Saturday laziness

I love Saturday's when I have absolutely nothing to do! And today happens to be one of those days. I got to sleep in past 5am and it was heavenly! Zach decided he wanted a home design computer program like architects use so we headed down Best Buy and bought some highly sophisticated program that lets him design houses from the ground up....literally. As I sit here typing this he is designing the land and hills and dimensions of the land. He has a slight obsession with houses and architecture but I love it because it means he'll sit here and watch HGTV with me. We plan on building our dream house one day after residency, so I guess this is a good start. He is extremely handy and able to do numerous home improvement and building projects. This program will probably occupy most of his weekend.....

I just finished my 4th week of surgery and am switching teams come Monday. I'll be doing more "general surgery" surgeries meaning hernia repairs, gallbladder removals, thyroid surgeries and lots of breast surgeries. I'm excited about seeing some different surgeries and spending more time in the OR. It is still going pretty well although I feel tired more than ever with the hours. I just don't think I can get used to waking up so early....I guess I'll have to get over that quickly though since I chose a career that starts bright and early in the morning.

I did have some bad news this week though...the hospital that I was scheduled to do my OB rotation at in April is closing so now I'm stuck scrambling trying to find another rotation that fits my schedule. So far no luck but I'm still working on it and hope to have it resolved by early next week.

I'm off to clean this apartment...

for the love!

Vaccinate your children people!!!! This is one issue that makes me dread my Peds rotation....I'm not sure I'll be able to handle parents who bring up the the "autism link" (NOT even a proven link anyway....and this fact is agreed upon by MANY doctors). By not vaccinating children, parents are reintroducing horrible diseases that people have not seen in years. Society has no idea how devastating these illnesses can be. While autism is a sad and difficult diagnosis, death from measles, in my opinion is far worse and much more devastating. Not to mention these parents are putting other children at risk because private schools are regulated and unvaccinated children are allowed to attend.

I don't have children yet, and probably won't for a few years. But this idea of unvaccinating my child is foreign to me and I don't understand it. Diseases like measles, tetanus and diptheria coming back is scary and very real if this idea of relationship between vaccines and autism continues.

Just some Saturday thoughts....

Tails of a Medical Student....

are slim to none during a surgery rotation!

My hours are long and my thoughts are almost nil. But I still really enjoy the rotation and absolutely love being in the OR. The whole process that takes place from pre-op to post-op really intrigues me and I love being a part of it. I'm ready to switch surgery teams in a week so I'll get to see more plastic surgery cases. I also want to go in on a couple Neurosurgery cases (so I'll know what the hell Zach is talking about one day) and also a couple of Orthopaedic cases because it reminds me of Sports Medicine which is also on the list of possibilites for specialities.

I am on long call tomorrow night and will probably sleep all day Saturday. I love having Zach here everynight although I think I'm going to gain 20lbs because I'm not used to eating dinners everynight! My Lean Cuisines and bowl of cereal don't cut it anymore...I've got to find some kind of balance! I guess that means working out more :(

I'm off to shower and watch The Office and ER!

Some thoughts

1. Week 2 of Surgery is finished and I'm still liking it. I get to see a lot of gastric, colorectal and thoracic surgery meaning stomach bypasses, bowel resections and lung cancer resections. Some of the surgerons are super nice and others live up to their reputation. I just don't understand their attitude sometimes. It is one thing to be confidant but it's another to be arrogant and self-righteous and to abuse the "power" that they have in the OR. I'm slowly getting used to the personalities although I don't think I'll ever like it. I just don't understand it and I vow to always remember what it was like to be a student because there are DEFINITELY some of these doctors that must think they went to straight to knowing everything as an attending.

Overall though I really like being in the OR and I like Surgery better than both Psych and Medicine....and it is making me think more and more about OB/Gyn because you are still in the OR and you get to deliver babies....hmmm :)

2. Getting up at 5:ooam is NOT for me....never has been, never will be! I can thank my mom for non early bird genes.

3. Obama is coming to Baltimore tomorrow. He is literally going to be speaking 2 blocks from the apartment. So Zach and I will be stuck inside tomorrow because all the roads will be closed. We thought about going out to see how crazy it is going to be but 1- it's going to be freezing! and 2- I don't like Obama....but I guess it's not often that you get to see the President....so we'll see?

4. Match Day for Zach is about 2 months away and coming closer faster and faster....the rest of our lives will continue upon learning of where he matches!

5. I'm going to go eat my mac and cheese that my wonderful boyfriend made!

Good night!

Christmas pictures

I just wanted to post a few pictures from our holiday break. The top one is Zach by the huge snow fort that he and I built for his nieces and nephews. It was a ton of work and we even busted out the John Deere bulldozer! We spent about 8 hours out there Christmas Day and Zach was so proud of it. I'm just proud of his Georgia Bulldawg jacket that he's wearing! I hope one day he loves them as much as I do!

It really was a great time and probably the last "true" break we will have for a long time! Zach was in Louisiana today interviewing and will get back late tonight. He said he liked the program a lot and that it ranks up there with Mississippi and Louisville, which are his top choices right now. Louisiana was his last interview and now comes the daunting task of assembling the rank list and figuring out where to rank the programs. The list is due February 25th and the results come out the 3rd Monday in March. Yikes! I'm starting to get nervous again but I still know that it is out of our control and that we have to leave it up to God. It's still scary though and I just wish we knew something!

Anyway enjoy the pictures!



Here I am skiing the first day we went to Snowbird. It was a LONG day and snowed the whole day. I think by the end of the day there was 10 inches on the ground. I wasn't a very happy camper by the end of this day because while the new snow is great for experienced skiiers, it is NOT great for us amateurs! I spent most of the day on my rear end and my legs were absolutely screaming at me because I fought so much going down the mountain that they just wanted to collapse. Later that week we skiied at Solitude and that was much better!


Here we are at the Mormon Tabernacle choir at the Conference center in downtown Salt Lake. It was beautiful and the singing was amazing. It is a 30 minute performance called "Music and the Spoken Word" and it was broadcast around the world every Sunday. They sang Christmas music and I loved it so much that we went again the next Sunday.


This was the New Year's Eve before we all went out to dinner! We are missing Kendra and of course my mom has on crazy shoes! She wore them out of spite because I had seen them in her never ending supply of shoes and totally laughed at them. She swore that they looked good with the right outfit. I think the jury's still out!


I love this picture of Zach and I even though it is a little fuzzy. He wore the Burberry tie I got him for Christmas!

We went on a horse drawn sleigh ride in Park City and it was great. Freezing, but great! It had snowed 30 inches the night before and it was in the single digits on the mountain. We survived and then had a wonderful dinner at a lodge back down in the valley.

I'm off to watch the Ravens/Titans game. I've become a slight Ravens fan since living in Baltimore!

Happy New Year....kinda late!

Hi Hi!

Well I took a two week break for the holidays and then I started Surgery on Monday and so far the hours are pretty crazy. So I apologize now if the posts are either 1) short 2) absent or 3) completely missing!

Break was GREAT. Zach and I flew to Utah on the 20th of Dec and spent the next 9 days with his family. We skiied twice...once was great, the other time...not so great! We had Christmas Eve at his brother and sister in law's and Christmas at his parents. He has 3 brothers that live in Salt Lake and all three are married with kids so it was a ton of fun to see all of them and hang out together. We also went on a horse drawn sleigh ride in Park City which was fun but FREEZING!! They had just gotten 30 inches of snow the day before and it was in the low single digits up on the mountain. It actually snowed a ton while we were out there, much more than last year. The constant snowing actually made for one of the bad ski adventures. It snowed the whole day we were there and visibility was very poor. Zach loved it because it was fresh powder snow constantly on every run but the inexperienced skiier that I am hated it! It just led to more falls!!

After Utah we headed to Charlotte to be with mom and Steve and Danny. We had a great time there as well being lazy and shopping! We all went out for a nice New Year's Eve dinner and had a wonderful meal! I also got to see my best friend, Jennifere and her husband and her baby Hampton. I was super excited to see them because it has been over 2 years since I had seen Jennifer and Hampton was born in May and I hadn't met him yet. Mom and Steve drove down to Augusta with Zach and I and so they got to catch up as well with Jennifer's parents. It was a great evening and I wish I could see her more! It's great to know that we can pick up where we left off despite the distance and time between us.

I also started Surgery on Monday....so far so good! Much better than Psych but the hours are tough. 5:30am til at least 5:00 pm every day with our call schedule being every 5 day. I'm on long call tomorrow meaning I'll get there at 5:30am and leave around 9:00am Friday morning.....long nights! I've been in the OR twice already and really enjoy it there. So much of surgery nowadays is done laparscopically. I've seen a gastric bypass and gastric band and tomorrow I head into a bowel resection. I hope it stays enjoyable because it's another 12 week rotation.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and Happy New Year!!!