Well I don't have much to say about this week. I sleep in, go on my 3 mile walk, then work from 3pm-11pm-ish. I miss my normal life, like seeing my boyfriend. I've actually lost weight since this rotation began last week. I'm trying to anyway, but this just keeps me from snacking all day like I do if I'm at home. There's one part of the ER I have to avoid though. A lot of nurses (oh no! I'm about to talk about nurses!!) bring snacks so there are tons of yummy cookies around. Yesterday, one of them brought a crock pot full of spaghetti sauce along with little individually portioned pasta. It smelled really good the whole time I was there and it's all I can do to try and ignore it and remind myself I'll eat healthier when I get home. So far it's working, but if I did this all the time as a job, I could easily see myself slip.

Today I slept later than I meant, and I didn't go on my walk. I've had a cold and a smoldering headache all week. This morning was too much. My head hurt and my knees hurt from all the standing, so I just blew it off. I probably walked enough tonight anyway.

Tomorrow is my last day of work until Monday. I'm having lunch with my mom at one of my favorite places and then I'll get to see my boyfriend after work. Maybe I can talk him into going on a late night burger run when I get to his house.

Well this is going to go up as the most boring blog ever, so I'm going to stop the torture and try and get some sleep so I don't sleep until noon like I did today.

Guys, Gals, and Valentine's Day

Women are so easy to shop for on Valentine's Day. I don't think my boyfriend has ever gotten me something that I didn't absolutely love. Buying for him? That's a different story. He can buy himself anything he wants.

Every year I try to be clever and sneaky with his present. I try to remember little things he mentions he wants, that I know he won't ever buy for himself. For instance, one year he went on a cruise with his family to Alaska. He came back raving about this little tiny chocolate factory he visited called Theobroma Chocolate Co. I googled their name, and sure enough, they had a website you could order their chocolate from. He was completely surprised and quite pleased with his bounty. I haven't always been so good though. 2 years ago I was really bad. I had test block during Valentine's Day and totally forgot about it. I showed up with a candy bar for him, when he got me lingerie and a spa gift certificate. Ouch. How could I forget Valentine's Day? A holiday made especially with women in mind, and I forgot it!!!

I'm not sure what to think about my gift for him this year. It's something he wants, but I'm not sure if it's exactly what he wants. Since I'm into giving perfect gifts, I'm a bit nervous about it. I don't want him to like my gifts, I want him to love them, like me!

In other news, do you ever scroll through other people's blogs just to see what else is going on? I did that last night and came across a blog from a women who has an "open" relationship with her husband. Ick. She had photos and everything. I was a little embarrassed, but now I'm wondering, "what are they getting each other for Valentine's Day?".

A whole lot of nothing

I love long weekends. Since I get to make my own schedule this month, I'm sort of off today because I have to work tonight for a couple of hours setting up anesthesia equipment for epidurals and c-sections. It's an externship I took on 1 1/2 years ago for extra money. The main reason for the externship is to get your foot in the door for a residency spot, the money is just a nice incentive, and it definitely comes in handy for groceries, gas, etc. This year it's pretty easy to fit the job into my rotations, but last year was a different story. Since the rotations were all required, I couldn't just take the day off, even if I'd been up all night helping the anesthesia residents. I remember one time last year I'd been up almost all night on medicine call, then the next day I was scheduled for the externship. I ended up going about 40 hours without any sleep. That's a long time for anyone, even a surgery resident. But, you do what you have to do. Hopefully I will match at my school and all the extra work will be worth it. Actually, it was worth it anyway. I learned how to set up arterial lines, hot lines, and set up the equipment. I'll need to know how to do that stuff anyway.

Friday was interesting. A family brought their 4 month old in after he'd had diarrhea for a week. He was barely breathing and pretty unresponsive. None of the nurses could get an IV so the doc had to put an IO in (a needle in the bone marrow space) to give him fluids. One of the pediatric ICU docs came down and intubated (put in a breathing tube) him and put in an IJ (IV in his jugular vein). I've never seen a kid that sick. He almost died. There wasn't a hospital in my city that had any pediatric ICU beds available, so he got mediflighted to a hospital out of town as soon as he was stable. The parents were a real piece of work. They kept disappearing all day and nobody could find them. Mediflight was about to leave but had to wait for the mother, who had disappeared. She finally showed up and they left. Had that been my kid, I would never have left his side. I hope he's okay. I've been thinking about him all weekend.

Now for something a bit less serious and pretty funny. One of the interns was working in the ER that day and we started talking about school and stuff. He doesn't care for the ER much and informed me that he "doesn't do" pelvic exams. I thought that sounded funny coming from a physician who is resting on the bottom of the barrel on the food chain. Me, being the rescuer, told him that if he had any to do, I would do them for him. Why did I say that?! Personally, I don't see what the big deal is with pelvic exams. I don't mind them at all, but why did I feel the need to rescue an intern who is probably 8 years younger than me, for not wanting to do his job?? Okay Dr. Phil, where are you....

So did anyone watch the Superbowl last night? I did. I hadn't planned on it, but my boyfriend and I were craving nachos on Saturday, so we planned on making some Sunday and watching the game. The only ad I liked was the one where the goat was mooning everyone. I thought it was cute. All the other ones were pretty ordinary. The game was okay. I don't really have any emotional tie to either team, so I sort of fell asleep during part of it. The last quarter was pretty good though.

My main goal today is to get home from work in time to watch The Bachelor. Thanks to my residency interview travels, I was lonely and got hooked on it. I've officially stooped to a new level, and I don't think it's up. I am glad that most of the mean girls have been sent home. I can't understand why anyone would get on national TV and behave that way. I don't really understand why anyone would want to be on national TV (or local) anyway. I'm such a private person, I just can't imagine wanting to be on TV. When I worked as a social worker, news reporters were always up at the office doing stories about this and that. I always ducked around the corner or just stayed upstairs when they were around. No good can come out of being the target of a child abuse story!

Enough of my ramblings....