August 28, 2007
· Filed under Medical, Running
What I want to know is who are these mysterious people who check my blog? I can view the stats for my blog and there seems to be a core group of about 6 people that check it regularly. Very bizarre. And there are other days when between 15 and 20 people check it. Amazing, especially given how sporadically I post.
I really wish I could post more often but life is just amazingly hectic. I’ve finished my two weeks in the emergency room and now I’m doing inpatient at a tertiary care center (referral hospital for other hospitals). Lots of kids with very complicated medical histories get admitted here so I’m learning a lot but also amazingly busy. A normal day for me is from 6:30 am to 6 or 7 pm. And on days that I’m on call, I work ~30 hours in a row.
Thankfully, I actually enjoy it quite a bit, but the long hours do make it hard to fit in things like running, relaxing, spending time with my husband and friends (and finishing unpacking!). So far my husband and I seem to be handling the stress well. His schedule is flexible enough that he can afford to take off the occasional random days that I get off during the week. He’s also very understanding of my need to sleep odd hours. After all these years of being together, he’s come to truly appreciate my need for sleep!
So all in all things are going quite well. We continue to love our new condo. Although I worked Friday and Saturday, I had Sunday off, and we spent the day installing a medicine cabinet in our bathroom. Thank goodness my father was around to help! It took a while to do, but with his help everything went perfectly and our bathroom looks great. We also managed to put together the futon that Eddie found on Craig’s list. It’s a really beautiful futon and seems very well made. Our new home is slowly coming together.
Any my mother donated some beautiful plants (begonias, I think) and a nice plant stand. Our front porch is beginning to look a little like a forest. I’m not sure that they’re all in the right light, but my mother got me an excellent book on plants which will be very helpful as soon as I actually get a chance to sit down and read it. 
My running has been going very well lately. Last week I ran 5 miles on Tuesday, 4.5 on Wednesday, 5.5 of intervals on the track on Thursday, and 8 on Sunday. I’ve never done intervals before, and I had a great time. Ran a 1 mile warm up over to the track at Tufts and then ran 4 half mile repeats at 5K pace with a 1/4 mile slow jog in between to recover and then a 1 mile cool down. I also really enjoyed my run on Sunday. Ran down by the Charles river and got to see a beautiful sunset. I have a feeling that this week I won’t get quite as much running in as I’m on call tomorrow and Saturday, but I see it as a good chance to let my body recover from the pounding of residency.
August 17, 2007
· Filed under Medical
I figure if I keep posting on this long enough, people will eventually be able to figure out who I am. Actually, maybe it’s already obvious. I can’t remember if my full name is on here anywhere. Maybe I need a pseudonym like Steve Runner. That would be cool. Not sure what my pseudonym should be.
Anyway, I’ve been working in the pediatric emergency room for the past week and a half. I’m actually surprised by how much I like it. You have the opportunity to do lots of procedures which are initially scary, but then become kind of fun and satisfying. So far I have put in many IVs and done a few urine caths. I haven’t yet had a chance to do an LP or suture a lac (medical lingo for sticking a needle in someone’s spine and putting in stitches), but I’m sure the time will come soon.
One thing I like about working in the ED is that it’s almost all clinicial with very little paperwork or other annoying bureaucratic stuff. Plus you get to see a lot of patients and learn a ton. The hours, however, are quite bizarre. For past week and a half I’ve been working mostly 11 am to 11 pm shifts. Of course, I very rarely actually get out at 11 pm, but I do enjoy getting to sleep in in the morning. This presents a slight challenge for my running. I do my best to get up at a reasonable hour so I can run before work, but if I don’t make it, there really isn’t any way to run after work. So far I haven’t missed a work out, but I’m not really a fan of running in the morning.
My last two ED shifts of this block are this weekend, and I’m working 10 pm to 10 am. Should be quite interesting. I’m going to take a nap soon which will hopefully make it more bearable. Wish me luck.
August 8, 2007
· Filed under Uncategorized
Eddie and I continue to love our new place. I can’t believe how nice it is to have a yard and a deck (two decks, actually!). After countless hours of searching, we finally found furniture for both our front and back decks today. It’s not that we’re particularly picky about furniture, it’s just that every place we looked had already gotten rid of all their patio furniture for the upcoming fall. I was getting very discouraged and worried that we wouldn’t be able to find anything for this season which would really be a bummer, but I finally found the perfect stuff today at a gardening store near Porter square. We got a small round wrought iron table with two chairs for the back porch for eating actual meals outside and two wooden chairs with a cute side table for relaxing with a drink on the front porch. Perfect.
After buying everything, we went for a beautiful run along the bike path and then ate some delicious burritoros on the back porch on our newly purchased furniture. A great evening.
August 3, 2007
· Filed under Running
So, I’ve come up with a solution for my running worries. Instead of a half marathon, I’m going to train for a 10K (6.2 miles). This seems like a much more manageable distance, especially since I can already run that distance with ease, so my goal will be to improve my time. I also think I should be able to train on just 4 days a week of running which will be much more practical. This plan has me very excited and enjoying running again. Eddie and I have done a couple of runs around our new place, and it’s a lot of fun. I was due to run today, but the fact that it was 90+ degrees at 7 pm convinced me otherwise. Instead, I spent time unpacking (and moving the A/C unit from the spare bedroom to the living room). I’m planning on waking up early tomorrow morning to squeeze my run in before we head to NYC to visit my med school friends. Can’t wait!!
