A little humor...

One of my study books has an occasional humerous question, humerous mostly because it probably happens more than you think... this was my favorite today.

How can Krazy-Glue be removed if a patient has stuck their eyelids together?

This does present a problem... the two common ways to remove Krazy-Glue are acetone (finger nail polish remover) and ethanol (an alcohol)... both which can under no circumstances be used on the eye...

The answer, incase I got you curious... Irrigation with water immediately... then mineral oil. But sometimes you still have to surgically seperate the lids which is a very difficult and risky procedure.

That's your lesson of the day.

Hmmm...

Last night I attempted to make my first Rachael Ray recipie. If you don't know who that is, especially since most of you have real jobs, tape her, she's great - NBC at 11am central time. ANYWHO... I tried to make the Turkey Tetrizini she made on the show yesterday. It sounded wonderful. But... when I made it, it was just kinda bland. I have two theories...
1) Rachael Ray's food isn't really that good, she just makes her guests say it is...
2) Rachael Ray is a far better cook than I am...
As much as I want #1 to be right... more likely it's #2. I need more practice I guess!

Rose & Korey... or is it Korey & Rose...

The Saga of my relationship with Rose & Korey...

1997
*When I met Korey, we were both 15 and weird not cool in high school kids... but we wer cool in 4-H, so that worked.

1998
*A year later when he brought his new girlfriend Rose with to 4-H stuff, I swore I hated her... not because I had a crush on Korey, but because guys don't have as much time for friends when they have girlfriends, and therefore, I had to hate the girlfriend...

1999
*In July, Rose and I went on a 4-H trip to Washington DC together. She introduced me to her friend Jerry... yay. ;)
*I believe this was the summer that Rose & Korey PROMISED me that I could be their flower girl if they ever got married some day.
*That summer, Korey wasn't at the fair, and Rose & I were practically inseperable, she slept at my head.
*Not only did she sleep at my head, but she liked me enough to know I hated getting up early, so every morning she'd get me a bowl of cereal and a carton of milk for me and wake me up at like 9:30am after she had eaten breakfast and everything. Yay Rose.
*Becuase she also woke up earlier than me every day, she got the news that some fellow 4-H friends died the night before... and she had to be the one to wake me up and tell me.
*We grew up a lot together that summer.
*In the fall Rose & Korey attempted to bring Jerry to a 4-H artsie party in Mora without telling me ahead of time that he was comming... but oops, I found out. But yay for them making it possible for me to see him!
*I made the bowl in socks at Mora Lanes. I won. They all fell down.
*I stood in Rose's field in the middle of the night looking at stars or something, and we almost got stampeeded by cows.

2000
*Korey and I graduated! Yay!
*Rose e-mailed me a lot with problems she and Korey were having. The same problems most couples have when one's still in high school and one went to college. I figured that would be the end of them and my dream of being a flower girl...
*Korey's parents sold their house in Henning so he didn't have a house where he grew up anymore.

2001
*My friend Nick and I took a road trip and suprised Rose by showing up at her high school graduation party... she didn't expect me since I had just gotten home from Isreal the day before, PLUS they live 3.5 hours from me.
*Rose ended up going to Moorhead State instead of the U of M because she'd be closer to Korey.
*They started visiting me in Duluth. At least once a year I think.

2002
*In the spring - he proposed... she said yes.
*Rose and Korey got married in September at the ripe old age of 19 and 20. I didn't get to be the flower girl... something about being too old to be a flower girl... I got to be their maid of honor instead... I guess it's a cooler job... but I still give them crap about it. :)

2005
*They became home owners - and I have a room in their house. :)
*They visited me in Philadelphia! Yay!!!
*I helped Rose learn how to make pillow covers to make cool pillows for their living room.

2006
*On Labor Day they came to see me IN MORA since I got home from Bolivia so late I didn't go to the State Fair.
*Rose and Korey are currently on their first real vacation alone together since they got married. Yay for them!

SEPTEMBER 27, 2006 - HAPPY 4 YEAR ANNIVERSARY ROSE & KOREY!!!!!!!!!


There's a ton more cool stuff about them, but I'm gonna stop now. :) If you know them - share fun stories here.

This post was going to include pictures.... but, blogger is refusing to upload them. Sorry.

Panic

Ok, so I panicked... I decided October 6 was coming too fast - so I changed my Board Exam date to October 12... 3 weeks from tomorrow. A little more time. I really need to get my butt in gear and STUDY... I so do not feel ready. STUDY STUDY STUDY.

FINALLY!!!

Finally... All my Bolivia pictures are up. And my pictures from Leah's Bachlorette party and wedding. Now I can quit worrying about, they're there. Yay. Now I can buckle down and study. Sigh... I hate studying. Nothing interesting to tell you about. Sorry.

Except for this little tidbit from Heather... it's "Talk Like a Pirate Day." So... Argh matey... where's your parrot?

What the heck?

So, I have a textbook size bag that I carry around most days... today I had it with me when helping with school pictures. When I got home and I was looking for my keys, in the bottom of my bag I found a large bread knife. Why did I have a large bread knife? I really don't think I put it there... I haven't even USED a bread knife lately... I don't get it....

Aleathea's life...

What has Aleathea been up to?

*Playing with silly Bolivia pictures trying to get them online (151 are now there of over 500... more to come tomorrow night). Check them out: www.kodakgallery.com/aleathea
*Helping organize children for school pictures days!
*Helping with volleyball and football team pictures
*Applying for temporary jobs at Target and Mernards... waiting on that...
*Working on getting a full time job as a PA... say a little prayer please...
*Studying for the PA board exam... more prayers please...
*My dad advanced me some money, so I owe him 20 hours of work, mostly on his rental properties... mowing lawns, trimming along houses and such, pulling weeds from the sidewalk and driveway cracks... manual labor
*Went to my friend's bachlorette party last weekend
*I met my friend Sheree's little boy Zach... pictured below... he's super cute.

Grrr...

I'm having some mild problems uploading pictures and it is taking much longer than I thought... so some will be up today, but probably not all. Sorry. I have over 500 pictures and it's being really slow.

Settled in back at home...

Hey everyone. So, I finally made it home on Sunday night. My luggage followed about 8 hours later. But, it was at my front door by the time I woke up Monday morning, so all was well. I would have written earlier, but my blogger has been acting up and not letting me post. Wednesday I gave my final grad school presentation and I'M DONE!!! Well, I don't have my paper diploma to proove it yet... but hopefully I get that soon. You need it to get state liscensure. So... in the meantime, I'm studing for the national borads (which I take on October 6)... and I'm dead broke, so I'm working part time doing whatever people will pay me to do. My dad is paying me to do yardwark and painting and such at some of his rental properties. My mom's boss, Linda, is paying me to help with school pictures and such at the photo studio. And I'm thinking about getting a part-time job at the new SuperWalmart about 20 miles from here. I hear they'll hire anyone for whatever hours you say you'll work. Oh, and I'm also applying for jobs and interviewing and such. So, I'm mostly keeping busy. Tonight I'm going to see Sheree and her 6-month old Zach, who I haven't met yet. I haven't even seen Sheree in a year! Then, I'm going my other friend, Leah's, Bachlorette party. I'll be back around sometime tomorrow. So, that's me. As I type I'm working on uploading all my Bolivia picutres to Kodak Gallery... so within the next couple hours you'll be able to check them all out at www.kodakgallery.com/aleathea (along with all my other pictures). That address is also on the right of this post.

Almost done!

SO... last night I was having dinner with Korey and Rose and we were discussing a random topic and...

I said, "I'll have to google it... What did we ever do before Google?"

Korey, "Yahoo."

Anyway...

I finally got home from Bolivia 28 1/2 hours after origionally planned...
I was at home for a day...
Now I'm in Philly to give a presentation on Chagas' disease tomorrow - last hurdle to graduation...
Then I will be home studying until October 6th when I take the national board exam... and at the same time I will be working part time...

On my way home

Hey everyone. I finished out my last week in Bolivia very busy. I'll share more later. I am currently sitting in the VIP lounge in La Paz, waiting for my flight to Miami, which should board soon. I hope. I'm in the VIP lounge because after this flight got delayed... then I wouldn't make it through customs in Miami to my next flight. So he tried to change my ticket. But he changed it wrong. Then when I went back and showed him, he fixed it. Now it should work. I hope. So, because of the hassle, he stamped my ticket that I could sit in the VIP lounge. It's nice in here. Did you know that they supply free beverages, including bottles of water and soda in the VIP lounge. And CNN. I haven't seen news in a month. And comfortable chairs. It's nice. Yay. Ok, our pilot is in the VIP lounge now, so I should be on my way... See you all soon.

Week in review...

Sunday - After wrote Sunday afternoon, we went to the futbal game. It was pretty fun, but in a way frustrating because they faked injured so often, got carried off the field, and then ran right back on. I didn´t think that was part of the game... Oh well. Then we went home and relaxed the rest of the night.

Monday - Well, I got sick during the night. So, I spent most of the day in bed. No, I don´t know what I ate. One of the other volunteers got sick too. Anyway... Also on Monday we recieved "the container." The container is the size of a semi that was s shipped from Kansas by boat then truck a few months ago and got held up in customs until Monday. It´s nice to have all this new hospital equiptment... but it´s a lot to inventory, find a place for, and teach the doctors how to use. So...

Tuesday - I still wasn´t feeling wonderful, so they didn´t want me in the hospital around the patients. So, I got organizing tasks that didn´t require a lot of physical energy. I sorted hundreds of pairs of eyeglasses that were used, donated, and measured to see the prescription. They were all in a big box. So, I got to make someorder out of them. I also did some more work in the library with the new books that were donated. I did something else too... but now I can´t remember what...

Wednesday - I worked a 7am to 8pm shift in the ER and with the inpatients. Part of the day was interesting. Part was slow. Nothing to really write home about though.

Thursday - I went in at 8am and worked until 4pm or so in the hospital. Then we moved a big box of laproscopic surgical supplies into another place and I got to inventory it all. Then we watched The Intrepreter. My first movie since I got here. And I´m a movie person.

Friday - Went into the hospital at 8:30am and around 11am we took off with a girl about my age who had attempted suicide with rat posion. She wasn´t breathing, Before I had gotten to the ER, they had done CPR and got her heart going agian. But she wasn´t doing well. We also discovered that she was about 20 weeks pregnant by the looks of it. We don´t have an ER, so we loaded her in the back of a SUV type vehicle with me, 2 doctors, a nurse, and her husband and drove her, very quickly into Cochabamba. It took about 45 minutes. When we left her there she was stable, but still on a ventelator. So... pray for her, her husband, and the baby. Then, I went with Amy to some other missionaries house and figured out what a bunch of donated medicine was. Because on Monday and Tuesday we´re going a couple more hours out into the mountians to do a clinic for 2 days. Then we went out to dinner for Anticuchos. I´m not sure if I spelled that right, but it´s cow heart cooked on a bicycle spoke like schiscabab. Agian, I´m a horrid speller. Then we dropped off 2 volunteers at the airport and came back home.

Puppy update - they´re starting to walk. Not well, but they are. They look like drunk sailers. It´s super cute.

Halfway...

So, halfway through my Bolivia trip... here´s some updates...

*Bolivia is beautiful. The hosptial is right in the Andes mountians, I see the mountians all day.
*The first week was mildy frustrating because they don´t have PA´s here so the doctors don´t know what I can and can not do. So... all I was doing were the same things Michael, the 19 year old pre-med student was doing. The second week they started to figure it out, so things are much better now.
*Twice we´ve helped another ministry with kid-washing. They bring water out to a community without running water, bathe the small children, and give then a new pair of clothes every thursday. Also, on Saturdays they do it for the street children in Cochabamba. It´s very rewarding even though the kids hate baths and scream the whole time.
*The hospital is still getting up and running, more new things being purchased all the time. Especially the last week because Mike, the founder of Hospitals of Hope, is down here with more funds. So, I´ve also been the manual labor, helping build desk chairs, move book shelves, organize medical textbooks into a library... and other things.
*The puppies I told you about last time... Four of them are thriving and getting fatter every day, they started opening their eyes this weekend. The one we worried about died the next day.
*There are a lot of stray, angry, hungry dogs on the streets here in Bolivia. I think there´s as many stray dogs here as there are squirrels in Minnesota. Anyway... Friday morning I was doing a 12 hours shift covering the few inpatients (I think 3 that day) and the ER with one of the doctors... A 10 year old boy came and an had been attacked by 3 dogs. One of his legs had gashes all over. I got to help take care of him, he was very brave though, barely cried at all. I´ve noticed that here. Bolivians are much tougher when it comes to pain than Americans. It´s interesing how much they can tolerate.
*Tuberculosis is also a big problem here, I´ve seen 2 guys my age with severe TB. One had a big pleural effusion (there´s a layer called pleura surrounding the lungs, a pleural effusion is when fluid gets in that sack around the lungs and takes over the room the lungs should have to expand)- anyway, I got to help drain that. I had helped with a pleural effusion once in the US, but not one due to TB.
*Bolivian people are very resourceful. Even when they don´t have to be. For example - there´s an EKG machine at the hospital, and there´s the little EKG electrodes that are like little stickers you sick in certian places to read the heart´s activity. They´re supposed to be used once ´cuz they won´t stick much more than that. Well, the doctors use them over and over and tape them down. At first I thought, what a good idea, they´re working with it even though they don´t have enough resources. Then I went in central supply a couple days later. There´s litterally thousands of EKG pads in there. Tomorrow I´m putting out new ones.
*I´ve been doing some 12 hour shifts in the hospital side, and I only have an interpreter for a few hours of those 12. The doctors here are awesome, they work so hard to be understood. One night it was slow and Dra. Santa Cruz and I sat there for 2 hours with my Spanish-English dictionary. Her teaching me Spanish. Me teaching her English. When I´m over there and it´s slow, so many of the Bolivian staff come to me and ask me how to say certian phrases in English. It´s interesing teaching English, espeicially when they´re so willing to learn.
*Where the clinic and hospital are... it´s countryside, about a half hour outside a city. But next week, Monday and Tuesday we´re going out to "the campo" which means way out in the countryside up in the mountians for 2 days to do medical work there. That should be really interesting.
*There´s so much more to talk about but for now I will leave you with that.
*Pray for me and the other voulunteers here that we can be as effective as possible in our ministry and be good examples of followers of Christ. Pray for the people we come in contact with that they would be open to hearing the gospel. Pray for me that I can keep up my energy and excitement for what I´m doing even though there´s long days.
*Well, now I´m off to go see a professional Bolivian Soccer/Futball game on our day off. Should be fun!

If you get my e-mails update... this is 98% the same message...

I just wanted to let you all know I arrived safely in Vinto, Bolivia.. around 8am yesterday (Sunday) morning. As soon as I arrived, they brought me to another missionary family´s home so I could shower and change and get ready for church. We went to church at an English service that mainly caters to missionaries. Then we went to another missionary families home for a big lunch. Yesterday was Bolivia´s independance day. I missed the parade Saturday night because I was still at the airport in La Paz, so I didn´t get to really see how Bolivians spend their Independance Day. Oh well. Today the clinic is closed because of the holiday and there´s only one patient in the hospital, so there´s not much to do today. I woke up this morning and was told that the guard dog had her puppies overnight. There are 5 of them. So, actually my first medical experience was with a puppy - one of them was struggling, still is actually, but it is very cold here overnight in the mountians - when the puppies were born this morning, one had already died and one was very cold and pretty unresponsive. 3 of us took turns for a couple hours this morning rubbing her and blowing the hairdryer at her on low. She´s doing better now, more responsive, but still the least active of the bunch. So far the mom is not a very good mom and is not letting them nurse much. Also, we think she might still have another puppy in her because of the way she´s acting. We´re trying to get ahold of a vet. So... that has occupied most of the morning. Then the three of us short-term volunteers that are here carried 16 sets of bookshelves up a flight of stairs to the offices and library at the hospital. So, we got our workouts. Now we´re here at the internet place. The other short term volunteers that are here are: Andrea who is a 20-year-old pre-dental student who got here just a day before me; and Michael, a 19-year-old pre-medical student who has been here a month already and leaves the day after I do. Then there´s the guest house hosts, Kyle and Amy, who are in their late 30`s. So... that´s my trip so far! No cool medical stories yet. Those will come. Oh yes, sorry, but I will not be putting any pictures online until I return because there is only dial-up internet here and it would take far too long. Typing this has even taken awhile due to the fact that everything but lower case letters is not in the same place as it is on an American keyboard. So, keep us in your prayers and I will keep you updated as I can.

Off to Bolivia I go!

I am leaving Mora at 3:00am - about 6 1/2 hours from now. My dad is driving me to the airport. I am flying American Airlines from Minneapolis to Miami, then Miami to La Paz, Bolivia. When I arrive in La Paz, I have to collect my baggage and go through customs. Then I need to find a ticket counter for either LAB or AeroSur airlines and get a flight to Cochabamba, these tickets cannot be purchased before I get there. I land in La Paz at 7:53pm, so I pray there's a flight out after 8:30pm or so and that I can get on it. Otherwise, I will be spending the night in the airport in La Paz and getting the first flight out in the morning. When I find out what flight I get, I give the full time missionaries a call, and someone will come pick me up at the Cochabamba airport.

My first full day in Bolivia, August 6, is the Bolivia Independance day. So, hopefully I'll get to see a bit of how they celebrate their independance.

So, I am asking for you to pray for safe travels for me. Pray that my flights leave on time and are safe. Pray that my luggage arrives with me at my destination. Overall - just pray my travels go smoothly.

I hope to be posting updates and possibly pictures on here, so keep checking if you're interested. I don't know how often I will get to the internet while I am away... it may be only a couple times the whole month... it may be every couple days. Not promising anything at this point.

I'm off to weigh my luggage, put it in the car... and hope to sleep for about 5 hours before I have to get up agian! :)

Who woulda thunk it...

So, on Friday my cousin-in-law calls me and asks if I ever got her e-mail..
"Ummm... I don't think so..." I say.
"Well, I sent it from my mom's comptuter, so I might have sent it under her name."
"I know your mom's name, and I didn't delete it... and I check my junk mail... I didn't see it there."
"Hmmm..." we both say.
So, she tells me what the e-mail was about and we figured all that out.
The next day I get an e-mail from her mom stating that she spelled my name wrong in the e-mail. She sent it to: aletheaanderson@yahoo.com instead of aleatheaanderson@yahoo.com. And she didn't get a cyber message saying the reciepent didn't exist. So, she sent an appology e-mail to the other Alethea. Thought that was the end of the story.

Today... I got an e-mail from aletheaanderson@yahoo.com. The people at Hospitals of Hope that I need to talk to before I leave... THEY spelled my name wrong too, in the SAME WAY. And the e-mail went to the other Alethea. She was kind enough to forward it to me. Very nice considering the subject was "Very Important Information." Craziness.

So, after thinking of the craziness for awhile today... I googled her.
She exists.
She has a website. www.aletheaanderson.com.
Wow.

I mean, if your name is John Smith. You've heard of other John Smith's. But man, my name is Aleathea Anderson... that is crazy.

Mario Brothers Lovers...

For those of you who played Mario as a kid... you have to watch this video clip. It made me clap and laugh out loud. It's awesome. Must watch it.

Mario Video

Thank you to Talena on Heather Anne's site. You guys are awesome.

I travel a lot...

"I travel a lot; I hate having my life interrupted by routine."
-Caskie Stinnett-

I think this is my new life motto. That quote is one of quite a few good ones in the journal my friend Amy bought for me as a graduation gift. Amy also was wonderful to take time out of her day to take the subway over to my commencement ceremony. Then we hung out on Saturday for awhile. It's awesome to have Amy in Philly. For those of you that don't know - I met Amy when we went to Jamaica together 3 years ago. This is me and Amy.

Philly so far...

Wednesday afternoon I landed, checked into the hotel, studied, and got dinner. Not too exciting.

Thursday I took my family medicine exam - which I passed with an 82 (above the class average thank you very much). My dad landed and headed out to the hotel. In the mean time I got all dressed up and ready for the fancy graduate dinner dance. It was fancier than anything I've been to in the past. Way fancy. I was excited for the expensive food... but you know, it was like, way too fancy that it was barely good anymore. And I still stick to my belief that crab cakes just taste like fancy tuna. Here's me all dressed up with Kendra, my roomate from when I actually lived full time in Philly.

When I got back to the hotel, I went to Denny's with my dad really late 'cuz he hadn't had dinner... I got pie. :)

Friday I got up in the morning, and got ready to go. We took the bus down to the Kimmel Center - where commencement was. We had some pastry type stuff for breakfast and took a class pictue before commencement. Then we had to waste another hour and a half. I don't entertain myself well. I got bored. Then commencement. So, I walked graduation... got a blank piece of paper all rolled up to symbolize a diploma. Got my hood (the thing they hang around your neck to show what level of education you completed). But... I'm not actually done with school yet - 6 weeks to go. THEN I'll get my real diploma. Here's a picture of me in my cap and gown.

Then dad and I got some hot dogs and soda and went to catch the bus pack to the hotel. Then it went from hot and humid... to torrential downpour while we were waiting for the bus. We got wet. Turns out the expressway was all backed up so things got very behind. Then we went to Denny's agian for early supper. Then my dad headed out. Now more studying for the weekend. Yay.

For more pictures... check out www.kodakgallery.com/aleathea

Rain...

It's finally raining. It hasn't rained in MN in 2 months. The power won't stay on... so the only thing I have to entertain me in the dark is this here laptop and it's battery power. I should be packing to leave for Philly in the morning... but it's hard to pack in the dark. I'm almost done with that. What I should also be doing is studying. It's even harder to study in the dark. So, I'm just waiting.

And yes... As of today, I am finished with all but my elective rotation. Off to Philly in the morning... prayers for my concentration during my exams would be appreciated:
Family Medicine exam on Thursday morning...
Comprehensive final on Monday morning...
2 Comprehensive practical exams on Tuesday afternoon.

Wonderful. :) Can't you tell I love tests... or not.

The Excitement of Good 'Ol Mora...

The police reports from my home town... gotta love the excitement...

7-6-06
There was an unattended fire on Wood Street in a backyard fire pit. An officer put the fire out using his extinguisher.
I bet he was super excited to use his fire extinguisher, probably the most fun thing he's done all week!

7-7-06
A man was caught stealing copper wire and pipes on Hwy 65. Police also found meth in his possession as well as a note making reference to the manufacture of meth. The note also contained many names and phone numbers.
"Are you a crazy meth addict? Circle yes or no."

A purple mountain bike was found in a 4th Street yard. The bike was taken to the Police Department.
Congrats - one person in this town RETURNS things instead of stealing them...


7-8-06
A drunk driver was arrested after speeding down Clark St. The driver, a 20-year old male, was cited for Driving After Suspension, DWI, Expired Tabs as well as No Proof of Insurance.
Aren't you missing one of the most obvious ones here? Underage consumption maybe? Oh yeah... people kinda forget that law around here pretty often...

A 20" silver diamond back Nitrus bike was stolen from a McLean Street yard.
Whoever took this... please return it... it was the poor kid's birthday present...

7-9-06
There was a fight reported outside a Union Street tavern. All parties involved were gone when police arrived.
Since when do we have taverns in Mora? I thought they were called bars.

A portable CD player and a Rascal Flatt's CD were stolen from a vehicle parked on Hersey Ave. The vehicle was unlocked.
See mom, THAT's why I lock my doors... yes, even in Mora.

7-10-06
A dryer started a small fire at Mora High School. The fire set off the sprinkler system causing minor water damage. No one was injured.
Maybe this is a sign the school needs some new appliances...

Random thoughts:

1. It's hot outside.
2. Is it odd that I grew up in a farming community and I JUST finally figured out that there was a difference between hay and straw?
3. If I am counting correctly - Between July 26th and September 6th - I will be on 13 different airplanes, maybe 14. That's a lot.
4. Four of those flights have fresh baked chocolate chip cookies instead of the pathetic tiny bags of pretzels.
5. I'm going to be in Bolivia in 3 weeks.
6. I'm so tired of studying, I'm so happy I'm graduating in about 7 weeks.
7. Except then I still have to study for boards for another 3-4 weeks or so.
8. A guy I grew up with, Eric, was in town this weekend and he had his 18 month-old son at church today and he looks like a little mini-Eric.
9. Air conditioning is a good thing.
10. High-speed internet is amazing after dealing with dial-up for awhile.
11. The one thing I don't like about MN - all the bugs.
12. I have another couple potential jobs - both for St. Mary's/Duluth Clinic - One in Ashland, WI and the other in Virginia, MN... I send them reference contacts - 2 of them have to return the reference form before they will interview me. I hope that happens before I go to Bolivia.
13. I love sleeping.
14. My friend Matt, he's in the National Guard and he organized a 9-year-old kid named Lentrit from Kosovo to come to the US to have surgery because he was born with one leg 6 inches longer than the other. A hospital in Louisiana is doing the surgery and therapy and all for free. His dad is there with him. His surgery is tomorrow - so pray that it all goes well! :)
15. It's finally supposed to cool down a little - yay! It's been so hot lately...
16. Some days I feel like an adult... Some days I don't... It's weird.
17. I'm looking at buying a new digital SLR camera... Deciding if I want to spend money on it. I want the camera. I want it before I go to Bolivia. But they're expensive. But I'm watching them on E-bay. If I knew I had a job shortly after graduation it wouldn't be a hard decision... But because I don't know when I'll get money - it's a harder decision.
18. Animals shed a lot.
19. I like diet coke with Splenda. It's my favorite.
20. I also like Cheddar sesame sticks from Bread & Honey Pantry in Mora.
21. Soon, I'm going home to read myself to sleep.
22. Like I said before - I like to sleep. :)

Working at home...

You know, it's only slightly weird working in the town I grew up in. I feared that I'd know too many people and they wouldn't want to see me. But, not a problem too often. About once a day there is someone in the clinic to see Dr. Schwinghammer that I know somewhat well, usually from church. But not in for something that they care if I see them for. Not bad. But yesterday, twice, I walked into a room, one for a prenatal visit and once to see a 9 month old little boy... and I as I started to introduce myself, it clicked that they looked familiar, and at the same time they said "I went to high school with you!" But they still trusted me. Not bad.

Ok, time to slow down...

In the past week...

Wednesday - I drove about 850 miles from Port Huron, MI back to Mora, MN and I saw my sister's new condo for the first time.
Thursday - I unpacked my stuff back into my mom's house in Mora. And I hung out with my grandma for a couple houres.
Friday - I slept in, ate lunch with my mom and then drove 230 miles to Fargo. In Fargo, I hung out with Rose & Korey, ate dinner, and went shopping.
Saturday - Ate brunch at Dennys and then took a nap on Rose & Korey's couch. Then I helped Rose make a card for Jerry and Kristen before heading to their wedding. At the wedding I caught the boquet. So I guess I'm next to get married. I've never caught a boquet before. Well, I guess I still haven't. It hit this celing before falling to the floor short of the girls. I was toward the front, so I just pickced it up first. So... I'm not sure if that really counts.
Sunday - Church, Lunch, Drive back to Mora (230 miles agian). Go to Jody's to find out how to take care of the cats and bird while she's gone.
Monday - Drive to Minocqua, WI for job interview. That was about 210 miles each way. Interview I think went well. I was the first person they interviewed so I don't know anything. They have good benefits though and Minocqua is a very cute little town, so if they offer it to me, I'll probably take it. Then I drove home agian.
Tuesday - First day with Dr. Schwinghammer. Saw three patients in the hospital, then headed over for Pine City. Afterwards I went to Tim & Dana's and hung out with them and the boys.
Today - Hospital in the morning, then a crazy day at the Mora clinic. Then to Cambridge to meet with Jen for dinner.

That's been my week. It's been crazy. I'm tired. So, hopefully I will catch up now. :)

AAAHhhhhhh...

I'm so ready to be done with school. I'm tired of studying. I'm tired of working and making no money. I'm tired of being tired. Ok, I'm done now...

Today I'm leaving for MN, I get to go home for the next 6 weeks! :)

Aunt Lue - I got my birthday present and I love it. I'm sorry I haven't called. Will try to do that in the next couple days.

In a half hour I'm taking my Emergency Medicine exam... hoping I do alright. Even though I feel like I study all the time... I never feel like I'm learning anything.

Ok, I'm fine, it's just been a frustrating last couple days. I'm off to finish studying, take my exam, and then drive the 13 hours home. :)

Another chance...

Job interview number 2 is scheduled for June 19th. I don't know much about the job since the posting didn't say much... but I gave them my resume anyway. The job is in Minocqua, WI, which is about 4 hours east of Mora, almost to the UP of Michigan. It's a pretty area with lots of lakes and stuff. It's working for the Marshfield Clinic's Lakeland Center. That's a clinic, but I'd be working in the associated hospital as a hospitalist PA, working 8am-5pm and alternating weekends taking care of Lakeland Center's patients who are in the hospital providing onsite care and being the link between the hospital and their regular physician at Lakeland Center. That's what I understand of the job. I will find out more at the interview I guess!

"The Student Curse"

I was informed when I walked in the station this morning at 7am that any time they have a student of any kind riding along... nothing happens. I started at 7am. We did NOTHING until noon. At noon, we transported a patient to the MRI center... three hospitals share one MRI. Nothing exciting. Then a little while later... the most interesting one of the day... A heroin overdose. Except it wasn't extremely cool, 'cuz after just giving her 2mg of Narcan... she was fine. Then we had a hospital to nursing home transport. Then a call to an adult soccer league game... guy got kicked in the head, shoe spike through the ear lobe. He didn't come with us, his wife brought him to the ER after he signed off. Then, a guy fell off a ladder doing some house work. He lost consciousness and had a gash on his leg. But when we got there he was awake and saying he was fine. He also declined a ride from us, and his wife was going to bring him in as well. What an exciting 12.5 hours... I hoped my ambulance day would be much more interesting than that... The student curse continues...

Advertisements...

Public Service announcement: PUT SUNBLOCK ON YOUR CHILDREN! It has been over 90 degrees for the past 3 days, and today we got many, many, many small children in the ER with heat sickness and blistering sun burns. Not right. Child neglect. A 17 month old child should not have a blistering sun burn. Some adult SHOULD HAVE prevented that.

Advertisement: My friend Kristin has an etsy.com site. It's like E-bay for crafty people. She sells handmade jewelry. Her store is called Upon the Waters. If you're in the market for such an item, check out her site. Aunt Lue - I think you'd like this stuff ;) - if you're interested.

I finally learned how my friend Heather has all these things you click on to see a picture on her blog! For those of you who are non-link savvy... Click on the colored part that says "Upon the Waters" to link to Kristin's store site.

Weird...

So, I have a dorm-type fridge in the hotel room here. The kind that the freezer and the fridge part are kind of connected. So, I needed to keep some stuff frozen, so I cranked it colder, and some of the stuff in my fridge froze. Oh well. The weird part was that I looked in and saw that one of the unopened bottles of wine I had from my New York winery tour... Well, the foil part over the cork had come off and the cork was pushed halfway out. I took the bottle out, removed the cork totally, and realized it had become a wine slushy. I put on one of those corks for partially finished bottles and set it out horizontally on the counter to thaw. Thought nothing of it. Then, around 3am (12 hours later)... I was awakened by a big "POP" and then the sound of things falling to the ground. Weird since I'm the only one in the hotel room and I have the door triple locked when I'm sleeping... I wake up and search for the culprit. The pre-mentioned wine bottle... The new cork had popped off and flew across the room. The cork, as well as the wine pouring out of the bottle, knocked things over. If liquid expands when it freezes... And therefore shrinks when it thaws... How did the cork go flying? I don't get it... It's just weird. So, anyway... End of the story is, I lost a full bottle of $14.99 Reisling. Hmmm... Weird.

Not a lot interesting lately...

The last few days in the ER havne't been too interesting. This is a combination of the things happening in the past few days...

Two garbage men rolled their garbage truck in the afternoon. Apparently they're top heavy. I got to stitch part of the passengers scalp back onto his head.

I was putting a splint on a six year old boy's broken wrist. He asked if he could come home with me and play with my kids. I told him I didn't have any kids yet. He told me, "Well, you better hurry up and get a baby in your tummy then!"

One of my really good, really easy IV's I put in an extremely drunk man (and by extremely drunk, I mean I swear he was swetting alcohol)... well, later when he sobered up enough to move, he stripped naked, ripped out his IV, and walked naked down the hall.

A 35-year-old woman got this big sliver under her finger nail and was absolutely out of control hystarical. She couldn't control herself. She's had five children, I think she should be more in control of her pain by now.

*****************************
On another note, just so you all know... I'm toying with the idea of joining the National gaurd as an officer in the medical unit after I graduate. At this point, the money and experience is the big drawing factor. They'll pay off about $31,000 per year of my student loans for 3 years. Plus the regular officer pay and bonuses. So... it's tempting. But I haven't talked to a medical recruiter yet. And I haven't decided anything. And I'm in no hurry to decide. If I decide to do it, I would hope that if I got activated somewhere, it would be a hurricane or earthquake like the national gaurd was origionally intended for. So... I'm thinking about it. If you have political opinions on this about if the war is right or wrong or whatever, I would appreciate you keeping that to yourself. I'm not considering it because I totally agree with everything the national gaurd is involved with... but I do think the pay is amazing, and the experience would be as well. So, that's where I stand. I won't be making a decision for awhile yet. So, don't worry. :)

Blahhh...

Super boring day in Mercy ER today... seriously, nothing fun to tell you about. I saw like, 9 patients in 10 hours... it was very very boring. I had Chinese food though. And watched the last 10 minutes of the ER season finale while working. So... that's about it. Hopefully tomorrow will be more interesting!

Don't provoke big rats

A 21-year-old kid came in today telling us a rat had bit him in the leg. Last I knew, rats didn't just up and bite people when walking through a public park. But then again, I've only lived in Port Huron for a week and a half. Well, I guess this guy provoked the rat first. He says it was a big rat. After it bit him, he found a big stick and killed the rat that bit him. He said if he was going to get rabies, he was taking the crazy rat down with him. We were getting all ready to treat this guy for possible rabies exposure when I actually looked it up (because I was told to look up the protocol for rabies immunoglobulin) and I found that you don't prophylax against rabies with rats. The CDC says there's a ZERO chance of getting rabies from rats. There's been one report of rabies in the united states in the last year, and it was from a raccoon. Yup, so the crazy kid went on his way with 10 days of antibiotics. And no worries of rabies.

I am... the Baby Whisperer

I got a new title today at the ER. I am the Baby Whisperer. Here's how it all came about...

We get this story... a 21 month old little girl and her 5 year old brother were playing outside, out in some dinky little town, and they have a pond. The neighbor looks out the window and sees the 5 year old boy standing by the pond, looks around and dosen't see any adults, so he goes out to make sure everything's ok. He walks over to the 5 year old and he points out into the pond and says "Baby!" The little girl is floating face down about 3 feet out from the edge of the pond. The neighbor dashes in, grabs her, and gives her a few rescue breaths after which she coughs and/or throws up a bunch of water. She starts screaming unconsolably. She's in the ambulance and off towards the nearest town with a hospital before they even find the family. Girl gets to our ER after what I was told was at least an hour long ambulance ride alone. Then she's rushed into the trauma room, surrounded by scary adults poking her with needles and sticking little things all over her. Understandably, still kicking and screaming like mad. After that's all done, one of the older nurses picks her up and tries to console her to no avail. Still kicking and screaming like mad. I could tell the nurse was getting tired, her arms were drooping. This little girl weighed around 30 pounds at 21 months, and she didn't look fat. Anyway, so I took her in my arms and after her struggling with me awhile, I decided to start singing to her. I picked twinkle twinkle little star... it worked. She stopped crying and just looked at me. I switched to another song. She screamed. So... Twinkle Twinkle it was. Over and over. But it worked, it even got her through X-rays. So, hence forth I am the baby whisperer. She didn't like anyone but me. Mom and uncle finally got there... there's a weird family dynamic, Mom was very unemotional and detached from the little girl. Anyway... it appears she's going to be ok and she was pretty lucky. Neighbor saved her life. But, where was mom? And why were these two small children outside at 9pm playing by the pond alone? Anyway... when I left she was headed to Children's Hospital in Detroit for a day or two for observation. Still don't like the feeling I got from mom. Just dosen't seem right. The nurses were going to call child protective services on them I think.

Pictures

I finally got 2 more albums published... Here's the shortcut to them... for the rest of my photos see the link on the right.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/aleathea/easter_2006

http://www.kodakgallery.com/aleathea/new_york_finger_lakes_adventure

A Busy Day at Mercy ER...

From the moment I walked in, for the next 11 hours I was there, it was non-stop. Here are some of the interesting parts...

A fast moving hockey puck can really split a guys chin open.

A woman lost a condom inside her vagina and I got the joy of taking it out for her.

I had to help do a lumbar puncture on a poor little really sick 4 year old boy.

A 70-year-old war vet yelled at me a lot because he didn't want to be in the hospital and didn't think that he needed to be in the hospital for a nosebleed if he had gone through "7 years in Germany with bullets flying at me" (his wife says it was only 2 years)... and this was nosebleed number 2 of the day which both lasted over 2 hours.

Lots of sick little kids.

An embedded tick in a 6 year old's head.

Ok, I'm too fried to remember what else happened today... I'm just glad for 24 hour McDonalds on a night like this... It's tireing... but I'm really loving ER.

Lesson of the day...

Do not leave curious 4 year old boys alone, even for 10 minutes. They will get into the medicine cabinet. And then you will not know what, if anything, they actually ingested. Then you will have to take them to the ER. You will have to wait in the ER for 4 hours for observation and to get a 4 hour Tylenol level... only to find out your child ingested, at most, 1 Tylenol. Then you will go home with a tired and crabby child around 12:30am.

In the meantime... the curious PA student and one of the RNs will taste the activated charcoal given to the child to see how horrible it tastes and why the kid puked. Even one sip, and we both understood why the kid puked.

There's why when you have children, you need to know how many pills you had in the bottle, so you know how many are missing when your kid gets into it... because they will get into it.

On another note... some of you have been asking what Port Huron is like, if it's a nice town and such.... I couldn't figure out how to explain it until today, and on my way to the hospital the perfect description hit me. Port Huron is like Superior, WI if Superior did not have the wonderful-ness of Dululth to make it suck less. It's just a dreary port city... like Superior.

Adventure from day 2...

1. I got to remove popcorn (unpopped) from both ears of a 4 year old who would not speak to me. Until I gave him a choice of stickers, and he said "Cat in the Hat"... Crazy, "does your ear hurt" and I couldn't get a simple Yes or No... but a full phrase to get a sticker. Kids.

2. A woman who couldn't figure out why her sick husband was so confused. Pretty easy for me to figure out... She told me that since he quit eating she let him drink as much beer as he wanted every day because that way at least he was getting some calories in him...

3. I got to stich my first awake patient... a man who dropped a chainsaw blade on his hand... smart guy. He cut the tip of his finger off last year.

That's the most fun ones... more tomorrow.

Not sleeping...

So, I woke up awhile ago and can't sleep... I ended up watching TV and on the Leno rerun that was on around 3:30am there was this funny woman on named Lisa something or other... anyway, she was talking about the men she dates when she said (and I know this is totally politically incorrect, but it was funny, maybe because I'm half asleep)...

"This one guy I dated, he was half black - half Indian... not Slurpie Indian... Casino Indian. It sucked because every time we went dancing it rained..."

Forgive me, I thought it was funny.

My New York Camping Adventure...

This past weekend was my first solo camping adventure. Granted, it was what I commonly refer to as "wussy camping" - aka Campground with showers camping... Anyway... I took the senic route up to the Finger Lakes region of New York from Philly, taking no road bigger than a state highway. It took a while longer than the big highways would have - but it was so much prettier it was worth it. I got there just after dark, around 9pm, and set up my tent. I hoped for no rain being the ground was too hard for me to get my ran fly staked out well, I need to get some kind of mallet to pound those things in for future trips. I also made my first fire without help! Almost 24 years of watching my parents make fires, and I actually learned something - go figure! Anyway... I went to bed kind of early after a little reading. I woke up to light rain on my tent, but I was warm and dry. I hoped it would stop soon. So I sat in my tent and pouted for awhile that it was raining on my one full day of camping. Finally around noon, I got dressed and headed out to drive around the lake and see what was out there. After just a bit, it stopped raining. So, I drove around the lake, through all the farm land, and it was pretty. Then I got back and did some hiking around the gorge. The sun came out for the end of my hike, but it stayed kind of chilly, so I headed back to sit by a fire. I kept the fire going so long Saturday night that I went through 2 1/2 wood bundles. But I was warm. And I love watching campfires. Fire it so interesting... Anway, I also met this woman a couple sites over from me who was also camping alone. She had ridden down from Rochester, NY on her motorcycle. We sat by my fire for a couple hours and she shared her bottle of wine and we chatted. We had a lot in common for her being a good 30 years older than me. She was fun. Then, pretty sleepy, I went to bed. My sleeping bag is awesome. I stayed warm despite the fact it was FREEZING all night. Literally. I mean, I had a half bag of ice sitting out that didn't fit in my cooler. When I woke up in the morning, before the sun came out, it was still a bag of ice. It didn't melt until the sun was shining bright. So, I stayed in my warm sleeping bag until it got warm. Then I broke down camp and headed out. I checked out a few wineries on my way north. This area of New York is one of the best in the country for wine, and possibly in one of the best in the world according to some things I have read. The funny thing to me was that the winery that said is a "can't miss" according to the book, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die... well, they're stuck up and they don't have much variety. I left there fairly quickly. I bought some good wine from a couple other wineries. If you come to visit me, I'll share. :) I drove by Niagra falls and saw it from my car in the summer... maybe I'll get back there to see it in the summer. I've only seen it frozen and it's pretty cool then. Anyway - in Canada I bought some gas. A friendly Canadian man at the next pump noted that I was far from home and tried to help me figure out how much their gas was in comparison to ours. Neither of us could do it in our heads, but he COULD tell me that it's more expensive than US gas. When it's $1.09 Canadian per liter... it's hard to figure out how many US$ per gallon. But... it did come out to approximately $37 for 10 gallons... definatley more... we're not up to $3.70 per gallon yet. Ick. Trying to figure out that calculation and the accents of all those around me, who were all talking to me by the way becasue of my "foreign" liscense plate... really made me feel as if I was in a different country. But... when I got back on the road and saw all the signs for all the same stores, hotels, and resturants that we have and I remembered that Canada is after all, just a part of the United States. Anyway... so I finally got to Michigan.

I was going to show you pictures... but this is refusing to upload pictures today. Sorry!

Bad blogger... shame

Ok, I'm bad at this, this keeping up with writing on here. Especially in comparison to my friend Heather. She's awesome. She writes almost daily. Except for her recent hiatus of a few days. But she's forgiven, even though I daily look forward to her wonderful writing.

Anywho... I'm going camping this weekend at Watkins Glen State Park. I've heard it's nice. One of the top 100 State Parks in the country. It's in New York, by the finger lakes. I made my reservations awhile ago, and then the forecast was RAIN all weekend and I was disappointed. But God knew I needed it... the rain in the forcast is GONE! Yay! Ok, so I'll be off on my nature retreat for the weekend. Even though the park sounds like it'll be crowded due to it being opening weekend for camping in most of NY. So yes, I will tell you all about it later.

Happy weekend all!

Baths

The power of a relaxing bath. Today was stressful, a lot of minor stresses, nothing huge, but when I got home tonight I was longing for a nice long soak in the bathtub. Only problem... no bathtub. Well, there is a bathtub, but the thing to plug it is broken, so pretty much it's just a shower. So here I sit, wishing I could soak in the bathtub to destress before bed... and I can't. Someday I'm going to put a whirlpool tub in my house. And a hot tub outside. And then I can sit in warm water whenever I want. :)

New ER tonight... YAY!

Oops...

For those of you that received a paper copy of my support letter... I neglected to re-proof read the letter after adding the picture on top. In doing this, I somehow deleted a whole sentence. Here is how the 1st paragraph ends and the 2nd paragraph should start...

"...This summer I will be going to Vinto, Bolivia in South America from August 5th to September 2nd. (end paragraph)
Hospitals of Hope is an organization that provides medical and dental care to people in third world countries. HOH has a clinic in Bolivia..."

Sorry about this mis-print. Also if you notice I changed the date to September 2nd (not the 7th as the original letter said).

I apologize for my errors.

Weather...

The weather people all just make things up I think. I got up and it was very rainy and gross so I went back to bed because I just couldn't convince myself to go outside in the rain to go to church. So, I layed around and relaxed all morning and afternoon. Then around 3pm it got nice out so I went grocery shopping. It was only supposed to be nice for a couple hours. It was supposed to be raining agian by 7pm. It hasn't started yet and it's 10pm. I didn't go out rollerblading because I didn't think I'd have time before it started raining on me. I would have had plenty of time. The weather people cheated me I think.

Aren't they cute...

These are my little cousins I get to see every time I go home. These are from Easter Sunday right before I left to come back to Philly.

It starts today...

As I posted before... I am going to Bolivia for four weeks in August. This is an elective rotation and I will get credit for school, but it is also medical missions - I will finally be able to use all my education to open doors to share Jesus with people. I am so excited for this opportunity.

Tomorrow morning I will be putting the first of my support letters in the mail. I also want to post the info on here so if I miss any of you in the paper mailing... I can reach you this way.

The first opportunity to partner with me in my ministry is to pray for me and the lives of each of the people I will come into contact with. If you would like to be a part of my prayer team, please contact me directly via the comments here, e-mail, or phone so I can keep giving you updates and further prayer requests as the days get closer.

The second opportunity to partner with me is by supporting me financially. I need a total of $2,430 which covers my travel, food, and housing. I have applied for a $500 matching grant through the Fellowship of Christian Physician Assistants, of which I am a member. This grant would partially cover this opportunity.

Please pray about this opportunity to partner with me in my ministry.

If you feel led to partner with me financially please send a check made out to Hospital of Hope, Inc. and send it to:

Hospitals of Hope
3545 N. Santa Fe
Wichita, KS 67219

And include in the envelope my name so they know to whom to credit the money, as well as your name and address.

Any questions or comments... please e-mail me at aleatheaanderson@yahoo.com or leave a comment below.

Why would you give that warning?

Today I saw a fancy convertible with this liscense plate:

RCKLSS

Reckless... now, as much as I appreciate the warning to watch out for his reckless driving... why would one give the cops that warning? I mean, if I was a cop and saw someone with that liscense plate... a liscense plate warning me that they were known for being reckless... I would pull them over. And almost everyone on the road has SOMETHING you could ticket them for if you pulled them over. So yes, that person is strange...

Hmmm... who went into the right career?

Physician Assistant is the #1 Top Growing Job in the United States! :)
(8 out of the 10 are in medicine/science)

Top 10 Best Jobs according to MONEY magizine and Salary.com (according to growth, pay, stress, and other factors) ...
1. Softwear Engineer
2. College Professor
3. Financial Advisor
4. Human Resources Manager
5. PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT
6. Market Research Analyst
7. Computer IT Analyst
8. Real Estate Appraiser
9. Pharmacist
10. Psychologist

Check out how yours compares...
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/other_jobs/index.html

Who says you can't go home...

I got to go home! It was short, but I got to go.

Thursday night I flew from Philadelphia to Milwaulkee. Then I picked up my rental car at 10:15pm and drove the 3 hours to Hillsboro, WI. I then slept a few restless hours at a hotel there before my job interview. I was nervous being this was my first real grown-up professional job interview. In my new pants suit, I went to my interview at the only cafe in the little small town. I shouldn't have been as nervous as I was because in small town midwestern fashion, the people interviewing me we all very nice. It's a classic small town, but I love it. The cool thing is... although it's a small town, they are far from "alone" in rural medicine. It is part of the Gunderson Luthern health system and all their medical records are on the computer. 24 hours a day you can get a specialist on the phone to consult with in 10 minutes through their phone system. X-rays are read by a specialist in another city in a half hour and they send you their report. Although it is a 1200 person farming community - you are far from alone in health care there and that is awesome. Anyway - they will let me know within 2 weeks what is going on with that option... in the meantime I'm still applying for other jobs!

After that, I drove back to Minneapolis and dropped off my rental car and hung around for awhile waitning for my sister to get off work. I took a cab to her work and got a ride home! Yay! I spent a couple days hanging out with my family and just relaxing. I even got a mild sunburn on Saturday just hanging out outside! Yay! That dosen't always happen in April in Minnesota.

Anyway... Over the weekend, mostly on the plane and sitting in the airport I read all of Francine Rivers Attonement Child and absolutely loved it.

Today I've been working on getting some stuff together for Bolivia. So much going on... but if you know me at all, you know I don't like to sit still.

A trip to the outlet mall...

Today I went to the outlet mall to buy a new pants suit. Didn't think that would be too hard. I saw about 4 stores devoted only to men's suits. Why don't they have any stores like that for women? Then as I sauntered through all the other stores for women's suits, most of them I found would make me look like a grandmother. I did not want to look like a grandmother. Why couldn't I find a suit that would make me look mature and grown-up, but yet still look kind of young. Finally... I found some. Not at your typical grown-up clothes stores. But at H&M. Who would have thought I'd find some of my grown-up clothes at H&M. Oh well, it was much cheaper than the others and doesn't look cheap! On a side note... If H&M is supposed to be a Swedish store, why is the music they play all American artists? Sweden has their own music, play Swedish music in a Swedish store. Also... I went in a pet store to look at the puppies. But the puppies made me sad because they're in little tiny cubes and have no room to run and play like puppies should. I literally almost cried. Someone, bring the puppies home!

Things that make me go Hmmmm....

You know those signs that say "Your speed is ___"? On a single lane highway it makes sense. But, when you're on a 4 lane highway full of cars, how can you tell what cars speed it is telling you?

Why did Mandesa have to go home on American Idol? I like her! I guess I can't complain... I didn't vote.

A few days ago the apartment building had a sign on it that said "We will be shutting off the water from 9am - 2pm for necessary repairs." You know, I think I would have liked it better if the sign said "We will be shutting off your water all day just to piss you off because we get a kick out of the power we have over your daily schedule." It's as if they decided they should say it was necessary so we wouldn't complain. But then they even kept the water off at least 3 more hours then they had to (thankfully I wasn't home to deal with it)... and then for 4 hours agian 2 days later. Hmmm...

Sunday it was 70 degrees and I went rollerblading in shorts and a sleeveless shirt and it was BEAUTIFUL. Today, 3 days later it went from snowing to cold and sunny then snow then sun then snow then sun. It was a crazy day. This weather is craziness.

Random Fun-ness

My cousin Matt finally proposed to his girlfriend (now fiance) Dana yesterday. I haven't had a family wedding since July 2000. And that was the other side of the family.

On Wednesday this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.
That won't ever happen again.
(Thanks for that one Teri!)

Today I helped remove a uterine fibroid the size of a fetal head. This woman had a crazy messed up uterus.

As for me - I'm busy learning all about the female reproductive tract. :) That's about all.

Bolivia Here I Come!

I was accepted to do my elective rotation in Vinto, Bolivia with Hospitals of Hope. Yay! So, I will be spending the month of August in Bolivia! Yippie! Anywho... if you want to check out more about the organizaiton I'll be working with, you can do so at www.hospitalsofhope.org. Pray for me and this opportunity!

What a good day!

First of all... after a couple days, I think I really like OB/Gyn. If only there were more jobs for PA's working in OB/Gyn. That's why I still need to aim for family practice where they do a little of everything.

Second... I helped deliver my first baby today. I didn't do a whole lot to "help" but I was there and I saw my first baby be born which I had never seen before. It was very cool.

Third and finally... I have my first job interview on April 14th in Hillsburo, WI. It would be a job to cover clinic work in Hillsburo, Tomah, Sparta, Viroqua, and Wonewoc. Rural family medicine. Pretty much what my goal has been all along. So, Even if they don't offer me a job, I'm getting the interview experience started 5 months before I graduate, so either way it'll be a good deal.

So, that's my news! :)

My crazy day...

Today...

I found out I passed my test fairly decently - a pleasure to know considering I definately slacked on the studying this rotation.

I got a call from Gunderson Luthern Hospital asking me to interview for a job I applied for. How crazy is that? Someone actually wants to interview me.

My grandma has been in the hospital for a week now. First thought was the flu, now pneumonia, but her fever still isn't going down. It's so frustrating because I feel so helpless not being there. I wish I was there so I could actually understand what was going on and what they're doing. Sigh...

Lazy day...

After my workout of the morning taking my car load of stuff up 3.5 flights of stairs... I relaxed the rest of the day. It was nice. Nothing to study. I took a nap, talked to my cousin Tim on the phone, watched What Dreams May Come and read and finished No Excuses by Kyle Maynard, a 20 year old congenital amputee of all 4 limbs who was a high school state qualifying wrestler in Georgia. It was very interesting. That's all for now.

Just a comment...

Just figured I'd let you know... I just saw "Failure to Launch" and it re-sparked my crush on Matthew McConaughey. Yea for celebrity crushes! Oh, and I want a sailboat.
That's all for now.

The end of one, the start of another

So, this week I finished up in Chicago. Drove back to Philly. Took my pediatrics test this morning. Took a nap and read for fun. Now I'm off to dinner and a movie (no, not a date, just me relaxing). I'm relaxing at the Holiday Inn until about noon tomorrow when I'm moving into my apartment for the next 6 weeks. Next... Ob/Gyn. More later.

P.S. If any of you were wondering... update on my last post. The little girl with anencepahly passed away after 5 days of life. Her twin brother is a happy, healthy little boy who went home with his parents on Tuesday.

Once in a lifetime

Today I saw something that most people only see once in a lifetime of working in medicine in the United States. Anencephaly. Anencephaly is defined as "congenital absence of the brain and cranial vault, with the cerebral hemispheres m issing or reduced to small masses. This condition is incompatible with life." The way this happens is early in pregnancy, a complication of development of neural tube closure, often due to a lack of folic acid intake before the mother even knows she is pregnant (hint - those of you women of childbearing age - take folic acid). You very rarely see a full term baby born with this condition mostly due to the fact that it can be detected early enough in a pregnancy that the pregnancy is terminated. The mother was pregnant with twins; one perfectly healthy and one that she knew would be born with anencephaly. Most babies born with anencephaly will survive a few hours a most. The reason they even survive those hours is that sometimes they are born with an intact brainstem, the part that sustains the necesities of life such as a heartbeat and breathing (the reason you can be "braindead" but still be breathing). Interestingly enough, at PCOM one of our "babies in a jar" (babies that were stillborn or pregnancies that were terminated) - was an anencephaly baby, but only about 28 weeks gestation when it was terminated (full term is 38-40 weeks). But the baby I saw today was still premature, but was about 33 weeks I think. Amazingly, she has survived about 24 hours breathing on her own, nothing keeping her alive. In the rare cases this happens, the baby will likely die of meningitis due to the fact that the little brain she has is exposed to open air, nothing to protect it from bacteria. In looking for a picture to show you of an anencephaly baby born at nearly full term I am having little luck. Many ultrasound pictures. Many pictures of 20 week terminated fetuses.

Those of you that don't want to see, don't scroll down any further. The first picture isn't bad, but the next 2 are if this might gross you out.

This is a set of twins, not unlike the ones I saw today. As you can see, if you put a hat on the anencephaly baby it dosen't look too bad. This is what they often do for the family.


This is what a baby with anencephaly would look like from the front.


And... from the back

Hmmmmm....?

So, Heather put a Jahari Window on her blog. I decided to try it as well. Here's what you do. Go to http://kevan.org/johari?name=Aleathea and pick 6 of these words that you think describe me. Then see how what you and others pick compare to the words I picked for myself. Oh yes, this could be interesting.

Illegal Immigrants

Ok... so I have mixed feelings about this and I don't want to start an argument... but today I heard that there's a bill trying to be passed that would make churches and aid organizations legally responsible for reporting illegal immigrants they have helped. This law would either make many churches and aid organizations act illegally... or decrease their ability to help those that need help. My only frustration with immigrants, legal or illegal, right now are the ones that practically refuse to learn English. At this hospital there are many patients who do not speak English. If they have just moved here, fine, just please attempt to learn or national language. But the ones that have been here 10 years and still don't speak English, that frustrates me. There are plently of opportunites, especially in cities like Chicago, that teach English as a second language. Please attempt to learn English. If I moved to another country I would do my best to learn the primary language of that country. I don't care what language you speak at home with your friends or family at home. But, if you've been here any length of time... English please. It is hard when patients in the fast track part of the emergency room who only speak Spanish are yelling at us because we don't speak Spanish for them and they have to wait for the Spanish intrepeter to come. We're trying, we've paged the Spanish intrepeter. I'm sorry you don't speak English. All I can do is wait for the intrepeter. Ok, I'm done now. You can call me horrible, but I think it's reasonable to learn the langage of the country in which you reside.

Springtime for Hitler... and Germany...

Ok, so I never saw the original movie... or the stage production... but the recent remake of "The Producers" was funny.

Anyway... My friend Heather that lives in Georgia (www.heatherannehogan.com) posted pictures of her cute doggy rolling in the grass and sitting in front of daffodils to show the joys of springtime in small town Georgia... Here's my current version of spring:

Number 1 Sign it's springtime in the city....
Street Venders

Number 1 Sign it's springtime in the mid-west...
One day it's 65 degrees and BEAUTIFUL! The next it's 30 degrees and snowing.

Oh, and I just wanted to share the chorus to my current favorite country song...

"I raise my hands...
bow my head...
I'm finding more and more truth
In the words written in red.
They tell me that there's more to this...
than just what I can see...
Oh, I believe..."

That's Brooks & Dunn incase you care. :)

Welcome to the world little ones!

I play with brand new born babies every day on this rotation. But it's so much more exciting when you know their parents. These babies I haven't gotten to meet yet... but two of my 4-H friends had babies recently.

The first was born to Corey and Sheree Schuler (both 4-H alums)...

Zachary Joseph Schuler on February 27, 2006


The next was born to Dan and Cindy Mellum (Dan's not a 4-Her but we'll forgive him)...

Ryan Christine Mellum on March 1, 2006
(still waiting on a picture)

So, we always used to joke about how scary it would be when we started procreating and there were little mini 4-H babies running around. :)

Rain and Shrek bandaids

Today I had the day off and I wanted to go do a Frank Lloyd Wright tour or to the Sears Tower Skydeck... but... it's raining and gross and both those things need a nice day. Maybe Sunday.

I have been shaving for about 13 years now... and I still need to learn how NOT to cut myself all the time. Today I wound up with 3 different spots I knicked all on one ankle. Thank God for fun Shrek bandaids. Even if I have them because I'm too big a clutz to even shave my legs.

Tourism in Chicago

Summary of my weekend with my little sister in Chicago:
Musuem of Contemporary Art - Some of it really cool, some if it I didn't get... but that's contemporary art.
A little Madison Ave Shopping.
Gino's East Pizzaria - One of the traditional deep dish Chicago pizzas... Yum pizza. Fun environment. I love pizza.
Navy Pier - Not too intersting in the winter - probably lots of fun in the summer.
Marshall Fields - One full block, 7 stories. Biggest store in the world.
Hancock Observatory - 94th floor of a big building. Cool view of the city. Can't take good pictures though because it glares off the window with the flash and without a tripid with me it's too hard to hold the camera still enough with the flash off. Oh, and there were fireworks going on - how many people can say they've watched fireworks from ABOVE? Well, besides everyone else up there at the same time...
SUPERDAWG - Drive-in Chicago-style hotdogs. Fun atmosphere. Too much stuff on the hotdog, but hey, I ate it. :) Even my vegitarian sister attempted to eat it, although she did spit out the bite of hotdog that got in her mouth. :) I guess I love her anyway - she WAS tough enough to try it.
Art Institute of Chicago - Hugeness. Lots to see. Can't see it all in one day, we MAYBE saw half. I wanted to see American Gothic - it's on loan to the Smithsonian until this summer. I got to see other cool stuff though. Guess who I saw there? You'd never guess - Jessica Ruscello - One of my sophomore year roomates that I haven't seen in at least 2 years because she moved to Florida. And in the modern art wing - there she was. She saw me first and when I saw her I couldn't comprehend right away what was going on - I just stared at her like an idiot as my brain slowly comprehended who, what, where, why... Yeah. I'm slightly slow.

IT SNOWED! AND my sister still got to go home and not be late for work which she was worried about. AND I GOT SOME SNOW! I havne't seen snow since I was home for Christmas. Today it's almost gone and by the end of the week it's going to be 55, but at least I got to see snow one more time. :)

Ash Wednesday

I have attended church my whole life... I woke up this morning and realized it was Ash Wednesday. Other than being the start of Lent and ending up with a big smudge on your forehead, I had no idea what the significance of Ash Wednesday is. So, I googled it and the best site explaining Ash Wednesday is http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/Christianity/holidays/ashwednesday.shtml. Yeah for the BBC! So, here's the summary:

The beginning of Lent.
Day of pentinence to cleanse the soul before Lent.
Draws from ancient Biblical tradition of wearing a sack-cloth, covering your head with ashes, and fasting.
Sign of recognizing our own mortality.
Traditionally, the ashes are the blessed ashes of the palms used in the prior Palm Sunday.
The ashes are very symbolic - "Remember from dust you were made and to dust you will return." - From Genesis 3:16
In some churches the worshipers keep the sign of the cross on their forehead to carry it out into the world.
Other churches, the service ends with the washing off of the cross symbolizing their sins being forgiven.
The marking of their forehead with a cross made of ashes reminds each churchgoer that:
* Death comes to everyone
* They should be sad for their sins
* They must change themselves for the better
* God made the first human being by breathing life into dust, and without God, human beings are nothing more than dust and ashes

The shape of the mark and the words used are symbolic in other ways:
* The cross is a reminder of the mark of the cross made at baptism
* The phrase often used when the ashes are administered reminds Christians of the doctrine of original sin
* The cross of ashes may symbolism the way Christ's sacrifice on the cross as atonement for sin replaces the Old Testament tradition of making burnt offerings to atone for sin

SO... there's your education of the day to learn the symbolism of Ash Wednesday. :)



In regard to my pediatric experience... Today I saw my first Caucasian child in 2 1/2 weeks. She looks so pale in regard to the rest of the babies I've been taking care of!

My weekend in Chicago...

Pure craziness and taking advantage of tourists... inside the actual city of Chicago - 9.0% sales tax. That's a lot of sales tax.

Last night I went to go see Eight Below - the movie about sled dogs in Antartica. I think when I move back to the Duluth area, I may just take up Dogsledding. You can wear more clothes dogsledding than cross country skiing. Nah... I'd never give up cross country skiing... as the Olympic news guy just said, "The 50k cross country ski race is the ultimate winter endurance test... Perhaps the fittest athletes here." I agree. I'm definately not in that kind of shape... but maybe agian sometime. Oh, and one more comment about going to this movie - PLEASE for the sake of the other movie-goers do not bring your 2 year old who can't shut up to the movie theater. Please wait until they can sit still for 2 hours. Either that or go to the mommy's day out movies that allow babies and such. There should be some sort of age limit on the movie theater - like, 5 years old or something.

And today, I went to check out Willow Creek Community Church - one of the country's biggest mega-churches. And you know it's a contemporary church when the title of the sermon series is "Bling-onomics" - about a Godly way to manage your finances, get out of debt, etc. A church used the word bling... wow. Ok, so you know that little rhyme we all learn in Sunday school "Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people" while doing the appropriate hand motions? Well... this church was more like... "Drive up to the church and pick follow the parking guides and the appropriate signs to the appropriate parking lots for the main entrance... Here is the church that's as big as my high school... There is no steeple, but a lot of pretty ponds... Open the door, see TONS of people, decide whether to go through door A,B,C,D or to take the escilator UP to the balcony." Seriously this church seats more people than any theater or auditorium I've ever been in. Here's a pic of after church... had to take one to prove how big it is.



This is only about 1/3 of the seating.

More Chicago pics to be updated on my photo site as I get them... see link to right of screen.

Things cost money

So, I started the morning by buying a new printer/scanner/copier combo because there was a good one on sale for $79.99. Yay! Later in the day I went to Midas... I needed 2 new tires and I needed new break pads (I thought). Figured it would cost about $200-250. Little did I know, the reason my breaks were so sqeaky and not nearly as good as they should be... not only the break pads... The whole thing was shot, and they told me I needed new roters and drums too (not exactly sure what those are, but they're part of the breaking system). So, the whole thing costs $840. Holy crud. Oh well, at least I know I have a safe car with breaks that work. I wasn't willing to tell them not to replace it incase they were lying to me... becuase if your breaks don't work, you're screwed. Better safe than sorry. So yeah, things cost money.

For You Mom...

Yesterday, my mom, who definatley is not as addicted to the internet as many of us as she dosen't even log on daily... told me thatre is. I hadn't "written on my internet thing lately." If she noticed... others of you must have as well.

Today I had my first "real" Chicago deep dish pizza... this place I got my pizza from, is apparently some of the best pizza in Chicago. The weird thing is... the layers from bottom up are: Crust, cheeze, sausage, sauce. It's good... but the sauce is ON TOP of the cheeze. Weird.

This has been some of the coldest weather I've felt in a couple years. The east coast made me a wuss, even though I like to brag I'm from Minnesota and I can handle the cold. That sucks. I need to be re-hardened.

I'm working on my application to go on my elective rotation in Bolivia... essay questions... reference forms... I forget how hard stuff like. Blahhh... I want to do it, but lots of work.

Those of you that have children... be thankful that you know who the father is and he's involved in your child's life. Oh, and that most of you actually wanted that baby you have. Every day I'm reminded how lucky people are to have those simple things. Way too many people have way too much sex without birth control with too many people. That's how we get 15 year old mothers who seem annoyed by their babies even on the first day who are there alone with no father and half the of them withdrawing from either marijuana or cocaine because they've been in the hospital without it for a day or two... even though many, like one today... Her urine drug screen showed definate marijuana use, we asked her about it, and she said she hadn't used marijuana since she found out she was pregnant... even though this urine test showed without a doubt she'd used it within the past 48 hours. Liar. Remind me agian why we can't charge those mothers with child endangerment? Oh yes... it's because in our society a baby isn't a living thing until it takes a breath on it's own, even 4 hours before, not something we can endanger or neglect. Sigh...

Rant of the day over.

Chicago-ness

Things I have learned in 2 days of pediatrics in Chicago

I need to learn Spanish... Yesterday.
The bowel movements babies have the first day of life are very sticky.
Everyone has viral upper respiratory illnesses and they for some reason insist on coming to the ER instead of going to their pediatrician.
The traffic on city streets of Chicago are not NEARLY as bad as the interstate traffic through Chicago, even during rush hour.
One way streets... why do big cities insist on them?
If I ever live in a big city, I think it'd be Chicago.
Some people who have babies... shouldn't.
You should have to take parenting classes before you can have a kid. You have to take classes to do anything else!
My apartment is awesome.

That's what I have to say for now.

I'll be back soon...

Ok, so the craziness of the actual surgery rotation is over. (hence the reason for my lack of blogging)

I gave my presentation on manipulation and otitis media this morning, I don't feel it went too great, but hopefully good enough for at least a C between that and the paper.

Now I'm studying surgery like mad for tomorrow's 8:30am exam.

Today I also have to listen to 11 more presentations (and study simutaneously)

AND I have to finish packing my stuff and load it into my car tonight.

Tomorrow - exam and lectures until 2pm.

Then... drive to Toledo until 10 or 11pm...

Stay with Andrea until Sunday lunch-time-ish... YAY!!! :)

Then drive the remaining few hours to Chicago, check into my apartment, and unload all my stuff. Woo hoo. I hate loading, unloading, loading, unloading... worst part of this moving every 6 weeks thing. Oh well.

Start pediatrics on Monday. Should be better than surgery!

So yes, after this weekend I should be back blogging more regularly. Sorry for the hiatus.

Updates

Ok, so that callander I posted about... not doing it. If you want to know the details of my schedule, just ask. :)

But... I found a way to post my Kodak Gallery stuff for you to see without me having to post the link to each album. So, now you can go to www.kodakgallery.com/aleathea and see my pictures at all times. :) If you want automatic e-mails of when my album is updated, give me your e-mail address and I'll add you to the update list that Kodak sends out.

Remeber those kids?

Remeber those kids that could never quit building bigger and better things with their Tinker Toys?

Or my generation - those kids who built crazy big cool things with their Knex?


Know how they were all kind of considered to be nerdy kids? (not that I wasn't a nerd too...)
Ever wonder what happened to them?

My best guess... they're all orthopedic surgeons trained in using Ilizarov External Fixators.

Today I learned how to use them.

Here's all the types there are on one skeleton.


And here's one that's almost just like what I did today.


And here's what it looks like on a person.


I would hate to have to wear one of them... but apparently they're amazing to help bad fractures.

Smart and silly...

I can tell you about lots of stuff today that would make me sound smart... like how we took off this large melanoma off the bottom of a man's foot. How they let me do a skin graft all by myself. How I learned how to do a breast reduciton. And how to make a nipple when one has been removed. And all kinds of stuff...

Then I have my silliness... tonight American Idol starts a new season! Yay! :) I'm such a dork. But oh well. I love American Idol.

Doggy bag

Today I helped with two knee replacements. The first guy was the most interesting. He's a pretty big guy, only 54, already had the other knee done. He asked the PA if he could have the parts of the bone we cut off to bring home in a doggy bag for his dog. Would you want YOUR dog chewing on your own bones???

Partial Hiatus

Hello everyone. I'm am appologizing in advance for my partial hiatus from blogging. This is not because I'm tired of blogging. It's mostly because I'm just plain tired. Surgery is long hours. 11-12 on a good day. Today, 15.5 hours. The last 7 hours was one surgery. Sigmoid colon tumor resection. Supposed to be a 2-3 hour surgery. This guy had a 10 pound mass in there filling up his whole pelvis. We had no idea it was that big before going in. It was a rush to be done because he had ignored it a long time and now his bowel was totally obstructed. We also found in process that one of his ureters (the tube from the kideny to bladder) was running through the tumor and also was obstructing urine flow out of that kideny. So, needless to say... it was much more complicated than planned. All out with having to call in a urology surgeon to fix the ureter we had to remove... he took a short part of it and moved the bladder a bit and re-attached them. It was pretty cool to see all the stuff they did. Before the surgery he told the nurses, "Don't mess up my penis, if you do, my wife will be pretty upset." Another example of a couple in their 70's that are still quite sexually active. Anyway... we didn't touch his penis except to put the cath in. Except we had to take one of the vas deferns (where the sperm runs from the testicle out the penis)... so he's down to half the sperm count. But hey, if he really wanted he could still have children. So, we adhered to those wishes as much as possible. When first looking at that tumor we wern't sure we could get it all. But, after 7 hours of work, I think we did, AND we reattached almost everything to where it belonged. If things go as we think they will... this guy may actually be cured. 10 pound weight loss from removing the tumor and all. Anyway... all that to say... long days at the hospital, studying, and sleeping, I dont' have much time left for anything else. So, if I don't post very often between now and February 10th, I'm sorry. I promise I will sometimes, but it may be once a week. Please don't take it personally.

What?

Does someone want to remind me what month it is agian? It's 5:30pm, and I just got home and it's 53 degrees outside. The highs for the rest of the week are as follows: 48, 54, 52, 54, 54, 56. And the lowest low is 36. It dosen't even drop below freezing at night. There goes my hope of seeing any snow in the near future. I guess I left it all in Minnesota.

As for my rotation today... I watched a gastric bypass. And I assisted in a thyroidectomy (removal of the thyroid gland) and a complicated cholecystectomy (removal of the gallbladder, but his was all crazy scarred and his abdomen was all distended... so it wasn't easy). That plus rounding on patients and such was my first 11 hour day. Yay.

Calendar

For a little more idea of what I'm up to... any planned events will be posted at http://www.localendar.com/public/aleathea

You can add events to my calendar if you would like. :)

Li-Fraumeni Syndrome

Today I experienced one of those cases where you're like "Wow, I can't believe I get to see this..." but at the same time you think about the patient and how young she is...

"Li-Fraumeni syndrome is a rare inherited disorder that greatly increases the risk of developing several types of cancer, particularly in children and young adults. The cancers associated with Li-Fraumeni syndrome include osteosarcoma (a form of bone cancer), soft tissue sarcoma (cancer that occurs in soft tissues such as muscle), breast cancer, brain tumors, adrenocortical carcinoma (cancer of the adrenal gland, a small hormone-producing gland on top of each kidney), and leukemia (a cancer of blood-forming tissue). Other types of cancer also occur more frequently in people with Li-Fraumeni syndrome." National Library of Medicine

My patient is a 21 year old female. Her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer at 23 years old, was dead by 36 years old. Then, when this patient was 13 she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma of her right femur (big leg bone) and went through 12 months of chemo. Now she's 21, married 4 months ago, and was diagnosed with breast cancer (ductal carcinoma in situ to be specific) in her left breast. So, today she had both breasts removed and expanders implanted in preparation for permanant implants. She also had 3 possible melanoma lesions removed. One of the other fairly young people in the room said "Man, it's tough to see someone younger than you that's so sick..." I agree. I can't imagine going through all that already in my life.

But, then I think about how cool it is that I actually got to see a case of this. It's strictly genetic, you will not get it unless direct relatives have had it. There are less than 400 families WORLDWIDE have this syndrome. And I got to see it the first week of my surgical rotation.

Some days it's hard to balance the wonder of being able to see these things and also how depressing it can be to think of the patient it is affecting.

Thought of the day.

Not a great day for Aleathea

Today I woke up at 4am feeling very nautious, it was worse laying down, so I sat up and tried, emphisize TRIED, to sleep for 2 1/2 more hours. I attributed it to the greasy burger and fries the night before. When I finally got up I downed some Pepto, ate some cereal and headed off to the hospital still not feeling too great but figuring it would pass. I scrub into my first surgery of the day, a cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal). I was holding the camera for the surgeon, all was well... all of a sudden I get overwhelmingly hot and sweaty and feel like there is some iminant vomiting. I told them I was nautious and left the room. (That's what your supposed to do). As soon as I cooled off away from the big spotlights, I was fine. My head hurt though. Later, I scrubed in on a submandibular gland resection (the salivary gland in your chin area). Same thing, was doing well holding stuff for awhile... got hot and nautious, and had to leave the room. Agian I was fine when I cooled off. But my head hurt even more. Plus I was frustrated with myself becuase I wanted to see this stuff and didn't want to seem like a wuss, didn't want the people who would be grading me to think I can't handle surgery, didn't want to fail this rotation due to the fact that I couldn't stay in even one surgery... hopefully it gets better. Oddly enough, I have hope, becuase none of that may have been due to the surgeries. I still feel sick as a dog. Feel like my head may burst, my back is achy, still nautious, and my skin hurts when my clothes rub on it. Blah... I hate being sick. This sucks. Not my day.

Bad blogger...

Ok, so I neglected blogging while I was home, mostly because dial-up annoys me, so I spent as little time online as possible. I got to visit a lot of my friends and family while home which was wonderful. I got to sleep a lot too. I got to play with my chinchilla Fiona. I got to enojoy the snow, skiing, shoveling, re-learning how to drive in it... Braden started walking. I got to meet my dad's dog Missy. And lots of other stuff... Long day of travel to get back out here yesterday. In order to use the least of my frequent flyer numbers... I took 3 flights instead of one... Minneapolis to Grand Rapids, MI... Grand Rapids to Detroit... Detroit to Philly. Blah. But all was on time and my bags got there so all is well. Settling into Dan & Susan's house... Dan showed me around town a bit today. I got new shoes for standing in surgery all day. I got groceries. Yup. That's about it. I'll update tomorrow about my first day. :)