We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Sunday, July 29, 2007
My blogging has seriously been falling off lately. I just don't have the mental energy to be creative when I get home.
This past week in the well baby nursery was fun. It was nice to be surrounded by healthy babies and their excited parents. It's amazing how aware a 12 hour old baby is -- they would often calm right down as soon as one of their parents walked over to the crib, especially if the baby could hear their voice. I was holding one of the babies and she was looking at the window and when I turned a little she craned her neck to keep looking at the window, with that look of perplexion (not a word) on her face. She was like 20 hours old! I don't think they're even supposed to be able to see that far. It was so amazing to watch them start to turn into little people.
The sad cases I saw had to do with the mothers, not the babies. One of the moms was just having bad complications from her C-section -- a lot of internal bleeding. She was stuck in the ICU for the first few days of her son's life. Oh, and that boy looked exactly like his dad, somehow, even though he was only a few days old and looked like a baby. Dad was so excited, doing the stereotypical thing of shaking the hand of everyone who walked in the room.
The other sad case was a mom who had been diagnosed with metastatic melanoma during her pregnancy. She needed surgery as soon as possible so they had to weigh the risks of waiting to operate on her cancer with the risks of her baby being born pre-term; they waited until she was 34 weeks along, just late pre-term. We send babies to the NICU if they weigh less than 2200 grams and he weighed in at 2210 grams, so he could stay with his mom in her room until they went home a few days later (probably earlier than the doctor would have liked, but he wanted them to get home and have as much time together as possible).
One interesting thing about the nursery at Christiana that I don't think I've mentioned is that almost every baby stays in the room with Mom, and Mom and Dad are responsible for feeding it and changing its diapers from day 1. Mom can have the baby sleep in bed with her if she really wants, although we don't recommend it. My attending said that this is pretty new, around for only the past 5 years or so, and it was totally new to me. Every time I've gone to visit a new baby, up to my cousin who was born just six year ago, the set up has been that the mom is in her room and all the babies are in one big nursery with a big window where you can point and find yours and ogle at it. This new system seems really nice, and I think the parents liked it too. There still were nurseries where the nurses could take the baby if Mom needed to get a shower or something, so it wasn't like they were totally on their own. Oh, and as of like this year, dads are allowed to stay the night in the room too... in an empty hospital bed or a chair... but nonetheless.
Tomorrow we start our three weeks at an outpatient clinic in Wilmington. We don't have to be there until 8:30am!!!!!! We don't get out until 5pm, but still, this is like a normal person's job. We are going to be so refreshed. Maybe we can even go to Quizzo this week!
Lastly, Glen and I are addicted to Philly's 104.5FM. We first discovered this station when we got our car back from Glen's mom Kathee after she borrowed it for one night due to a debacle involving income taxes and a heavily armored parking garage; she had left the radio tuned to the station, although I don't think she particularly listens to it. We kept the radio tuned there and were amazed that every time we turned the car on, there was a good song on. Then with school and the boards, we hardly used our car for a few months. I tried to find the station in the house once, but I mistakenly thought it was 94.5FM. That's a Top 40 station out of Trenton, and as is requisite with getting older, I think pop music is getting worse and worse. So recently, Steve mentioned 104.5 and reminded me that (1) it existed and (2) what its real frequency was. So since we've been commuting in our car over this past week, we've needed a radio station as background noise and tuned in to this. It's all 90's alternative rock! It's amazing! These radio stations had slowly been getting canceled; it happened in Baltimore, Philly, and I've heard NY. There was almost nothing for people our age to listen to. On top of that, their DJs don't talk at all, even in the mornings - its all music. Their commercial breaks are only two commercials long. I wondered how they stayed in business, but I just found out they're run by ClearChannel, the super mega radio conglomerate. I don't really like supporting one of their stations, but you hardly have any choice these days anyway. (and it's a lot easier when they're playing what I like, haha).
Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stone Temple Pilots, Weezer, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Live, U2... and some new stuff like White Stripes and the Killers... yum!
This past week in the well baby nursery was fun. It was nice to be surrounded by healthy babies and their excited parents. It's amazing how aware a 12 hour old baby is -- they would often calm right down as soon as one of their parents walked over to the crib, especially if the baby could hear their voice. I was holding one of the babies and she was looking at the window and when I turned a little she craned her neck to keep looking at the window, with that look of perplexion (not a word) on her face. She was like 20 hours old! I don't think they're even supposed to be able to see that far. It was so amazing to watch them start to turn into little people.
The sad cases I saw had to do with the mothers, not the babies. One of the moms was just having bad complications from her C-section -- a lot of internal bleeding. She was stuck in the ICU for the first few days of her son's life. Oh, and that boy looked exactly like his dad, somehow, even though he was only a few days old and looked like a baby. Dad was so excited, doing the stereotypical thing of shaking the hand of everyone who walked in the room.
The other sad case was a mom who had been diagnosed with metastatic melanoma during her pregnancy. She needed surgery as soon as possible so they had to weigh the risks of waiting to operate on her cancer with the risks of her baby being born pre-term; they waited until she was 34 weeks along, just late pre-term. We send babies to the NICU if they weigh less than 2200 grams and he weighed in at 2210 grams, so he could stay with his mom in her room until they went home a few days later (probably earlier than the doctor would have liked, but he wanted them to get home and have as much time together as possible).
One interesting thing about the nursery at Christiana that I don't think I've mentioned is that almost every baby stays in the room with Mom, and Mom and Dad are responsible for feeding it and changing its diapers from day 1. Mom can have the baby sleep in bed with her if she really wants, although we don't recommend it. My attending said that this is pretty new, around for only the past 5 years or so, and it was totally new to me. Every time I've gone to visit a new baby, up to my cousin who was born just six year ago, the set up has been that the mom is in her room and all the babies are in one big nursery with a big window where you can point and find yours and ogle at it. This new system seems really nice, and I think the parents liked it too. There still were nurseries where the nurses could take the baby if Mom needed to get a shower or something, so it wasn't like they were totally on their own. Oh, and as of like this year, dads are allowed to stay the night in the room too... in an empty hospital bed or a chair... but nonetheless.
Tomorrow we start our three weeks at an outpatient clinic in Wilmington. We don't have to be there until 8:30am!!!!!! We don't get out until 5pm, but still, this is like a normal person's job. We are going to be so refreshed. Maybe we can even go to Quizzo this week!
Lastly, Glen and I are addicted to Philly's 104.5FM. We first discovered this station when we got our car back from Glen's mom Kathee after she borrowed it for one night due to a debacle involving income taxes and a heavily armored parking garage; she had left the radio tuned to the station, although I don't think she particularly listens to it. We kept the radio tuned there and were amazed that every time we turned the car on, there was a good song on. Then with school and the boards, we hardly used our car for a few months. I tried to find the station in the house once, but I mistakenly thought it was 94.5FM. That's a Top 40 station out of Trenton, and as is requisite with getting older, I think pop music is getting worse and worse. So recently, Steve mentioned 104.5 and reminded me that (1) it existed and (2) what its real frequency was. So since we've been commuting in our car over this past week, we've needed a radio station as background noise and tuned in to this. It's all 90's alternative rock! It's amazing! These radio stations had slowly been getting canceled; it happened in Baltimore, Philly, and I've heard NY. There was almost nothing for people our age to listen to. On top of that, their DJs don't talk at all, even in the mornings - its all music. Their commercial breaks are only two commercials long. I wondered how they stayed in business, but I just found out they're run by ClearChannel, the super mega radio conglomerate. I don't really like supporting one of their stations, but you hardly have any choice these days anyway. (and it's a lot easier when they're playing what I like, haha).
Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stone Temple Pilots, Weezer, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Live, U2... and some new stuff like White Stripes and the Killers... yum!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Tomorrow I'm going to see a baby get born.
That's probably not good English but I'm down to about the last 1% of my brain and I'm going to bed. Sorry I didn't make it to quizzo tonight!
Also, read this:
That's probably not good English but I'm down to about the last 1% of my brain and I'm going to bed. Sorry I didn't make it to quizzo tonight!
Also, read this:
Given how intent President Bush is on expanding his authority, it is startling to recall how the Constitution’s framers viewed presidential power.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Today I let a patient suck on my finger.
He was 1 day old, but still, that's not something they really teach you in med school.
The schedule for our week at the nursery is a lot friendlier -- we got released at 3:15pm today! I used my extra free time in the afternoon by falling face first on to the couch as soon as I walked in the door and not waking up for another 90 minutes... blissful dreamless sleep (all I can dream about any more is doing physical exams and listening to heart sounds, so it's not very restful).
My biggest worry right now is that I'm only 8 chapters into Harry Potter. I didn't want to rush through it this weekend because after this book there is no more, and I want to savor it. But, now that the work week started back up, I haven't had any time to read. I'm so scared that someone is going to blurt out the ending and ruin it for me.
Maybe I'll go squeeze in another chapter, even though I should have been asleep two hours ago (stupid double modules).
He was 1 day old, but still, that's not something they really teach you in med school.
The schedule for our week at the nursery is a lot friendlier -- we got released at 3:15pm today! I used my extra free time in the afternoon by falling face first on to the couch as soon as I walked in the door and not waking up for another 90 minutes... blissful dreamless sleep (all I can dream about any more is doing physical exams and listening to heart sounds, so it's not very restful).
My biggest worry right now is that I'm only 8 chapters into Harry Potter. I didn't want to rush through it this weekend because after this book there is no more, and I want to savor it. But, now that the work week started back up, I haven't had any time to read. I'm so scared that someone is going to blurt out the ending and ruin it for me.
Maybe I'll go squeeze in another chapter, even though I should have been asleep two hours ago (stupid double modules).
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Wow it smells absolutely terrible outside in the back yard. We just threw a bag of garbage back there and 5 minutes later I can still smell that smell on me. I guess the summer cooks up some pungent scents... Glen says it smells like evil. I hope it washes off before we go to the Christiana nursery tomorrow to see the babies!
Saturday, July 21, 2007
11 months until the wedding! Everyone said once we got within the year mark it would go quickly, and the past month went in a blink (...in some respects anyway. I felt like I worked at duPont for months and really we spent only 8 days there). It feels like there is still a lot of time-sensitive stuff to do for the wedding, and by the time we finish our rotation it is going to be only 10 months away. We need a band, a florist, and a honeymoon before everything good is taken.
Today we got our hot-off-the-press copies of Harry Potter and went to read them in Washington Square after having a late lunch at a crepe restaurant we found on 6th just below South. It was a nice relaxing day. We also sent out a bunch of emails that needed to be sent, so it was also productive, a little. I am looking to get to bed before 11 so we don't screw up our sleep schedule too much. I woke up at 4:30am this morning on my own. That was uncool. I went back to sleep and then woke up at 7:30 with a sore throat -- I was sure I had caught something from one of my patients. Like my most recent patient who I followed all of last week -- Thursday morning I'm in there wiping off his runny nose goo from all over his cheeks while he's coughing in my face and then Thursday afternoon when his test finally came back positive for adenovirus, we put him on droplet precautions and I could only walk into his room with latex gloves, a disposable gown, and a surgical mask on. I got out of bed and gargled with some Listerine and when I finally woke up the third time at 10:30am I felt totally better. Cross your fingers for me.
Thursday on the way home we swung by CVS to pick up the prints of our disposable underwater camera from Sanibel (none of the pictures came out very well so I have nothing to post) and then we took the short cut back through the playground. We still had our white coats on with our stethoscopes hanging around our necks and this little boy on a bike stopped and stared at us and then yelled HI! We said hi back and then he asked us if we were two doctors?! I told him we were just students... he looked a little confused and maybe I should have explained that better, but my brain was still melted from the day. I was really touched though to see the white coats carry that much weight with a random little kid. :)
Umm, more randomness: here's a great recipe we tried a few nights ago:
Boil a 16 oz package of frozen gnocchi. Drain.
In a pot, brown 3 cloves (or 3 teaspoons) of chopped garlic in 2 tablespoons olive oil.
Coarsely chop (or tear up) and rinse a 9 oz bag of spinach; throw this into the pot with the garlic and oil and cover to let the spinach steam from the water still on the leaves from rinsing.
When the spinach is just wilted, add 14 oz canned diced tomatoes (the small can, or half the big can).
When the whole thing is heated through, add the gnocchi and toss; salt and pepper to taste.
It was really really good and so simple to make. I think you could add any pasta, but the chunky sauce went well with the gnocchi.
I thought there was one more thing to write... but I can't remember so I'm going to bed. Sweet dreams!
Today we got our hot-off-the-press copies of Harry Potter and went to read them in Washington Square after having a late lunch at a crepe restaurant we found on 6th just below South. It was a nice relaxing day. We also sent out a bunch of emails that needed to be sent, so it was also productive, a little. I am looking to get to bed before 11 so we don't screw up our sleep schedule too much. I woke up at 4:30am this morning on my own. That was uncool. I went back to sleep and then woke up at 7:30 with a sore throat -- I was sure I had caught something from one of my patients. Like my most recent patient who I followed all of last week -- Thursday morning I'm in there wiping off his runny nose goo from all over his cheeks while he's coughing in my face and then Thursday afternoon when his test finally came back positive for adenovirus, we put him on droplet precautions and I could only walk into his room with latex gloves, a disposable gown, and a surgical mask on. I got out of bed and gargled with some Listerine and when I finally woke up the third time at 10:30am I felt totally better. Cross your fingers for me.
Thursday on the way home we swung by CVS to pick up the prints of our disposable underwater camera from Sanibel (none of the pictures came out very well so I have nothing to post) and then we took the short cut back through the playground. We still had our white coats on with our stethoscopes hanging around our necks and this little boy on a bike stopped and stared at us and then yelled HI! We said hi back and then he asked us if we were two doctors?! I told him we were just students... he looked a little confused and maybe I should have explained that better, but my brain was still melted from the day. I was really touched though to see the white coats carry that much weight with a random little kid. :)
Umm, more randomness: here's a great recipe we tried a few nights ago:
Boil a 16 oz package of frozen gnocchi. Drain.
In a pot, brown 3 cloves (or 3 teaspoons) of chopped garlic in 2 tablespoons olive oil.
Coarsely chop (or tear up) and rinse a 9 oz bag of spinach; throw this into the pot with the garlic and oil and cover to let the spinach steam from the water still on the leaves from rinsing.
When the spinach is just wilted, add 14 oz canned diced tomatoes (the small can, or half the big can).
When the whole thing is heated through, add the gnocchi and toss; salt and pepper to taste.
It was really really good and so simple to make. I think you could add any pasta, but the chunky sauce went well with the gnocchi.
I thought there was one more thing to write... but I can't remember so I'm going to bed. Sweet dreams!
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Work is still good. Got to sleep at 9:30 last night so I felt great today. It's 9:30 now so I really want to head downstairs, but I've had all these blog ideas popping into my head over the past two days and I need to get some of them out. Not as many seem humorous at the moment.
Kathee (Glen's mom) called us tonight to tell us that we had been mentioned in Glen's high school alumni newsletter... about how he had just finished his second year of med school, that we are engaged and getting married in June, and then details about how we're taking a year off to get our MBAs at Widener University before returning back to Jefferson. Very nice; the thing is, none of us have any idea who submitted that. Or why. Glen's going to call up the newsletter because we think we have a stalker ;)
I can't get myself to write about work right now since I'm trying to head to bed. I'll just say, don't miss the 40% off the lowest sale price sale at Ann Taylor Loft going on right now, online and in stores. Just don't buy anything in my size that I would like until I get a chance to shop. Unless it's for me, of course.
Also, I want a pika.
Good night!
Kathee (Glen's mom) called us tonight to tell us that we had been mentioned in Glen's high school alumni newsletter... about how he had just finished his second year of med school, that we are engaged and getting married in June, and then details about how we're taking a year off to get our MBAs at Widener University before returning back to Jefferson. Very nice; the thing is, none of us have any idea who submitted that. Or why. Glen's going to call up the newsletter because we think we have a stalker ;)
I can't get myself to write about work right now since I'm trying to head to bed. I'll just say, don't miss the 40% off the lowest sale price sale at Ann Taylor Loft going on right now, online and in stores. Just don't buy anything in my size that I would like until I get a chance to shop. Unless it's for me, of course.
Also, I want a pika.
Good night!
Monday, July 16, 2007
Had to go back to the library today to do some more work on our peds HW -- "modules." Got home at 8pm even though that is ideally when we'd like to be getting into bed. Unfortunately tonight's planned dinner involved rice, so that took about a half hour... watched some TV with dinner till about 9:30 and then I've been on the computer printing out articles (that I need to have read by tomorrow) until now. Heading to bed...
Our landlord came over while we were gone today to fix our drippy bathroom faucet. Our apartment is really really messy. I'm just doubly embarrassed because this is his property that I've turned into a pig sty. We just signed a new lease with them last week, so I'm really not worried about anything like that, but still.
Interviewed a really cute 6 month old today -- he had herpes superinfecting his eczema. He was discharged this afternoon. All my patients are discharged as soon as I'm assigned to them. In front of my resident and my sub-I today I claimed that it's because I'm just such an amazing doctor. I hope that statement was ridiculous enough for them to know I was joking.
We're trying to figure out if we can fit vacation into this weekend. Time-wise maybe we should leave right from work. However, I see someone falling asleep at the wheel in that scenario. We'll figure it out.
Our landlord came over while we were gone today to fix our drippy bathroom faucet. Our apartment is really really messy. I'm just doubly embarrassed because this is his property that I've turned into a pig sty. We just signed a new lease with them last week, so I'm really not worried about anything like that, but still.
Interviewed a really cute 6 month old today -- he had herpes superinfecting his eczema. He was discharged this afternoon. All my patients are discharged as soon as I'm assigned to them. In front of my resident and my sub-I today I claimed that it's because I'm just such an amazing doctor. I hope that statement was ridiculous enough for them to know I was joking.
We're trying to figure out if we can fit vacation into this weekend. Time-wise maybe we should leave right from work. However, I see someone falling asleep at the wheel in that scenario. We'll figure it out.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Ahh!! It's almost 10pm! That's like the 3am of my life before rotations. So late! But I still have to go get a quick shower because I'm starting to look like a caveman. No offense cavemen -- they seem very particular.
Today I bought myself a bouquet of flowers because it had these gorgeous purple spray roses. But on the way home I realized I'm not going to be around to enjoy them.
Five of us spent four hours in the library today trying to do our weekly homework project and we didn't even finish. Now we have to go back and spend our few awake&home hours at the library during the week. I'm not sure how eating fits in there, but Glen got this Indian marinade ready so that should make dinner quick for a couple times this week.
Tonight I stubbed my toe on a camping shovel that we still hadn't put away from our camping trip. I don't think I can wear the fancy shoes I was planning on tomorrow. (I actually lost the toenail on that same toe last week, I think from walking around in my fancy shoes too much, so it hurt extra. Sorry that was gross and I wasn't really planning on mentioning it. I think I need new shoes although you would never believe that if you walked into our apartment)
I don't think I mentioned that we saw Harry Potter 5 yesterday! It was good, but more like the cliffnotes for the book. It will remind you of all the good parts of the book that they left out. But it was still fun.
Other than that, we just tried to clean this weekend. I don't really know where to put all these boards studying books that I accumulated over the past two months. My desk is full of them. I guess I should try to sell the ones that I don't think are useful to Mindy and other rising second years.
On a related note, rumor has it that board scores are coming out this week. I'm really anxious to get them, but way too busy to worry to much.
This post might hold the record for most rambling disconnected one so far, but oh well -- it's 3am in my brain.
Today I bought myself a bouquet of flowers because it had these gorgeous purple spray roses. But on the way home I realized I'm not going to be around to enjoy them.
Five of us spent four hours in the library today trying to do our weekly homework project and we didn't even finish. Now we have to go back and spend our few awake&home hours at the library during the week. I'm not sure how eating fits in there, but Glen got this Indian marinade ready so that should make dinner quick for a couple times this week.
Tonight I stubbed my toe on a camping shovel that we still hadn't put away from our camping trip. I don't think I can wear the fancy shoes I was planning on tomorrow. (I actually lost the toenail on that same toe last week, I think from walking around in my fancy shoes too much, so it hurt extra. Sorry that was gross and I wasn't really planning on mentioning it. I think I need new shoes although you would never believe that if you walked into our apartment)
I don't think I mentioned that we saw Harry Potter 5 yesterday! It was good, but more like the cliffnotes for the book. It will remind you of all the good parts of the book that they left out. But it was still fun.
Other than that, we just tried to clean this weekend. I don't really know where to put all these boards studying books that I accumulated over the past two months. My desk is full of them. I guess I should try to sell the ones that I don't think are useful to Mindy and other rising second years.
On a related note, rumor has it that board scores are coming out this week. I'm really anxious to get them, but way too busy to worry to much.
This post might hold the record for most rambling disconnected one so far, but oh well -- it's 3am in my brain.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Friday, July 13, 2007
I have never looked so forward to a weekend before.
My residents and interns are so sweet -- they're really making my time at DuPont great. My attending physician is really nice too. They expect me to be even more scared than I actually am!
Today I had a two year old patient with seizures and I was there when he was admitted yesterday, presented his case at rounds this morning with what had happened overnight, counseled the mom during the day, and was there when he got discharged (all with only three levels of supervision!). It was really fulfilling to be there for the whole process, and so easy to present his case when I had been there for the whole thing and actually knew what was going on.
I also got to watch him throw a temper tantrum (understandable for a sleep-deprived, sick, two-year-old stuck in a cage of a crib). I thought he was totally out of control until I realized when he threw things, like his diaper, he was extremely careful that they did not hit his mom, because obviously he knew her patience wouldn't go that far.
I am going to sleep sleep sleep, maybe all the way until 9 am tomorrow!!! I'm so excited. Good night!
My residents and interns are so sweet -- they're really making my time at DuPont great. My attending physician is really nice too. They expect me to be even more scared than I actually am!
Today I had a two year old patient with seizures and I was there when he was admitted yesterday, presented his case at rounds this morning with what had happened overnight, counseled the mom during the day, and was there when he got discharged (all with only three levels of supervision!). It was really fulfilling to be there for the whole process, and so easy to present his case when I had been there for the whole thing and actually knew what was going on.
I also got to watch him throw a temper tantrum (understandable for a sleep-deprived, sick, two-year-old stuck in a cage of a crib). I thought he was totally out of control until I realized when he threw things, like his diaper, he was extremely careful that they did not hit his mom, because obviously he knew her patience wouldn't go that far.
I am going to sleep sleep sleep, maybe all the way until 9 am tomorrow!!! I'm so excited. Good night!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
American Indians are reconnecting to their heritage through a game that was invented by their ancestors.
Yay lacrosse!
I would love to write more, but I am so very exhausted. We get up at 4:30am, leave by 5:10am, spend all day running around, and get home at 7:00pm. I've learned how few shoes I have that I can spend all day standing in.
I have a great team I'm working with and they were really supportive today when I presented my first patient, an autistic boy who was dehydrated after having his tonsils removed. He was discharged this afternoon so right before I left we checked in a 2-year-old who had been having seizures all morning who's going to be my new patient. I have a patient.
And TWO beepers.
(one of which has battery acid leaking out of the back, but I'll deal with that tomorrow)
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
A long but OK day.
We waited 45 minutes for the shuttle to come this morning, but tomorrow it is supposed to be on time so the alarm is getting set for 4:30am again.
At least the sun is still up when we get home... winter is going to be hard.
I'm getting ready to go to bed as soon as it's dark enough out to be able to fall asleep.
We waited 45 minutes for the shuttle to come this morning, but tomorrow it is supposed to be on time so the alarm is getting set for 4:30am again.
At least the sun is still up when we get home... winter is going to be hard.
I'm getting ready to go to bed as soon as it's dark enough out to be able to fall asleep.
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