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.

Christmas Trip

Well, my Christmas vacation is coming to an end. I got to spend time with my friends and family, especially my adorable niece, Payton. I'll post a picture when I get back home since I didn't bring my card reader with me. Payton got tons of toys but it looks like she has the entire stock of Dora toys at her house. Today we played with her dora playtent and she pretended to hide from me inside it with gramma lynn. When Kevin tried to put it away, she freaked out and screamed, "My Tent!!!"
I didn't cough much while I was here in warm weather but now my coughing is getting bad again. I think my body knows that I'm going back to cold weather. My flight is late tonight so I think I might take a swig of my cough syrup.
Time to finish packing up.

Ho hum

Well, I just finished up my clinic notes. It always seems like I've seen tons of patients when I 'm busy in clinic or working on notes then I see that I only saw 8 patients in each half day and realize that I will be seeing many more pretty soon. Sometimes I do see more patients when I get double booked and they all show up. I think the most I saw was 10 in a half day although 11 had been scheduled (god bless no shows on days like that!). I once had 11 patients scheduled and half of them didn't show up. I guess I have to hit a certain number to graduate so I really shouldn't wish for no shows. Anyway, I guess I'll get some sleep now. Tomorrow is another half day in clinic. I"m seeing one of the babies I delivered. She's already 6 months old!
Nighty night!

I love my computer

Well, I finally am moved over to my new macbook pro. I love it!!! It's fast and fun. It took awhile to get stuff moved over because I wanted to move only the stuff I use often and leave the old stuff off. Plus there's stuff that I can no longer use anyway since they require Classic and the new macs don't have that function. Not to worry though since I bought the new print shop application anyway. I still haven't let it leave my home yet but maybe this weekend...maybe not. I'm too afraid to take it to work and there really isn't any point since I get so busy anyway and can't play.

I also created a new website with my .mac account. It's really slow though so I'll probably get a different site after this year. It was on sale though so not too bad of a deal I suppose. If I get tired of how slow it is, I'll get a site sooner and just store some documents on it that I may need at work.

Time for dinner!

oh boy! oh boy! oh boy!!!!

I just checked the shipping tracker and all 3 shipments (computer, printer, applecare) have all arrived in portland tonight! So if they try to deliver tomorrow afternoon (like after 3 pm), I should be home to get the packages myself! Wowwie!

okay. bedtime

can't wait! can't wait!

Okay, so there are several reasons I can't wait.
1. My niece, Payton, and her parents are coming for thanksgiving! Mom is coming too!
2. My computer is on it's way!

As excited as I am about #1, I sometimes feel more excited about #2. Sad, isn't it. Well, for reasons that are beyond me, it had to go to indiana from alaska and I guess is on it's way back to the west coast. I have already gotten the sleeve for the computer. I'm waiting on the keyboard protector. I'm also still waiting for the printer to move from the same stupid distribution center in california. It's been there since the 10th. I really don't understand why.
I'm not really looking forward to moving stuff over to the new computer but it must be done...
I also bought the new version of print shop since it has an update for it to be intel compatible to run faster on those systems. The old version runs in classic on this powerbook and classic is no longer supported. A few fun games I haven't played in over 2 years will not be available for me to say, "hmmm. I should play that again one of these days."

Well, I'm going to do 1 more clinic note then head to sleep. tomorrow is yet another fun filled day of clinic and didactics. Then at night is the recruitment dinner at Mike's place. In other words, I don't have to make dinner on wednesday until interview season is over. Mike makes really good food too! Only 2 more days at the PPMC ED. Next up is a month of ER at PMH!

Oh and any day now one of my pregnant patients will deliver. If not by monday, then she goes into the hospital anyway so we can get the kid out of her before thanksgiving. It was a mutual decision we made.

tiring vacation

Well, it took me until thursday around noon to finish the painting. I painted 6 rooms - the laundry room and downstairs 1/2 bath are sage green, the 2 bathrooms upstairs are blue, and the 2 bedrooms are ivory. I didn't feel up to painting the office. I probably would still be painting. I also got other decorations. For my room, I'm going to do a simple painting of square canvases...cause we all know I can't paint anything besides simple geometric shapes. I could probably make a square unnoticeable. For the office, I took my cross-stitch old world map in to get framed since I had a coupon. I also reorganized that closet since it was a mess. For the guest room, I took the cross-stitch butterflies in for framing (again, i had a coupon). I got a frame for the 2 smaller geisha cross-stitches I did. I also bought a candle for that room. All I need now is the dresser. The one option at Fred Meyer's is a little taller than I prefer since that means rearranging the 3 pictures on that wall. There is another lingerie dresser that is perfect height but wrong color. I could special order one that will need to be painted the dark color and then varnished. There's another one at Sears.com. I just need to figure out which is cheapest and easiest to obtain. Oh and I got a frame for the Multnomah Falls Print I bought in june. I wanted white but couldn't find it so I bought this silver one instead. It matches the hardware in that bathroom. Well, time to watch the shows I recorded when I was busy painting.

yippeee!

Well, my vacation is gettin busy.
Friday - post call clinic was busy then I just watched tv after finishing my notes. Thankfully I had a fellow R2 on call with me so senior call was uneventful. One patient was being induced but nothing exciting, again, that was a nice thing. Nothing like a complicated labor to get me worried. And only 2 phone calls. And since Long was on with me, he dealt with floor calls. I guess he had an easy night as well since there were no admissions. And since it was an easy night, I got to sleep. It was the exact opposite of the call before that one...I still have PTSD. Although it was nice since my postcall clinic had to be mostly cancelled since I was delivering a baby. Anyway, I wasn't beat after clinic so I could stay up and watch some tv and work on my cross stitch advent calendar.
Later that night a bunch of my fellow residents and I went to the pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island. We were supposed to meet Laura (another R2) and her family at the Haunted Corn Maze but we went to the wrong farm. We bought pumpkins (I got a huge one!) and ate junk food and waited. We finally went to the maze and the guy told us we were at the wrong place. oops. So we head over to the right farm and see Laura. They thought we had already been through since they were running late so they had completed the maze by the time we got there. It was pretty fun! They had people jumping out to scare us and since I'm jumpy, I was startled many times. At one point, one of the ghouls was walking right behind me and I knew it...Julius kept telling me to turn around and I knew it was there so I kept walking. It took us 1.5 hours to get through the whole thing. At the end is a picture of all the mazes they have made in corn, including this year's maze. It's interesting to see where we were when we kept going around in circles.
Saturday - I just laid around the house, went for a walk in the neighborhood, worked on my cross-stitch.
Sunday - I took Lien to the airport then went to Jantzen Beach to get my digital picture frame. I'll have to go back there someday to go shopping. Lots of fun places! Oh and if I want any servicing for my computer, the apple certified compusa is there too. Then I spent the entire afternoon getting annoyed that the memory card I bought for the frame wasn't working.
Monday - got my TSH repeated since they changed my dose. I got bruised but not too bad. Then I bought a new card reader/writer to see if that will solve my problem with my frame. Then I got started on my painting plan. First I went to home depot since it was right there by compusa. Then I went to Lowes to get my paint. Oh and along the way I went to the sports store to buy a swim suit so I can go swimming at the aquatic park (somehow it seems wrong to wear my bikini to a water aerobics class). Then I got home and realized that it was my old cardreader that was the problem and spent 4 hours putting photos on the card for the frame. It works great now! Then I started painting. I chose a light sage for the downstairs bathroom and decided to also paint the laundry room that same color. The lighting is different in both rooms and the green looks different in the laundry room - like a scrubs color. And since I started in that room, I was worried that I chose the wrong color. Then I got started on the bathroom and thankfully it looked more sagey in the room it was originally intended for. Today I have to do the second coat then get started on the bathrooms upstairs and the 2 bedrooms. I'm not painting the office yet. too much furniture to move so I might wait until someone strong comes to help me move the stuff...like Kevin. I've seen his work, he's qualified. Just kidding. I may wait until next year.
Tuesday - more painting today but the most exciting news...the new Macbook Pros are out!!! I've been waiting soooo long! Yippeee!!! I may make a trip to Bridgeport to take a look at them! I have to get a bike rack at the container store anyway...

update

Well...it's been awhile since I posted anything. Been busy with work and whatnot.. Ok, I've been lazy.

I spent a month in Pacific City, Oregon, doing my small community rotation with a family medicine practice there. It was very nice, especially since I only worked 40 hrs/wk and no call shifts. Not to mention spending lots of time on the coast being very relaxing. I went for walks on the beach while I listened to my audio spanish lessons. I would reply out loud but would check every once in awhile to make sure no one was around...didn't want to look like a schizophrenic patient talking to someone who wasn't there. My cousin got married down there as well. My other cousin got married the weekend after that in portland. I bought lots of fun stuff too...like 5 pairs of shoes.

This month I'm on Behavioral health. Many days were incredibly boring and a few were very informative. Clinic on friday was never slow though. I got to miss almost an entire half day of clinic because one of my OB patients delivered in the morning. I would have been happier with the whole thing cancelled but oh well. Tomorrow I'll spend at Cascadia so it will be good to see what goes on there since I send many of my patients there.

Next week is my vacation!!! I'm going to paint the bathrooms and maybe my bedroom. The thought of moving the furniture in my office to paint is nauseating right now since the desk is heavy, the shelves are heavy, the futon is heavy and well, there's no room for me to have all 3 away from the walls at the same time. I think I'll paint the guest room though. Not sure what color but probably an off white since red is too hard to get to look nice. I'm not doing the ceilings in this house. That was too hard in the condo and that way I can avoid the stupid light fixtures (the ones that look like a boob hanging from above).

Oh and I discovered today at our clinic all staff meeting that I'm running the group OB visits that start up in January. I had stated an interest but didn't realize I was the chosen one. Should be fun though.

Okay, time to work on my clinic notes.

Technology Withdrawal Syndrom

Well, I was happily on my way to the beach for my 4 week rotation when my ipod suddenly died on me in the middle of a spanish lesson. I pulled over to administer CPR...okay, the ipod version of it including the version of the sternal thump (that's when you hit your patient's chest as hard as you can to see if it will kick the heart into action)...I hit my ipod. I'm normally against violence to my electronic devices but this was crisis mode. My ipod was apparently dead. So I decided not to get too worked up and that I could further try to revive Otter Pop (his name) once I got to the beach. Once unpacked, I attended to Otter Pop. Still no sign of life. I tried plugging him in...no luck. Then I decided to tackle my internet connection...and that's when my full blown technology withdrawal syndrome symptoms hit.

Netzero sucks. I downloaded their required proprietary software and it didn't have Pacific City on it. Granted, I should have looked into this sooner to allow myself time to find a better company but I didn't so it's partly my fault. At any rate, I get down here to discover that I can't connect to the other numbers listed to update the phone list. So I connect with internet connect program and I get online...except all I can use is the netzero site. So I send them an email telling them that I need help and they send me a file with the updated phone list. So now my hopes are up...only to be dashed because when I restart their precious proprietary crap software, all the access numbers are gone and I get a message saying that I must connect and logon for the list to be updated...um hello losers, if I could connect properly in the first place, would I really need your "help?!?" So i write back telling them about the problem and they again tell me that my problems will be solved if I logon to the network using the proprietry piece of crap software or I can try uninstalling then reinstalling the software. So I do this and the phone list is the old one without the pacific city number. So I write back telling them that I'm right back at the same problem I started with. The response was that they understand my problem and that I should try to logon to the network or reinstall the software. Okay, so Bangalore, India is now the capital of internet help workers...I think the netzero folks chose all the rejects that other companies wouldn't hire. Thankfully today I had high speed internet access at the clinic I'm working at here. So I went online and found that earthlink does not require piece of crap proprietary software for macs to connect to the internet. I got the 1800 number to get a new account. Again, bangalore, india is where my sales agent and tech support guy was. They were better trained...that and earthlink is clearly more superior and costs the same. So I replied to the last netzero tech support email saying that they clearly didn't understand my situation but that's okay because I'm now a happy Earthlink customer and had just cancelled my account with Netzero...that was an ordeal in itself. The woman who was helping me with that kept trying to sell me services so I told her, not to bother offering me anymore of their services because the answer is no.

The lesson - Netzero sucks, I should have done better research.

Dialup is okay but I miss cable internet and my wireless router.

Oh and Otterpop was apparently only in a coma since when I looked at him this afternoon after work, the screen was no longer frozen on that spanish program but was off. So I plugged him in and he was functional again. Not sure what did it but maybe the stereo. As upset as I was with otterpop's apparent death, I was somewhat okay with it cause then that would justify buying a new ipod with video capabilities and radio capabilities...that thought occurred to me on my drive down to lincoln city to get food when I realized that my pathetic car can't pick up any radio stations at all even though other people's cars can.

the saga continues

Well, I called the bank and at first they said the charges weren't even in their system but then they found what I was talking about and since I was trying to do this between seeing patients, I told the teller that I had to call them back and so she said that was fine since they would look into it and have it figured out by the time I was planning on calling back. So I called back but every time I called, she was on the phone or away from her desk . So I left a message for her to page me when she was able to talk and nothing. So i called one last time and I got the machine yet again. I guess I'll call back tomorrow. My balance isn't messed up like it was so maybe they fixed it. Argh! I guess I'll pay with cash or check in the future to avoid such a problem but I probably will forget and use the card again. At least my afternoon clinic wasn't busy. For some bizarre reason I had a full 40 minute open spot plus someone didn't show up so I got to work on my notes from the am clinic patients and just finished my last note 5 minutes ago here at home. Next month I'll be at Pacific City doing clinic there. That will be nice...no call since I didn't get hospital priveleges and I told them that I wanted to be a faster, more efficient clinic doctor. Dinner time

I'll let you know what becomes of the $300 mayhem

Oh and one of our residents had her baby yesterday. I got him an Ugly Doll. They are very cute weird looking stuffed toys that Melissa turned me on to. I may get one for Payton.

The idiot

Well, the person who ran my debit card through for my doctor's visit on friday fucked something up. She was supposed to enter $15.00 but initially entered in $150.00. She then claimed to void it and I do have a receipt showing a void but then she also crumpled up a bunch of other slips and tossed those. I should have asked what those slips are but didn't think about it. Well, today I was balancing my checkbook and online I see 2 charges for $150.00! I don't see any evidence of voiding either and my balance is $300 less than what it should be indicating that that money was deducted from my account! And of course there's no one to talk to until monday when I'm going to be busy in clinic. And I just forsee getting my $300 back being a big hassle. My next half day off is wednesday but I think the moron who made the original mistake isn't going to be able to simply credit my card back, nor do I care to hand her my card again lest she completely wipe my account out. So I guess on monday I'll check my online bank statement and if my fears are confirmed that I was charged $300 more than the $15.00 I actually needed to pay, then I'll start harassing the business office. I want my fucking money back now!!!

2007 Corolla

My future car

So they just announced the 2007 Corolla. I had waited hoping that they would put the MP3 stereo into the new corolla. No such luck. In fact, I don't even see a difference other than the year. Oh well...I guess I could just stick with what I do now although since I don't have long drives anymore, I don't listen to the ipod while driving anymore.

Donation to my car fund can be made at all time. Just email me and I'll give you the address to mail the money too.
Or you can donate to my new laptop fund as well...I'm flexible when it comes to accepting money from strangers

back to finishing my clinic notes...blah!

almost over

Well, my pediatric rotation is almost over. Only 30 hours left. I'm on call tomorrow night and get the weekend off. Yippeee! And to make things even better, I was able to deliver my OB patient today. I was so sad that I would be on my peds rotation and unable to leave but she happened to go into labor today and we usually have didactics on wednesdays so I was able to be there for the end of her labor and delivery. She had a little girl, Isabella, and she was 7 lb 15 oz. She was pretty cute too! My patient was pretty good for a first time mom. She did way better than my last patient who was having her 3rd kid. That woman was nuts! Her mom and all other family members were there and taking pictures throughout the whole thing including pictures of me all dressed up and ready to deliver a baby and me splashed with blood since when her placenta came out, a big ole splash of blood came with it. Dad, are you still conscious? It was a great delivery so I'm happy for her (and myself!).

update on blindness

Well, my vision finally started to get better around 8 pm. Actually, it got to the point where seeing far was blurry but I could see near and actually read without straining. So I took out the temporary contacts and was able to see normally again. My eyes are tired after all the fun today. And now I can see well enough to go to sleep. I don't need a new pair of glasses so I guess I'll stick with the old ones. Or I could get a pair of coach eyeglasses to go along with my new coach handbag. The frames alone cost $224. On the other hand, I found a nice set of frames for $100 too. You know, I can have my silver frames and a pair that's copper colored or maybe pewter colored. Afterall, I only had to pay $10 for my eye appt today. Oh so the contacts I'll be trying out are sort of mismatched because my left eye has the huge astigmatism, which as I described below, accounted for my massive blindness with the dilation. So the left eye will have the acuvue for astigmatism and the right eye will have a normal one that's designed to prevent eye dryness for folks like me that have to wear contacts for longer periods of time. Oh and another reason I'm getting a mismatch is because they didn't have the extra moist one in the strength for my left eye. Apparently it's an odd strength and the moist one doesn't come in that strength. I'll have to look into that. Well, we'll see tomorrow if having the mismatch will work out okay. It may prevent the nausea and disorientation I had with the last set of contacts. I think this time I'll buy a smaller supply since I didn't use anywhere near all the contacts I bought. Time for bed!

Holy Crap! I'm blind!

So I just got back from the eye doctor. Now, my eyes really haven't changed since last year but thanks to dilatig eye drops paralyzing a few eye muscles, my doctor discovered that I have way more asytigmatism than she thought since those muscles apparently do a pretty good job of correcting it. In other words, I am completely blind. It's so bad that she had to give me temporary contacts to wear so I could drive home safely. I really can't see near with them though so if there's spelling errors, I wouldn't know. It should wear off in 4-5 hours. Why, after all these years, haven't they found a dilating solution that only lasts for an hour? My eyes hurt form trying to type so I'm stopping now.

Holy Crap! It's hot!

Okay, so it's only 30 minutes before my self-determined bed time of 10 pm and it's still 85 degrees. I'm very thankful for the box fan that Aunty Debby and Uncle Chuck got me as a new home present last year. It came in handy today and I think I'll use it in my bedroom. It's kind of loud though. It wouldn't be bad if there was a nice breeze like at home but no such luck. Ugh! I never thought I would like being on call in the hospital but yesterday I was in the nice air conditioned hospital and it was nice.

I'm watching Treasure Hunters. I wanted to laugh my ass off at the team named "geniuses" because they were anything but on the first task. I was hoping they would get eliminated because they were treating the other team they were paired with horribly, saying that "it's hard when you have to constantly dumb things down for people of normal intelligence." It was the "genius" team that came up with Mt Theodore Roosevelt when even the hillbillies came up with Mt. Rushmore quickly. The team the geniuses were paired with came up with Mt Rushmore but the Geniuses blew them off and said they weren't right. It was this other team that got eliminated in the end. Okay, so I'm well more involved than I should be but it's kind of funny to watch.