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Hello all. Good news. Critical care, mechanical ventilation and hemodynamics are DONE. Whew. That's a great feeling. What's even better is my instructor telling me that the focus from here on out is clinical and passing our boards. I did pretty decent on grades too, all A's with the exception of a B in mechanical ventilation (which I'll take, gratefully).

Everyone mentioned to me how difficult this quarter would be, but I can't say it's been anymore crazy than the ones before. It was daunting to have to check off on the 20 or so vents we have in the lab, but once you can manipulate the Servo 900C you are golden in the vent world. So, for all you RT students out there... just keep going. It's kind of a pain to learn some of the inner workings of ventilators, which in my mind is reserved for mechanical engineers, but it really will help you to pass your boards. Will you ever be sitting in the hospital and be asked whether or not this is a linearly driven piston vent, or pneumatically powered?...no (unless your preceptor is reaaaally evil). Should you know how to compare and contrast modes between several ventilators? yes. I guess each person has a different opinion of the ease of the material, and I liked getting ABGs, peak and plateaus, and then making changes based on that. I really did not enjoy looking at flow patterns. Everyone has different tastes.

So I basically have the whole month of December off. It is absolutely amazing... but I know I'll be bored half the time if I can't keep up some sort of schedule for the days. Laying around in pj's watching movies all day is fun for about... two days. Then I just feel really lazy. I just got a new membership to the Y, so I'll probably spend some time in the pool and on the treadmill trying to keep off that 5lbs I always gain around this time of year from hibernation. I really wish I enjoyed cold weather more, but it sucks and I'm not afraid to say that. Georgia cold is pure hell. It's not a dry cold like out west, but rather the miserable cold that buuuurns deep in your lungs. Icky.

As far as boys go... I have been going out on dates, but to no avail nothing has felt right. I guess I can't really expect much right now, especially when I'm still licking my wounds from this past June. I had been talking/seeing my ex in October, and by epic fail on my behalf, I made a huge mistake. I corrected it by telling him to never contact me again, but of course he ignores this and emails me on my craptastic birthday anyway. He certainly knows the exact worst time try and get back in touch. He tells me that he never wants to hurt me ever again, but just hearing from him drags me deeeeeep down into that dark basement in my mind. I don't get it, but I really think he just doesn't realize how selfish asking for my friendship really is. Anyway, all of this is a moot. It's over, and there's no use in harping on it anymore. I just wish he would really really leave me be. I'm considering changing my email/phone number if it doesn't change soon.

I'm reaaaally looking forward to this new year.

"It's been a long December, and there's reason to believe that maybe next year will be better than the last."