Progression of a call month

I am now in the second week of my first OB month. For those of you who don't know the OB month is generally brutal. We have three residents who rotate call so you are on every third day add to that my 1 half day of clinic per week and 2 half day OB clinics and you get quite a month. In addition to those we had our inservice exam last week so I had my first 100+ hour workweek.

I've noticed that my inhouse call months can generally be broken down into three portions, trimesters if you will. First I have the anxiety invoking trimester. This generally lasts at least a week, but sometimes longer (hopefully in the future I will be able to eliminate this portion). The next trimester is where I start to feel a little more comfortable, but begin to realize how much time I'm spending at the hospital. It is during this part of the month that I really miss my wife and kids. I kiss the kids each morning, as they sleep, before heading out the door. Finally, toward the end of the month I hit the fatigue trimester. This is where I start to realize how much sleep I have missed.

I am currently transitioning from the anxiety portion to the missing Melissa and the kids portion. I'm hoping the fatigue portion will be softened by the visits of my two younger brothers during the next two weeks.

No explanation needed

Therapeutic Ramblings

I am currently on my second shift of OB call. As my faithful readers have noted over the past I have a tendency to experience anxiety from time to time, and this OB month is no different. I do feel much better tonight than I did on Sunday night, but I'm still a little high strung. I've written and spoken ad nauseum about why I've experienced so much stress during this intern year, so I'm not going to go there. Rather, I would like to write about some of the things that help me overcome stress (that's the therapy part folks).

First of all I am somewhat seasoned at recognizing when I am getting anxious due to a few months during my second year of medical school that were laced with a great deal of anxiety and depression. I know what it feels like and I'm getting better at realizing when it is getting to the point where I need to elicit help outside of my wife and kids. The interesting thing about anxiety and moreso depression is that they are taboo subjects. There seems to be an unspoken rule that you can't really talk about this stuff because it is too embarrassing. The irony is that, for me at least, the best thing I can do when I get overanxious is to surround myself with people.

Melissa is really good at talking to me and helping me see when I'm getting irrational, and from time to time she makes me talk to some good friends or family because she knows it will help. That brings me to my support group. I have a few really good friends. I don't have a ton of friends but those that I do have are special (unless you are a lurker and I don't know you, you probably belong to this group). One such example is a family that Melissa and I got to know during medical school. When I was going through the worst of things back in Pikeville there were numerous times when we went over to visit them just so I could sit on the couch and talk about school (and sometimes avoid talking about school).

There have been a few specific times since we've been here in South Bend that I can remember some of our newer friends helping me to get over some of my anxiety. One time in particular we invited another family over for dinner and spent the evening talking about everything under the sun. Of course that included the good, bad and ugly surrounding residency and it was incredibly therapeutic to talk to someone who was puting into words the exact emotions I was having. There's something special about knowing that others understand how you feel from time to time.

I think we need more friends in this world. We all have stress from time to time and for whatever reason (I tend to blame genetics) some of us are able to handle that stress better than others, but because we all experience stress we are all qualified to be the one to lend the helping hand. A couple of years ago I was on the phone with a very good friend who seemed to know the exact right words to say to help me feel better and when we were done talking she told me to remember what she said so that I could say it back to her when the time came that she needed those words. The time did come and the words did help.

In the end I am especially grateful for all the friends I do have and I hope that I can return to you some measure of kindness and support that you have given me.

Well I've been paged so I gotta go. Stay tuned for future therapeutic ramblings.

Boy or a Girl?

Melissa had her ultrasound today. She has gone into this 3 previous times and each time she has been disappointed. She tries to hide it, but I know. You see, Melissa has been hoping for twins since before Spencer was born and she doesn't give up hope until after the ultrasound. Single heartbeats can be explained away as can her normal for gestational size, but she just can't argue with the ultrasound tech. Today was no different. I tried to cheer her up by telling her she gets to keep the minivan (I was threatening to purchase a Tahoe or Yukon if we ended up with twins, now my SUV dreams will have to wait another couple of years).

To my poorly trained eye everything looked good. The baby is measuring 4 days big and the placenta is anterior.

We are excited to be having a boy... or a girl. The baby was very uncooperative and the sex was unable to be determined. We're both excited to not know (it seems to have curbed Melissa's disappointment at only getting one).

Put Em to Work

So my mom came out this last week and a half. We had a blast. We spent the first few days of her trip in Cleveland with Doug and Maegan where we visited historic Kirtland. I will post more pictures on that another day. What I want to post about today is what my mom and I worked on the second half of her trip. That being my Kitchen.

The original plan was to paint my bedroom and bathroom while my mom was here but I think once she got a look at my kitchen she decided it was farther up the priority list. So before you knew it, all the cupboard doors were coming off, the table was being painted, and new paint was going on the ceiling, trim, back splash, and walls. The project took us 4 days and all I can say is I absolutely love it. I am wondering, however, if anyone will ever come to visit us again as we tend to put all our visitors to work.

BEFORE - Just as a note, this kitchen was okay and nothing horribly wrong with it. It worked, but for comparison sake, I will make sure to make it so horrible so that the transformation is all the more impressive.

Don't you just love the 2 toned cupboards. The inside of the cupboards is a paper laminate. It had began to scratch off in several places leaving a great look. The back splash under the cabinets was once tile, we think, but had been painted over in a tan color that just didn't quite match the counter tops.

Notice in this picture those great light fixtures in the ceiling fan. It is kind of hard to tell in these pictures but the walls are kind of a yellowish color with a hint of green in them. Not my favorite.

And here is the view down the hall just off of the kitchen. This has the same yellow color on the walls which tended to really make the hallway look small.

AND NOW . . . The new Kitchen

This picture probably shows the new wall color the best. I absolutely love it. It is just so rich and creamy and goes amazingly perfect with the cabinets. The back spalsh we sponged with a bronze metallic paint to give it the look of metal. It is also a nice tribute to our Fighting Irish (almost a mirror image of their helmets.) You can also see in this picture that we painted the table and chairs the same color as the walls. They desperately needed a paint job and I love how great they look now.

This is the other side of my kitchen. Don't you just love the drawer pulls.

I took this picture so you could see the new ceiling fan transformation. We simply bought 3 new frosted glass covers and switched the fan blades to the darker wood (they were on the other side which was the lighter wood) and wham, we have a whole new light fixture.

I just love these knobs so much I had to put a close up of them. This is the first time I have ever had a kitchen that had hardware on the cabinets. I am loving it. Thanks to my loving husband for not only taking all of the cabinets down and taking the hardware off but for also putting them all back up and putting the hardware back on and adding the new hardware. You can also see a bit more of the pattern in the back splash. It really stands out as quite a striking feature now.


And this is the look down the hall. It is the same color as the walls in the kitchen and it is so amazing how much it opens up the space. And I just love, love, love the color. It also shows the floors a bit too. When we first moved in we thought they were scratched through they looked so bad. My mom suggested trying some Soft Scrub and an hour later (and some sore shoulders) we had a whole new kitchen floor as well.

So this is my new kitchen. I love it!! Have I said that already. Seriously, this might be a record for typing the word love in one post. Maybe it is because I am pregnant and maybe I am just weird but there have been several times that I have stood in it and been brought to tears because I just love it so much. I just never thought I would have such a nice kitchen

and that I would have such a big part in making it that way. It really makes you proud of what you can accomplish. THANKS MOM!!!! I couldn't have done it without you.