6 month update...

So since it has been about 6 months since my last post, I figured I should probably update this, especially with all that has happened. Our daughter, Kiara Marie Rodriguez, was born April 26, 2010 at 12:49 PM. She was 6 lb 11 oz, 19 inches long. I was having pretty bad contractions every 3-4 minutes Saturday night/Sunday morning, so we went into Labor and Delivery to have me checked. Lo and behold, nothing. I was not dilating at all so they sent me home. The contractions continued the rest of the day, every 3-4 minutes all through Sunday night, and finally Monday morning about 8 we decided to go in again. It was a good thing too, because by the time I got there I was dilated to a 4. They got me the epidural (which was amazing, especially because it let me get a little rest after 48 hours without sleep) and a little over an hour after getting the epidural I had dilated to a 10 and was ready to push. Less than an hour after that my baby was here! So all in all, it was a pretty easy labor. My mom and Missy came down to help us out with the baby, and it was so great having them here. We stayed in the hospital overnight, then I convinced my doctor to let me go home. It was really frustrating trying to rest and recover when every 15 minutes a new staff member came in to check on me or talk to me about something, or just introduce themselves. Most of them I never saw again. My breaking point was when the phlebotomist came in and woke me up at 5 AM (only about half an hour after I finally got the baby to sleep after feeding her and fell asleep myself) to take my blood for some routine testing (hematocrit and hemoglobin). I don't know why it was necessary to do that at 5 AM, but I was so pissed that I wanted to leave right then. We finally got to leave around 3, and we went home where Jase and I finally got some uninterrupted sleep thanks to Mom and Missy taking care of the baby for us. They stayed until Saturday and we had a great time, then they headed back up to Colorado to meet my niece, Lily Michele Nimer, who was born April 30. Kiara has been growing well and doing great! Here are some pictures from the past month!

Kiara in the hospital the day after she was born

Coming home from the hospital

Relaxing with Aunt Missy

Kiara with Grandma



Kiara in her swing. She loves that thing!

Spending time with Turbo!

Kiara and Lily

School has been going pretty well, I have passed all of my classes to this point and am on track to pass my last class of the year, Host Defense, which is over a week from tomorrow. Then we're free for the summer! We are going to Colorado after my last test, where we'll bless the baby and pick up Kriton, who is flying over with my Grandma and Aunt Val. After that it's back to Lubbock where I'll be doing some shifts in the ER here as a preceptorship, then we're off to Lake Powell for 2 weeks before school starts up again. It should be a great summer!

Long Time No Blog

So I realized it has been many months since my last blog, and there has been a lot that has happened between then and now. and since I have 2 tests next week, I figure this is as good as any way to procrastinate the studying more.

We moved down to Lubbock, TX in the middle of July and I started school at the beginning of August. Our school uses a block system, so we have one class at a time that is very intense. We started out with Anatomy, which was tough, but I already knew a lot of it from the anatomy class I took at UVU last year. That really helped me out, since I found out that I was pregnant a third of the way through. The morning sickness was terrible throughout the rest of anatomy, which pretty muched killed any chance I had at doing well since most of our learning time was spent in the lab, the smell of which made me constantly sick. However, I still passed, with a relatively high grade for passing. I had hoped to honor, but I am happy with my passing grade. After anatomy, it was on to Biology of Cells and Tissues. This class has made anatomy look like a cakewalk. It is pretty much biochemistry, genetics, cell biology, and histology all rolled into one 9 week class. Think about taking an entire year of biochemistry and consolidating it into a week and a half, and that is how this class is. I have my 3rd unit test for this next tuesday, and then the comprehensive final on thursday. Our third unit was mostly histology with some cell biology, which isn't nearly as hard as the biochemistry weeks, so I hope to do well on this test. I can't wait for Christmas break, it'll be the longest break I have had from work/school since I graduated from college :)

Outside of school there hasn't been much going on. I've made a few good friends in my class that we go out with occasionally, although not as much as anyone would like because of school. Jase has been having a blast with his airsofting, he found a bunch of guys down here that like to play. He has been selling a bunch of guns down here and upgrading a lot of others, so that keeps him busy.

As I mentioned before, we found out I was pregnant in September, right after my first anatomy test. Our original calculations put my due date as April 12, but the ultrasound we had said it would be May 4. So our due date is pretty tentative, but it's probably closer to the May date than the April. We have our second ultrasound on Thursday right before my final, and hopefully at that one the baby will cooperate more and we can see if it is a boy or a girl. Jase really wants a boy, but I just want it to be healthy. For the most part I have been feeling fine, especially since the morning sickness ended, which conveniently was within about a week after anatomy was over. Since then, nothing much has changed. I lost a lot of weight during the first trimester, but I am gaining it back now. My scale at home is broken, which is probably good since that means I'm not constantly weighing myself, but I can definitely tell I'm getting bigger. I can't fit into any of my normal pants anymore, but I have discovered that maternity pants are comfy. Between my one pair of maternity jeans and my scrubs, I'm still set for a while. Good thing I'm in med school, cuz scrubs don't look nearly as weird here as in other places. The baby has started to noticably move, which is really cool and really annoying at the same time. I like being able to know that it is ok and actually there, not just in my imagination. But it tends to move the most at night, exactly when I am trying to sleep. So it keeps me awake and kicks me all night and I end up ehausted in the morning, when it stops. Of course at that point I have to go to school so I can't sleep. Tons of fun! I guess I need to get used to the sleep deprivation anyway, since it'll only get worse.

Well, I think that is about it for now, hopefully I'll remember/ have time to keep this updated more often!

OK so it has been awhile since I have posted, but nothing much has happened lately. Except that I got of the waitlist at Texas tech medical school! I'm going to Texas! Which is awesome not only cuz it's a better school, but also because I'll need half as much in loans as at Arizona. I am so relieved! Other than that it's life as usual!

I got a sexy new computer! Just thought I would let you all know.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/x-series-tablet


Time for bed now!

Home improvements

So we are trying to get some projects done on our house that are long overdue, namely rebuilding the deck and retiling the kitchen and dining room. We pulled down the old deck a few weeks ago, with the intention of getting it done within a couple weeks. Things were going great until it started raining. Every one of our days off. We have finally gotten to the point where we have the base framed again and stained, but every time we plan on working on the rest of it it starts raining. Except today. Today it decided to snow. It wouldn't be that big of a deal except that we have to stain the wood before we build, and we can't stain it when it is wet (it would kind of defeat the purpose of the water sealant). So yesterday, when I found out it was going to snow today, I decided that I would start ripping out the kitchen tile instead. Well, after 5 hours of work yesterday and today, I am about 1/3rd of the way through the kitchen. I plan on finishing ripping up the kitchen this weekend while Jase is out of town and then hopefully getting started on putting down the tile in there. We got our house rented out starting in August so we definitely need to get all of this done by then, but I am hoping to get the tile stuff done by next weekend (the weekend of the 25th). We'll see how that goes.

I get my new computer for school soon, it's a sexy tablet computer that we are all required to get. It's pretty much a laptop but the screen can turn around and fold down and it has a stylus you can write on it with, so it's like a 160 GB notepad. Other than that cool feature and the fingerprint scanner (why we need that, I don't know), it is pretty much just a normal laptop for a ridiculous price. Oh well.

For anyone that hasn't heard yet, my bro is getting married! I'm excited to not be the only married kid in the family anymore. He gets married May 16. I got to watch him propose (aong with a couple thousand other people) while his band was performing at Fiesta, a spanish program at BYU. It was pretty cool.

We got a new guy at work since the only two microbiologists (me and Asher) are leaving for medical school in the fall. He's interesting to say the least, but it's kind of fun to debate with him since he is pretty much polar opposite in many of his beliefs from me on topics such as evolution (which he is very opinionated about and brings up at every break in conversation, yet he doesn't know much about it, so I think it's really funny.) The annoying thing about him is that he never stops talking. NEVER. Asher has not had a headache in years, up until the day that the new guy started, if that's any indication. And it's not only that, but he practically yells whenever he talks. So we have to yell to talk over him to talk to each other. Very annoying. Hopefully I'll get used to it, but if not, I only have to tolerate it for 87 more days (which includes weekends, days off, and holidays, so actually not even that much!) I think I can survive it knowing that.

That is pretty much my month in a nutshell, pretty exciting huh?

Wow, I just realized that it has been 6 months since I updated this blog. I suck at it, and it is only going to get worse, because (drum roll please)...

I GOT INTO MEDICAL SCHOOL!!!!!!

Yes, that's right, after 3 years of trying, I have finally done it. I will be attending A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (ATSU-SOMA), a newer medical school with a very inovative curriculum. From their website:

"SOMA has adopted a clinical presentation or scheme presentation model that serves as the foundation of its curriculum. This model is based on the various ways patients present to physicians. Collectively, the clinical presentations represent common patient complaints (e.g., headache, abdominal pain), abnormalities of physical examination (e.g., systolic heart murmur), or abnormalities of commonly ordered laboratory studies, (e.g., anemia, hypocalcemia). Altogether, there are approximately 120 +/- 5 presentations that comprise the SOMA curriculum. The presentations serve as a starting point for the generation of relevant curricular content."

I think this is an awesome way to go about this, since it will make it much easier to apply our education to practice. And I am not very worried about the newness of the school, since it was established as a branch of ATSU-KCOM, the founding school of osteopathic medicine, so they have had plenty of experience doing this. So I'll be spending my first year in Mesa, AZ, then they will be shipping us off to one of 11 community health centers all over the country to do years 2-4. I am sooooo excited about this!!!!!! Can you tell? I start July 20, so it's going to be a busy few months, what with moving, tryin to sell the house, and finding Jase a new job down there.

Other than that, life has been pretty much business as usual! I really will try to keep up on this better, but no promises!

Once again, I fail at updating...

Life has been pretty repetetive but pretty busy at the same time. One of the microbiologists in the lab left, so we're down to two. And with our audit coming up on the 15th, we are pretty hectic here. I've been working really hard to not pull too much overtime, since they really don't like that here. I just hope they find another person or two to start in here soon.

I have two more medical school interviews lined up, one on September 11 at Texas A&M, and the other on the 19th at Texas Tech. I really hope they go well, especially Texas Tech because I already know some people in Lubbock. I guess if it is meant to be I'll get in! I also have an interview lined up at a PA school in Pennsylvania, but that isn't till October. I think after shadowing PA's and MD's I have decided that my first choice is definitely MD. I know there are a lot of pluses to both, I just don't think my personality is such that I would be as happy as a PA. I jsut like to take charge and solve problems and I wouldn't get to do that as much as a PA. But if it is PA or nothing, I'll take it!!!

I started my anatomy class at UVU on Tuesday. I am so glad I am taking this all by itself and not with a bunch of other classes. I'm taking it cuz it's a prereq for most PA schools, but even if I do med school it will still be worth it cuz it'll make first year a ton easier. Anyway, I'm kinda scared cuz we learned a lot on our first day, and my brain isn't quite back into lecture listening mode...

Anyway, that is pretty much all the exciting stuff that's happening in my life lately! I'll definitely update after my interviews though!