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Wednesday, 23 September 2009

  • Graduation, Boards and San Diego Vacation

    Alright, I’m going to try to make another dent in what I have to catch up on.  So, after mom and dad left us, I only had a couple weeks of PA school left.  July 31st was my last day, and when I left the clinic that night, I had graduated.  It was kind of strange.  Since we had our graduation ceremony in May with the rest of the school, there was no fan fare when we actually finished.  I didn’t take any time off after graduating, but went straight into full time studying for boards.  I had been working through one review book during the month of July, but I really turned up the pace in August.  Because I did so well on my final in June, I felt pretty confident in scheduling my boards for as early as possible.  I also knew that I was pretty worn out and couldn’t sustain studying full time for very long. 

    August 10th came pretty fast, but I’m glad I didn’t put it off any longer.  I was thankful to find there was a testing center only 10 minutes from our home and also that one of my good friends in the program decided to take the boards with me that day.  It was nice to see a friendly face when I showed up at the testing center that at 8 am.  I finished the exam at 1:30 and I felt like I had been run over by a truck and I was really questioning my decision to take the exam so soon.  Thankfully though, in the age of electronic testing and email, I didn’t have to wait long to find out my score.  Three days later, I got an email informing me that I had passed my boards.  Hooray!  Not only that but I had scored a 729 (350 is passing) and had landed in the 97th percentile.  I was in total shock, but thrilled.

    A week later, Micah and I headed out for some much needed relaxation and celebration.  After church Sunday, we drove down to San Diego to get away and enjoy seeing the city we live so close to but don’t really get a chance to explore.  Micah found us a great deal at a nice hotel downtown in an old historic building.  I loved the modern décor in the rooms.  We had a great view and we were so close to all the things we wanted to do. 

    After checking in, we went to Balboa Park to see a production of Twelfth Night at the Old Globe Theatre.  Since we were there a bit early, we walked around the park a bit to kill some time.  The theatre was a very cool outdoor setting.  We really enjoyed the play and the acting was fantastic.  So much fun.

     

    The next day, we crammed in a lot: Seaport Village, Maritime Museum and Old Town.  Each of the locations were neat, but you certainly couldn’t spend a whole day there.


    In the evening, we went on a dinner cruise around the harbor.  We left just as the sun was starting to set. The food was pretty good and we enjoyed cruising around and seeing the city at night.


    Tuesdays are free admission days for many of the museums at Balboa park if you live in San Diego County, so we headed back there and went in a lot of the buildings we’d never been in before.  After that we went up to Mission beach and enjoyed some time lounging out on the sand.  Later on we walked around the Gas Lamp district before taking in a baseball game at Petco Park.  We got all you can eat seats, which was very fun.  Little did we know that it was a special bring your dog to the park night!  Before the game, there was a parade of pooches all around the field.  I loved it!  All during the game you could hear barks from the section where all the dogs were.


    On Wednesday, we drove over to Coronado Island and walked around the Hotel Del and spent more time on the beach.  I love the sand there.  It sparkles with little gold flecks.  When we left, we went back to our hotel room to get ready to go the Broadway musical Wicked.  We ran a bit short on time so we opted to eat in the nice restaurant in our hotel instead of trying to go elsewhere.  The singing in the play was fantastic as were the costumes and sets.  Some pretty obvious postmodern philosophy tainted our experience a bit, but overall it was a great production and we really enjoyed ourselves.


    We checked out of our hotel on Thursday morning and drove up to the Scripps Aquarium.  It was a bit disappointing after some of the aquariums I’ve been to, but it was fun to see all the pretty fish nonetheless.  Since the aquarium was so small, we had time to kill when we were done before our next big activity for the day, Kayaking!  Later on that afternoon, we went back to La Jolla for a 2 hour cave tour kayaking experience.  The water was soooooo warm it was incredible.  There was a lot of wind that night so we had to deal with some choppy waters, but we had a blast.  I was surprised my arms weren’t more sore the next day from all the paddling we did.  It was a great way to end the vacation.

    Okay, blog on job related stuff will be next!

Saturday, 12 September 2009

  • DeHart Family Visit

    I’m sitting down and making myself write before any more time goes by and I have even more to catch up on.  I think I’ll take things in chunks and just start off where I left off at the end of June.

    July was my last month of rotations and I went back to the urgent care I had been at in May.  It was nice to be returning to familiar territory instead of starting over from scratch for once.  An added benefit to working here is that the doctor was very flexible and didn’t have a problem with me taking a day or two off.  This was especially wonderful since my parents and sister came out to visit us for a few days in the middle of July! 

    They arrived on a Wednesday night and left the next Monday morning, so our visit was short but sweet.  They arrived the same night the Renihans left for New Zealand, so unfortunately the just missed each other.  My sister Ciera was pretty sad about not getting to see Susie.  We did take advantage of their being gone, however, and camped out mainly at their home with visits here and there to our apartment.  This way everyone had their own room and didn’t have to camp out on the couch or air mattresses.

    We had a lot of fun showing them around the area a bit.  The first full day that we were here, we took a trip down to the San Diego Zoo where Micah and I have passes and free visitor tickets to.  I love the zoo, so it was great to be able to share it with them.  We went to dinner at Souplantation which made Ciera quite happy since she loves it there and there aren’t any in Korea.

     

    The next day, Micah had to work a lunch shift so we hung around the home until he got back and then all went out to La Jolla to enjoy the beach for a bit.  The water was great and we really enjoyed ourselves. Chick-fil-A was their choice for dinner that night, another place they can’t get overseas.

    Saturday we visited a new place for all of us, Point Loma.  We had hope to see the tide pools, but I guess the tides are never low enough at that time of year to really see much.  Oh well, it was still very pretty.  They had an old light house that we walked around and just enjoyed the view.

     

    We had planned to go down to Balboa park for the organ concert after church on Sunday, but by that point, we weren’t feeling up to driving down to San Diego that many days in a row, so we pretty much just camped out at our place.  Micah and Ciera did get in some swimming in our pool which she enjoyed.  The next morning I dropped them all off at the airport before heading out to work.  It was tough to say goodbye, but I’m so thankful for the good visit we have.  I’m just so thankful for Vonage, so I can call and talk to my momma!  I’m sure the next year will fly by and we’ll look forward to seeing them again, Lord willing, somewhere next summer.

    Okay, I’ll try to get another post up tomorrow.  

Saturday, 27 June 2009

  • Almost There!

    Well, I'm one step closer to becoming a PA now!  No more tests, no more letter grades (well aside from my last rotation).  Last week I took my final written exam, a 450 question monster.  I had been having a tough time focusing on studying and wasn't able to cover everything that I knew would be on the test.  Thankfully, the Lord was gracious, and I did much better than I expected.  Hooray!  (since mainly family reads this, is it okay to toot my horn a bit?)  There was a generous curve so I got a 376/381.  Someone in our class really rocked the test and got a 396/450 (the highest score of any year), but he set the curve at the second highest score which I was close behind.

    My practical final was the following Monday.  The case I got was quite complicated and I was nervous because I gave 3 separate diagnoses for my patient when I thought there was only supposed to be one.  I guess that's what I was supposed to do, however, since I wound up getting a 105/100 on it.  Again, I was pretty excited.  Our group gave our thesis presentation Wednesday on "Infrared Thermography as an Adjuvant for Breast Cancer Detection in Women".  It seemed to be very well received by the faculty and our classmates.  I am very thankful for my group mates.  I usually don't like group projects, but we all trusted each other and pulled our own weight.  I will miss those girls!

    And that's it!  No more tests, papers or presentations.  Just those boards!  I signed up for August 10th this week and purchased my test prep books.  The plan is to pretty much just do practice questions between now and then, and then review any weak spots I find.  I'm feeling much more confident now after how I did on my class final and I'm ready to just be done with it all! 

    The next month should go by quickly.  I only have 2 more days of my current rotation before I return to Urgent Care in Temecula.  Hopefully there will still be a job opening there when I get back.  My family fliles in on our anniversary (July 15th) to stay with us for a few days.  I can't wait!  Well, that's enough of an update for now I suppose.  The end is in sight! 

Saturday, 16 May 2009

  • Graduation and Mom's Visit

    Well, I've "graduated" from PA school now!  Oh yeah, so I still have 2.5 months to go including finals, just a small thing right?  July 31st is going to seem a bit anti-climactic after all the pomp and circumstance of last week, but what can you do?  It was still nice to celebrate how far we've come, but there is still work to do.

    Mom got in last Friday night and we picked her up in Oceanside after taking the train down from L.A.  It was soooo very good to see her.  I was bummed to be sick during the visit, but we just modified our plans a bit.  Saturday we did a bit of shopping then met up with Micah to see a showing of Star Trek in the afternoon.  We all really enjoyed the movie.  Mom didn't even know it existed until I asked her if she wanted to go (which she definately did).  After the movie we came home and made a yummy dinner then just hung out.  Micah continued to work hard on his sermon for the rest of the evening.

    Sunday morning we all went to church at ERBC.  Micah preached a really fine first sermon on Psalm 51.  He was very clear and insightful, his points of application were excellent, and he appeared relaxed in the pulpit.  We thank the Lord for his grace!  The link to on sermon audio is:
    http://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?SpeakerOnly=true&currSection=sermonsspeaker&keyword=Micah^Renihan

    Micah ended up having to work two jobs Sunday.  Mother's day is a required work day at Outback so Micah had to be to work at 1:45.  Poor guy only had 15 min at home to cram in some food before he had to leave.  He was pretty tired when he got home that night.  Monday, mom and I were going to go to the Wild Animal Park, but I was not feeling up to it and ended up napping most of the day.  We did go in to Outback for dinner that night though and had Micah serve us.  It was a pretty slow night, so he was even able to sit with us for a little bit.

    Tuesday I had to work, so mom borrrowed the Renihan's Kia and ran some errands while I was gone.  Wednesday was a half day for me so that we could all attend the awards banquet at the Hilton in Pasadena that evening.  We had a nice time.  The food wasn't anything really special, but it was nice to see friends and celebrate a bit.  I got awards for being on the Dean's List each semester, and one for being among the Who's Who of American Colleges (none of us really knew what that one meant).  So, I'm glad I ended up deciding to attend.  We spent the night at a nearby hotel so we wouldn't have to commute to graduation in the morning.





    Thursday morning was graduation.  I was so glad we had spent the night nearby.  Mom and dad Renihan drove up from Escondido and it took them about 3 hrs to get there.  The ceremony was nice.  The "keynote speaker" was terrible, but his speech was quite brief which does earn him some major points.  Mom and Micah were my family hooders and came up on stage to place my Master's hood on me after I recieved my fake diploma.  I got to wear a cord for graduating with honors (4 of us recieved honors and 3 others got highest honors).  Our class started out with 98 students and there are about 93 of us left who will graduate this year.  After the ceremony, we went and had a nice lunch at the Yardhouse resteraunt which was right by the auditorium before heading back down to Escondido. 









    I took mom to the airport Friday morning.  It was so hard to say goodbye, but I thank the Lord for the time we were able to spend together.  She's on the east coast now with Bryce and dad and Ciera should be joining them from South Korea today.  I wish I could be there!  Lord willing I will get to see Dad and Ciera this summer though when they return for their summer break.  Well, that's the update.  It's back to work for me on Monday.  Now that mom's gone I need to start really putting some time into studying and preparing for my thesis presentation!  Much love to you all.

Friday, 08 May 2009

  • Sick Day

    Well, if finally happened.  8 months of rotations without getting sick had to end sometime!  There are a lot of viruses going around right now and I guess I caught one of them.  Nothing bad though, sinus pressure, congestion, sore throat, cough....at least I don't have what Sam and Owen have!  I did whimp out on work today though.  My new supervising physician said that I'm doing really well and whenever I want to take a day off, I can....so I took him up on it and called in sick today.  I feel better now than I did when I woke up (that's always how it is I suppose), and I'm sure I could have made it through the day, but I didn't want to get any of my patients sick and with all the swine flu paranoia, I didn't want to concern anyone.

    So, I'm at home now, trying to rest and drink my fluids while finishing up around the house and getting ready for a very special visitor.  My mommy comes today!  It's been a year since I've seen her and I can't wait.  I've missed my best friend (besides hubby that is)!  I didn't realize until last week that we'd be together for mother's day, so that was a nice surprise.  I was thinking of having everyone at our place for dinner Sunday, but I'm guessing dad Renihan will be tired from his Ukraine trip and might want to be in his own home, so I'm going to bring dinner over to their place.  Should be fun, but I think 1/2 of us will be jet lagged.

    Another wonderful surprise is that mom will get to hear Micah preach his first sermon this Sunday!  It wasn't supposed to be his turn until next week, but things got bummped up a bit so mom could be there and Rob (one of the IRBS students) could have more time to prep with all his finals.  Micah had me read over a rough draft of his sermon yesterday and I'm very much looking forward to Sunday.  He will be preaching on Psalm 51.  The church has been asked by the elders to observe Micah and consider if they feel that he has been equipped by the Lord and is being called to His ministry.  This Sunday will be a chance for them to do just that.  It would be of great encouragement to Micah to know that the church supports him and recognizes him to be a gifted brother as he embarks in his studies at the seminary this year.  So, if you think of it, please pray for Micah as he makes his final sermon preparations; that the Lord would give him more insight into His word and that the people of God would be edified by the message he will bring.

    Well that's an update on life around here!  I think this may be a record in blogging for me.  My graduation ceremony is less than a week away, so I'll make sure to post something after that is over and mom leaves.
    Much love to you all.

Thursday, 30 April 2009

  • It's about time!

    Considering I haven’t blogged in ages, I’m not even going to attempt to catalogue all that has been going on in our lives for the past 5 months, Micah’s tid bits will have to suffice.  Sorry Grammie! 

    I just completed my 8th rotation today and have only 3 months to go until I’m officially done with PA school!  So far I’ve done Emergency Medicine, Family Practice I, Critical Care, Internal Medicine, OB/GYN, General Surgery, Family Practice II, and Pediatrics.  Now that I’ve completed all the required rotations, these last 3 months are my choice. My options are a bit limited in the San Diego area, but I think that what I’ve selected should be both beneficial and enjoyable.  Next month I’ll be in Urgent Care, followed by 2 months of Internal Medicine at different locations.  It’s not that I love internal med, in fact it was probably my least favorite month (largely due to the setting and MD that I worked with), but they had good reviews and I think they will be good prep for boards and provide opportunities to deepen my medical knowledge. 

    I would have to say that my favorite field thus far has been family practice, though I did enjoy pediatrics this month.  I like the environment and schedule and the interaction I am afforded with patients.  When it comes to job hunting, however, I’m quite flexible as to where I end up.  It’s not a process I’m looking forward to, especially in this economy, but I know that the Lord is sovereign over all and has not brought me through PA school without purpose.  September is when I’ll aim to start that search.  Right now there are still 3 months to go and boards to pass in early August!  I’m shooting to take my boards around August 7th, which should give Micah and I some time to enjoy together before he starts seminary in the fall.  I did find out that I should start applying for my CA state license now though since fingerprinting and background checks can take some time.  Crazy!  Our graduation ceremony is being held in 2 weeks so that we can tie in with the rest of the school.  Even though we still have some time to go, it’s a nice milestone to look forward to.  My mom will be arriving here in about a week and will be able to attend.  I can’t wait to see her! 

    We’re still loving being back in Escondido within reach of family and friends.  Micah will be preaching for the first time 3 weeks from now and I’m eagerly looking forward to that.  I’m so thankful for my honey and all of his love and support.  I am so very blessed beyond what I deserve!  I can’t wait for him to be able to go back to school soon!  We got him a new desk for his office which gives him so much more space to study and spread out all his books.  I will be sooooo happy to pass off the studying torch to him, and say goodbye to school for good!

    Well that’s a start at getting caught up at least!  I will do my best to not let things slip so much again, but I make no promises.    I’ll leave you with some pictures for grandparents who are not on facebook to enjoy!  I love you all so much and miss you a great deal!

       

Sunday, 30 November 2008

  • The Holidays are here!


    The month of November has flown by!  My time in the ICU went by so fast.  Initially, I was frustrated with the rotation, but in the end I think it was a valuable experience and I learned quite a bit.  I worked in a big county facility about 30 min from our house.  I was technically under the pharmacy department but spent most of my time with the team in the Surgical ICU.  I'm still not sure why the rotation was set up they way it was, but I think I made the most of it.  This was a large trauma facility unlike the small hospital I did my ER rotation at, so the people I saw were the sickest I have ever seen.  Almost all of them were on ventilators which made it a much different experience in the way of patient interaction.  We made rounds at 8:00 am every morning so I would get to the hospital at around 5:30 to work up what ever patients I had for the day.  Our attending physicians were all incredibly brilliant, and one in particular was quite intimidating so I tried to make sure I knew my patients inside and out.  After rounds I would help the SICU team with some of their to-do list for the day and then I'd switch over to working for the pharmacy department.  As far as pharm went I was responsible for looking over the meds for all 16 beds in the MICU/SICU and then working up and presenting any new patients.  Since no one else was doing this strange split like I was, I worked largely on my own.  Most days I was finished with my responsibilities by about 2:30 or 3:00 so, my schedule was really not that bad.  That was one of the perks with working under pharmacy, no weekends and no call days. 

    With my full schedule, my birthday really crept up on me this year.  I wasn't really planning on doing anything, but I was blessed to be given 1/2 of the day off when my preceptor found out that it was my birthday.  So, I left the hospital at 10:30 and then went and studied at the Spaghetti Factory (on my way home) while Micah worked, and then we went to lunch at Red Robin when he finished.  I love Red Robin, so that made the day a nice treat for me.  I still spent the remainder of the day studying, but it felt like a good break.  The Sunday after my b-day, we went down to mom and dad Renihan's to celebrate.  My hubby made me a yummy cake and cooked my a nice dinner with his mom's assistance.  It's always nice to see them, and I can't wait until we move back down to Escondido! 

    the yummy cake and dinner my honey made me

     
    All the loot I got, minus the dress Micah gave me before hand to wear that day.  He wrapped all my CD's up individually and put them in a huge box with tons of newspaper so that I had to dig for them.

    Speaking of our move, we're in full packing mode around the house.  We really dug in yesterday and today and I think almost everything is packed that can be at this point.  We still have the bare bones we need to function for the next two weeks, but we're almost there!  I'm really looking forward to the move.  Micah will move back on the 15th and I'll go stay with a family from the Ontario church during the week for the remainder of the month.  My rotation schedule for December is supposed to be quite nice and I expect to get Christmas off as well as the weekends.

    For the next month, I'll be working mainly in nursing homes doing internal medicine with long-term care and geriatrics.  I think it will be a good rotation to have during the holidays.  I spoke with my preceptor on the phone earlier in the week and I'll talk to him again tomorrow to find out exactly where I'm going Monday.  I talked to the student who worked with him last month, and he gave me a bit of a scoop on the rotation.  The preceptor is supposed to be very smart but a bit gruff (however, my conversation with him was pleasant).  The student did say that he certainly learned a lot during the month and benefited from the one-on-one time and high expectations. He said that he worked from 8:30 to 3:00pm at the latest M-F!  I am certainly looking forward to that!  It sounds like I won't even be working a 40 hour week!  And I certainly won't miss waking up at 4:30 am like I did this month. Yay! 

    Oops, I almost forgot Thanksgiving!  I was given Thanksgiving and the day after off from the hospital which gave me a nice, long weekend.  Micah and I went back down to mom and dad's Wednesday night and spent all of Thursday with them.  They had two couples over that none of us had met before, but everything seemed to go well and the food was delicious as always.  Okay, I think I've gotten caught up now.  Back to packing for me!
    Love to you all.


Monday, 10 November 2008

  • Currently Listening
    Offerings II: All I Have to Give
    By Third Day
    see related

    My husband, the cook


    So, my honey was a busy bee while I was at work today.  He made a large batch of shepherd's pie, enchilada casserole, and 2 batches of lasagna which I now have sitting in my fridge and freezer to heat up as need be.  He's also currently making beef stroganoff for dinner.  I'm so very thankful!  These 4:30am wakeup calls are no fun, and making dinner is not something high on my list when I get home.  Oh, and I get tomorrow off for Veteran's Day (I am great need of time to study at home)!  Life is very good tonight, I am truly blessed.

Saturday, 01 November 2008

  • 2 months down, 9 to go!


    Well, my first family practice rotation is over!  It's bittersweet, I'll really miss some of the people I met during the rotation.  Despite the language barriers, it ended up being a good rotation and I learned a lot.  Emma (the PA) and I plan on keeping in touch still.  On Friday we had a flu shot clinic and we all dressed up, it was fun.  Monday morning I begin my critical care rotation out at Arrowhead.  I'm a bit apprehensive, but I'm hopeful that everything will go well.

    Carolina and I (she does referrals)

    Emma, some of the MAs and I. 
    (My camera gave out at the end of the day so I didn't get a picture of Emma and I together)

    Dr. Costello and the rest of the staff (notice a trend?) 

    Micah also dressed up for work Friday.  I didn't have a lot of time to help, but we managed to pull off a decent Braveheart costume.  No face paint or sword, but maybe that was less intimidating for serving tables. 
     
    Micah is working a double today, managing at the Spag this morning and working at Outback tonight.  So I'm just hanging out at home, trying to regroup before Monday comes.

Tuesday, 28 October 2008

  • Currently Watching
    It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
    By Ann Altieri, Gail DeFaria, Lisa DeFaria, Sally Dryer, Bill Melendez
    see related

    I'm such a proud wifey


    As Micah said in his blog, he was a busy bee last week preparing for his talk Saturday night at the youth event and  for teaching the adult Sunday school class.  He gave a great talk Saturday about discerning truth from lies taken from 1st John.  It was late at night, but the kids still seemed pretty engaged. 

    For the Adult Sunday School class, he borrowed from his Torrey senior thesis and spoke on N.T. Wright and the New Perspectives on Paul.  I was so proud of him!  He has improved dramatically from when he first spoke to the youth.  He looked very relaxed and confident up there.  Many people shared words of encouragement and appreciation and I know his lesson sparked a lot of conversations about the topic.  I think many of the people found it to be very informative and thought provoking.  I certainly learned a good deal from it.

    Here's the link to the lesson on sermonaudio.com for those of you who might be interested:
    http://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?speakerOnly=true&currSection=sermonsspeaker&keyword=Micah%5ERenihan

    My family practice rotation has ended up being very enjoyable.  I'll definitely miss some of my co-workers for the month.  We are having a flu vaccine clinic Friday and are all dressing up in costume so maybe I'll get some pictures of that.  Two months almost finished!  On to Critical Care!