After a nine year hiatus!

Hello blogosphere!

I'm back after a nine year hiatus! And oh boy, has my life changed a lot in those years.

I graduated Marquette University in 2014 with my MSN (and a 4.0! W00t), and practiced for about three years at Sunrise Pediatric ER in Las Vegas, Nevada. I also had taught nursing school--specifically the pediatric clinical rotation to nursing students in Henderson, Nevada. Then I decided I wanted to pursue something more...

I'm currently a third year student at Des Moines University, an osteopathic medical school in Des Moines, Iowa. I am actually rotating in Tinley Park, IL to complete my third year of rotations. My next rotation begins tomorrow, which is endocrinology. I have already completed two family medicine rotations, pediatrics, internal medicine, and emergency medicine. This will only be a two week rotation for me as during the remaining two weeks I'll be taking a short leave of absence to get a tonsillectomy. I had nine instances of pharyngitis (not just strep, other fun bacteria too), and am getting them out (hopefully the week of the 13th of January 2020).

I am considering strongly pursing internal medicine/pediatrics as my specialty. I am deciding to do a combined residency since I want to help out both adults and children, and since I gravitate toward providing care for medically complex patients which is not just seen in pediatrics alone. I also will continue to love hospital medicine, which is where I would love my career to end up. Doing this residency will open up lots of options for fellowships in the future too.

Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I'm also pursuing a MPH (Masters of Public Health) degree at the same time as my DO (Doctor of Osteopathy) degree. I have finished 25 credits of it, and am planning on doing 6 more credits this coming semester. My concentration is Public Health Policy. I will be starting on my capstone project with the Chicago Department of Public Health, working with their STI/HIV division :)

Now the question for the blog, readers: Do you know someone who decided to pursue a dual degree? What did they think about it? Do you know someone who did IM/Peds? (Would you send them my way to talk with them?) :P

Hope to post more soon.
Phil

Poetry Corner

Hey everyone, as I mentioned, I write poetry, and one of the goals in my life is to have it published in a fairly reputable place and to eventually get a chapbook and then perhaps a full book of it published.

Here is this week's offering:

Reflection

Poetry is a muscle flex--
Actin and myosin connect--
Shorten in length to full effect--
Grow stronger yet, grow stronger yet.

I disregard training my mind.
The fibers atrophy with time.
My clear vision grows slowly blind--
Where light had shined, where light had shined.

Maintain my strength three hours a week.
Exercise my voice, start to speak.
My eyes adjust, seeing that Greek--
Borrow technique, borrow technique.

Like Achilles, I slay Hector,
Once I have regained my vector.
A creator, once dissector,
Now connector, now connector.

The shortest summer break ever.

Right now, I am currently on break from school.  I broke the news to Trevor today that I am still going to apply for medical school.  I am really nervous about this decision for the following reasons, and I need to hit up Laurie Goll, who is the Pre-Health Advisor at Marquette to talk about if it really is feasible for me to apply to medical school...I am realizing more and more as I go through this program how much I really want to be a doctor instead of a nurse practitioner, since I will be responsible for supervising NPs and PAs in the medical realm, as well as directing orders to give to nurses.  I don't want to sound like I'm really on a power trip here, but I really want to be a part of the medical community since I like having a lot of responsibility and people who need my guidance and support in their careers. 

Anyway, there are a couple things I need to talk to Laurie about: 1) If my MCAT scores from 2008 will still be feasible for applying for D.O. school in 2011 2) If she will read my first draft of my personal statement when I am finished with it 3) If she, once again, could possibly give me any recommendations on who to shadow as far as a D.O. goes (since my mom's physician won't allow me to do so :-/ ) 4) any other general advice she could give me besides "apply early." 5) and who to ask for recommendations, now that I have a couple of nursing classes under my belt, should I ask any nurses to write for me?

Another thing that is a problem is the "Memorandum of Understanding" I signed regarding the program I am currently in, which says basically that I intend to keep going in the program until I reach my MSN.   What will happen if they find out I applied to medical school without telling them? That worries me.

If you were in a great program, dear readers, but you were not sure if you wanted to complete the program or not, what would you do?

Something that has been on my mind for a while...years in fact.

I just finished talking to my friend Sarah Kay Welch, who was in the D.E. Nursing Program I am currently in at Marquette.  She is in D.O. medical school, starting her M2 year shortly, at Midwestern University in Chicago.  We had a very cathartic talk about something that I have been wanting to do for a while now, and that is applying to medical school.  I have been wanting to apply for medical school ever since I have been 18 years old, but didn't due to a number of factors, such as my mother's mental illness (more on that in future posts), finances (I was literally almost broke by the end of 2009), fear about my previous MCAT scores, and being scared about what to write about in my personal statement.  I know that this may be sacrilege to some of my fellow students who are earnest about becoming nurses.

One thing I am all about is living my life without regrets, and I have to consider two things.  One is if I would best serve patients as a doctor or a nurse practitioner/registered nurse.  Secondly, I have to consider how I will feel about the rest of my life as a person for something that I have been wanting to do for a long time.  I don't want to live my life with a looming regret that I can potentially address now.  When to apply is a question that runs through my mind as well.

There are many more things that I need to consider, such as how this will affect Trevor's plans and mine, and how we would adjust our relationship if we moved to a place where he couldn't find a job terribly easily.  Trevor also wants to go on to graduate school as well, and one of his plans is to work on a Master's degree, starting in a year.  How should I bring this up to Trevor?

So my question to everyone out there is, did you have a regret like mine? If so, did you do anything to resolve it? And you can be frank about my aspiration, as well, or ask me questions about anything, I'm such an open book, it doesn't matter what you ask me.

Title of the Blog

Hey all,

I wanted to say a couple words of where the title of my blog "Mountains Beyond Mountains" came from.  The Arcade Fire is one of my favorite bands of all time; if you have never heard of them, shame on you!  They are, in a word, brilliant, and easily one of the best alternative bands to come out in a long time.  Their song "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" is from their newest album, "The Suburbs" and the song encapsulates everything that's great about the band in a five minute short story.  I also found out that there is a book Mountains Beyond Mountains about a man who tried to cure the world of its ailments, and it won a Pulitzer Prize.  (I intend to read that book, and I will post an opinion about it when I am finished.) Lastly but definitely not least-ly, the blog's title talks about how I feel my life is sometimes--like hurdles after hurdles to overcome.  But mountains are also stalwart, which I feel encompasses me too.  (Feel free to roll your eyes here at how profound I'm making this.)

And so our journey begins...

Hey blogosphere! My name is Phil, and I am launching my first blog starting today, at the request of some of my friends.  I am really excited to start blogging, especially since I am planning to share poetry (horrors!) and some of my daily life with you.  A bit more about me: I am 25 years old and live with my partner, Trevor, in a manor on the East Side of Milwaukee, WI.  I am a graduate student at Marquette University in the Direct Entry Nurse Practitioner program, and hope to be an amazing Pediatric Acute Care NP.  I have many different hobbies, such as music, poetry, cooking, working out, reading, and many more things.  I make an awesome banana bread!  One thing I ask of you on here: please be respectful of me and other members who may make comments on my blog.  I want to foster a community on here where everyone feels welcome to speak their minds and not feel belittled for it.  Thanks for visiting!