No rest for the wicked

No, no, I haven't fallen off the bloggy wagon. I've just had a very full few days. Claudia came down to visit this weekend and we had a blast. She got to hang out with a lot of my local friends. We had a very good time.

The highlights of our weekend (as I see them, in no particular order):
- good company and catching up
- fabulous dining out, and a lot of it, including trying several new-to-me places
- losing at 3-on-1 pool
- gluten free brownies made of awesomeness
- coffee
- Claud Meets the Village
- a new - and fabulous - vacuum to replace the one that died in the Unfortunate Catnip Mouse Incident of 2011
- breakfast with one of my favorite four year olds
- Cabaret. Or should I say, "cabaret."
- drunken Waffle House with the boys at 2am on a Tuesday.
- Claudia Learns Crochet
- so many moments of "now you see what I've been talking about, right?"

Fan-freaking-tastic.

I dropped her off at the airport tonight and then went to say goodbye to my aunt and uncle, the ones that moved here nine months before I did. They've been such an incredible source of support, and they're moving back to Chicago on Thursday. It's tough for me, to be honest, and all of that saying goodbye in such a short period of time while running on three hours' sleep is even a bit rougher. So, my bed is in my near future, even though I have SO many more things to say.

But I will share this piece of completely awesome news -

I PASSED MY BOARDS.

I am officially a fully-licensed, board-certified, ready-to-roll General Psychiatrist. Cannot beat that.

What a great weekend.

Family in town. Graduation last night. Will write more about it soon, but right now just exhausted and happy.

Boredom

Today was close to being the most boring day in recorded history.

I'm on Consults, now, right? Just for kids, but of course all of our child consults are filtered through Psychology first, which means we only consult on the kids who need meds (generally). It also means the service is very hit-or-miss.

Today was a miss.

I don't generally complain about not having a ton of work to do. But today started at 6:45am, when I saw my therapy patient. It was really early. I was really tired. There was caffeine, but not enough. So spending the next four hours sitting on my hands wasn't very appealing. I read about old patients and a potential patient. I caught up on some of my friends' blogs. I hacked my way on to Facebook (it's supposed to be blocked at the hospital).

Cleo got me to Starbucks to refuel for the afternoon, and that mocha was worth all the calorie shuffling I had to do to drink it. I had a reasonable clinic planned, but then my new patient cancelled, leaving me another two hours to read CNN and play Solitaire. And my 3pm was 30 minutes late. But at least I saw one patient today (well, two, with the therapy patient).

I still left at like 4:30. Which is awesome.

I think I have a little fourth-year-itis. Not that it means much, really. I'm ready to move on, but I'm moving on to another year of fellowship, so it's not a big transition. Still. It's time for a change....

Goodness

Faculty-hosted graduation party number 2 tonight (actually, this might be #3....).

It was another nice night of good company. 

I love my program.

Full circle

Tonight was the first in a series of graduation celebrations. Our chairman had all of us over for dinner, which was exactly how I started residency. It was a good time, full of stories, fond memories, and hearty laughs. I still really like my classmates, although there are personalities to which I gravitate more than others. The Pink Office was reunited. I got to see Sparrow for the first time in a while. And of course we had a lot more kids than the last time.

Funny how much things can change in the course of four short years.

And how many things haven't.

What a nice evening. 

Delaying gratification

So I spent six and a half hours in the Selection Committee meeting today, where we helped decide the fate of the 100+ people that interviewed for 13 spots at our program. The other part of their fate, of course, is decided by them and the other programs that rank them. But it was such an interesting experience to sit in on the other side of that selection process at Big Blue. Alls I can say about the meeting itself are these two things: A, I'm really glad I'm not applying this year, because wow, do we have a strong applicant pool; and 2, I'm really glad they had cookies. But beyond that, it really made me think about what I looked like as an applicant. I'm a good doctor, and I was a good med student, but I was not the strongest candidate because of what happened at The Emerald Palace. I wondered about the discussion that happened when they ranked me. I wondered who objected, who went to bat for me, or if  that actually needed to happen. I thought about the years that have passed since then. I thought about what a different person I am...and the ways in which, for better or worse, I'm still the same.

I'm really glad they took a chance on me.

Told you I needed more weekend

So we had a lovely day on Consults - remarkably quiet for the first week of July (when all the newbies hit the floors in the rest of the hospital) and the first day following a three day weekend. But hey, we'll take it. I'm doing this Junior Attending thing right now, since we don't have any clear leadership on the team (the old primary attending went off to grad school; the new one doesn't start until Monday), which means the new third years are staffing with me and then I staff the consults with the actual attending du jour. It's kind of neat, actually. One of the residents who just graduated was in this role for us last month, and it was a huge help. But he also commented how useful it was for him, that it made you think about things differently to look at it as the attending and to talk through it with the junior resident. He wasn't wrong. This whole Junior Attending thing is now built into the Child Fellowship, too, and I think that's a good thing.

Also nice, the kids took the pager and threw me out around 3:30. I was stoked, because my house is still a big big pile of boxes. So I was all going to come home, unpack, make some progress....go me, right?

Yeah. I fell asleep.

Oops.

Try some oregano

It's the end of an era.

The Pink Office is breaking up next week. PenguinShrink, Ruthie and I have been together for two years now. We definitely have the most fun office in the group (and probably the least productive). But over the course of the next week, Ruthie is moving in with Sparrow and Molly, Peng is moving over to the child fellow offices and in with the Fresca-addicted JD, and Cleo and I will get Chief's Office South up and running (also in the fellow offices). Change is inevitable, I suppose.

PenguinShrink, however, is missing from the Pink Office this week, off visiting family and doing the vacation thing. But this made me think of her - and also made me giggle a little - so, this one's for you, P.

More weekend, please.

I had such a lovely day.

It's the first day of spring, of course.

Mags and I had a nice lie-in, enjoying the sweet spring breeze coming through the window. We snuggled, read email, eventually I dragged myself out of bed. And then we went to Jen's for brunch, which was wonderful. Jenny has this remarkable group of people with whom she surrounds herself, and I'm really honored to be a part of it. There were almost 40 of us there this am, and I stayed a lot later than I'd planned. I always get kind of anxious in groups of people I don't know very well; there's a core group of her friends that I know, but being me I generally forget people's names (I remember stories, ideas, faces; I suck with names). And then there's always a bunch of different, if fabulous, people who I don't know, and that always makes me a little nervous. But it was lovely, of course. I met some great new people, had good conversations with ones I'm coming to know, and had a generally very good time.

So did Mags! She got to come with me today. She met Jen's puppy, Crazy Eddie, or as he is sometimes also known, Eddie the Neurotic Dawg. They were instant BFF. Like, seriously.

Picture it: Durham, North Carolina. A glorious spring day in 2010.

Eddie: Let me in!!!! Let me innnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!! I'm trapped outsiiiiiide!!! I can't see you if I'm outside!!!!
Maggie: What's with him? 
Eddie (clamors through the opened door): Helllllooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi! You smell like a dog, strange new redheaded woman I've maybe met before. Wait! Wait! You smell like THAT dog!! Hi, Dog!!
Maggie: Hi. I...wow. You smell fun. 
Eddie: You're my new best friend, okay? 
Maggie: Okay!! 
Eddie: Let's play! Let's play! Let's play!!!
Maggie: Tag! You're it!! 


And then much wrestling and wagging and joyful tap-dancing ensued.

Jenny's ex-husband's new girlfriend came over later, with their three big dogs. There was a lot of sniffing and marking and jubilant giddy play, until everyone got a little overstimulated. New girlfriend and I distracted them for a while and wore them out a bit more. We went in, and poor Maggie was at the back door being all "save meeeeeee!!!! They're crazy!!!" so she got to come in and hang out with the humans, being that she is all calm and dainty and respectful of small people who are scared of her but end up making friends with her before too long.

I so very love my dog.

She was totally worn out by the time we got home. She's slept like a big furry log pretty much ever since we got home.

I had an agenda for the afternoon - work out, shower, blow dry, go to Starbucks and do some work until it was time to meet the crew for dinner. The residents have been going out monthly for whomever's birthdays are that month, which is mostly an excuse to go out to dinner. We had a really good turnout, and a heck of a lot of fun. There was a good mix of folks, good conversation, and a lot of tomfoolery.

Tomorrow will have to be more productive. But today was really quite lovely.

Happy spring, everyone!!

Rainy Saturday

Today was not super productive...I'm cool with that.

This is our Second Look weekend. Now, see, in the cluster of ridiculousness that is the Match, you interview at a program, and you get the interview day experience, so often people go back for a second look to get a more informal view of what the program is like. We here at Baby Blue started my intern year trying to consolidate that experience, so that the kids that did come back could get the best bang for their buck. So we have this weekend when we try to get everyone to come back at the same time, and try to organize things like tours of the state hospital, a real estate tour, case conference, and lots of face time with the residents and faculty. This year, it started Thursday night with a dessert for the applicants and some members of the PGY1-3 classes (not including me, because I have class on Thursday nights now).

Yesterday was, like, holy cow. I started the day...well, I started the day by realizing it was 57 degrees in the apartment and that the heat was out. It took some fussing, but I figured out it was the circuit breaker and fixed it, but needless to say between the getting home ridiculously late Thursday and the cold apartment, I didn't sleep so well. So there was a triple-shot mocha involved in my morning as well. I co-led one of the small groups ("small" being something of a relative term here, I'm noticing. They're, like, 30 students. Mine were 10. But there were still pterodactyls around when I went to med school, so...) for the second year medical students, ran back to the unit, got to rounds late (which was planned), did a discharge, scarfed some lunch, saw my therapy kid, and then went and was part of the panel discussion for the applicants. I had another patient at 3 who took until about 4:30 (I anticipate this about her), then I tried to get as much of my shit together and paperwork done, etc, as I could tolerate before heading off to the dinner party at the chair's house.

At which point it was a monsoon. I mean, really, the standing water was amazing. And of course the chair lives out in a more rural area where "only part of our road is paved" (we estimated about 10 feet of it). So Scott rode over with me, preferring to let me and Joe the Jeep traverse the rivers of mud instead of his decidedly non-4WD car with bald tires. Shortly after we got there, Annie's husband showed up and got his car very stuck in the mud in front of the house. I offered to make an attempt, but, no, no, we've got it, burly men, blah blah blah. So, okay. I wandered off, talked to people, schmoozed a bit. And when they came back in, having failed with all of their manly brute force, I offered again. You know, before they called AAA.

I? Am from Chicago. Where we get stuck in the snow all the time. I got behind the wheel and had their car out in under two minutes.

The party itself was a very good time. I had a lot of fun, both with some of the applicants as well as with my friends. It was a nice excuse for us to hang out in a fairly informal way on the department's dime. Scott and I cut out around 10, which was of course some 16 hours or so after I'd left my house that morning.

Today was much more laid back. We had a brunch for the applicants at one of the fancy hotels near the hospital (so, you know, 30 miles from where I live) and it was really quite lovely. After that I ran a couple of errands and wandered over to Starbucks, where I met up with Matt and we were so very productive that I'm not sure he ever opened the textbook he brought with him. I did manage to get a little bit of work done after he left to go hang out with another friend of his, but decided my table by the door of the 'Bucks was too cold and I left and wandered back to my house.

After that...hmm...I know Maggie and I must've done *something*...in fact, I did accomplish a couple of things, although not as much as I would've liked and nothing work related, but got some important stuff done nonetheless.

Tomorrow is all mine. I have no particular Super Bowl plans (I'm not much of a football fan, but, I do sometimes go to these things and socialize). I'm foreseeing some grocery shopping, a little note writing at Starbucks, and some reading for my class....

...probably along with a nap and some catching up on my DVR, because next week's going to be chaos again.

Love Thursday, practicum

Sorry I never got a post up yesterday. There was just a whole lot...badness at work, family stuff, one of the skinny ladies fell and cracked her noggin...I didn't leave the office until almost 7 and I didn't get home until well after nine and then had to eat and finish (write) the H&P for the admission I did yesterday morning and the system kept booting me off.

But, also, I had someone very important to meet between leaving the office and leaving the hospital.



So, this is the latest addition to our department family. He arrived Wednesday, along with his little brother (they're one minute apart), who was unavailable for pictures but who is also doing just fine. Fell solidly in love with this little guy. Can't wait to meet his brother.

I also have a new niece to meet when I go home. And within our department, counting these two and the other baby who was born yesterday, we have 11 babies due in the next six months.

Just awesome. And totally adorable.

Mars

I made a skinny girl cry today.

So I'm on the eating disorders unit now. I'm covering for Mike this week and Sparrow next week. And then I'm back for a full month in June. It's an interesting thing, to be up there. It's a whole different planet, really. With very underweight, constipated little Martians.

When I decided to go into psychiatry, I'd originally planned on being an eating disorders doc. I haven't abandoned the idea, but I think that it might be more in the context of trauma. Which is an interesting thing at the moment, because our inpatient unit is really a weight stabilization unit. Which means we tend to get the severe anorexics, who tend to be more on the OCD spectrum. What we tend not to get up there are the bulimics, who tend to be more normal weight, and also have a higher correlation with a history of trauma. They're generally more borderline-y, less inflexible, and I tend to understand them a bit better (duh). The anxious, perfectionistic, rigid anorexics make no sense to me. And because they make no sense, I have a harder time figuring out how to work with them in any sort of useful way. Because the program is so structured, too, I have a hard time figuring out exactly where the therapeutic part of my job is and where I fit into the picture.

The staff is pleasant. My attending is awesome. There's an NP on the service now, too, whom I've known for a while and like very much. I actually really like about half my patients, and the others are tolerable.

But we had this family meeting this morning. And for whatever reason, I identify with this girl. Yes, she can be a pain in the ass, but I really do think she's working hard. And I listened to her parents sit there and give her all sorts of mixed messages about what she's worth to them. She regressed a lot. It stressed me out.

But the crying and yelling and throwing of non-injurious items didn't actually bother me. I have a high tolerance for that stuff. She called one of the staff members a bitch. I laughed. The staff member got huffy and walked out. I was like, really? This isn't about you. She's just being a brat because she doesn't have the ability to say what she's actually trying to express. And if that's the worst thing I'd get called by a patient, cool. But no, she wanted a response, she wanted to push the staff member away, she accomplished what she was trying to do. So the staff member walks out, I kept talking about how we believe she can do this, we know it's hard to tolerate, etc. I made a couple of extra interpretations. By the time I walked out of the room, the patient was able to give me a little humor.

So, you see the difference, there? I tolerated the affective storm without reinforcing it, and we connected in some small way. The other technique? Puts up walls. I agree with the idea that you need to set limits about the way people treat you, but come on.

So I'm back up on the unit later, and the staff member comes to me and is just like, oh my God, that girl, blah blah blah. And I was like, oh, dude, she's terrified, etc, etc, but the staffer couldn't see past the obnoxiousness. The staffer was also incensed that the mother (of this adult woman) didn't say anything about the name calling. I couldn't control the eye roll on that one.

And then I made some comment about the eating disorder being a life-long illness, that you can be in recovery but you're never recovered. And the staffer starts arguing with me about that. And finally ends with, "well, it's controversial."

Uh....no, it isn't.

This annoyed me more than anything up to this point. She says later, "I just think people need to have some hope. By this time, the unit nurse and my friend John had joined the conversation, and were both like, nah, we see people up here over and over. We've seen people relapse after 20 years. Which, I have, too. You can be in recovery, you can be really strong in recovery, but you can't ever take it for granted. Because the moment you aren't looking? It will kick your ass, just because it can.

Seriously, lady. Why are you working with this population if you have no desire to figure out what's really going on, here?

Argh.

Fortunately, John rescued me and made me leave the unit and then bought me a cup of coffee. I'm not sure he consciously recognized the intervention, but let me tell ya, it was so exactly what needed to happen right then.

Much better

Today has been not nearly as crappy as yesterday.

I started out the morning....well, first of all, I started the morning without a headache, so that was a win. And then today was the Housestaff Council (like Student Council, but for residents) had our annual holiday charity Brunch with Santa. We collected donations for Ronald McDonald House, SECU house (like RMH, but for families of adult patients), Toys for Tots, and the NC Food Bank. It was a RAVING success. Over 250 people. Over $800 raised. Over 350 toys and over 350 food items collected. Hard working community and resident volunteers. And the restaurant we had it at this year was just awesome. We got the whole place to ourselves, which was fantastic. The atmosphere was wonderful and festive, there was a great turnout from the Psych department, there were many of my friends' children playing and being adorable. I got great pictures. It was a wonderful way to spend the morning.

Plus, there were Marines. In uniform. Wh0 - sadly - were probably way too young for me, but were still scenic. (Okay, mostly it's the uniform.)

I went home after that and played on the computer and snuggled with my dog and knit a little, and then I got great news - I'm an aunt again!!! My wonderful friend Bianca from back home, after two days of being a super duper trooper in labor, had a little girl today. She's a wee bit early, but then, I was born at 35 weeks, too. Welcome, little one!! Cannot wait to meet her.

And, of course, take lots and lots of pictures. Natch.

So then I got this Facebook message from my friend Syd, who noticed I had just posted, and was like, can you babysit? And since my dinner plans tonight had turned into coffee plans tomorrow, I was like, yeah, sure. Her usual babysitter flaked at the last minute, and she'd called a bunch of people, and then saw I was on, so, here I am.

Her son is...I'm going to say two. Could he be three? Yeah, he might, but I still think two. And he's completely adorable. We played Thomas the Tank Engine and read a bedtime story called Dog (he was having trouble picking a story. So I saw this one and suggested that the dog - this HILARIOUS big lab they have, whom I also find completely adorable - wanted to hear that one. So we did). And then, he was not crazy about the idea of going to sleep, and was clearly tired, but a little upset that his mom and dad weren't here (not that he'd admit that, it was very cute), so we snuggled in the rocking chair for a while until he was mostly asleep. He was out in like five minutes, of course. I kept going an extra five for good measure.

It was just the sweetest thing. He had that great little boy smell, like shampoo and Dreft and, I don't know, snips and snails and puppy dog tails or something. And was all warm and cuddly, and I was sitting there thinking, wow. I can't believe she's actually going to pay me for this, too.

So now I'm hanging out by the baby monitor, on their computer (which is so much cooler than mine), thinking about how very much this makes my uterus ache. Five years ago? I was kind of thinking I might not ever want kids. Like, I could be the cool aunt. These days? I'm thinking more about how my eggs are getting old. Tick, tick, tick.

Okay, the ticking is still fairly faint. And, honestly, I do NOT want to do that alone. So a husband would be the first order of business. No, wait - boyfriend comes before husband, right? It's been a while (never) since I've had a functional relationship...

Silence, part two (take two)

So, here's the thing.

There's this "silent protest" going on at work. Because...um........okay, I'm not entirely sure what we're supposed to be protesting. The idea, I guess, is that there are things about our residency that aren't perfect. And if we continue to recruit people to the program, then nothing will ever get fixed. So, instead, a couple of my cohorts are promoting that we should abstain from all contact with the prospectives that are filing through in small, black-suited droves three times a week.

I......I can't even enumerate all the things wrong with this plan.

Let's start with, they're tweaking things at our program all the time. Two, our program? Pretty much rocks. We work hard, harder than most psych programs, but we get solid training as a result. They listen to us, they support us, we work with good people and we get a very broad range of experiences. Three, if none of us were to do recruiting, then we would end up with poor quality residents in the next class. 3.5, if you don't like the kind of people in the residency, you're shooting yourself in the foot by not having a say in who comes in next year. Four, this leaves a significant burden on those of us who now have to pick up the slack from those who aren't participating. Which means, for example, I'm interviewing every week and attending between two and four recruitment events per week. Five, the people who are "protesting?" Are the ones who don't want to get involved to effect change, and in fact are resisting the proposed changes the hardest. Six? Don't think the administration isn't well aware of who's in the pit up to their elbows and who is standing on the sidelines whining.

To name a few.

But beyond that, the principle of this whole thing irritates me. I mean...the thing about a silent protest is, no one can hear you. And don't misunderstand - I'm all for civil disobedience. This country wouldn't be where it is right now if it weren't for a tired black woman on a bus. But to do nothing and expect that to cause things to change? Um, go back to elementary physics, my friends, and talk to a man named Newton....

I'm the first one to point out that you cannot apply logic to an irrational situation, which this clearly is, but come on, people!!! There is absolutely no logic in this!

And, we do this. We, as humans, we want people to "just know." We don't want to have to tell our husband what we want for Christmas; instead, we buy into this notion that if we were important enough to him, he would know us well enough to get the perfect gift. But here's the kicker - no matter how important someone is to you, no matter how well you know them, you still can't induce telepathy. And let me tell ya...the sooner we let go of this notion, the better.

No one can read your mind, so you have to tell people what's in it.

The thing that is really pissing me off, here, is the reluctance of those complaining to do anything active to fix the problem. And I get it, I do. It's easy to whine, to be unhappy, but it's scary to try the unknown, even if it might be better. But it's irritating as shit to the people around you, especially when they're trying to help and you just keep pushing back.

Here's the thing, folks - there's a lot of truth to the adage about how if you aren't part of the solution, you're part of the problem. And in refusing to become part of the solution, in my humble little opinion, you forfeit your right to whine about what's not working. You can either complain, or do nothing, but you can't do both.

So I'm irritated about this situation, obviously. But I've decided that being pissed off about it is also not part of the solution. I'm not entirely sure what *is,* yet, but I'm working on it.

One day closer to Friday

I'm so freakin' tired...

The consult service, at least, had a reasonable day. I'm sure we'll get slammed tomorrow. I spent a lot of time fighting with a particular medicine service about why high sodium, dehydration, and a white count could still be making my patient delirious, even though she'd already had antibiotics...so, uh, maybe you should give her some fluids. Even if it means tying her down a little. I mean, soft restraints, not ideal, but dying? Less ideal. Seriously, people, why am I doing your job for you? Remember, I'm "just" a psychiatrist.

In better news, my dad is home from the hospital. Which is making *me* very anxious, because this afternoon they were like, "we need to do surgery!!" and then like an minute later were all, "Never mind. We're discharging you. Go see your real doctor." I'd been trying really hard not to "interfere" to that point (SO difficult...I know enough to get freaked out by everything). But at that point I was like, "GO CALL YOUR CARDIOLOGIST. RIGHT. NOW." Which he did. And said Cardiologist - whom I learned Cardiology from - was okay with them discharging my dad. Him I trust. So, okay.

Still. Bleh.

One nice thing, though, about all of this - when I heard the whole surgery thing, I went and told the people I needed to tell that I might have to bolt in a hurry. Everyone was like, no problem. Do what you need to do. We'll get it taken care of. Don't even worry about it. I also brought up with most of them that I might need to have my knee scoped in the near future, and got the same response.

Back at the Emerald Palace, I neglected my abscessed tooth for about six weeks. By the time I actually went to a dentist, he was like, "Oh, holy crap!", started me on a course of antibiotics before he'd even really look at it, and sent me to an endodontist for the root canal because it was too complicated for him. I think I went to the dentist post-call, but when I tried to take an afternoon off (on Anesthesia, who, of course, were like, yeah, get out of here, hope they give you the good drugs) to have my root canal done? I was "abusing the system."

So much better here. I really like the people I work with, and it's nice to know they've got my back. And not because they're sticking a knife in it.

Sunday, in bullet points

* Went to work this morning. Not horrible. Finished up at Starbucks around 11:30.

* Came home. Ate lunch. Tried to nap. Didn't so much work. See above, re:Starbucks.

* My dad's in the hospital. Probably pneumonia, unless it isn't. Either way, he's feeling pretty good. Stress echo tomorrow. And probably an upcoming post about why you shouldn't sit around for a few hours waiting for chest pain to get better (Yeah, Dad, that one was aimed at you).

* I did something else this afternoon. I so no longer remember what the hell it was.

* Went to State Hospital with Maggie. Hung out with Peng and Matt, who were both moonlighting there today. Peng and one of the interns were hitting golf balls on the side lawn when I pulled up. Matt and I had a nice chat. Maggie was REALLYEXCITED about pretty much everything and ate more than a few acorns.

* Had a pre-interview gathering tonight with Sparrow, Rene, and Julius. Also five candidates. Several dog people. Much showing of phone pictures of various pups. Good time. Too much food = good leftovers. Four words: Guinness Stout Chocolate Cake.

* Talked to Sparrow for a little while afterwards. Miss seeing her as much as I perpetually seem to think I used to, even if I think that was really only in like the one month we were neighbors.

* Talked to my mom. Also my dad. Status quo.

* Damn, I'm tired...

Sunday night

I'm up way too late on a school night again.

I had SUCH a productive day today (finally!). Mags and I got up this morning, bummed around for a bit, and then I went to Starbucks and spent more time on paperwork. Which I finished. Seriously!! I'm totally caught up!! You know, until tomorrow, when I get behind on my notes again... Anyway. Then I made it back to the gym for the first time in almost 2 weeks. I picked up some lunch, came home, and then....wait for it...I cleaned. No, like, I unpacked and stuff! You know, it's only been six months since I moved back here. And this morning, if you'd come to my house, I would've made you stand on the step, unless you already knew me well enough that you were at this point required to love me. Now? The first floor still isn't awesome, but it's clean enough that I'd let you in my house. I'd even invite you to sit down.

Crazy, I tell you, crazy.

This evening we had a dinner for the prospectives who are interviewing tomorrow (it's recruiting season again...). It was at a pretty nice place down the way from the hospital. We had six prospectives, two spouses, and four of us. It was a pretty good time actually. And I have leftovers easily for two days. I had a really interesting time talking to one of the gals and her husband, who's a high school teacher and had some great stories to tell about his students (his wife was like, "When I was on the Adolescent unit, we discovered that we do the same job"). Plus there was chocolate. And then I went to Whole Paycheck and picked up a couple of things I needed and spent the whole time being "that person" on the phone with Veronica, who has nearly convinced me that I need to write a book called Queen Nut in the Nuthouse. Don't steal that, it's mine.

Anyhow, y'all, it's been a good day. And now I'm hoping for a good night. Because I have an early patient tomorrow, and then? It's gonna be a long week....the only night this week I expect to be home at any reasonable hour is Friday. Oy...

Falling back

It's November!!

Today was one of those weekend days when I need another weekend. Coverage today was fine; there were some glitches, but, it wasn't super horrible. I still haven't finished my ECT consult notes, but, I'll get them in the morning. Because right now? Bed. I got four hours of sleep last night, even with the time change.

Tony and Cleo's was a heck of a good time last night, though. It was the usual crew - Sparrow (who is in yesterday's posted picture, twirling with a sparkler, with a sloooow shutter speed) was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz; completely adorable. Rene was a very tall and kickass She-Ra. Tony was a cop, Cleo wore a jingly elf costume. Faye was Lady Gaga. Ruthie wore her Naughty Nurse costume we actually bought for her last year (I forget why she didn't come...). Eva was a pregnant nun (she's very gravid at the moment), and her husband was a vicar. May and her boyfriend came as Bugs Bunny (her costume was awe-some) and Elmer Fudd. Veronica was Ugly Betty. We had a pair of bees (Fritz and his wife. She had a real costume, Fritz had face paint and a shirt that said, "Bee"), an awesome 80s hair band rocker, a belly dancer. Wayne's brother and friend came as Bernie Madoff and the Sham-Wow guy, respectively. I? Went as Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love, passion, and opportunist costumes (I repurposed my bridesmaid's dress from Peng's wedding). But I do think the best costume of the evening was Scott, who came as a remarkably accurate Sigmund Freud.

Seriously. Nothing in the world more fun than a room full of drunken psychiatrists.

There were lots of fun pictures, including a bunch of sparkler-related hilarity. There was good food, good conversation, and good people. You can't ask for much more in an evening.

But it was a late evening. And of course today I got up at 5 and went in to work. I left there around 10 and went to Starbucks and wrote notes until 2, because they're painting and sanding in our clinic, which does not mix well with my allergic, asthmatic self. And then I went to Whole Paycheck and was on my way home to do laundry and consult notes and Peng called, so I stopped by their new house (AMAZING!!!!) and saw pictures from their honeymoon, and my "I'll stay for a half hour" turned into me staying for three hours. But, again - good company, good people. What can you do?

Never a dull day...

So, this morning, I'm in the resident workroom, and Scott (who's night float this week) points out this chief complaint of a patient in the ER that neither of us can quite decipher. It says, "AMS: MSC OD." Okay...altered mental status. An overdose on something. We throw out a couple of guesses, and we finally give in and look at the chart. The triage note reads something like this:

"19 year old female found by EMS on [major street near the hospital]. Initially reported to be unconscious, but was alert by the time EMS arrived. Patient was found outside Marble Slab Creamery. She states that she works there, and broke in to the store around 2am. Patient was found covered in chocolate ice cream..." Later in the notes, it says, "in ER, patient noted to have chocolate all over face and bilateral hands."

I love my job.

Packing

It's what I'm doing.

Beach tomorrow!!! Beach! Beach! Beach!! We finally reserved a house. It's going to be a little more expensive than the one I'd initially planned on, but it's a lot nicer as well. And still not exorbitant.

I am feeling a wee bit guilty, because I was going to take Maggie with, and now am leaving her at home. But the dog sitter will spoil her rotten, so...still. She would've enjoyed it. And I'm going to miss her.

Scott and Julius and I are hitting the road midday tomorrow, which means I have to be at work super early to make sure I'm done by noon with absolutely anything that needs doing (we're planning to leave at 1, so I'm aiming for noon). Peng is a goddess and said she'd cover anything that had to be done in the hospital (i.e., orders written), since she has late afternoon patients and has to be there anyway. So the boys and I will get to the coast, get to the house, get things settled, and most of the rest of the crew will come after work.

It's going to be lovely.

Beach! Beach! Beach!