What, me perky?
What a difference a week makes. Yes, the fates have flung me from negativity to contentment in just a handful of days. I don’t know whether to blame (or thank) the stars or the fact I’ve left the dreaded Computers in Healthcare course behind me, but I’m having a hard time getting my knickers in a twist over anything this week. This is about as close as I ever care to come to channeling that perky cheerleader type I always hated in school (minus the raspy voice), or perhaps even Carol Smillie, the BBC’s human equivalent to Prozac.
What’s my problem? I’m a blissful three chapters and one test into something I enjoy--word games. Latin, Greek, plain old English--doesn’t matter. It’s on to Medical Terminology and it could just as easily be Tetris for all the time I can spend on it. I think besides having a more interesting subject matter than Office 2003, the textbook is just excellent. It’s organized nicely, breaks things up with frequent exercises, and kudos to Elsevier for thinking clearly enough to counteract the sheer weight of the thing by putting it in a spiral-bound format. I was going to keep the thing pristine for resale and write all my answers in a separate notebook, but quickly heeded that voice in my head (which sounded an awful lot like Cybill Shepherd, telling me, "I’m worth it!") and decided to simplify my life, indulge myself, and just use the thing up. The book is even printed on good enough stock that you can erase cleanly and highlighter doesn’t bleed through to the other side. Add in the fact that it comes with a CD ridiculously full of silly little Flash games to help reinforce the material and it’s even better.
As I’ve admitted before, I’ve been through a Crappy School for medical transcription and have spent the ensuing years supplementing my studies to make up for it. I had pretty much aced the terminology module at that time and I live with this stuff in my job for what seems like a majority of my waking hours, so it should be easy. Though it is almost entirely review for me at this point, it’s still an ego boost to do well. Despite my supposed expertise at this point, by golly, I am learning some new things and it’s presented in a way that clearly shows how the words relate to the actual job. Many exercises are presented as medical records which you scour for answers and there are quite a few sidebars elaborating on various healthcare careers that make use of what’s being taught--definitely a lot more options than had ever occurred to me. Whether you’re looking for remedial work to supplement your own Crappy School experience or starting fresh, this is an excellent text. I can’t recall the last time I was even impressed with a textbook, and I’ve already reaped some benefits on the job just because the terminology is that much more concrete in my head.
Of course, give me a couple weeks and my neat handwriting and crisp corners may be a thing of the past, but I suspect my enjoyment will last through the final exam. With any luck, I’ll be so high on life at that point that I’ll be able to catapult a good way into my final prerequisite (pharmacology and pathophysiology) without getting bogged down. For now, "perky" is not such a bad place to be!