I did it!

Today I was brave. Atleast, I think so. Today I had to overcome one of my biggest fears, the pelvic exam. WHAT??!! are you really writing about this? Yes. I really am. Today I had to do a pelvic/pap exam for the first time. Let me tell you....I was sooooooooo nervous. Actually that doesnt even begin to explain how I felt. I think i was really about to throw up, or pass out one of the two. Imagine going to your ob/gyn and watching his/her hands shake as they come at you with a speculum. Yikes! I mean holy hannah did I mention i was nervous? huh, did I? When my standardized patient asked me if i was nervous my response was "actually i'm terrified, i'm so nervous." That's not a joke. I really said that to her.

Luckily for me, God provided me with an absolutely Wonderful standardized patient/teacher. She walked me through the breast and pelvic exam step by step and made me feel a lot better about the whole thing. Even when i was having a coughing fit and had to turn my head away, meanwhile not able to remove my "clean hand" from its current location. The chaperone had to leave the exam room and get me a glass of water. FIGURES! oh geez! Despite the fact, when i finished i actually felt like i could do it on a patient by myself next time. I mean i wouldnt feel completely comfortable with it, but atleast next time i'll know that i'm already capable of doing it. Baby steps, remember. Baby steps.

FYI the following may be TMI but i think its informative...

There was one thing i did learn today that is a little strange but, I found it really helpful and without a doubt i will be mentioning it at my next "annual" (haha, mental thought: i talked about this the other day with matt and when i said annual he thought it had something to do with a flight "annual" physical exam or something like that) At the time i had one of those "ah ha!" moments in my head. I thought to myself....why has no one done this before it makes so much sense it's stupid!" I'm gonna be pretty blunt here (come on people, its not a stretch i'm gonna be a doctor some day)...so for most people the most uncomfortable part of a pelvic exam is the actual pap smear, the whole process. Different aspects for different people, but generally thats the worst. I had a friend that I worked with about 3 years ago who was getting routine pap smears every 3 months and I remember her saying, "after you've had so many its not so bad but the worst part is them trying to find that right angle. after that you just breathe for a little bit and its over" I totally agree. So why do doctors go in there blind?? Perhaps its how its been taught over the years, its what they've always done or they've done so many it doesnt bother them. But for the 16 year old whose there for the first time, or the person who has panic attacks about that doctors appointment once a year, or the woman with abnormal anatomy, it is a big deal. It aint fun doc! So whats this revelation? My teacher today said to check for the location of the cervix manually, first before the pap smear part of the exam. That way you know where its at and where to aim that thing and you're not jammin' it in there like you're diggin around for your phone in the bottom of your purse! Hmmm. smart. I think i'll take that one with me. So if your docs not real good in that area maybe mention that next time, up to you. Hopefully, when i'm doing that exam some day on the girl whose really scared and climbing up the exam table I'll be able to complete the exam and not hurt her and she wont be terrified the next time she goes to the doctor.

Moving on....hahaha! Yesterday we another one of those Severe winter weather episodes. There was lots of snow starting yesterday around 6. So what did matthew and I do? Duh! We went to lowe's to shop for a front door, and then to kroger to get groceries. Are we NUTS! Yes. We are. We were those people who rushed to the store but not because we were hording food but because we really had nothing to eat. By the time we came out of Kroger 2 hours later (oh how I loathe the grocery store), the cars were covered, the doors were starting to ice over and you could not see any of the lanes on shelbyville road. Apparently, Louisville never sees snow because everyone Flipped out! We got home safely, unloaded the groceries then sat down to eat our dinner. Which we picked up from White Castle on the way home since we were too tired to make anything. We watched the new October Road and then headed to bed. I'm still feeling sick and really tired. I got up about 6 this morning because I was supposed to have a pharm quiz, and I knew if school wasnt cancelled it would take me forever to get to school. As we are up at 6 am were crossing our fingers while watching the school closings go across the bottom of the screen. All of JCPS schools closed, all the catholic schools closed, Spalding University closed, Galen closed, Sullivan university closed, no word of louisville. Are you kidding me?! So i run downstairs to check my email. 2 HOUR DELAY!! Hallelujah! We turned off the tv, hit the lights and jumped back in bed. Thank God for two extra hours of sleep. I finally got up and got ready to leave and my WONDERFUL husband went out to dig our cars out of the ice and warm up the explorer for me to drive to school. I was really surprised that the roads were nowhere near cleaned off and even the ramps on the watterson and 64-west were only clean where people had driven. Agh! I was mad. Come on Louisville its like almost 930 at this point and your main highways aren't cleaned off??! People still gotta get to work. Props to the NKY, atleast they know how to clean off the roads that are important. Can you believe I only saw one plower on the expressway this morning? Clearly, i have an issue with this huh? Moving on....

This weekend we stayed with mom and tara, and on sunday we got to have breakfast with erin, joe and miss lucy kate. I couldnt believe how big she is getting. She's so cute and what a big girl! Oh i just can't handle it :)

Peek-A-Boo!

I see YOU!

Went out to eat tonight with some girls. We had an American Medical Women's Association dinner at Buca Di Beppo. It was soooo tasty and it was a different group of girls but i think we had a lot of fun. At one point i think i heard, smiley face cervix, all male review, and lord knows what other inappropriate topics we discussed. Everytime we go to dinner everyone says, this was fun we should do this like once a month. We dont get out much :) I think we may be on to something though.

Matthew is at work right now, doing a little over time :( yea from like 11-4am. So i'm wasting time because I cant sleep. but, i do have to get up tomorrow so maybe a little Nyquil will do my headache, cough, stuffiness, and well being a little good. Night.

ps. forgot on the pic of the day website to change those stupid settings so i finally realized that and fixed them. you can now leave comments without registering. Enjoy the new pics!