ReLAxation

Phi, me, Brenden, Jeremy, Malibu

It is soooooooooooooo nice to have time off! We've had 6 days of a lot of fun which has included a "We're done!" dinner on Tuesday, followed by white water rafting on Wednesday, and a trip to LA that Phi, Brenden, and I returned from yesterday. I'll try to tell the story of the trip in pictures (some of which I stole from Brenden, who is a far better photographer than am I!).

Tuesday, we smiled a sigh of relief (and called some friends/relatives!) after getting out of whatever rotation we were on that day and (some people) enjoyed some beer at Rubicon's:

Jeremy survived OB with me his last month

Wednesday was white water rafting on the American River about an hour east of here in Auburn. When we started, the water was frigid and most of us were praying that we wouldn't get dumped overboard! However, we all survived the class 3/4 rapids just fine and it was a great time. People only got in the water voluntarily. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of us in the raft/water as I left my non-water-proof camera behind but here is some of the group beforehand.

Kevin (Brenden's brother), Brenden, Phi, Olivia (peds former-intern) and Mahsheed

Thursday morning, Brenden, Phi, and I set out for LA. It only took us about 5 1/2 hours to get to the northern part, where we met up with Jeremy and Noelle at Jeremy's house in Agoura Hills. We headed to the beach in Malibu to relax for a bit.

The beach @ Malibu

Jeremy takes the Pacific plunge

me with Brenden and Noelle

We then headed to Santa Monica, where we strolled around the pier for a bit (the oldest amusement pier in CA) before heading to the Third Street Promenade, a pedestrian street lined with shops, restaurants, and street performers. I met up with Alexis, a friend from middle school in Nepal, who now lives in Studio City. I hadn't seen her in maybe 8-10 years! We caught up over some good Asian food and then were entertained by the "Dog man," who has cute little doggies doing tricks in the street. The highlight was having both this little Jack Russell terrier and this big pit-bull-mix riding skateboards down the street (only in California...).

(Brenden obviously took this pic)

Noelle, Jeremy, Phi, and Brenden on the pier
Third Street Promenade
Reunion!

me and Alexis
Smart doggie!

We were lucky to have free lodging down in LA by staying with Phi's friends Ron and Joan, who live in San Pedro. But everyone seems to have friends down there-- on Friday, we met up with Phi's friend Devan (and gf Kim) in Long Beach; on Saturday, we met up with Brenden's friend Risa (and gf Andrea) in Redondo Beach.

Adventuring

The days were filled with some exploring in my Prius (the boys driving, though, as no one wanted to be a part of my driving in crazy LA) directed in part by my Lonely Planet and helped in part with Phi's (sometimes less than reliable) GPS system.

Venice beach (aka the beach of freaks)

Serious paddleballers

The beach gym, giving name to this "Muscle Beach"
Man in gold
Smiling Buddha in Gold They've got it right
Freakshow (we didn't go in)

Overlooking LA is the Getty Center, a lovely art museum and sculpture garden which we visited Friday.

Some interesting sculptures

Gorgeous Gardens

Hollywood

Yes, we even had to do the cheesy walk-of-fame and drive through Beverly Hills, Sunset Blvd, and Hollywood.

Harrison Ford's prints

You can barely see the sign through the smog!!!

(here's it more clearly on a postcard!) :)

Grauman's Chinese Theater

More beach time:

Phi did some surfing (well, more paddling around than surfing!) and I did some running/relaxing on Manhattan Beach. We also spotted some dolphins just off the coastline, which was neat!
Good food.

I can't forget to talk about all the wonderful food we had down in LA. Most of it was Asian food and Yogurt! We had good vegetarian and Thai and then, before we left yesterday, had dimsum in Chinatown. Mmm.

Strange sign outside a shop in Chinatown

Yogurt is really popular here!
Pinkberry is this really trendy place but is quite expensive (and prohibits photography, which Brenden obviously obeyed!) :) I did like the mochi, though (little squishy rice thingies you add as toppings), which I'd never tried before.

I'd have to say, though, that I think Yogurtland (here, in Little Tokyo), wins!!!

(Too bad we have only Big Spoon in Sac-town).

In other sad news, today is my last day of vacation before year 2! I go back on OB tomorrow and am trying not to stress too much. I have 2 Saturday calls in 3 weeks, but am trying to stay positive and hope to still enjoy some summertime here in CA!

Out with a bang!

INTERN YEAR IS OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(can you tell I'm just a little excited?!). Today was my LAST DAY of being "OB-Intern-1" and getting a bazillion calls/pages per day, being sucked into triage with every new patient (there are a LOT of pregnant people right now [including one very special one!!! CONGRATS, Wendi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]), doing postpartum scut/discharge summaries, mad amounts of orders, and other miscellaneous paperwork.
It is a wonderful feeling. I'm trying to forget that, like my FP/psych compadre, Michelle, we are still pseudo-interns until we finish our required intern rotations (which, for me, are largely peds), but completing a chronological terrible year is worth celebrating, right?


It's been a busy couple of days! Yesterday was hopping all day and then, there slightly late trying to finish up an antepartum admit H and P, I ran to help in a (predicted, and actual) shoulder dystocia delivery and then, since the night team was divided between that repair for that and the ongoing c-section for 26-week twins for severe preeclampsia, there was postpartum hemorrhaging and another near-delivery-onto-the bed that I got called to take care of! I didn't get out of there until 10 p.m.! Ick!

Today was nearly as busy-- some of the new OB interns came and hung out w/ me in the morning to learn EMR and how things "flow" on L and D (totally impossible to communicate in a morning, but I think my running around at least gave them a sense for the craziness that is OB!). We had several deliveries (the peds residents on newborn nursery are hating us-- there were something like 12 deliveries on Sunday night, 8 more yesterday, and many more "greens" [laboring patients] today!).


Then the dreaded.... I went to "AROM" (break the water bag) one of the laboring pts, a G2 (doing this for multips generally speeds labor greatly). She was up to 6 cm and the bag was bulging and the head felt comfortably low for me but, following rupture, the baby started having variable decelerations in the heart rate, concerning for cord compression. The heart rate would recover, but the decels were deep and, one time, the heart rate stayed low (i.e. 50s) for several minutes.... The R2, Chief, etc. were all there in the room with me for several minutes until they finally called a Code-C [an emergency C-section], which is broadcast all over the hospital. Yikes. In the flurry of activity that accompanies such a decision, the patient (Spanish speaking), was terrified (rightfully so), being wheeled back expeditiously to the OR. Fortunately, with change in positioning and a new FSE (fetal scalp electrode), we were able to continue to trace the baby's heart rate, which recovered to its normal. She did not end up needing the c-section, and went on to deliver vaginally completely normally, with the baby's Apgars of 9 and 9. Nevertheless, it was terrifying. I felt so horrible that I may have done something routine which had caused things to turn south so quickly.

I am going to be terrified to ever AROM again. And.... even more terrifying... as the R2 in less than 1 week, I should be DOING the C-sections (even possibly codes!!!) that pop up. I'm not sure I'm ready.

Anyway, enough of that medicine stuff, although it certainly made for an exciting last day.

I celebrated being DONE w/ some of my fellow FP interns @ Rubicon's Brewery downtown. Some of us are going white-water rafting tomorrow, and then down to southern Cal for the weekend before Year 2 starts on July 1.

GOOD-BYE TO INTERN YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(And HELLO to growing new baby Kitsteiner!!) :)
So much to celebrate:)

Moving on.... to other chapters

In the most important news...

Hans and Rachel are married!!!
I had the most wonderful opportunity to have this past weekend off to fly back to Rochester for Hans and Rachel's wedding festivities! Post-night call, I was able (with the assistance/planning of Shomir, my personal travel agent) to finagle the Sacramento public bus system to the airport, and flew Thursday to the polar north, where, after the Roch direct shuttle ride, Lesley whittled me back from St. Mary's to her and David's lovely house. It was so great to be able to catch up with my great old friends from medical school! While Rochester holds some extremely haunting (and frozen) memories for me, I realized that, although I miss my friends dearly, I have moved onto another chapter of my life, and I am, emotionally, in a much better place now than I ever was while living there!

Anyway, Friday afternoon was the rehearsal and then afterwards was the bbq @ the Sviggums' farm, with wonderful food and fun and games (I'm glad I was on Hans' winning volleyball team, for if we'd have lost, I'd have never heard the end of it... :)). Loved the way the "shed" was decorated! :

Saturday a.m., we caught up w/ some more classmates and friends (the Cronks, Schiefers, and Ronnie) @ a brunch Lesley held for us (the Kitsteiners FINALLY arriving in town, albeit sans luggage). Pre-wedding, it was a rush to TJ Maxx to find Wen an outfit to wear!

Lesley w/ the options! Wendi tries on clothes like a madwoman. We had great success!

The wedding was Saturday afternoon at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Rochester. Thanks to Kristen for taking all the pictures that I stole! The wedding was perfect. I felt privileged to have been a part of the ceremony-- in reading a scripture from Isaiah. The music was lovely, and Rachel looked stunning (as did Hans :)). The reception, equally beautiful, was at a country club in Stewartville, complete with cute cakes (go, Kristen!), cupcakes, great toasts, and dancing. If you have time and are as much a photo nut as am I, check out Matt Addington's photos which are perhaps the most breathtaking shots I have seen in a very long time.

Les and me in churchJoneses- fabulous hosts!

Post-ceremony hugs

Happy newlyweds (with Kristen's Groom's cake!)

Old buds! (David, Les, me, Kristen, Brandon and, in front, the Kit family)

We got to do a bit more catching up at a brunch at Rachel's parents' house on Sunday, as well as some great Indian food on Broadway, before we had to part ways again.
In any case, blessings and congratulations to the new Sviggum couple as they start their new life chapter together!

New parents
It was so great to see John, Wendi, and little Isaac!! Here's to them being parents, especially on this past Sunday, Fathers' Day!!! Can you tell how much everyone enjoyed holding the new miracle baby? (I'm so proud of the Kits for traveling across the country with a 5-week-old so that we could meet him!)

Wendi, proud mommy

Kristen and little Isaac

Les takes a turn

Scary picture!!!
Mr. Sviggum, looking very at ease!

Bride and Baby (can't decide who's more beautiful!!!

Back to CA

As mentioned, MN was a chapter. We actually had great weather this weekend, leading us to near-forget how COLD it can get up there (can you believe this car thermometer?). However, I'm thrilled to be back in the warmth of Sacramento.....

and, with June in Sacramento brings (in addition to 90 degree temps).....

NEW INTERNS!!!!!!!
Near-end of intern year

Yes! In approximately 6 days (but who's counting, right?!), I will NO LONGER be an intern (by name that is, although I do still have two intern peds rotations to complete in the fall)!!!! This is really striking me right about now! Yesterday, we had a dinner @ Ernesto's for the new OB interns who, to my delight, will be largely replacing my responsibilities as a slave to triage (with the disaster that is current EMR, or electronic medical records), tower-3 postpartum calls, and gyn-onc post op checks/cross-cover (as well as, on other rotations, the scut work and painful discharge summaries!). I am nearly jumping with joy, except that I am near-terrified to commence as a second year with all of those responsibilities. I hope I can step up to the challenge.

and, to explain why I may not blog for a while....

Upcoming events:

Wednesday 6/18: Team building with the upcoming OB interns for a.m. conference, OB L and D in the p.m.

Wednesday night: FP/OB dinner

Thursday night 6/19: recuperate after another day on L and D

Friday 6/20: OB L and D, followed by p.m. FP clinic, and, at night, OB graduation

Saturday-Sunday 6/21-6/22: 24+ hour weekend OB call

Monday 6/23: second-to-last-day of intern year (OB L and D)!
Tuesday 6/24: LAST DAY of intern year (OB L and D, then likely celebrating w/ OB no-longer-interns!)

Wednesday: Rafting with FP friends
Thursday-Sunday: trip to SoCAL with FP classmates

Tuesday 7/1 (remember! Don't get appendicitis in July! New interns starting!!!)- SECOND YEAR STARTS (I'm back on OB).

Pretty exciting stuff!

Oh, and just for good measure, although I can't tie it to the whole "chapters" theme, I wanted to mention two awesome records that Elizabeth, a second year OB resident, now has on the WALL OF FAME in the OB board room (I'm so jealous):

1. Largest recent NSVD (vaginal delivery) baby: 4860g (that's 10#10 oz!-- like a toddler! [certainly bigger than Isaac]!!!) (no dystocias)

2. Most recent undiagnosed twin BOA (birth on arrival) delivery... 6/11. WILD!

Okay, with that, it's bedtime!

Since this post was like a novel, a new chapter won't be due for a long time...

Weekend update

...(and more picture-stealing-- Thanks, Darina!)...
....(and, take that, Wendi! Two posts in one day!!)

Friday: -
- Finished week one of current OB nights (this coming week is my last week of nights as an intern, and, most excitingly, last week of gyn-onc cross-cover/post-op checks!!!), had post-call clinic (blah) and then slept the rest of the day.
- Woke up to go see the Sex and the City movie by myself which started at 10:15 p.m.! :) It's obvious that the only chance I have of staying awake at late-night movies is when I'm on a nights schedule! :) The movie was cute.

Saturday:
-Dim Sum at New Canton
-Watched the Belmont Stakes where, as I was very happy to see, Da' Tara came in first place (unfortunately Shomir, a big horse-racing fan [being from KY] did not heed my advice and only placed a smidgen of his money on the horse bearing my name. He will, I think, forever regret this decision for not having more faith :)).
-Beautiful weather called for a bbq on Shom's patio

(here is Dinh Hai, Shomir [warming himself??], Arash, and Dan) I got made fun of endlessly for being sent for the beer and coming back with.... "coronitas" ("What is this?! This is like a beer shot!!!" exclaimed Arash). Oops. Here the bottle is positioned adjacent to the wine so you can fully appreciate the [too small for these men] bottle size. That's what you get when you send an inexperienced beer-buyer for beer. I just grabbed the first corona-like things I saw!!

Arash, Shomir, and me enjoying some good bbq!
Darina and Lillian pose by the grill

And then there was bowling. We almost branched out and got to go mini-golfing but there was a large school group (150!) that just got there, so we fell back to our usual plan. And usual scores. I'm not sure I broke 80.I love this picture. Darina kept telling us we looked as colorful as "skittles," so here is Dinh Hai, me, and Shomir "tasting the rainbow" with our corresponding colored bowling balls! :)

Sunday consisted of:

-Sleep (while Shomir golfed)

-Church, where there was an awesome speaker/comedian, Mike Williams, who had us all inspired and holding our sides in laughter (the regular pastor, Rick, was absent due to a fall w/ rib fractures and with very good reason-- being there would have probably killed him (given him a pneumothorax!) with the laughter!)

-Paperwork/ bills (somehow my paycheck from last month has not made it to my bank... working on sorting this out)

-At 6:15 p.m., back to work for another week of nights (well, until Thursday when I GO TO MINNESOTA!!!!)

Next weekend will be spent w/ great friends in Rochester celebrating Hans and Rachel's wedding! Yippee! (I keep wondering if it's possible to be more excited than the actual bride and groom for their wedding!). :)

Cool sandcastles! aka quick post for Wendi

So I haven't posted in a while.
Here are some pics my mom sent me of some fabulous sand castles! How cool are these?!!
(And all I had to do was upload them and, voila!, here's a blog to satisfy Wendi).

Cool and Uncool...

Uncool: the fact that I haven't updated this blog in over a week! My life hasn't been too exciting! Sorry!
In any case...

Cool: FINISHING family practice wards and going "home" to my fourth month on Labor and Delivery. I love so much more what I am doing every day-- taking care of pregnant women and catching babies!!

Uncool: EMR and OB. It is sooooooooo much less efficient than when order entry was on paper. I am a big fan of "moving digital" and all that; however, now you have to do all these bizarro order sets that make you stop and click and reenter medication directions, for every little thing, and it takes 10-15 minutes longer than it used to for each patient at each step to even see them in triage, admit them to L and D, do the postpartum paperwork, and discharge them. When things are crazy busy, as they are most of the time, and you are dealing with like 30 patients, this is really a hindrance. I wish somehow we could figure out something to make this smoother. Grr.


Cool: It is JUNE of intern year!!!!! I am three weeks shy of NO LONGER BEING AN INTERN (on paper, that is). Yes, I have a few more intern peds rotations to do, but I am so excited to get out of the scut work!

Uncool: I am almost a second year. While free from lots of scut responsibilities, you have lots of other more weighty responsibilities. I will be responsible for "running" the labor and delivery board and responsible for knowing all the laboring patients and the antepartum patients. On ward rotations, I will somehow have to be prepared to run codes. This is really scary to me.


Cool: The FP OB crew! I got to hang out w/ them all on Thursday when we had cheese and yummy fancy dinner from Stelland's bakery.
Uncool: 1. We are all so busy that we rarely have time to get together. 2. Kyla has to censor the pictures of our get-togethers before I put them on the blog so now I don't even bother taking photos at such functions.


Cool: The current weather! It's been in the 70s and beautiful during the daytime here.
Uncool: My hours are such that I rarely get to enjoy such weather (except, for example, when walking between the hospital and clinic). It's usually chillier at 5 a.m. and at 7 p.m. :)

Cool: Biking along the American River Parkway on Saturday. Here are some pics!

Dinh Hai, Shomir, and Darina

(poll.. hat- cool or uncool?? :))
This sign cracked me up. Does it look icy to you?! :)
Relaxing, riverside
Darina being goofy

Uncool: taking a spill off of my bike by running into a metal post, as I approached the parking lot. I bruised my shoulder and got a nasty bruise/laceration to my inner thigh as I toppled over onto the asphalt. I hate being klutzy.

Cool: Hans and Rachel's wedding is in less than 2 weeks! I'm so excited to see everyone in MN!

Uncool: (or, probably unseasonably cool)- I will have to give up my California weather for MN weather, even if it is for a weekend.

Cool: Tonight is one of my 24 hour calls into 2 weeks of nights. I don't mind Sunday calls-- the pace is generally slower and I have time to think! And I actually prefer nights to days [more deliveries; rounding built into your shift; less chaos in triage]! Even cooler: starting tomorrow, Shomir is also on nights (for the first week, albeit at the VA hospital) so we may even get to cross paths!

Uncool: Falling asleep. I am so not a night person. I really wanted to watch "National Treasure" yesterday but couldn't keep my eyes open after 9:00 p.m. Hmm... perhaps it's some time for some coffee!