When the Exhaustion Sets In....

Residency - there's nothing like it. After four years of college, you spend four years in medical school gaining a foundation on which to base your clinical practice. Then you go on to residency where you actually gain that clinical practice. While I love learning and practicing anesthesiology, it can be gruelling and utterly exhausting at times. Based on raw working hours, we typically work the equivalent of two full-time jobs - anywhere from 60 to 80 hours a week (my high so far is 87). This time is spent taking care of some of the sickest patients in the hospital, transporting patients from the ICU to the OR while ventilating them at the same time and administering potent life-saving meds between breaths. It is also spent in the operating room administering anesthetics, while being continually vigilant in monitoring almost every physiologic function imaginable (temperature, respiration, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, heart rate, heart rhythm, urine output, CO2 waveforms, venous pressure, arterial pressure, airway pressure, muscle relaxation.... just to name a few). Yesterday, I left at 5:30 am and arrived home at about 10:15 pm, then spent all day today with relatively challenging patients. All I can say is that I'm exhausted. Jack London describes my feeling perfectly with this quote from "The Call of the Wild."

"There was nothing the matter with them except that they were dead tired. It was not the dead-tiredness that comes through brief and excessive effort, from which recovery is a matter of hours; but it was the dead-tiredness that comes through the slow and prolonged strength drainage of months of toil. There was no power of recuperation left, no reserve strength to call upon. It had been all used, the last least bit of it. Every muscle, every fibre, every cell, was tired, dead tired. And there was reason for it."

Anyway, my advice to anyone who is considering a career in anesthesiology: think long and hard before you do it. It's long & gruelling, and residency is hard on both your marriage and family life. It's also hard on your pocketbook for upwards of the first 10 years after college, and there will definitely be times that you regret your decision. If, however, you are absolutely convinced that there's nothing else out there for you.... you'll love it. It's awesome. Full speed ahead!"

Finally, I just have to say that my wife rocks. When I was just a schmuck plugging away at college, she decided that I was worth hanging out with, and eventually, even worth marrying. Through more than 8 years, she has put up with occasionally having to feel like a single parent, dealing with my unpredictable schedule and endless hours of work and studying, missing family outings and holidays, moving our family across the country, dragging her into over $120,000 of debt, and living with secondhand furniture because "we can't afford it on a resident's salary." Despite all this, she still hasn't left (and claims that she doesn't plan to!), and occasionally, she even says she enjoys it. She's kind of crazy that way, but hey, maybe I can keep the wool over her eyes for another 8 years. Love ya, babe!

Thank you, Sara Stelter!

A Note to the Squirrels Stealing from our Garden

Dear Squirrels,

While I recognize that you and your family must have food to survive, I was still pretty upset last year when we worked so hard in our garden, only to watch you repeatedly steal all of our tomatoes and peas. We planted the seeds, watered, fertilized, weeded, and nurtured the plants until they were fully grown, eagerly awaiting the day when they would bring forth fruit. We were so excited when the tiny little tomatoes gradually changed from green to orange to red. Just when we were ready to pick them, we would suddenly find them missing.

I have to admit, you were very sly, and for a couple of weeks, I was absolutely convinced that the garbage men were the ones that were sneaking tomatoes, especially when you frequently stole them shortly after they left on garbage day. Regardless, I would often peek out the window in hopes of catching a glimpse of who was taking them. Imagine my surprise the day I looked out and saw you reach up, and pluck the biggest, plumpest, red tomato from a branch the very same day that we were going to use it in a salad we were making for a party. In fact, through the entire Summer last year, we ended up with only three or four small under-ripe tomatoes out of literally 30 or 40 that had grown from the plants.

While it's unfortunate that you would resort to theivery, I have to sincerely apologize for having shot you with the BB gun last year. I figured it would scare you enough to keep you away from my tomatoes, but you just jumped, then went back to forraging around on the lawn.

Anyway, after re-planting all our veggies this year, we've tried a couple of non-violent remedies to discourage you from stealing our toatoes - small rodent repellant, egg shells in the garden, etc - and still you've managed to nibble away at my pea plants. After our constant clash last year and continued pilfering this year, I've decided to physically make our tomatoes off limits. I've set up a perimeter with a chicken wire fence/cage around 8 of the 10 tomato plants. This cage has a lid that opens and closes, allowing us to pick the tomatoes at will, but I plan on keeping it shut tight, and locked at all other times. I've also reinforced the bottom with small stakes to keep it down in the dirt and even angling out, so as to prevent you from digging underneath. For the benefit of you and your family, I did leave two small tomato plants out of the cage, so that in times of severe famine, you can periodically take a tomato, but I would hope you would only do so in severe circumstances, as I have worked hard to make the garden successful.

Sincerely,

the guy who runs the garden

P.S. Don't even think about touching the cucumbers!

Kitchen Floor (Day...Oh Who's Counting?!)

It's finally feeling like we're making some progress on the Kitchen floor. We really thought we'd have the whole job done Memorial Weekend, but we vastly underestimated how much time it would take! Now that Bryan's vacation is over, we can only work on it a little bit at a time, whenever he is home.

We laid all the whole tiles a few days ago and rented a tile saw to cut the edges yesterday. Bryan worked at it almost all day (even though he was on-call at the hospital the previous night and got only 1 hour of sleep); I am always amazed at what a hard worker he is!

So now we just need to lay the cut tiles and then grout the whole thing. It's looking pretty good, I think. I can't wait for it to be done!

Like HE needs fuller, thicker lashes!

I was working on the computer (apparently not watching my kids very well), when Logan came down the stairs with this lovely look!

At least he knows where the mascara goes. Wait, maybe that's not such a good thing!

Sunday Best

Hannah looked so darn cute on Sunday! That is, until she had a major blow-out during the second hour, with poop up to her shoulder blades, and spent the remainder of church in just a onesie! ...Maybe I was a little too proud of how she looked!

Thanks for the darling hot pink dress, Cyndee, and the sweet bow and bracelet, Deb!

Don't you just love the cute pink jellies?!

The boys looked pretty handsome too!

Logan sported a new 'do too! I stole the idea from Meghan. Her kids' hair always looks so amazing! She needs to teach a class! Now Hannah just needs to get some more hair so that I can attempt to copy Meghan's girl hairdos.

Happy Anniversary, Babe!

Thank you for 8 happy years! I'm a very lucky girl! I love you! Mwwwaaaaaah!

Please Bring Back Strawberry Milkshake Oreos!

Kraft Foods Global, Inc.

Consumer Relations Group

1 Kraft Court

Glenview, IL 60025

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this letter to beg you to please bring back Strawberry Milkshake Oreos.

I first saw these tasty little babies when I was shopping for a beach vacation with some friends. The idea was to bring some snacks to share with the whole group when we got the beach house. I snuck one of these cookies when my husband and I began the long road trip from Ohio to North Carolina. It was so good, I just couldn’t keep it a secret, so I shared one with my husband. Let me just say that this package of Strawberry Milkshake Oreos didn’t even make it to Pennsylvania! We bought two more packages over the week long vacation, and I’m a little embarrassed to admit that my husband and I never shared a single cookie with our friends! We ate three whole packages in one week! Let me assure you that this is not a normal occurrence; we usually don’t keep much snack food around the house! These little cookies are just irresistible!

The week after the vacation, I purchased two more packages (don’t worry, this time, I actually shared with my family!). If I had known that that would be the last time I would see them in the store, I would have stocked up! I have searched and searched, but I haven’t seen them since! It seems like I remember seeing "Limited Edition" on the package (before madly ripping into it), so I am assuming that they have been discontinued.

I don’t know what I’ll do if you don’t bring them back! I guess I could try dunking Original Oreos in Strawberry Nesquik, but I don’t think it would be as good! Don’t get me wrong, I like Original Oreos just as much as the next guy, but the combination of crunchy chocolate cookie paired with the creamy faux strawberry flavor is just heavenly!

These are seriously too good to be just a Limited Edition! Please, Please, PLEASE bring back Strawberry Milkshake Oreos!

Sincerely,

Summer Anderson