Half-Way Through!

This July 1 marked the official half-way point for the med-peds residents in my year! Of course, it's a momentous day by all accounts since all the new interns start, the previous interns are catapulted from a junior position to senior responsibilities, and the 3rd year "categorical" pediatric or medicine residents have a momentary pause as everyone now greets them with "12 months left!" - likewise the fourth year med/peds residents like my roommate Kate.

Before we hit that day, the pediatric and med/peds residents had a retreat day off to themselves to catch our breath. It started with some standard, but pretty funny, team-building exercises. We learned some interesting things, such as that our quietest resident Marte (middle above) was a rugby player in college (!) and Jane (below left) who wants to do clinic medicine because she's not a crises sort of person started out in emergency medicine.


You may also be encouraged to know that if you happen to get stranded with Lena, Marte and myself (above) in Northern Canada in the winter, when your plane crashes and leaves you with a very limited number of supplies - you're very likely to survive according to the special forces Army whiz that put this together. You'll have to build a fire, wear Crisco as face protection and maybe even eat it.... but you'll have good company. (It helps to have lived in Minnesota and met -40 degree weather.)





On the other hand, if you get stuck with this team of Jane, Chris and Zain, your chances are somewhat slimmer. You'll either have to hike 20 miles by compass with a map that is of questionable value since you have no idea from where you started, or you'll die in rapidly after chocolate-whiskey fondue has given you a temporary high, followed by alcohol-induced vasodilation, causing you to rapidly lose all your body heat. Nonetheless, you'll STILL be in good company... :) (They took this defeat with good humor.)



On to more serious things, Drs Javed and Edwards discuss the merits and demerits of private practice vs pediatric hospitalist work.... Dr Javed is our newest neonatologist and the assistant residency director for pediatrics. Dr Edwards heads up the pediatrics hospitalist service.

Dr Schultz - head of the pediatric ambulatory clinic and newborn nursery service - taking in all the banter and commentary on how times have changed!

The Drs Nulty -

the truly delightful husband & wife team that head up our combined internal medicine / pediatric program. They fall into the category of relatively few people who qualify as being both admirable and imitable!

After a session on legal topics (really nice ones like depositions and being called to court), lunch with the attending panel discussion on Life After Residency (closer for some than others!), we headed out bowling.

Only three of our 7 med-peds residence made it this far in the day, but we scored quite well, Randy and Zain (behind me) making up the bulk of the points! I think I came in not-exactly last.

That rounded out June, my month on the floors. It was a tough but interesting month. I directed a team of two juniors and 2-3 medical students. For the medically or encyclopedic minded, our cases ranged from central line sepsis in a baby with congenital nephrotic syndrome (of the FINNISH type, mind you), failure-to-thrive in a baby with caudal agenesis / sacral regression syndrome who wieghed 1kg above her birthweight at 9 months age, to respiratory failure in a little girl with only one patent nostril ("choanal atresia"), a floppy airway and Freeman-Sheldon Syndrome (one of 15-20 described cases world-wide of this musculoskeletal disorder). At one point every child on our team of 12-16 patients had a complication of a syndrome or cancer - no "average" asthma or diarrhea cases! (Those came later.) We also had some great cardiac cases (all repaired with little post-surgical idiosyncracies)- such as transposition of the great vessels, Tetrology of Fallot and hypoplastic left heart. It was like a board review up close & personal all in four weeks... if I'd just gotten to read about everything instead of working madly to keep up with the lab results!

I was pretty tired by the time July 1 rolled around, but it's a great feeling to come through a hard month pretty well. Like a well-run marathon.

At the end of the month, my friend Rebecca (and her baby Sarah) and I hosted a baby-shower for one of our pediatric interns, Morgan...

It was a fun afternoon to indulge the craft & girlish side of the doctors involved!

So lest you worry when I lapse into long silence, there's always two sides to life in residency. :)

July 12, 2009

Rain & Shine

After all the late winter and spring rains that kept the Peoria River well above the flood level for three months straight, we have finally settled into a gorgeous cyle of showers and sunshine. It's been a lush time for the yard, and work has forced some early risings, so I get to enjoy it at its best! My favorite morning start has been sitting on the front stoop to soak in the sun and a little quiet time...

One morning last month a huge storm had just rushed through. There was such a rosy glow outside that I stepped out to catch some of the post-downpour freshness... and saw this vibrant rainbow!

Immediately, everything running around my mind went quiet. I was in the midst of an especially crazy week on the pediatric wards, somewhat understaffed for the time of year, causing some of the residents to wear multiple hats at once. (Multitasking is not my favorite passtime.) The image of the rainbow cutting through the tangle of powerlines struck me - and all day stayed with me, reminding me of how faithful the Lord is in the midst of the most mundane or self-contrived chaos.

To save my sanity I've put in alot of time in the garden, often before work. There's a great deal of entertainment some mornings, depending on who is up. This particular morning, Kemba came out with me and calmly watched all I did. Being one of the most gregarious cats I know, Kemba's main fault is getting under foot and hand while I'm trying to weed. Occasionally he things sitting ON the plants is the best way to hold my attention. It is, briefly - while he is ousted.

With Kemba's antics comes an audience of blackbirds and - this morning - squirrels. They hover on the power lines and comment on every move he makes. The squirrel, well out of reach of anybody, proceeded to give me a half-hour earful on what he thought of Kemba - loudly, with all sorts of pitches and possibly expletives, punctuating certian points with a bounce and emphatic gesture of The Tail. I had to capture it (though poorly) on film because of his singular perch and opinion, all alone in the expanse of sun and blue.

As of yesterday, the garden is voluminous and very happy. Quite by accident, I located a large zucchini as I was doing a last survey before dinner. We already had the grill going for chicken and veggies, so on went fresh zuchini - with onions and peppers! The results were excellent.

Today has been a pleasantly rainy day. I went into clinic (where I'm supervising the interns this month, teaching them the basics of the clinic routine), only to find there was no work to be done, no interns so teach. It's a new schedule that I'm still trying to learn.... So I wrapped up some paperwork and headed back to my attic retreat for a few hours. That's why your getting this blog update today! :)

With the exception the a few interruptions by the airforce jets, it's been deliciously quiet.

I love raindrops.... on windows, on umbrella's, and especially on flowers, so I went on a browse in the garden...

Then the sun returns...

It's a great month in Illinois.

July 8, 2009