Electric

Last week my mother-in-law and I went Christmas shopping. Naturally our day included a stop at Bed, Bath, and Beyond (honestly, is any shopping day complete without a visit there?). One of my purchases was a small square squishy pillow that I can use both in the car and in bed.

A few nights ago, I woke up in the middle of the night, and as I was repositioning the pillow, I noticed green sparks coming off my hand. I wasn't sure if I was just imagining it, so I went back to sleep. Early this morning, Sebastian woke up and started barking, so Hubby was sweet enough to free him from his kennel, allowing me to stay warm and cozy. As he climbed back into bed, I repositioned the pillow again; this time, I knew for sure I wasn't making up the green sparks! The static electricity from this pillow is amazing! I got Hubby's attention, and I'm know he saw the sparks too.

Had the room not been pitch black, I would have seen an incredulous look on his face in addition to the little sparks. I can only imagine the thoughts running through his head about how insane his wife was to be giving science lessons at 3 AM. He's so sweet to put up with my craziness. Now if I start explaining how to do medical procedures in my sleep, I'll know I'm in trouble.

Panic at the testing center

I'm in the middle of applying for my license to practice medicine in Texas. I already have my provisional license to practice as a resident, but now it's time to get the full meal deal. My wallet is over in the corner crying again as it has already cost me over $1000 so far, but it will be worth it in the end. Among the many hoops through which I have to jump is taking the medical jurisprudence exam. It's 50 questions in 90 minutes, and we can only miss 12 to pass. I studied for it a little during PICU night float over the last 2 weeks, but since I didn't really have enough time, I devoted the first day of my vacation (Monday) to hitting the books. By the time I left to take the test Tuesday morning, I felt decent about the test and just wanted to get it over!

The testing center was about 30 minutes away from our house, so I left at 7 AM to make sure I had plenty of time to sign in before the 8 AM exam. In order to take the test, I needed to show my scheduling permit from the board as well as two forms of ID that both had my signature. As I was sitting in the waiting area getting ready to check in, I peeked into my purse again. Permit? Check. Driver's license? Check. Passport? Check. Since I recently got my passport with my new name and photo back in the mail, I decided to look again and the picture and see how much it didn't look like me.

To my horror, the face in the picture looked like me ... nine years ago. I had grabbed the wrong passport! My old passport has my maiden name on it, and since my new IDs don't include that name, I knew I couldn't use the passport to prove my identity. I frantically began to look through my wallet, and to my dismay, not a single credit card was signed. As fate would have it, I only had a pencil in my purse, so I couldn't even sign a card. I could not believe this was happening to me, little Mrs. Prepared!

I began to pray for anything that would help me out. A few minutes later, I noticed that the man sitting next to me was holding an electrical book and possibly looked like some kind of engineer. I asked if he happened to have a pen I could borrow, and by a miracle, he did! I quickly signed the back of my debit card that has my photo on it and profusely thanked him. Five minutes later, I was called to the front and signed in with no trouble!

I was a little worried about the effects of the morning on my exam, but I had nothing to worry about. I passed with flying colors. I've jumped yet another hurdle in my path towards practicing on my own! Now my vacation can really begin.

I'm a stalker

I have to admit that I am an avid blog stalker. There are quite a few blogs I read regularly -- most of them belong to people I know (although many of them probably don't know I read their blogs), and quite a few belong to people they know but whom I have never met.

This weekend, I was shopping with the hubby at the mall. As I was searching through the petite section for a pair of jeans, I looked up to see a familiar face. My first thought was, "Hey, I know her!" I soon realized that I didn't actually know her; I just knew her blog. I thought for a brief second about introducing myself but realized how crazy that would make me look (especially b/c I couldn't remember who the initial connection was that got to me to her blog -- I now do remember). I'm just glad I didn't say anything stupid so that she wouldn't think I was a real stalker.

Sleepwalking

I'm on PICU nights right now. I hate it. I work 7 PM to 9 AM Sunday through Thursday nights for 2 weeks in a row (except that on Sundays I come in at 5 PM). It gives me the required 10 hours off between shifts, but I think it's safe to say that not a one of us thinks 10 hours is enough especially when you work 5 shifts in a row. It's only two weeks, but it's already been a LONG week plus a day. Last night I had parents of a very sick child get angry because of things that happened before I even came to work, and they took it out on all of us. I understand people react differently when they are scared, but to this non-confrontational person, having someone cursing at me and insulting both me and my hospital was very unsettling. To top it off, I'm going 48 hours or so without seeing my husband; this may not sound like a long time given how much time we used to spend apart, but now that I've gotten used to having him around every day, it's awful to go for 2 days without seeing him. :(

Six shifts down ... four to go. Let the countdown commence. I finish Friday around 9 AM, and then I start a 10 day vacation!! My plans include decorating for Christmas, finishing up my shopping (almost done!), and sleeping. Since I'm working Thanksgiving night, I'm making our own Thanksgiving meal on Saturday; the full menu hasn't been planed, but it will definitely include my famous brined and roasted turkey! I seriously cannot wait.

What is that smell?

When I woke up yesterday, I realized that the same muscle I pulled six weeks ago was feeling tight. Since I'd been on my feet for roughly 30 consecutive hours over the weekend and worked out on Monday, I decided to give myself the day off. I even tried a little Capzasin on it before I went to bed, but it's been REALLY tight today. It hasn't spasmed like last time, but it's been tight enough that I'm walking a little different and have really been uncomfortable. Hubby and I were out running errands tonight, so I asked if we could stop at CVS to get some medicine.

After looking at the ingredients in the creams, I ended up selecting the one with the most ingredients (which also had the highest concentrations of any of them as well). One of the ingredients happens to be methyl salicylate; one whiff of this stuff, and you'll be transported back to your grandparents' medicine cabinet. As I was putting it on, I made some crack to Hubby about being able to call me "Grandma," and we had a good laugh. He left the room for a few minutes, and when he returned, he exclaimed, "Honey, you really DO have that old woman smell!"

At this point, I don't even care. I have to say that the cream is working! My calf is tingling, and I can actually move my leg further than I've been able to do so for the last two days. If smelling like a Wint-O-Green Lifesaver is what it takes to be able to walk normally again, I will suffer through it!

The bubbly ...

I hate tapping big kids. By tapping, I mean performing a lumbar puncture on them. By big kids, I mean anybody over twelve months. This weekend, I took a hellacious PICU call (thirty hours with no sleep thanks to one child who kept me baffled all of Saturday night and most of Sunday morning). During the day, we admitted a teenager who presented with some very abnormal neurologic symptoms, and the decision was made to do an LP. Since I was not on the admitting team and was just helping out another resident, I stood by and watched as she attempted the tap. She was very confident and did a great job, but for some reason, she didn't get CSF. I was so not thrilled about trying for it; feeling for landmarks on a well-nourished 16 year old female is so much harder than feeling for them on a skinny two month old! I said a quick prayer, marked my spot, and went for it. With a few adjusts of the needle, I suddenly had CSF ... clear, beautiful CSF pouring into my vials. We measured an opening pressure, collected our precious samples, and quickly wrapped up.

A few hours later, we were running labs and vitals. Lo and behold, I had a champagne tap. :)

I needed that.

Zzzzz

Sarah = boring. At least my blog seems to make me look that way! I have actually been pretty busy with work but have had enough down time over the last week to make two delicious soups from scratch (crab & corn chowder as well as shrimp bisque), a pot-roast, and two baked goods (double chocolate cake with white chocolate-sour cream icing and cranberry-orange scones). Hubby and I had the opportunity to go out to eat with some sweet friends of ours at a great restaurant on Saturday night and again with another couple we adore on Sunday. We had a busy but great weekend!

I donated blood yesterday, and I've felt a little tired since then, but this feeling is totally worth it. I'm CMV negative, something a little uncommon by the time you're my age, so I get hit up by the blood bank every eight weeks since my blood can be donated to the little ones as well as to immunocompromised individuals. I haven't been able to give every time I'm eligible, but I try to do it as often as I can. I have a firm belief that since I have ordered so much blood for my patients in the last two and a half years, I should help to supply that blood while I am able to do so.

I love that the weather has started to turn cold. We've actually had to put our electric blanket on the bed! As my hubby likes to say, "yes, we are old." I'm curled up on our bed under my quilt and am about to snuggled up underneath the quilt and the electric blanket. Comfort awaits!

Amazing

We've been back from Disney World for a week, and I have to say that our time was amazing. We had SO much fun! I have a decent amount of pictures to post, but our internet was down at home for part of the week. I took the pictures to work only to find that the computers there block me uploading anything, and now that I have internet at home again, the pictures are still up at work. Doh! Work has been killing me; I've been there from 8:30 to 7:45 almost every day (Wednesday was only til 5), so I have had little time for anything other than work. Today and tomorrow I'll work noon to midnight, and Sunday I'll work 11 to 7:45-ish. I can't wait to be done with this month!!

Highlights from our trip:

• Meeting Mickey :)
• Riding some really cool rides
• Lines so short that we were able to walk onto many of our favorite rides or wait less than 20 minutes
• Waiting in airconditioning for most of the rides :)
• Laughing with Hubby at how silly we looked in our rain gear
• The Ecpot food and wine festival
• AMAZING sushi at a local restaurant recommended to us by a friend
• Getting to feel like a little kid again

When I can, I will post some of the pictures. Hopefully next month will give me more time to get things I need to do AND want to do completed!

Countdown!

Thirty six hours til Florida ... sixty hours to Disney ... I really don't know how I'm going to work a noon to midnight shift tomorrow!

Shoot me now!!

Last night started out on a really good note. Since I was working late again, Hubby grilled fajitas for us and even made a version of Chuy's creamy jalapeno recipe that I'd round on the Internet (very close to the real thing and SO tasty!). I went to bed with a full tummy, very excited about being able to sleep in the next morning; I was so tired that I fell asleep with the dog next to me (Sebastian isn't allowed to stay in our bed overnight). A couple hours later, I woke up with the sensation of having a large knife being stabbed into my right calf. I fell out of bed onto the floor and tried to bear weight on that leg, but the peach-sized knot that had formed in my calf forbid me from moving more than a step at the time. If Hubby had been out of town, I would have been screaming my head off from the pain, but as he was sleeping on the other side of the bed, I did my best to stifle my cries into whimpers and hobble into the bathroom where I could shut the doors and try to deal with this.

Moving into that room turned out to be quite beneficial. As the pain continued to increase, I began to feel worse and worse until all of a sudden, I was losing my dinner in the toilet secondary to the waves of pain washing over my body. I puked uncontrollably for a minute, and when it was all over, I brushed my teeth, drank plenty of water, and hobbled back into bed only to find a small Yorkie there just waiting for his mom to come back. I put the Yorkie to bed and dropped down into my half of the bed. Hubby, still barely awake at this point, made sure I was okay before we both gave into exhaustion and fell back asleep.

I didn't have another experience this bad again, but my calf still has a horrible knot in it. Hubby massaged it for a bit tonight, and I'm resting with a heating pad on my leg. I just hope this all gets taken care of before Saturday. Disneyworld can't wait! :)