I was on call today.  Note: this was my last call day of my first (of five) block of medicine.  Woot.

Anyway, it was apparently a bad day to be a lung today.  People were dropping lungs all over the place!

One guy had 1000cc (that's a nalgene bottle full for the visual people in the crowd) of bloody fluid drained from his right lung.

One guy had a pneumothorax that collapsed his left lung by at least 50% and had a(nother) chest tube put in.

One guy had pneumonia.

One guy had a pulmonary embolism to his left lung (that I assume came from a clot in his leg).

One lady just couldn't muster the energy to take deep enough breaths to keep her oxygen up.

One dude was already missing a whole lung because they took it out because he had cancer.  His other lung was a little full of fluid.

One dude has smoked since he was 9 and has a touch of COPD (flashback to NC).

And another guy had an infection in his leg after his friend branded him with a wire hanger that was heated in a bonfire.

Okay, you caught me.  That last one has nothing to do with a lung... but I just found it too amusing not to share.  I think it was supposed to look something like this...


It did not.  Note to self:  Don't brand yourself.  Leave that to the professionals.  Another note to self:  Scars don't come with as great a story when you intentionally gave them to yourself...

Let the restrained chuckling commence.

I have a confession to make.  I've been an exercise slacker.  Back in February I was really getting back into decent shape post-ankle surgery.  I could easily head out on a long ride or trail run a few times in a weekend and feel great!  Then at the end of February (while trail running) I jacked up my ankle again, and was grounded for another two months.  Since then, I've never really gotten back in the groove.  Between being frustrated with my lack of fitness, and being uber busy house hunting, graduating, moving, going to Italy, moving again, and starting residency, I've been sporadic at best in the exercise department. 

I KNOW that once I get back into a groove, I'll stay there.  But it's hard to do that when you work at least 6 days a week and don't get home until after 7.  So I decided to give myself a little motivation... I'm signing up and training for a half marathon in November.  It won't be the first I've done, but it will certainly take a little more discipline to train for this one.  But I need some motivation!!!

The other thing I've been super-slacking about it riding my bike.  I don't know the roads, and don't have a lot of time to go out for any amount of time.  And I'm really good at making excuses.  So another goal is to get out on the road. 

Today I was going to do one of those two things, but last time I tried to run during duty hours (between 7a and 7p, when I am responsible for my patients, whether or not I'm in the hospital) I got paged when I was a mile away from home and had to bolt back to call back, then head back to the hospital to see someone.  I didn't want to play that game today.  So I decided to hop on the trainer in the basement and take in a movie while riding.  Not only did I get my spin on, but I watched Vertical Limit and decided I want to go to Nepal for a month, traverse mountains, and take care of sick people.

I think I can pull it off...

Anyway, I'm trying to get back on the horse... errr, bike... and get back into shape.

So far, so good!

Peace out,
Kari

There is a small sidewalk behind my house that goes from the gate next to the driveway around to the deck.  At least, that's what I was told.  Although it was hard to find under a thick coat of weeds.  In an effort to make my back yard more presentable, I wanted to spruce up the sidewalk by... finding it.  And then fixing it, but mostly finding it.

I didn't have a change to take a picture of the weed garden before I brutally assaulted it with a gallon of Round Up.  It didn't survive.  The problem was, all the dead weeds were EXACTLY where all the live weeds used to be... peeking up through the bricks with roots shoots at least 47 inches into the ground.  At least.  See below...

Lovely, huh?  I definitely want to hang out near that sidewalk.  So after weed killing, the next step was to get rid of the weeds.  Which involved hours and hours of me, some gloves, and a little hand rake tool.  digging out each weed between eat crack, one at a time.

Note the difference between weeded and not.  Also note again the empty flower bed.  With the exception of that big green plant... I couldn't figure out if it was a plant or a big weed, so I left it assuming no one else would be able to tell (and therefore judge me) either.

And, about 2 weeks after starting, I finally finished pulling up all the weeds.  I did in fact have to go back and spray the beginning again because the weeds were starting to come back... But don't worry, I stopped them.

Here's how it looked yesterday after I finished:

Phew.  It's been a busy week!  I had visitors and a birthday and worked and went out a lot.  The boxes of leftovers kept stacking up in my fridge and I wasn't making a dent in any of them...  Not a bad problem to have I suppose.  Here's some of the happenings of the week:

Sunday night a few fellow inters and I went out for pizza to celebrate the end of rotation #1.  We got two pizzas... two huge pizzas.  They were delicious.

Monday I was on call, admitted a couple people, went to a code, discharged some people, and didn't get home until 9. 

Tuesday Ian was in town so after work we went out to a delicious Greek place for dinner.  We also hit up Best Buy to get me a new wireless router because mine up and died.  Bonus:  My iPad now actually connects to the internet.  Did you know wireless router technology has improved in the last 8 years???

Wednesday was my birthday!  As Courtney told me, I can now round up to 30.  Thanks for that, Court.  After work a group of people went out to a Mexicans place for dinner.  This town really needs to work on their service of large groups... it's been kind of dodgy.  Anyway, we ate and drank and were merry... and were too full for the delicious German chocolate cake my friend brought me!  So sad.  Then we went to see Harry Potter (ahem, all people on call blocks... way to represent), which was excellent, even if it did give me nightmares of being chomped to death by a giant snake. 

Thursday night my dad was in town!  He was on his way to Chicago with a friend, and they stopped by on the way through.  We hit up Best Buy (again, for the second time in a week) to upgrade my TV!  Did you know TV technology has improved in the last 8 years???  I don't have to squint anymore.  It's glorious.  After Best Buy we went to an Irish restaurant for dinner, where I indulged in some sort of cheese and beer appetizer, Guinness stew, and Chimay (Belgian beer).  Yum.  I could eat any one of a number of traditional Irish dishes every day and be happy... mostly because they all involve mashed potatoes.

Friday I was on call again, and managed to sneak out by 8 after being slammed from about noon on.  Hey, if I've gotta be there, I might as well be working and learning something.

I worked this weekend also, although got out at reasonable hours both days.  I did manage to get a page in the middle of a run (yes, I was running with my pager), and booked it home to call the hospital.  Plan: foiled. 

Today I have the day off!  So far, I've slept in past 5:30am, drank coffee out of a breakable mug, ate breakfast on the couch, watched The Today Show, did laundry, went for a run without my pager, and made up my guest bed (which, PS, is still an air matress... but it's got linens on it!

On the docket for the rest of the day:  weeding, mowing, Lowes (maybe buying plants, maybe buying paint, maybe just window shopping), making a real dinner, finishing a couple projects that are half done.

And I'm off!

PS.  Spell check just pointed out that 1) you must capitalize proper nouns, and 2) I enjoy a multicultural dining experience (Mexican, Irish, German, Greek, Belgian, and Italian all in one post...)