ScrappyDoc

Hooray for 2 days off (sort-of)

After a marathon stretch of work, I finally have a couple of days off. Well... I do have conference tomorrow for 4 hours, but that isn't so bad. Being on the peds side this month has been good so far, but also hard. You see a lot of tragedy and also a lot of well children who's parents just don't know any better or any different, and bring them to the ED for sniffles and coughs. I do feel like my skills have improved, and definitely feel more comfortable taking care of critical children. One of the biggest challenges we have on Peds side is that we don't have a dedicated Attending physician from 2-10 am. Usually things slow down somewhat then, but you can also get pretty sick kiddos coming in, usually via EMS, and you usually have to get a handle on things for the first few minutes until the Attending from the adult side can come over and lay eyes on the kid. So I've certainly gotten better at managing status seizures, ingestions and traumas, things that always terrified me about kids before.

In other news, I have another Dylan update. He went back to UIHC for his third (and hopefully final) heart surgery, the Fontan. His post-op course has been anything but smooth, but that is just the way Dylan is, nothing is ever done the easy way. They are weaning him off the vent and taking out various tubes and lines, so hopefully he continues to get better quickly. Melissa and Jim got some new pictures taken of the boys before Dylan's surgery, and I can't believe how big he looks!

Back for the New Year!

Spelling with Flickr... if you guys haven't seen this, you have to check it out.

           

                   

You can basically spell anything you want, and the site finds photos of those letter and arranges it all. You can even click through to see a bunch of different options. Goofy stuff to occupy my precious little free time. So... let's see... where did I last leave you???

Well, I'm done with the CCU (thankfully), I'm not sure I could have handled the tedium much longer. Back in the ED and totally terrified all over again after being gone for 3 months. It is so nice to see a bunch of familiar faces, and everyone seemed excited to see me. It was great to catch up and meet some of the new nurses that were hired recently. All in all, my first 2 shifts were decent. I felt slow and disorganized, but it got a little better with time. Hopefully things will continue to come back to me over the next few shifts.

In other news, Nick has finished his crazy month on inpatient internal medicine, only to start a seemingly equally crazy month in the Medical ICU. I think he's got a pretty good team and it's a relatively short month, so hopefully it will go quickly. I'm trying to study for our yearly "in-service" exam, which is the last week of February. It's supposed to be pretty hard, and I would hate to be the person with the lowest score. Nick and I figured we should probably take our Step 3 licensing exam around the same time, since we're studying anyway. Once we get that finished, we can apply for our individual medical licenses. Right now we are working under a license through our residencies, but with our own, we can moonlight outside of the hospital. That presents a great opportunity to make a little extra money and get some good experience too.

Nothing better than cold weather and football

Also a great opportunity to showcase this years first appearance of the Blanket Bitty... This is in a little joke that Nara and I have referring to the fact that really no matter what the temperature, we would always prefer to have a blanket on our laps... Now that it is good and chilly here in NC (meaning it got down to the low 40's), I broke the lap blankets out of the closet and cozied up on the couch for a lazy day full of great college football and wedding planning. The cats got in on it too as you can see below.

It was sad that I had to enjoy the mellow day on my own since Nick is on 24 hour call, but between games I went by the hospital and hung out with him for a bit. It completely sounds like I was a slug today, but I did get some real work done. I managed to rearrange and organize the downstairs, which has been functioning as the catch all recently for all the things that don't have an official home. That was certainly a big project.

And now for some celebratory pictures from today's football adventures

The Buffs rolled over Nebraska during their final game of the season. This was always the game we looked forward to at CU, and it's great to see them come out on top. Hopefully this season signifies a change in direction for the recently scandal-ridden team.

It was also great to see VT win over Virginia. We have a couple of VT grads in our department so I lean a little bit in their favor anyway. And it's hard not to pull for them after all of the tragedy this year.

Finally starting to feel like the holidays

After having 77 degrees early Thanksgiving Day, I was having a hard time believing that it was the end of November and time for the holidays. Please don't misunderstand me though, I was thrilled that it was warm, especially after talking to Nick's mom and hearing that it was 20-something in Mason City. But there is just some internal disconnect that occurs when you walk around and see all the leaves changing and falling off of the tress and realize you're in a t-shirt and capris. Needless to say I was confused. But that is now all better, helped along by the 40 degree drop in temperature over the last 24 hours. I noticed it especially tonight as I was leaving work and walking to my car. The air had that delicious, crisp fall smell that makes you want to jump in leaf piles and then go sit by a fire and drink hot chocolate. Yippee for fall and hooray for yummy fall scents!

Rewards many months later

I'm not sure how many of you remember Dylan Hooper; he was one of the heart babies that I took care of in Iowa when I was on the Pediatric ICU team, who came in after coding at home on Christmas eve. Grandma did CPR and rushed him to the hospital and he had several long months of surgery and complications while I took care of him. He's the one I helped raise the money for the heart walk. So I keep up with him from afar, thanks to his CarePage, and I can't believe how great he is doing. I had a pic of him on my page forever ago, but just check out this big guy, loungin' at Grandma's house.

He still needs oxygen because of some small blood vessels in his lungs, but he is just incredible. Melissa (his mom) says that he is taking all sorts of big boy foods (after being fed through a tube in his stomach for many months), and is learning sign language along with some vocalization. One of his vocal cords was paralyzed during one of his heart surgeries so it makes it difficult for him to speak regularly. But his is powering through, and is a constant reminder of why I do this job and that there are miracles that we are witness to, despite the tragedy we see on a daily basis.

You ROCK Dylan, keep up the good work!

What a busy week!

Home watching college football after working a mellow night shift. Yes, that's right, I said mellow and work in the same sentence. I have no idea what the heck was going on in Winston Salem last night but it was a quiet, quiet Friday. I think I saw 9 or 10 patient's all night, and that wasn't because they were sitting and not moving. That was certainly a welcome departure from the usual insanity. I have 4 more nights, which I am sure will be more busy, but at least things got started on the right foot.

We finally got our bedroom repainted, and we have a bed and a dresser now! Once we get sheets and a comforter (they are being delivered sometime this week), I'll send off some pictures. We chose a soft gray for the walls, and changed the way the ceiling detail was painted. The ceiling is still that very light blue, and all together, the room kind of looks like a baby British Shorthair kitty (you know, big blue eyes, soft fuzzy gray fur...). It is finally the calm and quiet look I've been craving, and no more baby poo color on the wall. And speaking of babies, Jenny just sent some new pictures of Kassi (yes, the nickname has 2 s's, while Kasandra has just one). This kiddo is just the bomb!

And as you can see from her little footies in the picture below, she obviously takes after her Aunt!

I just sent Kassi her "Welcome home" gift, hopefully Jenny will send a picture of her with it so I can post it. I should have taken a pic before I put it in the mail, but I was to excited to get it sent off, that I forgot.

In other news, Iowa is playing Wisconsin tonight, and it is actually on TV here!! Poor Nicholas has to work (he is on call today) but I will try to represent for the two of us and catch most of the game before I have to go back to work.

All in all, things are really good. Work is great, Nick and I have had some random unexpected afternoons together that were really fun, his folks are coming to visit us in a few weeks, and the crews are making progress on the  house. Slowly but surely things are getting done. 

Oops...

...I forgot about some other key high points of the day

1. Michigan lost to Oregon (it was an ass whooping, too!)
2. Iowa won against Syracuse, redemption for last year's nail biter
3. Iowa State lost to UNI
4. Colorado Buffs are winning in Arizona (sorry Andrea)
5. Nick and I goofed off at the NC Maritime Museum this morning (here are a couple of funny pics)

Just a quickie

Last couple of days have been hectic, but we're done with orientation tomorrow so I'll post more then, I promise. As for the nitty-gritty...

-We're in our new, single story, temporary home. Definitely smaller, which has been interesting for the kitties, but I think it will be better overall
-House is coming along, I posted some new pics in the album to the left
-Orientation has been OK, moderately painful, but we've met a lot of nice residents, mostly internal medicine. Nick and I both rotate through their service so it will be good to know a few of them
-The world's best (well at least the southeast's largest) scrapbook store is about 8 minutes from my house, on the same road nonetheless. I'm in heaven!
-We found our grocery store, it's called Harris Teeter, do with that what you will. We've already gone through 3 or 4 iterations which we would be happy to share if anyone is interested... he he he...

More tomorrow, ciao for now.

Don't insult us...

So Nick and I got an offer on the condo yesterday, and I'm sure you can deduce from the title of this post that it was a ridiculous low-ball offer. Our asking price is $190,000, and they came in with $176,000. I mean, come on... But since this was our only offer, we countered with what we felt was a reasonable second offer of $185,000. This is still below what the other comps are in the area, which average around $188,000. So even though the market has been a little slower, they is still a very good price. Their realtor agreed, but he couldn't get them to budge. I guess their foreigners and weren't really sure how the US real estate market works. I guess any offer is better than no offer, and at least someone was interested. Hopefully the next one will be for real.

Nothing much to report

All in all a good day, but nothing out of the ordinary. Nick and I packed more boxes, watched some severe weather in Iowa, I had lunch with my neighbor and former classmate Nazee at 3 Samurai (they have half-price sushi on Thursday), then we went and looked at some of the Parade of Homes houses. We happened upon that Tuesday evening when we were coming back from some errands, and actually saw some very nice places. The places today were also lovely, although Nick and I did see one that was really pretty amazing. It had everything we would want, including a home theater with seating for six, complete with built-in cup holders. Nice! We also went and looked at a house in Solon that is close to a million dollars, and it was certainly lovely, and very close to the lake, but it was also very close to a busy road. It has more than 2 acres of property, but unfortunately, all of it is behind the house. We got a bunch of great ideas for what to do when we build our (next) house, I'll post some pictures tomorrow. Now it's off to bed so I can get up and go conquer the MegaCode with Nick so we can get our ACLS certification out of the way. Yippee...