1/2 Way There!!

Ah, deep sigh, as I finally sit down after a long and amazing week of working on the Neurosurgery service at OHSU. But let me back up for just a second before I digress to the most exciting part of my past 2 weeks (the ultrasound, if you haven't already guessed from the posted pictures!). Since my last post, I have officially become a 4th year med. student with the start of my Neurology rotation. With the hours I have been working, I can say I like it already! My first week was 8am/9am to noon with 3 days of lectures in the afternoon (4 - 5pm). Heck I could get used to this...if only all fourth year was this lax! I had the chance to see and learn from patients in the MS clinic, Neuro Opthamology, General Neuro, VA hospital Neuro clinic, and an Alzheimer's/dementia afternoon respite center. Although I did pick up on the fact that Neurologists have a particular personality, the thing that struck me the most was the amount of time they have to spend with one patient. In comparison to a primary care office, specialists tend to spend an hour or more rather than feeling rushed with 15 min appointments. What a life, it seems,...less stress, more pay, shorter hours, a relatively smaller box of info. to master...with the caveat of more schooling (often a fellowship after 3-4 years of residency) and likely a research project looming. I guess I'm not that interested. To each his own.

Exciting news of last week: at 18.5 weeks into pregnancy, I felt the first little baby kicks!! I agree with my sis-in-law that the first kicks feel like a muscle twitch. Anyone really agree with the baby books that say it feels like "butterflies, bowel gas, or nervousness/flutters?"....haha, not the way I would describe it, but a crazy cool feeling nonetheless. Of course, thus far baby has decided to be most active when dad is no where near (off playing basketball or during my 4 hour test - very distracting!).

Last weekend was filled with fun and lessons - warm sunshiny days, Rose Festival with my family and boating at the lake with JD's family. 1. Getting towed sucks 2. Read directions on spray-on sunscreen bottle because pasty pale skin burns quickly!

And because I had a pretty sweet week, I must brag for a second.
Neurosurgeon: "Scalpel to Miranda" (later in the week, his more typical - "Ka-nife" as scrub nurse giggles at his pronunciation of knife)

My response (shocked, not even Interns get to do the initial cut): "Me?"

Neurosurgeon: "Yup, cut through the skin and subcutaneous tissue from here to here (holding fingers 6 inches apart along the lower spine of the patient)"


And so the week proceeded as I was handed suturing materials, suctioning, irrigation, and the bone drill. Ha, I can officially say I've drilled a hole in a patient's skull! Of course, I was only handed things when everything was going well and the Neurosurgeon was confident I could do no harm. Once through the hard skull, however, brain surgery becomes a delicate sport for men with gentle hands and microscope-like magnification (projected on large monitors for the scrub tech, Anesthesiologist and me to watch). Other than touching the brain or a brain tumor with my fingers, I had little part after the bone was removed and dura opened. (Dura mater = thick tissue encasing brain and spinal cord, a part of the "meninges" if you have heard of meningitis). During my first case I learned about all the gentle instruments, such as finger controlled suction as to not suck brain tissue up when you meant to control bleeding or clean up draining fluid (either CSF, hydrogen peroxide or sterile water). In case you're wondering, hydrogen peroxide- soaked cotton balls on a string are used to stop bleeding after the removal of the brain tumor or aneurysm clipping.

I must say that the Neurosurgeons I worked with were all honest-to-goodness gentlemen. I felt silly having every door opened for me and always being told to go first. Med. students are used to being at the bottom, the scum, the shadow walking behind the crowd of long coats....what a change, and they're surgeons! 7 years of residency, hardworking long hours (in the OR until 9:30pm, started the day at 5:30am), speckles of grey hair, and several with foreign accents...they clearly chose the field for the love of it. When working with one another though, they are men....one computer screen to type physician orders or notes and one screen for the World Cup soccer game being broadcasted on ESPN.com. Can I say men are not so good at multi-tasking? Lol, my husband is not the only one!

Ok, ok enough med. school stuff! For such an excellent week, JD and I ended it in the most superb way. Just yesterday, we finally had the chance to see our bouncing little pea on ultrasound! Since I had little time to see or talk with JD during the week, we had hardly talked about the upcoming day. I woke him at 5am before I left that morning to tell him the time and location...and yet, he made it to my appointment before I did clearly showing his excitement. I rushed in over 5 minutes late in scrubs and white coat, hair tied in pony tail just as if I had been a very important part in that last patient's life (doubt it, afterall I'm only a med. student...despite liking to do a good job/learn/impress my superiors).

"Do you want to know the gender?" the ultrasound tech asks as she squirts warm gel all across my abdomen. "Yes" we say in unison (I caved after originally wanting to keep it a surprise until the birth). JD hates secrets, as he continually reminds me. Honestly, I think it is just because he can't keep a secret himself. He's that kid shaking every Christmas package under the tree and guessing what the present is way before he should.

Within seconds of the ultrasound probe roving across my skin, the tech says, "Well, it's a BOY" to which JD immediately exclaims, "OH! Penis and balls!"

I roll my eyes embarrassment and smirk wanting to laugh but holding it because I don't want my abdomen to flex while she's working with the ultrasound. Only my husband....


So there you have it, we are having a boy. His daddy is so proud and excited! He was right, and so were the two grandmas! JD had sworn it was a boy since the day I started having symptoms, "She likes everything I like" he told his family as he pointed out my symptoms of overheating (wanting the fan on at night), wanting ice in all my drinks, being "boy-like" with my burping, craving meat instead of my usual bread, and actually liking Tabasco mixed with my ketchup (unheard of for me!). The grandmas noted my horrible morning sickness thinking that it was somewhat similar to some of the symptoms they had with their boy pregnancies (heartburn, etc.). For me, I can't say I was so sure. I had a few dreams of girls, was thinking more of girl names, and had mixed answers on online gender quizzes. JD later admits that he was quite nervous the day of the ultrasound too thinking that maybe it will be a girl and he only "thinks" it is a boy because he really wanted a boy first. Well, this little man was blatantly obvious yesterday. No question about it!

After a fun 1.5 ultrasound, we got the "everything looks great!" reassurance from the ultrasound tech and Radiologist. It was nice to see that baby looked normal since as a med. student, I have seen more abnormals than normal! I must say that I was kinda nervous and closely monitoring the measurements the tech was taking. 5 fingers, 10 toes, a brain, normal kidneys, beating normal heart, lots of movement/kicks, sucking his fingers and thumb, yawning.....couldn't be more perfect!!! I did get scolded for not eating or drinking all day though. I ate a lovely Hawaiian bagel from Starbucks at 5:45am, but that was it. A busy, busy day on the Neuro surg. service! I was starving and thirsty by the time I could sneak away for the ultrasound appointment and as I mentioned, I was even late for that. After the ultrasound and pictures put on CD, I grabbed a granola bar and headed back to the Neurosurgery workroom for evening rounds (i.e. discuss patients and events that occurred during the day, tuck them in for the night with a plan/forewarning for the overnight team in case anything should go wrong).

Luckily, I was home within the hour and JD and I were off for dinner and celebration at Olive Garden (finally using a gift certificate from his mom). "To our little baby boy," we beamed as JD drank a beer and I a virgin Mango Daiquiri! Yum!

Anyway, on a final note, I feel much chubbier than just 2 weeks ago, and I think it finally shows more on my belly pics. JD would like to capture my bloated tummy, but thus far I have successfully found ways to take pictures before a meal rather than afterwards. As you can see in this one, my sleeves are wet from just returning from a nice long (2.5 hours) walk along the Willamete River. We were exploring, finding new trails and parks...until it started pouring rain!