AD-LIB

We all receive the occasional lump of advertisements in the mail with local weekly specials, sometimes containing very useful coupons for everyday household items. Inevitably, however, I’ve noticed that there are always some very interesting, random ads that are just screaming for public acknowledgment.

Though I don’t see much of him anymore, I’ve always secretly mocked hands-free cell phone guy when I see him out in public. I understand the value of a hands-free cell phone while driving, but why – WHY?!?!?! – anywhere else? Never once has hands-free cell phone guy had anything in his hands that could otherwise prevent him from answering a phone, nor does he look very busy. I mean, I could totally understand if he didn’t have arms, but this has never once been the case.

As it turns out, hands-free cell phone guy wasn’t wearing said hands-free cell phone to look cool and authoritative, but instead because he is going deaf. All this time I have been making fun of someone who just needed a little "loud 'n clear" in his ear, who wanted to – for once in his life – be able to not have to ask “What?” for the fifty-millionth time of the day, who wanted to keep the tv volume at a reasonable decibel so that everyone in the house wouldn’t go deaf too.


I should be ashamed of myself. Someone should tell this poor guy that it's not as discreet as he thinks.

FATTY CAKES NEEDS AN INTERVENTION

Okay, so I have a few confessions to make.

First of all, I have not been running once this entire month.

Oh, wait – now that I am typing this, I remember that I did go once or twice, but that is slightly insignificant considering that I am TRAINING FOR A HALF-MARATHON!

I have a truckload of excuses (the monsoon rains that have consumed us, getting off work late, having to drive and cat sit after work, getting home and eating dinner too late to run) but there is truly no excuse.

And that is not the worst of it.

I also have been eating like it is my ultimate lifelong aspiration to acquire Type II Diabetes.

You see, the hospital where I was working for the first three weeks has free food for students. Foods such as granola, and fruit, and eggs, and sausage, and biscuits for breakfast, followed by a buffet of foods for lunch and dinner. These include broccoli cheese soup and mashed potatoes and chocolate cake and coconut cream pie. And plenty of drinks, too, like chocolate milk and juice and pop.

But that is not all.

Remember my multi-cultural dinner in the last post? Well, I ever-so conveniently failed to mention that someone brought Lofthouse cookies to the party. Because we had bananas foster for dessert, not a single cookie was eaten.

These cookies are a crime against humanity: they are soft, delicious, heavenly cookies that induce a drug-like euphoria. They are glorious!


And I ate at least eight of the dozen cookies all by myself, people!

But that is not all.

This week, I am at a hospital that offers free donuts and bagels every single morning.

Free, I say!

And do you think I eat when I wake up at 4:30 so that I can make it to the hospital by 6? Heck, no!!! So I stuff my face with these sugary, carb-filled devil breads not just at breakfast, but also as a mid-morning snack, dessert at lunch, and a mid-afternoon snack.

There are other compulsive, reckless eating episodes that I do not care to mention right now, but I do want to thank all of my close family members and friendds.

So thank you.

Thank you in advance for not mentioning the weight gain. : )

AN UPDATE (FINALLY!)

I want to apologize to my loyal readers who check the blog frequently for updates. Life has been a mixture of things -- boring, exciting, busy, and great -- over the past two weeks.

BORING:
I spent last week at a local hospital on their Pediatric inpatient floor. Unfortunately, there were never more than five patients at a time, and we had several residents on the floor as well. Basically, this means that there was really nothing for us to do, and we spent A LOT of time sitting around. Seriously...we even attempted the "saltine challenge" at one point. Ever heard of this challenge? Well, let me tell you: The goal is to eat six saltine crackers in 1 minute. This may sound super easy, but it is IMPOSSIBLE. I promise -- we all sat around a table and tried it. Don't believe me? Try it. I dare you. Triple double quadruple dare.

Fortunately -- as you can tell by the saltine challenge -- the residents were extremely cool and very nice, which made the boring much easier. Yes, folks, this is what the future doctors of America spend their down time doing. : )


EXCITING:
The hospital experience wasn't all bad. In fact, I was able to attend a delivery and got to "catch" my first baby. Basically, the OB team pulls the baby out and immediatey hands it off to a person so that the Pediatrics team can assess and make sure that the baby is breathing okay and doing well. Well, this past Thursday that person was me, and I got teary eyed. Yes, people, birth is both gross and amazing at the same time.

But I don't have to tell you that if you have children.

In other news, I hosted a dinner at my house on Thursday for a few medical school friends. I am on Peds this month with an exchange student from Poland, and there is another student from Greece who is rotating in our ER. A few of us thought it would be fun to get together and have a multi-cultural dinner. I decided that I was going to tackle fried rice for the second time in my short cooking life. The first time, I made an error that proved detrimental to my final dish: I did not make and refrigerate the rice one day beforehand. This time, I cooked the rice in some vegetable broth and refrigerated it one day ahead. I added some mushrooms, red and green bell peppers, onion, yellow squash, zucchini, carrots, peas, and cooked egg. It was amazing!

On the left is some pan-fried vegetable dumplings in the back (remember when I mentioned these in my last post? Well, I went and got some!), spring rolls in the front; on the right is some cooked tofu in the back and a vegetarian chicken, with the fried rice in the front.


Fotini, from Greece, made this cheesy pasta-like dish...

....and an amazing Greek salad!

Anna, from Poland, made this potato dish with a mushroom gravy.

...and for dessert: BANANAS FOSTER! If you have never had this, you are missing out!

And here we all are! From left to right: Joanna, Kristen, Kristen, Anna, Me, and Fotini. In the front is Sonya and her very cute son, Andre. These ladies are all my classmates from school.


BUSY:
I started working at a new children's hospital on Saturday. I worked today and will be there this week through Friday as well. This hospital is much, much busier than the former one, and we have had up to twenty-seven patients. (Note: there are many more patients than this, but our team of two residents gets assigned a certain number of patients. That may not sound like a lot, but it is -- especially when we have to see each patient and answer parent and nurse questions with new patients coming in as well. As you all can expect, everything doesn't go as "planned" in the hospital, making for some hectic times.) Unfortunately, I have to be there at 6am which requires my waking up at 4:30 to get ready; however, I really enjoy what I am doing. I may not blog next week, and I also have a test at the end of the month so there is a possibility I will not be blogging until October 1st or so. Sorry! : )

GREAT:
I LOVE rotations, so -- no matter how busy or crazy or hectic or tired and rundown I may get -- I am where I am supposed to be.

FAMILY DINNER

Early mornings are giving me a swift kick to the (insert your own word here...c'mon, use that imagination!), something for which I am not prepared. Therefore, I am going to try to get to bed at a decent hour these next few weeks to ease the pain.

This past Sunday, Jerm and I had dinner with his family. His cousin and his wife flew back to Taiwan yesterday, and they cooked us all dinner before they left.

I took pics and will now share them with you.

This was a curry with tofu. I'll let you in on a little secret: I like tofu, but not when it is soft and squishy and in its more raw state. However, it was still yummy.


Pei cooking stir-fry. It was delicious!

This dish was called "barbecue beef", and I believe that they said it was a Japanese dish. (Not entirely sure, though, so don't quote me on that!) I didn't try it, but everyone else thought that it was really good. In fact, the instructions to eat it were as follows: wrap beef in lettuce, add cucumber with a dash of this Asian sauce that kind of resembled a spicy ketchup, and voila!

You see the dish on the very far left? Those were vegetarian potstickers, and they were AMAZING! So amazing, in fact, that I am going to be visiting the Asian market where they purchased them to get some for myself. Seriously -- I loved these!

SHOWERS, SHOWERS, SHOWERS...

I am not sure if it is this incessant rain that has graced us with its continuous presence almost every day for the past week, my daily exposure to runny noses and a Strep or Flu case here or there, or the various commitments that have me rising early and home no earlier than 7:30 each evening, but Team Evans was down and out for the count this past Friday. I came home and crashed for about three and a half hours and was still exhausted that evening.

I feel much better now -- I guess I just needed to recharge.

Saturday I hosted a baby shower for a family member who will be having a baby girl next month. I attempted a diaper cake again, and it turned out okay. I attached various baby knick-knacks and placed the ribbon on afterwards, which looked kind of funky. However, the most important fact is that everything that was on the cake could be put to good use for a new baby.

Remember how I stated in a previous post that I was going attempt to make a marshmallow fondant?

Yeah, right!

I was planning on attempting for the shower, but sometimes self-preservation trumps gourmet. I just figured that the added energy and stress wasn’t worth the possible failure. Instead, I opted for simple. I made a four-layer 9” round cake with buttercream frosting that I purchased at the store and topped it with fresh flowers.


Since I am on a Pedatrics rotation this month, I thought it would be fun to play a game at the shower using facts that I have learned in med school. Unfortunately, I think the game was a little too difficult for my guests, particularly those without children! Though I think that some of them wanted to kill me, most had a good sense of humor about it and, hopefully, learned something that they may not have known.

I will leave you with the questions I made up as well. Hopefully, you will learn something, too!

1. What is a baby's first stool called?
Meconium
2. Which is preferred for a baby's health: breast or bottle feeding?
Breast -- Mom passes on her antibodies, which protect the baby until he/she is able to make his/her own.
3. When does a baby's soft spot (fontanel) close?
Usually by 12 months of age.
4. In what position should a baby sleep in order to avoid SIDS?
On the back!
5. Babies spontaneously smile in early life. When do they develop their social smile, a response to seeing other faces or smiles?
2 months
6. The umbilical cord should fall off by what time after a baby is born?
Usually 2 weeks
7. A car seat must be rear facing until an infant is how old AND what weight?
12 months AND 20-lbs
8. What is the first immunization given to a newborn in the hospital?
Hepatitis B
9. What temp is considered a fever in a newborn/early infant?
100.4
10. What is the medical term for spit-up?
Reflux
11. At what ages can you introduce solids to an infant?
4-6 months; start with cereal at 4 mos and then add baby food at 5-6 mos
12. When can you give a baby whole milk?
NOT until they are 12-months old!
13. By what age does a baby usually hold his/her own bottle?
Usually by 6-months of age
14. List one risk factor of an infant born to a mother who has smoked during her pregnancy.
Prematurity (and subsequently underdeveloped lungs), low birth weight
15. What does NICU stand for?
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

A BRIEF UPDATE

Let’s see if I can put into pictures what has been going on since my last post.


Me: Well, hello, wittle guy! His wittle baby smile melts my heart. I listen to his heart and lungs and then proceed to the look in his ears, eyes, nose, and throat.

Little guy: WHAT THE HECKLES?!?! Silence to wailing in zero-point-one seconds.

Little guy’s Mom: Do you know when the doctor will be in?



This is Tiger. He and I are having plenty of time to get to know one another this month since I am “cat sitting”. His owner is on a med school rotation out of town and so we are spending a few hours together each evening after I get off work from the clinic. Poor guy gets lonely without his owner home each day and tells me about it every day when I arrive. He likes to cuddle and purr and give me cat kisses, even when I am trying to fix something to eat or do some required work for my rotation this month. I subtly remind him with my watery, itchy eyes and throat that I am allergic, but he is undeterred by my abominable sneezes that can be heard two floors down.

I love on him anyway.


This is Jerm's family. In the far back leftt is Cody and Pei. Cody is Jeremy's cousin, Pei is Cody's wife, and they are here visiting from Taiwan for 2 weeks. Most of any Labor Day plans involved them, and this is a pic I took at a local park where we had a picnic.

It was good weekend.

Well, that is all I've got time to update for now. I now have to go study the developmental milestons from birth to 12 months so that I can answer any questions that the resident who gave me this assignment may ask.

EYE OWE EWE

It's been a long weekend and a long "Monday" so I am just letting everyone know that I will post an update tomorrow. I have only been home for twenty minutes this evening, and I am now going to get ready for bed.

Goodnight : )

NOT QUITE PROJECT RUNWAY, BUT...

I am on Day 2 of my Pediatrics rotation, and, though I am not sure that I love it, I sure do like it. It makes me happy when a parent asks, “So how many kids do you have?” after talking with them and examining their child. Then again, I am sure that I give myself away when a parent wants to discuss their newborn’s soft serve-like bowel movements, and I have no idea what to tell them.

I am learning, though.

This past Sunday I kind of panicked about the possibility of my schedule being hectic this month and had this urge to follow through with a project that I saw on Sweet Simplicity’s blog. (I don’t know how to create click-and-go hyperlinks, but I follow her blog which you can see on the sidebar.) I drove to Joann’s fabric/craft store, spent about 2 hours looking extensively for a material that both Jerm and I liked (sending him pics from my phone; he eventually got tired and told me to “just pick out a material that you like”), waited fifteen minutes in line only to find that I left my wallet at home.

Poop!

So thirty minutes later, I had the material in hand to make these bad boys for some bay windows in our kitchen. The quest started at 2pm (driving time and shopping time included) and ended a little after midnight. Oh -- and I successfully threaded a bobbin and a sewing machine on my own for the first time! Woo-hoo!


I love it that I have the flexibility to make curtains for the kitchen. Jerm and I want to eventually paint the kitchen, and this allows us to have curtains until we do so.

Who knows, maybe they'll stay even after we do paint.