Bring on week 8

Oh my goodness, I am on week 8 of my 3rd clinical... I can scarcely believe it! I am so excited to be almost back to living at home! And I am almost a 3rd year PT student... my, where does the time go? I don't really have anything spectacular to report... My sister is getting more and more prego by the minute, my brother won state championship in football last week, and we have started to look at houses to buy.. hopefully we will be ready to purchase around January or February of next year. Because we DON'T want to live in a subdivision, finding a house that we like that is within reasonable driving distance that is in our price range is beginning to prove a challenge. Pictures are from 2 weekends ago when we went wine tasting at a gorgeous vineyard in Winston-Salem. That's all for now I think.

October

So, what can I tell you? It's kind of crazy how now that I am past halfway it seems as though time is flying by. This week is almost over as I am taking Friday off to see Tiesto in Charlotte, next week I get to watch one (possibly two) brain surgeries and on Friday I am presenting on the anatomy of the brain. Then, the next week is my last week! I am very excited to get to live with my husband again! In other news, it looks like Lucas is going to finally be hired on with Volvo as a fulltime employee! Hopefully (we'll keep our fingers crossed) all the paperwork should be done by December, January at the latest. Can you believe that starting in January I will be a 3rd year DPT student? I can't! Where does the time go.... ?

Halfway

So life continues here in Greenville . I am still very much enjoying my time here (well the hospital anyways) but like I said last week I am tired of driving and really missing Lucas. I keep reassuring myself that there are only 4 more weeks. And then I remember that that means I'll be going back to class as well. Ugh. I can't win can I? I worked 7 days in a row last week with one day off for me to run back up to Greensboro to get my crown fixed and then run back for me to go back to work on Tuesday. It will be worth it though since I get next Friday off to go to Charlotte and see Tiesto (a famous techno DJ). Nothing else really to report except that tomorrow I have my midterm evaluation meeting with my clinical instructor and I'm supposed to have decided what to do my inservice presentation on by then... no clue.

Life goes on...

Hmmm..... what can I say? I had a good week #3 at my clinical... none of my patients were harmed (thankfully) and I got to spend a wonderful weekend watching the Aliens trilogy with my incredible husband. Aside from that, I am growing tired of not seeing Lucas everyday, driving every weekend, the numbness in my toe (and calf), and today on my drive back to Greensville my "permanant" crown fell off... less than a year after I got it put on.... WTF?!?! *sigh* life is good.... but still stressful.

A little bit about where I'm at now...

My current clinical is in Greenville, NC (about 2 1/2 hours away from where we live) and I am doing inpatient rehab which means that I work with patients in the hospital who are medically stable but need to work on building up their strength before they can go home. Most of my patients are neurological patients, meaning they have some sort of brain or spinal cord injury. I also work with patients who may just have a lot of medical problems and need a lot of assistance, such as people with multiple injuries from a car accident. So we do fairly basic things like practicing walking, climbing stairs, working on balance, and sometimes learning to use and maneuver a wheelchair. So far it is going really well but I've had some rough days... there is so much to learn about being safe and not hurting your patients while trying to challenge them to do something that is difficult too. On Monday I had my first patient fall; that is never a good feeling. Everyone assures me that I did everything I could have, but that it just sometimes happens... but it is still hard not to feel responsible or like I should have done something different somehow. Despite that incident, I love the hospital and the facility in which I get to work.. there is so much equipment to work with, and the people are really friendly and wonderful to work with. If this hospital was in Greensboro I would be applying there for sure!
Outside of clinical life is going well too. We got our tickets to go up to Alaska for Rachel and Jordan's wedding today... I am glad we will get to be there for this special event! Lucas and I are handling the distance well, I think better this time since being together for 2 weeks in Italy and my being able to come home on the weekends helps a lot too. Otherwise, I'm keeping busy trying to exercise daily and I'm currently reading a book called "Love life for every Married Couple" by a chrisitian doctor about how God has designed every marriage to be a love affair... So far I don't think some of the priniciples really apply to us (it's geared towards couples who are struggling) but it still has some really good points and lessons to be applied to our marriage. That's all I've got for now...

The Inevitable

Well, it finally happened. I dropped my first patient. I knew it had to happen eventually but I think that part of me was really hoping that it never would. Honestly, the thing that annoys me the most is that I'm pretty sure the patient did it on purpose. So there you go; I feel like crap. That's what's new in the life of Rachel.

Transitions...

It's weird to think that we've already been back over a week and that I've moved to Greenville and have already finished a week at my new clinical site; man does time fly! Our last day in Rome was very relaxing... in fact, other than seeing the San Calisto cattacombs, we pretty much didn't do anything; probably the perfect way to end a busy trip. In the meantime I have moved to Greenville, NC to complete my 3rd clinical rotation at Pitt Memorial Hospital. So far, I love it. The hospital is massive, the rehab gym is phenomenal, and my CI (clinical instructor) is a lot of fun. I also love that Greenville is only 2 1/2 hours from home so I can go home on the weekends without much hassle and see Lucas and all our friends. This weekend I went home and we went to a charity event to benefit Multiple Sclerosis. I got to catch up with the Morgans and the Tishlers, so it was a good time.
As I reflect upon our trip to Italy I find that I am surprised at which moments I remember with the most fondness. For example, especially after visiting the cappucian crypt, I did not anticipate the overwhelming sense of faith and peace that I felt while visiting the catacombs of San Calisto, where archaeologists estimate around half a million Christians from 140AD to 350AD were buried, nor did I expect to remember eating dinner sitting on a curb watching a turd float by as one of my favorite moments. Lying on the grass in the field of miracles, gazing up at the Sistine chapel, listening to music watching the sun go down over St. Mark’s basilica at the Café Florian, dancing with Lucas in San Marco square, sleeping every afternoon in Rome, sitting on a curb eating a goat cheese and prosciutto sandwich with local workers, and realizing how much Lucas loves me after he lost my laptop are some of my favorite memories of Italy. It’s interesting that while seeing the Coloseum, the Pantheon, and so many other sites were amazing, they don’t compare in my memory to the moments I shared with Lucas. :) I have almost completed uploading photos to our shutterfly account, if you would like to see all of the pictures I took, click the link here: http://lucasandracheldargis.shutterfly.com/