Not Studying

first post!

2011-03-26T18:29:00.002-04:00

First post of 2011!

Hahaha

Whoops.

Ho Ho HO

2010-12-15T17:19:00.002-05:00

hello

2010-12-11T01:40:00.000-05:00

So...maybe somebody hasn't updated in a while. Whoops.

Well...what should I talk about?
-How huge and adorable and crazy my sweet little puppy has become?
-How awesome our house is?
-How the latest cake/baking project is going?
-How many lives I have touched while caring for patients?
-How many patients have touched my life?
-How much I dislike working nights and love love love clinic?
-How I'm sort of excited for Christmas but I'm sad I'll be working through it then taking Step 3 on my break?
-How about funny quotes from patients/nurses/residents?

I think that's a little too much. Here are a few things of note:

Bailey is awesome. She is super smart (too smart for her own good, really) so it's fun to teach her new tricks. The basic ones (sit, stay, come) she's pretty good at, so now we're working on "Beer me" where she opens the fridge and gets us a beer and "Bang!" where she rolls to her side dead. Our dog is going to be the coolest.

The house: also awesome. Christmas lights are up. Christmas tree is up, with wrapped presents under it! (Amazing what a month of averaging only 40 hours a week will do!) Muddy pawprints are EVERYWHERE, but they're cute, right?

Prayers would be appreciated for my sweet mom, who fell last week and somehow exploded her humerus bone into her shoulder. She had surgery earlier this week and they placed a metal rod in. She got discharged home today, but still going to need a lot of prayers and a lot of patience for healing!

It's true, I'm working through Christmas then taking a 2-day (!!) exam...which isn't really my idea of a good "holiday break." Thankfully, I will have a few extra days off after that, 2 weeks of clinic, then on vacation to PERU! Super excited.

You know what else happens on Christmas? My first payment of my student loans are due. ON CHRISTMAS.

So in essence, I'm alive and well. Alert and oriented times...uh...well times two at least. Maybe you'll hear from me again before the next 5 months rolls around. I'd like to put up more funny patient stories but the effort to make them completely anonymous seems a bit daunting, and I definitely don't want anyone to find me out!

Mission to Marzipan

2010-07-24T20:44:00.000-04:00

I don't feel that I have the mental capacity to write a gushing narration about the amazing few weeks that I have had. Instead, I'll shorten it to bullet points...maybe to elaborate later. :)

I've been learning. A lot. You think you learn a lot when you're in medical school but it's an entirely different thing when YOU are the one making decisions. Ordering tylenol for a patient becomes a big deal - "what if they have an allergy?" "what's their liver function?" "are they on other medicines that will react with it?" "what dose is best for them?" I've re-learned an insane amount of physiology too. Awesome.
With all the knowledge I've been gaining, I am feeling much more confident in myself. When I get called about things I can handle - it's amazing.
I miss my family. Especially my puppy (who has grown so much I can hardly recognize her!) and Chris. Chris has been unbelievably supportive, like always. I'm so grateful for him!

I might be making a wedding cake! With my mom! I don't have all the details yet, but making a wedding cake has always been something I wanted to do...so I'm very excited!
Another thing that is going to be awesome - I'm entering a cake contest! I just made a cake for Patrick's 21st birthday that I'm going to submit to Threadcakes. Threadcakes is a cake competition run by a T-shirt website, threadless.com. The idea is to make a cake that represents one of their shirts. It's hard to describe, so I'll just put up pictures. I know I won't win, but entering in itself is exciting. :) If I get another long weekend I may have to submit another!

That's about all for now. I suppose I should go read about "sick sinus syndrome" or how to treat people with congestive heart failure AND kidney failure. Or maybe I can go hand-wash my dishes that have been sitting in the sink all week. Maybe I'll just go eat some more ice cream that Chris bought me. (Thanks, Christopher!)

Knowledge

2010-07-14T22:30:00.002-04:00

Do you know how fast your brain can learn things? I don't know exactly, but after this past week it sure seems pretty fast. Nothing I learned in medical seemed quite so applicable until now. Now I wish I remembered more, and that I had understood the basics better before moving on to more advanced topics!

I started as "Dr. Twist" about 10 days ago, and man what a 10 days it's been! I can't even summarize how happy/sad/scared/proud I have felt because I feel like my emotions have been on a crazyride. I actually spent my first couple days writing about how I was feeling and, well, let's just say they aren't very happy posts! They may get posted here someday but it will be the "someday" they refer to when they say "someday you'll look back on this and laugh." Although things are going well now, I'm not quite there yet. :)

I've had plenty of lovely patients (and only a couple I would have preferred not to have) and I think Morehead's hospital is great. Everyone is SUPER nice (which is very much appreciated), and things are actually efficient. Here, if I want something done -- no matter how dumb or useless it may be -- I just write it in the chart and put it on the secretary's desk. No begging for consults, no calling the lab to do tests, no nothing! I just write it down and it magically happens. It's awesome! I never thought I would do hospitalist work and though I still don't love it I think I could do it in a place like this where everyone actually does their job (and does it pretty well, I might add!).

My patients have been good. The only really scary one was my first. I had no idea how anything worked - and my first patient had altered mental status (=completely out of it) and acute respiratory failure (=not really breathing). That isn't really a good combo, and especially for a brand new doctor like me. I walked into the room to check in and the respiratory therapist handed me some blood gases. "Here's his gases since we've had him on oxygen. Let me know if you want me to change any of his vent settings." Um, first of all, I thought the respiratory therapists were supposed to know how to do that!? Either way, his gases didn't look good and I had absolutely no clue what to do, who to ask for help, or where to go. I found some help eventually but let's just say it was a pretty traumatic experience!

Since then, things have been much, much better. My mom came up today and we went to Cave Run Lake and got some strawberry cake from a local bakery. I realized that (with the exception of the first day), I'm really, really happy. I'm actually helping patients get better. I like being in the hospital. My decisions matter for the first time. It's scary, but exhilarating.

I'm home for a few days now which is really nice. Chris is on a MD-PhD retreat, though, so I can't wait for him to come home tomorrow to have the family together again! :)

I'll try to update soon but...well...you know how it goes. I'm busy saving lives!

terrabul

2010-06-25T14:43:00.004-04:00

You know what? I'm Terrible. (I always imagine charles barkley whenever I say terrible. An example here)

Terrible in the sense that I have somehow become too busy to write even though I still haven't started working! I might as well sign off forever once intern year starts...

Anyway, to recap, we finished all our "orientation" for school. It was overall pretty boring, occasionally helpful, and did not once remind me again how to work those acid-base problems and read EKGs. I suppose I should break out the dusty textbooks before I start.

I start on our one off-site rotation of the year, in Morehead, KY. It's about an hour away but I will not be commuting - they have housing available for us. I hear that I will get off more days than a usual rotation, which I hope is true...but we'll see. I don't have an official schedule yet but maybe it will come Monday! Let's hope! Chris and I are in a bit of a pickle as we are a one-car family right now (and that one car does not have air conditioning!) It's going to be tough to only have one car if I am not in the city.

I've started on too many "home improvement projects" - after we bought out Ikea, we also bought out Bed, Bath and Beyond and are working on Lowes. The house still looks a little bare but it's improving - we've got some blinds and curtains at least! I started the daunting task of taking off wallpaper from the bathrooms...gah. The guest bathroom was super easy so I thought that it would be similarly easy to do the bathroom downstairs. I was sadly, sadly mistaken.

Um...Oh yes! Also I had a cake decorating party! How awesome is that? A few girls (who are upcoming 4th year med students) asked me to teach them how to play with fondant and other cakey things, so we got together and made cakes! They all turned out SUPER cute, I can't wait to post pictures!

Bailey is getting huge! (probably 20 pounds, but that's over twice her weight when we got her 5 weeks ago!) She's into EVERYTHING and whenever I think my house is finally puppy-proof she finds something else that's not. She's a chewer, too. I don't mind that she chews on my stuff it's just annoying that she chews on me and my friends! It's a good thing she's adorable.

She is a smart pup, though, and under the right circumstances (meaning: few distractions and lots of dog cookies!) she can sit, stay, lay down, come, get in her kennel, and give me her paw to shake! Awww...sooo cute. She also fetches but not because I know hot to teach her to do that - just because she's a retriever and that's apparently what they do.

Well, I'd better try to get back to stripping wallpaper while the puppy is asleep. If you don't hear from me ever again, I ask for your prayers beginning July 1!

busy busy bee

2010-06-06T23:10:00.002-04:00

There has been way too much going on for me to even start writing.

1) We got the house. It's so awesome. It's a lot of work, but awesome. I will upload before/after photos once we have some "after" to take photos of. We also went to Ikea. Oh.my.gosh. Awesome. We brought a U-haul to Ikea. Haha...yep. We also bought a giant television on super sale. We're living like I actually have a job! It's pretty fun!

2) Bailey is still chewing but is as cute as ever. Gah! Need more photos. :) I got a new phone (because my other one was going crazy for a couple months) and am currently trying to upload pictures to no avail. I hate technology sometimes!

3) Lots of lovely weddings. One more next week then done for a while. Photos and stories to come...someday!

4) Chris got into a car accident on Friday, thank goodness he is OK but his car isn't! :( I was out of town (and out of cell phone reception, actually) so I didn't even know - it was a traumatic experience but I suppose if anything good came of it it got us thinking about our own mortality and we're much more conscious of how much we care for each other. The house and puppy and everything else were getting in the way...now we're making plenty of time for each other! Unfortunately he's now out of town at a conference now...so it's just me and Bailey!

5) We start residency orientation on the 15th (I think?) It's coming up so fast and I am not ready!!! I want some more vacation! My house isn't done! My puppy isn't completely house trained! Oh man I need to fit in a lot in the next week.

Sorry so short. I need to focus on this dumb phone!

let sleeping dogs lie

2010-05-27T12:16:00.003-04:00

My puppy is asleep.

Do I clean, exercise, or make cupcakes (that I will still NOT EAT)?

Or do I read about how to stop your puppy from chewing on EVERYTHING...even your face if it gets too close!

pups and pancakes

2010-05-26T15:14:00.004-04:00

My time has been eaten up by one quite adorable puppy named Bailey.

Bailey Floski Twist Simmons, to be exact.

She's napping now, which means it's time for me to do something productive.

Maybe workout? Price lawnmower/washer/dryer for the new house? Play on facebook? Maybe make some more yummy BEAN PANCAKES. Seriously. They taste a little "healthy-ish" but they're full of fiber, protein, and I think with a little PB they're a pretty awesome snack.

1 can of white beans (Cannellini - rinsed)

3 eggs (medium)
2 Tbls of Splenda (to taste)
1 Tbl of Vanilla
1 tsp of Almond Extract
2-3 Tbls of Flax Seed*
1/4 cup of pecans/ walnuts*
1/4 cup fat free half-half
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of Cinnamon
1 tsp of Nutmeg

Place all ingredients into a food processor/ blender to combine. Can be made into pancakes or waffles with delicious results. :)
* optional

Edit: the first time I made these with navy beans (the small kind) that I had rinsed very well, added the flax seed and used a little milk instead of the half-half. I thought they were pretty good for a fiber/protein snack. The second time around, I used cannelini beans (bigger) and maybe didn't rinse them quite as well...and they tasted like beans (I also didn't use the flax, pecans, or nearly as much nutmeg). After the first icky pancake, I added pecan pieces and allspice to the mix. Quite a bit better. Of course, smothering it in PB doesn't hurt, either. :)

so I swore I would never be one of THOSE moms...

2010-05-22T09:59:00.003-04:00

...but we haven't even had our puppy 24 hours and I've already called the vet...

...twice.

Here is a slideshow of her first day. Can you imagine what it will be like when we have human children?

Edit: We actually called the vet three times. And went over to the vet's office. Within 24 hours of having her! I think that might be a record.

For the record, though, I'm not THAT crazy - she had fleas and momma needed to get rid of those because I DO NOT LIKE BUGS. Crisis averted!

Diet

2010-05-20T13:33:00.002-04:00

So....I started a diet.

I have never restricted what I eat before (except for giving up chocolate and things like that for Lent every year...which sometimes doesn't go too well!). I always feel like the food I eat is typically pretty healthy (except for my cupcake problem, you know...but I give most of them away!)

Anyway, I've noticed the past few months my clothes were getting a little tighter. I haven't gained a lot of weight but I figured that if I was going to tell my patients to diet and exercise for their health I should do it too.

The problem is, I am sort of enjoying it.

I really enjoy making food, and although I can't eat the cupcakes (I have about 50 cupcakes and a full size cake in my freezer right now that I've been making and can't eat ANY) I still get to make myself a nutritious and balanced breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I'm eating tons of fresh vegetables and I'm not starving! I actually even wanted a soda for lunch and passed it up for water...happily...what is wrong with me?!

Don't get me wrong, I was working on these cupcake toppers and made an entire bag of chocolate chips into modeling chocolate, I was molding this HUGE blob of chocolate last night - it smelled absolutely amazing and it was terrible not to eat any of it! But, I knew that I wasn't hungry and didn't need any of it. I don't even like the texture of modeling chocolate anyway, so I just reminded myself of that and had a healthy snack instead.

As an aside, Werthers makes sugar free hard candy (caramel flavor) that tastes just like FUNFETTI CUPCAKES. And you can eat 5 of them for 40 calories. It's not only my crazy brain that thinks that - Chris agreed with me. They're delicious!

You may hear more about how this is going...if not...I probably fell off the bandwagon just like my patients :)

Guess what else I'm doing today: Puppy-proofing my house because Bailey comes home tomorrow! I'm so excited! I'm also a dork and I keep googling "pet-safe household cleaners" "organic pet treat recipes" and other ridiculous things. I can't imagine how I will be when we actually have a baby on the way! :)

belated birthday (cake)

2010-05-19T10:33:00.003-04:00

My dad's birthday was in April...and I took pictures of his cake! It was chocolate-raspberry (probably his favorite flavor combination). I tried really hard to make really fluffy pink icing layers inside but unfortunately most of them squished out with the weight of the dense cakes. So, I have no pictures of the inside - you'll just have to trust me that it was super yummy!

I made the frosting and the flowers out of something called "modeling chocolate" - it's actually really easy to make - just melt chocolate chips or candy melts and add corn syrup - it turns into a delicious Play Doh!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

cupcakes galore

2010-05-18T23:17:00.003-04:00

My friend Kateri introduced me to a new website a couple weekends ago:

www.bettycrocker.com

I about fell over when I saw it (it wasn't the gin and tonic I was drinking, really). It has hundreds of recipes...for cupcakes! I'd been looking for a boozy cupcake to make, thinking about mojitos, mint juleps, margaritas, etc and the first two recipes that came up were for mojito cake and champagne cupcakes.

I needed to try these right away! The recipes use box cake mix - I usually like to make it myself because I like the "from scratch" flavors but I love any kind of cake so I wasn't about to stick my nose up at this. I made the pink champagne cupcakes (basically the only difference is using champagne instead of water, which I personally think is a good substitution!) and they got rave reviews from EVERYBODY - we had a party for Mother's day and a good family friend had a graduation party - and both groups enjoyed the cupcakes immensely!

They're cute on their own, but with these little bubbly sprinkles I got at the craft store how much cuter could they possibly get?! Yummmm...

Those were fun...and I just tried out a new recipe today (Ina Garten's chocolate cake) that I'm turning into graduation cupcakes for my cousin, Julia, who is graduating high school this weekend. One day I offered to make her a cake for her graduation - to my surprise, she accepted, and said that the cake needed to feed 60 people! Goodness...I have my work cut out for me! Once I decide how to make it I will most definitely be putting up pictures.

Edit: This is extra hard for me as I'm on a no-cupcake diet (not even tasting!) for the next few weeks...trying to shed the honeymoon/post-wedding/interview season/holiday/I-have-more-free-time-so-I-bake-a-lot extra pounds I've put on. Exercise just isn't going to cut it alone...but man oh man is it hard! Why did I agree to bake a cake when I can't eat any!??! why!?!

Dr. Katie

2010-05-16T08:17:00.004-04:00

It's finally here!

I'm a doctor!

It's surreal...yesterday I woke up and was just regular old Katie, now I'm Dr. Katie. I don't feel any smarter, that's for sure. Actually, I still feel sort of dumb. Like I need to go get out some of my textbooks (before packing them away for good when we move) and learn something.

Am I really qualified for this?

Yes, I am. Even though I don't feel like

I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before, but a doc that I worked with once taught me this: She said nurse practitioners and PAs come in to her office to work and are confident in what they do, but medical students come in and are so unsure and nervous about making decisions. She then went on to tell me that, as medical students, we learn SO MUCH MORE than these other healthcare providers and have an extensive knowledge base. The difference, then, is that the NP/PA books are less detailed - almost excessively so. Their books simplify everything, but these providers KNOW everything in their book. They got a 100% on their exam. They are ultra confident they know everything there is to know.

Not us medical students. We have huge textbooks filled with every detail and we know that we have no idea what is in most of them. We realize we are limited in our knowledge, so we are hesitant to make firm decisions.

She's not discounting NP/PAs. They do a lot of work and there are plenty of them in her practice! She just wanted us to realize that we understand and know much more than we give ourselves credit for. This made me feel pretty awesome!

Sorry for all the rambling. I'm a doctor now! Hooray! We had a nice party at my mom's house and had a great day. I actually got everyone--and I mean EVERYONE--to come see my new house (we had the realtor open it up). It was fun to see everyone checking out our place - they all seemed to like it a lot. Which is good I suppose, because I like it a lot too!

What am I going to do with all my doctorness now? Well, today I'm making monkey bread to make up for the fact that I missed one of my best friend's bachelorette party last night (sorry Sab!) - I don't think this quite qualifies as hangover food but it's making my house smell amazing. This coming week, I'm making my first trip ever to Ikea and then...getting our puppy! The next week we'll close on our house and then I'll be moving. Lots of big changes coming up and I'm so excited to see what the future holds!

Workout DVDs part 2

2010-05-14T16:10:00.002-04:00

I really like workout DVDs. You can wear your weird-looking but comfy shorts with only a sports bra, sweat until you think your face is about to fall off, and generally look as awkward as you need to in the privacy of your own home. Plus, there are some great workouts out there.

As I've had some time off recently I've been trying out lots of new workout DVDs. I still like Jillian Michaels 30 day shred because of the time:energy ratio - only about 25 minutes and you get a great workout. However, because I have all day to myself, I've been working out longer and harder (and I think I actually am starting to notice a result - amazing!) Here's my latest favorites:

The Firm: 500 Calorie Workout

The first time I did this workout I didn't like it because it was hard to follow - you probably need to try it at least twice, because I really like it now that I know what I'm doing. It's fast paced and there are a lot of combo moves. There are 5 strength and 5 cardio sets, each about 5 minutes long. Cardio includes step, kickboxing, and plyometrics. Strength is good all around but lots of lunges and squats - this one hurts my hamstrings if I'm not careful! This is about an hour total.

Amy Bento: Kickbox Xtreme

This seriously is extreme! The first time I did the workout I didn't realize that there were options (on the DVD menu) to change the length of the workout (about 5 options ranging from 30 minutes and up). This workout totals almost EIGHTY MINUTES LONG if you go all the way through. It's all cardio and uses no weights. The instructor is not the best at cueing (partly because everything is so fast paced) so you need to watch this one more than once to get the full benefit too. It's a great workout though and will definitely get your heart rate up.

Women's Health: Ultimate Fat Burn

2 cardio and 2 strength segments, the instructor is very encouraging (almost too much) and I do work up a sweat. This one is only around 30 minutes and intermediate intensity. There is a little "bonus" on the DVD that talks a bit about the background of all the instructors which was actually more interesting than I would have thought - after watching it I felt like I knew who I was exercising with!

Trainer's Edge: Killer abs and back

This one is good for an ab workout and the instructor wears an eye patch! My abs were a bit sore the next day so that was a good deal too. It's about 40 minutes, the first half is mostly cardio with a focus on abdominal movements and the second half is on the floor. He uses very light weights, a body bar, and a jump rope but I dont use any of these things and do just fine. :)

So, I've been exercising pretty good intensity since I stopped working two weeks ago. I hope to keep it up so once intern year rolls around it can all turn into flab. ;) Just kidding, sort of.

Also, on a non-exercise note: If you haven't ever seen "Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long," I recommend it (particularly after a drink or two). Quite funny.

Moving

2010-05-10T13:12:00.002-04:00

I stole a few boxes from behind the liquor store this weekend.

I began packing today.

Holy Cow, we have a lot of stuff.

may is flying by!

2010-05-07T14:24:00.002-04:00

I've been doing my best to keep myself as busy as possible lately, even without anything that I "have" to do. It's an awesome life, I've gotta admit! :)

The house business is going quite smoothly. The inspector came and said the only major thing is it needs a new roof. Thankfully, living in Hailstorm City has blessed us with hail damage (which most insurance covers). The current owners are getting us a new roof very soon - awesome! We will (finally) close June 1...I can't wait! I just want to start packing and move all our stuff already! I need to find a BUNCH of big boxes, too.
We've been obsessively watching HGTV to figure out how to decorate this "house." That sort of thing stresses me out, so we may just have a bunch of rooms with boxes for a while.
I've been dying to make some food lately as I have been hanging out with my mama all week (she's off work too) and haven't cooked a darn thing. Usually I just read a bunch of recipes until I'm inspired to make something, but unfortunately I have not found anything to spark my interest. I did, however, make one delicious dish and one not-so-delicious dish today:

Delicious (and easy, and HEALTHY) guac!

2 avocados

1 can Ro-Tel Mexican Lime and Cilantro diced tomatoes

1 (or less) can navy beans

Blend the navy beans in a food processor with juice from tomatoes. Smash in both avocados. Add the tomatoes. Eat - on chips, pretzels, or a spoon.

The beans are an awesome addition because they add lots of fiber and protein, have no fat, and they're so mild you can hardly taste them. The Ro-tel is awesome because it has all your flavor in it and you don't have to do any work!

Just in case you wondered what they look like ;)

Not delicious quinoa dish

Leftover navy bean mash

regular tomatoes

quinoa

salt/pepper

lime juice

you know what, nevermind. I'm not even going to to tell you the rest...blech! Maybe adding navy beans to guacamole is a good idea, but not to quinoa. Have you ever used quinoa? (pronounced Keen-wa I think)...it's sort of a chewy nutty rice...I guess. I got a box to try recently since it's supposed to be one of the healthiest grains or something....Anyway, on to something else!

So, I'm trying to think up something else delicious to make (preferably bake) since this weekend is Mother's day (a big family get-together at our place) and a family friend is graduating from...audiology or something. She's getting her doctorate which is pretty awesome! Here's a few ideas of what to make

Mint Julep Cupcakes

Mixed-Berry Chiffon Cake with Almond Cream Cheese Frosting (that's a mouthful!)

Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cake

or maybe something else entirely. Or nothing at all!

Gregory, my youngest brother, is graduating from high school this year and has decided to go away to college...in Oklahoma. We're all a little sad he wants to leave us but he wants to get a fresh start. He figured out how to get in-state tuition by pursuing a degree in aerospace engineering. My brother, the rocket scientist.

Oh yes....and the most important of all.....

are you ready?!

We are getting a puppy!!!

HOORAY!

Isn't she adorable?! I met her yesterday, she is about 4 weeks old and we can get her the weekend of May 22. I'm so excited! She can just barely walk around :) I thought I was just going yesterday to look at the pups, but...well...you can see what happened. I fell in love.

We're deciding on names. I think right now our top ones are Lucy and Bailey. We have a list of maybe 10 names though, so maybe it will end up something else entirely! Awwww...

I probably should get to cleaning, packing, and getting ready for our new little addition! She won't be little for long :) I can't wait!

picture perfect

2010-04-27T11:55:00.004-04:00

You're in for a photo treat today! I got Chris to upload TONS of photos for me, and I'm so excited that I'm going to share them all at once! Yay!

First, these are some gorgeous roses we got at Meijer a couple weeks ago. They were too pretty not to share!

Next is a set of photos of some cupcakes I made for my friend Sabrina's bridal shower. Sabrina was my roommate for...maybe four years? I can't remember exactly but it was a really long time! She's a super awesome friend and I'm so happy for her and John. John is definitely a lucky guy!
The cupcakes are a mixture of red velvet (of course with cream cheese frosting...yum!) and a special "princess funfetti" mix with only pink and purple sprinkles! :) I also made a couple "UK" cupcakes since Sabrina and John are super UK fans. I wish that I had gotten a close-up of the engagement ring cupcakes because I added "luster dust" on them - making them shiny and sparkly!
Me, in my cute little apron that Chris got me a couple Christmases ago!
I love how well the monograms turned out - it was so easy with my little food writing markers!
Mmm....velvety!

These pictures are WAY overdue - they were for my Grandpa's 90th birthday party. When I think of Grandpa, I think of bourbon, so this cake was perfect for him. I placed the bottle on top of a delicious chocolate chip cake, and we had both his families get together to celebrate 90 awesome years.
Oh and the brown "bourbon" color? Those are peanut butter candy melts. The only thing yummier than a rice crispy treat is a rice crispy treat covered in peanut butter candy!

Hooray for cake! :) Now the only photos I'm missing are those of my dad's chocolate-raspberry layer cake that I made for his birthday. He's got those pictures (not Chris this time!) so I've got to get those from him.

Now that school's out I'm working on a pretty sweet project that I will give you details on soon. A sweet project that actually does not include cleaning my house, painting my fingernails, or the rainy yucky weather. It does involve cake, though, and a bunch of other things. That's just a hint. I hope you are excited. :)

the family doc

2010-04-24T17:29:00.004-04:00

My mom has had a chronic cough of and on for years. She typically seems to get a cold sometime throughout the winter and, although she gets over the acute illness, a dry cough lingers for months afterwards. She obviously hates it and my dad has made it clear that it drives him crazy.

Unfortunately, tax season always seems to ramp up right as the cough starts. My mom is a CPA and gets extremely busy this time of year. Things also always seem to fall apart in one way or another during this time every year. One year, my brother had appendicitis. Another year my grandma got sick. This year my grandpa Joe had a bad fall that led to his passing away in March. These months are always so busy for my mom and she doesn't have much time to get seen by a doctor.

But she went to the doctor anyway! She was so sick of coughing that she went to a few appointments. She was prescribed a couple different rounds of antibiotics, steroids, allergy medicine, and even an inhaler! Nothing seemed to help...

One day a couple weeks ago my mom asked me what specialist she should go to for her cough once April 15 passed by. She told me she was planning to make an appointment with an ENT, a pulmonologist, and an allergist. Holy cow - that seemed excessive but apparently she wanted to get to the root of the problem. This cough was driving her nuts! I felt sort of guilty that, here I was, almost an MD and I hadn't even thought about how much it was affecting her.

She had already been prescribed good antibiotics and due to the length of the problem it seemed unlikely she had an ongoing infection (unless it's fungal or something really weird, which is unlikely). My first guess after a URI was allergies/asthma. She does seem to have reactive airways that are worst in the wintertime. She has never been diagnosed with asthma but it runs in the family so it could be a cause. However, the steroids should have helped with that and the inhaler would have made a dramatic difference.

What else could cause a chronic, dry cough? The only thing I could think of was GERD. My mom has no history of heartburn, doesn't ever notice a sour taste in her mouth, and is completely healthy other than this cough. When I suggested this diagnosis to her, she was skeptical. I actually did an UptoDate search and found out that up to 30% of people with chronic cough because of GERD actually have no other symptoms!

Either way, she had no other options until she could get in to see a specialist, so that night my dad sent us off to the store to get some prilosec. I was really hoping that it would work, not only for my mom's cough to get better, but just to prove that my medical education was worth it - I actually learned something!

After about a week and a half of taking the prilosec, my mom told me that she was not coughing nearly as much - almost not at all! It's been well over two weeks now and she seems about back to normal.

I'm so glad my mom feels better. I'm also glad that I apparently learned something these past four years! Hooray for being a doctor!

M.D.

2010-04-24T16:47:00.004-04:00

Well, it's all done. Four years of medical school are now behind me...it's kind of hard to recap it all!

Four years ago things were surprisingly different. I spent the summer working in a pharmacy in Colorado and raising chocolate lab puppies. I came back to KY just in time to drive down to Florida to watch my little brother's baseball tournament. I had a nice tan and crazy blonde hair (not just regular blonde hair, mind you).

I still have vivid memories of orientation week - everyone introducing themselves on the first day, lining up for hours for our IDs, for our TB tests, and filling out paperwork. I think we were all really, really excited. We had no clue what we were in for!

Then, anatomy started. It was awful. It was intimidating and stressful, and I think the worst part was we didn't know each other well enough to talk about what we were going through. Then biochem started, which was almost as overwhelming as anatomy. Blech. This became the beginning of Chris and my friendship, though, so things weren't all bad. :) I think Chris was one of the biggest reasons I passed that class! Springtime rolled around, and with it came neuroscience and physiology - and a nice breath of fresh air! We started spending afternoons playing frisbee and evenings watching House.

Second year came and went sort of as a blur - IID, path and pharm...then the boards. I just remember hours and hours sitting in those chairs at the library being MISERABLE but knowing that soon it would be over and we could move on with our lives. Step 1 came and went and I wasn't too happy with how I did. But I passed, and life went on. (I still made it into my top residency choice so apparently it didn't make too big a difference.) Second year I was overinvolved as well, taking way too many leadership positions at once made me a little crazy but I think better at time management in the end.

Then - Third year! Clinicals! Everything was new, frightening and exciting at the same time. Once I got the hang of them, I really liked almost every rotation - it was nice to know that after all this time putting in hours studying I actually liked what I was going to do with my life. I had made the right decision going to med school after all!

Fourth year was just plain awesome. Except for the stress involving the match, every rotation was what I wanted to do and when I wanted to do it. I even got a month off and married my best friend! I have become much more confident in what I know and, on occasion, I really feel like a doctor. How cool is that!? (I need to write the really awesome story of how I cured my own mom - I'll do that soon!)

Exciting times to come, too! May 15 is graduation (I'll admit - I've already paraded around the house in my cap and gown), June 1 is our closing date for the house, and July 1 starts residency! I'm excited (and very nervous) to start...it definitely will be another adventure.

School's out - forever!

2010-04-22T23:00:00.004-04:00

TOMORROW is my LAST DAY OF SCHOOL.

EVER.

After TWENTY YEARS of school.

Holy cow.

Next time I see a patient, I'll be "Doctor ______"
(Dang, now I have to decide Twist/Simmons)

There are tons of thoughts and memories I want to share. I want to celebrate, I will miss a lot of my friends...I think a long post commemorating the past four years is in order, but may take a bit of thinking on my part so I probably should wait until I don't have to give a presentation at 8am to actually start writing. We'll see about that tomorrow then.

A side note: "Happy Birthday Dad!"

And finally, my funny patient of the day:

Chief complaint: "absurdly sweaty armpits, hands and feet."

And nerdy factoid of the day: Hyperhidrosis (or excessive sweating) is often treated with topical aluminum chloride (such as Drysol or Xerac), but can actually be treated with botox injections or even surgery to cut the symptathetic nerves going to your skin so you can't sweat. You can also take anticholinergics but they typically dry out your mouth, eyes, etc. in addition to your "absurd" amount of sweating. I learned all this during my dermatology rotation. I admit, I am a huge nerd and I really, really like derm. But it's OK, because I AM ALMOST A DOCTOR!

literally?

2010-04-21T16:49:00.000-04:00

Straight out of the chart:

ALLERGIES: Allergy season is kicking my butt =)

Ah, and part 3

2010-04-20T22:59:00.002-04:00

Student health is way more entertaining than I thought.

This is, word for word, what a patient put on his check-in sheet for what ended up being an acute case of epididymitis (read: infection of the testicle):

Location: inside inside.
Describe your pain: at first it was slightly throbbing but it just hurts inside it so bad worsening
How severe is it on a scale of 1-10: 8, for real it's my freaking nut, it hurts

I quite literally "LOL'd" when I read that in the chart. Oops. He frequently referred to "his freaking nut" throughout the history/exam. He also wore his sunglasses the entire time, told me his life sexual history (without me asking anything about it), and told me how violated he felt after we were done.

Sent him to the ER for a rule out torsion (which would mean emergency surgery and probably losing the "nut") but thankfully it was only a case of epididymitis.

I love student health, part 2

2010-04-17T12:12:00.003-04:00

So this kid comes in for an STD check. (A frequent occurrence only weeks after spring break...) Anyway, part of the check involves a urine sample. He gets the schpeil about peeing in the cup then putting it in the little metal box in the wall. The box opens on the other side, which is the lab where they can run the tests.

Kid goes in the bathroom, kid comes out.

A few minutes later the doc comes over and asks the nurse "where's the urine sample? did you already send it off?" Nurse replies "what urine sample? I haven't done any urine in a couple hours"

Look in the box, no urine. Look all over the lab, no urine. Look in the bathroom, no urine. Look in the OTHER lab on the other side of the office, no urine. Nobody has seen this pee!

They go back and ask the kid, "did you pee?" and kid answers in the affirmative - he put it in the metal box on the wall.

Where did this kid's pee go?

Doc walks back into the bathroom and starts looking around. Next to the toilet is another type of metal box ON the wall. His pee is in the dirty tampon box!

Eeewww!

Healthful Foods

2010-04-14T20:17:00.000-04:00

For some reason, I've been on a real "healthy foods" kick. I think it comes with the change in weather and my desire to eat more fruits and veggies (rather than scarf down the heavy meat 'n' potatoes of the winter months). I've actually tried a few things that were surprisingly delicious!

1) Baked Kale Chips
This sounds disgusting, doesn't it? For some reason, I always thought kale must be like arugula or other spicy greens. I could also never seem to find it in the grocery store when I was looking for it. Apparently I can't read because Chris found it first try... Anyway... Basically all you have to do for kale chips is pull off the stems, rub them with some olive oil and sprinkle with salt. You bake them in the oven and they are ADDICTIVELY CRUNCHY! Little curly little crisps, that somehow remind me of roasted pumpkin seeds. I made a half batch yesterday and used the rest in soup (see below), but I'm already craving more. Weird, huh? I need to experiment with this method using spinach, too!
Fun Fact: Kale is not only delicious but also high in calcium, vitamin A, C, and K!

2) Kale and White Bean Soup
Since I had kale to spare, I threw it into soup. Would it make a slippery, slimy mess? No! It was delicious! I also threw some leftover pork tenderloin in the soup to make it extra yummy. It was an unbelievably good lunch, and left me really full without hardly any fat!

3) Finally, one-ingredient banana ice cream
Yes! I've been wanting to make this for quite some time but somehow never got around to it. We had some bananas that were turning brown so I peeled them, froze them, then blended them in my fancy Cuisinart food processor. You have to be patient, but after a couple minutes of blending they turn into a light, fluffy, not-too-banana-y frozen custard! So good! I need to try this with a touch of peanut butter or honey...although it's pretty darn good plain or with a squirt of Chocolate Magic Shell on top.

I love student health

2010-04-13T18:20:00.006-04:00

Actual exchange with a patient today:

Me: So what can we do for you today?

Student: I think a bug crawled up my nose.

Me: Why do you think that?

Student: Because I fell asleep outside yesterday and I noticed something moving around in there.

Me: Have you done anything to try to get it out?

Student: I ate spicy food, sniffed febreze, and used tweezers. None of it helped, but I think the febreze made it angry.

Despite our best efforts, we were unable to retrieve (or find evidence of) any pests up this poor girl's nose. Personally, I think our recommendations were just as amusing: black pepper (for sneezing) and a Neti Pot to flush the little bugger out!

(Disgusting) Update! - The patient emailed my doc last night...apparently she used the Neti Pot and out came......

are you ready for this?

A WORM!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwww! A little white worm. Now she's afraid it laid eggs in there.

homeowners!

2010-04-07T22:20:00.004-04:00

Holy cow, we got the house! They didn't accept our first offer but they countered and we countered their counter...and you know how it goes...but it ended up and they accepted!

Of course, everything is pending inspection and the bank and all those other hoops to jump through, but, we are under contract (yes! $8000 tax credit!) and all looks to be going in the right direction.

It was quite funny because Chris and I had still really been debating house vs townhouse and we actually didn't think they would accept our second offer. We had convinced ourselves that we didn't want the house anymore, and we wanted to get the townhouse...then we got the call...UH OH! I'm glad we hadn't completely made up our minds! But, we're super excited and happy and maybe for once in my life I'll feel like a grown up ;)

Now we need to start getting stuff to fill the house up...I've never shopped at IKEA but I have heard pretty awesome things. May need to make a trip up there soon. It's going to be a lot of fun to set up our new home!

We still have quite a bit of time left, though, as we don't close until June 1. That way we don't have to double up on as many rent payments WITH a mortgage...but June 1 seems so far off- I can't wait!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T11:22:00.004-04:00

Well, we put an offer on a house! For those of you keeping track, it was "option A" ... it's really exciting but still doesn't seem real. We're going to hear back from them by noon on Monday-I don't expect for them to just say "OK" to everything we wanted but you never know! We went back to look at it last week (with my super picky Dad) and the house just seemed right. The bathroom isn't that small, after all. The kitchen is beautiful...and there's a huge backyard (which I suppose is both good and bad!) We crunched the numbers and we can afford this house AND we can afford to put some furniture in it!

I've started my LAST rotation of medical school - which is also surreal. I'm working at the University Health Services Clinic. Basically it's all college students, and mostly acute problems. It's sort of slow, but I get decent practice using an EMR, good opportunities to learn about acute problems (like food poisoning, sinusitis, etc), and since it's two weeks after spring break, I'm becoming and STD expert!!

Friday night was my last performance in the Humanities Festival - a talent show for med students/faculty. I did not get the opportunity to play flute this year but I danced with the "Rhythm and Bones Dance Troupe" which was a lot of fun. We practiced SO MUCH this past week so I'll be glad to have my evenings back, but it ended up all coming together and being a lot of fun. There were supposedly videos made, so I will post up links when I get the chance.

As far as Easter goes, it doesn't feel like it's quite here yet! The beginning of Lent was very stressful with my Grandpa getting so sick and passing away, then with my long hours on surgery, I just don't think I had time to process it. Also, we practiced dancing so much this week I've missed a lot of the Holy Week services. We went to the Vigil Mass last night because a family friend was confirmed. It was a LONG service but, as always, it was nice. It's Chris' one year Catholic birthday, too!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of the cake before it got devoured at our Easter gathering...it was very yummy though, so I'll give you the recipe just to tempt you! :) The recipe comes directly from here, and there is a delicious and tempting picture for you to drool over for a couple months before you finally break down and make it. Or does that only happen to me?

CHOCOLATE BOURBON CAKE

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, more for greasing pan
2 cups all-purpose flour, more for dusting pan
5 ounces high quality, unsweetened dark chocolate
1/4 cup instant espresso (can use instant coffee)
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup bourbon whiskey (can use 1/2 cup), more for sprinkling
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar), for sprinkling

1 Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a large bundt pan (10 cup capacity), or two 8- or 9-inch loaf pans. Melt chocolate in a microwave oven or in a double boiler over simmering water. Let cool.

2 Put instant espresso and cocoa powder in a 2-cup (or larger) glass measuring cup. Add enough boiling water to come up to the 1 cup measuring line. Mix until powders dissolve. Stir in whiskey and salt; let cool.

3 Beat softened butter until fluffy (2-3 minutes on high). Add sugar and beat until well combined. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract, baking soda and melted chocolate, scraping down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula.

4 With the mixer on the lowest speed, beat in a third of the whiskey espresso cocoa mixture. When liquid is absorbed, beat in 1 cup flour. Repeat additions, ending with whiskey mixture. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes for Bundt pan (loaf pans will take less time, start checking them after 55 minutes).

5 Transfer cake to a rack. Unmold after 15 minutes and sprinkle warm cake with more whiskey. Let cool. Sprinkle powdered sugar through a mesh sieve over the cake before serving.

New layout and more!

2010-03-26T10:55:00.002-04:00

I may never go into the OR ever again - how awesomely awesome is that?

It's pretty awesome if you ask me. I'd be perfectly happy to never go in the OR again, never scrub with that icky iodine soap, never use the scratchy blue towels to clean off, never sweat under the lights, never worry about my glasses falling off (and into an open wound!). Although I have been told that I will someday inevitably need an additional foot surgery (which will apparently include being completely non-weight bearing for SIX WEEKS), I still like to hope that I will never even be a PATIENT in the OR, either.

Needless to say, I survived ENT. It wasn't all that bad - the residents LOVE to teach so I learned a lot and they gave us quite a few extra days off for match which was greatly appreciated.

There's plenty of other news to update about.

1) Chris and I are trying to buy a house. We have a bit of a dilemma, though, because we can't decide what we want! Here are our options:
Option 1: A really awesome house. It has a backyard with a little porch area, a garage, and lots of nice space for us. Our current favorite actually has 4 bedrooms (although 2 are pretty small) and is a pretty good deal. There are some things that aren't so perfect about it, though - it's on the main road for the entire subdivision so it's a little busy, the driveway is pretty steep, and the master bathroom is TINY.
Option 2: Our landlord mentioned to my dad that he would be willing to sell it. Hopefully we could get it cheap (maybe without a realtor fee too), we wouldn't have to move, we're SO close to campus, and it's close to Patrick and my parents and everything. The problems with it are: sparse parking (and not covered), it's kind of a undergrad area and we don't really like our neighbors, and it's a really crummy area to go for a run.
Option 3: We haven't explored this option too much, but we're interested in looking at other townhouses that would be a bit more expensive, but with better parking situations and more privacy.
Plus, we need to do it by April 30 or we won't get the tax credit. The only thing that makes this sticky is the fact that we may only be here for 3 years depending on where Chris matches when he gets to that point. We're either going to have to rent/sell our house, and for 3 years we won't even make a dent in the payments...Any insight would be appreciated :)

2) I'm dancing. and dancing and dancing and dancing! In the humanities festival next week - I even got Chris to do one of the dances with me! How adorable is that! It's a mixture of lyrical/ballet, stepping, waltz, hip hop, and swing! Chris and I are doing the swing - it's so much fun! The humanities festival is next Friday so I'd better get to practicing! :)

3) Oh yea - MATCH DAY!!! How did I even forget this one! I matched to my first choice - into the UK Primary Care Internal Medicine program. I tell people that internal medicine is like being a pediatrician for grown-ups, and the primary care track gives me more opportunities to work in an outpatient setting than an inpatient one (more clinic than hosptial). I'm so happy and excited (and of course, a little nervous). Match day was stressful and fun at the same time - you go up on stage and they play a song you pick out, you open up your envelope and announce where you're going to everybody! It's so nice to finally have the pressure off - the pressure that's been building ALL YEAR LONG! Now we finally have an answer and can make plans (like getting a place to live!)

That's about the extent of my excitement recently. As you can see, I changed the colors/layout...I think it's fun and girly and cute! Hopefully it will inspire me to write more. I'm starting University Health Services rotation (a clinic for student that's open from 9am-3pm during the week) so my 13+ hour days are going to shorten considerably!

PS- During the writing of this post, I ate half a bag of carrots. Holy cow! That's like 240% DV of Vitamin A!

two down, two to go

2010-03-13T07:07:00.002-05:00

Another week has come and gone in the land of ENT. I got quite a bit lazier this week, finding plenty of excuses to go hide in the student lounge and watch TV, but somehow being slightly more useful on the team. I don't know how that works out. I think it's a quality-quantity thing.

Anyway, it's silly early in the morning for me to be up (well I guess it's around 7am now so not so silly), although this is my entire weekend off. I just happened to fall asleep around 8:30 last night and couldn't spend another minute in bed! Dang!

Today Chris and I are running in the Shamrock Shuffle 3k today! I'm pretty excited, especially that it's so short (>

The rest of the weekend is up for grabs. I've been dying to bake but I have no reasons to...I got to make a tiny batch of white chocolate-oatmeal-craisin cookies last weekend when Chris' parents came down but nothing else...I don't even cook dinner!

Well, I've got to go get ready for all this running I'm supposed to do. I guess I'm supposed to wear green?!

quick

2010-03-06T16:57:00.002-05:00

I need to clean because Chris' parents are on their way BUT I needed to throw out a couple things.

1) I'm alive. Barely. Week 1 down, 3 to go of ENT AI. It's killing me much more than last year (when I actually cared). Also, there must be something wrong with my shoes because all the standing is EXCRUCIATING. Gah. May go shoe shopping tonight.

2) My poor grandpa Joe passed away last week, just a few days after his 90th birthday. His funeral was on Monday and was probably the most emotional day of my life. It was amazing and beautiful and just the way a funeral should be.

3) I just accidentally found the blog notstudying.blogspot.com and it looks just like mine! Except it hasn't been written in for 5 years and the girl is kind of the opposite of me, it looks like. Interesting.

4) I need to go clean the kitchen. Sorry. Maybe I will post more soon. I hope so, but I am either at work, eating, or sleeping. Literally, I have done NOTHING ELSE. How do surgeons do this? Who can live this way? I have no idea, but it stinks. A LOT. I think if I was a surgeon I would be grumpy, obese, and lonely (poor Chris can't handle much more of this!) Thankfully, only 3 more weeks. Ugh!

Love you all!

Prom photos

2010-02-25T11:09:00.001-05:00

Chris thought I should put up these pictures getting ready for med school prom. I'm apparently practicing to be a movie star. :) Unfortunately for everyone, Chris forgot to use his camera the rest of the night, so these are the only pics I have - I don't even have one of Chris! Oh well, a good time was had by all - you really can't beat dessert and dancing. :)

As you may know, I read a lot of food blogs. I'm sure that ups my dorkiness factor, but really, who am I trying to impress? I kept reading about this tomato sauce that seemed waaay too easy to be good. I eventually tried it, and I have to say - they were right. Chris told me just the other day that it was the BEST tomato sauce he's ever had, and ranks high on the best meals he's ever eaten. Ever! Can you guess what the secret ingredient is? It's not basil, garlic, or any of those silly seasonings. There are actually only three ingredients...I'll let you decide for yourself. I highly recommend you try this. Tonight. It's crazy.

28 ounces (one big can) whole peeled tomatoes (San Marzano is apparently the best kind, if you can find them. I didn't use them the first time, but I found some later so I'll make it again and maybe let you know how it goes)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt to taste

Put the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste.

That's all. You won't be sorry!

Valentines and Caduceus

2010-02-25T10:58:00.001-05:00

My lovely husband fixed me these pancakes for Valentines day! We don't usually get too into V-day too much since everything is 1) fattening 2) expensive, and 3) crowded. But, sweet berry pancakes in bed is a pretty good option.

Caduceus, or "med school prom," was a couple weekends ago. Chris and I decided to have a few people over beforehand just for a little fun. And the best way to get people to come over, of course, is with cake. I decided to make this cake and these cupcakes from a nerdy science food blog that I frequent, called Not So Humble Pie. My treats were not nearly as pretty (not anywhere near, since the cake didn't cook evenly and ended up looking pretty crazy) but boy were they delicious! We ended up having quite a crowd come over and almost all of the cake got eaten (which is exactly how I wanted it) and I am pretty sure it was well liked by all. Yum!

Coconut cake with raspberry white chocolate ganache

Marshmallow cream-filled chocolate cupcakes!

These were just some leftover sugar cookies I had from a bake sale...They were obviously not as big a hit as the cakes. My mouth is watering for some more of that coconut cake just thinking about it!

As an aside, my grandpa passed away this morning. I may put up some posts about it later (I have already written some but not posted them), but not yet. Please keep my family (especially my grandma) in your prayers. :)

Rachel's Surprise Bridal Shower!

2010-02-20T15:43:00.006-05:00

My friend Rachel is getting married in a few months! A few of my other friends decided to throw her a surprise shower a few days ago, and I volunteered to make the cake! I made a cute little cake and cupcakes - all in "orange dreamsicle" flavor (which happens to be one of the flavors of Rachel's wedding cake!!)

Rachel was hilarious - when they opened the door and we all yelled "Surprise!!" she turned and asked "what are we celebrating?" That just means it was a good surprise.

Rachel is one of the nicest people I know, and her fiance is one lucky guy! Apparently he doesn't really care for cake, though, so they're going to have some wedding pie to go along with their cake. :)

The party was fabulous and the cake was a big hit. I definitely had a great time and I'm pretty sure the bride-to-be did too.

Rainbow pancakes

2010-02-20T15:12:00.003-05:00

Oh man. I've not written anything in a while, so now I don't know where to start. I think first we should start with some pancakes. It's always a good idea to start with pancakes. In fact, that's how I started my day - we made sweet potato pancakes! Yum! My husband is a great pancake flipper, and Patrick, my brother, is a great pancake eater. These rainbow pancakes were my favorite pancake recipe ever - super almond pancakes.

Patrick gives these a (really tall) thumbs up.

Katie, Chris, and Patrick's super almond pancakes

Adapted from Giada DeLaurentis

Whip up your favorite pancake recipe (if you want a special treat, use almond milk instead of regular!), then add 1tsp almond extract. Pour each pancake out on the pan, and drop little bits of almond paste into the pancake - it will melt a little and get nutty and gooey all in the pancake. It's like a sweet little surprise with each bite!

If you want rainbow pancakes, just separate the batter into cups and color each one with food coloring. I think you can figure that part out. You have to do a lot of dishes afterward, but I think it's worth the effort. :)

Many more posts to come!

Christopher gets a haircut

2010-01-30T22:43:00.001-05:00

One day, Chris decided he needed a haircut.

He usually got his hair cut at SuperCuts or GreatClips, but he felt that paying $10 for a crummy haircut was a bad deal. Also, the last lady that cut his hair was a big fat jerk, so he didn't want to end up with her again. He also didn't want to go to the salon I use because it is about $30/haircut. Although the cut may look nicer, we are poor med students, so only one of us gets nice hair. (That's me!)

Chris got a bright idea! He was going to cut his own hair with his very own clippers! That would save tons of money!He enjoyed the last of his mullet hair and said goodbye.

He took off to the brown bathroom and started buzzing away. I have no idea who in their right mind decided to paint our guest bathroom brown. Poo brown. Probably the same person who decided neon-lavendar and puke-yellowbrown were good bedroom colors. Not quite finished (a little lumpy still) but looking much lighter! Isn't my husby a cutie?!
Our pirate duckie got in on the fun and rode the waves.
The end!

Belated Holiday Post

2010-01-28T21:02:00.006-05:00

My friend (and "forever-roomie"), Amanda has been in Peru doing missionary work as a teacher for the past year and a half. She is having a blast and is currently planning to be out there at least another year and a half! I'm super proud to call her my friend. She came home to visit for Christmas (and I hope hope hope I will be able to visit her in Peru within the coming year - !!!) and I was lucky enough to spend TWO evenings with her!

I was actually lucky enough to hang out with her AND with my friend Jessica. She's a Spanish teacher and pretty awesome herself. Amanda, Jessica, and Jessica's husband Matthew came over and Chris and I cooked dinner. We made white bean hummus and crackers, pasta with bolognese sauce, a nice big salad, and...drumroll please...chocolate marscapone brownies with chocolate ganache and topped with almond whipped cream. Pretty amazing.

We also had lots of fun playing with Chris' camera. For some reason, these were the only photos he gave me (and probably the only "normal" photos of the entire night!).

Amanda gave me this super cute Peruvian scarf - I love it! I think it makes me look trendy, don't you? :)

Hooray!

You can't make this stuff up

2010-01-28T13:36:00.002-05:00

Today was my last day of dermatology. It's been a great month. A little boring because it was all shadowing, but easy (4 half-days/week) and I learned a whole lot. I actually really liked derm - I found it extremely satisfying and I hope my future practice allows me to do some dermatological work. There were some great patients, including this one I had today:

An elderly woman came in after being referred from her PCP. She wasn't really sure why she was supposed to be there (other than a checkup), which is pretty common occurrence in a specialist's office. She was, however, worried about a spot on her chest which she had just noticed this morning.

She got up on the examining table and showed us her chest. There was a sticker with a hole in it (like a reinforcement for paper, see photo) surrounding a pink mole.

Dr. M and I thought this was a really cute way to keep track of which mole you want the doctor to look at. The mole was fine. Dr. M told her she thought it was fine, and peeled the sticker off to finish her examination. The patient looked shocked, and exclaimed "Oh! That was just a sticker! I had no idea!"

Maybe the poor woman needs a referral to see an eye doctor next.

Marathon

2010-01-26T15:38:00.002-05:00

That's right folks, I ran a marathon. Nevermind that it took me five days to complete, or that it isn't really running if you're on a machine in a gym, but that I did it and that's kinda cool. I even ran eight miles the other day! Eight! I've been increasing my trips to the gym for one simple reason:

I don't like wearing pants.

This happens every once in a while. I walk around, pantsless (and freezing, given the dreary January weather) either until I find a cozy pair of sweatpants lying around or just give up and curl up in my snuggie and don't budge off the couch.

Why am I pantsless? I think my pants get a little tighter and I just decide not to wear them anymore. Why are my pants tighter? Well, it might have to do with the all-inclusive honeymoon, the holidays, and the fact that I love baking and do it pretty much whenever Chris plays video games. Which is all the time.

So, I've been hitting the gym a bit more and I can say I've successfully worn pants ALL DAY for the past two days. I think of that as an accomplishment!

I've mostly been running on the elliptical machine because the treadmill gives me a weird pain in the side of my foot - I think because my shoes are old. So, I've been "ellipticaling" I guess you could say. You know how they talk about a "runner's high"? Well, being that I've only run 4 miles max in my whole life I'd never experienced that sort of thing. However, the other day I was bored and just kept running...it helped that I was fully stocked with sweat covered magazines, a big window, my ipod, and 3 televisions within eyeshot...and I ran, and ran, and ran. And you know what happened when I stopped running? I wanted to run more! We left the gym and I ran to the car. I know - bizarre. But it was really cool.

I probably won't keep up my crazy habit and I'm pretty sure I will NEVER have the urge to run a real marathon (black toenail, anyone?), but I'm having fun right now, and that's what counts. And I'm still wearing pants.

Dance Blue Bake Sale!

2010-01-20T21:17:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I made cupcakes.

Blue and white swirly cupcakes.

Then, I decorated them with fondant made out of homemade marshmallows.

UKCOM had a bake sale today for DanceBlue, a 24-hour no sitting no sleeping danceathon held to raise money for pediatric oncology at UK. I made these vanilla-almond cuppie-cakes and had a lot of fun decorating them, and I also made homemade marshmallows. Chris said they got a lot of attention when he dropped them off today - I sure hope they were a hit!

Thanks

2010-01-19T14:18:00.003-05:00

It would be a lot easier if I'd written these residency interview thank you notes about a month ago.

Especially since I apparently have absolutely no recollection of one of them. Oops. I think I can wing it, though! Now just to figure out what I'm actually going to do with my life. Ugh!

Not much new going on here, still on derm - I actually really really like derm and I really can't complain working only four 1/2 days per week, but it's sort of boring since all I do is shadow. I realize I can't do the same things as a dermatologist, but seriously, couldn't I freeze that wart myself? Or talk to the patients at all? I think I can. I'm *almost* a doctor. (Yippee!)

On a sadder note, 2010 hasn't started off on the best foot for our family. After Prancer passed away, my grandparent's little doggie, Max, also passed away (he was like their baby!), so it's been really hard on them. To make it even harder, my grandpa fell and bled into his brain (and was on blood thinners, bad combination...) and is having surgery tomorrow to release the pressure. It sounds like he will be OK right now but will likely need to move to a nursing home (and for a 90 year old like him, they're going to have a hard time keeping up with him!) Please keep him, my grandma, and the rest of my family in your prayers.

Because I don't want a depressing end to this post, I'll tell you something exciting (for me, anyway). I found an opportunity to do two things I love AT THE SAME TIME - volunteering and baking! Why didn't I think of this sooner?! I'm baking cupcakes and marshmallows for the Dance Blue Bake Sale - hopefully some awesome photos tonight!

Weddings and Things

2010-01-09T16:15:00.003-05:00

It's that time of year again - time for engagements! Planning a wedding is quite an undertaking (usually) and I have to say I didn't love that part of it - having a constant to-do list is not my idea of a good time!

I've had a lot of people asking me who I used for things and my recommendations and I'm happy to oblige.

Location/Food
We had our reception at Embassy Suites Hotel. I did NOT want a hotel reception but they were actually fantastic. Amy Stamper worked with us and was unbelievably helpful and nice - and she was completely on top of things! We didn't use a wedding planner but she basically did everything for us - she even coordinated our other vendors for the big day. Their chef helped us pick out a meal and they were patient and worked with us to meet all of our needs. Everything was wonderful! Also, we didn't have to pay a "room fee" as part of the package - we just paid for food! Definitely check them out.

Photography
Our photographers were awesome. Seriously. Since Chris dabbles in photography quite a bit, he was really, really picky when it came to our photographers. We used Varland Photography from Cincinnati and they didn't let us down. Annie and Toby (a husband-wife team) were affordable, gave us rights to the photos, threw in an engagement session, and were just downright cool people. We were sad the wedding was over because that meant we couldn't hang out with them more. I definitely recommend them!

Flowers
We used Ivory Rose Floral for flowers. Beth, the owner, runs the business and makes all the arrangements herself. Since she gets wholesale flowers and does all the arranging, it makes her cheaper than other places. She did a really good job, but I felt she seemed to sort of push roses. If you want a crazy bouquet, that may not be the place to get it, but for everything traditional she's your lady! She will loan you vases (like for centerpieces and things), but I recommend buying them from a craft store or flower shop so you can give them away at the end of the day without collecting the vases.

Dress/Alterations
I got a Maggie Sottero dress from Ruth's Bridal. I hate to give bad reviews but I will say that my dress was two MONTHS late and once it finally came in and was at least two sizes too big. Like, waaay too big, maybe even three sizes. Nobody there ever seemed worried about it (even though I was stressing more than a little) and they are terrible about answering their phones. They have gorgeous dresses, but charge a lot and I wasn't a fan of their service. They don't do alterations in store, either.
On the bright side, I did use Barbie at Alter Ego for alterations, and she was wonderful. She knew exactly what she was doing, was prompt, and was reasonably priced. If you need alterations definitely go there!

Tuxes
We got our tuxes from Genos. They were fine, we didn't have any problems with them but a couple of the tuxes didn't fit, so we had to go back and get them changed. Get them as early as they let you to make sure they fit!

Musicians/DJ
The Newman Center provided us ceremony musicians for a donation to the church since we are parishioners there. Our DJ was Thomas from Complete Music, and he was really laid back and had a great personality, not annoying at all. He did get a couple of our songs wrong (like, the "bouquet toss song"), but the ones that were really important he got right! :)

Invitations
Our invitations were beautiful! Emily Mistretta at Minuteman Press did our invitations and she was wonderful to work with. My mom loved her, her dog, and her baby - I swear she would make up excuses just to go visit them! She is very affordable, very professional, and very patient! We couldn't make up our minds with the invites so she made many different proofs, and when we realized two days before the wedding that we had no programs, she whipped them up exactly like we wanted in no time! Very highly recommended!!

Cake
I almost forgot the cake! We used Martine's, a honest-to-goodness French lady who makes delicious, beautiful cakes. Her prices were about the same as everywhere else we looked (maybe a tiny bit higher) but her cakes were richer and prettier. She took my ideas and ran with them!

comfort food

2010-01-07T21:55:00.003-05:00

Tonight was one of those nights. On one hand, I've been on derm rotation all week trekking all the way across Lexington (and risking my life during morning rush hour). On the other hand, I only started work on Tuesday, only worked half days (8-noon), and I have a day off tomorrow. The temperatures are dropping lower and lower and panic has set in to our icy town. My street is a deathtrap and my parking lot has spun out one too many cars for my liking (Chris literally had to push someone out of their spot).

In reality, every other road in Lexington is fine, except for my pitiful little street. Thankfully we're not on too much of a hill! Anyway, it was a comfort food kind of night. I pulled out my newly acquired "Joy of Cooking" book Chris gave me for Christmas (thanks, sweets!) and flipped through the pages while Patrick played video games on the couch. We decided on sloppy joes to use up the ground beef we had in the fridge, and I decided that I just couldn't pass up making some mac and cheese to go with it.

Both were delicious, but I have to say that the mac was some of the best I've ever tasted. I like for my mac and cheese to have a lot of flavor (since it's full of calories) and I've been disappointed on many occasions with various store bought mixes (and even recipes of my own). I didn't have the right noodles or enough of any ingredient, but I played with a recipe and just had to share. I sadly don't have any photos because, well, it was just too delicious. Mac and cheese really isn't that photogenic anyway.

Delicious Macaroni and Cheese (adapted from Joy of Cooking)
Makes 4ish servings

1 cup pasta (I used those tiny little alphabet noodles because that's all I had)
- boil pasta according to package directions and return to the pot

Add the following to the pasta:
1 tbsp margarine or butter
1/2 can (a 12 oz can, so 6 oz) evaporated milk
>1cup extra sharp cheddar (I used lowfat cheese and it did just fine)
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp mustard (all I had was a packet of Chinese mustard, I think this is what made it so amazing)
1/2 tsp salt (or as needed)
1/4 tsp ground red (cayenne) pepper

Stir on low heat for 5-10 minutes. Don't let it boil or the egg will scramble and you'll have lumps in your mac. The sauce will get really think (you're essentially making a custard base) and everything will get all melty. I love that the mustard and cayenne made it just a little bit spicy, and the cheese sort of sets that off a bit. It makes yummy leftovers too but we only had a couple spoonfuls left over, so next time I will be making a double batch for sure!

Sloppy Joe's not from a packet (also adapted from Joy of cooking)
-Chris dubbed these the Best Sloppy Joes Ever, but I'm pretty partial to the powdered stuff...it feels good not eating a bunch of preservatives, though!

Heat the following in a skillet on medium for about 10 minutes or until everything is soft but not brown:
1 onion, finely diced
1 red or yellow pepper, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper

Remove vegetables from skillet. Brown 1 lb ground beef, then add the vegetable mixture back. Next, add in:

1/2 c ketchup
1/2 c beer (water works too, but why use water when you can use beer? Plus, you have to finish the bottle off somehow...)
3 Tbsp Worcerstershire sauce
Hot sauce or salsa to taste

Simmer until thickened, 10-15 minutes. Toast up some buns and pile it on high! They're called Sloppy Joes for a reason. :)

Now it's time to curl up in my Snuggie (don't bash it - they're SO cozy!) and watch some Netflix! My doc is off on Fridays so I get a snow day tomorrow!

Prancer Lucky Twist

2010-01-04T14:18:00.005-05:00

The first movie I ever saw in the theater was All Dogs Go To Heaven. I was 3 1/2 years old, and I thought the movie was ridiculous. "I didn't like the movie" I told my mom while leaving the theater. When she inquired why, I told her "because everybody knows, dogs can't talk!"

I now understand fictional cartoons a bit better than my 3 year old self did, but I still hope that all dogs go to heaven. Because I think a lot of us won't go unless our pets come too!

I lost a best friend today. Prancer, our boxer, has been sick since Thanksgiving, and finally just couldn't keep going today. I've been heartbroken over it for some time now - aside from some goldfish (and a short-lived chameleon), Prancer was our only pet, so I've never had to deal with one passing away before. She lived a wonderful life and I think she touched many of us in a positive way that maybe we didn't realize until now. She's only a dog, but one that will never be forgotten. I wanted to share some of my memories here.

Patrick had been asking for a dog for almost a year (Patrick is the persistent one). We'd researched and researched, and decided that Boxers were athletic dogs that my dad would want to run with, they were good with kids, and they seemed like pretty good overall pets. Patrick even went so far as to start praying for a fawn color boxer with a black mask and white paws at the dinner table. We got her for Christmas in 1998. She started crying in her kennel early Christmas morning, waking up Gregory. My mom eventually just brought her upstairs to let us see her. They brought her into my room and I thought she was a puppet until they put her on my bed and she started to move!

I was in the 8th grade, finishing up with that "awkward middle school phase," and I remember wanting to stay up on New Years Eve that year. She slept in my lap while I stayed up to watch the ball drop on TV. (And by the way, how boring is watching the ball drop? Who came up with that idea anyway? Silly.) She was always there for you to cuddle with.

Throughout the years, Prancer has been a friend to everyone who entered our home. She used to be barely able to contain herself, wiggling everywhere when guests would come over. That's how she got her name in the first place, prancing around (and it helped that she was a Christmas pup-we named her after the reindeer!). We initially were going to name her Xena (because she was strong, like the warrior princess show on TV) but Patrick and Gregory couldn't remember her name...so she ended up as Prancer Lucky Twist. "Lucky" was Gregory's idea...I don't know why. Maybe because she was!

We moved to Colorado my sophomore year of high school. We moved about a month before school started, so I didn't have any friends. I would take Prancer for walks around the lake behind our house hoping to make friends. I never made a friend over at Waneka Lake, but Prancer and I shared plenty of good times there. I remember letting her get her feet wet on the shallow water, and watching her pounce on the dirt and sand that floated up from where her paws dug into the shore. One day, I took her to the neighboring lake that had a dock (instead of the shallow water like the other lake did)...Prancer walked right over to the water, touched it with her paw, felt that it was like the other lake, and stepped right on down...except that it was a couple feet deep! She fell in and couldn't hop back out onto the dock. I had to climb into the lake and pull her out! We were both smelly and wet and still had to walk back to our house...half a mile away. We got some funny looks on that walk!

When we moved back to KY after Colorado, we moved into a house that was all hardwood floors. My dad is a little OCD, and had a hard time when Prancer would get excited and her nails would scratch the floors. The solution? Prancer had to wear shoes! Prancer had her very own set of booties that she would wear each day. It was hilarious to watch her initially getting used to the shoes - she would walk around lifting her feet high above her head with each step. She eventually got used to them and actually couldn't hardly get down our stairs without wearing them (with their "no-slip grip" bottoms). Everyone loved to see her with her bright yellow boots!

Prancer was a sweet little dog that will never be forgotten. I'll miss you!

11/9/98-1/4/10

Workout DVDs

2010-01-02T13:33:00.001-05:00

So, Chris and I have had Netflix for about five months. In that time, I've watched many workout videos (and participated in them, of course!). Although many I only watched once, there were a few that I really liked. Since pretty much everybody wants to get healthier in the new year, I thought I'd throw in my two cents as far as which videos I would buy. That is, if I didn't do netflix - which IS cheaper than a gym membership you know, and there are many choices for instant streaming workouts! Before I start sounding like an infomercial for netflix, here are my recommendations and non-recommendations! (in no particular order)

(Edited in: To save you from reading everything, Self: Bikini Ready Fast, Jillian's 30-Day Shred are my top two; and the shred is actually the best I've ever done by far. Buy it.)

Self: Bikini Ready, Fast

I really like Self workouts, and this is probably my favorite. Ellen Barrett is the instructor and I have a not-secret girl crush on her. She's not annoying at all, and explains everything well. You need light weights for this video (I did it with 5lb and it got my muscles burning; they recommend 2-5lb). This is a great toning workout, and there is a lot of "standing ab work" which is cool and different, but maybe not the best ab routine ever. I feel like there is more focus on upper body, but I did this just yesterday and my legs and back are sore and my arms are fine. Weird! The video is about 30 minutes (maybe a bit longer).

Self: Your Best Butt, Fast

Self: Firm, Flat Abs Fast

Self: Slim and Sleek, Fast

These are all more Self workouts. They're all decent, I don't like them as much as Bikini Ready but they're pretty solid. They are a little more cardio (which I prefer to do on the treadmill or outside) but good to do on a rainy day.

Jillian Michaels: No more Trouble Zones

Cardio Kickboxing

30 day shred

Banish Fat Boost Metabolism

Although I don't watch The Biggest Loser, I really, really like Jillian workouts. Every single one I've ever done has been solid. My favorite is hands down 30 Day Shred. There are three 20-minute workouts that are HARD. You will sweat so much and it's awesome because it is over in 20 minutes! It's circuit training, and keeps your heartrate up with cardio, strength (you need light hand weights), and ab work. I've never done 30 days of it, though, so I can't vouch for the effectiveness of it alone, I just really enjoy the video. BFBM was another solid workout, also circuit training, but is a little less intense but lasts for 50 minutes. Cardio kickboxing is fun and a good cardio workout (I think 30-40 min if I remember correctly) - not as hard as the shred, but actually a pretty awesome addition to it if you really want a workout! One thing I really appreciate about all these is that Jillian combines moves - so you're doing legs and arms together to burn more calories in less time, which is what I want.

10 Minute Solution: Kickbox bootcamp
Target Toning
Rapid results Pilates
Fat blasting dance mix

If you are looking for a super quick workout (and maybe not the most hard 10 minutes of your life) these are pretty good. I've tried to do these as study breaks, but I actually prefer to just do three or four of them at a time...or all of them! Each DVD is broken into about 5, 10-minute segments. Some (particularly Toning and Pilates) will focus on one area of the body at a time (so if you want to do 10 min of abs, you can do just that). The pilates is the best of the group, and I couldn't do the dance mix - not coordinated enough and she went too fast for me! I do like that these can be done with very little time commitment (and it's easy to say "well that 10 minutes wasn't that bad, maybe I can spare 10 more)

Crunch: Cardiosalsa
Candlelight yoga
Fat Burning Ab Attack

I don't like these too much. Cardiosalsa was too crazy and yoga usually isn't my thing. Maybe somebody else would like them, but they weren't for me.

The biggest loser: the workout

This workout was okay, a decent workout and the contestants on the show actually do the workouts, which is encouraging. It wasn't a super hard workout but it's better than sitting on the couch! It was laid back, and there are some workouts (I think out of 4 total) that are low-impact. Trainer Bob is the host (if you follow the show) and he's pretty laid back and not very pushy, so you have to keep yourself motivated. 4 workouts, 100 minutes total.

Cindy Crawford: Shape your body workout

This video was made in the 80s. It's not very fun, Cindy isn't all that good at what she's doing and she does it waaay too fast. It was funny to look at but got sent back after watching only maybe 5 minutes. I couldn't handle the 80's-ness of it all.

P90X

My brothers got P90 last year and I actually did half the workouts (I mean, I did all the videos for 45 days instead of the full 90). The premise is you workout every day (each video is over an hour) and you alternate with strength training and cardio. The workouts seemed pretty good but long and Tony Horton was only a little annoying (mostly he was sort of funny because he is crazy). Unfortunately, I think these videos were made for men. Chris and I did the same things for a month and a half (seriously, that was a huge time commitment for me) and he bulked up some, but I didn't notice any bit of difference - halfway through the program, working out more than I had ever done in my life(!) and eating healthy, and I didn't notice any changes - no extra energy, no firmer, no healthier. So...I'm not a fan.

The Statuses of 2009

2010-01-02T01:56:00.006-05:00

While I usually disapprove of most facebook applications, I found one that a friend had used that shows what your status updates were for the entire year. I tried it out and it let me see all my updates for the whole year (as far as I can tell anyway) and I thought it was actually a pretty good overview of my year. 2009 - you were more amazing than I ever would have guessed. Here's to an even better 2010! January
	needs to sleep before her 6am ER shift.

	caught a cold and spent her only day off at marriage class. Ick!

	is NOT happy that being a 3rd year means being a "Plan B" employee. Boo!
Yes, I remember surviving the great snowstorm of 2009. The roads were ridiculous, and I should have just called in. Seriously, 3rd years don't matter anyway. Thankfully, I only live a mile away and I had an awesome fiance (now husband!) who drove me in and picked me up (seriously--awesome).
February
	is-holy cow-getting married in 8 months!
So much of the year was spent preparing for marriage. Marriage classes, meeting with the priest (hundreds of times it seemed like), picking out every teensy little detail. I wish that it hadn't stressed me out at all, that everything was in stride, but these silly wedding guides make you believe that it really DOES matter whether you have ivory or white linens, or whether your food is a buffet or served by waiters. I eventually realized that none of that stuff matters at all to me, and that made the process so much easier! I'm glad it's only something I have to do once, though!
	is about to enjoy her first day off in two weeks! whoo!

March
	was at lexington green and somebody was shot!
I still get a little creeped out when I go over there. I was at Lenscrafters and I heard the gunshots...but had no idea what they were! One of the scariest moments of the year.
	made 108 pumpkin chip muffins.

	has a dress. :)
and it was lovely! It was hard to come to a decision that the dress that I wanted was completely and absolutely unlike what I thought I wanted...but everything turned out perfect in the end.
	is visiting Indianapolis this weekend.

April
	hopes the peds neurologists will let her off for Easter!

	caught a bird. in her dryer.
	is proud of Catholic Christopher!
Chris became Catholic this year (on his own, not even because of me!), and he has made me such a better person in the process. Thanks, Chris.
	has seen enough strokes, thanks.
Neurology was not my thing.
May
	RAINBOW CAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

	is irked they moved the neuro exam, but instead I got a dental appt. so I guess everything worked out.

	No-Cavity-Katie strikes again!

	needs someone to give her advice for surgery rotation, or at least let her borrow some books?

	has yellow hair! eep!
I went back to being blonde this year (after a couple years of red and brown...and I hate that I love it. It's such a pain to keep up but it's so gosh darn cute! Well, I'll enjoy it for the rest of 4th year, then sleep-deprivation of residency may turn me back into a brunette...we'll see.
June
	needs help with my ant problem. Bleck!

	got laryngoscoped today! for fun!

	has the best and sneakiest friends! Thanks so much, guys, you're awesome! :-D
My groupmates threw me a surprise bachelorette party, and it was fantastic! So fun.
July
	Chris made blueberry cornmeal pancakes...mmm :)

	305 days and you gotta call me Dr. Twist! (or Dr. Simmons, or whatever)

	is going to take a $1000 test. Boo.
CS wasn't really that bad, but it could have been cheaper. Or optional. Went to Atlanta with my parents and hung out at the Coke museum for an afternoon. It was a quick trip but nice to spend time with my parents.
	has too many teacher friends and they're making me sad with their "starting school" updates...I need a vacation too!

August
	...is a 4th year... whoo!

	does anyone know anything about dial-up internet nowadays?
I studied for CK at my grandparents house, and they had no internet, so I had to find some options. I ended up with broadband that we just paid for a month...a fantastic idea to make me study, actually.
	warm, homemade italian cream cupcakes. from scratch. :)
I was making my grandma's 80th birthday cake, and needed to practice all the recipes to make sure they'd turn out well! Chocolate chip, carrot, italian cream, and chocolate. How could they not turn out well?
	3 years of nonstop multiple choice tests has made it practically impossible to write an essay...

	teensy baby pumpkin pies!

	moving my stuff from apt 37 to apt 47 (before hopefully moving to B-town for AHEC...)

	Chris got his wedding band today! whoo!

	just busted out ERAS tonight...yessssss

September
	only 3 days on peds, and I already caught something. ughhhh. Thankfully, it's probably not swine flu.
I was sick that WHOLE ENTIRE MONTH...extremely frustrating, and I had no energy to be gettng ready for the wedding! It was a good excuse to hole myself up in the back room and study for boards, though, so I guess it was good in the end.
	had a great birthday, thanks for all the messages! :)

	is getting married in ONE MONTH! yeaa!

	has been voiceless for over a week...and the coughing begins. kids are little germballs.
I had no voice for THREE weeks total. Ridiculous. Almost made me swear off pediatrics forever.
	decorating a HUGE cake for my grandma's 80th birthday bash today! hooray!

October
	Step 2 on Friday - blech. Then the fun begins!

	had an awesome weekend!

	getting married in 9 days, getting excited!

	passed CS! Even though it's not much of an accomplishment, I think it still deserves celebrating :)

	is married! it's awesome!!!
The honeymoon was even awesomer :)
	is married, sunburned, and rocked the boards...best last day of vacation ever!

November
	just did the math, and I'm getting paid $0.15/hour this month. Better than nothing!
	just made homemade cookie dough ice cream (and peach frozen yogurt yesterday) !!!
Bought myself an ice cream maker with gift cards from the wedding. Definitely have gotten our money's worth on that purchase!
	loves making frozen yogurt!

	sturgeon face :c

	loves vegetables.

	is making pumpkin ice cream...mmmmmmm!

	has wedding pictures! HOORAY!

	figured out how to made chocolate fudgesicle ice cream (and it's lowfat!). YES.

December
	has begun her trek down the interview trail.

	made delicious soup! Yea! http://bit.ly/qqOOu
I baked and cooked more and more as the year has wound down to a close. I had less and less to do, so I just filled the time with cookies, soups, muffins, and everything else. I try to give most of it away so I don't become obese...you know.
	baking eggnog-cranberry muffins and gingerbread cookies...headed to NC tomorrow for one more interview. hooray, holidays!

	cleaning, decorating, and baking for a holiday party!

	ridiculously sore...spent too long at the gym I guess. Maybe gingerbread cookies will make it better!

	wedding pictures are (finally) up...thanks to Chris! and thanks to Varland Photography for taking such awesome photos!

	is choppin off her hair today!

	my husband is apparently a gourmet chef, who knew? <3>

	homemade graham crackers and homemade marshmallows equals only one thing...SMORES

with photos!

2009-12-30T00:49:00.007-05:00

It must be a Christmas miracle! Chris stopped playing the video game and graciously uploaded my photos from his camera, loaded them onto his computer, cropped them properly (and tried to fix any gross errors in lighting), and sweetly handed them to me for this post! Hooray! Now, he's back to the video games and I am hankering for another miniature smore (OMG yum - there need to be some photos of these!)

So, I suppose in no particular order...(truly no order, because blogger requires it to be so)

My sweet little puppy Prancer, she looks so sad. It breaks my heart!

Homemade marshmallows - easy and absolutely delicious. Most likely the best marshmallows you've ever tasted.

Some tasty wine Chris bought (for about $10) and it was great!

Chris made this unbelievable dinner for our "2-month wedding anniversary" - Chilean sea bass on a bed of mushroom and onion with a mushroom risotto...totally gourmet and maybe, just maybe, on of my favorite meals. Ever!

Goodbye long hair Katie!!

Hellooooo short hair! It's so easy to wash! And brush! and it looks awesome!! Yeaaa!

The first batch of crackers. I've tried them with olive oil and whole wheat flour too now, but no pictures (as of yet!). These I ate in a day and a half. Yes, all of them. With rosemary, garlic, and parmesean as toppings, how can these not be good?

A delicious Christopher concoction (the red sugar sprinkles were my idea, though)
and a painting I randomly decided to do one day. It's pretty big and hangs over our couch. I wanted to add big white flowers but haven't gotten around to it. I kind of like it like this. Oh, and it was way harder than it looks, so you should appreciate all the subtelties in it... or something like that.

Have a very Merry Christmas (remember, the 12 days of Christmas are not over yet!!) and a super Happy New Year!!

The end of the 200-'s

2009-12-29T23:56:00.002-05:00

My Christmas was lovely, filled with all sorts of family, friends, and fun. I've been baking quite a bit (more crackers, marshmallows, graham crackers, brownies....you get the idea!) and to add fuel to the fire, Chris bought me THREE cookbooks for Christmas! Not little wimpy cookbooks, either. He gave me both volumes of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Child (after watching Julie/Julia with me I think he wants me to cook through the entire book like she did!) and "Joy of Cooking," as well as an Alton Brown-esque book about the science behind cooking. I suppose that's four books! I better get back in the kitchen! :)

Anyway, we spent time with both families, got a good bit of snow in Indy (that somehow made me nostalgic for Colorado!) and just have had a relaxing time. Chris got a bunch of new video games, so he has been ignoring me and I've been playing in the kitchen. Everything is working out perfectly! We also saw Avatar in 3D (which is the only way to see it, really!)...the storyline was OK but the graphics were unbelievable! If you need to borrow some 3D glasses I have a couple spare pairs lying around, too.

My latest concoctions (as in today) have been graham crackers and olive oil crackers. Freakin' yum is all I have to say. and I wish I could make my food photography as pretty as theirs! I also wish I could have a digital converter on MY computer so I didn't have to pass everything through Chris (he is busy playing Wii, I can't bother him right now!)... Oh well!

Oh, and I also made homemade marshmallows. Did I tell you that? Because I used them to make baby smores tonight...and they were unbelievably good. I promise, they weren't that hard and definitely not as messy as I thought (they were a little messy, but they're marshmallows, what do you expect?!)

My dear friend Amanda (who lives in Peru!!!) came by tonight since she's in town for the holidays. It was great to hang out with her AND I'm super lucky because she is coming back tomorrow! I'm going to make her some delicious "America" food and also have our friends over, Jessica and Matthew. I've planned a menu that I hope to be AMAZING...we'll see if it's picture-worthy tomorrow night!

On a sadder note, my poor puppy dog is very sick. Prancer is 11 years old now (which is old in boxer years!) and has heart failure. We almost lost her on Thanksgiving but she got a bit better, but has gotten sick again, and isn't eating much at all. It's heartbreaking - I've never lost a dog before (my only past pets have included several goldfish that lived for excessive periods of time, and a creepy chameleon, but nothing furry, happy and loveable like my little Prancer). It breaks my heart to see her sick and know that she has no idea why. I'm not dealing with it as well as I would like, but I suppose it's the circle of life and we have to just cherish every moment we get with everyone, and everything.

I'm still trying to figure out new years resolutions. I think I should write an entire post on all the workout DVDs I've watched (thanks, Netflix!) since I'm pretty much an expert in that arena and it seems like everyone always wants to get healthy in the new year. I am more for choosing resolutions I think I can keep instead of something vague/crazy. Maybe it will be to eat less flour (I seriously ate like 3 cups of flour in 2 days the first time I made crackers - oops!), or maybe something better. Hopefully I can come up with something cooler, since this is the last 6 months of my life that I will have no real job. I need to make the most of it!

Enjoy the rest of 2009!!

PS-I donated my hair on Christmas Eve! Photos to come!!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

2009-12-23T09:06:00.002-05:00

So I've been spending a lot of time on the internet lately. With all the food blogs, netflix, hulu, facebook, and who knows what else I can find, it is seriously a wonder I find the time to...you know...put on pants and things. Anyway, I've become quite obsessed with my little baking projects and decided that I wanted to learn to make (of all things)...Crackers. Don't ask why. I have no idea.

Anyway, I made some crackers yesterday and they were delicious! And quite addictive, I might add. A handful of them didn't get quite crisp enough (I didn't cook them long enough and they ended up more like pita bread). I think that everyone should make their own crackers...although I do admit that it was a slightly labor intensive process.

The basic recipe I found here. The website is about sustainability and implementing it in their own life (by making just about everything themselves). It's pretty cool. Anyway, here is how I made the crack(ers).

2 cups of plain flour
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons softened butter
approximately 1 cup of milk

Add the first three ingredients in a food processor and blend. Slowly mix in the milk until it forms a solid ball of dough. Roll out on a lightly floured surface until very thin (the dough should be pretty dense so it's easy to do this). Then, I sprinkled seasonings I wanted on the crackers (for me it was dried rosemary and garlic salt) and roll the rolling pin over it once more to smoosh the seasonings into the cracker. Prick the dough all over with a fork (to keep it from bubbling up) and roll into cracker shapes with a pizza roller. Bake at 300F for 15-20 minutes, until slightly browned.

I also made a quick hummus dip (I LOVE HUMMUS), as well as chopped up quite a few veggies to pop in the freezer since I had the food processor out. It was pretty fun, and tasty. Yea, crackers!

In other news...well I don't really have other news. I've been baking, and working out, all week. (They counteract one another!) We've had all our Christmas shopping done for a while now (thank you, online shopping) so no stress in this household as far as that goes! Christmas eve day we'll spend with my mom's extended family, I think we're doing a big brunch this year and a gift exchange. We're going to go to Midnight Mass, spend Christmas morning at my parents', then head up to Indy and hopefully be there by mid-afternoon to spend time with Chris' family. Should be a good time!

Oh! I almost forgot! I'm getting a haircut today. Not just any haircut, mind you. My first haircut in more than a YEAR AND A HALF! Yeah, crazy I know. I might donate some of it, because there is a ridiculous amount. But thanks to Mr. Internet, I now know that Locks of Love only gives 10% of their wigs to cancer kids (it mostly goes to kids with alopecia areata, which I agree is a lifelong condition but I feel like they're sort of false advertising) and they actually sell/throw away about 80% of the hair they receive, because apparently they get too much hair and can't handle it all or something. There are other hair donation sites but apparently if you want to do some good they really just want money. I don't think they want my hair, either, because I had the highlights put in it a couple months ago. Anyway, I'm going to go and offer it but we'll see what my hair-lady (stylist? dresser? cutter?) has to say. Either way, I'm going to weigh less tonight! Hopefully there will be pictures to come.

Finally, I leave you with a holiday story I found while reading the internet this week (sorry I don't know where the original post went!):

My four year old son walked up to me yesterday while I was setting the table for dinner.
"Uhm" he asked hesitangly"Is it too late to add things to my Christmas list?"
"I think so," I said, eyeing the three feet of snow piled up outside the window.
"OK," he said resignedly and then looked out past me, deep in thought. "Dad can we run out to the store and buy a whip?"
"Why?" I asked.
"Uhm. I put a lion on my Christmas list but I forgot to put down a whip. And if the lion shows up and I don't have a whip we could all be in trouble."

special brownies

2009-12-20T21:08:00.002-05:00

So....what have I done for the past month?

I seriously have no idea. I've done my best as a "stay at home wife" while Chris goes to work all day, I sit around, play on the internet, watch TV, occasionally work out, and get dinner and the house all cleaned up before he comes home! It's a tough life, I gotta tell you.

We went on a few interviews, which I will not say much about in case anybody google searches me and finds this...not that they would...but you know. I've been to a couple community programs in Cincinatti, U of Louisville, and Wake Forest. I have a few more scheduled for January. The dinners have been delicious, and hotels have been pretty awesome as well. I think we're a little glad to be off the road for a couple weeks, though, because it was getting tiring.

I've been trying out plenty of new recipes but nothing too amazing...except for this soup. I had to make a few changes because I didn't have everything but it was pretty much perfect! My version is below. This soup is thick, sweet, and spicy and strangely reminded me of a curry (I think it would be awesome ladled over rice!).

Sweet Potato Peanut Soup!

2 large sweet potatoes
1 T canola oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 cups vegetable broth
1 T chile powder
1 t cayenne pepper (or to taste)
2 t ginger
1 t ground allspice
1/2 cup peanut butter
Freshly ground pepper to taste

1) Cook and peel sweet potatoes (stick in microwave for about 9 minutes), mash one and dice the other
2) While the potatoes cook, heat the oil in a saucepan, add onion and cook until it begins to brown. Add the garlic, then add all the spices. I added a touch of water so it wasn't so thick and pasty.
3) Add the sweet potatoes and peanut butter and stir until PB melts. Enjoy!

Tonight, we ran to the grocery to grab a few things for dinner (This sweet potato-spinach-chickpea curry, actually - sensing a pattern?) when Chris and Patrick found these:

So I baked some brownies, topped it with some frosting, and there you have it. Now you know why I am about to weigh 400 pounds. At least dinner was healthy.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 tablespoons cocoa, unsweetened
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 tablespoons cocoa, unsweetened
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

You know how to make brownies. Cream the butter and sugar, add the other liquids, then add all the powdered stuff (but blend all the powders together before pouring it in. I don't know if that really makes a difference or if it's just a ploy by dishwasher-makers to get you to use more dishes. I do it anyway.) Bake at 350 in a greased 13x9 pan for, oh, maybe 20 minutes. What do you do with all those 20 minutes (other than wash dishes?)?? Read on!

3 tablespoons butter, softened
½ teaspoon peppermint extract
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons milk

Mix the butter and peppermint, then add part of the powders and part of the milk, alternating until you have frosting. Smear all over brownies and enjoy with a glass of ice cold milk.

Yeah, I know you want some.

pie and cookies

2009-12-01T22:58:00.002-05:00

Instead of working out to relieve the stress of my impending interviews, I have resorted to what I do best: baking.

First, a delicious blackberry pie (made from freshly picked blackberries we got this summer at Kateri's parents house and have stored in the freezer since then). There is really no recipe for it because I just sort of made it up as I went along. It has a lot of blackberries, a decent amount of sugar, some lime juice, and maybe some flour and maybe cornstarch. I was worried it would be runny. It wasn't. It was delicious.

Today I made some chocolate chocolate chip cookies. Yea! Here is the recipe, I halved it so I wasn't such a fatty, and I invited Patrick over for some brain food since he has a physics test tomorrow.

Katie the Housewife

2009-11-30T12:03:00.002-05:00

I hope everyone had a lovely thanksgiving. Mine was sort of a bust, since I came down with a miserable cold right before all the festivities, and so I was knocked out on sudafed and ibuprofen the entire time, and didn't feel very festive at all. It was nice to see the family (and they got to see all our wedding pictures!) but I really was pretty anti-social throughout the whole thing. I'm finally feeling about back to myself (aside from the occasional goopy nose, but I can live with that - I am considering pediatrics after all!) and SO glad. I think the biggest problem with being sick was that I had absolutely nothing to occupy my time. Nothing to study, no projects to finish - and the fact that I felt like my sinuses were going to explode out of my face every time I moved didn't really help with the motivation.

Apparently I need some hobbies. I used to have tons, but med school sort of zapped them out and made them seem less useful (at least some of them). Now my creative outlets typically turn to baking or cooking endeavors since they're sort of "practical," you know, you can eat them when you're done. Maybe I can start baking Christmas cookies or something. Hmm.

OH I almost forgot - wedding pictures! Yes, we finally got our wedding pictures! HOORAY! There will be plenty more up shortly (we got TWELVE DVD's full of pictures - I think Chris said there were about 2100 in all!) But our lovely photographers complied a little slideshow with music for us. Are you excited? I'm excited! Here's the link:

http://vimeo.com/7831286

If you couldn't tell, our photographers were AWESOME. Seriously. Amazing. I highly recommend them to anybody! Annie and Toby Varland: www.varlandphotography.com

I'm thinking of making a post with my reviews of all my wedding vendors since some were really awesome and some were a little sub-par, and I have tons of friends getting married who may appreciate it!

Anyway, now that I am pretty much a housewife, I'd better get started...doing whatever housewives do. Maybe I'll google search "hobbies" or something. Or maybe I'll waste more time on http://suggestoftheday.com/ ....maybe.

The last of the pictures

2009-11-27T17:38:00.004-05:00

Finally, Gregory's Rocket ship cake! Funfetti flavor with peanut butter cream cheese frosting!We made the rocket launcher with rice crispy treats ... mmm!
The birthday boy!

On an unrelated note, here's the spread my aunt made for my bridal shower!

And the bachelorette!

Grandma's 80th Birthday!

2009-11-27T16:36:00.005-05:00

Oh yea, I'm two for two today! Here's the pictures from her special day. I made four different flavors of cake - chocolate, italian cream, carrot, and chocolate chip! They were all delicious...

Hard at work:My mom, my grandma, and I at her party - ready to eat cake!

Finally, the finished product!!Grandma decided she wanted an iPod for her birthday. I hope I'm that cool when I'm 80.
My Aunt Susie made beautiful flower arrangements for the party.
My lovely grandparents, Flo and Joe.
Aren't they the cutest!?
The whole Smith family!
Finally, this wouldn't be my grandma's party without a picture of Max!

Train Cake

2009-11-27T16:03:00.003-05:00

I found train cake pictures! Yea!!! So..for your viewing enjoyment...

First is the picture of me making the cake - it was "orange dreamsicle flavor"

Unfortunately it turned out as a heaping pile of goo, so I did my best to form it into the trainiest shape I could.

Since Chris wasn't around to take the photos in progress, we have to jump straight to the end product. I used Patrick's favorite candies - Twizzlers and Red Hots - to decorate. I even made a little "Patrick" driving the train!

That little "shocker" symbol (on the puff of smoke coming out of the train) is the hornblasters logo. If you don't remember this (or maybe I didn't even talk about it the first go round), Patrick wanted a train cake because he is the very proud owner of a train horn that he installed on his car. He now drives around honking his train horn at innocent people and scaring the pee out of them. While I find it a bit inhumane, Patrick finds this funny. He's an odd duck, but we like him that way.

So...wow.

2009-11-14T13:53:00.003-05:00

Time flies! There have been an insane number of things going on, and there's no way to recap all the events. Bummer. I'll see what I can do:

I've been married 4 weeks as of today - hooray! Best day of my life ("so far"). No pictures yet, but soon I hope!! Chris and I kept a little "wedding blog" from our wedding and honeymoon. I will probably post that someday, but it's not finished. It needs pictures. (Seriously, what is it with me and pictures...) The honeymoon - AMAZING. That's all that needs to be said. I gained like five pounds in a week because it was all-inclusive meals and booze. Now I need to start working out. :) That's next on the to-do list, actually.

The week we got back I worked 80 hours including two overnight calls (30 hours each, which helps make up a good hunk of that 80), and played with kiddos. Most of them were cute. After a couple weeks of peds, I flipped my brain upside down (I mean that almost literally) and took care of grown ups. I'm still waiting for a cute one. I've had a couple "dissatisfied customers" the past few days and it's sort of frustrating, but (adult) medicine is crazy challenging so I am enjoying it. I'll probably enjoy it more when it's not quite so challenging, though.

Next week is my last week of my AI then we go into "anatomy block" which = "do absolutely nothing" block. I think our final exam is a 1-page, double spaced paper on whichever anatomical part we choose, or something. I'm looking forward to it!

We're still getting everything settled in (especially after getting all the registry items dumped here from my parents house - holy cow we have a lot of stuff!), almost all the thank-you notes are written, and I am finally feeling like I live here. Yea!

It's been a pretty amazing month, if I say so myself, I think I like this whole marriage thing!

Hooray!

PS

2009-10-12T00:25:00.002-04:00

So, remember how the weather channel has the 10 day forecast? Well a couple days ago it said it would be 64 degrees on the 17th...not bad, I thought!

Unfortunately, it now says 49!! and there's even a little note under it that says "Brrr! Keep outdoor photos to a minimum."

Weather.com, why???

Thankfully, everything is indoors and nicely heated! :)

Happy Wedding Week!

2009-10-12T00:04:00.003-04:00

Yes, friends, I will be a "Wife" in less than a week. It finally started to feel real when we did our "last runthough" of the Mass before the official rehearsal Friday (our priest is a little OCD, we've had many, many practices!). Chris and I practiced holding hands, saying our vows (which although we're just repeating after Father Al we still somehow managed to mess up - whoops!), nearly bringing our priest to tears (I'm hoping because it was touching, not because we were that bad at our lines)... and now things are finally starting to come into place.

Chris and I went up to visit his friends this weekend, his "sort-of bachelor party" I suppose. It was a good time and we got to spend a little time with his family, but mostly it was great to have a little "us time" during the drive--I'm living at my parents house right now and it's hard to find a private moment when we're there. If I haven't told you yet, I am marrying the man of my dreams. On Saturday!

There are millions of tiny little details, everything hopefully getting wrapped up this week but I hope if they don't then I won't care. I like to think I've been a pretty easygoing bride but I still find myself stressing over little stupid things...but I keep reminding myself that at the end of the day it doesn't matter if my brother spills all his food on his tux or if I trip in my dress (OK that would matter a little!), I'm going to be married!

I wish that we could have invited everybody I ever knew, too, because I feel a little guilty that we kept our guest list relatively small...I wanted to invite our whole med school class, all our teachers, anybody and everybody who wanted to join in our special day. Things just got too complicated, though, so we kept the guest list as short as possible - with mostly family and just a few friends. I think it will be a wonderful day, but I just hope no one feels slighted that they weren't invited!

We have a pretty busy week planned, lots of last minute to-do things. One thing I'm looking forward to most is the "Couples Massage" we're getting tomorrow (my birthday gift from Chris this year!!)...I have never had a massage before so I'm a little nervous but I hope it will be amazing!

bullets...and my flu rant

2009-10-04T23:41:00.003-04:00

I need to get to sleeping (I do need my beauty rest, you know) but a few quick updates:

I had the most. awesome. weekend. Super huge humongous thanks to all my friends and family who made it great. I feel like a human being again (after studying and being a lame-o the past couple months) and it's great.
Poor Chris has the swine flu (I think...I am pretty much an expert on it after being in B-town). I hope he gets better soon! He called tonight and said he's got chills and his body is just shaking...oh dear. 1) I hope he gets better really soon. and 2) I hope myself and my family don't get sick - we've been around him all weekend!

Time out from the bullet points for a minute, and I will teach you what I know. I worked in Bardstown (one of the largest pediatric clinical research trial locations in the NATION, seriously) with some "experts" on vaccines. Dr. Block has published tons of papers, so I think he knows what he is talking about. You can PubMed him if you want and you'll see what I mean. Anyway, this is my schpeil:

1) Swine flu is not regular winter flu. It's earlier, and it consists of mostly an upper respiratory infection (runny nose, maybe little cough, etc) + aches and pains + HIGH fevers and chills (higher in kids, their immune system kicks a little better than ours) + sometimes diarrhea. No other flu since the 1970s has had any sort of GI symptoms so this is new. Everybody always says "oh I caught the stomach flu" but it's not influenza. Influenza is a respiratory thing.

2) The "flu vaccine" does not cover the swine flu. At all. There is a swine flu vaccine coming out (we studied it in B-town) BUT it is not out yet. Hopefully soon. Unfortunately for most of you, you probably won't be eligible to get it (and there won't be enough for all of us). Babies, pregnant ladies, and healthcare workers (me!) will all be eligible first, then down the totem pole from there.

3) Older people (like, 60-70ish) actually have a partial immunity to this H1N1 (Swine) flu. This is because there was a similar virus that was around 50-60 or however many years ago, and they probably got it partly then. That's why they're not getting sick and dying from this, but the sickest of us are in their 30-40s.

4) GET A FLU SHOT because it can not and will not give you the flu. You may still get the flu (because 1) you already got infected BEFORE you got the shot and it was just incubating or 2) the shot didn't cover the strain you got or the the strain mutated) but one measly little shot may save you a heck of a lot of trouble. And it's pretty cheap. Do it.

5) This isn't proven but it has shown to be pretty true: The "FluMist" which is what they give kids now is a live attenuated vaccine that you squirt up your nose instead of getting a shot. The docs in B-town believe that the FluMist gives you partial immunity to the H1N1/Swine flu, because we had enormous numbers of kids with the Swine flu, but none of the docs that got the Mist got sick. Including me. So, keep your fingers crossed for me so I can go take care of my soon-to-be-husband! I need him healthy to walk down the aisle!
Anyway: if you get a chance to get the FluMist then I would try it out. For some reason they don't give it to adults - I think it's because of the live vaccine thing, adults have more medical problems...etc. and also I have heard that adults don't mount the immune response from that as well as the kids. However, getting a squirt up the nose is much nicer than a sore arm so I recommend it.

ok back to the bullets. Sorry for the little tirade, I just think that people have no idea what they're reading most of the time, and for some reason there is a lot of misinformation regarding the flu. I hate to sound arrogant but I really do know what I'm talking about. :)
As an aside-my hair looks AWESOME...eee!
OK, it's time for bed. I wanted to talk about how awesome my weekend was but I need some sleep. More to post soon. Pictures may not come soon seeing as how Chris thinks he may die...so...don't hold your breath for them. ;)

Oh yes, and WASH YOUR HANDS!

whew

2009-10-03T23:55:00.003-04:00

Well, step 2 is over.

Thank goodness!

It actually wasn't half bad, it was WAAY better than Step 1 (promise) so that is something major to be thankful for. There were no jackhammers, no girls behind me with tuberculosis (seriously I was going to kill that woman last year), and no ridiculously weird questions. Just me and 352 questions. I hope that the test went well, I am pretty confident I can pass it but I want to redeem my Step 1 score since it wasn't quite what I wanted. Of course, I'll settle for just passing again too, because I sure as heck don't want to retake it!!!

Last night after the test Chris and I rushed over to Dr. Smyth's house, the director of the MD/PhD program at UK. There was a big cookout and everything was nice and it was cool to see some of our old buddies. I had two (two!!!) glasses of wine and felt all warm and a tiny bit dizzy which was fun too. Although before you call me a lush: the glasses were tiny (like, those cute little plastic wine goblets you get at liquor barn) and I can't hold liquor to save my life. I'll have to start practicing.

Anyway, this morning I had an absolutely amazing "bridal luncheon" hosted by my Aunt Susie. It was seriously awesome, I have some wonderful women in my family and we got to spend time together and had a delicious meal (brunch, my favorite!) and everything was just lovely. Ah. I have some pictures of that I should post up too.

I also got my wedding hair practice done today! WHOO! I got my hair re-blonded for the wedding and she practiced the updo. My hairdresser is SO nice and helped me FINALLY make up my mind on the hair. Pictures to come (or maybe you'll have to wait for the wedding!)... I know, I always promise pictures but Chris always has them, and since I'm staying at my parents it's hard to bug him every day about pictures when I'm bugging him about all those other things.

Today was Gregory's birthday, the last in a huge line of birthdays for our family. Gregory was 18 today so he bought a lottery ticket. He wanted a funfetti-flavored ROCKETSHIP cake, so there will be pictures of that too. It turned out pretty freakin' awesome!

Tomorrow is my bachelorette party, I'm super excited. I already had a bachelorette party with the gals in my rotation group, so this one is a little added bonus. Today, though, I freaked out that nobody was going to come to my party except Sabrina and me (and although I would have tons of fun anyway with just her that would be lame) so I invited boys. My brothers, Chris, Sab's fiancee, all sorts of boys. So I guess it's not a bachelorette party, but it will still be fun. And there are people coming, they just never RSVP'd until, like, today. Oh well. We're going to paint pottery (apparently a prerequisite to becoming a bride), have a cookout at my parents, then have little fruity girly cocktails (those were planned before the boys were invited, but I'm still excited to try the 'appletini' that my mom plans to fix!)

I learned today that apparently I am a "laid back bride." I didn't really know what that meant until I found out that many brides require their bridesmaids to have matching hair and shoes. The dresses are long, so I think my maids can wear what they want.

My mom works with a lady who has a side business as a wedding planner and apparently she had just gotten her nails done for a vacation she was about to go on and a bride said "you will NOT have hot pink nails at my wedding!" so she had to take off all the polish from her manicure for the wedding, even though she paid for a manicure. Seriously people, there are more important things in life.

Of course, I think the focus to be on the marriage, not just the wedding. I could go on and on about that but I suppose I better be getting some rest, I have a crazy party planned for tomorrow! ;)

goodbye, september.

2009-09-30T23:23:00.003-04:00

Holy cow, September will be no more in 37 minutes.

I take Step 2 on Friday, which will hopefully go a little smoother than Step 1 (I am praying that the concrete slab that they had to jackhammer out for 4 hours on June 17, '08 is still looking good, and they don't need to touch it up on Friday, and that the girl with TB who coughed for the remaining 4 hours either got cured or died, because if she shows up again I may as well kill her myself)...Anyway, wish me luck. A lot of luck, because I'd really like to kick some test butt and show 'em who's boss. You know.

I have a weekend full of fun and partying followed by two exciting last-minute wedding weeks, then I'm getting MARRIED and going on an awesome honeymoon. (We picked up the travel docs today, St. Lucia- here we come!)

Anyway, I'd love to ramble on and on about how awesome my life is going to become, come 4pm or so on Friday afternoon, but I must 1) Study and 2) Sleep, so I can rock the socks off that little test. At least that's what I'm telling myself, ok?

so much to say!

2009-09-28T14:08:00.003-04:00

Well things have been crazy these past few weeks, I'm finally home from B-town now and trying my best to cram before boards (Friday--eeeek!). I don't have much time for a huge update, but here are a few tidbits of things going on in my life:

Chris' birthday was the 19th, we had a beautiful cheesecake and his parents came down. It was a fun weekend.

Grandma's 80th birthday party on the 26th, was awesome, I'd say 80ish people showed up (seriously!) and we had a special Mass at her (gorgeous) church beforehand with just our family. It was really nice. I made the cake, and it was SO AWESOME if I do say so myself. Pictures to come, I promise. (I promise those more than the train cake, which STILL hasn't been put up, because Chris put them on his hard drive then lost them. Who knows if you will ever see it!)

PS- Guess what my grandma wanted for her birthday? An iPod. Seriously. I must have the coolest grandma ever. Except that it's probably already lost, and she's forgotten how to turn it on. We'll see.

Boards on Friday - 4 more exams left on USMLEWorld to finish, then 1 full length exam. Hope to be done by tomorrow night so I can review all Wed/Thurs and rock out on Friday. Pray for my little brain, please!!!!

Saturday is my "bridal luncheon" held by my Aunt Susie. It should be really fun, she has great taste so I'm looking forward to a party from her!

Saturday night I get my hair practice for the wedding - woohoo!! I'm also FINALLY getting it highlighted again - my 3 inch roots are KILLING me. Can't wait.

Bachelorette party on Sunday! Yeaa! It's going to be relatively low-key, and if you can read this (and you don't have a Y chromosome) then you are invited, I can't even remember who I invited (and with boards I haven't updated that list)...so...we'll see what happens!

I finally got to try on my dress today! Woohoo! Except it's too big. I haven't lost any weight, so somebody messed up a little. I was trying hard not to be disappointed but we took it to the place for alterations and the lady there is going to fix it and make it awesome. And my shoes are sooooooooooo cute!! :) Eeep!

Back to studying. Lots of pictures to come. Promise!!

On Food

2009-09-08T20:09:00.002-04:00

Note to self: make this!

MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

What you need:

1 Coffee Mug (large mug)
4 tablespoons flour (that’s plain flour, not self-rising)
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
some nuts (optional)
Small splash of vanilla

What you must do:

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes on high. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don’t be alarmed! (*Mine didn’t do this)
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to share!)

Despite learning how to bake a cake in the microwave, I haven't been up to much of anything too interesting these days. I'm in Bardstown (with internet, whoo!), trying to study (more like freaking out) for boards, getting all this wedding crap done (and I mean that in the nicest sense of the word), and filling out residency apps. That's making me freak out a little, too.

Anyway, things are OK here, still haven't decided Med vs Med-Peds but leaning towards just Med now. Already got sick (Wednesday, seriously, how do I get sick TWO DAYS after starting peds?), but I'm much better.

Oh and I had an awesome birthday. I got to hang out with an old friend from high school (well, she's young, but, well, you know what I mean) who was in town and it was great, had some delicious dinner and amazing cheesecake (baked by my mother, The Best Chef In The World), and got to spend lots of time with Chris despite living at my parents house. Good Weekend.

Chris also was a super sweetie and got me a couples back massage for my birthday. I've never had a massage before, so this is pretty big stuff for me. I'm super excited, and also glad that he'll get to be there too (because it's a little scary!).

Anyway, B-town is good. Quiet. I've been trying to secretly work out here in my back room and have been relatively successful, but I have to do things like "Ten Minute Abs" instead of Jillians Crazy 30-Day Shred, which is what I would rather do. It just packs more punch. But any exercise is good, right? I'm also trying despirately not to get fat, seeing as how I have a wedding dress to wear in almost a month, and I'm living with the two biggest food-pushers ever (my grandparents). Seriously. I can't leave the table without having seconds of at least half the food options, and there are usually a lot of options. Then they tell me I'm eating like a bird! Grandma, you don't have to cook so much stuff with bacon grease, and I definitely do not need thirds. Plus, Bardstown Peds is feeding me lunch every day, so I've been trying to be good, but it's very hard to eat out and eat healthy at the same time.

I'm managing, though, maybe I'll finish up this USMLEWorld test (blehhhh, I have around 40 more to do!) then work up a bit of a sweat. Quietly. :)

To do this week:
Study
Finish applications
Plan a wedding
Not get fat (that includes not making the aforementioned recipe for a while, doesn't it?)

Wish me luck!

Post 100

2009-08-25T15:06:00.002-04:00

Well, this is it. 100 posts in this little journal. Pretty cool if I do say so myself. Unfortunately for you, my dear readers, the writing has gotten a bit sparse lately. Don't get me wrong, I've tried to write. And write and write and write and write. But, writing this personal statement for residency is sucking the life right out of me and my skinny little fingers. (I do have skinny fingers, not abnormally bony or long or anything, but skinny)

Anyway, there are a few Life Events occuring very soon that need mentioning, I suppose, so maybe this post can enlighten you on how my life has been flying by these past few weeks.

1) Getting married.

Okay, I thought that Chris put a shiny, sparkly ring on my finger and then we'd get married. Unfortunately, we have to get through the wedding first. It's been exciting, frustrating, and lovely all at the same time. I think when 10/17 rolls around it's going to be so awesome, but getting there is driving me nuts. I've passed the point of caring about the little details (Do you want the centerpieces to have all roses or have roses and other flowers? Should the cake be round or square? What color shoes should the bridesmaids wear?) SERIOUSLY WHO CARES about this stuff!? Apparently someone, but just not me.

Things are moving along quite nicely, though. We are going to have a freakin' awesome cake, we have really awesome invitations, and in the end, we're gonna be married. Chris got his wedding band yesterday and it made me really excited to see him try it on. Weird, I know, but I get little kicks like that. I have yet to make up my mind on a wedding band, it's one of those things "you have to wear the rest of your life so you'd better like it" type deal, and I'm afraid to make that type of commitment. I made it to Chris because he is so awesome, but picking a ring is harder than that, you know.

2) Moving, and going away for a month.

In hindsight, I would not have scheduled my away rotation for the month before the wedding. That means I'm not around to schedule the "final meetings" with all those "vital" people - the florist, baker, candlestick maker, and the like. Though I don't really care about the specifics, it is important to me that all these people (we are paying ungodly amounts of money to) do their job and do it well. So, I've been trying to cram in all these meetings, in addition to finishing up the marriage-prep stuff at the church (which my opinions on that would be enough to fill another entire post, but suffice it to say that it's useful for some but wastes too much of my precious, precious time), in addition to the rest of my life. Hindsight is 20/20 though, so I gotta get these meetings out of the way then I'm leaving.

I FINALLY got placed for my AHEC in Bardstown. Today. I'm leaving Monday. I had to resort to writing a couple nasty emails to some people, but it got the job done and I know that I have a rotation for next month. ::sigh of relief:: It's going to be fun but also a little stressful. Grandma and Grandpa love to try to make me fat, and although I don't really mind that, I do have to wear a strapless wedding gown 2 weeks after I get back and I'd prefer not to flap my lunchlady arms around while breaking it down on the dance floor.

Oh yes, and I'm moving. Did anyone tell you that Patrick's roommate HAS to have my bedroom (and not the completely empty one upstairs)?? Because no one told me. Now before I leave for Bardstown I have to move all my stuff up the hill (though it's a little hill, it's a hill) to Chris' place. Everything. Must. Go. And after living in the same home for 6 years, I have accumulated a lot of crap. Oh and then take half that stuff and pack it for Bardstown. Sorry if I seem a little bitter, because I am. In addition to just moving my stuff, Chris had to move his bedroom upstairs and we decided to super-clean and paint everything before doing that. So we are going to have a beautiful little green bedroom and a beige study area, with clean carpet, scrubbed linoleum, and a pleasant aroma that reminds you of being squeaky clean. It's really turning out lovely, but has been quite a bit of work.

AND Chris' friend Tyler is getting married on Friday, and naturally we're the photographers, so I have to move my stuff BEFORE Friday because we're spending my last weekend in Indy. Naturally.

3) Birthdays, birthdays, birthdays.

Seriously, too many procreated in January because the September birthdays in my life are out of control! Sabrina, my MOH (in wedding-speak, or "maid of honor" in regular-people language), emailed me to find out what weekends I have available for a bachelorette party. Here's the lineup:
Next weekend: Me - 24 years old on the 6th. Probably a no-go for a party because it's so soon.
Sept 12: Amy (Chris' sister and bridesmaid) turns 20
Sept 19: Chris (Groom, sort of important) turns 27
Sept 26: Grandma (who I will be with in B-town, and who is turning 80 and we're having a huge bash to celebrate - and I am making a cake that's going to be the BOMB, no joke)
Oct 3: Gregory (my brother and groomsman) turns 18
Oct 10: one week before the wedding. No birthdays (thank Goodness!)
Oct 17: WEDDING

With the exception of mine, everyone's birthday is on a Saturday! Really weird, if I do say so myself. And those are only the Saturday birthdays (because there are more, if you can believe it), which is when I need to find time to have a shower (with grown ups) and bachelorette party (with us young'ns)

4) Applications, and What Will I Do With My Life

This is getting down to the wire. I need to decide what to do with my life, and I have no idea. I want to do Medicine. I want to do med-peds. I want to do medicine. What the heck, why can't I decide this? Another one of those Life Decisions that I can't make a good commitment to. But, applications have opened up (and directors can download them 9/1) so I need to get my butt in gear. I may have to apply to both and just go from there. But it would be better to just make a freaking decision.

Trying to write a personal statement has been harder than it should, too. First, I can't say for certain that THIS ONE specialty is the only one for me because, clearly, I am still deciding on what to do with my life and I really don't know for sure. Also, taking multiple choice tests has made it virtually impossible to sit down and write an essay on "Why I will be a good doctor and what I will do with my life" - I mean, I suppose I get decent writing practice with this blog but...let's be real here, I don't usually write essays or even complete my sentences! Plus it's just always hard to write about yourself.

Anyway, to recap: I've been really busy. I'm going to be really busy for a while. I suppose I should try to relish it while I have it, then enjoy the heck out of St. Lucia once we ever get there. Yea, laying on a beach (minus hurricane season) sounds pretty awesome right about now.

cakalicious

2009-08-11T23:47:00.004-04:00

In honor of my 99th post, I thought I would post some of these cake pictures I've been promising!

First, some pretty pink garden roses Chris got me after I came back from Step 2 in Atlanta!

(Isn't he the cutest?)

Some yummy vanilla funfetti cupcakes...
(I know it's silly, but funfetti is my favorite flavor!)
I made a little Roessler-Henderson family for Kateri and Karl, then watched them devour their young. Karl's on the left, Kateri on the right - Kateri has a goofy smile because she's about to start her surgery rotation ;)

Here's Sarah's birthday cake - a chocolate-cherry delight!

It said "Happy Birthday, Dr. Sarah!"
Complete with little fondant Sarah (+stethoscope), coconut "grass" and little yellow flowers, and the balloons are actually funfetti cake pops covered with colored white chocolate! So yummy!
I think she liked it. Here's some action photos!

Hooray! Happy Birthday, Sarah!

I know there's still train pictures missing, but I don't know where they went - Chris will have to find them for me! I'm planning a HUGE cake for my gramma's 80th birthday (like...feeding 75-100 people huge)...get ready!

4th year

2009-08-05T15:28:00.002-04:00

I just did one of the Jillian Michaels 20-minute workouts and am POOPED (so my brain's not quite working right) but I wanted to say a couple things

1) Weddings aren't really THAT bad... we got some things sorted out (at least to some degree) so there's not as much drama. Seriously, I don't do drama.

2) Being a 4th year is awesome. AWESOME. At least on this rotation. I know things, and I can actually help, and I knew some stuff that none of the residents did! (Thanks, ENT rotation!) sweeeeet!! More to come on this topic later...

3) I like the med-peds folks. A lot. They're well-rounded, friendly, and super smart (The kind of person I want to be!!). I just really don't want to do a 4-year residency of wards wards wards ICU wards (clinic) wards...etc.

4) Going to meet with the new priest for coffee soon... don't really know how I feel about him. Either way I think he's doing our wedding so I'm going to have to get used to him!

Well I'm not sweating all over the place anymore (seriously, if you want a workout, it's called 30-day Shred and it is the hardest and most complete 20-minute workout I've ever done!), so I'd better change clothes. Wish me luck!

the truth about weddings

2009-08-04T16:49:00.003-04:00

Apparently, weddings are about the parents of the bride giving her away, and have nothing to do with the actual bride or groom.

Maybe now I can see why we've been having some disagreements.

email bloopers

2009-08-03T23:04:00.002-04:00

Christopher Simmons is apparently a popular name. He just got this email:

"Hey Chris
Hope you had a great weekend! I don't know if you have talked to geoff or not recently but my groin is doing much better! I have a doctor appointment tomorrow afternoon but I was wondering when you'll be in so that I can possibly come in wednesday, thursday, or friday. Hope to hear from you soon!
Thanks,
H----"

The funny thing is, Chris doesn't know this person. Neither does he know "geoff." But we're both glad she's doing well. He wrote back:

"Sorry H----, I think you have emailed the wrong Chris on this one. Alas, best of luck with your groin!
Cheers,
Chris"

Advice for a 3rd year

2009-08-01T00:05:00.003-04:00

Note: I wrote this note a few weeks ago (back before I went on vacation and deep fried my brain) after reflecting on the past year and all the experiences I've had. It may not be the most well-written piece of information ever, and maybe the advice isn't even that good, but I figured it was worth posting anyway. You don't have to take my advice - you don't even have to read it if you don't want to! :)

This past year has probably been the most fun I've ever had. I've worked hard, played hard, and been successful (so far...match day will be here before we know it!). I hoped to attend "scut monkey day" which is more formerly known as the now-4th years unofficial orientation to 3rd years to give advice, tours, and general guidance and assurance to the class below us. I've been thinking about what advice I have--what I would do over this year if I could. I've made a semi-dorky little list of things I would recommend to anyone starting 3rd year, as well as advice I hope to keep in mind next year and for years to come. It's a little hokey and I feel sort of like I wrote the same thing over and over, but hopefully you get the point.

On studying

At least for me, getting enough sleep is about equal to a few good hours studying, so don't cram. It's not worth it.
That being said, coffee is your friend too.
Know your patients. You will hear that over and over again and it's hard to do at first but read about their conditions and take a thorough H&P if you can even if you don't have to. It's so much better to learn by talking with real people instead of reading it in a book or in a chart. I will never forget my patient who had a thyroidectomy and had post-op hypocalcemia because I got to tap on her face and see Chovstek's sign.
Talk to other students about books, study materials, tests, and just about everything. It helps to find some people with whom you can share books, notes, and learn about which attendings to avoid. For example, I was recommended this website in the beginning of the year by a study buddy and it’s helped me breeze through most of the surgery quizzes.

On learning in general

First, and most importantly - learn and do everything possible. This is the only time in your life where you're the VERY BOTTOM of the totem pole. Use that to your advantage and ask the dumb questions, get people to show you the basics as well as the details.
Help with as many foleys, paracentesis, IV lines, etc as possible. Write prescriptions for your residents to sign. Ask to do these things, because they often forget to ask you if you want to do them. And trust me, it will help you in the future! One little tip for those at the VA: they have some awesome software with "how to" for many procedures and "patient info" packets on almost every subject imaginable. Try to find those because they're aweome.
Similar to the first two: Practice. Do a physical exam on everybody so you get a sense of what normal is. You may not think you need to, but why not? You may even find a clue that no one else has.
There will be patients that you don't like. Learn something about yourself from them.
There will be patients that need you. You, unlike the doctors, can spend time talking to them (or their family) that no one else has time to do. On psych I spoke with one girl's mom almost every day about her fears for her daughter, and I really felt like I made a difference. It's a great feeling - it's the reason we all wanted to become doctors, right?
As hokey as it sounds, try to make everything a learning opportunity.

On personalities

You're probably going to be ignored quite often. Try not to take it personally. Everyone is under pressure, especially the interns. If you're irritated because you've been watching them enter orders for an hour, remember that you're not their top priority (they're trying to keep from killing their patients, not trying to make sure you go home early)
"Is there anything else I can help you with?" is always a valid question and equivalent to "Can I go home?" but in a nice way. Hopefully they will take the hint.
There are definitely career options you will realize quickly that you are not interested in. Still, learn what you can from them, because even if you would never in a million years do neurology, you may have a patient with MS, or with a history of stroke, and you need to know what they're dealing with.
Don’t be shy. This is really hard for me but you must go out of your comfort zone and show enthusiasm and interest.
Spend time with your loved ones, no matter how busy you are. Having a social support group is important for patients but is just as important for you. Without Chris and my parents I don't know where I would be today!

Finally, one of the biggest keys to success is to be on time, act interested, and smile. Smiling not only puts patients at ease, but interns, residents, attendings, and everyone else too. and enjoy it. This is your opportunity to learn - with real people, but no real responsibility. Use it to your advantage. Oh, and HAVE FUN!

Surprise Cake!

2009-07-31T23:51:00.004-04:00

My friend, Sarah R., is having a birthday on August 11, but we decided to throw her a surprise birthday party today (just to keep her on her toes!). Everyone will be headed different directions for the next few months as we start planning out our futures and important things like that, so I was pumped we could get together one last time.

Guess who volunteered to make a cake?! :)

Pam (the surprise-party-thrower) suggested something chocolate, or with cherries, so I found a delicious-sounding recipe for a chocolate/cherry cake that basically uses a can of cherry pie filling + almond extract instead of oil. The cake smelled AMAZING and it was hard for me not to chomp down on it right away.

I had originally planned to make a delicious frosting to put on the cake, then cover it up in fondant to make it all pretty. But after I made the decadent Hershey's Cocoa Frosting recipe, I decided I really couldn't cover up that deliciousness with a bunch of fondant. (and it was the icky fondant that you buy from Michaels, too, not even the yummier marshmallow kind)

So, what to do with all the extra fondant? Why not make a little Sarah herself?!

I think it turned out pretty delicious, and I'm going to wait to post this until after the party! :)
Pictures to come soon. Of this cake and the train cake, because I'm lame and forgot to post them.

I'm Katie, I'll be your tour guide this evening

2009-07-30T09:44:00.004-04:00

Apparently the BlogGods heard my post, and I didn't get sick. I just felt yucky for a couple mornings, and then it passed. Sweet.

Anyway, the last week or so I've been standardized patient-ing to study for Step 2 CS. It's this big, scary test, where you have to see 12 patients for 15 minutes each, then write a doctor note about your encounter, tell them what you think is wrong and the tests you want to do. You run a lot of tests. I wouldn't really do them in real life, because it is wasteful healthcare to run tons of tests when you're already sure of the diagnosis, right? The complaints were fairly straightforward (lots of "my ___ hurts" type thing), and I felt like it went OK.

Hopefully. US medical students have approximately a 96% pass rate, so I'd better freaking pass.

Basically this is a test to weed out foreign students who haven't quite mastered the English language, or those people who are jerks, and probably for those people who aren't good at acting.

Anyway, enough about the tests. My mom, dad and I went down to Atlanta to take this test (not included in the $1000, mind you) and we attempted a little sightseeing while down there. It was sort of a pathetic attempt, but an attempt nonetheless.

We visited stone mountain, which was some random big mound of granite in the middle of trees, in the middle of Atlanta. Apparently there was a lot to do there for 1) kids, 2) hikers, and 3) people when it is not raining. It was pouring off and on so it was sort of a bust.
While I was taking the test my parents tried to go to the Jimmy Carter museum (I was sort of thankful they did that without me because as hard as I try I continue to loathe US history). Unfortunately the museum is closed for renovations until October, but apparently if you rap on the windows and doors they will give you a free book and some 1/2 price passes to come back. (This was according to a random lady on the sidewalk, not my parents, until they found out she is actually the curator of the museum.)
So, instead of the museum, my mom and dad went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, where my dad used his "photo skillz" to take ~150 pictures of flowers. Supposedly it was a nice place.
The day after my test, I had really wanted to go to the Coca-cola museum because I'd heard lots of things from it. We actually drove over to where it was supposed to be (after checking two maps AND the Garmin) and walked around only to find out that they moved 2 years ago and obviously we were dumb tourists who just paid $5 for parking to go nowhere. So we tried to go to this place called The Underground while we there, because supposedly it's all historic and full of little shops and restaraunts and everything. Except it was all on lockdown at 9:15 in the morning.
So, we left there and went to the World of Coke. It was pretty fun - there was tons of coke memorabilia, art, and advertising. There was only a little about the actual history of coke, which I would have appreciated more of. Then you got to taste-test 63 flavors of coke from around the world. SIXTY THREE. I should have known that was a mistake. They actually weren't "coca-cola" flavored, which made me sad, they were more like Fanta, Nestea, and fruity drinks. My favorite was Greece's Pineapple Fanta (like a fizzy pina colada! yum!) and the absolute WORST was Beverly from Italy. It was SO disgusting, bleh!

After trying 63 flavors of syrupy-sweet carbonated beverages I decided it was probably a good time to take a bumpy, windy car ride home. Ugh, stomachache! My parents didn't seem quite as affected by this disturbing concoction churning in our stomachs, but we eventually got some lunch to settle it down a bit and made it home safe and sound.

Now, I'm just lounging around before doing the 5 MILLION wedding planning things that I need to get on, like, now. I'm sort of ready to just elope. Maybe I'll play Chris' new Wii sports resort instead. ;)

sick

2009-07-22T09:39:00.002-04:00

Seriously? WHY do I have painful cervical lymphadenpathy, a sore throat, and stuffy nose?

1) It is JULY 22. Summer!
2) It is my only 2-week vacation this ENTIRE year.
3) It's not even allergy season.
4) I have two relatively large and pretty important exams (you know, so I can graduate medical school) in less than a week.
5) This is the only time in the past year that I HAVEN'T been around sick people.

Life isn't fair.

Picking iPhones

2009-07-20T15:40:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, Kateri (who just became my 3rd bridesmaid, hooray!) invited us to head over to her parent's place in Danville for an afternoon of blackberry-pickin' and hanging out. First of all, her parent's place isn't exactly in Danville (about 12 windy-road miles away) and second, it is on 115 acres of land. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN. It's gorgeous out there, all hilly and green, with tons of wildlife and room for vegetable gardens and wild blackberries and...wow.

We picked berries for a couple hours and ended up with 6 gallon-sized bags full of fresh blackberries. 5 of those bags are soon to become jam (yea!!!) and one bag came home with Chris and I. I've spent the entire morning drooling over recipes: blackberry pancakes, blackberry oatmeal, blackberry cake, blackberry smoothies...slurp!

It was awesome to get out there for the afternoon and spend the evening on the front porch, rocking on the rocking chair, watching the hummingbirds come up and feed, and enjoying the cool July evening.

The thing that impressed me most, though, was the delicious dinner that the Roessler family cooked up for us. We had a roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, squash, tomatoes with basil, cucumber salad (oh and the best benedictine spread I've ever had!), and blackberry wine...and everything came from their garden. Even the roast, which came from the cow they had owned (who Kateri's sister Christa had affectionately named "Steak" when they got him!). For dessert we sat out on the porch and ate big slices of sweet watermelon and spit the seeds into the yard.

I had a great time and am so happy Kateri and Karl invited us out there! Mrs. Roessler even sent us home with a bag full of more fresh veggies (cucumbers, tomatoes, squash!!) I am so excited!

I wish I had some pictures of the place, but unfortunately we left the camera in the car for this trip. Maybe we'll just have to come out again sometime and take photos!

Patrick's 20th Birthday - Train Cake

2009-07-19T13:24:00.004-04:00

Note: super awesomely cool pictures of an orange dreamsicle-flavored train cake will be uploaded shortly. Using Chris' camera=uploading pictures to Chris' computer=waiting for him to play with them before I get to put them up! Stay tuned!

Patrick is my brother. He lives with me. He turned 20 yesterday, and in honor of the celebration of his day of birth, I wanted to make him a cake.

Here's our conversation:

Katie:
Patrick, what kind of cake do you want me to make for your birthday?

Patrick:
I don't care.

Katie:
No, really, what kind do you want? Chocolate, Vanilla, Red Velvet?

Patrick:
Um, I don't care.

Katie:
Patrick, just pick a flavor.

Patrick:
I don't know!

Katie:
Seriously! What kind of cake do you want to eat?!

Patrick, sipping his orange soda:
Orange soda flavor!

Katie:
?? Orange? Okay. That wasn't so hard, was it? How do you want me to decorate it?

Patrick:
I don't know.

Katie:
What do you want it to look like?

Patrick:
I don't know!

Katie:
You're so annoying! Just pick something!

Patrick:
Fine, then! I want it to be a train because trains are freaking awesome. Whoo whoo!

Katie:
????

I suppose this deserves a little explanation. Patrick bought some train horns (yes, exactly what you think they are) and installed them on his car from a website called hornblasters.com. He spent a lot of money to install big, loud horns on his car so he can drive around downtown Lexington on Friday and Saturday nights and honk in crowded areas just to watch people's reactions. The reactions are pretty funny, but I think it's silly and sort of mean. But, he really, really enjoys his horns so I suppose that's all that matters.

Anyway, so I perused orange flavor cakes for a while on the internet until I came across a recipe for an Orange Dreamsicle Flavor Cake - you remember those popsicles that are orange on the outside and creamy vanilla on the inside? Yea... So that's what I made. After the cake was out of the oven the recipe told me to boil 2 cups of orange jello and pour it over the cake, then chill it so the gelatin/cake would set. I added some almond extract to the whole thing to give it a little more deliciousness, and covered it in cream cheese frosting! YUM.

As luck would have it, my mom *actually owns* a train-shaped cake pan, which was an amazing help, considering the headache that it actually was to make it. I was trying too many techniques, and should have kept it simpler. Also, the cake came out SUPER gooey, so the train sort of lost its shape. All in all, it took me about 4 1/2 hours to get the whole cake done, which a ridiculously long time to make something that looks like it does. I was sort of disappointed, but Patrick certainly wasn't. He loved it!

aging

2009-07-16T17:28:00.003-04:00

Just when I think I'm getting old, I find a test that tells me I'm not quite there yet.

Created by Train Horns

But after listening to that sound for a few seconds, I wish my eardrums were a little more...mature. Ouch!

finishing the race

2009-07-16T13:15:00.003-04:00

With only one more measly little test standing between me and M4, I thought I'd take a few moments and reflect back on the year. This year has probably been one the most amazing, interesting, and fun year of my life. For years I've "wanted to be a doctor" but now I'm actually living it. Sometimes it's not all it's cracked up to be. But most of the time, it is.

OB/Gyn: Young, young moms. Feeling like I should have 4 kids by now. Funny names: Tisamiracle, Fairy, you name it. Catching a couple babes myself - they're so slippery! Lots of bodily fluids. Practicando espanol todos los dias. Gyn-onc surgeries: boring boring boring. Big women, big tumors. Sweet residents, but babycatching is not on my to-do list anymore.

Family Med: Little mix of everything. Clinic hours and lots of free time. Variety of residents. Do I want to do this when I grow up? Maybe, maybe not. Derm and sports injury procedures. Prevention. "Touchy feely" stuff and disparities in healthcare.

Peds: Cute kiddos. Bardstown with grandma and grandpa, running, making them dinner and eating bacon. Learning so much about pediatric medicine and about Dora the Explorer. Don't forget Hannah Montana - the most popular halloween costume. Well child checks over and over and over. Sick kids in the hospital get better, get toys, and go home. Kids aren't drinking, smoking, and eating themselves to death. Kind, gentle residents. Maybe I want to do this, kids are so cute. Or will I get sick of well-children? Should I specialize?

ER: Busy. Life-threatening. Minute-to-minute. Algorithms and ACLS. Teamwork. Shiftwork. Too high-stress and boring at the same time. Fun to watch, lots of stories.

Medicine: A little of everything. My first dying patient - liver failure from alcohol. MRSA endophthalmitis, hospital-acquired infections, kidney failure. Managing disease states as well as preventing them. Women's clinic felt like a treat each week. VA old men and their stories - they love it when you smile. So much to learn, I will never know it all. Maybe I can try. Now this might be what I want to do.

Psych: Consult service. Addicts are people too, and sweet young women at that. Bipolar girl who thinks she has AIDS and talks to her dead father, then storms out on me. Depressed cutter transgender man shows me the plastic hidden in his shoe that he did not use to cut himself all week. Really talking to patients. Talking to families. Lots of talking. I want the best for them but they don't want it for themselves.

Neuro: Brainy docs, literally. Love diagnosis even without treatment. Patient who was eating Easter dinner on the back porch, walked inside and suffered a massive stroke, never to respond again. Funny words for not funny things: aphasia, hemiagnosia, etc. Curiosity and zebras.

Surgery: Dreading this all year, but suprisingly not bad. Plastics, ENT, VA. Cool residents, "doing stuff" in the OR is actually fun. Learning to sew, tie knots. Learning about what's important in trauma, and in life. Patients who say "you saved my life."

I don't really know any other way to sum up the year. It was all so overwhelming...in so many ways. I can say pretty confidently that it has been the best year of my life, which leads me to believe I have picked the right profession. I have had so many rich experiences this year and I can't believe our 3rd year has come to a close. I remember being M1/M2 and seeing those wise old M4s lounging around the hospital...now I am one of them! And this time next year, we'll all be doctors! It's sort of unreal....

Thongs and Freedom

2009-07-09T20:59:00.003-04:00

I just realized that I've been writing in this blog all year and I hardly ever mention anything about my rotation group.

I need to say, that I am extremely lucky that Pam emailed me last year and asked if I would be in their group. I had been secretly nervous for months that I wouldn't find anyone to rotate with me because I hung out with all the PhD kids (and they're all doing research this year). I was afraid that I would be stuck with a group of students that were loud, unfriendly gunners and I would have a horrible year and hate every minute of it.

Lucky for me, I got placed in group C2 with Pam, Suganya, Sarah R, Sarah W, DeAnna, Mark, Adam, and Alan. They are some of the most awesome people I know! My group is really laid back (no gunners!), really helpful, and really just overall good people. I have had an amazing and wonderful year, and I owe a lot of it to them. I know that if I need help that any one of them would be more than willing to help me, and that when I need someone to listen, there's always someone willing. 3rd year has lots of ups and downs, and it has been really great to share those ups and downs with such a fantastic group of people.

I already thought they were great, but the girls of C2 went over the top and decided to throw me a surprise bachelorette party - and it was awesome!!

We went out after our surgery quiz for a "girls night" - we were just going out to get some Mexican food and celebrate the almost-end of the year. But when I got there things started to get fishy. Pam made me put on a hawaiian lei, a pirate's eyepatch and hoop earring, and a flashing pink tiara. Then, they told me that I was kidnapped for the remainder of the evening and not to eat too much Mexican food because there was more to come.

What silly girls! We played goofy bachelorette party games, played pin the tail on the Christopher (complete with Chris' face plastered to a cartoon donkey body), and even had a PINATA filled with all sorts of delicious chocolate! There was a spice cake, flowers, balloons, crepe paper, and unmentionables hung all around DeAnna and Sarah's house! They also got me a CURIOUS GEORGE ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. How awesome! I had so much fun and couldn't even believe they bought me presents too! They seriously threw one fantastic party. I had so much fun and can't even begin to thank them for the great time that I had.

I am sure going to miss these gals when we part ways next year!! <3

urban dictionary

2009-07-01T21:42:00.003-04:00

I've been looking up a lot in the dictionary lately.

Have you ever Urban dictionary-ed your name?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=katie

They make us Katie's out to be a pretty awesome bunch, if I do say so myself.

:)

D-day

2009-07-01T20:35:00.005-04:00

Do. Not. Get. Sick.

Today is July 1. Beginning today, everyone in training at the hospital is officially new to their post. Medical students just became interns. Interns just became Residents. Chiefs just became attendings. Everybody is new. Especially the interns. Often, they are new to being an MD, new to this hospital, maybe even new to this time zone.

It's a little intense. To quote many of my peers, coworkers, and observers in the vicinity, today was just "one big clusterfuck."*

*clusterfuck (plural clusterfucks) (vulgar) A chaotic mess that might be compared to group sex, in which participants are so intertwined and intermingled that they might penetrate each other rather than their intended target. Its more precise usage describes a particular kind of Catch-22, in which multiple complicated problems mutually interfere with each other's solution. The looser usage, referring to any chaotic situation, probably prevails. Thanks, wikitionary. You learn something new every day, huh?

Here's an example: Everyone switched on to VA service today (except the two students, including myself), but no one could find our census (with our patients' info on it), only one of the interns (and no residents) could log into the electronic medical record, and Jacob and I still don't have half the access we need either. We just rounded and scrawled everything on scrap paper until we could access the records.

Another example (and one I find particularly entertaining): Two of my classmates are on UK medicine wards. Interns on medicine typically split up the patients between themselves and write a SOAP note on every patient. SOAP stands for Subjective (what the patient says), Objective (what the data/labs say), and Assessment/Plan (what your assessment of the problems are and what you're going to do about it). One intern today said "What goes in the assessment and plan?" then followed up by asking "Do I have to write one of these every day?"

I think dumb questions are okay sometimes, but sometimes I think you should just figure it out yourself, or at least err on the side of caution until you figure something out.

Oh dear.

I repeat: Don't get sick.

oh, dear.

2009-07-01T20:35:00.001-04:00

There is just so much to say.

And neither the time nor the words to say it!

midterms

2009-06-20T12:42:00.003-04:00

Unfortunately, the super awesome long post I was planning to write is unavailable until I get some more work done. This should hold me over for now:

Only one more month of 3rd year! Woohoo! And...less than a year until MD! I can't even believe it. It's exciting but scary. Probably more scary right now.

Speaking of scary, surgery midterm is Monday. Shouldn't be that scary except that I haven't studied for it almost at all yet. I say "yet" because that's the plan for today. That, and about two hundred other things. Did you know that I'm getting married in less than four months? Holy Cow!

And with marriage comes...engagement pictures! We finally got them back from the photographers and are SO happy with how they turned out. They put some up on their blog which you can find here:
http://www.varlandphotography.com/blog/2009/06/chris-and-katie-engaged-part-i/
and most of my favorites are found here:
http://www.varlandphotography.com/blog/2009/06/chris-and-katie-engaged-part-ii/

Chris is in Trinidad this weekend shooting Kateri and Karl's wedding. Technically their third wedding, hopefully after this they can consider themselves really married. Chris also has our engagement proofs that he's been tinkering with during his long flights/layovers on his way to Trinidad. He promised me he would try to post some of them today while he's staying at the fancy wedding resort, and I will direct you to them as soon as I can! Get ready!

Anyway, not much is going on here on the homefront except for my to-do list that keeps growing bigger by the minute. Studying needs to take precedence, but there's a ton of cleaning that needs to be done and working out so I can still fit in that dress I tried on months ago and numerous other things but I'm so tempted to go enjoy this sunny weather! I'm also obsessed with checking my email because that's the only way I can get in touch with Chris, so that's also a bit of a problem...

Well I suppose I'll try to go finish reading the outline of the book (before reading the book and the First Aid and the questions and the answers...and then reviewing it all before Monday morning! eep!) and maybe if I can finish that I can take my book outside and read a little. I need to get my daily (more like weekly) dose of Vitamin D, anyway.

Notes

2009-06-16T20:11:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to say:
1) I'm not dead
2) My yellow hair is still nice.
3) Surgery isn't as bad as I thought.
4) I'll probably write more this weekend because Chris is going to TRINIDAD and I will be here and lonely! I will also be studying for the midterm (on Monday) so there will definitely be some procrastination in there.

Love,
Katie

My Hair Story

2009-05-31T16:50:00.013-04:00

I was born with "peach fuzz" and it was all I had for more than two years, so ever since my hair began to grow my hair has played an important role in my life. My name is Katie, and this is my hair's story.

Bald and beautiful

I bought my first box of "sun-in" in 7th grade. It turned my hair a nice brassy orange-yellow and definitely didn't help with the awkwardness that is also known as middle school. (Thankfully, most of the photographic evidence from that time in my life has been properly disposed of.) As I entered high school and continued through college, I did a few highlighting kits and dying kits just because, you know, blondes have more fun, and $7 for a new look wasn't too bad.

Nuclear yellow after the white coat ceremony (after vacationing in FL!)

Studying for biochem with long blonde locks

Dolled up for Caduceus Dance ("Med school prom")

After starting med school (and unfortunately experiencing the lack of sleep associated with it) I decided it was time to become more serious and go dark. Besides, people should take me more seriously that way, and maybe (hopefully!) I would stop getting asked what high school I go to. I know that's supposed to be a compliment but it gets old after a while (Ha- no pun intended!). After becoming brunette I would occasionally play around with different colors - reddish brown, light brown, dark brown, I sampled the spectrum of brown-ness and had some fun.

sitting in the bathroom posing for a photo :)

Redhead at Keeneland

For almost a year now, though, I have kept my hair natural...I was sick of dealing with roots and split ends, and it has been awesome! I literally have not cut my hair since 1 year ago today when I chopped it all off.

May 31, 2008

However, after looking online at hundreds upon hundreds of "wedding hair" photos, I decided that I want to lighten up a bit. So today, after searching tons of hair photos I have come full circle and am now back to the tow-headed kid I used to be. It's still growing on me (HA...I just can't help myself) but I like it a lot. And Chris does, too, which is great. He's never dated blonde-Katie (I went brown a few months before we started going out) so he was probably more excited about it than I was! Anyway, here's the old- and new-hair Katie, with curls!

Before:

After!

Yummy

2009-05-29T23:28:00.002-04:00

Chris makes the most delicious and amazing vanilla soy chai latte, especially when I need "study juice."

I love him. :)

surgery

2009-05-26T19:08:00.004-04:00

Surgery orientation was today, and I have to be in the surgery ICU at 6am tomorrow morning where I can be swept up in a whirlwind of sutures and suction and scrubbing. You're probably not going to be hearing a lot from me for a while. Or maybe you'll hear a lot. You'll just have to check back and find out.

Bye!
Katie

psychos and dentists

2009-05-22T16:11:00.002-04:00

Today should have been my psych and neuro shelf exams. Should have been, because somebody in the neurology department dropped the ball and forgot to order our tests. Oops! Unfortunately, this means we must take the exams next Saturday (a week into surgery rotation). On a positive note, it means I was much less stressed today (for only having one exam instead of two) but, it still stinks because I have to study/stress all next week about neuro, when I will have enough worrying to deal with for surgery.

Another positive: because the neuro exam got cancelled, I got squeezed in for a dental appointment! Woohoo! I'm only a month overdue but it was stressing me out that my next guaranteed day off is at the end of July... and I got a clean bill of health this morning so that made me happy! No-Cavity-Katie strikes again!

Now if I could only make all the other doctor appointments I need to make...

So memorial day weekend is hopefully going to be some relaxing, some fun, and maybe some studying all rolled together. Tonight my parents are going out of town (to Maysville KY for my dad to compete in a triathalon tomorrow morning) so I get to "babysit" my 17-year old brother for exactly the reasons you wouldn't want to leave your 17 year old son home alone on a Friday night. Not that Gregory would do anything except play video games and eat cereal.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to take a walk with my dear "MOH" Sabrina and talk about weddings and life. (MOH is a new acronym I learned while reading wedding websites and I think I just like to use it becasue it sounds funny when you say "moh" aloud...or maybe it's just me...) Later Chris and I have been double-booked - Kateri's folks are having a big bonfire and grillout at their home in Danville and it's our friend Andres' birthday and he's having a shin-dig over at his place. Decisions decisions!

Sunday there are plans in the works for a family cookout at my Aunt's house here in Lexington which is sweet because she has a POOL. Yeah! Hope the weather is nice!

Of course, I'll be interspersing neurology studying within all this, but you know how that goes.

What could have been

2009-05-21T16:38:00.004-04:00

Listening to music with electronica roots, downtempo influences, use of modal harmonies, and inventive instrumental arrangements somehow takes me back a few years and makes me re-think my life's choices. I guess I listened to a lot of this during first year, when a lot of things seemed to change in my life. Whether these things were good or bad (most of the time I think they were really, really good) doesn't matter, but sometimes I think about what could have been...

I think about my past friendships, and I realize that so many of my friends are getting married, buying houses, and having babies. They're little homemakers, they go to work everyday (and their work stays the same from month to month) and they seem generally satisfied. They go on vacations and are pretty domestic. That life, while it may sound a little boring, is sometimes exactly what I want. I want to go to work every weekday from 9-5 and then sit around enjoying my house and family on evenings and weekends.

The further along I go with this med school business the more I wonder if my life will ever be like that.

I don't know what the next 7-10 years hold (after which Chris and I will both be finally done with residency and finally joining the "real world") so I can't really settle in one place. My job will change from month to month for at least the next four years. Every month learning new things, helping different people, exploring new areas of the hospital and figuring out my superiors' expectations for the month. Never really knowing when I will get home, when I will get a day off, not being able to make doctor and dental appointments for my own health, and constantly striving to be better than I was yesterday.

In ways it sounds great and new and exciting, but in other ways it sounds stressful. The unpredictability of it all is frustrating sometimes. Even after the next 7-10 years, neither one of us is likely to have a 9-5 job, as there will always be call, emergencies, and long days at the office/hospital where our patients will need us at the expense of our family. I don't want my job to be my life, but the further I get into this the more I realize that maybe it has to be. Especially until residency is over.

I suppose I just have to take each day (and each rotation month) as it comes, as a challenge and a chance for me to excel and do my best and really do what I wanted to do all along - help others. Family, friends, homes, and everything else will fit in there someplace.

Maybe I just should change my Pandora station ... I think I'll go make dinner and listen to "Bootylicious Radio."

(Yes, that's exactly what you think it is) :)

rainbow cake

2009-05-17T11:28:00.005-04:00

Since my psych rotation has been a little easier on me time-wise, I have been able to enjoy a little wedding planning (and not enjoy some of it too), as well as bake a little for friends and family. Chris' roomate(s) Kateri and Karl got church married last weekend, and I had the privilege of being one of 11 people in attendance - including the happy couple and the priest! Needless to say it was a very intimate and fun ceremony, and I offered to make a yummy wedding cake for her and her family.

It was a yellow cake (made with diet coke for a delicious and lower-fat version of regular yellow cake) with a teensy bit of buttercream frosting then covered in sweet marshmallow fondant. YUM! Chris helped make it, so he deserves a little credit too.

Chris took wedding pictures, which you can see HERE.

A few days ago, while surfing the web (like always) I came across a website that showed how to make a RAINBOW CAKE. After seeing the pictures, Chris immediately demanded me to leave the house and go buy supplies for this feat. I did, and the next day we had delicious rainbow cake to share. It was a little lumpy, but I learned my lesson and it won't happen again. :)

(see the sprite zeros going in instead of eggs, oil, and water? yep, it's awesome.)

I made some more marshmallow fondant for this cake and colored it to make it all swirly, then I made some fondant roses - I had never done that before so I think they look pretty good!Mmm! Colors!

Great Sam

2009-04-29T17:49:00.004-04:00

I don't have any really fantastic stories from psych just yet but we are currently detoxing a patient from alcohol who is the exact same patient I had in the ER who came in after being "found down" who had apparently ingested many many drugs. I poked that guy in every single hole - foley catheter, two IV lines, cardiac monitors (not a hole but a check on my list), nasogastric tube. Anyway, he alone accounted for almost half my checklist in the ER so he's my friend.

Curiously, he never mentioned ever being in the hospital to the docs at Good Sam (he was at UK in December). When I told them he was familiar to me they were very interested. Detective Katie breaks another case! Whoo!

Oh, and Good Sam is Great so far. They have a "Doctor's Lounge" with FOOD in it all day! And there is a parking garage right next to the hospital. SWEET.

Oh! AND...we have to do a mock trial of a high-profile serial killer case where the defendant pleads insanity at the end of the month (I guess to see what it's like to be a medical examiner), but guess who gets to be the serial killer?! Yep, Krazy Katie the Killer. Okay, not really, but something like that. I'll let you know how that goes. :)

PS-I changed the layout today. I think it looks kind of 'springy' - what do you think?

Neurology Recap

2009-04-25T09:38:00.004-04:00

I've certainly been bad at updating this past month. I don't know why, really, because I think about it a lot, I just couldn't find time to get on the computer and pour my brain onto my keyboard. Anyway, lots of things going on: the weather is finally turning beautiful (and tulips everywhere made my heart sing), I'm getting somewhere (finally!) in wedding planning!, and I've learned a tiny little bit about neurology. I need to learn more, but thankfully we don't have the exam until next month after psych is over.

Trying to recap neuro is sort of a difficult task. Let me start out by saying that I think neurological disorders are super interesting, but I am never going to be a neurologist. Ever.

So I started out my neuro month in the clinic. That was okay, I saw lots of different things but it was basically just a glorified shadowing experience. Actually not even that glorified. My first day, Carol (the awesome nurse) told me that I was going to work with Dr. B (the "very busy" chairman of the neurology dept - he always wears bow ties, and must be from NY or something by the way he talks). Anyway, Carol explained to me that Dr. Berger is a very busy and important man and did not wait for anybody. Therefore, I needed to only knock on his door when a patient was ready, stick my head into his office and hold up one finger (indicating one patient ready). Then, I was instructed to wait by the patient's room until he was ready to see them. I did all this, and soon Dr. Berger flew out of his office into the patient's room. He said to me "Are you the medical student? What's your name?" and shook my hand (and about broke it in half) as I told him my name. We got into the room about 0.3 seconds later and he said "Katie, sit right there and be quiet." And I did.

And that was my first morning with neurology.

The rest of the clinics were a little less intense than the first experience, but still...not my thing. One good thing about neurology though is that they have tons of conferences with food. I definitely ate well this month!

The following week I moved on to Child neurology. Basically: Kids with Seizures service. It was a good week because we had a good resident (and a pretty good attending too), but pretty sad. The kids with seizures were often drug babies, their moms had had 7 or 8 other kids, took drugs, and didn't keep any of the kids themselves. These poor children had cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and brain malformations. Thankfully, the kids had been adopted by amazing parents and had great opportunities but it still made me angry to think that these children have no ability to reach their full potential because their stupid mother was too irresponsible to either 1) not do drugs while pregnant or 2) use a condom.

Following the kiddos, I moved onto stroke service. They either assign you to general or stroke. Stroke sees, well, strokes, and general sees everything else (read: all the cool stuff). I had a very interesting man as my attending. Dr. Phe was very intelligent and never used contractions when he was speaking and continually told us (the "hardworking and diligent medical students") that we needed to get our tuition's worth. I saw a lot of strokes. That's about it.

Actually, I saw a lot of heartbreak too. My very first patient was a large lady who had a very large stroke - it killed nearly half her brain. I was supposed to go down there and "gather a history" but since she wasn't able to communicate I asked her daughters (she herself was only 60) what had happened. They said they were enjoying Easter dinner and were sitting out on the back porch when she suddenly stood up, walked inside, and laid down on the bed. They went in a few minutes later looking for her and found her unresponsive and unable to move half her body. How scary is that?

We had a different (and very wonderful) attending the first few days of stroke, and we had a "family meeting" with this patient's family to discuss options. There was TWENTY THREE family members present for the meeting. It was insane. We had to find a conference room where they would all fit! Dr. D told them that their mom had had this huge stroke, and she may get better or she may die. It depended on swelling in her brain, and they need to discuss DNR status and so on. It was intense. I was sure she was going to die, but fortunately she's improved (somewhat) and I think she might get to go home this weekend. Not really a happy ending because of her huge disability, though, but happier.

Later the first morning, we were standing in the hall on rounds and A PATIENT CODED! In a room only 5 feet away from us! This was my first "real" code that started when I was present. An alarm went off and a bunch of nurses ran into the room. Then I waited for my doctors to go in before me (because I think technically whoever gets there first runs the code - and it sure as heck wasn't going to be me!). I watched all the commotion from the back corner of the room (trying to stay out of the way when there's 20 people in one room is difficult). She was actually one of the patients we were about to round on. She didn't make it, unfortunately.

The rest of the two weeks was more of the same but not quite as intense. I saw tons of patients who were perfectly normal then severely disabled in a matter of minutes. I got to watch an embolectomy - they go into the brain's blood vessels by threading a catheter from your leg up to your head, then try to grab the clot and pull it out. They only got part of it, but we went to tell the family that the surgery was partially successful, then we found out about 10 minutes later that the woman was deteriorating and she passed away in the middle of the night. Again, depressing.

I saw two patients with a rare and very interesting syndrome called Gerstmann's Syndrome. It happens when you have a stroke in one particular area of your brain that causes you to have the following symptoms:
1. Dysgraphia/agraphia - unable to write
2. Dyscalculia/acalculia - unable to make calculations
3. Finger agnosia - loss of the ability to recognize fingers
4. Left-right disorientation - can't show me her right/left hand, etc.
It's apparently really rare and we had two patients in two days with it. Pretty cool.

Anyway, not my favorite month this year. Actually much less than favorite. But that's good, I like it when I can narrow down my options a little more. :)

balloons!

2009-04-22T22:44:00.002-04:00

Baloon Glow Party ’09

Chris and I went to the Little Kentucky Derby hot air balloon show last week. It was awesome (15 balloons!) and Chris got great pictures. I have lots of updates but you're going to have to be patient for those. :)

happy holy week

2009-04-06T21:58:00.001-04:00

Well I certainly haven't been very good at updating.

Uhm...medicine final was tough, hopefully that went okay. I hopefully did well but don't think I could have done anything differently. We'll see.

Neurology has been...different. Neurologists are a different breed. Not my particular type of breed, but they're okay I guess. Clinic was last week and this week I'm on Peds Neuro. It's okay, but I don't really like to do new things so I won't really like it until the weekend when I go off service anyway.

Maybe I'm leaning towards medicine again? Stay tuned!

Met with a wedding florist this weekend. HOLY COW flowers everywhere. Need to cut back a little on that. Or hydrangeas that are $10 a flower - who knew? Maybe my grandma will offer to do the flowers for me - she used to own a flower shop, you know. Anybody ever heard of ranunculus? They come in all sorts of colors, and I think I like them.

I just finished watching House and it was super sad. I won't spoil it for you, though! Sometimes I don't want to be a doctor because lots of sad things happen.

Happy Holy Week! Palm Sunday was yesterday and it's my favorite church day of the year. The music is always awesome and it's not as crowded as Easter. I also love all the other services during the week - the washing feet on Thursday (okay I don't like washing them that much but the service is nice) and Walk the way of the Cross on Friday, then the Passion play Friday night, then Easter Vigil - and Chris is going to become Catholic! (officially!) Yeah!

I have some cake and bought Chris some "holy presents" but I think that neuro will make me work on Sunday. It would be super nice to have off the whole weekend, though, so I'll keep my fingers crossed. Unfortunately, because my mom is a CPA and Easter is April 12 (only 3 more days until Tax day!) she will probably be working on Easter, too. Maybe we can celebrate with the Eastern Orthodox church... or maybe I'll just eat cake after work.

Anyway, I need to go learn about hypotonia, seizures, tuberous sclerosis, and tons of other things. Maybe I'll update a little better this week!

whoopsie

2009-03-26T23:07:00.002-04:00

The ER test today was okay. Sort of random but that's Dr. Young. Plenty of easy peasy questions but then he would put in something that nobody ought to know. Except probably Jeff, but that's fine with me. Other news: I ate an entire bag of spinach today for lack of any better food. Don't worry though, I cooked it down so there wasn't that much to chew. Does anyone else have the problem with spinach making their teeth gritty? I hate that feeling.

I didn't study today. Not one word.

Now it's 11pm before my 8:30am "National Board of Medical Examiners Internal Medicine Exam" and I am thinking "whoopsie"

Maybe I'll go read a few pages and then fall asleep.

But, I repeat, how does one study for ALL of internal medicine?

PS-Chris is drawing a piece for the humanities festival. I love when he draws and I don't know why. I miss being five-year-old Katie who was going to grow up to be an artist (or a ballerina) and drawing all day. Ah, growing up.

studying as usual

2009-03-25T14:15:00.004-04:00

Ugh. I can't study any more! I've read too much. Done too many questions. Seriously. But yet when I do new questions I still get them wrong! I know that I don't know things, but I don't know what the things are that I don't know, so I don't know how to know them. (Figure that out!)

Anyway, I thought I would write a little post about things that have recently made me happy. Because otherwise I will be stuck alone in a conference room at school with a stinky trashcan on a drizzly Wednesday with nothing better to do than be miserable and studying. So here goes:

1) xkcd.com - Sometimes this comic is a little weird, but sometimes just absolutely cracks me up.

2) Running. Really! I've been running a couple times this year (after not running in over 5 months - okay, that first run was rough) but it's actually been ...enjoyable! I don't know how it happened, either. I'm afraid to actually say it out loud because then I'll jinx it. I have been "running" on a sort-of regular basis since med school started (not counting the time in 6th grade when I tried out for the track team - awkward!), but I never really enjoyed it. Mostly, I did it because it's a cheap and time-efficient way to exercise. I'm afraid to say anything too soon but if this keeps up you may just see me running a marathon! Okay, just kidding.

3) Doing non-school things. Surprise, right? I'm dancing in 3 songs for our bi-annual "humanities festival" and maybe doing a duet with Sabrina of Carmen with flute/clarinet. It's awesome to do stuff with my peers that doesn't involve any studying or geeky talk whatsoever. (Geeky talk is okay but school-related geeky talk is unacceptable.) It also gives me a good opportunity to make friends with people I otherwise don't get to talk to. Be there, April 3!

4) Having days off during the week. Awesome. I don't know if I will get these again anytime soon, so hopefully I enjoyed them while I had them. You get to sleep in, hang out, make all the appointments and do all the errands you heart desires, and still be done by 4pm. After 2 months of medicine (where 6-day workweeks come standard) I really, really appreciate my days off. Especially when they're in the middle of the week. Whoo!

5) Making lists of things that I like. Just kidding, that was a cop out. I'm in a better mood now and better get back to learning the entirety of internal medicine and emergency medicine before, oh, tomorrow morning. Wish me luck! :)

The Dress

2009-03-23T22:17:00.004-04:00

I have a dress! Hooray! I have pictures posted... katietwist.shutterfly.com :) Chris figured it out, too. I came home from the store and he immediately could tell I had a dress (because I was excited, duh) but he looked at me for a minute and said "I know which one it is!" - and he did. That's okay though, he's not allowed to see it anymore until October! When I'm wearing it! Next I need to choose some bridesmaid dresses (and what color I want them to be!) Since my dress is darker than I originally planned, I want to go with a darker color. I'm thinking a teal or maybe brown. I had been thinking navy too, but that may be too formal/wintery.

Anyway, part 1 of 3 of my medicine final is tomorrow afternoon. Wish me luck! It's a standardized patient exam, so basically it's like I'm having an afternoon full of pretending doctor in a pretend clinic! I need to brush up on my smoking cessation counseling, but other than that I hope I am ready. I don't really know how to study for this! :)

PS- I am loving the weather right now. It's PERFECT outside! even when I have to sit and study it still is nice to go out for some fresh air. HOORAY!

Match Day

2009-03-19T15:46:00.002-04:00

One year from today, I will be determining my fate for the next 3-4 years. It's a little terrifying that my future will be determined by a magic international double-matrix-voodoo-computer, with lots of numbers and rankings and things. Actually a lot terrifying.

First things first though: what do I want to do when (if) I grow up?

In lighter news, Chris and I have found a great reception place for our wedding (finally!) and that makes me happy. It's even on sale! I've still not figured out which dress I like better...but I am planning to go once again to the store and try on poofy white dresses to decide which one I want to become Mrs. Simmons in. Hehehee.

I do get a little sad because I like my last name (I've had it for 23 years now and grown quite fond of it), but Chris is the last male in his family so he feels he has to carry on the family name. We both agree that Twist is cooler, though. :)

Anyway, I'm trying to study (and failing quite miserably) because my resident let us go home at 11:30 this morning (on a call day!!!) because we need to study for the Shelf exam next week. Shelf=really hard. But, it's a national exam so at least it's fair. And curved. Whew! We also have a "clinical performance exam" where we get to play with fake patients. That is a little stressful but hopefully goes well.

Sorry I've not been very cohesive in writing lately. Or ever. Maybe I can work on that...after I do these GI questions. :)

this and that

2009-03-09T22:24:00.003-04:00

I can't even remember all the things I wanted to write about. Here are a few random tidbits:

It's official: July 28th USMLE Step 2 CS, October 2nd USMLE Step 2 CK and $1500+travel/lodging in Atlanta. And I used to think that it would all be smooth sailing after the MCAT. Ha!

A friend asked our small group an interesting question. She asked us what are the top five diagnoses we see in the hospital. MI, COPD exacerbation, CHF, Pneumonia, and Renal failure were all on our list. She then asked us how we fix those things. Other than pneumonia, we don't "fix," we "manage" with symptomatic treatment (and hopefully preventative treatment too). It makes me sad that with all the medical advances we have that chronic disease is so prevalent, and we can't fix people no matter how hard we try. Ironically enough, oncology is one of the few specialties where you actually do CURE people.

I had a close encounter with something very scary last week on my day off. I went to Lenscrafters to get contacts. Not even 5 minutes after I had gone in and sat down, I heard a loud "bang" outside - loud enough that I looked out there to see what it was. I didn't see anything...then there was another bang... and I still didn't think much of it, until a few minutes later ambulances and fire trucks and police cars all showed up. Apparently two men got in an argument and the one shot the other (his former lover) in the back and in the head! I was very upset (to say the least) considering this was in the middle of Joseph Beth parking lot in total daylight - and the creepiest thing was that the shots were not right in a row, they were separated by at least 15-30 seconds, meaning he thought about it before shooting again. The killer then went on a high speed chase and ended up in a standoff with police for 2 hours and eventually turned himself in. I was SO freaked out because I had been outside in that parking lot just minutes before... eeeeek.

On a separate note, my patient yesterday was probably one of my most touching so far this year. He has lung cancer with a recurrent pneumonia that just won't go away. He's sick of fighting it and finally decided he wanted to go home with Hospice and not have to be in the hospital anymore. He was given a 6-month prognosis 8 years ago, though, so he's not complaining. He was so brave when facing his own mortality and he told us how he was not afraid of getting out of the boat, that he had a friend, and that friend was Jesus Christ. (I assumed he was referencing Peter in the Bible and walking on water?) He'd fought his battle hard and wanted to die with dignity. and his sweet wife was just heartbroken. Before we walked out, he told us all "hug your kids" - I think we all left that room a little teary-eyed.

I had wanted to tell him how his faith was so inspirational to me, that I hope that I can be that clear-headed and brave when my time is coming, and that he taught me invaluable lessons about life and love. Unfortunately, he left yesterday before I got to say goodbye, but I hope he knows he made an impact on me.

On a lighter note - we picked our honeymoon today! Hooray, vacation! We're going to Sandals Grande in St. Lucia - I am so pumped!

A funny VA story: So a nurse called and said that Mr. X was bleeding out of the groin after his cath - we assumed it was his foley catheter caused some trauma and was bleeding...and he was on heparin so he obviously was having trouble clotting his blood. Our resident joked that she needed a medical student to go put pressure on it, and I (begrudgingly) volunteered since I had nothing better to do. My partner-in-crime on medicine with me (who shall remain anonymous for the purposes of this post) said "No, Katie, he probably doesn't want you holding his schlong for 15 minutes, I'll go instead." This "schlong" is one of the funniest sounding words I've ever heard, so I cracked up laughing and felt like I was in 3rd grade for laughing at a slang term for male genitalia. Fortunately (for our patient and unnamed medical student) he was actually bleeding after coming back from the Cath Lab - out his femoral area (which is near the groin but not the "schlong" exactly...hehehe). No pressure was needed.

Speaking of schlongs - I dozed off for about 15 minutes this evening after dinner and dreamed that I had about 7 baby turtles walking around the floor of my apartment. I looked away for a while then looked back and there were 14! the only reasoning I could come up with was that they were mating/multiplying, so I'd have to separate the boys and the girls...I flipped over the first turtle and saw the tiniest (human-looking) male genitalia (except that it was green like the turtles)... and then I woke up. This dream is open for interpretation...

anyway, I should go do some studying, and maybe even try to exercise. I need to try on wedding dresses tomorrow!

so many things

2009-03-08T21:53:00.003-04:00

I actually took notes on things I wanted to post about today during rounds (silly, I know), but I reallyreallyREALLY need to study and my sweet and awesome fiance (after cleaning my house for me while I was on call yesterday) just made me some "study juice" - vanilla soymilk chai extra foamy! - so I'd better do that instead.

I promise to update soon!

PS-I think I have *almost* picked a wedding dress. I picked two, actually...and they're very, very different! oh, decisions! I may have pictures to come later :)

PSS- did I mention that Chris is the best??? YUM chai!

late morning

2009-02-20T09:02:00.002-05:00

Even though class doesn't start until ten I'm stuck here in the hospital because Chris needed to get into work at 8. Boo! I guess I can't complain, though, because he gets here early EVERY SINGLE day when I have to get to the hospital at the crack of dawn - even when I was on Gyn-onc and was regularly getting here at 5:30!

Today is my grandpa's 89th birthday. He's technically my "step grandpa" because my mom's father died when she was 11. But, he's the only grandpa I've got and I am super excited! He was the one who made me bacon every day when I was in B-town. I think the whole fam is going up tonight to hang out and celebrate his birthday - one more year and he'll be 90!

Well I just found out have to go over to some place in the VA and try to find some guy to sign up for some class that I apparently can't just sign up for over the phone...so I'd better get going. I hate paperwork!