Drowning in Ponchatrain

Yesterday, I signed up for my first triathalon!!! I'm super excited and ready for a new challenge. It will be in New Orleans in May...the swimming will definitely be the hardest part for me. Hopefully I won't drown in Lake Ponchatrain!

I'm a Pro.

Well this weekend I made a tour of Alabama, in a sense. First, I hit up Troy to watch MTSU's women play there. Then headed on up to Auburn to watch some softball before finally hitting Birmingham for the Alabama Society of Physician Assistant's (ASPA)conference.

The ASPA conference is a meeting of all PA members working in Alabama where they come listen to lectures and get CME credits for maintaining their licensure. These lectures range from Trauma Surgery to Diabetes to Adrenal Disease and everywhere in between. Today, there was a completely different program for students. We had morning lectures on how to code things so they can be billed properly and we get reimbursed (basically learn how to do it so you can get paid). Then, we learned about the PA job search and contract negotiations which was super enlightening. Next was the real fun....

The afternoon session started with us going into 3 groups to participate in 3 separate physical exam workshops. We had a Cardiac one where we listened to heart sounds and talked about different pathologies associated with them. In our Orthopedic group, we went through some knee and shoulder exam techniques. Then, in the Neuro group, we went through the major things to look for and what they may mean, specific to neurologic deficits. But even then, the real fun came next......
We had a casting lab and a suture lab. In the casting lab, we learned how to do short arm casts then got to put them on each other!! SO COOL! But the best of the best part was suture lab. They gave us the typical suture kit and a pig's foot. We gave our little piggy some lacerations then went to fixing them up. I put about 10 stitches in 2 separate cuts, and I'm not lying, they looked REAL good! haha. I just didn't have my phone to take a picture because I would have much rather posted that.

Anyways, all in all, I learned alot and it was a weekend well spent.

In HIM.

So, It's Been A Minute...

So I just realized, I've been a horrible blogger. My last post was 4 months ago. So, now I'm going to try to play catch up and continue my attempt to do better at this whole blogging thing.

Well, since October, I've finished and started another semester of PA school. I'm officially in my third semester and it's crazy as ever. In August, I'll be done with my classroom portion and start my clinical year which is CRAZY! Also in August, I'll be going back to Guatemala over my break to work with Health Talents International again on another medical mission trip which I couldn't be more excited about. I can't wait to have more experiences like this one:


In other news, I've just been really dragging lately. I've not been getting to spend alot of alone time with GOD and it's definitely taken its toll on my spirit. But tonight, I got to spend alot of time with HIM, reflecting on HIS promises and HIS authority in my life. HE is so good and I don't deserve HIM. I ended up listening to a song that a friend and I wrote a while back and it just soothed everything within me. Here are the lyrics to the first verse and chorus:

Lay my offering down at YOUR feet
I'm hoping YOU will come look at me
I'm bruised and beaten
I chose all my stones
And I'm here seeking
Redemption from the ONE

At the garden,
I enter guilty and ashamed
In YOUR presence
I fall down on my face
I want to know YOU
I want to feel YOUR embrace
In the stillness
I am seeking YOUR face

I just wanted to share that so you can know what brings me ridiculous peace, HIS embrace of love.

LOVE in HIM.