Esteban with his little cast

End of the month update

SO...this is a little out of date. Things have been zipping right along for the last few weeks since I updated the blog. I've gotten into the swing of things and am really starting to feel like I know something (even if it's just a little bit). I no longer panic in the middle of the night about what dose of Tylenol to give :-) It's really fun to go through the process and see myself gradually change and become more confidant and more competent. I went through a little bit of a rough stretch the last 2 weeks though. I had 14 days straight without a day off and that got a little tiring...we also had a REALLY bad call night where I barely sat down all night (lots of preemies in the nursery acting up with their breathing, sugars, temps, etc). Call last night was great though and I got lots of sleep...I'm enjoying my lovely Monday morning at home :-) It sounds like a bad schedule, but even though I averaged 90 hr work weeks for the last two weeks, I am so energized when I'm at work and enjoy it to the point where I lose track of time and it amazes me that it's been so long! I have the cutest little patients in the world, and if anyone every wants to laugh or cry really hard, I will tell you about some of them and the adorable and poignant things that they do and say.

Jonathan is doing really well! He's in his last week of Internal Medicine and finishing up at the VA on Thursday. We are SO EXCITED because he will take his test Friday AM and I will be post call so we will be done together at noon Friday and not have to go back to work until MONDAY! We are planning quite the weekend of fun and relaxation to say the least :-) (with some family visiting squeezed in!) Next month Jonathan is doing surgery (Sept. Urology and ENT and Oct. General VA). I'm doing 4C which is general wards and one of the harder months as an intern. We'll see how having super-duper busy schedules during the same month works out :-)

In other news, the Shih Tzus are doing well. Esteban had a foot injury about a week ago. While tussling with Stanley, he hurt his paw and it had to be repaired by his vet under sedation. He was so cute with his little cast (I'll post a picture later), but now it's off and he's almost back to normal. He was SO incredibly funny when on his pain meds...he was acting like a complete nut!!! I've never seen him so happy :-)))

Please call or email us...we're so sorry that we've been so bad at keeping in touch with everyone, but we love you all and miss you so much!!!! It would be great to hear from our favorite peeps ;-)

First subspecialty week over!

YAY! I just got home post call and still the that lovely (not really) post-call buzz...too much caffeine and running to and from 4:30AM deliveries, and unstable patients needing emergency surgery in the wee hours gives you plenty of get up and go...go figure :-) It may not sound very fun, but I have had SO MUCH FUN!!!! I am enjoying this (albeit crazy) schedule more than anything else I've done thus far. I am learning giant amounts of info every day, I am getting to make my own management decisions (unlike med school), write all my own orders, and do lots and lots of cool stuff. I'm slowly becoming comfortable with nurses calling in the middle of the night with small crisis and sorting them out and making treatment decisions (although some are more scary than others:)I really enjoy call nights...I have a lot more variety as far as patients are concerned because I'm covering not only my own team(neph, GI, and pulm), but also Heme/onc, Newborn Nursery, and all the mommy calls for general and continuity patients. Although the nursery is a little bit of a black hole that can suck you in for hours if you're not careful (very zealous nursing staff!!), I REALLY enjoy going to all the deliveries and catching the baby (the intern's job), resuscitating it, and then, best of all, showing it to the mom or handing it to the proud daddy. It never gets old seeing people greet their new little ones...even at 3AM :-) I have so many cute delivery stories now...I'll have to make a special post for that some time. Enough about me....on to Jonathan.
Jonathan's at the VA doing general medicine which he is actually really enjoying (at least compared to my experience with VA med). He's so talented, smart, and thorough and it's fun to see him progressing towards being an MD very soon! He's still thinking he would like to do hematology/oncology, but he's on surgery in Sept. and Oct. which will be urology/ENT and general surgery. We'll see how he likes it. Next Saturday is his birthday (HURRAY!) but we're both on overnight call (booooo!). I'm making plans to surprise him with a fun dinner or a little cake or something if I get the chance to sneak to the VA. We'll probably sleep quite a bit post-call, but if anyone would like to go out with us to celebrate on Sunday night, just let us know! It would be a lot of fun :-)
The Shih tzus are doing pretty well. They do NOT like the heat and we have had to put several cooling procedures in place since they like to be outside during the daytime. In addition to ice water, crew cuts, and staying in the shade, I have found little refrigerated cooling vests that I'm considering, but Jonathan thinks they are silly so I probably won't get them. I'm so scared of them having heat stroke, but they can't stay inside since we're both gone so long during the day....we'll just have to see.
Again, a long, boring blog, but like I said...too much energy
TTFN!

PS: A big congrats to James on finishing his MCAT! We really enjoyed your visit Jamsie :-)