Week 10

The school week went really well. I did really well on my anesthesia test and took the week pretty easy. This next week is going to be very interesting. We have a test in patho and in anesthesia this week. The amount of material that was covered in patho is insane. There is just too much content for that class and the teacher isn't the best either. Then we have to take a PAL's class on thursday and do the medatrax training. Finally on friday and saturday we have to be in Bismark for the NDANA fall meeting. Ahhhh! The fun, the games, the life! Well I will let you know how it goes next week. Till then, Phil

Week 9

So this week's test went a lot better than the first test in pharmacology. We finished our lecture for our second test in 507 and lets say there is almost 75 pages of notes to study, wow! If you calculate it out that only leaves 1 question for every page and a half. It should be interesting. I was a rock star on the IV station in clinicals this week. I got 16 out of 20 starts. Using lidocaine totally sucks, but it is easier for the patients. You find you vein and inject the lidocaine and it totally disappears. The second day in clinical I was able to do a total care day. It was awesome. Our first case was a sternal wound debridement. It was a known difficult airway so they did the fiber optic scope. But the patient had a snaggle tooth that cut the ETT cuff on the way in so they had to change it out. Then in the middle of the case the plastic surgeon looks over the drape and kind of frantically says "we are going to need blood." There was blood all over his face sheild and the guys chest was full of blood. All of the sudden there were MDA's, CRNA's and RN's all over the place. They were starting IV's, hanging albumin and getting blood. I hope I can move that fast someday. Another case was a septoplasty, they were taking a hammer and a chisel to some guys nose. I guess it really isn't that different from construction work after all. Oh, well it was fun. Phil

Week 8

So we had the in-laws come into town this weekend and I never got around to writing in the blog. It was a pretty good week. I was able to pull a pretty good grade in my pathophysiology class, amazingly enough. Supposedly that was the hardest test, so it should be down hill from here. I took my father-in-law to the football game, which we lost. It was our first loss for the year and I am sure we will drop the #1 rank now. But we all went to the hockey game and watched our team demolish Michigan State 6 to 0. It was so fun and the stadium is amazing. There was a student dressed in a banana and he was heckling the penalty box the whole time. Well I guess I better call it a week and write about this week. Phil

Week 7

This week I put another anesthesia test behind me. Now I only have 4 more to go for the semester. I can't believe that the semester is almost half over, Crazy! We had our first clinicals this week. I was totally wiped after I got done on Friday. Something about the stress and not being able to sleep very well. I was able to place 6 LMA's and I intubated 6/8 patients. It was cool to be able to see how good it went. I only had one bad experience, but we won't talk about that. The hardest part about being at clinicals is all of the pimping. The MDA and the CRNA are asking you a whole bunch of questions while you are trying to intubate the patient. Then we have only been going to school for 6 weeks so we don't know anything. One MDA asked me why propofol burns when you inject it in the IV. I had no idea! I guess it has something to do with the chemical structure. It is a benzine ring with and alcohol. Thus the alcohol stimulates the nerves inside the vein causing a burning sensation. Oh, well you learn something new every week. Well I gotta sign off. Phil

Week 6

This week was very eventful. We had our first anesthesia test. It wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was going to be. They are pretty straight forward, which is a lot different than pathophysiology. I did well and am hoping to continue the trend. I also got my clinical assignment. Needless to say I will be doing airway my first couple of days. I was so nervous about the whole thing then Heidi stayed after lab to help me intubate a patient. It was a long 2 hour wait, but I was able to intubate my first patient. The patient was young so I'm sure the anatomy was perfect, but it was just like clockwork, easy. So I might be able to sleep the night before clinicals now. well it has been another exciting week. See you later! Phil

Week 5

It appears that I have made it through another week of school. We have our first Anesthesia test coming up. It covers airway anatomy, management, equipment, difficult airway and inhalational agents. I spent a lot of time this weekend and am planning to spend some more time over the next couple of days. I feel like I am more prepared, but at the same time who knows what this test will be like. My goal is to get in the mid 90's on this test, so we'll see what happens.
Also, on the home front, I feel that Megan is starting to see how busy I am going to be. It is really hard for the both of us. She is used to having me around helping with the cleaning and the laundry and everything. It has been hard to get used to not having all of the time in the world to spend with my sweetheart. Every moment I get, I try to spend time with my wife and son. Sometimes I wonder if it will be worth it in the end, it's quite a sacrifice to be away from the family. Although, it's good to know that Coleman probably won't remember it. Well I should get back to studying. Till we write again, Phil

Week 4

Another week behind my belt, and I am still alive. We were able to do our difficult airway lab at Altru in the OR. It was nice to be able to get out of the class. I also loved using the glide a scope and the fiber optic scope. The tests ended up ok. I wish I would have spent some more time on the pharmacy info and not changed a couple of my answers. We also went to the Potato Bowl festivities this weekend. The largest french fry feed took place here in Grand Forks. Well, gotta run.

Phil