but we had a busy weekend and didn't really get the chance to sit down and write. Plus it rained most of Sunday and apparently our internet doesn't like clouds? Anyways, this will be my first chance to post, and since we're halfway (CRAZZZY RIGHT?!!) through the semester, I have quite a bit to talk about.

I'll start with the basics: Classes. I know I've probably been over them countless times by now, but I want to make sure you guys are on the same page when I start ranting/venting/praising one. First the favorites. Clinical Medicine, Physical Diagnosis, Anatomy. Clinical Medicine (Clin Med) to me, is the most applicable to what I'll actually be doing once I get into a clinic, so I soak up everything I can. We basically take the body system by system and cover a majority of the diseases/conditions/symptoms associated with each system. Physical Diagnosis (PD), like the title implies, ties into Clin Med but is much more on the "hands on" side of things. We also have a lab with this class, where I'm learning how to do a complete physical exam on a person (239 items to cover!!) and we've already completed the history portion of it. Our lab instructor (who is also the lecture instructor) is awesome, very much of a mother figure, everyone in our lab LOVES her. Last favorite, Anatomy. Everybody knows we do cadavers, and while it still may gross you out (Kayla included), it's really not as bad as you would think. I've gotten to see some pretty cool things: pacemakers, tumors, etc., and we're doing so much learning while we're in lab that you really never stop to think about the weirdness of it. This past week we got to remove the heart and lungs, this week we start on the abdominal cavity.

Now for the not-so-favorites. Clinical lab methods, while sort of interesting, is mostly confusing, and I question how much I'll ever use it. The same can be said for Health Promotion/Disease Prevention (HPDP). While the instructors are very gung-ho about it, I doubt I'll ever have to use ANY of the stuff we've covered thus far.
Pathophysiology: it's not that I don't like this class, it's just that it's difficult for me to understand and grasp the concepts. I really like the professor, he reminds me a lot of some of the "old school" (Wheeler, Watkins, Noelke, Yarborough) ASU profs I had. The issue is that he teaches the class entirely from between his ears, so lots of times the powerpoints and my book are virtually worthless when it comes to studying. Luckily, I've met with him a couple of times and he's aware of what I'm dealing with in his class and seems to be willing to help.

We've had at least 1 test in each class, and I'm doing as well as anybody thus far. A couple of classes it took actually having a test for me to figure out what I should be focusing on. Thankfully, I still have a strong chance at making excellent grades across the board.
 
Additionally, as part of our Physical Diagnosis lab, we were required to participate in a female breast/pelvic exam, as well as a male genital/prostate exam. Definitely a nerve-racking thought, but once we actually got in the exam rooms (had a classmate as a partner), it was a really neat learning experience. They use standardized patients who have been participating for several years, so it's way more educational than you might think.

Now for a little more exciting stuff
While we're on school, I've gotten the opportunity to get involved in a little bit of extracurricular activities. The main one will be a group called Student Ambassador Society (SAS). SAS is basically a face for the university, acting as a school representative for potential students, alumni, and distinguished guests. It's a good resume builder, and it gives me a chance to possibly bump elbows with some up and ups in the medical profession!!

I think Kayla has already covered it a little bit, but I've managed to work my way into a small study group of students that all live off the Island. We meet every so often, usually before exams, to quiz each other and study together. This study group has also translated into a sort of social group. Last Saturday we got together to watch the OU vs. TX game (embarrassing) at one of the girls' houses, who happens to be an OU alum. We had a good time and actually ended up studying a little bit.

As most of you would expect, I've gotten to do my fair share of fishing since we've been down here. The most exciting up to this point would probably be last Friday. I had walked down behind our apartment complex on a dead end road into a REALLY nice neighborhood. I found access to the lake through a gate to a "community" (there's not any houses inside the gate). It was really windy, so I was trying to keep my back to it or at least across me. I ended up not landing a single fish, but fought with a very LARGE black drum/sheepshead for at least 15 minutes on two different occasions. It was lots of fun, even if I didn't get to touch him. Two things I learned from that fight, 1. ALWAYS be somewhere where you can follow/walk with the fish 2. You WILL lose your fingerprints on your thumb from trying to slow the drag down.
I've also gotten the itch for a kayak (hint, hint!) so that I can get to other places on the lake.

Ok that's enough babbling, I'm gonna try and put some pictures up from school for you guys to see. Love and miss you all, the first time I'll see any of you will be Thanksgiving!

The guys of the class. There's 11 of us! That's 8 more than the last class!!

 All 88 of us for PA week on the steps of Old Red. (Old Red was the original Medical School back in 1891, it's officially known as the Ashbel J Smith Building)

 One of the cruise ships all lit up. I caught this as I was heading home from an evening library study session

 Our monsoon rains from Sunday. It would do this for like 20-30 minutes on and off from 9-3 before it slowed down and rained more consistently the rest of the day

 Some crazy clouds rolling onto the Island from another storm system a couple of weeks ago. I'm on the far west end of the Island in this picture.

 The gator I ran into fishing the lake last week. You can just see his body and most of his tail here, he was probably 4-5 feet!

its October!!

YAY! October is here :) its my favorite month... wonder why ;)

So this week went by crazy fast. I really almost forgot that it was even time to update this thing today! No too much has happened this week... pretty much just school and work... so this blog wont be very exciting. Never-the-less...

first up, micks school. this week mick had two more tests. one on monday and one on wednesday. so, if you are thinking he didnt have time to do anything but study, you would be correct. he litterally gets home from school, relaxes for maybe an hour and we eat... then, hes back to the books till anytime between 10:30 and 12. sounds fun right? however, it at least payed off and he made some good grades on his tests! he did get a bit of a breather after wednesday though, so that has been good!

for the first three days of the week, we were down a teacher in my classroom..... so, even though we did perfectly fine and everything  went well, it took a bit more energy!!most of the week was pretty typical, but on friday we got to have a parade!! this parade was our multicultural parade. so, each class chose a country and we had to make costumes out of paper in the classroom for the kiddos. our class chose brazil.. our costumes looked like the chiquita banana girl! they were SO adorable! we made fruits with glitter and glued them on a big hat for them, then we made arm ruffles out of coffee filters that we painted, and made cut out paper plates painted with glitter and feathers and streamers on them for them to carry. each item was made by the students in class (with our help of course)! one of the other teachers (ms sira) also painted their faces with face paint and glitter. they were sooooo cute!! i wish i could post pictures, but due to some of the school laws i cannot post any pictures of the kids online, so i will have to show you another time. after the parade in the morning the parents brought TONS of food and the rest of the day was pretty much party day! it was a great end to the week except for a four hour training i had to be at this morning. boo.

in other news... our friend hannah and her parents came down on thursday night because she might be going to utmb next year and they came down to tour the school and what not. mick showed them around the island and stuff thursday and then after work i met them all down on the island for dinner! hannahs parents were sooo nice AND bought us dinner! it was great to see a friend and was a fun time!
also, last wednesday i fell victim to the full effect of working at a preschool and got sick. haha. im still sick, but hopefully on the upswing. its just a silly cold or sinus infection type thing... just enough to make me exhausted! but, i have an amazing husband who has cooked and cleaned and taken care of me all week :) hes the best!!!

also, in a church update... we went to the same church again last sunday.. i think we are pretty close to deciding this is where we will stay. we also joined this group called starting point. like i said last week, they dont do sunday school, so they have life groups that meet whenever... but we missed the date for life group sign up... so, starting point was our best option to get involved. basically, starting point is geared towards discovering the story of Christ. so, it mainly targets people who are questioning Christianity or are new Christians and want to learn more. however, it is open to everyone and is a good way to meet people. so, we decided it couldnt hurt to join. we meet every sunday after the service. we LOVED it. it is really cool because our group has a pretty good mix of people who are questioning or new vs. people who have been Christians for a long time. there is one guy in our group who is married to a strong Christian, but has never been a follower himself and is questioning all of it, but is open and wants to learn. there are also two other couples who are brand new to the church scene and this is the first time they have ever been involved with anything in a church. then there is us and a couple of other girls who are actually very active in the church and are doing starting point as a refresher. it is SO cool to be seeing this Bible study from all points of view. first of all, it is always good to go back and talk about the basics and talk about the fundamentals.... but it is also really neat to hear people ask questions about things or make comments about things that we really take for granted as part of the Christian faith. we really feel like this is going to be a neat experience because 1- this will be the first study that we have done together as a couple, even though we have been involved together its always been in seperate groups. 2- we feel like we have a chance to offer some experience from what God has already taught us and hopefully show Christ to the people in our class who dont yet know Him. 3- hearing their questions and comments really makes us go back and look at WHY we believe what we believe and strengthen and inforce what we know to be true about God. weve only had the introductory session and all of this came from it! it is a ten week study, so we are very excited to see what happens!! pray for God to be evident in our lives within this group and for us to be open not only to what God has to teach us, but also that we would be tools for God to reach out to these people!! also pray for everyone in the class that they would be open and soft hearted so that they could hear the voice of God!

that is about all for this week!! we love you and miss you!

ps... i finally got a pay check!! yayyyyy for income!!

-m&k