Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

Today I'm starting my two week elective called "Taking a spiritual history." In this elective, I get to see patients and just spend time talking to them about their beliefs, and whether or not those beliefs affect their health or how they would like to receive health care. I think I'm going to like it. Plus, I don't think the schedule will be bad, which is also nice. I'll get to do some rounds with the chaplain, which should also be interesting. Although I am worried that the chaplains here may be a little too "whatever you believe is fine" for me. I think I may ask our friend Chris Brown, a hospice chaplain, if I can go on some visits with him, too, since I know where he comes from theologically and trust him. It is quite nice to have our computer back, but last night I started the long process of reinstalling various software programs that we had previously, like our camera software, my pocket pc software, etc. I do not enjoy this process. But I gu...

Our computer seems to be going through some troubling teenage years. Its no spring chicken any more. Gone are those blissful carefree days, when you know your computer looks up to you, and respects you, and will gladly do your bidding. No, our computer seems to be entering into a rebelious phase. Last Tuesday it locked itself in its room and wouldn't come out. Ok, well, actually it stayed here on the desk, but it just turned blue and wouldn't budge. I tried everything, I talked nicely to it, offered it gifts, I even just turned it off and let it have some space for a while. But to no avail, it was quite exasperating if you must know. So we called our friend Brian. Brian works with computers for a living, and knows what to say to them. In fact, this was the third time this year that we've called on Brian to help us, so he's developed a bit of a relationship with the computer, and well, we think he's "earned the right to be heard." He came over S...

Even though I'm not yet a full fledged physician, I have diagnosed myself with a cold, and ordered myself to bed for the day. For the first time since starting my med school rotations, I have called in sick. This probably isn't the first time I've been sick, but I guess now that I'm a fourth year, I don't feel like I need to be at the hospital come rain, come snow, or bad headcold. (I wouldn't stay home just because of bad weather, though.) Yesterday morning I woke up with a slightly sore throat and runny nose. I might have stayed home then, but I had my CPX exam yesterday. (For everyone who doesn't go to MUSC, the CPX exam is where we go and have to interview 8 fake patients and then write up their illness. It's to prepare us for this big standardized test that all med students have to take where I have to drive to Atlanta and do the same thing. Oh and in order to take it the test in atlanta, I had to pay almost $1000. You can imagine how much we all e...

For the longest time, I had a hard time figuring out with what I could decorate my front door. I live in a duplex, and it is nice to have something to greet people as they come in besides the black and dusty door on my front porch. I had this one lonely wintery decoration, but that was it. And unfortunately, my snowman/snowflake themed welcome sign (which I like a lot) can't exactly stay up all year. Especially in charleston, where I have seen neither a snowflake nor a snowman. I also can't go out and spend a lot of money buying things for every different season. Last fall or so, I decided to solve my problem. I found an empty lot that had a bunch of grape vines growing in it. (At least I think it was grape vines, although I never actually saw any grapes, as it was fall.) Down here in the south, these vines grow everywhere, in many empty lots and wooded areas. I created a wreath out of the vines. Anyone can make a wreath out of these vines. Just wind a circle out of vine a l...

Two years ago today Jeff and I tied the knot!! We became man and wife. It's been great. What more is there to say? I love my husband. I love being married to him.

I've started going to the gym again. It happens every year about this time. Namely, about the time my gym membership is set to expire. Which means I get real enthused, talk myself into buying another year's membership, then loose my motivation and don't go for 10 months of the year. Oh well. Being a gym member makes me feel like I'm a good person. And isn't that why we all belong to gyms? The best part of going to the gym is not the exercise, it the exceptional people watching. People can be really odd when they work out. After all, where, outside of a PETA rally, and church, can you find so many people pretending to be something they are not? Yesterday I was riding my stationary bike next to Annoying Gym Guy (AGG), who was huffing and puffing unnecesarily loudly, and muttering encouragement to himself as he went. He had also lugged over one of the big fans and put it right behind him. It seems like he should put it in front of him, but maybe he feels lik...

**warning to those who don't like medical stories or have light stomachs (ahem...Jeff Tell) you may not want to read further. This post contains some material which may not be suitable for those who get woozy.*** Being a fourth year so far is great. I feel like I'm actually learning how to do things that doctors do. Today, for instance, we had a very nice hispanic man come in because yesterday while on the job he shot himself with the nail gun in the knee. The nail went completely in all the way to the hub. I guess he didn't think too much of his injury yesterday so he didn't come in, he just pulled it out. (That's right. Apparently SHOOTING A NAIL ALL THE WAY INTO HIS KNEE didn't concern him too much.) So today he came in because he started having lots of pain and he couldn't really bend his knee. Amazingly, he didn't break anything. I guess he managed to aim it in such a way that it went not through any bones, but into his joint. Today it was swollen ...

Tonight I had a great ER shift. First of all, I was working in the Peds ER, which I think is much more fun that the regular ER. I had some great patients, including this incredibly nice and polite family that really was a joy to work with. And I also got to sew up my first laceration!! I have gotten to sew people up in the ER, but I haven't yet had the chance to sew up people when they come into the ER with big cuts. I did my first digital block (that means I numbed up this guy's whole toe.) For a first time it was probably ok, but I did kind of hit his bone on my way in, which he didn't seem to appreciate. It closed up quite well, and I thought it was pretty when I finished. But then my night got even better!! (I know some of you are probably thinking, how could her night get better when she had already gotten to sew someone up?? But it did.) Jeff came and got me when my shift was over, and I walked into our apartment only to find that he had rearranged our living room! H...

One doesn't go on a 17 day road trip covering 16 states and not come home with a few life lessons. The road, it might be said, is an analogy for life, and there is much to be learned from cruising its scenic stretches, its winding byways, its forested freeways, from rolling along on that hilly, sun soaked ribbon of road. Such was certainly the case for Aubrey and I, and so I wanted to take some time and share a few of the lessons with you. 1. Everything can be automated, but not everything should be. There seems to be some sort of contest among rest area owners, to see who can automate the most features in the bathroom. Automated toilet flushers, sink turner-oners, hand dryers, paper-towel-dispensers, everything goes by itself. You can almost go in your sleep, the bathroom does all the work for you. However, most of it is silly, and not as good as the old fashioned kind. Toilets flush at all the wrong times, sinks turn on and off so quickly you think they're OCD, and ...

more trip photos...

Here's the post that should have been up on Sunday, but wasn't. Day: 17 Final Trip Odometer: 4,688 miles. Books Aubrey read: All of them. Location: Home! Back in Charleston as of Sunday evening. Our Road Trip extraordinaire 2006 is over. It was a wonderful success. The last few days were spent in State College with Bro and Hannah and our favorite nephew Jackson. It was very restful and vacationy. Bro beat me at frisbee golf, we cruised downtown State College, and Aubrey cleaned house in a game of Scrabble. We also got to spend some time with old friends Jamie and Darcy which was fun. Despite all the fun we are very glad to be home, and not have to do lots of driving anymore. We spent looooooooooooooots of time in the car, and we're tired of it. Check back soon to read lessons from the road, and also check out Andrew and Melanie's new blog here.

We are home!! So for the next few days, I'll be posting some of our favorite pics from the trip. Here are two of my favorites.