Tomorrow I graduate from anesthesia school.  

Wowzers.

It's been a long road. One that began in 2004 with a corporate retail job that I hated, which led me to register for and Anatomy and Physiology course on practically a whim. Close to 8 years and a LOT of loans later, I hold a nursing degree in one hand and am ready to accept my graduate degree in the other.  Screw intelligence, creativity, and skill... Persistence is where it's at, people!

I've been slowly packing up my apartment over the past week or so and came across a letter that I wrote on the first day of anesthesia school. Our assignment was to pen an encouraging letter to ourselves, which would be returned by our program administrators at the half-way point in school.  I think it's just as fitting now, so I've rewritten it below.  For those of you who are reading this and still in anesthesia school - or at any stage of the game, for that matter - I hope this helps you along on your quest.

August 26, 2009

Wow... you are half-way there! As you look back on your life over the past 12 months, I don't doubt that you'll remember the many hardships and struggles you've had to overcome. While this is expected, I want you to remember two things: 1. You have to pay to play!  The difficulties you face now are signs of the rewards you'll reap as a member of a profession you are passionate about. 2. Life, regardless of where you're at or what you're doing at the time, is full of stressors.  Being an SRNA is a roller coaster ride, but at least you have trustworthy operators, a great group of fellow passengers, and can see the end of the track. Despite the inevitable ups and downs of anesthesia school, this is exactly where you want to be.


... Now, go out there and make me proud!

Love,

Your Past Self

I'm done!  I passed my comprehensive final and have in my possession an evaluation form, signed by the Program Director, stating that I've completed the requirements of the Baptist Nurse Anesthesia Program and will be eligible to sit for the certification exam following our graduation on August 14th.  That means no more lectures or tests ever again!  Clearly, Adam is more sad about this fact that am I, as evidenced by the way he gazed longingly at his desk through the window of our classroom before leaving the program office.

Next up on my to-do list:
- Find a job*
- Find a place to live
- Graduate
- Move
- Study for and pass the board exam
- Finish Season 3 of Sons of Anarchy with my girl, Annie*
- Plan a wedding
- Write my final Student Representative article and speech for the AANA Annual Meeting

* My priorities

We've been taking periodic tests throughout the summer to keep us on track as we study for the certification exam.  Well, our last exam was a doozy.  Let me rephrase: Our last exam was a DOOZY.  Furthermore, on Monday we are taking our comprehensive final exam, a test which we have to pass in order to graduate and sit for the board exam.  In other words: Stress!!!  I think we could all use a little pep talk.

Where have I been, you might ask?  Oh, I've just been SAVING THE WORLD.  Starting in the city of Barahona, located on the southern coast of the Dominican Republic.  Photos from the mission trip are below!

Make that past tense, because I have a pretty awesome summer planned!  First up: A weekend cabin adventure with my anesthesia school crew for 2 fun-filled days of floatin' and drinkin'.  And they say anesthesia school isn't fun... 

[Image via I Can Read]

Oh Anesthesia Classroom.  We've had some good times, you and I.  We've laughed.  We've cried.  We've made memories.  Like the time Dr. Rieker unintentionally drew an inappropriate figure on the overhead in his attempt to explain dermatomes.  Or when, during a break from lecture, Dave tightened the cap on Courtney's soda so that she couldn't open it or consume it's caffeinated contents, thereby slowing her rate of speech and allowing us students to keep up with her teaching points.

But it hasn't been all fun and games.  You taught me that earning a "B" isn't the end of the world.  You taught me not to pay attention to speedster Laura during exams, that one apparently can sit in a balmy 100 degree hot box for 8 hours at a time, and that no instructor, regardless of their intelligence or teaching ability, is safe from Anne Marie.

That's right, classroom: You've raised me from a naive ICU nurse into a master's prepared almost-CRNA.  When I first began this journey in August of 2009, I had no idea what a Miller blade was.  I slept soundly at night, unaware that pKa even existed.  I had never heard of arytenoids or malignant hyperthermia, and I just assumed that "tubing the goose" was a really difficult snowboarding trick.  The only thing that amazes me more than my lack of knowledge coming into this program is how far I've come in such a short time.  The video below reminds me of my first few weeks as an anesthesia student, since anesthesia terminology made about as much sense to me at the time as the following words spoken by the Derrick Comedy troupe.  (Warning: rough language at the end... though if you've been in a surgery where the patient's bowel was accidentally nicked, you've heard worse.)

Now, twenty one months later, I know how to respond to a suspected venous air embolism ("Cue the bone wax!!") and can recite the components of Wood's Metal with ease - and I owe those feats to you, classroom.  But, our time together is coming to an end.  I sat for my final final exam yesterday and presented our capstone findings with my group members this morning.  Now, there is nothing left for me to do but graduate with my Master's in Nursing degree from UNCG next week and continue my clinical training through the end of summer.  Did you notice how I didn't mention anything about didactic obligations?

Classroom, what I'm trying to say is this: We had our fair share of shmorkle-blinxx, but our quimbles are diverging.  I think we can both agree that our blorkiffability is just not what it once was and we should probably spimple before our S.P.E.E.M Rating suffers.

Whew.  Sorry it took me so long to post these photos of our time in DC for this year's Mid-Year Assembly!  My computer died (which I believe brings our tally of "The number of times I've been screwed by Dell during anesthesia school" to a whopping 6) and I spent the last 5 days becoming the best of friends with Dell's Customer Service Representatives and technicians.  Dell should really consider offering "emotional counseling" as an option for those calling their automated help line.  

Aaaaaanyhoo, back to the Mid-Year Assembly.  This is the best meeting!  I was able to attend last year for the first time and wouldn't have missed it for the world this year.  The meeting always runs from Sunday morning through Wednesday afternoon.  Sunday and Monday are spent learning about the political issues affecting nurse anesthetists.  A few more lectures take place on Tuesday morning and then you leave with other members of your state to meet with your state senators and representatives.  Wednesday is spent on Capital Hill as well and you leave exhausted and fired up!

First we met with Senator Kay Hagan.  Sorry, I don't have any photos of the meeting so you're just going to have to trust me that it went down.  Next up, Representative Virginia Foxx.

We then headed over to Representative Howard Coble's office to chit-chat about how awesome CRNAs are.  Region 2 Director, Sharon Pearce, is an old friend of Congressman Coble's and she represented us well.

Many of my classmates left a day early so we could make it home in time to attend our Thursday lectures.  Those who stayed in the District had the opportunity to meet with  Senator Burr on Wednesday morning:


But don't be fooled, people.  It wasn't ALL work.  My classmates and I crashed at my parents house in northern Virginia and did many fun things:
Alright folks, I have to get back to work: My (last!) final exam is on Wednesday morning and my capstone group presents our research findings the following day.  The end is in sight!

My Assistant Program Director recently gave me a few photos that she'd snapped at our state Legislative Day last month.  Going to Raleigh and meeting with our North Carolina state legislators is a fun and committment-free way to get involved in your state organization.  I'd encourage all students to participate in your state association's political events!

I caught wind of this comic through my brother, Colin.  What does it have to do with anesthesia, you ask?  Well, it pretty much sums up my current feelings on the subject of news and current events.  Since entering graduate school in 2009, I've been too busy to pay any mind to the world around me.  I kid you not, in December of last year I turned to a classmate and exclaimed, "Ted Kennedy died?!"  (Note: He'd passed away 4 months prior.)

Celebrities, athletes, and politicians: If your reading this, now is a great time to engage in scandalous activities.  Your newsworthy transgressions will matter to one less person in the world since I won't know of - much less care about - your actions and corresponding insincere apologies for the next 6 months.

6 months from today, I will no longer be an SRNA.  That's right, folks, I will be an anesthesia school graduate!  Of course, it will take another couple of weeks before I'll be able to sit for the board exam so technically I won't be a CRNA either.  Which I guess makes me some sort of in-between something... an RNA?  But whatever.  SIX MONTHS, PEOPLE!!  For my friend who, and I quote, "understands pictures better than words" (...and you know who you are), this is for you:

Pajama Jeans?  Someone needs to come up with Scrub Jeans so I can stop complaining about having to wear normal clothes every weekend.  The downside to wearing hospital scrubs at work is that everything else seems uncomfortable in comparison.

My digital watch kicked the can last month and I've yet to replace it.  I decided that, rather than purchasing a ho-hum Timex from Target again, I'm going to invest in a timepiece with some character.  After all, a watch is about the only style statement one can make when decked out in scrubs in the operating room!  Below are a few of the watches I'm considering:

For reals. 

The following video has absolutely nothing to do with anesthesia school and, sometimes, that's exactly what I need.

Who wants to take bets on how old this guy will be when he requires his first knee replacement?

I began anesthesia school exactly one year ago today.  My brain is growing up so fast!

The Baptist Nurse Anesthesia Program is officially taking over the world!  (...well, maybe not the world, but we're taking over the AANA, anyway.)  Seriously, the only way we could have had more success in Seattle is if we walked around the convention center wearing flannel shirts and unlaced leather combat boots.  See below for evidence.

Class of 2011 student Dave Dirito finished 2nd overall with a time of 20:06 minutes at the annual AANA Wake-up Walk/Run for Wellness 5k, and our new clinical coordinator Joanne Donnelly finished 3rd in the women's division with a time of 23:33 minutes.  I was also a very strong competitor with a time of... can't... finish... sentence... must... stop... to... breathe...





Our very own Laura Niday was kind enough to lend her brain to the winning team at this year's Annual College Bowl competition.  Though I nearly lost my voice (and thus almost made my boyfriend and his ears very, very happy) cheering for Laura and her team, this event was one of my favorite activities at this year's meeting.  Way to represent, Niday!







And finally, thanks to all the help of my classmates and support from my administrators, family, and friends, I won the election to become the next Student Representative to the Education Committee!  On his own volition, Dave (of the above mentioned 5k fame) videotaped my campaign and acceptance speeches on his phone.  Thanks to a lot of time spent editing (and, as you will see, goofing around), Dave was able to make a copy of both missives available for the blog.  The good news for Dave is that everyone will soon think he is a computer genius.  The bad news is that those very same people will soon start hitting him up for computer repairs.  Sorry Dave, success is a double-edged sword!





Thanks, guys, for all of your support!  I'll be posting some of our photos from our week in Seattle as soon as possible, so stay tuned...