My legs are so tired right now. It reminds me of how physically demanding my job was when I worked at the wood mill in Provo. But this time, only my legs are exhausted instead of my entire body. I saw a lot of nasty eye surgeries today. I just stood about 3 feet away from the surgery table, watching the doctor operate on people getting long, droopy eye lids removed and short eye lids extended (using a skin graft from the chest), and a guy getting a cyst removed from his eye. The sights and sounds didn't bother me much, but the smell of cauterized flesh is disgusting. I'm glad that I will just be an optometrist and not a surgeon or something. I don't know--maybe I'll get used to it, but that smell is absolutely haunting.
In a completely unrelated note, did anyone else think that Village Inn is a hotel or something? I did, right up until I went there with my mom and Uncle Tom back in 2007. This was when I was 21, so I really didn't have much of an excuse. They do have good pie, though.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Monday, July 9, 2012
First day of work
I had my first day of work today. My scrubs worked out OK. A few people asked where I got them and they were genuinely impressed when I told them about the scrubs at the thrift store.
I saw a lot of really interesting patients. I mostly just followed the other techs and the doctors around, but I was able to do a few visual fields. Basically, I sit in a dark room with a stranger and make sure they don't look away from a little tiny light in a box as they try to see flashing lights in their peripheral vision. The test takes about 6 minutes per eye. Old people tend to fall asleep while taking the test and I have to be the one to say, "OK, be sure to keep your eyes nice and wide! Don't get sleepy! Only 4 more minutes to go! You're doing great! Don't look away! Stop looking around! Keep looking at the light in front of you! No, stop looking around!" And other things like that.
I saw a really gross eye today. I try to describe it in as much gruesome (it took me 4 tries to spell that right) detail, so if you're squeamish, skip to the next paragraph. So this older guy came into our office a couple of weeks ago to get one of his eyes taken out. I'm not sure why that needed to happen, but it does happen sometimes if you have things like a super nasty infection or a bad cancer or things like that. Anyway, he came in today because his empty eye socket was completely filled with bloody ... stuff. I walked into his room and screamed in my mind. His eyelid over his eye socket was bulging forward and there was a huge bloody mass underneath it. There was a heavy trickle of blood seeping out of his eye, down on to his cheek. He had a tissue that he would use to keep the blood off his shirt. The craziest part was that he didn't seem to be in any sort of pain. Maybe he was on a lot of pain killers. I don't know. And then, the doctor came in to look at it and was touching it and pulling his eye lid back and things and said, "Oh yeah, this can happen sometimes," in the most casual voice in the world. I was contemplating drawing a picture for you in Paint, but that wouldn't be fair to the squeamish people who skipped this paragraph.
Anyway, because of the heat wave that we were experiencing (luckily it has passed), I was thinking about frying an egg on the sidewalk. I didn't actually do it, but I was curious how hot it needs to be to fry an egg. It turns out that it probably won't ever get hot enough. I found this article on the Library of Congress' website. It says that eggs require a temperature of 158° F to become solid. A hot sidewalk was only found to conduct as much as 145° F. However, it did say you would probably have better luck frying an egg on some blacktop or on the hood of a car. Schmecker lecker!
I saw a lot of really interesting patients. I mostly just followed the other techs and the doctors around, but I was able to do a few visual fields. Basically, I sit in a dark room with a stranger and make sure they don't look away from a little tiny light in a box as they try to see flashing lights in their peripheral vision. The test takes about 6 minutes per eye. Old people tend to fall asleep while taking the test and I have to be the one to say, "OK, be sure to keep your eyes nice and wide! Don't get sleepy! Only 4 more minutes to go! You're doing great! Don't look away! Stop looking around! Keep looking at the light in front of you! No, stop looking around!" And other things like that.
I saw a really gross eye today. I try to describe it in as much gruesome (it took me 4 tries to spell that right) detail, so if you're squeamish, skip to the next paragraph. So this older guy came into our office a couple of weeks ago to get one of his eyes taken out. I'm not sure why that needed to happen, but it does happen sometimes if you have things like a super nasty infection or a bad cancer or things like that. Anyway, he came in today because his empty eye socket was completely filled with bloody ... stuff. I walked into his room and screamed in my mind. His eyelid over his eye socket was bulging forward and there was a huge bloody mass underneath it. There was a heavy trickle of blood seeping out of his eye, down on to his cheek. He had a tissue that he would use to keep the blood off his shirt. The craziest part was that he didn't seem to be in any sort of pain. Maybe he was on a lot of pain killers. I don't know. And then, the doctor came in to look at it and was touching it and pulling his eye lid back and things and said, "Oh yeah, this can happen sometimes," in the most casual voice in the world. I was contemplating drawing a picture for you in Paint, but that wouldn't be fair to the squeamish people who skipped this paragraph.
Anyway, because of the heat wave that we were experiencing (luckily it has passed), I was thinking about frying an egg on the sidewalk. I didn't actually do it, but I was curious how hot it needs to be to fry an egg. It turns out that it probably won't ever get hot enough. I found this article on the Library of Congress' website. It says that eggs require a temperature of 158° F to become solid. A hot sidewalk was only found to conduct as much as 145° F. However, it did say you would probably have better luck frying an egg on some blacktop or on the hood of a car. Schmecker lecker!
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Writing again
Katie said she missed reading the things I wrote. I think I also miss writing like I did back in 2010. So I'm planning on writing more often again.
I'm finally starting work tomorrow. I've been waiting for almost an entire month to begin. I'm excited to learn what I'll actually be doing. I imagine myself standing beside an operating table with the surgeons having an open skull in front of them, removing some sort of exotic eye tumor, then they have to go to the bathroom and hand the tools over to me and I save the day. Not really, but that would be cool. No, I'm pretty sure I'll just be in charge of cleaning the equipment after the operations and taking people's blood pressure. I have to wear scrubs at work. I went to the thrift store to pick up some second hand scrubs. There were two pairs that weren't XXXL or had floral prints, so I got those. I put them on and I think I will feel pretty ridiculous wearing pajamas to work. At least I won't be the only one wearing scrubs.
Also, it's very hot. It was 103° F outside yesterday. It feels like a hair drier.
I'm finally starting work tomorrow. I've been waiting for almost an entire month to begin. I'm excited to learn what I'll actually be doing. I imagine myself standing beside an operating table with the surgeons having an open skull in front of them, removing some sort of exotic eye tumor, then they have to go to the bathroom and hand the tools over to me and I save the day. Not really, but that would be cool. No, I'm pretty sure I'll just be in charge of cleaning the equipment after the operations and taking people's blood pressure. I have to wear scrubs at work. I went to the thrift store to pick up some second hand scrubs. There were two pairs that weren't XXXL or had floral prints, so I got those. I put them on and I think I will feel pretty ridiculous wearing pajamas to work. At least I won't be the only one wearing scrubs.
Also, it's very hot. It was 103° F outside yesterday. It feels like a hair drier.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Where do you stand on the issues?
I came across this interesting website the other day. It's called isidewith.com. Basically, you take their little quiz and it tells you what political candidate or party you are mostly aligned with.
My results are:
I align most with Jill Stein (84%), from the Green Party, then Barack Obama (74%), and I align least with Mitt Romney (27%).
What about you?
My results are:
I align most with Jill Stein (84%), from the Green Party, then Barack Obama (74%), and I align least with Mitt Romney (27%).
What about you?
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Student Council
Today we had Student Council elections, and I am now officially the Treasurer for the student body for the OSU College of Optometry. It may sound cool, but I ran unopposed, so the outcome wasn't really a surprise. I am also the Treasurer for my individual class (the Class of 2015). I also was unopposed in that election.
They were the easiest campaigns ever! All I had to do was say that I won't embezzle any funds, and BAM! that was it. Baby cakes.
Also, there is an art contest going on right now, and I entered a couple of "optometry related" pieces. I hope I win! The winner is declared Friday, I think. They get a $100 gift card. I should take a picture of them so you can see them. One of them (my favorite one) kind of looks like this:
I taped out the letters, then splattered paint all around it, kind of like a Jackson Pollock painting.
They were the easiest campaigns ever! All I had to do was say that I won't embezzle any funds, and BAM! that was it. Baby cakes.
Also, there is an art contest going on right now, and I entered a couple of "optometry related" pieces. I hope I win! The winner is declared Friday, I think. They get a $100 gift card. I should take a picture of them so you can see them. One of them (my favorite one) kind of looks like this:
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
I'm getting a little older
I'm working on studying for my Mechanisms of Disease midterm while listening to Pandora. I'm listening to my "Cake" radio station, and I realized that this was one of my first Pandora radio stations that I created. Out of curiosity (and to procrastinate a little bit more), I checked the history of this station and I saw I made it back in 2007.
Realizing this is the 6th year that I've been listening to this station made me feel like I'm getting old. But not super old. Just older. And then I realized that this will be the 5th year I've been writing on this blog. That seems like a long time.
Hey, remember when I used to write a blog post every day? That was pretty cool...
I'm looking forward to my birthday this year because it's my Star Birthday and/or my Golden Birthday! Turning 26 on the 26th! I feel bad for Olivia because this year is her Star Birthday too, but she'll be too little to actually enjoy it.
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