yay free voucher!

so here i am at the airport getting ready to fly to SFO for my conference, and guess what! they asked for someone to give up their seat in this tiny flight to St. Louis (50 ppl capacity, i was seat 1A in my own row!) for another flight leaving 2h later, stops at Dallas (instead of St. Louis), and arrives at SFO 1h later, for $250 voucher. I wondered if the amt would be raised if nobody offered...but after 3 ppl came up asking for the voucher but to other destinations (Wichita, Vegas, etc), i said i better grab the opportunity! the other reason is that the girl i'm hotelling with doesn't arrive til 11:50pm, and i can't check in since room is under her name. now i arrive at 11:42pm, so it's perfect--i don't have to wait at hotel by myself, and i'm $250 richer! yaya!! =)

on another note, i've been kinda "threatened" indirectly to not blog on my patients during my PA school experience for confidentiality reasons...so no more interesting stories. i'll respect that.

i'm on geriatrics rotation now, full of old peeps, friendly and talkative but very very slow. 1-2h for a physical exam! egad! oh well, we'll all become that one day...if we're lucky!

as for job search, i've got my first interview! it's in Peabody, MA, in a 9 physician/9 PA orthopedic group, about 15 min from where radu coaches badminton. so i have to drive there the monday after memorial day for the interview. i'm nervous, but happy! i also have a supposed phone interview with a "Bay Area Orthopedist" looking for a PA. he hasn't responded as to when the exact phone call will be, but i hope it turns out. he doesn't even tell me any info about his office, or where he is even located! but at least i got an email from his secretary saying that the doc wants to do a phone interview. maybe i'll get to see him in person when i go down to SJ again June 9-11. wish me luck either way! i can't believe i'm gonna graduate in 4 months and i'll have to work...boohooohoooo....there goes the end of my full-time student career!

things going well =)

you know how there is always sunshine after the rain? well, it happened, both literally and figuratively! we've had two days of downpour (i know it doesn't compare to SJ), and now it's 70's and sunny! too bad i was stuck working the entire sunny days from sunrise to sunset, but it's still nice to peek out windows and see blue skies. so during those rainy days we had long work days, i was lacking sleep (4-5h of interrupted sleep), tired and cranky, couldn't find housing, got rejected from an ortho job at santa clara kaiser, stressed from work and not getting to do anything, and some mini-arguments with people. then the sun came out, and everything turned great! i got to assist in more surgical procedures, i found summer housing (same place as last summer, with unlimited AC!), i got NINE hours of sleep one night, patched things up, things were shining so brightly! and today, my team lets me go home at 11am!!! only 5h of work and i'm free!! no more 12h shifts! =) so it's noon, and i'm ecstatic!!! =D

yesterday i had a great attending doctor on the surgical case. it was a hip replacement revision, which mean the patient's original hip replacement failed and she needed another. so i was with 2 residents (3rd year very very buff asian guy, 4th year skinny very smart guy), 1 attending (santa-claus like, but strong). we had to get the old metal hip prosthesis out from her leg, but somehow, it was jammed in her bone so tightly (i guess after 14 years!). so the 3 of them took turns for 45 min trying to hammer this thing out, and i'm sitting there waiting, twiddling my thumbs impatiently...wondering when i'll get out of this case so i can eat and make it on time for badm practice! for the first 10 min, we made about 2mm (not cm) of progress in a 18cm rod!! not good at all. anyhow, they hammered til all 3 were sweating, and the attending goes, "maybe we should give nancy a try!" i was like, "haha, no thanks!" obviously, i'm the weakling here (ortho docs are mostly former jocks), and i'm SURE i'll hammer my fingers before i get that rod out and embarass/hurt myself! so they kept working at it..and finally when it was just about to pop out (to my extreme happiness that the case is finally progressing), the attending doc shouts, "STOP!! nancy, come over here, take it out!" i was shocked! I get to do the honors?? Wowzers! so i hustled over, and remembering how much strength the others had to hit with to get the rod to budge, i took one HUGE bang and i nearly fell off the stool i was on, but the rod was out!! big cheers in the OR! =) i just laughed at the silliness, but the attending's thoughtfulness is something i'll take with me. despite the unpredicted difficulty in extracting her old replacement and the prolongation of the case, he still managed to remember there is a student on board...and despite the hard 45 min of work the others put into it, it was me that he let to yank it out! so i'll remember that in the future if i ever have students under me. =) so that was very cool. and i got to do more suturing--need the practice to become a surgeon! good times! i like ortho, still like surgery, so i think that's what i'll go into first. oh, the 4th year resident even offered me a possible job in AZ for a PA in ortho trauma--that would be cool, but not so fun since i don't know anyone. still, it's nice to have opportunities pop up!