Thursday marked the end of my 9 final marathon in PT school. I'm now a second year DPT student. Yah!!! It's hard to believe a year has gone by so quickly. Overall, it's been a year of ups and downs. Probably more downs than ups for me but I at least I can say I made it. I never would have thought PT school would be so hard. In retrospect, part of me almost wishes I went the whole way to medical school. What's another year right? Hmmmm maybe not :)
Looking back I had a rough start transitioning from the working-corporate world back to grad school. Although taking three years off and working wasn't such a bad idea.... Who knows what they do when they are 21 years old anyway? Now I can be confident I'm pursuing my true passion. My grades my first semester accurately reflected my rough transition. Going into a doctorate program in science with liberal arts background didn't exactly help. Not to mention being away from my husband was enough to make me quit before I even started.
Fall semester I began my first fall clinical at an outpatient clinic and loved every minute of it. I finally started to get into the groove of things and brought my grades up dramatically. Although I still had no social life, I began to enjoy PT school relatively speaking.
This semester I hit rock bottom again after my snowboard crash. My grades were decent at the beginning of the semester. After the accident however, I took my second round of tests on oxycodone due to my pelvic fracture. Let's say "d" for done..... I'm most likely going to be on academic probation. The onset of depression and apathy didn't assist my cause.
It's over though and I'm simply happy I finished the semester. I was stressing over the aftermath and my final grades a lot but honestly what can I do? I came back to school Wednesday after having my pelvis reattached on the previous Friday. What more can my program director want?
Through all of this I have learned a lot. Here are Heidi's top 10 lessons from the past year in pt school and life in no particular order:
1. I really do love PT especially manual therapy
2. I still do NOT want to work in geriatrics!
3. I truly HATE neuroscience
4. Not being able to run, bike, or swim or more torturous than I could have ever imagined
5. Faith works
6. No matter your circumstances, you must always make the best of things (even 4 pelvic fxs)
7. Rough times reveal your true family and friends
8. Worrying and stress don't help your cause (especially neuro exams)
9. I heart cracking (manipulating) l-spines, t-spines, and c-spines
10. My husband Scott is the still the best thing that ever happened to me!
I meant to comment on this earlier - but have been swamped out here....
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Given ALL that you've been through, I had SO MUCH ADMIRATION for you! You suffered a life-altering crash, and managed to FINISH out your semester...and figure out a few things more about your life. That is NOT an easy thing to do, and my hat goes off to you! I hope you realize how totally kick butt and awesome you are! :)
The depression is definitely hard...I went through the grief cycle a few times...(Kubler-Ross)...shock (trauma, accident, etc), denial (this isn't happening to me and I'll get better right away no matter what!), anger (I'm mad at xxx), bargaining (If I can just run fast again, I'll be happy), depression (I'll never get better ever), testing (maybe if I try this...it will work out), acceptance (I'm okay with who I am and what I can do because i understand so much more about myself...)...
You're doing great...this is all so new to you - you've NEVER gone through something like this in the past, so how in the world could you control how you're feeling or what exactly happens? Its all totally new territory. But each day is a new day, one step closer to recovery and getting better.
You're doing great!
Hey Heidi.. I saw this post last week in Aruba and I wanted to comment so badly but I had to run and do something (dinner? beach?) can't remember. Anyway, I just wanted to say how strong you are for getting through everything, yes,faith does work and just keep focused on the positives. I promise this will pass and you will feel good about where you have come from and who you are because of it! Thinking of you. HOw about I rented a house. I did it just before I left. I haven't written about it on my blog yet because I'm not quite ready to go that route and try to explain something I can't even figure out yet. Either way, I think I will be moving the weekend of May 10th so let me know what you are up to some time ad we will get together. Thinking of you and Way to finish finals!! You did it! Now go lay on the beach in FL and hang out with Scott!
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