I have been putting off writing this post for a while because I still haven't quite figured out the right things to say. Every day, one answer brings about two more questions. We are currently living in times that one could not imagine. The coronavirus is rampant, getting worse, and there seems to be no end in sight. For current students, and everyone reading this in 2020, you know what that means, because the entire world is affected. People are losing jobs, schools are closed, and we are stuck inside our homes for an unpredictable amount of time into the future. The worst part of this crisis is the uncertainty that comes with it. There is uncertainty in when things will go back to normal, who is infected, who is sick, and what we can or can't do. I pray every night for all of those that are most affected by this terrible disease. Those that are sick and dying, those loved ones who are not even able to in the presence of their dying family members, and those that are being financially broken down.
What this coronavirus crisis means for me personally and as a class is that rotations are officially on hold. Our advisors and managers at our sites tried their best to keep us there as long as possible. I was literally the very last student to be allowed into Butler hospital. They wouldn't even let me in one day, until my manager got something worked out. Unfortunately that only lasted until the end of the week. It became out of our hands when the dean cancelled all clinical rotations. As of this moment, I have as many questions as you do. The future is so unclear, and I have no idea what to expect. Our best guess is that we are going to get an incomplete for this semester of rotations and hopefully things get back to normal by the summer and we were told that it would still be possible to graduate. Rumors change every day, and nobody has any answers. That is understandable because I don't feel like anybody in this entire country has the right answers right now. Worst case scenario, we may have to end up doing another semester? Nobody knows as of this writing. The modern day world has not had to deal with something like this before. There are no written rules or procedures for what is happening. I just hope that this ends sooner than later, for everybody's sake.
Up until the cancellation of our rotations, I was having a great experience at my current stay at Butler Memorial Hospital. It wasn't always like that. The first day I got there, I felt like I was way in over my head and I had a first couple of rough days. At Butler, you are the only PA there. That sounds really scary, but you aren't completely alone. There is a tech who does small biopsies and routine specimens and he is helpful if you need something. There are 4 pathologists there who are always willing to help you out with specimens. I used them every day when I first arrived. Eventually, I got into the swing of things and I felt that I was really coming into my own. With so much freedom, I was discovering the type of PA that I was going to become. Towards the end, I really felt part of a team. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Butler and I feel like I have come such a long way in the 5 weeks that I was there.
The hospital in Butler was an hour away from the house that we have in Pittsburgh. Driving that twice a day was not fun at all, but I eventually got used to it. You see all types of specimens and you don't have to fight over who gets what, since you are the only one there. The most abundant specimens that I received were breast seed localization lumpectomies, simple mastectomies, placentas, uteri, and leg amputations. You also receive a lot of bone specimens and anywhere from 15-50 routine specimens a day. The most interesting specimens I saw were a very large mass in a lung lobectomy, and a testicular cancer case. Butler uses the same dictation software as WVU uses, so you will have some experience with that already. They also use a lot of premade templates for you to use. For example, you just fill in the blanks for a placenta specimen. It makes things a lot easier and less overwhelming than having to remember everything word for word. On a normal day, I would gross from 8 am all the way until 4:30. Rarely, I felt overwhelmed. There was always a steady amount of work and on a normal day, I was never bored. Unfortunately, a "normal" day became abnormal towards the end of my time there due to crisis.
For now, I am confined to the house in Pittsburgh. Some classmates went back home to their families, but I chose to stay. I don't want to endanger my family since I've been in the hospital setting. I'm basically on a "staycation". I don't mind too much staying at the house. I am one that does not get bored easily. We still have our online class that we have to study for and take exams at the end of the month. You would think with all the free time that I have, that I should be doing really well on the exams. It's a little difficult to study these days when there is so much weight on your mind. With almost all news coming out these days as bad news, there is some good that can come from this, though. We as a human race can come out of this stronger and better for it. We can learn to appreciate the company of others, even if they are strangers. We can take time for ourselves to better oneself during these times. For me, that means learning to play the guitar and reading some books for fun for the first time that I started grad school, catching up on movies and video games, and video chatting all of my friends and family. We as a people can learn better ways to stay healthy and sanitary. And most of all, we can learn to appreciate the little things that we didn't realize how much they matter to us until they are taken away. I know that this is happening for a reason. We will become better people and become stronger. We will persevere.