White Coat and Clinic FLOW!!

I'm halfway there!

HEY GUYS!! So I said I was going to write a quick post on White Coat Exam and White Coat Ceremony! So here we go! On May 12, 2011, I received my White Coat. So what does that mean?

In a nut shell, you are required to take an Exam that is formally called the "Clinic Privileging Exam." So this exam is the end of your 2nd year, and simply you have to give a full eye exam while being watched by one of the doctors. Ok sounds like no biggie right...umm NO!

So up until that point, you have been practicing all of your different clinical skills and learning to not only do every test, but in a efficient manner and to record it properly. So it is essentially a culminating exam that is supposed to prove that you are ready to see real patients! Yup. So my White Coat Exam was on  April 21st... Needless to say, I passed and I got my white coat! Woohoo!

It's a big ceremony, my mom, dad, and aunt came to St. Louis to watch me get it! Woohoo! It was just a really great and exciting day. I felt like I finally successfully crossed over a huge hurdle. We have been looking forward to white coat, since first semester first year. It is all really surreal. I find it hard to believe that I am a 3rd year now.

This summer in clinic I have started seeing patients. It is extremely weird, because I just sometimes feel like I have NO IDEA of what is going on. Also it is weird to me that the doctors trust me enough to leave me to do all of the tests and just "report" back my findings to them. They do double check some stuff, but for the most part it is just me!! Aaah...so scary.

I have had some great patients so far. My 2 favorite have been a 9 year old boy and this lady that got into a motorcycle accident and now can't see out of her left eye. Very sad, but I am glad that I was able to help them see. Optometry has been a lot more than I have expected. Honestly a lot more complex, intricate, and REWARDING! I have definitely chosen an awesome field and I am so glad.

Here are some more pictures as promised:

Getting my White Coat!

"I be up in the gym, just working on my fitness"

What up!!! I got my White Coat Yall!

Mommy and Daddy

Until Next Time...

Coke Bottle Glasses...

So one morning last semester, my Clinical Optometry professor showed us this video.. I meant to post it a while ago, but clearly I have slacking on posts..good thing I remembered. For some reason, I was dying laughing in class, but after watching it again, it was still pretty funny... so enjoy! Oh and Blogger introduced this new template designer thingy, so I am going to try it out because I have been wanting to change the design of my blog for some time now (change is good). Geesh I have a lot to catch up on, I need to rededicate myself to blogger. I'll be better next week...lol.


Until Next Time..

Making Glasses for Haiti

So last week was just one of those weeks... it wasn't necessarily bad, but I wouldn't want to do it over again. Anyways yesterday turned out to be a good day after I volunteered with NOSA. So NOSA (National Optometric Students Association) is one of the organizations that I am a part of; actually I'll be President next year, which is kind of exciting.. (I'll make another blogpost sometime about NOSA, in the meantime check out the link) Anyways we volunteered with a local black optometrist in St. Louis and made glasses to send to Haiti.

So hmm...how do you make glasses? I didn't know until yesterday. Here is a rough outline, hope it isn't too confusing.

1. The lens were marked with the optical center (which was done with a lensometer) We had a lot of prescriptions lenses ranging from (-.50 to -6.00 D) that were all one large circular shape.

2. So we got trial lens frames, frames with lens without any prescription (that were donated from various optometrists)  and popped the lens out. This took some force, it took me a while at first with some coaching from the optometrists cause I was scared I was going to break the frames...lol.

2. Anyways once you pop the lens out. You put the frames in a machine that traces the shape of the glasses frame.

3. Set the interpupillary distance and mount the lens using the optical center marking that was done earlier. Then that machine sends the information it to the lens grinder. It literally cuts the lens with water and sand and this other stuff.

4.You pull the lens out, heat up the frame and then pop each prescription lens back into the original frame.

It was so crazy!! It was like man I just made some glasses. I know this might sound confusing, because at first it was, but once you got the hang of it, it was pretty easy. Between the five of us, we ended up having an pseudo-assembly line going... and ended up making about 20 glasses. we didn't finish all, but we had been there for a while.

Oh and the Doctor who had his own practice was pretty cool. He was an UMSL graduate and his practice was pretty afrocentric. I He had lots of black figurines, african print, an african drum, portraits of Malcom X, MLK, this Choices portrait that really stood out to me, it was a tiny bit cluttered but really different. like seeing people's practices so I can get more ideas for my own. I loved it!

After that we headed to the loop to get some "Mexican food" was pretty cool. It is nice volunteering and feeling like I am making a difference instead of studying for tests/exams all the time. Needless to say, this is one of those times that I am so happy that I am in optometry school. It helps me stay motivated and exciting about my career choice. In 2 weeks I will be 25% of an optometrist...lol. Just 3 more years..

Until Next Time...

Only 3%..

So as I have griped about at an earlier time, only 3% of Optometrists are black. Let me say it again...3%...so there are a little over 35,000 current optometrist (people with O.D.s), so there are ~1,000 "Black-American" optometrists in the U.S...ok that is sad on so many levels...Sometimes I don't think people realize how little 1,000 people really is, spread that out over 50 states...Anyways... So the AOA (American Optometric Association) sends frequent e-mails, just to update AOA/AOSA members on the current state of optometry and what is going on...I opened today's message with the subject line of "A Special Message from AOA President on the Passage of National Health Care Legislation" with some hesitancy. After reading the first sentence, I just started to shake my head slowly... Why is the first line so biased? Ugh..So it reads:

Dear Colleague:
Regardless of how we may feel personally about the massive health care overhaul bill
Congress approved and the President just signed into law, we can be very proud of the
AOA's role in fighting and winning key battles to expand access to optometric care.

 I can see the good intentions of the e-mail, but that is not how you start off an email sent on behalf of the AOA President. I just don't get it..What the heck? He didn't even write out President's Obama's name..."these people" refuse to say his name, it is as though if they say his name they are acknowledging he is president or something.The rest of the email addresses "key issues" in optometry that are actually COVERED under the new health care bill...and how there are benefits to Optometrists...

::deep sigh:: Well I just had to share that quickly...I am in this cold library..they seemed to have turned off the heat because it warmed up for a few days last week,. now it ~36 degrees and raining..and no heat is on. GA-REAT!! Well I'm going to go back to studying/cramming/stressing for this test. Until Next Time...

Musings from the Library...

Ok so whenever I get a free moment I have been thinking about different blogposts, but I have been so busy that those thoughts rarely come to fruition...and by the time I sit down to write I end up rambling..(kind of like now).

Anyways...so as the title says, I am currently in the library. I just got out of my practical/proficiency and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed (even though it is over, and I got a good grade). So this practical has had me all kinds of nervous.. It was over Clockdial Refraction, Jackson Cross Cylinder, and Binocular Balance. Ok most people, have no idea what those terms mean, but if you have ever been to an eye doctor...it's the part when they ask you "Between these two lens, 1 and 2 which is better...or are they about the same"... So we learned all that and in the end we had to do "Binocular Balance"
 through Prism dissociation..basically to make sure that both eyes have equal accommodative abilities (even with diff prescription). sidenote: For some reason whenever I went to the eye doctor I just thought they were playing around and just turning knobs..but it is WAAAYYYY more complicated than that.

So basically if you need some glasses/contacts, I can properly refract you. It might not be perfect, it might take a long time, and I will probably be stumbling over my words, and possibly forget what comes next, lol.  but I can still do it..woohoo!

Ok yeah..So this week has been pretty horrible... I have a test/quiz/exam everyday this week (except Friday) and then I fly out of this miserable state at 6 am Saturday morning. Le sigh...it can't come quick enough.

Until Next Time...

Visual Correction...

So as I shared some time ago, I really enjoy Ted Talk Tuesdays (Ideas Worth Spreading). They always have innovative talks about a wide variety of subjects. I recently saw this video. In the beginning the speaker addresses the importance of sight/optometry and how it impacts people's everyday lives.

Sometimes when I tell people I am in Optometry school, I usually get one of two reactions. The first is they are really excited and then proceed to ask me a personal eye related question or they look at me blankly. Hopefully for the first response I can answer their question or simply tell them "Oh I haven't learned that yet." However for the second response I usually have to tell them, oh I'm going to be an Eye doctor, and if they continue to look at me blankly I usually give a 10 sec explanation of why vision is important.

I guess because I wear corrective lens, I know how important vision is, but I honestly feel as though we (Americans) take it for granted. Imagine if you were in "developing" nation and you did not have the access to an Optometrist (they are everywhere, just notice when you take your next trip out and about). How would you see? How would you function? The ability to see dramatically affects our quality of life. Even though school is kicking my butt right now. I am sooo HAPPY that I stumbled upon Optometry because I am reminded almost everyday that it is the field for me.

The inability to see is as much a personal problem as it is a global health issue. Before ever really thinking about optometry as a career I thought about almost every possible health field from an MD, to dentist, podiatrist (lol), getting a Public Health degree, but with all of those options, I never was really sure how I would make a difference. Now that we have started learning Clinical procedures, I have been happy (for the most part).

Ok back to the video. So the speaker, Josh Silver, speaks about the global crisis that the lack of correction lens can present in a population. His solution is "Water filled glasses," although he doesn't get into the optics of it (I would like to know) because I took an optics class and I currently taking two more this semester. He makes it seem like it is just that simple. There is a reason glass is used in glasses and although water is clear medium, it has a different refractive index than air, the aqueous, and the vitreous. Oh and did you know that before anything strikes your retina it goes through 6 different surfaces. Yes...6. Anyways...so here is the talk. If you want to check out more talks go to Ted.com.  Enjoy! Until Next Time...

Getting Your Eye Tattooed

So I came across this on one my friends tweets (twitter updates)...and I thought it was extremely ridiculous, so I just had to post it. Basically two inmates got their eyes tattooed. As a current optometry student, I felt a sense of obligation to post this craziness. lol. Boo on MSNBC, for not once using the correct term of "sclera" (the white part of your eye)...


Until Next Time...

Antsy...

Ok so I'm really antsy right now, but I'm not particularly sure why. There are so many things on my mind, but I'm finding it hard to figure it all out in my head. So today concludes week 9 of Optometry school, and it was actually pretty exciting because we had an equipment fair, to look at and decide on the equipment that we will buy. Keep in mind that I will use this equipment pretty much for the rest of my "career." So it was pretty important that you decided what you wanted now...I thought I knew everything that I wanted, but then at the last minute, I started liking another brand of Ophthalmoscope's, but I think I'll go with my originial choice. (The guy in the pic is holding one).

Anyways... That was a pretty long tangent.. I'm starting to feel "over" Missouri and school right now. Everything is getting mundane, there is only 44 people in my class, and I am tired of seeing the same people every single day in every single class...it's like the same people are doing the same thing everyday, same people asking questions, same people making corny jokes...oh and get this...everyone sits in the exact same seat every single day for all of our classes in the SAME room...Are you getting this?? (I wanted to keep getting saying same so you can see how annoying and repetitive it is..that is what my life has become).

Oh and all of the mundaness really made sense to me, when a classmate accused me of being anti social. I thought it was hilarious...because I didn't want to go out to a bar tonight, that we have already been to, to hang with people I have seen all darn week...actually for the past 9 weeks. Isn't that just like deja vu'....I definitely don't get it. don't know...I'll try and get out into the city or something, but I feel like I don't have time because of all the studying..Oh and my car is messed up right now. I need to get that fixed..like today.

So basically...I need to find some culture events ...plays, festivals, musicals, something...cause this midwest thing is getting old really fast. Until Next Time...

Eye ♥ Optometry School!

Actually it is more of a Love/Hate Relationship...Until Next Time...

le sigh...

So in a weird sort of way, the more things that I have to do, the more time I seem to have to create out of thin air..Anyways.. basically I'm saying I have waaaaaaayyy to much to do to be writing this blog post, but I have to keep doing something that I "enjoy" so I don't officially go crazy. This weekend I went home, which was absolutely A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! It was the break I needed and I feel as though it rejuvenated me, and gave me gusto to continue my journey. Anyways, I'm back now. :( I was sooo sad when my plane landed yesterday.

So my first round of exams went pretty well. I know that I could have done better, but I'm not completely mad. Next week will be crazy again! Neuroanatomy exam, Anatomy and Phys exam, Optics Quiz, Epi Exam, and A & P lab quiz...yup...ca-razy.

I'm trying to figure out when I am going to go grocery shopping. I finally caved in and I'm going to buy a coffee machine. I almost poked my eyes out this morning. I was sooo tired. I couldn't even put my contacts in, I rushed to class. And there was my Optics quiz sitting on the table...ready for me to take. I think I did alright though, made a couple of stupid mistakes..

Anyways...I'm just trying to hang in there. The original reason I started this post was to discuss me being stubborn. I am extremely stubborn, although I have gotten much better. Anyways...I'm being vague. Oh and this is also random, but I listen to Ashlee Simpson when I'm frustrated.lol. This song is soo me...

I walked a thousand miles while everyone was asleep
Nobody's really seen my million subtleties

Got stains on my t-shirt and I'm the biggest flirt
Right now I'm solo, but that will be changing eventually, oh
Got bruises on my heart and sometimes I get dark
If you want my auto, want my autobiography
Baby, just ask me

I walked a thousand miles to find one river of peace
I walked a million more to find what this shit means

Until Next Time...

Rock Bottom...

So I've had an ongoing joke about hitting "rock bottom" here in school...Well last night I was pretty close. I never thought that there could be a fast food place sketchier than Taco Bell UNTILLLL I ate at "Del Taco"... yeah that place was all bad and I think that my stomach hates me for it many hours later.

We ended up there after a car full of us decided to take a study break around 10 at night to get some dinner...yeah...this "hell week" (Five quizzes/tests/exam every day of the week), is almost over, but I'm completely drained. Sigh...Tomorrow is Friday and my last til exam will be over at noon. I just have to hang in there.. :( Until Next Time...

Don't Think I forgot...

So things have been extra crazy...hence no post in so long. But don't think I forgot...I check my blog almost everyday just to randomly read some updates from people in my "Blogroll." I think I am starting to get into the groove of everything. Basically that means study until you can't study anymore. Today I studied for 8 hours...yes...8 hours. That's so crazy to me. I didn't think I was capable of that amount of studying and focusing. I'll a little bit impressed with myself, but I'll be impressed when I got my tests back with A's on them.

Next week is my first real exam week...I have an exam/quiz on every single day (Mon- Fri)... Again the madness...I just can't wait til' I'm no longer a "firstie"...Well I tried to enjoy Labor Day weekend as much as I could. I went to some cool places in STL on Friday and Saturday both days I hung out with ChasDizz...yay for friends. On Friday we "attempted" to go to the club, but that was crazy, so we just went to the casino instead, where I met a "mini-stalker," then we headed to a hookah bar which was great...stayed there til' 3, then steak and shake and then I went to bed at 6am (I had to watch RHWOA)... Ca-razy...

Then Saturday we went to the "City Museum" which was sooo much fun, we were there for ~4 hours. That place is seriously an adult playground. Loads of fun, next time I'll come fully prepared, but I enjoyed myself. Oh and right place/right time, we ended up seeing a magic show/circus. That was really entertaining... :) Loved every minute of it! Oh and I had the best cupcake ever. We went to Jilly's cupcake's and I had the "Jilly's on the beach." Keylime cupcake with mango frosting. mmmm...yummy And the lady hooked me up with a Blueberry Coffee cake or something like that. It was extra delicious..gosh I want to go back, but umm FUNDS ARE LOW and DEBTS ARE HIGH... and that cupcake was $5!

Guess what I did on Sunday and Monday...ok that wasn't that hard. Yup I studied. Something that I find interesting is that the Panera Bread places are called Saint Louis Bread Company...guess why? It was started here and this is where the headquarters is...So I treated myself to Panera/STL bread company on Monday. Yummy as usual.

So all of the studying and stress that I have been under have had two main positive manifestations. The first is I have been eating really healthy most days. I look forward to my daily salads and I have been taking my vitamins pretty regularly. The second is I have been keepng up with scripture readings. This summer I bought "God's Daily Promises for Women" it has bible verses accompanied by some wisdom that is drawn from that particular bible verse. That has been very encouraging and positive. For example, yesterday's topic was on Gentleness and today's is on the Will of God, tomorrow's is on Faithfulness and Thursday's is on Overwhelmed. So yeah I absolutely love this book.

On another note, I have been jamming to Trey Songz "Ready" for like 2 days straight now. I think my favorite songs right now are "Does he do It" and "Jupiter Love." Man...I'm listening to the album now. Anyways...I figured I would go to sleep somewhat early. Until Next Time...

Dropping some Knowledge...

I really like quotes (I always have), so here are some quotes that are at the bottom of my planner, I figured I will share them before I added some of them to my Quotable Quotes...

"A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory." -Arthur Golden

"Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure"- William Saroyan

"It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded than the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err." -Mahatma Gandhi

"It is very difficult ot live among people you love and hold back from offering them advice." - Anne Tyler

"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." - Galileo Galilei

Oh yeah and one random thing, I recently scrolled down my blog and I realized that it seems like I have an abnormally long "Blogroll." I actually read all of those blogs and enjoy them. All you bloggers keep up the good work. If you are bored and you need something to do, check some of them out. Most of them, if not all, are way more structured than mine. :)

On another random note, make sure to check out "Milani Nessa (my meez)" [bottom right column.] I try to change her outfit/gestures from time to time. Random, but fun!

Sigh...I feel like I can finally take a deep breath and sit down. This week is finally over and I feel like I have been in school for a whole semester during finals time. Even though I am relaxing, I can't help but think about how much studying I have to do. It is sooo easy to get behind, and I'm trying not to. Today we visited the AOA (American Optometric Association), conveniently their headquarters are in Saint Louis so that is pretty cool. There were just a whole bunch of presentations...Some of them made me want to be an optometrist all over again. lol. The best part is they gave us nice parting gifts, and they gave us lots of random things, but I finally got another flash drive. I was happy for that because I needed another one. I have one reserved for pictures, the other one is all my important documents/files and now this one can be for my optometry lectures/class stuff. So I was pleased about that.

I just baked brownies...and they are yummy...especially with the milk I was just drank it with. I was going to add ice cream on top, but I figured that would be too much; I don't want all my hardwork in the gym to be in vain. So this is weird because I honestly just came on here to write these quotes and somehow this turned into a full out post. Oops...lol. I guess I just needed to get some things off my chest. Gosh I love blogging...Until Next Time...

A little bit of everything...(Buffet Style)

Hello There! So much has been going on this week... First, classes have officially started, and tomorrow it will be a week. woohoo! Hmm...what can I say about it. It's school, I just have a lot more classes and they are mostly science and so far we have covered a lot of information. Unlike undergrad, I have been studying EVERY single day for about ~4-5 hours...yeah.. I'm still trying to feel everything out, but it's definitely doable, I just have to keep my "Eyes on the Prize" (pun intended..lol.) So my first semester classes are as follows:

- Anatomy and Physiology of Disease Processes I w/ Lab
- Human Neuroanatomy w/ Lab
- Geometric Optics w/ Lab
- Biochemistry
- Epidemiology
- Intro to Optometry
- Scenario Based Discovery/Problem Based Learning

Honestly, I plan on making mostly A's...that might seem overly ambitious, but oh well...So far everything has been cool, my classmates are extra cool (much cooler than I expected)... :) Oh and STL isn't bad at all...I pretty much know where I want to live next year. Of course I haven't gone out as much as I would like, but I will in due time...

Right now I am having a feast for dinner (all left overs)...shrimp from my "all you can eat shrimp" at Red Lobster yesterday...lol, (I ate so much shrimp it was ridiculous), two bbq chicken wings from earlier in the week, some corn, spinach souffle, and a cheddar biscuit from Red Lobster...yumm...I have been on this pseudo diet for lunch which just comprises of salad and/or a sandwich... I'm trying not to eat too heavy for lunch so I don't get the -itis, when it is time to go back to class or study.

I'm not really missing home much, there are a few things here and there but nothing substantial. It doesn't help that my family calls me whenever they are hanging out...lol. But I'm fine..

I've been doing pretty good in terms of going to the gym on a regular basis, I'm proud of myself...I actually just got back not too long ago :) Even though the gym here really sucks and the machines seem like they are from the 70's...I seriously thought the ellipitical was going to break while I was on it...

Oh yeah this is random, but I was reading in the newspaper today that STL has the highest rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia per square mile (or something like that)...that was a little scary, but also funny. I thought of that today when I exchanged numbers with this random guy at the gym...he asked me why I was laughing and I just told him don't worry about it.

Hmm...speaking of that...It's weird that half of my classmates are married/engaged and the other half is in a serious relationship...so where does that leave me? Anyways...first a small disclaimer, and I guess this is a tad bit monumental for me, because I usually don't share my "personal" life with hardly anyone but I just wanted to share that I feel liberated about a certain situation. I decided to end this cat and mouse game that I have had with someone in particular. It was causing me more stress than it should have been, and I figured it's dragged on long enough and it doesn't help that I am all the way in STL...:sigh: New Beginnings... I was really vague about that whole thing, but oh well...I doubt if he will ever read it, cause ya know what...he never did read my blog even though I asked him to all the time. Just like my tattoo reminds me of everyday, "Take from the past what is good and bring it into the present in order to make a positive progress through the benevolent use of knowledge." It's only fitting that I leave with some lyrics from DC3 ...lol. "Free"

Ain't no feeling like being free
When your mind's made up
And your hearts in the right place, yeah
Ain't no feeling like being free
When you've done all you could
But what's misunderstood
(It's all good, it's all good)
Ain't no feeling like being free
I'm like an eagle set free
And finally I'm looking out for me
Ain't no feeling like being free
Cause my mind's made up
And my heart is in the right place, yeah

Until Next Time...

Let Me Fill You In...

Hello There! These past few days I have been in Orientation...hmm what does that mean? Sitting through several lectures/presentations on what Opt school will be like and what not. It hasn't all been terribly boring, but it is was definitely hard to wake up. I have pretty much met most if not all of my classmates at this point. We have 44 people, yup! 44 people for 4 years it should be a fun/interesting journey. Did I mention that I am the only person from GA, honestly I'm pretty much the only person from the South... After orientation we have social events, which have been quite enjoyable. Last night we went Houlihans and we had a convo on whether people say Pop, Coke, or Soda; needless to say I am the ONLY person that says soda...weird! The faculty/admins keep describing our class as "full of personality;" we truly are. I actually really like it, there is so much intelligence and talent...It's nice. :) I will post the pics of our social events on FB sometime tomorrow. Anyways, all in all, I'm a feeling ready to start class on Monday. The anticipation/apprehension is killing me. aaahh.lol.

I have settled into STL quite well. I know how to get to basic places(QT, Mall, Target, Grocery Store) so I'm fine. People keep asking me how STL is and I keep saying it's "cool." lol. It's not too bad, I don't necessarily live in the best part of the city, but it's all good. I'll move on up next year. lol. This professional school thing is interesting, when I was on campus getting my id card and all that good stuff, a few people chatted with me and were disappointed to find out that I have already graduated from undergrad. It just feels pretty weird that in 4 years i'll be a Doctor of Optometry...woohoo!

I am not sure how frequent I'll be updating my blog because I doubt that you will find what I'm learning in classes to be that interesting and I am not sure how much time I will have. Hopefully I won't be a big stressed out wreck. lol. I'm just taking it one step at a time...Sorry this post isn't that interesting, more of an update. A lot of funny/cool stuff have happened, I am just a little tired. Oh yeah I'm not homesick yet...

Lastly, I just want to thank everyone that have been reading my blog so far. When I decided to start this blog at the beginning of the summer, I had no idea that I would have 60 posts and 10 followers (shout out to all my followers). I'll try and keep writing through it all, this outlet truly helps me more than you know. Until Next Time...