T-day!

If all goes as planned (and there is part of me that really hopes it won't), today will be my last day as a tonsil-carrying individual. They're scheduled to depart my throat tomorrow morning at 7:30. Mom is on her way to aid me in my convalescence which will hopefully involve lots of popsicles and cheesy movies - Stick It, the gymnastics movie, is on the top of that list. I'll let you know how things go as soon as I get my voice back ;)

In other news, today was my last day with the geri's. I'll miss some of them, but I'm pretty excited to get back into the hospital for internal medicine. When I told one of the patients that today was my last day, she looked at me sadly and said that she would miss me because I was her favorite nurse. I thanked her nicely, but I must say I am perplexed at several parts of that statement. First of all, we rotate nursing homes on a daily basis, so she's only ever seen me maybe three times. Secondly, why are all female health care professionals assumed to be nurses by so many patients? I suppose this is a question I will be dealing with for years to come.

Speaking of women and the wonderful things they can do, today is Mountain Day at MHC. During undergrad, we had one day off every fall semester that was announced by the bells ringing at 7 am. We were supposed to spend the day enjoying the amazing New England fall or the nearby mall, whichever struck your fancy. Having done both during various Mountain Days (and Millennium Day our senior year), this day represents some of my favorite college memories. In honor of Mountain Day, the alumnae association recommends taking a walk and eating ice cream. I'm not so sure about the walk, but ice cream is definitely in my near future... Happy Mountain Day!

Freaky Florida

So this weekend turned into a series of very strange sightings here in South Florida. MM and I spent some time people-watching at a bar on Friday night and then at the beach on Saturday afternoon. Both bars and beaches bring out the best in terms of people's attire and behavior, so it's never surprising to see the curious and questionable at either. But I witnessed several other truly odd scenes that caught me more off guard. First of all, while MM and I were on our way home from the beach, we saw a big, gold Caddy kind of car turning in front of us on some kind of hydraulics that allowed for it to turn left up on just the two passenger side tires. As the driver was alone in the car, MM speculated that he was putting on the show for our benefit.

Later on, MM and I went to dinner with her psycho-worker (he's also an intern in clinical psych) but hit a minor delay on the way out of our complex. There was a car blocking the narrow street between the buildings. We stopped and saw an older gentleman driving the car and a younger guy in the passenger seat. The younger guy got out of the car and ran into the open garage. It was then that we noticed that he was wearing nothing but boxers. Weird.

My second nearly-naked man sighting happened when I was leaving the gym today. The gym I go to is primarily patronized by gay men, which often makes for good eye-candy. Unfortunately, as I was walking out today, I found myself behind a 50+ year old man with pretty significant paunch wearing tennis shoes and a Speedo. My gym has no pool, no sauna, no steam room. In other words, there is no obvious reason for someone to sport a Speedo while there. Once again, weird.

The day the lights went out in the home

When I think of places where having power is really important, I consider hospitals, nursing homes, and other places where power is required for people's breathing to continue to top the list. However, when we got to the nursing home today, the entire place was in the dark. No lights, no elevator, no air conditioning. Apparently Florida Power & Light needed to do some work in the area and felt that the middle of a 90 degree day was the perfect time. The geri's actually seemed to be tolerating it pretty well, but we couldn't see them all as they couldn't make up the stairs to the clinic. We had a hard time seeing the ones that did make it - I got to weigh them all by flashlight. Having an old, tottery person climb onto a scale in the dark is definitely some kind of falling hazard.

By the time we got to the dementia unit, which is completely locked-down, it was about 85 degrees inside. Nursing homes already smell a little funky, adding heat to the mix does not help. We went to see one of our patients who took a spill last week resulting in a nice black eye that gives her a tough guy trapped in a little old lady's body look. She was in rare form today insisting that everyone there treats her "like a piece of wood." She also told me that it's really hard to escape from the nursing home and proceeded to wheel herself into another patient's room at top speed. Once the nurses retrieved her she started yelling at them and asking why she's being treated like a mental patient. Hmmm.... Simultaneously, another patient was being taken to lunch when she spotted a Magic Cup at the nurses station. A Magic Cup is a high calorie ice cream-like food designed to help patients meet their caloric needs. The patient bolted away from her aid to grab the Magic Cup, rip it open, and shove her face into it - no spoon, just mouth to cup. She sat down in a chair nearby and did not respond to any of us until the Magic Cup was completely empty, at which point she declared that she was ready for lunch! I think the heat makes people a little crazier!

My day continued to be a little strange when I went to the school clinic for my pre-op workup. The workup itself was fine, but afterwards I passed a woman in the hall who was sight-impaired and walking with a guide dog (a black lab - my fave!). She asked me if I knew where medical records was. I asked some people and helped her find the right place. We were waiting for a response from the record people when her dog jumped up on me like a puppy and licked my face. I love dogs, but I thought that guide dogs weren't supposed to be so playful. She explained to me that he is in training still. I said that I thought he was pretty well behaved for a puppy, but then she said that he's actually three years old. So, why does this woman have an untrained, adult guide dog? Is that really helpful to her? He's cute and all, but I'm pretty sure he won't be dialing 911 in the event of an emergency.

Since Project Runway was a rerun tonight (boo on Bravo), I spent some time with my other favorite supermodel - Tyra - on America's Next Top Model. So far I like AJ, Anchal, and Brooke. I really don't like Megg and I'm not a huge fan of the twins. What I think would be really ideal is if Tyra and Heidi reunited - like back in the Body by Victoria days - and did a ANTM meets Project Runway combo episode. The designers could make clothes for the models to wear - that would be awesome.

Hello Newman

I took a quick jaunt up the east coast to sunny New England this weekend to visit some friends and family. Much like the last time I flew into the Hartford, CT airport, my flight was delayed over two hours due to lightning on the runway. I suppose one can't really argue with a lightning delay, but it's really annoying to have the start of what is already a too-short weekend postponed when it isn't even raining outside. Anyway, the weekend officially began at 7 am on Saturday when Baby BT arose to greet the day. We had lots of fall fun in the Pioneer Valley including a trip to Atkins for cider, a Tailgate picnic at MHC, and ice cream from Friendly's. I guess we really just ate our way through the day...

Baby BT is exceptionally adorable and very articulate (surprise, surprise!). One of his favorite expressions is "Hello Newman," which he says with perfect Seinfeld intonation. He's also very tough - we took a walk through a little zoo and he started running down a hill ahead of us. It all seemed to happen in slow motion... his upper body pitched forward and his little feet slid out from under him and his whole body went up in the air balanced on the side of his head in a Matrix-esque, time-standing-still maneuver. Fortunately, he got up, looked around for a minute, decided that he was okay, and kept going.

On Sunday morning I made my way down a maze of "scenic routes" with really low speed limits into Connecticut to visit my great grandmother. These days I've been spending lots of time with old people - people in their 80's and 90's - none of whom are as old as my great grandmother. She will be turning 105 years old next month. 105! And she's completely with it still, she knows who I am and that I'm in medical school and when I'm going to be graduating. It's pretty amazing, really. I just wish I could spend more time with her.

The geri's are doing fairly well. We lost a patient over the weekend. We had seen her on Friday and she had some abdominal pain, but she seemed okay. She passed away in her sleep that night. I suppose this kind of thing happens frequently when working with the elderly and I'm very glad for her that she wasn't suffering, but I was alarmed by how quickly she went from being alive and seemingly healthy to not being alive anymore. I guess you just never know what's going to happen, huh?

Going to the chapel

Much like yesterday, today was another marathon of old people and their long lists of concerns. I'm not unsympathetic to the geris, really, I understand that aging is not always the most comfortable process and I want to help them feel better. The problem is that when Dr. Fabulous (my current doctor) and I show up at the nursing home, there are dozens (really, at least thirty of them were there) of patients waiting to see us. They come to the clinic at 9 am knowing that the doctor will be there all day and then complain when they had to wait for four hours to see the doctor. Dr. Fab does a really good job of listening to the patients and spending time discussing their issues with them - this is the reason all of his patients like him so much. So why do they get so angry and seemed so surprised when they have to wait for the doctor to see everyone else?? Seriously. Yesterday, two of the women (one of them was highlighter pink lady) were actually calling each other names (ie "You stinker") in the waiting room while they were disputing who had been waiting longer and whether or not it was fair to send one's private duty nurse down to sign up for the waiting list for the doctor. It really is like fighting over your place in the cafeteria line in elementary school, except for now they are armed with canes! I'm really afraid that it will come to blows one day and someone will break a hip. Oh well, at least the doctor will be close by.

Today ended up on a very happy note, though, when our last patient announced that she is about to go on a cruise with her... fiance. Now, many of my peers have fiances and I think it's lovely for an engaged couple to travel together. It was somewhat startling, however, when our 81 year old patient announced that she would be going on a cruise with her 91 year old fiance before returning to Florida where they would be married. Oh, and they're moving in together - in the nursing home. Apparently you can save a lot of money on a double! I hope they are very happy together and that neither of them break a hip either ;)

My day ended with another drug rep dinner - Italian again. It was pretty uneventful until dessert when Dr. Fab insisted that I order the tiramisu, since I "won't be able to eat anything for a few weeks" after my surgery. Thanks, Fab, since I wasn't nervous enough already! It does make a handy excuse for ordering my most favoritest dessert, though.

I got home just in time for Project Runway. I can't even believe they brought Vincent and Angela back, at least their returns were short-lived. Michael's design was, as usual, perfect. I really like that Laura branched out in her design, it makes me question my final three pick of Michael, Jeffrey, and Uli. Jeffrey's design was particularly heinous, but I agree that it was time for Kayne to go. I really can't wait for next week, although if Laura's pregnancy keeps advancing as quickly as it appears on tv, she'll be in labor by then.

Chloraseptic memories

Back in the days of middle and high school, a wonderful way to spend time not in class was to tell your teacher that you had a sore throat and go to the nurse's office. Upon arrival at Nurse Downey's office, you were triaged for either nausea (treatment: saltines), headache (treatment: tylenol), or sore throat for which the treatment was chloraseptic throat lozenges. You got to chose from green or red lozenges - I was partial to the green ones. I also enjoyed referring to them as lozengeRs, a habit which took me an embarassing number of years to correct. Memories of hanging out in the nurse's office and eating those pungent little medicinal candies were brought back to me today when I stepped in to the ENT's office. Either the office features chloraseptic air fresheners or the chloraseptic drug rep comes and sprays the throat spray stuff in the waiting room every morning because the aroma emanated throughout the office.

Conveniently enough, I was visiting the ENT because my throat is sore... again. This is my second throat infection since rotations began and this time I sound like a man! Dr. ENT seems to be in agreement with every other physician that has gazed into the depths of my throat in the past few years that my ginormous tonsils must go. We have a tentative date for later this month for the surgery. Dr. ENT recommends 7-10 days off for recovery, I'm aiming to be better in 4 - we'll see!!

After my appointment, I went to the nursing home for a marathon of geriatric fun. Today featured the usual assortment of maladies, but they were spiced up by some really fantastic geri-outfits. I'm not sure where these ladies shop, but I need to find out so that I can be in such fine style when I get old. One woman had a bright hot pink (ie highlighter bright) skirt and jacket with a scarf that was zebra striped with a red border tucked around her neck. On her head she wore a multicolored hat complete with bejeweled hat pins. When she removed her jacket for us to listen to her, she revealed a silky black tank skimpy enough rival some South Beach styles. Spectacular!!

Another trend that I have noticed is the elastic waisted pant. Now, I can appreciate the comfort of such a pant, but the day I look down and realize that I am tucking the bottom of my bra into my elastic waistband will be the day I just give up all hope. Maybe getting to the point where you quit worrying about such things is liberating, I sure hope so. In the meantime, I'm going to do some situps or something.

How to eat at nice restaurants when you're a poor student

Somewhat unexpectedly, the past few days have presented several fine dining opportunities at truly reasonable prices. While hanging out with the geri's on Wednesday, I found out that there was a dinner sponsored by a drug company on Thursday evening. At first I was hesitant to go, because the whole drug company sponsored dinner thing kind of weirds me out. But then I found out that one of the doctors that I work with was going to be speaking at the dinner, so it seemed appropriate (and expected) for me to go. I have been to several similar affairs and the food has been pretty freaking good. This dinner did not disappoint. The restaurant was conveniently located around the corner from my neighborhood and features Italian cuisine. I had an amazing salad, linguine with a white wine clam sauce (good, but not as good as yours, Mom), and, a few glasses of wine followed by my most favorite dessert of all - tiramisu - for free! While the dinner was delightful, the educational part lasted all of about 20 minutes. This puzzles me in several ways - does this little amount of time really help to convince physicians to prescribe the drug being discussed? And do physicians feel like they learn enough at these affairs to make it worthwhile to attend the dinners during their off-time or is it more about getting a good dinner? So, I'm pretty sure that drug company sponsored dinners still weird me out.

My second fine dining experience, which happened on Friday, was slightly more expensive, but still a relatively good deal. I learned from some of the residents I worked with last month about Miami Spice which involves very nice restaurants offering three course dinners for $30. You have a choice of one of two appetizers and entrees and then you also get dessert. Sears, MM, Mr. MM, Jen Garner (her self-designated blog alias), and I decided to try out the restaurant at the Four Seasons in Miami. I had a shrimp salad and yellow tail snapper. The salad was fantastic, as was the other appetizer choice, a white corn bisque. The snapper was good too, but I thought the dessert, a chocolate mousse and tropical fruit layered confection was disappointing. I think I was just spoiled from the tiramisu the night before. Regardless of how the dinner ended up, I could really get used to this manner of eating. It is certainly a step up from the usual fare...

This morning Jen Garner, Sears, and I resumed the standard Saturday morning beach routine which was on hiatus last weekend. The beach was hot today, but the water was the perfect temperature with big, rolling waves. These are the days I'm glad to live in Florida :)

At the intersection of dorm and daycare

I'm about one week into my geriatrics rotation and I have discovered a whole new world that I really never knew about right here in South Florida. Now, we all know that lots of old people retire to Florida. I suppose I never really thought about where in Florida they went, but now I know... They live in these giant complexes of huge buildings that are a lot like college dorms. They each have their own small apartment, they eat in dining halls, and there are common spaces where they can all convene. When I say these complexes are huge, I'm talking around 40,000 old people just in one area where we see patients. And these people are just piled up in these 10 story buildings.

On my first day there we spent about 10 minutes waiting for the elevator because we had just caught the post-breakfast rush and people with walkers are really slow. The residents' days are filled with such exciting activities as Sing Along Time with Jim, Fall Crafts, and something called the Rice Game. I truly hope that these activities are entertaining for the people who seem to be wheeled to them whether they express interest in crafting or not, but I can't help but draw the parallel to activities organized for preschoolers. I have since visited two other areas in South Florida just like the first one and realized that (a) there are a whole lot of old people here and (b) I never want to be one of them. I may have to hang out long enough to figure out what the Rice Game is though...

Project Runway update: Vincent was aufed last night - it's about time. I actually kind of liked the dress he made, even if the model's boobs were about to fall out, but he generally sucks. I really didn't like the dress Michael made, much to my despair. Laura looks SO freaking pregnant for someone who is only 3 months, maybe by your 6th child your belly just pops out immediately. Although I have heard from several male viewers that the competition got less exciting when Allison was booted, I still think the next few episodes should be good.

A new blog feature - Crazy ass people seen in my neighborhood: I live in an "up and coming" area which has a fair amount of pedestrian traffic at all times of the day and night. These streetwalkers, my neighbors, are often in peculiar situations. For example, pulling out of the liquor store around 5:45 this afternoon was a women on a light blue Vespa who was barefoot and wearing nothing but a rather skimpy bikini. Oh, and the particularly spectacular part is that she was at least 50 and freakishly skinny with bleached blond hair.

What's round on the ends and high in the middle?

To celebrate having three whole days off (in a row!), I hopped on a plane and went to Columbus to hang out with my BFF, Tay, and the cutest little girl in the world, The Bug. Going back to Columbus is always a trip down memory lane, but the trip took an interesting detour when I was standing in line for my flight and my 10th grade history teacher and his wife got in line behind me. I graduated with 37 people from a school that I began attending at age 9, so I knew many of my teachers very well. Thanks to open boarding on Southwest, we were able to spend the entire flight catching up. By the time we landed in Columbus, I knew more about each of my former classmates and teachers than I would have even if I hadn't skipped my 10 year reunion! Our catch-up/gossip session was very informative, if a little overwhelming. One thing I realized in the process was how formative those high school years are and how lucky I was to have had such talented teachers.

Once I finally got to Columbus (just in time for the first Buckeye football game of the season!), I was greeted in the best way possible - The Bug started running towards me from about 50 feet away. I really wish there was someone that happy to see me everywhere I showed up! Seriously, that would make going to class much more rewarding if everytime I walked in the door people dropped what they were doing to celebrate my arrival. Of course, The Bug is the cutest kid in the entire world and it might not be as exciting receiving that greeting from anyone else. An example of The Bug's adorableness: We're on our way home from her grandparents' house and she's feeling a little stuffy. Tay mentions taking some medicine, perhaps some Dimetapp. The Bug responds, "Not Dinocrap, Mom, that makes my nose stuffier." If I ever invent a medication during my career in medicine, it will most certainly be named Dinocrap.

During my visit to Columbus, I made a new discovery - a new hair stylist in Hilliard who happens to be fantastic. She's been coloring my hair since we were 12 and I called my mom to ask if it was okay for me to use Loving Care to color my brown hair... brown. Tay completed her training this spring and did her first professional coloring job on my hair in her very own shop!! I'm so glad she's doing something that makes her happy, she really did do a fabulous job - it's reddish brown, just in time for fall.

All in all, it was a great weekend which made going back to work today a little rough. But, good news struck this afternoon when board scores came and I passed!