Graphic

In response to my mom's somewhat appalled reaction to my prior post (or parts of it), I'm sorry if that was too much info. for some of you. I admit, it was graphic. But most of my job is. And really, it was pretty funny.

Yesterday.

This is me driving to work. I look tired because I am tired. Because I still haven't reconciled the fact that just because I don't have to be at work on Friday night doesn't mean I have to stay up all night. Especially when I work from 8 to 5 on Saturday. 

I look old in this picture because I am tired. And because my smile lines give away the fact that I am almost 32. 

Yesterday at work I saw 24 patients. That is a ton of people. It is the most I've ever seen. 

Yesterday at work I called the police to do a welfare check on the home of a very dirty, scared patient who was 18 and expecting her second child and sometimes sleeps outside. 

Yesterday at work I ordered about 5 labs that I'm not really sure about for a patient almost exactly my age who is having unexplained fatigue. And an STD panel. And gave her spironolactone for her skin. 

Yesterday I looked a women straight in the face and told her that having sex 1 time/week is not enough to make a baby when you are 38 years old. Especially if your husband sometimes gets too tired to ejaculate inside you. I made her this list: 

This is why my appointments take forever. And yes, I laughed a little. Mostly at myself. In the hallway. 

Yesterday I told a lady she had almost no testosterone and wrote my first prescription for testosterone candies. (Yes, it's a special pharmacy). And informed her that she was terribly anemic, could probably stand a blood transfusion, and to come back in a month after taking iron and if she wasn't any better that we would refer her to a hematologist. 

Yesterday Jonmark delivered these beautiful flowers to my work because we met a year ago yesterday.
And sometimes you just celebrate incredible relationships because they make life worth living. (And maybe he knew I wanted to send him something and maybe I had way too many patients to send a money tree to his office. Jonmark, this is what it would have looked like. Maybe soon. :-) )

Yesterday I had a patient that I had talked to about nutrition who told me she overeats when people tell her she needs to eat better come back and tell me she lost 8 pounds (and I'm hoping our scale wasn't wrong 'cause it might be). But she was so proud and I wrote her for Metformin, and she is feeling so much happier.
Yesterday, after 24 patients and a Red Bull, Jonmark and I went to Bobby's Jazz restaurant and had salmon with dill sauce, an incredible spinach salad, a porterhouse, and creme brulee. And kissed in the drizzling rain.
And Yesterday was an excellent day. 

Peacock Proud

So quite a few months ago, I found a groupon to Carrie Curran art studios. The deal was, you go to a class for 2-3 hours and everyone paints the same painting while they tell you exactly how to do it. It seemed like a super-fun date idea, so I got it. And then let it expire. (It was kind of hard to match up exactly the painting I wanted to paint with the day I could. See here. ) But this Thursday, they were painting a peacock, and I really wanted to do it. I called and begged. They let me use my groupon. (Ok, I really didn't have to beg too much.)
Class started at 6:30, which I thought would be good since I got out of work about 5:00. But then it was 5:30. And usually, traffic isn't that bad going north at night, but maybe I just don't go THAT north. Because it was terrible. And I got lost and was 5 minutes late. I called Jonmark on the way there crying (not literally) that I was starving and to PLEASE bring me some food. You are actually supposed to bring your own food and drinks. Most people just bring wine.  Jonmark suggested we get pizza delivered to class. I told him he was a genius. (He was running late, too. We met there. We had to.)
So, class was so fun.
We were basically so impressed with ourselves even though I had to tell myself to not get anxious by the abstract-ness of the feathers at the bottom. Seriously. I was so scared to ruin it :-) And, for full disclosure, they did have us trace the top half of the peacock body with a stencil. Even though, really, we had a demo and I'm pretty sure I could have done it just fine (we used a little charcoal pencil).

Jonmark putting on the finishing touches

Intermission

Jonmark was the one person who refused to use the stencil. Which is why his peacock stands a little straighter and looks a little fatter than mine. And even though girl peacocks are really brown and boring, we like to say his is the boy peacock and mine is the girl. My mom and brother can really not believe I painted this. And all Jonmark and I want to do is go back and paint every painting there. (It was so much fun!) ....Good times, noodle salad. 

My finished product

Cute & Happy Halloween

So this Halloween was fabulous. On Friday, I asked Jonmark to take me to the haunted corn maze.  I had never been to ANY corn maze somehow and I didn't want to go another  halloween without one. I had planned to go dressed up, but I couldn't find my costume stuff at the store (and I worked Fri AND Sat). It was late when I got off, and basically Jonmark told me to hurry up and get my butt to Glendale before we missed it completely. :-) (Nicely, of course)
One thing I learned from this corn maze: If you are going to traverse it in a wheelchair, you'd better have some pretty solid wheels. Adventure wheels. Or a wheelbarrow. Unfortunately, we did not have either one of these. But the people who built the corn maze were super sweet and basically helped push him over all the divots and craziness. They were really worried about me not being scared enough. I was worried that I could do a better job pushing :-) It was kind of scary, though, and beautiful at the same time. Maybe it's the Idaho in me, but I think I could have slept pretty peacefully in the middle of all that corn.

Saturday I got off work all ready to buy costumes, but I was exhausted. We knew what we were going to be, but I was still short a purple dress, a long wig, and a crown. And a cool belt for Jonmark. I went to one store and found some cool shoe covers that looked like boots, but I couldn't find anything else. When I called Jonmark, he said, "Christin, go to sleep. You are going to be exhausted. Give me a list of what to get." Now. Trusting a boy to find your Rapunzel/Tangled costume is a very tricky situation that involves a little more trust than I usually have. But I had no choice. He was right. I was sooo tired. He told me to sleep until 5. He showed up at my house at 5:15 with a perfect purple dress, the perfect wig, and a sparkly little crown. He looked adorable in his vest and henley and boots and belt. He was the perfect Flynn Ryder. (We didn't think about how awesome a frying pan and a fake bruise would have been until later...maybe next year!) We made a quick stop at the Dollar Store for a plastic frog and to JoAnn's for velcro circles so I could stick him on my shoulder. Then we headed out to a fabulous dinner that we waited too long for, and to 2 parties. It was fun to dance and to see everyone's costume, and mostly fun to be dressed up together. Excellent halloween. 

AUSTIN! Late nights with Suzette

So on Saturday night, Byron dropped me off with Suzette for some quality catching up time. And that's exactly what we did. Sometimes we just get too busy with life, and telephone calls weren't cutting it. And late night talks were long overdue. I think we were up until about 2am both nights just talking and talking. And remembering how amazing it is to be friends with someone for twenty (holy cow) years.
It was so fun to stay with her and Jon. They recently bought a sweet 70's house that they are remodeling and I spent (maybe too much) time admiring their taste and their decorating decisions :-) - You can see them here. Suzette made us awesome pork tacos on Sunday. And then John made us popcorn and their weekly "cheese and chips" snack. I naively thought that meant tostitoes with shredded cheese melted on top. No no. It's potato chips with a chunk of cheese in between. Jon is demonstrating here: 
We also spent some time wandering downtown Austin and seeing cute shops.

Our last stop was Shipley's donuts on Monday morning. I hadn't thought we would have a chance, but luckily we were able to stop on our way to the airport. And Julia (our other friend from junior high) lives right across the street. And she was already there getting donuts for work!! Perfection.  (They really are the best donuts on earth. And I may have made myself a little sick on them.) But when you get a chance for Shipley's for the first time in 13 years, you take it.

It was such a fast little weekend, but it was so good to get away and re-connect with these people who I love so much. Thanks for everything!!

AUSTIN!- Byron & the Race

Mid-Race. I was a little less tired. Then again, I ran for 5 hours less....

 The weekend of the 22nd, I got to go to Austin to visit 2 amazing friends. I haven't been there since 2006.
I met Byron at a wedding in 2002 (you can go here to refresh your memory) and I've been friends with Suzette for 22 years now! We met when I first moved to Texas.
So I went down to run part of a marathon with Byron. He had asked if I could come about 4 months ago. I, of course, was worried. I may work out a lot, but I'm not exactly a runner. I told him I would run the last 5 miles with him. I started training a little bit, and the other day I called him and said, "Hey! I ran 5 miles- it took me about an hour. I'll try to keep it up." At that point, he basically said, "Christin, stop training. I run a 15 minute mile- and it will be slower by that point." So I decided I would walk the last 9 miles with him and stop training. :-)
It was so wonderful to see him and his family again. His boys have grown up so much and they were so cute and funny. I loved hearing, "Miss Christin! Miss Christin!" Zion always wanted to help with everything and is so animated in the way he talks. I was cracking up the whole weekend. His oldest is Phoenix and he is just such a cool 6 year old. There's definitely a grown up in there. And Exodus is a little too small to comprehend all the excitement, but he is such a sweetheart.

Yes, I am holding a 4 year old and a 2 year old

I flew in on Friday afternoon. Byron and I's first stop was to Mighty Fine for a delicious cheeseburger and a strawberry lemonade milkshake. mmmm...so healthy. haha. Then we drove home, took showers, and went to pick up the race packet and some power gels. That night we met Suzette and her husband Jon at Chez Zee for dinner. It was so fun to just sit around and talk with everyone. I couldn't believe that I was sitting there with these two friends and their spouses and it was just kind of magical. (Maybe it was the Christmas lights hanging from the ceiling...). Anyways, we all agreed the food was good, but not amazing. What WAS amazing was the chocolate pumpkin cheesecake I devoured, the gooey chocolatey thing Tara had, and the Lemon Rosemary cake Suzette and Jon shared. Next time I think we'll just go for desert. I couldn't believe how much I ate!

Chez Zee

That night I slept forever, to the concern of Byron's kids, who wondered when I was ever going to wake up. I had only slept for 3 hours the night before, so I didn't get up until almost 11, right when Byron was ready for me to join him. I quickly got up and got ready and his wife Tara drove me out to the race. He was doing awesome- I started at mile 17. I walked while he ran and we talked constantly for 2 and a half hours. The scenery was beautiful, and I love to just see how green everything was. We even saw some Longhorns and a deer! He finished the race at 7hr and 17 minutes. The sheer endurance to keep that up is beyond me and I was so soo impressed. He may have teared up a little at the end, and his family was all there to meet him at the finish line. So fun!
Afterwards, we showered and went to get massages and then stopped at Rudy's barbeque for the 2nd most amazing barbeque in the world. Amazing creamed corn. Delicious ribs and brisket.
mmmmmmmmmmmmm...!

Reward time. mmmm.....

I definitely felt like I was back in Texas- and I loved every second of it.

Zion, my little buddy

Tara, Byron, & Me

Sometimes it's the Little Things

So one of the most shocking things about my job is the level of respect it seems to entail. It's kind of fun to be so new and yet still so....listened to.
Jonmark was shocked that I have my own Medical Assistant. It kind of shocks me, too, but, then again, I don't know what I would do without her.
But my favorite important moment happened about 2 weeks ago. I wanted to use Gentian violet on some patients for chronic yeast and bacterial vaginosis. We had studied it in school, and I had seen a specialist use it, but apparently no one at our office uses it.
I thought to myself how annoying it was going to be to try to sort through the red tape, justify why I needed it, get a protocol, blah blah blah....and was kind of upset that I wouldn't get to use it.
I mentioned that I wanted it to one of the Medical Assitants. She told me to write it on a post-it and she would give it to the girl who does ordering and see what she said. I thought I would never hear another word about it. Instead, less than 24 hours later, sitting directly on my desk, was this:

Guess who loves that.

p.s. I work with super sweet people who not only answer all my million questions and obligingly check my microscope slides, they also ask me questions about the things I know, and that is so cool to me.
p.s.2. At my office you can go online to rate your visit. I've had some so sweet reviews. And one person said, "I loved my NP. It felt like she was my friend...." And that was the best review ever.

Life in the Speculum World

So apparently not everyone has really caught on to what I do for a living. Case in point, I went to Austin to visit Suzette & Byron the other day and at one point Byron stops me in mid-sentence. "Hold on," he says. "Let me get this straight. You stare at coochie all day long?!" I laughed hysterically. And yes, that's pretty much exactly what I do. Because, let me tell you something. There is a lot of craziness going on down there and most girls in the world have no idea what that is. So because I LOVE to talk about that kind of stuff, that's what I do.
So far, it's been pretty stinking amazing.
The first day, I called my mom at lunch and screamed into the phone, "I LOVE MY JOB!!!"
I had taken care of 3 girls with PCOS who had been so frustrated about their weight and we had good long talks about insulin resistance and why you should eat 2 eggs a day and it was LOVELY. And I felt like I was saving the world.
The second half of the day felt like I had way too much to learn. About how to take out IUD's that don't want to come out and how to dose Clomid and WHEN to give CLOMID and WHY on earth a 22 year old feels so bloated.
And that's about how it's been since then. Half of the time I'm floating on air because I feel like I'm this sweet listening ear who can fix everything and the other half I'm either buried in one of my 7 trusty books looking up which antibiotic is best for an infected c-section wound in a breastfeeding mom or running down the hall to ask someone what possible causes for "significant free fluid" in a teenage uterus might be. (Menstrual fluid, that's what. And I ended up coming up with that one on my own.)
I've prescribed more Augmentin for ear infections than I ever thought I would. What's with pregnant women and ear infections anyways?
Just today I finally printed up some patient education sheets because I'm already bored with my sad 3 little tips on how to prevent yeast infection and UTI. I also e-mailed a naturopath 'cause I'm sick of getting asked what herbs to use for random stuff when I have no idea. I'm working on a good PCOS packet. And I'm perfecting my charting with "pertinent negatives," which I, BTW HATE. But I got called out on it yesterday. Freaking Monday. (It's good, though, actually. I'm constantly thinking of one or two questions I should have asked. This helps. Lots.)
I'm learning to not love Mondays. Or at least yesterday. Exhaustingly fun weekends=exhaustingly tired Mondays. I'm kind of becoming a morning person. Which only means that I don't usually want to cry at 7 am. I still get mad when I get tired at 9pm (and I'm sorry to all the friends who I have made fun of for that. For years.). I still love 1am. It's my favorite time of day. If I'm awake.
I run errands on my lunch break and I seem to go to work ALL THE TIME (vs 3 days a week...)
oohhh...and I have clothes. Awesome clothes. I realized early on that this year I have bought a bazillion clothes. Casual ones. Which meant I had no professional ones. Like at all. So in the course of a week, I hit up Nordstrom Rack, Kohl's, Macy's, Dillard's (awesome clearance sale), and Express (for the one place that makes pants I don't have to hem). And I got the cutest shirts and pants ever.
I hit up Shade for ivory and fawn shirts.
I went to an alterations place for basically the first time ever and got each and every pair of pants I should have had hemmed 3 years ago hemmed. They all fit awesome.
And, for my crowning professional moment, I bought Kate Spade shoes. Like turquoise ones. Turquoise ones that I spent 6 months talking myself into buying. I love them. I think the whole office has a little crush on them. And they make me feel so cool and yet so professional at the same time. heehee. Love them.