The Flu

I made a big mistake over the past couple of months. I, through a simple error of omission, didn't get my flu shot this year (I don't miss it when working with patients). The reality of that mistake became clear Tuesday when I was becoming more and more miserable through the day and Kerwyn finally said, "I think you're getting the flu."

As a physician I have the nice perk of being able to call in prescriptions for myself or having a friend do so. Last year when I got the swine flu I quickly realized the problem, called in for tamiflu and was back to work after 48 hours of isolation.

Things didn't go as smoothly this year (for some reason CVS couldn't process a new prescription at 12:15am due to different time zones). I don't even know how that is possible, but either way I didn't get the drugs. I woke up the next morning with a rash on my trunk that eventually spread down my legs (it was sexy). When I showed up at my doctor's office I was struggling to breathe enough that he gave me a breathing treatment (amazing effect!) and sent me to the ER. After a long day of subpar care I was diagnosed with influenza (shocking!) and sent off with an inhaler and tamiflu prescription.

I hate being sick. It's good for me as it makes me more empathetic of patients, but I seriously hate it. I can't stand having to stay home and lay around all day. Plus I missed my annual surgery in-training exam. Any other year I would have been ok with that but this year I was ready to destroy that test. We also missed our reservation for a hot date at St Elmo's Steak House which made me very sad.

Thankfully I'm back to near normal but have learned a valuable lesson: Get your flu shot!

Officer Moore

A police officer was shot and killed in Indy this past week. It has been big news here and apparently has been part of the bigger news of all the violence towards officers in the last couple of weeks. His funeral is Tuesday. I read this in the paper about what to expect at the funeral:

"There will be a horse and there will be boots in the saddle but no rider because the rider has been killed,” Moran said. “They will have his patrol car with the windshield all blacked out, draped with a black cloth."

Then one of the most emotional moments marking the death of their friend and fellow officer will come.

"During the funeral procession they will do his final sign off on the air,” Moran said. “The dispatcher will come on, he will be called to duty and he will be signed off for the final time."

Every officer on patrol will hear the final sign off. Officers from around the country are expected for the funeral, and many will pitch in by taking over IMPD shifts, so the fellow officers can pay their respects.

He was 29. I can't imagine the profound grief his family and friends are experiencing.

Blue Guitar

As my friends from Taylor have unfortunately experienced first-hand I have a blue guitar that I really like to play. My senior year at Taylor I bought it for $50 on ebay and signed up for a guitar class on campus (I guess you could say I had some senioritis). I had so much fun with the one song I learned- Amazing Grace. I didn't have the energy to really learn many other songs so I sat in our dorm suite and played "Amazing Grace" for hours. I loved it. I think I was the only one who did. I never bought a tuner and quickly started medical school so it sat around for years untouched. Recently Kerwyn got it out, tuned it and I played around for a few minutes. He quickly realized that the piece that holds all the strings in was about to pop off (I'm telling you this was a high-quality guitar I purchased). So he went to work with gorilla glue and he put new strings on it (I didn't know how) and tuned it for the first time in many years. It is fun having my blue guitar with even more character back.

Epic holidays

After being on call in the hospital for the last two Christmases I knew I wanted to spend time with as much family as possible this year. It just so happened that my wonderful Grandpa rented out a large home in Phoenix for our entire family to spend a week over Christmas together. It was great to be with family for Christmas- most of whom I had never spent a single Christmas with (at least not since I have been old enough to remember it).

Some of the highlights of the trip included

• hiking South Mountain
• attending Christmas eve service with family- even if it was a somewhat odd service
• sitting in the hot tub at night
• watching a coyote run down the road
• sitting around the fire at night
• Christmas gift exchange- I was betrayed by my husband who stole my gift, but sweat justice was served when I scored a phenomenal hat. Grandpa stole the ipod my dad had opened. It was fun all around.
• Grandpa joined facebook
• Rock Band
• Spa day at JW Marriott
  
• evening games- Mexican train, scat, poker
• A round of golf with my brother, mom and Kerwyn
  

Thanks for a great week Grandpa!

Proud to be an American

I received this email today about a background investigation the VA Hospital was running on me (standard procedure).

This e-mail serves as a notification to the applicant that your background investigation was favorably adjudicated (completed). Due to the Applicants position sensitivity level, the Department was required under Title 5, US Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 731, “Suitability”, to conduct a Background Investigation and adjudicate the case using Title 5, CFR, Part 731, Subpart B, Suitability Determinations.

Thank you, for your cooperation during the background investigation process.

I seriously have no idea what this means. I think I passed.

India

As pretty much everyone who knows me knows India holds a very dear place in my heart. My first trip was a tough 3 weeks in Calcutta that left me thinking I would never go back to India. In fact when I landed in Thailand on my way home I kissed the ground (I have a picture of it) and said, "I'm never going back to India". God has a funny way of nudging me to do just those things that I say I will never do. In college I felt a building desire to go back to India and ended up going for 2 months to work at a hospital in the foothills of the Himalayas. It was amazing and life-changing.


I haven't been in 7 years and have had both a longing to go back and at times a dulled interest as I've been quite caught up in my surgical training. In the past few weeks I have sensed God really softening my heart after a pretty brutal 2 years of surgical residency. Heather, my college roommate, suggested I read, "The Hole in Our Gospel" by the President of World Vision.



Before I even started the book something crazy happened to me Sunday night. Kerwyn and I went to church and they took a week break in the series they are doing and had a "vision night". They are very committed to sending missionaries- both short and long term and were casting vision for the teams they plan to send out all over the world in the coming year. I immediately noted the trip to Chennai but told myself that we shouldn't go on that trip. I had all the usual reasons- the high cost for such a short trip, it wasn't using any of our medical training, and it just didn't make sense. Then they showed a video of a guy who went to India last year and he said, "There's nothing like it" speaking of being in India. I found myself getting teary eyed but was trying to hold it together. Then another man got up and spoke. At one point he played a sound recording of one of the 5 daily calls to prayer he heard for the Muslim community. As soon as I heard the sound it took me back there and I just started sobbing. It was crazy because I'm not one to cry but I just couldn't stop crying for the billion people of India- many of whom don't know Jesus and lack the means to even care for themselves and their families. I couldn't stop crying. I told God, "I get it. I'll go, but can you help me stop crying?" I eventually did and headed home confident that we should take a trip together to India to serve and really listen to where God is leading us as a couple. As soon as Kerwyn saw me crying he knew we were going to be going to India soon. I love that he just knew what was going on in my heart.



So anyways, we're going to continue to pray and brainstorm ideas on where to go and what to do. We had planned on having one big trip before going back to real hospital work July 1st so instead of a crazy European bike tour or some other trip we'll hopefully be going to India together for the first time. Thankfully we have no shortage of contacts there. We're open to ideas so let us know if you have any!

Crossfit

A few weeks ago Kerwyn and I took a Crossfit exercise class with our friends Paul and Shawn (she's a trainer at Crossfit Carmel). It was insane. We only did half the amount of each exercise as the regular folks but I was sore for days.

Any workout where they have to explain rhabdomyolysis (muscle breakdown due to over-exertion or injury that can damage your kidneys...) to you at the end is perhaps a bit excessive...which is probably why I loved it so much. At one point Kerwyn looked at me and said something to the effect of, "you're really enjoying this aren't you?" with a look of disbelief in his eyes.

While the crossfit gym is too far to attend reguarly we've been incorporating some of their principles into our workouts. As a result I'm sitting on the couch tonight with a heating pad on my hamstrings from a workout over 2 days ago. Good times....