Tri-8 Wk12, Days 513 & 514, Thur & Fri, 7/28 & 7/29

I survived. Two solid months of mandatory 5 day per week clinic is FINALLY over. Like a lot of people I was saving the gist of my vacation days for finals but it looks like the start of the next semester is our first day of finals for the current semester. I'm not sure I quite understand that because you don't actually move on to the next semester until you've passed all your classes. oh well.

I put in vacation request for 8/5 and 8/12, two Fridays in a row and now that I'm back to a normal clinic schedule that means I'm already off on Thursday and now on Friday and Saturday and Sunday and Monday!!! - Five Days in a ROW! YeeHaw!

I'm not exactly sure what's going on in school.

I really had no solution for effectively dealing w/ the abhorrent schedule I was subjected to over the past couple months. About all I can say is that it's a good thing I don't own a shotgun. I have been learning quite a bit but, not necessarily anything specific to any current classes. This reminds me of the special class I was put in during grade school where us higher motivated types of students wrote out on a contract what we wanted to work on during the week.

One interesting thing I studies was the primary and secondary ossification centers in the metacarpals and the phalanges. Both metacarpals and phalanges have primary ossification centers centrally located along their shafts but the phalanges have secondary ossification centers proximally, at their bases while the metacarpals have their secondary ossification center distally located. BUT WAIT - only metacarpals 2, 3, 4 and 5 have secondary ossification distally and metacarpal #1 (the one attached to the thumb) has a PROXIMAL secondary ossification center which means in terms of ossification the first metacarpal is more like a phalanx. Makes me wonder if things were misnamed originally... this same phenomenon occurs in the foot.

with the carpal bones, ossification starts at the capitate and kind of spirals around in a counter-clockwise direction but, the age at which these carpals ossify isn't exactly one per year but more like 2-3 months for the first two then age 3,4 and 5 for the 3rd 4th and 5th but, also year five for the 6th and 7th. then the pisiform which is just a nifty little sesamoid bone finally ossifies between the ages of 9 to 12.

I've also been going over some of the neural pathways, specifically w/ the eyes and the various reflexes. Unilateral cranial nerve palsy has also become an interest mainly because it's now clinically relevant and we've got real people involved. Of course ...I'd say about 1/2 the people I'm working with and trying to learn things for aren't even official patients from my clinic but still people that come to me with issues so I do the best I can.

...got severely sidetracked here - oh well, that's it for now :)

Tri-8 Wk12, Days 511 & 512 - Tue & Wed, 7/26 & 7/27

I'M DRIVING LESS THAN 40 MILES TODAY! I'M DRIVING LESS THAN 40 MILES TODAY!

I'M DRIVING LESS THAN 40 MILES TODAY!

I'M DRIVING LESS THAN 40 MILES TODAY!

I'M DRIVING LESS THAN 40 MILES TODAY!

I'M DRIVING LESS THAN 40 MILES TODAY!

I'M DRIVING LESS THAN 40 MILES TODAY!

• I'M DRIVING LESS THAN 40 MILES TODAY!
• I'M DRIVING LESS THAN 40 MILES TODAY!
• I'M DRIVING LESS THAN 40 MILES TODAY!

That's 40 miles TOTAL. I've had enough - quite enough. I'm going to the St Patricks Center in downtown St Louis for my clinic shift today. there's only so many days the 5 a.m. alarm can go off with me waking up as if I've been run over by a truck.

Next week - week 13 will be my first opportunity to get out of this mandatory 5 day per week rat race. I think I summed it up best in an email I had to send one of the teachers whose class I'd already screwed up in when I said, "If everyone in Tri-8 has the same requirements then we should all have the same demands."

Amazingly enough, I got home at 5 p.m. yesterday! It was fantastic. I was also asleep by 5:30

I know Dr. Guebert has talked about his father and the pain that man has been going through. It makes me very sad. I know there has been reference to him maybe "checking out" voluntarily.

I know we've talked about the mortality rate with reflex sympathetic dystrophy and the number one cause of death with that disease being suicide.

I know my pains probably aren't as bad as others but, dropping a third of your O2 saturation levels over night doesn't feel very good either. I've read the mechanism behind it is equivalent to a severe stroke or dying.

I've come to believe that things like a person drinking soda or ingesting Splenda are probably far less detrimental to health then losing the will to live.

I've read about cultures in Africa where capital punishment consisted of ignoring the offending party until they eventually wandered off into the mountains and died.

I never was able to come up with a solution to my situation which would allow me to effectively continue to get up at 5 a.m. every day then go to all my classes then go to clinic every day as well as attend all of my weekend obligations such as Loomis, SOT or Irene Gold board reviews.

I no longer think sleep is the answer but maybe just a beginning of a solution. The weekends I did have off, especially the last weekend when I missed my final SOT classes I was in and out of bed constantly and never up for more than two hours at a time and that still didn't help the exhaustion.

Moving, being healthier and being younger were the only answers I could come up with. The idea of putting my home on the market and moving seemed too huge an endeavor to pull off with all the school demands. Healthier is an option. I know I started training for my St. Peters shift back in Tri-7 and was going to the gym quite often. Of course, at that time, I was only aware of the distance I'd have to be traveling and not the 5 day per week shifts. Younger ...nothing I can do about that and, quite frankly, .....yeah .....what is, is.

I am going back to sleep now. That's pretty much where I live if I'm not in a class or clinic.

Tri-8 Wk12 Day 510 - Monday, 7/25

5 months until Christmas -

maybe 2 weeks or so until I get a new niece or nephew - that will be pretty nice :)

not really much sure about anything else.

Got my last Case Report in today but wasnt able to listen to my 20th case report due to patient duties.

It does seem like week 12 will be my final week of mandatory 5 day per week clinic.

Dr. Hogarth, my clinician, is really pretty good at overseeing the case reports. I've never seen him in a classroom situation but he definitely seems to have a talent for teaching.

The case report I gave tonight didn't have a clear cut resolution due to non-compliance by the patient but, it did involve a pretty serious auto accident and I was really curious what Dr Hogarth had to say about it. He did not disappoint. A class might be good but that could be slow going. Hogarth would probably make a great teacher for that class but I have no idea if he'd want to leave clinic.

My favorite scenario is what a clinic pulled off last Friday by knocking out 16 case reports in a single evening. That's what a fellow intern told me anyway. All I can think is that represents 8 days I could have been off from clinic.

Dr. Guebert had a pretty good class today. We got to see a CT with contrast and it was a really nice picture showing the relationship between a vertebrae, the psoas muscles and the ureters. I think most everyone knew the roundish images on the CT were ureters but seeing the relationship to other structures was pretty cool.

That's about it.

Oh, my radiator went out and I got a letter from the IRS. Car is at the shop to get the radiator fixed and ....i guess the IRS really did want me to file last year even though I didn't work or sell any securities.

Tri-8 Wk11 Days 508, 509 - Thur, Fri 7/21, 7/22

I took a vacation day Friday from clinic and it was the first day since May that I've been able to go straight home from school instead of dealing with clinic. I did take one other vacation day on a Friday but ended up staying at school until 6 p.m. so I could finish up various requirements that I just haven't had time to finish up, most notable my radiology conferences.

Originally, I thought the vacation day would also let me stay up late to study for my derm exam on Friday but I was way too tired to fall asleep. I made good use of my time on Friday - got to have a quick lunch with my parents then got my tires rotated and oil changed at Valvoline. I wasn't able to stay awake much past 5 p.m. and fell asleep. I woke up a bit after midnight and watched some of the horrific tragedy that took place over in Norway where 92 people have now been declared dead due to the messed up actions of one person. I fell back asleep after that and slept until 10 p.m.

There just doesn't seem to be any catching up on sleep anymore. i'm flat out chronically exhausted. I've scarcely anything new to say. I did read a few weeks ago about a very young administrator that was once hired on to the faculty at Harvard University and the one thing he immediately implemented was that if any department head wanted to add anything to their program then they had to take something else away. Kind of reminds me of the PAYGO plan signed by President Bush that forced Clinton to only spend what monies were available or to eliminate existing expenditures to offset any new spending. At least those are the charts I see most often. I'm sure 101 different views and opinions exist but ....I'm no expert in the field ...

I guess I need to get an application in to Northwestern University (NW) I need more information. There may be a CBI or Community Based Internship available which may suit me but, honestly, I don't feel fit to run a cash register at Dairy Queen right now.

I thought the process of becoming a chiropractor at Logan would help me become a better person but it's doing nothing but destroying me. NOBODY should have to drive 4,000 miles in their first 6 weeks of classes - that comes out to over 650 miles a week. The one individual week I checked w/ my car's odometer put me at 718 miles for the week.

In the few trimesters before becoming a Tri-8, the most common comment I heard from upperclassmen was that they wanted to burn down the school. I never gained full insight as to why they were disgruntled but I'm sure part of it had to do with the switch from 1 to 3 days per week mandatory clinic. I also know the valedictorian of the last graduating class made a comment in his speech that his class was about to step across the stage to get their diploma "as long as there were no more graduation requirement changes".

I wonder how students who transferred to Logan were so enthusiastic about chiropractic. I don't remember exactly which college it was but I think one of them lost their accreditation which caused the influx.

I just don't know .... I love my patients and I love being able to actually help make people feel better and help alleviate them of pain & suffering ....

I really can't stand the end game of this DC program at Logan.

I do know that last Friday, one of the clinics was scheduled to knock out 16 Case Reports! 16 in one day!

I know that the person behind scheduling our case reports NEVER had to come in on his day off for a case report. I know out clinician simply backed him up instead of ever once bothering to look into any reason why anybody would be disgruntled about the schedule. I know my name has come up a lot with my clinician (he told me it did) but, I have no idea exactly what was said because he had nothing further to say to me other than my name had come up a lot. who knows.

I detest their newly implemented No Tolerance policy with regards to switching clinics. Seems like they're doing everything under the sun so as not to ever have to deal with any student concerns regardless of the circumstances. I'd like to see those who implement the policy drive 4,000 miles over the next 6 weeks. I dare any of them to try and get through the Tri-8 program under the same circumstances as me.

probably a waste of time to write about any of this. I still have work to do. and, either i'm staying or i'm going.

Recommendation to any students considering chiropractic school .....LOOK AROUND - see what their programs are like - LOOK at the end game - COMPARE - right now, all Logan knows is to add, add, add without having a clue of all the consequences they're having on their students.

Tri-8 Wk11 Days 505, 506, 507 - Mon, Tue, Wed 7/18, 7/19, 7/20

*If* I take a vacation day from clinic tomorrow then I can pull an all-nighter for my derm exam.

I had my transcript sent to Northwestern on Monday and joined an Online Chat with a few students Tuesday night. I know they might start taking grades into consideration when determining their outpatient clinic assignments. I wonder why it never occurs to anybody to take into consideration proximity & preferences.

I keep thinking of Shakespeare and the line that we'd "rather bear those ills we have then to run off to others we do not know"

NW claims to average about 650 adjustments per student and they don't have to go out to find their own patients. It would take a minimum of 5 trimesters to graduate from NW ...that's the kicker part. I'm kind of on the fence. I do like the idea of dropping HCP here at Logan and not having to drive so much. The only way I'm really making it is by missing tons of classes which makes me wonder what the hell I'm paying so much money for.

Tri-8 Wk10 Days 503 & 504 - Thur & Fri - 7/14, 7/15

hard time moving this morning ....

Rheumatology exam is Monday, Case Report is due Monday, Report of Findings for a new patient is due Monday, Final Exam in SOT is due tomorrow (Sunday) and ...I should be in SOT class right now ....

it's still in the a.m. and I'm finally dressed and pretty much ready to go. I'll probably end up at school after the lunch break.

The people at Logan are pretty much great. The instructors are probably among the best of any chiro college in the world. Is it the institution I hate or maybe the DC program. I was at a table with some Tri-9's yesterday and even more changes are being implemented for the first time for them in Tri-10. Something about having to be at school on Fridays ...things have changed so much and I'm not sure exactly how the changes are supposed to make better doctors of anyone.

Tri-10 is kind of the 5 day a week clinic schedule, if needed. I know one guy who did that in order to graduate on time. He got the last adjustment in he needed just 4 days before graduation!

oh hell, ...things could certainly be worse. I could have lost my spouse and job in the same week then be forced to move as my neighbor is dealing with right now. Doesn't really make my current situation any easier to deal with ...just perspective.

Of course, I lost a good friend in that process as well. Probably the one human being I spent more time talking with than anyone else. I still have my dog ...she's just not much of a conversationalist.

Being at the most distal clinic possible is one thing but, having to be there five days a week is quite another.

I need to have my Case Report done before Monday - have to prep for ROF on Monday before patient arrives at 4 p.m. I give my case report at 3.

RADIOLOGY! damn! how could I have forgotten about that! ...those reports are due by 9 a.m. Monday ...

Gezzus ....let's get this straight ...

SOT - Classes Sat

SOT - Classes & Final Exam Sunday

Radiology - 10 Case Reports due Monday morning

Clinic - ROF etc., with new patient at 4

Clinic - Case Report due at 3

Rheumatology Midterm Monday morning

that's gotta be close to it ...just mix in over 200 miles of driving and you have my current life for the next couple days.

Tri-8 Wk10 Day 502 - Wednesday

Ridiculous is a word I often hear used to describe the later trimesters at Logan. I use that word too, along with the word INSANE.

I'm looking at other chiropractic colleges and notice that up at Northwestern University their Tri-8 schedule consist of 18 hours worth of classes - Those classes meet 9 hours a week on two days per week. When I look at Parker college I don't see any classes in 8, 9 or 10 - just Internship.

When I look at my classes for Tri-8, I'm seeing 38 hours of classes - 5 days per week and sometimes on the weekend. I see clinic 5 days a week, I see my 650+ miles I drive per week and I just have to wonder why.

ok - i've got an email out to Northwestern - just looking into the possibility of transferring. If I need to sell my home and move in order to make it through the program I might as well consider all possibilities of where to finish up my education.

Gotta run ...school beckons.

Tri-8 Wk10 Day 501 - Tuesday

Today we had a presentation by the NCMIC which is an agency which provides malpractice insurance for a majority of chiropractors. They have a pretty cool website called startingintopractice.com that looks like it could be pretty useful someday. That presentation lasted from 8 to 11 then I had to head to clinic for a 12 o'clock appt.

I have another new patient on the books for tomorrow. Not sure exactly what time but I'll figure it out.

For as sick as I felt yesterday it was GREAT to be able to come straight home after classes. It was nice to come home today and not want to look up guillotine's on eBay. ;)

Still blogging from my iPad. Have a case report due Thursday so I better get a template together to get that taken care of ASAP.

I think after next Thursday... At the end of week 11 I will no longer have a mandatory 5 day per week clinic shift and will just have to try and get my patients in when I'm actually scheduled to be in clinic. Even if I can just get one day a week away from clinic then I might have enough time to pull out the senior project that's due this Tri.

Tri-8 Wk10 Day 500 - Monday - 7/11/11

Laptop is down, won't recharge. Hoping it's a bad plug or, at worst, needing a new battery. Today was Bootcamp from 1-5:30 pm which replaced our clinic shifts. We just found out that tomorrow we have meetings with one of the main insurance companies for chiropractic which is supposed to be mandatory and last from 8 to 11:30 am. Unfortunately the people who schedule such things are unaware of our other obligations such as clinic duty which starts at 11:30 am. For me that means I need at least 40 min commute time as well as time to gather xrays and mail to deliver to our clinic tomorrow.

It seems as though I've passed being chronically exhausted and moved on to just being sick. I left Bootcamp as early as possible, got home, threw up, put an icepack on my head and went to bed.
I read a lot over the weekend and downloaded a bunch of apps to my iPad pertaining to orthopedics, skeletal anatomy and radiology. This iPad I'm using now may be a huge key in helping me finish out school.
Next Monday is our first rheumatology exam. Hmmm, just checked the midterm grades posted to date ... Everything is well above passing and there's even three A's and a B so far in the mix. Of course, that may all get evened out after finals when extra effort gets put into the lower grades thereby ignoring the classes with the higher grades. There's only so much time to divvy up between things.

Thinking about classes... There's still a senior research class that I haven't progressed in beyond reading a book before Dr. Bub got fired so, I still need an advisor and god knows what else for that requirement.
I really detest that ride to & from St Peter's. My average weekly mileage for the past 6 weeks has been 652 miles per week ... Per mon through Friday and that's with skipping as much weekend BS as possible and riding my motorcycle locally.

A bit after 3 am, need to get some laundry done and half considering heading to the gym.

Tri-8 Wk9 Day 499 - Friday - 7/8/11

What happened this day???? I think our Dx Imag IV grades were posted and, in spite of meager preparation on my part - actually none, I still did fine and will get through that class as long as I don't Attendance Fail (AF).

I had clinic Friday. No patients, not on any list to take walk-ins, just needed to be there. I did get to talk to a classmate at lunch who was loving this semester so I asked him how many clinic days he had per week. He seemed a bit perplexed by the question and answered 'three' then was surprised to learn I've had mandatory 5 day per week clinic since the beginning of last month.

Monday is going to be our 500th day of class. Amazing. 500th day in the DC program which correlates to about 3,500 hours worth of classes. I've got so much to do.

I did skip the Loomis Internal Health Specialist (IHS) program this weekend. I guess I'm starting to have a psychosomatic effect with regards to driving. The thought of getting into my car for another jaunt to Logan literally made me queasy. I've definitely felt like throwing up more times this semester than any other time in my life.

I checked my mileage from the last time I got my oil changed and was a bit stunned to learn I've put in 4,000 miles of driving in the past 6 weeks - that's over 650 miles per week and I tend to ride my motorcycle locally so the vast majority of those miles are nothing but school related. It's just insane.

I just need to get to work. Unfortunately, the first thing on my agenda today is to get my car in to have my tires rotated and hope to god that has a positive effect on driving performance. It should help but I really thing my ball bearings are going out.

Tri-8 Wk9 Day 498 - Thursday - 7/7/11

This was my birthday and the day my clinician was accusing me of being a cause of changes in the office such as the clinic having to hold meetings twice a week and allowing interns to attend the meeting of their choice. I know other students that are happy about it but it doesn't affect me in the least because I already had a clinic shift on our meeting day.

What was his line ...oh yeah, "I've been hearing your name a lot" I think he said that at least a half a dozen times while telling me how some students have really learned how to play the game and if one student isn't happy blah, blah, blah ....

There wasn't any actual conversation, just someone that needed to off on a little rant and assign blame to someone. I can think of several people who may have complained specifically about the meeting days because it caused them to have to be in clinic 4 days a week but that certainly wasn't me.

This reminds me of an old job where a female friend of mine was having an affair with another guy at work. The husband kept suspecting me which was never the case but, as long as he was focused on me he never saw the reality of the situation. Similarly, he just needed someone to blame.

Tri-8 Wk9 Day 497 - Wednesday - 7/6/11

same crap, different day - dxi4 midterm today - didn't study a lick but passed it with a bit of a cushion to spare. got caught up on all of this weeks dxi/radiology module and will turn in the remainder of that tomorrow.

my 45th birthday is tomorrow and I can't really recall any time in my life when I've been less enthused. I'm just beat. dead tired beat.

I slept and napped more over this break than any other time in my life but it didn't seem to add up and help like times in the past. I'm just beat.

Almost bought the farm tonight on my drive over to clinic. Honestly, I was too damn tired to be driving. The second close call kept me awake for the last 5 miles of my trip to clinic.

I've got joints hurting that have never hurt before in my entire life - seems to be a theme - which joints? pretty much all of them.

Thanks Logan.

Tri-8 Wk9 Day 496 - Tuesday - 7/5/11

I don't really remember anything that happened this day ...clinic, patient ....

Tri-8 Wk8 Day 495 - Friday - 7/1/11

took a vacation day from clinic today ....wanted something to look forward to ....a jump to the 3 day holiday weekend ...ended up catching up on school stuff until 6 p.m. ...about the same time I would have gotten off clinic but, at least I was closer to home

Tri-8 Wk8 Day 494 - Thursday - 6/30/11

kinda envy those students who can run home at 11 a.m. ....instead of dredging through until 8:30 p.m. to get home ....

Tri-8 Wk8 Day 493 - Wednesday - 6/29/11

I drive enough to get my CDL ...

Tri-8 Wk8 Day 492 - Tuesday

Walking Zombie ....