happy thanksgiving
It is 7:03 and I feel better now sitting here and enjoying a cup of coffee than I would I think if I slept in all the way until 10 or so. That's not saying I won't take a nap later, but my goodness. I woke up just a little while ago and felt so well-rested and unable to sleep any longer. It was not worth it to lay there for an hour waiting for something to happen.
So here's the story! Ryan called me with good news on Monday saying that when he told his preceptor he only had Thursday off, his preceptor was all "Wtf, take the entire weekend off." I started thinking about my own schedule because at the hospital no one ever brings things up, you just assume them. Nestor had asked me on Monday if I was going home to Michigan for Thanksgiving, but I had said no. I had heard from the OR staff that we didn't have any surgeries scheduled for Friday - reason being, people don't like to fast the day before (Thanksgiving) for their surgery. So I asked Nestor to clarify if I needed to be there on Friday or not, just cuz nobody had said anything to me. He said "No, it's fine with me! You can go home. But you have to ask Dr. Li." I was like ah, damn. But I asked Dr. Li yesterday if students come in on Friday and he said it's usually not necessary, but all I have to do is ask Nestor! IN THE BAG!!!! When I went to scrub in for the inguinal hernia case for the day, Nestor was scrubbing beside me and said, "Well, did you talk to Dr. Li?" I said "Yeah, he told me to ask you!" Nestor raised his eyebrows big time and grinned and you could tell he instantly felt pleased he had a little power. The thing about him is, I think he does for students what he would want preceptors to do for him as a resident, and he was like "Well then go! Go, have fun this weekend." We went in and did our two surgeries, and after that, he asked me what time I was taking off. I said I was there for the whole day if needed - if I get the chance to get Thurs & Fri both off, there's no way I'm looking ungrateful by taking part of Wednesday off either! So I went and saw a consult for him and did a whole H&P on a guy who clearly was not a candidate for general surgery. (Meaning: it was bladder/urinary in origin, not GI.)
After the consult, we rounded on a few patients and at 2:30 p.m. Nestor told us we could go! I was so excited. I headed back to the apartment and got all my stuff together and was on the road by 3 p.m. I didn't tell Ryan what time I was coming home, in fact, when I was about an hour away from Durham and stopping to get gas, I texted him to ask how his day in surgery was going - he said he got off early but the morning was busy and asked how mine was - I just texted back, "BUSY!!!" When I pulled into our apartment's parking lot ~6:15, I texted him, "leaving asheville now!" He texted back, "can't wait to see you! do you want me to get outback to go or something for dinner when you get here?" I grabbed all my stuff and quietly went upstairs and knocked on the door. When he came to the door and opened it, his jaw DROPPED. Surprise :)
Last night we were zonked so we just went and got pizza, came back and watched some Jeopardy and Cake Boss, and literally went to bed at 9:20. Gotta love this rotation for making us exhausted. Hence why I am up and writing at what is now 7:15 a.m.
I wish I had known EARLIER that I had Wednesday p.m. thru Sunday off because I would've been able to go home for Thanksgiving, but oh well. Now the flights are way too expensive but at least I get the time off. His family isn't doing much for Thanksgiving today because his mom has to work. My mom said on the phone, "Well go buy yourself a turkey and cook it!" The problem is, to put a whole thanksgiving dinner together for just 2 people in a day is expensive and not as much fun :/ I would rather hold out for my mom's homecooking. So we are thinking about either hanging around here or going out to the coast for Thanksgiving for the night! I honestly love the whimsicalness of our lives together.
Just some other random things from surgery so far:
- The funny thing about being in Asheville is noticing how thick the southern accent gets! The more west you go, the more drawl you get. I love that I am in a town where people use words like "reckon" and "britches" (pants, I think?) in REAL everyday talk. lol. This year in my Christmas cards I started using y'all. :)
- I got to do SC (subcutaneous) suturing on the two cases we saw yesterday, the inguinal hernia repair and a chest wall cyst. Nestor was super patient with me. The thing I love about SC suturing is that last moment when you pull the top and the bottom strings together and it comes together so nicely.
- Moral of the story for the week: whenever you have someone that has an NG tube, they should be on a PPI or some sort of ulcer prevention. One of our patients was producing copious fluid through his naso-gastric (nose to stomach) tube even though he wasn't drinking or eating anything. He probably had some sort of stress ulcer/hemorrhagic gastritis deal that could be remedied easily with Protonix or something.
- Lastly, there is something that warrants a brand new entry just because I don't think it fits in with the theme of this one. So stay tuned for part 2.
So here's the story! Ryan called me with good news on Monday saying that when he told his preceptor he only had Thursday off, his preceptor was all "Wtf, take the entire weekend off." I started thinking about my own schedule because at the hospital no one ever brings things up, you just assume them. Nestor had asked me on Monday if I was going home to Michigan for Thanksgiving, but I had said no. I had heard from the OR staff that we didn't have any surgeries scheduled for Friday - reason being, people don't like to fast the day before (Thanksgiving) for their surgery. So I asked Nestor to clarify if I needed to be there on Friday or not, just cuz nobody had said anything to me. He said "No, it's fine with me! You can go home. But you have to ask Dr. Li." I was like ah, damn. But I asked Dr. Li yesterday if students come in on Friday and he said it's usually not necessary, but all I have to do is ask Nestor! IN THE BAG!!!! When I went to scrub in for the inguinal hernia case for the day, Nestor was scrubbing beside me and said, "Well, did you talk to Dr. Li?" I said "Yeah, he told me to ask you!" Nestor raised his eyebrows big time and grinned and you could tell he instantly felt pleased he had a little power. The thing about him is, I think he does for students what he would want preceptors to do for him as a resident, and he was like "Well then go! Go, have fun this weekend." We went in and did our two surgeries, and after that, he asked me what time I was taking off. I said I was there for the whole day if needed - if I get the chance to get Thurs & Fri both off, there's no way I'm looking ungrateful by taking part of Wednesday off either! So I went and saw a consult for him and did a whole H&P on a guy who clearly was not a candidate for general surgery. (Meaning: it was bladder/urinary in origin, not GI.)
After the consult, we rounded on a few patients and at 2:30 p.m. Nestor told us we could go! I was so excited. I headed back to the apartment and got all my stuff together and was on the road by 3 p.m. I didn't tell Ryan what time I was coming home, in fact, when I was about an hour away from Durham and stopping to get gas, I texted him to ask how his day in surgery was going - he said he got off early but the morning was busy and asked how mine was - I just texted back, "BUSY!!!" When I pulled into our apartment's parking lot ~6:15, I texted him, "leaving asheville now!" He texted back, "can't wait to see you! do you want me to get outback to go or something for dinner when you get here?" I grabbed all my stuff and quietly went upstairs and knocked on the door. When he came to the door and opened it, his jaw DROPPED. Surprise :)
Last night we were zonked so we just went and got pizza, came back and watched some Jeopardy and Cake Boss, and literally went to bed at 9:20. Gotta love this rotation for making us exhausted. Hence why I am up and writing at what is now 7:15 a.m.
I wish I had known EARLIER that I had Wednesday p.m. thru Sunday off because I would've been able to go home for Thanksgiving, but oh well. Now the flights are way too expensive but at least I get the time off. His family isn't doing much for Thanksgiving today because his mom has to work. My mom said on the phone, "Well go buy yourself a turkey and cook it!" The problem is, to put a whole thanksgiving dinner together for just 2 people in a day is expensive and not as much fun :/ I would rather hold out for my mom's homecooking. So we are thinking about either hanging around here or going out to the coast for Thanksgiving for the night! I honestly love the whimsicalness of our lives together.
Just some other random things from surgery so far:
- The funny thing about being in Asheville is noticing how thick the southern accent gets! The more west you go, the more drawl you get. I love that I am in a town where people use words like "reckon" and "britches" (pants, I think?) in REAL everyday talk. lol. This year in my Christmas cards I started using y'all. :)
- I got to do SC (subcutaneous) suturing on the two cases we saw yesterday, the inguinal hernia repair and a chest wall cyst. Nestor was super patient with me. The thing I love about SC suturing is that last moment when you pull the top and the bottom strings together and it comes together so nicely.
- Moral of the story for the week: whenever you have someone that has an NG tube, they should be on a PPI or some sort of ulcer prevention. One of our patients was producing copious fluid through his naso-gastric (nose to stomach) tube even though he wasn't drinking or eating anything. He probably had some sort of stress ulcer/hemorrhagic gastritis deal that could be remedied easily with Protonix or something.
- Lastly, there is something that warrants a brand new entry just because I don't think it fits in with the theme of this one. So stay tuned for part 2.