Blog Hiatus

I'd like to say that my life has been so busy that I haven't been able to blog. Well that is partially true, but the other part (I am now realizing), Writing my blog was a "constructive" way to procrastinate my studying, and since I haven't been studying, hence, I have not blogged.

Here is what I have been doing for the past 4 months...

 Angel's Game right before I moved out of my apartment with Chris.

 Visit to San Fran on the way up the coast

 Bye San Fran…Hello Oregon

Above are some pictures from our road trip…complete with a stop at Tillamook (and yes we ate cheese and ice cream and it was delicious)

I lived in Astoria Oregon for 2 months. The town is beautiful and I enjoyed everyone I met.

I visited Portland (and friends) a couple of times. I was lucky enough to meet Baby J (Ryder) one week after he was born. He is a rebel. Already flipping off the camera.

I graduated (not officially until the end of next Friday), but I walked and I sang the National Anthem at my graduation.

Shipwreck on the coast of OR

More fun times in Astoria. I took many hikes and my parents (not pictured) and Chris came to visit me while I was there.

 Victoria Buenotodo's bachelorette Party in Bellingham (only photos I can show ;)

And finally, We went to see Chris Issak at Chateau Ste Michelle. Yes I got that close to him (and I shook his hand) and yes I look creepy in this picture.

So that has been my last 4 months. I am officially done (and a doctor) in less than 2 weeks. I am finishing my internship at an outpatient facility in Normandy Park (near the airport) and then…I get to study for my boards (which I take at the end of Oct) and THEN…I will be a real PT.

I will probably be posting way more when I am studying for my boards, see 1st paragraph for why and since I am home now and there is no need to keep up with my "exciting" life in California, I am going to try and post about exercises and health related things that people can do to keep themselves pain free.

Let me know if you have any questions and I will try and answer them.

Have a wonderful day!

Well I'm Moving to Astoria

Astoria Oregon that is…and only for two months. Let me explain. I am fulfilling a rotation requirement for school at a local Nursing Facility. Then, I move back to the Seattle area and finish up my last 2 months of clinicals in the Seattle area!

It will be an interesting and exciting experience. I will be able to say that I lived in Oregon (even if it is for a short amount of time); I will really get to concentrate on physical therapy because I won't know anyone there (lots of time to study and review); I am very close to Portland and will be able to visit my friends that live in the area on a more regular basis (you know who you are, all of you be prepared for me to stay with you at some point during the months of April through June); My temporary residence will most likely be in walking distance to work (because downtown is very small); And finally, I will have a new and exciting place to run. That last one seems a little weird, but I love running in new cities. I feel like it is the best way to intimately get to know a place and I get really excited when I find new routes!

Source

Look how beautiful Astoria looks! If anyone knows of good places to check out while I'm there, please let me know.

On the other end of things, I have 4 weeks left of classes. Wow, the past 3 years have flown by! This last month will not be easy. Just for sympathy sake, I have 3 presentations, 2 online tests, 4 paper tests (one of those tests I have to get 100% on to pass the class), 1 research project and I have to plan my move all at the same time that need to be completed all within the same 28 days.

Some of the "stuff" I am doing is interesting...The research project is looking at how yoga affects posture. No I did not get funky implants. Those are markers that a computer will digitize and measure angles to determine "what" my posture is. I am not actually a participant, they were just practicing placing the markers on me, but for our participants, we will look at their posture after 6 weeks to determine if the poses we prescribed made significant changes to their posture.

As for the rest of what I am working on, not quite as interesting.

In my social life, I did have Chris and my mom come visit me in the past month.

Laguna Beach

Chris and I on the ferry from Balboa Island to Balboa

It was nice to have them both in town. The next time Chris comes into town, he will be helping me pack up my apartment and ship me up North.

Wow time does fly.

Sorry, It's Been a While

Not too much to report. I have been trying to get back into the swing of school after being in the clinic and then having 2 months off. Okay, I am already rounding into week 6 of this semester (out of 15), but sitting in class all day has not been easy after I have had the taste of what the real world is like. 

This semester has been way less stressful than normal. I don't know if it's because it is easier or I just don't have the will to stress any more. With that, I am excited to be out in the clinic in a few short months.

Here are some highlights between group projects, sleep, and exercise:

New roomie

A little bit of delicious beer

Hawks vs. Niner's game

Learning how to shoot a gun (and getting burnt from the casings)

Go Hawks!

Super Bowl Win!

Seattle for a week!

Friends and birthday parties!

I hope the start of your new year has been great!

Long Commute and Pepper Spray

I just finished my 2nd week of my pediatric rotation. I am enjoying the clinic, my clinical instructor (CI), my "co-workers",  and the program, but my rotation is about 40 miles away and takes me an hour and a half to get home every day:( It is only for 12 weeks (officially 10 now) and I know I am going to learn a lot at this clinical rotation, so that is more important…right? I am working with children who have neurological insults such as Cerebral Palsy (CP), brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and Spina Bifida. Most of the kids have CP and are relatively high functioning, but it has been a challenge to find a way to not take home my emotions at the end of the day. I had a long talk with my CI about dealing with the emotions of working with this population and she put it into a nice perspective. There are going to be children that have these aliments and it is our job to make them as happy and comfortable as possible, then I am doing my job and I feel happy about that.

My knees have been hurting me since I ran that trail run (aka my 28th half marathon), so I have taken some long walks instead of running. Last Sunday my knees were feeling better. No pain with walking, squatting or going up stairs, so I decided to knock out 8 miles. I told myself that if my knees started to hurt I would turn around, well my knees did decide to start hurting about 1/2 way through my run. I did turn around, but walking 4 miles sounded miserable, so I decided to run until my knees hurt then stretch out my quads then start running again. My knees would feel good for about a half mile and then I would have to stop :( Urrrr this is so frustrating because I have another half marathon coming up in October and I would like to be decently trained for it. I haven't run since then, but I can tell that my quads are super tight.

On my long run last Sunday, I ran on a (cement) trail. I have become a little more paranoid lately about running alone and especially in a place that does not have a lot of people traffic. So, I brought pepper spray with me. I don't really know how to use it (I don't think it is that hard and I bet I could figure it out), but it still made me feel a little better about running alone.

This is what the trail looks like (Source)

Source

This is what my pepper spray looks like. Yes it is pink and fits in the palm of my hand. What precautions do you take when running or walking by yourself? Or are you not concerned that anything is going to happen? 

I am so happy the weekend is finally here because I am sleep deprived. I am not use to waking up so early, and even though I have been going to bed earlier and earlier every night, I am using a lot of brain power right now so not only am I physically exhausted, I am also completely mentally exhausted. I am going to sleep in as late as I can tomorrow, which might be a challenge because my mom is coming into town! I am excited to see her and I bet we will go to bed relatively early tonight. The plan for the weekend is to be active and eat good food, but I am just excited to get to hang with my mom.

I hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Anyone have exciting plans for the long weekend?

One Step Closer

I am currently sitting at John Wayne airport in Santa Ana drinking a glass of wine to officially kick off my Spring Break. Fifth semester down, four more to go!

I finished my 12 week rotation at my Orthopedic Clinic at Total Body Physical Therapy in Anaheim hills and I am off to Seattle to enjoy the…um…Sunshine? Well to definitely enjoy my friends and family! The experience was amazing and I really connected with my co-workers and patients. I must have done something right because I received a few gifts and thank you cards. Plus I learned a lot (that I have a lot to learn).

Lovely flowers and thank you cards from my patients

A bottle of Perfume

This past weekend was spent with the faux family, the Corre's. Monday was Passover so all the Corre kids were in LA for the weekend. I work late on Monday and I was not able to head up to LA for the Seder, but I needed some fam time so I headed up to Brentwood on Saturday afternoon. I had an amazing time hanging out with everyone, a lovely dinner on Saturday, and a wonderful walk Sunday morning.

Melissa and Brandie sleeping after our delicious meal on Saturday night

I guess that all the excitement from the weekend made me finished up my last week at the clinic by sleeping in (by accident) on Monday and showing up to work an hour late. Oops. I was so good the whole 12 weeks.

These next three weeks at home is going to be a blast. Tomorrow my family and Chris's family is heading up to Harrison Hot Springs for some R&R and to tie up some loose wedding ends. It should be  amazing.

More to post later in the week.

Feeling the Effects of Gravity

And I don't mean in the metaphysical way, I mean in the scientific, physical way.

Thursdays are my day off, so I have the opportunity to sleep in and workout. Wednesday night, after work, I was hungry and tired and did not feel like making dinner, so I walked over to this chain burrito place called Cali Taco. The burritos are huge.

And I ate the entire thing. Needless to say, today when I went for a 5mile run, I felt very heavy, like gravity (or a large burrito) was weighing me down. Sometimes when I run, I feel light and that I could run forever. Today was not one of those days. I finished my run and felt much better once I laid down.

Plus I was tired all day and I may or may not have woken up at 12:30pm this afternoon.

Later I went to yoga, and again, sometimes inversions come easy and I can stay in a handstand for a couple of breathes, but today, I was barely able to get my feet in the air.

I am going to chalk up my heaviness to tired muscles and a tired brain. The clinic has been busy and I have been able to perform quite a few evaluations on patients, which means that I get to determine what is wrong with them. The combo of being on my feet for 12 hours and using my brain in new and exciting ways definitely is exhausting. That can definitely add poundage to my steps.

The clinic has been fun. When a patient doesn't show up or at lunch, we can work on ourselves.

At lunch Ryan (my classmate that is at the same clinic as me) decided to perform lumbar traction on himself. I couldn't resist taking a picture.

My eating healthy has been difficult (see huge burrito above) due to Girl Scout Cookie time. I DO NOT buy Girl Scout Cookies (I will give them money to buy cookies for themselves), but someone at my clinic bought Samoas (which are my favorite) and I had to support the troops and eat a few.
I have managed to make some creative and healthy dinners that are delicious and tasty.

The above recipe was found on pinterest. Have I ever mentioned how much I love pinterest? I made eggplant pizza. Instead of dough, I used an eggplant. I bake the eggplant for 10 minutes on high to soften them up, then I added tomato sauce, cheese (I actually used soy cheese for this meal), mushrooms and arugula and put it back in the oven until the cheese melted. This meal was wonderful and filling. I highly suggest it. You can also grill the eggplant to soften them up.

That has been my exciting week.

Do you have days where you feel the effects of gravity more than other days?