Week 15

Oh how relaxing and somewhat stress free this last week was. It was so nice to know that I didn't have a big test hanging over my head all week. Unfortunately it won't be the same for this coming week. This weekend I was able to attend the Spring NDANA meeting in Fargo. The conference was super good, but way too long. It was fun to talk with the CRNAs. Also it has been fun being the Student Rep for the board. It is really interesting to see the profession from a different point of view. The worst thing that happened this week was the snow. It started snowing after I dropped Megan and Coleman off at the airport (they got sick of me studying and decided to take a trip home). Anyway I woke up in the morning and there was 16 inches of fresh snow. I am starting to agree with Megan sentiments toward living in ND when we are done. Well I gotta go!

Week 14

Wow, another week just flew by. I had to ask my wife what I did last week. Apparently I had another pharmacology exam. I don't know if the material is getting harder or if there is just more of it, but that test was a doosy. We had to study medications for diabetes, depression, psychoses, seizures, anxiety and thyroid disorders. I barely ended up with an A and it was the first time this semester I was glad to get that low of a score. One of the reasons could have been that our son got super sick. He had a 104 degree temperature or greater for two days. I was also supposed to go to clinicals on Thursday, but at one in the morning Coleman woke up and puked on our bed, on his bed, on the couch and on me all in one hour. Needless to say I called Heidi in the morning and it was a cancel-ectomy for me on clinicals. So I will have to make it up. Oh well! He is feeling a bit better now although he isn't eating solids very well yet. Well this next week is a miracle, NO TESTS!!! I haven't been this excited or lucky all semester. Well, till next week Adios!

Week 13

Finally a long awaited lull in the storm. I got a somewhat final copy of the first couple of chapters of my independent masters project complete. I sent if off to a few grammar goo roo's and hopefully it will fly with my Professor on Tuesday. It was nice to get done with one of the big projects. I was also able to read up on some of the reading I have been missing for anesthesia. It was fun to read about vascular surgeries and their anesthetic considerations. The information sounds as though it is a roller coaster in the OR when you have a big AAA or aortic repair. Hopefully one day I will be able to tell you what it really is like. This week is a little more laid back. Once I turn in my paper I have just one test (pharmacology) on Wednesday and then clinicals. It will be nice because the following week I don't have any tests, hooray!!! It is also my beautiful wife's birthday on Friday and I am pretty excited to just unwind and spend some time with the family. Gotta go! Till next week.

Week 12

This week was such a blur it wasn't even funny. First was the pathophysiology test, I was aiming for a 96 but didn't quite get it. So for the last test I will have to get a 92 to receive an A in the class. The pressure is on now. Plus it is my favorite subjects (female reproductive, pregnancy and neonates). Hopefully the stuff we are learning in Anesthesia will help. Then it was the statistics final. I think I did well, but I will have to go in and see the Professor to figure out what my final grade is. Also I had another clinical this week. It was pretty good. I was with a CRNA who was pretty intense. He taught me a lot though. I found out that if you can get a milligram of dilaudid on board 15-30 minutes prior to induction you don't see them have a hypertensive response, although it did seem as though we were fighting them on the hypotensive end. But it didn't really knock out their respiratory drive, which was surprising, and the patients woke up with relatively low pain scores. We also extubated a patient deep, just to try it out. I didn't really like it. It seemed as though I was holding the airway the whole time, which was a real bugger trying to get the bed down to the PACU. They say you take the things you like form all of the CRNAs and form your own practice and now I really see what they are saying. As for next week another anesthesia test and then back to the research paper. Will it ever end???
Oh I almost forgot. The BIS monitor rep came into town this week and a bunch of CRNAs and a couple of students went to dinner at a golf course. The food wasn't that great but the rep had a CRNA that spoke to us about increased incidence of Alzheimer's and breast cancer metastasis and how it might be related to our volatile agents (anesthesia gases). It was super interesting and I can't wait to see the studies that come out in the next few years. It should shape anesthesia practice in the next several years!