the joint commission

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

~Semisonic

I am loooong overdue for an entry, especially considering so much has happened over the past two weeks. First, an overview, then some details.  

Bowling in dresses :)

Overview: Celebrated Amy's 25th birthday at Bryant Lake Bowl (awesome and old-school). Did a heck of a lot of driving. (i.e. 300 miles last weekend. Why do all the cool kids have to live so far away?...I'm talking to you, Sawatzkes.) Went to the Wild vs. Blackhawks (and sadly realized I can no longer cheer for Chicago when they're going to be in our division next year). Survived my last two weeks at Children's. Ordered much too strong of a drink at happy hour with my instructors on the last day. (I would not recommend the French 75 at 3 Squares in Maple Grove- 10% champagne, 10% sour, 80% gin.) Lunch with Jess, Kristy and Alina at Stir Crazy (build your own stir fry for $8 at MOA, hours before Jess left for her honeymoon). Honed my photography skills covering the Roseau-North Wright County girls hockey game Friday night with Clay (it's possible my best shot will make tomorrow's issue of the Monticello Times, nbd). Christmas-party-hopped (from Paige/Dave's to Taylor/Bridget's) on Saturday night. Lost more brain cells than I can afford on Sunday... 

Gettin' festive with Paige and Kristy

Now, some details:

Every three years, Children's has to undergo re-accreditation, AKA re-licensing, and re-making sure that all of its hospitals and clinics live up to the government's standards. It's impossible to underestimate the importance of this process-- without a passing score, the entire Children's network in MN would be shut down. The certification crew comes from The Joint Commission (yes, they're so important that they even capitalize the "T" in "The"), and consists of several intimidating people in fancy suits and heavy briefcases who tour the facilities and ask questions about when toys were last disinfected, where the shredder is located, who's responsible for maintaining the exit sign light, how PT collaborates with OT and SLP, and how we determine if a kiddo is a falls risk. Fortunately, TJC rarely visits smaller outpatient clinics like ours throughout the week they spend critiquing the Children's system. Unfortunately, rarely didn't cut it this year, and word spread like wildfire that they were planning on swinging by our clinic-- on the first day of the re-accreditation last Monday, no less.

Happy b-day Amy!

That day, my final Monday at Children's, I was slotted to give my in-service. I'm not a big fan of giving presentations, especially as a student presenting to the entire staff, plus the clinic manager. So just in case I wasn't quite nervous enough, I found out that TJC was supposed to arrive at lunchtime, right in the middle of my talk. No pressure. I spent the entire morning when I wasn't with patients memorizing Childrens' mission statement and vision instead of practicing my presentation. I'm not entirely joking when I say that I felt like the future of Children's rested on my shoulders for the stressful 20-minute stretch that I talked. I realize this is a slight exaggeration, but everyone was so dang tense that it made me way too nervous. Thankfully, though, only the regional director of Children's arrived in the middle of my presentation, while the rest of the TJC arrived 40 minutes after I'd finished. After the presentation, I proceeded to sanitize my hands four times, make sure there were no fire hazards in my gym, hide my not-so-spillproof coffee that I had by my laptop (thanks for the Caribou, Clay :), and hide under my desk while they interrogated the manager and fellow PTs with ridiculous questions. 90 minutes later, we were TJC-free, and I could breathe again knowing they wouldn't drag me out of my hiding space and make me recite the policy on hazardous waste in the clinic.

So now, as I look back upon my 9 weeks in pediatric PT, I have to admit that I learned more than I had ever hoped. Regardless of whether I go into pediatric PT (I'm leaning towards no...), I love the fact that I now feel comfortable (and fairly competent) treating tiny 8-week old babies, rambunctious toddlers, emotional teenagers, and everyone in between. At the very least, I'll be well-versed in typical child developmental milestones for when I have my own kids (which, this internship reinforced quite well, won't be anytime in my immediate future). But now that it's over, I'm looking forward to life's simple pleasures, like sleeping past 5:45 am and being able to wear nail polish again. 

A few last noteworthy points from internship #2:

1) I know so many Wheels on the Bus verses that it would make your head spin.

2) My last patient ever, at 5 pm last Thursday, was ready for discharge, so I did some standardized testing with him. Turns out, in the time he'd been at Children's (1 month before I got there, then 2 months with me), he jumped from the 5th percentile to the 81st percentile in gross motor skills. Ahhh that made me smile, and realize that perhaps I had changed a life or two.

3) I made it through 9 weeks without having to do a single diaper change. Score.

4) My last Tuesday in the clinic, I evaluated a baby who was the same age as how long I'd been at Children's, 9 weeks. Say what?! Kind of mind-blowing.

5) Best present from a patient's mom: The Breakfast of Champions. "When working with kids, you have to eat your Wheaties." 110% true. 

I have oh so much to do/look forward to over break. First on my list: rehabbing my body. I haven't run in almost a month (which has been very difficult for me and my stress relief mechanisms), for which I have bilateral peroneal tendonitis to thank. I'm also on day 3 of a pretty nasty concussion sustained in my hockey game on Sunday. Lesson learned: it's not worth sprinting at full-speed to keep the puck in the zone when in direct line of a teammate when it's just women's league. I think my tweet summed yesterday up my day pretty well: I love head injuries. Especially the part about no bright noises or loud lights. (True statement: I wrote that as is. I wasn't even trying to be funny.)

Ole hockey for life.

Next on my list: Lots of fun plans with friends and fam. Shopping in Albertville with mom and grandma, then Sawatzke Christmas party tomorrow, Chino with my Ole hockey girls on Thursday, and of course Christmas with the fam and Clay this weekend. Then--back to the grind, as I start to make my Powerpoint for Africa, apply for sports PT residencies, and think about starting to study for boards. I'll take a little break in there sometime, too, for what is sure to be a night to remember-- NYE at Whisky Park (our group is 18 people and counting!). Then-- the start of internship #3 on January 2nd, at United. I can only hope that my winter break doesn't fly by as quickly as these past few weeks have. Merry Christmas (& Happy Hanukkah), everyone! 

May your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white. LET IT SNOW.

no. 

i'll make you banana pancakes

Here's how I've spent the past 8 days:  

1) Battling sleep deprivation: Nothing new here. Slept 3 hours last Monday (late hockey + 5 am workout), and not many more than that on Tuesday night. There is a plus side, though-- I proved that the claims about there being a maximum amount of caffeine one can safely consume in one day are bogus. 

2) Savoring every moment that the Wild cling to 1st place in the NHL: No arguing with the fact that I'm a diehard Wild fan, but to be totally honest, I didn't think we'd last at the top quite this long. (It's been over 2 weeks!) Mike Yeo for MVP. 

3) Admitting that maaaybe peds isn't so bad after all: I had a breakthrough last week. All of a sudden, I realized I finally felt comfortable treating the wide variety of patients we see, babies included! You have to be active and engaged and creative and willing to fly by the seat of your pants when working with kids, and now that I'm so much more involved in treatment sessions, I have to admit that I might be having fun once in a while. 

Lake Mtka--gorgeous

4) Getting festive on Lake Minnetonka: Girls' night last Friday, hosted by Amy's friends with the awesome(ly huge) house in Tonka Bay (who happened to be out of town). We baked cookies (I attempted gingerbread cookies for the first time!), put together a tasty salad bar for dinner, consumed some vino, and watched Love Actually (or varying amounts of it, depending on how late we all managed to stay up). 

5) Making banana pancakes, then dancing them off: Ingenious Kristy concocted a yummy breakfast, inspired by the classic Jack Johnson tune. We didn't even have to pretend like it was the weekend. I was then introduced to Just Dance 3 on the Wii, and it was love at first move busted. 

6) Pawning off cookies: Between my well-dressed gingerbread men, Mac's pumpkin cookies, and Kristy's dark chocolate with M&M cookies, we had an abundance of sugary creations. We hauled 'em down to Northfield (after a stop at Caribou, my previous stomping ground/study hole) for Kristy's bros' bball game at Carleton. Pro: they won. Con: we didn't get rid of many cookies. 

7) Falling under the spell Northfield casts during a snow storm: That city is beautiful with a fresh coat of snow, and 10x more beautiful when the snow is falling, especially by the river and on a college campus. That didn't make for a pretty-- or fast-- drive back to the Cities, though. 

8) Jamming out to the latest and greatest Kristy & Anna CD: Music is life. And music you can sing to while driving with friends is as good as it gets. R. Kelly and Nelly and Kelly (Clarkson), oh my!

9) Exploring a hidden gem of a pizza joint with Kristy & Rachel: Because no one in their right mind would want to caravan during a snowstorm in which traffic was averaging 3-5mph on I-35, Rachel joined the dance party in the car. Starving, we found a cute little Italian restaurant in Plymouth to grab a bite to eat before braving the snow once more to spend the rest of the night in Uptown. 

10) Extending the Eagles' undefeated record: I feel like I should be knocking on wood right now, but my WHAM team is undefeated! 6-0-2, I believe. Big W on Sunday against a team that no one likes playing. Oh, and Katie Bennett is pretty good at putting the puck in the net. 

11) Decorating the tree: Paused the Wild game Sunday night to put up our 3.5 million ornaments. Ben was especially helpful when he decided to secretly hang my iPhone up on a branch, which would've worked if I hadn't gotten a text as he was in the process of stringing it up. He also tried his best to identify an odd ornament no one could account for...but gave up (and stapled his confusion to it). 

                 

12) Surviving the busiest day of my peds internship yet, and efficiently at that: Today I had a full 8 hours of patients, ran 90% of the treatment sessions, and did 100% of the documentation (including 2 evaluations, 1 discharge note and one progress note addendum)-- and still managed to get out of there at 5:30. Productivity was sky high aujourd'hui. 

baby Jack = best ornament on the tree

13) Trying to figure out how it's possible that Jack is turning TWENTY tomorrow...I mean really, when did this happen? Guess I should have picked up on the fact that he was approaching this milestone when he came home from college with a beard for the first time, but still, I feel blindsided. HAPPY B-DAY BRO <3