Saturday, 10 am: left Ho Chi Minh City to return to the U.S.
1:45 p.m: arrived in Manila for an 8 hour layover (we left the airport and spent the afternoon at Mall of Asia, where we got to catch "Alice in Wonderland" in 3D and do more shopping)
10 p.m.: departed Manila and Asia (:() to fly back to the U.S.
6:15 p.m. (still Saturday): Twelve hours later, we arrived in LAX at a time EARLIER in the day than when we left East Asia, given the 16 hour time difference. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around how weird this was.
Despite sleeping most of the way on the plane, I slept really well that night at Kelvin's parents' home in Orange County.
Sunday: church, lunch, drive back to Sac and Oscars Party at Wai Kiu and Hanh's (this was the first time I watched the Oscars!)
Here is some quality baby-time with Mason, almost 4 months, who I got to deliver in November :)
Sunday night: mad organizing after being gone for 1 month, followed by extreme jet lag and inability to fall asleep, which NEVER happens to me. I never have insomnia and, when things like this night happen, really make me feel sympathy for those who do struggle with this. I don't know why I didn't just get up and try to get more stuff done, as my "to do" list after being gone really is about a mile long; however, I just lay there tossing and turning. Ugh.
Monday 6 a.m.: left home to commute (! it's so weird to drive to work as I usually bike!) to San Joaquin Hospital in Stockton to start my OB rotation there and a 24 hour call. Ouch. The call actually went well, with 3 scheduled repeat c-sections, even a vacuum delivery, and a few others, but it was busy! No sleep to be had.
Tuesday 8:30 a.m.: finished the 24h call with board signout. Drove the 50 minutes or so back to Sacramento, terrified that I would fall asleep at the wheel (thankfully, made it home safely).
Tuesday 5:15 PM: Frisbee for first time of the spring! Fun, but boy, am I sore! I need to get back into shape. Frisbee was followed by Zen Sushi for resident dinner.
Wednesday: since there was no colposcopy clinic this Wednesday, I did lots of cleaning and mail-opening as well as unpacking in the morning, followed by all afternoon FP clinic. Ended the day with American Idol night at Jeremy and Noelle's.
Thursday: more organizing
1-2 p.m.: got a nap in
3 p.m.: left for another 24hour shift at Stockton, which I was a bit nervous about. I am soooo not a night person and overnight calls are difficult for me; somehow starting the call with the overnight part, knowing that I would be there for the better part of the next day, was quite daunting. However, it went much better than I thought. It was not too busy and I got to sleep for about 2 hours overnight and 1 hour in the morning (nice to be the "senior"!).
As far as Stockton: why did I work a 24 hour shift Thursday afternoon to Friday afternoon, you might ask? Well-- we are able to sort of set our own schedules, where we aim to minimize overlap with other students and residents (there are FP and transitional interns there) to maximize everyone's learning. I could do 4 days of 10-12 hour shifts, but this means commuting daily for about 2 hours, depending on traffic, which I really hate. I was told that while Thursdays were not a great day to be there due to the other personnel, Fridays were usually good. However, with wanting to avoid working weekends, with events coming up like Amy's bachelorette party (today) and wedding in 2 weeks which I'd committed to, I didn't want to work Friday-Saturday; hence the odd Thursday- Friday afternoon shift which will probably become the weekly norm this month. So it doesn't look like I'll be getting on any regular sleep schedule soon! I hope, in some ways, that I will be so chronically sleep-deprived that I won't ever have to worry about insomnia again!
Friday, 4:00 p.m.: my OB shift ends with the fire alarms all going off. I had no idea what it was all about, but, not familiar with the hospital layout, exhausted from the shift, and wanting to get home as fast as possible, I could not quickly locate the stairs and instead took the elevators down to the main floor anyway. I know this was a no-no "in case of fire," but I took my chances!
Then, since the orientation to this rotation was virtually nonexistent and I don't have a keycard access, etc., I had to go back to the security desk and return my visitor badge in exchange for my driver's license, which I had deposited the previous day as (the fire alarms are still blaring). The security guy was livid that I was still inside the potentially burning building inquiring about such things as my ID and and not outside "observing" the fire alarm warning but, as I mentioned above, I was so tired and sick of being there and wanting to get home that I was willing to risk staying a few more moments and being trapped in a burning building than delaying getting home after my 24 hour call. Don't worry- I safely exited the building and, to my knowledge, San Joaquin is still standing.
5:30 p.m.: arrived back in Sac, where I slept for about an hour and a half, did some eating and Office- watching before crashing again so I could attempt to get back on a days schedule.
Today: spent the day celebrating Amy's impending end to single-ness (her wedding is in 2 weeks!) with a bunch of girls who know her different walks of life (HS, college, med school, Sac and residency). We spent the afternoon wine-tasting in Amador County (at Villa Toscana, Bray, Wilderotter, and Bella Piazza) and then had a wonderful fancy dinner at Taste Restaurant in Plymouth.
Stolen pictures to follow once they are posted so I can steal them!
For now, I'm going to try to get a good night's sleep, with one fewer hour, due to darned Daylight Savings Time.
