Sometimes You Just Need a Bair Hug

   You read that right: HO shift. Aka: House Officer shift. Personally, I think the acronym is kinda funny and I'll wholly embrace it. People joke that whoever has the shift is "ho-in' it up" and it makes me giggle every damn time I hear it. First one was today, and I'm proud to say that nobody died on my watch. In fact, the most important thing I did was probably OK a person to go to the ICU from a floor bed and do exactly ONE admit from the Emergency Room in a straightforward patient. So nothing groundbreaking or earthshattering here, and I'm 110% fine with that. To be honest, I was both excited and scared shitless of this first HO shift and my goal was to not screw up too bad and hopefully didn't get reamed out by an attending, so YAY!! for achieving those goals today! And in true Dr. S fashion, I commemorated the day with yet another pair of snarky socks. In case you haven't noticed yet, I'm pretty obsessed with Blue Q and their mildly-moderate...

     No post yesterday because, frankly, I was a zombie. 4:30am wakeups have me dying. I had assumed that since I was off for the 4th that I’d be able to catch up on sleep by sleeping in and then heading to bed relatively early. Unfortunately, I couldn’t sleep in past ~5:45am and fireworks had us out until nearly 11pm. The half gallon of coffee was not nearly enough for me yesterday. L&D was sloooooowwww and I was able to head out around 5pm. I got home, “napped” until dinner at 7, and then promptly returned to bed and slept like a baby until 4:30am again this morning. And it’s AMAZING how 8+ hours of sleep makes you feel! I’m alive again! 😳 And on that note, massive props to George who took the kids to the pool for several hours yesterday afternoon, made a delicious dinner, cleaned up, and got the kids to bed all while I was at work and then sleeping. He’s holding down the fort pretty darn well without help from me.      Yesterday’s zombie-like State...

    It's America's Independence Day today, and currently this is my favorite holiday-probably because L&D gave me the day off AND there were no anesthesiology didactics this morning! Total win for the day! FYI-for those that don't know, didactics are our daily lecture/exam prep/presentations/etc and for my program are held at FIVE THIRTY EVERY MORNING...being the neverending student, I actually really enjoy them....I just don't enjoy that time of morning.     So...what does one do with a day off 3 days into residency (which, BTW, is incredibly fortunate and I seriously can't get used to this)? For starters, I had planned a 7-9 mile run this morning before Dayton became the temp of the surface of the sun. BUT....I've been battling who-knows-what (Allergies I didn't know I had? Some kind of virus?), and my head feels like it's going to explode, so I think I'm skipping my run today and rest. In case you doubted me on the heat comment, it's 8...

Captain's log, day 2:     Today was a great day, despite the fact that my alarm went off, so rudely awakening me, at 4:30am. I'm not 100% sure I'll EVER get used to waking hours before the buttcrack of dawn, but this is life. I told George the ONE thing I really wanted when we moved to Dayton was a GOOD espresso maker. You see, I didn't really drink coffee in any form on a regular basis until med school. I managed 30 years on this earth before succumbing to this witchcraftery. We limped along the last 4 years with a Nespresso machine, which was actually pretty good....but the pods get expensive and the truth is that I really was NOT a coffee/espresso connoisseur. I mean, I liked it, but I didn't know bad from palatable from decent to good to amazing. Well, now we know amazing because we bought a Breville at the William Sonoma outlet a few weeks ago and it's turned me into a coffee snob.          So.....let's just say that this machine is what ge...

     Let me preface this introductory post by explaining the meaning of the title of the blog "Sometimes You Just Need a Bair Hug". I mean, pretty self explanatory, right? Except no, I didn't spell "Bair" incorrectly. You see, as a young (in the professional sense) resident anesthesiologist, we use Bair Huggers on the majority of patients in the OR. Bair Huggers are a specialized blanket we infuse hot air through to keep patient's nice and toasty during surgery. So, I feel like sometimes we could all use a bair hug.      Ironic that I chose anesthesiology, as I am neither a lover of early mornings nor cold temperatures, both of which are fairly characteristic of the OR and anesthesiology. Nonetheless, I still think that being in the OR and providing anesthesia is one of the coolest jobs on earth! But medicine, while undoubtedly a calling, is only one facet of my life that defines who I am.       I am a mother of four children and wif...