Check it out! My simplified lumbosacral plexus.

I plan on meeting with my professor tomorrow to make sure I have it accurately represented, but I double-checked it and I think it's right. Can't really describe how awesome it feels to have it organized in a logical manner. What a relief! I was going to go crazy if I had to memorize the one he put on the board which looked like this:

Honestly, I was feeling the anxiety creep up into my throat and thinking I needed a straight jacket. It was horrible. Part of my concern came from the fact that I would need to re-draw the image before our testing session from memory. Hmmm. I just didn't see that happening.

We're learning to take vitals, including blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate.

I think Mondays are going to be my favorite day of the week. I have a break from class for 4 hours, so I can study, swim, eat, relax between my morning and afternoon sessions. Also, with two hands-on labs I was engaged and physically involved. We also did draping and leg exercises for patients in the supine and prone position-basically, hospital bed practice. It was beautiful day today lots of fun at swim practice with circuit set.

Weyerhauser Hall and Mt. Rainier in the background, courtesy of pugetsound.edu

It wasn't my intention to count down my doctorate of physical therapy program at the University of Puget Sound, but one of my professors shared the information that we have 5 sets of 15 week semesters of coursework to complete our degrees for a total of 75 weeks. We learned so much this week I think my brain will explode. Beginning with 8 hours of orientation on 8/30/13, this rounded out a week of firsts: meeting all 35 other classmates and all of our professors, getting to know each other including some palpations in anatomy class, taking blood pressure readings, learning about professional ethics and research study, and more. Lots of fun, but I have a lot of studying to do so I'll keep this brief. I feel confident that the program is crafted to produce top quality physical therapists and if we put the effort in, we will succeed. I managed to learn everyone's name by the second day, well maybe the third. Not easy, but worth it. On to week 2!

I am finishing my final season of coaching the swim and dive team at Eatonville HS and we have the best team ever. It's a struggle to find the time to balance everything and do a good job. I am learning to delegate. I'm getting better.