Of cigarettes, games, weddings, and more

Well, so my attempt to blog more regularly definitely is not working. My friend Zac reminded me today that I have been totally remiss in writing, so I thought I'd do so. I wish Frank would write as well but he's a big writing loser (I'm hoping if he finds out I insulted him he might make an appearance in this blog).

What to tell you? Residency has been going well. Some random highlights:
-a patient handed me a bright orange cigarette box with 5 cigarettes in it at our last office visit together. I had been working with him to quit smoking for some time. He gave me the last cigarettes he didn't smoke as a trophy, he said. On it, he had taped a white sheet of paper all around it that was writing by his dog, who thanked me for saving her human. Some people thought it was very strange, and some thought it was very nice, or both. Unfortunately, at that same office visit he managed to get into an altercation with MA which took the better half of the office visit to get resolved, sort of, with him. It started off with whether Maine or Alaska was colder and degenerated from there.
-ICU overnight wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be. I carry a white cloud around, meaning, when I'm on a difficult rotation or call, my night tends to be very quiet. I spent 5 days a week for a total of 2.5 weeks as the lone ICU resident from 8 PM to 7 AM.....scary! But overall, it was a very quiet 2 weeks. I tried to put a catheter into the neck of a 370 lb guy...what a disaster. We had a poor lady who developed an air leak from her lung to her subcutaneous tissue, meaning she had air in her muscles, her eyelids, her neck, etc. It was VERY strange and scary at the same time.
-clinic: don't get me started. Love it and hate it at the same time. I have patients who are very dependent on me. It's kind of sweet that they like me so much but also kind of irritating that they refuse to talk to ANY other doctor in the clinic. And people, if you don't have insurance, GET IT. Being uninsured in America is one of the most tragic and sad things out there.

Weddings: My brother got married about 6 weeks ago. It was a beautiful wedding. They looked so happy. It was nice to see family who I haven't seen in a long time, though I must say, there was a LOT of getting lost as my family tried to get around Champaign, IL.

Games: We had some friends come to visit us from Madison, WI. While we were in Madison, we spent many fun days with these friends, particularly having games night! We would cook a yummy meal together, drink a lot of wine, listen to a lot of music, and play games. Not average games like monopoly or cranium (though we do play those on occasion) but settlers of catan and trains and roborally and all these strategy games (you really ought to try them). We also went camping together. So when we moved to Portland, we determined we'd try to continue to camp together at least once a year. So they came to visit us this past week, for which I am so grateful. Camping along the Oregon coast is a beautiful but very unpredictable thing. Our dogs proved that they really can run along the beach all day long without stopping and got sand all over our tent. We ate so much food all week after they left, I hardly ate anything. Now that they are gone, the house seems strangely empty and quiet and slightly melancholy. I don't miss doing dishes for 5 people, however.


Dogs: Sophie tore a toenail off and has been licking it incessantly for days. It's driving me crazy.

Frank: is now on his 4th load of laundry. Ah, smelly camp clothes, dog towels, guest bed linens, beach towels.....

Finally, our grapes are ripening. Fruit here is AMAZING. We've been eating the best peaches, berries of all sorts, melons, and cherries since April. We have our own concord grape vine and Frank made like 30 jars of jelly last year. Mmmh, jelly. I miss you all; if you come visit, we'll give you some jelly.