Summer Utah Trip

There are not enough words to describe how nice it was to see my girls again, so I'll use pictures.

Abby puked all over the place not 5 minutes after this picture was taken.

Orem Library

Daddy-Daughter date

Daddy-Daughter date

Dimetrodon (incidentally, not a true dinosaur)

BYU Museum of Paleontology

Striking a pose.

End of Spring

Wow.  The semester is over.  It went so quickly I can hardly believe it.  Here's a rundown of all we did...

10 Sections of Medicine
14 Exams
26 Quizzes
12 Clinical Procedure labs (including suturing, venipuncture, skin biopsies, lumbar punctures, and casting)
5 Patient visits
5 Histories and Physicals
4 Timed SOAP notes
4 EKG interpretations
1 Physician Assistant Clinical Knowledge Rating and Assessment Tool (PACKRAT) exam
1 Admission order
1 Suture practicum
and an Advanced Cardiac Life Support certification

Yes, they pack all of that into 17 weeks.

Maybe it's because it went by so quickly, but I didn't realize how much ground we actually covered until I typed it all out.  It's crazy!

Now, almost 2 weeks of hard-earned freedom.  Tomorrow morning I jump a flight to UT.  Something I have been counting down the days to for months!  Chances are you won't hear from me until I get back to Florida.  Hopefully I'll have lots of good stories and pictures from my time with the girls.

Until then...

Catching Up

Hello all?

It's been a bit since I've updated y'all on what's happening down here in the Sunshine State. 

The last time I posted was on my birthday.  That night, I was so nicely surprised by my amazing friends.  I thought I was just being treated to dinner by a couple of them, but when we showed up to the restaurant, there were a dozen people there waiting for me.  I didn't even know where we were going.  But they surprised me with sushi, a cake, and gifts.  It was a great birthday!

Mmmmm Sushi

Maria, Austin, Stephanie, Brendan, Me, Cally, Kristy, Tina, Christina

This semester, I've also been playing 4 on 4 flag football with some guys from class.  We were just playing in the Rec League so there wasn't a championship or anything, but I think we came away only losing 2 games.

David, Austin, Me, BJ, Jeff, Danny

 Florida has been the source of a lot of new experiences for me.  One of which was jury duty.  I lived in Utah for 8 years and never got called up for jury duty.  I haven't even lived here a year and I got a summons.  I don't know, I was actually kinda excited about it.  Never done it before and wanted the experience.  So, I got excused from school, went to the courthouse, and made it through the 1st round of prescreening.  Then they separated us into groups and sent us to courtrooms to go through the selection process.  Well, the group I was in was further divided in two.  My group sat in the audience while the other group was grilled by the prosecuting and defense attorneys.  Then they sent us out to lunch.  When I got back for my selection process, they decided to send me home because I had to be in a mandatory class on the date the trial was scheduled for.  I was kinda bummed for two reasons. 1) I didn't get selected for a jury and was robbed of my Twelve Angry Men experience and 2) I wasted an entire day just to find out that I wasn't selected.

Oh yeah, and I've been doing lots of this too...

But it hasn't been all book work.  I've gotten to do a lot of fun hands-on stuff too.  Check it out...

And this...

I also got to see a locally produced play with my good friend Mayra.  It was a quirky modern comedic take on the classic tale of Robin Hood.

And lastly....the moment I had been waiting for all year...drumroll please....Clinical year schedule!

So, Gainesville is my home base, but it looks like I'll be spending quite a bit of time out of town.  My first month rotation will be surgery at the Naval base in Pensacola.  That's really far away in the panhandle.  I think it's even in a different time zone.  Then the 2nd month I'll be commuting 50 minutes to an Urgent Care clinic.  I'll spend the month of December in Jacksonville.  In March, I have another hour commute each day to another primary care clinic.  

But the really good news, is that during those months where it says "Elect," I will probably have rotations in Utah!  I'm super lucky that the Asst Director of my program used to be on faculty at the University of Utah's PA school.  She's been using her connections to try and find me rotations there.  So far, she's found a Pediatric Cardiologist in Orem that I could precept with...which would be amazing.  I can't wait to be close to my girls again.  I miss them a ton!

Well, there you have it.  You're all caught up on the last month or so of my life.  A lot has been happening and I am so close to being done with the semester.  Just 2 more exams and an ACLS course and I'm 1 step closer to being a PA!

Reflections on 30 years of life

Well, today is my birthday.  Officially 30 years old.  Can it be?  Is it true?  Has life gone by that quickly?  Isn't it funny how when you're in the moment, time often seems to crawl, but when you look back on things, the years feel like they've blown by you like you like a fat kid at a Chinese buffet?  Why is that?  There's got to be some lesson there.  Maybe it's so we can enjoy the present, live there, experience it fully and deeply but blur the memories of our past.  There are certain things though, that I remember as vividly as if they had happened yesterday...

I remember Mom rocking me during a particularly bad thunderstorm when I was so so little.  Probably one of my first memories.

I remember singing to Billy Idol with my older sisters.

I remember melting a hole in the carpet with a desk lamp that I had tipped over so that the light wouldn't shine in my eyes while I napped on Stacie's floor.

I remember friends long since come and gone...I wonder how many remember me.

I remember winning the Junior Little League city championship...we gave the game ball to Ryan Foley's dad who had been stricken with ALS years prior.

I remember certain run-ins with the law.

I remember my first car.  Really wish I would have kept that one.

I remember managing the girls' softball team for 3 straight years.  They won the State Championship all 3 seasons.  Those were some of my best times in high school.

I remember heading off to the University of Montana, the dorms, the friends.

I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when the World Trade Center was attacked.

I remember working at the movie theater.  Still probably my favorite job ever.

I remember certain days and experiences in the MTC that have been shared with very few people...experiences I keep very close to my heart.

I remember certain moments of inspiration while serving the people of Tahiti.  God sometimes speaks so clearly.

I remember coming home to what seemed like a changed world...only it wasn't the world that had changed...it was me that had been changed.

I remember moving to Provo and my first apartment.  Wyatt, Derek, and Dave.

I remember 4 specific times when I tried to talk to Becky and was rebuffed.

I remember the exact moment when she finally noticed.

I remember our first date and our wedding day.

I remember the awe and joy and humility I felt when little Grace was born.  She forever changed how I view the world.

I remember the arrival of little Abby.  I miss her terribly.

I remember all too well the agony and pain and heartbreak that was the year 2012.

Sadly, I also remember far too many of the mistakes, errors, insecurities, poor decisions, tears, disappointments, bad thoughts, bad circumstances, bad situations, and bad feelings that intersperse all of the moments above.  Some still haunt me to this day.  Aren't those the things that Time is supposed to help us forget?

But, thank goodness, I also remember some of the laughter, achievements, joy, successes, trials overcome, tender mercies extended, unspeakable spiritual experiences, lessons learned, and moments of pure bliss. 

My life is certainly not where I expected it to be when I turned 30.  Though, there are probably few people that could say theirs was either.  But this last year has taught me a lot.  Some of it was willful learning.  Some of it was having lessons beat into me.  The point is, that I have learned.  I have grown.

I've learned that 30 year old joints aren't as pain-free as 20 year old joints and that 30 year old bellies are not as flat as they are when you're 18.  I've learned that time takes its toll.  But I have also learned much from my mistakes.  I am far from perfect.  I am actually still quite broken.  But I'm learning to own that and love it all the same.

So, for this new year of life, I have hope.  Guess I can't ask for a better birthday gift than that.