Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Muddy Buddy




Upon the immediate return from our honeymoon we repacked and headed to Chicago for the Muddy Buddy race with our friends Osi and Enola. We had a fun day wandering around Chicago and then on Sunday got up early for our race. It was much more intense than we expected. It was 5.6 miles or something like that of running and biking- in a fair amount of mud obviously. The biking was ridiculously hard (thanks to the mud and hills) and the running was just tough because I wasn't in shape to slosh through mud with water-filled running shoes.
It is called Muddy Buddy because it is a team event. We had a competition- girls vs boys (they won by 2 minutes). They started over an hour before us and so were already cleaned off when we finished (hence they are clean in the pictures). The end of the race is a swim through a mud pit which ensure that your entire body is covered in mud. It was a blast!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Married Life


Our honeymoon in St Lucia was great but being back home and settling in together has been even better in my mind. It has been a blast being a newlywed for the past nearly 2 months. It is amazing how much you learn about someone by living together! Kerwyn is seriously hilarious. He makes me laugh on a daily basis. Sometime you should ask him about his laundry regimen. He is very particular about the way his clothes are washed and I have yet to understand it, but it cracks me up every time I think about it. The transition has been really smooth for us and tons of fun. I'm sure my work schedule (or lack of one) this year has helped significantly. I never thought I could love someone as much as I love Kerwyn. I am so excited for our future together! Just for fun here are a couple of pictures from our honeymoon. Yes, we look dorky in our horseback riding helmets- that is the beauty of the picture.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Expect the Unexpected

I can't restart blogging without first telling everyone the best story of our wedding day.

Going into the wedding I had heard many people say that despite the best planning something will go wrong on your wedding day. I believed them but wasn't worried because I would like to think that I was appropriately laid back and could roll with it.

On our wedding morning I was quite emotional and trying to just hold it together-they were good emotions but as a surgery resident I guess I'm not used to dealing with really strong emotions anymore. I got ready at my house with bridesmaids, my parents, Leslie and Sam Petersen, and then our photographer and her entourage. At the time what I didn't know was that Leslie and my dad had seen the limo driver pull up, strip down from the waist up and change into clean clothes in our cul-de-sac. They were horrified but didn't want to tell me. When he walked into the house he wasn't quite what I expected in a limo driver but I didn't care. I was just excited to go see Kerwyn (we were taking pictures beforehand).

So mom, dad, Christy (our photographer) and myself climbed into the limo. I was immediately struck by how hot the inside was since the engine was "running". The limo man also pulled my dad aside to get his credit card from him and clarify that he would take any additional tip that my dad would like to give him (he already had Kerwyn's card). As he started driving I was immediately alarmed by the fact that he went in a very circuitous route to the meeting place down a road riddled with construction in a raunchy part of town. We sputtered down the road with cars honking and restarted the engine several times. Eventually the engine wouldn't restart. I asked the driver what Plan B was. At first he wouldn't respond to me and so I spoke louder. He didn't have a plan because his "company" wasn't answering their phones. We sat in our personal sauna for a few minutes with cars honking before mom noticed the heat rash spreading across my body. At that point I knew I was getting out of the limo. So we climbed out into busy traffic (I wish you could have seen the moment people realized a bride was getting out of the limo). The tone changed as people shouted condolences about our situation. I was laughing as this seemed hilarious. I then realized that we couldn't just sit in the sun baking and the only building nearby was a porn shop.

So mom, dad, myself and the photographer wandered into the porn shop to cool off on my wedding day. We laughed a lot. The workers were very nice and even offered us water if we wanted it. I just needed to go to the bathroom so in my wedding dress mom helped me use one of the nastier bathrooms I've been in in a long time.

I used my parents phone and with the photographer's help we were able to redirect a couple of cars to come pick us up (thanks Tara!).

Had he gone the route that I expected/wanted him to take we would have likely broken down on the interstate so it all worked out wonderfully.

It was a very eventful start to the day. What it did that I am so grateful for was change the entire tone of the day from one of nerves to one of pure joy. It was a hilarious situation that helped us all to relax and just enjoy the day knowing that we had pretty much seen it all at that point (no pun intended). An extra bonus was having our photographer there to capture it all on camera. The pictures are hilarious!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

I'm Back!

Sorry for the horrible delay for those of you still following this blog. Planning a wedding and being a surgical resident were pretty much all I could handle for the past few months. The wedding is over and Kerwyn and I are adjusting to life as newlyweds. I've got some funny stories to post in the coming days. I'm back. I promise.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

An open letter

Dear violent people of Indianapolis,

Please just get along today. You see, I'm very tired and I'm on call. But if you must, please be nice to me. I don't like it when you swear at me as I try and stop your bleeding. It isn't nice. But maybe that's what put you in the situation you're in. Also, telling me (with a police officer over my shoulder) to let you go so you can go and "put a cap in their *&!%$" is just stupid. Thirdly, I know you weren't minding your own business so stop telling me that. I don't care how it happened. My job is just to fix you and leave the detective work for others. Either way, I'm tired so just stop fighting.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Trauma call

Just to give you a glimpse into what call is like...I was on call last night at our large county hospital with dozens and dozens of physicians on call on any given night. I had a fairly busy night but I've had much worse. This morning one of my friends called the operator to get my pager number to get in touch with me and the operator didn't even hesitate to recite my pager number from memory. Maybe she has a photographic memory but either way we got a good laugh out of the misery that is our current call schedule.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

The beating

I recently performed a surgery that is the "holy grail" of general surgery. It is usually reserved for chief residents or fellows but I had the fortune of scrubbing in when no one else was available last week. Lest you think the patient pays the price for my inexperience please know the staff was in complete control of the surgery. He told me that he wouldn't accept anything other than perfection and I assure you that to the best of human abilities that is what the patient received.

Here are some of the quotes from the case directed at me:
  • I don't know how I can be any more descript with what I want you to do
  • Terrible
  • Horrible
  • Amateur move
  • Are you sure you're up for this case?
  • How can you not know how to do that?
  • You've got to think
  • Unbelievable
  • STOP DOING THAT!
  • What a rookie move
  • I don't like that. Take it out.
  • If you mess this tie up she is going to bleed 1 liter per minute so don't screw this up
  • Countless expletives
  • Your left hand is doing nothing to help- get it involved in the surgery

Lest you think I'm a complete hack he did comment that I have surprisingly good control of the needle for a second year resident and that overall I did a really good job. If the beating I took was with a "good job" I would hate to be there when I'm doing a bad job.

I post all this to keep a balance to all of my happy posts about my surgical training. While I have loved the majority of my residency and have had overall very positive feedback I have had moments and days that just suck. This was one of them. The good news is that starting July 1st I have a year to regroup and enjoy being a newlywed.

I knew what I was signing up for in becoming a surgeon and this is part of it. Lives are on the line and they know I have to be able to perform under pressure. I have to master my adrenaline while I have staff as a safety net before I'm on my own.

By the way the patient is doing very well.