Cadaver Labs #2 & #3: Brachial Plexus/Shoulder Down to Forearm

I am a lean, mean, cadaver cutting machine.  I definitely didn’t see this one coming.  Not even at the end of the first semester could I have predicted this….aaaand I’m not taking xanax?!?! Yup.

I would still prefer NOT to do cadaver lab and I still take a few minutes to get going in lab but man…once I start cutting I’m pretty unstoppable. It’s so strange.  The other day I took the skin off of the entire arm practically.  The coolest thing is when you lift up the skin and, voila, there are all the muscles.

I have found that I’m super meticulous about what I’m dissecting.  I don’t just hack away and hope for the best.  If I didn’t feel so pressed for time I think I’d have my cadaver all set for a Bodies Museum display.  I’ve always been a perfectionist when it comes to arts and crafts types of things, and, in a way, it really feels like I’m doing just that…not dissecting a human body. 

There are a few things that still bother me: the smell (of course), the fat (which to me looks like scrambled eggs), and touching the cadaver’s skin.  I wear a mask over my nose and face and rub Vick’s vapor rub under my nose to fight the smell.  It works pretty well except the vapor rub causes my nose to run a little.  I honestly don’t know how anybody does lab without a mask (the majority of the class doesn’t).  I’d feel so exposed, especially with random instances where fluid or bits of cadaver fly up in the air….yuck.  I have sworn off eating eggs for the duration of the semester…well I had sworn off eating eggs.  My boyfriend told me that I was being ridiculous and made me eat eggs over the weekend to get over it.  The skin…ehhh…I’ll touch arteries/veins/muscles/bone…but gripping the skin to pull it back off the body freaks me out.  I was especially creeped out by the skin on the forearm.  It seemed extra saggy and mushy from the formaldehyde….double yuck.  And I have done nothing to conquer that.  I just point to my friend and ask her to lift up the skin for a second. 

So let’s see…the brachial plexus is a freaking nightmare.  Our cadaver had a bunch of fat in the axillary region which made dissecting out the nerves quite challenging…but my friend and I did it! The arm/forearm haven’t been bad at all. I think we start the hand tomorrow…maybe? I should probably go look that up now 🙂

 

First Supervised/Guided Eval!!

Today, day 3 on my clinical, I did an eval on a patient.  I never would have thought I would be doing that on day 3 of my clinical but, well, I did.  It took my friend until the end of her 2nd week to do one I believe.  I’m not quite sure what most people do.  Anyway, I looked at the patient’s info to find out what his diagnosis was.  Please let it be something I know well enough for an eval..please let it be something I learned in my ortho practice class this past semester…no spine stuff…okay, I’ll accept anything other spine.

Okay, trick question…it wasn’t ONE body region.  The patient had osteoarthritis and the doctors orders had “Weakness in all muscles and pain in all joints” as the diagnosis.  What?! I looked at my CI.  “Soooo…where do I begin..I’m used to just dealing with one, maybe two body regions for practicals…but the whole body?!”  My classmate gave me a sympathetic look.  My CI told me that we should start talking to the patient and looking at posture before deciding what to do next.

My history taking went well, but because the patient was 10 minutes late, I had to start MMT while talking to him about his history. I freaking flew through MMT. I was surprised I had remembered what to do for everything.  I looked at balance and gait.  I assessed a little bit of ROM. I asked about his goals.  Then I wrote up his plan of care and determined how many visits he should come in for.

Anyway, it wasn’t perfect, which I wasn’t at all expecting.  My CI had helped me out.  BUT it was an eval and now I’m doing another one tomorrow for a lumbar patient!  Am I nervous? Yea, a little.  I’m mainly just pooped out from work.  It is a little nerve-wracking doing an eval in front of your CI AND a classmate but that’s the way it is.  And it helps to have two other brains to assist me.

My CI told me at the end of today that she’s really impressed with me and that I’m doing a great job.  It’s not that I don’t believe that she actually feels that way, it’s just that I don’t think I’ve done anything THAT special…but we all know I’m a tad too hard on myself.   The best advice I have for anyone going into a clinical is to be open to receiving feedback.  Understand that you will make mistakes or be confused or not know the answers and be appreciative of the feedback you get.  The feedback is to help you be a better therapist, and the more feedback you get, the better therapist you’ll become. 

Well, that’s my big story for the day.  Let’s hope I rock it in tomorrow’s eval so I’ll have another happy post 🙂

“Are you a believer?”

Quite possibly the most unexpected question I could have ever been asked in the clinic…like ever.  You go into a clinical hoping you don’t get stumped too badly by a patient’s question…and then you do…on something that isn’t relevant to PT school.

The patient randomly asked me if I’m a believer.  Now my stand on religion is pretty simple.  I believe in God, I don’t go to church or anything, but I believe in being a good person.  And I don’t care whatever anybody else believes in as long as it makes them a happy, better person…and they aren’t hurting anybody in the name of their religion.  But I was stumped.  Was she going to tell me I couldn’t participate?  Would she be completely offended?  Would she try to save me?

“I go to church”, I replied….awkwardly. Okay, I’ve been to church…3 times…but that doesn’t count as going to church and I felt horrible for lying.  It was the first thing I could think of.

“It’s not about going to church,” she responded, “have you been saved? Are you a believer in Jesus Christ ,our lord and savior?” I mean…what have I gotten myself into.  I replied back with another awkward yes.  The woman then went on to say something to my classmate about how maybe we could later do a prayer circle.

So feeling incredibly awful for lying I immediately went to my CI to ask her how I should handle a situation like this.  She told me that the best response is, “I don’t discuss politics or religion while I’m in a professional setting”.  I thought that was great advice…and also pretty obvious but I hardcore had a deer in the headlights moment. She also said that a prayer session is inappropriate for the clinic anyway since it could offend others.

Anyway, I hope this is of some help for any of you in case you experience this for yourself!

First Day at My First Full Clinical Rotation!

I had a great first day at my clinical.  I wrote SOAP notes, did MMT, created patient exercises, did an intercostal pump stretch, and pointed some things out that my CI didn’t even see! My CI said that I seemed comfortable in the clinic and that I jumped right in when most of her students have been pretty timid the first day (so push yourself on your first day).  This was the second time a CI has told me that, and I really didn’t think I was doing much, but when you ask questions and at least attempt to try something when they offer you the chance, they really appreciate it. 

My CI is really nice.  She’s very encouraging and when she talks to me she speaks to me more like I’m a physical therapist than a student.  When I offered up something I had learned in class that she hadn’t heard of before she would respond with “I’ve never seen that, why don’t you teach me what you’ve learned” then follow up with “I really like that idea!”  I feel more like it’s more like a collaboration than anything else and hopefully it continues to be that way!

The clinic typically sees about 8-10 patients a day.  That’s hardly anything to a lot of clinics these days that are pumping patients in and out of clinics with only 15 minutes of PT interaction.  I love it though.  Each patient sees the PT for 45 minutes.  It’s really low stress which is perfect for a newbie like myself.  I’ll be working about 37 hours/week.  I start around 8 or later and get done around 5 or so.  Tuesdays we start in the afternoon (yaaaay!).

All in all, it was a great day.  My CI told me I’m off to a really good start so I’m hoping I can maintain this momentum for the duration of my 13 week clinical.  Anyway, I’m pretty proud of myself 🙂

Live Chat- Wednesday Jan 22nd!

Okay friends, I’m doing it!  I’m going to make the live chat thing happen…or at least attempt to.  The site has been getting a lot of views lately, so now would be the perfect time to have the live chat.  Just know that I am not the most tech savvy person so if this totally flops…well…you were warned.

Here’s what I think I have figured out I can do….

I’m going to host a live chat on AIM at 9 pm eastern time on Wednesday Jan 22nd…hopefully that allows anybody who is interested in the live chat to participate.

I will stay on AIM until 10 pm eastern time, unless you guys still have questions (basically, I’m signing off at 10 pm if the thing is a total dud and I’m the only one in the chat room 🙂 )

So I can create a group chat but I need to add you to “My Buddies” if you want to be in the group chat.  So you’re going to need to send me your username or maybe you can just add me as a friend or whatever on AIM…honestly, I don’t really understand AIM.  I’ve just figured out that I can create a group chat based off of my friends list.  

If you are interested in the live chat….send me your username at cadaverhelp@yahoo.com…..or you can find me on AIM with my username cadaverhelp or email cadaverhelp@yahoo.com.

At 9 pm I’ll open up the group chat and you guys can ask me questions…about PT school, applying to PT school, cadavers, anxiety/panic attacks or whatever else you have a burning desire to know.  If you ask me something that’s in the FAQs section, I’ll refer you there since those questions take a lifetime to answer.  

If I don’t get the feeling anybody is interested (like I don’t get any usernames) I’ll be sure to post on here that I cancelled the chat.  So if you are interested, let me know!  And let your friends who might be interested know!

Awesome! 🙂

Starting My First Clinical in a Week and a Half

I’ll be starting my first clinical in a week and a half.  It’s in an outpatient ortho setting for 13 weeks.  I’m definitely nervous and I still don’t feel like I know anything.  But everybody says that when you get into the clinic you find that you know a lot more than you thought you knew.  Soooo I’m hoping that will be the case.  

I’m currently attempting to review my notes before my clinical starts, but that’s pretty tough to do.  I’ve been seeing my boyfriend every weekend for the whole weekend, so I can’t study then.  And the thought of studying material again after an amazing break doesn’t thrill me.  Okay, fine, I’ll admit it…I’m feeling rather lazy right now.  But I’ll get the stuff done 🙂

I’m still working on my FAQs section and I’m still looking for any interesting stories you guys have on your own personal PT school experiences (whether it be actual PT school experiences, applying to PT school or taking pre-reqs).  So don’t hesitate to shoot me an email if you have questions or stories!

FAQ: What advice do you have for applying to PT schools?

I’ve gotten this question quite a few times.

GPA: Most schools say they accept a minimum GPA of a 3.0.  You should aim to be closer to 3.5.  The 1st years at my program had an average GPA of like a 3.75 or something ridiculous.  If you don’t have a very high GPA, apply to schools that typically accept lower GPAs.  I knew a girl in undergrad who had a 3.0 and only applied locally.  She didn’t apply out of state to some other schools that accepted lower GPAs.  She didn’t get accepted to a single school.  I wasn’t surprised to see that a year later she got accepted to an out of state program that has lower class GPAs.  This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least apply to tougher schools, you should just be smart and apply to other schools that you can consider back-ups.

 

GRE:  Study for the GRE….and if you don’t think you’re capable of studying for it on your own, take a prep class.  I said I would study on my own and didn’t.  In hindsight, and now knowing how competitive getting into PT school is, I would totally take a prep class if I had to do it all over again.

Observation hours:  Some schools are fine with just outpatient, some require both inpatient and outpatient, some don’t care what you observe just that you observe for so many hours.  The point is…every school requires something different.  Look at the requirements for every school you’re applying to to make sure you’re fulfilling everything.  If school A requires 50 hours but school B requires 150 hours….do 150 hours, unless you don’t plan on applying to school B.  School B won’t accept you if you don’t fulfill everything.  Same with inpatient and outpatient.  If a school requires inpatient, and you don’t have inpatient hours, you’re not getting in.  Seems like something I shouldn’t have to say…but schools reject TONS of people every year purely because they didn’t fulfill the requirements…not because of GPA, GRE, letters of rec, whatever.  So please, please, PLEASE make sure you read all the requirements for EACH school you’re applying to (same goes for pre-reqs).  Also, it’s harder (or at least it was harder for me) to find inpatient hours (I never did).  If you’re interested in school that requires inpatient hours, start looking ASAP.  Outpatient is easier to find, so save yourself the stress and get the inpatient experience out of the way sooner than later…or else you’ll end up like me, frantically searching for inpatient hours, failing, and then having less schools to apply to.

 

Pre-reqs: I said it before, I’ll say it again…make sure you read all the requirements for each school you’re applying to!!! Anatomy, physiology, chemistry, physics, etc…those are the key classes that every program expects you to have taken.  Then you’ll come across a program that requires some oddball class that no other program requires…like Medical Terminology.  Like observation hours, if the school requires it, and you don’t do it, you don’t get in.  So it’s up to you decide if taking a whole semester of Medical Terminology is worth one additional application.  I believe most schools require you to have all but two pre-reqs completed by the start of your spring semester prior to starting PT school.  One school that I was hoping to apply to said you had to have all but one pre-req completed…so I couldn’t apply there.  It’s just something else to be aware of.  So the moral of the pre-req and observation hours section is: read all the requirements for every school…okay…no more ranting 🙂 One more thing, junior college classes tend to get super filled up where I live, so if you graduate from undergrad and plan to take pre-reqs at a JC you are put at the bottom of the list for registration, which means you are one of the last people to pick classes….and all of the pre-reqs fill up.  I have heard of some students taking 2-3 years to fulfill their pre-reqs because they just couldn’t get into the classes at the JC.  That’s just how it is in my area, which is why I stayed an extra year at my undergrad.  You should find this info out if this is something that you plan on doing.

 

Letters of Rec: Schools will also vary on who they want your LORs from so pay attention to that.  Keep in mind that these are most likely going to come from professors and PTs that you shadowed.  So while you’re in your undergrad courses, make it a point to get to know your professors.  You don’t need to get to know them all, just make an extra effort with some…i.e. go to office hours.  I helped out my biomechanics professor with his grad student’s thesis.  When you’re observing therapists, ask questions, take initiative, show you’re hardworking…do something that will give them something to write about.  If these people don’t know you, it’ll make it hard for them to write about you, so keep that in mind.

 

Personal Statement: Get started on it early so that you don’t have to rush through it.  I’d have a couple people read over it for any typos or grammatical things and to just have a fresh pair of eyes look over it.  I don’t really have much more to add for this section.  My school doesn’t even read these things apparently.

 

PTCAS: Also get started on this early.  You are going to go insane as you fill out every grade for every class you have ever taken…just know that.  Once I completed it I had my mom look over it to make sure I didn’t do anything super wrong.  The sooner you get started on it, the less you’ll have to rush through it…which will save you a lot of stress.  

 

These are all just things that I think are helpful to know.  I’m sure there’s plenty of other super helpful information out there.  You can always talk to people in the programs if you have any questions/concerns.  One website that is awesome for asking other pre-PT/PT students questions is the Student Doctor Network (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forums/pre-physical-therapy.821/).  There’s even a tab for people to post their GPA/GRE/Observation hours/acceptances/rejections/wait lists/interviews etc. if you’re really curious (I went there after I got accepted…I think it would have stressed me out before I got accepted…but that’s just me!)

 

If this didn’t quite address what you were looking for…ask away at: cadaverhelp@yahoo.com

 

 

My LAST Ortho Practical: Elbow, Wrist, Hand and Cervical Spine

“I’m just so stressed out for this gen med practical” I said to a 3rd year last year.

“You haven’t had ortho yet, have you?” she replied.

I shook my head “no”.

“Well, just wait until you get to your ortho practicals.  They make gen med practicals look easy.”

Uhhh…thanks for the pep talk?

Looking back on it, the gen med practical was pretty intimidating.  I definitely got one of the hardest scenarios.  That being said, ortho proved to be more terrifying.  The 3rd year wasn’t lying.  In fact, everybody believes ortho has the hardest practicals.  I remember going to the new student luncheon before starting the program.  One of the soon-to-be 3rd years was saying how the most anxiety a person will ever experience is going into an ortho practical.  I sat there, wide-eyed, thinking, “girl, if you only knew you were talking to a girl with a panic disorder you would NOT be saying what you’re saying right now!” I did my best just to breathe and not think about how my anxiety was only going to increase once PT school started.

I started this semester off thinking that at least the first half of ortho was behind me.  That being said, I still had two more ortho practicals to get through…Ugh.  I ran into another 3rd year and was telling her how we were working on the thoracic spine and how I had hated the lumbar spine so much. “Oh, you think that’s bad…just wait until you get to the cervical spine.  That’s the hardest” she said.  At that point I wanted to full on lose my cool and say, “Excuse me, is this like a thing? Like you all think you’re giving us some big pep talk by telling us that the one really hard, really terrifying thing we are trying to get through at the moment is only going to be overshadowed one day by something even harder and more terrifying?…because it’s not a pep talk….it’s freaking me the heck out!”  But I didn’t say that 🙂

So anyway, cervical spine was, in fact, as evil as everyone had said it would be.  It didn’t help that my professor decided to teach it LAST…when we were all brain dead and when we would have less time to practice it…but oh well, nothing we could do about it at that point.  So I was hoping to get the elbow for the practical and NOT the cervical spine. 

I got the cervical spine.

I got the scenario and thought to myself how I had prepared well and that I knew how to do this stuff.  I had done a practice scenario a couple days before and had done a really good job so I knew I could do this.  That’s when I looked at my partners head….slightly tilted and rotated.  And then my mind decided to just stop talking altogether.  Crap.  “Well…uhh…okay, I’m going to clear your cervical spine and then look at your active ROM” I said.  I cleared my partner’s ligaments and did VBI testing and then moved on to passive ROM. I just hardcore blew right by active…even after I had said I was going to look at it.  My professor cued me and I went and assessed active.  

Ultimately, the practical went pretty well.  It wasn’t my best, but I did survive. I actually got a 90% which means…I never fell below an A on any of my ortho practicals! 

Ortho practicals are not fun and they definitely stress you out, but you get through them.  So if you’re thinking about going to PT school, or are currently in it and are getting closer to doing practicals, just know that you will survive them….even if people freak you out along the way.  I am going to write a post soon on what I think is helpful advice for practicals….so stay tuned!

Fall 2013 Semester

I remember sitting at orientation week trying not to panic.  It wasn’t an easy thing to do.  “Oh once you get through the first 4 semesters, everything gets easier.  It’s smooth sailing from there” the dean of the program said.  Oooh, I’m not sure how I can get through the first week…how am I going to get through FOUR SEMESTERS.  It didn’t seem likely.

Somehow I made it through the first week, the first semester, the first year.  All was left was this semester…the 4th semester! Everyone had said the 3rd semester is the hardest.  You only get a week off before it and then you jump right into yet another semester…during the summer…when we are almost all used to being outside doing fun things.  I had heard that the 4th semester is often challenging because it’s the 4th straight semester of school.  I  had talked to a 3rd year who told me that the 4th was the hardest for her because she had to do a lot of traveling on the weekends for weddings and such so she didn’t have as much time to study that semester.  But she said that if she had had more weekends available, it wouldn’t have been so bad.  Phew, that’s good.  It’s not like I’ve got anything going on on the weekends!…Or so I thought, until I got a boyfriend…who lives an hour and a half away. Nice one, Candice…

Well, the 4th proved to be equally evil but in a different way than the 3rd.  The material in the 3rd semester was harder (ahem, neuroanatomy) but the 4th had waaaaaay more busy work.  By the end of the semester I had made a list of everything I had left to do.  Man, did it feel good crossing things off…but as soon as I would cross one thing off the list, a professor would add another assignment.  Stressful? Most definitely.

My best friend in the program has a tendency to cry every semester…like at school (I’m sure every single one of us breaks down and cries at home).  It has gotten to the point where I tell her…”Okay, you better not cry now…it’s the 3rd week…we still have 12 more to go and you don’t want to waste your ONE cry of the semester this early! Hey! Stay with me!…We’ve talked about this…ONE cry a semester…that’s all you get!!”.  Turns out she gave herself THREE cries.  I was there for one of them…the night before a practical when one of our professors randomly scheduled a class until 8:30 pm..so we were all freaking out because that was when we would usually be practicing.  It was in the same room that she broke down and cried in our first semester.  I had to pull her out of class and down the hall during our break just like I did our first semester.  Okay Candice, motivational pep talk #4…“Hey, we can this, okay?  We’ve gotten through 3 semesters of this stuff, we can get through this one.  You’d get all upset before last semester’s practicals and you did just fine…so don’t you think for a second that this practical will be any different, okay?”  Then comes the part where I grab both her shoulders, stare her in the eyes, shake her a little and say, “We are going to be just FINE.  I promise!”  I’m sure it’s quite the dramatic scene for anybody passing by who is not aware of what PT school can do to people.

I always feel bad for her when this stuff happens.  Everyone turns crazy before practicals.  It’s up to all of us to make sure nobody gets left behind.  Oddly enough, it’s when I’m giving other people pep talks about how we’re all going to make it through the tough times that I start to calm down.  It’s like hearing myself say it, and truly meaning it to other people, makes me a believer myself.  Hey, wait a sec, we ARE gonna make it, huh? I guess so, brain.  Whatever you say.

In terms of classes…they were fine.  My least favorite was Neuro Practice Management.  I have learned that I am definitely NOT a neuro girl.  I did well in the class…I just don’t think neuro is for me (Just watch…2 years from now I’ll be writing about how I’m working in a neuro setting and LOVE it!) I liked my ortho class but sometimes 4 hours of it twice a week gets to be a little much. And the practicals for that class are apparently the most stressful practicals you have to go through.

I finished the semester with an A, A-, three B+ and two passes from my pass/no pass classes.  It wasn’t a stellar performance but it was passing…and trust me, when you get to your 4th semester, all you care about is passing.  I’d be interested to see how the average GPAs of the class change throughout the three years.  My guess is that we all start to go downhill after the first semester 😛

I believe that about covers the fall semester.  I still need to write about my last ortho practical and maybe some other things….but at least I’m catching up!

 

 

New Stuff for the Blog!

I’ve added two new pages to the blog! Hooray!

FAQs is where I’ll be addressing previously asked questions.  I’m currently going through all the emails I have gotten and picking out the questions I’ll be adding.  In the meantime, send me your questions if you have any: cadaverhelp@yahoo.com

Your Experiences is where I’ll be including stories from OTHER PT students/former PT students/students applying to PT school.  Please see this section if you’re interested in submitting a story that you think might be interesting for others to see! Submit your stories here: cadaverhelp@yahoo.com

 

Exciting stuff, no?