whoooops.

so i haven't posted in a long time on either of my blogs. i finished up my GI rotation and it was a blast. and went by SO fast! i'm on to neurology, which i have to admit, is the one i've been looking forward to the most. i love working with the ketogenic diet since it's so personal to me and i know a lot about already. i met a patient's mom yesterday who's baby went from having around 50 seizures a day, down to 1 or 2 through being on the ketogenic diet and is on no meds. how amazing is that? the neurology dietitian is amazing. i'm convinced she knows just about everything and is so great to work with. she is excellent at throwing me in and letting me do however much i can and then she jumps right back in without making me feel stupid, and takes over from where i get stuck.

i was at a muscular dystrophy clinic today which was super interesting and i saw most of the patients on my own, yay! there are many forms of muscular dystrophy, but a loose definition is its a group of disorders characterized by muscle weakness and a loss of muscle tissue that gets worse over time. there is no cure for muscular dystrophy and the severity of the disorder depends on the type of MD it is and how fast symptoms progress.

i did see one patient with SMA. Spinal muscular atrophy type 1 or SMA type 1, is a very severe muscular disease and is detected shortly after birth. the mortality rate is around 90-95% by 18 months of age. they lose their ability to suck and swallow, so parents must decide whether to put a feeding tube in or not, depending on the severity of their disease. the saddest part of a lot of these neuromuscular diseases is that the brain is not really affected. so most of these kids are of average intelligence and are not mentally handicapped, however, their bodies just aren't working properly. i really really enjoying working with this population though. so much to learn about and so many ways to help these kids.

i did get a no to the neuromuscular position i applied to, so i was pretty bummed. still waiting on a couple other positions and am looking into nannying too until i find something else. thankfully i have a lot of fabulous people in my life reminding me that the Lord IS good and He is still in this, even when i can't feel Him and feel hopeless. He is good and He is walking through this with me.