last days

Well, today was my last day in my residency clinic. It was a fun day! The medical assistants decorated my desk by TPing it and putting balloons saying "We Will Miss you". They also had jelly bellys all over the desk with a note saying that my penguin had an accident...it's a pooping penguin that poops jelly bellys. And then they hid my stuff around the clinic. It was fun trying to figure out who helped decorate by looking for my stuff at their desks. Then they really got me when they tried to convince me that I had an add on patient to my schedule. A patient with chest pain. Nadia wasn't doing a very good job so I wasn't believing her. Then as I was starting to see my last patient of the day, I get a knock on the door and the clinic nurse, Leslie, tells me that there was a walk in patient with chest pain that was feeling bad, sweaty, short of breath, and showed me an EKG. It looked okay except for a bad lead and when I asked about it she said she didn't know because someone else did the EKG. She wanted to know if she should just send her to the hospital and so I said yes. Then she asked that I see her real quick. I don't know why I just didn't ask why the attending wasn't seeing her but I said okay. So I excused myself from the room to check on the patient and found a person laying on the exam table with a blanket over her head. Then Nadia pulls the blanket off the sheet and everyone yells "gotcha!" It was pretty great! I was laughing pretty hard...then I jumped onto Nadia. Apparently I dropped my pager since later on I got a note to my electronic desktop saying, "missing something? Check behind the big map". So yet another scavenger hunt...I eventually found my prize: my pager was hidden in the refrigerator in a specimen bag. I'm really going to miss these people that I've worked with the past 3 years. The office is so young and fun. I can only hope to have as much fun at my new job. Tomorrow is the party at clinic where we get roasted by the office staff...after today, who knows what they have up their sleeves for tomorrow.

Graduation is on saturday and I'm excited but also sad to be leaving my second family. Time didn't always go by as fast as I would want but it's so crazy to think back to the day that I first started residency 3 years ago. Has that much time really passed? I've loved almost every minute of it!

The idiots at OMB

Okay, I had heard that the OMB is capable of losing a forklift sitting in front of their faces but I just got word that they didn't receive my fingerprints but did get the form that goes with them...odd considering that both forms were sent with all my other application materials, which they did get as well. How retarded do you have to be to work there?!? I guess a maximum IQ of 60? So I wrote back telling them they can ask the sheriff's office for a copy because it was ridiculous to expect me to pay for something they lost. I told them to look harder. But I guess tomorrow I'll go pay for another copy because the money grabbing jerks will likely just write back telling me I have to pay for another copy myself and pay for their mistakes. I guess I should be lucky that's the only thing they have misplaced so far. You would think an office responsible for medical licenses would be more on top of things...I guess that's asking too much. One of our former employees works there so I know that there's at least one smart person there but she doesn't work in the licensing department. Too bad.

time elapsed

Well, it's been a long time since I posted anything. Let's see, I turned 30 on the 22nd of July. It was uneventful and an easy transition. I went home to hawaii and spent time with friends and family. I went on a field trip with Payton's school to the Kualoa Ranch. Pretty neat place.
Otherwise it's been busy as usual with work. Mom was here for a visit and dad brought grandma for a visit. We went to the beach house and took grandma to the cheese factory. We didn't get a chance to take her to the casino though. As usual, we did go to the outlet mall and I got a cute hoodie. I think melissa has turned me into a hoodie addict so now I'm a shoe and hoodie whore.
I continued on with my healthy eating and exercising and so after getting started back in May with my new trainer, I lost 20 pounds so now I'm at my ideal body weight for my height using the fancy calculator on my epocrates program (114-115 lb). Now she's trying to get me stronger. Remember, for some insane reason my dominant side, the right side, is weaker than the other side. It's still that way but stronger on both sides. So I'm gaining some of the weight back but I can hope it's all muscle I guess. My arms look bigger I think. My stubborn belly bulge is still there but smaller. Mom thinks my face is too thin. I must say that I don't have enough insulation for the cold weather since I'm freezing cold now that the weather is getting cooler. Oddly not much rain yet but I think that starts tonight.
I have 12 patients on my OB panel with 5 due in the 1st week of december so I'll be busy but that's pretty fun work for me.
I checked out a clinic in West Linn. Pretty nice. I think I still would prefer working with Providence though so I need to talk with them about interviewing. I better email them tonight.
Well, time for dinner.

One more year

Well I'm now a third year resident. How the hell did that happen so fast?!? Yesterday I kept writing R2 instead of R3 on my admit note. THanks to So Yun I got to go home and sleep in preparation for my second day of testing for Step 3. I hope I passed this stupid test. I finished early on tuesday and again today. The clinical cases were kind of fun. Hopefully I ordered all the stuff that was needed. As long as I pass, I could care less about the score.

Graduation was fun. Our skit for the roast was well received and everyone seemed to enjoy the gifts we got for them. Brogan got me giggle drunk with whiskey and beer. I ended up laughing when Dr. Bob was talking about an experience Gerri had that made her strong...in other words, not an appropriate time to giggle. He told me he didn't hear me when I told him this week what happened. Laura has decided that our graduation should be a grand 3 day event..."like a wedding" were her exact words. We're already planning an overnight party somewhere.

My personal trainer is making me do scary things...like jumping up onto a platform and then jumping back down. Apparently I'm the only one who sees the danger of this since everyone else laughs at me when I tell them how scary it seems. I have a fear of smacking my head into the ground when doing this...how can this be considered irrational when all my injuries have involved smacking my head into the ground by falling backwards. The last thing I need is a broken bone or a damaged brain. I have $190,000 in medical school debt to pay off and I haven't accrued enough disability payment to cover that. I'm sure I'll have to do that again on saturday...maybe I can convince her to let me go back to some of the less scary things.

Yesterday I had my first experience being a senior resident watching an intern do a delivery. It was very hard to just watch and not be able to just jump in and do the delivery myself. But it went well so I'm glad that Heather was able to get her first delivery. I still get credit for the delivery as well since I assisted. I still have to log a few other deliveries that I either did or assisted with...like the patient who had the eclamptic seizure...I think the PTSD is wearing off.

Time to work on clinic notes then go exercise.

Fun in the ER

Well tonight was another fun filled day in the pediatric ER. I kind of felt bad because the attending was getting slammed with adult patients...not bad enough to see any adults though. Mean me but oh well...I saw a 2 year old who was pretty stoic but had a funky looking arm after falling down the stairs. The kid didn't cry or pull his arm away as I felt his arm he had complained about earlier. He had a fracture of both his ulna and radius. And it certainly matched the weird shape of his arm. What else...I removed a fingernail from a 4 years old after she slammed it in a beach chair. Fingernail and toe nail removals really gross me out. She wasn't too happy with the numbing up part but she watched without crying as I removed her nail. She actually giggled at some parts. Otherwise, everything else was kind of boring. It's fun being there but othertimes it's kind of boring. That's the ER for you I guess. I saw Aunty Laura and Uncle Frank's neighbor, Dr. Craig. I guess I'll get to work with him at some point if he's in the pediatric pod when I'm there. They see quite a number of adults in that pod though.
Well, I need to sleep since I have to pick up mom tomorrow at the airport

next year

Holy crap!!! I get 4 wks of vacation next academic year!!! One whole extra week! And on top of that, I get to choose a month where I don't have call. And I happen to have such a month at the end of residency! Damn! I have 2 wks to figure out when I want my vacation. One week will be in February when Christina is getting married in Thailand. I was thinking of taking my birthday week off. Maybe I'll take another week after the Thailand week and go home then since I'll miss Payton's 3rd birthday. And then the last one maybe in the Spring sometime. Gotta plan it out well so I don't get too tired though.

Tonight Lien is dragging me to another dancing exercise class at 24 hr fitness. As if the embarassment at the hiphop exercise class wasn't enough. It's fun doing that stuff with friends though so we can laugh at each other. My butt hurts from the exercise bike yesterday. I was going to swim again tonight but I don't want to swim before the class and it doesn't start until 7:30 pm. Why so late?!? Okay, I'm going to have a lite snack before the class.

catching up

Well, it's been a long time since I posted anything. I've been pretty busy. I did my month of OB which was pretty fun...except for being on call twice a week for 4 wks. I could have done without that. Then I did a month as the senior on service. That was challenging only because I had an intern who needed more assistance than I expected. You know how easily I get annoyed. The call schedule was better though. I also had my front tooth fixed. Turns out I had an abscess under one of my lower front teeth. It was the one that got busted when Jayna and I fought over a stick when I was in elementary school Yep, at some point I formed an abscess. I saw Aunty Karen's brother in law. He has an office near Lloyd Center, in the same building as the Mac Store. He was amazed that I had no pain. Also amazed that I didn't seem to have much pain during the procedures. I guess I'm tougher than I thought. Now I have a crown on that tooth. It felt weird at first but now I don't notice it unless I run my tongue over the back of the tooth since it has a slightly wider base in the back for stability, I guess.

Now I'm on my ortho rotation with Dr. Ruesch. His wife is from Aiea and they are now down there on vacation so my schedule will be nice next week. The foot guy who is alittle too proud of himself is also on vacation so I'll work with his junior partner this week. As long as I don't have to shave calluses off people's feet, I'll be happy. That was just gross. I don't like other people's feet.

I also joined 24 hour fitness and it came with sessions with a personal trainer. My trainer, Joe, has a bum shoulder so I'm not sure what he'll be able to do. Today was the intro session to talk about how out of shape I'm in and how I don't eat appropriately. Apparently I don't eat enough protein. And I already knew I love carbohydrates. I also learned that an orange has 1 g of fat. An orange has fat?!? How the hell is that possible? Well, he apparently has plans to make me hurt all over...great. If you don't hear from me soon, I may be dead. Oh so, my calorie intake should be around 1700. I don't like counting anything so he will be disappointed that I didn't do any counting. It's just easier to eat smaller servings of the stuff I already eat. That should work right? Tomorrow he's going to make me work hard...again, if you don't hear from me in a week, I may be dead. Melissa was excited when I told her I joined up. All the ladies in my program are members so they want to go to the classes but are teasing me about wanting to do the water classes since only the old people do those. Good, then I can really kick ass.

Okay, I gotta go poop then figure out what to have for dinner.