Rocket-Science ;-)

Watching the Rockets play is like watching little kids playing with art supplies… sometimes they figure it out and it’s brilliant, but sometimes they try to get creative and end up with a giant mess…

That said, I’m a new Rockets fan! Secondary to the Spurs of course, I can’t help being an NBA fan after living in SA for 4 years. The Spurs make the city so happy! And I want to hug Tim Duncan everytime I see him play. Since they always win games and usually play great it's always fun to cheer them on (except for one loss to the Rockets earlier this season which I’m still a little bitter about, but have chosen to overlook for now.) The Rockets, however are another story. No one is really sure how they made it to the playoffs, but they’re sticking in there! I’m watching game 6 now… Utah has a big lead and I think the Rockets are starting to get nervous. C’mon Rockets! Ummm they can come back from Utah’s 26 point lead right?

I’d also like to celebrate my new footwear addition—new running shoes again! These are light blue Nike’s which have really nice padding in the front… never really appreciated how great sprinting can feel when your toes have something to bounce off of! Not that I’m a sprinter, but if I were ever to flee an attacker, I know I’m well equipped. These are the bounciest shoes ever, and if you look closely you can see little hearts and stick runner figures on the laces. Wooo! I heart you Nikes! (don’t tell my Adidas shoes…)

Holy goodness!! The Rockets have tightened it up…. pretty freakin incredible! So I’m going to get back to the game. But here are my pretty shoes!

Next time I'll try and add some more hospital stories. I'm at MD Anderson in the Oncology ward, after a month of Infectious Diseases. After last month, I probably know more than I ever wanted to know about diarrhea, just short of experiencing it myself (thankfully!) Moral of ID month: Don't play with live crawfish, and wash your hands. This month will be good, especially from a pedi neuro perspective... though emotionally it will be quite the test with the terminally ill patients. Cancer sucks.

Hmm... and speaking of sucking the Rockets are doing that thing again when they're getting outscored... I think they need my full attention now. Since this might not end so well tonight (unless they surprise us...) here's a happy pic!

This was from StL (home of the lovely April daffodils)... reunionizing was awesome and I really miss the ones who couldn't make it... so here is a daffodil for you! :-)

Surviving the Petri Dish

Yay! My ER month is over. It was really cool and inspired many a' ponderings:

1. It's impossible to work more than two 12-hour shifts in a row without getting sick! I bet I'm colonized with a nice variety of bugs now... luckily they're the "upper" kind and not the "lower" kind.

2. Completely well children in the ER are really fun to see, despite the trees killed to meet their paperwork requirements.

3. Completely well children who listen to people's bottoms with stethoscopes cause they're not tall enough to reach your lungs are even more fun!

4. Teaching med students how to suture is AWESOME. I feel so useful now! Want me to suture you??

5. When you pick up a chart, and it says "vaginal bleeder" it's ok to put the chart back and walk away slowly. You can even use the speculums in self defense!

6. Working nights is kind of strange, because halfway through at midnight you have to switch the dates. So, when I'm there during days I start switching the date at noon which stirs up all kinds of trouble. Although, it makes time move twice as fast. :-)

7. Splinting is totally cool and fuels the part of me that always wanted to do Ortho. (I think it's a small part. Can we splint and cast brains?)

8. All ER attendings are crazy. I think you really kind of have to be, and admittedly some are crazy in more endearing ways than others. My favorite is the attending who writes "Stop using Drugs or You'll DIE!!!"on her discharge papers for kids who come in with drug overdoses. She'll underline the "DIE!!" too, and write it really big. And under the 'home meds' section she'll put "None-- you have already had too much!"

9. This same attending did a throat swab on me after I asked her how to do one. Good thing I didn't ask for a refresher on a Gonococcal/ Chlamydia probe...

10. Mia Bella's (off Lexington and Shepard) has half priced drinks and appetizers all day Wednesday and free dessert coupons on Citysearch.com. AND the food is delish! This doesn't have so much to do with the ER, but it's my new favorite restaurant in Houston! MMM!

I'd like to thank my asthmatic patients on the Hermann floors for once again allowing me to update my blog. I can't really sleep since I have to check on two of them every hour or so, so this is great. I will miss not having call, but it's nice being back here... these kids are so cute! One patient who looked like the girl from little miss sunshine kept making pooping noises at me. (She really wanted to poop because she hadn't in a while.) And another toddler who had two butt abscesses drained was still running around her room laughing.

Bye bye pregnant teenagers! :-)

It's like, MY life! :-)

“And here’s a hit from ‘98” the radio DJ said as Green Day’s Time of Your Life started playing. I turned it up to sing along to, then realized that 1998 was TEN YEARS AGO! Holy Goodness.

Which is a nice segway into my new obsess—er, discovery. For some reason (the same reason I like to think caused me to miss shows like Saved by the Bell and the Wonder Years… gasp!) I never watched My So Called Life when it came out. I think I woulda been in the eighth grade, I totally watched shows like Party of Five, even Dawson’s and Felicity (quality show!) but sadly MSCL missed me. And I never did have MTV to catch up either. So when abc.com started playing past episodes, I started watching.

First, the show is fantastic!! Even now I can relate to it, and I think people of all maturity levels can. I have a huge appreciation for Angela’s character… as creator Winnie Holzman describes, the quiet girl at the back of English class who turns in everything on time and does everything right, who has so much more going on inside than she expresses. And I think that’s fun to see—her head is in the clouds almost as much as mine was (a trait I’m still trying to outgrow.) Jared Leto Rocks!! I love the fact Angela can laugh in Jordan Catalano--Jared Leto's--face when he asks her to have sex with him and then walk away. Speaking of Jordan Catalano—he totally reminds me of MY high school crush… but um, slower. (And I don't think I got past saying eight sentences to him in those four years. Some of which I still remember.) :-)

I’ve seen far too many 14 and 15 year old girls this month on the OB floors who didn’t make that decision to walk away, or the decision to use protection, and now have to take care of a baby instead of being a kid and going to school. I wonder if it’s because of shows depicting high school in less realistic ways—glamorous sex lives, expensive cars, tube tops, who knows. MSCL handled that topic—and more—awesomely, and honestly. I’d say we should make new episodes, but really… would it be the same now? MTV had it right-- just replay the old ones! Whatever happened to Juliana Hatfield?! Her music was incredible!

Thank you Meyling for supplying my addiction (Meyling: I UNDERSTAND!!! I UNDERSTAND!!) :-) Only now I’m feeling an insane amount of withdrawal! The series ends with the worst cliffhanger of all time, second only to… Wow I can’t think of any bad cliffhangers. Which is good because then I’d ruin another show for you. :-) It’s funny though I know exactly how I want it to end now, but 15 years ago I would have wanted it to end in the completely opposite way. Maybe this is WISDOM! Who knows, in 15 more years I’ll want there to be robots and exploding things. :-)

And did we really wear so much flannel back then?


“There are so many different ways to be connected to people. There are the people you feel this unspoken connection to, even though there’s not a real word for it. There's the people who you’ve known forever who know you in this way that other people can’t because they’ve seen you change. They’ve let you change” ~ Angela, My So Called Life

Ode to Spaces (and babies!)

This month will end in 12 days! I'm in the newborn nursery and don't get me wrong, I love babies... and love the fact I have no call this month. But the PAPERWORK! There's got to be a better way. We have to collect information from everywhere (three different sources not counting the babies themselves) and fill out these papers. It's quite repetitive. So much of my time is spent doing this, I'm starting to have bad handwriting! I thought I was immune, but alas. Residency takes what wasn't already sucked out of us in Med school. :-)

Strangly enough, being around newborns is triggering maternal urges I never knew I had. Lucky for the babies, they all have security devices which go off if they get too close to the elevators or if someone illegally takes off with one. I'm trying to become more responsible in caring for other life forms. Over Christmas and New Years, I took care of my neighbor's plants... and they survived! One day I will have my own plant... then I shall work upward from there. (and steal cute babies.)

More thoughts: I am getting to know the nurses on the floors better, and they rock! One of them, I'll call 'Mama G' (she's so wonderful!) was telling me about her husband... and how for the past 38 or so years she wakes up to "oh honey, you're so beautiful!" and hears "I'm such a lucky man for marrying such a kind and generous lady" on a fairly regular basis. She said at first she thought it strange and it took a while to get used to, but now she thinks it's great! He even notices her haircuts. :-) Mama G told this story much better, and she definitely raises the bar for the menfolk in this world: Men everywhere- take note! Verbalize!

I just got back from a friend's place-- her apartment complex had a pizza-movie night (Transformers!) and along with the group, there were 5 or6 toddlers there. They were from 3 different families... each maybe 2 or 3 years old, and I had as much fun watching them socialize as actually watching the movie. One little girl was trying to join a group of three kids--two boys and one girl--sitting on a couch in front of the TV. The boys were all about including her in their Transformers talk-- I think she was asking them in Spanish too. The girl however seemed a bit protective of her friend circle and just kept saying "NO! NO!"The boys didn't care, and one even moved over so the newcomer could sit next to him. The other girl however, came over and smacked her!! That girls' dad and mom ran over alarmed and pulled her away... then later she comes back and says "I'm sorry" to the girl she just hit. As if that weren't cute enough, the girl who got hit (who may or may not have understood the English) hugged her. It was like... real life hallmark!!!

Also, I need to fix my space bar. Here's how it looks like, I've trained my thumb to hit the little white rubber thing in the middle. Only it came off too! I put it back on, but it pops off. Poorspacebar! As youcansee, I also am missing a white plastic part on the right... I hope my vacuum cleaner didn't eat it up! Anyone have a spare spacebar (or glue?) lying around?

Santa's big helpers!

I really should sleep now (since I'm on call) but I feel a little guilty. There are only two of us interns covering the entire pedi service tonight on Christmas eve/morn, one of us admits (not me) and the other one is available for questions/concerns/emergencies the other patients in the hospital might have. Right now I've gotten called on a few easy things (tylenol for fever!) a few confusing things (why IS this patient in the hospital, really?) and one sad thing (boooo yeast line infections in kids!) The admitting intern, Jaime, is hard at work seeing kids, saving lives... and then here I am blogging! well, I could be sleeping. I'm already caught up on my discharge summaries!!

So I've kind of been bad keeping up with these hospital stories... I had this whole "ode to pumkins" theme I was going to use for my little NICU babies. but alas, that was a month ago. My pumpkins are doing well from what I hear, I heard one little baby (who was really fat too! AWWW!) was recently extubated and feeding well! and my other one who started looking like a glow-worm when I met him might actually be gaining weight. He was cute. If I could describe my entire NICU experience by one patient, that would be little baby A. He'd just be rocking in his little chair like a bobble head... with his big eyes wide open, tounge sticking out of his mouth and a serious look on his face (sometimes he'd smile though!) Soooo cute.

Last month (december... gasp!) I was in a chronic care facilty for kids who needed rehab, long term med therapy or kids too sick to go home but not sick enough to be in the hospital. That was pretty fun, only one kid I got really attached to (as did everyone since she'd been in and out of hospitals for the past few years) decide she had enough of her war against Pompe's disease (and the experimental enzyme replacement therapy she was getting for it) and left for a better world. Poor kiddo. She will be missed... with her cute little smiles, head bobbing and arm waving... but I'm sure she won't miss the crazy amount of meds and breathing devices keeping her alive. The room was so quiet though, it was eerie. If I were a braver intern, I woulda held her while they withdrew care, but I think I'm not quite ready yet. I have so much admiration for hospice workers and people in general who are at peace with the idea of death, and being with people as they go. I, on the other hand, have a severe fight-or-flight response. So I flew... out the door. Meh.

Whew. Now this holiday schedule is so confusing. let me expain. there are four teams of interns at our hospital, we've combined two of the teams so that Team A is former Teams B and D, and Team B is former Teams A and C. There are three interns on each team, and two supers on one team, we admit tonight and tomorrow, and the other team admits the day after Christmas. I'm taking call tonight for Team B, but I'm really on Team A. Or something like that. Anyway we have the original Team A pager (since it says team A on it) but the real team A patients are on Team B... so you can see what kind of fun we've had today. :-) But the nurses are feeding me goodies tonight and digging my Santa hat, so I can't get annoyed. It's almost Christmas!

Speaking of which, I wish you all a merry one! I'm going to have a fantastic one tomorrow... in my bed all snug and warm... with my pager OFF! :-) Good night to all!

Awesome.

This woman is my hero!

That's all for now... I slept 13 hours straight after my NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) call the other day. And... I think I'm going to sleep some more now.

But first a story. I intubated today!! It sort of counted, the NICU fellow had to hold the blade in place to expose the chords after my own failed attempt. So all I really had to do was put the tube in between the chords, and wooooo! It was in! You remember how when we were kids we put blocks through holes and thought we were geniouses? It was sort of like that. Maybe next time, I can do the whole thing myself!

I should write more about my babies. They're all champs, they're so cute and are starting to fix themselves. Its amazing how many babies are born broken, and even more amazing how they can sometimes self-correct. I'll leave that to my next post. I already have a fun title in my mind. (wouldn't you like to know!) :-)

Mmmm I need a run. Tomorrow. OK I'm out!

October

Wow! October already! Here's a great sky scene I saw on the way back from Austin last week... or was it on the way to Austin? This was right before I saw a rainbow! This month has been pretty cool, give or take a few rough spots. I haven't cried yet on my new floor rotation, we have three of these that are supposed to be the roughest of our intern year. I am slowly suspecting something... we pedi residents are freakin lucky. I'm so glad I'm not a surgeon.

But I have gotten yelled at by more patients in the last week than I've been in my entire (short) clinical experience. Apparently the private patient population of Houston has less patience for new interns getting to know the system. Some yelling has been justified (I'll write those orders faster!) but some yelling... has just been strange! I had to explain to a mom today that just giving a kid (no fevers, not in pain, but recovering from pnemonia and dehydration) Tylenol didn't do anything for her tantrum-throwing... she was, in fact, displaying totally normal two-year old behavior. With a sneaky smile the whole time. This actually meant she was getting better, which the mom had a hard time grasping. She just kept saying "I don't care what you think, there's a gift store downstairs, I'll go buy Tyelenol myself!" To her credit, I think she calmed down in the end (the kid, not the mom.)

The craziest instance so far I've had getting yelled at was two months ago in LBJ. This event should go down in some kind of book. I'm going to call this chapter "Worst Luck in History" This little patient was a baby transferred over from Hermann because of insurance reasons, and he was getting IV penicillin for an infection through a PICC line (I forgot where the infection was, he was a patient I was cross-covering for... Di, if you're reading this you know this story!) and had a PICC line. Anyway, this mom didn't trust the cleanliness of the county hospital (understandable actually) to the point where she brought along her own cleaning supplies. Now, LBJ is a different world, a world where patients DO get better, but it's far from the hotel-like atmosphere of the private hospital where she was coming from. Anyway she also demanded that the nurses wear gloves (I thought they did!) and wanted her own room instead of sharing it with four other patients (probably a HIPPA violation, but c'mon! county hospital!)

The team who was caring for her daughter moved her to one of the isolation rooms. (normally used for patients admitted with contagious illnesses.) So the team checked out to me, and soon I get this page from a nurse... "um, Doctor? you better come quick..." I got back to the floor, and there were three nurses going into her room, and a rather official looking person walking towards us. I walked into her room, and she's shaking and in tears. She mentioned something about pubic hair on the toilet (ew!) and bugs in the shower, and kept crying, and then just couldnt talk anymore. So I look in the bathroom, and the toilet looks fine (she said she cleaned it off, I wondered if her cleaning supplies were cleaner than the hospitals. I shoulda borrowed it for the call rooms.) and then I looked in the shower. There were BUGS! like... LITTLE ROACHES! About twenty of em!! Or more! It was really gross, and ridiculously ironic. But mostly gross. :-)

Needless to say, it took a miracle talking her into staying the night, so at least her own doctors could find another solution for her kid's treatment. But then two things happened, one, the wipey board fell off the wall in her room (causing even more tears) and two, the baby's PICC line clogged up. This is where I'm not sure where the story led to, I signed off on this point after being on the phone with Interventional Radiology all night trying to figure out how to fix a clogged PICC line in a hospital which doesn't have tPA (the clotbuster!) or attendings in house at night trained how to reinsert them. So, I think I switched to Intramuscular Penicillin, so she wouldnt miss any doses, I think the mom yelled at me some more for making her baby take more shots, but she needed 5 more days of therapy and that was the best I could do! Of course if this were House, Pediatric interns could just put in new PICC lines... sigh. Maybe on my call tomorrow...

But man. Everytime I think I have a bad day I'll just have to remember that mom's day. I'd like to think there's very little in the world out there that can top that.