Registered Sex Offender

So today I was hit on by a patient. This is a common occurrence at the hospital I am rotating at, as it tailors to a mostly male population, and most of those are the 'dirty old man' type which is a bit endearing to me. However, when rotating on the psych lockdown unit, endearing is a little harder to come by. 

I was running around, finishing up some MDQ's and Mini Mentals on my patients, trying to get some lunch before class at 4 when this patient, who wasn't mine started talking to me, which led to a corny pick up line which I brushed off, which led to him following me around as I moved between different rooms and patients.  I finally escaped to the physician work room where patients don't have access. 

The thing is that at first I didn't know this patient, until at one point a staff member called him by name, and as I ran the name through my head I remembered at staff meeting that morning his name being mentioned  and that he was not to be assigned to a female, but I couldn't remember why. I was a bit unerved, but finished my work and headed to class where I found another student rotating with me who was on the team handling this patient. I mentioned to her what happened and she reminded me that he was a registered sex offender. That will remind a person that you're not invincible. 

The Match (not the kind you light after using the restroom)

So it's been a while since I last posted. I can't really say that I have been busy, but I have been lazy. My brain has taken a vacation. However, I want to keep this thing as current as possible. 

One of the reasons that I began this blog is to explain to my non-med school family and friends what I am doing for the next year or so and how it works, so this is one of those posts. 

The Match is like The Wedding Day of medical school. It's this climax of years of work (and months of specific efforts) that just solidifies one's future, but really doesn't mean much because it's what comes after the match that is your future. The Match is just the day that you find out where you will go. 

Match day is a day in march where every US senior med student and all others applying for US residencies find out what residency program they got into. Some people find out the location where they will match while others find out both location and specialty (for those who double apply). 

The specific effort that I wrote about that comes before Match Day is applying and interviewing. In September, I will start to apply to residency programs. They will look at my application and either offer me an interview or not. I will likely apply to 20 programs and hope to get interviews at at least 10 places. I am sure that I want peds so my life is a little bit easier. If I was undecided between peds and say psych, my life would be more difficult because I would have to apply to both types of programs without letting the other know I was double applying which would mean more apps, more interviews, and more money. Alternatively, if I wanted something more competitive, like ortho, I would have to apply to TONS more programs; additionally, I would have a back-up plan if I didn't get ortho and would still have to double apply which means more apps, interviews, and money. 

So my life is a little nicer because I know what I want to do without a doubt and it's within my range of possibilities (meaning my scores and leadership make me a good candidate). 

So after all of the applications and interviews (which occur from November to January). I sit down and evaluate my rank list. I look at all the schools I interviewed at and rank them from 1-20 (or however many there are). 1 is the place I would most like to be, 2 is second best and so on. You don't have to rank every place that you interviewed; if you really hated a place and would rather not have a job than be there, then you don't rank it...but that's a lot of hate there!)

The programs do the same and rank the people that they interviewed from 1-.... then the computer matches the rank lists of the schools and the students, with the student's preference higher. It's a bit confusing but say I put Mt.Jewett Children's Hospital (hehe) as my #1, and Mt.Jewett being so small only has 3 openings, but they liked me because I am a hometown gal and put me #3, I would get in. However, say they made me #4, after Sally, Bob, and Jess; well Sally put Liberty Children's as #1 and Liberty put her as #1, so she is going to Liberty, which means I am still within the 3, but if Sally, Bob, and Jess all put Mt.Jewett Children's pretty high, then I wouldn't get it. I hope that illustration helps. 

So on Monday of match week, you find out if you matched, which means you have a job next year. You don't find out where, just that you have a job. If you don't match, then Tuesday is Scramble day, which means you go into the Dean's office, they print off a list of programs that didn't fill up. Say Mt.Jewett Children's only got 2 people that were interested and had a space open, they would be on the list. You would call them, send your CV and recommendation letters and anything else they wanted via fax and do phone interviews. Basically you are trying to get a job that day in one of these few open spots. It's hecka stressful and not recommended. This year was worse because there were a lot fewer openings. There were like several hundred openings and several thousands of people scrambling for them. People scrambling at my school were having trouble getting through to the programs. 

So basically, scrambling is bad and not what you want to be doing. After all the money you spend on interviews and apps, you don't want to waste it by having to scramble. This year was a bad year in the so many people don't have jobs for next year, because they didn't scramble anywhere. It's really sad - it's because the government pushed med schools to increase class sizes due to the demand for doctors, and schools did so resulting in an increase of 1000 additional US graduates per year. However, this was not reflected in residencies. Program sizes didn't increase and some are decreasing now because of the economy. So basically there is a problem in the system that makes my time leading up to the match more important. No longer can a graduate from a US medical school be guaranteed a job...scary huh??

So anyway, back to the happiness, on Thursday we all get together and get an envelope that tells us where we match to and of course what specialty if we didn't already know. It's a joyful time for some who got their first choice, especially if they thought it was out of reach, and it's a hard time for some who didn't get the place or possibly specialty they wanted. Basically when you apply, it's a binding contract with the program that you will go wherever you match to, no change of mind or heart allowed. So it can be a bittersweet time, but it is definitive which I like. It gives your future path....and then we go out and have a big party (which Abby has been planning for 2 years!!!!) :) 

So that's the match in a nutshell. It's definitely not complete, but at least shows the process in an overview so when I say it's match day, you know what I am talking about or when I talk about my rank list, you'll be in the loop. 

Questions??

call

so i'm on call on a sabbath, but it's slow, so i am happy. i haven't done any admits yet (knock on wood). there's not really anything interesting to report. one patient pulled out his NG tube, another pulled out his foley. my other patient bounced back (which i knew he would). so it has been somewhat interesting. bryan, laura, and i went down and looked at a peripheral smear in the lab (to make ginny proud). now i think i will nap.
sorry for such a boring post...

bloodletting for money

Here at LLU, they often have research of some kind going on. They rarely have students participate and even more rarely pay you. But there is this one study that they pay for - it takes about 2 hours of your time and 2 pints of your blood and pays $200. 

It is a complicated process where they take out your blood and pump in fluid to lower your hemoglobin at a controlled rate. It's not bad besides having to have a IV in and then an A-line (ouch). The venipuncture actually hurts worse now where the anesthesiologist missed the first time (in my vein's defense, I told him that they roll).

So anyway, last year I did this and the money was spent before I left the hospital bed. This time though, I got called the day before I could be scheduled and just didn't have time to think about it. So now I need to decide what to do. I will even let y'all vote (all 3 of you that still read this).

Last year I bought Al's birthday present and used the rest to enter a few races, so this year I could:

1. Buy Al a present and enter the Rock'nRoll marathon

2. Buy Al a present and then use the rest to buy wedding presents for all 10 of my friends getting married this summer (only a slight exxageration)

3. Save it all (the economy is bad and next year will be EXPENSIVE, I will need MAD money)

4. Buy presents that are a bit cheaper and save half. 

5. Buy myself new clothes (that in reality I don't need at this time)

6. Buy Al a present, buy Yolandie a wedding gift (closest wedding), and buy myself a few personal training sessions at the gym. 

$200 just doesn't go as far anymore - I will likely choose one of the more practical ones up there or a different combo. Out of priorities, Allison and wedding gifts ranks highest, I really want to do the Rock'nRoll marathon and would likely budget it in anyway, but I also would like a buffer next year in the area of finances!  I hate money...

Grandma's Eulogy

So I mentioned my Grandma's death - and one of the things that has helped bring me closure was helping my sister write my Grandma's eulogy, which she said at her funeral. 

I couldn't get home for the funeral, but they let me off call early that morning and I walked into the hills which are gorgeous right now with long grass and wildflowers. I walked to the top of a hill that looks on a white wooden cross that someone has put up there. I sat in the grass on a overcast wet day and listened to the funeral over my cell phone, and this is the eulogy that Al read:

     Today we come together to honor the life of one of the strongest and most beautiful women I've ever known. She was a

wonderful daughter, sister, aunt, wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend to everyone she came across. No one came away the same after knowing Grandma. Growing up, my mom used to use Grandma as the example of what kind of person made it into heaven; she would say that if Esther wasn't gonna get in, none of us were (and that's coming from a daughter-in-law).

     We that are left behind can look back on the many happy memories she left us with. Whenever our family would get together, we would all laugh about the time that Denny and Tom put her on top of the refrigerator at her brothers suggestion or how she chased Grandpa around with the broom – or at least that is what he claimed she did. Each time we would tell these stories, she would get this face that was trying to show disapproval, but would have this mischievious grin sneaking through.  Even as her mind was slowly fading, she provided us with many laughs as she lost some of her inhibitions. She would so bluntly say that one of her children had a big nose – even though they had inherited it from her. Or she would  be quick to point out another's feet or their expanding tummy! Grandma was an amazing cook, but she was able to laugh at the time she ate the cat's food in a sandwich, the time she put double sugar in a rhubarb pie because she thought she forgot it (Andi still says it's the best she's ever tasted), or when she fed Denny and the girls stuffed shells made with Ricotta cheese that expired a year before. Last Christmas she thought that sparkling grape juice was whisky, calling it "the strong stuff"; but even when we tried to catch her off guard, she still would not tell us where Great-Grandpa’s still had been. Even when she was slowly fading away, she let us know her laughter hadn't left her when Andi asked her “Grandma, are you a Republican?!” and she broke into a smile. Anyone who knew her, knew better than to ask such a funny thing, because to grandma being a democrat and politically aware was as important as her strong Catholic faith.

     Even though she never finished high school, education was very important for her children and grandchildren to succeed at. After spending time as a nanny at the funeral home in St. Marys, she enlisted in the U.S. Army at the height of WWII where she achieved the rank of  Sargeant before marrying Benedict (Ben) Rettger. She raised four wonderful children while helping run Mt. Top Pop in Mt. Jewett. It was a rare evening not to hear Gram typing away at the typewriter long after everyone else went to bed.

     She also was generous with everyone – no matter if she never met the person. While we were at the nursing home, we would try to guestimate how many funeral casseroles she put together in her life – even after she didn’t have her license, she would get someone to drive her to Smethport to give a casserole to someone who had lost a loved one. Once she was in a nursing home, she was always worried about Christmases and what she was getting everyone.

    When people have left us, we like to talk about all the good times and how perfect they were, which seems easy to do with Gram; but I think that to remember them wholly as they were, we need to talk about their flaws too. Grandma's greatest flaw perhaps was being late. If you wanted Grandma somewhere on time, you better tell her to be there at least half an hour before. It was a good thing that Grandma lived so close to the church for so many years and that she could walk faster than Grandpa! She also had a tendency to be a bit absent minded - this was best evidenced by the day Grandpa was driving home from Mt. Top and the fire engine was driving down Division St. The driver stopped him and said, "Don't worry Ben, we got the fire out," which would have been a relief if he had known there was a fire in the first place. He rushed to the house to discover that it was still there and Grandma had forgotten about bread in the oven and had smoked up the house! Also, she was a slug murderer; many people don't know this, but Grandma kept a leftover keg of beer in her basement from her 50th Anniversary. She would fill pie tins with beer and leave them in her garden where the slugs would drink it and drown (Andi was first upset by this, but then decided that they probably died happy). She also was a packrat...if anyone doesn't believe it because of the always tidy house she kept, just ask Denny how many boxes of greeting cards he threw out, or how many paper towel rolls or shoe boxes she had stashed in her closet when she moved to Central Towers!!     She did love to clean though;washing dishes was her favorite thing to do after a holiday dinner. Even after her heart surgery in Hamot, she refused to leave with Grandpa until she had cleaned her bathroom in the hospital (scrubbing on her hands and knees)!

     She was so strong that she was able to survive a massive heart attack in the 80s, bypass surgery in the 90s and the hardest things – losing her sweetheart of 51 years and son of 42 years. Without that determination, she would have been taken much sooner from us. We were so lucky to have her with us for 89 years. 

When my grandfather passed away in 1996, she told us kids not to cry, because it would make grandpa sad if we cried. So instead of crying for her, let's try to remember the good times we had with grandma. After all, it was a funeral much like this one where we learned of how great-grandpa Cesa had blown himself up in the outhouse (and survived). It brought us many laughs and stories of Grandma will be much the same in the coming years. She will always be with us in our hearts, we will be reminded of her  when we come across doublemint chewing gum (half a stick), pink lipstick, or tissues (all constants inside her purse); or when we see homemade popsicles, or those yellow rubber cleaning gloves!!

    I’ll end this now with how I ended every conversation with her – I love you Grandma as far as my arms can reach, and I know you love me too.

on death

In the medical field, people die every day, it happens and you move on. It didn't use to be routine, but now it is - not when someone close to me passes, but pretty much everyone else. The thing is that it doesn't have to be this way. When I was at Kettering, one of my patients passed, I wrote about it at the time - my attending expressed his grief to us and let us express ours; I felt like an actual person died as we worked through it together. Yes, the legal side was mentioned and the fact that we had no fault in the matter, but it was a sidenote. Yes, we evaluated our involvement and how we could learn from it, but that to was of smaller consequence. In another hospital, on a different team, a patient died. The first thing that was talked about was the legal ramifications and we even when through the patient's file to make sure we did nothing wrong and discussed it ad nauseum. We even reported the nursing staff for an error that we found, only to discover that they had made no error (scapegoat anyone?). I learned from both experience, but the first seemed more human to me; I always want to be human. Maybe that's one of the reasons that Peds fits me so well; when a child passes, it's medically acceptable to mourn, but when a 70 yr old man with lots of health problems dies, it's medically acceptable only to CYA (cover your ass).  

Long time no post..

So I haven't posted in a long time - I  haven't done a lot of things in a long time, like talk to my close friends...I haven't been answering my phone or texts, but I am getting better. For those who don't know, my grandma died a little over a week ago. The sadness mixed with the business of a life that doesn't stop for death has made me neglectful.

I am doing better now, better enough to share some of my life with you and make some observations. It might seem overkill, but I will break them into separate posts so you can read the topic that most interests you and not this huge long one. 

VA

so i survived my first week at the VA...it's a whole new world of craziness...

on thursday morning, as i walked into the VA and very nearly stepped in some duck poo, this led me to observe that there were hundreds of little piles of duck poo all over the sidewalks lining the VA (due to the numerous duck ponds around the hospital), which has led me to walk in and out of the VA with eyes cast downward avoiding each little pile. but if you are the astute reader and realized that i have worked at the VA since monday and only noticed the piles on thursday, you probably have come to the very real conclusion that i came to this morning....that for 3 days, i walked through lots of duck poo...

duck poo aside, the VA is good. they have electronic medical records which is wonderful and awful at the same time. wonderful because data gathering is a breeze and i can find all the info i want anytime in one place, but awful in that my only purpose in the world as a third year is to collect charts, making me obsolete. (as an aside, i was the only one on the team who knew how to print this list and that made me somewhat valuable until people realized that i am off tomorrow and forced me to show them how, thus relinquishing my last bit of marketability). the other awful thing is that all the wonderful data is in the computer, but i still haven't learned where to find it all and furthermore, it has an easier time hiding from me than when it's in a paper chart.

otherwise the VA is good. the call rooms are nice. the guys and girls are separate but we share a bathroom which connects our rooms. it's funny because the boys always knock as they come through the bathroom for permission to enter our room. they are cute.

the patients are great too. some are funny, some are annoying, and some are plain crazy. one of my patients is super sweet and really talkative. he asked me to come back and dance with him because his roommates were boring and didn't like to talk or dance (except one guy, who he claimed like to lead too much). i spent a long time talking to this particular patient this morning because he's so nice and fun; one of his roommates got a little jealous and started complaining about all the attention he was getting and then all the  men started yelling at him for wanting to hog all the women, i guess the complainer is not a room favorite because he yells nonsense all night and pees on the floor (some circles would call that i good time!) :) 

my intern today threw out his back which resulted in his going home early, but not before i could steal a few snickers at him hobbling down the hall at approximately 0.1 mile per hour! 

i'm trying to think of anything else fun or enriching that happened in my life this week, but i am drawing a blank. so for how i will sign off.

with all my love. 

west coast home

well i am back in california. i survived the flight with only a 1 hour delay and the loss of only 1 piece of luggage. i was still a bit grumpy when irene dropped me off at home (especially when i realized that i had been up for the past 20 hours). 

so yesterday i slept in and waited for my luggage to return, then napped some more, then talked with my roomies who i missed lots. then complained to abby about not having food prepared for me anymore, then went to get thai with abby. i drove to thai and i had to apologize to abby several times for my driving...i had to readjust to driving danika and also to the california drivers. 

this morning i woke up with a headache. i think that it's caffeine related since it resolved with a chai tea and a cherry pepsi chaser. now i have to write a paper and get my other assignments together before our dodgeball game after which i will go grocery shopping and then study for my test tomorrow...what a day!

bittersweet melody.

so in 3 days i fly back to good 'ole cali. i'm the very definition of bittersweet! seriously, i can't wait to get back and see people and get on with 3rd year (and thus closer to 4th year, i am drooling with envy watching all these 4th yr slackers), but the other part will miss living alone, having free food prepared for me, and the hospital and people i work with. i was talking to my intern today and she commiserated with my disappointment with the transient relationships that we form in medical school and i guess in internship as well. you spend hours, days, weeks with people and bond and form friendships and then you move on and usually break all communication. it's a sad commentary on something. 

before i lay me down to sleep...

i have another observation: while chilling in the good ole' nursing home, i got to enjoy the television viewing of my grandma's roommate (who loves to blare her tv 24/7 - i wanted to move grandma but i guess they have bonded), anyway, my first observation is that she watched far and away twice in the same day, just because they play it twice doesn't mean you have to watch it both times.
more importantly is that in the afternoon she watched dirty dancing which i thought was a good choice. the funny part is that i was going for a bathroom break and as i walked down the hall and listened, i realized that inside over half of the rooms, dirty dancing was blaring...which leads me to believe that dirty dancing is a nursing home favorite.
this all brings me to the ultimate question: what will be the movie blaring throughout the nursing home when we are old. any votes??

back to the rush

it's 11:17 and i'm still in the hospital. i have been on call all day and my team didn't get any calls until 8:00 pm. so we've all been hanging out, studying, napping, playing with courtney's baby. it's been a chill day hanging out in the hospital....that's until 10 minutes.

we were in the ED finishing an admit of a drunk guy when the code pager went off...my intern courtney had the pager and has been hoping for a code for my sake (i've never been to a code and i really need to intubate someone as i didn't get that signed off on anesthesia even though i did it...and i refuse to do anesthesia again to get a stupid signature)...so the code pager went off and 3 of us went running from the ED to the top floor where the code was. we got there and i just saw lots of blood. it wasn't a real code, that's all i can say, but it sure got the adrenaline running, so when my resident told me to go to bed, i knew that wouldn't be happening. so i figured i would blog, then try to get some sleep before i get another admit. the ED was dead all day, but now it's jumping. (ps. i spotted 2 new hot male nurses tonight so i might just go hang out down there!!)

now for more on my trip home. i got to see family and friends which was nice. most of all i got to be with my grandma. she slept a lot so i just sat at her bedside all day friday and studied, then sat and held her hand sabbath as she slept. she recognized me and whispered my name, let me brush her teeth once, and i even got her to laugh. she's slipping away and likely won't be alive a month from now, so those small victories were worth 14 hours of driving (some of which were in white out conditions and slippery roads). please just keep my grandma and my family in your prayers. we know that her time has come and for her sake we want her to pass peacefully, but there's also this selfishness that wants her in our lives still.

Home Sweet Home

so i am back in pennsylvania. i took an unplanned trip home for two days because my grandma had another stroke and isn't doing too well. i saw her tonight and she was worse than i imagined. i will spend the day with her tomorrow, but let's dwell on happier thoughts.

so i got to drive the little corolla home. i was quite impressed that i put $20 in the tank and got all the way home on it (375 miles). this made me ponder the corolla's superiority to danika (my ford taurus), but then i asked myself, 

"self, can the corolla carry 6 passengers legally?" -- not really

"can she carry 5 passengers comfortably?" -- not so much

"can she haul all my earthly possessions across the country in one trip?" -- not even a little bit

so i decided that danika has job security, for those reasons and also because i am in more debt than the US govt (a slight exaggeration) and so a new car is not in my near future. 

danika's superiority was asserted when i got to the house and got stuck in the driveway. now we had lots of snow today and dad hasn't plowed yet, but none of our other cars have had any problems with a couple of inches, and the corolla was stuck. this led me to an adventure because i was wearing flip flops and my sneakers were in the trunk. i got into the house and donned my mom's winter boots (those hot ones with the fluffy fur sticking out the top) before heading out to shovel out my car and then shoveled an area to park (stuck free). 

feeling quite accomplished, i returned to the house where i discovered that my hands were frozen - completely - we are talking Raynauds. they have now thawed and thus i am able to type. 

so now i am home after a long 7 hour drive which included some white out conditions and some yummy sheetz! i got home and noticed that the ceiling is falling down in the den, i asked my dad if we were poor, he says no, but i think it looks pretty white trash! this conversation led to the revelation that my parents are gonna sell their house and build a new one since this one isn't practical for an aging couple! they have never consulted me and my dad is already talking about materials!! i told them not to get any bright ideas because i am storing all my east coast earthly possessions here and have no intention in getting a storage space. i also have already laid out the floor plan for our hidden "anne frank" style attic for when the time of trouble comes - do any of you heathens want to volunteer to live in my house and smuggle food to me and my family when they start persecuting adventists???? applications will be accepted via e-mail! 

digging into the dregs

i am trying to think of a funny observation or commentary on my day...let me ramble, maybe something will come to the head like a white head! :)

this weekend greg and gina came and visited me! it was great, the very first time i have actually gotten hang out with them as a couple since their wedding (i got to hang out with them for a post-wedding day, but this was different) it was lots of fun, we ate yummy indian food and great thai, gina and i discovered a nice running store, got hit by a semi, and went to the air force museum for round 2. (the semi part isn't as exciting as it sounds, their car looks fine and i am not gonna make millions from some personal injury civil suit). so that was my weekend after call.

call was pretty low key. i guess valentines day isn't a day most ppl want to spend in the hospital. the result was eating dinner with my team and getting to know them a little better which is always fun before getting a lecture on headache from my intern (you know you're jealous that you're V-day didn't even compare!) oh and i ate lots of chocolate (it's abundant in the hospital...but don't worry, you won't find a shred of ham in the place!)

oh and i got a rose from mr. b and chocolates from mrs. b which made me smile. i spent time with them and their family. justin (their grandson) has this cool little remote control car that drives on walls, that added to a hamster that we forgot about running around the house in it's ball made for an exciting evening. 

so i rambled through the past couple of days in reverse. sorry i didn't have any deep revelations! :) bed time! 

lost toes and lives

yes, this post is on the heels of the one before it, but i needed to separate subjects, so i am doing a separate post.

yesterday one of my patients lost his toe to amputation. when we were discussing it on rounds that morning, my intern announced that he didn't want to lose his toe...pardon my french but "no $*!t shirlock" - does anyone in my reading audience want to lose a toe?? i guess it could be worse. he wasn't to happy this morning when we talked, but don't worry, he is so concerned about keeping the rest of his appendages that he's NOT going to quit smoking and use the extra money to buy test strips and thus keep his diabetes under better control, because that would be stupid!! (by the way, when i got done lecturing him, he thought i was a real doc and not a student, not like it made a difference)

on a sadder note, i lost a patient. not really in the hospital, but we discharged her earlier this week and she died this morning. this is technically the third patient to die on a service that i'm on...this one i was closest to. it's doesn't seem to be getting any easier! :(

so if you get a chance, say a prayer for the family of this woman you don't know...they are devastated. 

V-day

So tomorrow is the holiday for lovers, that's right, Valentine's Day! I am planning to spend it in the best possible way...in the hospital...on call!!! Yippeee!!! Yes people I am being very very sarcastic! (But I got a card from my Mommy & Daddy today and it made me happy, I love them)

So this morning I was working on my notes at the computer beside my senior resident and he was like, "You should read up on drug overdoses this afternoon".

"Why?"

"Because we are gonna see a lot of them tomorrow."

"Oh, cuz it's a Saturday."

"No, cuz it's Valentine's day."

"Sad."

el nino?

so yesterday morning, kate had to scrape off the windows before we could vicariously maneuver the streets of kettering. this morning kate was post call and so i came in alone. i was planning on having to scrape my window, but found a frost free car upon emerging from my apartment. i appreciated the change in events...my appreciationg was heightened when i got a text from miss kristyn anne mannoia informing me that she had to scrape off her car this morning in loma linda california, which led me to check out the forcast.
current temp in kettering 55, loma linda 52. overnight low in kettering 52, loma 43. now who's laughing?? that's right - i'm going for brisk runs outside and sunbathing! loma linda natives are getting out their long johns!
i love el nino! :)

in other news, i am on call tonight...my first patient had a diabetic foot ulcer - i don't think this is breaking HIPAA, but to be careful i won't say too much. it's my first problem of this type and it's quite intrigueing in a smelly, made me throw up in my mouth a little sort of way. my senior just came into the doctors lounge and so i had to pull up uptodate real quick and pretend i was researching diabetic foot ulcers!

which leads me to my team - they are great. i have an attending (who is 8 years older than me i found out today), a senior (age 30), an intern (age 30-who spent over an hour this morning teaching me to read EKGs), and an ER resident (age 28), plus the 4th year and me. i'm the baby of course! this was the topic of convo over the pizza our attending brought us for dinner, that and strokes, diabetic foot ulcers, and vaginal bleeding. do we know how to have fun or what?

sporty cars and other niceties!!

the first nicety is that i just ate a couple bites of carrot cake from the Atrium Grille at the hospital!! that's four layers of cake that cancel out the hour i spent at the gym today; four layers that are only interrupted by fluffy cream cheese frosting to guarantee that i am double wide when i leave. 

in other matters, i must report that the gentlemen i share a car with not only haven't gotten the "heat the car up for andi" memo, they also have forgotten the "share the car with andi" portion!! 

this initially produced some frustration (and my logging a mile PR on the treadmill), but resulted in me getting to use Kate's car today (which i discovered is a step up). my original car was a white chevy impala, not the new model, maybe a 90's model. nice, but nothing snazzy (i didn't complain when i learned that helen and matt drive a minivan...perfect for helen who is our asian mama). then today, kate handed me the keys and told me where to find her car, which turned out to be a sporty 2008 silver corolla...way super cute. i have been zooming around kettering ever since! one minor problem: i still drive like a californian which contributed to one overzealous old lady honking at me! she needs to learn how to get out the way. 

seriously, this cake is amazing, the kind with the little marzipan carrot on top! yummy! tomorrow i am on call, which i think is a good reason to indulge in a chocolate bomb!!! okay, maybe not...and maybe i will put the carrot cake in the fridge and let Al eat the rest! stopping is just the hardest part...

Snow!!

So this morning I headed to work, I was like 2.5 minutes late (late is a relative term, with third year you decide when to come in, you just have to get your work done before rounds, but i was late according to my planned departure time), but I was still calm, because I figured that I had gotten lost so many times the day before that it was impossible to get lost in the hospital today.

Side note: This was after getting lost 2 times the day before. The second time required that I backtrack to where I left my intern (I think this ability to backtrack reflects my innately superior sense of direction that could only be foiled by Kettering hospital and a section that is only accessible by elevator which is against my natural inclination to take the stairs). So I shamefully had to report that I could not find my locker and thus get the important paperwork contained there, yet he should entrust me with patient lives wholeheartedly (after guiding me back to my locker) 

So anyway, back to 2.5 minutes late. I rushed out of the apartment building to my waiting wheels (a white Chevy Impala) which I had been fortunate to park right in front of the building, which made it all the easier to immediately see that it was covered in snow (with the pre-requisite coating of thick ice underneath). 

At this point, I am stupified...seriously, I haven't dealt with this in years! I mean in Pennsylvania or Michigan I would have pre-heated the car and planned my departure 10 minutes sooner, but those habits are gone!

So my solution was to blast the defrost and start a search for the ice scraper that I hoped would be in the car (a search that should have been conducted before the trunk had frozen itself shut!) So I got the scraper and removed the snow like a pro before assuming THE STANCE. The Stance being that hunched over old lady driving position that has you view directly over the steering wheel in the small clear area that is ice free thanks to hi powered defrost). Thankfully I live like 1.5 miles from the hospital and got there safely.

By the time I got into the hospital I realized two things:

1) my gloves will be coming tomorrow

2) i'm glad that i start sharing the car with shawn tomorrow, he seems like a gentleman, i therefore look forward to a fully heated and snow free vehicle with an included chauffeur to take me to work tomorrow! 

 

Manifesto

So this is a new blog that I am going to try to keep up, not because I find my musings to be noteworthy, but because Irene told me that I should blog when I am on my away rotation in Kettering and it got me to thinking that I will be having a lot more adventures this next year (thus the Southwest Rapid Rewards credit card - cha ching!) and so this would be a great way to pseudo-stay-in-touch! 

So please read and leave comments or just skim and chuckles, whatever! :)