First day of Spring Semester

Soooooo, today was the first day of my first year in the Spring Semester of the HIT program at TCC.

We started with 17 students last semester, and have 17 again this semester. However we did lose one student and gained one from last year that had to drop out for personal reasons. The student we lost she will be missed, she also has dropped for personal reasons. I think being a mommy is a GREAT reason! She had her first son (her first baby at all) last week via c-section. Being that I have had 2 myself, that ain't no picnic to recover from and then jump right back into 13 or more hours of school! Plus I am 100% sure that little bundle of joy (BTW he is too cure for words! Yes she text another student a pic so we could see the little man) isn't sleeping all night and eats at least every 2 hours! I wish her all the luck with her new baby and look forward to see her again and soon.

We went over a few things, my Tuesday class that I have in the afternoon, we went over a bit of the first unit. This is a hybrid course, meaning that I will have to take about 49% of the lecture material at home and study the questions. Starting Feb 7th I will have a exam in that class almost every week till Finals. Only 2 weeks I won't: Spring Break and the week we have to present our Surgery Poster Project.

See my class (Class of 2013) is special you see. We are the first class going to be studying ICD-10 only. The second year students got mostly ICD-9 and some ICD-10. Because we are the "newbies" of this we HAVE to get new books. One of my books isn't even in print yet, not till next month. I have had to pre-order it. I got one of my CPT code books (ambulatory coding, TTh class), my pathology book, and I have a WONDERFUL classmate that has loaned me her pharmacology book. My IP (inpatient, aka ICD-10) book and my other CPT book will be here tomorrow. Well according to UPS anyways!

This semester is going to the be the heaviest load for me for the whole 2 year program. Thankfully I have all my other non-HIT classes out of the way other than the pharmacology class that is an online class this semester. So next fall I have ethics and clinicals, then in the spring JUST clinicals! WOO HOO! So I hope and pray I can get a HIM job and start working next year.

In my final semester we have a 2 year cumulative final to take. I will also be able to sit for my certification exam, the RHIT (registered health information technician). I get to have initials after my name! COOL!

So last semester I ended with a 4.0 for the semester (yes I am tooting my own horn on that one). One of my professors had us do a calendar project last semester where we had to answer a few questions about our schedules, i.e. what week did I have the most exams, etc... She added a note at the end when she handed it back to me. She said that she was proud I ended with all A's for the semester, but not to lose sight of what is really important like my kids and my health. Not to push myself so much and to hard and to know that a B in the class is perfectly A-OK.

This is also the same professor that emailed me and talked to me after class when she had learned of the passing of my Nana. She is a wonderful teacher and really cares for her students. Leading up to my Nana's passing I was asking her a lot of medical questions to make sure I was understanding them correctly (I was getting all my info 3rd hand) I was taking medical terminology last semester. I understand quite a lot of medical things, hubby's a nurse, mother in law retired nurse, and my sister in law is in the field I am going into. But you know when it comes to a loved one you want to make sure you understand what is going on and why. I was unable to go out there and get closer, so being able to talk about this with her was quite helpful.

WOW I have really gotten off topic here! Anyways, first day went well. I am sitting here writing this and afterwards I am going to get to my patho homework and start to answers the study questions and maybe some pharm too. Lets see what I can get done in a hour or so before putting the oldest to bed for the night. and on that note....

that is all...