Tour of Justin's work

Justin's work opens the facility 2 days a year for open tours. We went on Saturday morning and it was so educational! Up to this point he has been working mostly as a utility crew member cleaning up the piles of flour on the floor and painting. I always hear about how he spent the whold day on floor 7 painting and now I got to see all the hard work he's been doing. It was fun. We had to put on glasses, hard hats and earplugs to go in so here we are all dressed and ready to go.

Clinical and National Boards

Friday March 19 was the clinical board exam. This is the big and very expensive one! I was choosing Justin to be my patient and I had a back-up patient come just in case Justin didn't qualify. At 7:30 I could enter the clinic so Justin and I went up and I got all of my paperwork done and walked him up with fingers crossed to see if he quailfied. After a nerve wrecking 45 minute wait he came back to me with a blue paper that meant that my 1st submission passed and I could get to work cleaning. (If your patient has to go to another submission it's a -4 points and even worse and more devastating if your patient is rejected alltogether and you need to submit another patient). So with 2.5 hours to clean, check, clean, chart, clean, and check-out Justin I got to work. It was a scary situation but I felt so blessed to have Justin there because not only did he speak english but he made it so calm and relaxing for me. We chatted, sang, swayed to the music and he was cracking jokes! It was really a fun and wonderful experience! I felt like I had done the best I could and after checking over and over again I decided to check him in and call it a day. He was back with the examiners for another 40 minutes and I just waited and waited. He had no idea if I missed spots, but he said that they all seemed pretty pleased. I feel really good about it.

Monday the 22nd was the national written exam. It's 200 multiple choice questons and 150 questions that went along with case studies. I got to the testing center and checked in. The center only allows 8 people in their site at at time. We check in with ID and a magical vein reader thing to identify us when we left for any breaks. We couldn't have anything on our wrists (like bracelets, watches, etc..) or anything in our pockets. NO CHAPSTICK!!! UG!! Well, I started my test at 8 and by 10:30 I was done with the multiple choice/guess. It was really mostly a guess for me-they were super hard questions!!! Well, this was my big 1 hour break for lunch, but I wasn't hungry yet. So I went potty, stretched and went back in for more torture. I figured that all that was left wat 150 questions and they were case studies so they'd be easier. WRONG!!! They took me forever! By 11:30-12:00 I was cold, hungry, and exhausted! Not to mention I felt so stupid because I didn't know any of the answers! Well, I trucked right along and kept on guessing my answers. By 2pm I was finished and I was so tired and wanted to smash the computer! It had been 6 hours of testing! KILL ME!!! I was frazzled and tired! I went out to the car and started for home. I did a few little chores and made some phone calls to patients and then I crashed on the couch for a little nappy. Man that was a hard test!

I should get my results in about 2 weeks so we'll just cross our fingers on both tests and hope that the Lord continues to bless me.

Anesthesia Board

Well, today was the start of the board exams. We had a written exam in the morning. We had 55 questions and 60 minutes to complete them. I felt SO confident in my knowledge of anesthesia but when I opened the test booklet and started the test I knew NONE of the answers! It was such a HARD test! I wasn't ready for that! They gave us about an hour while they graded them and then we could check our envelope with our results in it. If we didn't pass the written we couldn't do the clinical exam later that day. I fully expected not to pass because the exam was SO hard! I got my envelope and went to a corner and peeked inside. I PASSED!!! I am SO blessed! Whew! So now I could do the clinical exam.

My mom was my patient for the clinical exam (what a sweetie for letting me give her shots!!) When it was my turn the called me in and I went to set up. Then I brought my mom back. The first shot went perfect! The second one had a little blood enter the cartridge (which means I was in a blood vessel-not particularly dangerous) but this is a bad thing to have happen in an exam. Luckily my friend Staci had done her exam before and had the exact thing happen. She talked her way throught it (to the examiners) and she passed! So I thought I'd try it too. When the examiners left to discuss what they thought I looked at my mom and said "I could have just failed for what I just did!" SCARY! So the examiners came back and told me I could release my patient and clean up. Then I had to wait for the envelope again. I waited and waited. I walked over to check and my envelope was there. EEKS! So I peaked in and I PASSED! I got the "purple success memo"! HOORAY!!! Another hard thing done! Now on to tomorrow for the clinical exam. YIKES!

Justins 30th Birthday!

Justin turned 30 today!! I made him biscuits and gravy for breakfast and then I was off to school. Justin went to the temple to do initatories for some family names. Then he had a lunch meeting at work. After his meeting he came to school and brought me some beautiful flowers! What a surprise! He is the best!!!
In the evening my family came over and we had appetizers for dinner. We had pizza dip, taco dip, little weanies, apples and dip, bacon cheese spread, and the list goes on and on! I took a picture so you could really appreciate just how awesome it was!

Then it was time to open presents. He got some money, gift certificates to Arby's and Subway (his favorites), a game for the Wii, a green snowboard jacket and the best present of all was Lemon pies! He LOVES lemon pies!



Dessert was lemon cupcakes stuffed with lemon pudding and topped with homemade lemon frosting. They were delicious!

BOARDS!!!

So, I promised myself that as soon as I got the internet at home I was going to be so good at blogging.....but alas....I haven't because I am just supposed to be studying every waking moment. Over the past month at school I've had 3 practice tests for my boards and I passed them all!! GO ME! My first board exam in March 18- Local anesthesia written and clinical. I'm going to use my mom as my patient-what a sweetheart!!! March 19 is my clinical board and Justin (my hubby) is going to be my patient- YES!!! I'm the luckiest person alive! March 22 is my written national board exam (the 8 hour long test). Then my life will be much easier and I can concentrate on something other than school. Until then....I will most likely be M.I.A. So don't worry about me....if I can survive the next 2-3 weeks, I can do anything!!!

Oh, and Justin's BIRTHDAY IS MARCH 9!!! He's turning the big 30!!! So we're gunna party!