We're number 37...

Just an FYI, the US spends more of it's GDP per capita on healthcare than any other industrialized nation, yet we rank number 37th out of 191 in quality of care. Um, what....?

We had two guest lecturers in our Personal and Professional Development I class this morning. They explained a little of what Obama's healthcare reform bill would actually look like and how hospital systems evaluate the profitableness of providing care to consumers covered by certain insurance providers. Quite fascinating... not!

And this little video they showed made us all laugh:

Paul Hipp - "We're Number 37"

Fearfully and wonderfully made...

Sorry for the long absence, people. Physical therapy school started on May 23rd and this week is test week. OK, I should probably be reviewing for anatomy lab tomorrow. But idc anymore.

I've always been good at procrastinating. Senior year especially. Between watching all 7 seasons of Gilmore girls in less than a semester, scrolling through thousands of posts on the over 90 blogs I follow, and hanging out with my close circle of friends I somehow still made good grades.

Procrastination has taken a different form these last four weeks. It looks like making dinner/lunch the next day, doing laundry on Wednesday nights (when you bring scrubs home that smell like a dead person, you HAVE to do laundry THAT day!), late-night phone calls from friends, driving all over creation to get to Walmart ("You can get anything you want here//Except a Wal-Mart store//But I ain't in Checotah anymore"), and printing off stuff to study.

I love Starbucks. I mean, I doubt I've ever told anyone that before. (OK, maybe only every other day or so!) And I'm kind of picky about my Starbuckses. Thankfully, a college friend is working at one across from the SMU campus about 10 minutes away from my apartment, and that Starbucks has a massive table in the back that's almost always empty. Once schools starts up in the Fall, I think I'm gonna have to find a new home. :P

So I've been at said Starbucks 4 times in the past week. A physiology test, an anatomy test, a lab practical, and a clinical correlates test will do that to you! Saturday, I occupied said massive table for 6 hours. Sunday I "hermited" myself at said table for 5 hours. When my friend got off work he came over and asked if I had dinner plans. I went over to his grandparents' house for steak (I love crashing other people's Father's Day celebrations), and then we went to go see "Green Lantern".

You know you've spent too much time studying the muscles of the neck, back, and upper extremity when you see the epic superhero suit designed to resemble said superhero's bulging musculature and all you can think is "they got the deltoid right, but the triceps actually has three heads not one!"

You know you've hung out with your 25 favorite dead people too much when this no longer creeps you out:

You know you've been memorizing too many muscle AOIIs (Actions, Origins, Insertions, and Innervations) when you start dreaming of them! (And as some of you may know, I DO NOT dream. Like maybe once ever six months.)

But I have to say that this past week that I have a greater appreciation for "The Celestial Design Committee," as one of my anatomy professors calls Him.

Have you ever read Psalm 139? Like REALLY read it? I mean, seriously how can you not think that we are fearfully and wonderfully made when you see this:

That, dear reader, is your brachial plexus. The wonderful branching and re-branching of arteries, veins, and nerves responsible for movements in your fingers, thumbs, wrists, elbows, forearms, upper arms, shoulders, and some scapular movements... Every cadaver has a slightly different network of these structures (I hate the term "anatomical variation"), but we've all got 'em! 

The Psalmist said it this way:

^"6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it....

¹³For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

 ¹⁴I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

 ¹⁵My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

 ¹⁶Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."

I'd say it like this: 

Dang, God... that's pretty legit.

Graduation...

Am I really old enough for this?

Dreams...

God, You blow me away.

Per Dad's request, my family's been reading "Put Your Dream to the Test" by John Maxwell. He and Mom have been leading a small group through the book and it's been interesting to hear what the group's been learning.

Go buy this book. Like seriously.

For those of you familiar with the Life Purpose Planning booklet, John Maxwell's book takes it a step farther. LPP focuses on finding the "golden thread" of God's hand in your life as you write down people that have influenced you, verses that have stood out to you, books you've read, experiences you've enjoyed, the meaning of your names, your spiritual gifting... it's actually a rather exciting little booklet and it was a good tool to kind of figure out that God's been preparing me for a life of investing into younger girls and has called me to something in the medical field and that all the traveling I've done is in preparation for overseas missions.

But "Put Your Dream to the Test" comes at it from a little more of a secular side. Mr. Maxwell says, "go dream... what's the biggest thing you can imagine... now, let's make sure it's something that is actually feasible and what needs to happen to get you there?"

I'm only on the 3rd chapter, but I wanted to share what I've come up with for the answers to the 1st chapter's questions. Maxwell encourages the reader to write down their dream and share it with others. If I can succinctly communicate my dream to those I care about and show my passion in a coherent manner that's a big first step--and a necessary skill for raising the money, personnel, and resources I'll need to carry out my dream.

The following dream has been inspired by many things; but especially by a paper I had to write last year for school, the book "The Hospital By the River," and some subsequent research I've done about that hospital.

I realize that this is not the normal type of post you'd expect out on a blog for the world to see (not that this blog is followed/RSS subscribed to by more than a few dozen people), but I want your comments.

Is this something you could see me doing? Will ya'll remind me of this when I post how much I hate PT school and anatomy lab?

And expect to see more installments as I delve into more of "Put Your Dream to the Test."

My Dream (December 31, 2010)

I desire to be a wife and mom, first and foremost.

I will, Lord willing, spend my life in sub-Saharan Africa, using physical therapy full time until I have a family (after which PT will become a part time position). I foresee myself working at a missions hospital compound, not in a small remote village.

I want to use PT with the amputee and VVF outcasts of Africa as a follow-up to surgeries performed.

After I have spent several years in Africa, have made connections, gained their trust, and built my “dream team,” I want to build a village for my patients where they can live for as long as they need PT or if they cannot return home. New patients will come to the center of the “village” to the “PT hut” for therapy, longer term patients will assist new patients, and permanent residents will help teach patients to read/sew/make crafts to bring in money.

My ideas for this village are based off a project already in existence with the International Fistula Foundation’s branch in Ethiopia, which can be found here: http://www.fistulafoundation.org/wherewehelp/ethiopia/longtermcare.html

Questions from John Maxwell’s “Put Your Dream to the Test” book:

Chapter 1

1.    The Ownership Question: Is my dream really my dream?

A.   What would I do if I had no limitations?

·         Go train with the PTs at “The Hospital by the River” in Ethiopia

·         See answers to C

B.   What would I do if I had only five years to live?

·         Graduate from A&M

·         Go to Nigeria this summer and learn alongside the nationals how to make prosthetics, and then be a lay PT there in Africa.

·         Get married

C.   What would I do if I had unlimited resources?

·         Donate money to NGOs like Mercy Ships and International Fistula Foundation to provide VVF surgeries and housing/training for chronically incontinent women

·         Build a “village” for VVF women and amputees where they share a little “hut” and there’s a PT clinic in the middle to provide long-term care.

·         Create a “dream team” of international healthcare professionals to fully staff the “village” and set it up as a clinical/training site for both international and local healthcare professionals to come train.

D.   What would I do if I knew I couldn’t fail?

·         Complete PT school

·         Get specialized in women’s health PT and prosthetic gait training

·         See answers to C

PT schools...

     Back in May, before I left for my summer with Mercy Ships, I applied to 6 physical therapy programs in Texas. Way too many résumés, personal statements, and signed observation hours documentation forms.

     The summer rolled by as I studied for the GRE in the back room of the Africa Mercy library. Then I came back to A&M, started my senior year, and eagerly waited to hear back from the schools.
      Some programs sent me a letter inviting me to interview with them at an upcoming preview day. Those schools then called to tell me that "the (insert school's name here) admissions committee was pleased to offer me a spot in the DPT (Doctorate of Physical Therapy) class of 2013." I soon learned to drop everything else and pick up my cell phone when the caller ID read UNAVAILABLE. :)
     Two programs sent me emails simply telling me that I'd been automatically admitted—no interview necessary. One program then invited me to come tour their campus sometime in the spring. The other emailed included an invitation to their Preview Day and while the other applicants had an interview, the other early admit student and I got to chat with a faculty member and basically ask her to tell us why we should come to their school.
     I visited four campuses this semester. One of them had an entire day of activities planned for us, gave us more than enough opportunities to chat with current students, and even gave us a tour of the entire campus (granted, that only took like 15 minutes!). One program treated me really well once I told them my name—I think they really wanted me to choose their school. Another program almost worked too hard to convince us that while they were still working on their accreditation (and the class of '13 would only be their second class), they'd be accredited by the time the first class graduated and they were just as good as any other program. And the last campus I visited allowed me to arrange an interview during A&M's dead days before finals. The professor I interviewed with told me about the incredible research she's doing; I think we only spent about ten minutes talking about me and why I wanted to be a PT! :)

    So now I've been accepted into 5 of the 6 programs (the last one offered me an interview in January... after I will have already told the other schools yes or no). And it's a lovely feeling. But on the other hand, I was hoping the choice would be made easier by some of the schools not offering me a position in their class. 
    I was ECSTATIC when Hardin Simmons offered me a spot. I've turned in my acceptance form already and the $1000 deposit needs to be in by mid-January. And then these other top-notch programs accepted me as well... completely complicating my decision. The last two weeks of the semester my friends knew that whenever I answered the phone with, " Hello, this is Katie Farr" I was talking to a PT school, and they could count on something to the effect of "just great..." once I hung up. :)
     I have to make a decision by December 30th. 7 days from now. Each program has a great reputation, great clinical opportunities, outstanding faculty, and good national exam pass rates... so how do I decide?
     And then I came across this passage as I was reading this morning in II Corinthians 2:

^"12 Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ

and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, 

¹³ I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus

 there. So I said good-by to them and went on to Macedonia.

 ¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal 

procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere

 the fragrance of the knowledge of him."

2 Corinthians 2:12-14

finally!!!!

So, sitting here on my desk is a glorious large white envelope with my MercyShips application safely tucked inside. Tomorrow morning it will be walked to the post office on the North side of the A&M campus, weighed and metered, and then dropped into a tub of mail to be sorted and sent on its way...

Oh my gosh, I am so excited!!!!!!! This has been a several year process from realizing that God was laying the African people on my heart, finding out about MercyShips, having an entire summer without summer school (first time in 3 years!), and having my parents totally on board with it.

And then the process of filling out the extensive application, getting 2 letters of recommendation, and getting a complete medical exam. (and soon will come the wonderful rounds of vaccines and the process of getting a visa :P )

It's hard to believe that instead of sitting here reading the ship's blog, watching videos, and dreaming about being a part of MercyShips, next summer I might be off the coast of Sub Saharan Africa as a part of the world's largest non-governmental hospital ship! If I am accepted to go, I will be just housekeeping or kitchen staff, but that is OK. Until I graduate from physical therapy school and pass my licensing exam I won't be allowed to do anything hands-on, but I plan to spend most of my free afternoons in the therapy/prosthetic clinic!!!

Anyway, this is a somewhat random post--an unusual derivation from my typical blogs--but I just had to tell ya'll!