Good Stuff

Raul is enjoying a much deserved vacation (mostly a staycation, as he has been staying at home and helping keep me sane.) He did make a quick trip to NY last week to see his oldest friend and his wife and their cutie patootie of a daughter.

Here is Raul with aforementioned cutie patootie:


Before his trip, I teasingly asked Raul if he was planning on making a trip into Manhattan to buy me goodies from Purl. I have never been to NY, but I really aspire to go, so that I could visit this store. I'm a lucky girl - look at what he handed me when I picked him up from the airport:



Four skeins of koigu sock yarn (two in the purple color and two in the brown/black colorway) destined to make socks for both of us (me the purple and him the black/brown, in case you were wondering.) And 1 yard each of three beautiful fabrics! The yellow in the foreground is a handpainted fabric from Japan. And a little bundle of fat quarters. Que rico! He's a keeper.

Hello

Inpatient internal medicine is hard. And tiring. And scary. A few days ago, I admitted a woman that came in with vomiting. Turns out that in older people (and diabetics) nausea and vomiting is often atypical chest pain. And a couple days later, she had a heart attack while going to the bathroom. Not my cup of tea. I like my medically stable psych patients. I can handle crazy, but acute medical illness, that just makes me want to cry. However, I am learning a lot, and I have much more empathy for my darling husband, who has been oh so patient when I have demanded that he "hurry up and get [his] work done and come home!" while in inpatient internal medicine. Silly me, I really didn't understand. Now I do.

Here are some pictures of happier times. Just last month, I was paid a visit by my lovely friends from grad school. Good times were had by all. Here we are hiking in Malibu:



Along the way, I picked up an unwelcome hitch-hiker:

Hello, I am a tick. On Shannon's belly.

All my medical training came in super handy, because as soon as I noticed the tick attached to my stomach, I turned to the person closest to me and screamed, "get it off!!" I then came to my senses and called Raul. Good thing one of us has some serious medical smarts. He promptly told me to take a picture of the tick (so that he could later determine if it was a breed that carried Lyme Disease) and to pull it off ASAP. The little blonde in the picture above yanked the tick off without even thinking twice. It was pretty gruesome - I had to avert my eyes. She is hard core. After the hike, and the tick incident, we all had fancy cocktails and seafood at a beachside cafe. Yay for good times and good friends!

Oh - and for those of you wondering, no worries about the Lyme's Disease. I would have been at risk if the tick had been attached for >72 hours. And mine was only on there for like 10 minutes. If you do have a tick that's been hanging on for a couple days, pull it out (make sure to get the head) and go to a doctor so you can get yourself some doxycycline.

Night Float Craftiness

Vacation is over. Sad. And I am back to work on night float. 6pm to 8am. Yahoo. I've been lucky, though and have been able to sleep at least 5 hours most nights. This has allowed me to partake in some zombie-like craftiness during the day time. Again, yahoo.

Exhibit A:

More hand-stenciled onesies with a senior resident on night float. I love the sheep. I'm not sure what motivated me to make that giant red chicken. I must have been delirious. And yes, more baby fever. It's like a broken record around here.

Exhibit B:


Box bags! With this tutorial. The bag turned out smaller than I expected, but I am really happy with it. The tutorial is great and easy to follow, and now I have a handy dandy bag to hold my works in progress in my larger bag that I carry every day. This every day bag is like the pit of despair - random knitting projects, knitting books, toothbrush and dental necessities for when I am on call, snacks for when I get randomly hungry. This little box bag will now keep knitterly items away from my dental floss and potato chips. Yahoo.

Also, I am in love with the book in the background. New Pathways for Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi. If you are a sock knitter, it is a must have. For sure.

On Thursday, I start inpatient internal medicine. I have not done a medicine rotation in over a year. If you feel like it, send kind thoughts the way of my patients in the hope that I don't harm them in my ignorance.