thanksgiving/last week of clinicals

Entering the last week of clinicals after a great 4 day Thanksgiving weekend. Sad I couldn't be home, but glad I had my navy family to spend it with. We spent Thanksgiving day at the "world famous" Brat Stop (www.bratstop.com), enjoying good food, great beer and of course football. Carbone's dad even won 2 lobsters from a crane drop game where you actually catch the lobsters. Yeah, it was kind of awesome. The rest of the weekend was spent eating and drinking around Chicago, including picking up the new TR book (yessss!). Only through the prologue, which details Roosevelt's African Safari, but so far its amazing. Today we were re-assigned clinical destinations, so I've said goodbye to the VA and hello to 200H. It's really more a class than clinicals though. Oh well, it should only be until Thursday, which is when we are supposed to class up for dental. "Supposed to".

Special thanks to Mama Dehn and Christine Perez for sending me super sweet delicacies! The south east wing of 129 is about to plump up for winter. Speaking of which, I could really use some PT after that long weekend... hopefully my next update will be in the dental phase!

clinicals

So we're into clinicals now. I'm assigned to the VA, or rather the hospital complex formerly known as the VA. It's now the Lovell Federal Health Care Center, named after the famed Apollo 13 astronaut (and Navy captain!). He was actually in town to dedicate it a month or so ago, but sadly I could not catch a glimpse of the legend as I was in class. Anyway, right now I'm working on the general med ward, which isn't so bad. The Nurses are great and keep us busy, and they call us Corpsman which is awesome. Most of our work is pretty routine, such as linen changing, patient transport, hygiene etc., but sometimes we get to do cool things like draw blood samples. We muster at 0545 and don't get back to the barracks until around 1630, so the days are long, but it's good to finally be doing some hands on health care. It's going to be a short week of clinicals due to Thanksgiving break, and then next week we should only have 3 days at the most before graduation/dental begins.

Despite the Terps football heartbreak on Saturday night, I still would have given anything to be back at the game with my friends. It sounds like they had a good time though, which is great. Still not sure what I'll be doing for Thanksgiving or the rest of break, but rest assured it will include watching an entire game of football (which I haven't done since before joining) and purchasing Colonel Roosevelt, the final book in the TR trilogy. Talks of Milwaukee are also abound, so we'll see.

Looking forward to more time in the hospital and the upcoming break. And of course still missing everyone terribly! December 17th is less than a month away

Life rolls on

HM exams over. Finished with a 97.67% average from 12 tests. First place in my class, which is all good and dandy but really doesn't matter at all in the long run. Proud of all my other shipmates who finished with good GPAs. Tomorrow we finally start Clinicals, with dental to start at a still unknown time, possibly the 2nd of December. Don't expect any juicy updates from clinicals! It's called HIPAA and its kind of a big deal! Don't want to lose/never receive my caduceus. Shaved the stache today. It was fun growing one, and it might come in handy if I stick around long enough to make Chief, but its back to smooth lip sailor business.

wrigleyville weekend

Great weekend. Friday night most of our class ended up in Highwood, indulging in some Goose Island ales and karaoke at our favorite Irish pub. Saturday I finally visited the famed Wrigleyville with some shipmates. We had sushi and then saw Brian Posehn do standup comedy at the Cubby Bear, directly across from Wrigley Field. Hilarious show, I was literally laughing the entire time. After the show I got to meet him, and he told me that he likes Dream Theater, so all is well in my world. Today was a typical Sunday, filled with laundry, some studying, and "The Town" at Ross Theather. Great movie. Tomorrow is our LAST full day of class, and then its Test 12 on Tuesday and straight in to clinicals after that. Dental should be doing our clinicals with the rest of the class, but we'll see if they drop any last minute changes on us. I'm also planning on bringing some pizza to my last night of night study tomorrow, to celebrate all the good times we've had (pff). Our duties as EPO's don't end there though, as we are expected to come help the other classes on their night studies. If I can even remember what was on test 2!

So lets finish this exam and be that much closer to graduation!

good start to the week

Parenteral medication lab on monday, aka sticking people with needles! It was short but surprisingly satisfying. We got to inject normal saline into the deltoid (intra muscular) and the posterior upper arm (subcutaneous). I can't wait to do more of the hands on work once I finish Corps school. Speaking of finishing Corps school, today we secured Test 11, which means only one more test to go before HM clinicals (not thinking about dental training right now). Test 11 is feared throughout the school as the corpsman killer because so many people fail. The class before us had 13 or so failures, but our class rocked the hell out of it! I got my 4th 100% of school, and we had almost a 90% average as a class. Overrated test to say the least.

Good lab, perfect test, Cowboys at 1-7. Good start to the week! This Thursday we have off because of Veterans Day, which means we only have Wednesday, Friday and Monday to learn Test 12 material before we test on the 16th. So close to the end.. of the beginning. Anyway, I'm excited and pumped to be almost finish testing and start HM clinicals, hopefully I'll get assigned to Red Rover back at RTC and get to stick recruits all day. Obviously still no word on orders yet, that won't come until dental.

busy november ahead

Haven't updated in a while. Internet card decided to fail (are you kidding me Clear??), and I've also been busy as all hell as usual. Test 11 on Tuesday, going into it with a 98.3% average. It's supposed to be the hardest test in Corps school, but my entire class has duty weekend so I'll have no one to go out partying with, and thus hopefully more productive study time. We'll see about that! Didn't have much time to worry about the midterms, kind of pissed I didn't get my shit together and absentee ballot, but all Maryland decisions went the way I'd have voted anyway. Don't want to get political, all I hope is that Congress can get their act together and do SOMETHING productive for the country.

This time next month my class will have already have graduated and I'll be starting my dental phase. Looking forward to Thanksgiving break for some R and R, and even more looking forward to the holiday exodus! Thanksgiving I plan on frequenting the local watering holes and picking up the new Theodore Roosevelt book, which I will devour in my limited free time. Also in November I hope to attend an ITT sponsored trip to volunteer at a local animal shelter, and participate in Project White Hat at the downtown Children's Hospital. From what i hear, we all dress up in our blues and spend the day playing and chilling with the kids in need of some good company. I also started donating part of every paycheck to the United States Soccer Foundation, which ensures underserved communities have easy and affordable access to quality soccer programs that support their physical and personal development. I love that the Navy gives us the easy opportunity to give back to the community and country.

That's all for now!