Friends Reunion in CHICAGO

Just spent a long weekend catching up with Madeline and Rose in Chicago. We had an amazing time. Here's a link to my facebook album...

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=7207520&k=Z5G6Z4VRQ6ZAUCDHR162QQY

Summing it all Up.

I finished my last day of work at Munroe Meyer today...300 hours of clinical work and research. It has been a wonderful experience. Although I came most interested in neuropsychology, much of what I saw here falls in the category of behavioral pediatrics... which is basically how to change behavior in children. I saw over 70 kids during my time here! Here's a list of the types of things we worked to fix: Aggression (biting, hitting, screaming), Lying, Tics, Speech and Language Delays, Developmental Delays, Self-Injurious Behavior, Depression, Memory Problems, Sleep Disruptions, Feeding Problems, etc. Munroe Meyer is extremely behaviorally-based, so problem-solving was done from a behaviorist standpoint. It was awesome to be able to jump into such in-depth clinical work. I'm definitely going to miss it here!

I'm flying out of Omaha tomorrow to head to Chicago for the weekend! I'll leave you with my favorite part of Nebraska... their motto.

Refreshing...

Here's the story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32223159/ns/world_news-wonderful_world/

National Loan Repayment...

Some of the interns that I've met here are doing this. There is a national program called National Health Service Corps that will repay up to $50,000 in student loans if you choose to work two years in an area that is lacking in health related professionals (psychologists included). Here's the site that tells about it:

http://nhsc.hrsa.gov/loanrepayment/

And here's the place you can go and browse States for openings (There are places in Wake County and all over the US).

http://hpsafind.hrsa.gov/

Genetics Clinic in Scottsbluff

This past weekend the two other summer interns (Katie and Carl) and I traveled to Scottsbluff, Nebraska for a genetics outreach clinic. We were in the car for 8 hours each way, allowing me to see the entire state of Nebraska! Fun at first, then got a little redundant. It was very flat and you could see for miles. Here are some pics from the drive:

We observed the clinic all day on Friday and Saturday. I didn't have any idea of what to expect, and was thinking it would be more of a lab setting. It turns out that it was a very interdisciplinary clinic where parents/kids could come to get a lot of information at one time. So instead of making separate appointments with a geneticist, psychologist, nurse, doctor, physical therapist, occupational therapist, etc., a family could get them all out of the way at once. It was a great way to do things, and I hope that one day I work in a setting like that. These were not super long appointments, but acted more as screenings. Recommendations were given to parents after the sessions. For example, if a child showed physical/developmental signs of fragile x syndrome, the geneticist would set up an appointment for the child to be genetically tested, while the psychologist would set up an appointment for a psychoeducational evaluation as well as give recommendations for managing behavior. Many of the kids in the clinic actually came with foster parents and were being evaluated because of possible exposure to drugs/alcohol during pregnancy. If there were signs of these exposures, the doctor would write a note to the court system to establish a pre-existing condition so that medicare would cover these children later in life. If anything was reiterated to me on the trip, it was how much respect and admiration that I have for foster parents. I met so many truly selfless people.

After finishing with the clinic we decided to climb Scott's Bluff, which actually turned into driving to the top and walking around a little :) It was beautiful, though, and very different from the rest of the landscape in Nebraska. Here are some pics...

All in all it was an awesome trip :)

Jenny Lewis at The Slowdown

Wow, what an amazing concert! Jenny Lewis has been my favorite singer since she was in the band, Rilo Kiley. She calls Omaha her second home, so it was awesome to see her in a place that's the topic of a lot of her songs. Jonathan Rice sang backup/male vocals with her... he's the guy that played Roy Orbison in the movie Walk the Line. So, it was cool that he was there, too.

Here's a link to her songs GODSPEED and YOU ARE WHAT YOU LOVE

kids with concussions, settlers of catan, and baseball

So, my first week in Omaha was fantastic.

Starting with my internship... I have to complete 300 internship hours while I'm here, including hours spent with clients, observing labs, and doing research. My advisor here is Dr. Bill Warzak, who does neuropsych assessments, among other things, and I'll be working with him on a project related to the assessment of kids that have had concussions. We're trying to develop a new protocol for assessment, including something called the ImPact Test, a balance assessment (in cooperation with the physical therapy department), and typical neuropsych tests that would normally be given. Using the combination of these things, we will have a good amount of info that helps to determine when a child is "ok" to return to normal physical activity. So, I've been doing lots of reading on things like that lately.

I'm also participating in this mini-program that allows me to observe all of the different labs here at Munroe Meyer. Here's a list of them all:

• Audiology

• Developmental Medicine

• Diabetology and Endocrinology

• Education and Child Development

• Genetic Medicine

• Health Policy and Planning

• Human Genetics Laboratories

• Molecular Genetics

• Nursing

• Nutrition

• Occupational Therapy

• Pediatric Dentistry

• Physical Therapy

• Psychology

• Recreation Therapy

• Social Work

• Speech-Language Pathology

I can't wait! I'm observing the autism clinic tomorrow. It's an awesome opportunity to see what I might be interested in doing in the future. Is it too late for pediatric dentistry?

Second, my roommate, Crystal, and her friend, Buzz, taught me to play a board game called Settlers of Catan. I was skeptical initially (it looks kind of like something you would play at vacation bible school, not that there's anything wrong with that :).

However, it's actually lots of fun. I looked it up online and there's a huge international following of the game, and you can buy add on's and all kinds of crazy things for it.

We also checked out a Sushi place downtown and a bar called "Nomad" which reminds me of Mosaic in Raleigh.

Also, just some tidbits about my roommates:

1. Caitlin's dad is an actual beekeeper, as his profession. He sells hives to lots of companies to help with pollination.

2. Crystal is vegan, and so I'm learning all about cooking without the use of animal products. Sometimes I think I could do it, but only if dollar double cheeseburgers didn't exist.

3. There are three sewing machines in the basement, and my roommate Julia designs clothes and costumes. There's a Shakespeare festival coming up that she's singing in as well as designing for.

So, not only are my roommates awesome, but the girls at Munroe Meyer are great, too. They were nice enough to invite me to a College World Series game. We saw Southern Mississippi play Texas on Sunday. It was a beautiful day! Here are some pics:

That's it for now! I miss everyone in Raleigh a ton. Hope everyone is having an awesome summer!