Back to School

It's back to school this week and, so far, I have an easy schedule. One of the classes I'm taking is online which is splendid. That means my body does not have to be anywhere specific at any appointed time to take the class. I think the hardest part of my day is making sure that I show up at the right place and time, but the difficulty is not really with my classes, it's with picking up and dropping off the kids. On any given day I have to run through my mind: What kid is where? Who's picking them up? What time? From where again? The nice thing, I guess, is that they aren't really confused about it. When I catch my daughter putting a toy into her dotted backpack (she's not supposed to bring toys to her kindergarten class) she'll say (in classic tsk, "gu-u-uy mo-o-om" tone), "But mom it's Thursday and I go to the afterschool program. We can bring toys!"

My first class on Monday is Adult Physical Assessment. Cool. We're learning how to assess the wellness (or otherwise) of each of the body systems. We launched right in and did the musculoskeletal system. Observe first, then grapple (oh, wait, I think the word is "palpate") the patient/client/lab partner. And, the neat thing is, there are a couple of different ways that you can palpate someone. It ranges from light touch to feeling for an organ (there are words for these things, maybe just light and firm, but maybe something more exciting than that). I was proud of my observation skills when I detected that my lab partner's left leg was shorter than her right leg. When I measured her it was true! It was a full quarter of an inch shorter than her right leg. She pretty much started talk of joining a circus side show (forget nursing, be a freak!). The funny thing was, though, when we were tested on our musculoskeletal assessment, S.'s legs were of the same length.

In my first theory class I was AGAIN handed a twenty dollar bill (see this post)! OK, I had lent it to my friend the day before. Narytheless, I hope that is the only thing that this version of theory has to do with last quarter's. Well, aside from the fact that it's the same students (that wacky bunch!) and the same instructors (Overexplano teacher and The World's Fastest Talker).