Thursday, March 25, 2010

Obsession



You see this room? More specifically the paint color? How the white trim POPS off it? How everything looks so crisp and perfect? I'm BEYOND obsessed. I've been looking no less than 1 hour for the perfect color of grey with just enough brown or is it more brown with just enough grey? I can't tell. Anyway, I've been looking for that color to paint our bedroom. If anyone has any clues, I'll gladly pay you in cookies.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Runner's Log, REI

Went for a run Monday - 4.0 miles on the Natchez trail again, this time in 50ish minutes instead of an hour - woohoo! I stopped less this time too. Just for the water break at the 2 mile mark and Penelope's inevitable potty breaks.

Then went for a run today - ~2 miles. Can't be sure of how far I went but it was around 30 minutes so I think that's a conservative estimate. I've got to get a new Nike+ set so I can be accurate! The weather has just been so gorgeous lately I'm really hoping to catch up to my 300 miles in 2010 goal. It's not completely hopeless yet :)

As for school, my 2 partners and I started Reproductive GYN this week. It's actually been pretty great. Monday was a piece of cake. I scrubbed for a TVH (transvaginal hysterectomy - a surgery where they remove the uterus through the vagina, meaning no giant incision or scar). It was pretty cool except for the 1.5ish hours I spent retracting straight UP. I don't mind retracting the abdomen. I pretty much stick a retractor in there, steady my feet, and lean back with most of my body weight. It's kind of like water skiing. Retracting the vah-jay-jay on the other hand... It's not quite as forgiving. Not to mention I was pulling straight up. That's always harder. When the case was over I was dripping with sweat. The oh-so-intelligent attending looked at my scrubs and said, "what is that on your scrubs?" It's sweat you dingbat!!! That's what I wanted to yell, but of course I didn't. I swear they forget what it was like to be the lowly 3rd year med student...

We went home after that surgery because our resident said "she'd call us." We'd heard a rumor that she doesn't care too much where the students are. At 1:00 that afternoon we had a Clinical Skills Exam. These are the tests with actors who pretend to be patients. The whole encounter is set up like a clinic. There's a chart on the door, the whole works. We have 12 minutes with the patient and then a few minutes to write a note. Then we get a grade on the whole encounter, what we remembered to ask, what we remembered to put in the note, etc... 12 minutes with a patient just isn't very much time. These 2 cases weren't bad at all. The 1st one was discussing the results of a mammogram and the possibility of breast cancer with a patient, the other was spousal abuse. It's kind of tough because you have to notice subtle clues like "bruises" painted on with eyeshadow and decreased eye contact. After all that was over I took Penelope for that 4.0 mile run I talked about earlier. Then K and I went and ate at Little Tokyo. I got veggie hibachi and a veggie sushi roll. Safe choices right? Apparently not...

Yesterday was not so pleasant. I didn't even make it to the hospital. Woke up about 4:30 am incredibly nauseous. I usually have a stomach of steel. I can eat anything, drink anything and I never get bothered. I proceeded to vomit 3-4x. Yuck. Not fun. I was supposed to be the student in clinic that day but fortunately one of my nice partners, R, volunteered to take my spot so I could stay home and recuperate.

Today I scrubbed into a tubal ligation and watched 4 or 5 others. They all kind of ran together. Really quick procedures. Then it was time for lunch. Then a meeting with one of the attendings at 3:00 to discuss various sundry chromosomal and hormonal problems that we'll probably never see. It was interesting though. Came home around 5, dug up a bush, ran 2 miles and now I'm typing this. What a long and incredibly boring post. I can't believe you're still reading this. The end.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Runner's Log

I've been slacking when it comes to updating my running on here, but oh well. I've been keeping up with it in my planner.

Went for a run yesterday on the Ridgeland Multipurpose Trail near my house. It's a 2 mile run to the craft center, then 2 miles back to the car. The goal was to change it up from my usual intervals of run/walk/run/walk, so I just ran incredibly, almost painfully, slow at the beginning and managed to make it the whole 1st 2 miles without stopping! Hooray! Then Penelope and I stopped for a water break at the craft center on the Natchez Trace and started the run back. I had to stop one time because Penelope got all tangled in a thorny branch and then during her flipping out session she swung it over to me so we were both tangled. Every time I tried to move another thorn would get caught in my legs. Ouch!!! Managed to get untangled and then stopped and walked 2 more times for about 1 minute each. Here's the breakdown:

4.0 miles run, 55 minutes, 1 thorny branch entanglement


Also, if you like running with a dog that happens to pull you, you might want to buy this thing:



It looks a little scary, but it's wonderful! The mouth part stays nice and loose as long as the dog is relaxed. It even allows them to drink water. The second they lunge forward (after a bird, fellow dog, whatever) it cinches a little tighter around their snout so they can't bite. It also keeps them from pulling you off over into the bushes or putting strain on your arms while running. It's fabulous. It doesn't hurt Penelope at all and she's gotten so much better about running beside me and not trying to drag me! Makes running much easier. I got mine for about $15 at Petsmart. It's black and blends with her fur so it doesn't look like I have a crazy muzzled dog :)

Thursday, March 18, 2010

L&D Nights, Spring "Break", Etc...

So, right now I'm on L&D nights. Me and my 2 partners in crime were here at the hospital 13 hrs last night and this morning and did approximately 45 minutes of actual work. Pretty much we waited on ladies to deliver, went in, watched the babies being caught, and then got the glorious task of delivering the placenta. But other than that we checked on them every 2 hrs and wrote a note in the chart. Then at 6:00AM we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to see 5 patients in 45 minutes, write scrips, and fill out notes for said patients. It was a little comical. Mostly because we spent 12 hours pretty much sitting around and then were expected to jump! Right now! Faster!!! Higher!!!

So that's pretty much it for L&D nights. It's boring. I feel like all I do is sit around and get hungry, go eat breakfast food at 2:00AM, and watch the clock.

The upside is that we only have to do this for 2-3 nights because we had a Spring "Break" earlier this week on Monday and Tuesday. Kris and I took advantage of this break and went home and then to Louisiana.

I also found out over the weekend that my youngest sister-in-law is pregnant! Hooray! We're all pretty excited about it. They're going to make a pretty cute baby, plus - let's be honest... It takes the heat off of me for at least another year or two. Right? Right? Please say yes.

Anywho, we spent Sunday celebrating "Easter" since Kris's dad will be offshore when the actual holiday rolls around. I woke up early and had coffee and cinnamon rolls with the in-laws, milled around and helped my MIL cook, then got ready and visited and ate for hours. We had an Easter egg hunt for my niece Caden and the weather was just perfect. It was a great day. Then Kris and I left for The Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, LA.



It's a bed and breakfast with a restaurant on site, a little pond, a courtyard, and it just so happens to be one of the most haunted places in America. That's what everyone says anyway. We didn't see any ghosts, but didn't sleep very well either. I think that had more to do with cheap mattresses than any ghostly presence. Here's the story though for those who are interested: Chloe the house slave liked to eavesdrop. Her master got mad and cut her ear off and demoted her to field slave. She had a plan to make the children sick so that he would need her and hire her back as house slave so she baked them a cake which she had flavored with oleander. The children and their mother ate the cake and all 3 died. Chloe was then hung from one of the huge oaks in front of the house and thrown in the Mississippi River.

We stayed in 2 different rooms on our 2 different nights because that's all they had left. We stayed in the main house the first night in a big bedroom upstairs. Hardwood floors, 4 poster bed, high ceilings, the whole kit and caboodle. We found out on the tour the next day that we had stayed in the original children's room. How creepy is that? The next night we stayed in a room that was built right off the Carriage House restaurant. It's not original, but did have a huge clawfoot tub that I enjoyed soaking in. None of the rooms have TVs or radios so it was really quiet and peaceful. Most of the other guests were friendly and let us tour their rooms.

One of the best parts was every morning there was homemade breakfast in the house that was the original main house from the 1700s. Grits, biscuits, sausage gravy, blueberry scones, fresh fruit, eggs, hot coffee, and orange juice. Yum, yum, yum.

On day 2 we toured Afton Villa Gardens.


That's just a picture from the drive in. It was gorgeous. It's a garden centered around this old plantation that burned down in the 1960s I think. They have boxwood hedge mazes and a pond, lots of huge oaks and camelia bushes. We spent about 2 hours touring the grounds for just $5 and we only ran into about 5 other people total. I highly recommend it. (I don't know those people in the picture below... but that's just a little taste of what the place looks like.)



On our drive back Tuesday we passed through Natchez and made a stop to eat at The Castle at Dunleith plantation. We didn't tour any plantations there, but I'm glad we got to eat some good Southern cooking before we got home. It was really, really good.

That's about it! What a long post. I might be driven to post again before the night's over if things don't get any more interesting.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Slacker

Just realized I haven't posted in about a month. What a slacker. I've got a lot to write about, but might just have to wait until Saturday to do it. Need to do some case studies for a preceptor meeting tomorrow and then prepare for our OB test on Friday. I'll just leave you with this jewel:

A 49yo female and 37yo female, mother and daughter show up to OB receiving both stating that they're pregnant. Took Urine Preg Tests at home that were negative but they can both "feel the babies moving." Note that the mother here had that daughter when she was 12. When my classmate was explaining to her about pregnancy tests and hormones, she thanked my classmate and stated: "Noone's ever explained any of this to me before. When I got pregnant with my daughter here, I thought the stork was going to drop her off. I didn't realize I had to deliver her." Not lying. Dead serious. Whoa.