Happenings

This was Chris' specialty pizza he made for New Years - chicken, artichoke hearts, and fresh mozarella! YUM!

This is my ROOMIE who came all the way from Peru to eat cake with me on January 1! How about that! I made an extra special cake for her...next time I'll put daisies on it 'cause they're her favorite. :) I'm very sad that I didn't get a picture of the both of us that night (what was I thinking?!) so she's just gonna have to come over and play again the next time she comes up for a visit.


It was a white cake with strawberry-rhubarb jam and icing filling, funfetti icing, and my delicious marshmallow fondant - oh yes, this cake has an entire bag of marshmallows and a ton of powdered sugar...all on top!

This is the finished product. My mom says I can't bake my own wedding cake but I sure think it would be fun. And just as delicious as any old baker. And not $4 a slice! what the heck?!

Anyway...

The wedding date may be set for October 17! Our priest has to check with the other priest to make sure they didn't double-book...but so far it looks like it will work out perfectly. Tax day (the other tax day) is October 15 so my mom is busy until then, and she would be quite unhappy if we decided to get hitched before then. Also, if I take October as my vacation month, I have a comfortable 2 weeks to finish up the wedding details and possibly take Step 2 (Blech. I already dread that.) and another couple weeks after the wedding to go on a honeymoon (YEA!) and get settled into the real world for a bit before returning to the hospital.

I'm meeting with the dean of student affairs tomorrow to discuss my plans, and make sure she thinks I can pull off getting all the right recommendations, board scores, and everything to make sure that I can be a good candidate for residency because I NEED to stay at UK for residency. My husband (heehee!) and I would be quite unhappy if he was here finishing up and I was stuck in, say, Oregon or something.

I also have contacted a wedding planner to find out what the heck they do, and if I need one or not. Should be meeting with her soon.

There's a bridal show on Sunday...Good thing I'm a professional bridal-show-attender. Hey, it's not my fault they give out free cake, chocolate fountain goodies, and other tasty morsels to any passersby! I've been at least 4 times, maybe more. Yes, just for the cake. And chocolate fountains. The first time I went (as an amateur, you know) I got THE WORST stomachache afterwards! Caitlin and I had been studying genetics all day and our lunch consisted of popcorn and a row or two of oreos. That doesn't mix with 5 different flavors of cake, 3 unlimited white, milk, and dark chocolate fountains (and peanut butter fountains!) and more. But I know better now. The only difference is this time I'm actually interested in talking to some of the vendors (instead of seeing how many times I can walk by a booth and pick up a piece of cake and not talk to them before they give me the hairy eyeball).

Anyway, things are moving along (even though I have no idea which direction they're moving). I'm not qute as stressed now even though I probably should be! And I definitely should begin studying again, but I am having a hard time starting up.

Today was the first day back at school after the break, it was pretty uneventful. I'm still on ER and I had a shift from 6-midnight this evening. I actually left at 9pm because I was sick of it...I know that makes me a horrible student but we were "on divert "meaning there are basically no beds available which = no new patients and nothing for me to see or do. Also, "on divert" means that the ER is PACKED...beds lining every wall, in hallways, etc. I got fed up with not having a place to sit or anybody acknowledging my existence, so I just walked out. We don't get graded on our attendance or performance, we just have a checklist to fill out (and I've already got 390/400 points finished, and I have 18 more hours in the ER scheduled this week).

We did have a lady come in who had been kicked in the face by a horse and another guy with a gunshot wound, this time in the abdomen, and he was doing much better than my first gunshot wound. They took him to surgery pretty quick. Both patients sound much more interesting than they were, and there's not much more stories to tell. Bummer.

Anyway...I have nothing to do tomorrow except for sleep, as I work the midnight-6am shift tomorrow night. That one kind of gets to me...especially around 4am...bleck! We'll see how that goes. It's going to be hard to talk myself into going in at all since I just need 10 more points. Surely I can stick one more guy with an IV on Saturday's nice noon shift, right? ;) I may go in just for the stories I can tell afterwards. We'll see!

Break in Review

In chronological order:

Chris went home for a few days as soon as break started and I had "Smith family Christmas" (my mom's side). We always have an exchange of gifts and there are plenty of good times. Sometimes I wonder if I'm really related to these people, but it's okay because they're good people, just crazy. We also celebrated my uncle's 50th birthday by giving him the infamous pair of XXL black panties that somehow have been passed around for at least 25 years. 25 years! My grandmother also had received a racy apron that she made him try on...I don't really understand the significance of this other than it made my grandmother laugh so hard tears rolled down her face.
You can see my grandma on the right side of the photo cracking up. We almost got the apron on Patrick until he looked up and saw that I'd whipped out my camera phone and he ran out of the room faster than Grandpa could say "Patrick, you look like a sissy!" (Which he did say, totally out of the blue, and the highlight of my night.)

Anyway, Chris came back, and we hung around...sort of cleaning, doing nothing, enjoying one another's company. We've been following a workout program for a few weeks now and so we got more into that, did some cooking, and generally had a great time.

Christmas Eve we had a big Twist dinner (with Chris, of course) and went to Midnight Mass for the first time in my life (and the first time in my dad's life too!) We always went to the kids Mass earlier on Christmas Eve, but this year Patrick had to work (at Abercrombie, no less) so we went to Newman Center. Chris really wanted to go to the Cathedral because he thought it would be prettier, but my dad was lame and said he didn't want to.

By the way, did you know that Abercrombie sprays the "abercrombie scent" from little boxes in the light fixtures?

Anyway, Christmas day came, I got more presents than any person should (I'm spoiled, I guess!) and was quite content playing with my new apron
and other assorted gifts. We hung out, ate plenty of delicious food, and had an overall awesome day. Chris and I wanted to head out to Indiana that night, so we went back to the apartments to shower and get packed. I was all packed up and out the door (taking out the trash, so romantic!) when Chris wanted to go back into my apartment to "make sure we got everything"...

You see where this is going, right? :)

I bounced back inside in my new pink jacket (and matching cap) when Chris took my hand and walked me over to the 2 foot Christmas tree. He said "what if I told you I have one more present for you?" I think I giggled at that point, I wasn't quite sure what was coming and didn't want to jump to any conclusions! He then told me that I was his best friend and he didn't want to wait any longer to tell me how much he loved me. He said a lot of other things that neither of us really remember...Then he handed me a little box with a bow on it! I giggled some more (a little teary eyed of course) and opened the box...

and it was empty! He laughed at my surprise then got down on one knee, and you of course know how it ended! I got down on my knees too...next to the pathetic little Christmas tree. Then we headed over to my parent's house for Christmas dinner, and a celebration! My mom even had a Bridal magazine waiting for me in my dinner seat! She'd been storing it until Chris popped the question, apparently!

Later I found out that Chris had initially intended to propose at Midnight Mass (with just the two of us there) but because Patrick was working and my whole family went, it was hard to find a spot where just the two of us were alone together. I told him it was just as well, since I wouldn't have paid attention to Mass at all! :)

That night, we headed to Indianapolis to celebrate Christmas with his family and hung out there for a few days. We came back in time for New years, spent it catching up with my Peruvian roomie, Amanda (yeah! pictures to come).

I also got to play with Sabrina one day who coincidentally got engaged on Christmas as well! She called me and squealed "I got engaged!" and I squealed back "that's so awesome, me too!" If two engagements weren't enough, Chris' roomate Kateri ALSO got engaged, I think it was on Christmas eve night.

Since then, I've been wedding planning - blech! It sounds all fun until you look at the price tag and actually try to make decisions. My mom has had some differing opinions and since she's the one with (the most) money, I feel like she gets a good say in what we do. But, it's our wedding! Stress!

Right now we're looking into having a small-ish ceremony sometime in October, which I think will give me enough time to get my letters of recommendation, Step 2 taken, and all the necessary planning that is involved in this shin-dig. We'll see how that goes. Currently, my questions are as follows:
"Do I need a wedding planner?"
"Can I bake my own cake or am I crazy?"
"When is this going to be? - pray that it works for October 17th!"
"Will I get step 2 and everything school-related done in time?"
"Who will the attendants be?"
"Will I go crazy trying to plan and study and everything all at once?"
"Do you know anybody that does anything wedding related? Flowers, cakes, dresses, decorations, photos, etc etc etc???"

My head is spinning...that's enough for now!

Engaged!

On Christmas day, Chris asked me to marry him.

I said YES!

Here is a picture:



YAY!!!!!

Week(s) in review

So it's been a busy couple weeks. I like the ER because I get to do stuff, but I think it's too stressful for me for a career. It is tempting to be done at the end of a shift and not have call, though. :)

ICU: pretty boring, a little sad, although interesting to see such a different side of medicine. tubes and wires and monitors on every body part imaginable.

EMT Ride-a-long: hung out with the medics and firemen from 9-5 and the only trip in the truck we took was to go to Jimmy Johns for some sandwiches (we didn't use the sirens though). I decided to stick around for rush hour to hopefully get a couple runs in. We first picked up a drunk homeless man to take to the VA (where he was very well known) and then we picked up a rather large lady who fell down a few steps in her house and thought she broke her back. Neither was too exciting but it was kind of fun to ride in the ambulance!

My CRAZY second shift in the ER: there's just too many stories so I broke it down
-The guy who took lortab and xanax and clonopin and amitryptiline and laid face down in the snow:
Had this guy not smelled quite so bad I might have given him a hug. We have these "task lists" for ER (stick 4 IVs, 1 foley catheter, 1 NG tube, etc) and I did practically everything on the list for this one guy. I stuck him with needles, shoved tubes in multiple orifices, and attached all sorts of monitors to him. And he didn't even complain one bit. Probably because he was unconscious, but whatever. It was awesome.

-the drunk guy who broke his ankle and almost coded:
OK so this guy was pretty intoxicated and we think he fell off his porch resulting in his ankle pointing 45 degrees laterally (enough that he broke the skin on the medial side-it was gross!). He was hilarious, though, because every few minutes he would say "what the hell happened to me?" and we'd tell him his ankle was broken and he'd say "well shit, how'd I do that?"...as if we knew.
Anyway, we were preparing a splint for him and the doc ordered some pain meds to give him before we pulled his ankle straight. He soon became completely unresponsive (in front of his family) and everyone panicked because he was in a hallway (not even a real room) and wasn't attached to any kind of monitor (for heart rate, BP, etc). Fortunately, the expert ER docs gave him another drug to un-do the pain medicine and he came-to, but not before we'd thrown somebody else out of a room and prepared three airway kits. And made my own heart stop for a minute or two.
Anyway, so he got himself a nice little room and we hooked him up to everything we could find, then decided to splint his leg. The ER resident pulled the ankle straight and then turned to me and said "hey can you hold this?" and handed me his ankle. I almost vomited. At least I got another check-off on my task list.

-the truck driver who's truck was hit by a TRAIN so he jumped out of the truck and walked away
This story is pretty much summed up by the title. His back hurt a little so he went to the local ER (about 30 minutes from our ER) and told the docs there that he just crashed with a train and they panicked and sent him to us. Without even checking him at all. Thankfully, he was okay, although he did tell me that he thinks his truck-driving career is probably over.

-a car wreck lady whose BP was down to the 50s and she was mad they had to cut off her clothes
I wish I could have followed up on her case. We had a report that there was a lady coming in from a motor vehicle crash whose BP was way down so everyone geared up in gowns, gloves, etc, we got surgeons, respiratory techs, the x-ray machine, and everything primed and ready to go...and she came in (with normal BP by that point) and was just jabbering away. They still insisted that they cut off her clothes because that's trauma protocol (apparently) but she was irritated "well I could have taken those off myself without you ruining them!" I'd have to agree. As soon as they wheeled her into another room, though, we got another report - one that was a lot less humorous and scared the crap out of a new-to-the-ER girl like me:

-A man with a gunshot wound to the chest:
First of all, this freaked me out because it happened here. Just by the mall. near the park. People don't get murdered in Lexington!
Again, we got on all the gear. A nurse told me to gown up because they may get tired doing CPR and I needed to be ready to step in. Uh, what? Me? doing CPR? in real life?
Anyway, we were told that there was one guy coming who'd been shot in the chest, was found down by paramedics (at least 20 minutes ago) and they were on the way, here in about 6 minutes. They finally wheeled him in (that 6 minutes seemed like at least half an hourm with all the activity going on) and he definitely didn't look good. Not a normal-person color. They immediately started doing CPR, hooking things up, cutting clothes off (I helped take off his shoes/socks and they smelled SO BAD. If you ever plan on getting shot, please, wear clean underwear and wash your feet)
Person #2 was doing CPR (I was 3rd in line) so I asked him if he was getting tired. He said no, but then another nurse said "oh no, stop and let the student do CPR!" Thanks, lady. Thanks. I'm already freaked out enough as it is and to think that I'm going to be pounding his ribcage trying to make a heart with a bullet in it start beating is more than enough for me. But, I stepped up on the box and started doing compressions. Probably only seconds later, they told me to stop so they could ultrasound his heart. Still no activity. I started pounding away again but one of the nurses called out "Time of death: 23:20" and then it was over.
I don't really remember much after that. I didn't want to give up and admit that he was dead, but looking back, not having a heartbeat for 30 minutes probably indicates that you're not going to have one again. And the color of his face indicated that too. I tried my best not to look at his face. I actually tried to not look at anything. I sort of have flashes of pictures in my mind - watching the nurse doing CPR and re-memorizing every movement I was going to make when I stepped up on the box, pulling off his dirty shoes, and making my gloved hands into the fist that I used to push on his chest, but that's about all that I remember. After they gave up, things happened just as fast but I sort of blocked it all out, trying to figure out my emotions (I think it was like the stages of grief - denial, anger, barganing, depression, and acceptance - all rolled into a 30 minute time frame).
It was nearing the end of my shift so I walked around the ER a few times. There was another guy who got shot (in the leg or arm) but was stable and was talking to police. I wanted to go in his room and find out what happened, but I figured that was just being nosy. I did read about him in the newspaper the next day, though. The story is here.

Kind of a lot to handle for one shift in the ER. It also made it difficult to sleep that night.

holy cow i've been busy

Things I need to update on:

-my ICU experience (or un-experience)

-the (relatively uneventful) EMT Ride-a-long at the fire station

-my boring first shift in the ER

-and my CRAZY second shift (Including but not limited to: The guy who took lortab and xanax and clonopin and amitryptiline and laid face down in the snow, the drunk guy who broke his ankle and almost coded, the truck driver who's truck was hit by a TRAIN so he jumped out of the truck and walked away, a car wreck lady whose BP was down to the 50s and she was mad they had to cut off her clothes, oh yeah and a gunshot wound to the chest - in LEXINGTON)...

all in a 6 hour shift.
holy cow!

My question is: how much can I talk about without violating HIPPA? I must do some reading on this before I write any more...

3rd shift is from midnight-6am. Wish me luck!

Nausea

I caught a stomach bug this weekend. I feel like death. I have to be in the ICU tomorrow (where I may encounter some actual death, which kind of puts everything in perspective).

Seriously though, I'm not sure I'll make it through 6 hours straight of rounding. Wish me luck.

Homemade pesto

I'm on subspecialty week this week for Medicine which means I get to go shadow a bunch of docs who subspecialize: nephrology, cardiology, GI, oncology, etc. I also went to my women's continuity clinic (where I get to go every week and it's AWESOME) and to home hospice one day (which is entirely different--and way better--than nursing home hospice). I should write about that later.

Right now I have much some pretty cool news.

I fell in love with a website called Karina's kitchen. She has Celiac disease so she makes a lot of gluten-free (and a lot of other-free things: lactose free, egg free, vegan, etc). I don't really know how I stumbled upon it, I think I was looking up a recipe to use turkey and sweet potatoes together (enchiladas!). I haven't yet gotten the chance to make any of the recipes yet, but I'm super pumped to try some of them. Also, the food photography is spectacular and I think she's a pretty entertaining writer. The line I liked best was "Homemade pesto always elevates the ordinary to extraordinary. Kinda like love." It helped that I made homemade pesto on Monday. :)

Anyway, I'm trying to decide what to make first. I'm thinking Butternut Chili then Peanut Stir Fry. Yum.


Edit: I actually saw a patient in my continuity clinic who had celiac disease a few days after I wrote this post - we talked about our favorite recipe websites!