March 31, 2009
· Filed under Life, Medical
I would like to write about a child who recently died, but it’s difficult to express myself well. It was a very difficult and surreal experience. Part of this was because when I first met him, he was intubated and unresponsive, so I never knew him as a person. The other part is that I didn’t have time to mourn him or even think about what happened because there were other kids that needed to be taken care of.
One of the definitions for surreal that come up on Google described it well: “characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtapositions.”
It felt very unreal to me to go from doing chest compressions one minute to mundane unimportant tasks the next. I feel my life should somehow be inextricably liked with his, but I never even met his parents. I want them to know that I am thinking of them and mourning him with them. I wish they could have held him before he died.
March 29, 2009
· Filed under Life
As you may know, this blog originated from my running of the Boston Marathon and my desire to write about it. And I would NEVER have run Boston if it weren’t for two things: 1) Steve Runner’s Worldwide Half Marathon Challenge which gave me the courage to try a half marathon and 2) the Tufts Marathon Challenge which gave me the support I needed (and an entry blank!) to run Boston. The Tufts Marathon Challenge is organized by Larry Bacow, the president of Tufts University. I ran with the Tufts team during 2007, and my husband is running with them this year. He absolutely love it. One of the other runners organized an informal team dinner at Redbones tonight. We went there and enjoyed delicious food with about 30 other runners. Amazingly, the president of Tufts actually called Redbones and told them that the bill was on him. How amazing is that?? That would never have happened at a certain other school I attended…
March 22, 2009
· Filed under Life, Running
Despite being on an easy rotation, I’ve been very busy. Given, a lot of this is because I’m trying to cram in all my socializing while I have time, so I really can’t complain. Tuesday I got called in for back up overnight but still managed to go running post call on Wednesday which is always difficult for me. Then went out for some drinks with other people from my residency program. Thursday I met up with Elena and Todd at running club for an easy 4.2 miles and a tasty dinner at Magoun’s. Friday night had a belated St. Patrick’s Day celebration with Jack and Shilpa. Saturday woke up late and then met Emily and Charles for lunch and then babysat Timmy for a few hours before getting in a tempo run. Then off to dinner at Beerworks to help a friend celebrate turning 30. Got up late again this morning and then met Elena for part of my 8 mile run. Phew, so much fun to have, so little time to do it. Probably would have more time if I didn’t sleep till 10 am on the weekends…
Feeling very happy that I managed to squeeze in 18 miles this week. Maybe 20 next week??
March 16, 2009
· Filed under Life, Running
Ahhhh. Sigh of relief. Finally finished my month of very long hours. Sadly, my running took a definite hit. The month before I started, my weekly mileage was as follows: 16 miles, 16 miles, 16 miles, 18 miles. The month of that rotation: 15 miles, 16 miles, 13 miles, 7 miles. Phew. But have no fear, managed 17 miles this past week with an almost PR at the Ras 5K this past weekend in 28:34 for an average 9:13 mile. Not bad for me given that I’m not in great shape. Only about 20 seconds off my PR for a 5K.
And very happily, the rest of my schedule for this year is not too bad so I should be able to actually train for my half marathon, tentatively scheduled for June 28th. I plan to get back up to a base of ~20 miles per week and then add in some speedwork and build to a long run of 12-14 miles. Despite my relatively poor running during my busy month, I did manage to get in at least a 7 mile long run every week (yes, one week that was the only run I did).
I’m on an easy outpatient rotation this week and next, and it’s been wonderful to actually have a life again. Despite having to work overnight in the ER Friday night, I still had a very enjoyable weekend. I’ve also been able to catch up on tons of housework, emails, and residency work that has been piling up. And I’m currently trying to write some case reports so that I’ll have some chance of getting into a good fellowship. Life is always busy…
March 1, 2009
· Filed under Life, Running
This week I worked 82 hours. Sadly, I only managed to fit in 13 miles. Monday I was on-call. Tuesday I was post call and could only manage a 2 mile run. Wednesday I didn’t get home until almost 8 pm and decided a run at that time of night would not be so safe. Thursday I had a meeting at 6:30 pm, but managed to leave work at 4:30 pm (earliest in a long time!) to fit in a 4 mile run. Friday I was on call again. Saturday I was post call and didn’t wake up until 9 pm. Silly Catherine. And today I managed 7 miles despite the biting snow.
Next week should also be quite challenging. I’m going to hope to run tomorrow but we’re supposed to get a foot of snow so that could be rather difficult. Tuesday I’m on-call. Wednesday I’m post and I have a meeting at 6:30 pm which makes running exceedlingly unlikely. I can run Thursday and Friday. Saturday I’m on-call. Sunday I might be able to squeeze in an easy run post-call. Phew. But after that I return to an easier rotation and my training for a half marathon can continue. Did I mention I’m hoping to run a half? The only one I can find that is late enough to give me time to train and on a day I have off is in Connecticut. It’s far enough away that I’ll probably have to stay over the night before. I also worry that it will be pretty warm since it’s on June 28th. We’ll see how my training goes…
February 22, 2009
· Filed under Life, Medical, Running
As many people are aware, there are now work hour restrictions for residents which means we get to upload our hours to a website on a regular basis. I just did that and realized that I worked 84 hours this past week. No wonder I’m feeling tired. And this 84 hours was during a week where I had a golden weekend (2 entire days off in a row), which means I basically crammed all those hours into 5 days. phew. Despite that, I still managed to run 16 miles this week. Of course, most of this was over the past two days (7 miles on Satuday, 5.5 today), but I’m still pretty pleased. Nonetheless, I’m really not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. This rotation is very high stress and very emotionally exhausting.
On the plus side, I had a fabulous golden weekend. Got home post call on Friday around 2 pm and slept until 6:45 pm when my husband called to let me know we had friends coming over and they would be there in 15 minutes. Gotta love it. Managed to drag myself out of bed for some all-you-can-eat brazilian barbeque. Delicious. Fell asleep at 10 pm and didn’t wake up until noon the next day when my husband dragged me out of bed. silly boy. Had a lovely run in the balmy 40 degree weather and then enjoyed looking at all the strange food at Super 88. Then we celebrated a belated Valentine’s Day by making some authentic Thai food (Tom Yum soup and Chiang Mai noodles). Delicious. Today I woke up and met some friends to go running and then headed over to Sound Bites for a tasty brunch. Watched O Brother Where Art Thou and then had a lovely afternoon nap before heading over the Formaggio’s for a BBQ, cheese and beer tasting. Now I’m getting ready for bed as I prepare for another difficult week.
February 14, 2009
· Filed under Life
February 6, 2009
· Filed under Life, Pictures
It may seem that all we did in San Diego was stare at cute animals, but that is not entirely true. We also slept, ran, ate and drank. Ah, the perfect combination.
Running was actually one of my favorite parts of vacation. We usually got up every day around 8 or 9 am and picked a beautiful place to both sightsee and run before lunch. We ran at Mission Bay Park, the Embarcadero, and La Jolla Cove. Unfortunately, we failed to bring the camera with us on these runs which is really a pitty because they were gorgeous places to run. All of them were on the water with great scenery. It was very fun to explore various parts of the city on our feet. To give you a brief idea, here are some pictures of La Jolla Cove. We decided it was so beautiful on our run that we had to go back later to look some more.
A view of the cliffs:
Me, enjoying the late afternoon sun:
Sunset. For once, I took a relatively decent picture.
We also had a great time checking out the awesome breweries in San Diego. As most of you know, Eddie and I are rather crazy about craft beer so San Diego was a lot of fun to explore from that perspective.
Here’s Eddie staring in disbelief at the awesome beer supply at Stone:
And here he is doing a little dance of joy:
And here I am proudly displaying our collection of glassware at Pizza Port:
Had an interesting time checking out the food in San Diego. Eddie insisted on trying numerous taquerias. Apparently San Diegans enjoy combining french fries with Mexican food. I had a California burrito which included steak, shrimp, and french fries, in addition to other normal burrito food. And Eddie had carne asada fries which seemed to basically be nachos but with fries instead of chips. Here’s Eddie enjoying this tasty dish:
February 5, 2009
· Filed under Animals!, Pictures
February 2, 2009
· Filed under Animals!, Pictures
After a visit to the San Diego zoo, here are my top picks for my next pet (not listed in any particular order). Sadly, there are no big cats pictured because they are not very photogenic. Silly animals. And have no fear, Spenser would obviously stay and simply rule over whatever animal we got.
1. Sloth bear
2. Serval
3. Wolf
4. Cheetah AND Golden Retriever
5. Polar bear
6. Koala
