By the Numbers: Oregon

19: hours spent in airports or planes while travelling to & from Portland, Oregon last weekend.

50: pound limit on each piece of luggage, which I overshot both going & coming home... oops.

3: full days on the west coast.

4: rowers in a boat that beat an eight!

7,000: feet elevation of Timberline Lodge, on Mt. Hood, otherwise known as Brian & Ginny's wedding location.

16: approximate number of times my ears popped (between flights & travelling up & down the mountain...).

130: wedding favors (packages of s'more supplies) made by the bridesmaids the night before the wedding. (We had waaaaaaay too much fun with this, by the way.)

1: husband I missed very much while I was gone!

Vacation!

I have worked exactly 12 days. (Not including orientation.)

And now I'm on vacation.

Woo-hoo!

(I can't get used to this!)

A Day in the Life - July Edition

I know at least a few of you are wondering what it is I do all day, so here is the first of a monthly series on that subject - it will change monthly as I move through different rotations. Enjoy!

6:00am. Alarm goes off - hit snooze.
6:09. Dang that alarm clock -there it goes again. Snooze.
6:30-6:40-ish. Finally get up after hitting snooze (and thus aggravating my sweet husband) a few more times. Stumble toward shower.
7:00-ish. Running late for quiet time (my goal is 30 minutes every morning), but sit down for a few minutes for QT & prayer, accompained by breakfast (usually cereal).
7:15. Final touches before heading out the door.
7:25. Leave house; drive to Children's. If really running late - eat breakfast in car.
7:45-8:15. Morning report.
8:15-noon. Attend one of the clinics - mostly different types of pediatric surgery (general, ENT, Orthopedics, Urology, Neurosurgery, etc.). Sometimes I just shadow the attending surgeon; sometimes I see a patient on my own, then present the patient to the attending and accompany him/her while s/he sees the patient and makes all the decisions.
Noon. Noon conference - a lecture (usually) on some pediatric topic, aimed at educating the residents and medical students. They feed us lunch, too, which is great.
1:00-4:30/5:00-ish. Afternoon clinic - something different from the morning clinic, but my role is similar.
5:00ish. Drive home.
Evening. Various activities - e.g. attending Matt's softball game; going to Bible study; running errands; fixing dinner. (It's nice to actually have time & energy to do these things in the evenings.... though I need to start incorporating a bit more exercise into these possibilites, especially given the lunches they feed us at Children's!)
9:00. Start thinking about going to bed soon. Keep watching the Braves with Matt.
9:30. I really should go to bed.
10:00. Drag self off sofa and to bed. Read for a few minutes - then sleep...

Firsts

First week of intern year.

First time being addressed as a doctor by a nurse who actually thought I knew what I was doing.

First time being addressed as a medical student - despite actually being a doctor - by a parent who recognized that I didn't know what I was doing.

First hug from a patient - in orthopedics clinic, a 4 year old girl who loved the stickers I pulled out of my pocket.

First hug from a parent, too - while checking on her daughter, a 4 year old oncology patient whose pain I helped control.

First call to a code as a doctor - and I was the first one there! - fortunately, it wasn't really a code after all.

First time to take call as a doctor.

First notes and orders written without someone approving them before they were officially put in place.

First call from pharmacy (of many to come, I am sure!) about a medication order I had written incorrectly.

First intern class event missed because I was at the hospital, on call.