NaBloPoMo Day 18--Work

I'm at the VA hospital this month, and our call schedule there is a little different. Normally when we are on-call, we admit patients every 4th or 5th day. On those days we stay at the hospital overnight, get a few hours of sleep, work half of the next day, and come home and sleep the rest of that day. At the VA however, they have decided that the resident should not stay overnight (it's one of the creative ways they have of dealing with resident work hour limits). So today, I got to work at 7 am and left work at 10 pm. Because even though I don't spend the night, I still have to do all the work I would have done if I were spending the night. And even better! Tomorrow I go back to work in the morning, and instead of sleeping, I have to go to clinic in the afternoon! I'm not a big fan of this schedule. Thus, I'm too tired to write more. I'm going to eat my grilled cheese sandwich (which always makes me happy) and go to bed. But I will leave you with this:

PUPPIES! Our puppy was born today. We get to take him home in 8-10 weeks. I want to name him Milo. I don't know what Adam's name de jour is.

NaBloPoMo Day 17--the Olympic Coast

My first date with Adam was a hike along the Olympic Coast. It was a bold move on his part, "want to go camping this weekend?" But equally bold on my part for agreeing. We drove out to the coast, I learned he didn't like cherries, he learned I like Bon Jovi. And we spent the day hiking along one of the more unique trails you will find. We hiked the Ozette Loop. It started cloudy, but by the time we reached our campsite there was a beautiful sunset. And marshmallows. It must have gone ok though, since I'm still listening to Adam sing, and he's still letting me cook for him.

NaBloPoMo Day 16--Up Next

Rough day at work today, and 2 hour nap, making dinner and watching a movie with Adam. Thus no time for a real post today. So I give you photos of some of my favorite Seattle-area hikes:

Mt. Rainier

Mt. Baker, the south side

Mt. Baker, Skyline Divide

North Cascades, Sahale Glacier

the Olympic Coast

If time allows the next few days, I'll post more pics from these hikes. I miss the mountains. Although I don't miss camping in 30 degree weather, which is what we ended up doing on those two Mt. Baker hikes. We even got snowed on once. But still, I can't wait to be back in the Northwest. I just can't get used to this 80 degree weather in November.

NaBloPoMo Day 15--Post-Call Baking

I do have more past adventures to share, but now that I'm back to the painful work of inpatient medicine, I'm too tired. Last night started out fine, only a few admissions, things were quiet. But then it all got a little crazy. While I was interviewing a very nice man in the ED, they brought in another gentleman, who sat down and proceded to have a massive heart attack. My poor patient was a bit concerned, "do you need to go help them?" he asked. I looked over, and as anyone who has ever attended a code knows, there was a massive group of people surrounding the man--doing chest compressions, putting in lines, hooking up monitors, pushing meds. So no, I didn't need to help. I think the gentleman must have died 4 or 5 times, but they kept bringing him back and eventually got him to the cath lab. Last I heard, he survived the procedure and was awake and talking. My patient however, remains a mystery. A very nice man, but as you talk to him, you realize he's not making any sense. He's not answer questions correctly. He can't explain what is going on. And he got worse and worse while we were talking, eventually reaching a point where he would only speak Spanish and wouldn't follow commands. But this morning, he was back to his cheerful chatty self. Hopefully we'll figure out what is going on with him...

So with all that excitement, I only got a few hours sleep. Which means when I got home today, there was only one thing to do--bake a cake. We're having a pho party tonight (I'm not cooking pho, I'm leaving that to the Asians in the group). I am making the communal birthday cake (there were 2 b-days in our group this last week). I *love* baking. I enjoy it more than cooking, but I can't do it very often. I have a tendency to eat all of whatever I bake. Luckily there are occasions such as the pho party that allow me to bake for groups. And my friends are always so nice to compliment whatever I bake, no matter how poorly it turns out.

It's not pretty, in fact it looks as though it has been through an earthquake:

But I think I should get some credit for attempting a German chocolate cake from scratch! Here's hoping it tastes good.

NaBloPoMo Day 14--Back to Work

Today I start a new rotation, in-patient at the VA hospital. This is perhaps my least favorite hospital to work at. I love the patients, they are some of the most grateful, happy, compliant, and just nicest people. But the bureaucracy of the government... well, it all makes my job a little more difficult at times.

I'm on call tonight, and thanks to the government installed firewall on all VA computers, I do not think I'll be able to blog from there. So, this is it for today. I will leave you with a fun fact though. According to my "who's here" widget, the most common way for people who don't know me to end up reading my blog is through a google search for "quitting residency" which leads them to this. Unfortunately for them, I don't really think that is the information they are looking for. But if any of them make it to this page, hi! I know residency sucks. But it ends eventually, and then you can get a real job, and hopefully that won't suck!

See you guys tomorrow.

NaBloPoMo Day 13--Nothing

It's my birthday so I'm declaring it a day off from blogging. But by blogging about not blogging, I'm still NaBloPoMo'ing. Tricky, isn't it?

NaBloPoMo Day 12--UNESCO

As I was writing about the Slovenian caves yesterday I wondered, how many UNESCO world heritage sites are there anyway? Is it really that big of a deal? (there are 878 and yes, I think so). And then, similar to the Tylee battle of who will be the first to visit all 50 states, I began to wonder, how many UNESCO world heritage sites have I been to? The answer...

1. Salzburg, on my first visit to Austria
2. the palace and gardens of Schoenbrunn, during my adventure in Vienna
3. historic center of Vienna, of which I saw more than most tourists (see above)
4. Watertown Glacier National Park (see NaBloPoMo Day 9)
5. Luebeck, in northern Germany. I lived here for a month during a high school exchange program.
6. the palaces of Potsdam, which I visited during above mentioned summer exchange.
7. historic center of Rome. Ah, Rome. I did love that city.
8. Vatican City. Did you know they have a statue in the Vatican City Museum that looks just like Bill Clinton? Seriously. I wish I had taken a picture.
9. the Maya site of Copan in Honduras, with it's lovely ruins and such a nice little town
10. historic center of Florence, which I did not enjoy so much
11. the city of Cuzco, in Peru
12. Machu Picchu!
13. the Skocjan caves in Slovenia, of course
14. Yellowstone National Park
15. Olympic National Park, site of Adam and my first date
16. Redwoods National Park, home of the Paul Bunyon and Babe of my childhood

Only 862 to go!