The beginning to an end

Rotations are here!!! For the past 3 years, I have worked very hard to make it to this place in my life. My family has sacrificed alot for me and they have been an awesome source of encouragement throughout this journey in my life. So let the countdown to the finish line begin. In a previous post I listed my rotation schedule and a little about what they are. I would like to post my personal experiences with each so you can see (and I can remember) all the great things I get to do and see. March 1, 2010 was Day 1 at the VA medical center in Jacksonville. This is still my first week but I'm just too excited to tell of all that I have experienced in just 3 days. After having to drive to Gainesville just to get an ID and fingerprinted at 6am, I made it to my rotation at 10:30ish am. I met all the wonderful people in the pharmacy, including my great preceptor and wonderful pharmacy resident. For monday and wednesday afternoons, I get to teach a diabetes glucometer class to the veterans. Basically I encourage them to have a good handle on their diabetes and then I get to teach them how to use their new glucose meter. I watched the pharmacy resident teach the first class on monday and she would say some pretty cool things to help the veterans remember what to do. My favorite is when she would teach them how to use the finger pricker lancing device. She would say ok guys, its just like loading a gun and you all can do that, "You gotta load it (put the needle in), cock it (pull the back part back), and shoot it (push the little button)." One of my favorite repsonses so far has been "Is 393 a good reading?"... welllllll.... so I used my handy dandy ptx interviewing skills and said hmmm, when did you last eat? WHAT did you eat? Response: 2 cheeseburgers, a small fry, a large coke (i asked if it was diet and they responded "I filled it 3/4 with regular coke and then topped it off with diet, does that count?" hehe, I'm gonna love this diabetes class. So what else do I do? On wednesday's I sit in at either the GI clinic or the Wound care clinic. Today it was all about wound care. I saw some of the nastiest, smelliest, oozing, fungified feet around! I had a very weak stomach watching the podiatrist clip, trim, and clean out these wounds. Next week I will not be eating breakfast before I go to the wound clinic. Next month I will experience the GI clinic and will sit in during colonoscopy procedures. At the end of the week I will get to experience mental health. We will have topic discussions on all kinds of different mental health conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and many others. I will also get to sit in on visits of schizoprenia patients and watch them get depot injections of their medications and use some more interviewing skillz. And the best part is my hour and a half lunch break!! Yeah thats right, an hour and a half!! So thats just a little bit of what I'm doing. I dont have much to do or research once I get home, but I come home so exhausted that I either take a nap till like 7 or I'm in bed by 9.

One thing I am really enjoying about this new adventure is I am able to spend more time with David, my family and friends. Over the past 3 years I have not had a lot of time to just sit and relax and spend quality time with the people I care about most. I am excited to finally get some freedom back. David and I have started teaching the single/college/career small group in our church and we have an amazing group and we are looking forward to what the Lord is going to be doing in our lives and in others. We love studying God's Word and sharing with people around us.

Update from a previous post:
DAVID GOT AN INTERVIEW WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA COLLEGE OF PHARMACY!! This doesn't mean he is definetely in but it is the very last step to being accepted. His interview is April 9, 2010 at the Jacksonville campus. We are praying that if it's God's will, He will open the door.

Thank you for your prayer's and ecouragement. We are so blessed.