Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas Eve!

This morning Kris and I were awakened by a crash and the tinkling of delicate glass Christmas ornaments breaking. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Unfortunately it wasn't even our own animal's doings. We volunteered to babysit Jennifer and Andrew's cat for the week. Yikes. Maybe we should start an insurance policy for when Milly visits. The 2 ornaments I was really worried about didn't break - a long spiral glass seashell one from our Honeymoon and the one of a bride and groom for our 1st Christmas from Kris's mom.

Kris just looked at the mess, looked at me, and said "Merry Christmas Eve!"

Then we started cleaning. The cat got a time-out in the bathroom and Woodrow got a time-out outside. We aren't entirely convinced of his innocence. Meery Bob got no time out because she is infinitely cute and innocent. She laughed at the other animals.

Plans for the Day:
Wrap Kris's presents while he's at work
Clean house (why is this always on the agenda?)
Laundry
Bake


That's about it for now. Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Slacker

So, tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I still don't have presents for the majority of the people on my list. Fortunately we're not having Christmas until several days afterward for most of the people on my list. That = major save... Also, my sister and her new hubby are gone to Ft. Lauderdale for the week so that gives me an extra 6 days to pick up their gift. I may just have to stagger buying presents. I'm very thankful that I live less than 5 miles from every mall in the greater Jackson area.

I went on a shopping extravaganza yesterday. I thought I had nearly gotten Kris's shopping all finished up until I came home and he said: "I hope you didn't get me xxxx or xxxx." Of course that was all that I had gotten him. Great :) Guess I get to go return and re-shop today. Or I might just be lazy and save those things for next year.

Here's something to be thankful for - I passed all my tests!!! Now two of them I barely passed, but I passed them all the same. So there. Take that school.

Gotta run now. Slept until 2:00 today (awesomeness) so I should probably start getting ready and being productive.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

1 More Test and I'm a Free Woman!!!

Wahoo! The depressing thought that I'm about to study like nobody's business for the next 10 or so hours and then wake up and go at it some more is just made so much better by the fact that I'll be finished taking tests tomorrow at 11:00. Then we have 2 weeks of freedom. I still haven't put Christmas lights on that tree in our front yard and now I'm debating whether I even should with only 1 week left 'til Christmas.

Kris spent the whole night wrapping my gifts last night. It took him around 3 hours to wrap about 6 gifts, but I'm pretty sure it's because he was watching The Dark Knight and because he couldn't find real tape. He had to use a giant role of packing tape. No complaints here. They look so pretty sitting on our mantle and make me very excited for Christmas to get here. I haven't wrapped a single present yet! If it weren't for online shopping I don't know if anybody would even have gifts yet.

Anyway I must now start the cram session and hope it pays off tomorrow even though these particular professors are pretty cruel. Wish me luck!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Want to see what my future esteemed colleagues have to say? Here it is:

These are the facebook status updates my classmates have been posting. For those of you "old folks" reading who don't know what facebook is... For normal people it's a social networking tool. For medical students it's a way to live vicariously through those people while writing down their angsty feelings.

Joseph D Verzwyvelt just placed a piece of scotch tape on his anus....looks like a bunch of flattened footballs to me.

Jeffrey Reeves is confused. It must be the Coxiella.

Emily Faulks is worms WORMS WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORMS!!!

Joseph D Verzwyvelt is thinking he should have went to Antonelli College, I would be on track to the career of my dreams in a quarter of the time of med school.

Heather Gardner doesn't have anything nice to say.

Jeffrey Reeves has the micro blues.
Responses: Kari Giurintano: Are you sure it's not blue/green? It could be Pseudomonas!
Joey Verzwyvelt:
Could be Wucheria bancrofti causing epididymitis or as the lay man likes to call it-- "blue balls"

Oy...

As I predicted, the easy test was not so easy this time. It was full of murmurs, thrills, and hypertrophied hearts. I, however, neglected to pull out my physiology book from last year and relearn all of cardiac physiology. You hear that faint dropping sound? That's the sound of my best average dropping down to meet my other sub-par grades. I guess it was lonely at the top.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Something Intelligent

Well, I couldn't think of a very creative name for this entry, so there you go. Hooray for being 2/5 of the way finished with tests! That's almost 1/2 right? The good part is we're actually 1/2 way finished with the actual hard tests. The one we have tomorrow is what I always call "the easy test" when I'm explaining to Kris why I'm not stressed and I'm taking a nap. It goes a little something like this:

A: (watching tv while eating, or doing laundry, or napping)
K: (in a 1/2 kidding, 1/2 serious manner) "Hey you! - shouldn't you be studying? Haven't you been freaking out about all these tests for the last 2 weeks? Why aren't you studying right now? Huh? Huh?"
A: "Don't worry honey. It's no big deal. Remember, I have the easy test tomorrow."
K: "Oh, okay." (goes back to playing video games)

Now to be fair - K doesn't usually yell out me for not studying because he's controlling or manipulative. It's because he has to listen to me gripe about not studying enough or cramming hard enough *occasionally* when I am disappointed with my grades.

Although to be honest I've begun to make peace with my grades. I used to get all hung up about class average and analyzing where I was in relation to it. I've come to realize that I'll just do the best I can, get all this stupid stuff over with in a few months and then begin rotations, where the ACTUAL learning begins. I guess I learn by doing - and there's not much to be done the first 2 years except look in books. The honest truth of it is that when you're applying for residency they don't really analyze your actual class grades very much. They judge you based on one number.

Enter, the STEP.

I don't know if I've written about it before, but the STEP is this giganto test we take upon completion of the first and second years of school. It covers every subject we've taken and often integrates material. It is an 8 hour long test with about 350 questions. It's not just some standardized test our school makes us take. Every medical student in the U.S. takes it and it follows you everywhere - even to your grave. It is the 1st step in medical licensing in the United States.

You know how they gave us 1 day to study for the boards last year? Well they give us 1 month to study for this test. That should put it into perspective. I've scheduled mine for May 29, 2009. Some people are saying they'd be burned out by then and have scheduled theirs for 1 week earlier. I say to them - I'm always burned out. I will probably take a short break after the end of school in April and then go through peaks and troughs of studying. If I get burned out I'll have time to get a 2nd wind, then a 3rd. I'll also have an extra week of studying and since I always feel like I could make an A on the test if I'd had 1 more day to study, maybe this will work.

Rotations start 1 week after that. Then scores come in July. 14 people failed last year. I'm not really sure how it threw off their schedule, but I'm sure it did. The faculty has been pushing us to start studying because they were freaked out. You know what I say? Give us better teachers. Noone goes to class this year - and they're doing BETTER on tests. Does this make sense? No. Does it show how completely inept most of our teachers are? Yes. Now, they are nice people and I hate to talk badly about them because I could never give the same lecture over and over and over for 15 or 30 years. But my gosh... These people make me wish Powerpoint was never freakin' invented. That's a rant for another day though. But even though I've been going to class so far I think I'm comfortable enough with their testing styles to give it a break next block. I'll let you know how it goes.

Wow, that was a long one! That was completely inadvertent. Gots to go study for the *easy* test now. Watch, I'm going to fail it after talking about how easy it is...

Monday, December 15, 2008

1 Down, 4 to Go

Hooray! Even though I didn't have a stellar performance on the first test, it is over! The rest of this week will simultaneously drag on and fly by depending on the day and time. I'm ready for this limbo to end... I'm not counting or anything but I think it's something like 3 days, 20 hours, 14 minutes.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

ACE Inhibitors are Perverts

So I'm perusing my *meticulous* notes for pharmacology and see that I have pregnancy written as an adverse side effect of ACE Inhibitors. How exactly does that work?

Friday, December 12, 2008

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Next Week's Forecast - Hazy

I haven't been posting as much lately - here's why:

Monday 12/15/08: Pharmacology Test(all heart meds and antimicrobials) and Genetics Test
Tuesday 12/16/08: Pathology Test (liver, gallbladder, pancreas, dermatopath, heart, all GI)
Wednesday 12/17/08: Introduction to Clinical Medicine Test (mostly heart)
Thursday 12/18/08: Microbiology Laboratory Practical (every bacteria)
Friday 12/19/08: Microbiology Test (mostly gram negative bacteria, worms, and fungi)

Every one of these tests is over material from the last 7 weeks + a 10-25% cumulative component. Oh joy :) Those of you who are in close contact with the BMU (Big Man Upstairs) need to send some love my way.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why is it that everyone wants my time when I have so very precious little of it to give? Now, back to learning drugs...

Monday, December 8, 2008

The Art of Saying No

Today I said no when I was asked to play a make-up tennis match for someone else. It felt pretty good, seeing as how I already got suckered into playing 1 for someone else and I'm probably much busier and will do more in the next 2 weeks than any of the other people that play. That's all.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Hilarious

Watching Meery Bob "milk" Woodrow. She just doesn't understand why he doesn't have any milk for her!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Runner's Log

3.5 miles, 34 minutes even though I walked the 1st 2 minutes. So it's probably more like 3.3 miles in 32 minutes. Either way - I'll take it :)

This Thanksgiving I'm thankful I have the ability to run and for a million other things!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

I wonder...

Why do 1/2 of the men in the microbiology department have long ponytails? And 1/2 the micro grad students? It's just weird really...

Our Daily Bread

What we ate last night:
Red beans and rice with turkey sausage
Black-eyed peas
Cornbread
Tami's homemade pickles
Yum!!!

Christmas List Revised

So scratch kitten off the old list and add these to it:

1. Nike + technology for runners - a little chip you stick in your shoe and sync with your ipod that tells you how far you've gone, tracks your speed, helps you beat your best times, etc... So cool!!! Too bad I don't have the ipod nano that you need to work with it. I still have my old ipod mini I got 5 years ago. Can't believe it's still working actually.

2. End tables - but please noone buy me one. I'm very ticky as you probably know :)

3. Lamps - see note above.

4. Art - see note above.

So I guess I just need to buy myself these presents since I'm too ticky to let anyone else pick them out. That's how it works, right?

Christmas Came Early!

Kris got me a kitten - wahoo! Her name is Isabelle, but we've been calling her every combination of Meery Bob, Lizzy Belle, and cat... Meery because she stands up like a meercat and Bob because she looks like a Bob cat. She was raised by a dog and isn't scared of Woodrow, but he does play too rough with her sometimes. She's a lap cat, which is awesome - what I've always wanted but never really had. I think this one's going to stick after my last 2 cat disasters!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Dear Santa,

Here's what I'd like for Christmas this year. I've been a good girl:

1. Spoons!!! - and forks, and knives, but mostly spoons!
2. Viva la Juicy perfume - yum
3. My piano in my house; simple request, no?
4. A kitten - maybe the 3rd one is a charm.
5. Sex and the City movie

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Cheddar's

Kris and I tried a new restaurant tonight. It's named Cheddar's. I didn't have high expectations based on the name, but I was pleasantly surprised. The staff was really attentive. Kris's drink was never empty, and that's saying something. The building is brand new and has a really nice atmosphere, but the prices are really good. You can get a burger for around $4. I had a dijon chicken sandwich with brown sugar bacon and it was fabulous. Kris had a double decker club. We had queso as an appetizer, both got cokes, and Kris even had a beer. All that food and our bill was only $26 before tip. Pretty dang good :) Try it out next time you're in Jackson and let me know if you have just as good an experience- it's on Lakeland Drive beside Dogwood.

Runner's Log

3.25 miles, 30 minutes - felt good!

According to Dr. Rockhold...

The degree of "digitalization" of a patient = How much digitalis you're thinking about putting them on...

Dear Dr. McDaniel,

It's pronounced (ser-um), not (sir-um). Please try to get it straight. Thanks.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Coffee is good

I always have problems coming up with titles for these things, so there you have it. Those were my thoughts when I was posting this. I'm sitting in the library drinking coffee and eating a granola bar - breakfast of champions.

So last night I cooked a whole chicken for the first time in my life. I grossly underestimated the time it was going to take. It took 3 hours. I was thinking 1.5. Anyway, it was pretty delicious. I picked off all the white meat and put into a container to make something else with - perhaps chicken pot pie tonight? Then I picked off all the dark meat and skin for Woodrow. I threw the bones and carcass away after I drained all the good juice that was left in the bottom of the pan. I guess I'll use this to make some gravy. It's not nearly enough for soup. I've decided that since neither Kris nor I eat dark meat or the skin off the chicken it's highly impractical to go through the trouble of buying one and cooking it. So this might be the last time I ever cook a whole chicken - at least I know I'm capable. It was perfectly golden on top and moist and juicy in all the right places, so I was pretty pleased with it.

Probably everybody who reads this already knows my grandmother is in the hospital with a diabetic foot infection. She's actually doing really well. When Amy called to tell me what was going on I thought - oh no, she's going to lose her foot this time. But surprisingly the infection just wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. She had an MRI 2 days ago to see if the infection has spread to the bone, but I'm pretty doubtful. We'll find out today though. I've been to visit the last two days and I reckon I'll keep on going through the week and weekend. The hospital she's in is so close to school and it's really nice to get a chance to see her. Since med school started I haven't gotten to visit with family nearly enough. Usually I would feel guilty for not studying all those hours, but since our next test block doesn't even start for another month I'm just not overly motivated right now. I'll start racking up frequent flier miles in the library next week I guess. I really do think they should supply us with free coffee for every 8 hours we spend in there. I would save about $12 a week.

Runner's log (November 12) - 2 miles, 20 minutes.

Our daily bread - roasted chicken, English peas, homemade pickles (random, I know - but by the time the chicken was done I was too tired to make the cheesy broccoli and rice that I was going to make)

Days 'til Thanksgiving - 14!

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Happy Fall!!!

So, it's officially fall! I know this because there are a myriad of different colored leaves in my backyard about 3" deep. I love this time of year. It does make it a bit harder to study when it's so pretty outside though. I just want to go frolick.

Anyway, here's what's been going on. My computer, or more specifically my hard drive, crashed on Halloween. Typical. It's all better now thanks to the techie guys at UMC. I lost all my info and have spent all weekend uploading programs onto my computer so that's been fun. I'm just glad it's all better now.

Kris and I went to Oxford on Halloween weekend in order to go to the Auburn game on Nov. 1. It was all in all a fabulous weekend. We stayed with Julia who attempted to make us cheese toast Saturday morning. We woke up to the sound of the smoke detector going off and her fanatically fanning it and letting out some not-so-lady-like language :) Then we went to the game and watched Ole Miss beat Auburn. We intercepted the ball so many times. It was wonderful!!! Then we hung out in the grove all day and eventually left to go rent scary movies and get chicken-on-a-stick. So by the end of the weekend we had done everything we intended - seen a good game, "Groved", eaten at Ajax (on Friday night), and eaten chicken-on-a-stick. Yum.

Then I went to class all week and Kris worked all week. As for this weekend, Kris went to Oxford Friday for his teaching class on Saturday. He got to do a ride-along with one of his police officer buddies Friday night though. He had to wear a bullet proof vest, but thank goodness he didn't get shot. That's just one more surgery we don't need.

I went and volunteered at the Jackson Free Clinic this morning. It's a clinic for the homeless/people without insurance. All the patients are seen and managed by medical students who report to 1 supervising doctor. So it's a really good place to learn and ask questions and not feel too stupid. We only saw 2 patients because it was so packed, but I did get to hear carotid bruits (pronounced "brew-ees") which are just whooshing sounds you hear in someone's carotid arteries when they're about 1/2 way blocked.

Well, Kris just walked in the door back from Oxford, so I think we're about to do dinner and a movie - hooray! I should really be studying, but I'll do it when we get back :)

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Busy Weekend Forecast

Highlights of the Day:
1. running 3.75 miles in 36 minutes - new personal best!!!
2. hearing one of my classmates tell the oblivious girl talking loudly on her cell phone IN THE LIBRARY to "Call him back!" He did it really loudly. You just had to be there.
3. receiving candy from strangers - well, what really happened was the man in line ahead of me at the vending machine got 2 candy bars so he gave me one.

Lowlights of the day:
1. Kris had to go to Oxford for orientation for his new teaching class that starts this next week, leaving me home alone with Woodrow. Woodrow is looking for him and crying. It's pretty pitiful.

Thankful that:
I don't have a cavernous hemangioma on my face, also that I have the ability to walk and run.

Good deed of the day:
Giving my free candy bar to the classmate who told the girl to shut up.

Excited about:
Jen's bachelorette party tomorrow!!! Fun, fun, fun. We're having a slumber party at her house.
Gotta take a bath now!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Just Another Day

Highlights of the Day:
1. Getting on the scale this morning - I've lost 3 lbs. since school started!!!
2. seeing that other people are as freaked out about all the material we're supposed to know as I am.
3. watching Grey's Anatomy. I wish I had a photographic memory.

Lowlights of the Day:
1. having the sewing machine repeatedly mess up (due to an operator error I'm sure) and not being able to hem my pants during the commercial breaks as planned.

Our Daily Bread:
Kris and I had a gourmet meal of honey nut cheerios for dinner tonight. He followed his bowl with a 2nd bowl. I followed mine with a stick of string cheese - and then coffee. We're quite the food snobs.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Let's Simplify...

So, in an attempt to update my blog more regularly I'm going to try a new format. Instead of rambling on for paragraphs and paragraphs I'm going to start sticking to a few little tidbits. Here goes:

Highlights of the Day:
1. wearing my new orange sweater vest - and getting several compliments :)
2. running 3.25 miles (without a break!)
3. making a pretty decent supper - but I cheated...
4. watching Project Runway while preparing dinner

Lowlights of the Day:
1. leaving my iPod in my car during my run - it was a totally unproductive 3.25 miles. I should've been listening to a lecture.

Our Daily Bread:
Tonight we had some of Tami's leftover stew from our trip home this weekend. I contributed by making some cornbread to go with it. Granted it was from the package, but it was pretty darn good! Who knew?

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Did You Know?

So I learned 2 interesting things this week. I learned a lot of other things too, but only 2 of them were interesting. So here they are:

Some of you may remember how Dan Quail used to stumble every time he got off the little private jets that shuttle important people like that around. I hear the media gave him a pretty hard time about it. Turns out he has a slight clotting disorder and he was throwing pulmonary emboli after sitting on the plane for hours at a time. Get up and walk around on the plane people!!!

Because nicotine is a non-selective nicotinic receptor agonist (hence, it stimulates nicotinic receptors), it is a very useful insecticide. It causes depolarizing/desensitizing blockade of insect nervous systems. It's also obviously a treatment for nicotine dependence.

I'm in the library and think the tappity-tap of my keyboard might be annoying others, so I'm going to cut this one short. More later :)

Saturday, August 16, 2008

What Did You Do Today?

So pretty much every day Kris and I end up asking each other this question. For me it's usually a variation on study and work out with a few extra things thrown in there. For him it's usually work and playing video games with a few extra things thrown in.

So, without further ado, here's exactly what I did today:

8:00 - Woke up and frantically realized that if I was going to make it to my 9:00 I had to leave in 20 minutes. Scrambled to get out the door by 8:33.

9:00 - Attended lecture on MHC activation in T cell immunity. Enthralling.

9:50 - Power walked to the cafeteria to get breakfast and be back in my seat in 10 minutes. Feat accomplished.

10:00 - Enjoyed eggs, grits, and wheat toast while listening to a fancy pants guest speaker with about 130 publications give a terribly boring lecture covering about 30 immune diseases. He was too smart - I was listening but completely unaware of most of what he said.

11:00 - Listened to and simultaneously transcribed pathology lecture on transplants. Could have been interesting, but the speaker , Dr. Cruse, talks so fast we've all dubbed him the "Cruse Missile." He covered 84 slides in 50 minutes.

11:55 - Freedom at last! For some glorious reason most of us got out of class at noon today. I looked forward to relishing the next 12 hours of not sitting in class.

12:00 - Ran 2.7 miles and did a few crunches. Almost died on the walk back to the car due to heat exhaustion.

1:00 - Upon walking up to car notice the passenger rear tire is flat. Yippee...

1:10 - Find can of fix-a-flat in trunk and thank God for a smart father and sister who always told me to carry the stuff. (Mom, you're smart too. You just never stressed the dire importance of having a can of fix-a-flat.)

1:11 - Read the directions and fixed the flat.

1:13 - Realize I have no idea where I've put my cell phone in all this craziness. Had it just 4 minutes ago when I called Kris to say I had a flat. Now it's nowhere to be found.

1:30 - Arrive at Tire Depot (where they think I'm stalking them because I was there 2 days ago to get my oil changed.) They take the screw out of my tire and patch it. All this happened in about 40 minutes and only cost me $20. They also have wireless internet, so I got to catch up on e-mails while I waited. I like Tire Depot :)

2:15 - Go back to school to look for phone. Goose chase ensues. Can not find it.

3:00 - Go home, have a beer, and watch Dr. Phil. It's been a rough day. Then I realize I have not eaten anything so I eat lunch at 3:30.

The rest is just pretty much the normal routine. Kris got home from work. I studied. I did some laundry and dishes. I'm about to study some more. Here are the things I'd rather be doing though:

1. picking out fabric at Hancock's to make a cushion to go on my hearth.

2. dying all of my faded jeans to re-darken them and make them look new again. I just learned how to do this today and can't wait to try it when I have the time.

3. planting flowers

4. hemming all my pants so that they either work with flats or the 3 actually comfortable pairs of heels I own. That would make life so much easier.


So, in a nutshell, those are the things I'm either doing or thinking about doing on any given day. It's a little exhausting.

Friday, July 25, 2008

This One's For You Amy!

This blog post is dedicated to my cousin Amy because she harassed me about not posting since April 6th when I met her for lunch today. I suppose that is quite a while, but I've had a little bit going on! Let's see, what's changed since April 6th...

1. I completed (and passed, thank you Jesus) all my M1 classes.
2. Kris and I got married.
3. We honeymooned in West Palm Beach, FL.
4. We found and bought a house in Ridgeland.
5. I worked in the UMC Emergency Department for a few weeks shadowing doctors.
6. I worked at the Lakeland Family Medicine Clinic shadowing/learning for the past month.
7. We got a puppy named Woodrow and have since lost our cat.
8. Oh yeah, 2 of my good friends got married and Jennifer & Andrew are engaged!

That's about it in a nutshell. I've been trying to catch up on all the sleep I lost in the past year, but since I've had to be at work at 8am every morning it hasn't really happened. I've got to start going to bed before midnight. Tomorrow is my last day of work at the Family Medicine Clinic and we have 1 week off before school starts so I'm planning on sleeping 'til at least 10:00 every day next week. No phone calls please.

Married life is going great so far. It's pretty much the same except you always know where the other one is since you're living in the same house. It's much more convenient for the most part. I also enjoy the fact that Kris takes out the garbage and mows the yard. (I really suck at taking out the trash.) For some reason he's also learned how to use a hamper and is actually much better than I am about not leaving clothes everywhere. It's miraculous. I don't remember that being in the vows anywhere, but the preacher must have snuck that in at some point.

I'm also in the process of learning how to cook a few things. So far I've had a few successes and a few terrible failures.
Successes = turkey sausage and rice casserole, applesauce spice cake with cream cheese frosting (I ate 1/2 of it and have since decided I'm not allowed to ever make it again), baked pork chops (yes Amy, I used Oven Fry and they were delicious!!!), and turkey burgers (not exactly difficult, but they were yummy.)
Failures = homemade caramel cake. The cake was actually okay, but the caramel frosting was a complete disaster. It had a wonderful flavor but had the consistency of an ice cream topping. Another failure was chicken, broccoli, and rice casserole (and you thought that was impossible to screw up). The rice was crunchy and the broccoli was soggy. Yuck. Must learn to cook more. The only problem is that I refuse to cook anything that's loaded with cream cheese, full fat sour cream, butter, and full fat cheeses. What's the point of cooking a chicken breast when you put all that crap on it? I could just as well eat a Big Mac! Therefore since we live in Mississippi, my options are very limited. Oh yeah, did I mention Kris doesn't eat onions? That cuts out the few recipes that are left. Any good ideas (healthy, easy, or cheap) are welcome!

As for our pup Woodrow, we were told he's a Yellowcreek beagle. I think that's just a really fancy way to say he's white with yellow spots instead of black and brown. He's 8 weeks old and we're in the midst of potty training. It sucks - especially since neither Kris nor I are morning people and if you have an inside dog you must be a morning person. I don't like being woken up at 5 am to whincing and having to go find my robe and sit outside with the puppy while I wait for him to tinkle. So I usually just make Kris do it. Did I mention I love being married?

Working this summer has been AWESOME. It does suck to have to wake up at 6:30 during the summer, but it's worth it. They're paying us a good amount and we get to pretty much do what we want. I've enjoyed family medicine more than the ER surprisingly. The family medicine docs let you do more hands-on stuff since the patients aren't as critical. We get to go in and see the patients, ask them what meds they're taking, get a history, do a physical, look in their ears, and listen to their hearts and lungs. I've also gotten to do 4 Pap smears, a bimanual pelvic exam, and removed about 60 skin tags using lidocaine injection, cutting them with Iris scissors, and cauterizing them. I've also learned how to tell when a patient just wants pain meds and when to get a psych consult, which will be very useful in a year or so.

School starts August 4th so I'll be back in action as an M2 (hooray!). I am planning on blogging more regularly then once I'll be attached to my computer at least 12 hours a day.

Love y'all!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Counting Days

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted in a month. Tisk, tisk. Things are going good. We're on the downhill slope. There are 30 days of class left with 4 days of testing left. This is very exciting! It actually affords me a little time to take care of very important wedding business. Most recently we (meaning my mother and I) have:

1. had the invitations and thank you cards printed
2. gathered most of the addresses
3. addressed a few invites
4. picked out a place to alter the dress
5. bought everything to assemble the favors
6. visited 1 florist, received too high of a bid, and are currently getting estimates from several others.

Not too shabby, eh? The main things I still have to do are actually get the dress altered, have bridal pictures made, ask the musicians to play, etc... Hopefully that'll all be done in the next 2-3 weeks. The 1st florist we visited wanted us to pay $2700. That's basically the budget for 1/2 the entire wedding. Not possible. Anyway, hopefully we can get it all worked out.
Kris and I have also started daydreaming about houses. Jennifer is supposed to e-mail me some mortgage info this week so we can get started on that process. I really need a front yard - I have to plant flowers. I'll have a whole summer to nest so I can pretty much get anything that I want to done without feeling guilty for not studying. Hooray!
Speaking of houses, we were very lucky that Jennifer's house in Madison didn't sustain any damage from the bad storms we had here last week. Some places still don't have power. A few of the hotels along I-55 had shingles and large parts of their roofs ripped off. I heard Old Fannin Road looked like a war path. Mom and I were going to take care of wedding business that day, but unfortunately weren't able to get much done since noone had power. We settled for shoe shopping, looking at mother-of-the-bride dresses, and eating dinner with Jennifer at Anthony Z's. It wasn't a terribly productive day, but it was fun.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Hooray, Kris is officially well!!!

Kris had his last doctor's appointment today to get stitches out. Dr. Copeland told Kris he never wanted to see him again. (I think he meant that in the nicest way possible though). That's exciting. I'm heading home this weekend to attend a wedding and Kris and I are going to take our engagement pictures. Hooray! This should be fun. Fortunately his mom's pretty handy with a camera (she always wins a prize at the Natches Trace Festival for her photography), so we don't have to pay an arm and a leg for them.

Right now life is a balance between school and wedding. The wedding was on the back burner, but since it's just a few weeks away - and I know this because I keep getting annoying little reminder e-mails from the knot.com and various other places - it's become a priority. When staring at the brain in neuro lab today all I could think about was what I needed to wear for my pictures. What about the florist? What about the diamond that fell out of my ring last week? It's enough to drive a girl crazy.

You know what else can drive a girl crazy? A cumulative physiology final with 167 questions on it (that's 50 pages thick, y'all!!!). It was ridiculous. We had it Friday. We were supposed to be given 4 hours to take the thing, but we got started 15 minutes late and ended 10 minutes early. Then as we're all rushing to finish, the teacher comes in and tells us he'll give us 30 minutes. So really they gave us 5. But at that point we were all so freaked out that none of us could think straight. I even forgot equations. I never forget equations!!! Anyway, we got the thing back today and the class average was 79. That makes me feel not so bad about my 76. I'm usually 5-10 points under class average, so 3 under is actually an improvement. I can justify anything really.

Must study neuro now. It's bizarre and hard to remember. Oh goody.

Monday, February 18, 2008

More of the Same

Today we have 3 tests. Well, I have 2 left now. I just took 1. It was pretty brutal, but I managed not to have a complete panic attack in the middle, so that's good. I think I'll do better on the next 2. It's out last actual histo written and last histo practical except for the board. I know that probably doesn't mean much to y'all, but I have a deep hatred for histology. Hence, I am very, very excited it's going to be over soon. Physiology will end soon too. Then the dreaded neuro starts. Anyway, I'll pretend to be a normal person for the rest of this post starting... Now.
I got to have lunch with my BFF Julz and her boyfriend Scotty on Saturday. That was a good thing. It's so nice to catch up and see some familiar faces that have known you for a while. Julz is in the waiting process - waiting to hear from law schools. That's not really the most fun place to be. I have no doubt she'll get in though. It's just a matter of where. Scotty is teaching Spanish to Jackson hoodlums. Lord be with him.
I celebrated a very exciting first 2 days ago. Austin and I have been running nearly every day after class. We get on the treadmills and go. When we fist started it was really hard for me to run more than 5 minutes without stopping. Two days ago I ran 30 minutes (3.1 miles) continuously. Hooray!!! I never would have thought that I could do that. Sometimes peer pressure is good.
Another funny thing happened in the gym the day before that. I was running along and sweating my butt off. I tried to ever-so-gracefully wipe the sweat from my head and neck and ended up losing my balance and yep, you guessed it... toppling from the machine. I didn't actually ever fall completely down. The knees stayed above the ground at all times. I do have a nice-sized bruise on my left calf as a reminder though.
You should all be aware that bruises on soft tissue (such as the calf) are often cardinal signs of child abuse, as we learned during a luncheon on the subject the other day. I promise Kris is in no condition to beat me just yet though. We had a choice the other day between a lunch about wound care in war zones or signs of child abuse. We chose the signs of child abuse - figured there would be less graphic pictures there as we tried to scarf down our free lunches.
I am heading to Kosciusko to visit Kristopher tonight. We are going to try and get the honeymoon condo all booked up. We are hoping for either Myrtle Beach or Hilton Head, South Carolina. The Bahamas sounded nice and all, but the thought of spending $1500 on plane tickets made us both cringe. *Perhaps* later in life we'll be a bit more financially stable and be able to take trips like that - a lot :)

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Sadie Likes to Swim

Sadie the cat took another dip in the tub last night. This is her second. Unfortunately the water was scalding. I made the mistake of telling Andrew not to turn my hot water heater on too high and now the only way I have warm bathwater is to turn it on completely high. Not his fault, just my poor judgement since I love scalding hot baths.
So, good news are in order. My friend (and bridesmaid) Robin Bryant is now engaged! Hooray! The funny part is that her tentative wedding date is the Saturday after mine. I hope we'll be back from our honeymoon in time for that one. We're planning all that this weekend. I am very excited. Thanks to my grandmother's generosity we can go pretty much anywhere we want to. I'm thinking somewhere warm though, since I hate the cold.
Out of the 7 of us that hung out in high school, 3 are getting married this summer and 2 got married last summer. Julia and Erin are going to be the last sane/single ones :) ha ha. Don't get peer-pressured my good friends.
I was planning on having lunch with my grandmother today, but unforunately we got our 2 hour lunch break taken away. They moved our 2:00 class up to 1:00. There's no way I could have made it all the way to Ridgewood Road, eaten, and made it back to class. Thank goodness my Aunt was headed there so I could relay the message.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Another Quick Update

Kris is out of the hospital - hooray!!! He got out late in the afternoon on Feb 1st. Unfortunately they sent him home with his wound still open and aren't planning on sewing him back together for 2 more weeks, so he's a little confined. Anyway, must study now. 3 tests tomorrow :)

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Update

Kris is still in the process of recovering from surgery. They took out his feeding tube yesterday, so that's a good thing. He managed to get out of bed and sit in a chair for a while. Currently they are only letting him eat ice chips, so he's pretty weak. Hopefully today we will graduate to broth - hooray! He's still getting antibiotics, blood thinners (which are shots that go directly into his stomach, no fun), and lots and lots of pain meds. I'm hoping for him to go home sometime this weekend, but that's looking doubtful unless he makes some sort of miraculous recovery.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Of Course It's Complicated and Rare, It's Kris!!!

I'm writing from Baptist Hospital in Jackson. I'll give you 3 guesses.

1. UMC shipped us down the street to practice on Baptists' patients.
2. Kris had a hernia that decided to twist on itself and herniate into his actual abdominal muscles, thereby spilling part of its contents there (and thankfully not into his peritoneum).
3. They have really good cafeteria food here.

Guess #2 is correct. We started out thinking gallstones, then a CT showed a mass which the doctors thought was just a hematoma. Then an exploratory surgery today showed that part of Kris's small intestine decided to get caught up in his stomach muscles and twist and all that good stuff. The smart surgeon took it out though, along with his appendix while he was in there. So that probably saved us another trip. Anyway, Kris is recovering. He's a little unhappy at the moment because of the tube going up his nose and down to his stomach, and also that big gash on his belly that isn't quite closed yet, but other than that, we're good. Just thought I'd give everyone an update. Thanks for the prayers and keep them coming!

On the upside, I found out today I passed my Biochem national board, so I am officially finished taking biochem - forever!!! Not even 1 more class :)

Thursday, January 10, 2008

So Much to Talk About, So Little Time

Whoa I haven't posted in a while. I'm between classes right now, so I'm going to make this one snappy. We'll start from today and work backwards. Today has been great so far. I got a speeding ticket on the way to school this morning which was completely pointless because I wasn't even late. This means I shouldn't have been speeding. I'm just meant to be a race car driver, that's all. I will definitely be taking the class so I don't have to pay for it. I just wonder how much the class costs. I was only going 58 in a 45. Blech. Anyway, life will go on.

Today we have a presentation to give to the class. We were given a patient 2 days ago, not a real one, just a paper one. Then we had to diagnose and figure out a treatment plan. It was surprisingly easy for this particular one. I just hope we don't all get nervous and blow the whole thing. Just for fun they're bringing in an attending and a resident to intimidate us.

Two days ago I did surgery on a pig. It was insane. We opened the femoral arteries and veins and inserted catheters (which are apparently just little plastic tubes). We also slit the throat down and found the carotid arteries and vagus nerves on each side. We used those to adjust the blood pressure manually. Anyway, we got to play and inject drugs and watch the effects and all that. Then at the end I made a huge incision down the side of the pig parallel to the ribs and then we used a rib spreader to spread the ribs and they actually went a good ways without breaking. Then we got to hold the beating heart in our hands, watch the lungs inflate and deflate, and then.... We sent the heart into v-fib. Then I grabbed the shock paddles, we charged them. I said Clear! just like on Grey's and I brought him back to life. We killed him and brought him back to life 5 times! It was pretty amazing.

Anyway, class is starting now. Must pay attention.