Random thoughts.

What a year it has been. 2020--supposedly the year for optometrists. However, it hasn’t been going the way most people thought a regular year would go.

COVID-19--There has been an increase in number of cases in the US and the death rates have continuously rise as the condition is high contagious. East and west coast has been hit hard--due to travelers and being an area many layovers could occur while traveling abroad. 

I have been out of work for 5 days. Though I thought I would enjoy to have some time off to relax and rest a bit, I have been restless. Being at home--all day and trying to stay productive have been more difficult than I thought it would be. I miss going into work. I miss seeing my family and friends. I miss being able to explore and go places without the fear of getting sick. I’m not scheduled to go back to work until April 4 (2 weeks off) and in the meantime, everyone will have to play the waiting game and remain positive. 

It’s a Monday. I called into clinic because I was feeling under the weather. I’ve had the past few days off but didn’t want to risk getting others sick since I’ll be seeing patients all day. Here’s part 2 to my rotation site story.

Rotation site #2: Vision Health Institute. Orlando, FL.

This was a last minute pick. Initially, my plan was to go to a community health clinic located in California BUT due to the lottery system, my choice was picked before it was my turn. However, I greatly enjoyed my time here.

I roomed with 3 of my classmates: Kristine, Michelle and Angela. They all had the same site whereas I was the only going to VHI. VHI also accepted students from PCO so I was glad when I heard I wasn’t going to be the only student intern there. I met the 2 PCO students and they were so nice and we all hit it off pretty well. 

At VHI, I had 2 attendings and they were awesome. Though it was a private practice, I got to see a lot of ocular conditions and we did a lot of CL fittings in which I barely did in school and never did at the VA. The attendings were very patient and helped me ease into fitting CL (spherical, toric, multifocal, monovision and modified monovision). They both had their strengths and weaknesses but bounced off well with each other so I was able to learn and pick on their brains. 

During this site, I saw commotio retinae, pre-retinal hemorrhage, tractional RD, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, toxoplasmosis, keratoconus, glaucoma, corneal abrasions, pingueculitis, and the list went on. I honestly didn’t think that I would see so much ocular conditions especially in a private practice but I did so I was very happy about that. Prescribing CL got easier and I was able to grasp on how to prescribe multifocals where the patients became happy with their vision. 

Today is Monday. President’s Day. I have the week off to transition to my last rotation site. 4th year has been amazing. I’ve have humbling experiences and have made great friends who will soon be my colleagues. Here’s a little bit about my experience during my summer rotation.

Rotation Site #1: Tulsa, OK. Earnest Childers VA

I’ve never learned so much about optometry and am so happy this was my first rotation as a 4th year. My friends Greg, Jolinda and Mai tagged along with me to Oklahoma in June. This rotation was a total of 11 weeks and went up until early August. I had 6 attendings who were all so knowledgable. I picked on their brains every time I had the chance because I knew they’d have an answer to my question. 

I saw a variety of ocular conditions including: BRVO, NAION, Glaucoma, AMD, Optic nerve drusen, ERM, Morganian Cataract, PVD, Reticular degeneration, Pavingstone, NVI, Asteroid hyalosis, and the list goes on. I constantly studied every night to be up to date with all the conditions that we were seeing at this site. This allowed me to be comfortable with the treatment and management of the conditions and to be able to answer questions that my attendings may ask. During lunch break and the ride home, my friends and I would always nerd out and start discussing all the conditions we saw and how we treated and managed those patients. It was a great learning experience and to be able to share those with them made it more memorable. 

My patients always made my day! 99.9% of the patients were >65 years old so they definitely had lots of stories to tell, alright. An easy IOP pressure check can lead to a 1 hour appointment because patients loved sharing their adventures. I, myself, loved hearing their experiences but it was very unfortunate that I would always have to end the conversation early because other patients needed to be seen as well. 

I, however, had one of the most memorable patient. Unfortunately, I forgot his name but he was a patient that I saw in June. He came in for an annual comprehensive eye exam and during that exam I found a PVD in one eye of his eyes that wasn’t on his previous charts. He had no symptoms but we still wanted to bring him back in 1 month to re-dilate and monitor it. During this appointment, we talked a lot about food (we’re both foodies) and how I liked jambalaya. He told me a place with delicious jambalaya and recommended me that restaurant. Our conversation was going well so as he was dilating (I usually have them sit out while dilating), I let him sat in the exam chair and listened to him as I chart. He was just the sweetest man and we continued to talk about his time in war and his family and exchanged our experiences in life.

A month later, as I was going to see my next patient, Mai informed me that I had a patient that wanted to see me. It turned out to be him and I was very happy to see him again. We started talking and he asked if I have tried the jambalaya yet and regrettably, I have not. He then snuck a $20 bill in my hand and I was taken aback! I repeatedly tried to hand it back and he just wouldn’t accept it. He told me he was very thankful for my help and that I will become a great clinician/doctor. It was very rewarding to hear those words come out of one of my patients. It made my day and I will always remember my encounter with him.

Wow, what a journey it has been. I look back on pictures, blogs, and posts during my 1st year of optometry and here I am, going forward to my last year! I recently finished taking the CCE that was required to pass in order to move on to rotations and 100% of our class successfully passed! 

My classmates have been amazing and I am so thankful to have such great colleagues who are passionate and knowledgable. I never felt competition amongst us and we all were so willing to help one another succeed. It’s been a great 3 years of learning and struggling together but everyone grew so much from the first day of orientation. I cannot wait to see how amazing they are next year when we graduate altogether. 

3rd year was definitely a struggle. Boards were stressful and it was a very sensitive time for everyone including myself. I isolated myself from others and was out throughout the day at coffee shops trying to retain all that I’ve learned the pass 2.5 years for this exam. There was a lot of hard work put into and it turned out to be great outcome. I passed BOARDS part I! I prepared so long for that exam and to be able to see that letter “P” when I clicked the mouse was such an inexpressible feeling. I celebrated and called my mom right away and thanked my parents for always keeping me in their prayers. It was a relief knowing that I will NEVER have to go through all that studying again. 2 more parts of boards and 1 licensing exam until I can officially practice as an optometrist. 

I’m excited yet super nervous as I enter my 4th year of optometry. I know that it’d be a steep learning curve but I’m so ready to learn and be a better clinician. There may be days where I come back home crying with disappointment but there may be days where I’m actually saving someone’s life. Optometry is an amazing field and I grew a deeper appreciation to this field as I learn more about what optometrists can do. 

December 27, 2017.

I turned 27 years old on the 27th of December 2017.

I never celebrate my birthday or do anything big but since it was my golden birthday, I decided to do something out of the ordinary: VEGAS. 

2017 flew by so quickly; in a blink of an eye, 2018 appeared already. I’ve experienced so much this year and accomplished so many goals that I had in just 365 days. 

The most memorable was traveling to Guatemala where I was able to serve the community by providing vision care and I was thanked by all my patients. Each of them gave me a hug, some gave me kisses and some blessed me with loving words. It was such a rewarding experience and I am so happy that I chose to partake in this opportunity. 

Though I wasn’t able to see my family as much this year due to my schedule, they were so understanding and still so supportive. I’m blessed with such a loving family and cannot be more lucky to be surrounded by such great people. They are my life and I wouldn’t know what I’d do without them. 

I have not seen so many patients within a day until this past weekend. 

Care Harbor is an event where volunteers in the medical, dental and eye care profession provide free services to the community. Though I signed up to make up for clinic, I am so glad that I was a part of this. 

I was thanked by many patients for volunteering my time and this, I realize is what I live for. To simply help people. It was such a rewarding experience to help those who didn’t have the finance to afford eye care and who’s never had an eye exam before. I pursued this career wanting to enhance others’ quality of life and to help and give back to the community and this....this event played a small role in it. I cannot wait to graduate and continue on giving back to the community and caring for others. 

As I embarked on my journey to become an optometrist, one of my goal was to provide eye care services to those who do not have easy access to it. This spring break, I accomplished that and it was one of the most rewarding experience I’ve ever had. 

March 21, on a Tuesday night, the Guatemala VOSH team gathered together to depart on a red eye flight. The team consisted of 5 doctors and 5 second year optometry students: Dr. You, Dr. Cale, Dr. Lui, Dr. Temboni, Dr. Tran, Jolinda, Sarah, Yen, Mai and myself. 

We arrived early morning Wednesday and was greeted by Daniel (Spanish translator) and Pastor You (Dr. You’s father). We had breakfast at a fancy hotel and continued on to visit an orphanage. I was filled with mixed feelings and emotions as I observed the babies yearning for love and children who were so innocent and curious. Seeing how they played with little toys and equipment showed me how grateful I should be. Though I am already, they reminded me that you can enjoy yourself with little things, just like how I did when I was child growing up with 7 siblings.

We started clinic that Wednesday afternoon and it was chaotic and extremely busy. If I wasn’t sitting down trial lens refracting a patient, I would be up on my feet performing slit lamp and BIO ensuring the eyes of the patients were healthy. That day alone from 1pm-7pm, we saw 70 patients. Those with perfectly healthy eyes and those, who did not. I was able to see exudative RD and an old CHRPE.

In the beginning of this semester, I remembered counting the days until it ended. It was tough as I took these courses and was expected to remember every detail that was taught. I was overwhelmed with the expectations that the doctors had. However, looking back at it, I should really know these information as I would be using them for my future career as an optometrist. 

I’ve met new people along the way and have become close to those that I never thought that I would have. Life brings you surprises and I like that. Sometimes I need these people to make life happier, more enjoyable and explore and do things that I would never do myself. 

Optometry school has given me so many opportunities to travel. Last year, I went to Las Vegas, Washington, DC. and Sacramento, CA. I gained so much knowledge from these trips as I learned more about the profession I chose and more about ocular conditions and helping those who are visually impaired.

This year, I will have the opportunity to travel to Guatemala to do what I’ve always dreamed of doing: giving back to the community. I’ve always wanted to go to underserved communities and provide vision care and education to those in need and I will finally be able to do that. 

I’m so thankful for being able to reach a small part of my dream and I plan on continuing to do more.