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.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
What could have been
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) :)
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) :)
Sunday, May 17, 2009
rainbow cake
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!
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!Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Great Sam
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?
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?
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Neurology Recap
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. :)
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. :)
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
balloons!
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. :)
Monday, April 6, 2009
happy holy week
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!
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!
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