Subheadings Work I'm now familiar enough with my new protocols to work independently. I've covered a few weekend shifts and I'm now much more comfortable up on the actual hospital floor by myself when I have to collect samples or administer a survey or something. My boss would like me to be faster with my paperwork/reporting, which makes sense. We have a high enrollment rate and I need to be able to close cases and move on to the next one in a timely manner. I'm trying to get into good habits, and I'm probably more completionist than I need to be. I'd rather get as close to 100% on my first pass than have to come back to things days or weeks later, and I am learning that while this is a noble goal, it's not really reasonable. After we identify a patient with a liver injury we need to collect records from several different sources (Referring hospital, primary doctor, any and all pharmacies) and that process takes time. So I am doing what I can, passing on things as completed as they can be, and trying to not worry about it. My boss isn't concerned with the quality of my work so far, just the tempo, which I think is going to increase naturally as I gain confidence. School The RPS had her first day of the semester last week. She's excited but at the same time terrified. She's easing her way back into college with an 8 credit hour semester, which I think is fitting. I'd love to see her knock this semester out of the park to gain confidence for the few that she has left. Once she's settled with her new schedule I'm going to encourage her to find an extracurricular or two to get involved with. If she made the audition, she could come sing with my choir and actually get credit for it, as one example. Maybe it's a bit too overprotective, but I want to make sure she gets the most out of the rest of her college experience, both personally and professionally. She's leaving for a cruise with her family this Friday, back next week and her professors (Except chem lab) are being very accomodating, which helps. With regard to myself, I continue to make progress on French (25%) and Italian (10%) on Duolingo, and that feels good. Spanish would have infinitely more utility but I had it pushed on me as an unwilling child and the thought of pursuing it as an adult feels gross. I'm also taking a Google Analytics course but progress is slow, mainly because I am always coming up with something better to do than do the course. At some point I need to drag out my Grad School comparison sheet. It has a few different degree programs on it from a few different universities with some pluses and minuses next to them. I must admit I feel somewhat stalled in my professional development because while I'm always learning more and more while at work, I'm still not at all sure of what my next step would be professionally. I guess I could pursue the role of a Research Monitor but that would take me away from patient contact which I really don't want to lose. The problem is that all of the (Non-MD) research positions that actually interface with the patient population are low in the institutional hierarchy. If you want to actually see sick people and work in research, you're pretty much stuck with the frontline work and little else. Every now and then I'm tempted to start thinking along the lines of working for a pharmaceutical company, but I worry that private sector work would steal too much of my soul. Body Exercise has been spotty since the move. The RPS and I like to do yoga together but we haven't found enough matching time in our schedules to make it happen. Hopefully when she gets back from her trip we can start to make things more regular. In the meantime I'm going to just take more personal responsibility for getting my ass up on the bike, out on the yoga mat, and take care of myself because I'm worth it, even if it sucks to do it alone. Blood tests keep coming back with good, healthy numbers. Heart failure isn't really reversible, but from a chemical standpoint I'm doing exceptionally well. It's easier to feel proud of that now versus a few months ago because I'm really seeing the change in my symptom frequency, and my tastebuds have mostly adapted to the low-salt life.