Well, I've completed my PA applications (to NINE programs!!!) in a record one week. I was in a huge hurry because my favorite program (a long shot - Yale) has a deadline for application submission of September 1. That might seem like a lot of time from now, but as you may know, I went to Evergreen, where they have no grades and my transcripts are a Tolstoyesque novel of narrative evaluations.... The central application service has to process my transcripts and spit out a GPA (?!) for me in the time before the deadline. So, not too optimistic about that, but fingers crossed. I've also had several friendly e-mails with the director of admissions there, so we'll see.
As far as my current work - I'm doing pretty well in O. Chem. I did OK on the first exam, not as well as I'd thought, but waaaay better than I felt about Physics. There is still hope for an A, though probably a low A, looming in my future.
I did get kinda screwed on part of my application to CASPA (the PA central application organization...) My letters of reference have to be in to the agency to pass my application on to my prospective programs. I had asked a former professor back in March if she would be able to write me a letter of recommendation. She agreed without hesitation and interviewed me for about an hour to get material for the letter.
I recently sent her an e-mail letting her know that I would still need that letter, but it would be for PA programs instead of med school. I didn't hear back for a couple days, so I called her office and left a message to the same effect. She then sent me an e-mail informing me that she had a family emergency and was having to leave town and would probably not be able to write me my letter of reference.
Now, I totally understand that emergencies happen and I feel for her, it sounded serious, whatever it was. But, I did ask her in MARCH and I assumed she would have had something written down by now that she could just send off. So I got screwed. It sucks, because I've been out of school so long that I don't have a relationship with any more of my former professors. All the recent classes I have are large lecture classes where the professor barely knows who I am.
My Physics professor has agreed to write my academic letter of reference, but it will be impersonal at best. But required, so not much I can do. I asked my O Chem prof to write one, I laid my situation on the line for him, but he didn't feel comfortable doing it, so I let him off the hook. But I have good ones coming from a former employer (and good friend) and another from Dr. C. at the Clinic, so I should be OK.
Fingers crossed, everyone! By this time next year, I could be starting school!
Lucy funny:
She climbed into bed with us the other morning to snuggle and Todd says dreamily, "This is Lucy, she's my daughter..."
Lucy retorts, "I think mama already knows that."
She cracks me up.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
A changing of the plans
So, you may wonder where the hell I've been lately. Or maybe nobody's really paying attention, but anyway, here goes. As you know, I've been struggling with my decision to go to med school ever since I made it. The thing is, I really want to be a primary care provider. I looked at Nurse Practitioner a while back and really decided that the nursing model is not for me. And then I looked at Physicians Assistant - essentially the same scope of practice as the NP - primary care (though PAs can have specialty areas), they can prescribe and diagnose - and I dismissed it out of hand because the UW school requires that you have 2 years full-time paid clinical experience before applying to the program.
Well, I've been rethinking my possibilities. I really love my relationship with my daughter. It completely freaks me out that I would be away from her for the better part of 7 years - or at best I would be peripherally there. I am not a peripheral parent. By the time I complete med school, Lucy would be 11 or 12. I'll be ready to hang out with her again just when she will be ready to say good bye and hang out with her friends instead. This does not suit me.
PA school lasts 2 years. It is intense, and though PAs are afforded the same scope of practice as NP's, the PA program is designed on the MD model instead of the nursing model, which suits me much better. So, what about those pesky 4000 hours (2 years) paid clinical experience? Well, I've been wrestling with that one now for a while.
One thing I realized is that we could move. I don't HAVE to go to UW for that. We could live anywhere for 2 years and if we don't like it, we'll return in 2 years. No biggie, really. There are schools that require less clinical experience (actually, they ALL require less than UW) so I'd be ready after a year of it. There are even schools that require NO clinical experience, and I'm applying now. Yes, NOW. There aren't many of those and they still recommend that you have the experience, but it's worth a shot.
While I'm applying, I've been trying to decide the best way to get the clinical experience with little or no training. Most "entry level" clinical jobs are things I'd hate, like phlebotomist, respiratory theapist, EMT, etc. And those requare training anyway. So I figure if I'm going to have to get training, I might as well find something i'd like to do for a couple years - so I'm going off to vocational school in the fall to get a certificate in Medical Assisting. It'll take a year, but then I'll have the certificate and if I haven't gotten into my first round of PA schools, I can get a job and begin getting experience.
I'll apply to the second lot of schools after my 6 - 12 months of experience and if that doesn't work, I'll keep on working as an MA until i'm eligible to apply to UW and then we'll just stay here!
I'm actually incredibly excited and relieved to have made this choice. It means I can still work towards doing what I love - working with people in a medical setting. I can still be a primary care "doc" - spending more time with patients than the MDs usually can and getting to know them a little bit better, performing procedures, etc. etc. etc. I can still get the type of education I want. But I don't have to devote my soul to becoming an MD.
Wish me luck on my new endeavor!
O Chem is going very well. I had my midterm last week, and it remains to be seen how well it's going (grades in on Tuesday) but I have a pretty good feeling about it. I really enjoy it and I'm so incredibly glad to be done with Physics forever. (Oh, didn't i mention, it's not required for PA - and neither is the MCAT!!!!)
Lucy is fabulous. She is having pooping problems lately though - she wants to learn to poop in the toilet, but she is struggling with some pretty bad constipation issues. She pooped a teeny tiny pea-sized poop in the toilet for the very first time (she cried the whole time, she is so scared for some reason, the poor thing - i had gotten her a dress she really wanted as "motivation" for pooping on the toilet so she really really wanted to do it, it was pretty hard for her). Anyway, there was much excitement over the pea-sized poop and she got her dress.
I promptly took her in her new dress to the farmer's market where she told complete strangers, "This is my new poop dress! I got it because I can poop in the toilet now!" Oh, the looks I got.
Well, I've been rethinking my possibilities. I really love my relationship with my daughter. It completely freaks me out that I would be away from her for the better part of 7 years - or at best I would be peripherally there. I am not a peripheral parent. By the time I complete med school, Lucy would be 11 or 12. I'll be ready to hang out with her again just when she will be ready to say good bye and hang out with her friends instead. This does not suit me.
PA school lasts 2 years. It is intense, and though PAs are afforded the same scope of practice as NP's, the PA program is designed on the MD model instead of the nursing model, which suits me much better. So, what about those pesky 4000 hours (2 years) paid clinical experience? Well, I've been wrestling with that one now for a while.
One thing I realized is that we could move. I don't HAVE to go to UW for that. We could live anywhere for 2 years and if we don't like it, we'll return in 2 years. No biggie, really. There are schools that require less clinical experience (actually, they ALL require less than UW) so I'd be ready after a year of it. There are even schools that require NO clinical experience, and I'm applying now. Yes, NOW. There aren't many of those and they still recommend that you have the experience, but it's worth a shot.
While I'm applying, I've been trying to decide the best way to get the clinical experience with little or no training. Most "entry level" clinical jobs are things I'd hate, like phlebotomist, respiratory theapist, EMT, etc. And those requare training anyway. So I figure if I'm going to have to get training, I might as well find something i'd like to do for a couple years - so I'm going off to vocational school in the fall to get a certificate in Medical Assisting. It'll take a year, but then I'll have the certificate and if I haven't gotten into my first round of PA schools, I can get a job and begin getting experience.
I'll apply to the second lot of schools after my 6 - 12 months of experience and if that doesn't work, I'll keep on working as an MA until i'm eligible to apply to UW and then we'll just stay here!
I'm actually incredibly excited and relieved to have made this choice. It means I can still work towards doing what I love - working with people in a medical setting. I can still be a primary care "doc" - spending more time with patients than the MDs usually can and getting to know them a little bit better, performing procedures, etc. etc. etc. I can still get the type of education I want. But I don't have to devote my soul to becoming an MD.
Wish me luck on my new endeavor!
O Chem is going very well. I had my midterm last week, and it remains to be seen how well it's going (grades in on Tuesday) but I have a pretty good feeling about it. I really enjoy it and I'm so incredibly glad to be done with Physics forever. (Oh, didn't i mention, it's not required for PA - and neither is the MCAT!!!!)
Lucy is fabulous. She is having pooping problems lately though - she wants to learn to poop in the toilet, but she is struggling with some pretty bad constipation issues. She pooped a teeny tiny pea-sized poop in the toilet for the very first time (she cried the whole time, she is so scared for some reason, the poor thing - i had gotten her a dress she really wanted as "motivation" for pooping on the toilet so she really really wanted to do it, it was pretty hard for her). Anyway, there was much excitement over the pea-sized poop and she got her dress.
I promptly took her in her new dress to the farmer's market where she told complete strangers, "This is my new poop dress! I got it because I can poop in the toilet now!" Oh, the looks I got.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Where O Where Is My Summer Going?
I just thought I'd post a post since I haven't posted any posts in a while and I'm wondering if people are wondering where have my posts gone... so here i am.
I'm back to training, and really I'm feeling better and better about my test the further away from it that I get. And I don't mean that I'm feeling better about my performance at the test, but that I've been able to absorb some of the many lessons from the test and I feel it was so important in my growth as a martial artist. I do feel I'm reaching a deeper level in my training and I can see how much of this path still remains for me. I had great fun this evening (despite temperatures at the school reaching into the 90s) as we practiced forms and sparring as a monkey or a crane. I was having great success as a monkey!
Organic Chemistry is fun too, but a bit scary. I'm quite nervous about the upcoming midterm. I know I always say blah blah blah about my tests, but I know the exams are going to be hard. We get these monster homeworks each week with a combination of book problems and the prof's own personal problems. His creations are long, detailed, complex and almost always unsolvable (by me). This does not bode well for me. Hopefully the curve will be steep.
We got a camper van. One of those cute little eurovan VW camper dealies. It's something I've always wanted and then when we could finally afford it, Todd was going to get it and i talked him out of it. We don't need more stuff! I'm going a little crazy with the accumulation of late, and frankly, i'm a little grossed out by it, but that's another story. Anyway, we began to drive by one several times and so finally i said, ok go look at it... so we got it and IT'S THE BEST THING WE'VE EVER GOTTEN.
Seriously. I don't drive it around town, in fact, so far I've never driven it about town, but we took it camping this weekend. We just went to shake it out, work out the bugs before our first big camping trip. We went someplace close by and set up shop. For those of you who don't know Lucy, she is a very sensitive person and also quite a city girl. I was a bit worried about how she would respond in the great outdoors. She is freaked out by bugs and noises and suchlike lately, so...
Well, she did great! I mean I worked pretty hard to make it as fun as possibly to get a positive review from her, but seemingly it worked. She loved sleeping in the van in her sleeping bag. She LOVED s'mores. And she loved learning how to pee outside. When we got home, she began to insist on sleeping in her sleeping bag every night. The only thing that bothered her was the popping sound that the fire makes. But I think with experience...
I wish my Summer were not filled with school so that I could take her camping every week! I think we may camp in the van on the street soon, we love it that much.
The three of us will be going again in a couple weeks for a longer jaunt - probably 3 nights a little further from home. I can't wait. Then in September, I'm going to an annual women's martial arts camp that will be held in Northern California this year. I'm going to drive the camper down and sleep in it (so I don't have to contend with a crowded dorm-like setting... i'm kinda over that...) and then Todd and Lu are going to fly down and meet me and we'll drive down to Monterey to see my brother and family - even my mom is flying out from Florida - and then the three of us will drive back, camping all the way! I can't wait.
So that is the update. I'm off now to study for next week's midterm.
I'm back to training, and really I'm feeling better and better about my test the further away from it that I get. And I don't mean that I'm feeling better about my performance at the test, but that I've been able to absorb some of the many lessons from the test and I feel it was so important in my growth as a martial artist. I do feel I'm reaching a deeper level in my training and I can see how much of this path still remains for me. I had great fun this evening (despite temperatures at the school reaching into the 90s) as we practiced forms and sparring as a monkey or a crane. I was having great success as a monkey!
Organic Chemistry is fun too, but a bit scary. I'm quite nervous about the upcoming midterm. I know I always say blah blah blah about my tests, but I know the exams are going to be hard. We get these monster homeworks each week with a combination of book problems and the prof's own personal problems. His creations are long, detailed, complex and almost always unsolvable (by me). This does not bode well for me. Hopefully the curve will be steep.
We got a camper van. One of those cute little eurovan VW camper dealies. It's something I've always wanted and then when we could finally afford it, Todd was going to get it and i talked him out of it. We don't need more stuff! I'm going a little crazy with the accumulation of late, and frankly, i'm a little grossed out by it, but that's another story. Anyway, we began to drive by one several times and so finally i said, ok go look at it... so we got it and IT'S THE BEST THING WE'VE EVER GOTTEN.
Seriously. I don't drive it around town, in fact, so far I've never driven it about town, but we took it camping this weekend. We just went to shake it out, work out the bugs before our first big camping trip. We went someplace close by and set up shop. For those of you who don't know Lucy, she is a very sensitive person and also quite a city girl. I was a bit worried about how she would respond in the great outdoors. She is freaked out by bugs and noises and suchlike lately, so...
Well, she did great! I mean I worked pretty hard to make it as fun as possibly to get a positive review from her, but seemingly it worked. She loved sleeping in the van in her sleeping bag. She LOVED s'mores. And she loved learning how to pee outside. When we got home, she began to insist on sleeping in her sleeping bag every night. The only thing that bothered her was the popping sound that the fire makes. But I think with experience...
I wish my Summer were not filled with school so that I could take her camping every week! I think we may camp in the van on the street soon, we love it that much.
The three of us will be going again in a couple weeks for a longer jaunt - probably 3 nights a little further from home. I can't wait. Then in September, I'm going to an annual women's martial arts camp that will be held in Northern California this year. I'm going to drive the camper down and sleep in it (so I don't have to contend with a crowded dorm-like setting... i'm kinda over that...) and then Todd and Lu are going to fly down and meet me and we'll drive down to Monterey to see my brother and family - even my mom is flying out from Florida - and then the three of us will drive back, camping all the way! I can't wait.
So that is the update. I'm off now to study for next week's midterm.
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