2/26

I have exciting news! I watch TWO procedures done this week! This is a big deal because I have been wishing to watch a surgery of some sort. Gaily suggested that I go down to watch them both (they weren't done in the same day). The first one was a TIPS procedure. Which is an acronym for Transjugular Intrahepatin Portosystemic Shunt. In this procedure a shunt was placed in between the portal vein. This procedure lasted about 5 hours I would say, I did not stay the entire time but I did end up staying an extra hour than I intended. I was watched the procedure being performed from the lab along with two correctional officers because the patient was an inmate. The second procedure was a Internal Vena Cava (IVC) Filter Placement to stop blood clots in the patients leg from entering his lungs which could cut off his oxygen. This procedure was much quicker and required the patient to be conscious or awake the whole time. This was because they needed him to hold his breath at times. Very interesting week.

2/16

So Gaily has been floated to the oncology floor since the floor she usually works on is fully staffed and the onco floor is in need of staff (nurses). Oncology is the study on cancer by the way. This unit is much smaller. The floor is circular and consists of about 12 patients, versus about 40 patients on the floor Gaily originally works on. Also, there is 4 enclosed rooms that hold patients that do not have the immune systems to fight off sicknesses. Before entering the rooms the guests, nurses, and/or doctors are encouraged to wash their hands, because they can easily give the patients a sickness. I have noticed that Gaily has grown attached to one of the cancer patients. This patient is nonresponsive, meaning she's not awake, and expected to die. We visited the sixth floor, and she conversated with the nurses and ended up shedding tears briefly after discussing the patient. Afterwards she acknowledged that dealing with circumstances like these are apart of being a nurse...she stated.

2/9/11

What does a typical day consist of me doing?....Well I usually have two shifts, one around 11 am and another after school at 4:30. Anywho, I attend the daily nurse meetings at 11am and then Gaily (my sponsor) informs me on her patients health...she usually has 4 patients. I follow her to get medications for her patients and watch her take their vitals (which could be taking their blood pressure, their pulse, temperature, and/or respiratory rate). She inserts IV's in all of her patients and sometimes she has to educate her patients on how to better deal with their conditions. I would say that you would definetly have to attain people skills in order to deal with some the patients. Gaily possesses this important skill. She introduces me to all of her patients as a student shadowing her...sometimes they question me about things like my status in school. Before taking off to school, we take a 30-minute lunch break. The second shift is concluded with Gaily reporting her patients and their health to the nurse's that work nights and take over her patients. This takes about 30 minutes, and then I watch her chart...(order sometimes reversed). Keep in mind that this a typical day. Everyday is mostly differently, but the previously mentioned tasks are what usually sums up the day in what I watch my sponsor do. As you can probably tell, I spend my time observing various things. Which is a huge part of the learning experience.

2/1/11

This may sound weird...but...I drove a bed today! Well at least that's what they call it at the hospital. Usually, it's the transporters job to do this, with the patients on the bed of course. In order to "drive" the beds you must take the brakes off, and push two buttons that allow the bed to go. As you can see, I am not referring to an oridinary hospital bed. Other cool features that the beds have besides the option to recline is that they have built in speakers that would allow the patients to hear their t.v. and a built in scale to weigh the patient. Cool, huh? If you did not already know this. These beds are really expensive, it's amazing how much technology has advance as these beds are a perfect example.

2/21/11

So I had a patient on Monday and she sprang both of her ankles and so we worked on calf raises 2 sets of 10 for both feet for all of her exercises, windmills 2 sets of 10, plyo press 2 sets of 10, 2 sets of 10 of fire hydrant and then standing hip 2 sets of 15 (D) I felt so well I don’t know how to explain it but the patient was VERY overwhelming. She asked question after question and was trying to change up the exercise, that we had for her. (F) I learned the purpose of having patients with people. Patient is really key when working with people. (A)

Titrations!

Vocab

Titration- laboratory method of chemical analysis to determine unknown concentration of a reagant; uses a volumetric buret and erlenmeyer flask

Ascorbic Acid- sugar acid with antioxidant properties; comonly found in vitamin C

AOAC- scientific association that esablishes uniform chemical analysis to limit variability

Wednesday 2/23

Today we began our analysis of Vitamin C. Before we could analyze our sample, however we had to practice the AOAC method and create a couple standard blanks. The best method to analyze ascorbic acid is by performing a titration. I was really nervous. I've had to perform titrations in AP Chem and failed miserably so I didn't want to mess up again when it really mattered. Luckily, Dr, Engeseth showed me her technique and it was much easier. All the professors and grad students in the lab have different tricks and techniques for performing experiments. It's up to each individual to decide how they want to perform it themselves.

2/22/11 Podiatry

On Tuesday of this week, I was to report to the Podiatry department found in the Windsor Road Christie Clinic site. I was privileged to meet and shadow one of the top physicians and administrators of Christie Clinic, Dr. William Pierce. Dr. Pierce is CMO (Chief Medical Officer) of Christie Clinic. He dedicates about 20% of his time to clinical and surgical podiatry as a DPM (Doctor of Podiatric Medicine) and he spends most of his time conducting administrative work in Christie Clinic. Dr. Pierce diagnoses, treats, and helps prevent diseases and disorders affecting the feet and ankles of adults and children. He specializes in diabetic foot complications and reconstructive foot surgery. He also has a strong interest in the pathobiomechanics (abnormal function) of the foot and ankle. I was warned by Dr. Pierce’s assistant, Jenna, that he was very busy and may seem distracted as he was taking on his own and another doctor’s patients who had called in sick [D].

Despite Dr. Pierce’s full schedule, I was mind blown by the amount of information he threw at me in the 4 hour span. He made sure to explain each case before entering and seeing each patient. He began the first lesson of the day by asking me “what does a banana smell like?” The question took me by surprise because it was so trivial but I answered “yes.” It did not occur to me that Dr. Pierce would then make an important analogy as he asked his second question, “What does it smell like?” This question is of course silly and unanswerable, but Dr. Pierce would then conclude that a patient’s pain is like a banana. The patient can’t necessarily explain the pain he/she are experiencing (similarly, you cannot explain how a banana smells), so that leaves the doctor to play the “detective role” and trying to uncover the mystery. Dr. Pierce explained that a patient may be experiencing pain on the dorsal (top) side of the foot but the problem may initially be in the hind foot. Because of the functionality and biomechanics of the foot, a kinetic chain is triggered when the joints move and an inflamed region of the foot may put stress on other components, thus causing pain in a foreign area [D]. This applies to other biomechanical factors of the body as well. It is important to grasp this concept because a doctor has to put all the pieces he/she has together (such as results from physical examination, radiographs, history, and patient’s impression) in order to distinguish between the “banana and the plantain” [A].

As I shadowed Dr. Pierce I made observations. Something I quickly picked up on was the lack of diversity of his patients. Most of his patients were older women with chronic foot pain, generally as a result of a tight calf muscle. Because the calf muscle is linked to the Achilles tendon, many of the foot’s mechanics are controlled by the gastroc (calf) as the patient goes through the gait cycle (walking cycle). To compensate for the tight calf muscle the heel is lifted off the ground early, causing an abnormality in a patient’s walking cycle. The abnormal force that the Achilles tendon and calf muscle exert causes midfoot collapse and pain in that region. This condition can be treated conservatively by stretching the calf muscle and elongating it. Pain relief is found in orthotics, which are soles placed in the patient’s shoe to help control pronation (irregular tilting of the foot/ankle), support the midfoot and distribute forefoot pressure. Dr. Pierce also made references to how this condition applies to many athletes, which may be detrimental to their running technique and mechanics. Many sports rely on the sound movement of the feet, so it is important to manipulate podiatric treatment to improve an athlete’s performance.

This is just scratching the surface of what I’ve learned with Dr. Pierce. I received advice on how to communicate with patients as well as how a doctor thinks critically when diagnosing each case [A]. It was a fast paced and exhausting day, but proved to be extremely productive [F]. I would like to get more exposure to podiatry in the future. Dr. Pierce welcomed me to come, but he only works in the clinic on Tuesdays because of his administrative duties. It would be interesting to see more preoperative and postoperative cases to get more of an idea of which cases require such measures to be taken.

1/24 - Great Day.

Today was rather eventful, finally. I spent most of my time coordinating everything for my register to win. The show I am working on is Rise Against, a punk band of which I am no too fond of. Nevertheless ticket sales are down for it so I'm setting up a little promotion. I began by calling local tattoo and piercing parlors and asked them if I could host a register to win at their main lobby (prize is two tickets to the concert, B section). I figured the types of people to be getting inked up are the same who enjoy raging to punk rock music. Next step was a short meeting with Janet, our graphic designer, in which we designed a Rise Against poster that included a register to win opportunity. This was some good experience in my field considering I learned graphic advertisements, public relations and all together promotion.

During my initial tour of Assembly Hall I ran into the lights and mechanics director. He told me he planned on taking me up to the scaffolding. Today I asked him if it was a good day for the tour, and it turns out it was. It was pretty interesting walking across the bridge and above the scoreboard as I look down a 300 foot drop to the Illinois Basketball court. Shane, the mechanics director, even gave me some life advice - "high school years are the best of your life". A rather depressing statement to say the least.

Epiphany 2-24-11

This week has been one of the most stressful weeks at the clinic.  We switched to new machines and everyone is trying to learn how to use all the new machines.  Even though the new x ray machines are more high tech and extremely efficient, they add more stress upon the workers of my department.  I felt like everyone was just tired and over worked because for 3 days all we did was train and when they came back they were filled with patients and surgeries. [F]  Today we had a total of 16 surgeries and 31 patients overall.  It was one of the busiest days I have ever witnessed.  I was constantly on my feet and trying my best to help out.  I assisted in 3 surgeries 2 wisdom teeth and one implant.[D]  I was beginning to get stressed and felt the pressures of being over worked.[A]  Towards the end of the day I just wanted to get out of the hospital because I was simply overwhelmed.  This feeling didn't last long because our last patient and surgery was a real re assuring experience.  At first I was tired and worn out until I started a conversation with my patient.  He was a real nice, sweet old man and he won over my sympathy.  We enjoyed a friendly conversation as we waited for Dr. E to enter the room.  In that time period I was able to rediscover myself.  No matter how much stress I went through or how hard I worked at the end of the day it was all worth it because i am able to do what I have always wanted to do…help others who are in need.  Our last patient was a nice eye opener for why I was so interested in the medical field.[A]  We live in a world that is spiraling down a pathway of self destruction.  We forget that each and every one of us is human even though the skin color is different or our appearance may differ, but we are all the same.  We have to learn to forgive one another and HELP others, not bring them down, not discourage one another.  It's important that we do our best to help others and that's what I learned today after talking to my patient.  Within him I saw all the good that people possess.  Now most of you guys may think I'm crazy or that I'm being cheesy but I had a real eye opening experience and now I'm sure that I want to go into the medical field and help people like the patient I talked to today.  I hope you all have one of those moments at your internship and are lucky enough to appreciate these rare moments.[A]

Thursday February 24

Today was a double header as far as interning goes. Bridget and I finished up the press release earlier this week and I worked on a news bulletin for the KCPA website. Thursday night, however, was significantly more fun. My play writing class went to see Sarah Ruhl's "Eurydice", a reinterpretation of the classic Greek tragedy, at the Station Theatre. We agreed to see the show together last week. Even though it isn't writing in itself, watching performance often helps shape you as a better writer. It can help shape new perspectives and get your creative drive in gear, not to mention it's pretty stress relieving. The Station Theatre, located in the old train station across from Save-A-Lot in downtown Urbana, is fairly small. The set was one of the largest I've ever seen in the building. I'd estimate less than quarter of the blackbox (a type of theatre that's, literally, a black box- there isn't a permanent stage therefore it's very flexible, but also requires some extra work depending on what the director and scenic designer want to achieve) was used for seating. The production was interesting. I wasn't wild about the lead actress. After the show we talked for a few minutes about our reactions. I thought Eurydice was portrayed as far too infantile from the beginning of the play; she didn't develop very much as a character on stage though the script itself indicates major shifts in her character. 2008 UHS graduate Chris Brown played Orpheus, the male lead. He and the remaining five members of the cast did a wonderful job. On Monday we'll do a more in-depth critique of the performance and we'll decide on a date to view the next Station production "Betrayal" in early March.

Wednesday, February 23

Today was uneventful, as always. When I arrived at the office I had a short meeting with Kent, Sarah, and the legal assistant, Jake. We discussed the new case Kent just got from another lawyer in Decatur. As far as I can tell it's a very complex divorce case involving an ex-wife who is a lawyer and an ex-husband who is worth over $5 million. The wife is trying to get money from her ex-husband for legal advising that she provided to him regarding his family-run company. There are boxes full of files we received from the other lawyer in Decatur that must be sorted through, indexed, and organized. Kent assigned me a project to abstract a deposition from early last year regarding the financial aspects of the legal advising. A deposition is basically when a lawyer for the petitioner, the ex-husband, questions the respondent, in this case the ex-wife and the entire thing is recorded in a very detailed document. My job is to read through the entire deposition which can range from 50 to several hundred pages and basically summarize the important or relevant pieces of information presented. This was a bit difficult mostly due to the fact that when I asked Kent what information I should be looking for or focusing on he said that he wasn't quite sure what he was looking for himself. Since this file is so large he is still trying to get a feel for the case and find a good position to take. I did my best and started looking for anything that I thought might be relevant. It's a somewhat tedious job but hey, someone has to do the dirty work. It will probably take a few days for me to complete this but hopefully after I meet with Kent on it again I will have a better feel for it.

2/21

On Wednesday, we had a Marketing Council meeting. There were different representatives of hotels who served people during the weekend of the wrestling tournament. They each talked about the positive and negative points that they have noticed during those days. They also brought up some subjects and elements that they would want changed for next year. During the meeting, Cory asked each of us to present his/herself and asked if we were given a plane ticket to go anywhere in the world where would it be. Some people had some good places while others brought up names that were new to me. During the meeting, two members started texting and writing each other notes. It surprised me because I thought that Business people can not do it especially in a meeting. They were giggling (laughing) and everyone else around them got annoyed but could not say anything. They were just giving them the "look". I appreciate the focus and engagement of a woman (who got there late) but brought up some good points about the weekend. She said that she was disappointed because she had to stop parents from arguing with each other about who's kids was the best and who was going to win first place. they had broken beds, exit sign taken off the wall, and had some people bring alcohol in the hotel (which is not allowed when surrounded by teenagers). It choked me to know that most of the troubles that were cause in hotels were cause by parents instead of the children( high school student). Today, Libby told me that we will be having a meeting on Monday to go over my old and new projects. Now, I am working on gathering email addresses of attractions and restaurants in Champaign County. It seemed easy at first but now I am getting nervous because I do not think that I would be able to finish it on time. The not so fun thing is that I have to make phone calls to places that do not have their emails online. While looking at the lists today, I figured out that I only have twenty emails out of an hundred. The most fun part was talking with a man who is already retire but comes works since he does not like to stay at home. He talked to us about the old time and the trip that he's planning for him and his wife for two weeks. While talking with him, I noticed something different in the way that he talked about his life ( job) and the way people today react toward what they have. He seemed happy and glad that he lived his life even though there were hard time. He was mostly happy about being able to enjoy of his retirement money enjoy his life at the fullest. But as the day went to an end, the office became empty and quiet since Libby, Angela, and Cory were not there. Today was a good day and I wished that everyday was just like this one. FYI: the marathon is on April 29 and 30, 2011. See you all tomorrow ( if not have a great weekend).

Free Samples! 2/24/11

NEW VOCAB: Celiac Disease (CD): an autoimmune disorder characterized by inability to digest gluten.
Hello, everyone! Today I got to have a change from my normal internship routine. Kelsey (a U of I intern) and I set up a table in the cafe section of Strawberry Fields to hand out samples of gluten-free products to afternoon customers (D). We sampled gluten-free cookies in 4 flavors (Dr. Lucy's brand-on sale this month at Strawberry Fields) and Snyders of Hanover gluten-free pretzels. We also prepared 2 handouts a couple days ago about having a gluten-free diet to give to people who sampled the products-one with information about gluten-free diet and another with a variety of gluten-free recipes to try (D). I arrived 15 minutes earlier than normal to my internship to set up the table and get everything ready to go. When Kelsey arrived, we finished making copies of the handouts and set out all the food and fliers, as well as a couple of cookbooks Susan (my sponsor) has about gluten-free eating (D). Once again, I was able to realize the importance of teamwork: we got set up very quickly, and were very efficient because we were working together (A). After we were all ready to go, we sat down and waited for people to walk by to ask if they wanted a free sample. Mrs. Sherrick also popped in to take a few pictures :) When we first started, there was a huge rush of people who wanted samples, but then there was a LONG period of time where hardly anyone came by at all! I felt really bored (F)! But this "downtime" was also nice because it gave Kelsey and I a chance to visit: we are usually so focused on our projects we are working on that we don't get to talk much to eachother. When we were finished with our sample table and had cleaned everything up, Kelsey and I got to sample the gluten-free products ourself (the pretzels were especially yummy!). One important thing I learned today was to communicate clearly with other people and always be polite and gracious, and say "thank-you" when they leave (A). I also realized that gluten-free products can be tasty to all people, not just people who are required to follow a gluten-free diet (A). I will see everyone tomorrow at the seminar!

2/14

This week was not as fun as I expected it to be. It was rather frustrating. On Monday, Libby emailed me about the calendar. she wanted me to redo it since there were some mistakes from the previous week. I have been working on the CVB website for now two weeks. It has been a long work and everyday there are new things that needs to be added on it. On Friday, the CVB was sponsoring the wrestling tournament at the Assembly Hall. It was a fun time, but the game was confusing since I did not know anything about the game. I found it interesting the way people were into it and how serious they were. During that time, we had to make sure that people enjoys their day but we mostly payed attention to people who are not from Champaign County to have a great time and want to come back for more events. We gave out lists of hotels and restaurants that had discounts on that day. There was also a gift basket which contained some cool stuff. We chose a winner on Saturday and it was a guy who lived an hour and an half away. He was really excited when he heard that he was the winner. The funny thing was his voice on the phone. He sounded like a little girl, he had a high pitched voice and was creaming so loud that everyone in the office were making fun of him. The day took a wrong turn at 4pm because it was lunch and the Assembly Hall was empty but we had to stay there the whole time without doing anything. During that time, we were able to bond as a group, knowing more about each other. I realized that most people give so much of their energy when it comes to sports, I think it would be even better if we use that same attitude and energy to make our environment, community, country, or world better.

2/21/11 - 2/23/11 Ugh phones

On Monday, Becky had started teaching me about how to answer phones. I had been on the phones before, but only to call nurses or other clinics. I had never answered a phone call from a customer. [D] I was absolutely terrified the first time I answered. Luckily, I got a nice person who was very patient with me. From then on, I was a little more confident in picking up the phones. [F] But one time, I had a call from a nurse asking to get a new prescription for her patient. I had no idea that I was supposed to pass the phone onto the pharmacist, so I was confused and talking to one of the techs before they realized my mistake. They immediately had me transfer the line to a pharmacist. [D] A little embarrasing, but no harm done. [F] On Wednesday, I was working the whole time on inputing prescriptions, figuring out insurance issues, and answering phones. [D] Although I really do hate answering phones, it's good that I got shoved into doing it the first time, and now it's just a learning process like every other job I have around the pharmacy. [A]

2-22-2011

Today was a pretty hectic day. My teammate Sonie and I had to come in at 3 this afternoon (45 minutes earlier than usual) to finish a sample slide show presentation for our project manager Ms. Meaderds who was going to come in at four and see what we've been working on. Since Sonie and I both felt we needed to do a little extra to be prepared I offered to pick her up from home today so we could come in early; we also had to be dressed in business attire since it was a business presentation. Yesterday Sonie gave me her address and cell number so when I was on my way I could let her know. Unfortunately I forgot to get actual directions--this is where the day took on a turn. I left my house at about 2:35 because I planned on getting Sonie at about 2:50 then arriving at WILL at approximately 3. I had heard in previous discussions that Sonie 'lived right across the school', and I had also thought I heard she went to Franklin Middle School. So armed with her address I headed out on Bradley and arrived at Franklin, searching for her street. When I couldn't find it I called her and she told me by directions that in short, I was way off from where she lived. I started to get anxious but I was still okay on time so I sped off [ under the speed limit of course ;) ] towards the new location. At the intersection of Mattis and Bradley I took the wrong turn and once again ended up in the wrong spot. When I called Sonie again I had to go the opposite direction but FINALLY got to her house, and realized she lives right across the street from CENTENNIAL high school and she goes to Jefferson. By that time it was a little after 3 and we still had to drive back through rush-hour into campustown. When we finally got to WILL it was basically 3:30 and the meeting started in half an hour or less. We still had 15 extra minutes though lol.
In this project Sonie has been working on the pictures for the slide show, and I was on the audio section. Once again something went wrong. First, since Sonie has to obtain copyright info from sites she gets pictures from, she had only gotten about 4 pictures compared to the 10 or so we probably need. I assumed everything was going to be fine with my audio but when we tried to convert it to MP3 format (twice) it wouldn't load!! Everything seemed to be going wrong and Ms. Meaderds was going to arrive in a few minutes so we quickly decided on a Plan B: we would take one of the laptops over to the table and play the audio and show the pictures from there.
Just as Ms. Meaderds buzzed the office we finished putting everything together at the table. But just as the rest of the day had gone, neither the audio nor pictures would play on the laptop! The meeting was just a rotation from the table to Henry's workspace back to the table to Kimberlie's workspace and back to the table. It could have run a lot smoother but luckily Ms. Meaderds is really nice and didn't care about the inconveniences.
The total presentation lasted about 45 minutes but the whole ordeals of this day made it seem like an ever-lasting event. I'm just glad this day is through.

Equine Medicine & Surgery

Feb 22, 2011

Vocab:
Hock- The bone that is where the ankle of a horse is , below the tibia.

Today was a pretty busy day in the equine rotation. I assisted a fourth year vet student in getting x-rays on the horse's hoof, this procedure had to be done slowly in order to not startle the horse. The goal was to get the hoof elevated by having the horse's right front leg on a board. The difficult task was getting the horse to stay while the x-ray machine came closer to him, after a couple of tries we managed to get him still enough to take good x-rays.

Once we got that I went to where they were performing surgery on a mare's throat. while I was in charge of supplying oxygen, the veterinarians were trying to get a hold of the displaced epiglottis (D). While the veterinarians stuck their arm inside the horse's mouth it would make a choking sound which did make me feel frightened (F). Unfortunately after an hour of trying they were unable to get a good grip, so they decided to try tomorrow with the horse standing. The most difficult part of equine surgery is getting the horses to stand on their own. This horse got up to quickly which is why they had to tie a rope on its tail and on the other side of the padded room we all pulled while one of the veterinarians was trying to hold her from falling on the sides and trying to put an oxygen tube in the opening of the trachea because she was struggling to breathe. Once the medication begun to work I was able to climb the door and watch how the veterinarian put the tracheal tube in her (D). Today I learned that to be a veterinarian that works with equine requires a lot of muscle, patience, and courage (A).

YAY RECEPTIONIST!? 2/22/11

So today started off as a normal day, actually a pretty boring day. I came in early so I could get off earlier and enjoy my day off school. Unfortunately, the attorneys really didn't have very much work for me to do so I got stuck with filing ;(. I kept myself entertained by talking with one of the secretaries while I filed for her and the time went by decently fast. I had about 45 minutes left before I had to leave when Tammy, one of the secretaries, told me that all the secretaries had to have a quick staff meeting with Mr. Dodds. I didn't think anything of this until she said, "You haven't been taught how to use the phones have you?" I already knew what was up. So Tammy and Connie gave me a 2 minute lesson on how to use the phone system (which is way more complicated then the one at my after school job). I was to sit at the front desk and take phones calls while they were gone. Easy enough right? Nope. The first phone call I did everything right and I transferred it to my sponsor but when Shayla asked who the client's name was I realized my mistake. I didn't even pay attention to what the client was saying! All the secretaries were laughing which made me feel better. Then I was stuck alone, but I was doing well. I answered about 8 calls in the matter of 15 minutes and had to email all of the messages to the different attornies. Then Roaa rang my desk and asked for coffee (she had a client in her office so I assumed the client wanted some). This is where everything went downhill. First it took me about 5 minutes to realize our coffee machine has a reusable filter. Then it took myself and Shayla to find the right coffee to use. I promise their machine is much more difficult then mine at home. Finally after about 20 minutes of attempting to make coffee while answer the phone I made a huge pot of coffee. When I rang Roaa and asked her how many cups she wanted she said, "Coffee? I said I needed a COPY." All the clients and Roaa and Shayla got a real good laugh out of that one. After that incident only a few minor issues occured. Like the secretaries forgot to tell me some of the clients may pay for their legal fees and I had to figure out how to fill out the receipt. No big deal though, I just hope my signature was legit on those receipts or else those clients have a useless piece of paper in their hands. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job as a receptionist because everyone was very pleased. They even complimented how good the coffee smelled (I warned them not to try it because more than likely it probably tasted disgusting with grains and stuff in it but whatever). Although I was super nervous to try this new position, I'm glad I got the opportunity to because I was finally given a lesson on how to use the phones as well as an inside look at a different job in the office. I came to the conclusion that being the lawyer in a law office is definitely the right position for me, because an assistant's job is just too much! I must give them their props.

Early Morning (2-21-11)

Today was a pretty short day. I first started by putting away engagement letters and pulling files for information i had in my basket. After that i had to full ten files for Tuesday because that was how many people were coming in to get their taxes done. I was exhausted afterward because that was a lot of files to look through and papers and envelopes i had to put together. I didn't mind to much because i know it's good for the client. After that i inputted W2's in the computer program pro-series (see vocab) and mortgage statements. After that i was waiting on my bus to come so i had to calculate theses checks for Sharon and mark them in the ticket book. The purpose of pulling files is so the partnership can have the tax info on the clients. It helps them know it's all in one place.






vocab: Pro-series- It's a tax program that helps you have all the forms in one place. It tells you where to input numbers off of any tax related info.

Monday - 2/21/11

Today was the day I was to present to Jim(Owner of LS) the Digital Signage project! I was super nervous/excited. I got into the office at 830 and Wade(sponsor) and I talked over some of the things that we would discuss with Jim. He informed me that this was going to be very laid back, and no matter how well I did that it most likely would not have an effect on the outcome, which was sort of a relief and helped make me less nervous about the whole thing. At 9 we drove over to Jim's office and Wade and I pitched the project to him, telling him the logistics of it and answering any questions he had. Wade assisted me through out the whole thing and helped back me up on some of the information I presented for Jim, which was nice to have him there to fill in gaps. At the end Jim told me I did really well getting all the information to him and presenting it to him, that made me feel really proud of all the work I've put into the project. To our disappointment though, he still hasn't approved the project. Wade had warned me about that though, so I was kind of expecting it. It still sucks though to have put all this time into it, and having it put on a stand still until Jim finally approves it. This project has been a great learning experience for me in very many different ways. It has helped me to research projects to get information and to be able to organize information I get for it to make since to others. Also, when trying to pitch a project, you have to go into it like you know for a fact it's going to happen, that is the only way you will give it 110% the whole way through. That's how I treated this project, but it still is really disappointing to not get it approved right away.

Week of February 14 through 18

A pretty typical week for me for me this week. I got a chance to bring in my sisters old lap top and Bryan and I got a chance to fix it and upgrade its OS to Windows 7. I thank him because I am going to try and sell it to make money for books for school next year! We did various computer fixings for different teachers. Nothing really very out of the ordinary for me this week. Bryan and I talked about the things that I experienced at NCSA. It was nice to see he was interested in the things I did outside of my normal internship. One thing that was a little different this week was that we got so set up a lot of laptops in the Business office. It was pretty cool to see all the laptops plugged in with the blue lighted power sources. Bryan made a mistake of the laptops being used under the wireless and them actually being needed to be used under the secured. It was actually my idea to test the laptops before we left and it was great that I was a reason for less pain in the future. Most of the week was just occasionally computer set up, updates and further computer repair. Another week that is pretty normal but still a great week!

2/ 7/ 11

One of my patient has a torn MCL but its also sprung from when she went water tubing. We worked on Ranged motion and strenght, standing hip 2 sets of 10 up and back, calf rasies 20, and then the Plyo press 2 sets of 10. (D) I feel like i know alot of different about a MCL injuries and what to do if I ever had one.(F) I learned the importance of importance of unjuries of an MCL.(A)


Vocab-
*Passive= Moving through range and motion while not actively moving.

2/17/11

Thursday was a chill day, but still productive and got stuff done. When I got there I had to run to Dyno- Tune to get a certificate signed for Wade (Sponsor). When I got back I worked on fixing the Lease Abstracts I've been working on for awhile now. These abstracts can get pretty boring at times, but for the most part I still enjoy doing them.
Today in 2ND hour Wade texted me to let me know that we have a meeting with Jim (owner of the mall) to pitch the digital signage project. I'm super excited for this project, but also very nervous. I can not blow this, or we will not be able to put up the T.V's around Lincoln Square. Everything that I have been working on to prepare for this since week one is all starting to come together and is all very essential to perfect my proposal to Jim on Monday.

Wednesday and Thursday February 9th and 10th

I now feel more comfortable in this facility now that I have been there for a day. Today I worked with Alex Farthing, who is a lot like my main sponsor Bryan Peters, in that he has to deal with hardware issues and people with miscellaneous questions. I established a feel for a job that involves a broader set of skills as opposed to a precise and consultant style of skills. He taught me how to create a dual partition of Mac OS and Windows OS on a Mac machine. We had to help fix a small printer problem for a co-worker who works on the first floor. After we fixed the computer, we returned to his office to discuss major jobs that are involved with NCSA. We also discussed different issues he deals with as well as miscellaneous information about college and the work place. It was nice that I was able to see the inside of an IBM think pad. Alex was able to show me how simple it was to install a video card.

Thursday was my favorite day at NCSA for the week, because I was working with a programmer named Nathan Tolbert. I am so happy that I was able to work with a programmer and I was given hands on experience with what exactly he does. I was shown the basic language he used which was PHP. He even let me play around with PHP and make my own little starter program which printed out my name a couple of times. It made me happy because I learned C++ and PHP is actually easier to learn than C++. That made me realizes how easily I could understand it. I got to see what one of his co-workers does which was making a program for mapping the local Farmers markets. He invented it and he may have an IPod app! That amazed me so much and I loved seeing programming all day. I also got to see the little side project Nathan made which was a Game Boy Advance game, that was quite a day!

A Productive Day!

Vocab
HPLC- High performance liquid chromatography- technique of analytical chemistry used to identify, quantify and analyze the contents of a mixture
Potassium Hydroxide- KOH- strong base with a corrosive nature; dissolution in water is exothermic (gets really hot when you mix it in water)

Thursday 2/17
Today was great! It was one of the first times I felt productive the entire 3 hours. Some may find 3 straight hours of work tiring, but I find it invigorating. I started out the day washing dishes in Dr. Helferich's lab on the 5th floor. This is the process:

1. Spray each with ethanol to remove the labelling
2. Rinse with cold tap water
3. Add pre-made soap mixture and scrub with tube brush
4. All soap bubbles rinsed with tap water
5. Rinse each 5 times with warm deionized water
6. Spray with ethanol again
7. Place in drying cabinet at 50 degrees C

This methodical process is sctually very stress relieving. When I finished Dr. A. and Pablo met me upstairs and we stated pulling CSB samples to be analyzed by the HPLC. The samples were actually taken a year ago when Pablo was in Honduras working with the Healthy Schools Program. I knew I needed to be careful because the product was definitely in a finite amount. I prepared and labled each sample in the weighing room. Dr. Helferich's lab is four times the size of Dr. Engeseth's (which is actually his wife!). He brings tens of millions of dollars of grant money into the university and conducts extremely important research. All the students in Bevier know his name and approach him with their questions. I'm very happy that we know each other fairly well now, as his research with international pediatric nutrition is what interests me the most. Networking in the department has been extremely beneficial so far as I will need these conections to excel at the university the next few years.

February 17: Gluten-Free Research

NEW VOCAB: ataxia: loss of balance
The weather today was so nice and warm, and quite honestly I felt a little bit disappointed at first that I had to spend 3 hours of my afternoon sitting inside working on projects (F). However, the research that I did today turned out to be very interesting! Kelsey (college intern) and I were both at Strawberry Fields today, and we are working on a project together: Next Thursday, we are setting up a table in the store section of Strawberry Fields. We are going to be sampling some gluten-free cookies that are on sale this month and also making one recipe featuring whole grains for people to sample (D). We are also going to create some pamphlets about the benefits of having a gluten-free diet and the benefits of whole grains and inform people about them as well (D). To make the work load easier, Kelsey focused on the whole grain research and I focused on the gluten-free research. This helped me realize the importance of teamwork, because having one person do both parts of the research would have been pretty overwhelming, but by splitting it up, the project was manageable (A). Since I knew very little about why people need a gluten-free diet, I immediately got to work researching the topic both online and in books that my sponsor has in her office's library (D). I found out that there are two main reasons people eat a gluten-free diet: if they have Celiac disease or if they are gluten-intolerant (there is a difference!). If they have Celiac disease, it means that eating gluten actually causes the villi on the inside of their small intestine to be damaged, which makes nutrients unable to be absorbed properly into their bodies (D). However, if they are gluten intolerant, the small intestine isn't damaged. It is just like an allergic reaction and causes symptoms, but it is not causing any permanent damage to your intestines (D). I found this topic very interesting, and I even brought home a book to read more about it this weekend! One thing I remembered before I left was that a past intern had a ton of fliers and information about gluten-free eating already saved on the computer, so I didn't have to do quite as much work as I did (D). I felt frustrated when I realized this, but then again, I got to learn a lot more by doing the research myself (F). Overall, a great day!

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16

Today was not the most eventful of days, however, it was far different from most spent at Follmer Law Offices. On monday Kent had asked me if I would mind driving to Decatur to pick up a file from another lawyer that Kent was taking over a case for. I didn't mind at all so we planned for me to make the trip on tuesday. However, I completely forgot that I had a business club field trip to Chicago that day and so my trip was postponed until today. I arrived at my placement, spoke to Kent, and then left for Decatur right away. Follmer Law Offices paid me gas money for the trip but Kent said that they would just bill the client for the cost. It was a boring drive there, nothing to eventful. Of course as soon as I thought I knew where I was going I got lost. I wandered around the general area of the supposed law office for about 10 minutes until I found someone who looked intelligent and asked him where the office was. He pointed me in the right direction and I finally found it. Kent had given me a small box cart to carry the files on, because he said that there would be a lot and they would be too heavy for me to carry, but I forgot it in the car so the lawyer there let me use his for the trip back down to my car. There were two huge boxes of paperwork pertaining to the case, which had already been going on for over 5 years and had switched between several different lawyers. I returned to Follmer Law Offices where I unloaded the files and returned the box cart. By this time it was already 4:30 and everyone left for the day, including myself.

2-16-2011

So today was a busy workday.  After a brief team meeting everyone got down to work.  Sonie began her surprisingly challenging task of finding pictures to match our Ernie Westfield script.  Also, we've decided to present next week our Ernie segment to the woman behind this project and propose that we do individual presentations for each interviewee.  I took on the job of finalizing the script and then for the rest of the time I plugged it into audacity.  I actually finished!  It's still fun and exciting to hear the final audio piece. Tomorrow I'll have to put "breaks" or pauses in between certain lines to make it sound more natural.

2/17

Today was my second day with Bridget. I arrived at her office. There were a few more people in it than last Thursday. I had finished my draft of the Mark Morris Dance Group press release. She was very happy to hear this. However, I had a few sections I thought were weak. Bridget said she didn't have another project for me today, so she sent me downstairs to the lab with Becky, where I worked last week. I reviewed my press release, and added a few extra tidbits of information from the Krannert website. I felt pretty confident about my written sections on the performance itself and the Dance for Parkinson's initiative, but I felt the sections on the University classes and Champaign Library performance were a little lacking. Part of that was I've never had any first hand experience with the latter, so trying to write an interesting description was more difficult. I used as much information as I could from the Krannert website and the schedule Bridget gave me. I e-mailed Bridget press release, she said she'd look over it and next week we'll edit anything necessary and then hopefully send it off.

Busy Day (2-17-11)

Today was so busy. I felt like couldn't get a break . I pulled at least ten files today. I had pulled the wrong file for one of the clients so i had to change all the information for that over to the other one. It didn't take that long. It was great to see Curt back in the office. He had been in Arizona all week and he had so many files to do taxes for. I feel sorry for the guy. I answered the phone through out the day and i helped Sharon out a lot. I was there until five and Sharon ran out of things for me too do. Karl, Neil and Melissa were out of the office and Curt, Claudia and Matt didn't have anything for me to do so i read my book. I had researched the stuff Mrs. Sherrick had asked me too and i can't wait to tell you guys tomorrow. All the files have a meaning and they each want to me done. Right now they are getting ready to have their taxes done and that's want the partnership is working on. When tax seasons dies down, they focus on there things.

Anesthesiology

Feb 15, 2011

Vocab:
Arthroscopy- puttig a camera in a joint
OCD - Stands for Osteo Condrosis Dissecans which is a shoulder disease that causes lameness in dogs. It is a cartilage flap in the joint that can cause arthritis and swelling.

The job of the anesthesiologists is to prepare an animal for surgery and make sure to pay attention to all vitals throughout the surgery. A dog that had OCD (look at vocab it is not what you think) came in today. Once the dog is asleep, they had to shave his shoulders and put in a tracheal tube (long tube that is put in the trachea to supply the dog with oxygen and pain medication), they also put a clip on the tongue that measures heart rate and oxygen level. This dog had to get an Arthroscopy, although this surgery is painful the veterinarian can look at the whole joint and it results in quicker recovery. The best thing was that all of what the camera filmed would show in two different televisions which made me able to watch (D). After they removed all of the tiny cartilage pieces, the vet students and I got to hold them. Watching this surgery made me feel surprised about how a little piece of cartilage that is lifted coud cause such big problems (F). The second case was a mare who was getting her ovaries removed. It was incredible to see how easily they were able to find the ovaries and take them out. The ovaries of the mare were about as big as golf balls (D). This rotation has shown me how crucial the anesthesiologists are, even during the surgeries the play an important role in making sure the animal does not feel much pain and is stable (A).

Reviewing Applications

A few weeks ago we (the interns and I) were informed that we would be reviewing applications for the same internship we are currently in. The unpaid internship is for juniors and seniors at the U of I majoring in Marketing or Advertising. On monday the applications began flowing in, and it is our job to look them over and decide who gets an interview. We first begin reading their cover letter, which is a full page of anything they would like to say about themselves in order to help them acquire the internship. While a great deal of the letter were unique and expressive, far too many of them were plain and blended in with the others. The next step (and arguably the most important) is the resume. For one, everyone's resume greatly resembled the ones Mrs. Sherrick taught us, so I am very thankful I had some help in creating mine. As for the applicant's resumes, we looked for experience in marketing and advertising jobs. The ones who were approved usually had experience at advertising firms such as Starcom or Leo Burnett. However some had GPAs under 3.0 and unrelated majors such as "recreation, sport, and tourism" (I was unaware a major this abstract), and these applicants were placed in the "no" category.

Reveiwing applications for this internship was something I thought I would never be doing. I can't imagine what the college students would think if they knew a high school student was assisting in their application review.

1/17/11

I got to use an ultra sound with this jell to “welcome the swelling” so that the patient’s ankle could heal! Patient says that it didn’t really help her ankle, and that it was warm. I also learned how to do a passive stretch with a patient’s ankle (which helps loosing up the tissue.) (D) I felt confident about being with my sponsor. (F) I learned the importance of what an Athletic Trainer actually does., when they do and don’t have patients. (A)

1/31/11

We worked on seated calf raises 2 sets of 15, different balance exercises with and without the balance balls, different rotation exercises with the trainers’ hand and the patients foot 2 sets of 10. (D) I felt bored because all I had was one patient then I just read the rest of my time that I had to be there. (F) I now understand that your job is going to be boring and that you just have to deal with it. (A)

2/14/11

I had a patient who has been coming to therapy longer than they planned on. She had a torn ligament and decided not to let it heal. So she went back to dancing sooner than recommended and messed her ankle up again. She’s now had four different surgeries on the same ankle. (A) We worked on motion and range. Worked on jumping in one spot making sure there’s no pain and then towel exercises. (D) I felt lonely for the first ten minutes until patients came in and I found out that my sponsor wasn’t coming to work today. (F) That patients sometimes don’t learn their lesson so they end up going through a lot of therapy and then go back and have the same injury again.

2/16/11

This week, Erica had me do some research and worksheets. The worksheets had math problems on how to calculate dosages for different types of drugs. They also had questions about various medications and their effects, or reactions with other drugs. I found that information on a site used by pharmacists and doctors. The website is like a huge encyclopedia of drugs, and it lists information about the drug, how its used, its different forms, etc. [D] It's a pretty useful thing, especially for medical professionals who can't possibly memorize the thousands of drugs that are out on the market. [A] The research I worked on is for the end of the semester project that I will be doing for my sponsor. I've chosen to research herbal medications, and I will give a presentation at the end of my internship to Erica, and any other people in the pharmacy who want to listen. [D]
I actually prefer doing work at the counter, like inputing and filling prescriptions. Sitting at a desk and reading over lots of information is a little more boring, and I get pretty sleepy sitting around. Hopefully next week, I can go back to working a little more at the counter, even though the down time at the computer is a great time to journal, blog, and work on my research. [A]

Possibly a new profession?

Today Mahmoud once again visited but this time I was with the gastroenterology department.  Admittedly gastroenterology isn't as exciting as oral surgery but I feel as if I learned a lot more than I did at oral surgery.[A]  Chuck (the physician's assistant) took the time to explain certain diseases his patients had to Mahmoud and I.  He was very clear and gave us the opportunity to look up the diseases in the medical books.  Mahmoud brilliantly suggested the idea that we should take notes on these diseases and anything else Chuck exposes us to.   For example we learned about Reflex disease which involves the acids in the stomach to be regurgitated into the esophagus causing heartburns.  To fix this you would have to tie the cardiac sphincter to the esophagus to prevent any acids from going up which would also stop burping.[D]  There were many other terms that Mahmoud and I learned from chuck and he was very open to teaching us.  I enjoyed my time with Chuck and I would love to shadow him some more because after this week I've become very interested in gastroenterology. [F]

Friday Feb. 11

Last Friday our dear friend Mahmoud decided to pay me a visit.  Since we had no school that day we were there at 8.  As soon as he arrived we were already prepping for several surgeries.  Two in which I would assist in.  I will admit watching us prep wasn't very exciting at all.  However he was able to sit in on wisdom teeth extractions.  Fortunately for him he was able to witness me assisting in the surgery.   These particular surgeries I have become used to so everything was a breeze.  All I was required to do was to retract the patients tongue and watch out for any blood or tooth particles that could enter the patient's throat. [D]  It was a fairly quick surgery and not much to see, but Mahmoud isn't able to see surgeries in his department so I felt it was a refreshing experiencing watching minor ones.  The other surgery he was exposed to was a fairly complicated one.  Dr. E had to remove 6 teeth and straightens 2 teeth while bringing down 2 teeth from the gums. [D] It was a very long and complicated surgery and throughout the whole thing I had the pleasure of holding the patients head up so that he was able to breathe.  At first I wondered why I was delivered such an uninteresting task until I realized that if I did not hold the head up the patient would have been deprived of oxygen and it could have been fatal.  Although it seemed like a useless task I actually had one of the most important jobs in that surgery.[A]  I feel like I've learned a lot from Dr. E but next week he will be in training and while he's in training I will have the pleasure of follow Chuck Ragona in Gastroenterology and possible further expand my knowledge of medicine. [E]

2/14/11

Today, I was referred to the Gregory St. family medicine clinic where I was to begin shadowing Dr. Vas Naidu during Dr. Williams’ absence. I arrived at my new placement a bit early, but it was closed while the staff was on their lunch break. So I walked around campus a bit and returned at one o’clock only to be told by Nicky (the receptionist) that Dr. Naidu will not be back till 1:30. I was seated and made use of my time by reading TIME magazine, till Dr. Naidu’s nurse, Lisa, came out to greet me and show me around. One of the conveniences of their clinic is that they have their own lab where they can draw and screen blood samples along with other bodily fluids [D]. This was not the case in the orthopedic clinic, they had to send the samples in to the lab and wait for results to come back.

When Dr. Naidu arrived, his patient had already been seated by the nurse inside a room. The first patient was in for a routine checkup. I noticed that Dr. Naidu spent far more time than Dr. Williams with his patients. He also had a stronger relationship with his patients, giving them medical as well as friendly advice to enhance their living styles. There was more of a personal connection with the patient, which I believe creates more trust between the patient and the physician. After meeting with the patient, Dr. Naidu had a bit of leisure time till the next appointment. He then explained to me more of the nature of family medicine. Family physicians often deliver babies and act as the primary source of health care for each family and individual from the time of birth till death. Dr. Naidu sees this as an advantage because he handles patients of different ages and helps closely monitor each patient’s health through the course of their life [D].

During Dr. Naidu’s down time I found guidance in a senior U of I student who is preparing to go to medical school next fall. We discussed classes to take and when to take them as well as when to prepare for medical school (exams to take such as the MCAT and the application process). After a long wait and a long discussion, Dr. Naidu was called for his next patient. The patient was suffering from anxiety and tends to get very emotional. Her weight has been decreasing rapidly and she finds herself vomiting constantly. Dr. Naidu asked a few questions regarding the patients daily activities. The patient was active in sports but her grades were dropping. Dr. Naidu assessed this to the patient's lack of sleep and nutrition intake. He believes the vomiting is no more than a side effect of her anxiety medications. He also suggested that the patient makes an appointment to see a psychologist. Dr. Naidu prescribed refills to the medications she was already taking and then we were asked to step out and speak to the patient while Dr. Naidu examined her mother. This was a very awkward situation for me because I have never spoken to a person with anxiety, so I felt that I should be very careful with what I say. I went ahead and let Ester, the other student, carry the conversation. The patient began speaking about her social problems which apply more to girls. I couldn't really relate so I refrained from contributing to the conversation. When I felt that I had something constructive to say I didn't hesitate to add any input. But for the majority of the time I stood there quietly while Ester exercised her communication skills on the patient [D]. However, the patient stopped a few times to call me out about not speaking. This made me nervous because I didn't want to offend her as she constantly glanced over at me [F]. At one point she just stared at me. Luckily her mother came out, which eased the tension till they left.

I was relieved when the day was over [F]. There was a total of four patients in the afternoon. This is a big change in pace for me because I'm accustomed to full schedules of 15 to 18 patients in a span of four hours [A]. I found it quite boring, but I'm not going to be quick to disregard family medicine [F]. It seems less stressful and layed back. I wouldn't mind the excess leisure time [A].