2nd quarter

Surprise! It's another post about school! I can't help it... it consumes my life. And who knows, maybe a future PA student will stumble upon this one day and enjoy reading it. Anyway...

1st quarter was 18.5 credits with the bulk of our study efforts going towards anatomy (7 credits) and biochem (4 credits). 2nd quarter is very different. We have upped the credits to 22.5 but we have a lot more classes:

• Clinical medicine
• Physiology
• Physical diagnosis
• Neuroscience
• Pharmacology
• Pediatrics
• Epidemiology
• Interdisciplinary studies
• Evidence based medicine

Luckily no class is worth more than 4 credits this quarter. I was worried about the load before getting started. And although it is a lot to keep on top of, I'm liking this quarter so far. It helps that I had 2 exams already and rocked them. (Yes!) Never really felt like that last quarter...  

I also am enjoying most of my classes. Clinical medicine is SO relevant and we get to talk about cases and how to work through them. Physical diagnosis is fun because we get to use our tools and learn how to examine patients. Plus I'm pretty sure everyone feels super cool when they throw their stethoscope around their neck ;-)

I'm also enjoying seeing where my previous ER scribe job is helping me along the way. I think the biggest help has been being familiar with terminology. If I hadn't had that experience, I think I would freak out every time they used abbreviations... ROS, SOB, A&OX3, CVD, NKDA, UTD, G2P2.

My biggest struggle right now is TV on Netflix. I didn't watch very much TV over  the summer. I really didn't have the time. But I started watching Brothers and Sister on my week off and I can't stop. I try to only watch it when I need a meal break but those episodes are 45 minutes long. It does NOT take me that long to eat. And Grey's Anatomy season 7 just went streaming.... I'm so in trouble!

Just keep swimming

Well, I passed. I think I failed to mention that yet in my posts since finals. It was a really rough first quarter for me. A lot of adjustment and frankly really hard. But I made it! Only 24 months to go....

Last week was the first week of the 2nd quarter and it felt like 3 weeks with all of the new classes and information they managed to throw at us in 5 days. Thanks PA school, I love drinking from your fire hose of information. 22.5 credits in 10 weeks... NBD! I was super pumped and thought I could at least feel on top of things for a week (just one!) but that didn't happen. So... just keep swimming!

Veggie time!

After getting home from vacation, I couldn't wait to eat some vegetables. Eating right while on vacation is not easy to do. I don't think we ate too horribly but I still came home feeling gross. Like I needed vegetables!  


I made 2 vegetable soups over the weekend before going back to school: a beef stew and a vegetable chicken noodle concoction. We ate the chicken noodle over this past week (my first week back in school). And I put the beef stew in the freezer right away so we could eat it later when I'm studying 24/7. My husband LOVES the beef stew. He keeps asking me when we can take it out of the freezer. Ha! Maybe we will this week....


Here's the recipe. It's simple and we both really like it : )


Beef Stew in the Crock

2 pounds Beef chuck or stew meat; cut 1" cubes
     (they have this meat pre-cut into cubes in 1lb packages at Fry's... it's great!)

1/4 cup Flour

1 1/2 teaspoons Salt

1/2 teaspoon Pepper

1 1/2 cups Beef broth

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 Clove garlic; minced
     I like to be generous with the garlic : )

1 Bay leaf

1 teaspoon Paprika

4 Carrots; sliced

3 Potatoes; diced

2 Onions; chopped

1 Stalk celery; sliced

2 teaspoons Kitchen Bouquet (optional)

• Place meat in crock pot. 
• Mix flour, salt and pepper and pour over meat; stir to coat meat with flour. 
• Add remaining ingredients and stir to mix well. 
• Cover and cook on low (200 degrees) for 10 to 12 hours or high (300 degrees) for 4 to 6 hours. Stir stew thoroughly before serving.