deep breath

our easy rotations are almost over.  we had 2 months that were essentially hospital-free.  now, orthoman is on a Rehab rotation where he's working 7:30 - 5 everyday.  a few mornings a week he goes in early for lecture, but he'll be home before 5 almost every day.  and of course there are no weekends!  so for the month of september, we're on a schedule that more closely resembles the rest of the world.  weird.  

and in case you're upset that he's had it so "easy", just remember that we're in orthopedics.  so come October 1st, he's gone.  forever.  

okay, maybe not forever, but it'll get insane.  

and because we're both a little crazy, and stupid, we were shocked when we learned that we got pregnant after the miscarriage in early june!  so, im 14 weeks pregnant and due to have a baby the first week that he starts his 4 month Gen. Surgery trauma rotation.  you know, the one with the most awful hours.  the one where he can only take 1 (preschedule) week of vacation THE ENTIRE 4 MONTHS.  on the bright side, at least we'll both be zombies at the same time, albeit in different locations, but now he'll be able to appreciate what i went through with our 1st kid.

so im excited.  and terrified.  but mostly, im trying to not let medicine rule my life.  i feel like it's been permeating everything in my life for the past year and im over it.  we interviewed.  we matched.  we moved.  now it's time to settle in and get on with life already.  orthoman wont be around a lot, but how is that different than the past 2 years?  ive made due then, and ill make due now.  there's almost a sense of relief because residency is NOW.  it's no longer this looming cloud over our heads.  we know where we're living, we know where he's working.  so many questions have been answered!  

fellowship is a whole other beast, but at least we dont have to consider that for a while, right???

Jealousy is in the eye of the beholder

It's been a full year since being home.  This week while visiting my hometown I had a good friend come over and bring her children to swim.  Back when we left home (after med school) to seek our fortune (residency) this particular friend had it all goin' on.  She had a lavish home, Land Rover, Boat w/ accompanying wave runners etc...  I remember thinking, "Gosh, this is what life is like when your husband isn't in medicine!"  I was happy for her good fortune with slight pangs of envy. 

The kids played as I gave her an update on our life status and told her about our plans for then next few years for residency and fellowship.  I shared my frustration of having been married for 11 years and always qualifying for government assistance.  And about how tight money always is.

While visiting I found out that she and her husbands' house flipping business had flopped.  She had to sell everything they had - cars, boats and house and she is leaving her 4 kids with hubby at night to wait tables (this is after she quit her night job at Sonic).  They are now living in someone else's foreclosing house until the bank takes it over.  I was devastated for her! 

She looked and me and said, "Stacie, I am so jealous of you."  ME?  of all people to be jealous of?  Me?  Did you not hear about how in debt we are and broke we've been over that last 11 years?  How could that be possible?  I finally asked, "Why on Earth would you be jealous of us?"

"Because you have a plan."  She said.

Oh.  Interesting.  hmmm

audience participation - MYTHS

okay girlies, i think it's time to have some fun here. after reading Mrs. F's latest post, i started to think about the Doctor's Wife Myths. so here's how this is going to work. i'm going to start by putting down a few of my favorite myths. then, you're going to jump in and continue the list in the comments sections. it seems like there are just a few, but then, once you start thinking about it, there are actually a LOT of them. so here we go!

1. all Dr. Wives are blonde, skinny as hell, tanned, and constantly "going to lunch" or "the club"
2. we're all about the benjamins
3. we wear tennis uniforms all the time
4. we have 1 or 2 gratuitous kids for the sake of having someone to spend money on, but neither the Dr. or the Dr. Wife really care about their kids
5. our houses are all GINORMOUS (even the psychiatrists, pediatricians, and residents)
6. we're either the practice wife or the trophy wife
7. we have no limit and no balance on our credit cards
8. there's a housekeeper/maid and nanny to take care of everything messy in my life
9. the hardest decision we have to make is what cocktail to order next
10. we're all lushes and have prozac/valium problems
11. we married for the money
12. our DrH is sleeping with the hot nurse but we dont care (because of the money)
13. over the top vacations, massages, mani/pedis, country clubs, unlimited clothing budgets, and cute pool boys come standard.

alright ladies... take it from here!

Hiding Your Spouse's Profession

I need advice!  I have been interviewing for jobs because I moved to a new city.  Naturally, one of the questions that comes up from interviewers/recruiters is "What brings you to this city?"  I say "My husband got a job here."  Most people are satisfied with that question.  I'd say like 60% will stop there.  The other 40% are unable to resist and are *dying* to know what he does.  I made the mistake of telling one recruiter at an employment agency that he is a resident.  The woman just rolled her eyes at me.  I can't imagine, ever rolling my eyes at someone's response to a question that I asked them.

I got smart right away and stopped indulging these people's curiosity.  I say little pansy lines like "oh even I don't know what he does!" and employers respond well to that.  I don't want to lie, but I don't want to give them yet another reason to judge me.  You might think I'm paranoid, but I really have had people ask me what my husband does [even though I never ask others that question, ever], then roll their eyes at me, or say generally hurtful things they otherwise wouldn't say if my husband was basically any other profession.

What should I do?  How should I respond to these prospective employers?

Can you ever go home again?

We just participated in our first "real job" contact.  The OBGYN who delivered our 9 year old, Cougar, found out about Chad's fellowship match and has passed his name on to the children's hospital in our hometown.  We found out they talked about Chad in a hospital board meeting!!!!  Whooo Hoooo!!!

What's so crazy is that we don't know anything.  We don't know what amount pediatric anesthesiologist make to know if any offer is good or not.  No one really touches on that taboo income subject.

It's still over two years away, but they seemed to think this was the perfect time to start talking.  I guess our short-term fate is set at this point: we know when he'll be done with residency, we know what fellowship he's doing and when he'll get done, so there's really nothing but time to wait on now.

How would you feel about returning to your hometown when all is said and done?

Update: not JUST strep

In case you were wondering, it wasn't an allergic reaction to Zithromax.  They ALSO both have Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease.  They both responded to the antibiotics: their throats got better and Sam was a million times better this morning after his shot. 

HF&M Disease is a virus so as I am sure you know, there isn't anything we can do for it really except wait it out. The steroid cream Dr C prescribed isn't working on it, and now Sam has the rash, too.  So for that, we wait and do Motrin.  *Sigh*  At least the fevers, sore throats, vomiting, and diarrhea are gone.  All we are left with is nasty looking sore hands, feet and mouths.  Which I should have known...didn't I describe the symptoms exactly?  Good thing I am not the doctor.  Wish Ben had been home to diagnose them when the rashes really hit fully.  When he saw it, it wasn't as bad and it was mostly on Jack's hands, but today when he came home to sleep and took a look, he confirmed.  And DUH to me, I took them to church last Sunday and they were sanitizing hands because HF&M had been going around.  Monday night is when symptoms started.  This is what their hands and mouths look like almost exactly.  Their feet aren't as bad as these pictures.

http://www.primehealthchannel.com/hand-foot-and-mouth-disease-pictures-symptoms-causes-and-treatment.html

Anyway, I did find a way to get out myself and get the prescription and Motrin I needed.  We had a long night last night, but they were almost completely back to their normal selves this morning, terrorizing each other and running around the house fighting "bad guys."  I think we are through the worst.  I managed alright.  :)

The not-so-fun days

On Monday, we realized that our 3.5-year-old had strep.  He wasn't too bad, but he was mildly complaining of a sore throat and had a fever, and when Ben looked, sure enough.  Beginnings of Strep.  Ben can write scripts now, but he JUST started in the ER, and we really like our family doctor who is right around the corner, so at Ben's suggestion, I took Jack in to see Dr. C. 
fever.  check.
sore throat.  check.
no runny nose or coughing.  check.
red, swollen puss-filled throat.  check.
Yup.  strep throat.

He gave us a script for Zithromax and we were out the door in a total of 30 minutes.  (told you I love this dr ofc.)  One dose that night, another the next day, and Jack was already back to his normal crazy self.  Since Ben had the day off and we had heard about this awesome lake/water park, we foolishly took off for the day.  (Note:  I said foolishly...)  He was fine.  We had sooo much fun.  We stayed through naptime.  The boys fell asleep in the car on the way home.  GREAT family day.

Until they both woke up and were HOLY terrors the rest of the afternoon.  Seriously.  Like spawn of Satan bad.  We didn't know what was going on.  There were a lot of punishments doled out and Jackson was sent to bed early.  And then Jackson WOULD NOT go to sleep or stay in his bed, just whining about this and that and making excuses, which he does frequently.  At midnight, Ben pulled him in our bed so at least we all might get some sleep, and I went to sleep on the couch downstairs.  (Dad, Mom, Mom's pregnant belly, Mom's body pillow and squirmy Jackson do NOT work in our antique full size bed.) 
At 4am, Ben came downstairs with Jackson.  He said, "We are horrible parents!  He has been complaining that his hands are hurting and I blew him off and told him to go to sleep.  He has puss-filled blisters all over his hands."  And he did.  On his hands.  On his feet.  On his face around his mouth.  (Okay, now we aren't total idiots.  He didn't have these blisters when he went to bed, but during the night, in the dark, they developed.)  So allergic reaction ot the Zithromax?  Looks that way.

Day 3:  Today (Wed) I woke up, ready to call the doctor to ask if we could switch meds when I noticed Sam was awfully lethargic and whiny himself.  My hyperactive 2-yr-old fell asleep in the living room recliner.  MUST be sick.  When I checked on him, he was burning up.  102 fever. 

So I called the doc, relayed info about Jack, and made an appt for Sam for this afternoon.  Meanwhile, Ben's 2 days off are now over, and back to work he goes from 3pm today till 1am tomorrow, then he'll sleep at the hospital and get up for lecture from 7-11, come home and sleep most of the day tomorrow, study for his Step III which is on Tuesday of next week, and go back to work from 11pm till 9 am Friday, and I'm sure come home and sleep all day Friday, too.  (Silver lining:  then he doesn't have to work - minus that pesky Step III on Tues - for a COMPLETE week, AND starting in August he works 7-5 M-F.  It's ok to be jealous!  lol)  So I'm on my own for now.  Not new.

Fast forward to 30 minutes before our appt and Sam is puking his guts out.  Sam has such a bad vomit reflex, that if ANYTHING could possibly make him throw up, it will.  And he did.  again.  and again. and again.  And then AGAIN when we got to the doctor office.  (It had been a while and I thought he was done.) Now I'm frantically trying to wave down the MIA front desk clerk for a bucket or something, and she quickly buzzed us back and we barely made it to a sink in a room.  So we see Dr C and he switches Jack's meds to Amoxicillin and gives us a cream for his hands and feet, but since Sam is puking, he doesn't want to prescribe oral antibiotics for the Strep, so Sam got to have dual shots in the butt.  Great.  In the car on the way, I swore there were to be no shots today.  This has been a fear for both boys since Sam's 2-year-old check-up last month.  I am now competing for the world's suckiest mom.  (Like my invented word?  Appropriate, no?) 

So Sam was so upset about the shots and straining against the nurses and me holding him down, that when they administered the shots to him, he had diarrhea.  Like when his pants were still pulled down.  All over his clothes, the bed, etc.  Got that cleaned up, and got them both home, still trying to figure out my game plan for picking up Jackson's scripts. 

Facts: 
*The scripts are being faxed over to Wal-mart.
*I was in a hurry to leave the dr ofc and distracted by a very upset Sam.  I didn't think to have them faxed to a drive though pharmacy so I didn't have to get the boys out of the car.
*Sam is still randomly throwing up and having diarrhea and NOT a happy camper.
*Taking him INTO Wal-mart to the pharmacy is not an option. 
*I am by myself.
*Sam only took an hour nap when he fell asleep in the recliner this morning.  He is VERY tired.
*His fever is still hovering around 102 since he threw up the last dose of Tylenol I gave him. 
*We are out of Motrin, so I need to also get some of that.
*Meanwhile, Jackson's blistered hands are so sore that he can't clench his fist.
* I am so emotionally drained that I needed to come home for a minute to regroup.  Plus last time it took Wal-mart 2 hours to fill our prescription.
*Did I mention I am by myself?  Like for the next three days?  And nights?
*This is the point where if you don't have a close relationship with God, you get one.

And that is where I am at.  To be continued...