oops

double post

GUSTER!!!

They are my favorite band of all time, and I finally got to see them in concert!! They came to Denver a few times while I was there, but I never had anyone with whom to go. This time, however, I made Matt come. And he actually liked it!! Usually he makes fun of my music selection (even though it is in the same genre of his own choices), but he admitted to enjoying the show. The venue is smaller - so nice and personal. They played a great mix of new (CD released Oct 5) and old stuff. They played a cover, which is pretty usual for them. They played their one encore song acoustically. Completely unplugged. No mics or anything. It. Was. Great. No, they aren't big and flashy, but they play great music and interact with the crowd. Loved it.

Today, after making a peach cobbler because we bought too many peaches, I leave for LA to take a very expensive test. This is Step 2 CS (clinical skills). The other one I took was a standardized computer based paper. This is a fake day of clinic. 12 or so patients. Interviews with them. Notes on them. There are only 5 sites across the states, and I chose LA as to see Annie!!! They also have sites in Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. Not really looking forward to it, but at least I am getting it over with. Some of my classmates aren't doing it til January. Icky.

Surgery is going well. I get to close almost every case, which is fun. I do really love working with my hands. My surgeon is great though and understands that surgery is not my field of choice. I am enjoying myself though. And I get to wear scrubs. Always great.

I'm a bad person

Turns out I would rather watch football/take a nap than update. Meh. Things happen. Including...the entire month of September. It involved a GREAT Labor Day weekend trip to Chicago, marriage/wedding prep, and a cousin wedding up in Seattle. Also, the weather in Omaha was absolutely great. It was a month that may trick you in to wanting to live here forever. Then you remember the winters...and the humidity.

I forgot..September also involved applying for residency!!!!! Anesthesia is technically requires 3 years of training with a clinical base year prior to starting the 3 devoted years of anesthesia. That clinical base year can come in 3 main forms: a transitional year, a preliminary year, and a base year built in to an anesthesia program (making it 4 years at that one program in total). While many programs are starting to go the way of offering all 4 years, a good number of them still offer both 3 year and 4 year programs. A preliminary year is basically the intern year of an internal medicine residency. Lastly, a transitional year is much like a preliminary, but it is not part of a larger internal med residency. Or at least this is how I understand it.

I have applied to a limited number of 4 year programs trying to make it a little easier on Matt in attempts to find a job. It turns out learning where you are going to go in mid March doesn't give that much time to find a teaching job in a tight market. All the other programs I have applied to attend for 3 years and would remain in Omaha for that clinical base year. This will give Matt more time to find a job. I luckily have received a couple of interviews but am looking forward to getting more. All of this is requiring a bit of organization, which has been pretty easy seeing as how my current rotation is pretty laid back.

Also....passed step 2!!! woohoo

I back, I back!

Tadaa! Took Step 2 yesterday, so I am now back among the internet living! Unlike Step 1, I had quite a bit more of a social life while studying for this one. I got there right when they opened and was the 2nd one sitting down to test. When looking at the layout for the test, I see there are 8 blocks. I go "crap." For some weird reason, I had thought there were only 7 sections. Huh. Oops. Still though, I felt like a flew through that test. And then you start to worry if you went so fast because you don't know anything. Ugh. I don't know. Ugh. We will see when scores come.

There is a show on Discovery called "The Colony," which is about these people pretending as if the world had a devastating thing, and they are survivors in these buildings and have to work together to remake society? Or something like that. I have 2 points here. Firstly, how do these participants take it seriously? You know the worlds hasn't actually ended. You know the producers won't let you starve to death. You know that they will ship you to a real hospital if you get hurt. I dunno. Secondly, after watching an episode of this and Modern Marvels on History Channel, I am now confident you don't want me around to restart society. I mean, I've got good birthing hips, and I am relatively smart, but I am by no means capable of figuring out (again) how to do irrigation. Or build weapons. Heck, even starting a fire without matches is beyond me. I can learn to do these things if someone showed me, but I am just not skilled in this way. I can be artistically creative but for the life of me cannot be practically creative. And that, my friends, is my excuse for watching dorky shows and survival shows. So you will ask me to be in your colony. K thanks

Of Course

I go from a rotation that I really want to do (and so I study and read) to studying for Step 2. Ergo...posts will be few and far between. Again. For anyone who still reads this.

Matt and I moved this past weekend. Bloody hell was it hot. Thank goodness Matt's friend Matt helped. If he hadn't, we may have broken up. 2 boys though means Becky doesn't have to carry furniture. Yay! The place is coming together nicely. I will post pics. I swear. Otherwise Omaha is hot and icky. Matt and I are going to Chicago for Labor Day weekend to catch a Cubs game and the Vampire Weekend concert. Yay! Should be tons of fun. Okay. Study time!

Gas time

How y'all been? It's been a while. I've been somewhat busy but not all that busy. Hoopfest went well. We claimed 2nd place to a team of 4 college basketball players who just graduated from college and all played together. You can't fault us for that. I then went over to "New Beach" (the cabin my extended family purchased on Camano Island.) It was awesome. This cabin is way bigger than the one we rented and way nicer. My family made a good choice. The weather was okay but I still managed to get funny tan lines. Back to Spokane for my cousin Christy's wedding. A good time was had by all, and the after-party (which seems to be a new standard with the Kuder family) was at our place. I love hanging out with my extended family. 4th of July was mellow. Then on the 5th I flew back to Omaha!

Holy balls is this land humid. This past Wednesday, I woke up at 530 and the news said it was 80 but felt like 92. Really?!?!?!? 530am and it is 92 out there?!?!?! Last night at 1130pm it was still 88 and humid. The main reason I want to get out of Omaha is the weather. The city isn't bad at all, but the weather ruins everything. The second you step outside you are sweating. I just can't look cute in this weather. One bonus though is that anesthesia doesn't require dress clothes; ergo, I don't have to sweat on my dress clothes. I go in basketball shorts and leave in them. Scrubs in between there. Awesome!

Speaking of which....I love anesthesia! Which is very good, because it is what I had decided I wanted to do. It is tough with a field you don't get much exposure to during your first 3 years. I really enjoy it though. One thing I wasn't expecting was how much power you feel with all those medication. You can give a med, and 10 seconds later you can see the effects. It is crazy. And awesome. My knowledge is still coming. The procedures you do are great. I've gotten the chance to intubate about 8 or 9 times. I only got the esophagus once. I've tried to put in an arterial line, but I only tried. No success there yet. It turns out that ventilating a patient with a mask (once they are asleep but before you intubate) is harder than intubating by far.

Matt's teaching of summer school has wrapped up meaning he left for home yesterday. There are 2 benefits of him leaving: I can get a lot of studying in and I can eat salads for dinner without complaints. Yay! Okay, time to get Sunday rolling.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

428 courts. 40 city blocks 6725 teams. 26656 players. 14000 games. 200,000 fans.

Driving through Spokane during the year, you may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of what is to come. A warehouse parking lot off of Freya. A back lot near Red Lion Barbecue. Lines upon lines of basketball backboards. The bright orange hoops aren't attached, but any true Spokanite knows what they are. As the days tick on into late June, those backboards start their great migration downtown. Loaded on flatbed trucks, slowly and carefully, the beauties make their way to the many downtown streets that will soon be transformed. You roll your window down because you hear music coming from outside. Looking up you see speakers on light poles block after block after block. You can only hope that the loop of music is longer than an hour. You are stopped at a light on Riverside, and in your rear view mirror you see a noisy, slow moving pack of forklifts. They scurry over to the truck; gracefully each and every backboard is unloaded. Continuing down the street you notice more and more parking meters with orange bags over them and more and more hoops taking the place of where cars should be. Your heart beats a little faster because it is just so close.

The last Friday in June brings complete and utter transformation. Parking meters shut down. Roads closed come early afternoon. Volunteer upon volunteer swarms the streets. Yellow tape. White tape. Hoops on backboards. Food tents up. Shaved ice stands rolled into place. First aid tents strategically placed. Not always visible from the street, even more is going within Riverfront Park. Bleachers up. Sport Court down. Hundreds of brackets pinned to large, black billboards. Garbage cans, recycling bins dot every street corner and open space. Then you hear them. Bounce. Bounce. Bouncing rim. It never hurts to get a little more practice in before Saturday starts. As the sun goes down Friday, players make their way home. Looking down Main, it is backboards as far as the eye can see. The sun fades on the rims as the butterflies can't help but take their place in your stomach. You can't sleep. It really is like Christmas Eve.

Up early. Gatorade - check. (Somewhat) healthy snacks - check. Water - check. Throw in a few extra shirts, some towels, and your shades. It will be too hard to park with 40 blocks shut down, so you start walking down the hill. A few cars quietly pass by, but you are in the zone. The butterflies have made their way to your throat. By the time you reach McDonalds on 3rd you can hear it - whistles, yells, clapping, gasping, cheers. You can't help but pick up your pace. And now you can see it. The sidewalks are jammed. Mom wrangling little ones, dads huddling their teams, kids passing the ball off the building. Court upon court of players. For some this is their 1st; others - their 21st. Some are hear just for fun, some are a little more competitive. All however are hear for the same reason: because they love basketball.

This, my friends, is HOOPFEST!!!!!

(more info)

Becky, M4

Whoop! I guess I shouldn't say that quite yet seeing as how I don't know if I passed the internal medicine shelf yet or not, but.........done with M3 year!!!! I am not back in Spokane with my mom and dad. The last few weeks of cardio were not too bad. We got our list down from 22 patients to 10. It was marvelous. Rounds actually concluded before lunch allowing us teaching time in the afternoon. I learned quite a bit during this rotation, but it also scared me that in a little over a year I am going to actually have some power. I am going to be the one signing those orders and not just writing them for the interns. I will be the one deciding one what medication to give and can't just say "will discuss with staff" in my SOAP note. Crazy. I guess we all get through it together, and we all have to start somewhere. Anesthesia starts July 6th I chose to take these 2 weeks off and am very glad I did. So much wedding stuff to do!

Following the Shelf exam I worked out of course and then waited for Matt to get home from summer school. He teaches one class from 1130 to 230 5 days a week. He only has 16 kids in the class, and many of them are actually smart kids who are trying to get ahead in their schedule. Only a few of them are delinquents, which is a good thing. Teaching summer school in fact has been a good thing for Matt. It keeps him out of trouble. After Matt came home we joined some of his colleagues for happy hour. Following that we met up with my classmates at Surfside Club in Omaha. Now, don't let the name fool you. It isn't fancy by any means. In fact, people have been known to see many a moon rising off of the Missouri river from passing boats if you know what I mean. They have 2 options....fried chicken or fried catfish. Each comes with fries and fritters. The weather had come together perfectly to give us quite a lovely evening. No the Missouri River isn't the cleanest, prettiest river, but for a while there I didn't feel as if I were in Omaha. It was great.

Happy Father's Day to all fathers out there. Speaking of which, this is the 100th anniversary of this splendid day, which was, in fact, started in Spokane. Way to go Spokane!

Oh the insanity

Things aren't actually that insane, I just don't make the time to update. I am currently waiting for my lunch to arrive at Panera, so this is a perfect opportunity. 3. more. days. So close to being done I can taste it. Or that is just my oh so delicious asian chicken salad. Either way, I have 3 days of internal medicine left. I finally feel like I am starting to learn things. More for the shelf than for real life hospital work, but still. This test though is a beast of a test. It is pretty much all the clinical aspects of Step 1. Tons of organ systems. Tons of little criteria to memorize. It is painful. Hence why I am at Panera. It was sort of nice (yet lonely) having Matt gone this week because it really allowed me to study more hours than I normally do when he is around. I have also eaten way more healthy than we normally do. Weird. Matt comes back tomorrow! Yay!

I really haven't done much other than study and workout since the last time I updated. My friend and teammate from college has just moved to Omaha, so it will be good to add another non-medicine person to hang with. That was bad grammar. Sorry.

In some semi-sad news, my mom has to have knee surgery. She seems of have torn her meniscus. Can't remember when or how, but the doc confirmed it with MRI. Surgery will likely be the same day as my Shelf. I told her she is going to have to walk from the surgery center door to the car because that is what she made me do after mine. At least this way she will have to take it easy and sit down when we go look at wedding dresses. Maybe that will keep her more calm. I am painting her in a scary mother of the bride light, which I shouldn't. A) because she could be reading this. B) because she has actually been awesome. She is making all those phone calls I don't want to make and isn't pressuring me to do anything. Yay! Other than date and location, nothing has been decided. So don't ask. I've been busy!!!!!!!

June Hath Sprung

Meaning I need to start studying. Enough about school though

It is official! Moving out of our apartment! Not until the end of July, but the lease to our new place has been signed. A 2bed 2 bath about 1.5 miles from our place now. It isn't that we hate our apartment or that we love moving in the heat of summer. Really, the residents of our complex have taken a turn for the worse. More sketchy people hanging out at night. 3 of our 4 neighbors are HEAVY smokers...and not just the legal kind. We love our location, but if you are paying a bit of money, you deserve better than coming home to a smoke filled hallway.

Matt is done with school! And I hate him for it. I have 11 mornings left. And fewer afternoons. Pumped! My 2 weeks off are going to be crazy busy, but I am up for it. Okay. Sleepy time.

Alive and....alive

Made the transition this week to cardio at CUMC. Much busier. We have at least 16 patients on our team. At the VA, we had maybe 7 at most. Sigh. Only 11 more days of work though! And that includes weekends.

Keeping this brief.

Matt and I did the Foccus Inventory on Sunday as to do our pre-marriage counseling for the Catholic church. The chaplin for the med school is in charge of it for the parish on Creighton's campus, so we are going through her. We will see how our results came out. I think I may have taken it a little more seriously than Matt. In reality though it isn't like an eharmony.com match up thing. Rather it is a way for us to talk about the big issues before actually getting married. It had lots of questions about children, money, faith life, and intimacy. They made sure we sat apart when doing the questions. It took a bit and cost some money, but I think in the end, it will be very helpful.

Okay. Bed

Slacker^2

I even have a little bit of time on my hands yet still don't manage to update. Medicine has been medicine. I am surprisingly surviving the VA. Patients move in and out faster than I thought they would, and we have fewer "COPD exacerbations" and "CHF exacerbations" than I thought we would. Both of the attendings I have worked with have been awesome, good and teaching, and very patient. Always good qualities to have when working with medical students. Our residents are great teachers as well. And they have bought us lunch twice now, which is always awesome. Last week it was Greek Islands because it was our M4s last day. Today it was Blue Planet simply because we suggested it (and they said okay). The food at the VA caf is awful for you. Pretty much everything is fried, and I am pretty sure all the soups are cream based. I am surprised they even carry diet soda. They have zero salad bar. I don't even know if I have seen a vegetable down there.

What have I done lately you ask? Well 2 weekends ago was Golden Apple (med school prom). Matt and I went and had some fun. We left at about 1130 with some friends, and they dropped us at a bar near our place. This is a PI type bar....but not one where south hill kids show up in fancy clothes from time to time. We def got a few looks in a dress and a suit. I of course had to wake up 4.5hrs after hitting the sheets to go round on Sunday. Man was that.......fun. Last weekend Matt had his prom. The theme was something about a Japanese garden. The decorations were simple but worked great. They had a dessert/fruit bar, which I of course loved. This year actually went off without any sort of issues at all: no obviously drunk/passed out kids, no fights, nothing. It was great. We of course didn't get home til late. I of course had to get up early...again...and round. And then be on call until Monday afternoon. It actually wasn't bad at all. I got a lot of studying and napping done. The VA call rooms have flat screen TVs that get a grand total of 7 channels. 3 of them are PBS I am pretty sure. Regardless, my one call at the VA wasn't bad at all.

We have watched a lot of movies at this point. I can't catch you up on all of them. Just a quick one: Adaptation

I really don't think I am "deep" enough to get this movie. It was a little weird the whole time, and it was never going much of any place. And then in the end I just felt unfulfilled. It was one of those movies that seemed to be trying really hard to "say" more than it was saying or mean more behind the words while disregarding the plot. I remember hearing good things about it when it first came out, but I guess I am going to disagree with all those people. I just wasn't a fan.

I have this weekend off. Yay! In other brief news. We may be moving again. Ughs. Too many people in our building smoke, and neither of us can handle it for another year we don't think. More news to follow

Big News

Total slacker...no excuse...except.........I'm engaged! Whoop. After 3 great years, Matt finally popped the question. It happened last Sunday the 18th! The story (skip ahead if this stuff makes you want to puke): we went grocery shopping on Sunday morning; later that afternoon he said we had a date. I got flustered because I hate changes in dinner plans; I tell him this. To this he responds, "The date won't necessarily involve dinner." In my head I say, "Worst. Date. Ever." We head out, heading west. I was a little suspicious, so I started to convince myself we were going to get a puppy. I'd rather aim low to tell you the truth. We pulled into the parking lot at Lake Zirinski, and immediatley my mind goes, "hot air balloon." Then I saw horses, but I knew Matt wasn't a horse "fan." Then I saw it - a giant basket in the middle of a field. And a giant colorful mess. Hot Air Balloon!! Unlike in the movies, those things aren't that easy/graceful to get in to. It was a beautiful night. Crazy thing is you don't feel like you are moving at all simply because you are moving with the wind. We flew over a little kid's birthday party. We were only about 30 feet up at the time, so they started chasing us. It was cute and hilarious. About 3/4 of the way through, the driver (the greatest redneck ever) did a "touch and go" in a park. We came down, held on tight, touched the ground, and then took off again. We starting swaying, and Matt started sweating...more. He said, "So, we have been together for 3 years, and I have a question for you..." Bam...ring! I said yes of course but was too nervous to put it on. I didn't want to drop it 1000ft up in the air. And now we are engaged! Don't ask for details about the wedding...because I don't know yet. I will likely do specific wedding updates as often as I do medicine specific updates...meaning...rarely. Whoop

We called everyone except KTO, Rachael, and Annie because I wanted to surprise them when I saw them on Friday. I outright told the 1st 2, but we waited to see how long it took Annie to notice. It took her a while. I almost fell asleep waiting for her to notice. But she did have a great reaction once she found out. It was great. San Diego was great in general...sunny, pleasant. We went to the zoo on Saturday. Dang that place is expensive. Yeah, I get that it is #1 in the country but still. I don't see how a family could go there and not come out broke. It was fun though. Tons of animals. Koala's were adorable. Sadly, I was only there for about 40 hours. Totally worth it though. Started medicine at the VA today. More on that later

Sick Again

Just as with my past outpatient rotation, about half way through I catch myself a little cold. Ugh. It sucks especially when I am trying to sleep. I think it is on the mend though. It is weird having a cold when it is 80 out. Speaking of which...summer hit us. The humidity hasn't quite arrived, but it will be here shortly I am sure. We actually gave in and turned the AC on today. You can't sleep when it is 83 in your apartment. Even with all windows open, we don't manage to get any sort of air movement through here, so this was our only option. I have actually even turned the AC on in my car a few times.

Haven't done much. Matt survived his "crazy" spring break in Olympia. He can home on Sunday. I went out to Mai Thai Lounge (they have a limit of 2 mai thai's per person...guess they are strong) and a piano bar on Saturday night with my friends. It was definitely fun, but the whole night out thing didn't really help the cold. Oops. Friday involved work and tacos with friends. MMMMMMM tacos. Other than that...I am lame. But I do have a movie review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

District 9

This was nothing like I was expecting it to be. The previews made it seem as if this district may be being invaded by aliens possibly. As it turns out, the aliens live there. We put them there. The whole beginning seemed very political. These things were true ugly from outer space aliens. Not as in aliens from another country. I think it was trying to get us to maybe feel bad about how we treat the type from other countries? As if it wanted to make you feel guilty saying, "Why are we giving these aliens rights?" In the movie, they had to serve eviction notices to the aliens (from outer space) living in the slum of district 9. Really?!?!?! We have to use real laws when dealing with extra-terrestrials? This movie was just silly. And a little too long. And had too much emotion in it. Again, really?!?!?!? These creatures don't have emotions. They are aliens!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Overall - 3.5/10

Happy Easter!!!

Easter! I have always been (and likely will always be) an Easter Vigil person. That is what I grew up with, so it just makes sense to keep doing it. I think Sacred Heart at home does it better (just such great singing), but St Leos wasn't too bad this year. It seemed to have more of a turn out this year than last year. I love how the dress varies - you'll have people in full suits and people in track suits. Heck, as long as you are coming, I don't care. I myself had jeans on (oops), but I'll tell more of that later. Started with the candles of course, which I love. And the singing of the "Easter Proclamation," which always sends goosebumps down my arm. The lecterns where all stars, especially the "chariots and charioteers" lectern. My favorite part always though is the Litany of the Saints. As I think I said last year, it really requires a strong cantor, and we had it this year. She was very clear in her names. My only issues was...we did one verse of saints but then went on to saying the names of the new adults being brought into the church that night. Meaning......no Perpetua and Felicity...or any others. I don't know, I think it is better w/o names like Ronald and Charlisse. Just saying. We had 3 adult baptisms and then about 10 additional adult confirmations etc. All in all - awesome and took 2 hours. Also - long entry today, but movie review at the end!

Mid-week this past week I got an email from my vital signs faculty leader (also the chair of anesthesia) inviting us to a "meeting" at a local resturaunt on Saturday. I responded yes, and then proceeded to get an invite to play tennis at his place before dinner. I am by no means a good tennis player, but I am athletic. For this reason I knew I wouldn't fully embarass myself. He has a nice court at his place, and we hit around for a bit. He also helped me with my backhand, which has always been an ugly spot in my tennis "game." The meeting afterward was good with some very yummy appetizers. Since the final four games were on (GO BUTLER!), he invited us all over to his place to watch the 2nd game. 3 of us students went over, and I managed to just pull myself away at the very last minute to make it in time to Easter Vigil. It was a good night though in general.

The Matt had his "race" on Friday - 2 miles against another history teacher much of his same build. Matt lost but did finish! Ran it in about 16:30, which is better than I could ever ever ever run 2 miles. I am pretty sure I would keel over dead. Go Matt! His spring break has started though, so he ditched me for Olympia. Sad face. That is okay. Starting a tradition of Easter Calzones with my friend Amber.

Both of my outpatient docs were Creighton Med grads and Creighton Med residents (different years, different residencies). It is amazing to me just how different they are in their practice of medicine. Neither of them is "bad" or "wrong." In fact, I would consider both of them good docs - someone I would send my family too. They are just very different in their approach to the patient, the physical, the diagnosis, and the treatment. I guess that goes for all docs, but I think this is just the first time I have noticed it this much.

Movie Review --- We Own the Night

I am just going to cut to the chase here. It was a long 2hr movie. The action, while good, was few and far between. The writing seemed iffy at times. It had a great cast, but in the end, even good actors can't pull a movie out. If it had been about 30 minutes shorter - bam, better movie. It just had too much roller coaster going on for me. And not good emotional roller coaster type drama thing. More stupid, "really? this again" type coaster. I wouldn't say don't watch it. I wouldn't recommend it though either. Sad. Overall - 5/10

Snip Snip

Since starting at my new clinic, I have put in 11 stitches and taken out about 9. Heck...that was practically more than I did on all of surgery. We removed a growth from a guys face, took stitches out of a guy who got punched, and.........did an office vasectomy! That was my first time ever seeing one. Huh. Only one little cut about 1/2 an inch long. Took about 40 minutes all together. Who knew it was that easy? Guy was a little loopy of course and numb. But still. Clinic has been busy though, which is a good thing. My doc also sits down between patients, which is awesome! My other doc stood...all the time. Becky was not built for that kind of stuff. We have seen a lot of tendonitis and bronchitis in 2 days. I'm kind of over those.

MOVIE REVIEW!!!!! Iron Man

I say, "Matt, we've had it for a week. Let's watch Iron Man tonight." Matt: **sigh** "I guess. Not sure how that got to the top of the list. Wasn't my choice (looks in my direction). As long as you are okay with me reading through most of it, we can watch it." Movie in. Matt....not reading. The entire time. He watched it and enjoyed it. Take that! Okay, that isn't a movie review as much as a Sunday night review. What can I say. Good action. Took a little while to get into the plot. I guess you call that "character development," but when the only other guy in most of those opening minutes (other than the lead) is killed, it kind of makes you wonder why we had to develop his character so much. To show that the lead had a soul? I guess. Also this film, while I thoroughly enjoyed it, seems a little 'beneath' Gwyneth Paltrow to me. Anyone else with me here? Overall I like it and would recommend it.

Score: 7/10 - cool graphics, enough plot, good action...but still an action movie (not gonna score a 10 on one of those)

That went fast

In my head I told myself that I was going to be way better at updating since I am on a slower rotation. It appears as if that has yet to happen. Hm. The slower pace also has given me tons of time to think of awesome things to say here...turns out that also leaves me plenty of time to forget those awesome things. Sigh. This past week consisted of............nothing much except a change in the weather! We are finally warming up. Turns out We are supposed to have days in the 70s this week! 70s!!!! Oh. My. Goodness. That will feel so nice.

On Friday we had Dimensions. The morning was supposed to be all about meth and the afternoon all about ethics. Bfast and lunch were said to be sponsored by a drug company. We had a 30min presentation on a new drug. Annie googled it...couldn't find anything. Renee checked epocrates...couldn't find it. After the drug talk, they tell us...jokes on you, this was all fake. They even printed up pens! Basically it was to teach us a lesson about investigating claims on our own and not relying on drug reps to be fully honest. At this point in our careers, it is easy for us just to eat the lunch at clinic, not listen much, say thanks, and be on our merry way. As a real doc, we will actually have to invest more time and energy into getting the knowledge from trusted sources. Good lesson overall. They really had us tricked.

Friday night I went to the last "Fish Fry" of the Lenten season. We don't really do these up in the great NW, but they are common here. Many of the Catholic schools/churches have them. The busiest/best one in Omaha (I hear) is Holy Names, which is where we went. This was my first experience. At this particular one, you wait in line drinking as much alcohol (that you brought) as you would like. Get in the door, pay $9, and eat as much fried fish and fries as you want. It was a cool experience, but we had to wait 3 HOURS!!!!!! to get in the door. My goodness. This wasn't normal; the wait was simply because it was the last one and the weather was okay. It was fun, and I would do it again. But let me tell you, man are you stinky when you come out of that place. So much fried-ness.

In other news: nope, nothin. Went to late night sushi last night. Always yummy. Start a new clinic tomorrow. I hear he takes Wednesdays off. Awesome.

Zebra hunting

I have figured out what I seem to spend my time doing during clinic: zebra hunting. Most med students will know what that means. Basically, I am not looking for the obvious. I listen to patients thinking about what BIG thing they may have...rather than the small, more likely diagnosis. I don't know exactly why I do this. I think it may be because a lot of the questions we get on exams throughout the years try to give you small details that all link to a larger disease and not just the common cold. I guess that is something I can work on for the next 5 weeks I have of outpatient clinic.

Gonzaga men pathetically lost today. Sigh. The women kicked butt last night though. While the game was close the whole time, it was a great exhibition of what they are capable of. With the men out, though, I guess I will have to cheer for UWash. And Cornell. And a few other underdogs. It is amazing how few people here in the state of Nebraska get as in to March Madness. Maybe college is just a prime time for getting into it, but most of the "adults" I run into don't seem to care much at all. Meh. Their loss :D

The weather is trying to pick up. Last night Matt and I went to his school's "auction." We got a bottle of wine, but everything else was out of our price range. At the live auction, they did have a 9-week-old Shih Tzu puppy. Oh man did I want that thing. Matt claims he would have bought it for me had I given the head nod. I highly doubt that but still. Now all I can think about is getting a dog. Man do I want one. I know this probably isn't the time, but still. I just love them so much. And my sister is making me jealous of the new puppy she is getting. Sigh. I guess I will just have to play with it. Whelp....see ya

It's Back

I'm talkin about....movie reviews!!! Matt and I are big spenders again with the Netflix. We just do 1 at a time now but can also hook our computers up to the TV and watch instantly. Review at the end. You must read about my boring life until then. No skipping.

M4 schedule is shaping up nicely: anesthesia in July, paper in August (get to home for a bit, also going to study and take Step 2 CK), CT surgery at Bergan in October. I didn't really want to do surgery in the fall, but I will take a surgery I like in a month I dislike over a sucky surgery month any day. Whoop. We have our 4th round picks in tonight for a critical care month. I had the tough choice of going for renal, which is easy, or ICU/Pulm, which will be helpful. I ranked 2 spring months of renal first and the ICU/Pulm after that. I figure a nice easy spring would be wonderful. We will see how things turn out tomorrow.

Clinic was clinic this week. I got to work out 6 days in a row, which is a high for me since....psych I guess. Some days I really like talking to patients; then some days I don't. It isn't that I don't enjoy talking to them; I just don't enjoy all the side stories all the time.

My weekend was uneventful. Happy hour and bowling on Friday night - the 2 times I have gone out on a Friday w/o Matt, he has beat me home. All other Fridays he isn't home til way late. Selection show tonight. Gonzaga got screwed. I know we messed up in the tourney, but #8?!?!?!?!? Really?!?!?! They better win.

Movie review: Goodfellas

As I told Matt before we started, I have never watched a mobster movie front to back. They always get too long. But I did it this time!!! And I enjoyed it. While it looked kind of fun to have people who would have your back all the time and put lots of money in your pocket, that whole "I'm gonna kill you because you looked at me wrong" thing doesn't seem like as much fun. This movie also made me glad I wasn't alive in the 70s...or much of the 80s. Man was the furniture ugly. And the clothes. And the hair. Yes, this is a very girly review but tough luck. I think there was a good balance of action, story, and character development. Also kids...don't do cocaine. The end

5^2

I am now five squared. Tada!!! When I was young, 25 always felt like an "adult" age. Turns out I was wrong. Still don't feel like an adult. Weird. Wonder when that will happen. Now for some nerdy House-math-fun. So....with my birthday on Sunday, all 6 of us House's are odd numbered - 59, 57, 29, 27, 25, 23. Wait, the fun doesn't stop there. Amanda is 3^3 (27); as stated before, I am 5^2 (25). The remainder of the family...prime numbers. How weird!?!?!?!? It will be that way until dad's bday in August. Go us! Some more slightly morbid fun. Grandma was 97 when she died; Grandpa was 67 --> both prime. Grandma died on 11/18, Grandpa on 3/26. Add...both equal 29, which is once again...prime!!!! Okay, super nerd is done.

We have started picking schedules for 4th year. Creighton does an online lottery, 1 round at a time. You submit a list, in order. The computer then randomly numbers every person in the class and goes down the list putting everybody in their 1st available choice. For the next round, you submit a new list (can be same stuff, it just isn't saved over). New random order, down the list of students til all get the first thing off their list that is still available. And so on. We have 7 rounds I think. The first 2 are "student choice," then surgery, then critical care, then sub-internship OR 2nd critical care. The rest after that are student choice. Of course their is complaining. People think it isn't fair, but is really way ever fair? Plus...life isn't fair. I may have a slightly different attitude had I not gotten my first choice - anesthesia in July. Still though, they try to do the best they can, we should cut them a little slack. The next round of picking is due tonight, picked tomorrow. We will see how it goes. Some things are always popular - renal medicine and radiology together were chosen by about 1/4 of our class in the 1st round. Wow. I guess it is because both are easy. I want both of them but not badly enough to do either in the first round...or 2nd.

I had a marvelous birthday with way too much food, sushi, peanutbutter chocolate ice cream cake, and laziness. It was simply wonderful.

9-5

I am entering the land of working from 9-5. Not sure if I like it. We will see. I started my Family Med rotation today. For Creighton, we do 1 month of ambulatory care (basically outpatient clinic run by an internal med dr) and 1 month of true family med. For ambulatory I am working with Dr Gupta, who did a combined residency in med/peds. Meaning her clinic is pretty much like a family medicine clinic in the fact that she sees every age of patient, which I enjoy. After 1 day I can tell I prefer to see both adults and kids, not just one age group. She definitely has a packed schedule though. Her office is close to Bergan, so she often goes on her lunch our to discharge/see her patients. Meaning....Becky got free lunch again!!! It is hard to get yourself to think in the realm of clinic again: looking at the big picture, asking more than what the chief complaint says, different medications. Hopefully I can get into the swing of things again. It is great though when you start a rotation because you don't have to study right away. Glorious.

Finishing up surgery was fine. Ortho was a little busier than I wanted it to be, but that is okay. Last Tuesday we had 7 surgeries back to back to back. The surgeon bounced from room to room. Man was that a day. We stayed on time though, which was impressive. Our OSCE on Thursday (standardized patients) went fine. The program we use on the computers is pretty messed up, but I survived. The shelf...went. There weren't too many questions about which I had ZERO bit of a clue, but maybe I just thought I knew the other answers. Sigh. We will get our results in a few weeks. Then we will really know.

Gulls (that is girls w/o pronouncing the 'r') weekend in SD was great! I forgot my camera and swimsuit, but that didn't ruin anything. It poured on Saturday meaning the zoo was out of the question, but we made our own fun. We got soaked going from our parking spot to the mall. We got soaked at Hotel Del Coronado when we were walking around. But that is why God didn't make us out of sugar. Friday involved seafood dinner. And wine with nutterbutters. Saturday involved breakfast at the hotel, shopping, sushi snack, wine in the hot tub, rain, dinner, and...wine. On Sunday morning we went to Old Town San Diego. It would have been great to be there with a tour, so they could teach me (I had to read a lot of signs to learn this time). We then met up with Rachael for some oh so yummy brunch!!! Rach said it was a good sharing place. Amanda and mom right away agreed to share. Rach looked at me to ask me...I just gave her a death stare. While I didn't finish all my food, it served as a nice snack in the airport later in the day. I was sad to come back mostly because the weather there was GREAT. I will take 55 and rainy over 15 any day. Sigh. Well, real world.

Ortho

Finished up vascular surg on Friday with the best surgery ever...AVF. That is arterio-venous fistula creation for dialysis access. You can do it down by the wrist or up in the upper arm. The best part....you get to sit down the entire time!!!! Awesome. I will do that anyday. I started ortho today at CUMC. It looks as if it might be a slow week though, wo we will see. One of the kids in my group really wants to do ortho. Meaning...if given the chance he would scrub in on anything and everything.

This is gonna be a short one I guess. The potholes here are crazy annoying. I hate it. With the icey conditions, you have to balance between watching the road as not to pop a tire and watching the car in front of you as not to hit it. I know I am going to have to get my alignment fixed at the end of this winter season. Today, there was light in the sky until almost 7. Yet it was about 7 degrees out. That really messes with my mind/body. Annoying

Go olympics! I love watching olympics. I love the summer and winter, but I am more amazed the winter ones because I cannot do that stuff! Through a shot-putt...can do that (not far, but I can). Run in a circle. Got it. Okay...can't do gymnastics or diving. But other things I might be able to handle. Jumping off a ski slope? No way. Short track? Can't handle that. If I were to ever try a winter one (other than curling) it would be the long track speed skating. For sure. I def have the thighs for that. Okay, gotta study. Next time I need to talk about 4th year planning!!

1 month!

Til my birthday! Whoop

All of a sudden I have been getting a ton of spam comments on my blog. Whatever. I just reject them.

Surgery is going well. I am on the vascular service at CUMC. While I haven't been able to see/scrub on as many cases as I did at Bergan, I do feel that I am learning quite a bit. Last week we repaired an abdominal aortic aneurysm. We didn't have to open the guy up; rather we did it through the arteries near the groin. For this type of procedure, we shoot dye up in there and have to take a lot of images. For this reason, we have to wear lead aprons. Let me tell you. Not fun. I wasn't even scrubbed in, and it was super annoying. It is like wearing one of those 10lb extra wait workout vests. Annoying. What surgery has really made me realize is that a lot of being a med student is about knowing when it is actually beneficial to open your mouth. For example. On the 2nd day, I wrote the labs for the patient. The resident tells me I wrote the wrong ones and pulls up the "right" ones. As I look at the numbers I wrote, they were the exact same ones. Other people, including some of my classmates, may have argued with him. He wasn't holding it against me, so no good would have come from pointing out his mistake. Enough said. Surgery has also made me realize how bad or good your experience is really depends on what your expectations are. Coming into this rotation. I imagined working 12+ hr days. And some days I do. Many days I do not though. And it is great when I don't. Coming in with that idea, however, has made my long days seem less long. I think many people who are now on the minors approached them thinking they were going to be ice cream and cookies and naps all the time. Yes, you have those days, but that isn't every single day. It is still hard work. Those who went in with that expectation though are now sorely dissappointed and finding those rotations more difficult. Sorry for the ranting.

One thing I am sort of grateful for is how this has helped me with my fear of the phone. For those who know me, I HATE talking on the phone. Well, not to family and really close (ie high school) friends, but I hate pretty much all the rest. I never ordered pizza over the phone until I was about 22. I still don't like to do it. I hate calling to make appointments. I don't even like talking on the phone to figure out the plans for the night. But when your resident says, "Call the lab." You better go call the lab. Now. No deep breathing. No texting. Gotta call. I have gotten much better though, which is good. Because I am almost an adult.

Okay, gotta make a super bowl food thingy or something. Then off to one of Matt's coworker's house's whoop. Go commercials!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fighting that Eternal Itch

This is pretty much what surgery is all about. Once you are all scrubbed in and gowned up, the last thing you want to be is "that med-student" who breaks scrub. Itch on your ear? Don't touch. Glasses fogging up? Keep those hands down. Nose gettin tickled? Don't even think about it. After 4 weeks I have trained myself pretty well not to lift my nicely gloved hands from that nice bright blue sheet covering the patient. You all may be thinking it is easy, but it isn't. Especially for those of us who have skin that really likes to get all itchy. I have finished my 4 weeks at Bergan (1/2 way baby!) and continue on to vascular at CUMC. I am excited to really be learning a lot more and interacting with faculty even though I know it is going to be a lot more work than Bergan was. That is okay though.

Happy 23rd bday to my lil bro! Way to go big guy. Never thought you'd make it this far......I kid, I kid.

Today we had Dimensions. The morning involved alternative and complementary medicine - acupuncture, yoga, health foods, oils, etc etc. Now, I am much more of a Westernized medicine person obviously, but some of what I heard today did open my eyes. Only a little though. I thought the acupuncture was cool and would maybe suggest it to someone someday. Oils to heal things? Nah. Cupping? No thanks.

For Happy Hour today we went to the newly opened Rock Bottom Brewery. We had one of their cool tables that has a tap at it. Way cool. I had soft pretzels. They were awesome. I also saw an old old old Cataldo friend who recently moved to Omaha and works as a bartender there. It was great to see her. Man this is a small world. Okay, gotta sleep. Or something.

Foggy

For almost a weak now it has been super foggy. And wet. And yucky. I don't know if I could ever actually live on the west side of WA and truly enjoy it. Yeah, they may have some nice weeks in the summer, but I really don't like all the rain. I'm just being honest.

Surgery is going fine. It is picking up at Bergan, so we have had some longer days. Our resident is nice though and rarely makes us get there before 7am. Very awesome. Which means...I am getting up later than people on the minors. If I have explained this once before, bare with me. I did my "minors" first semester. Half of the class did. The other half did their "majors" first. And now we have flipped. I have 2 good friends who did majors first who kept saying to me, "Just wait til you are on the majors. You'll be tired all the time and have no time for fun." Uh...false. I am really not all that tired. And trauma call, in my opinion, is nothing compared to long call at Children's. That, my friend, was rough.

I was on trauma call last night. We had a grand total of ZERO calls. I never even saw a resident. I pretty much studied and slept. It was great. And since I don't have a team to round with at CUMC, I got to go home after class ended at 8am. Go me!

I really have not been up to much else. As I have been saying for 2.5 years....I swear I thought of good things to say. Alas, they have slipped away since I didn't write them down.

We are going to be making our 4th year schedules soon, which is a little scary. We have a meeting in a few weeks to go over the process and how it all works, so I will definitely inform/confuse you all then. I seems as if more and more of my classmates are thinking anesthesia. The thing is, I don't want those who are just thinking about it to take one of the primo months - July, August. Sigh. We will see how it all goes down.

2010!

Whoop! 10 days in, and it isn't too bad thus far. Other than the fricken bitter cold of the midwest. Thurs and Fri last week has highs in the negatives. Then with wind. Oh. My. Goodness. Talk about frozen ears. Surgery has been going well. The 4th year resident at Bergan is very nice and good at teaching. She is also patient when I am doing sutures, which, needless to say, takes a long time. Being that this is a community hospital, most procedures are smaller, out patient type things - removal of the gallbladder, hernia repair. This next week looks like it may have a little more variety though, which is good. What I like about Bergan is that there is only 1 resident working there. This means either I or my classmate Chris gets to scrub every surgery and be up in all that business. Being able to get close up makes the day go much faster than just sitting back and watching. I feel that I also get to do a little more in terms of participation - sutures, knots, driving the camera. For the 1st week, it wasn't quite the horror story people make it out to be. Granted, we have class that starts at 7am some mornings and then have afternoon/evening class as well. That may get a little old. Positive attitude though!

Took my first trauma call yesterday. Got there at 7am, and since I don't have a team at CUMC to round with, I just followed the blue "trauma" team during rounds. The day was pretty slow. 2 trauma calls for MVAs. I went to bed at about 11pm only to be woken up at 1. I was then on my feet until 7am when I went home. Gun shot wound with emergency exploratory surgery. Woooo. I wasn't scrubbed for it, but it was very neat to watch all the action. Students mostly just watch traumas, but it was a good experience.

Turns out my old hard drive is dead. DEAD. I am in the process of trying to build up my music collection now. Blah. It is a slow painful process. Note to self...back-up hard drive!