Adventures and Scars

Life in the Time of Cardiology

2012-02-08T20:56:00.001-06:00

I dove head first into cardiology last week. This is my 2nd of 2 months. My first month wasn't too bad, and this month hasn't been the worst...yet. What I enjoy about cardiology is that we always seem to have a concrete goal in mind. UniMed doesn't always feel that way. And it isn't that in cardiology we ignore every other part of the body that isn't the heart or blood vessels. In fact, we often get patients who have had heart problems prior but admitted for something else...such as pancreatitis. What I dislike about cardiology: the overall speed. Heart patients tend to be more complicated, so we have to often take a little more time on each one. These two things - having a goal yet moving slowly - make for a very focused mind during this rotation.

My attending right now has a mesmerizing mustache. I don't know what it is, but sometimes I find myself staring at it. Weird. I know. He, however, is one of the most calming presence I have ever experienced. Not all zen and meditation type calming. It's different. His tone of voice, the volume of his voice, and his body language just ooze CALM when he is talking to patients, families, and even us lowly interns. We had a code on a patient the other day; he was a few days post-op from coronary bypass surgery and doing well. He suddenly went into ventricular tachycardia (bottom part of the heart is beating super super fast), which is sort of what happens just before someone goes into ventricular fibrillation (something that requires shocks to get out of usually). My attending (maybe powered by the mustache) managed to keep everyone calm and kept some over-anxious resident or nurse from shocking this poor patient. He ended up coming out of the bad rhythm on his own. I hope one day to be as calm in such a stressful situation as this man is.

Bobbo was here this past weekend! I will update more on that next blog post, but for now I will just review our brunch spot.

Wheatfields

We ventured out in my trusty 4 wheel drive, manual subaru during our first real snowstorm. My amazing driving and slip sliding got Matt, Bo, and I to Wheatfields safely on a Saturday morning. Typically this place is popping at the seams at brunch time. While the One Pacific Place location is open for dinner, they are best known for their breakfast. You enter and immediately want to eat everything in sight. While slightly chaotic, the bakery part of Wheatfields is located right when you walk in. OMG. Everything is so tempting - pies, breads (sweet and savory), pastries, and cakes (their wedding cake is to die for, but $$$$). We were seated right away thanks to the snowstorm. The dining room is sort of half hazardly thrown together with a mix of booths and tables. The menu. Was. Over. Whelming. No seriously. It is about 8 pages full of breakfast stuff and dinner/lunch stuff PLUS the specials menu. Needless to say, we took a while too decide. Matt, in his odd way, got nachos and a reuben. The reuben looked like it had too much 'kraut to me, so I didn't even take a bite. Bo got a scramble...which came with a cinnamon roll. I could eat just the latter and be completely happy. I got a strata with sausage and cheese with hollandaise. While flavorful, I felt it was slightly dry. The portion size was plentiful, however, and it came with...a half waffle. I actually sort of find the slightly odd sides charming. Who doesn't want half a waffle? Unfortunately, the waffle was slightly dry as well. Then again, waffles aren't my favorite breakfast carb. They had everything you would ever want on this menu - scrambles, omelettes, stratas, quiches, and your standard carbs and eggs and meats. Plus a good 2 dozen lunch sandwiches and more dinner entrees. I will say that this isn't IHOP or Denny's where you can find several items under $6. The prices are all closer to $10, but I do feel that you get what you pay for here. And then they force you to walk back out by all the baked goods :( If only I were still playing basketball

Service: great! But I think it helped that the place was really quiet due to snow

Cleanliness: could be improved upon

Ambiance: this isn't their selling point. You can tell they just keep adding areas of seating because they are so popular. I wasn't going here for the ambiance though

Menu: OMG. Overwhelming. Something for everyone

Taste: While my dish was dry, overall the taste was great. The strata blended everything that is/should be breakfast (cheese...meat...eggs) into a uniform, airy dish.

Overall: 4 (see side column for what this means). I enjoyed it, but we don't often go out for breakfast. Prices were reasonable for the amount of food on the plate, but I don't see ourselves working this into our plans on a monthly basis.

7 down, 5 to go!

2012-02-01T19:36:00.001-06:00

I find that I often want to use the title "Survived." Thatis either scary or complete overuse and simplification of the word. I will go with the latter.

UniMed is over! Whoop! On my last day we actually only had 2 patients. Yep. 2. So I can't really complain that much. My 1st month way back in July was pure hell. This one was great. My first month of cardio was great, which means this one will likely be awful. If you couldn't pick up on the hint, I started cardio today! I was super lucky and got assigned to the team with 4 residents again, which makes the workload just a tad bit better. I have said it before, and I will say it again, I am pretty sure people don't trust me to take care of patients. Our patient list right now? 5. For the whole team. I hope to keep this fluffy white cloud going!

In medicine, you have 3 identities of people: fluffy white clouds, black clouds, and all the rest (I will call them grey clouds). If you are a fluffy white cloud, things go well for you. Calls are benign. Your days aren't hectic and over the top crazy. If you are a black cloud, your day in the hospital is usually a sh*t storm. Crashing patients. PICCs that need removal, shortness of breathe that doesn't improve - with anything - because it is a massive pulmonary embolus. Critical lab calls. And 5 admits in 2 hours. Grey are obviously somewhere in between. Some people flip back and forth between the two. Some. Just. Stay. Black. Clouds. I am very lucky to not be one of them. Yes, I have had my moments, but on the whole, I tend towards a light grey.

Dewey's Burgers and Brew:

This building seems to be a rotating door of restaurants. My parents can recall them all. I cannot. For a time it was a seafood place, then maybe a salad place. Really? A salad place? Well, now it is Dewey's Burgers & Brew. My parents and I met my aunt, 2 uncles, and a cousin here before the Zag game when I was up in Spokane. Walking it, it has nice high ceilings, family seating to the right and "bar" seating to the left. While no real fault of theirs, you are greeted by the bar, which isn't always the warmest of feelings. In truth, there wasn't much distinction between the family and bar seating. Plenty of tables on both sides. No real high tops (which sometimes people imagine as 'bar' seating). Their names suggests that they would have a plethora of tap choices. In actuality, they had 8. One being my lover, Widmeier Hefe. Yep. The menu had a range of sandwiches as well as burgers (their specialty) as well as Italian entrees (evenings only) as the place is owned by a family who also owns an Italian place in town. I got the mushroom swiss burger with soup as my side. The soup was standard. Nothing to write home about. The burger was pretty tasty. The meat was tender and juicy but not to the point of runny down your arm and ruining your shirt for the night. Every bite was flavorful, and I found I could actually taste the swiss. So often the swiss is either of low quality or the seasoning salt is too powerful. This was great. In terms of portion size, it was neither too big nor too little. I was full by the end but not regretful. My mom got the chicken philly, which was also very flavorful. My dad got the stromboli - not like the pizza type you are thinking. It is more of the grinder variety. Ground meat, red sauce, cheese, onions(?), hoagie. While not my sandwich of choice, it was still quite good. Everything was a lot more flavorful than I expected out of this location. I am a fan of Red Robin (no judging, I like the fries and the clucks), but I would choose this over Red Robin any day. Everything overall just felt individually made and that the kitchen truly paid attention while putting our meals together.

See side column for how I rank things

Service: great, they didn't rush us and actually took time to talk to us (not in that fake way either)

Cleanliness: average

Ambiance: average, building is fine but you can tell it has served many purposes

Menu: decent selection but wasn't blown away by appetizer choices

Taste: as I said, above average

Overall: If I lived in Spokane, I would give it a 4. My parents have already put it in their "5" category, but it doesn't quite make it there for me

3 foods

2012-01-30T20:52:00.000-06:00

No, I am not reviewing 3 different restaurants. I am talking about something much more serious: the 3 foods you would eat for the rest of your life. As I stated previously, there are 2 questions that tell you a lot about a person - what one animal would you be and this one. It is sort of like the "desert island game" from The Office. Say you were stuck on a desert island. You had anything you wanted to drink (no milkshakes or protein shakes but milk, soda, water...maybe some booze) but could only pick 3 things to eat for the rest of your life. 'Things' here isn't limited to one item. More like little meals. Not 'lobster AND steak AND chicken fingers.' More like ritz crackers and tuna or burger and fries. I mean items that sort of go hand in hand already. I know, I put a lot of rules on this thing, but it is my game. So tough. My 3 foods, in no particular order, are:

-Gang Garee Gai from Linnie's Thai Cuisine in Spokane. I. LOVE. THIS. CURRY. It is hands down my favorite for ever and ever. Why do I love it so much? A) It is yellow curry. You don't see these as often in my opinion. B) The chicken is so incredibly tender to the N-th degree. C) It is so simple yet so tasty. Chicken. Potatoes. Yum. I haven't been able to find this anywhere else actually. I can find similar dishes, but they almost always have onions in them. yeah, I love onions, but it just isn't the same. I can eat this stuff morning, noon, and night. With or without rice. One-star spicy. Four (out of five) star spicy. Just give it to me

-Stacy's pita chips and hummus. Yep. Again, simple. Salty and delicious. I am gonna need something to snack on on the island when I am getting my tan on. Plus, if I end of having drop in guests, it is so easy just to pull this stuff out :D

-Chocolate chip pancakes (no syrup) and peanut butter milkshakes from Arny's in Spokane (which no longer exists). No place does them like Arny's did them. It was part old flat top grill, part recipe, part love. Nothing could beat those pancakes. I make chocolate chip pancakes often; they will never compare to these. And the peanut butter milkshake? Perfectly thick but still drinkable through a straw. Just enough peanut butter. Just enough ice cream. Sadly, none of you will ever get to experience these. I would give...um...$100 for Arny's to open again and make me these things. Regardless, this is a game, and I can still request these. Breakfast - the most important meal of the day on the desert island.

Thoughts? Comments? Your own "3 foods"? Ask this at your next get together. I am sure you will get plenty of fun answers...that you can openly judge

Vacation

2012-01-22T10:30:00.001-06:00

&lt;p&gt;I have been gloriously lazing around for the past 3 days and completely loving it. I am lucky to be home in Spokane celebrating my Christmas. Well, other than the snow I seemed to bring with me, there haven't really been any other signs of Christmas. Other than sleeping in and eating too much and watching movies and... It has been amazing. I will have reviews of food and movies when i am at my regulate computer and not just my tablet. 
I have been trying to think of other things to post about other than find. The obvious response would be work since I do spend 65 hours a week there. I am hosting an interview dinner (for internal med resident candidates), Sonic have been reflecting on how to answer questions that may arise. Turns out many people have questions about what I actually "do" everyday. Unlike my siblings :-)...this is an easy question to answer. Below is the timeline of a typical day at Creighton for me 
4:40am - alarms goes off. Stumble out of bed and into workout clothes. Make black tea and put it in my amazing thermos from Costco 
5:00am - get to the gym right when it opens. See my "gym people." 
6:15am - showered. Pretty. Awake. Drive to work drinking my tea 
6:35am - get to work. Put my stuff in my locker. Put my pager on my belt (yes...I am a work and wear it on my belt). Forget something in my locker after having closed it. White coat on and heading upstairs 
6:45-7:30am - check how many new patients my team got overnight. Divide them between myself and the other intern. Start working on my notes, collecting vitals and lab results from our online program 
7:30-7:40am - get Checkout (overnight team tells us about issues during the night and then summarizes the new ones for us) 
7:40-9:00am - "pre-round." Go see my patients. See how they are doing. Finish my notes with my plan for the patient at the end of the note. This plan isn't always extensive. Sometimes it is just a holding pattern for the day. Sometimes it is just "continue antibiotics." Order labs and test for the day and for tomorrow morning 
9:00-12:00 - Rounding with the whole team. Attending, supervisor, interns, med students, hangers-on. We go see all the patients on the team. Attending write their notes. We decide on the actual plan for the day. This part involves lots of standing. :-( I dislike standing 
12:00-1:30pm - noon conference and daily report. This is our didactics. I will tell you the truth...didactics have never been how I learn best. I learn through doing and reading. 
1:30-4:00pm - follow up on labs, imaging results, consults we placed in the morning. Run around discharging (hopefully) several patients, placing more consults, putting out fires about a patient who wants to eat or smoke or leave. 
4:00pm - meet with our attending again. We have been admitting patients (usually about 2) all day as well, so we go over the new ones and further discuss the old ones. Often we will go see something or do something that takes longer than I want it to. 
5:30 or 6:00pm - finally finish, update our list of patients with all the good info people need to know, and, finally checkout to short call team. They are there til 8pm and will checkout to the night team. We let short call know what needs to be followed overnight - tests, imaging, scary things that might happen with our sicker patients 
6:30pm - home, start/eat dinner. Laze about for a minute or 2. Matt usually likes to get out of the house, so we do coffee or go to the mall
8:30-9:30pm - watch tv, read, should study, play on the internet, think about food
9:30-10:00pm - pack my lunch, pack Matt's lunch, get my stuff ready for the morning so that it is easy to simply roll out in the early hours. And finally...go to bed!

And that is my typical day. Typing it out makes it seem not busy, but it is. In July I struggled to see 5 patients in the morning. 5 is much easier now. 7 is still tough. Back to the real world tomorrow :-(

10 days left

2012-01-15T14:28:00.002-06:00

I have 10 working days of UniMed left. I am ecstatic. I worked both of these first two weekends and am ready for a day off, which will come Thursday! I get 2 days of vacation Thursday and Friday, and then I am not working the weekend! Yay! I will be heading back home to Spokane. I haven't been since September and am excited.

I have greatly benefited from having a wonderful, supportive family whom I love immensely. This may seem to come out of the blue or be a "duh" statement, but it is surprising how much this has helped me take better care of my patients. When I don't feel like doing something because I am tired or feel it will take too much effort, I try to flip it around and say, "What if patient X were my grandma?" How angry would I be if her doctor didn't talk to the surgeon earlier in the day? Or thought that ordering the ultrasound could wait until tomorrow? I would be upset. So to me, I try to think that every patient is my grandma. I would use my parents or siblings in place instead, but the average age of my patients right now is 90...grandma just fits better.

Last night we had a free date night! And by free I mean we used gift cards we had. We had dinner at Fleming's and then saw Contraband at AMC. And in typical form, I ate a whole bag of sour patch kids. Sigh. Some things never change. The movie, according to Matt, was predictable. In my head though, I knew Matt was going to call it that. Ergo, Matt is predictable and the double negative makes the movie not predictable. I won't ruin the movie here, but I am just going to say, of course there is a plot twist! Every movie has a plot twist. Just because it happens, however, doesn't mean the movie is bad. I think Matt just wanted to pretend like he was smart. Don't tell him I said that :D

Fleming's: This was our first time here, and well, we did it spur of the moment without a reservation. That, however, was our only mistake. No table was going to be ready untl 8:15 (we got there at about 5:30), but the bar had open seating and full menu. And...happy hour! They had a decent selection of discount apps and drinks for $6. They even had Widmer Hefe (in the bottle) 2 for $6. I love this beer. LOVE. Always have, always will. This of course won them big points in my book. But they only had one left :( I drank it however. Matt got a martini, and we got the mushroom ravioli to split. The ravioli were only 3 in number but tasty. The sauce and fresh parm were a great touch. They also serve "bar burgers" at the bar only. Matt got the Fleming's Prime Burger (bacon and cheese) ---- for $6!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got the Ahi Tuna burger. It has great flavor and texture and wasn't too big. Each burger came with onion rings that were big and meaty. The chipotle dipping sauce was great as well. My only complaint about my burger was that the bottom bun soaked through by the end of my meal. We got a side of chipotle mac & cheese. I love mac & cheese in a restaurant. Always sooooo good...because it is always so bad for you :) We left very happy and full with a vow to come back (even for food outside the bar). The bartenders were great - very attentive even though extremely busy. The general ambiance of the place is typical steak house - dark woods, good lighting, white tablecloths. They did have nice high ceilings, however, which I liked. In summary:

I willrate on this 0-6 scale:

0 –Never again

1 – If someoneelse (other that Matt) is paying

2 – If itis a big group and they decide on it

3 –Only on Matt’s request

4 – Oh yeah,I like this place; I will suggest this next month or so

5 – Putit in the rotation!

6 – GETME THERE NOW!

Service: great. Some people at the bar were throwing attitude, which always surprises me for people in their late 60s.

Cleanliness: good. I didn't check out the bathroom though :)

Ambiance: as I said, perfect. Everyone looks good eating in good lighting

Menu: HH choice is decent, wine selection is HUGE, beer selection is limited, menu isn't fussy though. They seem to know what they do well and stick to it.

OVERALL: 4. I may say 3.5 simply because we can't afford to eat here unless on gift cards. If we had the money however, it would be a 4 for sure.

Brief

2012-01-09T21:05:00.002-06:00

Keeping it brief tonight. I am making home made fig newtons, and those obviously take precedence over blogging. Duh. I actually have always loved fig newtons. I don't know what it is. Well, no, I actually do. It is the carbs. I love the carbs.

I worked 70 hours last week. Didn't even blink an eye. Matt may have, but I didn't.

Did I tell you I made home made cheese? Twice!?!?! I made queso fresco and mozzarella. Both were AMAZING. The mozzarella is so incredibly creamy and completely heavenly. I will do it again someday...when I am not working 70 hours a week.

Review time!

Blue Sushi: **Bias warning** We only ever go during happy hour. Just thought I should throw that out there. On to business. Blue has a few locations throughout Omaha. The owners also run Roja, but that is for another day. Matt and I don't go here enough. Now, is there better sushi out there? Probably. Am I the best judge of sushi? Likely not. But what I truly enjoy about Blue is their consistency. Every time our rolls are consistently delicious. They are well wrapped (which is more than I can say for other sushi happy hours we frequent), and the selection is great. Even their happy hour roll selection is great (which again, is more than I can say for others). If you are going, try the "blue balls," but get your mind out of the gutter first. They are delicious little tempura fried balls of flaky tuna. So good! I could seriously go and just get those. But their crunchy rolls are also very appealing. :D My husband loves the "Dirty Blue" martini. Again, get your mind out of the gutter. It is a basic martini with bleu cheese stuffed olives. That man loves blue cheese. Of their 3 locations in Omaha, we frequent the one...6 blocks from our house. The location down town always seems packed but only has HH on certain levels. I have never been to the one out west. If you are going for HH, expect good prices but not great service. It isn't bad service, just not stellar. Alright, in review:

I will rate on this 0-6 scale

0 - never again

1 - if someone else (Matt doesn't count) is paying

2 - if it is a big group and they decide on it

3 - only on Matt's request

4 - Oh yeah, I like this place, I will suggest this next month or so

5 - put it in the rotation!

6 - GET ME THERE NOW

**AGAIN, happy hour only bias here**

Service: par, pretty typical for most places in West-O

Cleanliness: modern decor makes it at least seem super clean

Ambiance: you better like the color blue, but very mellow

Menu: great variety of HH menu, plenty of rolls and apps

OVERALL: 4. Simply because I can never make day time happy hour and can wait til 1030pm to eat

6 months later

2012-01-05T21:41:00.000-06:00

This is Becky. This is Becky on UniMed. While I am busier than I have been for a long time, UniMed is a little different this time around, 6 months after my first month of it. 6 months under my belt. 6 months of nurses calls, of writing orders, of discharging patients. Speaking of which, I have already discharged 5 patients in 2 days. That is a lot of dictations to do :D

There are 2 types of interns out there (at least in our program): those who throw attitude at nurses and those who don't. I will admit, we all get frustrated with nurses from time to time, but that is no different than any job. Some, however, let that show. They talk down, they ignore, they back-talk. The problem is, nurses are our friends. Without them, my job would be impossible. They do more than a million things that I could never do (read, changing adult diapers, doing foley cares, etc). And they can make an interns life living hell with constant pages. I take a "kill them with kindness" approach. I use "please" and "thank you" a lot. I smile. I ask nicely. I smile some more. It usually works. I am not saying I charm them by any means, but I don't think I get on their bad side like some others do.

That's it. That's all I have. Sorry for being boring. Maybe this weekend will be more exciting? I am on call Saturday, so seems...likely? Unlikely?

Resolutions & Survival

2012-01-03T18:22:00.000-06:00

I strongly dislike when people say, "I am not going to make a resolution because I am just going to break it anyway (insert laugh)." Why not set a better goal for yourself? Or why not hold yourself to it? While in the big picture of life, January 1st isn't truly that different from June 1st or October 1st. Just the flip of another calendar page. That doesn't mean, however, that you can't embrace the "season" and vow to enrich or strengthen yourself. I will admit that my prior resolutions have often been trivial, and I often do break them. I am pretty sure the past couple of years it has been - to floss more often (daughter of a dentist but flossing motivation impaired). While I will chalk that one up on my board yet again, I have 2 others that I publicly (if you consider this public) vow to now in front of you, my 2 readers.

1) Read more books. No not just food blogs. Or facebooks. I need to read more and not do it to study (trust me, I don't do that enough either). To kick me off, my wonderful husband bought me Stiff. I have heard a lot about it but couldn't summarize anything I have heard about it even if my life depended on it. I would like to get 12 books in this year. Suggestions welcome

2) Live in the present. While this may seem counter to all this "change" people vow to make, I find I often live in the future. Yes, there are things that need planning - plane tickets, moving, etc. Too frequently, however, I plan too much. And then I get stressed when plans change. Living in the moment! My uncle would be proud

Moving on!

I survived! And when I was on cross cover, I never had to transfer anyone to the ICU! That speaks much more to the day interns' abilities than mine, but that still feels good. Tomorrow morning, I will hit the ground running with UniMed (general floor/ward medicine). The last time I did this at Creighton was July. Any intern can speak to the craziness that is July. I am hoping (and expecting) this month of UniMed to go much better. Sigh. Here we go!

One. More. Night.

2012-01-01T14:07:00.002-06:00

Yep. That's it. One more night of night float. If you have been following me, it may seem as if it has been all lollipops and rainbows. While I have enjoyed time off during the day time to, well, bake & cook, I am ready to be home, in my own bed (nearly) every night. I am ready to not be awoken at 3am. I am ready to not be constantly worried that something bad is going to happen. Sometime I wonder what all this stress does to us...

For the past 3.5 years, every month has brought change, which, at least with me, brings with it a considerable amount of stress. M2 year it was a new systems based class every month. M3&M4 it was a new rotation - how were the attendings going to be? Were the residents going to make us stay til 8pm? Intern year is it also a new rotation but with a lot more weight on my shoulders. On Wednesday I will return to the land of real pants and dress shoes, and I can feel those slight tinges of stress in my body. Like my other siblings, I grind my teeth and hold my stress in my jaw. The past few days have resulted in a very sore jaw needless to say. The sad(?) part is, this will go on for another 3.5 years until the end of residency. I am fairly good at finding outlets for my stress (baking, working out), so at least I have that going for me?

I am making gumbo for dinner, and my friend Sarah is coming over. I half this recipe, yet it still makes approx 1 butt load of gumbo. Ergo, I will be eating gumbo til the cows come home. I am actually really only making this so that I have something with which to serve beer bread. I am usually always thinking about carbs. Sigh.

I am hoping that I keep updating this much once I start UniMed on Wednesday :( Also, there have been very few restaurant reviews this past week, because, well, without Matt, I don't eat out that much

All my single ladies

2011-12-30T17:53:00.003-06:00

As previously stated, the lovely Matthew left on Christmas. Since then, I have been livin' the life of a single lady, quite gloriously too I think. Okay, well, no going out and picking up guys at bars or eating my feelings while watching chick flicks. I know there are many people out there who either A. really are a single lady and have to do this every day and night or B. have husbands who travel much more than mine. Whatever. Basically, my single-lady-ness consists of: lots of sweat pants (and by lots, I mean the same pair just for many hours), working out, watching TV on hulu, and eating whenever I want. The TV thing is only slightly shaming - I have watched all of "Up All Night," most of "New Girl," and am now starting on "Parks of Rec" (current seasons of course). I just wish my chair were a little more comfortable. In terms of the eating when I want, it is sort of great. Not that Matt is bossy about when we eat, but he often has a very small lunch and, therefore, is usually hungry at 5pm. Or 5:30 if I am lucky. The past 3 nights I have eaten at 8pm. Glorious. Simply glorious. Granted, there are some downsides. I close and lock our bedroom door because no matter how much I tell myself not to, I get a little scared at night. I get a little delirious in the mornings when he isn't here. I always think he got out of bed before I did - and then get a little angry until I realize he isn't in Omaha. I have no one to bake for. Besides my coworkers. And I think they aren't always happy when I bring them hoards of baked goods. Huh. Matt's coworkers are much more receptive. Less than a week 'til he's back! Now if I could just pick up...

Sometimes I tackle things in the kitchen I think simply to say I've done it. Not so that I can do it all the time or put it in our normal dinner rotation. I just want to try things once, or twice if it is really good. This week has consisted of several things that a couple years ago I never thought I would have tackled - croissants, cheese (!), and, if single girl can get off her butt tonight, pad thai. Have I already talked about the croissants? Well, they are pronounced cwa-sauns (per the bossy lady in London). I was going to take them to work, but, Becky got a little eager and didn't let them rise enough...or cook enough. They are flaky though still for all my blunders. And yes, I will still eat them. They are taunting me now.

The cheese!!!!! So, I started off easy: queso blanco. I told myself from the get-go to follow the directions. No straying as I usually do. And I did. For the most part. I did add a chipotle pepper or 2 :D. It took much longer for my milk to get to temp than I thought it would, but it turned out great. The great thing about this cheese is that you can grill it! And put it on salads. And I am very proud of myself. Next week: mozzarella!!!

In terms of "intern year" update: night float is progressing along. My first night of cross-cover (non admitting) I got a solid 6.5 hours of sleep. Amazing. Since then, however, I haven't had as much luck. 2 hours at a time at most, but still, I will get about 5-6 a night. Fine by me! Last night, however, was different. I had a patient with atrial fibrillation (you've all seen the fun commercials about the expensive drug for it). Anyway, he will sometimes have ventricular tachycardia, which is something that can be life threatening if your heart stays in it for too long. Some people, however, you have problems with their heart rhythm to begin with will have a tendency to have "runs" of v-tach - won't stay in it but will have quite a few beats of it. This gentlemen just kept having them, only a few beats at a time at first about 30minutes apart. At about midnight, however, it became longer and more frequent. Sigh. Let's just say, I used a lot of Matt's high caffeine tea blend gift to get me through today.

Merry Christmas! (part 2)

2011-12-28T11:19:00.000-06:00

I think I left off on Christmas Eve.

Matt and I woke early on Christmas, ran down the stairs to find a pile of gifts left by santa, made snow angels in the fresh powder just outside our door, drank gallons of just-hot-enough cocoa, wore slippers and robes and PJs around all day, and enjoyed of feast of turkey and perfect mashed potatoes. Oh wait. That isn't what happened at all. Other than the early rising part.

Matt has the unfortunate (?) condition of having been born on Christmas day. For him, this means he usually gets fewer gifts and no parties. For me, that means more planning. I think possibly for the first time in a long time, Matt actually had a birthday party. And I gave him his Christmas and birthday gifts at different times. By different times, I mean before and after breakfast. We opened our gifts slowly (allowing the oven to heat up). Matt got me some clothes (for women shocked by this, Matt is good because he picks out things he wants to see me wear, and for anyone who knows me, I am not a big shopper and I rarely think outside the box when it comes to clothes), a new watch, some candy, and a book! And some other things I am sure. Oh, a really really great tea blend that has tons of caffeine in it. I also received fancy vanilla beans from my sister and an "exotic hot dog sampler" from my little brother. The exotic meats include - kobe beef, antelope, llama, alligator, yak, and venison. We have yet to try them, but I will let you know when we do. My parents, who already gave us an amazing wedding this year, gave us a fancy camera!!! A Canon Rebel something or other. I am reading how to use it and am so excited! The last time I bought a camera, it was in 2005 I think. The LCD screen is about 1.5inches. Yep. I am still rocking it. It still takes great pictures though. For Christmas, I got Matt some dress shirts, plenty of booze related items, some cool "speakeasy" coasters (don't ask me why that makes them different than just, well, a coaster). Then came the best part of the day - BREAKFAST!

I made this and this. I followed the recipe for the first one to a T, and it turned out awesome. We still have some in the fridge even. I go eat that now...okay, I'm back. I made the whole thing the night before, and just left it in the garage overnight. It probably could have been a little fluffier, and I probably didn't cook it long enough. None of that, however, detracted from the ooey-gooey yumminess that is cinnamon and sugar and soft bread. (and...drooling). The eggs, well, I was more inspired by this post than I was prompted to follow the directions exactly. I still marked it off my recipe list though.

After gorging ourselves came birthday gifts. I was lazy (no comments on the fact that I have hoards of hours during the day during which I watch trashy TV) and didn't wrap the birthday gifts. They were hard to wrap though! I gave him a Canucks hat, a recliner table (like an end table but very very narrow - now he can put his martinis on a table and not the floor!), and - in my most crafty of moments - a scrapbook of our honeymoon!!!! It was a cheap version though. No fancy paper or decorations on each page. I kept it "simple" and "organic" with awesome 2nd grader construction paper. I did splurge and buy a 3 pack of fun scissors. Matt (told me that he) loved it! It was fun looking at all the pictures again. It was less fun cutting things and taping things and gluing things. Bleh.

I sadly had to take Matt to the airport at about 10:15. Sigh. On the bright side, on my way home, I got in the left lane (2 lanes total) of the freeway to pass a slower vehicle. Some turkey breath who is too busy to slow down gets up on my rear end. I stay calm as it was Christmas day and all. Up ahead, driving the complete other direction, I see a sheriff. And the sheriff sees the gentleman behind me. The sheriff immediately flips around on one of those "for emergency vehicles only" things, turns on his lights, and pulls the turkey breath over! It sort of cheered me up. Justice!

I proceeded to video chat with my family during their breakfast, do Insanity since the gym was closed, and go to work. I know. Thrilling. This was my first Christmas away from my family. It has been tough as I love this time of year. :( Next year at least, we will be near family all the time. So excited.

Merry Christmas! (Part 1)

2011-12-26T19:33:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas every body! Happy Boxing Day! I gave the maid the day off. I hope she is enjoying it.

During our (required) pre-marital counseling, there were questions concerning traditions and what we wanted to hand down to our children. As with many questions, we said, "Well, we understand that this will be an issue at some point, but for now, we don't know." Sigh. It was the easy way out. Even though we don't have children yet, this was our first Christmas together as a married couple, so it of course brought these questions to mind (specifically my mind). My family has a lot of traditions around this time of year. And I love them all. I love that we all fall asleep at about 9pm (if we're lucky) while watching some old Christmas movie. I love Grandpa's mass & Pete's Pizza. While Matt enjoys Christmas as well, his family doesn't have quite as many traditions. If this blog still exists when we have kids, stay tuned. We will see what happens.

Our past few days have looked something like this:

Matt's last day was Wednesday. I worked that night. He went out. I got home at 8:30am. We...went...shopping (?). He went to a basketball game that night and to play poker. Boring. Friday involved...trying a different mall(?). Matt was a little slower at the Christmas shopping that I was. I worked Friday night. I couldn't tell you what Matt did. Saturday was, as I hope you all remember, Christmas Eve. We had made reservations at Jerico's a few weeks ago. It is an old school prime rib place that boasts (with good evidence to back it up) the best prime rib in town. First and foremost, however, came Mass. I warned Matt that it would be crowded. And it was. We got there about 30 minutes early, and it was already packed. St Leo's had a 5pm, a 5:05pm, a 7pm and a midnight mass. And I am sure they were all packed. Communion was a bit chaotic with all the C&E-ers (Christmas and Easter church goers). I kept messing up the new words.

Onwards to dinner! Jerico's is tucked under an expressway, and, like most establishments in Omaha, is located within a strip mall. Warning for anyone thinking of moving to Omaha - don't judge a place just because it is in a strip mall. You walk in the doors to find: a wall. With some rules on it about shirts and shoes and men taking their hats off. Odd. Alright, into the dinning area. Has anyone ever watched "Restaurant Impossible"? I love that show. This place, in terms of decor, would be a great candidate. I don't think they are a failing restaurant, but their decor is straight out of the 70s. I think. Yeah. The 70s. We were seated at my favorite type of booth - were there is only one side! The type that is a hemisphere and you both get to people watch. By the way, GREAT people watching here. We were, by far, the youngest people (at the time of seating at least). I would say a good 50% of the diners were 80+. And that is a safe bet. This place is no thrills, just meat. The wait staff isn't trying to be fancy. Nobody there with a bread crumb brush thingy. No one there with a tiny flashlight for you to check the done-ness of your steak. Just meat. We both got prime rib because, well, you have to when that is the claim. It was great. I have yet to try and tackle prime rib. That seems...stressful.

The place was kind of cool because we got to watch them pull out all the meat from the warmers and cut it at the kitchen was "open." This may have been an accident as Jerico's isn't cutting edge by any means. They had mirror paneling about every 5ft. Fake plants. Old school chairs. I am also guessing they had the types of toilets that old people like but everybody else seems to be dangling their feet from. In rare Wood fashion, we DID NOT order a specialty drink. We should have. They have "ice cream drinks," which sound amazing. Rather, we came home. And drank. Matt loves making new drinks, so I asked him to come up with one for us to have on Christmas Eve. He, of course, picked 2 very summery ones. Silly man. We "hungout" (it's a Google+ thing) with my family and read "Polar Express" (another tradition I love). All the Houses cried. All the in-laws judged us. We watched some TV/Sound of Music/It's a Wonderful Life. And went to bed. I don't want to bore you completely, so Christmas day activities will be in my next post.

Also, as a side note, I will not be reviewing Jerico's as I have other places simply because this is a place all it's own. A review won't do it justice. Is there better prime rib in town? Probably. Is it an interesting time travel experience? For sure.

Lookin all fancy

2011-12-22T20:01:00.001-06:00

In case you couldn't tell, I switched it up a little bit! I guess it had been over 4 years. And I have always looked good in maroon. Then again, I don't think I wear any maroon. Ever. I used to have a lot of it, but I don't anymore.

Tonight I am going to talk about doing naughty things. No, mom, dad, siblings, or whomever else reads this, not dirty things. Just things that feel...um...wrong. NO! Still not sexual.

#1 wrong thing: wearing socks outside. My dad drilled this into us when we were young. I don't know if he had a bad experience as a child, but the second we stepped out onto the back porch with socks on, he knew it. And the pointy finger of shame came out. "Get back in there!" You could have been trying to save Missy (our childhood dog) from a pack of rabid squirrels, but the dirtiness on the bottom of your socks mattered ten times more. To this day, I feel awful - and dirty - wearing my socks outside. Even if I am just making the 15ft walk through our garage to the garbage can, I try to find something to cover my feet (no, taking off my socks would be too easy...and then my feet would be cold). Sometimes I find this to be silly. Then other times, however, I try to think about just how dirty our socks could have gotten had my dad not been so strict on the socks issue. The more I contemplate it, the more I think this is a hill to die on. Decided: my kids will feel shame when wearing socks (w/o shoes) outside.

#2 wrong thing: touching mirrors or windows with my fingers. This may be two totally different things, but I will lump them as one. First: windows. As a child, sometimes it was fun to fog up the window and draw your name. Forwards. Backwards. Didn't matter. It was fun. Something about seeing your name as a child was thrilling. Somehow, however, my parents always knew when you were about to do it. They could just sense your eagerness to prove your existence to the outside world. To this day, when Matt wipes off the windows in the car as they fog up, it takes everything within me not to snap at him. And if I haven't slept well, I snap at him anyway. And the second: touching mirrors. Something about this one bothers me more. I think it is the ability to see the fingerprints so easily. The problem is, even when I go to clean the mirror, I cringe if I have to touch it. I have this inner sense that what I am doing is wrong. Toothpaste that needs to be scrapped with a finger nail? Nope. I just scrub harder. Usually I fail and have to resort to using my nail, but I avoid it at all cost. It just feels so wrong. You judge me? You go try it. Go put your finger on a mirror and tell me that it doesn't bother you at all. No? It doesn't? Huh.

One Animal

2011-12-20T12:51:00.001-06:00

"If you could be one animal, what would it be? (human doesn't count)"

I have always thought that this question can tell you a lot about a person. This and "3 foods for the rest of your life," but that is for a whole different blog post.l It can tell you not only what they enjoy most about life but also what more they want from life. My answer, for the time being at least, is: bald eagle. Hear me out before you start to argue with me.

-You are totally awe inspiring --> people paint pictures of you, take your photo all the time, stop dangerously in the middle of the highway just to get a better look
-You are a great mascot for the USA, and Eastern Washington University
-You can fly --> 'nough said. No erally. This may be what draws me to it most. If you ignore your instinct to return to your nest and have no little eagles to take care of, you can see so many places in a short span of time. Which brings me to..
-You have killer eyesight. Or so everyone says. Not sure how we can actually test this.
-You don't have to put on a show for people to notice you, but if you do, people will think it is awesome no matter what
-You have a muppet that is supposed to represent you that is blue
-You are on the VIP list...of endangered species
-You are way protected --> people can't even have an eagle feather without having a license for it. I am also pretty sure if someone thinks a bad thought about you, they get thrown in jail

I rest my case.

Matt and I ventured to the mall over the weekend trying not to get killed. We parked across the street and walked over - not because it was that busy but because NE drivers are awful and even worse in crowded parking lots. We didn't buy anything but just walked around and people watched. After that, we were, of course, hungry! Matt sounded like he wanted a sandwich, so we headed to a place nearby that neither of us had tried. In the same strip mall, however, there is a Mexican restaurant that neither of us had tried either. For those of you who have read my rants previously, I had stated that I may have given up on Mexican food. My faith has been restored!

Cilantro's: I had read numerous reviews on this place. Well, no really reviews as much as little snipits in the newspaper or weekend readers. It had been on my list for a while as well. Man am I glad we went. Being that it was lunch on a Saturday, it wasn't super busy, and we were seated right away. Free chips came out next! While they are my arch nemesis, I love free chips. Maybe it is the fault of that one Mexican restaurant decades ago that started giving free chips that cause me to expect them always, but that doesn't matter now. I hate when you have to pay $4 for a small bowl of chips and salsa. The salsa here, made in house, was some of the best salsa I have had in a long time. It was "restaurant style" in that it was close to pureed but not all the way there. This stuff had just a touch of heat and plenty of onion and...cilantro! We love cilantro! As I stated a month or so ago, I normally get the wrong things when I go for Mexican. This time, I fought my inner beast that yelled "combination plate" and "things wrapped in tortillas" and went toward the "entrees" section. I narrowed it down to 2 things; pork tamales and pork verde (it helped that both had pictures. I am a visual person). I decided on the latter and don't ergret it one bit. Unlike most other places, our food didn't come out "surprisingly fast," which, in my opinion, is a good thing. No, we weren't waiting longer than any other place, but sometimes it seems that Mexican food practically runs to your table seconds after ordering. This slight 'delay' in our food screams, "we actually put some effort...and love...into making this!!" Matt didn't get nachos! (Mostly because none of the appetizers were true nachos in his definition). He got the "Texas Chimi," which was more on the Tex-Mex side of things. The filling was chicken mixed with what tasted like a little bit of sour cream. It was moist and delicious. My pork verde was was great! Copious amounts of tender pork slathered in fresh green salsa. Man do I love green salsa. It was flavorful and not too spicy. It came with rice (nothing to write home about), black beans ( I love black beans, these were great), and a little sweet blob (?) of a cornmeal yummy. That is the only way I can describe it. Matt didn't enjoy the blob as much as I did, so I ate his too. In summary:

I will try to rate things consistently on a 0-6 scale:
0 - never again
1 - if someone else (Matt doesn't count) is paying
2 - if it is a big group and they decide on it
3 - only on Matt's request
4 - Oh yeah, I like this place, I will suggest this next month or so
5 - put it in the rotation!
6 - GET ME THERE NOW

Service: amazing, fast, courteous, willing to answer our questions
Cleanliness: yep, clean
Ambiance: beyond your typical decor for Mexican
Menu: great choices, love the menu style as well (tons of pictures)
OVERALL: 5. Totally a 5. Next time we want Mexican and don't want to drive to South Omaha, this is where we are going.

Surprise!

2011-12-15T20:52:00.002-06:00

I tried to be good about reviewing where we eat, but sometimes, as you can tell, I am not very successful. I think it is mostly because I forget exactly where we eat. Unless I look at our receipts. Plus, I don't really like reviewing places we go to all the time. Like Cici's Pizza. Yes it is messy. No the pizza isn't that great. But it is cheap. And the people watching is amazing.

Last night, I pulled of the fiet of all fiets. I managed to throw Matt a surprise party! By party, I really mean a dinner. I had been planning this for over 6 weeks now, yet I never managed to let it slip. And neither did any of his work friends! This is amazing simply because they enjoy adult beverages together frequently and can be a little loose lipped at times. Anyway, to the details. I had told the guests (about 20 in total) to be at Lazlo's Brewery at 630pm. Not 635. Not 640. I wanted them seated by 630 as we were going to get there at about 6:50. Last week I told Matt "Date night, my choice!" for Tuesday. Surprisingly, he never questioned it. He got home from work at 545 and was antsy to go to dinner. At 610 (takes maybe 20 minutes to get there) he insisted on leaving. Trying to delay us, I said we have a 7pm reservation. My strategy failed as he said "Oh it is a Tuesday night, they won't be busy." Dang it! I tried to delay as long as I could. Regardless, we pull into the parking lot at 637. Ah. And of course, as per usual, we parked far away from the front door within open window view of the private dinning room. Dang you Matt!!! It was raining, so we weren't looking around at scenery or anything. We get in there and ask for our table. I had arranged that the hostess wouldn't say "Oh, the party!" And she didn't ruin it! Yay! As we walked to the room, I could see everyone back in the room, so I made Matt go first. I didn't want them to yell "Surprise!" with me in the way. Matt found me wanting to walk in back odd, but that too worked! All the little pieces came together, and he was totally surprised. It turned out just great. Now that I have surprised him once, I never have to do it again. Yay! Let's review the place now:

Lazlo's Brewery: I had only been here once before, and it was for happy hour. I didn't have any food at that time and just had one beer. It wasn't that it rubbed me wrong then (over 3 years ago), but it didn't rub me "right" either. That isn't sexual. This time, however, my expierence was amazing and not just because of the party. They have a vast choice of brews and a good sized menu. Truthfully, they weren't that expensive either. All their sandwiches and burgers were between $7 and $13. They had a few higher priced steaks and "entrees" (always weird to me when some things are labeled as entrees and others aren't). We got sliders to start (yes, we are fat kids). It was a "variety" pack with a buffalo style, california style (basically, avacado), and classic. The buns weren't too overpowering but were just slightly too big compared to the patty. The patty was moist (I hate using that word), and all the ingredients were fresh and flavorful. For dinner Matt ordered the Reuben. We are thoroughly convinced that Reubens 'out' are way better than home made. It is just easier for them to make. Since he was the birthday boy too, they added extra meat on there. I got the french dip with fries as my side. I love a good french dip, but they don't usually call my name. One of my friends convinced me to get it, and man am I glad I did. This roast beef was sliced so incredibly thin and was so incredibly flavorful. The au ju was, well, au ju. The sandwich, however, will stand out in my mind as the french dip that I now compare to. The fries were great as well - not too salty, and they put pepper on them too! Slightly different but in a good way. So to summarize:

I will try to rate things consistently on a 0-6 scale. 0: never again. 1: if someone else (Matt doesn't count) is paying. 2: If it is a big group and they decide on it. 3: Only on Matt's request. 4: Oh yeah, I like this place, I will suggest this next month or so. 5: Put it in the rotation! 6: GET ME THERE NOW!!!!

Service: amazing especially given the large group
Cleanliness: above par
Ambiance: par for this type of restaurant
Menu: great selection but nothing too exotic

OVERALL: 5. I told Matt we are going there more often. I swear I won't just get the french dip every time :D

Progress in the kitchen

2011-12-12T14:27:00.001-06:00

This is gong to brief. My apologies ahead of time. I haven't been busy per se. Just doing Christmas shopping/baking sort of seems to suck up the day before you know it.

Night float is going well. I only have 3 more nights of admitting! Then just cross cover! Woohoo!!

On to the post title. I was talking about this with Matt: the progress I have made in the kitchen from <3 years ago amazes me. I am by no means an amazing chef. I can barely stick to a recipe. I have, however, progressed very far in the types of things I am making. When Matt first moved to Omaha in 2008, we would eat "chicken & rice" at least 3 times a week. And pizza the other nights. Not fancy versions of either of those either. Some store bought marinade on some chicken on some white rice. Woohoo? Maybe spaghetti from time to time. Then some biscuits. I would get fancy and do gumbo from time to time (it makes so much!!!)

About 1.5 years ago, I started really getting into cooking; you couldn't keep me away from the cook book section of Barnes & Noble. About a year ago my amazing sister Amanda and I started sharing recipes. Since then, my variety of cooking has expanded exponentially. I made tikka masala last week. I own a candy thermometer and english muffin rings. I hide baking materials from my husband :D While cooking may be on the verge of taking over my life, I can't imagine going back now. Onwards and upwards!

Becky: 1...Night Float: 1

2011-12-05T20:31:00.001-06:00

I can safely say that I have survived 1.3 nights of night float (should have been 2). Let's start with the Becky victory. I show up Friday night, bright eyed and bushy tailed. And early of course so that I can use my free $6 before all the places in the VA close. I get check out (the list of patients I am supposed to be taking care of) from one team and then hear from my supervisor that we have two transfers from outside facilities already on the floor and 2 new guys in the ER. Whelp. Here we go. In the span of about an hour we get 6 admission! And finally the other 2 medicine teams check out to me. We each did three of the admissions. I seriously thought I was going to cap (interns are only allowed to see 5 new patients in a 24 hour period). My 3 were pretty easy. Her 3 were much tougher. I am glad she took those ones :D By the time all is said and done with the admissions, it is 1am (with a Jimmy John's break in the middle.) Sehr (supervisor, pronounced suh-hair) went and did a few more things, and I hit the hay. I got a few pages in the middle of the night and then an admission at about 5am. That took up until about 715am or so, which means....time to check out to the day teams! I got home at about 830am, took a nice little nap, then lived it up the rest of the day. Until last night...

I head to work driving carefully as we got snow and ice over the weekend :( I had a headache all day, but I thought it was because I was dehydrated. I try to drink some water. At about 6pm we get an admission, which takes us until about 740pm or so. I go up and try to see if sleeping will help the headache. I start to become photosensitive (light was hurting my eyes), so I turn all the lights out. I get a few pages that require me to get on the computer. Every time I do, the headache gets a little worse and I start to get a little nauseous. Now, mind you, I have never been a headache person. No migraines ever. Not even in my family. I get a text at about 1030pm from Sehr saying we have a new one in the ER. I get up and pull myself together. Nausea is getting worse. I step out of my bedroom into the hall way, and BAM. Stage 5 watery mouth. We have all been there. That point where you know you need to be hugging that toilet. That point (don't read if already queesy) where saliva is simply free flowing out of your mouth. I decide the toilet is too far, so I hug the garbage can just inside my room. Somehow, I talk myself back from the edge. Back down to stage 2 or so I would say. I make my way down to the ER. Look up a little on this guy. Get ready to go talk to him. Thank goodness Sehr showed up. She goes in and starts talking to the guy, getting all the history of what is going on ("History of Present Illness" or "HPI"), etc. I have to excuse myself 3 times in the span of 10 minutes as I am feeling weak. On the third time...hugging that trash can...and losing my dinner :( I return from the bathroom (left the trash can in there for the sake of the ER staff), and Sehr says, "You look like shit. Did you just throw up?" I respond appropriately, and she sends me home. That wasn't a fun drive. Needless to say, after 9 hours of sleep I felt better.

I didn't have much of an appetite, but in general I am back to full health. Very weird. Maybe TMI for many of you, but I didn't force you to read it :D

Well Hello There Scrubs

2011-11-30T18:57:00.001-06:00

I always joke with people that the main reason I am going into anesthesia is because I want to wear scrubs the rest of my life. While no, that is not the reason I am going into it, it sure is a bonus. Next month, I will get a little dose of it. Today is my last day on VA floors as in December I move to VA Night Float! I am a little excited and a little nervous. I will work from 5pm to 8am every other night. And I get to wear scrubs. And I don’t have to go to clinic. The first part of the month I will be admitting patients to the various Creighton teams (there are 3 of them) as well as taking “cross cover” calls. This means that any time a nurse has a question on a patient that is on a Creighton team, I will be the one answering that call. The second half of the month I won’t be admitting and will just be taking the nurses calls. Ahhhhh….to be out during the day time sounds simply marvelous. Ask me in 2 weeks and my answer may be different. For now, however, I am excited. I will do night float again but at Creighton in March. That month will be much rougher. I am not looking forward to that one L

Review time!!!!

Casablanca: So this restaurant is relatively new I think. It is a “tradition” during VA months for either your supervisor or attending to take the team out for lunch near the end of the month. We went on Tuesday and chose this place as our attending had been before and loved it. It is located near the ‘hip’ and upcoming part of Omaha called Midtown crossing. It isn’t actually in the cool part. Just near it. And slightly in the ghetto still. The place, however, is run by 2 people. The chef/waiter/host/bus boy and hostess/waitress…who only speaks Spanish I think. Anyway, this place is a tiny hole in the wall that has been open less than a year. It is Moroccan. I don’t eat Moroccan often, but I am not opposed either. It wasn’t busy at all, which was great since I had to go to clinic at 1. Without asking, they brought us out some hummus (I think they usually charge for it), which was delicious. The English speaking chef was a little slow to take our orders, but…he is the only one working. He was awesome. While they had the menu, he would ask you “What type of meat do you like?” I wanted lamb. Then he said “I make you something; you want rice and vegetable?” Yes please! It was out pretty fast and was super flavorful! In looking at the plate I didn’t think it would be as there was no sauce or anything. The middle of the plate had a beautiful (and oh so yummy) pile of rice with meat and vegetables surrounding it. So good! And filling too. I have no clue what the total came to as I had to leave for clinic, but it wasn’t outrageously expensive given the proximity to coolness. Yes, on a busy night it may be ill advised to go, but otherwise, hit it up if you are in the area. In summary:

I will try to rate things consistently on a 0-6 scale (had been 0-5 but changed it a little...there goes consistency I guess). 0: never again. 1: if someone else (Matt doesn't count) is paying. 2: If it is a big group and they decide on it. 3: Only on Matt's request. 4: Oh yeah, I like this place, I will suggest this next month or so. 5: Put it in the rotation! 6: GET ME THERE NOW!!!!

Service: slightly below par, but forgivable
Cleanliness: par
Ambiance: a notch step above par, still working on decor I think
Menu: obviously eclectic but relatively small...he will make you a combo of anything though
OVERALL: 4. If we wanted to head downtown I would throw this one out there. I may not make a special trip however (I don't have a number for that....3.5 I guess?)

How do they come up with this stuff?

2011-11-29T22:40:00.001-06:00

Do you ever watch TV ads and ask yourself that exact question? They chose that line? That actress? That really awkward conversation? I have two favorites right now, and both of them have to do with jingles. I think one of the most obvious mistakes you see (or hear) in TV ads are unnecessary jingles. Why do ad agencies think everything needs a little jingle with it. Yes, I am sure there have been studies showing that the human brain is more keen to remember something if done with music (I can remember all the words to a song I haven’t heard in 5 years but can barely remember the age of my patients). To me, however, that doesn’t warrant a bad song. Now, if you can come up with a good one, great! Go for it. Mediocre or bad ones, however, are more likely to turn me, the consumer away. Sometimes I would like to sit in on those brain storming sessions, focus groups, and test audiences just to see from where these thoughts stemmed and who actually backed them up and told them it was a good choice. My three cases:

Gheridelli chocolate with caramel: Yes, the combination of these two things is down right heavenly. Why ruin it with the song???? It makes no sense. Plus, her outfit is downright awful. I am not saying I have great style, but you paid someone to put her in this ugly get up! I highly doubt she just stumbled into the commercial looking that way. Nix the song, change the outfit, you are good to go.

Lego Duplo: Cool. Little kids playing with big legos that their little hands and developing coordination can handle. The song?!? Wait, what is going on here? Are these kids all siblings? Why are we singing? Is this her first time walking? I guess if you look at it, a song is better than someone trying to explain what is going on in the ad. I would change this one all together.

Cat food: Pretty sure this has Acid in it or some other hallucinogen. Basically I think you now just have pot heads buying this and trying it. This didn’t need the cartoons or the song. If I take a step back, however, I can almost see the reasoning behind it: you have to stand out from all the other boring cat food ads AND your fan base is probably crazy cat ladies who love this stuff. Enough said

There ya go! So next time you are writing a TV ad, run it by me first before you embarrass your company

Losing things

2011-11-26T22:05:00.001-06:00

The VA isn’t the busiest of places, so I often have time to sit and reflect. Recently, it has been how life progresses through what you think you have forgotten/can’t find. For me, this is how it has gone

-Middle school: where is my homework?

-High school: where are my keys?

-College: where did I put my pants (joking)? Where did I put my camera/room key/dining card/ID? Or, more importantly, where did I put my basketball mouth guard/jersey/shoes?

-Med school: where did I put my First Aid for Step 1? Where did I put my resident that I am supposed to follow around?

-Intern year: where the heck are my pager and stethoscope?

Seriously, 5 times a day at least I have that “where is my pager?” moment. It isn’t that I want my pager. That thing drives me nuts. It is more that if I don’t have that thing, there could be backlash. Not from doctors but from ancillary staff. Even if I am done for the day, I still want to know where it is. It was funny. When an intern first gets his/her pager, it is a little exhilarating. Even that first buzz or beep or vibration (mine is always on vibrate) was a little fun. Then, however, realizing that everyone in the hospital has you on a leash, you want to run. Away. Fast.

Speaking of deep things, let’s talk about philosophy, the subject as a whole. In college, I was required to take 2 courses – intro and an elective. I took logic. I liked logic. Because, well, it was logical. I only needed 3 more courses to get my minor in it. Being who I am, I seriously thought about it. I thusly signed up for “The philosophy of politics.” My goodness people, that was over my head. I only got an A because the professor liked me. I am a relatively smart person, but philosophy just wasn’t for me. And you want to know why? The language. Now, all you lovers of thought, this is all opinion, so you can’t get mad. Or you can, but realize my opinion doesn’t make you less of a person. The language of philosophy is such that it prevents people from understanding. It is a very verbose topic in general. They use too many words that are too big (which they themselves have created and defined simply to confuse people :D) making it difficult to simply discuss with everyone. It is an elite group that prefers to keep itself that way. No, I don’t have a specific ‘they’ in mind here. I just remember sitting in that politics class wondering what in the heck people were talking about half the time. If you need to create a complex word with an even more complex definition that needs 10 other definitions to define it, maybe the creation of that word wasn’t necessary?

Matt (and I begrudgingly sometimes) will listen to the ‘In Our Times’ podcast from the BBC. Some topic I enjoy – the moon, the Hippocratic Oath. Other topics bore me to death. One in particular was on some sort of philosophy. They were discussing how your understanding of a sentence depends on whether you have personal context for the current subject or if that subject should really be the predicate. Or some ridiculous nonsense such as that. See what I mean? Do we really need to debate something like that? Like I said, it is above my head. That is, most likely, the only reason I put it down. Go ahead and keep loving it you crazy people. Just don’t try to talk to me about it.

Blank

2011-11-22T18:31:00.001-06:00

I came into this one blank. Not a lot of ideas rolling around in my head. Weird. So I guess I will just life update and review the places I have eaten.

Life: I have clinic on Tuesdays. I hate clinic. Ergo, I hate Tuesdays. From the moment I wake up on Tuesday, I am usually in a bad mood. Yes, I know this is a personal problem that I can very easily remedy, but that seems to take a lot of effort. And to tell you the truth, once I get to clinic, my distaste quickly dissipates. I like the doctor I work with. Most of the time I like the patients. I will never be a fan of long term care (hence one of many reasons I am going into anesthesia). The issue is more the fact that it interrupts your whole day. You have to do an entire day of ward work in half a day. You come back the next day feeling unsure what happened with your patients and unfamiliar with any new ones. It creates a lot of stress. BUT....after November I will be half way done with clinic! Yay!

Food time
Upstream Brewery: As the name would suggest, this is a brewery. My parents and I actually ate here my first weekend in Omaha. To tell you the truth, I never returned other than for events that took me there - interview dinners, post-Match party, resident appreciation night. Every time I go, I remember why I don't go back, but at the same time, I tell myself to go there more often. Make no sense? I know! Why I need to go more: great happy hour ($2.50 pints and half price appetizers) and really pretty good beer with a great seasonal selection. They also have "beer to go." I am always tempted to do that, but then I remember Matt doesn't enjoy beer meaning it would likely go to waste. The appetizers are pretty good too. I also like their soup. I. Love. Good. Tomato. Soup. Seriously. I could marry that stuff. And Wednesdays are half price beer AND pizza night. Go Becky go! Why I don't go back: the rest of the food is overpriced and not great. It isn't bad, but at the same time, it is always a let down. It always seems like 'just one thing' is missing from each entree. A little lemon? Some more salt? Butter? Plating is always average. Service is average. Selection is pretty good: from steak to pasta to flatbread pizzas. Not too much but not too little. Another conundrum: the ambiance. It is an old warehouse with exposed brick. Love it. It has high ceilings. Hate it. For those of us slightly hard of hearing, high ceilings are the death of good conversation.I said I was going to try and be consistent, so here it goes:

I will try to rate things consistently on a 0-6 scale (had been 0-5 but changed it a little...there goes consistency I guess). 0: never again. 1: if someone else (Matt doesn't count) is paying. 2: If it is a big group and they decide on it. 3: Only on Matt's request. 4: Oh yeah, I like this place, I will suggest this next month or so. 5: Put it in the rotation! 6: GET ME THERE NOW!!!!

Service: par
Cleanliness: par
Ambiance: 2 step above par (high ceiling and all)
Menu: selection is 1 above par, taste is...par
OVERALL: 3. If Matt wanted to go, I wouldn't resist. I may just eat the soup though.

Gym People

2011-11-17T18:26:00.001-06:00

Ah. Gym people. That doesn’t always bring the freshestpicture to the front of your mind, but let me explain. I am a gym goer. I amaddicted. I need the gym. I am not all ‘rexi’ about it, but I tend to get verygrumpy if I can’t make it to the gym. Life as an intern, however, is a tad bitbusy. The last thing I want to do when I get off work at (hopefully) 5:30 is goto the gym. Instead, I roll my rear end out of bed at just shy of 5am, poursome coffee into my oh-so-wonderful travel mug from Costco (shameless plug. Itreally is amazing. It stays warm, in my car, in the cold, until I drink it at630am), and head to the gym. Yes, this may seem counterintuitive to some, butit is easier to just roll and go in the AM than to motivate and go at the endof the day. Plus, it is SOOOOO easy to talk myself out of going by the time 6pmrolls around. As a side note, I am very glad our gym doesn’t open until 5am orelse I would find myself getting there earlier and earlier every day. Sick.Back to the point.

Gym people. They are the sweaty equivalent to “old menfriends at Panera.” They are the people you see there every day; they don’texist outside of the gym to you. And you to them. My gym people are thefollowing

-“The two early guys.” They don’t work out together. One isshort and fat; the other is tall and skinny. At 5:01am you can see them liftingheavy. Really? No warm up people? Come on!

-“The stretcher.” She is short, mid 60s. Runs. Every day.For about 3 minutes; then stretches. Then on again. For 2 minutes. Thenstretches. This is pretty much the routine every morning. One day, however, shetalked to me! (insert jaw drop). Gym people aren’t supposed to have voices.

-“The pusher.” Deep down at heart, I am work-outcompetitive. You know the feeling. Someone gets on the stair climber next toyou, and you bump up your speed. Andlet go of the handrails. This girl stirs that in me for some reason. Funnything is, she used to belong to 24-Hour as well. Whenever I am near her, I feelthat I have to work out better than she does, which is tough because she isskinny and very fit

-“The long shower-er.” This may be TMI, so if that bugs you,avert your eyes…now. I have never been someone who doddles (sp?) in the shower.I go in with a specific task and get it done. From end of workout to out thedoor – with shower, blow dry/curl hair (naturally curly, so easy), “makeup”(read: mascara) – it takes me max 25 minutes. Max. This girl will be in theshower that entire time. Who can enjoy a 25 minute shower at the gym? It isn’tdirty or anything and they are private stalls, but still. A shower at the gymcan only be so good

-“The invisible lady.” I really didn’t think she existeduntil just yesterday. Every day I walk into the women’s locker room(practically the first person mind you) to find some clothes hanging on thewall hooks. 90% of the time it is some skirt and some sort of top. Prettytypical 2 week-ish rotation (not that I am recording or anything. Way toolittle for me to even imagine wearing. When I leave about 1.5 hours later, theyare still hanging there. I thought it was an employee or something. Finally,however, I saw her! No talking mind you. She exists!

And those, ladies & gentlemen, are my gym people. We arelike a little dysfunctional family all going to the gym together way too earlyin the morning

Mexican Food

2011-11-14T19:55:00.001-06:00

Sigh. I think I have given up. Not on life. Not of medicine. Heck, not even on marriage. Yes, on Mexican food. Funny thing is, Matt, JC (our friend), and I are actually talking about it right now and trying a new place. Maybe I am not getting the correct type of food. Matt always gets nachos. No matter what. No matter when. He will get nachos. Easy to guess. I try to switch it up however. Sometimes a combo plate, sometimes a quesadilla, sometimes a chimi. And maybe I need to stay away from things not wrapped in tortillas. I feel that sometimes it is easy to just wrap some under-seasoned meat into a tortilla and throw some half attempted sauce on top. In fact, that is usually my cooking at home. But really? At a restaurant? I don't know why I am in such disbelief. Mexican food has been a consistent let down in my life. I find that the best "Mexican" food I get is at non Mexican places. I have hypothesized about this a lot, and here is what I came up with:

True, real Mexican food, which I have had maybe once or twice, is too spicy for regular people to want it all the time. Ergo --> Americanized Mexican food. I am not talking Tex Mex here. I am talking: bland meat - velveta - tortilla - bad sauce - bad garnish. Maybe I need to get the dinner plates (things not wrapped in tortillas)? Maybe I need to suck it up, go to South O, and get me some good Mexican. Anyone want to come? Let's go. This leads up to my restaurant review:

Salgado's: (Yes, it is an urbanspoon website) Matt and I as well as some of his coworkers tried to go here over a year ago. Unfortunately we tried to go the weekend it was writen up in the paper. Oops. Bad mistake. Table for 5? 1hr. No thanks. Take two: this past weekend (heck, we usually go to happy hour at a Tex Mex place for super cheap to get our Mexican nacho fix...and by 'our' I mean Matt's). This time the place is practically empty, but they have Breckenridge Agave Wheat on their menu...cue excited Becky. Alas, secondary to a rough night the night before, I pass. (+) #1....free chips! I strongly dislike Mexican places that charge for chips. Yeah, I said it. We were all thinking it. They bring us 3 dipping choices: salsa fresca, mild salsa, and bean dip. 1 & 2, meh. No thanks. Give me my food processor, and I am 100% sure I can do better. That bean dip? Amazing. Matt ate it all. In one shot. The bite I got was delicious. Matt got nacho's: par. Becky got verde enchiladas: meh. Chicken was tender but under seasoned. Verde salsa was under seasoned. Cheese was...cheese. The rice, however, was actually really good. Usually the rice is something I can do without, resist in fact. Not this time. The rice was really good. The beans were beans. I can never resist refried beans.

I will try to rate things consistently on a 0-5 scale. 0: never again. 1: if someone else (Matt doesn't count) is paying. 2: If it is a big group and they decide on it. 3: Only on Matt's request. 4: Oh yeah, I like this place, I will suggest this next month or so. 5: GET ME THERE NOW!!!! (In retrospect, that seems like an odd scale, but it is what it is)

Service: decent, par. Cleanliness: par. Ambiance: slightly better than par. Menu: slightly below par. OVERALL: 2. If a party were going and decided on this place, I would still go and enjoy the company

2011-11-04T18:47:00.000-05:00

I survived cardiology. And to tell you the truth it wasnt too bad at all especially when you compare it to general medicine at CUMC. I am back at the VA now doing general medicine. It is just as it sounds: thrilling and full of old men. Many times when I start updating this I wish I had helpful tips or good points, but I never do. Let's see what I can roll out here regarding medicine/intern year

- Never take it personally. Patients will be rude. Attendings will chew you out. Fellow residents will be lazy or throw you under the bus every chance they get (not neccesarily speaking from experience here). You can only control you.

- Organization is your friend. That goes for med school too. And life I guess.

- Remember to be real and connect with people. I am only gong to be here for one year but that shouldn't keep me from connecting with patients and coworkers. Life isn't about counting the number of friends you have and stopping when meet your quota. We are pople. Not tasks in your inbox.

- Know the love language of your friends/spouse/family. If you don't know what they are...look them up. If you think they are a load of bull...I dont like you. :)

- Learn to like leftovers. I have always had issues with leftovers. Even when I was young. I really dont know why. I usually get up at 445am workout, work, get home at 6pm, and then make dinner. I feel like a failure if I dont make dinner fully from scratch. Sigh. I need to get over that

- Buck up and do your job. This is for everyone and not just interns. God gave you skills and put you in your position for a reason. Enjoy the ride. Stop complaining.

Now that I got all of my "wisdom" out of the way, let's get down to bussiness. And what is business...not sure. I want focus to this blog. Thoughts? Ideas? Comments? All 1 person reading this. All right. Off for the night. To Lincoln tomorrow. I had to experience the power of Go Big Red at least one time before leaving Nebraska.

I kept saying

2011-10-13T20:43:00.000-05:00

I kept saying: "I'll post, I'll post." I lie to my self. I lie to everyone. Crap. 2 months!!!!?!?!?! And nothing from me. Weird. Quick update on life

August:
GI at the VA was awesome. Lots of colons. That wasn't the awesome part. Easy hours was the awesome part. My brother got married!!!!! Over in London. I ate way too much and drank way too much. But it was tons of fun. I ate too many chocolate desserts and got very very hyper as well. Matt survived his first trip overseas, and he liked it! Which means he wants to do it more. Yay!

September:
Gen Med at VA. It was okay. Things moved slowly, but they are pretty quick to move patients out and along. Some patients at CUMC may sit around a few too many days because the social workers are overloaded. At the VA, however, they have plenty of social workers who are super helpful. My sister got married!!!!! Again, I ate too much and drank too much! But she got married and she was beautiful. I looked pretty good too if you don't mind me sayin.

October:
Cardio at CUMC. I was dreading this month, but it turns out it isn't that bad. At least not the first 2 weeks. We have some crazy busy days, but I feel that I am learning some good things. I like my team as well. Matt's parents came to visit this past weekend. Ate too much. Drinking didn't happen as much this time. Played my first full court basketball game in over 2 years. Wow. It is one thing to shoot around at the gym, but it is a whole different thing to run around, play defense, and then try to shoot around. Ugh. But I had fun

In other news, I am cooking a lot. I have a great blog post (in my head) about reviewing/pros & cons of food blogs. I look at a lot of them. Not that my opinion matters at all to anyone, but I know what I like and don't like.

Okay. I swear I will post again this month.

Breckenridge

2011-08-09T19:57:00.000-05:00

Our ever so long extended honeymoon wrapped up with another trip all the way across NE back to CO and up to Breckenridge this time. With 2 other couples. And we slept on a hida-bed. Very romantic. During a benefit auction this past winter some of Matt's coworkers purchased a long weekend at a condo. One couple had to boge out, so we were the back up friends!!!! At this point I don't remember a lot of details, but here is4-er (14, the general gist of what we did.

We hiked. We wanted to do a full 14-er (14000 ft), but it turns out in late June there is still quite a bit of snow there. Huh. Who knew. The ladies were too scared of wandering too much in the snow - not because of the cold or the difficulty but because of the fear of getting lost off the path. I could picture us being featured on "I shouldn't be alive." So we turned around. Our condo was a little outside of downtown Breck, so Matt and I would walk into town a lot. Everyone else liked to chill a bit more. Matt isn't the best at chillin. We pretty much walked that whole town.

We went rafting. In wet suites of course. 2 people had just died on the river. We didn't die. This was Matt's first time, and he was pretty nervous. He isn't the best swimmer, so I was nervous for him too. It was only 2 hrs. And it was cold. But fun. We stumbled upon some large white water rafting festival. Hippies :D

We rode the chairlift to the top of Breck. Turns out there was snow up there too. For those of you who read about our trip to Chi town last Labor day, you know Matt isn't a fan of heights. Chair lifts are no exception. Again, this was something Matt had never been on. His knuckles were white from holding onto the safety bar so tightly. Cute.

We ate Chic fil a on the way home. Pretty much Matt's highlight.

Milwaukee

2011-08-03T21:04:00.000-05:00

Finally on to Milwaukee. I may have lost the will to put up pictures, but we will see how I feel at the end of the post.

If I learned nothing else on our honeymoon, it was how to spell Cincinnati and Milwaukee (w/o the help of spell check). I also learned that Matt and I really like the latter. We arrived in Milwaukee and headed straight to the game as it was a Sunday afternoon game and we figured it would be busy. Man were we right. Standing room only. We paid for parking and standing room only tickets. That was expensive. To tell you the truth I don't remember much about the game. The stadium was not my favorite. Unlike other newer stadiums (this stadium is pretty new too), you can't see the ball field from all the concourses. You could go long stretches without seeing the field. Me no likey. On the other hand, Milwaukee was great.

We stayed at The Intercontinental in the downtown area, and for the first time we actually stayed for 2 nights! Maybe that is why we liked Milwaukee so much, but whatever. In the afternoon we walked around and over to the lake (Lake Michigan). The weather was great, and we loved exploring. It was too early for dinner at this point, so we chilled at the hotel until heading to a brewery up the street for dinner. Matt had grilled cheese. I had beer. And some food. They had tons of old beer cans on the walls including Oly and Ranier as well as Ranier Light. Matt was finally getting his appetite back, so I didn't have to help with the sandwich :(

The next day we actually got to sleep in and not drive 5 hours. Another huge plus! We walked over to a place a friend recommended for a cheap lunch. It was a whole in the wall Mexican place that I can't even remember the name of. It was cheap though. Being the cheap people we are, we only walked by the Harley Museum. We didn't go in. Fine by me. The highlight of the day was the brewery tour - Lakefront Brewery. For $7 each we got 4 8oz samples, a "tour," a souvenir pint glass, and a coupon for a free pint at a local bar. We won. Well, I won actually. As Matt isn't as big into beer as I am, I got pretty much all of his including the pint at the bar. Woohoo. At this point I was a bit tipsy...and it was only 4pm. We chilled for a bit and then stuffed ourselves on cheese. Seriously. I never thought I could hit a cheese overload, but I may have here: AJ Bombers. It has been on Food Wars. I got grilled cheese. And we got cheese curds as an appetizer. And poutine. So good.

Milwaukee also proved to decision point: drive to the Twin Cities or drive home. After much debate we ended this leg of our honeymoon early as we would be heading to Breckenridge in 2 days. We survived all those miles without killing each other and without threatening divorce. It was great. My only suggestion for anyone thinking about it would be to spread......it........out. 2 days in each place would have been way better. More expensive but way better.

On a way better rotation now. Will update on that later.

Said before and I will say it again

2011-07-24T21:05:00.000-05:00

I love baking. I follow several food blogs, and from time to time I have the urge to make this a food blog. Then I remember that I have a 7 year old camera and am way too eager to eat the food than to take pictures of it. Ergo, I will just talk about food. Today, I made these: http://annies-eats.net/2011/07/18/soft-frosted-sugar-cookies/
Holy canolli batman. I haven't even frosted them yet and I want to devour every single last one. I will of course be taking them to work with me tomorrow.

I took a break between writing that first paragraph and this one...and ate too much cookie dough and sugar today. Oh my goodness. Maybe just gave myself diabetes. I need to go food coma myself

Wait a second

2011-07-23T21:12:00.000-05:00

I know I know I know. I am still in the middle of the honeymoon. But I don't feel like talking about that at the moment. Basically, I can't summon the energy to put together that many coherent strings of thoughts. I am on day 13 of 19 straight. That is 13 days of waking up at 5am. 13 days of watching the sunrise. 13 days of having flashing lights accompany my drive to work. It isn't all bad. I get to see lots of bunnies. Bunnies are like squirrels here. No. They really are. They are adorable. Granted, working both days this weekend was by choice. Matt is still up in Seattle and comes back this week, so I offered to work both days so that I have next weekend completely off. Woohoo!

UniMed (what Creighton calls their general medicine teams) is a pretty tough month. My supervising resident and one of my attendings said that it is likely one of the hardest months. They even said harder than ICU (a resident can only follow 4 patients max in the ICU). I saw 8 the other morning. No, they aren't the sickest of patients. Some of them are rocks - waiting placement in a nursing home or what not. Some of these rocks, however, are difficult. And pokey. And remind you daily that they exist. I have unfortunately had my first encounter with a patient with whom I am fighting that whole countertransference thing. I think I have that right. Countertransference is when I treat them differently based on how they treat me. I think. Either way, I have a patient who isn't super happy with me ever no matter when I see her. Friday, she really got my water boiling. I left her with my happy voice on, but I told me co-intern that he would be taking over her care. I don't want to compromise someone's health simply because they are pushing my buttons. I believe this is the right choice.

One of the hardest parts of this month - at least early in the month - was my lack of cooking/baking and working out. With Matt gone, I don't care if dinner is at 8, so I have found plenty of time to workout and cook. While I really don't cook anything crazy and I haven't even been 'in' to cooking that long, it makes me happy. Being in the kitchen relieves stress for me. Almost as much as being in the gym or working out relieves my stress. In August I start on GI at the VA. I am hoping (but not getting my hopes up) that being on a consulting services calms my life down a little bit. We will see

BTW: Omaha is hot right now. Not like hot like "cool." Hot like hell hath descended upon us

Oh Chicago

2011-07-10T15:11:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the hiatus. Intern year has finally started, and I have been like a chicken with my head cut off. Lost my brain, feathers everywhere, no sense of direction. Ever. 1 week down...51 to go (minus vacation of course). I will update about our Chicago trip first then hit on work.

We took off early from Detroit and drove past where old Tigers' Stadium used to be. It looked a little scary. We had been told that all the bars right through that area (lots of hole in the wall sports bars), look dead from the outside but somehow still manage to get busy. We will take their word for it. Headed west and eventually south to go through Ohio. I kept trying to get pictures of "Welcome to ______!" but amazingly always managed to miss the sign. The few times I was actually ready, no sign was there to welcome us. Shame.

Our route took us through Gary, Indiana. Boy am I glad I don't live there either. About that time, Matt's stomach started to bug him. I told him that it was because he didn't eat breakfast. I know that if I don't eat for >12hrs or so, I start to get nauseous. Always have, always will. Feed the beast regularly. Chicago driving was a little stressful. This was probably the only time we snapped at each other over directions. We eventually get to the hotel, which was actually the top 10 floors of an office building. Very strange. It was a little before noon, and our room wasn't ready yet :( We leave our bags in the car and head out for Giordano's pizza!!!!!

Last fall when we went to Chicago, we went on a pizza tour where we got to sample several deep dish pizzas. This was our favorite. We walk over there (not the main one because that one is always way too busy) and get seated. Matt is feeling even worse now. I assure him once he gets something in his stomach that he will feel better. Again, being cheap, we don't get an appetizer. Sigh. Well actually, that wouldn't have helped. About 30 minutes later (5 minutes til pizza!) Matt gets stage 5 watery mouth. We have all been there. Whether with the flu, food poisoning, or drinking, you know that moment from which you can't turn back. You need a bathroom. Stat. Matt excuses himself. He returns 10minutes later, pale as a ghost, while I nom on some oh so good pizza. He tries a bite. And heads to the bathroom again. When he returns, he says "Pay the bill and box it up" just before he heads outside. Sigh. Pizza experience ruined.

I struggle to find Matt outside as he is in a bush losing his stomach. He says he feels better and we can walk around. We made a good attempt, but he starts to get dizzy and weak. Back we go to the hotel! We are about a mile away, and all I can picture is him doing down on the sidewalk and having to go get the car to get him. There is no way we are paying for a cab :D He stops at more than one garbage can to do his thing. He mumbles incoherent things at me. He gets stomach contents in his beard. But we make it back. Alas, our room was still not ready. Another heavy sigh. We chill in the cool lobby. I work on my puzzle book. Matt frequents the bathroom. 230 rolls around (300 is check in time), and I urgently request that we get our room. Stat. Of course she needs to talk to Matt since the room is under him name. OMG. We make it to the room just in time for another bathroom break. I get him some 7up and crackers, and once he falls asleep, I leave.

View from our room

Flying guy!

To Navy Pier I go!

Here are the pics from my solo walk (above)

Awesome sandwich

Matt pretty much slept all night. Needless to say, the game was a no go. In general Chicago was a bust. I told Matt he owes me another Chicago trip. He feels bad about the whole thing. We have no clue why he got sick. I never felt anything wrong. The only difference in our food was that he had some ranch with the pizza the night before. I had none. Maybe? Maybe. Our contacts were all the same, so I feel that that isn't likely. Here are the delicious foods I ate all by my lonesome.

You can't tell, but he is sweating

On to intern year. Oh. My. Goodness. For those of you in medical school: stay in 4th year as long as possible. I mean, I have done a lot of hard things, but I think this takes the cake. As with medical school, it isn't that what I am doing is super difficult. Pretty much anyone could write notes and orders. The hard part is how much of it I have to do on top of all the other little things like dictations and calling social workers. I am getting a handle on it a little more, and this will most likely be one of my harder months. Still though. I did at least get a surprise golden weekend (48 hours completely off)!! Amazing! Matt leaves Tuesday morning (5AM flight!!!!) for a couple weeks, so I am going to be stocking the freezer!

So this is Detroit

2011-06-28T20:58:00.000-05:00

Now that I took a little break I completely forget how I was formatting these posts. Sigh. I am a stickler for similar formatting. It takes me forever to load my ipod if for some unknown reason I lose all my music, which has happened more than once. I have had orientation going on, so that is my excuse :D

View of Canada from GM building

We left Pittsburgh the morning of the 10th (I think) heading to the great city of Detroit. Both of us had heard so many things about the state of the city, so we were excited to get to see it for ourselves. That, and the fact that the Mariners were playing the Tigers, made the 5 hour drive fast. Okay, fast is a bit of an exaggeration but still. Our drive was pretty uneventful, and the GPS never steered us wrong. Whoop!

On the way into the city, we passed a lot of factories. Matt thought they looked empty. I didn't so much, but I agreed with him as to not seem like I was contradicting just for contradicting's sake. There was no denying the emptiness, however, when we pulled off the interstate. My goodness. Below is the first building we say. Almost all the glass was blown out. It was spooky looking, and it was still midday at this point.

We headed to our hotel and checked in causing us to notice this on our hotel door:

And we were in a super nice hotel that needed a key card to take the elevator to the rooms. We, of course, were hungry, so we stopped here:

These two places have been on TV a lot battling against each other. A few decades back they were started by relatives both serving "authentic coney island dogs." Basically...chili cheese dogs with mustard and onions. We each ate one dog at both, and our winner is: American!!!!! For me, it was the winner because I liked the hot dog a little more and the chili a lot more.

After that we went walking giving us the opportunity to see all the abandoned buildings up close. My goodness people. There seemed to be no one. No one! We made it to a free tour of the GM building, which was actually pretty cool. It turns out that Detroit hit its high population in the 50s. After that (not just with the demise of the car industry), people started moving to the suburbs. The GM building was built in the 70s in an attempt to draw people back into the city. Turns out it didn't work. Sigh. We walked around a little more after the tour before heading back to the hotel.

As we got there, it started to pour! We weren't worried about getting wet (we aren't made of sugar afterall), but our concern was that the game would be cancelled. We headed out for a wet wet walk just to see more abandonment. No people hitting up Friday happy hours. No cute little stores. In fact, a sign just north of the baseball stadium read: We strongly suggest you don't park north of this sign. We could see why. Crumbling houses. Burned out buildings. When night came, only about 30% of the high rises had lights on - that includes either offices on the inside or lights to show the architecture on the outside.

Enough with the sadness! Tigers stadium was actually really really cool inside and out. The scoreboard and crowd interaction was a bit lacking though. The game ended up starting on time, and we got cheap seats up high. The Mariners even won! Whoop! We head out just as the great fireworks show started because we wanted to make it back to the hotel (via walking) while people were still around. Tons of people came in from the suburbs for the game, but they just head right back out afterwards. On the way, we stopped for pizza (weird) and ate it at the hotel. Overall it was a very weird experience. We agree we would go back to visit the other parts of the state, but we would probably never return to Detroit. : /

MILES TRAVELED DAY 4

Land: 286 miles

The winner!

Fist bump to the extreme

Church we found

There are actually tall buildings. You just can't see them

Where old Tigers Stadium used to be

Therapy in Pittsburgh

2011-06-23T22:48:00.000-05:00

This was supposed to be at the end, but this is the view from the stadium

Matt hates Pittsburgh. And when I say hate, I mean hate. Ever since the Seahawks lost to the Steelers a few years back, he has had a lot of emotional baggage that we, as a couple, have to carry around. Our brief stint in the city helped relieve some of this pent up anger.

We left Cincinnati in the morning for an evening game of the Pirates vs the Arizona Diamondbacks. While Matt is a World Geography teacher, apparently neither of us know the exact details of each and every American state. Turns out, on the way from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh, you go through West Virginia! Mark that one off our list! It was only 10minutes if that, but it still counts. Pittsburgh had some pretty cool tunnel thing coming into it and a whole lot of bridges. This was actually the one and only time that the Navigation tool on my phone failed us. She said take exit 7B and it was really 1B, so it threw us all off. After a 2mile detour we were at our hotel: DoubleTree. They had a room ready for us and even upgraded us since we said we were on our honeymoon (heck, you get to do it once, why not get all the perks out of it that you can). Our room was awesome! We decided to start doing our usual thing - walking.

After about 5 minutes outside we were both hot and hungry, which makes for two very grumpy newlyweds. On my list for Pittsburgh was Primanti Brothers. They are on Food Network and Travel Channel a lot. Basically their claim to fame is putting your fries and your slaw on your sandwich. We both got the same thing because I panicked while ordering, but it all turned out okay. After our oh-so-filling lunch, we walked a little longer and then headed back to the hotel. Just as we were relaxing, someone knocked on the door. Now, when you travel alone (ie, not with your basketball team) you don't expect anyone knocking on the door. My heart started racing a little faster, as my mind went worst case scenario of course (it is a cross I have to carry). Turns out it was just...room service!!!!! The hotel sent us a bottle of champagne and hand dipped chocolate covered strawberries. My goodness. Those were some of the best strawberries I have ever had. Then we got to throw back the champagne because it was almost time to leave for the game.

Turns out we actually really liked Pittsburgh's stadium. Again, like Cincinnati, it was right on a river. Great view of downtown, some cool architecture, etc etc. Cheap tickets were a little more spendy here though. After doing our typical full walk of the stadium, we started racking up our free things. Matt manages to schmooze us into some upgraded club level seats, which was awesome. If I keep him around for nothing else, I will keep him around for that. I kid, I kid; I will keep him around for many reasons. :D I forget who won the game, but we both really liked this stadium.

On the way home we were slightly hungry, so we stopped and got some pitas at a Greek place. They were good, and we didn't get poisoned, but the place may have been a little sketch looking back at it. Tada! Pittsburgh! I am sure some other things happened, but being a couple days out, I sort of forget things.

MILES TRAVELED DAY 3

Land: 286miles

Bridges!!!

Nom nom nom nom

So good!!!

Nice glow of sweat going on

Cincinnati Pics

2011-06-23T18:00:00.000-05:00

This is Columbus actually, just wanted to take a pic

The scoreboard. I was hot by this point

It worked this time!!!!

Skyline chili dog!

Our awesome sign! Bottom said: Remain married

Us in Kentucky looking at Ohio

Cincinnati

2011-06-22T12:56:00.000-05:00

If there is nothing else I learned on our adventures, I at least learned how to spell some cities without writing them down including: Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee. I know you all might be saying, "Aren't you smarter than that Becky? Do I really trust you with my life?" My answers: yes, I am smart but bad at spelling in my head; no, don't trust me just yet. Onwards and upwards!!!

Wednesday the 8th found us in Cincinnati, OH for a day game of the Reds vs the Cubs. I swear that I almost died during this game. Day games are so hot! I also refused for us to buy a $5 bottle of water. We did get frozen lemonade though, which managed to bring me back from the brink of death. The stadium was cool because it was right on the river that separated Ohio from Kentucky! We sat in the cheap bleachers again and could see Kentucky the entire time. We also purchased a Skyline Chili (big thing there) dog. It was yummy. Definitely a different type of chili than I am used to. After the game we walked back to our hotel, which was finally ready for us to check in. I think we recovered from the heat for a while and relaxed.

One of Matt's coworders was also in Cincinnati grading papers for AP Human Geography (don't ask me what that means, I think it is similar to sociology). We met up with him and a few other graders and headed over to Kentucky for dinner (I didn't have anything planned here). Oh yeah, Kentucky!! Turns out it was hot over there too. It also turns out they didn't have a ton of options over there. We chose sort of a sports bar type looking place. After being seated, we realized how silly we were. It seriously took forever for our waitress to come talk to us. She was much faster moving away than moving toward our table. Sigh. Everyone but Matt & I just got wings to eat (we aren't the biggest wings people). I would say we made a better decision. We slowly walked back toward the hotel after our 2 hr below average dinner as not to start dripping sweat. The teacher peeps had a final night reception to attend, so Matt and I watched some hockey in the hotel bar. Eventually they convinced us to go upstairs with them as they had free drinks up there. Afterwards we went out with them for a little bit and then headed back to the hotel room to prepare for another awesome 5 hr drive. Whoop! I don't know if I would ever visit either Cleveland or Cincinnati again. I wouldn't avoid necessarily but I wouldn't optionally go back again. They were just 'meh" to me. But here are some more pictures!!!

MILES TRAVELED DAY 2
Land: 250 miles

Okay, I can't get the pics to load. For another day!!

Cleveland Rocks

2011-06-21T20:58:00.000-05:00

We are back from Breckenridge. Those stories to come later.

Our honeymoon journey continued.

On June 7th we took off on a one way flight to Cleveland, OH. While Matt strongly strongly prefers the aisle seat, I made him choose a window seat (Southwest Air) as for us to see the flooding going on along the Missouri River. Note to future city developers: don't build your airport on a flood plain near a river. The day after we left there was going to be a big meeting about the best plan to keep the airport from flooding. To date they have built up the levees. There is currently some standing water on the airport side of the levee, but air traffic continues as normal. Yikes. Back to the main story.

We arrived in Cleveland and picked up the rental car - a silver Hyundai Elantra. We both really liked this car. It got great gas mileage - 37mpg or so. My car gets 21 on a good week. The game was a 7pm game, and being 3pm, we were hungry then. My basic job for this honeymoon was to research where to eat in each city. Our first stop was Melt. I had heard the place is normally PACKED, but going at an odd time to the 2nd, less "cool" location meant we got seated right away. The menus were on old albums. We meant to take pictures of them, but we didn't. Don't worry though because we managed to take pics of our food.

<--My Gyro Melt

<-- Matt’s some sort of Italian melt (cheese sticks & meatballs on there)

Following our orgasmic (I can say that now, I am a doctor and a wife) late lunch we checked in to our hotel: Embassy Suites!!!! I have wanted to stay in one since going to Disney World as a child. We stayed there then, and all I remember was free Shirley Temples in the evening. In fact, my little brother would insist we leave whichever park we were visiting to get back in time for happy hour (imagine a child saying that w/o being able to say his r’s). I don’t remember the free breakfast as much, but being there jogged my memory. I got all our hotels on Priceline and seriously saved big $$$$$. I tried to get all of them relatively close to the stadiums so that we could walk. Pretty much anything within 3 miles is walking distance for Matt & I, but we were closer than that for pretty much all of them. We hit up the manager’s reception for a free G & T before heading to the stadium. We bought cheap bleacher seats and ended up moving a few innings in to a closer seat. We made an awesome sign. I think we have a picture of it somewhere. I will post pictures at the end.

We decided prior to any of the games to get the same exact thing at every stadium (ie mini logo bat, magnet, etc). Being the money savers we are, we went with scorecards. They are only ever $1-2, which fits our budget perfectly. We also walked around the entire stadium to get every free thing we could. In Cleveland, we got a free shirt and umbrella. It was great. Again, being savers, we didn’t buy any food in the stadiums but did drop our jaws at how expensive all the beer was. We already knew that coming in, but it was still impressive. More impressive was the thought of how many people buy beer after beer in the stadium. I have a feeling that even when I am all grown up and making more money, I still won’t want to be spending $30 on beer alone in the stadium. That is so much more beer at home!!!

After the game (Cleveland beat the Twins), we walked back to our hotel via a mile detour to see Lake Erie. The great lakes amaze me. Seeing the ocean a bit growing up, it is easy to forget, when seeing that amount of water, that it really is just a lake. It is even weider when you see gigantic barges on the lake. The next morning we woke up early and hit up the free breakfast. We had a 5 hour drive ahead of us to make an afternoon game in Cincinnati. I love my smart phone because of the “Navigation” on the GMaps. I didn’t have to look up all the directions beforehand!!! Whoop.

MILES TRAVELED DAY 1

Air: 740m

Land: 13m

On the plane & ready to go!

Matt not smiling even though he just ate an awesome lunch

Free G & T

We took a pic like this at every stadium

Us in our original seats

Lake Erie at dusk

Stay tuned...still

2011-06-15T18:16:00.001-05:00

We are leaving for Breckenridge tomorrow and am too lazy to upload photos. I will do that when we return in a couple of days. Then I will barrage you all with tales of glory, honor, and food.

We will start from the very beginning

2011-06-14T21:05:00.003-05:00

Matt and I are sort of on a 3 week long extended traveling honeymoon. I will tell our journey slowly to spare my fingers.

Matt's last day of work was the 2nd of June. On the 3rd we headed toward Morrison, CO to see Dispatch at Red Rocks. The show was on Sunday, but the people with whom we were riding & going to the concert had a wedding on Saturday in Kearney, NE. Matt and I pretty much walked all of Kearney as the two of them went to the rehearsal on Friday night. We then headed 1hr west to Cozad, NE to spend the night at Dave's (the guy of the couple) mom's house. While Dave & Tiffany went to the wedding on Saturday, Matt & I lived it up in Cozad. Walked the whole town. Population 3000. Pretty easy to walk. On Sunday morning we headed out to Colorado. We stopped in Sterling where we found showers in the gas station. Yes, showers. I get that truckers have to shower, but it is still a little weird. Do you just bring in your own shampoo? Or do you have to purchase some from them? Strange. We got into Denver early enough to have lunch with my little bro Bobbo. The weather was glorious, so the 4 of us (Matt, Dave, Tiffany, and I) went walking around downtown Denver. We found some sort of public festival thing. As much as I love a good public party, these types of things always seem to bring out the crazies. And maybe it is because you just notice them more, but the number of people not in wife beaters or lacking the face tattoos seem few and far between.

Eventually we made our way out to Red Rocks for the awesome concert. For those of you who have never been, here are some general pictures (not mine). In case you couldn't tell, it is a bit of a workout to get to the top even if you are slowly climbing. I mean come on, you are already a mile high and now you are climbing. In college my team did a workout or two here during fall conditioning. Due to my lame joints, I didn't get to (read "have to") join them. The concert was amazing. I love Dispatch. In less than 9 months I have now seen two of my favorite groups (Guster being the other one). Life is good.

After the concert we decided to head about an hour east of town to find a hotel for the 5 of us (Dave's brother joined us at the concert). We pull in to a small town (but large enough to have 4 or 5 mediocre hotels) at about 12:30 or so. My phone (the only smart phone in the car) was about to die, so we really weren't sure how much further we would have to ddrive to get to another hotel. We decide to go ahead and try one: no room. Another one: too sketch. A 3rd: closed. The 4th: $100 for one room for the night. Seriously!?!?!?! 6 hours and you are going to charge us that. Really!?!?!?! I know they have us in a vice grip there, but they aren't going to sell that room without us! Matt ran in to ask them about the price, comes back to the car pissed, and says "Give me my hat, I want to intimidate him. Rather, we send Tiffany in. As a girl and a great negotiator, she got it down to $80. We said yes. Bam. Sleeping. Hot room. Honeymoon. 5 people. Awesome. We got back to Omaha about 5pm with just enough time to shower, eat, and pack for the 2nd leg of our honeymoon.

Stay tuned for more.

Failed

2011-05-26T16:57:00.002-05:00

No, not life or medical school. I failed all 5 people who read this. Sigh. Getting back up the wagon.

Since I last wrote, I have had 2 title changes. First, I became a Mrs. on April 30th; then, on May 14th, I dropped that title and became a Dr!!!!! First thing first

The wedding went amazingly well. The week was not very stressful at all with special thanks to my oh so wonderful mother. She was amazing. It was great to have so much time to be home and get everything straight. I will skip to the good stuff. Thursday night was the bachelorette party, which, for a group of girls all seriously attached in their mid 20s involved drinking while painting pottery, cheap sushi, and a cool bar where we got to sit down and listen to the band. I love sitting down. Friday was a little crazier. The girls all had mani's and pedi's (with pizza and PBR of course) after which was the rehearsal and dinner (mmmmm BBQ). We met up with a few people for a couple of drinks after that. We went to Pacific Ave Pizza Co in Spokane. Matt and I had our first date there, so we thought it was fitting. They also have Iron Horse High Five Hefe on tap. Turns out it is only my immediate family that likes that as much as we do. Everyone else's loss. Saturday was great. I got to workout, which was great. My mom, sister, and I got our hair and make up done after that followed by going home for a quick lunch with the girls. They all looked great (pics coming later). Finally off the the chapel...pictures....awesomeness. It was a little chilly and overcast, but I hear that makes for great pictures. About 1 minute before we were about to start heading down the aisle, we notice the lights in the hall way go out then come back on. Weird. Bobbo (maybe?) then came in to say the power was out and they were all setting up candles. Surprise!! Candle light ceremony!!! Apparently a trampoline hit a transformer causing 10,000 customers to be without power. Awesome! No really, it was great. The chapel windows came alive with color; Matt & I looked extra attractive in the lighting. The other great part was that I couldn't see the emotions on anyone's face except Matt's. If I had been able to see my parents' faces or all my friends/family, I would have been crying like a baby. This way I only cried a little bit.

The ceremony seemed to fly by, and before we knew it, Matt & I were kissing. Whoop! Off we went. It was slightly raining, but we made it to the limo safely. We had to leave Matt's brothers behind because they had to carry their grandma down the stairs (power was still out). The reception went wonderfully. Food & cake was awesome; dancing was great; and we got to talk to all our friends and family. It was great. Bloomsday was the next day, and my mom & dad hosted a nice little brunch. Matt & I left back for Omaha on Monday then.

Graduation involved hoards of food...and the zoo. Turns out that they let me graduate, so....now I have a diploma! Woohoo! My family all left on Sunday the 15th, and I then flew to Spokane on the 19th for a friend's wedding. I was really very spoiled this past month. I got to see my parents 3 times in 4 weeks. Amazing. Not good for the waistline but great for the soul. That was cheesy.

It is just about 4 weeks now until orientation starts. Eeeeeek!!!!! I will update later. Adios

Look at me go!

2011-04-22T15:05:00.002-05:00

Yep. It's me. Posting again. That is twice in 1 month. Amazing. I know.

Yesterday marked my official last day of medical school!!! Tada! Who would have thought I would survive 4 years to make it here? I was reading some of those posts from M1 year. Man am I glad not to be back there. The idea of going to class from 8am to 3pm doesn't sound like fun to me.

I have started getting a lot of paperwork for intern year - all sorts of HR forms, coat sizing, parking, etc. It is all a little overwhelming, mostly because I am getting married...in 8 days!! Crazy. Pants. Things are going smoothly still. I look forward to yet dread doing the seating arrangements. Some people are passionately against assigning tables. Others love it. I fall into the latter. You say "open seating" to me, and my heart begins to race a little faster. I hate open seating simply because all I do until I get my seat is worry about where I am going to sit. Ergo...everyone will be assigned a table at our wedding.

I am also very excited to start baking again...and eating baked goods. I have been very good about not making cookies. I LOVE making cookies. I don't know what it is, but it brings me pure joy. Plus it is nice because Matt can take the extras to work. I haven't made cookies in over 2 months. That is a long time people. Come May 1st though, watch out. Cookies everywhere.

This weekend is Easter. For the first time Matt will be in Omaha for it, so we are having some peeps over. I am trying to think of what to make for 6 people, one of whom doesn't like ham and another of whom doesn't eat much other than red meat (and maybe a roll or two). We will see what I come up with. Alright. Off to be lazy!!!

My vow

2011-04-15T14:15:00.002-05:00

My vow to you (the internet basically as I am sure few people read this still) is that I update more often. Bam. Done

Turns out we are getting married in 15 days. Ahhhhh! I am not feeling too overwhelmed or anything...mostly because my mom has been a gigantic awesome amazing help with everything. I. Love. Her. Nuff said.

This month I am on Geriatric Psychiatry. I will be honest and say that I took it for the free food at Immanual Med Center and because the hours aren't bad. There is no real rounding and no weekends. What else could a 4th year med student ask for (other than no rotation, which some of my friends were able to pull off somehow). I watch a lot of electroconvulsion therapy (ECT). No, it isn't like it was in the 60s and 70s. All the patients are fully sedated and have a heavy muscle relaxant on board. We treat patients of all ages (haven't seen any adolescent though) with a variety of diagnoses from major depression to bipolar to schizoaffective. The theory is that while medication work pre-synaptically (on the neuron that releases the chemicals), ECT works post-synaptically (on the neuron receiving the signals). Most patients receiving it start with a course of about 6 given every other day. After that the treatments can be spread apart depending on the subjective feeling of the patient. It is great to be there for 4 weeks because I get to see people who actually significantly improve by the end of my time.

What else have I been doing? Not much. Matt and I went up to Spokane a few weekends ago to get our marriage license. Apparently Spokane County thinks it is okay that we get married. Yay! I also got to try my dress on again and do a hair & makeup trial. It is always weird seeing me in makeup, because my normal routine consists of mascara and blush...maybe. I also was lucky enough to have a loving aunt who threw me a bridal shower. I was flying on Southwest, so at least I could put some gifts in my checked bag and get them back to Omaha. It is tough knowing we will be moving in a year and what to do with gifts we have been receiving. They are all boxed so nicely right now, and I don't want to ruin that. Things like the coffee pot, however, will be unpacked. And used. A lot.

I made these last night. Added mushrooms and cheese. Baked them. Could have used some sauce in there, but the dough is really good and versatile. I have sooooo many yummy things I want to cook, but I do have to fit in a wedding dress. After that, all bets are off.

HERE WE GO!!!

2011-03-18T14:50:00.002-05:00

We are going to Virginia Mason!!! I will do my preliminary year of medicine here at Creighton, then off to the great northwest!!!! This was our #1 choice (exact combo and all). I just still can't believe that someone liked me!

The run-down

Last Monday, the 14th, we all received emails from the matching program saying whether or not we matched. Everyone gets the email at about noon eastern time. Read here for how the match works. I am currently on my rheumatology rotation. My classmate and I were super anxious all morning. I think we were making the patients all nervous. Both of us got good emails (she got her's 2 minutes before me, which made me go crazy). The rest of the day we both felt light as air. She is going into orthopedic surgery - usually a very hard thing to get into. You need a stellar resume for that. She obviously has it.

The next few days drag by for obvious reasons. We had a fake match party in which everyone had to try to react with their happy face even with a bottom pick. Needless to say my sleep suffered this past week.

Thursday morning rolls around bringing with it the perfect storm of drinking - St Patrick's Day, the Match, and NCAA basketball. The weather was great. Little overcast but in the low 60s. Matt and I start the day stopping at a bar his friend owns...at 745AM. I passed on the drink; Matt had one. We then hit up a greasy spoon dinner for breakfast. Hashed browns and an omlette. Awesome start. Then to the bar on school for an early morning happy hour. We were all up in the ballroom ready to get the show on the road at 1030AM.

Technically we can't start opening envelopes til noon easter, so we wasted time with some logistics etc. We are called up randomly on stage, in front of friends, family, and all the world wide web. (Here is the video recording, you can skip ahead a few minutes til after we pray, but don't go too far). Everyone brings a dollar so that the last person called up at least gets something for having to wait nervously. Until you open your envelope, you have no clue where you are going. No. Clue. I was assuming, knowing my luck, that I wouldn't be called til late in the hour making my family and friends wait online. Little to my surprise though....I get called up 2nd!!!! (that's why you don't want to go too far on the video). I am pretty sure this is the point at which I black out from nerves. Oh. My. Goodness. Sweaty palms.

Matt and I go onstage. Envelope now in hand. Nervous. Opening. Two things circled. Creighton preliminary. Virginia Mason anesthesia. AHHHHHHHHH. Give Matt a kiss. Shake some hands. Proceed to cry a little. Black out from excitement. I honestly don't remember what the next 20 or so of my classmates said up on stage. Too many texts and tears.

If you couldn't tell, we are excited. This gives us plenty of time to find Matt a job and a place to live up in Seattle. The idea of moving in June this year didn't seem fun. And now I can go back to planning the wedding. Which is going fine. Thanks for asking.

OMG

2011-03-16T17:46:00.000-05:00

OMG Match Day is tomorrow. OMG. I found out on Monday that I matched, now I just have to wait about 18 hours to find out where. You all will get a big update on Friday!!

I'm back!

2011-01-16T16:40:00.002-06:00

I feel that I say that every 2 months or so. Maybe this time it is for good? Maybe? Hopefully. The fall has FLOWN by. Between November and...well...now, I have been traveling at least once a week for interviews. I did a stretch of 13 days with 7 interviews. Ri. Dic. U. Lous. I have been to: SUNY Upstate, U of Rochester, UMass, UConn, Yale, Penn St, Maine Medical, U of MN, Mayo, Nebraska, Oregon, Virginia Mason, and U Chicago. Oh my goodness. I have seen a lot of places. A lot of airports. A lot of hotels...both the good and the bad. And the sketchy...

(side note, I started this post 2 weeks ago...then my computer broke on me. I finally will finish it)

I leave for my last interview on Thursday. Up to UW. Where mom and dad will join me so that we can have some family bonding time with addressing wedding invites. Woohoo?! Actually, all the wedding stuff is going great. My mom has been awesomely helpful. We have decided quite a few things, but I, being the indecisive person that I am, am always seconding guessing myself. Thank goodness Matt was there to do the tuxes with me. He just went: bam, bam, bam. And now I am going to go change it all ;) Okay, not all of it. Just some of it. He is also growing his beard out just to spite me.

Over Christmas we got a lot of wedding things done. And by done, I mean we did things without actually making decisions. Best part was the cake tasting. OMG I love cake. I just want to eat all the cake at my wedding. Still haven't actually decided on flavors. At all. But I love the flavors that I am thinking of. MMMMMMMMM cake.

Since updating last I have done the following rotations: CT surgery, pulmonary medicine at the VA, and prenatal diagnosis. Today I started my pain rotation. Pain is a sub-specialty that can be entered through anesthesia (as well as PM&R...and maybe something else). Hopefully I will get a better understanding of all those pain meds out there. Here's to hoping. 4th year does an awful thing to your motivation.

I swear I will update again. Woohoo!

oops

2010-10-14T07:42:00.004-05:00

double post

GUSTER!!!

2010-10-14T07:42:00.002-05:00

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

2010-10-04T20:56:00.002-05:00

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!

2010-08-27T12:57:00.002-05:00

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

2010-08-04T16:33:00.001-05:00

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

2010-07-18T09:04:00.002-05:00

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

2010-06-25T12:37:00.002-05:00

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

2010-06-20T22:52:00.002-05:00

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

2010-06-12T12:46:00.003-05:00

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

2010-06-02T22:56:00.002-05:00

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

2010-05-27T22:52:00.003-05:00

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

2010-05-13T22:23:00.002-05:00

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

2010-04-26T20:50:00.003-05:00

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

2010-04-12T20:32:00.002-05:00

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!!!

2010-04-04T16:18:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-30T22:30:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-28T16:02:00.003-05:00

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

2010-03-21T18:52:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-14T22:37:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-09T20:49:00.002-06:00

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

2010-03-01T21:30:00.002-06:00

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

2010-02-15T21:30:00.003-06:00

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!

2010-02-07T15:40:00.002-06:00

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

2010-01-29T23:31:00.002-06:00

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

2010-01-22T11:41:00.002-06:00

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!

2010-01-10T16:25:00.002-06:00

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!

Last of the year!

2009-12-31T16:03:00.002-06:00

Tada! Last post of the decade! Cool. I am now typing on my new computer. Awesome pants. It has a camera built in, but don't worry...I don't like the sound of my own voice. I highly doubt I will be posting videos here. In sad news though, my old computer is a butt head. Looks like I may have lost it all. Bub's Andrew is going to try to get stuff off for me over in London, but it doesn't look good. Sigh. That computer lasted me so long.

Congrats to my cousin Stephen and his wife Jen on the birth of Lucy Colleen! Dec 27th! baby! Fun fun.

Tonight for new years we are of course watching Gonzaga play. Then home with the parents and Bub for some champagne. It will be chill but good. I return to the land of satan on Sunday. Creighton isn't satan. Omaha is. Icky

What else have I done? Um...Grandpa's mass was good on the 23rd. Sad w/o Grandma though :( On the 24th we changed things up and had prime rib after mass. It. Was. So. Good. Christmas day was wonderful. Warm and yummy and full of love. Matt surprised me and came to Spokane on Monday. We hung out with the KTO (I really like that kid). He left yesterday via the big grey dog. I feel bad for him. He says the people on there smell and are crazy. Crazy. I had enough of them these past 2 months. I am excited to start surgery! Gotta keep up that attitude, or it could be a long 8 weeks. I'm all about the attitude. Let's do it!

Christmas Time!

2009-12-22T10:03:00.003-06:00

I swear I wasn't ignoring all of you. My computer pooped out on me, so I was sharing Matt's with him. Turns out we aren't great at sharing. Plus I had to study. So...psych. While it was interesting and entertaining at time, it is not a field that I will be pursuing. While I strongly feel that the mind is so incredibly amazing and does some really cool stuff, I just can't work in a field where your odds on curing someone are so incredibly slim. To just change doses of medicines to see what off the wall thing the patient will say tomorrow doesn't sound like a fulfilling life to me. I am not knocking those in the field. Because those that I met were AWESOME at what they did. So much patience. Great ability to earn trust quickly. Infinitely broad knowledge of all those drugs that sound exactly alike. Good for them! We need them too!

As for the shelf, it went. I am never sure how I feel after these things. They say psych is hard to fail, hard to honor. For Creighton, to honor the shelf you need above the 85%-ile nationally. To fail, below the 5%-ile. Most shelves have those cut-offs. I think with psych though people vary so much in how they do that the percentiles are all over the place. Who knows.

I am now home! In spokane! No snow this year! Thank goodness. Omaha got dumped on 2 weeks ago (Matt got 3 snow days, I got 1). Spokane has a few small piles in places, but it has mostly been warm (40s) and rainy. Trust me, I will take this over 5 ft of snow any day.

The adventure of my flight home: I was to fly into Spokane on Saturday night, something I booked because I wanted more alone time with my parents. The rest of the siblings were to drive from Seattle on Sunday evening. Well, my flight out of Omaha was delayed to the point where I had to look like an idiot and run to my next flight. I barely made it. But I did! I was so proud of myself. We got the announcement that we were to land in 35 minutes through some fog. About 40 minutes later, I am wondering what is going on, because we didn't really seem to descend that much. Then bam, "due to fog, we are going to Portland." BLOW!!!! We land, they keep us on the plane for about 30minutes to figure out the plan. We get off. Another plane arrives that we may be able to use. Alas, all worker flight peoples would be over their hours!!!!!!!!! Ughs. Bring on the chartered buses! We left PDX at about 130am and got into GEG at about 730am. OMG. That took me back to my Regis basketball days. Needless to say, it was annoying. Unlike a majority of the people on the flight, I didn't get all up in arms. Yes, I was annoyed. But I knew there was nothing any of us could accomplish by getting mad. People standing in line all angry...you really don't think they thought about rebooking people in the morning? Or getting another flight crew? I don't like getting mad. It wasn't their fault. We legally couldn't land in Spokane in the situation. People were also taking it out on the bus drive. Again, not his fault. He probably was woken up from a nice little sleep he was having to come pick up our cranky butts. Nuff said. Okay, shopping to do. I update more. I swear!

Sigh

2009-12-05T23:47:00.002-06:00

For those of you who read this and are related to me/know me...you know why I haven't updated.

I just finished my 6th week of Psych (out of 8). My first month was at the Residential Treatment Center for kids. Ages 6-18. I had great hours and got all the free diet Pepsi I could drink. None of these kids were out of control, and it gave me a lot of practical experience in interviewing. Still though, I should have accomplished more during those 4 weeks.

I am currently now on adult inpatient psych at Immanuel hospital. It is...interesting, exciting (at times), and....wow. Some times I just want to shake these people. The delusions, the psychotic, the violent, the suicidal. I definetly thank God everyday for a normal, working mind. The brain really is crazy in what it can and can't do. A delusion is a fixed, false belief in spite of evidence to the contrary. For anyone who has seen "Lars and the real girl," that is a perfect example. We had a patient who believed commercials were sending him messages. Problem is...his mom was feeding into his delusion. His wife was resisting but not in the best of ways. Needless to say he changed inpatient doctors. Wow. A patient also broke the glass around the nurses' station. Yeah psych!

Matt and I moved our TV over, which means we now have a full wall on which we can put seating. We are trying to find a chair to put over there. Problem is, neither of us likes to spend money. It isn't that we live paycheck to paycheck, but we just don't like to spend money. We are weird.

It feels good to update again, but I am still having a hard time. I struggle with sadness every day. I know I just have to take it one day at a time, but it still is hard. I ask that you all keep praying for my family. That we feel the loving embrace of God through every part of our day. That one day we all may be there dancing with Grandpa.

Peace

Sorry I'm not sorry

2009-10-29T14:25:00.002-05:00

No updates for a while. I know. My grandma got sick, so I just haven't really been in the mood to update. Finished Peds. Started Psych. I will update more some other time. I took my Shelf early and then flew home Friday to see Grandma. Let's just keep praying for her and our family. Peace out

#200

2009-10-08T10:05:00.002-05:00

I think this is my 200th post. Go me!

I am newly obsessed with mousse. No, not the stuff you put in your hair. Not the animal moose. The yummy yummy dessert. On Saturday Matt and I had his coworker and his fiance over for dinner. She has Celiacs, so I was trying to come up with something gluten free for dessert that wasn't too boring. Now, I know they can do some ice creams, but the one I know for sure (Tillamook Vanilla Bean) isn't available down here. Instead I decided to do a chocolate mousse that my cousin Jeff, the chef, suggested. I was nervous because I had never made a mousse. For some reason I thought it would be really hard like a souffle or something. Wrong. Pretty dang easily (with Jeff's directions at least). The chocolate mousse called for dark rum, but I looked it up and some Celiacs can't have it. Good thing I omitted it because she did confirm that she can't handle it. That would have been embarrassing. What else did I make you ask? Miso marinated fish (I need to find a better type of fish, and mirin, then it will be good), wasabi mashed potatoes (my new favorite), and DeDe's salad. mmmmmmm. It was great. My next food to tackle is....more mousse! I want to try peanut butter (with out it just being frosting) and pumpkin! Maybe this weekend.

As I have learned with cooking bacon, there are just some smells that like to linger. Bacon being one of them. Fish, alas, is one as well. Icky. It has kind of smelled fishy since Saturday even with lots of candles going. Ick. I would take the smell of bacon any day. ANY DAY!

Fall has hit Omaha. For about 2 weeks now we have had some pretty comfortable if not chilly temps. We went from the mid 70s (comfy) to the 50s (chilly). Problem is.....we may get frickin' snow this weekend!!!!!!!! I am not ready for that. It was 73 yesterday. Snow possible on Sat and Sun with highs in the mid 30s. Hello January! We skipped about 3 months there. A lot of people ask how fall is here. I think many judge a place on its fall. Or at least they pretend to. Lots of pretty colors? Nice temps? Well, Omaha sort of misses out on the colors of fall. Sad. And I think I figured out why. In Denver they sort of missed it because of the SUPER crazy weather. Here we miss it because it is so darn windy! The second a leaf dies just a little bit, it gets blown off the tree! Goodbye pretty colors!

Okay, time to go...do something.

Oh glorious outpatient

2009-09-29T20:23:00.002-05:00

Hello to sleeping in and staying up to normal times! I just recently started (on Monday) outpatient pediatrics. We work 2 weeks in a community clinic, one week in the newborn nursery at Creighton, and one week in the Creighton peds clinic. I am on my 2 weeks in the community. And it is great. Not because I am enjoying the profession (not to say that I am not though either) but because of the hours. Her earliest patient is 10am. She had no scheduled morning patients today, so she just told me to come from 2 to 4pm. Woohoo. I spent the rest of the day being pretty productive though, which is good. I was really looking forward to outpatient as to get more studying done. And I am. Yay!

Matt and I went to a coworkers wedding on Friday. I know, Friday wedding...weird. I am assuming it is because they didn't want to miss the Husker's game. These people are insane. It was fun though. Really good food. The DJ kind of...stunk. The dance floor was totally not hoppin. I got to wear my little black dress, which is always fun.

I am really trying to think of other things I have done. And I can't think of anything. We went to a local sports bar for Sunday night football. The place was dead but pretty cool on the inside. Tons of TVs. Might be cool for March Madness. You know, I really do think of good things to say on here during the day. Good, deep, life changing comments, but by the time I get around to typing I have totally forgotten. Ughs. I am going to be way fun when I get old.

Slacker

2009-09-22T20:44:00.002-05:00

Peds has kept me pretty busy. A bad excuse. But an excuse none the less. I finished up my calls last Thursday. Yay! Only 2 more inpatient days. Yay! It isn't that I haven't enjoyed it (it hasn't been that bad for me); it is just that I like things moving forward. I like feeling accomplished. We had Dimensions in Clinical Medicine on Friday. Lame. Matt and I are also going to a co-workers wedding that evening. It should be good times.

What have I been up to? Good question. Reading. Sleeping. Eating. Little working out. Repeat. This past weekend I went to go get my oil changed at which point they showed me my tire that was about to blow. Oops. So glad it didn't do that to us in Minneapolis. So then I had to go buy 2 new rear tires. It now smells like new tires in my garage. Ick. They also had to fix my alignment. Gosh darn car.

Other news? I am heading to Seattle after the Peds Shelf! Granted, all who read this probably know that. Still. Bub happened to be coming to the states, and with everyone else living close we thought, "might as well." I am excited.

I saw dog costumes at Target tonight. I miss my Guster. I wish we got trick or treaters here in the apartment. Sigh. Holidays aren't as fun when you are a young adult.

The weather finally cooled off (for 2 days at least). It has been in the 80s over the weekend, which is too hot in my opinion for September. And our pool is closed.

Anything else? Nope. Other than a resolution to update more often. I'll remember more that way.

Pediatrics

2009-09-12T09:53:00.002-05:00

Again it has been a while. Lots to update

Peds: way different. My first week was in the NICU at Bergan. Free food. Sweet hours. No work. Awesome. This week I went to Children's. Wow. Way different. Get there at 6am. Go home at 430 on a "normal" day. I only had 2 normal days out of 4 this week. I was on long call on Wednesday which meant I was there until noon the next day. Yes. Noon. 30 hour shift - awesome! With only 2 hours of sleep. Awesome. Wooooooo. Basically what we as students do is see patients in the morning, write a note about them, and then present them to the hospitalist/whole team in the morning as we walk from room to room. The thing is, these kids are actually sick. Pregnant ladies pretty much are all 'well.' The plan you come up with for them (something we have to do) is pretty standard. Get the baby out. Sick kids though...you have to think about drugs, doses, fluids, food, etc etc etc. Ugh. And then you have people commenting on what you should do. I lucked out this week and had a good hospitalist. Next week could be a different story. I also am on the 6th floor with older kids and kids w/ cancer. Yes, that is sad but not as complicated as heart patient kids. Nuff said

Labor day weekend Matt and I went up to Minneapolis. It was tons of fun! You know, I thought it was going to be a bigger Omaha. Totally wasn't. Had a nice downtown area with places to eat and shop. Had the Mississippi river, which we floated along in a paddle boat. Basically we did all the touristy things, which I personally think is a good thing the first time you go somewhere. We didn't do any museums, but we saw tons of stuff. When driving through the U of M campus, we saw a girl with a license plate from Spokane!!!!! Small world. My car passed 100,000 miles on the way up. I am so proud of him. It really tugged at my heart a little. I have no clue how many miles were on it when we got it, but still. He has made it so far. We may go back up there someday, but we may fly next time. Our next long weekend trip may be Des Moines. We stopped there for a bit, and it was actually kind of okay. Yay for exploring!

Last but not least, I forgot to celebrate my 10 year anniversary on here!!! Of what? My ACL surgery. I had it right before starting freshman year of high school in 99. And now here we are. All put back together again. Yay for strong knee!!!!! Granted it still tightens up on my and moves a little and I can't run really, but still. Okay. On long call again tomorrow. Blow. Only one weekend day this week. Blow.

And that was OB/GYN

2009-08-29T11:33:00.003-05:00

I am done with OBGYN (well...pending Shelf results, but I am pretty sure I passed), so I thought it would be time to summarize a little bit - both with some fun facts and my own experience

FUN FACTS
-Fraternal twins (rather than identical twins) run in families. Including mine. For some reason I always thought it would be identical twins
-The incidence of identical twins is about 1 in 230 across most races and countries
-Episiotomies aren't really standard anymore...sorry for all those ladies out there who had to have them for no reason
-C section scars are really only about 10cm long and pretty hidden from public eyes
-Term breeches occur in 3% of pregnancies and are now delivered only by c section for the most part - again, sorry for the women/babies who came into the world butt first (Mom)
-Baby's heart beat should be between 120-160
-When pregnant women exercise they should aim for a heart beat of around 140

My experience
I saw a total of 18 births - 8 c sections and 10 "regular." Of the latter, I got to "deliver" (hands on the baby as he/she came out) in 8 of them. Sadly, no one named a baby after me. That is okay though since most of them were boys. When choosing to do this rotation first, I was mostly thinking about going to weddings and which rotation would be easiest to get a little time off. Secondarily I thought about getting this one over with early because I "knew" it was something gross that I didn't really want to do. Now, I am not saying I want to go into this field, but these 8 weeks really opened my eyes. I thought all of it would gross me out, and while birthing a child is pretty gross looking, it was still a lot of fun. What I actually think I enjoyed about it (rather than hanging out with female parts all the time) was the "hands on" aspect. I liked being in the OR, I liked using my hands. This is something you often think about when looking at what to do with your life. Do you like doing procedures? Do you like thinking more? Do you like long term relationships with your patients? Are you the type of person that wants fast results? As I have learned through this rotation, I am definitely a person that likes to work with my hands and do procedures. That isn't to say that I don't like "thinking," it is just that I like to "do" in addition to talking about doing.

From talking to my friends, I am a little sad that I "wasted" this rotation early. I am not saying that because of the free time this rotation allows but because it is such a strong, good, friendly, exciting rotation. It is very well organized, and the majority of the residents and attendings want to teach you and want you to get your hands in there. They don't pimp you too much, and they all really knew how to teach the keys points. I think I am going to miss this rotation when looking back. Again, not because it is something I necessarily want to do but because of how much I got to do and how much faith and trust the residents had in us.

Whelp, that's it. I start Peds on Monday at Children's hospital (the harder of the 2 months). I think I will be working with 5years and up there. I kind of like that idea a little more than the younger kids simply because they can talk to me when they are this old. Okay, off to be lazy around Omaha.

1 week left

2009-08-20T17:51:00.002-05:00

Well, really 4 days of this rotation. Scary. We take the shelf next Friday. This really has flown by. I've had at least 2 more calls since I last wrote. One was a Thursday night. 5 deliveries. All of course just far enough apart to keep me from sleeping. That made for a rough Friday. I was also on call this past Monday. 9 BABIES!!!!!!!!! Just during my shift. Actually, it was 10. I only helped with 7 though. This meant, however, that I had to see that many patients the next day. My classmates helped me out though, so I only had to see 5. I am on call Saturday night again. Part of me wants it busy, but part of me wants to be able to sleep. We will see how I feel come Saturday afternoon.

2 big things I missed:
Happy 97th to Grandma K. on the 13th!
Happy bday Dad on the 19th!

Fun things I have done that I don't know if I have written about
-Friday night live music at Soaring Wings Vineyard...the only one in Nebraska. The wine really wasn't that great (and a little overpriced), but it was beautiful out in the country and tons of fun just to hang with friends (something I didn't get to do much last year)
-Saturday night Vibes out at Village Point (outdoor shopping place). It is always nice to see some "normalcy" in Omaha
-Tuesday night trivia at JC's Old Chicago. $2 pints, $2 personal pizzas, and trivia. It was great
-Me eating something pizza-esque 6 days in a row a week ago. That was probably the highlight of my life right there. The rest is all down from here.

And on to really important business. When do you go ahead and take that leap of faith and make a change? It is such a big risk that affects so many people. Yes, you know what I am talking about. Deodorant. I contemplated switching brands lately. But then I thought: if this really doesn't end up working out, everyone around me is going to know. And worst of all, I would have to spend another $4 and go back to my old brand. Needless to say, I didn't make that switch. I can buy 2 hotdogs and a churro at Costco for the $4. No need to waste it on hygiene.

August

2009-08-06T18:28:00.002-05:00

Before I start on August I guess I should finish up July. Guess what I did....delivered a baby. Actually caught that thing coming out of the mom. Wasn't just in the corner. Wasn't just watching. I caught it. Told you all I was a good 1st baseman. No, they didn't name it after me. It was a boy. That same day I also got to help out with a c-section.

Now that August has started I have moved over to Bergan Mercy - another Catholic hospital in town. While I would say less "teaching" is done here (fewer Creighton faculty visit here), there is more doing. They get quite a few more deliveries a month, so I am hoping my call will be good. Then again, it will be Sunday day call. I am predicting it will be slow. Sigh.

What else have I done? Not much. A few fun happy hours. Some Jenga. You know, the usual. Matt and I did go to Denver last weekend for my college friend Melissa's wedding. We brought them awesome weather it turns out. The wedding was in a Catholic church, but it wasn't a "full" mass (no Eucharist). Plus, a lot of these people didn't know the responses to a lot of the things. Reception was fun. Erica (college roommate) and her parents were at our table, which made the evening a ton of fun. Whelp...going to go watch the So You Think You Can Dance finale.

C section

2009-07-24T10:43:00.002-05:00

(warning, slightly descriptive) I was on call for the first time on Wednesday. We were pretty slow the whole time. The only patient that was close that I was allowed to see had stalled out at 9cm for over 3 hours. As soon as night float came on, they decided to do a c-section. I got off at 7, but thankfully we started at about 550 meaning I got to see it. As the med student you pretty much hold back the bladder. And cut the sutures. I did it pretty well if I do say so myself. While this type of surgery is very bloody it was pretty cool. As they cut, I kept thinking, "Is that the uterus yet? Is that it yet? How bout now?" Then we hit it. Ew. Nothing made me squeamish except the amniotic fluid running over my hands. Weird weird weird feeling. Turns out that getting the baby out only took about 20 minutes. Closing took another 40. I've been following up with this patient, and they are both doing well.

I am almost getting used to my new sleep schedule. Getting up at 445am is pretty tough, but I am getting better. Last Friday when I headed up to my cousin's wedding I had to get up at 230am. That was rough. My flight was at 5am plus I had to shuttle park. Ugh. Early. I almost stayed up 24hrs that day though. The wedding was great fun. We stayed in a hotel with an attached casino. It made for great night entertainment but smokey clothes. Ick. The weather was absolutely perfect up there though. The main problem with going to Washington though is that I get somewhat very very sad coming back here. Sigh. Okay. We had a short day today. Off to enjoy stuffs

House, M3

2009-07-16T13:55:00.002-05:00

I am finally, officially, an M3. You really aren't considered an M3 until you pass boards. Not just take but pass. Which means........I passed boards!!!! We got our scores back yesterday. After waiting for 6 weeks, I was starting to get more pessimistic about my performance. My original goal was 230 (average is 221, no one really knows the max, 185 is passing). As release day drew closer, I started thinking, "Oh, I'd be happy with 220." The next day "Oh, I'd be happy with 210." In my mind I kept picturing low scores. As I opened the PDF on my PDA yesterday at the hospital, the night I received my MCAT scores came rushing back to me. I felt I did okay on that, but my score didn't reflect it. I cried some that night. I panicked some. So I had full right to be anxious when opening this email. At first I planned to just wait til I got home because I didn't want it to ruin the rest of my day at work. I gave in though. My hands were shaking like no other. At first my mind read "fail," but that is because the small screen blurred it. Then as I zoomed, I thought it said 208. My heart sank a little. Then I kept zooming. Wait what? I scored higher than my original goal?!? Wait?!?!?! AHHHHHHHHHH! Happy day! I had a few joyful tears as I called my parents. Oh my goodness does it feel good to have that score done with. Other than maybe plastics, which I didn't want to do anyway, I haven't closed off any specialty due to the score. Woohoo!!!!

On Monday and Tuesday I became ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) certified. Basically I can "run" a code, shocker things and all. As it turns out, few places actually use paddles anymore. Sad. That is the only reason I became a doctor. They use the pads that you find in AEDs instead. Boring.

I watched 2 surgeries today: bilateral laproscopic tubal ligation and excision of some squamous cell dysplasia of the outer girly parts. I really have enjoyed the gyn surgery part of this rotation. Alas, on Monday I go to OB. Babies are cool. I have tomorrow off to travel to Bellingham!!!! Family wedding!!! Excited. I am in a very celebritory and non-workouty mood.

Scrubbin in!

2009-07-09T22:02:00.003-05:00

I got to actually scrub in today and do stuff! It was great. Yesterday on gyn beeper I was more bored than I have been in a long time. Today, however, I scrubbed in on a total laproscopic hysterectomy (didn't end up total or fully laproscopic, but that is what it started as). It was me, 2 residents, and then a faculty gyn doc. It was great! Even with 4 of us in there (in addition to all the nurses and techs) I still got to do a few things. I will spare you the details (a little on the gross, girl-part side of things), but I am pretty sure I answered all the questions asked of me correctly. Well, most of them at least. Once my surgery was over (about 1130), I got to leave! Nice and short day for me. Then again, I did have to get up at 445. This will be a rough 2 months, but I think I'll survive. I have 2 surgeries tomorrow and clinic in the morning. I have no clue what exactly how clinic works. I think it is pretty much just regular well-woman checks, etc. Thing is I may be on the OB side of things tomorrow, but we will see. You know, I can do procedures and talk to patients, but when it comes to writing notes, I am pretty weak. I guess I know what I need to fix!

I am off this weekend and partly tempted to sleep in, but I know that will mess me up. I have ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) training on Monday and Tuesday, regular stuff on Wednesday, gyn beeper on Thursday (while being the only M3 on the floor), and gone on Friday!! Excited for the family wedding!

OB/GYN orientation

2009-07-07T16:14:00.002-05:00

Talk about some of the most confusing hours of my life!! Yesterday I spent about 4 hours listening to how things work at CUMC (Creighton U Med Center) yet left feeling dumber than I did before. All these different schedules and responsibilities. Show up...pre-round...round...clinic...call...beeper. Ahhh! Bergan Mercy orientation today was a little simpler because they just throw OB and GYN together. CUMC does them separately. I got my ideal order (just by accident): CUMC Gyn then OB for the 1st month, Bergan for the 2nd. Bergan is busier, so I can get my feet a little "wet" (really, I didn't mean to make that pun) before heading there. I also get free food at Bergan. Yay! OB at CUMC and all of Bergan has 12 hour call shifts that you rotate through with your classmates. CUMC gyn (what I am doing right now) has "Gyn Beeper," which I am on tomorrow. Now, I really have no clue what this means. I know it means I don't get to go into previously schedule gyn surgeries. I know it means I can't leave until 430pm. Basically I carry it around in case there is a "Gyn-mergency" anywhere in the hospital (as in the ER or something). It rarely rarely rarely ever goes off, so I am not too worried. It also means though that I get to "assign" the gyn surgeries for the next day to my fellow CUMC gyn students. My first call on CUMC OB isn't til the 22nd. Of course it has to be the day Matt comes back. I am on day call though (7am to 7pm), which sucks a little bit because I don't get the next day off. In fact, I think all my night calls are on the weekends meaning I never get any week days off (you don't need to round on the weekends unless on call). Think you are confused? Well I am right there with ya. I am basically going to go until I get scolded and then change some things.

My 4th was pretty relaxed. Went over to a friends place and watched people around the neighborhood set off fireworks, something I never really experienced much growing up. It sounded what I imagine a war zone sounds like. Just without the fear.

The biggest development in my life: I have become slightly addicted to iced chai tea lattes. So much so that I have taken to making large, delicious batches and cooling them overnight so I can drink it the next day. This may or may not be a bad thing.

I will really try this year to keep y'all updated with the things I am doing. Some of it may be cool. Some of it may be lame. But you'll read it anyway.

PS: my 1st day of school photo from this year. Sorry it is a little foggy...weird

Hiatus

2009-07-02T22:36:00.002-05:00

I think I have used that subject before. Sorry. I was enjoying my "summer" too much and being too lazy to write. Plus, not that much happened. A week at home. A few days in Olympia. Hiked around Rainier national park. Week at Camano (I swear pics will be up soon). Back home for a rockin Hoopfest. Back to Omaha. Lame M3 orientation. Speaking of which, I should change my profile on here. Some highlights

Home: I love my parents, my dog, and I guess my little brother. It sucks that none of my friends live there any more

Olympia/Seattle: Matt's parents' new kitchen is awesome, rode a lot of buses

Da Beach: 16lbs of bacon and a flat of fresh strawberries every day...need I say more?

Hoopfest: with Corrina only on our team, we managed to capture 2nd place!! Yay for new t-shirts. Mind you, this was only with 3 players since our 4th broke her nose in 4 places...during the first game. Ouch. We love you Mary

I am not back in Omaha highly unmotivated about life. I am both intensily excited and scared about what will come this year. So much more responsibility. So much less hand holding. I don't need to be spoon-fed, but I do need to know what is expected of me. Also, I need to eat pretty often, which may pose an issue this next year. I guess I need to train myself now to not eat as often. I start with ObGyn on Monday and am pumped. Even if this isn't my #1 area of choice, I am excited and (almost) confident in my abilities. I am very thankful for the clinic I had this past year because it really gave me a GREAT chance to get my feet wet. Gave shots, drew blood, assisted in pelvics, and did almost all the interviews, which is more than many got to do. Yay!

We have tomorrow and the weekend off. I hope everyone has a great 4th. I'll be back Monday (hopefully) with an update on the first day.

PS: the one advantage of living in Nebraska --> 10 ears of corn for a $1...even before July 4th

I'M BACK! AND I'M DONE!

2009-06-08T10:35:00.003-05:00

Whoop! Done! First part of this will be my life...second part will be the test. I don't want to bore everyone with test info.

Life has been sweet. Now, in comparison to most people's lives, it may not be that awesome, but when looking back on the last....5 months....it has been pretty satisfying. I get up when I want. I don't have to open a book. I get to watch TV and movies. Awesome. After the test on Thursday I went home. Matt had bought champagne, so we drank some of that and went on a walk. We then mett Meghan and Kevin at Kona for their awesome happy hour. Between Matt and myself we got 2 sushi rolls, 5 margaritas, and a pizza for $20 plus tip. Awesome. We then went back to our place where I continued to forget. It was fun. Relaxed, but fun. Meghan and Kevin kept falling asleep, so they left right as JC showed up. Our tiredness kept him from staying long.

Had to pack Friday morning. In my "recovery" mode, I forgot a swimsuit. Hope mom will buy me a new one :D. Matt and I were on the same flight to Minneapolis where we learned that Northwest charges $50 for standby. Really? Really people? Why does it cost money to do that? I understand that you are trying to get every last drop of money out of us, but charging for standby? Ridiculous. If I ever own an airline, I am not charging for that. They did give you a whole can of soda though, which is nice. We were on different flights to Seattle...only 40 minutes apart. Again...really? Matt got in only 10 minutes after me because we sat around for a while in Minneapolis. Good thing we didn't pay that $50. I then flew Alaska to Spokane. I forget how annoying it is to make 2 layovers.

Once in Spo, we went to Denny's. I got the "Grand Slam burrito." Turns out there is a pancake in it!!!!! While it may have taken 4 years off my life, it was worth it. Nothing much else has happened. Bo and I are going to do "On Demand" Yoga today. It sucks not having a gym.

THE TEST

Studied unitl 11am on Wednesday and then took the rest of the day as mental health. Did errands. Went to a baseball game. It was fun. Didn't have too hard of a time falling asleep.

Up at 6, shower, bfast, got to the test center early. As per usual. Checked in. Down for the test. In case I haven't told you: 7 sections of 48 questions. Newly added last year were A/V questions - basically murmurs. Newlly added in FRED v2 this year were sequential questions. My friends who took it on Tuesday have v1...I took it on Thurs and had v2. Weird. I only had 1 sequential question, which wasn't hard at all. In fact, I would say they are easier because they basically just "make you show your work" on how you made the 2nd or 3rd jump in thinking.

Blocks 1 and 2 were a little rough. Don't know if it was test jitters or actually they were harder, but they sort of took the wind out of my sails. I had 2 of the exact same question! Not just similar. EXACT same. On different blocks. Problem is....I didn't know it the first time. On these tests they do through in "experimental" questions that aren't actually scored, so here is to hoping that was one. Break after the first 2. Soda and nut time

Block 3 started pretty well, but I got mentally frustrated at the end and had to take an unplanned break before block 4. I think that one was fine. It is all a blur now. Lunch after 4. Then 5 and 6...break...7. All in all I would say I had 2-3 questions I had NO CLUE about per block. Another 7-10 that I had to make quite a few mental jumps that I was unsure about. The rest went fine? I was most nervous about stamina for this. I had only ever done 4 blocks in a day. 7 is a whole new ball game. We won't get our scores until mid July. Now to play the waiting game. I am pretty sure I passed. The actual score...we will see. Off to sit around on my butt!

1 week

2009-05-28T22:12:00.000-05:00

1 week

You can start praying for me...now

No update until then

Adios

3 weeks

2009-05-13T22:08:00.002-05:00

Wow, I am an awful person. I feel as if a lot has happened? Did I talk about taking the Basic Science Shelf? Well I did. Got a 77? Don't know if that is a percent or what, but it correlates w/ a 217.5 on Step 1. National average on the actual Step 1 (not practice 5 weeks beforehand) is 221. HOPEFULLY I will just keep going up. I am going to take another practice test tomorrow. Whoop. We also took the Pathology shelf. Got a 540? Again, who knows what that actually means. Using the scale for a different test (basically I am just searching for something to hold onto here), that is about a 228. Those tests were a week apart. 10 points in a week. I'll take it.

Why do I talk about studying so much? Because all I do is study right now. My last "break" from studying until the test was going to Denver. It was tons of fun. I put on weight. Imagine that. My family, eat a lot? Weird. Back now though...have been for a while. Sigh

Last Saturday was Matt's prom. He was in charge, so I got to go help set up and then actually go to the dance. I was actually quite helpful w/ ideas when setting up. It wasn't too bad. The dance part was...interesting. Nothing too bad happened. We found one girl almost passed out. Claimed she had "too many energy drinks." Uh...........I don't know if I believed that. I was hoping to hear some music I hadn't heard before. False. I swear they played some of those songs at my senior prom. They did play that sond "Sandstorm" or whatever. Oh. My. Goodness. I thought the floor was going to collapse. I could see the headlines, "Jumping teens injure beautiful med student...and her boyfriend :D" Really though, I was looking for something to hold onto just in case the floor gave way. I mean....1000 students jumping up and down. Scary. I got to wear a dress though. Yay! They played a fast song for the last song. How lame is that? Matt said he would have danced with me to the last slow one, but he didn't want all the students starring. They would have. That's okay though, we had a good time. Okay, off to bed?

Sad day

2009-05-01T13:06:00.002-05:00

Sigh. Sad. We have gotten rid of Netflix. Sigh. So...not a lot of movie reviews in the near future. Not like I was good at keeping up with them but still. Instead, for that same $14 a month we got mlb.com as for to watch the Mariners. We bought some cords and hook Matt's computer up to the TV. The image is great, and the signal is sometimes even before they get it back home. Woohoo. It was a tough decision, but I knew that on any given night, Matt would choose watching the M's over watching a movie. Plus, it is easier to study when the the M's are on than when a movie is. One day we may get Netflix again, but my nights shall be full of books for now.

Speaking of studying.......blah. We took our last final on Monday. It was kind of lame. I did just fine though. We took the "Comprehensive Basic Science Shelf Exam" today on the computer. These are retired (??) Step 1 questions; 4 blocks of 50. 4 hours total to take it. I took about 3h and 20min. The real deal is 7 sections of 48 each. It used to be 50, but they have added new audio questions. On the real thing we can also take breaks when we want to. On this one you had to be escorted out of the room, only one person at a time. Oh man to I get antsy sitting for that long. On my first 3 sections I had about 10min left in each block; on the last one...25. Talk about wanting to leave. I need to not do that though because that will only really hurt me.

You may be wondering, "Becky, what do you need to know for this test? What type of questions do they ask?" Well, to answer your questions: I need to know everything about the human body that I have (tried) to learn over the past 2 years. There is a bigger emphasis on the clinical type of things (such as was covered M2 year) and less on the "basics." I still need to know the basics (biochem, immuno), but they are often times tested in more of a clinical setting. As for questions...they are usually 2 or 3 "step" questions. What does that mean? I'll explains. So, they'll often give you a clinical setting - person came in w/ this and that and history of blah
1 step: what do they have?
2 step: what drug/treatment would you do?
3 step: what are the side effects/what should you warn against with the medication?
You have to make all those jumps in your head. From time to time there will be just a simple 1 step question, but then you panic b/c you are pretty sure it isn't supposed to be that easy...and then you start overthinking everything....ahhhhhh. Or at least that is what I do. I won't get the results from the CBSE for a few days, which is weird. It has been so nice at Creighton having my test results in my inbox the moment I step out of the computer lab. Alas, the wait for my actual step 1 score will be even longer because of some sort of new system or other. Blah.

Of to Denver this afternoon for Bo's graduation!!! Yay! Matt went to Seattle, so you don't have to feel bad for him! I took him to the airport at 445 this morning, so feel bad for me instead!

I miss lilacs

2009-04-23T11:49:00.002-05:00

The biggest thing I miss from home in the spring time and early summer is the smell of lilacs. It really just takes me back to being young. Anytime I catch a small smell of them, I just melt. Sigh. Alas, I am in Omaha, who seems to have made a rapid transition to summer. I took a 2 hour bike ride yesterday and turned out rather pink. But it will look nice and tan in a day or 2. My rear also hurts a ton from said bike ride. It was great though. We have this 10 mile paved trail near our place. I took that out and back. I've been stressed and emotional (rare for me, I know :D) as of late, so taking this ride just felt awesome. I had to turn our AC on today. Matt doesn't function well (especially in terms of mood) when it is hot in the apartment. Sigh. Summer. It is supposed to be 84 today.

5 weeks from today I will be taking step 1. Oh. My. Gosh. I need to get my butt in gear. I feel as if I have some knowledge but no where near enough. We have our lame final on Monday and then 2 shelf exams 1 week apart. Other than that, it is going to be pure studying. And a weekend in Denver. And some other stuff :D. I just need to keep reminding myself that my future sort of is really on the line here. I am confident that I will pass (took a practice exam before starting my studies that had me passing, yay!), but I don't want to just pass. They posted Creighton's scores from last year. National average was 221; we got 224. National % of people scoring over 245 is about 14%; we had about 18%. Obviously my schooling has been above average; let's just hope Becky has gotten control of her bad standardized test taking.

Easter

2009-04-16T13:41:00.002-05:00

Have I ever told you how much I love Easter Vigil service? Well I love it. While no church has been able to live up to Sacred Heart back home, I still love this service. The progression of readings from the Old Testament are great; the lights coming on are great; fire is great. I love the 'litany of the saints.' I think I always will enjoy it. You need a strong singer though to be the main cantor. Our woman on Saturday night wasn't very strong. I really had a hard time hearing/understanding her. I swear she was making up names. Still though I enjoyed it. Since Matt was still gone, I had no one with whom to go to dessert. So I just went home.

I am over this last class. This week hasn't been as bad b/c it has been more "hard science" than touchy feely stuff. Trust me, I am a touchy feely person, but not when I am tested and graded on it. I will admit that my Behavioral Change Project is coming along very nicely. The apartment is much cleaner, which is a great thing. I am very glad Matt is back as well. It was very lonely around here without him. I did surprise him with a dresser though - helping with the behavioral change. Like the table we bought, it was one of those rare, nice finds on Omaha Craigslist.

Quiz tomorrow in this class. Meh

And so it begins

2009-04-06T21:02:00.002-05:00

Boards studying that is. Now, I've been studying for a bit already (mostly since spring break), but you can finally tell that the rest of the class is studying. Today, on the first day of an easy class, you would expect no one to be around school or in the computer lab. Not this time of year though. Pages of First Aid (FA) are flying. Blue and pink and yellow highlighters hit the page. Check Robbins...then give up and check wiki. Hang out on facebook. Panic when you remember you are supposed to be studying for boards. At least now I am not ashamed to say I am studying. I realized when taking the MCAT (and really with all my schooling) that I need a lot of "reads" of the material to remember it. I can read it once or twice and understand it, but in order to be able to memorize it, I need about 4-5 reads. Plus flashcards. Plus practice exams...this is my life for the next 2 months. Bear w/ me readers

Did I already say GI final went fine? Well it did. Friday afternoon I met some friends for lunch. When Amber and I went to leave, we had a true senior moment. We couldn't find her car for the life of us. She even beeped it; we still couldn't find it. I was cracking up, doubled over in laughter, especially when some wiser (read "in their late 60s) ladies asked us if we needed help. We politely declined and finally found the car. It took about 3 minutes though. Hilarious. Sunday morning we went to Annie's for a pre-Easter brunch. We also dyed eggs. I like dying and eating hardboiled eggs.

I don't like 24

2009-04-01T11:56:00.002-05:00

I decided I don't like the age 24. Not because of aging or anything like that. I just think it is a very "in between time." Sort of like 19. At 24 you are no longer really "college aged" or "just fresh out of college aged." You aren't an adult yet either (at least not in my mind). At 25, I'll go ahead and call myself an adult. Maybe. It is hard to call yourself an adult when you are still in school. Sigh. School

We have our GI final on Friday. Ick. I just want classes to be over. But they aren't. And we our last class is going to blow balls. It is sort of a new class; mostly it is a combo of 2 classes, one of which was spread out over the semester for last years M2's. The man in charge of this class is...irritating to say the least. Not only do we have to do this "behavioral change project" (w/ a nice little 4 page paper), but we also have to do this site visit thing. After that visit, we have to prepare a PPT presentation AND write a research paper (3 sources) for it. Now I know you are all thinking that I am a whiner, and I'll give you that. The thing is, I wouldn't mind all this gosh darn busy work if it had been 2 months ago. Now, however, is the time to start to crack-down for Step 1 studying. Not to be writing about my feelings and how I want to change myself. Grrrrrrr

Matt leaves for Seattle this weekend for his Spring Break. I'm a little jealous but am also kind of glad b/c I can really start to look towards my step 1 studying. Not much else is going on. I am still trying to find a dresser for the apartment. For 8 months I have had a good # of clothes in boxes on the floor. Kind of like a college student (ie...myself during college). Omaha's craiglist, however, isn't awesome. It isn't that people aren't selling things, it is just that they are selling not such nice stuff for too much money.

MOVIE time
Tropic Thunder
This was actually pretty funny. I like it when Hollywood makes fun of itself. The movie was 2 hours in total, which is a little long for a comedy. They could have really condensed the plot at the beginning - no one is watching a comedy for character development. I ran out of words in my head to say about this movie. 6.9/10

The Happening
Sometimes I think M. Night Shyamalan gets some tough criticism. He set the bar really high for himself w/ 6th Sense, and when his movies don't hit that level (which they don't), he gets a lot of crap for it. While I don't think this movie rocked, it wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be. I do, however, have a hard time getting back into a movie once I have decided it is flawed. And it was. They were talking about a neurotransmitter/pathway in the brain that is there to keep people from hurting themselves because our natural instinct is to kill ourselves? Uh......no. That was said early, so from that point on, I had a hard time getting back into it. As always, he makes you think you are going to see monsters or poisons or what not, but you don't. It was okay, and at only 1.5hours, it was a good break from studying. 5.3/10

Hiatus

2009-03-24T19:10:00.003-05:00

That was a long hiatus, but I'm back. Not much happened over spring break, so I wasn't very inspired to write. Then I got behind on GI from day 1 and had to do a lot of catching up.

So....GI. I don't like it. We already had our first quiz. I passed, but I still don't like the class. The gut is a tube. It should just be a tube. It should have no physiology. It should have no pathology. Alas, it is our last 'real' class. Wooohooo.

In other news, we had the tornado sirens going off yesterday. And while Matt and I probably should have gotten into the basement, we took pics instead. Oh my goodness people. That was intense. It was a fast moving storm that made it from Lincoln to Omaha in about an hour (that's about as long as it takes to drive there). For a while all we had was a little wind and tons of lightening. Then came the rain quickly followed by the biggest hail I have ever seen in my whole entire life. We also could see the "wall cloud" and "lowered cloud level" (all things that mean a tornado might form in that area) from the balcony. It pretty much went right over us. Let's see if I can get this video up. If I can, please ignore my screeching. I could barely hear myself when the hail was coming down, but my camera managed to pick it up just fine, loud and clear.

Oh, and by the way, as much as I love that it is staying lighter longer, it really messes w/ my studying. When the sun is gone, you know it is time to buckle down. Now the sun doesn't leave for a long time, and I have a hard time cracking down on the studying

Wow

2009-03-09T17:44:00.002-05:00

The big news in my absence....no, not the MSI final. But.....MY BIRTHDAY! I turned the big 2-4. It is weird b/c I am a younger member of my class and group of friends for the first time in my life. In both Spokane and Denver I was one of the older ones. I guess I'd prefer to be the baby though. As a sort of celebration I invited a lot of people to Kona happy hour, which is totally awesome: half price sushi and pizza w/ great drink specials. Quite a few people showed up, and it was tons of fun

Not much else has gone on, other than the final. That went just fine. At clinic on Thursday I got hit on by a drunk guy and learned the important lesson of not answering drunk men's questions. That was...interesting. I am now on spring break though, which is great. I tried to be productive today and download Epocrate's (a drug program) onto my phone only to find out that the CDs Verizon gave me don't want to work on my computer. I don't know why, but they don't. I may have to drive to their store tomorrow and have some "words" with them. Too bad Matt has to work and can't come with me to do it :D

Told you I would

2009-03-03T22:32:00.001-06:00

I told you that I would update today. Not saying that much has happened, but I'll do it anyway. Today was good simply because I was still feeling good about yesterday. I also listened to tomorrow lectures already, so I don't have to go to class and can start studying for the final (I have clinic on Thursday and Leilani will be here in the evening)

Biggest thing I did was start my 2 free week trial of Kaplan QBank (questions for Step 1). I took a 50 question test today, random questions (minus GI because we haven't had it yet). I felt that I actually did okay for not having studied a lot of it. Granted, a lot of that was luck, but I'm going to run on it. That's all. Night

Monday Monday

2009-03-02T22:15:00.001-06:00

Today was the first good Monday I can actually remember happening. Maybe that is because it just happened, but whatever. To start: quiz in MSI went well this morning. So well that I am unmotivated to study for the final on Wednesday. But I still will. Also, small group was supposed to go 2h today; ours went 25min. It was AWESOME! Lastly, my girls IM team won. We were down 20-7, made it 20-14 at half, quickly sprung out 20-21 in the second half, and then never looked back. It was great. And I get a free t-shirt.

On Friday night I went to Dave and Buster's with my friends. While a little on the spendy side, it was fun. I love being like a kid again. I also had to drive downtown that night to pick up the boys. Man am I glad I have 4 wheel drive. Okay, tired. I'll update tomorrow. Promise

I hate being superstitious

2009-02-22T21:52:00.002-06:00

I'm pretty sure I've been superstitious since I was young, since we walked home after school and tried not to step on cracks as not to break our mother's back. I'm not weird crazy superstitious. Just a little bit. I notice it most when it comes time for basketball or tests. A good test example: for our first few classes this year, I always took exams with my pink mechanical pencil. Then it disappeared. Then I used a grey one. Now I found another pink one and am afraid to use it (not super afraid, just silly afraid) thinking that the grey has done me so well. My mom can attest to the basketball stuff. High school: before every game for the most part I would eat a foot long club from Subway w/ olives, tomatoes, and mayo (it is delicious by the way). College senior year: straightened my hair for every game (the 2 times I didn't, we lost). IM basketball: I don't put my insoles in my shoes because I played 1 game really well without them. It isn't that it gets in the way of me living, I just think it is awfully silly to have these types of things pop up in my head often.

Sorry for the hiatous. We had a final on Friday. I had both clinic and a basketball game on Thurs, so I was trying to get my studying done early. It didn't help. I still passed just fine, but I was a little disappointed in my score. I had done pretty kick butt on everything else in the class, but I sucked it up on the final. We get to look at the answers tomorrow, so at least then I'll know if it was knowledge issues (which I prefer) or test taking errors (the type you hit your head on the wall about).

Happy belated birthday to my sister! On Thursday

Saturday we drove to Kearney to watch the Regis girls play. The RMAC has been all up and down this season that the team could finish anywhere from 2nd to 7th in league w/ only 2 games left. Crazy. Needless to say, 6 hours of driving in 1 day is a lot. On the way back we searched for AM stations. We caught this program called Coast to Coast, which Matt of course has listend to before. Basically it is a consipiracy theory/sci fi show where people call in to talk about how they know the anti-christ or how they've been abducted before. Hilarious. Here comes the weird part. This was a replay from 2001 for some odd reason. The original air date....March 7th. My 16th birthday!!!!! Weird? Weird. Also, we found it being broadcast on about 5 different stations pretty far apart on the dial. Weird!!!

We start muscle/skin/integument tomorrow. Whoop!

Thursday

2009-02-12T16:30:00.002-06:00

Oh my gosh, that quiz went much better than I was expecting. I left the computer lab frustrated b/c I was having a hard time reasoning my answers. Too many of them seemed a little too "gut feeling." But it worked!! I scored pretty well, and it turns out we got 1 back today....so I did even better! One of the pics on our quiz was of a chancre on a male w/ syphilis. I felt a little like a pervert looking at it, so I answered it quickly (it was pretty easy question)

For anyone who is reading this and thinking about going to med school and considering a school that is PBL (problem based learning), I personally would urge you not to. From what I know of that type of system, it is a lot of small group work with real life cases and situations. At Creighton we have about 1 of these sessions a week (we aren't PBL based, just a splash)...and I HATE IT. Not just a little dislike. Strongly hate. It sucks the life out of me, both preparing for it and sitting through it. Yes, I learn things from time to time, but most of the time we just repeat things that were said in class. This isn't because I like to be spoon fed or am not a self starter. It is simply because I feel I can get more done by myself in the 3h this consumes than I can sitting there. Also, it isn't b/c I am anti-social...I love people

There was an anesthesia interest group meeting on Monday night. Every one of those meetins just makes me more excited to go into it.

Today we had a lecture on the right way to deliver a baby b/c every doctor needs to know how. The M.D. teaching us is a pretty cool guy and kept referring to how soon we are going to need to know this, which brings me to..........M3 schedule!!!!!!!!

I had amazing luck and got pulled 5th! I had my pick of the 6 schedules. I'll briefly explain what they are. Each rotation is 2 months and you rotate places and services. Our majors are surgery, internal med, and family med; our minors are psych, OB/GYN, and peds. You do either your majors first or your minors. They aren't mixed. A lot of people want majors first to get them out of the way. Some want minors first to be good by the time you get to the majors. Often times you don't want your #1 interest first or last. My thinking: I want something that is easy to leave during July for Stephanie's wedding AND I don't want internal too early b/c I want a good letter from them (I hear general rule for letters of rec for anesthesia are usually 1 internal, 1 surgery, and 1-2 anesthesia). So I chose willingly to do my minors first. I go:
OB/GYN --> PEDS --> PSYCH --> SURGERY --> FAMILY --> INTERNAL
I'm super excited, but not that many other people wanted schedule 'D' (mine). I hear this is b/c they don't want surgery in Jan/Feb, but I would rather have it then and not in nice months. Guess that's just me. Needless to say, 'D' was the 2nd to last to fill up. Okay, this is getting long. I'll talk more about these later!

Oh hi February

2009-02-08T22:41:00.002-06:00

It hasn't even been that long...right? Guess it was longer than I thought. Huh. Okay, well, we've had one quiz. I passed, but I don't think I like endo/repro. I feel as if I should like it b/c it is much like neuro w/ paths etc, but I don't. Much of my class feels the same.

In terms of life, it is good. Weather has been much better here lately (that won't last long though). Biggest news right now is....we've picked our Step 1 dates!!!!!! June 4th here I come. I figure, we all have to take it, why not look forward to it? I was thinking any time between the 3rd and 5th. My name was called pretty early in the lotto though, and I panicked. I picked the 4th. Thursday is my favorite day of the week. Eventually I will discuss my plan of attack but not now

Movies!!!! (that i remember watching)
Devil's Advocate
I remember why people hate lawyers. Keanu is always in weird sci-fi ish movies. Even though not "action packed" I still thought it was entertaining. Pacino plays a great devil. Also, even if your half-sibling may be way hot, you never never sleep with them. Lesson learned. 7/10

Happy Endings
Had never heard of this. Sort of indy type thing. Pheobe from Friends was in it. Tom Arnold as well. Kind of a dark comedy. Most of the acting was pretty good. The stories all came together in the end. Parts of it were very unique and quite true to life in my opinion. If someone had it at home already I would watch it. Not a "must rent." 6/10

Vantage Point
Got a little annoying with the different views all running fully through. It was exciting though and really kept me guessing. Not the best acting 6/10

Beowulf
That was weird. Don't think I ever would have read the book willingly. 5.5/10

Dr Stranglove (yes, the really old one)
I think it is funny watching films that feed off of fears from different decades. I also think it is funny how they always make the government out to be inept. Some parts may be, but I don't think the whole thing is. I'm not rating this one b/c you can't cross rate from so many years ago :D

Thats it