TPTA Student Conclave

If you haven't caught on, I am a PTA student...no, not a student of the Parent/Teacher Association. I am a Student Physical Therapist Assistant. This weekend I went to Lubbock, Texas for a 2 day Texas Physical Therapy Association Student Conclave. My school paid for the registration, and my PTA club paid for the hotel. I just had to get myself there. Lubbock is an hour flight to the northeast (or a dreadful 6 hour car drive which I opted out of). About 16 of us from my school flew together, including 3 teachers. It was my first time to stay in a hotel room with people I don't know outside of a class. That was an adventure in itself. I swear that bed I had to share wasn't even a queen. Oh well, 2 nights of intermitent sleep because of worrying I'd fall off or brush in to the other girl doesn't mean much on the grand scale of things.

The first day we arrived we went to the exhibit hall. This hall was full of vendors and reps from all sorts of companies in my field. They had every kind of freebie you could imagine, from chapstick to pens, and stress balls to first aid kits. Every table had handfuls of candy to load up on you. This exhibit will be much more useful for me next year when I am on the verge of job hunting. It opened my eyes to just how many options and roads there are in this field. One thing that peaked my interest was doing physical therapy for a children's home health agency. The rep was really friendly and will be in Austin a couple weeks and I can probably meet with him when he is here. If I can get my spanish up to par, I could open up my possibilites in the job market even more with great monetary incentives!

Friday night was the Student Assembly. We nominated and voted on a new student leadership board and had a keynote speaker telling us why PT's are wonderful. It was actually facinating to watch.

Saturday was a day of workshops. I went to one on EKG's, Wound Care, and Traumatic Brain Injuries. The Wound Care one was the most fascinating. I saw pictures of gaping holes in people, and the word "wound" just doesn't seem big enough of a description. I was shocked! They had some before and after pictures, it is a miracle that the body can restore some of the damage that we inflict on it. I am sure it will be very different when I see these kinds of wounds in person, but as far as seeing pictures goes, I can handle it fine. A classmate had to leave the lecture because it was making her sick. I learned that in the healing process, scabs are bad. Scabs keep the new skin from forming underneth and getting better quicker. So you know the advice of don't pick it off and let sores dry out? BAD! Wounds should stay clean and moist (but not wet)- covered and moist with something like Neosporan.

I won a drawing from an exhibit. Lucky lucky me, I got a basket full of wine, wine glasses, and bottle openers. Great, the one person on the trip who doesn't drink got the prize with alcohol. I decided it was silly to figure out how to bring it home on the plane and then figure out what to do with it, so I returned it. I took it back to the booth and said thanks, but I don't drink, so why don't you draw another name. They said- "This is a first". My classamates thought I was nuts, and I hoped it would spur a gospel discussion, but nobody really inquired why I don't drink. Guess I need to be a bit more proactive if I want to have gospel discussion. I'm such a chicken!

That night was the reception dinner. One of my teachers got the PTA Teacher of the Year award. He really is a great teacher. It was fun to cheer him on.

In addition to the scholastic stuff, I managed to run twice at they gym, study for an hour, rate 25 tests, and watch the UT football game. I proudly wore my UT sweatshirt in Texas Tech Red Raider land. Nobody tried to jump me, but I had no fear. I had some people tell me I was brave, I took it as a compliment!

We flew back on Sunday morning. I was SO excited last night to have my very own bed all to myself! I didn't have to turn over like flipping a pancake- flip, flip, flip...

I learned something about myself on this. I learned that although I can be a bit superficial sometimes and have felt a bit obessive about still being excited about my concert earlier this month, the one thing I am not is a woman of the world. I was shocked to find that people I respect in the classroom get out into the world, a filter falls out of their mouths and some became people I didn't really want to be around. I couldn't believe the language some used and the way they complained about the conference and hotel that was pretty much free. I was very disappointed with them, but at the same time, I am grateful that my ears were offended by it. Does that make sense? I would hope that my Spirit would be sensitive to the crassness of the world. I am glad that it is.

One to another busy week...

Step By Step, Oooo baby, gonna get to you girl!

When I was 9 my dad took me to a New Kids On The Block concert in Austin, TX. Five years later the group broke up. Almost 15 years after that, they have reunited and are touring again. I wasn't crushed and I haven't obsessed, but I admit I was very excited when earlier this year they announced a new CD and tour. They were on the Today Show and weren't very good, so I didn't hold high expectations, but no way was I going to miss a concert if it came to town. Then Gina and Chrissy Russell emailed me and asked if I wanted to go to a concert with them in San Antonio. Heck ya! This week as the days got closer to Friday, I started to get more and more excited. Isn't it every girls dream to see the band she loved reunited again? I dug up my old cassettes. Yes- I said cassettes! Luckily my car still has a cassette player. I popped "Step By Step" in on Thursday. I was surprised that I remembered all the words. Then I started looking up stuff on the Internet. YouTube has been my best friend. They have two music videos of new stuff, and they looked real good! I watched interviews and looked at the NKOTB TV on their website with clips the guys film themselves backstage before concerts. By Thursday night I felt like a little kid on Christmas Eve.

Gina and Chrissy arrived on Friday about 3:30pm. I haven't really hung out with either of them since I was in middle school, but it sure was easy to take our trip down memory lane and play the tapes in the car. We stopped to get dinner and arrived at the stadium about 7:00.

The opening act for the opening act was aweful. She was Jamaican and looked like a woman still trying to wear a tu-tu she had when she was 5. I am glad she left after 3 songs. Then Natasha Bedingfield came out for about 30 minutes. She was good.

While we were waiting for the real show to start, they had a screen that you could text a message to enter a contest and see your message on the screen. That was fun. There were some pretty obsessed people there. Comments like- "I named my first child after Jordan", "Danny, I want to kiss your muscles", "Donnie, I am single and so are you", "Joe and I locked eyes in Vegas and it was amazing". That was very entertaining to watch.

Then the show began...13,000+ screaming woman...lots of lights and smoke when the came guys were lifted up from behind the stage. They started by singing "Boyfriend" from their new CD "Block". Oooooo, the looked good. "If you're single, single, you don't gotta be alone tonight...for the next couple minutes, girl I'ma be your boyfriend". They as soon as that was over the immediately transistioned in to an old song- "Favorite Girl". This song Jordan hits some very high notes. I didn't think he would be able to do it. I was wrong. They went on for quite awhile singing old songs and looking great. The sure do dance a lot and looked great doing it.

In the middle they somehow appeared on a revolving circular stage on the stadium floor and sang 2 new songs and and an old one with a piano. The old song was "Tonight", Gina's favorite. At the end of that they ran through the crowd back to stage and when they got back on the stage they brought a fan with them. Then they went back and forth,most old mixed occasionally with new. Joe got to do a couple solos on stage, Jordan did some solos, and Donnie did a solo. I don't really like him. Danny did a break dancing solo. Jon was just sang and dance in the back. He looks a bit out of place, but still easy on the eyes. I watched an interview of him on Oprah talking about severe panic attack. (He even had one right there with Oprah then consoling him.)

They sang "You got the right stuff", "Please don't go girl", Hangin' Tough, Summertime, Baby I believe in you, Step By Step, and on and on... One of the highlights was Jordan's solo of "Baby I believe in you". Jordan stood on the stage with his six-pack revealed as his unbuttoned shirt blew in the wind, he sang- "I'm so in love girl, with you, you, you, all of you." I turned to Gina and said- I can die now! If anybody knows, a certain individual I went to my first New Kids on the Block Concert with yelled out this same thing and I was mortified! But this time, I know he was singing to me. Okay, so me and thousands of other 25+ year old women.

Two hours of fun. Two hour of being swooned by the guys. Two hours of screaming, waving my hands side to side, singing along. Two hours of looking at Joe and Jordan through binoculars thinking they look so hot and wondering what their wives think of all this. Two hours of enjoying it all. It definitely exceeded my expectations.

I would do it all over again, and if they come back around, I'd go again. Fun times.

Now I must go back to the real world....or maybe I'll let myself dream for a couple more days...

It feels so good to be stiff!

It feels so good to be stiff.

I have been seeing a Physical Therapist for a week now. When I do the prescribed exercises, my back sure does feel much better. I am suppose to do 10 push up extension every hour, approx. 10 times a day. During the week it isn't hard , but when I was running around all weekend it didn't work out so well. I feel much better when I do the extensions, so I know it is working and need to keep it up and be consistent. I also have a half dozen exercises to do and get a 15 minute myofascial release massage at the PT office. It has been so very cool to have a PT and PTA to ask a million questions to and get the "inside scoop"on this cool field I am going in to. I know I am a geek because being a patient has been fun.

I went back to Body Pump for the first time in 5 weeks yesterday. I took it light and listened to the doctor by not doing didn't the "dead rows". I bend backwards and stretched in between every track. I didn't overdo it and my back felt fine when I was done. Today I am so stiff. My legs were shaking yesterday after lunges, so I knew this was coming. It is a good stiff though. It is the kind of pain that says- hey, you did something good, keep it up. As opposed to the pain that says- you dummy, stop! I've had too much of the latter lately, it is so nice to have the good kind of stiffness. I am glad to know that even though every muscle in my body is tender today, I didn't loose all my muscle mass (I know, silly fear in just 5 weeks). Wahoo! Thunder and lightening are still there!

This back stuff isn't over yet, but I do see a light at the end of the tunnel. Slow and steady...I just need to keep it slow and steady!

To a sorrowful soul...

This post is dedicated to a friend who has just lost her mother. The ache of her whole soul, I cannot imagine. The pain she feels can be soothed by the touch of the Master, but will never be fully gone in this earthly life. So what comfort could I possibly offer? I am going to give it a try, but I am relying heavily upon the words of Elder Jeffery R. Holland. I can't find this talk yet online, but it was given at the CES fireside of September 2008.

During conference today we looked up the meaning to the word "vicissitude". It means- "a change, especially a complete change, of condition or circumstances, as of fortune". My friend is experiencing a vicissitude of life right now. Her life has changed forever. Elder Holland taught that some hardships have to happen. He reminded us of just how hopeless life would be with these hardships were it not for the atonement of Jesus Christ. Then, he taught about one of the great lessons that comes from the prophet Joseph Smith's time in Liberty Jail. He compared Liberty Jail to a "prison temple". Prison temple? Can the two words possibly be put side by side? Could anything sacred and holy possibly have occurred in such a horrific atmosphere? Yes! Sections 121-123 of the "Doctrine and Covenants" show us beauty and majesty of comforting words, and the merciful manifestation of God's loving response. Elder Holland said that you can have sacred, revelatory experiences even in the most horrific of circumstances. "Man's extremity is God's opportunity."

The last verse of section 123 says- "...cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed". Sometimes in times of trial when we are stretched to what we think is beyond our capacity to bare, all we can do is stand still and wait to see His arm to be revealed.

My friend would probably rather not have this "opportunity" to learn from God, and can't imagine doing anything cheerful right now. But, I know that above all else, no matter what condition our hearts might be in (broken or whole), God will give us his reassuring love unceasingly...and we will feel it more easily if we will stand still and wait to see His arm to be revealed.

Much love and hugs my friend....

Trying something new...

Well I did it. I swallowed my pride and went to a doctor yesterday. Not just any doctor, a spine specialist. Dr. Yaniv gave me some good one-on-one time and for the next three weeks I am going to try physical therapy. I will start on Tuesday. Dr. Yaniv thinks that it is discal (sp?), but because I don't have a lot of nerve pain, she doesn't think it is ruptured, just bulging. I am going to the chiropractor today to pick up my x-rays. I was feeling kind of guilty about just quitting my adjustments, but then I thought- hey, I don't need to feel bad that they didn't fix me. Doesn't mean I am a bad patient, and it doesn't mean they are bad doctors. Chiropractic adjustments just aren't going to fix this particular problem. I have to admit I am pretty excited to get physical therapy, it is going to be fun to be able to learn some real life clinical stuff!