Getting ready to take my MT test!

I guess it's time to do a new post that isn't so depressing. Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile but I have been busy with the holidays and studying. That being said...

WISH ME LUCK ON TAKING THE TEST!

I am going to try for the end of this week or first thing next week. I am so worried that I am not ready but I'm sure I will always feel that way! I am still painfully slow at typing and that is going to be a killer. I was hoping I could get my speed up but it isn't happening like I want. I taught myself how to type by looking at my fingers and now I have had to relearn how to type the right way. Now instead of typing 20 words a minute by looking at my hands, I can type 20 words a minute without looking! Go figure.

The test consists of 5 reports that I had to transcribe without a key (I already have those to as close as I am going to get), multiple choice, spelling corrections, and T/F. It will be open book so hopefully I can be fast with my resources.

I may still chicken out and decide I need more time but if I am brave enough...

In loving memory

You all know that feeling of hearing that a good friend has passed on unexpectedly. That is the feeling that I experienced yesterday! It is a feeling I do not take well. It haunts me for weeks!

Jordan has a good friend from Enoch named April, who she keeps in touch with and who used to live right behind us. This friend has come to visit us since we left Enoch and we cherished her time with us.

Jordan called her yesterday to talk to her and found out that this girl's mother (and my friend) had been killed in an automobile accident LAST Saturday! Jordan was pretty upset that something like this could happen and realized just how fragile life really is.

Her name is Wendy and she was amazing. She had kidney failure 7 years ago and had to go on dialysis. Two years ago she was the recipient of a live donor kidney transplant. http://cedarcityreview.com/articles.php?id=2154 That story is amazing enough and we had the privilege of having April stay with us while Wendy had the surgery. She recovered well and finished college and was teaching 1st grade in the elementary that my kids went to while living in Enoch. So this was a sad ending to a great life that was full of goodness.

Jordan went to the temple this morning to do baptisms for the dead for her first time. She was so excited and all the young women were supposed to be fasting. So Jordan said, "Mom, I think I am going to fast for April too," and she did. What an amazing daughter and friend!

It is stories like these that rock my world! I get so paranoid that I am going to lose someone or that I will die before I am ready. My greatest fear is an unexpected death. I never want to lose a loved one before I can tell them how much I truly care! I never want to live with regret that I didn't get to know someone better.

So go and give yourselves all a big hug for me and make sure that you never take life for granted! Tell your family everyday how much they mean to you.

My prayers are for April and her family. They are amazing and I pray that they will always remember what a wonderful mother they have.

Doran's 50th

Here are some pictures of Doran's birthday celebration (or should I say wake?) from out to the orchard.




Table decorations

FAMILY PICTURES

We are a happy family...




Anyone want the kid to the right of me?!?!?

PUPPY FUN!

These are our pride and joy. They are 4 1/2 weeks and almost ready for a new home! Here are a couple of fun pics of them.

They got to hang out with the cuz's.

Hunter (above) and Drake(below)

These pics with Megan were priceless!

Puppies for sale!
Get em while they're young!

DO YOU SPEAK DOCTORESE?

Have you ever gone to the doctor to tell him/her your symptoms

and he tells you

that you probably have a URI/pharyngitis.



You probably wonder "am I going to die"?

Let me calm your fears. While is sounds scary, it just means that you have an upper respiratory infection with a sore throat. Why all the complicated language? I don't know but your exam was probably dictated a little something like this:

...TMs and EACs normal. Nares have turbinate injection and edema. Oropharynx erythematous, no fetor or exudate. Mucous membranes moist without lesion...

That's what I get to transcribe.

I was in for a little shock when I started MT school

and thought I would be able to transcribe the above dictation. It was like learning to say "Hi, how are you? I'm fine thank you. What is the weather like? Where do you live..." etc in a new language and then be expected to sit down and type dictation in that same language, but he/she isn't saying "Hi, how are you? I'm fine thank you. What is the weather like? Where do you live..."etc.

You get to type a foreign language and be expected to get all of the spelling and punctuation exactly right. Then you get the pleasure of hearing all the background noise (coughing, yawning, phones, horns, alarms, beeps, other dictations, etc... ) muffling the already impossible new language. Some dictators speak at frightening speeds while others might have the mic too close to their mouth. And then you have my favorite... ESL dictators...

So far I just skip those ones. Shhh. Don't tell my instructors.

I am now only a couple of weeks away from taking my final exam and thought I would test you on some of the Doctorese language I have learned.

What part of the body do the following conditions affect?:

1) Acute renal failure secondary to HIV nephropathy

2) Cardiomyopathy

3) Diabetic leg ulcers with cellulitis

4) Diverticulitis

5) Upper gastrointestinal bleeding

6) Acalculus cholecystitis with pancreatitis.

7) Schizophrenia.

Do I know what each of these is? Only if I look them up first, but I can transcribe them now. (if they are spoken clearly and only by a dictator that speaks English!) I think I am in trouble!

Ok so I am desperate to post, and since I have to study instead, I thought I would combine the two. They do say that teachers make the best learners. Was I a pretty good teacher?