Pre-Service Post

Well, technically speaking, this is my on-service post, as I took over earlier this evening - but lets call it pre-service. I've actually got a lot accomplished this week - including watching a lot of olympics. Shonne Davis, Apollo Ohno, Shaun White, Lindsay Vonn and several figure skaters who's names I can't pronounce have left me with hours of entertainment. Also, the endless video of horrific crashes/slips has left me markedly amused.

I finished the first book in the Percy Jackson series, and started the second - The Sea of Monsters. Very quick reads, and a hell of a lot of fun.

Seriously, does Bob Costas age at all?

Hopefully we will have our first draft of grand rounds done next friday. Time is getting short.

anyways - back to my nightly routine of gemmara, epidemiology, ED text and fiction.

Long Weekend

Yep, had a long weekend, which is ending tonight, in the good sense. Shabbos was nice - the usual suspects for dinner, and then Sammy came to shul with me (very nicely, I might add) and for lunch we went to our friends Yehudit and Noam. Combined we have 6 kids, so it was a bit of a zoo (though 2 of them are less than 3 months old), but Sammy was having such a great time that he stayed over after we left for a bit - his first play date by himself.... and he survived!

It was also a pretty productive weekend for me, with respect to work. Re-read my pheochromocytoma draft and finished my first draft of my slides for grand rounds. What a load off my chest to have finished that. Now we just have the entire thing to put together, the posters for the conferences etc. etc.

So, schooling - well Sammy got put on the waiting list for S.A.R for kindergarten. I know, a waiting list for kindergarten - quite ridiculous.... so we have had to expand our options for next year. We spent Sunday looking at some houses in... of all places... Teaneck. Quite amazing that for the same price of a one bedroom in the city you can get a 4 bedroom house in Teaneck. Too early for us to seriously consider stuff but it was nice to see what was out there

Yesterday we went to see Sesame Street Live- an experience we will not do again. Not that the kids didn't enjoy it. Sammy did, for the most part, but Zach only enjoyed the first 20 minutes and then took off his shoes and socks and went to sleep. Between him and Sammy dictating where they would sit, we were playing musical chairs with Benji. We did get to see a whole slew of dolled up dogs that were going to MSG for the Westminster dog show.

Today, Shosh and I went to go take a look at Yavneh - a potential landing spot for Sammy. Tomorrow they (Sammy and Shosh) are going to see Westchester Day School - another potential landing spot. We shall see what the future holds.

I started watching the 3rd season of Calfiornication - which, like the previous 2 seasons is immensely entertaining. Catching up on my YA fiction, reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning thief - which, like the Harry Potter books, is quite an enjoyable (and quick) read. No new music to report on. Lost is on tonight - so i'm looking forward to that.

Oh - we've been watching some of the olympics (excited that in a few months, I will be heading to Vancouver). Apollo Ohno is awesome - so is the biathalon. Guns and Skis! What could be better?

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That's right baby - LOST is back AND better than ever. By now we are two episodes in and awash in new characters (those at the temple) old characters (hello Claire AND Ethan!) and now parallel universes (universi?). Looking forward to seeing how everything gets resolved here.

Work is chugging along - deadlines rapidly approaching and lots of work/reading I want/need to do at home - hence the bried post. i really need to get back in the hang of updating this on a regular basis.

But the big event this week was the snow! We got a foot here in Riverdale an it was perfect snow for a snowball fight (Sammy won) and building a snow man (see below). Even Zach had a great time (his first time not crying in the snow!) But alas, now it is gray and dirty and gross. Oh well.




Peace out (for now)

A LONG WEEK

Well, apparantly I'm a bit too busy while on service, with three kids, an article to write and my grand rounds to do to update my blog on a frequent (ok... even an infequent) basis. But here I am.

So, what happened? The week was pretty much uneventful aside from getting to go to an amazing lunch on Tuesday, in honor of our department getting a 5 year pass (most possible) from the ACGME. it was a long week, but a good week, and only 14 more weeks of being chief. yikes!

One of my good friends, Stu, had ankle surgery this week. G-d I hope that I never have to undergo surgery for something - definitely something i am very scared of. Not so much the surgery, rather the anesthesia. Damn, its a good thing I'm not the one who has to give birth, or I'm not sure if we would have any kids.

I actually went in on Friday to moonlight - and it was the best day I have had in a while. diagnosed a kid with acute rheumatic fever, actually did patient care - helped out a bunch of residents, and made some extra scratch while I was at it.

Shabbos was nice - the usual suspects were over - and then we had the Gan Miriam melavah malkah. It was nice - we got to see some of Sammy's artwork from the year (and he made a havdalah set, which was nice), but the best part was the inappropriate comedian. The awkwardness was palpable. It was hysterical (not so much the comedian, rather the situation).

And of course, today was the superbowl. Another good game (not as good as last year, but still pretty damn good). Best commercial - the VW punch-buggy. second best - dress down fridays.

Anyways, another week begins, built in with our own mini schooling crisis. Updates soon, and I guess we shall see what happens. Hopefully i'll have more time to update this week.

The Weekend

So, I was on service this weekend - so I was going in to the hospital both days - it wasn't so bad, and I got out before 1 on Saturday and 11 on Sunday - so not bad.

Otherwise, it was a pretty productive weekend for me. I finished up my rough draft of my part of my pheochromocytoma paper and did a lot of research for my grand rounds - which is in <>

Today was all set up to be a horrific day - down one co-chief, a planned sedation in the AM, mock code in the PM... all the stars were aligned for a hellish day - and then, the unthinkable happened. The sedation was cancelled, the mock code went smoothly and there were minimal disruptions. I was signed out and out the door by 5:10. Quite amazing! I also played respiratory therapist today McGyvering (yes, i did just use McGyver as a verb) the CPAP to stay on a 9month old bronchiolitic's face and then troublshooting the machine when it wasn't working. Quite a good feeling - especially since the kid started looking better almost immediatly.

And tomorrow night s the season premiere of LOST. Can't wait. Only sad thing is that it is the last season = (

off to go do some reading. Here's a pic of "the fat baby brother" as Sammy calls him

Accepted

A long day, filled with QI meetings and an hour long ridiculous conference call ended with great news - our (my 2 co-chiefs, Hollie and Gigs, and myself) research was accepted for poster presentations at both ESPR (in Philly) and PAS (in Vancouver)! Pretty awesome way to end a long day.

Anyways - I took over service this evening - with am 80% full hospital, which means its sure to be a busy night for the residents at the hospital, and consequently a busy day for me tomorrow. But it will be nice to see patients again on at least a somewhat regular basis.

Spent the morning precepting in my future home - the peds ED. I haven't been there since before we started doing interviews in November, so it was really nice to precept again. Got to educate an adult ED resident about the classic presentation of roseola infatum, which was pretty cool. Otherwise, nothing exciting - a little croup, a little functional abdominal pain and some horrible cavities.

Last night was the State of the Union address. Again, Obama is an excellent orator, but lets see what actually happens. We heard a lot of speeches in the last year, and yet nothing has changed. I agree with what he said - "i can't do it by myself" - but ultimately he will be held accountable if things don't change. I did love it when he took it to the supreme court - and Colbert' segment of 'The Word' yesterday evening was even better.

Well, it's 10:54 and I still have a ton of stuff to do before bed- so away I go.

Another year....

Well, yesterday was my 29th birthday. I have to say that it has been a damn good 29 years. And this birthday I had my wife and 3 boys to celebrate with me! I came home from a relatively calm day at work to Sammy and Zach hiding and jumping out and screaming "surprise! Happy birthday" Best moment of the day, hands down. Benji of course, was adorable as always and actually was awake and smiling for a decent stretch.

The night was a bit rough. It started with a wide awake Benji until at least midnight. A visit from Sammy at 3. A screaming Benji at 4 and Zach up for good at 5:50. And all this after my birthday wish was more than 5 consecutive hours of sleep. Oh well.

Today was another long day at work - but I did accomplish quite a bit - so I guess that's good. Thanks to the ACGME I get tomorrow off - which will entail some shopping at Costco and finally sitting down to start work on... something. Probably my pheochromocytoma paper, perhaps grand rounds. We shall see...

Catching up on Heroes now.. only one episode back. Samuel Sullivan is an excellent villain. That's all i'm gonna say. Finished season 2 of Californication as well - great great season... again - David Duchovney is awesome in this show.

Well -off to read my daily chapter from a peds ED textbook (i know i'm so cool).

Blowing out my birthday candles with the boys