HELLO...Does anyone remember me!!

In case you have forgotten... my name is Ashley Lawrence. I am 5 months older since my last blog and the only real new thing in my life is probably the prescription in my contact lenses. I apologize for not writing at all. Much has happened but unfortunately none of it is truly exciting. I have not even used my camera in the last 5 months, so... no new pictures. At least I can give ya'll a quick update...

I finished up my first year of school and said good bye to the classroom and hello to patient care, pimping of doctors, days of humility and long hard hours of trying to find out what to do with each patients case. I have learned so much already but I am no where near feeling completely comfortable on my own.

I moved to Denver Colorado the first week of august to be a little closer to Brock. i felt that the distance was too hard and this was the only way to give the relationship a fair chance. Denver is a wonderful city. The weather is just perfect and the people are so pro-exercise. Love that! I found a basement apartment near the city about 10 minutes from Brock's place.

My first rotation was hard to find and I ended up doing it at an Occupational medicine clinic. (yep... dealt with work related injuries and insurance companies... sounds fun hah!). My second rotation was much better then that. I got put on with the trauma surgical team at St. Anthony's central. Loved it! I was doing 80 hour weeks but I loved every minute of it. Surgery was the best. I can totally see me in that line of work in the future. I saw some of the most interesting cases. I will spare you all the details but let's just say that the fastest 6 and 1/2 hours of my life occurred as I helped with a repair of a torn abdominal aorta. I could not believe it, 6 1/2 hours standing over an intubated patient and not being able to move more then about a foot and I enjoyed every minute of it. It was absolutely fascinating.

i am now on an internal medicine rotation and really liking it. My preceptor is Taiwanese and we get along extremely well. I do not know what it is with me and the Asians. I will be at this rotation till the end of October and then who knows. The options are few and in between here in Denver and so I think for educational purposes it would be better to return to Salt Lake. Who knows what the future holds.

At least in 10 months my life will be mine and no longer tied to school and assignments. Yeah!!