A REFLECTION

Today is my last day at the clinic, and, even though I have only been there one month, I am going to miss it. I imagine that my feelings right now are much like those that form during a child’s early developmental milestones. I am both the parent and the child in this scenario; the clinic is the first of the many “baby steps” I will be taking in the long journey of medical training, yet at the same time I am sentimental and nostalgic about the fact that I will not be returning to this place that I have anticipated for so long. This was my very first rotation, and I am going to miss the physicians and the people I have met, no matter how inappropriately sentimental I am being right now.

As much as it saddens me, I understand that it is quite imperative that I move on. I have realized that I practically know absolutely nothing when it comes to the vast amount of information that I am expected to know. And this is no exaggeration or understatement. In fact, if I could convey exactly where I am on the student doctor development map, let’s just say that “I closed a wound with sutures!” is about equivalent to saying “I pooped in the potty like a big girl!” at this point in my career.

I am looking forward to the future and am resolving to be more diligent about studying and reviewing material during free evenings so that maybe -- just maybe -- I will one day get to graduate to big girl panties.

UMBRELLA DAY

I like rain these days, mainly because it means that our yard is getting watered and mother nature is picking up the tab. During the early months of the summer, watering the yard became an annoying daily chore. A few days in the blazing heat without water caused the yard and foliage to take a rather abrupt downward spiral; this was a lesson we learned when we returned from vacation.

Jerm, particularly, is a perfectionist when it comes to our precious yard, which makes me happy. I know that no matter what our house looks like on this inside, the yard will always be pretty. I say this because I don't think that we've entirely grown out of lazy college student phase yet. (Let's be honest here: Will we ever?) It was so much easier -- and less embarrassing -- to use studying and test schedules as an excuse for a messy house. I am just finding so many other things to occupy my time, from doing absolutely nothing to reading to sewing to looking for things to do that will excuse me from cleaning. Honestly, I don't really care about having a messy house. That is, until someone comes over. : )


So remember the cute wedding favor that I mentioned earlier? Well, here it is -- a Joe's-like cup with a picture of the couple with their dog and cat. They are huge Stillwater fans, and I think that this was a really great idea. So great that I thought I would share it.



I've got to get off here and grab a quick bite to eat for lunch and then I get to go watch a vasectomy.

Don't worry, I won't let you guys know how it goes.

HI, MY NAME IS...

Okay, I confess.

I haven't been blogging as a blogger with a blog should. (How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?), and I accidentally left my camera on the last time I was uploading pictures. This was sometime early last week, which means that when I wanted to use my camera Saturday morning, it was dead. Finito. Kaput.

This is very unfortunate, because I have been running around a lot these past few days. So much that I still haven’t charged the camera battery and am only going to post highlights. (ithoutway the icturespay!)

Wednesday:
Jerm went to the Dr. because he injured his ankle playing ball the evening before. Fortunately, it is only a nasty high ankle sprain. Unfortunately, he is unable to run for 4-6 weeks. I am pushing for water aerobics as a substitute, but I don’t think that we’re on the same page.

Thursday:
Nothing special.

Friday:
Jerm came to the clinic after work, and we left immediately for a wedding in OKC. Once the camera is back in working order, I am going to show the wedding favor that we received at the reception. It was a GREAT idea!

Saturday and Sunday:
Wow. These days blur together, mainly because of one thing that consumed my entire weekend – the last two books of the Twilight series. Now, I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I was going to get into this series, but I happened to rent the move from a local Redbox (Have you heard of Redbox? One dolla movies, yo! www.redbox.com) and it peaked my interest. And so I started reading them this summer and finally borrowed these last two from a friend. And. They. Are. Addictive.

So if you are like me and have an unhealthy habit of reading like a freight train with no breaks once you find a really good book, I advise that you block out a whole week of your life to cover this series. After all, I managed these last two books in a little over two days. Sleep is so overrated.

Aside from this temporary addiction, we got in so late from the wedding in OKC that I skipped my early morning Saturday run with the intentions of going on Sunday. (Ha!) I woke up and headed straight to a sewing event at the same local quilting shop where I made my pillow from the previous post. The event was for a philanthropy called The Hugs Project. This group makes care packages and cool ties to send to troops overseas. What are cool ties, you ask? Well, if you look at Smiley Lady's neck in the picture below, you will notice that she has a bandana-like thing around her neck. This bandana-like thing is filled with polymer beads that absorb and retain water for an extended period of time so that they, in essence, cool off the body via evaporation. And now I know how to make them!


The great thing about this project is that I got to practice sewing straight seam lines while at the same time helping out a noble project.

As for the rest of the weekend….well, let’s just say that I had a date with a vampire book.

DESI WOK: AN ETHNIC DINING EXPERIENCE

Jerm and I discovered a new restaurant recently that I think we will now throw into the possibility pool for future “Where should we go eat?” moments. It is called Desi Wok and is located between Yale and Sheridan on 41st street around the Promenade area. They also have a new restaurant in Broken Arrow at the corner of 71st and Aspen, per their website. They serve both traditional Asian and Indian food (even though India is apart of Asia, I didn't know how else to say this. Sorry!), and it is delicious. Since we’ve discovered the restaurant, we’ve eaten there twice. The first time, Jerm got a dish called desi fried rice, and it was kind of like traditional fried rice except it had this super tasty szechuan sauce with a little “kick”. I ordered an Asian dish called sweet onion teriyaki, and, though it was good, the sauce was too sweet for my preference. The second visit, Jerm liked his dish so much that he ordered the same thing, while I tried an Indian dish called tikka masala. It was a saucy, spicy tomato cream dish with vegetables (but you can get it with chicken or shrimp ), served with a side of cumin rice and naan, which is a form of Indian bread.

The average price for an entrée is about $8.00, but the servings are large and worth it. While looking for a picture of the restaurant online, I happened to stumble upon this coupon for a free appetizer with the purchase of two entrees. It expires 11/09. Also, if you look at the pictures of the entrees shown on this page, the one on the right is the tikka masala!
http://bestoftulsa.com/tulsamenus/desi_wok.shtml

I am pretty sure I would have never looked up the restaurant and found that coupon if it weren’t for my attempting to share information about the restaurant online. If you look around on this site, there are also other coupons as well.

Shhhhweet!

A SEWING THREAD

The sewing whisperer (aka Mom) invited me to a sewing class for beginners this past Saturday morning at a local quilting shop. The project: to make a pillowcase.

Now, while any sewing expert might be able to do this with both eyes closed and one hand tied behind their back, I was both excited and nervous. Fortunately, aside from the technicalities of sewing straight lines that are equidistant from their respective edges and a few other things, the sewing machine pretty much does all of the work. Who knew?!?!?!?

Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera were dead (unbeknownst to me until I tried to turn on my camera when I arrived) so I have no pictures of the actual event, but here is the picture of my very first sewing project ever. I made a few mistakes,but I am still very proud!

Here is the material at a closer glance.

The prospect of learning how to make these pillowcases excites me very much because Jerm and I have been wanting to give our bedroom a makeover, but we haven't found a duvet cover that we just love. This complicates things since the color of the paint, curtains, bedding, etc. all coordinate, and we feel like we shouldn't jump start things until we know what color of bedding we want. So this means that, with some practice, I can find material that I like and make my own with coordinating pillowcases and all. After all, isn't a duvet cover just one giant pillowcase anyhow?

Also, I think that I can make the girls some pretty cute and washable doggie bed covers with this kind of information.

I am not sure when, but I am planning on making another pillowcase to match this one. I will try to take pictures and post step-by-step instructions for anyone who might be interested in how to make these. After all, they only require two seams.

Isn't that "sew" awesome? :-)

THE MJ MOBILE

Jerm and I reluctantly woke up at 5:30-ish on Sat morning to go on our usual long Saturday run with the Runner’s World training group. I am convinced that one of the consequences of shamelessly plugging our efforts to run a half-marathon to the world is that accountability has somehow been simultaneously forced into our subconscience. I waited and hoped with every ounce of my body for Jerm to sleep through the ten-millionth alarm that had gone off that morning, but we miraculously dragged ourselves out of bed. I am always glad after the fact, but not so blippity much beforehand. Here is our weekly pic of the run; we decided that "normal smiley face" was getting old.

We finished the run by 7:30, and I decided to beat the mid-day crowd by taking my car to get an oil change. Call me overly-analytical, but when I dropped my car off for the oil change, the young lady who took my keys had a pretty blank disposition. However, when I went to pay for the oil change, I swear that she had a twinkle in her eye and a tiny smirk on her face. I couldn’t place it, but something was different.

I hopped into my freshly oil-changed car and was greeted by one of those little cheap, thin, plastic mats that is placed on the floorboard to prevent oil and crap from getting all over the place. Except I noticed that it was in my passenger seat, and that is when I started to piece some things together. As a courtesy, they vacuumed my floor boards and to do this, they picked up everything off the floor and placed it in the seats. This realization immediately lead me to ask myself, “What the heck could possibly be in my car that might be odd or funny?”

So I started to look around, and I noticed a box of tampons. Okay, maybe funny to a pimply-faced, teenage boy who wants to jokingly leave them in the highly visible outer mesh portion of a male friend’s backpack, but not so much to another female human being. So what on earth could it be?

And then I saw something that was highly likely the culprit. Michael Jacksonwas sitting in my back seat, in the form of JEREMY'S multiple CD collection AND a special commemorative Time magazine edition.

If these people working that day were anything like me, they are sick of the whole Michael Jackson hype and ready for it to pass. So, like I would have done, whoever vacuumed out my car probably saw the stuff, snickered/guffawed/whatever, showed the ol' coworkers, and then decided that this lady was some Michael Jackson freaky deak.

Yay, for the MJ Mobile.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

Disclaimer:
I am warning anyone who reads today’s post that it is going to be an indirectly “preachy” one. I can’t help it -- I am out of things to say, and, in the future, it will be my responsibility to educate and counsel (in essence, nag) my patients about reaching and maintaining a healthy weight so that their body functions as optimally as possible.
*************************************************************************************

I was at a family function last weekend and considered drinking a “normal” can of pop, which means not diet, which is what I usually drink.

That is, I was considering until I noticed that drinking one twelve-ounce can of this particular brand (Shasta) would grace my body with an extra 200-calories for the day.

Yikes! That’s more calories than a ½ c. serving of Bluebell ice cream.

Nahoooooo, thank you.

This lead me to wonder, “How many calories are in a can of Pepsi or Coke?”

The answer: 100 and 97, respectively.

So let’s do a hypothetical scenario. I am a person who drinks one twelve-ounce can of 100-calorie soda per day, every day out of the year, in addition to my usual meals and snacks for the day.

This is an additional 36, 500 calories per year, and since one pound is gained with an excess of 3,500 calories, this means that this innocent twelve-ounce drink can potentially lead to a 10 lb weight gain in one year.

And that is only one. This does not factor in a 20-oz bottle or drinking more than one.

Knowing this, I think that I am going to stick to my diet soda.

After all, it leaves more room for dessert. : )

DUST COVERED INTENTIONS

You know how we all have lists of things that we want to do before some imaginary finite point-of-no-return in our lives?

Well, among many other things, I want to move on from heat’n bond iron-on hemlines.

In other words, I want to learn how to sew.

I have attempted to learn once a few summers ago on a “special” sewing machine that my mother lent me for a very brief period. By “special”, I mean that my mom got it at a garage sale and that I had to breathe just the right way to keep the thread from getting jammed in the machine every. single. time.. By brief period, I mean that frustration led me to send the sucker back to the sewing machine whisperer, who, incidentally, had no problems with this faulty, uncooperative textile machine.

It couldn’t have possibly been that I was an amateur and expected the dexterity of many years experience to grace me with its presence in just a short period of time.

Nope, pretty sure it was the sewing machine.

So, anyhow, I am announcing this goal of mine for several reasons. The first is for accountability. After all, if I make it known to the two people who read this blog then I have to follow through, right?

The second is to extend an invitation out to any family member (ahem, sewing machine whisperer!) who would like to teach me. Consider it an opportunity to bond, to make lots of cute and fun things, an excuse to eat (two or more people constitute a party as far as I’m concerned!), or -- this is the best reason of them all –an homage to the Industrial Revolution.

Oh, I just crack myself up.

MONDAY TIDBITS

I’m a bit tired tonight and, therefore, will be a woman of few words, but I just wanted to share that Reasor’s is offering tickets to a free Drillers game tomorrow night for anyone interested. You can upgrade to better seats for $3.00 or $4.00 as well. Not sure if Jerm and I are going, but I grabbed a few tickets just in case we decide we want an inexpensive date night.

Also, for all of you ice cream lovers, Bluebell pints are also on sale at Reasor’s for 10/$10.00, which is a flippin’ sweet deal that is very difficult to come by these days. If you are like me and can’t buy 10 all at once due to lack of self-control, you can buy as few as you like and they still are $1.00 each.

Better hurry, though, the sale ends tomorrow!

JERM AND I RAN FIVE MILES TODAY!

I trained for a half-marathon around this time last year, and I have to admit that while running three and four miles is quite an accomplishment, I start getting real proud around 5 miles. And I mean real proud. As in mention-it-in-casual-conversation proud, or drop-“subtle”-hints-about- my-tight-hamstrings-as-I-am-bending-over-to-stretch-them-a-few-times proud, or shout-it-from-the-proverbial-internet-mountaintop, otherwise known as a blog, proud.

And so here is our post-5 mile pic from this morning.




We are both smiling extra wide because this morning's run was a special event with the Runner's World Tulsa group. It was a Poker Run, which meant that we paid a $5 entry fee to received a card at every mile or so. There were lots of prizes for individuals who receive a decent hand, and I just happened to get a full house. This lovely hand won me an opportunity to pick from some extremely nice prizes. I had my choice narrowed down to a one-hour massage or a really cool New Balance jacket; I chose the jacket because it will last me a lot longer and will be good for the winter runs that I plan to do. Plus, it looks really cool.



This is the closest picture that I could find, but the actual jacket is grey and has orange zippers. The best part is that it retails for $59.99!

Not too shabby for a $5 entry fee, eh?

A LESSON I WILL NEVER FORGET

Today one of the four physicians in the clinic where I am rotating pulled me aside to visit one of his patients who had fallen and sustained a shoulder injury. X-rays had been taken and there were no fractures, but he wanted me to perform a physical exam on the patient and make my own inferences. As I walked into the room, he informed me that he would be watching and that I would be expected to answer a few questions after I was finished.

I tried to maintain my composure, but I was holy crappin’ my way through the exam. I visually examined the shoulder and frantically tried to remember anything and everything that I could about the bony structures, attachments and functions of each muscle, nerve supplies, etc.

When that path of thinking reached a dead end, I decided that I would palpate the patient’s shoulder to see if I felt something that might lead me in the right direction. So I felt and felt and felt and then decided that I might need to compare it to the unaffected shoulder. I moved to the opposite side and felt and felt and felt some more.

When the exam was completed, I thanked the patient and the exited the room, shaking in my heels and preparing to make a total jackbutt out of myself.

And then he asked me something that I will never forget.

“Which wrist was the patient’s watch on?”

I had no idea. I was so focused on the patient’s shoulder that I paid zilcho attention to anything else.

“I do not know, sir.”

And then the second question. “What did the patient have in his front pocket?”

Extended pause.
Gulp.
A little more pause.

“I don’t know.”

And the questions kept on coming.

“What color of shoes was the patient wearing?”
“What about the patient’s socks? What color were they?”
“What color was the patient’s watch?”
“Which hand was the dominate hand?”
“What was written in the notebook that was sitting on the table adjacent to the patient?”
“Did the patient have hearing aids?”

The physician then explained that sometimes in medicine it is easy to focus on the disease process and not see the patient in the process.

This is the kind of stuff that you don't exactly get from textbooks, and I will never ever EVER forget this valuable lesson.

EVER.

REGULAR TUESDAY

I learned last year in a nutrition class that the recommended daily fiber intake is 25-35 grams per day, while most Americans consume only half this amount or less on a daily basis. I have been trying to consciously reach this recommended value by slowly changing my eating habits, and I thought I would share a few fiber-friendly products that I have seen in stores that help make this goal a little easier.

I also thought I would share with you just a few of the health benefits of fiber that you may or may not know.

While you may be lovin’ the golden arches, the golden cholesterol deposits that are infiltrating your bloodstream and arteries aren’t lovin’ you as much, and will likely lead to heart disease. Fiber can help lower cholesterol levels and promote heart health. Fiber hearts you, in other words, since foods high in fiber are usually also low in fat and calories.

The prairie dog isn’t only native to the grasslands of the United States. In other words, fiber is good for your digestive health and can get things moving from one end to the next, preventing constipation and even hemorrhoids.

Fiber puts on the boxing gloves against your Hemoglobin A1C. For some of you, this means nothing. But if you are one of the many Americans who have diabetes and aren’t keeping this value within a healthy range, consider increasing the fiber in your diet. It helps regulate the rate at which food is broken down and, therefore, blood sugar.

Cancer sucks, and fiber may reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. Farrah Fawcett recently lost her battle against this type of cancer, though you might not have known that since Diprivan tends to steal a life, and the headlines, more readily.

Now, onto the products.

FiberOne has cereals and bars and now a million other products, it looks like. As you might have seen on one of their commercials, one FiberOne bar contains 35% of the recommended daily value of fiber. There is even now a Great Value brand at Wal-Mart that tastes just as good, and I would highly recommend it. I tried to copy the link to the pictures for the honey cluster cereal (which is my favorite!), but it is not cooperating. However, if you would like a free sample and a coupon and lots of other information about fiber, copy and paste this link in your browser.
http://freesample.fiberone.com/FiberOneFY10/default.aspx
Sorry, I am having some technical difficulties and am unable to provide a click-and-go link.

Eat a lot of pasta? I have tried the whole wheat kinds of pasta that have a grainy texture but did not like them. This brand has extra fiber and calcium, and I can't even tell the difference between this pasta and "plain" pasta. I am going to be buying this kind from now on!


I like fruit-flavored oatmeal and was slightly disappointed to see that Quaker only offers this high fiber oatmeal in limited flavors, but when it comes down to it, one bowl of this stuff provides approximately 40% of the daily recommended value. I have tried this type of oatmeal in the maple and brown sugar flavor and thought it was pretty good.




I use this stuff in everything, and I do mean everything from cereals, soups, any drink imaginable -- milk, tea, pop -- and even my high fiber oatmeal. This stuff dissolves with a little bit of stirring, and you can't tell it is there, which is a good thing if you've ever tried some of the gritty, yuckier alternatives. Unfortunately, this stuff can get a litle pricey, but, fortunately, there is a $2.00-off coupon on the brand's website. (Copy and paste this link: http://www.benefiber.com/specialOffers/index.shtml) There is also an off-brand alternative(such as Great Value) in stores, though I have yet to try it.

Well, these are just a few products that I have found that have helped make my fiber intake easier. I must warn you, however, that it would be very wise to start slow and gradually increase your fiber intake while drinking lots of water!

KETCHUP BLOG

Sorry I've been slacking in the post department for the the past couple of days. I’ve started a blog that is a work-in-progress and really haven’t had anything interesting to say. (As if anything I say ever really is!)

I rotated my first full day on Thursday, if you count staying until 3pm a full day, and I am discovering that my main challenge is learning the brand names of drugs. I am enjoying the patient interaction and am already relearning things that I have previously memorized and forgotten.

Thursday evening, Jerm and I went running around our neighborhood and, upon my insisting, we took the dogs. Jerm is chronicling our training progress via a photo journal, and these are the several outtakes that we managed to shoot while trying to capture all four of us in the shot.

In our first attempt, Lucy decided she was more interested in Maisie. Maybe it was her cyborg eyes?


We also learned that evening that Maisie is terrified of fireworks. Our neighborhood is out in the country, per se, so they are not illegal. She was shaking and trying to wiggle her way out of our arms.


Third time's a charm? Don't think so. Lucy thought she would lick me in this picture, and Maisie is still trying to escape Jerm's death grip. This is my favorite picture from the night.

After several attempts -- and I'm talking about 15 takes or so -- this is the best picture we got of the four of us. Jerm has it captioned on Facebook as:
Crystalle - 4 miles
Jeremy - 3 miles
Maisie & Lucy -2 miles
They got tired and thirsty so we let them rest at home while we finished out the run.

We took this one after we realized that our pho"dog"raphy (cackle cackle snort knee slap cackle) wasn't going to work out.


Jerm and I both had Friday off. We had lunch with my mom and her family, spent most of the day shopping, and attended a Third of July family get-together on my father's side that evening. Shopping wasn't in the itinerary for the day, but I wanted to find a cute summer dress to wear to a family event on Saturday. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find a dress that doesn't involve exposing boob crack, and I didn't really want to buy a coordinating tank top or undershirt so I stuck with a cute shirt that I found on sale at Old Navy for $4.99. My heart does a little dance when I find sweet deals like that!

Saturday morning Jerm and I woke up at 5:00, then 5:10, and yet again at 5:15, when we finally rolled out of bed in time to make it to our early morning four mile run at 5:45. This is the picture we took after the run, with a penguin friend in downtown.


After the run, I happened to be online that morning attempting to type a blog before heading out for the day's activities, and I got an itch to look to see if my board score had been posted online. I hadn't ever checked before -- and I am not sure what made me check -- but I just did. And what did I see when I got online? "All Level 1 COMLEX-USA examination scores taken on or before June 5th, 2009 have been mailed and are available in your online account under 'view scores'". My stomach did a little turn, I contempated hyperventilating, and then I just figured that, what the hell, I needed to know. So I composed myself and looked. And guess what? I PASSED BOARDS!!!!! I screamed for Jeremy to come into the office, shed a few tears, and let my family members know. Needless to say, the blog didn't get finished.

That afternoon, we packed up and headed out to Fort Gibson lake to visit some family members on Jerm's father's side, and we had a really good time. In fact, this was our first time to be around that side for an extended period of time, and we were basically meeting (or at least I was) some of his family members for the very first time. They are a very nice and warm bunch of people, and I hope that we can get to know them better in the future. I guess time will tell.

Today, Jerm and I headed over to his Grandma's house to celebrate his cousin's birthday so I guess that qualifies this past weekend as a very family-filled weekend.

And I can't complain one bit. : )

HUMP DAY

Anyone know the origins of the naming for this day of the week? I’ve always thought that Wednesday was a peculiar word and wanted to write something cutesy about how it came to be. However, after reading Wikipedia’s take on it, I have decided that I am too much a simpleton and think that I will just post the link. You're welcome for that future question you get correct while watching Jeopardy or Cash Cab.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wednesday

So today was my first day of rotations, and I have to say that I am definitely going to get used to this lifestyle. I found out yesterday that the physician I am shadowing only works half-days on Wednesdays, and I get this Friday off for the holiday. I did a happy, shake-my-booty dance after learning of these two glorious facts. Not kidding, though I might clarify that I learned of these things via the phone and in the privacy of my own home.

I planned to clean house all afternoon. Really, I did. But I had to run an errand to purchase a book for my rotation and take the vacuum in to be fixed. As it turns out, the vacuum wasn’t broken after all. Apparently the spinner-thing (and that’s as educated as I can get with vacuum terminology, folks) quits working sometimes if it gets stuck on something you are vacuuming over, like a rug for instance. Well, apparently there is a reset button that quickly resolves this problem. Guess that kind of knowledge comes to you as you read the owner’s manual, which explains why neither of us knew. Ha.

Tonight I am making chicken enchiladas for dinner, and they’re in the oven as we speak. I am happy that I get to practice being a wifey, if only temporarily.

Now if I could just get that cleaning house part down.