My first stress test...

Today I had a stress test done, mostly for my own piece of mind. I'm easy to admit that I'm a bit of a hypochondriac and I've had a little bit of a bumpy time throughout school with some new heart symptoms. Luckily, through trial and error of my own accord (and help from my PCP since my cardiologist would never call back [very annoying and could rant about that separately!]) I eliminated most of my symptoms, but still am left with some anxiety about exercising to my full potential.

So, after my check up at the cardiologist last week (which went well! He tells me my heart looks exactly the same as it did two years ago!) he suggested if I really wanted to have piece of mind they could run an exercise test and that way if I do have symptoms it would be caught on multiple monitors and if there is a problem that only presents with exercise they would catch it.

Well, let me tell you, I am the biggest wuss on the planet. I couldn't make it the whole way through the stress test, but I did hit my almost max HR (with no symptoms, yay!) and I think everything looked great! I had no symptoms and that's the first time I've taken my heart rate past ~164 in two years.

So, I now have a HUGE appreciation for my future cardiac patients who have to go through this stress test. It's not really that fun, and I've had a huge headache since doing the test this morning. (I'm assuming it's from being dehydrated since I did it first thing in the AM and didn't really drink anything before hand... And I also skipped my morning coffee.)

Anyway, this post was sort of pointless... If I was feeling really motivated I could've written all about what the protocol is, but I don't really feel like it right now. And, I'm about to head out for an easy dinner with the boyfriend and a friend!

But, out of all the tests I've taken in the past 2.5 years, I'd say the stress test was the easiest one ;) Sure beats taking a PT exam!

First Day as a "real" PT! :)

Well, as I work on filling in some missing pieces (mainly my 4th clinical experience, graduation, getting a job and studying for the boards), today was a monumental day in my journey from teacher to clinician... Today was my first day as a real-life PT!

Since I did a clinical experience prior to my employment, today felt like I'd never left. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but it definitely helped ease my anxiety. In fact, there were a few familiar faces today and I guess I can expect a couple more later this week. The clinic is sort of slow right now (compared to when I was there before) which I also take as a blessing that I won't be quite as overwhelmed as I work into getting into a routine.

I was working with some patients today and found myself continually going to my prior-CI to ask for permission. I sort of realized halfway through the day that technically, I can now make decisions based on my own opinions. ;) It's still nice to ask permission for someone else's patient though.

So, it was a long day... 10 hours.... Wow. My feet are absolutely killing me, so I'm looking forward to getting used to the feeling of being up and moving all day so that my poor feet don't feel like they walked through a war zone.

I'm also exhausted. It has been about 10 weeks (I would guess) since I last even touched a patient, much less was active all day. I could honestly go to bed now and am literally considering it once I finish this blog post.

I honestly can't believe I just went to work today. I literally went to work and got paid! It's crazy. I remember when I started this journey back in 2009, it seemed like 2014 would be a million years away and now it's here! The interesting thing is, now that I'm done with school I want to try to pick up some hobbies, but I have NO IDEA what I want to do with all my newly earned free time... Definitely getting back to the gym is on the top of my list, and I keep trying to convince my boyfriend we should get a fish tank. Thank goodness the Olympics are on and I can entertain myself with that for the time being! Go USA!

Studying for the NPTE: My Plan

So, I've decided upon a plan to study for the NPTE and figured I would share it here... I am not sure if this plan will work, but it's what I'm going to try to do.

I have 6 weeks until test day and plan to allot my time as follows:

Day 1 - 12: Neuro (my weakest topic) (two days will taken off for baking holiday cookies and Christmas Day!)
Day 13: Practice Exam 1
Day 14 - 20: Cardiopulmonary
Day 21: Practice Exam 2
Day 22 - 28: Start Musculoskeletal
Day 29: Practice Exam 3
Day 30 - 36: Finish Musculoskeletal
Day 37: Practice Exam 4
Day 38 - 41: Review weaknesses and other small topics
Day 42: Exam Day

I'm hoping by starting with my weakest subject that I will spend the most time with it and then ending with musculoskeletal will help have the most things in my memory right before test day.

We shall see what happens!

Time to study for the NPTE

Well, now that graduation day is over, it's time to seriously start planning how I'm going to study for the NPTE. I have the TherapyEd course books and plan on using them as my main means to study. I have a classmate that I am planning on studying with from now until test date; hoping we can keep each other motivated.

My rough draft plan is to start with my weakest subject, which is neuro, then move into cardiopulmonary and finish up with musculoskeletal. Although musculoskeletal is the largest section I hope that studying it closer to the test date will help me remember more.

I feel like I didn't really get to celebrate graduation all that much because this test is looming over me. But, I'm also ready to buckle down and get this very last thing done and over with!

The Day I Got My Doctorate

(below is the speech I proudly gave to my fellow classmates, professors, family and friends on graduation day)

Wow, graduation day. I know for myself and the rest of my classmates, we’ve all had moments when we thought this day would never come. It’s been a long journey. While I was thinking about my experience through PT school, I thought about how each of us has encountered countless highs and lows. Obviously, today is the highest high we’ve had yet, probably being surpassed only by the day when we proudly hold onto our licenses. And we aren’t the only ones who have experienced the ups and downs leading to graduation- I know that our families and friends have been beside us through the good and bad. And, they are all sitting here today, ready to celebrate.
When I was trying to find the right thing to say, I came across these words by Nelson Mandela that perfectly describes the journey of PT School. He said, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
Mendela’s statement resonates so well, because everyone in this room knows that PT school is not all roses and rainbows. In fact, it’s more like practicals and playing Jeopardy with Dr. Schreiber. The low points happened to everyone, but occurred at different times - things like waiting until the last minute to do our PBL, working endlessly on the matrix,  our blunders on exams, our mistakes during practical- These were all moments for each of us that made PT school seem impossible.
But, for every low, there was inevitably a high. And, so I’d like to remind us of the good times-- things like: remembering the day we got accepted into PT school, the lifelong friends we’ve all made, the first time we aced an exam, our first clinical and our last clinical—these are all moments that made the journey worth it. These moments were when we stood proud, and we said to ourselves, “We can do this.”
And so, we had different personal journeys through school and each one of us has specific events in the past two and a half years that are etched into our memories as the highs and lows. But even though we’ve all had unique experiences, we made it here together today.
So now, I stand proudly in front of my classmates, my fellow doctors of physical therapy, our wonderful professors, our loving families and friends - and I can say- we did it. It doesn’t seem that impossible after all. Congratulations to the Class of 2013!

How did 8 weeks pass by so quickly?!

  This week has been so busy and has been going very slowly. I am thankful, though because it's my last week and I'm not ready to go! I discharged another patient this week, but all the other ones I started saying goodbye to today. Some of them I am really close to because I started treating them as soon as I started and I will miss not getting to know how they finish up. I had a couple of my male patients tell me how much they appreciated my kindness and how much they will miss me.  The same patient that brought me flowers last week told me I took "care of him best". It was so cute! I am really going to miss everyone. I'm not looking forward to saying goodbye to all my pulmonary patients tomorrow, they have been the ones I have had the most fun with! 

     Today I gave my in-service on CHF. It went pretty well and then we all had lunch together for my "farewell" which was really nice. My CI even bought me a cookie cake! Everyone just keeps hugging me and telling me about how much they don't want me to leave. I really feel like I'm a part of their family now! 

     And, we talked a bit about the possibility of maybe me having a job there when I graduate... It's very unofficial now because they weren't planning on hiring anyone, but it was really exciting to think that I may have a small lead on something already! 

     This has been a really rewarding clinical experience and I have really loved the chance to work with cardiac and pulmonary patients. I will definitely miss it!

Friday the 13th! No wonder things have been "off"

This week has been a little rough with my CI coming back from vacation. I was used to my expectations from her and then got used to the expectations of me by everyone else while she was gone and now she's back and it's been a transition. She's been commenting on everything that I do, or what order I should do particular things. (Like, "Make sure you put patient 1 on the treadmill so you can finish patient 2's manual!") I know she's just trying to be helpful, but I've got it under control! ;) Well... for the most part. 

Well, after two really rough days, today was GREAT! :) :) I was so glad to have a good day. I had a couple of rough ones and was feeling down. One of my pulmonary patient's perked me up right away in the morning. The respiratory therapist will bring donuts in periodically for the patients on Fridays and there were some donuts on the table. My patient looked at the donuts and looked at me and said, "Sister... in the game of life you've got to keep your eye on the donut and not the hole." It made me laugh and made me realize that I was worrying over two "bad" days and really, I've been doing really well overall at this clinical. Then, we got a patient with congestive heart failure and he is high risk for exercise (his cardiologist sent him to us!) so I have been working with him. Basically, we do a functional activity (like stairs) and then I take his pulse and blood pressure. Then we will do another activity, then vitals, and back and forth for the whole session. So, it's a lot of work just to make sure he is doing well. Beyond his congestive heart failure, this patient has a long psychiatric history including paranoid schizophrenic. I was able to sort of teach everyone a few tips on dealing with him based on one of our lecture's from neuro, which was awesome!  Basically, I just make sure I fully explain everything we are going to do and what we are doing and why we are doing it. His therapy session is very structured and I make sure to not whisper around him (we do try to discuss his vitals to the side from time to time). So, if we do have to discuss something, I always come back and tell him what we are talking about, so that he doesn't feel paranoid and feels safe. So far, everything has been fine and he is actually one of my favorite patients (and the source of my in-service)! After he left today, my CI told me she was really impressed with how I was handling him and that I was doing really well with him. That made me feel good! And then, my patient at the end of the day, who is a little hard to warm up, told me she thought I was really empathetic and she can tell how much I care about her and my other patients and that I've been very patient and kind to her and she thinks I will be a great therapist! It made me feel awesome!! Especially after a couple crappy days!! Finally! A good day and I'm feeling great again!