Soft week - funny patient 1

This has been a very weird week. I am home alone and I am supposed to be on my busiest rotation. But, we only have 2 patients in the hospital from our clinic service, which means I am doing very little work. I have never had a week like this. The one patient I saw today though was interesting....... I can't use her name because of confidentiality reasons, although I wish I could because she has one of the funniest last names I have ever heard.
Anyway, Mrs. Funny last name that I can't say because of HIPPA rules is in rehab for a hip fracture. This morning she didn't look like herself. She wouldn't smile and she wouldn't talk. She would only nod yes or no. I was concerned that she had a stroke and couldn't talk until I realized that she just didn't want to talk. Why? She is 88, had a hip fracture and like most people at 88 decided she could whatever she wanted, which this morning consisted of not talking to me.

Discharge to Canada

I had an interesting encounter last week with a patient who is from Canada. He is here in the lovely Rio Grande Valley for the winter. He developed a heart rhythm problem and he needed a pacemaker. It wasn't safe for him to leave the hospital until the pacer was placed. He was admitted on monday and we were ready to do the procedure on Tuesday, but there was a hitch...... his insurance would not pay for the procedure in the United States. The problem was resolved after 3 days of paperwork. He was flown in a medically equipped Leer Jet to have the procedure done in Canada. Is everyone positive that Universal health care is the way to go?

Why would I be up at 3:30am?

well, the only reason I am up is because Isabella seemed to have woken up at 3 am and doesn't want to fall back asleep even though she is tired. This isn't the best time for all of this because we leave in the morning for NC. I just hope this isn't a sign of what is ahead for later on today. We will only be gone a week and i am sure we'll have too many pictures to share. She seems to be slowing down..wait..maybe not. Anyways..hope you are all doing well. You'll here from us in over a week. You might be lucky enough to hear from Matt though.

1 Years pics

Here are some pictures of Isabella for her one year. She is almost 14 months, but that is besides the point. The bigger one at the end is a little blurry..sorry about that. It is getting harder to go get her pictures done because she just wants to crawl around and not sit still. she did great overall though and we were happy that there wasn't anyone else there waiting to get their pictures taken so we took our time. these are some of my favorites though.



Doesn't picture above look like a school picture. SO CUTE!!!

New Calling in Life

Well, I may have found a new calling in life. I spent my day at Baylor School of Medicine participating in a residency fair for medical students. I sat at a booth and talked to students. And I loved it. I am wondering if I can just transition from practicing medicine to just talking about practicing medicine. Describing to people what a "faith based residency program" is certainly raises eyebrows and brings up tough questions. But it was all enjoyable. I discussed medicine and residency with a wide variety of people, including locals, folks from California, multiple Mormons, a Muslim from Turkey and a woman who went to medical school in China and badly wants to be in a residency program. When the Chinese woman asked bluntly if she could come join our program I hemmed and hawed, relaxed my collar and tried to nicely explain that I wasn't exactly the person who gets to decide who actually matches in our program. So is there a future in this ..... we'll see.

Spring has come and gone

One of the sad things about living in Southern Texas is that you really only have one season:SUMMER! I take that back..there are three: a couple of days of spring, summer for 9 months, a month or two of early fall weather, and then a day or two of spring. We had some beautiful weather two weeks ago (in the 60's) and then last Friday we hit 97 degrees--that's right, folks--97 degrees!! It was a record. The last record was set in 1920 at 92. Crazy!!
I tell Matt all of the time that i look forward to moving back up north so that we can have some seasons. But we have realized after talking with family and friends that the southern part of the country does have some good things attached to it. the most important being produce. We have never paid more than 75 cents for an avocado. We love this feature!!
We don't have to worry about winter clothing--but i LOVE sweaters.
We only have to run the heat in the house for maybe a total of 7 days a year. But that leaves 358 days a year for AC.
Okay.. i have gone on long enough about Southern Texas.

It's Official

Well... it has happened. Isabella's first steps. Wobbly. Too fast. Potentially dangerous. Everything you could ask for from a toddler's first steps. I foresee much fun, cuteness and injury.