My New Best Friend

My new best friend is this yummy FAGE yogurt with strawberry. This stuff is AWESOME!!! I'm not getting paid to sponsor them, but I wish I was :) It's especially good with graham crackers. Anywho, back to all the important real life stuff...

Mom's surgery was a success! The first few days were pretty rocky. She got behind the ball on the pain thanks to hospital staff that put the pain pump out of reach. Awesome. After that you can bet I was on that pain pump like white on rice. I pushed it every 10 minutes, even if she was sleeping, because I'm an awesome daughter and all. 2.5 weeks later and she's back at home after a 2 week hiatus at premier physical rehab location Casa de Bennett. It's really exclusive. You pretty much have to be my mom to get in.

I've been on Peds Clinics all month. Lots of achy ears, sore throats, rashes, etc... I haven't really seen anything interesting this month unfortunately. The schedule is ridiculously wonderful. I had time to finally go to the dentist today for the first time in probably 1.5-2 years. Not sure exactly, but it's been a while. I got lucky and had a new patient discount and was really pleased with the staff and service. It's Dr. Burns on Northpark Drive in case anyone needs a new dentist. Got x-rays and a cleaning for $110 today. Woo hoo!

I start Labor and Delivery on Friday. Woot!!! Maybe I'll finally get to deliver that 1st baby. Yeah, I know. I haven't delivered a baby yet. I'm an M4 doing OB. I get it. That's bad. That's really bad. L&D was just slower when we were on it and at the time I wasn't really digging the whole delivering of the babies and whatnot. It was really scary to me. I changed my tune about halfway through that rotation and by then it was too late. Alas, hoping to deliver my 1st one Friday.

On a related note, I got my first rejection letter today. I was relieved. Is that sad? That's bad, probably, but I'm already worried about scheduling. I'm beginning to think I applied to too many schools. Oh well. I guess better too many than too few.

On a slightly related note, I'm now officially poor. I was wondering how this came about since I was more budget conscious than usual at the beginning of this semester and then I figured it out:

New air conditioner in July $1100
Step 2 CK in June $500 or $550? can't remember
Step 2 CS in July $1100!!!
ERAS (residency application) in September $600 - yes, I applied A LOT of places

So that about explains why I'm coming up 2 months short as far as budgeting. The upside - we're probably gonna get one hell of a tax refund next year since all that school stuff can be written off :)

The weather is absolutely gorgeous, so I'm about to thread some shish-ka-bobs and make the hubby fire up the grill in a bit. Hope everyone's having a great week!

Shifting Gears

*This update is dedicated to my Cousin A, who likes to send me friendly reminders that she hasn't seen a post in a while. Ahem...*

It's September 1st. New month, new rotation. I'm doing Pediatric Clinics this month, aka "Peds ambulatory" aka "if you're an M4 you leave at noon everyday, no questions asked." That's good and all, but it was really hard for me to hang out in clinic and only see 2 patients in 3 hours today. Normally by noon I've seen about 15 inpatients on OB. It's incredibly hard for me to stand still anyway, but after running nonstop for 12-15 hrs a day, nearly every day last month it was next to impossible to just hang out.

I'm a little sad my High Risk OB rotation is over. Even though the hours were killer it was so nice to be busy and feel like I was actively learning things I would use in the future. Plus I got to do a few procedures - speculum exams, wet preps, looking at said wet preps under the microscope, Implanon insertions, ultrasounds, cervix checks (I'm getting better; correct about 50% of the time now), etc... Got to scrub into about 20 C-sections and 5 D&Cs. Wish I'd gotten to sew, but my dear intern only got to sew 3 times, so it's not like she was being greedy. (frylime - I'm jealous!!!) I've already decided I'll probably sew every one of my future patients after c-sections anyway, so there's plenty ahead of me.

Ran about 2.5 miles tonight. I know I haven't been posting my running in the last few months, but I've been keeping up with it. Ran about 2 miles in June while studying for STEP - embarrassing!. Then about 30 in July while taking that easy computer course. Ran around 6 last month. Anywho, off to watch Top Chef and clean house before I go to bed and get to sleep until 6:30 tomorrow. Score!!!

In a Funk

I'm feeling in a funk today. I don't feel like studying. I don't feel like watching tv. I can't fall asleep. I'm in limbo. I'm not sure if it's from the 2 Benadryl I took last night and the lingering congestion and postnasal drip I've got going on or what. I just feel completely foggy-headed and can't quite get situated. I tried to study earlier today to no avail. 2 diet cokes, 2 cups of coffee - no effect yet. I read 3 words and get distracted. Getting distracted is not too unusual for me, but my goodness - drifting off in the middle of a sentence... That's just bad. It almost feels like I've forgotten how to study thanks to all this scutwork I've been busy with all year.

Good thing that test tomorrow is only 10% of our final grade.

White Cloud?

All year I've been stating I'm a black cloud. This means I have bad luck. If something can go wrong, it will. It's been proven time and time again throughout the year. But I'm beginning to think being in a sister group full of white clouds has rubbed off.

My partner and I were supposed to be on call yesterday. We came in scrubs, with books and computers and lean cuisines, prepared to be at the hospital all night. We saw our patients in the morning before class (well, my partner did... I was lucky and didn't have a patient. This is the 2nd time this has happened to me the ENTIRE year.) I skipped class because I slept in and got there at about 8:10. Didn't want to walk in late. We rounded at 9:30 as usual. After rounds our chief/attending looked at all of us and told us what a good job we'd done, how he'd taught us all he could, and that he didn't need to see us back. Oh lucky day! Our intern made us sweat it out though. She looked at my partner and I several times and told us to "run it by our upper level." Great. We knew we'd be stuck there all night.

Somehow, by the grace of God, she decided to be cool for once in her life and let us get the heck out of there! We still had to meet with our preceptor at 1:30 and didn't end up leaving until 3:00, but what a wonderful day. We didn't have to come back for call. We have no more clinical duties this year! We have a test Friday, 2 boards next week, 2 boards the week after, Step 2 CK, Step 2 CS, and we're officially 4th years. For now this means:

No more 5:00 am awakenings.

No more waking up sleeping babies.

No more Saturdays spent at the hospital.

No more call nights.

No more mile long treks from the stadium parking lot in the blazing heat.

No more busy work. (Hallelujah!!!)

No more patient logs to keep track of.

No more tests.

Best of all - no more putting on that filthy "white" coat. (I used to love putting it on. Before I had stuff in all the pockets that causes it to weigh 50 lbs. and terrible neck and shoulder pain.)

Some of these will return for parts of 4th year, such as the 5:00 am awakenings during certain rotations and the mile long treks from the stadium, and call nights and Saturdays spent at the hospital. And of course this summer isn't going to be super fun since it will be spent studying for boards, STEP exams, etc... but it's such a relief to have this year over with. It was a lot of fun, but mostly it was a whole lot of work and sleep deprivation. All that said, I've got to get back to finishing up some busy work for the Peds department... At least I'm in my pajamas at home though :)

Runner's Log

5.03 miles, 50"45'

Took Penelope and ran down by the reservoir again today. It's just so pretty at sunset! She did pretty well considering she just had surgery (of the fixin' variety) less than 3 weeks ago. I did pretty well considering walking 1/2 a mile 2 days ago had me exhausted. I think I'm beating this little sinus infection I've got going on.

Countdown:
Calls left: 1
Days on the Ward left: 3
Peds Test: 1
Clinical Skill Exam: nada; completed that one today. It wasn't quite as painful as I thought it would be, but probably because I'd taken a Benadryl and Aleve and just didn't quite care.

I am Le Sick and Le Tired

And I'm pretty sure those darn rugrats are to blame. Nearly every single one of their parents that I've talked to have said - "Oh yes, this is little Johnny's 1st week at daycare. He's had a runny nose and sore throat for 3 days!!!" Awesome. Pure awesome.. With that, I leave you: "The End of the World"


P.S. - last full week of M3 year!!! I only have to do scutwork for 3 days this week, have my last call of M3 year, and my clinical skills exam (with fake patient actors) tomorrow. What a week. Can't wait for it to be over.

Rounds - the Highlights

I'm currently on Peds Wards. We got a new team this week which means new residents, new attending. Same old M3s :) Anywho, it's always interesting to see what the team's dynamic will be. The first day people are usually polite and try to feel each other out. As an M3 you try to determine what style of patient presentation your attending likes, whether you will be pimped to no end, etc... Our current team makes rounding a little less painful than usual. I still dread it, but there are some funny bits tucked in here and there that make it a little less painful. Sometimes these funny bits are provided by the patients, and are sheer luck. And with that, I leave you this week's highlights:

#1 Whenever our rather large team (at least 12 M3s, residents, an M4, and chief) approaches another team in the hall while rounding, an all out snapping battle a la West Side Story breaks out. (See video below if you're my sister and didn't get that reference.)
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#2 During day #1 of rounds we managed to discuss Kurt Cobain, Miley Cyrus, and Courtney Love while standing outside a patient's door.

#3 While in a patient's room, discussing the child's treatment plan with the parents and grandmother, grandmother's cellphone goes off. That's not abnormal. The ringtone was. Then she says: "Grandma got a GOOD text!" It was just a bit unexpected from a little old white lady. Here it is:

#4 Today on rounds I managed to completely piss off a patient without speaking any words, in approximately 1 second, with one motion. No, I didn't flip her off. It was a young-ish mother who rolled over on her baby 2 nights ago and nearly killed it. After receiving a lengthy lecture on putting your kid in their crib, on their back, EVERY TIME they, or you are falling asleep, the student checking on her this morning found her and the baby snuggled up together again in bed. Long story short, we all come in as a team and our chief/attending begins explaining to her how she had a close call and the importance of placing the baby in the crib to sleep. The mom just stares at the tv the whole time, trying to drown out his words, not caring to hear a bit of how she can keep from KILLING her kid. So I walked over, reached up, and flipped off the tv. I got the biggest "go to hell" look ever. It was SO worth it. I just smiled back and then turned my attention to our chief, showing her how she should be behaving.

#5 Today my resident was eager to finish rounds and start working on discharging all of our patients going home. We got to one pt with a really straightforward issue and she gave me 30 seconds to present it. I finished in 27 seconds. Wish they could all be like that!

Runner's Log

Just completed a wonderful run over by the Reservoir. Nearly the whole run had a gorgeous view of the water. Started over on Breakers Lane, then wound around a few curves and went out to the little lookout point that jets off into the middle of the water. Very fun. Penelope enjoyed it too, but got VERY tired.

4.05 miles, 40'25", 9:58 per mile (wahoo! that's a personal best!)

The funny part - saw my next door neighbor (the man who complained about the dog) walking as I was running back to my car. Then as I'm pulling into my driveway, he pulls into his at the exact same moment. Weirdness. I immediately shut the garage door and scurried into the house to avoid conversating with him. Just not on my list of things to do today.

As for my March running total, it came out to 29.5 miles or some nonsense like that. Typical that the goal was 30.0 and I'd come out to 29.5. This seems like the perfect occasion to "curve" that score to an even 30. Don't you think?

Peds Wards and Wedding Season

My partner and I just wrapped up our 1st week of Peds Wards yesterday. For those who wonder what the heck "Peds Wards" means, it means we take care of kids that have been admitted to stay in the hospital overnight. It could be due to an infection, asthma exacerbation, or any problem which necessitates multiple tests and consults. It can be one night or multiple nights. We check on them every morning, bright and early, see how things have been going, and then make appropriate changes to their therapy or send them home. There's no clinic (hallelujah!) and most of our residents are pretty nice.

You know wedding season is getting started when you go to 2 showers in 1 weekend. Friday night I got to go to my cousin Carrie's shower. It was a small family get together with BBQ, flip flops, kids playing in the pool, and banana pudding (recipe to follow). It was nice to sit back and visit with family.

Saturday began bright and early with call. My partner and I were at the hospital at 6:30 and left the hospital at about 7:00 that night. It ended with our resident saying - "Oh yeah, I probably should have let y'all go about 2 hours ago. Go home." I hear that one a lot unfortunately. I'm really going to try to remember not to torture my M3s when I'm a resident. Not that staying there that long was torture - I got a good bit of studying done, much more than I would have at home. That's the optimistic view I guess. Came home, ate, popped 2 Benadryl, and hit the hay for a solid 12 hours. It was bliss. I really needed to catch up on some sleep. Wards is nice, but it starts early. I'd only been clocking 4-6 hrs every night for the last week. Weekends are essential for catch up!

As for today, I woke up around 10:30, cleaned a little, sipped on some coffee and caught up on tv shows and then headed to a shower at 2:00. It's for a girl who is marrying one of K's cousins and she is great! I'm super excited to have someone else my age to goof off with at family Thanksgivings, Christmases, and Easters. Plus, they're just a really fun couple. I see a lot of dinners eaten together in the future.

Since then I've been at home, listening to the rain, cutting coupons, and catching up on the 6th season of Lost. Such a productive day, ha ha. Really need to go run, but might have to take a raincheck. It's kind of nasty out there.

With that, I leave you a no-fail recipe for banana pudding. I make this often and always get compliments on it:

BANANA PUDDING

2 bananas
1 box Nilla wafers
1 large box vanilla pudding mix
2.5 cups cold milk
1 tub frozen Cool Whip
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine 2.5 cups cold milk with pudding mix. Beat for a minute or so. Let sit about 2 minutes. Add Cool Whip and sweetened condensed milk and almond and vanilla extracts. Mix it all up. Alternate layers of Nilla wafers, pudding, and bananas. Top with wafers.

P.S - Sometimes I make it with NO bananas and extra Nilla wafers. Scandalous, I know!

Considering...

buying an iPod Touch. Not an iPad. No, I like to stay 2-3 years behind current technology, thankyouverymuch.

As for school, things are kind of blah right now. I am currently on Peds Ambulatory which means Heme/Onc clinic in the morning (that's kids with sickle cell anemia or lymphomas, leukemias, etc... for those who don't know) and then general Peds clinic in the afternoon.

I haven't enjoyed this week as much as my counterparts but that's all my bad. I just don't enjoy clinic, period. I'm sure it would be different if these were my patients that I'd seen before and built a relationship with but they're not. Plus, heme/onc is kind of depressing to me personally. The kids don't seem depressed at all for the most part. Even though they have fragmented lives, they are really resilient and have surprised me at how well-developed they are socially. I'm glad someone out there can do it, like my friend twotinyletters over @ http://twotinyletters.blogspot.com but it certainly isn't for me.

As far as general Peds clinic there's a lot of well-child checkups which are incredibly easy but these appointments drive me nuts. I feel like they're a waste of time. I know they're not, but I just feel worthless having made a parent take off work, come to the hospital, wait for an hour or longer, just so we can say - "Yep, baby looks great." There are certain things that need to be done, such as shots given, etc... but I guess it's more of a surgical mindset I have. I want a problem and a solution. I just want to get in there and fix something. I had the same issues in family medicine clinic. Drove me nuts every time I saw a chief complaint of "3 month f/u." These go something like this:

Me: "Hey Mr. Smith, how have you been the last 3 months?"
Mr. Smith: "Great, I have no complaints."
Me: "Good. See you in 3 months"

Now this is not how it actually happened. First of all these visits end up dragging on forever because they have to tell you about you know - their low back pain or that funny looking bump on their left toe that their cousin's aunt says is a spider bite because she knew a guy her 4th cousin twice removed works with that has the same thing on his exact same toe. I know this guy went to the lab for a routine blood draw. I know it's important to check his HbA1c. I know you want to see him when he's well so you can know when he's really sick. But still, these visits bother me. That's a big hangup of mine. Don't know where my malfunction is. Maybe I've got some kind of chromosomal translocation that predisposes me to clinic hatred? That's my excuse for now.

As far as studying, things have been incredibly lackluster in that department as well. The weather has been so beautiful and I've had a lot of projects going on around the house. All I want to do is PLAY, PLAY, PLAY!!!! I find myself reading things and not remembering them an hour later.

Figured out my learning type, finally, but not exactly what to do with it. I'm a mostly kinesthetic or tactile learner with some visual components. What's that mean? I learn by doing - or drawing a picture of something, etc... That means all those lectures I sat through, there's a reason I didn't get much out of them. All those books I try to read, worthless unless I find a way to incorporate the knowledge other than reading it. All the things I've gotten to do on wards - I'll never forget. Some of the suggestions for kinesthetic learners online are pretty comical though. Pretty sure I'd be "that girl" if I partook in a lot of these. They include:

* Take your notes and repeat them to yourself while walking. If you’re in a rush, walking faster or bouncing while you walk can sometimes help, though this method’s effectiveness might vary with subject. When space is limited (or you’re in a hallway awaiting a test), a few-step pace back and forth can suffice instead of a wide circling you might prefer when you have room.

*As crazy as this might sound, some people have their best results from this one: studying while yo-yoing. The motion and sound (the yo-yo has a type of buzzing sound while twirling on the string) make this method especially useful to audio-kinesthetic learners. If you try this one, you’ll probably find yourself walking while studying, as well.

Tips above are from http://www.dirjournal.com/guides/study-tips-for-kinesthetic-learners/

With that, I leave you to go pace around my house while yo-yoing and talking to myself.

Runner's Log + Peds Day 1

I'm a little delinquent on updating my running log. Ran 4 miles today, 2 miles Saturday in Kosy, and 4ish miles on Thursday. Finally getting into the swing of things. I think it's the gorgeous weather we've been having lately. Took Penelope with me today and ended up running into my cousin A going the opposite direction on the trail. She was very proud of my "technical gear" running shirts I believe she called them...

Today was Day #1 of peds. Everyone seems to really enjoy this rotation, so let's hope it can overcome a serious case of Spring Fever/I'm sick of living at the hospital/M3-itis. I'm not even at the hospital that much anymore and I still can't get away from that place fast enough. Everyone else seems to be feeling the same way fortunately... or is it unfortunately?

6 more weeks.

Bring it.