Camp Spifida.

This past week will go into the books as one of the most rewarding weeks of my life. I spent the week in a cabin with 6 campers, 8 counselors, and one cabin doctor. We filled our days with rock climbing, swimming, arts & crafts, fishing, archery, campfires, trick or treating, making gingerbread houses, snow tubing, looking for hidden leprechauns, and playing charades in the tree house. Every 4 hours we went to the med shed for cathing and meds followed by meals in the dining hall. All of the children at this camp had Spina Bifida, which is a congenital disorder where the neural tube/spinal cord do not form fully and are left open when a child is born. Many children who are born with this lose feeling from their lower spine to their feet. Some children are able to walk on their own or with the use of crutches ; Whereas many of them are in wheelchairs. It was amazing to watch the campers interact with each other, have conversations comparing and contrasting the medications they take or the way they cath, and it also showed confirmation that whether you have a medical condition or not kids are kids and they will play and be normal when given the opportunity. 

XO. Sarah 

Here are some pictures from the week: 

9 month resident.

I'm finally feeling like a true resident of Pennsylvania - except for my Wisconsin driver's license and license plates that my father tells me to change on a weekly basis. I can now navigate myself to multiple costal cities without the use of a GPS and have picked up on some of the Pennsylvania slang, unfortunately. 

My job is still going wonderful. These summer months have been filled with children coming into my clinic with broken bones from sports, trampolines, falling off bikes, and car accidents. We have special clinics built into the week specifically for fracture add ons. By the end of those days, I'm covered in glitter and fiberglass from all of the casting we do. I still am traveling to outreach clinics in Harrisburg, PA and Wilkes Barre, PA every other week with one of the surgeons I work with. I enjoy being able to have a wide range of patients to follow. 

Next week I will be at Camp Spifida all week long. I will be one of the Child Life Specialists and a camp counselor for kids with Spina Bifida. We spend the week fishing, swimming, going on the adventures course, woodworking, doing arts and crafts, dancing, eating meals in the dining hall, and this year we are even going trick or treating and sledding with fake snow. I am really looking forward to it! 

Katie and I continue to be socialites whenever we have free time. Shocking, right? We go shopping on a frequent basis and now know where the best stores are in a 3 hour radius. A girl can never have enough shoes, clothes, and accessories! We have been playing trivia with our co-workers at a local bar on Thursday nights. We try to sample new food and drinks at restaurants once or twice a week. The local oyster bar seems to be our hangout. Over Memorial Day, we hiked a state park -- the weather was perfect, saw many waterfalls, and even spent some time at the beach. We tried to take up gardening after our mother's this summer as well. I created a herb garden out of an old palette and Katie planted a bunch of flowers. Most everything is still alive but this East Coast humidity is starting to take a toll on the plants. In May, we were able to sneak away to Denver for a week to the Child Life National Conference - it was so great to catch up with college friends, professors, and old co-workers. While I was in Denver, I was able to see some of my cousins who live there and my aunt, which was great. My mother came out over the 4th of July for six days. We toured Lancaster county, where the highest concentration of Amish people live. Over the weekend, we travelled down to Washington DC and the Chesapeake Bay. It was nice to get away for a few days and escape reality! 

Even though I love my life out here, I do miss all of you back home! I literally am counting down the days until I will be home at the end of August. (43 days!!) I can't wait to spend time with my family and friends, see Steph's baby belly, walk the streets of Madison, visit Molly and Justin's lovely new home, eat Culver's and Waterfront fish fry, and just relax!  


XO.  Sarah 

   Child Life National Conference - Denver, CO. May 2013. Katie and I with our professors. 

 Katie, myself, and our college friend, Ali. Denver, CO. 

 My little cousin, Maliah. Denver, CO. 

Georgetown, CO. 

 Hiking Rickett's Glen State Park. Rickett's Glen, PA. May 2013. 

 Having way to much fun at work. June 2013. 

Before dinner at the Oyster Bar. July 2013. Selinsgrove, PA. 

 My lovely mother and I during her visit. July 2013. 

July 2013.

Intercourse, PA.
Washington DC.
Chesapeake Bay, MD.

Checking things off.

1. Survived my first hurricane. Check. 

Katie and I spent the night at the hotel on the hospital campus to avoid commuting back and forth to work in the strongest parts of the storm. Sandy rolled in on a Monday evening with extremely strong winds, lots of rain, and some power outages. The worst of it stuck around until Tuesday late morning. Thankfully for us, it turned and went more towards central PA after hitting the coast of NJ. We were not as affected as predicted but it was still scary enough to say the least. 

2. Sampled PA "famous" soft pretzels. Check. 

They're delicious. They come in a variety of flavors, shapes, sizes, and are served with an array of dipping sauces. Yum! 

3. Attended a Susquehanna University Football game. Check. 

Susquehanna University is right down the street from where Katie and I live. It is an expensive private school filled with students from the coast. We went to the football game with our co-worker/friend Paige on a Saturday afternoon. It was fun but it felt like I was watching high school football all over again. The stadium size was about the same as my hometown field as well. 

4. Went to dinner at a Oyster Bar. Check. 

Following the football game, we headed to BJ's which is the local Oyster bar downtown Selinsgrove. It had delicious food and their famous Bongo Bongo Dip was everything it was cracked up to be. Katie and I are thinking about going there some night for a drink and trying some of the adventurous ways to eat oysters. 

5. Successfully implementing Child Life Services in the Orthopaedic clinic. Check. 

My job is going wonderfully. As I told my aunt on the phone last week, it literally is a dream job. The Pediatric Orthopaedic Team and Child Life Team are amazing. I feel so fortunate to be working with such great people. Some days are absolutely crazy -- we have anywhere from 40-150 kids coming through our clinic daily. Lots and lots of broken bones, new casts, dwarfism, cerebral palsy, autism, joint aspirations, neuromuscular deformities, intoeing, club feet, surgery referrals, and a large number of sports injuries. 

6. Said goodbye to my shattered iPhone 4 and upgraded to the iPhone 5. 

Apple gets me every time and the iPhone 5 is everything it's cracked up to be. I love it. The screen size, panoramic pictures, Siri, and it literally feels like I'm holding onto air because it is so lightweight. It is a bit of Apple overload in our condo. Between my MacBook Pro computer, iPhone, personal iPad, work iPad, Katie's work iPad, and she is soon getting the iPhone 5, we are never far from technology. 

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Katie and I are relaxing this weekend enjoying every minute before our weekends are filled with lots of exciting events, holiday parties, and trips. 

We will be working around Thanksgiving day so we will be cooking our own Thanksgiving meal on Thursday. We are incorporating all of our families favorite recipes and cooking ourselves a 3 course meal. This coming Saturday we will be attending the Badgers vs. Nittany Lions football game at Penn State University. So excited! I am hoping we will be able to see Montee Ball break the all time touchdown record since he tied the record last night vs. Ohio State. Between our red sparkly headbands, Badger jersey, and all red apparel it will be obvious who we are cheering for in the Nittany Lion "white out". 

The following weekend (first weekend of December) we are headed to New York City for the day. Since we only live a couple hours west we are jumping on a bus and heading into the city instead of driving ourselves. We are planning on going ice skating and watching the tree lighting at Rockefeller Center, going x-mas shopping on 5th Avenue, getting frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity 3, walking around Central Park, and treating ourselves to a nice dinner. I'm also extremely excited to stock up on my favorite pair of jeans that I can only get in NYC. 

After that, let the holiday parties begin. We will be going to our co-workers house who lives near Wilkes-Barre for our child life holiday party. It should be a fun time! The next weekend is the Orthopaedic Team holiday party. Katie will be my +1 and it will be night filled with food, drinks, resident skits, music, and dancing at a local country club. 

Hello, Christmas after that, I guess! Katie will be home but it is my rotation this year to work. I will be spending Christmas day with our coworker/friend Paige and her husband Tim at their families house. It will be nice to not celebrate the day by myself.  

Soon after Xmas I will flying home to spend 10 days at my parents house in Menomonie. I will be home at the end of January and my planner is already filling up penciling in everything and everyone I have to see. :) 

I will post again soon with pictures from our upcoming adventures. Here are some pictures from my "checklist". 

 Our college roommate, Tina came to visit along with Katie's mom, and 2 aunts!

 The perks of working at a children hospital... dressing up for the Halloween parade at work! The Child Life Team were imaginary superheros.

Part of downtown Selinsgrove with some Amish waiting at the stoplight. This is a common occurrence. 

 Susquehanna University football game. The campus is all red brick buildings with white columns, and its gorgeous!

 Katie, Paige, and I hanging out at the football game!

Part of my office in the Orthopaedic Clinic... All of my medical play session, toys, distraction items, and teaching tools are kept in here too. 

XO Sarah

Getting into the groove...

Two weeks later and I'm starting to realize that I'm not on some kind of never ending vacation. I started work this past week. It was an absolute whirlwind from the medical software class, orientations with my team leader which were filled with policies, mind boggling information, and the in's and out's of our Child Life program. I have been getting in some patient care by spending time with each of the CCLS' in their clinical areas. My first official day with the Orthopaedic Team is on the 29th where I will start integrating myself into the clinic. 

Last weekend Katie, Paige who is another child life specialist on our team, and myself went to Hershey for the weekend. It was a blast. It felt like a scaled down version of Walt Disney World but with lots and lots of candy. The rumor is true that the city smells like chocolate when the wind blows and the street lamps are giant Hershey kisses. We went out for a delicious seafood lunch at Devon and spent the afternoon shopping at the outlet malls. On our way to Hershey we stopped at an Amish Farmer's Market -- may be one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. It was filled with real Pennsylvanian Dutch Amish Woman, more baked goods than one could ever buy, jams, produce, pumpkins, homemade noodles, and crafts. 

This weekend was spent carving pumpkins (Pictures below), cleaning, getting our place ready for Katie's family and our college roommate Tina (Katie's cousin) to visit this coming weekend. It felt nice to relax and it is amazing how fast weekends go when you have a full time job. Phew! 

 Zac Brown Band concert at Penn State!

Chocolate World!!

I have the best co-workers ever!! :)

Pumpkin carving!

This is the Susquehanna river that we live on and workout along. So gorgeous!

The leaves are just starting to change here. Much further behind than Wisconsin!

Love this! 

More to come soon! XO 

I always knew a piece of my heart would remain on the East Coast...

One year later and I'm back...

Ever since I decided I wanted to become a Child Life Specialist, people would continually ask me the same question - "What is a Child Life Specialist?"and it would be followed by - "Where do you want to work?". I would always reply with the same response: "A Child Life Specialist is someone who works with pediatric patients and families primarly in children's hospitals to normalize the hospital experience through procedure preparation, distraction, play therapy, and provide psychosocial, emotional, and bereavement support. My next answer would be - "Ideally, I would love to work at a large well known children's hospital on the East Coast." 

After graduating college last December I took 5 months to study for my Certification exam and start the job hunt. I successfully passed my exam in Washington D.C in May! After my exam, I accepted a 4 month CCLS (Certified Child Life Specialist) position at American Family Children's Hospital in Madison, WI in the Emergency Department to gain experience. I absolutely loved my job there! The amount of experience I gained and the exposure to different things such as traumas, injuries, and illnesses was mind boggling. When my position ended, it was bittersweet but I knew that I needed to continue to pursue my dreams and move outside of my Wisconsin comfort zone. After traveling to the East Coast on numerous occasions and living in New Hampshire/Vermont during my Child Life internship, I had a feeling that the perfect opportunity was waiting for me somewhere along the Atlantic and I guess I was right.

On Monday I will be starting my first day at Geisinger Medical Center/Janet Weis Children's Hospital in the Susquehanna Valley of eastern Pennsylvania. I will be the first CCLS that is apart of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Team. Most of my day will be spent in the Peds Orthopaedic Clinic. I will be also be following/supporting patients who need fracture reductions, bone re-setting, and joint aspirations in a sedation area. The ortho clinic also has their own casting room and X-ray suite which is very convenient.

It just so happens that my best friend from college, Katie, is also a CCLS at Janet Weis Children's Hospital. Katie works in the Peds outpatient hematology/oncology and GI clinics. She started working in May, moved into an adorable 2 story, 2 bedroom condo, in a town called Selinsgrove. I moved in with her this past weekend and it feels like our college years all over again. It has made the move and transition much easier. We are already planning lots of trips, sightseeing adventures, and plotting out what meals we should make for dinner. Tonight we are headed to State College, PA to go to the Zac Brown Band concert at Penn State university. Super excited!! This weekend we are going to drive 40 minutes south to the Harrisburg area and stop at an Amish farmer's market to pick up pumpkins to carve and spend the afternoon in Hershey, PA at chocolate world and the outlet malls. 

More to come soon... 

With love, 

Sarah XO

Grazie! Ciao!

Thank you for all your support over the past 4 months! I loved getting all of the cards, letters, and packages that I received from many of you. It made me feel much closer to home! :)

I am so so so thankful that I had the opportunity to move out here and complete my internship at Children's Hospital at Dartmouth. I could not of asked for a better experience! I am looking forward to starting the next chapter of my life and I am anxious to see where I end up getting a child life specialist position. I have been looking into jobs more and more but I am not going to start applying until January.  I want to relax for a little bit and enjoy the holidays with my family and friends.  I would ideally like to end up on the east coast again but in a bigger city. I am hoping for Boston, Washington D.C. or New York City. We will see!

It is going to be bittersweet saying goodbye to all of the wonderful people I have met out here and I know it will be hard transitioning some of my patients back to the primary hem/onc child life specialist.

This is my final post. Thank you again to all of you for your love and support.
With Love,
Sarah

Thank goodness for space saver bags and new luggage!

Well its official... the end is here! I fly home in 5 days!

I spent the entire weekend packing my life into boxes, space saver bags, and suitcases. It is shocking how much stuff you can fit into a car. I realized I need to go through my clothes when I get home because I have way to many! Especially because I have a closet and a dresser full at my parents house! Thankfully I was able to fit everything and still have extra room. I did treat myself to a new 5 piece luggage set which was a long time coming. When I fly to Wisconsin on Friday I will check a big suitcase which I put all my sweatshirts, sweaters, and jeans in to save room for other clothes in my car. I also packed a carry on suitcase of everything I need for graduation just in case my luggage doesn't make it to Milwaukee since I have a layover at O'Hare Airport in Chicago. 

After graduation, I will go back to Menomonie and spend 2 nights there before I fly back out to New Hampshire with my mom and brother to drive my car and the rest of my stuff back. We are planning on driving straight through and I am dreading every minute of it since it was not to long ago we made the 25 hour drive out here. 

I am looking forward to being home on the 21st and being able to stay there for awhile. Plus, I am counting down the days until Christmas!!! :) 

With Love,

Sarah 

ps. GO PACKERS!! :) Such a good game, they are on a roll so far!