Weirdness and Strangeness

October was the month that I switched over to the Internal Medicine (adults) side of my combined program. It's been quite a culture shock not to mention having to a learn a whole new hospital and 3 new computer programs. To make it even more intense, my first rotation in adult medicine is the MICU (Medical Intensive Care Unit). UAB is a large intensive care center and so the patients we have in the ICU are often described as the sickest in 3 states (Alabama, Mississippi and parts of Georgia), which is great for learning but a little intimidating when you haven't seen an adult patients in 6 months. The month has included learning many scary new skills, such as putting great big IV into large veins of the body (central venous lines) and sticking large needles into other body parts (i.e. the chest, abdomen). When on call, in addition to taking care of new patients coming to the ICU and taking care of the really sick ones already in the ICU, we are also part of the "code team" for the hospital. What does that mean? If anyone in the whole hospital codes (i.e. stops breathing, heart stops, generally trying to die) we have to run to the bedside and be part of the team that does CPR, give drugs, shock fatal heart rhythms, etc. With hospital that is spread over 3 city blocks, you can really get a good work-out in on call! The downside is that most codes don't end well. I've dealt with a lot of death this month. I've helped 3 families come to the incredibly difficult decision to withdraw medical care on their loved one to allow them to die peacefully. Many other families eventually make their loved one DNR (do not resusitate) when their heart stops. While a lot of these patients are elderly, I have had many young adults as well, several of whom I found that my greatest accomplishment was helping them go home on hospice. Thankfully, now I'm on to the next rotation. The one saving grace (and pitfall) of internship is that things change frequently!

Outside of work, Andy came to visit and we took a great trip....to Cullman, Alabama, the home of the Ave Maria Grotto.

The Grotto is located in the St. Bernard Abbey, the only Benedictine abbey in Alabama and is composed of the work of the one of the monks that lived in the Abbey. It's tough to describe this feat of folk art: Brother Joseph made miniaturized replicas of religious landmarks.....

(Andy will you give you a perspective on size of the buildings)

(and here's one to give you perspective the extent of Brother Joseph's work)
including the birthplace of Jesus,

shrines,

and non-religious landmarks....and random things, like Hansel and Gretel visiting the fairy castle with a "scary" dragon guarding the gates....

our personal favorite:
I think that sums it up. Oh! Except for the range of creativity and thriftiness Brother Joseph used in his art. Lacking traditional artist supplies, he used cold cream jars, concrete, broken glass, old flashlights and any number of scraps to create his pieces:

We tried hard to be respectful, but there was a certain amount of uncontrollable laughing...

and a little uncontrollable Beatles impersonation

at the chipmunk crossing, of course.

Stay tuned for the next unique Alabama adventure!

August, September, October...oh my!

I hate to be the one to say it, but time flies when you're working your tail off (what, you've never heard that one before?). Needless to say, I survived August taking care of teeny tiny bitsy babies and then took the Pediatric Emergency Room by storm....well, I worked there for a few weeks anyway. September was spent working wacky hours (those doors never close!), doing more lumbar punctures except on bigger kids who are much harder to hold down, suturing many a facial wound incurred while being a kid and seeing A LOT of kids with vomiting, diarrhea, snotty noses and coughs (including the kid that actually managed to cough directly into my mouth, YUCK). I was continuously surprised how a kid with a raging fever will still be bouncing around like nothing's wrong (because my last experience with fever had me conclude that fever=yucky). Miraculously, I stayed fairly well for the month and was even released for AN ENTIRE WEEK to spend with Andy cruising around New England.

First stop, wedding of one of his oldest friends, Jay:

Now, meeting family of your significant other is always nerve-racking (yep, we did that too) but meeting childhood friends?!?! Yikes. I mean anyone can fake being a nice girl for his mom (just kidding, honey) but winning the approval of friends is much more complex.

But, here's the payoff: Andy in a tux....

and Andy dancing! (Can't tell you how exciting it was when I learned that he liked to dance. I didn't know men like that existed.)

I was similarly relieved to discover that he, like most sane human beings, does refuse to dance the Macarena.


After the wedding, we headed to the best city on earth, NYC! Although our GPS really, really, really wanted us to end up in Brooklyn, we eventually made our way to our hotel room in Manhattan and spent several days walking, eating, visiting museums, going to a Broadway show and enjoying the city life.

The first night we stayed very close to the UN building, so we headed over to check it out. There was an assembly in progress and we even got to see some UN protestors (it was great, their protest area was about 5'X5', or aproximately the size of an NYC apartment).

We also made it through Central Park to the Met, where we saw many cool things and this, one of Jeff Koon's sculptures in the sculpture garden on the roof of the Met.

I don't get it.

And what would a visit to New York be without a Broadway show and a stroll through Times' Square (actually, I hate Times Sq but Andy was mesmerized).

After NYC, we headed back to the Boston area to spend some time with Andy's folks in his home town. This is the house where he grew up:


and this is his favorite spot on the north shore (if you squint, you can see the Boston skyline)....


and we really need to figure out the automatic photo-taking thingy on our cameras....

and Continental airlines needs to figure out how to spell.


On a final note, I am recently saddened by the passage of the bailout package. Didn't we used to pretend that the rich guys didn't ACTUALLY run everything? Anyway, it just makes it more poignant to me the importance of an administration change in this year's election. However, sadly, in Birmingham, I feel intimidated and somewhat reluctant to display my Obama support. A friend of mine had an Obama sign stolen out of his yard and it just make me wonder. But, I have resolved to put that sticker on my card and be damned, maybe it will get someone to the polls.