Oh, where to start??

Well I would have to say that this past quarter caused me the most pain--both mentally and physically! I struggled though most of the quarter, and I don't exactly know why. Things were okay after the Thanksgiving break, but we were only back for a couple weeks before Christmas break. Having that much time off really can affect a study groove. It was tough coming back. Granted, Winter quarter of the 2nd year is notoriously the toughest in medical school, but this was no joke! But I made it through okay and now I get a week off to rejuvenate before going into the final quarter of didactics. Our course load will ease up over the next quarter so that we can turn our focus to board exam prep. I have my test scheduled for June 12th. After that, I have a week of clinical prep classes, and then I start my first rotation at the beginning of July.

made me a little flower heart bouquet out of straws, paper, and a cardboard dowel for a vase. On the vase says "I love Daddy because..." then each heart-flower has a little way she loves me. Of course Meghan helped her, but Braylei came up with them all on her own! I didn't really get to celebrate my 25th birthday too much, which was on the 21st of February because I was in the midst of finals! But ITo backtrack a bit, I wanted to note that for Valentine's Day, Braylei did get a great birthday present. I mentioned in my last post, that my old brick iPod kicked the bucket, but I now have a sweet new replacement... a 32GB iPod touch! It is incredible! Once all the 3rd party applications come out in June, it will be not only an awesome iPod, but a totally rad PDA as well! I'm so stoked about it!

My Spring break of course just flew on by! I had to finish putting in my requests for my clinical rotations. AZCOM has a lottery system where we select our top 3 choices for each of our core rotations, and then the computer figures out where we will go and when. We should find out the results in a week or so. We also did some final touches on our side yard, including some rock, putting in a bench, and cleaning our grill. I also got a chance to visit with a mentor of mine, Dr. Mitch Kasovac, who is now the director of Family Medicine at AT Still University in Mesa. He showed me the new medical program out there and the innovative curriculum that they have. While out in the east valley, I was also able to swing by my old work at Mezona Orthopaedics. They have a brand new facility where the docs and the physical therapy are together, which makes it really nice for the patients. Then I was able to stop by and see my dad for a few minutes before heading to my old high school, Tempe High, where I helped out an old friend, Eric Greenhalgh, who is now one of the softball coaches there. I went out do do some strength and conditioning drills for the team, which centered around core stability. Most of all, I really enjoyed spending more time at home with Meghan and the kids! During this time, Braylei got her first haircut! It was just a trim, but we took her to Cool Cuts for Kids, where she got to sit in a car and watch the movie Cars while she got her hair cut!

We also made a return trip to McCormick Ranch's Railroad Park in Scottsdale. We had some leftover tickets to use from Christmas break, and they were having Kid Appreciation Day, which was way cool! They had carnival booths, face painting, jumpy castle things, and some craft centers. Braylei got to make her own choo-choo whistle, and colored some blocks which will be put into a big mosaic at the Children's Art Museum. Braylei of course loved riding the carousel!

The kids are doing great. Tayscen continues to grow by the day. He is becoming a connoisseur of fine foods, developing his favorite baby foods, as Meghan makes all sorts of fun combinations for him to eat. He is rolling around all over just has a permanent smile on his face! My favorite thing that he does, is that every night when we put him down for bed, he will always end up in the top left corner of the bed, regardless of where we lay him down! It's hilarious! Braylei is of course my little princess. She is so smart. I've noticed her speech continues to improve even more that sometimes I forget that she's still just two! She can look at almost any word and spell it now, and I have the feeling that pretty soon she'll be helping me with my board review studies!

Oh, and then Wednesday night, when I was playing basketball at the church, I ended up injuring my foot pretty bad! Early in the game, one of the guys on the other team had a fastbreak, but I caught up to him and got an amazing blocked shot, but I must have got too much hang time, because I had a bad landing on my left foot. At first I thought it was just a little sprain, so I just loosened it up a bit, changed up my running pattern so I wasn't running on the ball of my foot as much, and it seemed fine. But the pan kept worsening throughout the game, and by the time I got home, it was hard to move and was pretty swollen. The pain was exponentially worse the next day. I couldn't put any weight on it, and I couldn't get into the doctor until Friday, forcing me to hobble around everywhere. I still thought it would resolve in a few days, but I was starting to get worried. It hurt a lot worse than any sprain I've ever had. So Friday morning I went into the Podiatry clinic at my school, and it didn't take me too long to figure out something was up> Whenever a doctor asks for more X-rays numerous times and then returns to have more physicians and podiatrists exam your foot, chances are good that you have something wrong. Turns out that I most likely have a Lisfranc dislocation, which is a rupture of the ligament between my 1st and 2nd metatarsal in my midfoot, and there was a separation between the medial and 2nd cuneiform, which are other small bones in my foot. Chances are excellent that surgery will be required, but the decision will be made tomorrow when the results of the MRI come back. If I do, the return to activity timetable is 6 months to a year, with me being completely non-weightbearing for 6 weeks. In the meantime, I've been crutching around with this giant immobilizer boot feeling completely useless. I've also realized how rough it is to live in a 2-story house! But I will be sure to update everyone when I find out more info!

That that didn't stop the fact that on the 8th, Meghan and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! It's crazy to think we've been married 5 years already! And then add in the fact that we've known each other for almost 11 years now and it's like we're an old married couple! We obviously couldn't do a lot given that we have two small kids, one of whom is still nursing, I'm in school, and I have a gimpy foot! We did go to dinner and a movie, and it was nice to get away for just a few hours, if nothing else!