That’s all I really have to say. But it makes me smile. I’ve missed him.
A.J. Comes Back Today! :-)
2
Monthly Archives: June 2005
My friend Rich
This is Rich:
He’s in med school with me. We’re taking a class together right now, and today we were out in Belleville, IL (about 30 min from St. Louis) to learn all about Basic Life Support and Advanced Cardiac Life Support. We had an hour off for lunch and we were going to go to this little Mexican place Rich knew of, but they were closed due to a "Boil Order". What is that you may ask (I certainly did). Well, it means that the water pressure in Belleville was not high enough to ensure that contaminants would not leak back into the fresh water – thus all tap water becomes potentially contaminated and people are advised to boil it before using it. This also makes restaurants close down, since they can’t very well clean anything in dirty water. So everyone ended up going to Jack-in-the-Box instead.
Mani-Pedi
I got my very first pedicure today… see:
I told my sister yesterday that I planned to get my nails done today and she told me I should get a pedicure too – what a great idea. It was really fun and relaxing and now my toesies look great in my flip-flops. I had to do a lot of running around errands today (groceries, Costco, etc.) so I decided that to make the day more fun I would treat myself a little bit. So I did the mani-pedi, and I got a new skirt at Target (purple, longish, really comfy and pretty and I can wear it to work or on days off), and I bought some smoothies and watermelon at the grocery store. It was fun and set the happy carefree tone for the rest of my day.
I’ve been packing my suitcases for my 3 months away and there’s so much to bring – everything I’ll need for work and then all the comfy fun clothes for the time off I’ll have too. I think it’s the shoes that take the most decision making power (since they take the most room and eat up my weight limit too). I love all my shoes and I will wear ALL of them if I have them, so I have to figure out which ones I will wear the most (or which ones I’ll miss the most). Oh the decisions.
For now, I’ll take a break from all that and do some studying. I’m learning Basic Life Support and Advanced Cardiac Life Support tomorrow (long day) so I have to study that a little as well as do questions to keep my mind fresh for my Step 2 tests that are coming up in 2 weeks.
Starbucks will make you fat (but only if you let it)
So I had a little lecture on nutrition today and part of it was an exercise designed to get us to think about the things people consume each day without really thinking about how many calories they are eating – like when someone stops at Starbucks for breakfast on the way to work. Now, I’ve actually looked at the nutrition details for Starbucks fare in the past and was astounded at the shear number of calories that can be packed into a little pastry (or a big drink). I decided to look up the nutrition information on my favorite pastry, the Marble Loaf:
 |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
So yes, eating one piece of Marble Loaf counts for about 20% of my total calories for the day (assuming a standard 2000-2500 calorie diet). Good thing I usually share it with A.J. 🙂 And I can order one of my standard drinks – Venti Unsweetened Black Iced Tea (and then add Sweet-n-Low) for no additional calories. If it’s cooler weather and I go for my favorite Grande Vanilla Steamed Milk (no whip) I tack on 330 calories (120 from fat). I should start ordering my drinks with nonfat milk – that would reduce it down to 230 (0 from fat). And finally, if I am in one of my rare iced mocha moods, I get 180 calories (20 from fat) with a Grande Nonfat Iced Mocha without whip. Adding the whip gives you 130 more calories, 110 of which are from fat! Good thing I like iced tea. 🙂
Graduation 2006
Just a little note to let everyone know that A.J. and I will be graduating in May 2006. His hooding ceremony for law school is on Thursday May 18, and my hooding ceremony for medical school is on Friday May 19. This is all going to happen here in St. Louis – so if anyone wants to take a little vacation and come to see us graduate next year we’d love to see you!
Ruby
My sister got a new puppy a little bit ago and sent me some pictures… and since the puppy left a comment for me I figured it was time to put her pictures up here too. I haven’t gotten to meet her yet, but in two weeks I’ll be back in Seattle and we’ll have lots of time to play.
Jill Cook, MS IV
Doesn’t that just look cool? So different from MSI or MSII or MSIII – it’s in a league of it’s own. 🙂 And that’s me now because I just got done with my last shelf exam for my last required rotation of my third year of medical school. From here on out it’s electives, pediatrics, fun times!
As an aside – it was actually kind of fun to show up for my exam this morning because the WHOLE third year class was present for exams today. See, throughout the year we have all been assigned to different rotations with different schedules and so we’ve taken exams at all different times. But today was the end of the year for everyone so we were all there. I haven’t seen some of my classmates for a long time – the ones I never had a rotation with at the same time – so it was like a big reunion. And now I’m heading off to a class picnic in the park and dinner out with some friends who I won’t be seeing for the next 3 months since I’ll be back in Seattle.
Where to wear scrubs
So this is something I ran across while reading the Parade Magazine that comes with the Sunday paper. It was in the "Ask Marilyn" column, which is usually my favorite part of Parade. This particular question (and her answer, especially) really hit a nerve with me because it is so far removed from the truth. Since I don’t want my friends and neighbors to be misinformed, I decided to post my thoughts on the subject.
First, here is what was printed:
A question has been bothering me ever since I moved to a city that is home to some of the finest hospitals in the world. When I use public transportation, I see people wearing scrub suits to work. Is this acceptable? I had thought employees were supposed to change into scrubs provided at the hospital in order to leave outside germs at the door.
You’re right. I’ve noticed the same phenomenon in other cities too. If those people are hospital employees, they are endangering patients and should be reported to hospital authorities. Another growing problem is scrubs being stolen and worn in other places (such as the subway) to convey an impression of respectability. Anyone seen wearing scrubs outside an appropriate environment should be regarded with caution.
And now my rebuttal:
Scrubs are worn to protect the wearer from getting their personal clothing contaminated by the wide variety of, shall we say interesting, substances that are present in any medical setting. They are NOT worn to protect patients from "outside" germs – that is what sterile gowns and gloves, masks, head covers, drapes, and all those other coverings are for. Those are the items that medical personnel don once they arrive and CHANGE each time they attend to a new patient.
While it is true that hospitals have problems with scrubs being taken by employees, I assure you that it is the rare person who steals scrubs "to convey an impression of respectability" in other places. Another point is that while most hospitals provide scrubs for their surgeons and other physicians, nearly all other personnel (nurses, technicians, transporters, etc.) purchase, maintain, and launder their own scrubs. These people are merely dressing appropriately for their occupation, much as businessmen wear suits and Burger King employees wear those embroidered shirts and visors.
So, if someone in scrubs approaches you on the subway and tries to get you to take your clothes off by playing on the power of the scrub suit, please don’t be fooled or intimidated. But please don’t condemn the run-of-the-mill scrub-wearers you see outside a medical setting simply based on their attire.
Portland, here I come!
I got a letter in the mail this weekend letting me know that I was accepted to do an away rotation at OHSU this summer!! I’m still waiting on the UW to get back to me, but this acceptance boosts my spirits about being accepted at the UW too. At OHSU I got my first choice, Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism, and I’m so excited to be able to do this!! I’ll be working with kids who have congenital and acquired endocrine problems – so common things like diabetes mellitus, slow growth, and early or late onset of puberty.. but there’s also the less common more exotic conditions like adrenal insufficiency, the multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) syndromes, and maybe even inborn errors of metabolism (PKU, galactosemia, glycogen/lysosomal storage diseases) – but those might be handled by the genetics department, we’ll see.
Anyway, I’m excited to see my schedule working out well so far. Now I just have to figure out where to live for the month I’m down there… c’mon brasten, help a girl out – won’t you have a place in your beloved Portland by August? 🙂
My Favorite Quote (in my favorite color)
"Go confidently in the
direction of your dreams.
Live the life
you’ve imagined."
– Henry David Thoreau