Workin

As I mentioned in the last post, we have been working quite a bit.  I thought I would share a little bit about our works since there isn’t a lot else to share…

I have been working at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital this month.  No, I haven’t met Peyton.  Most people in Indy are familiar with this hospital, but even outside of the city, I guess people haven’t heard of it.  I was calling someone in Elkhart (about 2 hours north of Indy) and I said I was calling from Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital and the lady responded, “you mean like the football player?” I thought this was funny, but not having heard of the hospital, she probably thought it was quite strange.

This has been a difficult month with lots of hours worked and a steep learning curve.  Probably the most difficult thing has been getting a new staff doctor every 3-4 days and having to figure out how they want things differently than the last one.  And also, the kids leave much quicker than adults do.  This is great for the kids, not so great for the paper trail that follows behind them which is almost exclusively completed by the interns.  The nurses and subspecialists at PMCH are pretty good, which has been nice this month.  I found this pic on the website (which they called “Peyton’s Posse”) and I have worked with a lot of these docs and nurses… yet, no Peyton 😦

Dr. Zawaideh, just right of Peyton, has been one of my fav subspecialists.  She is the Nephrologist.  The one.  We have one GI doc, one ID doc, one kidney doc, two pulmonologists in about a 45 bed hospital that has often been full this month.  That isn’t nearly as large as Riley, but big enough to need more docs than that.  A lot of these guys are really overworked, yet they do what they do well and still manage to teach us along the way.  So, despite being a very difficult month, I have learned from some great teachers.

Jeff has been working on Traders Point’s new website.  I will let him share more if he wants later, but here is a sneak peek.

Jeff has spent over a year working on this from its inception.  There were several hiccups along the way, but the new site is fantastic.  Jeff also had to make a little video of himself talking with screen shots to explain the website and its navigation to the congregation- that was a little different for his behind-the-scenes-type job, but I think he did a good job with it.  I guess I am a little bias, but lots of people besides those who have to say nice things have been impressed with it, so I think it must be for real good. 🙂 Go check it out!

wake up call…

As you know, I have been working in the ICU the last couple weeks.  This can be depressing at times.  I think Jeff mentioned that one of my very first patients died almost right away.  Every night I get “changeover” from the day interns, learning about what is going on with the patients I will follow and what I might have to do for them.  Tonight, at changeover three patients had either passed away or were on a “terminal wean” from the ventilator, which means that they plan to take the ventilator and breathing tube out, but that the person will likely not be able to live without it.  Two of these patients I have followed several days now and did not realize they were that bad.  Granted, being in the ICU already means it’s pretty bad, but some really aren’t as bad as others.  Up until this point, I had pretty much escaped facing death in the medical setting.  I think it is necessary, especially to see that modern medicine can’t fix everything and sometimes it is just the end.  It is still hard to come in every day and face some patients with futility.  Good way to start off the year?  Maybe.

on Nights…

Now I am seeing my new home from the other side of the clock.  Starting on Sunday, I switched to nights in the ICU.  Sunday was rough because I worked from 7AM Sunday morning until 8AM Monday morning.  This is not that rare in the world of residency, but we only do one of these shifts in the ICU since ICU tends to be a little more intense than the rest of the hospital.  I will continue working 6PM-8AM for the rest of this week and half way in to next week (I do get one day off… woot!).  The work itself isn’t too bad unless we get a lot of new patients.  I have been able to read and even finish a book and watch some cable TV, which is a treat.  I get some sleep (hopefully) at night at then grab some more during the day at home.  I have been able to enjoy the nice weather more than when I was on days, also a plus.  The big downside however is that I don’t get to see Jeff.  I got out a little early today and saw him before he went to work, but for the most part we just miss each other on both sides.  I feel like a circadian-challenged bachelorette which is and will get old quick.  On the up-side, work in the ICU is getting a little bit less overwhelming every day and some days I even believe that I am, in fact, Dr. Miller.

Prom, the intern, and the bike trip… Last week’s recap

A lot has happened in the last week and a few days… the world lost four celebrities and now I just heard that Disney lost one of its “cast members” in a monorail accident (Mark, I’m glad you’re safe and sound in Indiana!). In our little corner of the world, things have also been hopping, so here’s a little recap for you…

Prom Night – Saturday, June 27

Meghan and I played host to a fun and fairly random event last weekend – our friends Jess and Steph’s Birthday Prom. We had somewhere in the neighborhood of 23 people over, all dressed to the hilt. Most of the evening’s activities took place in our backyard, where we took a lot of great pics of some classic prom poses, danced under the stars to Steph’s prom playlist (which would’ve rivaled any wedding reception DJ’s), and played a game or two of bocce ball (of course!) by the light of paper lanterns.

Inside, we laughed to the point of tears as we listened to Jordan’s hilarious and self-composed musical toast to the two birthday girls. It was definitely a Magical Night to Remember Under the Stars on Broadway.

Dr. Miller’s first day – Wednesday, July 1

In a mysterious overnight transformation, Meghan became Dr. Miller with the power to write prescriptions, order tests, and make vital life-and-death decisions in the care of her patients. No one knows how these powers are suddenly granted, just that they are and that along with them comes the responsibility of knowing what you’re doing and making the right decisions. This all may seem like a piece of cake and child’s play until you realize that her first day of being a doctor was in the ICU where she was surrounded by dying patients and serious medical emergencies. In fact, no sooner had she completed the walking tour of the floor than she got her first page and was soon thereafter confronted with the death of her first patient (no, it was not her fault!). Needless to say, it has been a highly challenging first few days, although things have seemed to calm down a bit over this weekend. She’ll be on ICU for this month, working 11- to 13-hour shifts everyday except for the four days she’ll get off this month. Please be praying for her stamina and quick “learning of the ropes” as she gradually begins to feel more and more like the real doctor that she is.

The 25-miler – Friday, July 3

Our route from our house (A) to White River State Park (B)… more or less

Meghan and I both had the day off on Friday, and we had made no definite plans since Meghan was feeling exhausted from the last two days of work. So we decided to take it easy and just go on a fun little bike ride around our neighborhood and beyond. Well, the “beyond” turned into something a little more than just “fun” and “little.” In talking to our next door neighbor Joe, he informed us that there was a bike route that existed to get from our neighborhood (located at the 62nd Street level on the map above) all the way to White River State Park downtown, all the way avoiding major roadways. Well, we half paid attention to his directions at the time, but enough that when we tried looking it up on our own before we left, we came up with a fairly clear picture of how to do it. When we left our house, I don’t think either of us had honest intentions of making it that far, but as we guessed our way along the route and kept being rewarded with progress, we finally decided to go for it and arrived downtown an hour and a half later. What followed after that was some of the most brutal agony I have endured in recent memory. Having chosen not to bring my wallet along or any means of purchasing power, we were not able to stop and eat a quick lunch or even buy a sno-cone from the ice cream truck we passed. Fortunately, we had a bottle of water along, but that did little to relieve the searing pain in my legs with each downward stroke of the pedals. This is mostly a story of how badly I am out of shape… Meghan faired much better than me. After stopping every half mile or so to walk and over two and a half hours later, we finally made it back into our driveway. I proceeded to throw my helmet across the yard in anger and painful frustration (and embarrassment?) and crawled into the house. We spent the rest of the day recovering on the sofa, watching movies and the PBS Create channel (broadcast TV definitely has its limitations).

Google Maps informed me that our little route had covered around 25 miles… 15 miles longer than I had ever biked before in one go. Looking back, now that my legs work again and the bicycle seat imprint has left my bottom, I’m glad we did it and, other than the way back up, it really was fun and a pretty empowering experience to have traveled all the way to the heart of the city by our own means. Kind of makes me wish that I worked close enough to make my commute on two wheels everyday instead of four.

Real Life Week

In seventh grade, we took a week of class to pretend we were going out into the real world to get a job, secure housing, a car, child care if necessary and all these such things.  We were given an education level and some skills and a family and told to accomodate these parameters.  I was a high school graduate with not much in the skills department.  I think I had a small family.  My mom helped me scour the newspaper for an awesome job as a semi-truck driver.  The pay was decent and had good benefits, all things that were completely foreign to me… and quite frankly have remained such until this week.

For those of you not in any way familiar with the medical world, it is Match Week for 4th year medical students.  In November and December I interviewed at several Family Medicine residency programs, most in Indianapolis and a few in Cincinnati.  By the end of February, I had to rank these programs in the order that I would like to work at them.  The programs, similarly ranked candidates that interviewed with them.  Monday I learned that I “matched,” meaning that one of the programs on my list liked me enough to include me on their list.  If all goes in my favor, that will be the top program on my list.  If my top program wanted me, I go there– in other words, I get preference in my rank list, not the programs.  Tomorrow (thursday), I will receive an envelope in front of all of my classmates that says where I will be going.  It is a legally binding agreement- I have to spend the next three years at whichever program is named within that envelope.

We are hoping to stay in Indianapolis.  We have even spoken with a realtor and have gotten the ball rolling on buying a house, hence the other half of Real Life Week coming to fruition.  Luckily we already have cars and we won’t be adding any children this week, but other than that it has been pretty similar to that week back in seventh grade.  Well, hopefully my hairstyle and fashion sense have improved somewhat since then.  (side note: we were talking last night about how we used to say “Don’t ever change!” in yearbooks back in middle school, which is actually the worst wish you could ever give someone at that age.)

Check back tomorrow for the results of the match!

a special treat for you… the real life of meghan (kelly) in seventh grade

this was my favorite dance costume of all time- I think I wore it for halloween at least twice