Month: April 2017

Hello, all! Just as a disclaimer, I am writing this post neuroanatomy practical, so please forgive my typos.

I wanted to write a quick post about our wonderful professors at Ohio State. I have always loved my teachers growing up, my undergraduate professors at the University of Dayton, and now my optometry professors at OSU. A couple of weeks ago we had to vote on the professors to put our white coats on us (one month from today!), and the list included all of our professors we have had this year. I believe we have had 11 professors this year, and I found it very hard to choose just two to be part of our white coat ceremony. I am also reminded how much I love my professors when we fill out their evaluations for the year. I love the opportunity to reflect on the year and all that each person has taught me. I also find it impressive that our professors genuinely take our advice to heart. Several of my professors have made changes throughout the year to better accommodate us.

To explain my point, here are some examples of what our professors do for us. Our professors always print images for us if we have something we need to draw out. They could easily tell us to print it before class, but they go out of their way to print it. Last semester Dr. Chandler bought us some insane amount of Tim Horton’s Tim Bits because we had her class for four hours straight. Dr. VDN (Dr. Delgado-Nixon) has brought us breakfast and cookies several times throughout the year. Surprisingly, I could list others who have also brought us treats this year. Dr. Earley seems to always need to be in five places at once, but he scheduled two review sessions from 7-9am to review for our brain practical this week. Dr. Plageman has scheduled multiple review sessions for Friday at 5pm to ensure it allows all of us to come, which is time he could take to be home with his family. All of my professors email me back within the day, and they always do everything they can to accommodate our schedules for office hours. This list could go on and on!

We also become one big family with not just our classmates but our professors, too. Since there are only 66 of us in the class, our professors really get to know us. For instance, yesterday one of my classmates missed the first hour of Dr. VDN’s class and it was his birthday. Dr. VDN said we should call him to sing happy birthday, so somebody called him, put her on the phone, and then we all sang. Once was not enough, so then our epidemiology professor (Professor Mitchell) made sure we sang to him, again.

In addition to spending many hours with us in class, our professors also like to participate in many of the events that are after regular school hours. A couple of weeks ago the Private Practice Club had a trivia night at the student union, which I sadly didn’t get to go to. It looked super fun, though! Anyways, Dean Zadnik, Dr. Mutti, and Dr. Earley had a trivia team, so of course they won. We also are having a spelling bee this Thursday for fun and there are a variety of professors participating in that. As a former teacher, I know that by Friday night, I was usually pretty exhausted, and I think it is awesome that our professors are willing to spend their evenings with us.

I know this sounds so ridiculous, but I am just so grateful to have the professors we have here at Ohio State.

In other news, today I took the ominous brain practical that we have been worrying about since the start of the semester. In all honesty, I think that was the most stressed I have ever been for a test. I think it was really stressful because the amount of material is pretty overwhelming and the concept of a practical is just intimidating. It is scary to know you only have a small amount of time to look at something, identify it, and answer questions about what might happen if that structure is damaged or something. While that scares us now, it is an important thing to get used to. Soon we will be seeing patients, have to identify something, and know what happens when something goes wrong. Anyways, I am happy to report that I survived. It is always the weirdest feeling after a test you are really worried about because you want to celebrate and sleep all at the same time. For me, I was so caught up in neuroanatomy this week that finishing the practical made me realize, finals are coming!

It is a beautiful day so I think I will do my physical optics homework outside!

Hello, all!

Monday of this week was like a second Christmas- EQUIPMENT DAY! We have been learning about all of this equipment, hearing from various representatives from different companies, trying out the different brands, obsessing over the type of handles and color of lenses to get, and finally the big day came! Monday we got our BIO, direct ophthalmoscope, retinoscope, and the first year kit full of all sorts of neat things like a trial fr

ame and “flipper” lenses.

Dr. Mutti perfectly timed our optics lab, so we could try out our new equipment in lab this week. We practiced doing ophalmoscopy and retinoscopy on each other and a model eye set up with an image of a retina.

Before optics lab today, we had our last Fellowship of Christian Optometrists meeting of the semester during lunch.  They had lunch provided, and we heard from all those who went on the trip to Jamaica. I really hope to go on the trip next  year! They shared stories of patients who walked in with help because they could not see and left with no help because they were able to restore their vision! They were involved in about 97 pterygium surgeries, so the second year students got to do exams including pre and post operation care. The first years helped out with more preliminary testing. Looks like it was pretty life-changing experience for the students and the patients!

During our lunch, we also learned our positions for next year in FCO. I am partnering with one of my classmates to be fellowship chair. This year we had weekly devotionals during a lunch hour one day a week. Next year we hope to continue the devotions, but we also hope to incorporate a small group for men and a group for women for additional fellowship. I am excited to see what comes of it!

In addition to Monday being equipment day, it was also my group’s SocialEyes day. We all went to Dr. Walline’s house for dinner and played games. I originally planned to only stay until about 7:30 because my commute is so long home. Well, I had so much fun I didn’t end up leaving until almost 9. We plan to do one more outing after our last final exam. The cool thing is, we will stay with this same group until we graduate, so we have many more gatherings to come.

We are at the point in the semester where it feels like you are looking up at a mountain to climb with a tsunami behind you. We have three exams next week, a brain practical the following week, and then it is finals week. The nice thing is, I have done this before, so it is much less stressful than it was the first semester. You know that even though the mountain seems like an obstacle too large for you, you will make it.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!