Dayton!!

My first week in Dayton is almost complete. I have a longer lunch break today so I thought I would update my blogitty-blog. I have been at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio for the past week. My two week "easy" rotation in Anatomy in Toledo went WAY too fast. The smells and sounds of working on dead bodies reminded me why I was so excited when I successfully completed Anatomy during first year. I was glad to be done, but I was also glad to have a light rotation and spend a lot of time with Leisy, Zeb and Ike. Our Animal Safari adventure was ridiculously memorable. This is the Hospital on base. The pediatric department has all of its clinics for general pediatrics and for specialty pediatrics in one location. They also have child psych and a peds immunization clinic in the same location. Unlike my rotation in Texas, this hospital does not have inpatient pediatrics. All of that is done at a "civilian" hospital in Dayton not too far away from base. Dayton Children's hospital is a beautiful children's hospital where any patient from the base who needs to be admitted will stay. My training would consist of time at the military base and time in the civilian hospital. To me, this is a great advantage to get the "best of both worlds" during my training.

So far I have loved every thing about this program. The staff are approachable, easy to work with and seem to have a great work dynamic. The residents seem to be a part of one big cohesive team. I love the area - Dayton seems to have surprises hidden around every corner. At night I venture out around base and have done a fair bit of exploring. I get excited every time I see a new Metropark, shopping center or restaurant. They have a Cheesecake Factory!!! Traffic is not bad, and the neighborhoods seem pleasant. Dayton has a lot of trees and they are all changing right now. I LOVE Ohio in the fall. The air is crisp, autumn smells are everywhere, I need a jacket when I go outside. What could be better?? Getting accepted to this program and having my family here with me - that's what could be better.

I have constant butterflies in my stomach. I want to come to this program so badly and really these four weeks are a time to prove myself to the program. I'm constantly on edge trying to impress and seem interested and engaged 100% of the time. I also try to play off that I'm nervous about getting in. I try to be interesting and seem like a team player. I know that I just need to relax and be myself - I'm trying to do that, I just want to make sure I'm being my BEST self ALL of the time. (The woes of a hopeful resident).

I have been working in the pediatric clinics and spent all of yesterday in the nursery. I watched some circumcisions and also participated in a C-section and new born examination. Today I worked with the developmental pediatrician which specialty I knew little about. It is a really cool specialty and combines some interesting aspects of pediatrics (psych, genetics, general peds, social and physical development). They have me rotating through many different things to help me get a broad view of the program. I'm looking forward to working with the Cardiologist, GI doctor, and the Adolescent specialist. I'll spend some time in the NICU, PICU and inpatient units at Dayton children's.

Upgrade

Minutes before boarding the plane in Texas, my name was announced over the overhead speakers. "That's strange", I thought. I made my way to the boarding gate and they smiled and asked to exchange my boarding pass for a new one - a first class ticket. What?!? I immediately thought of officer training and being warned to NEVER fly first class in uniform. It just looks bad to have military members acting pretentious on the government's dime. I politely refused and told them I was in uniform. They insisted and said it was perfectly okay, it was Sept. 11, and they thanked me for my service. In my head I thought, "What service?? I haven't done anything yet!" When they called us to board they asked that all military personnel board first. I boarded the plane with 5 other service members including a full bird colonel who gave me a surprised look when I stopped at my first class seat. After he walked to the back of the plane I suggested to the stewardess that maybe the colonel should have my seat. She told me to sit down and relax. "You were probably nicer at the gate than he was", she hypothesized. I felt ridiculously guilty when I stretched my legs out, reclined my seat and washed my face with a heated towel. I continued to feel guilty when I declined wine with my gourmet lunch and guiltier still when they brought out freshly baked cookies. It was the best flight I have had in my life. Maybe I earned it since I was away from my family for 28 days. However, all of my class mates are gone for the same amount of time and they have to pay for everything themselves. So really I didn't earn anything. Maybe someday when I'm deployed and away from my family I will think back to that flight and say - now I've earned it!!

Tropical Storm

"Tropical Storm Hermine gave a wet and windy punch to Texas today. Although the storm hammered Houston and San Antonio today, it's expected to weaken to a Tropical Depression overnight."

The storm was fairly intense. I was in the hospital all day long, but the wind and rain sounded crazy. When it was time to catch the shuttle home it picked us up 10 minutes late. A few sections of freeway were shut down because there was so much water on the road. By that time the rain had slowed to a drizzle. It was still suffocatingly hot and humid, but there were plenty of people in jackets and sweat shirts. Come on(!!) people of San Antonio - a few degrees drop in temperature with rain does not warrant the use of a sweat shirt. It was still ridiculously humid and warm. Hermine - do what you will with Texas for the next few days. Just let me go home in peace on Saturday!!!

Have a mentioned how much a love Pediatrics?!? I'm so excited to know what I want to do for the rest of my life; it's crazy how close I am to being an actual Doctor. This time next year I will have my very own patients and I will be responsible for their care. This week we had a 3 year old with Kawasaki disease. I was so excited because this is something that I swear pops up on every single pediatric test I have yet encountered. It can be fatal if misdiagnosed and even with treatment can have severe consequences. Only early recognition and early treatment has shown to reduce the long-term sequelae. So this little kiddo had the classic presentation: 5 days of fever, conjunctivits, big swollen and cracked lips, strawberry tounge, polymorophous rash on his trunk and extremities, edema of the extremities and lymphadenopathy. He looked miserable but was the sweetest little kid ever. 48 hours later with IVIG and high dose aspirin the kid looks so much better. I spent some time playing Toy Story dominoes with him this afternoon. His mom asked me to write my name on the white board because she wanted to remember "the good things that happened during this horrible experience. You are one of the good things". She just had a baby three weeks ago and her husband left for the weekend after she insisted she would be fine. I'm glad that I was able to help make her miserable week a little better. He had a cardiology consult because Kawasaki can mess up your heart vessels. He had only minor changes that should resolve but they will follow him closely.

Free things in SA

"Here's to the Heroes"

For my last Saturday in San Antonio, I decided to save the biggest "free thing to do" for last:

Sea World!!

As an active duty military member, I can get myself and three other guests into Sea World free once a year. Too bad I didn't have my family with me today. We would have all gotten in!

I saw a lot of animals, made myself sick on some roller coasters, and watched Shamu the Killer Whale show. It would have been so much more fun with my family - but I still had to go check it out. It was FREE!

Congratulations Leisy!! Leisy ran her second "official" half-marathon and scored a personal best! She also got a plaque for fisnishing in the top three of her age division. I'm amazed that she finds the time to put in so many miles to prepare for things like this and can still keep two crazy kids healthy and happy. I love Leisy!! I wish I could have seen her cross the finish line. Great job жена!!

30 hours later...

I am now working in the hospital on the Pediatric floor. We have been super busy and yesterday completely filled the unit. 16 beds were full and our two over flow beds were filled as well. The attending physician stayed way late to help discharge two patients to free up some beds. I was on call last night and helped fill those two vacancies. We were busy with a full unit and then got called to the ER around 1AM to see a patient. This little girl was swollen everywhere, had really bad edema and needed to be admitted. We often get tested about Minimal Change Disorder and I finally got to see it first hand! We had another girl roll in around 3AM and her admission consumed the rest of the morning!

I get on the shuttle at 5:30AM to make it to morning check out around 6AM
See patients and then have morning report at 7:30
Round on patients until lunch
In the afternoon we check up on patients (and I had an interview with one of the program directors)
Check out to the night shift at 5:00
I stayed on with the night shift - was kept busy all night.
Quick cat nap from 4:30 - 5:30 - had time to prepare for morning check out
Morning report at 7:30
Round on patients until lunch (luckily we ended a little early around 10:45)

I was then allowed to go home to sleep. I slept for 4 hours and forced myself to get up so I would still be tired to sleep tonight! Being on call is rough!

I got my Step 2 score back!!! It's the last graded exam of medical school!! I'm happy with my score and I'm done with tests for the rest of the year!!!!! WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Halfway!!

I have reached the halfway point on my San Antonio journey. 2 weeks down! 2 weeks to go! I learned a lot working in the clinic these past two weeks. I saw a number of different things, got a lot of experience with sport's physicals and hopefully made a good impression. I learned a lot, but most importantly realized that I love working in the pediatric clinic as much as I remembered from last year. Now it's on to the wards - I will be working in the hospital on the pediatric ward for the last 2 weeks. I'll be up before the sun everyday for the next two weeks.

It's not really fair that once the weekend arrives I'm totally commitment free and can do as I please. Not fair because Leisy is stuck at home with two demanding children that won't leave her alone for 2 minutes. Not fair because I don't have children to wake me up at night. It's just not fair. I wish I could fly home every Friday night and give Leisy a reprieve from Motherhood. She is doing a fabulous job and I can't imagine anyone who would do better without a husband for weeks and weeks.

This Saturday I went and saw the world's largest pair of cowboy boots. These puppies are 40 feet tall and 35 feet wide. Their official name is "Giant Justins" and were built in 1970. I was trying to get a good shot with me and the boots, but becuase they are so big I was having a hard time capturing the shot. Some nice people took pity on me, pulled their truck to the curb to jump out and snap this pic. (Leisy would have been mortified!!)

I also went to the McNay Art Museum. It is a beautiful mansion that has been converted into a museum. The grounds are vast and have fountains and all sorts of sculptures. The back of the mansion is an extension of the museum. It has a lot of really cool art including some Monet, Picasso, O'Keeffe and other big names. There is also a lot of funky modern art like the exploded tire below. I loved walking through the house and the inner courtyard. This place also charges $8 a person and might be worth it, but I got in free because I am active duty military!!

Sorry Leisy that I can't jump on a plane and come home on the weekends. It doesn't make it any easier for me to be gone when I get to go do fun things without you. Really this weekend was boring and I would much rather be at home with you!!