Obamacare Trip - Ozarks - KC

2 months, 11 days since my last post.  I've had a lot of post ideas ruminate through my head but none have made it here.  The Obamacare Trip was rather interesting, and a lot of fun in many ways especially with a layover at my parents condo in the Ozarks.  The stuff you hear from people after they graduate is quite a bit different and, perhaps, even a tad enlightening than anything you would ever hear from people who are still fighting to get through the DC program.
I've learned there are students who actually have paid strangers to be patients to help meet the 10 new patient criteria.  That idea crossed my mind in the event that I won the lottery or something but it never occurred to me to actually do that from my own funds.
Something else I learned was that our past president was concerned about my blog from way back in ASP because I mentioned something about checking out Parker(?)  I don't even remember that.  It's what I was told anyway, who knows...    These days the school I think about is Northwestern where the interns don't have to find their own patients and end up averaging 600 adjustments each.  Of course, it's kind of late for that now.  I need to get to the school this morning before clinic and get registered for Tri-10 HCP (clinic) for this Summer.
I did manage another YouTube video showing an Interrupted Over and Over suture I learned from a Minor Surgery class that I was able to finish up this past weekend by completing a take home midterm/final which, ended up being 11 pages long ....they're never as easy as you might think.  I know this one certainly wasn't.  This past Sunday morning I was able to complete my research paper for Minor Surgery and send it in via email.  The immediate (same day) feedback I got from Dr. DeGeer was fantastic.  He said he really liked reading my paper and that nobody else had ever chosen my topic before.  I did the paper on Suture Considerations for Best Results.  I liked the paper and learned a lot from it.  He posted my final grade in his class that day and I got an A.  I think the only lagging grade I'll have this semester will be from my somewhat dismal Senior Research Project but, I did get it done and ended up with a C.  The remaining grades should all be either some sort of "in progress" designation, like with HCP, or an A.

Clinic has been OK and it's changed a lot since the last time I was there in 2011.  The Reports that we had to do back in Tri-8 which is what caused me to have to be in clinic 5 days a week have become extremely informal and are done amongst whatever fellow students happen to be around at the time.  Absolutely nothing like the much more formal reports we had to do in Tri-8 when clinician had to be present.

About the only jarring bit of news I've gotten from clinic is that they are supposedly wanting to do away with letting Interns go out and market.  I was told some of the Tri-10s who already had all the patients they needed were going out and having lunch on "their" dime. Their, meaning Logan, of course.  But, it really begs me to wonder whose dime they're talking about.  Logan doesn't pay us anything to be there, we pay them.  We pay them money to earn them money and after we've earned them enough, we might be able to graduate.  I only say earn them enough because it looks like the next changes coming up are to exclude First Responder patients as being able to count as new patients and the only difference with them is that they are treated for free.
Regarding the pending changes to marketing, the same clinician that told me about that also said that Logan has a way of making changes without regard to how those changes might adversely affect their students.  idk - i've harped on that garbage before.

The Ozarks were fun on a lot of levels.  Prior to the trip, I did have my first experience with a pawn shop type situation.  Actually, a local place called the Gold Exchange.  I had to make sure I had sufficient money for gas so I could get to Kansas City and back.  I had an old gold necklace that I used to wear in high school hanging from a trophy in my garage so, I took that in and literally within 60 seconds the piece was weighed, I was told I could get $160 bucks, took it and walked out the door!  :)
That was sweet :)

My favorite part of the trip was sharing a dozen oysters in a bar overlooking the lake with a beautiful girl at my side.  :)

I wouldn't mind replaying that scenario again.  That trip also had me checking out boats.  First boat rentals then boat purchases .....yeah - this coming from a guy who had to pawn a necklace for gas money.....

Which also reminds me that I'll be heading out tomorrow morning to try and secure work with a local grocery store that's starting their cashiers out at $13/hour.  I could really use that money because that $13 is about what I have to spend on gas every time I go to clinic.

It's going to get more expensive at the start of the next semester which starts on May 14th.    .... yeah - 5 years at Logan.  5 years and currently $241,741.96 worth of student loans later.....  ugh... ugh, ugh ugh....

anyway - I've got four specialized techniques I've signed up for which means I'll be back t the 184 mile driving days but, I had to do that before with 19 classes plus clinic 5 days a week and this time, it's only the four pass/fail classes.  I think I'll only have to drive the 184 miles on MOndays and just 120 miles on two other days....let me figure this out  (again...)

Mondays - 184 miles
Tuesdays - 84 miles
Wednesdays - 100 miles
Thursdays - 120 miles
Fridays - 84 miles

OK - that's infinitely better than the unreasonable garbage I had deal with back in Tri-8.
The four specialized techniques I'll be taking are Gonstead, Thompson, Cox & Graston.

oh hell.... Home Owners insurance is due next week ....  eeehhhhh..  hmmmm.  no idea.  I know that has to be paid or I'll be hearing from the bank... again.....

I've had this place for a while (my home) but, the last time I check (fairly recently) the housing values have dropped so much that I'm basically back down to the 20% equity I had when I first bought the place.  The owners of the two condos to my right have been willing to sell their place for some time now - one guy for 10 years but, maybe he's asking too much.  I could never afford to take a loss, I'd have no way of living anywhere else.  One day at a time I suppose.

Oysters anyone?  :)

oh yeah (my mind wondered....)   Probably the most interesting thing to me about that Obomacare conference is that there's one part of the bill called IHS ...I believe that stood for Indian Health Services.   I'd never heard of that portion of the bill before nor has anyone I've talked with since learning about it.  But, that one portion of the bill is 900 pages long!  Makes me wonder how long the entire bill is if such an innocuous portion of the bill is 900 pages.

White coat should be dry by now - off to school then clinic - today.... 120 miles.  however ...there is a Cardinals baseball game I can look forward to going to.
heck, while I'm thinking of it, i'm wondering if I can print off some piano sheet music at the school while I'm there.  I came across some amazing pieces last night and would love to play them.  I guess if Logan can pay for outside counseling they can afford the ink on three pieces of paper.  Right now, piano has been my best and most relaxing at home therapy.