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.

Guilt Trips

I received a birthday present in the mail today... which was awesome! I am now in possession of a green shirt that says "keepin it green" sent from my good friend Rakhi who now works for the EPA in DC. I like to think of myself as environmentally conscious (I like the environment and applaud people who work to make it better) but I still feel like wearing the shirt would make me a poser. Why?

Because I live in Houston!

I'm going try not to turn this into a diss on Texas's environmental policies. Because really, we can all make a difference even if it means collecting all your recyclables and driving that 30 minutes to one of the few recycling centers in town. Maybe I'm exaggerating. From where I am, it's 10 minutes to Rice U, where I've dropped off my cardboards, and maybe 20 or so minutes to where I can find a place to take my plastics and cans. The problem is that I don't have time, and making these trips involves a lot of planning and strategy since you can't really let empty milk bottles sit around too long.

Let's solve this problem. Hmm... here's a site that's helpful...

Clean Texas

It tells you exactly where you can go to recycle things... and I think it'll be totally useful once I figure out what "corrugated cardboard," "fiber drums," and "acrylonitrile butadiene styrene" are. But it's encouraging that you can recycle almost everything. For example, if I were to recycle cottin gin hulls, I could just drive to Austin! Awww Austin. :-)

I shall have to figure out how to live in Houston (otherwise surprisingly great) without feeling like I'm slowly killing the earth. Then, maybe I can wear the shirt... unless "keepin it green" means being jealous of people living in cities where recycling and public transportation are the norm.

Bunnies!

So this is the most belated post of all time (Sorry Scott!) A few weeks ago, a fellow friend from med school and I journeyed to the Houston Zoo... and here are some pics! I really should have taken more, but my camara was broken. Luckily my phone has super phone powers. You can click on the pics to make them bigger (I think). Since this zoo visit, I've figured out how to bike there from my apartment, and it only takes about 30 minutes! it's a really nice trail by the big bayou flood collection thingie by my apartment. Here are the pics!


First... BUNNY! And... tiger getting in the water... Hop bunny, hop away!




You can kind of see the bunny standing in front of the Giraffe. SO MANY BUNNIES!

This might be a better view of the bunny. It's the little spot under the pole that kind of runs into the Giraffe's neck... does that make sense? This bunny has no danger of tigers, since Giraffes have tiger eating abilities. Or fences around them. :-)

And finally: MONKEY!! I've decided that if one day I aquire superhuman abilities (superior to my phone's photo taking abilities of course) I shall free the monkeys. Hopefully the monkey poo won't take too much of a toll on the city's cleanliness, but I'm sure we'll all benifit from a little coinhabitation.

And speaking of camaras.. I FIXED mine! It turns out that if your camara's lens is jammed so that when you turn the phone on the lens doesn't come out (or it makes a funny noise and turns off as in my case) all you have to do is take it apart and jiggle it around! then when you put it back together, jam the lens all the way in. And voila! FIXED!

I can take real pictures now. Watch out, world!

Hmm... what else of note... things are fun at the hospital. Although, I find myself laughing at really horrible things now. My co-intern was presenting a 2 year old patient that he admitted for an asthma exacerbation overnight, and the story kept getting more ridiculous. Mom didn't believe in giving the kid corticosteroids, and he had eight ER visits in the last year. Mom was bipolar, Dad was a sex offender. Dad complained mom hit the baby. Baby presented with a black eye. Mom admitted to calling dad saying that she bit her baby. I kind of lost it there and thus began an embarrasingly unstoppable fit of giggles. To my credit at least, the attending joined in.

And what was the result of all this? CPS said "sure the kid can go home with the mom." WHAT?! Legally perhaps the kid was in no danger, but dude! the kid is only 2. TAKE HIM AWAY FROM THOSE CRAZIES!! He won't remember when he's older.

Whew. That's all. I've come to really appreciate good parents in light of all these people who have children. I've come to appreciate my own parents most of all I think.

Only two more weeks left at LBJ... think I might take Step 3 next month during my development and behavior (aka child psych) rotation. I probably should just enjoy slacking off for yet another month, but something tells me I should actually try to become smarter... :-)

Disc On!

I've discovered a group of people who play ultimate! One of them even played with us at uthscsa before going off to Baylor to do a Pedi residency three years ago. So it was a fun reunion of sorts! It seems that people have played at Hermann Park for the past 10 years, but for the past four weeks or so thunderstorms have stopped a lot of people from coming out. This time the sky was clear, with 2/3 of the muddy field resembling the wetlands. As it should be.


I saw a little surprise peeking out over the bushes looking at the players on my way back. I can't believe he didnt notice me sneaking up on him. Bunnies and Frisbee!! That's kind of like the royal flush of cuteness. or awesomeness. why didn't we have bunnies at uthscsa? :-)

Back on call tomorrow! On a fun (and slightly nerdy) note, the other day I diagnosed my first case of Viral Meningitis!! With a crystal clear LP on the first try! Oh sweet success! The little boy will be fine... this particular type of viral meningitis gets better on its own. But it felt really nice telling his mom the diagnosis and freeing her from other worries... this whole doctor thing is awesome!!

All Day I Dream

Today I had to fill in for the intern in the nursery… we call this position "the mole” because you sort of disappear from everyone on the floor. The mole's job is to do 20 or so newborn exams in 3 hours, try not to lose babies (it happens!) and then discharge them while the nurses are all yelling at you to go faster so they have space to admit more babies. But I have to make sure he has an anus first! (yes that happens too.)

Anyway so to take my mind off what was almost an embarrassingly disastrous day, I am going to think of what makes me happy. Another one for the list:

3. Go running in cool places, especially if I’ve never been there before, and especially near large bodies of water

I bought new running shoes not too long ago. My old Nikes were fun, and did well for my feet this past year. No major injuries. Some great runs around Town Lake in Austin, a few by Corpus Christi’s bay, Forest Park in St Louis, and my personal favorite, by the bay of Bengal in Pondicherry- during sunrise! They also helped me hike/run up the foothills of the Alps in Füssen, Germany so that I’d have enough time to see the Neuschwanstein Schloss (castle), absorb its beauty, and book it downhill to catch a train so I wouldn't miss my flight to Rome.

Even San Antonio had its surprises; once I came across a little beige stucco house in the Alamo Heights area with the same color scheme as its flower garden. Totally worth planning a run/bike around, I think it's on Cambridge street. Purple shutters to match the purple flowers! Oooooh.

Yes, those Nikes have given me quite the memorable year. They were there in times of frustration, doubt, and even when I was starting to feel like my heart had a “kick me” sign on it. Post-run ice cream coupled with good friends can work wonders as an emotional analgesic, and I’ve come to realize that this world is full of kind souls (no pun intended) after all. :-)

But as it is, I’m an Adidas girl at heart. Running in this new pair of shoes is like falling back in touch with an old friend. Blue, lightweight, soft, sweet. A whole new six months-to-a-year of memories. Muy Perfecto!

Thunderstorms

There’s something so soothing about thunderstorms and listening to the rain… of course having to drive home in it sort of sucks, but when you’re contained in something dry it’s very calming. Residency has been fun so far, I can’t believe I can feed babies whenever I want. I should make a list of all these theraputic discoveries I've stumbled upon...

If I start to go insane because of residency/life I should:
1. feed babies
2. listen to thunderstorms

I’ll add more eventually. On a sadder note, my beloved canine family member of 14.75 years, Hershey, passed away in his sleep on June 29. It kind of took me a week to process, and I’ve repressed enough emotion so that issues about this will probably resurface in 20 years. But that’s ok, I’ve got my list--it’ll be huge by then!

To anyone I’ve talked to (or refused to talk to) about Hershey… thank you for being here. He was a loved old man. :-)