Last quarter of classes

NBEO part 1 of boards is over!! 3 months of never ending studying is done and I hope I pass the exam!! ****Praying really hard*** Now just a couple more weeks left, and I will be done with classes and finals forever!
We have 4 classes left. The classes are ok, but there are soo many busy work. Not to mention, I still have to write up my case report that I haven't thought about since summer 2017, almost 1 year ago.

Currently, I'm taking:
-Business of Optometry: where we learn about how to find a job, apply for residencies, the process of getting licensed

in different states and completing Continuing Education courses, as well as learning about contracts, negotiations, leases, etc and other practice management information.

-Strabismus and Amblyopia II: Probably the most clinical course we are taking.
-Injections: Learning and doing injections.
-Ophthalmic Lasers.

So for my business class, we had to make a resume and cover letter. I haven't really put a lot of thought into the actual written content yet because a lot of the experiences I put on there are projected only. However, I had a lot of (hours of) fun designing a new resume layout.

from 2016 to 2017

I had some time so I decided to jot down from my memory what happened in 2016. I made a video with snippets of events that happened in 2016. I know I missed some stuff but there were too many pictures to sort through. I failed to edit the photos because that would just make me procrastinate on finishing this project more.

Video clip link

 A lot of things has happened this year. I started off the new year in San Francisco (what better way than being in my favorite area of cali). After the new years vacation, I went back to school in full force. Completed my 2nd year of optometry school, including finishing up my big practical. I finally finished completing retakes and remediations that year. I also attended the OEP conference in March in Chicago. I made my first birthday dinner event that year and I cut my hair above the shoulders for the first time in a long time.

At the end of 2nd year, I attended the school's practice symposium and also went to a social networking event for dinner with docs.

That summer, I also transitioned from 2nd to 3rd year and was flung into clinic independently for the first time.  During the summer, 3rd years also have to take classes and one of the most difficult classes for the summer was "retinal diseases". After 10 weeks of suffering, finally passed that course! I also went on random food adventures, checked out food trucks in chicago during the summer, because we gotta have some fun after working hard right?

Each year as 2nd and 3rd years we have to attend at least one vision screening in the community. For 3rd year, I went to a screening in Chinatown during the summer to get it done with sooner. It was an interesting experience because there was probably about 10 or so students plus 1 attending doctor signing off on each patient. Most of the patients were Chinese (primarily Cantonese speaking) and there was 4 of us who could speak Chinese only (and only 1 could speak Cantonese) so the Chinese speaking students ended up doing case histories and directing patient flow while the other students did the other non-verbal tests.

The American Optometry Association (AOA) was in Boston during the July 4th weekend some friends and I went to Boston then as well. It was my first time in Boston and I had a lovely time there during the summer.
-went to Summer House Santa Monica in Chicago
 -went to New York City as a last minute trip decision.
-attended the American Academy of Optometry meeting in Anaheim and met up with friends in the area during that week.
-bought KMK prep books to study for boards, which I need to start seriously doing soon.

A day of exploration...

Crissy Field, San Francisco, CA: my favorite city in the US <3

Grant Park, Chicago, IL:

End of 2nd year!

I will write up a post about my 2nd year experiences in a bit.
But for now, I can't believe we just finished our 2nd year of optometry school. We are halfway to OD!

 Now I'm off to California for a one week summer break and next week we will start independent patient care 2x a week plus a specialty rotations. For summer quarter, I will have 5 weeks of cornea and contact lenses in the 2nd half of the quarter. I'm excited to start seeing more patients in clinic because this is what I came here for.

But to start off summer break, let me just say it is SOOO bad for me to come back to California. Because all I do is eat food. -__-

Here are some of my latest photo adventures along with some of my personal touch up.

Optometry School Break Adventures

After winter quarter, I decided to stay in Chicago during the break week. I had my clinic and dispensing shift on Monday and I was redoing my practical on Wednesday. After finally passing my retake my Wednesday, I decided to do some exploring in the city.  That night, me and my roommate went to visit Palmer's House in Chicago. We had a early dinner/high tea at Potter's Lounge inside the hotel. 

Palmer's Hilton House

At Potter's lounge, we made it in time for Happy hour! We tried the cheese and meat platter, tacos, and a dessert with brownie and ice cream! We also got apple ciders to top it off.

After that, we walked to Harold Washington Library and explored the 11 stories in the library. And then we walked back up to North side of Chicago to grab more desserts at Eataly before meeting up with other friends to watch Deadpool at the AMC theatre. 

At Eataly: 

On Saturday, we went out to get dinner at Shake Shack and then got more tea at this fancy cafe called Pierot Gourmet!

Future optometric inspiration

^^credit to optometrystudents.com^^

A FB friend of mine posted this so I'm re-posting on this for my future reference and for anyone else interested in optometry. I thought this was a useful and resource video, about building your career in optometry, whether you are interested in vision therapy or not. That #eyedoclife #inspiration

My first Eyewear dispensing shift

I had my first dispensing shift at the Illinois Eye Institute Eyewear Center Monday evening. At first I was little intimidated because I didn't know what to expect.  I also left my wet pen at home, so I was frantically asking people if they had a wet pen I could borrow right before my shift started, but I found out we did not really need it.

So, I entered the eyewear center and went to the "back room", filled out my information on the check off list. This is how it works: whenever a patient comes in, the front desk staff will ring a "doorbell", so if a student clinician is available in the back room, he/she should go out to the front desk area and find out who the patient is and what insurance they have. Sometimes the patient comes in and needs to select a frame, sometimes they want to adjust a frame, or sometimes the patient is coming to pick up a frame (dispensing). We also need to answer the phone and answer the patient's questions or direct them to the right person, but I haven't answered a phone call yet.

Here is an example of the steps I took when working with a patient:

-- The doorbell rings.-- I go up the front desk, figure out what the patient needs. I double check with the staff to figure out which frames the patient can select from that his/her insurance will cover.
-- I go out to the waiting room and call/greet the patient. ("Hi, my name is Elaine and I'll be helping you today...".
-- I take them to the appropriate frames and explain to them what frames they can get with their insurance. While they select the frame I go ahead and make a copy of the prescription to hand to the patient for their own copy. Sometimes the patient has trouble finding a frame they want, so I will try to help and make suggestions for the patient.
-- Once patient finishes selecting frame, I walk them over to a fitting table and take a couple measurements (such as the pupillary distance, or PD), or the segment height (for bifocals) on the patient and make sure the frame they select is suitable. When I finish, I call over an optician who is available to come and double check my work.

After Thoughts

The optical shift is so much more laid back then a clinic shift. I mean, my clinic shifts have been fairly easy as well because I had a nice attending and a reliable partner to work with so far. But based on what I hear, it's not always that smooth, especially when I become a 3rd year.  But the good thing about working by myself, is I get to fully engage with a patient on my own. I was even able to make small talk with the patient I was working on as well! My patients were a store manager for a Starbucks (or that's what she told me), a grandmother who was a retired cook from the Chicago Public schools, a cute young elementary school girl who loves the color pink, a mother who came in for buy frames for her daughter and ended buying one for herself when she found out her insurance also covered frames! and many more~ 

I feel like when I was working with a partner, I didn't have the opportunity to engage in conversation with my patient because I would get self-conscious and feel bad about taking too much time with the patient so I would act more shy and less initiative. It also makes me feel too relaxed and at ease with a partner because I knew I had someone to fall back on. But then again, optical dispensing is less stressful than my clinic shift, but clinic experience is what I came here for! So I need to learn to be more assertive when I return to clinic again!