Lessons

After three weeks of being on the surgery service at the U of U hospital I have learned a few things that I thought I would share.

1. The expression "cuss like a sailor" is all wrong. It should be "cuss like a surgeon."

2. Even if you have just lost everything you have eaten all day you are still supposed to be able to present a patient flawlessly to the attending physician in clinic, and then answer question after question about the disease without the help of the all-knowing Google.

3. Surgeons do not eat, drink, sleep, or use the restroom.

4. Sometimes birds get into the hospital. You just have to catch them.

5. Cancer sucks.

6. See number 5 above.

7. See numbers 5 & 6 above.

8. When you don't see your 9 month old daughter for days at a time you either become a novelty when you finally come home or a stranger. I keep hoping for novelty.

9. Some patients want to get better, others are disappointed to find out the hospital is not a five star hotel but still do not want to go home.

10. A pair of comfortable shoes makes all of the difference in the world.

11. The ER is an amazing place.

12. Always carry a stick of gum. It is terrible to get trapped inside a surgical mask and smell your own bad breath for hours during a surgery.

13. And last the best...God is good. Our family has been very blessed these past few weeks!

And now, what you really came to the blog to see: pictures of Morgan! Too bad we left our camera on my uncle's boat and only have one new picture.

Life Over

Well, we've begun a new and depressing epoch: the 3rd year of medical school. Characterized by very early mornings, days being harassed by doctors and residents, nights and weekends on call, tests every 6 weeks with no time to study, and more stress than we've experienced before (which is saying something). I can't really complain - the only difference for me is that I will see Erik less and that he will be more stressed and exhausted when I do see him. Erik has started out with the surgery rotation, which some say is the worst/most hours. He has to be there by 5, and we've never gotten any clear ideas of when he might be home or whether or not he works weekends. And apparently, it looks like you're weak if you ask such questions, so I guess we'll just take it day by day... I've been told that clarity of schedule depends on the scheduling secretary for that rotation, and based on our experience so far, the surgery secretary gets an F. Case in point: all the surgery students, Erik included, met for a required class, but the professor never showed. They all checked their emails/pagers, but there was nothing. So they sat in the classroom and studied. What good little medical students. After the two hours was up, the secretary calls out one of the students and asks where his pager is. He says he left it in his car. She said that she paged him (just him) to tell the other students that there was no class and they should meet up with their doctors instead. She has all their emails and pager numbers, and all she could be bothered with is to page one student - and then she says it's his fault. Wow. If I had a say in running medical school, it would be done a lot differently. Wish us luck - I think we're going to need it.

In other, lighter, news, we recommend Toy Story 3 and Karate Kid. We indulged in a few movies during his few weeks off and really enjoyed them.

The Morgan update: teeth are visible in the gums, but haven't popped out yet. Can easily get to crawling position (by using her head - hilarious), lunges, and collapses. Hooray. I'm not ready for a mobile baby. Saying "ma" "da" "wa" and "ba." Claps and waves, and is learning high fives. Very advanced. :)