Job Opportunity plus new accouting info!!! (4/26 & 4/28)

SO thursday started out pretty slow. Mrs. Shirreck dropped by which was a little but of a surprise on the account that i haven't been doing much lately. It was nice of her to stop by and see how everything was going. After she left, I didn't really have much to do so Sharon found me little things to do like making labels and putting new papers in one of the old binders. Then when Neil was free, he told me that a partnernship was becoming a soleproperiter and so he had me do accounting processed that i actucally new how to do. He told me that i needed to write journal entries for the accounts that had been debt/credit. It was pretty simple and i was happy i could do it. The greatest news i heard all week was on Tuesday when Neil said he is going to hire me once the intership is over with. He was pleased with all the work that i had done and that it was all correct also. I was so excited. He said that he would help teach me the bookkeeping of accouting because that's what most students are lacking when they go to college. I learned that it's important that you do everything to the fullest and make sure you use your full effort. It's amazing what could happen when you do. :):) I can't wait to start learning more.

4/28/11

Vocab- No real vocab at all this week, we mostly did things that I have done before.

(d)Bryan had me go to Central Office with him today to set up a machine with dual moniters. It was originally a mac so it was an easy fix to just hook up. We changed the files a few weeks ago to convert them from mac to PC. I installed the machines by myself while Bryan went and got lunch.(d) It took a while to adjust the screen settings, but everything else was a breeze. I did the typical instillation of the updates as well as the upgrades. When Bryan got back I went back to the office and we installed a printer for a secretary in the office at the high school. Then we went back to his office and he helped me brainstorm ideas for my final project. (a)So for the rest of the day we pretty much worked on creating ideas. Bryan had some personal things to attend to so I stayed in the library and worked on my final project. (f)I have a lot of slides done and everything looks pretty good.

April 28

FileMaker Pro- a program that is supposed to help manage events, people, and inventories you can compile lots of different sorts of information (ie figures from a spreadsheet, photographs, annotations etc.) into one document.

I've finished my KCACTF edits that Bridget gave me. She told me that my first draft was good. She only had one thing that I should clarify. I finished those edits and e-mailed him the final copy. He'll use the press release I wrote at his comittee meeting on Wednesday. It's neat to see something I did have a legitimate value in the grand scheme of planning things. Ms. Sherrick visited. Tome showed her my next project. I'm using FileMaker Pro to compile all of the photos, room dimensions, attributes and obstacles of the rooms I surveyed for the KCACTF festival at the beginning of my internship. He also printed out all the notes he took while at the 2011 festival. He had his wife's iPad and just took notes in Apple's calendar. For most entries he noted where the workshop/seminar/meeting he was at in Michigan could be held at Krannert. He also made notes of things they could've used, things he didn't like, and little misceallaneous things (like needing coat racks in the rooms... it will be in January). I'll be transferring the information in to an excel spread sheet, and I assume later into FileMaker. It's neat to see my very first project come full-circle.

Week of April 18

Gender- a societal norm attributed on the basis of sex; typically males are "guys, men, boys" females are "girls, women..." A character (or a person's for that matter) gender is not biologically tied to their sex, but social settings often give this appearance.

I made my presentation on "Radio Free Emerson" on Wednesday. It went very smoothly. I was a little nervous because our presentations didn't have specific guidelines. It really was up to the individual. I aced it though; it was clear and concise and had some good discussion points. We talked about the usual theme, character development. I noted some character inconsistancies. There's one character "Meryl" who's particularly weak in terms of penmanship. There does not seem to be motivation to her actions as anything more than a plot device. Come to think of it, most of the females were unrelatable and seemed more like plot-tools than well-rounded characters. Their actions really are there almost entirely to push the plot along but there is no deeper, or consistent, thought behind it. The author is a man. I think he's young too, I read something about him being in his mid-twenties. I think "Radio Free" was originally produced at his college. If he was in my writer's workshop I'd advise he work on how he writes his women. Mr. Miller actually has an excercise to help flesh out characters that are inhibited by gender. Just write your character as the gender you are most comfortable with and then make adjustments. Gender may affect thought process but it does not inhibit the ability to think.

April 28 young Dr. J

Today I was able to witness and sigmoidoscopy.  This procedure is short terms is sticking a scope into a patients anal canal and proceed with viewing the inside of their colon.  From what I can sense from the patient it is a horribly uncomfortable experience.  However after awhile the patient began to calm down.  Within this specific patient I was able to witness a fatty tumor, diverticulitis, and hemorrhoids.[D]  Usually sigmoidoscopies are boring, as the nurses told me, but luckily for me I was able to see three different abnormalities. [A]  I spent my whole day in GI today instead of school, and I learned more there than I have my whole senior year! [E]  Mrs. Sherrick also paid a visit to Chuck and I and hopefully took amazing pictures.

 

April 20

These last couple of days with Chuck has been very intriguing.  I've been exposed to plenty of things, even though I no longer get to see surgeries.  I exchanged the option of seeing for actually learning.[A]  I'm able to take plenty of notes on patient symptoms and various other diseases.   Today we observed a patient who had Barret's esophagus.  In previous blogs I explained what Barret's esophagus is.  However as a reminder it is a disease where the esophageal tissue mutates and mimics the stomach tissue.[D]  The only way to combat this is to keep a close watch on the esophagus and do endoscopies on the patient every 2 years for the rest of his life.  The patient was awfully sad upon hearing the news and did not handle the news well at all.  I was asked to leave the room as Chuck spoke with the patient to calm him down and explain other changes that must occur within the patient's life.  It was unfortunate I could not see how Chuck delivers bad news to patients. [E]

April 26

Today I learned that my sponsor is going on a vacation with her husband and will be back the last week of my internship. Now, I was to work by myself. She called me to her office and gave me a four projects that she wants me to get done by the time she comes back. Well to start, I am working on making the signs for restaurant who are being part of the Wooden Nickel Program for the Marathon this weekend. Since there was a lot of restaurant, I had to make sure that each sign came out perfect and professionally made. It took me two hour to get all the signs done. Then I had to place them in a box so Libby would be able to drop them off the next morning. Today every CVB's staff are really nervous. We are barely talking to each other except for when one needs help with something. I can believe the Marathon is in 4DAYS. It has been a stressfull week so far and I know it will get worse as we get closer to May 30. This experience has made me learn how important team work is in a business or anything one may do. It is important that a group of people share the same vision if they want to succeed at what they are doing. It was not easy but we came in together and made sure that everything is done right for that day. I am excited and cannot wait to be surrounded by energetic people. Even thought I am not a fan of running or jogging, I will enjoy watching others doing so.

April 20: OMG

CCEDC: Champaign County Economic Development Corporation
CCCC: Champaign County Chamber of Commerce
SCORE: Service Corporation Of Retired Executives

Today has be a stressful day. I have been working on the CVB's News Letter for now three days and since it is going out today, I am really nervous to see and hear what people would think of it. When working on this project, I first thought that it was going to be the easiest thing that I have to do for my entire enternship program but it turned out to be different. First, I had to come up with a list of events that I thought was going to get people's attention. Then create a script that would make people want to read the articicle and this was for all of then. When I was done, I had to present it to Libby. I was happy that she liked my idea and was okay with me sending them. It took me at least 5 minute to press send but I did it and it is over. The News Letter was send to over 2,000 people. Now, I have to wait and see how many people read the article and what they thought about it. A lot of people in the CVB, CCCC, SCORE, and CCEDC told me that they like it and they found it interesting. So, that took off a load of stress but I am sitll anxious to see what the reaction will be tomorrow. Doing this project made me realize that there is no small job or contribution. All work should be appreciated.

April 13

Today was a great day. I had an Expo at the Illini Union. Since my sponsor was not able to make it, I had to go with Kip, the sport director. When I got there, I helped set up the table then we sat down and waited for the crowd to come in. Sadly there was not that many people. I had the chance to answer a few questions about Champaign County and the CVB to students. It was not hard than I thought but only different. It was different to actually be in direct environment and being in directly in contact with the community than working on a desk in front of a computer like I usually do . It was a relaxed day today. I spent most of the time learning more about Kip's job. The best part of all was knowing that the Marathon is only two weeks away. Kip asked me to work with him on the CVB table during the Marathon. I am excited to see what would happen. By the end of the day, we started giving away free pen to every student who was interested to get one. Outside, there were different clubs selling food and there was also music. When all the pens were gone, we packed our stuff and went back to the office. During this experience, I learned that it is not easy to try to sell your company or product to the members of the community, especially when they are college student. Most of them had music on, so they did not hear us most of the time. They kept walking as if nothing was happening. I really enjoyed being out of the office today because it made me see and understand other people's prospective of the CVB's job in the community.

Coming to a Close :(

NEW VOCAB: CSSD- Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics
MS- Master of Science

4/28/11

I can't believe this was one of my final weeks at my internship! I'm going to be so sad when it is over. I have enjoyed this semester so much (F)! Now that it is toward the end, I have had much fewer projects to work on than I did in the beginning. This week, I did whatever "mini assignments" Suan needed me to do. On Monday, I looked up nutritional information for Subway, Steak n' Shake, Wendy's McAllister's, and Taco Bell. Susan is putting together a handout for the U of I cross country team about healthy meal options at fast food restaurants. So I looked for 8-10 healthy options per restaurant, typed them out, and emailed them to Susan (D). Yesterday, I also proof-read some handouts that Susan had created and helped answer a client's question about lycopene in dried tomatoes (D). One good thing about having some down time this week is that it has given me a chance to work on my portfolio, which as been helpful.
One thing I realized first hand this week was the importance of using proper titles in emailing people at the U of I. It is REALLY IMPORTANT! Here's my experience this week: I emailed Karen Plawecki, the director of Dietetics at the U of I, to inform her that I had accepted my admission to the Parkland Pathways program to U of I and am excited to participate in the Dietetics program. But I addressed it to Karen (because I'm so used to addressing my emails to Susan and her interns by their first name). When she emailed me back, she said great, but it is best to refer to people at U of I by their proper titles. I felt SO embarrassed (F)! I totally knew to do this, but I forgot! Now I don't think I will ever forget again, but fellow interns, remember the importance of using proper titles!

Week of 4/11/11

I have a pretty interesting story to tell…. This day was the most amusing days of all the days I have been at my placement. I received some real excitement. Here it goes… So when I first entered the hospital, I noticed that a security officer as well as other health care workers on the first floor were wearing masks. Also, the security officer was guarding the door to the emergency room. Later, I found out that someone had sprayed mace on the floor, thus they put the floor on lock down, which explains the security officer guarding the doors. This is only the beginning of my day. My sponsor and an health assistant was assisting a patient of hers, when we heard a loud scream, “Help! Help! In room 8!” The health assistant ran out of the room into the hall and answered with “Where are you?” (she almost fell in the process) and she ran in the direction of where the yell came from. The patient my sponsor was currently assisting says, “Well go help her” and my sponsor replied with “No I‘m gonna help you in bed first.” She was thinking, we don’t want two accidents (because he had a risk of falling) so getting this patient situated became her priority. Shortly after putting the patient back in bed we also rushed to the room in which the yell came from. There was a heavy weight patient on the floor with nurses surrounding her. To assist with lifting the patient the charge nurse called for security but they were all monitoring lock down on the first floor. As another nurse entered the room one of the other nurses in the room said, “Join the party!”. This room was filled with staff, 7 nurses and healthcare assistants total.

Nurse: “Girl what are you doing down there!”

Patient: “They pushed me” as the patient pointed to the other nurses.

Nurse: “I know you’re full of it”

Patient: “Why I got to be full of it!”

Nurse: “Oh because I know you’re full of it like I am” HAHA The charge nurse brought a lift in the room to get the patient off the floor.

Patient: “What is that!”

Nurse: “A lift!” Apparently the patient was using the commode, and when trying to raise up after doing her business “her foot slipped”. Since the security guards weren’t available to help, the charge nurse called for males, to help. One of the nurses bended down and we heard her pants ripped, the room filled with laughter. Seems like something you would see on t.v. Once the males put the patient on the lift and used it to put the patient back on the bed, the first thing the patient said was, “Where’s my toilet?” I was blown through the roof at this point. Soon after I left earlier than I usually do, to attend the recruiting juniors internship meeting. WHAT A DAY!!!

4/4/11 Did You Know Cont'd....

For those that have asthma, and use an inhaler…If your doctor has not already informed you…it is not only important to thoroughly rinse your mouth after using your inhaler but also the inhaler itself! You are told to rinse your mouth after using your inhaler usually to get rid of the inhaled medication in your mouth after that puff. Otherwise it has been said that it can leave a bitter after taste in your mouth, lead to a hoarse voice or fungal growth. About the same health risk can become present if you don’t rinse the inhaler as well. Most people do one or the other. It is important to do both as they become apart of their hygiene routine. If you do not rinse your inhaler after using, you increase you chances of developing a fungal infection in your mouth OR a yeast infection. GROSS! Symptoms of this can be white foam in your mouth. I was disgusted when informed of this. At my placement, the subject came about because one of my sponsor’s patient’s with asthma, used a inhaler but did not take precaution of using the correct hygiene. His wife expressed that he had been using the same the inhaler for years, but did not use the healthful methods because they were unfamiliar with the health risk it could cause, and were not told to do so. My sponsor immediately informed them of the health risk. Advise anyone you know that has asthma and utilizes an inhaler to through with the sanitation needed to maintain good hygiene when using their inhalers.

3/28/11 Did You Know....

Have you noticed that all the displayed digital clocks in Carle Foundation Hospital are in army time? Well, it sucks for those who can not read/tell army time. These clocks are usually posted up on the walls in the hallways. The regular clocks would be in the patients' rooms. About IV’s… What does IV stand for? What are some of the conveniences of using IV in hospitals? IV stands for Intravenous, which simply means within a vein. IV’s are essential because if a patient can not swallow medications, an alternative to taking pills would be inserting the medications in the IV. If a patient is experiencing pain and are in need of pain medications… then inserting the pain medications into the IV works faster in relieving the pain. This is because with the help of an IV needle, medications needed for the patient go directly in the bloodstream. They can last up to 3 days usually. Are there any alternatives to IV’s? Yes there most certainly is, and it would be PICC lines, which stands for a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter. They can lasts for many week and/or months. Still, you can insert medications needed for the patients in the PICC line. It is also convenient because it minimizes number of pokes, no longer would have to be poked for something like a blood test. I briefly watched the insertion of the PICC line. It is a very sterile procedure. As they find the veins they watch from a x-ray and place jelly of the area in which the PICC line would be inserted.

4/25-4/27

This week was really busy. All I did was help out with the technician work. There wasn't a free moment on Monday and Tuesday while I inputted and filled scripts. On Wednesday, it slowed down just a little, but I actually prefer it when there's a lot to do. The time passes quickly. During the times when there was bad weather, there were lots of weather alerts over the intercom that intimidated me a little bit. And it doesn't help that there are no windows in the pharmacy, so we couldn't see what was going on outside. On Tuesday, Erica gave me a new assignment, a paper on the debate over medical marijuana. Not my favorite part of the week, but it's due next week, so I guess I'm actually gonna have to do homework this weekend. I'm almost done with my portfolio though, so that'll be a weight off my chest. I'm going to ask Erica and maybe even email the director, Greg, about working at the pharmacy over the summer. I hope I can get in an application soon.

4/26/11

Today was an eventful day to say the least. We saw sixteen patients in the afternoon which is nothing we’re not used to at this point. The patients varied in age and injury. Dr. Williams found himself treating a toddler for a supracondylar radius fracture in one room and carrying an out intra-articular (in joint) shoulder injection in another room. These types of cases tend to set Dr. Williams back in schedule a bit especially if the patient is refusing to cooperate like the toddler with the broken arm. Often other cases need more tentativeness from the doctor’s part, where further investigating is needed in order to find the cause of the problem. In cases such as these, the doctor rules out the bigger “problems” first. An infection, for example, is a problem all physicians dread because it can lead to the loss of a limb or death if it is not identified early. Infection is always a factor to consider when assessing a patient with continued pain after a total join replacement. If a doctor is able to rule an infection out, he or she would then look for any defects in the mechanisms of the replaced joint—this can be done by reviewing 3D radiograph images such as CT (computed tomography) or bone scans.

Among the other injuries we saw today, were ankle sprains, hip fractures (which require surgical intervention through intramedullary nailing), coracoid and acromion fractures as well as ATL (anterior talofibular ligament) tears. It was exhausting for the staff to catch up after the multiple setbacks but the afternoon had its up’s too. I was especially surprised with myself because I was able to handle an embarrassing situation professionally. As Dr. Williams was helping a patient off the examination table, the patient passed gas but I was able to compose myself and not show any sign of disgust or disrespect. I guess we all will have to be put in similar situations at some point and it’s important to reflect positively upon the person you are and the place you work in.

Clinical Skills

April 27,2010

Vocab:

Bloodless Castrator- Tool that can be used to castrate bulls, applies a small latex band around the scrotum to stop blood circulation on scrotum.
Butterfly needle- A short needle with a small diameter attached to a thin, flexible tube. Usually used for hands, wrists or on people with smaller veins.
Catheter- A hollow flexible tube for insertion into a body cavity, duct, or vessel to allow the passage of fluids or distend a passageway.
IV machine- pump intravenous fluid to patients with catheters

In the clinical skills lab I was able to obtain a lot of hands on experience that I have never before tried. The clinical skills lab is designed for veterinary students to be able to improve their technique in various different procedures with various different simulators. I was able to suture a cow's cut using real suturing materials on a board with thick cloth. To my surprise cow's skins are hard to get through, it took me about three strong pushes on the needle to get it through the skin. Then I learned how to use two different castration tools used on bulls (bloodless castrator, castration clamps). The coolest one was the bloodless castrator because I had to tighten the band that was put around the scrotume, so tight that the band was a little bigger than an M&M. After this procedure the bulls scrotum would fall on its own in 20-40 days. After this I worked on drawing blood with different types of needles. There were three different pads that each contained veins that had different difficulties. I started out with the standard needle and syringe on the easiest vein pad and because I was able to hit the vein on my first try I was allowed to try different needles and the other vein pads. I am unsure of the names and sizes of all the needles I do know one was the butterfly needle, and I was able to learn how to properly put a catheter and then bandage the leg to prevent the catheter from moving. My last task was learning how to use the two different IV machines. I learned how to connect the catheter to the fluid line and how to control how much fluid is pumped at a time (D). I was very surprised and excited that I was able to do all of these things and will be able to continue to practice them or even learn new things in this rotation (F). Experienced veterinarians really make everything seem a lot easier than it is which is why it is very important for the new students to have a way of practicing procedures before having to do them in live patients (A).

4.27.2011 Tuesday April 26th's Community Cinema opens my eyes once again.

Yesterday was yet another fantastic Community Cinema and this time around we viewed "Bhutto" about Benazir Bhutto, the first elected Muslim woman to office. Bhutto was the Prime Minister for the republic of Pakistan, and ultimately was assassinated by the country's corrupt presidential regime. Before this film I knew virtually nothing about Benazir, and had only heard her name a handful of times. What I received most from this film is just how much Pakistan has suffered politically for virtually its whole existence. Benazir Bhutto was so inspirational, regal, beautiful, intelligent; and just like all other great leaders who have been assassinated, her life was ended way too soon. The film was the longest one that we've viewed so far (an hour and fifteen minutes), however, it seemed to move quicker than some of the others just because of how captivating and intriguing it was. It was 40-plus years of Pakistani history, but overall the other viewers (and I agree) believed it was done excellently for how much information needed to be included. I knew absolutely nothing about Pakistan before watching "Bhutto", and just as "Pushing the Elephant" enlightened me on the struggles in the Congo, this film instilled a new sense of awareness within myself about the country of Pakistan. I loved the strong sense of culture illustrated in the movie whether it was the traditional music being played as background audio, or hearing one of the languages Urdu being spoken; I feel this film was created FOR Pakistan, not ABOUT Pakistan. This movie allowed for me to learn about a totally different world outside of my comfy Urbana life, and how the struggles Bhutto and her nations faced/are facing are real. I don't know if this is the motive, but every Community Cinema film I've viewed has really tugged at my heart! Probably the thing I loved most about the movie is being able to hear and see Bhutto talk. She was so powerful yet beautiful at the same time, I was just in awe. Although Bhutto was an educated woman in politics (something absolutely unheard of) she also believed in maintaining traditional values. She kept her hair covered, never shook hands with men, and was arranged to be married since she was in such a high position of power within society. Her headscarves and traditional clothing, jewelry, and makeup only added to her regal appearance, and seeing her transform throughout her life I would say Benazir Bhutto remained one of the most beautiful people I have seen. We had a great discussion after the film, and two of the audience members were of Middle Eastern descent. One woman was from India, and a man was from Pakistan. They both provided expertise, experience, and enlightenment towards the film and their personal opinion of Benazir Bhutto. The major reason I love these Community Cinemas is for interactions like this. Overall I feel kind-of upset that Bhutto's life was ended before I was really old enough to understand and have an interest in world politics. This film was a small glance into the renown Bhutto family and their legacy with Pakistan. My only hopes are that I can learn more, and that this film will touch others when it airs on tv as it touched me.

Wednesday, April 27

Well so far today has been a relatively normal day. I have gotten everything done that Kent, Sarah, or Jake has asked me so I have some free time for the moment while I wait for Kent to revise some motions for me to edit. So far I have been creating files for one of our larger cases. Yesterday I finished another abstract of some medical records for a demand letter. This project took forever, but was low priority on my to-do list so I have been working on that when I complete all my other assignments. Since I have only gotten the chance to work on it when I'm done with everything else I have been doing it for about 3 weeks for maybe 20 minutes a day. I am really glad to have it over with though, because although demand letters are interesting, this case and its medical records were pretty boring. It's really crazy how much money these clients can ask for after being injured by another person accidentally. The average number for "settlement proposals" (demand letters) is 3 times the amount of the medical bills! That means that although these clients were injured, they are making profit on those injuries! Many of these people are not seriously injured, or simply had pre-existing conditions that were "aggravated" by the accident, giving them the right to a settlement.
I have a feeling that as these last few weeks pass by Kent will have me doing alot more in the office, especially in the housekeeping department. I know there are several hundred or more file entries that need to be entered into the File Maker program on the computer and Kent said that he would like to have those done sometime soon. I am not exactly looking forward to that project, however it will be easy and I'm sure it will pass the time quickly.
Although I will miss my placement and all the people and things I have learned here, I must say I am looking forward to completing my internship. I definitely wouldn't change anything about it if I got the chance, but I'm really looking forward to just being able to go home and relax after lunch!

MONDAY- 4/25/11

Family Service- service that provides assistance with filing family abuse cases. For example, elder abuse.

Today was a really busy day...well it has been so far. When I first got to the office I had to finish a big stack of scanning for Shayla and I had to do it in a tedious way because some documents were stapled together. Then she told me about one her clients who was having family issues. She wanted me to call the Family Service line and see if they could file a case for elder abuse. I was actually excited to call them instead of dreading the use of phones like I usual. I like talking about cases with other people because it makes me feel really professional to be in the middle of the contact between Shayla and the other people in her case. After hearing the details of the case they decided they would call me back. It was really satisfying when our receptionist, Connie, buzzed my phone and let me know so and so was on the phone for me. This task placed a lot of responsibility on me but I think I handled it very well. After that, one of the paralegals, Brenda, had a GINORMOUS, stack of papers to be scanned. This took foreveeerr, but I didn't really mind because I had something to keep me busy. I am now going to tell Shayla what I learned from the Family Service line and see what our next steps in the case are.

Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser!! (4/17/11)

Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to help with a spaghetti dinner fundraiser to raise money for the Eastern Illinois Food Bank. I was excited for the night to finally arrive because Susan, her college interns, and I had been planning it for a couple months and working hard to get everything organized! The dinner was from 5-7PM, but I had to arrive at 3:30PM to start cooking food. When I first arrived, Kelsey (intern) was making a giant pan of brownies, and there were several other desserts displayed on the counter, to which I added a couple bags of homemade cookies I had prepared the night before (D). Her interns, sister, and daughter were preparing salad, cutting bread, and making lemonade. Susan had 4 giant pots of water beginning to boil on the stove. While I was waiting for water to boil, I had to open tons of jars of pasta sauce, season them, and pour them into crockpots to simmer. Then, when the water was boiling, I was put in charge of cooking the pasta-LOTS and LOTS of pasta-I have never cooked that much at once in my life before!! At first I was a little overwhelmed, but after I got going, I got into a routine. We ended up filling 5 gigantic metal pans completely full of pasta. One thing I learned was the importance of pouring olive oil onto the pasta if it is going to be sitting around for awhile-otherwise it sticks together terribly and is very difficult to serve to people (we found that out the hard way :/ ) From 5-7PM we served dinner to many people and were able to raise close to $1000 for the food bank, which is awesome! I felt so satisfied because I knew all our hard work was worth it in the end. Though scrubbing the pasta sauce pots was not so much fun (the sauce had burnt to the bottoms of the pans), I think that the dinner was very successful, and I am happy that along with feeding a great meal to many people, we also were able to help the food bank!

Burning Stuff

Wednesday 4/20

Iron is definitely my favorite nutrient to analyze. We started by weighing out triplicates of raw CSB samples into crucibles (little, white porcelain bowls). Unfortunately we don't have the type of furnace we need in our lab in Bevier so we were going to have to transport all 20ish samples to the Ag Engineering building across the south quad. This means we had to get creative with our packaging. We cut out slots in cardboard and placed it in a big white container. We put a crucible in each little slot and then drew a map in our lab notebook. You can't label the crucibles (it'll just burn off) so the map we drew as to which sample was which was very important. All CSB tends to look the same even though it's from different companies or different parts of the world.

The next part of our adventure involved trekking through some sweet underground tunnels. I never even knew there were tunnels connecting so many of the buildings underneath the quad and even underneath the streets! After reaching AESB, we climbed some stairs, found our lab and starting loading our samples into the furnace. Again we had to make a map in our notebook to make sure after everything got burned we would know which samples were which. After 18 hours of burning at over 500 degrees Celcius (that really hot!) we will be able to evaluate the iron content of the samples. The heat will destroy all of the CSB sample besides the metal in it (which is iron!). Even though this whole process took about 5 hours, it was a fun and adventurous day.

Friday 4-22-2011

Friday was SUPPOSE to be an easy day, and I was only SUPPOSE to be there for an hour tops. oh boy, was I wrong. Like always. I had a meeting with our digital signage installer and our electrician just to get everyone on the same page and to get times set up for everyone to do their work. The meeting ran a little longer than I expected it to, but we all left on the same page, kind of. Wade didn't really sit in on this meeting, so after when I was summarizing it to him, and told him what was going on in the food court with the T.V, it didn't seem quite right. The way they wanted it mounted and the way we want it mounted are different, so I had to call our digital signage rep and get things straightened out. At the end of that conversation we decided to get the installer back in to get things figured out, so Monday I have to meet with him again. There was also a little problem with the T.V's. Something new I learned was that T.V models come out new every year just like cars do, and our T.V's are in the middle of their remodels right now. Luckly we are still able to get the old model.

Friday consisted of one thing after the next of problems,fortunatly they were all resolved by the end of the day, which is kind of rare. And after Monday, our project should be on track and ready to begin within the next week!!!

4/19/11

There was a bit more variety of injuries and cases today. None of the conditions were foreign to me but I was happy to learn more. One case in particular is of a young lady in her 20s who has become a candidate for a total hip replacement due to avascular necrosis. Necrosis is cellular death by definition, usually affecting the bones of a joint. Dr. Williams explained that AVN (avascular necrosis) typically targets the hip joint, particularly the femoral head, and the talus in the ankle joint because blood vessels tend to be finer at these sights. The disruption in blood supply causes bone to die and collapse, no longer functioning as it’s supposed to and causing a great deal of pain. This condition can develop due to several different factors, including: alcoholism, excessive steroid use and in this patient’s case, sickle cell anaemia. Of course, the patient’s age offers complications. Candidates for total hip replacements are usually 65-70 years of age, so any surgical convention would have to be precise. Dr. Williams felt this patient would have to see someone that deals more with these types of complications. It is important that a doctor recognizes that he/she are not the best person for the job because a patient’s health is at risk. I often see both doctors, Dr. Williams and Dr. Love, collaborating and consulting each other about their cases. Sometimes a second opinion is necessary if a case is questionable. One doctor may see something different or what the other cannot. This ultimately allows the health provider (physician assistants included) to devise the best treatment possible for a patient.

CAT LADY 4/21/11

Today started off normal, until my first patient checks in and gets started on the bike for 10 min. So usually this is the time where we get to talk to the patients and see how their day has been going and what's new with them since the last time we saw them.... So I ask the lady how her day has been and she responded with “Ohhh it’s been too long of a day and my night was terrible” I then say “oh no what happened?” (With a very concerned look on my face) my patient then says “ well you know how I have 3 cats and at night they all sleep with me, so well I have a dream about how we we’re all sleeping and the next thing I know we’re all having sex”……… Now how would you respond to this type of dream? Haha yes I laughed and my sponsor then tells me to go get some ice (trying very hard to not laugh) so then I walk away trying to get myself together very fast. So then she was done with her 10 minutes on the bike, then we did step ups 2 sets of 15, calf raises of both legs 2 sets of 10. Then it was time for her to go (D) I’ve NEVER in my life have felt so overwhelm well that I can remember (F) I now know how it feels to be put in a disgusting situation and how to get around it (A) We now call her the “CAT LADY”!!!!!!!!!!!!

VOCAB:
Sever’s Disease= A disease that occurs in younger physically active athletes, Comparable to Osgood-Schlatters disease at the tubercle of the knee.

4-21

Although this week has been quite busy, I never got a chance to blog about the shows I attended. Last Thursday was Gary Allan. It definitely was not my favorite because I am not a country fan, but all of the guests who I surveyed were very polite "country folk". Saturday night was definitely my most enjoyable experience I have ever had at my internship. This show was Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller. Jenny informed me midway through my surveys that I would be going back stage to help with concessions (not the most glorious job, but it gets be back stage). While backstage working the ice cream booth, Mac Miller walks in with several of his African-American members of the "Taylor Gang"- Wiz Khalifa's friends that tour with him. I boldly yell to the star, "Mac Miller, you want some ice cream?" Mac Miller replied, "hell yeah bro, you got me after the show?". On his way to the stage to perform Mac was pumping himslelf up when I kindly told him, "Good Luck", his response was simply, "ICE CREAM MAN!" and a high five. Although a rather empty conversation, it was an experience to remember.

I am very greatful that I was given an internship at which I could interact with the stars whom I am promoting. This was a great weekend.

Wednesday, April 20

Today was not the best day at the office. When I arrived Kent was out of the office at Court so it was just Jake, Sarah, and I. I have been working on demand letters for several clients but today Jake told me that I needed to start working on the large case with all the email files again because Kent has a deposition of the defendants coming up in early May and he needs those emails abstracted. So once again I had to sit down and read through every page of every email looking for information about one of the defendants in the case that might help Kent win the case. It was really boring and tedious but I know it has to be done and since I'm the unpaid intern, it has to be done by me. When I was almost finished with that Kent called me into his office because he wanted me to take notes on a phone call conference he was about to have with a client that I wrote a demand letter for. After talking with the client and making a few minor changes, Kent assigned me to revise the demand letter and give it back to him by tomorrow to be sent out.

CHALLENGE- 4/20/11

Today was a pretty typical day. I decided to work some on the ongoing project I am doing with Mr. Dodd. My next step in the project was to create a form to be sent out to each company, for their book of records. Mr. Dodd gave me an example of one he did in the past and told me to fill in the blanks. This seemed pretty straight forward; I was very wrong. Business law is one of the more challenging types of law for me to understand, and this is Mr. Dodd's specialty. The documents I have to look over have really technical business terms which makes it hard for me to understand. Also, the example I have is a different kind of business then the one I'm working on, so it's difficult for me to edit the words and phrases in a way that makes sense with the business. I have a lot of businesses to go through and so far I've been working on 1 for like an hour, so I know I have a lot of work to do. I know this will be good for me because it gives me exposure to different types of law, but it poses a major challenge for me to understand everything I'm working on. I feel a little stressed just looking at the terms. Basically I'm going to take a fedw good guesses as to what sounds best and then ask Mr. Dodd for help. Besides this I also did a little scanning for Shayla, but overall that was my day.

What a day!!! (4-19-11)

So today was a pretty laid back day. Since my practice was cancelled, i was able to stay til 5. Everyone in the office was gone pretty much. Neil wasn't feeling good. Curt and Karl both went on vacation and Melissa went home. So it was Sharon, Claudia and me there until like five. Since tax season is over, i don't really have a normal routine anymore. I help sharon with whatever she needs help with. I hope Neil teaches me more accounting terms in the near future. Today i managed to put files in the dead file room and clean out some binders, but that was pretty much it.

4/19/2011

Today I had to learn about the law of pharmacy. It was horribly boring. Erica gave me 3 pages of questions and I had to look through a big law book for the answers. The book was really confusing because the index didn't give page numbers, it gave strings of numbers which led to the articles of law in the book. I took up most of my day. It was really hard to focus because I had a computer right in front of me and I kept getting distracted. I also had to get up to ask the pharmacist a question, and to stay awake. It's nice and warm and comfy in the room where I was working, and it was tempting to put my head down and shut my eyes. But I'm a little more than halfway through the worksheet. I should be able to finish it tomorrow.

URGENT APRIL 13, 2011

As of this week I have completely switched into GI and personally it feels good.[F]  I feel like Im exposed to so many more interesting topics rather than teeth.  Today chuck decided to give me a pop quiz and he gave me a list of symptoms and tests and my mission of the day was to discover the diagnosis for the patient.  This was an extremely fun experience as I looked through books and charts and an atlas of the anatomy.  I felt like an actual doctor trying to come up with the right diagnosis.[A]  When I finally discovered the disease I had a sense of relief because ei was finally able to diagnose something correct.  Chuck said that from now on he will give me symptoms and I would have to find the right test and the right diagnosis.[D]

URGENT MRS. SHERRICK APRIL 5, 2011

Dr. E still has not returned on his vacation and I continue to do office work.  He won't be back till this Friday, however I spent my week wisely.  I took a visit to pharmacy as well as Gi.  I was able to learn a great deal from both.  But I don't think pharmacy is my thing anymore, the job gets easily repetitive and all you do is stand and put pills in a container.  NO offense to Anna in any way but I if I wanted to stand around I would have worked in a factory haha.[F]  However Gastroenterology continues to intrigue me.  Everyday there is a patient with some type of illness plaguing them and it's up to GI to find out what all the fuss is about within the gastric system.[D]  Today there was patient complaining about a left sided pain and as Chuck felt through he noticed that her liver was enlarged which often means liver cancer.  Hopefully she is ok but tomorrow we will be doing a CAT scan to check if it really is liver cancer.

URGENT Mrs. SHERRICK LOOK! blog MARCH 31, 2011

Oral surgery is starting to become repetitive.  Dr. E has been on vacation for about 2 weeks and lately ive been doing mundane tasks.  There's a lot of filing but I also have been able to squeeze in time for the gastroenterology department as well.  While over there I am exposed to a better learning environment because they actually have the time to teach me things.[A]  I learned yesterday about rectal bleeding and how dark blackish tar like stools may result in the upper colon severely bleeding.  However if stool have a light colored blood then it is the lower half of the large intestine that is damaged.[D]  Besides all the learning ive mainly been doing office work and checking up on patients that come by for a follow up check on a surgery done to them weeks ago.  I feel like I want to be more exposed with gastroenterology and I may see myself having a future in that medical field.[E]  However I have heard that GI is a very competitive field of study hopefully I am up for the challenge.

Dermatology

April 18, 2011

Vocab:

Alopecia: loss of hair.
Cytology: the study of the microscopic appearances.
Otitis Externa: external inflammation of the dog's ear, always has underlying causes (allergies, or bacteria, or yeast growth) that cause it.

Although I have previously worked with the staff in the Dermatology (summer 2009), like all the rotations I have done I continue to be surprised on my first day. A collie with severe alopecia came in today, her ears, stomach and neck were very irritated. After helping restrain her, the student had to get different skin scrapes to look at with cytology. After lightly scrapping the paws, ears, and stomach with a blade and putting the cells in a slide she had to do the deeper scrapes. She literally had to scrap the dogs ears, paw, and stomach until it would bleed to get different blood cells (d). To me it seemed unreal that she had to do this while we just restrained and watched the poor dog in pain (f). The worst part was when they checked inside the dog's ear, because the dog had ear infections it was very painful for her causing her to yelp as they were doing this. The same pain was displayed in another dog who had only a slight ear infection on one ear. However, because both dogs were naturally friendly they never tried to bite anyone unlike the other dogs. I helped the student prepare the samples in the slides, and then helped her look at them. Today I learned that even though it has been a while since I have looked at cytology and prepared samples I am still able to easily do everything by myself (A).

4-18-2011

Today was a VERY productive day in my eyes. (SN: Happy 87th Birthday Grandma! :]) When I first came in I remembered some audios that could use work so I sat down and got right down to editing. One of the pieces was a track that was denied approval by Ms. Meaderds so that was my first priority. She and I had a phone conference on Friday to better discuss what all needed to be done so I pulled out the notes from that convo and also looked at what she had written on our standard audio review form that goes with each audio piece when revised. After taking a few pre-listens I understood what all needed to be done and I immediately began deleting from the track and inserting "dead" audio selections everywhere (dead audio is just silent sound to make the audio sound more normal). By the time I finished the piece was almost 2 minutes shorter! Overall it sounds SO much better and I'm hoping it'll get approved this time. The second thing I worked on is the minute piece for our "stinger reel" which will feature ten one-minute selections from our 10 interviewees. I have felt that I was finished with that one for a while but it never hurts to give a once-over again. All I did was a little more deleting and some copying and pasting of audio. I really hope this one gets approved too so we can keep moving forward. I'm just worried about time crunch if we stay on one thing for too long.

4/18

Today was interesting, the Circuit Clerk is complaining about her lack of storage space...so the SAO is helping out by reviewing old cases and deeming which ones can be moved, and what evidence can be given to the Sheriffs Office for safe keeping.

So far I have only tackled about 7 cases, and reviewing those 7 cases has taken about 2.5 hours. The SAO has never done this before so no one really knows what we are supposed to be looking for, although I was given a list with certain things that Julia does want to know about each case. She wants to know if there is an appeal pending, if there is a Post-Conviction on file/pending, if the respondent has a MR case pending and/or closed (with outcome of case), and if the respondent is still in custody.

I'm the guinea pig for the time being, which may be a bad thing because I don't really know what other important info I should be looking for, or if I am even looking at the right info in the first place. Julie said that I was doing fine, but I still think that I should know more before I start to do things like this, however this is still a great learning experience and I have already learned quite a lot by just maneuvering through the different systems and looking through the court files.

VOCAB:
Post-Conviction = a general term that relates to actions post-trial and the verdict has been rendered. It may include such things as appeals of criminal convictions, requests for release, new trial, modification of sentence, and other actions that may be proper.

4/14/2011

Vocab- Didn't have much new vocab but I found out that network printers are a lot different than usb printers.

(f)Today was a very fun and busy day. (d)Bryan and I had 3 main tasks to accomplish today. We first had to go to Washington preschool to install a new printer, the old one is jammed and doesn't print out paper at all. We got there, and we found out it was a very easy fix. He let me unplug it and install it rather simply. That task had been accomplished very easily. We then had to go out to the head start program and reinstall the computer Bryan and I fixed a few weeks ago. We got there, installed it and everything worked fine. We just had to install the printers back onto it which was a quick fix. The third and final task was to go over to Central Office to fix a network problem. On our way there, we get a call saying that Chris Fuller already fixed the problem. By then it was about time to go back to his office anyway, so I didn't mind.(a) It was a busy day, and I was happy that I wasn't stuck in the school! I realized how much I work in the high school as opposed to around the district.

4/5/2011

vocab KVM switch- a switch that can be used to switch easily between multiple monitors.

(d)I started my day off with Bryan, fixing various laptops that he had around his office. Something really funny happened today which was he had trouble finding a computer that he had to fix because he couldn't locate the room number. The room number was in fact his office! (f)I found this hilarious and we both shared a laugh thinking how much of a dumb moment we had. So we found out that he had a small virus on his computer and we fixed it rather quickly. By the end of that it was time for me to go work with Jeff over at the middle school. He had me go up to different administrators to install the new office 2010. I installed it for Mr. Helmick, Mr. Russell, and Ms. Bants. It was pretty simple and pretty much took all my day because of the installation time. If the user had a lot of files, then the files had to be converted to new office format, if there weren't many files then it was a breeze and hardly took long at all. At the end of the day, (a)I had a pretty simple day, and people thought I was pretty intelligent in how simple I installed programs. Great day!

Pointless, Pointless, Pointless!!

4/15/11 Well, yesterday, as you can probably predict from the title of my blog, was honestly a waste of time. Kelsey (college intern) and I decided to go set up a table at the ARC in the afternoon to try to sell tickets for our spaghetti dinner fundraiser that is this Sunday evening at the ARC from 5-7PM (which , by the way, you guys should come!) We both met at 1 PM, and Kelsey had already set up a table for us. But we unfortunately could not find the sign that we had left at the ARC, so we had to improvise and make our own homemade sign with marker and posterboard, which made me feel a little disappointed, because the sign we had before was SO much better (F). But it's okay, because I realized the importance of making the best out of any situation and making use of whatever resources you have (A). So we sat at our table and asked everyone who walked by if they wanted to buy a ticket. The entire afternoon, we sold exactly.....NO TICKETS! It was so frustrating because most people who walked by had headphones in since they were about to workout, or else they just responded with "no" as they quickly walked past our table. Kelsey and I felt like we had wasted our afternoon, and were very disappointed that no tickets sold. Hopefully, more people will show up Sunday night and buy tickets at the door-we will have plenty of pasta for everyone!

Thursday 4/14/11

Today was a pretty chill day. Since we just signed a new lease for a new tenant, I had to create a new lease abstract. Wednesday I had to scan the lease into the computer and change it into a pdf file, and I didn't have enough time to finish the abstract, so I did that part today! I also have a new thing to research: mall kiosks (like the ones you see in the middle that sell cell phone case, american girl doll clothes, cell phnes, etc.) For this I am only trying to find out pricing to buy the actual kiosk not to have the business in. And finding out this information has proved to be much harder than I though it would be, but I've found a few things, and I'm going to continue my research on Monday!

A Hectic Day; 4/14/11

Today was quite a hectic day. It was Dr. Williams’ birthday, so it was tempting for everyone to just sit around and just eat the whole time. Dr. Williams was also on call (the best birthday present a doctor can have). When I arrived to the clinic, Dr. Williams was gone, taking care of a displaced tibia fracture in the ER. When he returned to clinic he was 30 mins behind his afternoon schedule. There were also problems with the ICCHART software (used to organize patient medical records). A tech was present to fix the glitches but computer access was limited because each device had to be modified individually. At one point everyone was using one computer. Despite all the chaos, everyone was able to get their job done at the end of the day and I was able to see a few interesting cases.

One of the cases was a SLAP (superior labrum interior to posterior) tear. I was briefly introduced to this injury before, but Dr. Williams took the time to go into a bit more depth about it. A SLAP tear is an injury to a piece of shoulder cartilage called the labrum. This cartilage surrounds the shoulder socket (glenoid), helping to keep it stable when you move. Your biceps is attached to your shoulder by a biceps tendon. This tendon connects your biceps to the labrum at the top of the shoulder joint. A SLAP tear happens when the labrum is damaged where the biceps tendon is attached. Several symptoms that accompany this injury include: A dull throbbing ache in the joint, loss of strength, and difficulty sleeping due to shoulder discomfort. To treat this condition, a patient has three options: 1) leave it alone 2) strengthening the other supporting muscles of the shoulder through physical therapy 3) arthroscopic surgery to reattach the labrum to the glenoid, this option is also followed by physical therapy.

I have been in the clinic long enough to have seen the most common cases as well as rare ones. But even with the most common cases, there is always something new thing to learn. I have been particularly tentative to the classic conditions of each injury and seeing if the patient fits what the literature proposes to be a typical candidate for an injury. These injuries typically target a specific age group or are tied in some way to another condition the patient has. For example, middle aged women with diabetes are the most susceptible to adhesive capsulitis or “frozen shoulder” (a condition which limits the shoulder’s ranged of motion.

Overall, it has been an eventful day and week. I’m looking forward to working harder and learning more in the remaining weeks.