School Stuff

 I know I haven't posted in awhile. There's really not too much to update, but I'll probably just ramble anyway (mostly about school).

 I got a raise and have been working a lot. I also just found out I had 11 hours of vacation time saved up, so I decided to cash it in on my next check. Definitely looking forward to next Thursday's check.

School is going fine. I took one of the toughest tests thus-far. The unit was based on the fundamentals of medical transcription. I was sent a text book of everything from English studies and practices to diseases processes, anatomy, medico-legal ethics, pharmacology, etc. Just for my last unit I had to study around 100 pages from the text book. Not my style at all, but I survived and wound up only missing one question on the test. An EASY question for that matter. But Emilee, as her usual dur self, misread the question. But one question wrong wasn't bad. I did spend a good amount of time on that darn test though. Luckily it all worked out.

I also loved how the unit described MTs as medical language specialists...most people think typist, medical secretary, word processor, clerk, or whatever else, and I can see why now. Medical terminology is mostly what my studies have been revolved around. That, and diseases, anatomy, procedures, etc. It's also extremely important we learn pharmacology as well as laboratory tests and results. The only thing that makes an MT different from any other health care professional is the lack of hands-on with patients. It's interesting now- often times I find myself chuckle at these medical dramas when they use terminology or disease processes in a serious matter and I understand what they're saying-and laugh how serious they make it. Like on House, someone mentioned a pituitary tumor, and a doctor asked, "shouldn't we check for cancer?"- and I chuckled and said aloud, "silly, they are benign tumors", whereas another doctor corrected him and informed him of this. Don't get me wrong, though. I still love House, Grey's Anatomy, and Private Practice. Gotta admit, I feel pretty cool knowing this stuff. Even my brilliant husband overhears something and asks aloud, "what does that mean?" I feel smart informing him. Mostly because I'm the one always asking him questions since he's my human Wikipedia and dictionary. Sometimes I shock myself when I realize I know something he doesn't, haha.  I'm still a work in progress, though (flashcards are amazing with this stuff). But I am looking forward to finishing this. When Gary and I discussed adoption, Gary asked, "You do know you'll probably have to quit your job, right?" I agreed with him, but added, "That's why I'm doing this medical transcription program." My backup plan for staying home would be this career. I am still planning to do the engineering program once I'm done with this though. You know, extra backup.

There's also a program called the American Association for Medical Transcription. When you join the program, whether as a student or a professional, you have the opportunity to meet up in person others who are pursuing the field/in the field. It's been recommended everywhere to join the association because it's an excellent way to get your foot in the door. My professor is also urging me to start finding jobs right now in the health care industry. So, I've been looking around. I applied for a job at our local hospital (Henry Mayo) as a medical clerk. I'm still looking and hopefully will find some luck. It's $55 to join the AAMT, so we'll see.

Okay, I think that's all regarding school for now. Told ya I'd ramble :)

Everything else is going rather well. Gary's job is still amazing and I love seeing him so happy. I just love that boy.

Besides that, there's not much else to update. I have to work in a little bit. Sucks, but that's life. I'm also glad to see the weather cooling down again. Poor little crazy cat keeps wanting to go outside in the early mornings like we used to. I peeked outside around 7am this morning and noticed the thermometer read 46 degrees. Yeah freaking right. Sorry, cat. But he gets to hangout during the afternoon if I'm home. Then the door closes again in the evening because it gets freezing again. He'll survive. Speaking of cats, I switched their diet. I've been slowly changing them (and fully changed now) to Wellness. They've always been on expensive food, but this is nuts. However, because of their allergies, asthma, and weight, it's recommended by their vet. I'm still feeding them their supplement the vet gave them, too. Anyway, the food is holistic, doesn't contain any corn or by-products (fillers), and is made from deboned chicken and other natural foods. Oh, and it's a weight management formula. I know, they're just cats, but they're my babies and I want them in great health.

Speaking of, I've decided I'm going to switch medications. I don't feel this is working out for me anymore. I bought a book called "Living Well with Autoimmune Disease", and it has a lot of good and information as well as a recommendation to another thyroid treatment (the author suffers from Hashimoto's as well). So, I'm going to try out the new one. A woman mentioned she had been on Levothyroxine (what I take) for a while, but felt it never actually worked. So, she switched to a thyroid medication that helps add T3 and T4 (they work with the thyroid), called Armour, and she said her symptoms disappeared and she lost half the weight she was carrying around. So I'm interested. I do feel my symptoms never go away. My hair still falls out, my skin still dries up, my joints always flare up and hurt, my mind is always fuzzy, and I'm exhausted and fatigued.

Okay, seriously, gotta get ready for work and stop yapping. Sorry for the severely boring blog post today. More family-related stuff another time. Bye!