Hawaii

We've officially moved now. I don't know how long it will take for our stuff to get here, but our car should be here soon. We've been living in a hotel room for the past week and a half, but we just signed the lease on a nice two-bedroom townhouse on Aliamanu Military Reservation. It's got a screened-in lanai! The Army is even lending us furniture until ours gets here.
Edie's growing like a weed. She just barely fits sideways in her pack-and-play now, as opposed to before when that's how she'd normally sleep. She's been working very hard on putting her pacifier into her mouth on her own, but her experiments usually result in frustration and fussing.
I'm still in new intern orientation, which means mostly short hours and lots of days off. Carl and I have been enjoying exploring the island. We've been to the big Ala Moana Shopping Center several times, and we drove up to a beach on the western shore near Kahe Point earlier this week. There are pictures on Carl's Flickr account of Edie being cute in our little sun shelter on the beach: http://flickr.com/photos/cburgers/ (Please ignore the picture of me being fat.)

Dr. Burgers, Medicine Woman

Heck yes. I have an MD. That means you have to call me doctor.

Edie!

Well, Edith Rose was born April 30, 2008 at 10:40 am. She weighed 8lb 1oz, was 20 inches long, and has a full head of hair that's exactly the same color as Carl's. So far, everything's been going well. We're a bit sleepless but very happy.
(As far as labor goes, take my advice, ladies: if a kind-hearted nurse offers you stadol in the middle of a very bad contraction, just say no. It doesn't make anything better or easier, but rather makes you completely unable to rationalize the pain. It also makes it difficult for you to communicate the fact that, yes, that epidural doesn't sound too bad right now, thanks. So much for my plans of a natural birth.)
Edie's nicknames so far:
- Fussbucket
- Flopsy (Carl's favorite)
- Piglet
- Haven't thought of a nickname for when she has the hiccups, which is several times per day. I do however get the urge to sing Weezer's "Island in the Sun" every time she goes "Hic, hic."

Carl made Edie a blog

It's linked over to the right of this page. She's also got a Facebook profile if you want to friend her. It's a waiting game right now, and we're trying to be patient. That's getting pretty difficult, though, knowing that she's all baked and ready to come out. She's dropped down and has been gradually curling herself into a little ball. I figure she'll eventually realize she's running out of room in there and start feeling cramped enough to consider crawling out. Maybe today!

News

Yes, I ignored this blog for over a year. Eh, I'm like that.
News items:
1. Married as of December 16, 2006 to Carl. We're happy as clams.
2. Expecting baby Edith Rose Burgers any day now.
3. Receiving MD on May 17, 2008.
4. Moving to Oahu and beginning Family Medicine residency at Tripler Army Medical Center in June.

Yes, I'm stressed out. But also excited.

Boo-ya!

By being entirely honest, I totally won:

Get Your Drunk Personality at LiquidGeneration.com!

Bye-bye, O.R.!

I got real busy and not in the mood for blogging there for awhile. But today was the last day of my surgery rotation, so I thought I'd write a celebratory post. Hooray!

I think I will actually miss the operating room, though. It was a nice interesting break from the monotony of taking care of hospital patients. And wearing pajamas to work is excellent, even if you are on your feet all day. But no more of that. I take my surgery shelf exam on Friday, then it's off to internal medicine, which I anticipate will be exceedingly boring.

I'll be in Fayetteville on Saturday and Sunday, so if anything's happening, let me know.

Oh, by the way, my wedding dress came in a couple weeks back, and I don't mind telling you that I look absolutely amazing in it. The sight will be worth the price of admission, people.

Sadly, no one knew that hypertension is the most important medical condition to treat in order to prevent a heart attack. If you have high blood pressure, see a doctor!

Medical Question of the Day: What are the two most common causes of pancreatitis? Hint: One of them is also a major cause of cirrhosis of the liver.

I held a guy's heart!

During a quadruple bypass (CABGx4) on Friday, it was my official job to hold the heart up and out of the way so the surgeon could access the vessels on the back of it. I also did some retracting and pulling of the rib cage and holding of various metal objects. It was very cool, and I only got snapped at a couple of times.

A few days before that, I almost passed out during a thoracotomy. It wasn't because of the blood or anything; I think my blood sugar just got too low. The surgeon made me lie down on the floor of the OR, and that was embarrassing.

Not much else has been going on, except that I slept about 14 hours last night, basically from the time I got home from the hospital 'til the time I had to go back this morning. Since I worked both days this weekend, I get next weekend off. I'll be hitting Fayetteville, folks, so I hope to see some people.

McBurney's point: a point between 1.5 and 2 inches superomedial to the anterior superior spine of the ilium, on a line joining that process and the umbilicus, where pressure elicits tenderness in acute appendicitis. (Stedman's Medical Dictionary)

Medical Question of the Day: If you have a patient with diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol who refuses to take more than one pill a day, which one of his three conditions should you treat to prevent a heart attack?