Several kids in M's class have summer birthdays, which makes this time of year popular for parties. Recently, three girls in his class had a shared party (great idea, in my opinion) at a bouncy house play center, and the boys had a blast. It was actually the second time we've been there, and they added a larger obstacle course and slide, which everyone loved. I think you probably get to pick what bouncy structures you want, based on the age of the children attending.

We're thinking about having a party for the boys this year (combined, since their birthdays are only a few weeks apart). I don't think they'll mind sharing it, since they've never had a party before. This bouncy house place is definitely a possibility since they had so much fun there, and because the event is outsourced, it means less work for us (I am on a tough rotation that month). I'll just have to see if it fits our budget (probably not, but I'll take a look anyway). The alternate plan is to have a barbeque or something of that nature either at home or at a local park.

Tags: M, A

We're still not online at home yet, which is making it quite difficult to post, especially now that the service at our old apartment is not working for some reason. We have arranged for transfer of service but since the complex is so new, there needs to be some sort of additional wiring from the street to the buildings (which are already pre-wired), and that is taking some time. It is supposed to take between 5-7 business days, after which they are supposed to call us to arrange an appointment to set up service. Of course, this whole process is sort of messed up, since we already got the call and had an appointment set up for yesterday afternoon (a four hour window!), and they came over, only to tell us that the additional wiring had not yet been done. So, as is often the case with customer service when it comes to these sorts of things, the right hand doesn't talk to the left hand, and we are left with no service. We are still renting our old apartment for the next few weeks since our lease wasn't up yet (I had been using it as my "office" for the last few days, since it had phone and internet) but now that's not working either. I hope it works soon, since it's quite inconvenient to not have a home phone (for dictations) or internet service (for checking email, address changes, looking up my schedule for work, updating this website, etc.).

Tags: website

We haven't gotten internet access (nor phone service) up and running yet, which is why I haven't had a chance to post. I've written a few posts (as you'll see by the timestamps) but I haven't been able to upload them until now (just picking up a few things from our old place). Hopefully, we'll have access soon (it's hard to remember life before the internet now, even though it wasn't that long ago), so I can order some diapers and other essentials, and post some photos (we've got quite a few new ones).

Tags: website

The living and dining room are filled with boxes, I only have two work outfits unpacked, and there are no window dressings up yet. On the other hand, we've happily moved into our brand new home. Having been a campus-dwelling medical student for the last few years, we haven't been strangers to moving. This is the fifth time we've moved in five years, and I am hoping it'll be a long stretch of time before we move again. Either that, or next time we'll hire people to pack, move, and unpack for us while we go on vacation somewhere (that's my husband's idea).

Actually, it wasn't so hard to move until we had both children. The last two times we've moved, I've truly felt like we were moving an entire family household vs. a typical college or graduate student move. Although the boys are little, they sure come with a lot of gear. And in order to help them transition more easily, we always try to preserve their living space as much as possible. So their stuff is the last to be packed and the first to be unpacked. For the most part, I think they are transitioning well. They enjoy having a playroom (the bedrooms are small, but we now have a third bedroom), and they like having stairs (even though I worry about them falling).

I'm on a much lighter rotation than last month (outpatient hours this month), but I think I have been working harder because of the move. We can only get work done after the boys went to sleep, and since they've taken a bit longer to fall asleep (probably because of both the change in environment and the lack of curtains), we've stayed up really late the last few days. Getting to work by 8am isn't so hard, but we still have to be up before 6am to make it happen. So we've probably only gotten a few hours of sleep over the last few nights.

Last week was a pretty chaotic week. For whatever reason, the loan paperwork regarding the purchase of our condo didn't get approved by the underwriters until Monday (I think they were just swamped with work), and our closing date was scheduled for Friday. We were supposed to sign escrow documents on Tuesday, but there was some sort of electrical issue at the building where we were supposed to go and so that was postponed until Wednesday. And of course in order to close escrow and have the sale recorded in time, all funds had to be in the escrow account by Thursday at the latest, which meant several trips to the bank to wire funds, and hoping that our loans would fund quickly as well. And I had already scheduled movers for Saturday (which was the only day available for several weeks), even though technically we weren't positive we could pick up the keys until Thursday afternoon. So there was a lot of hoping going on. How a working individual is supposed to do any of this stuff is beyond me. All of the procedures we needed to participate in were held only during business hours, and often with very little notice. As a resident, our schedules need to be set up pretty early, so it's very hard to just take a few hours here and there, which seems to be part of the whole home-buying process. Even trying to schedule a vacation around the process would be hard, since the appointment dates often change, and the whole thing takes several weeks (at least), so unless one could take a month or two off at a time, I have no idea how other people do this.

In any case, it's done now, and in a few weeks (months?) all of the stresses of the last week will be a distant memory. At least we've got a lovely home to call our own and the promise of being able to stay here for more than one year at a time. There are plenty of worse things to be stressed about. More photos to come soon.

Sadly, I missed this event since I was on on call. But Corduroy visited a local bookstore and the boys went to see him. I believe M is trying to tickle him. And A is being his skeptical self.

Tags: M, A, books

Tags: M, A, me

Tags: M

A favorite activity, as evidenced here and here. This time we've got new trucks.

Tags: A, M, toys

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Tags: Amazon, diapers

We were fortunate enough to hear about a free jazz concert specifically targeted towards young children, with the intention of introducing traditional jazz music and instruments to the kids. It was kind of a blur for me, since I was still on my critical care month and had no sense of time or day for the most part. Most weekend days I was off (and I typically only had one day off per week), we hung out at home or went to the local park, just so I could take it easy. But this event was local and while I was still in somewhat of a daze from being monumentally sleep-deprived, I do remember enjoying this event quite a bit.

Sitting there with A in my lap, watching him clap to the music and seeing M completely mesmerized by all the musical instruments was definitely a highlight of my month. Not to mention listening to some incredibly talented jazz musicians too. The moment it started, I realized I should have called all my friends to come (sorry guys!), but because it was kind of last-minute, and I've been slow to address my email and keep up with staying in touch with everyone, the opportunity came and went all too quickly. I'll be sure to send out a short note the next time I hear about something like this.

Tags: A, M, me

I really enjoyed my general surgery and ob/gyn rotations, as well as my pediatrics rotation. In fact, for the most part (and with the exception of internal medicine), I pretty much liked all of my rotations. Read more

Tags: school, me

We've had a fun time playing catch with these little gloves (complete with velcro balls) we found at a local toy store.

In the second photo, the kids are blowing bubbles (that's their new activity whenever we grab coffee on the weekends).

Tags: A, M

Okay, so I am post-call on my very last day of my critical care rotation and wow, was that a crazy month. I was just telling one of my good friends the other day that I don't even think I could describe how busy I have been (both at work and at home) because I don't think anyone would believe me. I know most medical students and residents have had days where you are so busy you forget to do essential things like eat lunch or even go to the bathroom, but I have to say that on this month, that was the norm. I think I was in fluid homeostasis, neither drinking any water nor needing to pee either, which is crazy. I'm trying to hydrate myself now.

I don't know how many of you have experience with buying a property (we don't) but slap that on top of everything that is happening this month, and it's beyond chaos. I started intern year, my husband finished his fellowship (he took three days off - we really needed the money) and started a new job. We're about to close escrow and I haven't even started packing yet. I had to sneak away to the call room for five minutes before evening sign-out so I could call the movers and book a date.

For those of you who are wondering how we could even afford to buy a place, we did the physician home loan program from Bank of America (no/low down, no mortgage insurance fees (at the cost of higher interest), student loans not included in your debt-to-loan ratio). Considering we have a negative net worth of several hundreds of thousands of dollars, it's a miracle that anyone would give us a home loan in this economy.

Anyhow, I'll be starting a much less intense rotation on Monday, although we will be starting what I hope will be the last move we undergo in a long while. Hopefully we can be settled before my next block at the end of August, which will be another chaotic month. Intern count: four weeks down, only 48 more to go.

I'll be back soon to finish writing about choosing my medical specialty. I have to dictate my off-service summaries.

Tags: residency

There you have it folks. Traumatized by a solo ride in the police car. Maybe he wanted to be in the fire truck instead?

Tags: A

How could you, mommy?

Tags: A

Okay, so not only did I not get a wink of sleep on my last call night, but I didn't even get to go the call room. Only a few more days until this block is done, and only one more call night on this rotation - hooray! This month has been so crazy.

Tags: residency

Finally, the ride comes to an end.

Tags: A

At this point, my previously oblivious preschooler realizes that my toddler is freaking out, and I can hear him yelling Don't worry A, I'm right here!

Of course, none of this seems to help as my toddler heads away from us in yet another turn of the ride. Looking back at the look on his face in the first photo, it's pretty clear that it was all downhill from there.

Tags: A

Uh oh.

Tags: A

So with each full turn of the ride, my toddler catches me in and out of view. He's becoming increasingly more apprehensive about being on this ride (it wasn't the first time he'd been on it alone but for some reason that day, he was a bit anxious about it).

Here, he's pointing at me every time he goes by.

Tags: A

Mommy?

Tags: A

Next round...

Tags: A

Today I left my call only about three to four hours earlier than when I would have normally left for the day on a regular workday. Funny how when you really think about it, post-call days don't really give you that much time to catch up on sleep compared to just working through through the whole day. I'll take what I can get, but it's pretty rough to say the least. Of course, people have been doing this for many years in medicine (why?), so I've really got nothing to complain about, right? It still amazes me that the medical field is such a hypocritical one in that it basically doesn't practice what it preaches. Take care of your health, but don't model after me. If I can contribute anything to the field of medicine as a whole when I am done with this whole process, I hope it will be to be the best physician I can to my patients, AND to change the practice in such a way that it allows for physicians to be human as well. And I won't even go into what I'd like to contribute in terms of my personal life. What a crazy profession.

Tags: residency

Round two on the ride. Each of these shots was taken on subsequent "rounds" of the ride. My husband is taking these shots and my toddler is looking at me (I'm off to the side) in this photo.

Tags: A

This is kind of a funny series of photos that I'll be posting over the next few days. You've seen this ride before.

Tags: A

Yesterday was my first day off (that wasn't a post-call day) since I started residency, and boy was I ready for a break. Because of the holiday, I was fortunate enough to have two consecutive days off. Unfortunately, I am on call again tomorrow and will likely have at least 6 brand new critical care patients in addition to my own to pre-round on. It's nice to have a break, but it makes it tough to catch up on everything that has happened when you go back to work.

In any case, I am now halfway done with this rotation and after tomorrow's call, I will be more than halfway done with the calls for this month, thank goodness.

Tags: residency

So, to the meat of the matter, and the whole reason why I started this post. How did I end up choosing? Well, I thought about each rotation I had done and eliminated ones that I either didn’t like, or didn’t like enough to make my top five list. Read more

Tags: school, me

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Tags: clothing, shoes, toys

Tags: A, holiday

Happy 4th of July!

Tags: holiday

So I have been on call twice now since starting residency, and I have to say it's definitely a challenge. In many ways, I think being totally busy all night might actually make it easier than being sporadically busy at times spaced out just so there is no way you can actually get to lie down and rest for a few minutes. I really think that this system has to change - it's really not good for anyone to have sleep-deprived doctors presenting information, placing orders, and signing out critical information to other people. But that's a project that'll have to wait for now.

Now that there is a 30 consecutive hour rule (you technically have to go home after 30 hours), it's probably a lot easier than it could be. But still, the other day I was thinking that in one overnight call, I was putting in 75% of what is considered to be a normal workweek by traditional standards. And while I had similar calls as a medical student, it was never as busy as it is now (the pager never stops these days). It's nearly impossible to keep up, since there are so many people who need you to do something all at the same time.

It really hit me around midnight of my first call (when I had been at work for 18 hours), when I felt like I was still feeling okay, but that I still had twelve more hours to go. I've found that I really start to tire out right around pre-rounding time, when I am supposed to working fast to finish my notes and collect all the tiny bits of information needed to present on rounds. It's particularly difficult since it is often the first time I can sit down (at a computer), and then the fatigue totally hits me.

To put things in perspective, my first month is on a critical care unit. As a med student, we only carried one or two patients on our critical care months, since these patients are often very sick with lots of complicated things going on. Well, talk about abrupt transition. Somehow, between being a medical student and intern (really only a matter of days), the workload progressed from two patients to up to eight or even ten critical care patients, which is definitely a challenge to say the least. I keep going in earlier and earlier to pre-round, since it's becoming harder and harder to get everything done by the time we round in the morning.

Anyhow, I've got a few things to work on before going to bed (there is a lot of logging of patients, procedures, dictating, etc.) so I better stop now. I'll keep trying to post as much as I can (but probably not on call or post-call days).

Tags: residency

Oh, and Happy Canada Day, eh!

Tags: J, M, holiday