SCUBA! SCUBA! SCUBA!

Okay so finally I am taking time to tell you about my scuba diving certification open water dives. Basically the performance of my skills to allow me to become certified! GO ME!

Amanda, Jason and I went the weekend of October 22, 23. Clear Springs Scuba Park Terrell, TX, was the scene of the event!
Take a look at their site for more pictures. See if you can find the ones of the shark, boat, and plane fuselage.

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We showed up at 8AM and were excited and ready to go.
Doesn't the Santa Maria looks so happy. (ahh precious car)


Dive 1:
Depth: 25' Dive time: 0:25
Skills completed: Mask clear, Mask removal and recovery, Regulator clear, Regulator recovery, Buddy breath, Octopus ascent, Buoyancy control


Dive 2:
Depth: 25' Dive time: 0:35
Skills completed: Buoyancy, Octopus ascent, Surface rescue


Dive 3:
Depth: 15' Dive time: none (snorkel)
Skills completed: Snorkeling, Surface dives


Dive 4:
Depth: 42' Dive time: 0:25
Skills completed: Compass surface and underwater (freakin hard), Buoyancy control, Deep dive
Water temp=75 degrees F, Surface temp=55-60 degrees F (freakin cold)


Dive 5:
Depth: 30' Dive time: 0:25
Skills completed: Emergency swimming ascent, Submerged rescue


Our instructor was Mrs. Paula Robinson. She was our Public Health teacher and Emergency Care teacher in school, and is the reason we are becoming scuba divers. She is a fun lady and has been scuba diving and instructing for over 20 years!
How cute is she!!

So that is the fun trip of scuba!

We ate at this yummy Mexican food restaurant Saturday night, and then we had to get money for the park so had to stop at this quick store. They had hilarious stuff in there. This one brand of chap stick was called "Chap off." I started laughing hysterically. It's like a saying you would say to someone bugging you, "Dude, chap off!" haha (I will have to start using that.) Well we all woke up sniffly Sunday morning from the cold hotel room, but were ready to finish up our last skills to get back home, sleep, relax and most of all STUDY!

This is the only turtle we saw on the whole trip. :(
I wanted to see one underwater, but at least I was able to see one. :) Can you find it?
You may have to blow it up. I think I am going to take a break on blogging for awhile. I am wearing myself out. So update yours so I can have something to do. :)

Drug + (side effect) or Nutrition + health

To all:
I was watching some TV when a new drug commercial came on. Nothing new as the drug company makes mills off this. Anyway, my point is this new drug "Requip" is for a symptom called "Restless Legs Syndrome." Please do not take this drug if you feel like you may have this. (1) This can be helped simply with Iron supplements or eating more foods with iron in them. Also take vitamin C and E to protect against oxidation of the iron.

From a classmate in school who wrote me about her RLS:

I just wanted to let you know restless leg syndrome is sometimes iron insufficiency; however most of the time it's actually magnesium. I have several patients, as well as myself, that suffered from restless leg syndrome and in all cases, Magnesium supplementation was much more effective than iron and totally resolved it. Plus, many women who get restless leg syndromes also have GI complaints. What the correlation is I'm not sure. But adding Iron increases or can cause constipation and or nausea. Magnesium has the opposite effect (it softens stool) so is good to recommend to pts with GI or constipation problems. Also, Mg has been found that it alleviates depression in women. This is an incidental finding but one of my patients (I didn't tell her about it's affects on depression) commented that she felt much happier and less down than she normally does after supplementing the Mg for about 3 weeks. So to make a long story short, Mg is some good stuff! .
Your friend in health
XXXXXX XXXXX (confidentiality)

Please tell any of your friends or family members who feel the need to get this drug. There is no need for them unless you want the side effects from it which you may not have the restless legs but you can now fall asleep during activities of daily living, bouts of fainting and slowed heart rate, hallucinations, and many more for you to read about http://us.gsk.com/products/assets/us_requip.pdf
So please. What would you rather do? Take some supplements of iron, magnesium, Vit. C and E and feel fine plus improve other parts of your body as well. Or take a drug that "treats" restless legs but then have to take more drugs for the other side effects that your body is responding to the drug with?

Please, all I ask is that you always educate yourself before taking any drugs/supplements/herbs. Your life is at stake and is important to so many others as well. Do the research on everything, it's out there waiting for you.

~Intern Allison Patton


(1) Mosby's Handbook of Herbs and Supplements and their Therapeutic Uses; Bratman MD, Girman MD, MPH; pg.290-292

No STARS for me

When you go to check your scores on the Chiropractic National Boards results you always look for a "star" asterisk by your score to tell you you didn't pass. NO STARS FOR ME!!!!!

I am officially half way through my program now.

I PASSED MY PART II BOARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for all your prayers and support. I couldn't have made it this far without you all. Have a GREAT weekend!!!

YIPEEEE!!!!!!

There are 4 Boards total and a Physiotherapy one as well, so really 5. In March, I will take Part III and PT. Then in May, I will take Part IV. So much more fun to come.

And I passed SCUBA as well. I am a certified SCUBA diver!!!! All in one. Yes it's a great package, take me as I am. :)

or not at all.....

Shout out...

So this week is so crazy busy but I wanted to put something up because, well.... okay...

"Hello my name is Allison and I am obsessed with the blogging!"

Whew finally got that off my chest, oh no... where did it go. Man so small. haha
Anyways I wanted to put two things down that I thought were insightful and intriguing.

First is, my friend Amanda Hyde (have to say last name because I have another friend Amanda) gave me her fortune because I wanted to remember it. This is what it said (which she had to explain it to me afterwards, and is why I love it.)
"Enough is as good as a feast."
How great of a fortune, if you eat and it makes you fool it is like having a feast, because what would you do with the rest of the food once you are full? You ate what you could eat, so it's always like a feast. Be happy with what you have because it's enough. It's YOUR feast.
(just thought it was really cool.)

Second is , my friend and her fiance are having a troubling time right now. A couple of us at school were talking about the situation and how things can be seen as "signs" and can also be used as an excuse/justification of wrong. It's hard to tell, but there is always a reason for it all in the end. One of the girls said her pastor told her this insight once and it stuck with her, and will now stick with me forever.
"Don't marry someone unless you would want to be them, unless they are someone who's shoes you would want to be in."
Meaning, that person, for all they are inside and out, should be someone you would want to be like, because when you marry two become one. I never thought of it like that and really want to ask people who have long lasting marriages if they feel that way about their spouse. Very true in a sense though. If you don't like something about your significant other's character, it's time to evaluate the situation. It's not about if they snore or chew with their mouth open, it's a matter of principle and character.

Well this is more than I planned on but have many more topics in mind, like my scuba, but that will wait untill I get the results from my written test.
~By the way~ Big results this Friday - BOARD SCORES GO ONLINE!!!!!

Split Identities; Who is Allison Patton?

Here is a funny story I thought to tell because it was brought to my attention in a reply to the hair blog.

My friend Michelle has always called me "Allison Patton" because she knows two other "Alison's" and to not get people confused which she is talking about I was/am referred to by both names. :) It's quite enjoyable really.
So the funny part, all her friends in Arizona thought she was always talking about her two friends, "Alice and Patton." Haha how hillarious is that!
I guess I told this story to some people and totally forgot who and so she reminded me of it. Just to share. :)

I guess my first split identity would be from my dad. As you know my parents had two beautiful, young, loveing, caring, fun girls. This holds the problem of him never getting to have the "boys" to teach things to and horse around with, therefore the split identity. Whenever we were "Jess and Al" we were my dad's "boys." He taught us many survival skills such as jumping off a roof and landing properly, how to fix things without calling for a repair man first, how to take things apart to see how they work just because, and finally how a woman should be treated.
Now you may think, "Woah, why do you, as a girl, need to know how a lady should be treated?" It's because we should accept no less from the man of our future. Now if things sway from this it's our own acceptance of the treatment, but at least we knew better. :)

So a case of the mistaken identity is now to a close. Thank you for playing. Come again.

Gone like the wind!!!

So I couldn't take it, took matters into my own hands (or should I say scissors) and had to cut my hair. I cut about an inch and a half from the back so now it matches well enough with the rest and looks fine. I actually got compliments on it today. I think it might also be because they were asking to make sure I actually got it cut and it wasn't an accidental mishap from a fight with a fan.

So I curled it out today(10-18-05) and it was nice. I like it now. Feel spunky...or something to the affect. Haha.

{This was taken today(10-19-05) - picture this with an extra inch and a half tacked on to the back layer with the front looking the same.} my thoughts exactly, eeewww - mullet!

So no awesome pics of the mullet that was, is not and never will be again!!! So long, fare well, alviderzan, adieu. Ahh spelling or not you get the point. :)

So just to keep you updated I fixed the madness and all is well. :)

Hip Hip!! HOORAY!

~Al

Business in the front, Party in the back!

Oh my gosh. So it's been forever long since I had my hair cut and the lady who did it last did a good job so I called to schedule an appointment. Well she isn't there anymore and so I figured it would be fine to still go there because it's a known hair place, Regis. Well so I went and told her I wanted it trimmed, more layers, and some bangs type style. So I am trusting her to look cute here right?!

So I am liking the layers in the back, feeling a lot lighter and she layers all around and does the bangs and then starts to dry it. I choose to have it curl under instead of out. So she gets done and I don't have my glasses on but from what I see I like the bangs and the cut seems a little interesting but I accept and pay. So I get into the car and check it out in the visor mirror. BAD MOVE!

So I see that the top is nice and full but then there is just this thin layer of long hair in the back. And then I start to think, "OH MY GOSH, I LOOK LIKE I HAVE A MULLET!!" There is no business or party, it's straight up uuuggggg.
It is shorter in the front and that long layer in the back. The only good thing is that I have a cute pony tail now and I like the bangs. So looks like my new do for two months is a pony tail. Yeah for the tail. Boo for a mullet.

There is no picture to show because I am too embarrassed. Please pray for the hair to grow fast so I can cut it!!!! and NOT there again. :* (

Just the update vent blog today...... AHHHH!!!

RED HOT-RED HOT- RED HOT- SSSsssssss

We had our clinic camp this weekend (well Thursday, Friday and half of Saturday). It was a blast! Learned a lot about myself and my life as a chiropractor and how I need to change my thinking. Also I learned a lot about making my clinic experience better and improve patient communication. (very key because I struggle some with this) So... the clinic camp experience.

Thursday was the ropes course and team building challenges on the ground. Each were tied into our clinic experience and life lessons for each. All reiterated that we are not alone in this and we need to always use our resources because we all need to stick together. So we are all broken up into 6 groups, WE were no other than RED!!!!


We are judged on winning each event and also by spirit. Now, because they want to keep this like real life, you get more points for your attitude and spirit than winning. (5+ for winning, 10+ for enthusiasm) When we were told this we KNEW we had to be loud and known because we can't expect to be the best at all the events. Luckily this worked. By the end of Thursday night we were up with 60+ and the next group had only 35+. All but 2 events we received spirit points and then two events we won!! It was a blast. So let me give you a little taste of the RED cheers so you can see how "all over the spirit" we were. :)


"I don't know what I've been told (echo)
Red team's here to win the gold (echo)
You might think it might be you (echo)
But that just won't be true (echo)
Am I right or wrong? (You're right)
Am I right or wrong? (You're right)
Sound off (1-2)
Sound off (3-4)
Break it on down (R-E-D, R-E-D, RED HOT!)"

"Red Hot, Red Hot, Red Hot SSSsssss (finger to butt)" (repeat many times)

"Who let the REDS out? (Who who who who)" (repeat many times)

"Give me an R (R), Give me an E (E), Give me a D (D)
What's that spell (RED), WHAT'S THAT SPELL (RED)
Who are we (RED), WHO ARE WE (RED)
Who's gunna win (RED)!"

"Do a little dance, make a little love, get RED HOT tonight, get RED HOT tonight" (repeat)

"How funky is your chicken, how loose is your goose? Now come on all you RED HOTS and shake your caboose, and shake your caboose!" (repeat)

"Nah nah nah nah, Nah nah nah nah, Hey hey hey, Good bye"


Now can you see why we have the most spirit. We have an awesome team. We were all excited and pumped the whole time. Everyone participated in every event and never griped or complained about anything. It was a great team.

Well the teams were divided by clinics. There is an Irving clinic (us) and a Dallas clinic (the other 5 teams). Another event given points for was the six way tug-o-war. (So much fun, and YES all six teams tugged against each other at the same time) RED won that one!! But we didn't get the spirit points. The next competition was the Trolly Race, where you have two boards with ropes and 4 people stand and have walk on them to the other side. We came in dead last in that event (haha), which put us under points and in 2nd place!


FINALLY the winning event was the skit at the end.

"P-I, A-S, Red is the best!"

Every one did great and they were all really good and HILARIOUS!! The instructions were only, "A skit that has to do with Chiropractic." So we ended up second in that event giving us enough points to win it all!! The underdog clinic wins again!!! (Whoop whoop!) This means we get a free lunch with the President of our college, and our staff doctors get a free night out on the town with their spouse.



Such a really great experience I am glad our school makes us all do before we graduate. It makes us set goals for ourselves to get us oriented and focused and on track. ON PURPOSE!! So hope you enjoyed my weekend, because I sure enjoyed sharing it with you all.

All Fun and Some Seriousness

My friend, Amanda, sent me two cd's she made for me and this card.
I thought it was so hilarious esp. for how accurate it is!
Please enjoy it's truthful gesture. :)
haha.

So I went out with my friends Drew and Kristi, and some of their friends, last night to an awesome place called, "Pete's Dueling Piano Bar." It was a blast. They have two pianos on stage and they sing requests and it's non-stop music. Sometimes they do challenges between colleges or sexes. Really smart way for them to get tip money too. :)
But this place is the funnest. If you don't have a place like this in your town, you have to come here whenever you are in the Dallas area.

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The Prostate (It's not if you will get it but when)
Very common in males over 50. (women never have to worry about this one) Prostate cancer often turns into metastatic bone cancer if not stopped and treated.
It's the same old saying, "Use it or lose it." The best way to work out your prostate and keep it healthy is to use it often. (Congrats guys, you now have a real excuse.)
Something else you can do for when you get in the "older" ages is take the herb Saw Palmetto. It was found to be more effective than the drug Proscar in the treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH).


Breast Cancer (Men you don't escape this either!)
Second most common cause of cancer in women. 9 out of 10 breast lumps are noticed first by the woman herself, which stesses the importance of breast self examinations especially over mammograms.
One of the most common places for breast cancer is in the tail of the breast, the part that is going towards your armpit. Therefore, when examining yourself, it's not just the breast itself but it's surrounding tissue where the lymphnodes are stored.

** Very interesting finding tied to nutrition**
You have bile acids in your liver to help digest your food in your intestines. If you have a bad diet, dioxycholic acid is put out.
If your gut (intestines) is in dysbiosis, this dioxycholic acid is converted to lithocolic acid which is concentrated in none other than the BREAST TISSUE. This, not uncommonly, is an estrogen driven disease.

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This was a verse I enjoyed from one of my suggested sites, Vision Daily .....

I Cor. 13 says that without love we are nothing, and all our sacrifice, without love, is meaningless. Jesus said that the world would know His disciples by their love.

Blessings to you all
~ Allison :)

Scuba scuba scuba

I am in a scuba class that is taught by a teacher at our school. She is the EMT and also teaches part of Public Health, with water purification and such. ANYWAYS.... SCUBA!!!!!
Today was our third day. We only go on Mondays and each time is it more and more fun and exciting. The first day was intro day and swim test day. Last Monday we snorkeled and learned how to clear out our masked if flooded, how to swim with fins and no arms, and to clear the snorkel after you dive. So that was fun until tonight!!!

Oh my gosh. I knew I loved water and such but not this much. We had our tanks and jackets on tonight and learned how to do things at the bottom of the pool, some from last time but now with a respirator in your mouth, and how to get your weight belt back on and your jacket back on. Those tanks are heavy out of the water, HOLY.

So while I was waiting for my turn, or after my turn had passed to perform the tasks, I looked up to the water level of the 10 feet deep pool and was so excited and amazed and thought, "Wow what a life of a fish, they have no idea how awesome this site is." This must be the mindset of every scuba diver out there. It's just not the same when you have a snorkel on and you are holding your breath trying to keep yourself underwater. To be able to just sit there at the bottom and look up at the reflections of light, movement of the water and bubbles rising to the top from the other divers and yourself. Such an amazing experience and gift to be allowed to witness. I can't wait till we are out in the lake, and oh man, the first time I will get to go to an island and scuba there. Life is grand when you aren't on land. :) hehe just made that up.

Well another song lyric for now...
"It's the little things, and the joy they bring. Got everything that I pray for, even a little more. When I ask to learn humility, this is what I was told ... It's the little things and the joy they bring, it's the little things." - India Arie