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.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Wow. The first of many long days.
We had Pediatrics Orientation from 7:45am to 5:00pm today, and at the very end we finally found out where we have to report tomorrow, and our general schedule for the rest of the 6 weeks. We have our two weeks of in-patient first at DuPont, then our week of nursery at Christiana, and then three weeks of out-patient at a clinic in Wilmington.
Short term this means that we have to catch the 5:30am shuttle to DuPont in the morning and before that we have to do homework to present tomorrow.
Long term, it's kind of weird. I can't remember if I wrote about this or not, but we had been worried that with just one car, Glen and I might be assigned to two different Delaware sites simultaneously and that we wouldn't have enough car to go around. We thought we wanted to drive in to DuPont along with Kristin and Beth who have our rotation with us, so we sent the rotation coordinator an e-mail with all of our concerns and she said no problem -- she would set it up so that Glen, Kristin, Beth and I would be going to DuPont the same weeks so we could carpool and she would just put me and Glen together for the rest of the rotation so we wouldn't have any car conflicts. With the in-patient we're with a whole bunch of people at DuPont, on two different teams even... at the out-patient we are the only two students at this one small practice in Wilmington! Just not what I expected.
---
I wrote the above hours ago when I was making dinner. Now I'm at the library finishing the homework project we have due tomorrow -- our first day! It was assigned 21 hours before it was due. I have to get the heck home so we can wake up in less than 5 hours! ARGGH.
Now I really really feel like a third year :(
We had Pediatrics Orientation from 7:45am to 5:00pm today, and at the very end we finally found out where we have to report tomorrow, and our general schedule for the rest of the 6 weeks. We have our two weeks of in-patient first at DuPont, then our week of nursery at Christiana, and then three weeks of out-patient at a clinic in Wilmington.
Short term this means that we have to catch the 5:30am shuttle to DuPont in the morning and before that we have to do homework to present tomorrow.
Long term, it's kind of weird. I can't remember if I wrote about this or not, but we had been worried that with just one car, Glen and I might be assigned to two different Delaware sites simultaneously and that we wouldn't have enough car to go around. We thought we wanted to drive in to DuPont along with Kristin and Beth who have our rotation with us, so we sent the rotation coordinator an e-mail with all of our concerns and she said no problem -- she would set it up so that Glen, Kristin, Beth and I would be going to DuPont the same weeks so we could carpool and she would just put me and Glen together for the rest of the rotation so we wouldn't have any car conflicts. With the in-patient we're with a whole bunch of people at DuPont, on two different teams even... at the out-patient we are the only two students at this one small practice in Wilmington! Just not what I expected.
---
I wrote the above hours ago when I was making dinner. Now I'm at the library finishing the homework project we have due tomorrow -- our first day! It was assigned 21 hours before it was due. I have to get the heck home so we can wake up in less than 5 hours! ARGGH.
Now I really really feel like a third year :(
Monday, July 9, 2007
Oh, also it was super weird to say good night to my friends tonight and to be headed to different rooms and classes (if you can call them that) tomorrow. We're not going to be seeing each other 8 hours a day every day any more! In fact, we're going to have to work hard to schedule in a game of Quizzo that we'll all be able to make it to. We're doing all different things on all different schedules at all different hospitals, and I hope we'll be able to stay in touch and keep each other updated with all of our unique adventures.
Another reason to keep the blog alive!
Another reason to keep the blog alive!
That's my hand above.
I had previously announced that I am not going to ever have surgery and tonight I would like to add to that that I never plan on having an IV line inserted. It just feels weird.
I do feel 1000 times more confident about having to do it on a patient now that I successfully did it on Chuck. Let's home all of my future patients have such great veins.
I apparently have terrible veins (hence the above picture). The guy who was teaching us (who was actually just a first year but who had worked as a paramedic for something like 12 years),
said it's because I'm a redhead, but he didn't explain that statement at all (maybe that's why my old dermatologist had "RED" written on my file so he would know a redheaded patient was coming in that day. I doubt there was that valid of a reason). Our teacher tonight was also overly attracted to Selene's jugular veins. It was an interesting evening all around, and unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me.
Tomorrow we have orientation days for our respective rotations, so we'll be meeting the pediatricians in charge of our block and I believe we'll be seeing some kids to learn about the developmental milestones and practice some of the pediatric physical exam (hint from a fourth year: leave examining the mouth to the end because they'll already having it open, screaming).
Also, here's a quick reprint of my wedding color swatches taken with my good camera. I think the colors are a little truer:
Good night and good luck, especially to the people I know who have to report before sunrise!
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Today Glen and I went to Home Depot to get some giant tupperware containers for our camping stuff, and while we were there, I stopped by the paint department to get some swatches for wedding color ideas.
As you can see, I'm leaning towards the bluey-purples, but I threw in some blues and mossy greens to round it out. I don't really know what I'm going to do with all of these cards, but they're fun to play with. Maybe I can make up some sort of game with very complicated rules to play with them.
Then, as we finally walked back from the car, Glen pointed out a butterfly sitting on a stoop on our block. It looked kind of cute sitting there, and just as I took out my camera to snap a photo, it flew off. We thought we missed our chance, but then it swooped back down, directly at us! It actually landed on Glen's head. It kept flying up and then back down at our faces, and then a second butterfly came to join it. It was bizarre and kind of hilarious to get attacked by a pair of butterflies. Maybe they liked us, I don't know. I got this picture when one finally took a rest.
Tomorrow officially starts... more orientation. In the evening there is a 'clinic' to teach us to place IV lines and take blood and give stitches, so that should be interesting. Our first opportunity to find out how inept we really are!
I liked this article, and plus there's a Lost connection for true nerds like me -- during the first season some people thought The Monster was a mapinguary.
Nearly every Indian tribe in the Amazon, including those that have had no contact with one another, have a word for the mapinguary, or “the roaring animal” — but is it still out there?
Friday, July 6, 2007
Slate's Wedding Issue - http://www.slate.com/id/2167723/
something I want to read, but haven't had the time for yet.
I figure if I post it here, I'm least likely to lose the link ;)
something I want to read, but haven't had the time for yet.
I figure if I post it here, I'm least likely to lose the link ;)
Thursday, July 5, 2007
So today we had orientation for third year. Dean Nasca came and spoke to us, in the same auditorium actually. He was slightly less scary this time... partly because I neither walked in late nor had my cell phone go off while he was talking (Glen reminded me to turn it off first).
He always has really appropriate things to say. Like at Parents' Day in March, he told us the story of when his father dropped him off at his interview for medical school at Jefferson and said to him, "If you work hard, you could run this place one day, Son." And how when he was appointed Dean of the medical school, his father came to the ceremony, but his Alzheimer's Disease had progressed so much that he could hardly recognize his son, let alone appreciate the moment. I think half the room was misty-eyed.
At orientation first year, he gave us a talk on what it means to be entering a profession. This really touched me because I actually never completed my application to UMaryland for med school because they wanted me to write an essay on that very topic and I didn't really know what they meant. Dean Nasca explained to us that all of medicine relies on the fact that society implicitly trusts doctors to help and not hurt them, and without that trust the entire system would collapse. By entering medical school and putting on our white coats (however short they are for the time being) we were entering into that covenant and had the entire weight of the profession on our shoulders. We represent the medical profession as a whole to anyone who knows we are medical students, and any time we do something stupid or irresponsible, we weaken that person's opinion of the profession, thus hurting every other doctor's ability to perform their job.
Have I said he's pretty intimidating?
So when we came back today, he again had the perfect story to tell. He brought up the recent bombings and bombing-attempts in Great Britain, which were planned and carried out by medical professionals (CNN.com - Doctors at heart of UK terror probe). He told us that these doctors had broken the trust in a way that no one had ever imagined, and he assured us that their breach of professional responsibility (to say the least) would trickle down and affect our ability to help our patients. Sound far-fetched? Dean Nasca then told us how he did his nephrology fellowship during the Iranian hostage crisis. In an attempt to look more mature, he had grown out a beard, as it held his only grey hairs (at the time). One day he was called in for a consult on a patient checked-in to the hospital and that patient refused to talk to Dr. Nasca because the patient thought he was Iranian because of the beard (he's actually an Italian from Brooklyn). It's really unfortunate that there was any of this material for Dean Nasca to draw from, but he really managed to pull his two orientation speeches, separated by two years, together seamlessly. It was intense.
On a lighter note, as part of the dash of grammar-nazi that I have in me, I've been really conscious of my splitting of the word 'another.' Like if you want to take the phrase "another level of responsibility" and bring it up a notch, I find I'll say "a whole 'nother level of responsibility." Nother is not a word. I guess it should be "another whole level..." that would work just fine. But I never say that.
So today, much to my satisfaction, Dean Nasca himself used that very (incorrect) phrase himself!! "A whole 'nother level...."
I mean if you listen you can hear people use the word 'nother all the time, but that fact that Dean Nasca said it kind of excuses me. He runs this place, for crying out loud.
He always has really appropriate things to say. Like at Parents' Day in March, he told us the story of when his father dropped him off at his interview for medical school at Jefferson and said to him, "If you work hard, you could run this place one day, Son." And how when he was appointed Dean of the medical school, his father came to the ceremony, but his Alzheimer's Disease had progressed so much that he could hardly recognize his son, let alone appreciate the moment. I think half the room was misty-eyed.
At orientation first year, he gave us a talk on what it means to be entering a profession. This really touched me because I actually never completed my application to UMaryland for med school because they wanted me to write an essay on that very topic and I didn't really know what they meant. Dean Nasca explained to us that all of medicine relies on the fact that society implicitly trusts doctors to help and not hurt them, and without that trust the entire system would collapse. By entering medical school and putting on our white coats (however short they are for the time being) we were entering into that covenant and had the entire weight of the profession on our shoulders. We represent the medical profession as a whole to anyone who knows we are medical students, and any time we do something stupid or irresponsible, we weaken that person's opinion of the profession, thus hurting every other doctor's ability to perform their job.
Have I said he's pretty intimidating?
So when we came back today, he again had the perfect story to tell. He brought up the recent bombings and bombing-attempts in Great Britain, which were planned and carried out by medical professionals (CNN.com - Doctors at heart of UK terror probe). He told us that these doctors had broken the trust in a way that no one had ever imagined, and he assured us that their breach of professional responsibility (to say the least) would trickle down and affect our ability to help our patients. Sound far-fetched? Dean Nasca then told us how he did his nephrology fellowship during the Iranian hostage crisis. In an attempt to look more mature, he had grown out a beard, as it held his only grey hairs (at the time). One day he was called in for a consult on a patient checked-in to the hospital and that patient refused to talk to Dr. Nasca because the patient thought he was Iranian because of the beard (he's actually an Italian from Brooklyn). It's really unfortunate that there was any of this material for Dean Nasca to draw from, but he really managed to pull his two orientation speeches, separated by two years, together seamlessly. It was intense.
On a lighter note, as part of the dash of grammar-nazi that I have in me, I've been really conscious of my splitting of the word 'another.' Like if you want to take the phrase "another level of responsibility" and bring it up a notch, I find I'll say "a whole 'nother level of responsibility." Nother is not a word. I guess it should be "another whole level..." that would work just fine. But I never say that.
So today, much to my satisfaction, Dean Nasca himself used that very (incorrect) phrase himself!! "A whole 'nother level...."
I mean if you listen you can hear people use the word 'nother all the time, but that fact that Dean Nasca said it kind of excuses me. He runs this place, for crying out loud.
Some stuff:
1. From a NYT article about how doctors don't actually understand HIPAA:
Who knew?!
2. Congratulations to Russia... really just to Amy who seems quite excited.
SI.com - Welcome to Russia
Sochi beats South Korean city for '14 Winter Olympics
3. What's in Bill Clinton's shirt?
4.
1. From a NYT article about how doctors don't actually understand HIPAA:
Medical professionals can talk freely to family and friends, unless the patient objects. No signed authorization is necessary and the person receiving the information need not have the legal standing of, say, a health care proxy or power of attorney. As for public health authorities or those investigating crimes like child abuse, Hipaa defers to state laws, which often, though not always, require such disclosure. Medical workers may not reveal confidential information about a patient or case to reporters, but they can discuss general health issues.
Who knew?!
2. Congratulations to Russia... really just to Amy who seems quite excited.
SI.com - Welcome to Russia
Sochi beats South Korean city for '14 Winter Olympics
3. What's in Bill Clinton's shirt?
4.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Happy 4th of July!!!
[I opened this window before midnight so it would post to July 4th ;-)]
There's something extra exciting about being in Philadelphia on Independence Day. And tonight I'm going to go back to reading 1776 and I'm starting the 'summer of 1776' section of the book so it's very appropriate!
Glen and I went up to the top floor of the Bluemle Life Sciences building tonight in hopes of getting a glimpse of the fireworks at the Art Museum (i.e. on the Rocky steps). When we got there we found out that there were several buildings blocking our view, including Orlowitz. Instead, we when over to the south side of the building where we could see all of south Philly -- there must have been fifteen different fireworks displays going off from all over the place! Some where just little, but it was an awesome sight to see fireworks in every which direction. Then towards the end, the lightning started up and made it even more spectacular! Mindy and Eugene met up with us, so when it ended at around 10pm the four of us just sat and talked until 11 hoping that maybe we would eventually see a little of the Art Museum show which we had found out was supposed to go from 10 to 11. Over the course of the evening we saw a dozen people from our class who had the same idea we did of using Bluemle's awesome windows, so it was kind of a little of an easing back in to the whole school thing.
Ahh school. We go back to start third year TOMORROW MORNING. ugh ugh ugh. It's actually four days of orientation before we even walk into a hospital, but it still stinks. I will be walking back into our first year lecture hall at 8:30 tomorrow morning. (They made the 4th of July a school night!!! -- don't you think you should really get the day after holidays off? Then you can actually enjoy that evening. Glen also adds that then when you go to a barbecue you can say you can't bring anything because you had to work all day!)
I am petrified of having what I do actually matter (although I know they put in as many safeguards as possible to make that only very slightly true). I've hardly spoken to any one other than Glen, let alone a real patient, over the past 6 weeks. And, almost all of our clothing is still in the laundry from our three separate vacations so I'm not even sure what I have to wear out in public tomorrow. I have a crop of pimples coming up on my chin and I really need a manicure and a haircut.
I'll talk about my vacations a little bit so I don't freak out. Florida was awesome, and I tried to write while I was there. It's so nice to be able to wake up and stumble out to the beach (after spending a half hour putting on sunblock). My only complaint is that instead of getting sunburn, this and the past summer, I just broke out in this terribly itchy ugly heat rash instead. If any one has any solution to this problem, please let me know. Covering my body in lidocaine takes care of the itch, but the blotchy redness took a week to clear up.
Here's the view from our hotel room:
That's one of the lagoons that last summer held an alligator, but this summer looked too shallow from the Florida drought to help much other than a few turtles.
Here are some of the shells we collected:
We threw about half of the them back on the last day and saved the best of them, including most of these tiny perfect spiral ones:
Going out early the last morning didn't help us find any better shells because the tide was in and it was shaking up too much sand to have any visibility with the snorkels (spell check told me I spelled snorkels wrong, and I should have known -- I had to spell snorkels backwards in Cranium with my family, and that time I also reversed the L and the E, helping my team lose. I guess I never learn). I will have to post some of the under water pictures we took as soon as we get that camera developed.
Then the day after we got back we headed out to camp for a few days at French Creek State Park with my mom. Here's our camp site:
It absolutely poured the first night so that we had to yell to talk to each other across the table. But we only got a little water in our tent from some side screened windows that weren't adequately covered by the rainfly, and everything was dry by the time we had to pack up which is all that really matters. The site was awesome -- back about 100 yards from the loop and our car down a rocky path so that we were completely isolated. It was quiet even the second night, Friday night, when the whole campground was full of weekenders. We found another awesome double site (two sites fused) also about 50 yards back from the loop down a much smoother and flatter trail that we might try to reserve for a larger family camping trip in August. Or, we might go back to Vermont. We should decide soon before we can't book the good sites.
Then, the day after we got back from that trip, we drove 5 hours to upstate New York to join the rest of my family at a big ski house that my grandparents rented for the month of July. With 5 bedrooms all of my aunts and uncles, cousins, and my grandparents could crash there. Here's the awesome view:
There were supposed to be fireworks tonight at that ski area you can see across the valley, but my mom said that a really heavy fog had set in in the afternoon so that you could hardly see that tree right in the foreground, so I hope it cleared up for them... or that they got an interesting light show through the fog at least.
Speaking of light show, check out this incredible rainbow that appeared during dinner the first night we were there:
It was a full arc, and we could see exactly where it landed in the valley... we were tempted to drive down to find our pot of gold, but dinner was already on the table and no body likes a cold steak.
Here's Glen getting some help from my cousin Erin building a second grill for us (there were 12 at dinner the second night and we needed some more space to cook). She's going to be my junior bridesmaid.
I wish this picture had come out, but of course I always screw up the good ones.
I like to play with all the manual settings on my camera, but then I always forget to change them back when I go to take my next shot.
Here's my cousin JoeJoe building a mini book/CD shelf with a "little" help from my PopPop.
Obviously some serious business. JoeJoe is going to be our ring bearer. Here he is throwing himself down a flight of 3 stairs for fun and to get some... laughs? gasps? general attention?
Clearly he did this often enough that I was able to get a picture of it. The hallway was three steps up from the living room/dining room so he treated that wooden part as a stage. I think this was after he serenaded us with "Who Let the Dogs Out?" for 20 minutes.
Well that sums up the last two weeks for me. Now that Glen and I have managed to get the PELS (patient encounter log system) program onto our Palm Pilots, it's time for bed (it's actually closer to 2:30am now).
I think I'm going to keep up my blog because I have a feeling I still won't have much time to talk to or see my friends over the next six weeks of my Pediatrics rotation, and I may have some funny stories to keep you entertained :) ...funny or completely embarrassing... whatever.
[I opened this window before midnight so it would post to July 4th ;-)]
There's something extra exciting about being in Philadelphia on Independence Day. And tonight I'm going to go back to reading 1776 and I'm starting the 'summer of 1776' section of the book so it's very appropriate!
Glen and I went up to the top floor of the Bluemle Life Sciences building tonight in hopes of getting a glimpse of the fireworks at the Art Museum (i.e. on the Rocky steps). When we got there we found out that there were several buildings blocking our view, including Orlowitz. Instead, we when over to the south side of the building where we could see all of south Philly -- there must have been fifteen different fireworks displays going off from all over the place! Some where just little, but it was an awesome sight to see fireworks in every which direction. Then towards the end, the lightning started up and made it even more spectacular! Mindy and Eugene met up with us, so when it ended at around 10pm the four of us just sat and talked until 11 hoping that maybe we would eventually see a little of the Art Museum show which we had found out was supposed to go from 10 to 11. Over the course of the evening we saw a dozen people from our class who had the same idea we did of using Bluemle's awesome windows, so it was kind of a little of an easing back in to the whole school thing.
Ahh school. We go back to start third year TOMORROW MORNING. ugh ugh ugh. It's actually four days of orientation before we even walk into a hospital, but it still stinks. I will be walking back into our first year lecture hall at 8:30 tomorrow morning. (They made the 4th of July a school night!!! -- don't you think you should really get the day after holidays off? Then you can actually enjoy that evening. Glen also adds that then when you go to a barbecue you can say you can't bring anything because you had to work all day!)
I am petrified of having what I do actually matter (although I know they put in as many safeguards as possible to make that only very slightly true). I've hardly spoken to any one other than Glen, let alone a real patient, over the past 6 weeks. And, almost all of our clothing is still in the laundry from our three separate vacations so I'm not even sure what I have to wear out in public tomorrow. I have a crop of pimples coming up on my chin and I really need a manicure and a haircut.
I'll talk about my vacations a little bit so I don't freak out. Florida was awesome, and I tried to write while I was there. It's so nice to be able to wake up and stumble out to the beach (after spending a half hour putting on sunblock). My only complaint is that instead of getting sunburn, this and the past summer, I just broke out in this terribly itchy ugly heat rash instead. If any one has any solution to this problem, please let me know. Covering my body in lidocaine takes care of the itch, but the blotchy redness took a week to clear up.
Here's the view from our hotel room:
That's one of the lagoons that last summer held an alligator, but this summer looked too shallow from the Florida drought to help much other than a few turtles.Here are some of the shells we collected:
We threw about half of the them back on the last day and saved the best of them, including most of these tiny perfect spiral ones:
Going out early the last morning didn't help us find any better shells because the tide was in and it was shaking up too much sand to have any visibility with the snorkels (spell check told me I spelled snorkels wrong, and I should have known -- I had to spell snorkels backwards in Cranium with my family, and that time I also reversed the L and the E, helping my team lose. I guess I never learn). I will have to post some of the under water pictures we took as soon as we get that camera developed.Then the day after we got back we headed out to camp for a few days at French Creek State Park with my mom. Here's our camp site:
It absolutely poured the first night so that we had to yell to talk to each other across the table. But we only got a little water in our tent from some side screened windows that weren't adequately covered by the rainfly, and everything was dry by the time we had to pack up which is all that really matters. The site was awesome -- back about 100 yards from the loop and our car down a rocky path so that we were completely isolated. It was quiet even the second night, Friday night, when the whole campground was full of weekenders. We found another awesome double site (two sites fused) also about 50 yards back from the loop down a much smoother and flatter trail that we might try to reserve for a larger family camping trip in August. Or, we might go back to Vermont. We should decide soon before we can't book the good sites.Then, the day after we got back from that trip, we drove 5 hours to upstate New York to join the rest of my family at a big ski house that my grandparents rented for the month of July. With 5 bedrooms all of my aunts and uncles, cousins, and my grandparents could crash there. Here's the awesome view:
There were supposed to be fireworks tonight at that ski area you can see across the valley, but my mom said that a really heavy fog had set in in the afternoon so that you could hardly see that tree right in the foreground, so I hope it cleared up for them... or that they got an interesting light show through the fog at least.
Speaking of light show, check out this incredible rainbow that appeared during dinner the first night we were there:
It was a full arc, and we could see exactly where it landed in the valley... we were tempted to drive down to find our pot of gold, but dinner was already on the table and no body likes a cold steak.
Here's Glen getting some help from my cousin Erin building a second grill for us (there were 12 at dinner the second night and we needed some more space to cook). She's going to be my junior bridesmaid.
I wish this picture had come out, but of course I always screw up the good ones.
I like to play with all the manual settings on my camera, but then I always forget to change them back when I go to take my next shot.Here's my cousin JoeJoe building a mini book/CD shelf with a "little" help from my PopPop.
Obviously some serious business. JoeJoe is going to be our ring bearer. Here he is throwing himself down a flight of 3 stairs for fun and to get some... laughs? gasps? general attention?
Clearly he did this often enough that I was able to get a picture of it. The hallway was three steps up from the living room/dining room so he treated that wooden part as a stage. I think this was after he serenaded us with "Who Let the Dogs Out?" for 20 minutes.
Well that sums up the last two weeks for me. Now that Glen and I have managed to get the PELS (patient encounter log system) program onto our Palm Pilots, it's time for bed (it's actually closer to 2:30am now).
I think I'm going to keep up my blog because I have a feeling I still won't have much time to talk to or see my friends over the next six weeks of my Pediatrics rotation, and I may have some funny stories to keep you entertained :) ...funny or completely embarrassing... whatever.
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