Another week down, another week closer to my next day off!!
This past week was short since we had MLK day off, plus we got some time out from class to watch the inauguration online Tuesday. I haven't gotten MLK day off since college so it was nice!
Well classes are going alright. For some reason all of my profs have become enamored with research articles. WOOOOOHOOOO!!!! As if I don't have enough trouble staying awake when I'm sitting still, now they throw in these insufferable and ridiculously boring research articles for me to muck my way through!!! The one I'm supposed to read for Tuesday is 17 pages long!! Oh and I'm sure we'll be quizzed over it too. That seems to be a commen theme. One class throws in very PT related questions like, "Where was George Washington's inauguration held?" and "What instrument was Yo-Yo Ma playing at Obama's inauguration?" Yep, real important stuff going on here...real important :( Oh and the answers are NYC and Cello respectively.
All that being said, the classes seem to be getting better when we actually do PT stuff. I mentioned how good Wed was, and Firday was really good too! My afternoon lecture was all about knee cartilage injuries and interventions. We talked about the surgery I had several years ago, and how good/bad the outcomes seem to be (not so good for me by the way!!) I also learned that some of the better surgical options that were not covered by insurance when I had my surgery are now. Maybe there's hope for me and my rickety old knees afterall!!!
We have progressed from the foot and ankle and are starting with the knee this week. I really like the way all the classes follow each other so just studying the body region we're focusing on will help with most of my classes at once! Makes my studying much more efficient, well at least when I actually study anyway... Everything is starting to come together and we have presentations coming up soon so that'll suck.
This past weekend was a classmates' birthday so a group of us hung out at her house, cooked out, had some drinks and played some games. It was a fun, low-key night. I posted some pictures online. The link is to the left. It's nice to get out of the house every now and then :) I made some delicious mashed potatoes with bacon and cheese in them. They were a big hit!
Guess that is about it for now. It was kind of a boring week. Be sure to let me know if you guys have questions or want to get my thoughts on anything specific.
Until next time, donde esta la biblioteca?!?!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Now the bad news, well not really BAD, but anyway
WHY WHY WHY can't my cowboys play defense?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
I watched the mizzou game online tonight and seriously? I've seen better defense in pick-up games in the park! They have ZERO discipline and make WAY too many mistakes!
I really do think Ford will be a good coach and he's got a lot of talent coming in next year, but he has talent now and this was unacceptable! I know these guys aren't this bad, are they? Truly disappointing.
This program has high expectations and I want to be back to winning big again VERY soon! Hell we were in the final 4 5 years ago!
I'll keep watching and I'll keep cheering, but I'm not gonna be too thrilled with it until I start seeing some defensive improvement, or at least an increase in basketball IQ!!!
AHHHHHH!!! When does spring football start?
Go Pokes! please?
Oh and the streaming video on ESPN360 leaves A LOT to be desired! Not a good stream. It froze up in the last minute or so of a 1 point game!!! RIDICULOUS!!! I had to hunt the final score down on ESPN.com!
Oh and Hi Tiff! Thanks for the idea!
I watched the mizzou game online tonight and seriously? I've seen better defense in pick-up games in the park! They have ZERO discipline and make WAY too many mistakes!
I really do think Ford will be a good coach and he's got a lot of talent coming in next year, but he has talent now and this was unacceptable! I know these guys aren't this bad, are they? Truly disappointing.
This program has high expectations and I want to be back to winning big again VERY soon! Hell we were in the final 4 5 years ago!
I'll keep watching and I'll keep cheering, but I'm not gonna be too thrilled with it until I start seeing some defensive improvement, or at least an increase in basketball IQ!!!
AHHHHHH!!! When does spring football start?
Go Pokes! please?
Oh and the streaming video on ESPN360 leaves A LOT to be desired! Not a good stream. It froze up in the last minute or so of a 1 point game!!! RIDICULOUS!!! I had to hunt the final score down on ESPN.com!
Oh and Hi Tiff! Thanks for the idea!
Whoa! I actually had a good day!
I think Wednesdays might be my fav day of the week as far as class goes! I have Musculoskeletal Pathology in the morning and Theraputic Exercise in the afternoon. Yeah, it IS as exciting as it sounds!!! I also have a 1.5 hour lunch break!
But seriously, today was a good day in class! We were discussing pathologies and maladies of the ankle and foot and I actually learned a few things. Weird, I know!
First off, I learned that prolonged steroid use (medicinal also) can lead to tendon break down, especially in the Achilles Tendon. So that is why doctors shouldn't give too many cortisone shots for pain relief and why transplant patients are susceptible to problems. It inhibits tissue repair in the tendon and makes it more susceptible to tearing. Isn't that interesting? Well I thought it was.
Now Morgan, if you're reading this you may want to stop now. The other thing I learned was information everyone can use. The antibiotic Levaquin is in a class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones. These drugs can increase the incidence of tendon damage or tear, especially in the Achilles! It is a really good drug, but you need to lay off vigorous exercise during and after taking it. You should discuss it with your doctor!
The next class was Ther Ex. The lecture was pretty good, but in lab afterwards I was talking to 2 of my TAs. They are twins. Anyway, one of them, Matt, is doing his doctoral work on endurance exercise vs. strength training, especially in a multisport (triathlon) setting, and his brother Mike is currently training for an IronMan. This was cool because Matt's research is of course very interesting to me since I would like to start training seriously again when I have time, and since Mike is currently training it would give me someone to train with! So for the next 2 years I may have the opportunity to work with Matt in his research and follow his findings!
I also like these classes because I think the information in them has the potential to be really interesting and I'll start learning treatments for the problems we've been learning about :) It's all starting to come together! Slowly, but it's coming together.
That's all, gotta go study now. Night!
But seriously, today was a good day in class! We were discussing pathologies and maladies of the ankle and foot and I actually learned a few things. Weird, I know!
First off, I learned that prolonged steroid use (medicinal also) can lead to tendon break down, especially in the Achilles Tendon. So that is why doctors shouldn't give too many cortisone shots for pain relief and why transplant patients are susceptible to problems. It inhibits tissue repair in the tendon and makes it more susceptible to tearing. Isn't that interesting? Well I thought it was.
Now Morgan, if you're reading this you may want to stop now. The other thing I learned was information everyone can use. The antibiotic Levaquin is in a class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones. These drugs can increase the incidence of tendon damage or tear, especially in the Achilles! It is a really good drug, but you need to lay off vigorous exercise during and after taking it. You should discuss it with your doctor!
The next class was Ther Ex. The lecture was pretty good, but in lab afterwards I was talking to 2 of my TAs. They are twins. Anyway, one of them, Matt, is doing his doctoral work on endurance exercise vs. strength training, especially in a multisport (triathlon) setting, and his brother Mike is currently training for an IronMan. This was cool because Matt's research is of course very interesting to me since I would like to start training seriously again when I have time, and since Mike is currently training it would give me someone to train with! So for the next 2 years I may have the opportunity to work with Matt in his research and follow his findings!
I also like these classes because I think the information in them has the potential to be really interesting and I'll start learning treatments for the problems we've been learning about :) It's all starting to come together! Slowly, but it's coming together.
That's all, gotta go study now. Night!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Something more fun - BREAKS!!!
Now that week 1 is over I have my multiple syllabi (?) for my classes and now know my schedule for the semester and my breaks from now until next Fall!
February - No Class Monday afternoon 2/9 - Thursday 2/12 for our conference in Las Vegas; No class Monday 2/16 for President's Day (thanks government!!!)
March - 3/2-3/13 we have our clinical affiliations. I'll be doing mine in Dallas. Spring break is 3/14-3/22 and I'm going to stay in Dallas for that as well.
April - NO BREAKS!!! What kind of horse shit is that?!?!?!
May - ahhh May, bringer of the living hell that will be finals week!! Tests end 5/13 and summer classes start 5/18 so I will have a wonderful 4 days off from 5/14-5/17.
June - Wasn't expecting this but we get a nice break here. Summer classes end 6/19 and we don't have to report to our summer clinical affiliations until 7/6!!! So we have a nice 2 week break here I wasn't expecting from 6/20-7/5. I don't know if I'll be here in Hermosa for 4th of July or if I'll head up to Seattle early for my clinical
July - No breaks, I'll be in Seattle (hopefully)
August - Clincal ends 8/14 and classes don't start until 8/24 so we have 8/15-8/23 to recharge.
Now the bad parts, we have all of our midterms the week before we leave for clinicals in March. So I'll be pretty well a ghost the week after we get back from Vegas and during finals. Also for about a month from mid April to mid May will be "Bye Bye Matty" time as i become a shut in who only knows studying and books. I will have to say "NO" to any visitors during those times. I just won't have time to spend with anyone other than my classmates and teachers :)
I really hope you can all come out and see me at some point, and hopefully there is enough of a variance of time that something will work for you!!
Until next time,
Matty
February - No Class Monday afternoon 2/9 - Thursday 2/12 for our conference in Las Vegas; No class Monday 2/16 for President's Day (thanks government!!!)
March - 3/2-3/13 we have our clinical affiliations. I'll be doing mine in Dallas. Spring break is 3/14-3/22 and I'm going to stay in Dallas for that as well.
April - NO BREAKS!!! What kind of horse shit is that?!?!?!
May - ahhh May, bringer of the living hell that will be finals week!! Tests end 5/13 and summer classes start 5/18 so I will have a wonderful 4 days off from 5/14-5/17.
June - Wasn't expecting this but we get a nice break here. Summer classes end 6/19 and we don't have to report to our summer clinical affiliations until 7/6!!! So we have a nice 2 week break here I wasn't expecting from 6/20-7/5. I don't know if I'll be here in Hermosa for 4th of July or if I'll head up to Seattle early for my clinical
July - No breaks, I'll be in Seattle (hopefully)
August - Clincal ends 8/14 and classes don't start until 8/24 so we have 8/15-8/23 to recharge.
Now the bad parts, we have all of our midterms the week before we leave for clinicals in March. So I'll be pretty well a ghost the week after we get back from Vegas and during finals. Also for about a month from mid April to mid May will be "Bye Bye Matty" time as i become a shut in who only knows studying and books. I will have to say "NO" to any visitors during those times. I just won't have time to spend with anyone other than my classmates and teachers :)
I really hope you can all come out and see me at some point, and hopefully there is enough of a variance of time that something will work for you!!
Until next time,
Matty
WOW! No rest for the weary!
Well week 1 has come and gone and all I can say is, HOLY HELL this semester is going to SUCK!!!!
I have 7 different classes, only 1 of which is a "throw away". That class is a pass/no pass class discussing our clinical affiliations for spring and summer. No homework, no tests. A nice break! The rest is a murderer's row of scholastic sadism!!!
I start Monday mornings with Pathology of Disease. This is a "stimulating" 3 hour lecture class about, well, the pathology of different diseases and their processes. The professor is good, but the information will be a bitch. Plus I can't sit in one place for 3 hours and concentrate or stay awake!!!!
After lunch I move on to Analytical Anatomy. As hard as this class will be, I think I'm going to enjoy this one. It is 4HOURS LONG!!!! but I will get to move through several different areas. We spend time in lecture, anatomy lab, imaging (where they teach us how to read X-rays, MRIs, & CTs), topography (where we learn the landmarks and locations of anatomy on living bodies-us), & literature review (I'm sure you all know this is my least favorite part!) There will be a LOT of work to do in this class, but hopefully the variety will make it more interesting. Plus we get to perform a surgery! Unfortunately my group has the cervical spine (neck) so we will probably get to do a fusion or something on the cadavers.
Tuesdays start with 5 hours of Orthopaedic lecture & lab. This class last semester taught us all the diagnostic tests we will use, now we will start learning what to do for interventions when we do find something wrong. I think this class will be interesting and probably fun, but the amount of information is again going to be staggering! I already feel behind here, I need to go back and review some information from last semester!
Tuesday afternoons bring Evidence Based Practice for PT. Yeah, it's as interesting as it sounds. I think this class will consist of a lot of busy work on how to look up articles and apply them to your practice. A lot of it seems to be common sense type stuff. BORING!!!! Maybe it'll be a little bit of a break though. No tests or anything, just homework.
Wednesday mornings is Musculoskeletal Pathology where we learn about problems/diseases of the muscles, cartilage, bones, etc... Should be pretty interesting stuff. I actually asked the prof if she needed help with her research. She does a lot of work with the knee so of course I'm interested in that. The assistant prof for this class heads up PT for USC athletics so that would be really interesting too!
Wed afternoons brings Therapeutic Exercise. This class has a lab where we will be performing and using different exercises and interventions. First class I got volunteered to perform a 4 min step test for fitness levels. It showed me just how out of shape I've gotten since I got here!!! At least it will get me up and moving! Bad part is that second half of the semester times switch and I will be in there from 3-5pm so yet another long day!!!
Thursday and Friday are repeat days. We have Ortho on Thursdays and Analytical Anatomy & Musculoskeletal Pathology on Fridays.
All in all this will be a really interesting semester and the classes will all blend together but I don't think I'll have ever worked harder in my life then I'll have to this semester. Even the first week we didn't get out of a single class early and most of them actually went LONGER b/c we didn't have labs last week. So much for a break-in period! At least we got today off for MLK :)
I'll try to get one of these out every week to keep you all updated on what's going on both in and out of school. Feel free to leave comments/criticism or anything else you want to say. Hope you enjoy!
I have 7 different classes, only 1 of which is a "throw away". That class is a pass/no pass class discussing our clinical affiliations for spring and summer. No homework, no tests. A nice break! The rest is a murderer's row of scholastic sadism!!!
I start Monday mornings with Pathology of Disease. This is a "stimulating" 3 hour lecture class about, well, the pathology of different diseases and their processes. The professor is good, but the information will be a bitch. Plus I can't sit in one place for 3 hours and concentrate or stay awake!!!!
After lunch I move on to Analytical Anatomy. As hard as this class will be, I think I'm going to enjoy this one. It is 4HOURS LONG!!!! but I will get to move through several different areas. We spend time in lecture, anatomy lab, imaging (where they teach us how to read X-rays, MRIs, & CTs), topography (where we learn the landmarks and locations of anatomy on living bodies-us), & literature review (I'm sure you all know this is my least favorite part!) There will be a LOT of work to do in this class, but hopefully the variety will make it more interesting. Plus we get to perform a surgery! Unfortunately my group has the cervical spine (neck) so we will probably get to do a fusion or something on the cadavers.
Tuesdays start with 5 hours of Orthopaedic lecture & lab. This class last semester taught us all the diagnostic tests we will use, now we will start learning what to do for interventions when we do find something wrong. I think this class will be interesting and probably fun, but the amount of information is again going to be staggering! I already feel behind here, I need to go back and review some information from last semester!
Tuesday afternoons bring Evidence Based Practice for PT. Yeah, it's as interesting as it sounds. I think this class will consist of a lot of busy work on how to look up articles and apply them to your practice. A lot of it seems to be common sense type stuff. BORING!!!! Maybe it'll be a little bit of a break though. No tests or anything, just homework.
Wednesday mornings is Musculoskeletal Pathology where we learn about problems/diseases of the muscles, cartilage, bones, etc... Should be pretty interesting stuff. I actually asked the prof if she needed help with her research. She does a lot of work with the knee so of course I'm interested in that. The assistant prof for this class heads up PT for USC athletics so that would be really interesting too!
Wed afternoons brings Therapeutic Exercise. This class has a lab where we will be performing and using different exercises and interventions. First class I got volunteered to perform a 4 min step test for fitness levels. It showed me just how out of shape I've gotten since I got here!!! At least it will get me up and moving! Bad part is that second half of the semester times switch and I will be in there from 3-5pm so yet another long day!!!
Thursday and Friday are repeat days. We have Ortho on Thursdays and Analytical Anatomy & Musculoskeletal Pathology on Fridays.
All in all this will be a really interesting semester and the classes will all blend together but I don't think I'll have ever worked harder in my life then I'll have to this semester. Even the first week we didn't get out of a single class early and most of them actually went LONGER b/c we didn't have labs last week. So much for a break-in period! At least we got today off for MLK :)
I'll try to get one of these out every week to keep you all updated on what's going on both in and out of school. Feel free to leave comments/criticism or anything else you want to say. Hope you enjoy!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
FOLLOW ME TO FREEEEEDOM!!
So the blog site suggested I write a post reminding all of you to join my blog and become one of my followers. Yes, you read that correctly, you should follow me. I will try to be the leader you all expect of me. I promise longer recesses, no homework, and more chocolate milk at lunch!!
Oh, I'm not running for student council? Well follow me anyway, you might get a chuckle or two every now and then, and at the very least it will distract you from working for a few minutes.
Just click on the link to the left below my pic, and "follow this blog" as long as you can stand it. Oh and don't forget to add your pic in too. That way I can see your smiling faces!
More later!
Oh, I'm not running for student council? Well follow me anyway, you might get a chuckle or two every now and then, and at the very least it will distract you from working for a few minutes.
Just click on the link to the left below my pic, and "follow this blog" as long as you can stand it. Oh and don't forget to add your pic in too. That way I can see your smiling faces!
More later!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
It Begins Again!!
Well, It all begins again on Monday. Another semester of the hardest shit I've ever had to learn. It really does feel overwhelming when I stop and think about it. The sheer volume of information I'm expected to know over the next 2.5 years is staggering! Sometimes I really don't know how I'm going to do it. Sure everyone else says, "oh, you'll be fine" or "I know you'll do great, you're so smart" well truth is sometimes I don't quite feel that way. Being around so many really smart people can make you feel pretty damn stupid at times, but the good part is that I think I'm actually learning a few things here and there. Now I just hope and pray for a little review to start things off, before we dive head-long into even more detailed information.
On a side note, whoever named all the muscles, bones, vessels, nerves etc in the human body is an f'ing moron!! I think they must have just sat around and made up words! Then after they ran out of words to make up, they just changed a letter here or there and recycled it on a totally unrelated part of the body! It's bullshit! I think it's high time we consider a change here. For everyone's sake! (especially and most importantly mine)
Don't get the wrong idea though. While I wonder about my ability to make it through this process on a daily basis, I am having fun out here. The weather is awesome (gonna be 80 and sunny tomorrow) and I live 200 yards from the beach! My classmates are great (for the most part), my teachers are phenomenal (for the most part) and I really truly believe this is what I'm supposed to do with my life. I just had no idea it was going to be this hard! I'm lazy!!!!
So bear with me as I start another semester of hell in paradise. Hopefully I'll be able to entertain you as I keep you updated on the life and times of a 30 something college kid.
Until next time, via con queso!!
On a side note, whoever named all the muscles, bones, vessels, nerves etc in the human body is an f'ing moron!! I think they must have just sat around and made up words! Then after they ran out of words to make up, they just changed a letter here or there and recycled it on a totally unrelated part of the body! It's bullshit! I think it's high time we consider a change here. For everyone's sake! (especially and most importantly mine)
Don't get the wrong idea though. While I wonder about my ability to make it through this process on a daily basis, I am having fun out here. The weather is awesome (gonna be 80 and sunny tomorrow) and I live 200 yards from the beach! My classmates are great (for the most part), my teachers are phenomenal (for the most part) and I really truly believe this is what I'm supposed to do with my life. I just had no idea it was going to be this hard! I'm lazy!!!!
So bear with me as I start another semester of hell in paradise. Hopefully I'll be able to entertain you as I keep you updated on the life and times of a 30 something college kid.
Until next time, via con queso!!
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