My first "Last Week"

Can't leave Detroit without some apparel!!

This past week has gone by so quickly….. Let me restate that. This past 9 weeks has gone by so quickly. As I was driving the first leg of my trip home today, it felt like it was just yesterday my dad and I were driving to Uncle Rob and Aunt Deb’s in Davisburg, MI.

This past Sunday, I worked at the hospital to make up for the Friday I took off to go to Tampa. Weekends at the hospital are much quieter than during the week and it’s amazing how much I got done… and in so little time!  Working on Sunday also gave me an opportunity to work on other floors/units – which really challenged me as a clinician to be ready for many different diagnoses. Although I hated only have 1 day weekend lazy day, Sunday was a good learning opportunity.

The Butterfingers

Students at Detroit Receiving in the therapy department are required to present an in-service – a presentation on a medical condition and how it relates to therapy. Norm gave me the topic of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS). ACS is an umbrella term for 3 types of coronary artery disease (CAD) associated with a rupture of plaque… pretty much a heart attack, each type with its own severity, signs and symptoms and key characteristics to distinguish them in the clinic. I also spoke on hypertension (chronic high blood pressure). 60 million Americans have hypertension and only ½ of those are actually diagnosed with the condition. Hypertension can progress to and cause a heart attack or stroke… so have your doctor check you out! J Anyway, the presentation went well. I made some homemade Butterfinger bars for everyone, thanks to Anna’s recipe. They were a huge hit.

On Wednesday night, Katie (former PT student at Receiving with me) invited me to dinner at her apartment in Grand Blanc (20 minutes north of Davisburg). Her boyfriend, Mark, grilled the most amazing flank steak I have ever had. The marinade is a family recipe and absolutely delicious. To help you understand its indescribable yumminess, it didn’t even require any sauce for flavor. I baked some Crunchy Peanutbutter Brownies – Alison P’s birthday treats this year in class – for dessert and we each had one with ice cream on top and then another brownie on top of that. It was nice to visit with Katie again (we went out to dinner last week and watched the Michigan football game last Saturday). It was definitely a blessing to have a buddy at the hospital and now outside of the hospital! She’s actually coming to the good ol’ MPLS next weekend for the National Physical Therapy Student Conclave. I am not going because it is Gopher Soccer Alumni weekend, but I plan on trying to meet up with her on Saturday night!

My last day at the hospital this week was Thursday. Norm let me have Friday off so I could start my trek home to Minnesota and then on to Fargo! Anna (OT Anna, not my PT student Anna) gave me a Biggby gift card. Biggby is a coffee shop specific to Michigan. There is one in the hospital that a lot of the therapist… ok all of them go to. She wanted me to pick out a coffee mug to have in remembrance of my experience there. How thoughtful. I chose this little guy! I have actually always wanted a smaller travel coffee mug so it was a perfect gift! Norm, Anna, another OT and 2 other students all went out to lunch to celebrate my last day. It was fun to eat out and Norm treated me to lunch! It was such a fun experience at Detroit Receiving!

Thursday night, we all enjoyed some quality family time on Thursday night. They all gave me such a wonderful and thoughtful gift that honestly made me start to cry. I have no clue where my emotion came from, but we were all in the kitchen hanging out, talking and laughing and it just hit me that it was my last night with my family. It was very unexpected, but that night and my last 9 weeks in Davisburg will always hold a dear place in my heart.

 Friday morning I woke up, finished packing and went out to breakfast with Aunt Deb, Katie and Kayla (Kim had to work and Uncle Rob was in India, working) at Bob Evans. Robbie was our waiter by request and he did an ‘OK’ job. J He actually did fantastic. We had a little photo shoot at the table to make sure we embarrassed Robbie as much as we possibly could. To put the icing on the cake, Aunt Deb and I made Robbie take a picture with me at the table.

Friday night festivities with Anna were a blast. I got in a little earlier than planned so I got to see her clinic! Super nice. Then we went to Granite City for dinner and ate 5x as much as we should have. However, both of us seemed to have left room for Red Mango! What's Red Mango you ask?! Only the most delicious hund cal fro yo (hundred calorie frozen yogurt) - well maybe not hund cal... but definitely non fat!!! AND this specific location is make your own!!! 40 cents per ounce. AWESOME!!  My ice cream went from full........ to empty in about 5 minutes. No. Big. Deal.

born to serve ice cream

empty and sad

FULL DELICIOUSNESS