Happy Birthday to Me!

It's my birthday today! I'm now 28. Yikes I'm getting old. My senior resident got me a frappocino at the starbucks in the hospital. And then tonight, mom, aunty debby, uncle chuck, renae, uncle frank, and aunty laura and I had dinner here at the house. It was fun and relaxing. I had some mint chocolate chip ice cream pie, as usual. What can I say, I love the stuff. So now I'm old and tomorrow i get to spend the day at the hospital and then lucky me I get to spend the night too. Being on call isn't too bad, even when we have tons of patients beind admitted all at once. Otay, bed time. sad.

What Fun!

Last night call was pretty easy. Misty has decided that since the 2 call nights we were on together were easy, I'm the only one allowed to take call with her while she's the night float. Hmmmm...Q1 call doesn't sound very appealing. But then again, 4 nights of easy call vs 4 of hard call could be acceptable! Anywho, I need to prepare for my morning report presentation. I have 3 more nights of call on this peds service.

Today is my last day being 27. Tomorrow I'm officially getting old at 28. Sheesh! I'm getting up there!

blech

So today was hectic. Part of reason why I have to rush before leaving for clinic, didactics, or if I'm post call is because rounds take forever! Today the other intern was at clinic which is fine cause my senior saw his patients. But my god, someone randomly assigned almost 75% of the patients to me for some unknown reason. Thankfully the med students saw a bunch of them and wrote notes but I still had to see them and then answer nurse pages about these kids that I had no clue about so I had to first read about them which is reasonable. But then I get a page about an order I didn't write about blood for one kid and so I told the nurse to page the guy who wrote the order. I mean, come on, his pager number is right there. Why is this a difficult concept to grasp? Page the person who wrote the order. Anyway, so it takes forever to round because we have to have teaching points for every patient because we are learning afterall but sometimes I think it's okay to neglect this aspect of rounding in the interest of time and work that needs to be accomplished. I left much later than I should have but thankfully I didn't have a patient at 1 pm in clinic so I could eat lunch. It was almost a blessing that I had clinic so I could get out of there and breathe a little. Then I scared the other intern into thinking she was the only resident for all the kids when I told her I needed to sign out to her because the other intern, my teammate wasn't there. He was arriving in the afternoon after his AM clinic but his pager was off so I couldn't sign out to him. Hopefully tomorrow won't be as hectic but I'm not holding my breath.

All attempts to try and convince my attending that maybe, just maybe, one of my FTT kids may not be FTT failed. She cited the normal height as her evidence while I cited at least 5 different things in support of my claim and yet her 1 was enough to convince the masses. It wasn't worth my time and energy, what little I had at the moment, to fight it. Meanwhile, the kid has had the million dollar workup and all was negative. I read an article tonight that said such testing is useless because most of the time the tests are negative. Meanwhile, we're now on a zebra hunt to find a cause which most likely will never be identified.

I'm a retard

Okay, so I found my secure ID token and where it was, well, let's just say I should have found it in one of many ransacks of the house and hospital. Now I need to hope they can cancel the killing of the token on monday.

In other news, 4th night of call was just as bad as the second in terms of when I finally slept and for how long. It could have been worse but thankfully we had a 2nd year OHSU resident acting as an intern with Neil and I and the now very tired 3rd year students. This allowed each of us to sleep about 3 hours in the wee morning hours before getting started with the day. Now I'm tired and hungry since i've been doing computer work for clinic and trying to email the folks who were trying to help with the lost token last week. I'll eat then nap...or maybe just wake up on sunday.

yet another day

Well, 3rd night of call was a breeze compared to the last one. No new admits and I got to actually sleep almost 6 hours! Crazy! Must have been my treat for enduring that 2nd call experience. However now I have horrible heartburn. Either it was the dill pickle chips mom bought, the mustard pretzels, or the stress of possibly losing my secure ID tag that will cost me $50 to replace. I'm hoping it's sitting at the hospital in the workroom or call room or that mom picked it up for some reason and put it only god knows where. She wasn't home when I got back from the hospital so I wait worrying. And I can't check my logician desktop until I find it or until tomorrow when I get to the hospital for didactics in the afternoon. I don't remember taking it out at all on monday or today at the hospital and the last time I had it was at home at my desk on sunday. Maybe she thought of bringing it to me and put it in her purse...who knows.

time to put my paycheck in the bank. Next week is my normal paycheck so we'll see what I'll have to live on for the rest of the year. Fortunately I have money from my sallie mae to pay property taxes and money to pay the mortgage for august but these bills are getting annoying.

Payton Hanae Kawahara

Payton Hanae Kawahara

Payton finally has new pictures. She's so cute. I wish I could see her and play with her every day btu I guess I'll have to wait for my one week in august.

In other news my second night of call was brutal. I didn't get to sleep until 3:30 am and then an hour later I got called because a kid had a fever. Then I went back to sleep at 4:30 and woke up at 6:30 to round on the kids. Mom and I spent my Golden Weekend at the beach house. We went to lincoln city and did some shopping at the outlet malls. I found a bunch of good stuff including a new lunch box and overnight sack so I don't have to lug my big green overnight bag. I really only need a toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant and a new shirt. It's pretty neato

the condo finally has a buyer. We aren't getting as much as we had hoped but it's better than nothing I suppose. Time to eat.

first night of call

Well, I managed to survive my first night of call without difficulty. It was relatively slow (only 4 admits) but that didn't stop the nurse from calling me every 2 hours about a patient. Why she insisted on checking vitals and blood sugars that frequently is beyond me but oh well...I still probably got more sleep than most of my fellow interns. I realized that no longer am I required to ask all the review of systems or family history questions like in med school but then again, I have to ask all these developmental questions...which would be fine if I could remember those major milestones. Happy 4th of July!

Day 1

Well, I made it through day 1 unscathed. Actually, it wasn't too bad but then again, I was in a computer class and then getting my id for part of the day. But my chief resident is a graduate of Tulane so that was a fun conversation we had about our similar experiences with certain attendings and residents. One of her friends was my resident on OB. I think my brain was stolen or scrambled when passing through the SW of the U.S. I felt so sluggish mentally I was embarassed. But then again, it gets forgiven as an intern thing. My fellow interns of the OHSU peds program started on monday so they had time to get used to the stuff. I had today and then tomorrow is a day off and then sunday I'm on call. So I'll go from taking care of 3 patient notes in the morning to about 20 or so...depending on what happens between today and sunday morning. Hopefully the holiday will scare people into being healthy to enjoy the day outside. At any rate, the kids were all cute and talked to me.

Time to get ready for tonight - hanging out with Carrie. Hopefully Erin will meet us too.

argh!

So because the stupid bed store uses a computer to verify checks, I couldn't buy my bed today because I used my hawaii credit union check and my oregon license. Apparently the addresses have to match. Of course, if it weren't for the shitheads (see below) who stole my credit card info, i wouldn't have this problem at all. I hope by now they bought an expensive car and crashed and are now paraplegic. Okay, that's mean, but they deserve pain for the pain they've caused me.

On to other annoyances. So I called the OHSU peds coordinator this morning and left a message at 7 am and they don't call back until 5 pm and really don't provide very useful info. To top it off, the person decides not to go away from people screaming at a graduation party while talking to me so I can barely hear her over what really sounds like one or two people yelling. And then she tells me that despite the parking confusion between the 2 programs, she's only authorizing me to park for tomorrow in the special lot. For shit's sake, can't she tell the parking folks to give me a temp pass for a few days?!? So I'll try to charm my way tomorrow into getting the security folks to let me park somewhere until wednesday when i get to return to home base. Plus I'm extra moody due to the usual pms stuff and anxiety over starting this crazy game called residency. Hopefully I'll have a great team to work with up there.

Dragon Boat

Today our residency had an adventure on the Willamette River - Dragon Boats! It was lots of fun. I wish we could have stayed out longer on the boats. We split into 2 teams on different boats and practiced different techniques and then raced each other - my team won. Then we were done. I wish we could have just hung out on the river and went up and down slowly. The race was pretty fast and by the time we won, my arms were dead. They still sort of hurt and will probably hurt in the morning because I have no upper body strength and my legs were too short in that boat to use that strength. I kept getting out of sync with the stroke when my arms would get tired. I guess Providence has 2 teams that any employee can join. If I had way more time, perhaps I would consider it. Anyway, one last day of easy orientation and then I start my first rotation - Pediatrics up at Doernbecker Children's Hospital on the Hill. Time to eat.

Shitheads

The Jackasses who stole all that credit card info stole mine too. Thankfully the visa folks decided, after trying to call or mail letters for awhile (retards), that they would just inactivate all accounts...well, I wasn't called and was told by the office max folks that my card, the one in my hand that matched my id, was reported lost or stolen. I guess I stole it from myself. Anyway, I called in and the lady there filled me in. I personally would have preferred it if they cut off the card immediately but then I wouldn't have been able to buy my desk or picture frames so that would have sucked. So now I have to wait a week or so before I get a new card. The shitheads who did this now have one of my very mean death wishes...you know, the ones where I wish horrible pain and suffering with the preservation of mental function so they're with it to know what horrible things are happening to them. I haven't chosen a specific illness yet but I'll find some good ones on uptodate once I start on friday at the hospital.

So that means I have to wait to buy the new bed. Or I could just write a check using the sallie mae money that I was saving to pay property taxes this year. Beds are on sale now and I have to choose between 2 different beds that are $4 different in price. But this is better than massive credit card issues I could have had. I'm only mad at the jerks who ruin life for the rest of us. People that like don't deserve to live. Okay I think I've vented enough for now. And I knew my credit card number by heart! Time to put together my chair...gotta write a check to mom since she had to pay for it since my credit card was cancelled.

bastards.

payton

Here's a picture of my cute little niece. She's now back in hawaii so when I go home in august I'll get to play with her a bit. Okay, I really just wanted to test out the new pictures feature of blogger that my friend pointed out to me.

pictures

Well, I got some frames for my pictures and other decorations and tomorrow maybe I'll go order a new bed for myself so mom can have a bed of her own to sleep in before my crazy schedule starts. I'm STILL waiting for the claims process to be finished. I gave up waiting for the desk and just bought the desk I wanted since it was on sale. Even if they don't give me the money for the busted desk, it was worth it. Today I had the tiring process of trying to find a chair for the desk. I thought I found a good one at office max since they have their brown bag sale. The little slip to pick up the damn chair fit in the bag but it wasn't included in the sale since the box for the chair itself won't fit in the bag. Then we went to a whole bunch of other stores and found nothing great. They're all overpriced or crappy. Ugh.

I'm going to bed since I actually have to be somewhere further away tomorrow - computer training in tigard for the EMR. Actually, that should be fun since after that class I can go and create my own templates and create files with the handouts I like the best. It should be fun. Nighty night

furniture

Well, since I got some money from sallie mae, I was able to go out and continue to furnish my home. Next up is a bed for the guest room. Still waiting on the repair guy who is supposed to come check out the furniture that was messed up from the move. I decided to just buy the desk I wanted since I'm tired of waiting (it's been a week). Hopefully they'll come by this week and decide that my futon can't be fixed and give me the $250 so I can get the new one. As soon as I get a large vehicle (carly may be able to help) I can pick up the bookshelf from home depot and the tv from costco. I'm tired of putting together furniture but I want it all done before I start on the 1st. I hate all the clutter.

Yesterday was fun. We had a get together at Oaks Park so staff of the clinics and residency could meet us newbies. Then we rode the rides. Okay, so I went down the super slide and rode the spider ride once and was done but there really wasn't anything else I was willing to ride. They had a version of the viking ship ride that also spun around while up in the air and well, there's no way I'm ever stepping foot on that ride. The spider ride was bad enough. I had to ride it with my eyes closed otherwise it would have freaked me out too much. Every time I opened my eyes, Julius had his camera aimed at me. Great.

Today went by quickly and tomorrow we're taking grampa to a birthday party for a friend from the old neighborhood. I hope we don't have to stay too long. There's still stuff to get done.

Guest Book

Hey! Sign my guestbook! Time for work.

I passed!

I passed my ACLS training today. It was a bit overwhelming but once we did pretend codes over and over and over again, it became manageable...so now if I encounter unstable tachycardia I'm set...otherwise, take your attempt to die elsewhere.

I'm still waiting to find out if I passed the clinical skills exam. It's not even posted as reported at the nbme site and I can't take step 3 until I pass that test. I'm not sure if I can register for step 3 without it either.

Time to go online shopping at compusa to see what my gift card will buy. Maybe they have tv's and then it will be the delivery man's job to get my tv up the stairs. The thought of carrying that thing up the stairs is scary. Mom and I can lift it together but going upstairs is a whole other issue.

I guess I'll get ready to hang out with Carrie. I haven't seen her since we graduated from U of O 5 years ago.

ACLS

Well, today is ACLS and I sure hope that they teach us all those things in the book that I read last night since I forgot all those algorithms in my sleep. I also got my refund check from the loan company so that will help. And I'm still waiting for the moving company to send someone out to check out the damages. They called and said a local repair company is supposed to take a look but that person has yet to contact me. I sure hope that they deem my futon and desk irreparable so I can get new ones. Well, time to eat breakfast then head off to training...again.

BBB complaint

So a few months back, I took in my old ipod and got a new iphoto ipod because the battery life on the old one sucked and some songs would occasionally be messed up. Well, the management there, when I bought the plan, misinformed me and did not give me a copy of the plan agreement and so I was met with the unfortunate case of paying $200 instead of only $100 to do the upgrade (had to pay the difference for the better model). So in a fit of rage, I did the passive aggressive move of filing a complaint at the BBB website. I had done this with Dell in the past and the problem was resolved before the BBB contacted them so that resulted in nothing. I had pretty much forgotten about the compusa complaint in the midst of all the chaos of graduation and moving but today I got a gift card for $100 from compusa since there was a "misunderstanding." Basically, i was still wrong and they were right but I'm getting rewarded for filing a complaint. I would have preferred a credit to my charge card but beggars can't be choosers. I really didn't expect anything to come out of it. I never do but in a twisted sort of way, it makes me feel better after a perceived wrong against me.

In other news, I got a copy of my business card for residency. It says my name and title on it. It's awesome. Time to eat then read up for a fun filled day of ACLS tomorrow. At least I get to have fun tomorrow night with Carrie and Erin... I think. Carrie is supposed to call me about the details and whether or not we're still going out.

first day over

Well, today was fun because I got to meet my fellow interns and boring because I had to sit through all these presentations. However, the very first presentation was about preparing for retirement. And we get paid for orientation too! Not that it matters since it's a set amount I get paid for the year and once I realized that, it wasn't so exciting.

I also was able to just take the one broken piece of my dresser back to get a replacement so tonight after dinner I'm building a dresser. Speaking of dinner, it's time to eat!

Today is the day!

Well, true to form, my body decided not to let me sleep until the alarm was supposed to go off and woke me up at 4 am and then at 5 am and by 5:30, I felt ridiculous just lying there in bed so I got up. I just ate breakfast (eggs with turkey and cheese mixed in) and my tummy is still growling. I think I expanded my tummy with all the food my mom has been cooking these past few days. I hope I don't start passing out today during orientation...eh I've already been hired, I guess I can pass out occasionally. Then tonight I have to figure out how to retrieve a message on my dvr unit. Oh and then I'm going to try to convince the people at fred meyer to let me bring in my receipt, just the barcode from the dresser box and the defective piece to exchange for the good piece from a box at the store instead of lugging the whole thing down. I mean, really, I understand they need a box to send back to the distributer but can't they send back the box already at the store with the piece I bring back? It's a box isn't it?!? I really hate having my clothing in piles in my bedroom.

Maybe I better take a zone bar with me today and some fruit leather.