A quick update

Since the last time we wrote, Justin and I have been on the move! We sadly left Fallon, NV and our new friends there (although it’s just a temporary separation! We can’t wait to see them again, sooner than later hopefully) and headed NW to Portland. We stayed in Portland for 2 weeks while I had a great class reunion experience and then buckled down to write my thesis paper.

Because I’m getting my Masters degree along with my certification to be a PA, I need to write a Master’s Thesis. I had a really hard time coming up with what to write about, as it:

1) needs to be a current, pertinent medical issue in some “gray” area of medicine

2) needs to be interesting to me since I need to write about it and

3) needs to be something NO ONE ELSE WORLDWIDE has ever written about.

Talk about difficult. My first top 10 choices were eliminated almost right away. So I ended up writing about a new surgical treatment for obesity -- the implantable gastric electrical stimulation device. This machine looks like a heart pacemaker but instead of hooking up to the heart, it hooks up to the stomach and gives several shock pulses a minute. Don’t worry, you can’t feel the shocks! The idea is that it “tricks” the body into thinking it’s full so that way, you have reduced appetite and eat less. Turns out, it doesn’t work. There is no secret pill for weight loss. Only the typical diet and exercise you hear everyone talking about. No fancy gimmics, pills, or machines.

The rest of the 5 weeks on rotation were spent in Morro Bay and SLO visiting friends and family and overall, enjoying sunshine! We managed to fit in skiing in mammoth with my family, rock climbing, hiking, Cooper and Lindsey from Colorado, wine tasting, Erin and James from Ventura and the beach. Overall feel recharged and renewed. Oh, and we did work too. Justin worked like crazy getting resumes out and about SLO county while I worked on my paper and we have both reached our goal! My paper is done, and he is employed!

Also, during this amazing time at home we had the amazing experience of meeting our nephew, Ryder. He is perfect and Jake and Kylee are incredible parents already.

Sadly, all good things (like 5 weeks at home!) must come to an end.