It's a little offcenter, but he wasn't one to hold still during the haircut.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
A haircut to match his attitude.
At one time we hoped that Kristian would turn out to be a gentle giant. To our great dismay that part of his personality hasn't shown itself much as he seems to understand that he is bigger and, as it were, tougher than his sister. When he wants a toy there's not much Jessi can do to keep it from him. With that in mind I decided to give him a haircut so other kids would know what they may be getting into with him.
It's a little offcenter, but he wasn't one to hold still during the haircut.
It's a little offcenter, but he wasn't one to hold still during the haircut.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Another Call Month
As I start my 8th month of my internship year I am left with the same old feelings of stress and anxiety. I started medicine today and my first call is tomorrow. I tried to enjoy the weekend, but after getting signout on my patients on Friday (2 of whom have been in the hospital for 3 weeks) it just didn't happen. Though I did not have to round on the patients on Saturday or Sunday I still was unable to relax knowing that they were waiting for me.
The first week is always the worst because I find myself scrambling to get up to speed on patients who are already in house and I have to try to find my way through another's train of thought in order to care for these patients. Maybe that's why I don't abhor the first week of OB call nearly as much as medicine (the last week is another story).
Tomorrow will most likely go smoothly. I may have to run a code or two and most likely I'll admit 5-8 patients. The stress comes from the wat ifs. The possibility of having multiple admissions come at 3 AM, 1 or 2 on which may be an ICU admissions. The possibility also exists that the code siren will go off in the middle of one of those admissions and I'll be pulled away to the ICU for 2 hours leaving me scrambling in the wee hours of the morning with multiple unfinished admissions and numerous patients that need to be rounded on before 7. All while being physically exhausted from being up all day responding to various calls from the different floors. Is it likely that this scenario will come to fruition, no, BUT IT COULD and therein lies the stress. I haven't even talked about the ICU admission that I may get at 6 pm teetering on the edge of death all night as I am left to contemplate if we're doing what we should to help him through the night.
I think I have less anxiety than in the past, but it still creeps up on me and I'll most likely get back down to my fighting weight by my birthday (at least I'm post call on that day). At least something good comes of all this (that and it probably makes me a better doctor, but that's still up for debate in my mind).
The first week is always the worst because I find myself scrambling to get up to speed on patients who are already in house and I have to try to find my way through another's train of thought in order to care for these patients. Maybe that's why I don't abhor the first week of OB call nearly as much as medicine (the last week is another story).
Tomorrow will most likely go smoothly. I may have to run a code or two and most likely I'll admit 5-8 patients. The stress comes from the wat ifs. The possibility of having multiple admissions come at 3 AM, 1 or 2 on which may be an ICU admissions. The possibility also exists that the code siren will go off in the middle of one of those admissions and I'll be pulled away to the ICU for 2 hours leaving me scrambling in the wee hours of the morning with multiple unfinished admissions and numerous patients that need to be rounded on before 7. All while being physically exhausted from being up all day responding to various calls from the different floors. Is it likely that this scenario will come to fruition, no, BUT IT COULD and therein lies the stress. I haven't even talked about the ICU admission that I may get at 6 pm teetering on the edge of death all night as I am left to contemplate if we're doing what we should to help him through the night.
I think I have less anxiety than in the past, but it still creeps up on me and I'll most likely get back down to my fighting weight by my birthday (at least I'm post call on that day). At least something good comes of all this (that and it probably makes me a better doctor, but that's still up for debate in my mind).
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Spencer to the Rescue
Spencer: "I really want a Diego chair."
Dad: "We don't always get what we want. I really want a truck."
Spencer: "Maybe you can ask Santa for a truck."
Dad: "That's a long time to wait."
Spencer: "Yeah, and mommy won't let you get one."
Dad: "yup."
Spencer: "Maybe you'll just have to wait until mommy dies to get a truck."
At least I can get some consolation from my new truck when Melissa passes.
Dad: "We don't always get what we want. I really want a truck."
Spencer: "Maybe you can ask Santa for a truck."
Dad: "That's a long time to wait."
Spencer: "Yeah, and mommy won't let you get one."
Dad: "yup."
Spencer: "Maybe you'll just have to wait until mommy dies to get a truck."
At least I can get some consolation from my new truck when Melissa passes.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Desert Creature
I've lived in South Bend, Kentucky, Brazil and Massachusetts. Each of those places has vegetation that you just don't find out west (I don't count the coastal states), and they are very beautiful places. I have enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) living in those places, but I am a Desert Creature.
I'm in Tucson for a CME until Monday and I love it. I went out on a hike today called 7 falls. It was an 8 mile round trip up a canyon (I've gotten more exercise in the past 3 days than I have in the past 3 months). It was awesome! Not a lot of people like the smell of cactus and sagebrush, but I love it.
The first picture is just to prove that I was really there (I probably should have wiped some of th sweat out off of my face, but that just adds to my enjoyment of being somewhere that isn't 20 below). The rest show the falls and the canyon. The pictures actually loaded in reverse order so you get the end first.
The trail actually is above the cliff on the right side of the picture below, but as I missed it I had to climb those rocks on the right to get up to the falls.
This last picture (or first depending on how you look at it) was just after I missed the trail going up the side of the mountain.
It was a beautiful hike. I spent a little over 2 hours getting to the falls and about 1 hour getting back down. I also learned some Spanish this morning. All in all a good day.
There are only two good things about not having Melissa and the kids here with me. One of those is that I get to go on 8 mile hikes up canyons in an afternoon (no chance that happens with 3 kids). The other is that it won't be quite as excruciating to leave Tucson because when I get home I get see Melissa and the kids and I really miss them.
I'm in Tucson for a CME until Monday and I love it. I went out on a hike today called 7 falls. It was an 8 mile round trip up a canyon (I've gotten more exercise in the past 3 days than I have in the past 3 months). It was awesome! Not a lot of people like the smell of cactus and sagebrush, but I love it.
The first picture is just to prove that I was really there (I probably should have wiped some of th sweat out off of my face, but that just adds to my enjoyment of being somewhere that isn't 20 below). The rest show the falls and the canyon. The pictures actually loaded in reverse order so you get the end first.
The trail actually is above the cliff on the right side of the picture below, but as I missed it I had to climb those rocks on the right to get up to the falls.
This last picture (or first depending on how you look at it) was just after I missed the trail going up the side of the mountain.
It was a beautiful hike. I spent a little over 2 hours getting to the falls and about 1 hour getting back down. I also learned some Spanish this morning. All in all a good day.There are only two good things about not having Melissa and the kids here with me. One of those is that I get to go on 8 mile hikes up canyons in an afternoon (no chance that happens with 3 kids). The other is that it won't be quite as excruciating to leave Tucson because when I get home I get see Melissa and the kids and I really miss them.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
ABC tag - for all you anxious fans out there.
A - Attached or Single: Attached and thankful for it. I'm pretty sure I would die of starvation or aspergillosis without Melissa.
B - Best Friend(s): Melissa and her three children (for those of you who may have stumbled on this blog and are now wondering if I married a woman with children from a previous marriage, they are my kids too, but from time to time I refer to them as her children. Usually when they are being bad.)
C - Cake or Pie: No cake will ever rival a good pecan pie.
D - Day of Choice: Saturday unless I am on a medicine or OB call then Saturday is my least favorite day.
E - Essential Item: Chapstick. My phone used to be essential, but ever since starting residency it seems to resemble a ball and chain and I leave it behind whenever I can.
F - Favorite Color: Olive (Melissa tells me that is a type of green and that I may or may not have a suit in this color)
G - Gummy Bears or Worms: Melissa doesn't allow me to eat these anymore as we had an unfortunate experience once when I left a bag on the dash of the car during a hot day. All the worms melted together and I was left with a sour gummy mass that I proceeded to eat over the next week. Melissa was thoroughly grossed out hence the ban on gummy items for me.
H - Hometown: Cedar City, UT - also referred to as Zion or the promised land
I - Indulgence: Blog tags
J - January or July:- This one might have been closer had I not just lived through a week of subzero temperatures. July for sure. If I can convince Melissa to spend a couple of weeks in January down in the southern hemisphere for the next 30 years it might become close again.
K - Kids: I like 'em most of the time. (Don't go commenting on how the tag wants to know how many kids I have, you all know how many kids I have. Heck some of you get to see them more than I do. It's my blog tag and so I decide what it wants to know and on this occasion I think it is asking me if I like kids.)
L - Life is incomplete without: Love - How's that for sappy? Though it is how I feel, being a man, I had to qualify the answer lest my manhood be challenged.
M - Marriage Date: Generally I think it is a good idea to take a date to a marriage so I have to say yes to this one. I took Melissa to a marriage before we were married and look how that turned out. I don't recall any of our guests bringing dates to our marriage 10 year ago.
N - Number of Siblings: 20 - 3 brothers, 2 sisters, 5 brothers-in-law, 7 sisters-in-law, 3 friends who are like brothers.
O - Oranges or Apples: it depends on the orange and the apple. Oranges in Brazil are tasteless. Red delicious apples are no longer delicious. A good fuji beats a bad florida orange, but in the end it all comes down to laziness and since eating an apple requires much less work than eating an orange I have to go with apples.
P- Phobias or Fears: Social gatherings by myself or when Melissa is involved in a discussion without me. Seriously I don't know how to take care of myself anymore!
Q - Quote(s): "(") .................................................That was very Ryanesque if I do say so myself.
R- Ring size: Depends on the finger
S - Season: There are a lot of seasons that Melissa uses that I like, but since I don't often know which tastes go with which seasons I'm going to have to say salt. For those of you who were looking for a weather season on this one you need look no further than letter J.
T- Tag 3 Friends: The three people I would like to tag would be Bob, Doug, and Ryan because I think their responses would be even wittier (I think highly of myself) than my own and there fore very enjoyable for me to read, but since I know they will never participate in blog tags I will tag no one. Plus the fact that I don't think they will ever read this (see next letter).
U - Unknown fact about me: I think I've done enough of these blog tags that I've pretty much gotten out all the unkown facts about me. Oh wait I've got one. I watched North and South the other day with Melissa and liked it. There goes that manhood thing again. It's a good thing that no men read this blog anyway.
V - Very favorite stores: Home Depot, Lowes, Ebay
W - Worst Habit: Blog Tags. Actually I am sort of an internet addict. I can spend hours on end surfing around the net jumping from news sites to sports sites to shoping sites (though I rarely buy anything). Fortunately we are now in American Idol season so I can surf in peace while Melissa watches the four judges critique the performances. Speaking of AI I can't stand the new judge. She's every bit as dumb as Paula but with an attitude which just makes her painful to watch.
X-ray or Ultrasound: Now this is the dumbest question I've ever come across in a blog tag. Who likes one radiological study over another, ironically I was asked by the radiologist yesterday which part of radiology I liked best, but that is another story. The point is that x-ray and ultrasound are used for entirely different reasons. Now if you were asking me if I would rather have x-ray vision or ultrasound vision I would have to say flying.
Y - Your Favorite Food: Alaskan King Crab. I must be getting less lazy because a few years ago my favorite food was Lobster for the sheer fact that eating crab is so much work, but it's just so good that I can handle the work to get to that succulent feast inside, or maybe it's because I'm wider than I was a few years back and eating crab gets the nod for the exercise factor.
Z- Zodiac: I hate astrology. Depending on the source for the calendar I fall into Aquarius or Pisces. Searching for both signs on wikipedia today I find Aquarius: January 20 - February 18, Pisces: February 20 - March 20. Hold on a minute wiki folks I was born on February 19th! Stupid zodiac. I think I'm going to make my own Mountain biking, dad, doctor, Ute fan sign henceforth known as mobaddorute. That's right folks my zodiac sign is mobaddorute. Any of you out there born on February 19th join me as a mobaddorute for we determine our own destiny...... mobaddorcougs not allowed.
B - Best Friend(s): Melissa and her three children (for those of you who may have stumbled on this blog and are now wondering if I married a woman with children from a previous marriage, they are my kids too, but from time to time I refer to them as her children. Usually when they are being bad.)
C - Cake or Pie: No cake will ever rival a good pecan pie.
D - Day of Choice: Saturday unless I am on a medicine or OB call then Saturday is my least favorite day.
E - Essential Item: Chapstick. My phone used to be essential, but ever since starting residency it seems to resemble a ball and chain and I leave it behind whenever I can.
F - Favorite Color: Olive (Melissa tells me that is a type of green and that I may or may not have a suit in this color)
G - Gummy Bears or Worms: Melissa doesn't allow me to eat these anymore as we had an unfortunate experience once when I left a bag on the dash of the car during a hot day. All the worms melted together and I was left with a sour gummy mass that I proceeded to eat over the next week. Melissa was thoroughly grossed out hence the ban on gummy items for me.
H - Hometown: Cedar City, UT - also referred to as Zion or the promised land
I - Indulgence: Blog tags
J - January or July:- This one might have been closer had I not just lived through a week of subzero temperatures. July for sure. If I can convince Melissa to spend a couple of weeks in January down in the southern hemisphere for the next 30 years it might become close again.
K - Kids: I like 'em most of the time. (Don't go commenting on how the tag wants to know how many kids I have, you all know how many kids I have. Heck some of you get to see them more than I do. It's my blog tag and so I decide what it wants to know and on this occasion I think it is asking me if I like kids.)
L - Life is incomplete without: Love - How's that for sappy? Though it is how I feel, being a man, I had to qualify the answer lest my manhood be challenged.
M - Marriage Date: Generally I think it is a good idea to take a date to a marriage so I have to say yes to this one. I took Melissa to a marriage before we were married and look how that turned out. I don't recall any of our guests bringing dates to our marriage 10 year ago.
N - Number of Siblings: 20 - 3 brothers, 2 sisters, 5 brothers-in-law, 7 sisters-in-law, 3 friends who are like brothers.
O - Oranges or Apples: it depends on the orange and the apple. Oranges in Brazil are tasteless. Red delicious apples are no longer delicious. A good fuji beats a bad florida orange, but in the end it all comes down to laziness and since eating an apple requires much less work than eating an orange I have to go with apples.
P- Phobias or Fears: Social gatherings by myself or when Melissa is involved in a discussion without me. Seriously I don't know how to take care of myself anymore!
Q - Quote(s): "(") .................................................That was very Ryanesque if I do say so myself.
R- Ring size: Depends on the finger
S - Season: There are a lot of seasons that Melissa uses that I like, but since I don't often know which tastes go with which seasons I'm going to have to say salt. For those of you who were looking for a weather season on this one you need look no further than letter J.
T- Tag 3 Friends: The three people I would like to tag would be Bob, Doug, and Ryan because I think their responses would be even wittier (I think highly of myself) than my own and there fore very enjoyable for me to read, but since I know they will never participate in blog tags I will tag no one. Plus the fact that I don't think they will ever read this (see next letter).
U - Unknown fact about me: I think I've done enough of these blog tags that I've pretty much gotten out all the unkown facts about me. Oh wait I've got one. I watched North and South the other day with Melissa and liked it. There goes that manhood thing again. It's a good thing that no men read this blog anyway.
V - Very favorite stores: Home Depot, Lowes, Ebay
W - Worst Habit: Blog Tags. Actually I am sort of an internet addict. I can spend hours on end surfing around the net jumping from news sites to sports sites to shoping sites (though I rarely buy anything). Fortunately we are now in American Idol season so I can surf in peace while Melissa watches the four judges critique the performances. Speaking of AI I can't stand the new judge. She's every bit as dumb as Paula but with an attitude which just makes her painful to watch.
X-ray or Ultrasound: Now this is the dumbest question I've ever come across in a blog tag. Who likes one radiological study over another, ironically I was asked by the radiologist yesterday which part of radiology I liked best, but that is another story. The point is that x-ray and ultrasound are used for entirely different reasons. Now if you were asking me if I would rather have x-ray vision or ultrasound vision I would have to say flying.
Y - Your Favorite Food: Alaskan King Crab. I must be getting less lazy because a few years ago my favorite food was Lobster for the sheer fact that eating crab is so much work, but it's just so good that I can handle the work to get to that succulent feast inside, or maybe it's because I'm wider than I was a few years back and eating crab gets the nod for the exercise factor.
Z- Zodiac: I hate astrology. Depending on the source for the calendar I fall into Aquarius or Pisces. Searching for both signs on wikipedia today I find Aquarius: January 20 - February 18, Pisces: February 20 - March 20. Hold on a minute wiki folks I was born on February 19th! Stupid zodiac. I think I'm going to make my own Mountain biking, dad, doctor, Ute fan sign henceforth known as mobaddorute. That's right folks my zodiac sign is mobaddorute. Any of you out there born on February 19th join me as a mobaddorute for we determine our own destiny...... mobaddorcougs not allowed.
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