Jarrett welcomes Jarrett to the blog

That's me on the left.

I would like to cordially invite myself to this blog, and I Corddry expect. This blog will be a way to air out our thoughts as Kristina and I cross the country and back. Maybe we'll find a dead body or my bike that Francis stole, or maybe we'll throw a ring into a lake of fire. This will be the blog to read about it... Ah yes, it will be good to hit the road again. Keep on truckin' my fellow golden flower children!

Here We Go!

April Updates

Where to start? First, please notice my updated profile and blog description. Everything is and will continue to change very quickly these next few months. I have added a calendar app on the side so you can see where we are this summer!


Jarrett and I have officially put in our 1 month notices at work. Our last day will be May 6, 2011. It is kind of strange to have such a short time left here. It is also exciting to leave on good terms with such a wonderful adventure ahead of us! We are getting more and more busy as this trip gets closer. Spring brings everyone out of their hibernation. It also marks the beginning of gardening season (yes we are still planting a garden this year). That is another post, maybe I will leave it for Jarrett to write...We are also spending time with friends and getting our fill of our favorite restaurants. I am also winding down my volunteering with the Gluten Intolerance Group. The final event will be the Gluten Free Food Fair on May 7. Come down and visit us if you are around! The fair is at All Saints Catholic Church on 39th and Glisan. You can’t go wrong with the great vendors of gluten free goodies. I am so grateful for my experiences with GIG and work over the last few years. I can’t wait to share my knowledge of gluten-free and lab workings with my new cohort at DMU!

Another thing keeping Jarrett and I busy is packing. We will be travelling light to Des Moines, taking only what fits into our 2 cars. Luckily, we are taking some sentimental items to my parent’s house in Boise to store while in Iowa. My favorite recent purchase is a bike rack for my car. We will take as much of Portland with us to Iowa as we can. I have little piles all over the house, things for the road trip, things for Idaho and things for Iowa. (Yes, I know the names of the two states are very similar. I have been confusing myself of which “I” state the pair of shoes I’m holding are going). My current big project is to go paper-free. I am working on scanning all papers from my file cabinet into my computer. It is a larger project than I anticipated, but it feels so nice to be free of those messy boxes of paper!

With all these activities, the most important to me is to spend as much time with Portland friends as possible.  All of the projects will work themselves out (yay for procrastination), but friends are the important part of my life.  So, we will be planning several going away parties in May and July and are hoping to catch up individually with friends as well.  Please help us with these if you have any ideas, we are currently in the brainstorming stages. 

Getting Closer

This week it hit me.  I will be leaving Portland in a relatively short time.  Actually 3 months, exactly!  I don't know how time all of a sudden flew by, but it did.  I can't sit idle an longer waiting for things to happen, I need to make them happen.  I need to spend time with my friends while I can, because things will be different after May.  Yeah, I plan to come back to Portland after med school, but things won't be the same.  I will be working longer hours, my friends will be in different places, as will I.  I really need to cherish the dwindling moments I have left here!
I have an eventful weekend planned, which will include working on my scrap book - which I hope to start and finish in 3 months. My first one took 4 years to finish!
I am also working on getting everything finalized for DMU.  Another submission of transcripts to the school, a background check, and the FAFSA.  The list is long, I am used to this kind of thing from the application process, so it is becoming second nature. 
Work is going fine.  I am getting better at my phlebotomy skills, and more confident with patients.  I had a first today - a patient fainted during the draw.  It was exciting but not too dramatic nor very eventful (she fell on the arm of the chair and I kept pressure on her arm.)  Every new event that I handle gets me more excited for what I will encounter in school and clincials.  I can't wait to see where this will take me!

Dangers of eating out

Living in Portland, there is an enormous list of gluten-friendly options.  Check out this site to prove it. I have become a regular at some places and have had good dinners with no issues.  It is easy to forget that I am so sensitive to gluten.  So, the other night we went to one of my favorite Portland chains that was super busy due to the holidays.  We had a couple issues with our plates, but nothing major and they seemed to be receptive to taking care of the gluten bun that came on my plate.  So I ate the dinner staying in my pretend world that nothing can harm me, not even gluten.  Of course later that night, I woke up with an attack of all the symptoms of gluten. For me, this reaction (though not as dramatic as the initial) will last 2 weeks to a month.

The dangerous word for me right now is complacent.  I have been eating out so much, and had no issues that I forget how important and major this is.  Celiac disease is not something to mess with, I do not want to be dealing  with the "hangover" of gluten constantly.  I want my body to be healthy so that I can fight off other bugs that I may be exposed to.  Working in a hospital, that is a very large number of bugs.

Since I am working on saving money, moving back to home made food is relatively easy.  In some ways it feels like defeat to me.  I want to master this gluten and prove (I'm not sure to whom) that I don't have to take any special precautions.  Of course this is wrong, I'm afraid gluten will be in my nightmares forever.  And of course I have to take very special precautions and be very careful every time I order food - even if I am a regular at a place.

Maybe it was too much time spent perusing Student Doctor Network yesterday, or maybe all this is finally sinking in.  I want to give a little more details and maybe some advice on how I got here and how other students can too.

The first part is to do your research, know what requirements the schools have, as well as the type of students they accept.  I did this by spending lots of time on individual school websites as well as AACOM and AMCAS.  I talked to my undergraduate advisor and other students.  I had a bit of a challenge initially since I am not a traditional student, I didn't know many others going through the process.  I was initially ready to apply during the spring of 2009.  I had all of the requirements complete and was waiting for my MCAT result.  The one part that I had not yet researched was my heart, and between some family events and my place in life, I realized that I was not quite ready to apply.

I decided to wait a year and apply in 2010.  That year was not spent waiting at all.  Besides college, it has been my busiest year yet.  I am volunteering with a gluten intolerance group, something that I feel very strongly about.  I am working full time and I found a way to shadow and meet several physicians.  Also in that year, I retook the MCAT.  Sometimes all of these activities led to 14+ hour days filled with writing volunteer emails on my work breaks.  It was exhausting, but very fulfilling!  I learned more than I though possible about the world and about myself.  I have grown more confident and more ready than ever for the next step of medical school.

A couple notes of advice for those who are approaching these steps.

1. Know who you are and what you are passionate about, you will need to explain this over and over to many different people.
2. Observe proper etiquette - always.  Send thank you notes to pretty much every person who helps you.  Be respectful to everyone.  For example, MA's can be a good ally if you spend much time in a physicians office. Be especially careful during interviews, you never know who might be in your interview or might have a say (especially in small towns).
3. Spend time on the details, but don't worry about the details.  For example, edit edit edit all of your essays, especially the primary one.  Make sure you have the correct schools name on the essay or paperwork that you are submitting.  With so many secondaries, I was able to copy and paste a few paragraphs but had to really check to make sure it fit the school's prompt and didn't have a different schools name. 
1. Dressing for the interview is interesting. Wearing nice, professional clothes, it was hard to feel like myself.  It was hard to choose something that fit my personality.  I also had to learn about business professional dress, I had little idea of the details of it. As a biology major at an oregon school, learning business etiquette and dress was not covered.  We were the ultimate future tree hugers anyways.  As I enter the business"ey" world, I am realizing how important these detials are.  I think it is an area that should be covered for all majors, we all enter the business world after college, no matter our major.
2. Back to "don't worry about the details."  I hear questions often of "how many activities did you list in your primary?" or "what exactly were the questions asked at this school?".  First, there is no point to compare numbers, it is quality that counts and everyone is unique.  Especially if you are "being yourself" through this process. For the questions, it was nice to have a general idea (espeically of the list 3 positives and 3 negatives of your personality).  Beyond that I found that answering on the spot helped me answer most questions with an insightful answer. 

Three for three

I realize that I need to post here more often. I will work on that, I have no excuses since the business of applying is over.

So, for the news... I got into all three schools that I interviewed at! I felt like I was too blunt in the last 2 interviews, but they still liked me. I guess they could tell that I was being truthful and that I am totally ready to go to medical school. So the big question remains, where will I go next year? I feel blessed that I have the opportunity to make a decision. I thought long and hard about the decision, made a pros and con list of the three schools. What really made the decision was my heart and my boyfriend being okay with it.

And Des Moines University, here I come! I already made the first payment to hold my seat, and I'm trying to get mentally ready for the weather. We will have a move next summer and a "small" trip before that. I plan to use this blog to keep everyone posted about our trip and the adventure of school following.

Thinking back

Right now, things are sailing along smoothly. I just got another interview to Western University of Health Sciences. At times, this seems like it is too easy. When I look back at the long hours, the frustration, and the worry, I realize that I sat everything up and this is just reaping the benefits.

At work I began reading a textbook on Histology and Cell Biology. Sometimes, I have lots of downtime at my new location. Just as I got to page 2, patients began coming in and they didn't stop. Yesterday turned out to be the busiest day ever for my lab! It is good that we are busy, but it was a bit crazy too. I am able to get most of the pokes, even on very tough patients. Of course, I still have a ways to go before I can say that I'm experienced and really good.

Fall is coming, and the rain is beginning. I think I am ready for it. A move to indoors tasks which means organizing and preparing to consolidate and move. Projects that I have left partly finished will get worked on… starting NOW!