And someone IS home!  Apologies for the extended absence; the end of intern year was busy.  And then I just decided to take a break and do other things.  But now I'm back, with what will be random posts about whatever I feel like talking about.

The beauty of being on nights is getting to watch ridiculous TV, guilt free.  The guilty pleasure of the evening is RepoGames.  It is fantastic. 

That is all I have to say tonight.

I have a super-good excuse for not blogging for a long time... first, I was on vacation.  Then, every time I tried to get on my blog, it made my internet stop working.  I have no idea why.  Our tech guy is working on it.  For now, I come to you from a loaner computer. 

I've made enough progress on my "secret" project to give you a little update. There are still some finishing touches that need to be put on, but I'm not sure when they'll get done, so here ya go! We left off with this...

Any idea what it is yet?

Taking shape...

My garage became a workshop... car got booted to the driveway.  And I bought a circular saw.  And still have all my fingers...

Figure it out yet?  About this time I realized attempt #1 was too small... So back to Lowes I went to buy more supplies, with a new set of plans.

The newer, larger version...

I hope you've figured it out by now...

Painting some trim (which hasn't been put on yet...)

Primed

Painted, roofed, and (mostly) shingled.

Did you know asphalt shingles have fiberglass in them?  My hands do now...

This will be its home.  I didn't want it to sit on grass because I didn't want the bottom to sit in soggy grass when it rains, making it wet and rotten...

So I dug a hole.  And saved the grass to be moved elsewhere in the yard.

Then filled said hole with rocks, that I picked up from other places in the yard.  It took LOTS of rocks...

Hole full of rocks.

Then I put Jake's new house on the rocks... Andddddd I'm done!

Almost... I still have to put his name and house number (yes, I do realize how ridiculous I am) on it, and add the trim (which has already been painted).  I really need a miter saw to do the job correctly...

So there you have it... my first (and second) attempt at dog house construction.  The first one I started that was too small is going to another dog (who will fit better inside).  If being a doctor doesn't work out, I could probably make a career of making dog houses...

I think I'll stick to doctoring.

When I was in college, we worked on a lot of biochemistry lab reports and papers in pairs.  We divided the responsibilities, and mine usually included formatting the paper.  This involved playing tables and images, deciding on the number of columns, layout of the title, colors, paragraph headings, etc.  And, invariably, no matter how early we started working on any given paper, we were ALWAYS up at 4 AM the night before it was due, perfecting things.  And I was always tinkering with formatting.  And by tinkering, I mean obsessing.  And by obsessing, I mean yelling at the computer, throwin goldfish at it, getting a high squeaky voice, and sometimes cursing (gasp!).  Amy, Tom, anyone wanna back me up on this???  Formating was the bain of my existance, but when it was done and right, it was the difference between a crap paper and a work of biochemical beauty. 

I'm heading to Atlanta for the American Society of Sports Medicine annual meeting soon, and am working on a poster to present there as we speak.  I have about half of the text written.  But I can't do more because I CAN'T PICK A COLOR SCHEME!!!!  You'd think that would be the least of my worries, given that I need to have it done by, say, tonight.  But I have to get it right! 

The writing part it pretty easy, and ultimately pretty worthless.  Being as I've been to many a poster presentation sessions before, I have an idea of how they work.  People walk up to your poster (because it's beautifully formatted, and stands out), then read the title, and then say, "Huh, interesting.  Tell me about your case".  And then you tell them while their eyes glance over the colors and pictures and any words you put in bold and/or red. 

In reality, all that really matters is the formatting.  And having an interesting case to start with that people want to hear more about. 

I'm off to sort through more potential colors... I'm on green and blue right now... it's a possibility.

This weekend, I and 6 other residents ventured to Cleveland, OH to take part in the Ohio/Michigan Tough Mudder.  Never heard of the Tough Mudder?  Check it out at http://www.toughmudder.com/!  Basically, it's a 10-12 mile (I think ours was about 11) military style obstacle course with over 20 obstacles including walls, ice baths, barbed wire, and electric shocks.

We all drove out the night before because, really, who wants to wake up, drive 4 hours, then run 11 miles?  No one, that's who. 

The forecast was overcast, high of 60, and chance of rain.  60 sounds nice, until you are trying to warm up after jumping in a sub-freezing fluorescent colored ice bath.  Then it sounds cold. 

The instructions told us to arrive at the parking lot 2 hours before our scheduled start time.  That sounded a little excessive, but we did it and we glad we did!  The line for the buses to take us to the course was HUGE.  They had school buses in groups of 5 shuttling people the 15 minutes from the parking lot (of a huge factory of some sort) to the course.  There, were proceeded to check in, get marked with our numbers, check in bags, and try to warm up.  Then it was a short climb over the first of many walls to the start line... (yes, you had to climb a wall just to get to the start...)

Then we huddled with about 600 other people in our wave, said the Tough Mudder oath, and were off!  To summarize the next 4 hours, it went a little like this...

Run through mud.
Climb over something.
Run through water.
Jump 25 feet off a platform in to water.
Go through a tube.
Climb over something slippery.
Get electrocuted
Run through mud
Climb over something
Crawl under something.
Run through water.
Climb over walls.
Run through mud.
Get electrocuted.
Finish.

Here's the evidence that there was mud!

This weekend it was 70 degrees, I was outside all day trimming trees, building things, and playing in the yard.

Today, it snowed.

Huh?

Granted, they were just flurries, didn't stick, and the ground didn't even get wet.  But, STILL.  It was cold enough for water to fall frozen, from the sky.  Not acceptable for April.  I'm already in spring mode and that's how I want to stay.  I think it's supposed to warm up by this weekend.  Hopefully this cold snap will break and all falling water from here on out will be melted. 

And since I slacked and didn't post on Sunday or Monday, I will give you a once sentence synopsis of the last two days...

Asphalt shingles wedge in your hands like tiny needles.

I've been trying to slowly give Jake (oh, BTW, I got a dog, in case you didn't know.  His name is Jake.) a little more freedom at night and when I'm out running errands.  So I took a jaunt to Lowe's (like my 5th of the day) and the grocery store, and left Jake out on his own.  I came home to this...

One more rotation is in the books.  Intern year is now officially 10/13ths over.  In medicine, it's important to be precise.

I also head to the wonderful world of non-call block starting tomorrow.  Meaning no call, free weekends, upcoming vacation, and not very many late nights.  It's gonna be awesome.  I've got a lot to do in that time...  here's whats on the list for this weekend.

Finish secret project
Paint kitchen ceiling and hallway
Paint deck lights
Trim giant tree in front yard
Pick up stones and plant grass along fence
Weed
Pull up old bushes
Plant new bushes
Hang pictures
Do laundry
Finish poster for presentation

That shouldn't take much time......

Every once in a while on a call block, we get this beautiful thing called a golden day.  It means you're not on call, and you don't have clinic, so all you have to do is see your patients, go to noon conference, and pretend to be normal.  It's a glorious thing.  Today was a golden day.  And it went a little like this...

530: Wake up.
540: Wake up again.  Take shower.
615: Go to work.
815: Go to breakfast.
1045: Finish seeing patients.
1100: Admit new nursing home patient.
1200: Noon conference.
100: Go home and clean.
200: Drywall man comes to fix hole in ceiling.
300: Nap.
330: Lowes to get paint, wood, grass seed, a shovel, curtains, floor samples, nails, and other stuff.
530: Eat dinner and drink iced coffee.
600: Cut up big fallen branch with saw.
615: Build secret project... well, part of it.
730: Unload dishwasher and clean basement.
800: Learn to use new leaf blower.
900: Book hotel room for Tough Mudder.

And now, it is time to watch HGTV and go to bed.  I lead an exciting life.  But first, a glimpse of my secret project...

I think we've all experienced Blinking Cursor Syndrome.  When you have something to write, want to write, and all you can do is look at the cursor on the screen, hoping that the words will magically appear.  But they don't.

Well, that's what this blog has become for me over the last few months.  I would say that I've just been too busy to write anything, but that's not true.  It doesn't take that long to write a post, whether it's about medicine or anything else.  I think the problem is that I always want to be profound, interesting, and engaging.  Which is admirable... but some days just don't have that in them.  And I feel like this blog is supposed to be about me and my life in residency, which should involve a whole lot of writing about actually being a doctor because thats how I spend most of my time.  But so many of my posts this year have been about other stuff that I stopped writing all together because I felt like it wasn't an accurate portrayal of what my life looks like. 

So, here's the deal.

I'm just going to write something every day.  About something.  And post it.  The more I write, the easier it is to write.  So I'm going to ban the blinking cursor and just put some words on the screen.  Maybe a picture or two... 

Bear with me and hopefully something good will pop up now and then.

Peace out,
Kari

You may be wondering if my momentum from the first two weeks in my new house have continued over the last 8 months of working 60-80 hours a week.  Well, I would say it has slowed but not stopped.  Here are some update pics of the major rooms, move-in day compared to now, and the projects still to go!



Move in day... very yellow.



I'm digging the crooked light fixture



Love the big window.



Today



Slightly after move in day...

Painted, got a bed, added ceiling fan

Curtains, shelves, etc.

Move in day... empty.

Move in day... note the missing outlet covers.

Today, walls painted, mirror up, new(ish) bedding, cat.

Today: Bedside tables, white ceiling fan.

Today: Stuff on walls, curtains, lots of sunshine (it was nearly 70 today!).

Move in day: Wooden fireplace, pink/orangy walls, big picture window

Move in day: Kinda tunnel-like, missing outlet cover.

Today: White fireplace, new sectional, coffee table, rug.

Today: Bookshelf, picture window, entryway.

Move in day: Green metal cabinets, broken sink hose, old linoleum floors.

Move in day: lots of bisque appliances.

Today: White cabinets, new stove, trash and recycling, new faucet/hose, new hardware, new light fixture, old floors are still there.

Today: Shelf painted white, wine rack, extra counterspace, homemade window treatment, awesome mixer.

A few weeks back, another resident and I had the opportunity to serve as the IAFP Physician(s) of the Day for the Indiana General Assembly.  Basically, you hang out at the state capitol and treat another with urgent or emergent medical problems.  There's a little medical office with supplies and an exam table, and you get a pager so you're not tied to the office if there aren't any patients to see. 

Things were relatively slow that day medicine wise, so we spent most of the day wandering around the capitol and eating free breakfast from the Indiana Soybean Alliance.  No, really, the ISA provided a delicious (non-soy based) breakfast for Senators, Representatives, their staff, and apparently a couple of "you don't look old enough to be a" doctors.  Go figure.  Drug companies can't provide free pens because they might skew our prescribing practices, but the Indiana Soybean Alliance (and about 100 other interest groups) can provide free breakfast, and maybe some informational pamphlets, to our lawmakers.  Hypocracy if you ask me.  And yes, I did take an ISA pen off the table.

Anyway, part of being Physician of the Day is that you are introduced in both the House and Senate when they convene.  The Senate's meeting for that day lasted about 2 minutes, and sounded more like an auction than lawmaking.  But it was certainly interesting!  Our stint in the House was a little more dramatic.



Excuse the sideways-ness of this picture.  In trying to fix that, I almost threw my computer on the floow, so I decided to just give up.


So, one of the perks of being POD is that you actually get to stay on the floor of the House (or Senate) while they're in session.  Really no one other than the Representatives, the occasional staff member, and the Minister of the Day get to do that.  Normally, I'm sure that's a pretty pointless perk.  There's a gallery that any Joe Schmoe off the street can sit in and overlook the session... and the day we were there, there were a LOT of Joe Schmoe's sitting up there, as well as a lot standing outside the doors of the House.  We just so happen to have come on a day that the house was voting on "Right to Work" legislation, which deals with whether or not an employee can be required to be a member of a union.  I don't really get unions all that well, so I don't have a great opinion of this legislation.  I do know that a LOT of people were very worked up about it.  Looking at the debate (which lasted about 4 hours that day, involved a fair bit of yelling, chanting, and some stories that made absolutely no sense), in the pure sense of a debate, I would say the republicans (who wrote the legislsation) won, hands down. 

Either way, it passed, to later be voted on by the senate and signed by the govenor.  It was very exciting.

I think this was a slightly atypical day as POD, given the high profile legislation that was being voted on.  However, I still think it was a cool opportunity and would love to do it again!

Peace out,
Kari

PS.  Yes, I do realize it has been over a month and a half since I posted anything.  I'm terrible, I know.  I have lots of things to share, though, so be on the lookout!

After living in North Carolina for 4 years, my winter weather wardrobe was somewhat depleted when I arrived in Indiana.  All fall, I was looking for a pair of winter boots since I was told there' lots-o-snow up here near Lake Michigan.  Pretty much the only specification was something that will keep my feet warm and dry without weighting 47 lbs.  I ended up with the Sorel Suka II.