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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!

Good afternoon!

I was told that school would go fast, but I could have never imagined it would go quite this fast! I cannot believe the second week of this semester is already almost over!

I was super excited to come back from Christmas break! I missed my friends, professors, and just the lifestyle of school. While days are sometimes long and chaotic, they are always fun. I enjoy the feeling of working toward something every day. While Christmas break was much needed and very enjoyable, I was getting antsy by the end.

Anyway, I already have tons to study, so I am going to hit some quick highlights since the semester has started. Last week we had the Ohio Optometric Association Student Dinner at the Faculty Club on campus. The dinner had the Secretary of State for Ohio, John Husted, come and speak about his interest in supporting optometry in Ohio. We also had various leaders from the national and local organization present. As optometry students, we are automatically student members of this organization. The Ohio Optometric Association is focused on advocating and lobbying for optometry in Ohio. The dinner was a chance for us to meet some officers in the national and local organization and network. I found the dinner to be a very valuable experience! We had dinner with an optometrist at the table. Then we rotated to different tables for the remainder of the evening to learn from the optometrists present. They offered professional contacts, advice, and shared about their practices.

Earlier this week we had our second Inter-Professional Education and Practice (IPEP) event. At the start of the school year, we had a day of orientation to meet with the other health professions, learn about the different fields, and simulate working together. This event was a dinner at the ballroom in the Ohio Union with Doug Wojcieszak as a guest speaker. Mr. Wojcieszak created Sorry Works! We spent the evening learning about cases of medical errors and how they were handled. We discussed the cases and learned about the best practices in handling such situations. Here is a link to the site http://sorryworkssite.bondwaresite.com/ if you want to learn more.

Lastly, this week was my first time in clinic! I spent an afternoon assisting a third year optometry student giving her eye exams. We were trained last semester to do lensometry, visual acuity, Ishihara test for color vision, and several other tests, so now we get to put those skills into practice! I absolutely loved being in clinic! I learned a lot from watching the third year student, and she let me look through the teaching scope and watch through her teaching mirror, so I got to be part of the whole exam process. We are all assigned about four hours of clinic time every other week. I cannot wait to go back!

Time to study neurons! We have a “Case of the Week (COW)” due tomorrow for pathophysiology, so I need to be prepared for that.

 

Happy Thanksgiving from the Class of 2020!

Photo by Joe L.

Hello!

I am happily writing this while sitting on my couch for possibly the first time in weeks! It is insane how busy optometry school is, yet so wonderful!

My family celebrated Thanksgiving this past weekend due to most of the family traveling out of state on the day of Thanksgiving. As our professors have promised, when you see your family, they will have lots of questions about what you are up to. I find it sort of challenging to tell a person what we do in optometry school because every day is quite different. For instance, last week we got to be in clinic (after hours) for the first time ever. We learned how to use all the pre-testing machines like visual field testing. Last week I also went to my first Buckeye Basketball game and ate at Cane’s for the first time (very good, by the way). We do spend most of our time in lectures and studying, but even that is new every day. We go from learning how lenses are designed to treat astigmatism to where the cranial nerves are traveling through the skull. Next week we will be doing our cow eye and/or pig eye dissections, which is super exciting!

My favorite thing about optometry school right now is my friends! I am so fortunate to have met people that I literally spend 10+ hours a day with 5+ days a week and never get tired of them. We were all kind of sad to leave today because we won’t see each other for five days!

We had a pathophysiology exam yesterday, so what better way to unwind than have 40 friends/classmates gather for Friendsgiving! We all scurried home after class to frantically cook things. Since I commute over an hour, I went to my friend’s apartment and helped her make a ham. It was becoming a fiasco getting our dinner organized, but it turned out to be so awesome!

 

Hello!

I am super excited because we are test free for the next week! We have had two tests per week since the last week of September, so it is nice to have a little less pressure for about a week and a half before we have another test. I was particularly worried about this last test because it was a practical. So far our general anatomy labs have been completely focused on histology, which means looking at microscope slides of tissues for hours. When we first started histology, I remember Dr. Earley walking us through the differences between mucous secretory units and serous secretory units, which will help to identify the particular gland you are looking at. I remember thinking, “I am never going to figure this out.

Everything looks like pink and purple dots!” Well, I am pleased to say that I did finally figure it out! After multiple days of 2-5 hours of studying slides, I can finally differentiate between the different tissues we learned. In the end, it feels good to look at the box of slides that used to be a huge mystery to me and know that I conquered it. For the rest of the semester, anatomy will be primarily focused on the skull.

My next thing to accomplish that currently seems mysterious to me is lensometry. We take a class called Primary Care Testing where we learn to do a lot of the screening tests that are performed in an eye exam. Lensometry is used to determine the type of lens and the prescription of the lens, which seemed simple until I was trying to do it the first time. I will definitely be spending some time on that this next week.

Have a great weekend!

 

 

Hello!

I couldn’t help but write a quick blog about this unexpected day. We had an ocular anatomy exam on Tuesday and an optics exam this morning, so it has been a week of intense studying. While studying practically nonstop is hard, it is kind of exciting to start taking tests because it takes away some of the mystery. It is nerve-wracking waiting to get our test results back, but I am ready to find out how my study habits are working. I have found that each class requires different study methods, but across the board, flashcards have been really helpful. Many of us use Quizlet for our cards, which is great for sharing! It is helpful to share flashcards because it makes for a huge variety of questions to study from. For example, my ocular anatomy flashcard count was at 281! Crazy! Thankfully, these are digital flashcards, so no trees were harmed in the process.

This morning we had our optics exam followed by a few hours of lecture (general anatomy and pathophysiology). After a tough week, a group of us decided we deserved a lunch better than what we packed, so we went to Panera Bread. While we were at lunch, our pathophysiology professor came by to get lunch at Panera, too. After she got her lunch, she came walking out to our table with a warm chocolate chip cookie for each of us! I could not believe she went out of her way to buy us each a chocolate chip cookie! Shortly after the cookies, we got an email saying that our afternoon lab was rescheduled! While we love our classes, nobody slept more than 5 hours last night and needed a break. We took an extra-long lunch, packed up our stuff and headed home! I commute about an hour and ten minutes, so I am always relieved to be able to beat rush hour. (I’ll try and provide more details on my commuting experience later).

While driving home, I was reflecting on the events of the day, and I was just smiling in my car. Optometry school is hard, but I am so much enjoying it. Yes, we had a test this morning that was challenging, but it was followed up by interesting lectures, lunch with classmates, free cookies, and an unexpected free afternoon! As for the rest of my day, I decided to have a cup of tea and watch an episode of Gilmore Girls while I write this blog. The rest of the evening will be back to the normal study routine. We have two exams next week and one the following week, so only a short break today.

Enjoy your evening!

Good morning!

I am always filled with gratitude as I make my daily walk to the college of Optometry especially when I look up and see the Brutus with glasses shining between the trees. The sun seems to always be shining on him, and it just reminds me how blessed I am to be here.

I particularly enjoy my Friday morning walk because it gives me a chance to reflect on the past week. This past week I completed our independent study biochemistry class. The biochemistry course is an online course with modules and quizzes. Once all of the modules are complete, the final is offered every Monday. I appreciated that the course was independent because it is largely review, so we all were able to go at it at our own pace and get it done early.

This week I also had our first Fellowship of Christian Optometrists (FCO) lunch time devotional. The group started with a picnic at one of the professor’s houses. We also had our first official meeting where a graduate of the college came back to speak about her experience and how FCO shaped her career. I am really excited to be a part of FCO because it has allowed me to meet students from each class, and we have a lot of shared interests.

As for the rest of the week, it has been mostly just the usual classes and studying. I had one minor hiccup when I spilled tea on my laptop. While it was sad to make such an expensive mistake, it worked out because it happened at the end of the day, so I just had to go and buy a new one. If I lost my laptop at the start of the day, it would have made for a rough day. The majority of students use laptops and tablets to take notes, so having my laptop is crucial. I was also thankful because I use a cloud to save my notes, so I did not lose them.

As for the rest of today, I have scheduled to meet with my pathophysiology professor for office hours and then class.

Have a nice weekend!