The Doctor is in

New Blog

2010-01-02T12:18:00.000-05:00

The blog has been moved.... you may now find it here.

I made yarns

2009-02-24T17:25:00.001-05:00

Spinning Wheel

2009-02-20T08:51:00.004-05:00

So I bought a spinning wheel. My parents gave me money for Christmas because I didn't go home, etc. So I spent the money on a new shiny spinning wheel - a beautiful mahogany Kromski Minstrel. I loves it.

See..

IMG00012.jpg

2008-07-24T11:09:00.001-04:00

Spinning

2008-07-22T15:08:00.009-04:00

So a few weeks ago I learned how to drop spin. This was not something I had intended to learn how to do. I am definitely an instant gratification type of girl... why on earth would I want to spend my time learning how to spin, then spinning, then finally getting the time to knit with said yarn. Well the fate of the yarn gods apparently decided me learning this new skill was a good idea. I received a lovely present of roving from a Ravelry contest. It was so pretty.... but I wanted it to be yarn NOW. I tried to list my new found yarn friends in Connecticut to spin it for me, but all I got was we can teach you. No... I don't want to learn, I just want yarn. But the roving won me over, and so I embarked on learning how to spin. I was loaned a drop spindle and left over roving to practice on.... then less than 24 hours later I made yarn.

The roving

The first set of singles...

Half done

Plying

Skeined

Wound and ready to use.
(Ball winder and swift...best inventions and best present EVER)

Now I just have to figure out what to do with it....I think there's about 70 yards. It's definitely not consistent in thickness...oh well. Right now I am just looking at it. Now I have this to play with while I figure out the best way to use my new handspun...

The great de-stash of 08

2008-06-25T19:37:00.008-04:00

SO.....

I've decided I am not allowed to start new projects until I finish a few of the WIPs that are sitting around. Moving gave me a perfect opportunity to reorganize my yarn. I found stuff that I had forgotten I even had. Between half of it being in Florida for most of the year and living out of my car, I could only have a limited amount of yarn with me at any given point. I am attempting to catalog all the yarn, add it to the stash in Ravelry and figure out projects for them. But first I have a giant Tupperware container filled with unfinished projects that need to be worked on.

The greatest part of reorganizing everything... I have a handy dandy ball winder and swift thanks to the lovely ladies from Blacksburg. (I miss you all greatly)

I've been knitting the Union Square Poncho from Weekend knitting for over a year...it's not a hard pattern I should be DONE with this thing. I measured it this morning and I am over half way done. I actually might not knit it to the 54' because the yarn has a lot of give, and I am afraid it will stretch out. I've started putting it in my bad daily so when I have a few moments I can get a row or two in... I really would like to finish this thing sometime in the next century.

I found the scarf I am making out of Be Sweet... a plain knitted scarf. I think there's 15 stitches across... yeah half done. Why don't I just finish these things? Also a bag I was making out of noro...everything done except the shoulder strap and the seams. Easy enough to finish.. now I just need to find the time.

With organizing my yarn I've found 8 different sock yarns waiting to be made projects. I pretty much have enough yarn to not buy yarn for the rest of the year and just knit from stash. I could probably go two, but I have no self control. I am hoping with my lack of free time to actually go buy new yarn, that I will get projects done,

I am still trying to figure out what I am going to make with this yarn.....it hasn't spoken to me yet, other than saying "take me home."I won this from Ravelry....so I may learn how to spin. I don't think I have time to learn how to spin, nor do I really have the desire right now... but I am dying to know how this yarn is going to take form.

Moving etc.

2008-06-14T10:34:00.004-04:00

Well... I am officially moved and mostly settled in Connecticut. I still need to buy a few things and organize my closet. My clothes have a way of taking over my room. I did order TV and Internet today, so I guess I should actually go buy a television soon. hehe.. I have no couch, TV, microwave, or coffee pot. These things need to be fixed. I also need silverware, I have 4 spoons, that's it. I didn't realize all the stuff I had or didn't have because most of it has been in storage since December and I didn't live at home for almost a year.

Graduation was graduation. My family is crazy and they drive me nuts, but I love them. They are the only family I have. My Uncle hooded me during the ceremony and I got to spend some time with my cousins, who I never see, so that was nice. We visited a few wineries, which always makes me happy. I took the $250,000 piece of paper by Mosaic. I also knitted during graduation. I am only moderately addicted to yarn. :)

I started a new sock the other day, because I completely don't need to start new projects. I bought some lovely Socks that Rock yarn from Knitters Knook. If you are ever out in the middle of no where (aka Boons Mill, VA) Becky was very lovely and she has a good selection of yarn, and you should visit her.

The sock is a little big.... I need to start decreasing for the toe earlier than I think I do. I have ridiculously small feet and I apparently forget that. The pattern is waterfall rib from Sensational Socks. I have a feeling it's going to be a wearing around the house sock due to the largeness... oh well. I guess I could frog it and make it smaller, but that will most likely not happen.

I am thinking about venturing out to the Knitting in Public event in Windsor CT... but first I need to buy a TV and microwave.

Oh hello..

2008-04-21T22:18:00.005-04:00

So I might have died, but no worries I have returned from the abyss that was living out of my car for the year. Ok I still live out of my car, but only for a few more days, then I am really homeless, and then I am moving to Connecticut, so all is good.

I am back in Virginia, finishing up my last rotation... 4 days left to be exact. Oh what a lovely number that is... Friday might be the greatest day of life EVER!!! and really I am not exaggerating at all. First it's my birthday, which automatically makes it an awesome day, it's the last day of med school, and really life doesn't get much better than that. But on top of all of that, it's my best friend Sarah's Bachelorette party. So pretty much the most fun had in all of history all in one day... oh can't it be Friday yet?

Then Monday it's off to CT to find a place to live, play in NYC for a few days, see Spamalot for my Birthday, hit up Boston for some food and times with friends. And my sister is joining me for the CT-NYC-BOSTON trip.. so that should be FUN!!!!

After all of that... Sarah's wedding, then 4 day cruise to Mexico with my other bff's Michelle and Gerri. I'll get to spend a little bit of time in Florida, hanging with the family, etc. Then back to VA for another wedding and then GRADUATION!!!!! *** does happy dance***

So that's the recap of what's going on. I am not uber stressed out about the housing thing yet, but I might get there Monday as I drive to CT.

On the knitting front... I've finished a couple of pairs of socks. A 2x2 ribbed sock made from Noro... the yarn is kinda scratchy when you knit with it, but once on... I didn't notice anything and it's very warm. My toes will be toasty warm.

I finished Charade for my momma. I put them in the mail this afternoon. I am sure she will forget to be nice to them, but that's ok. They look nice right now.

I made Knitty's Coronet with some lovely hand spun yarn I got from a LYS in Gainesville (Hanks Yarn). Very lovely store... if you are ever down in Florida.. you should visit. They were by far one of my favorite yarn stores of the many I visited this year.

As always I have a million WIPs... the forefronts are Cozy V Neck Pullover from Fitted knits... in Vermilion Malabrigo. The yarn is a lovely shade of red, the name makes me giggle, and it's just the softest yarn. I want to knit sheets out of it and wrap myself in the yarn...
(the picture was taken before I got to the ribbing.. so I am further along now)

On Ravelry.. the Mosaic Maniacs are doing an online KAL of the Lace Ribbon Scarf from knitty. I am 2 repeats in. I am using Schaefer yarn Anne. I don't the exact colorway, but it's red/pink/orange. It should match my lovely red sweater.

I am sure I'll cast on another sock in a day or so.. I like to have a pair on needles at all times. They travel so well and fit in coat pockets. I really don't sit around and do nothing very well.

I also have Jeanie on the needles... but this is going to be a long process for her. It's not a terribly hard pattern, I just have to pay attention and it's time consuming. Eventually I will finish.

Well I think that's about it.. hope all is well.

Honduras Finale

2008-03-04T22:15:00.000-05:00

I wrote this before I left, but didn't have time to send it until now....

Well I am sitting in the airport waiting for m flight back to America, which technically means my Honduran trip is over as long as my plane actually gets here and it doesn't crash into a mountain taking off. The crashing into a mountain is a real concern….google/you-tube Tegucigalpa landing, I've heard the videos are enough to never make you want to visit the country. Apparently, right now there's a dog on the runway and security is running around trying to catch it…I'll be sure to make sure everyone knows I made it back safely.

Brittney, Dupree and I took the Whites, Dra. Xiomara, Dr. Ayes, and Marco out to dinner on Thursday night. We went to La Cumbre which apparently has the most beautiful view of Tegucigalpa, but again it rained, so we only have pictures of fog and rain. I really think this "dry" season doesn't exist, it's just a myth to tell the gringos. The food was amazing, and the company wasn't bad either. If we could have made the rain go away, the evening would have been perfect.

Since Brittney and Dupree left on Friday, there was no clinic. Dra. Xiomara was also sick with laryngitis so you couldn't hear her anyway. Instead of Clinic we were able to attend the Baxter morning devotion. I haven't written much about the Baxter students, so I'll do that now.

The quick rundown of the program is…The students are in a 4-year ministry program. There are married couples and the single guys. We've been living in the married housing area, so we've gotten to know a few of the families. Douglas, who might be the cutest baby ever lives across the courtyard from us, and no I didn't try to pack him in my suitcase. J The married couples both go to class. The women go half a day, and then are able to spend the rest of the day taking care of their families. They don't get the bachelors degree but they get what's equivalent to an associates degree. The other dormitory houses the single guys. We eat lunch with them every day. They are so passionate about their schooling and of course about futbol. We had the chance to get to know a couple of them during our time at Baxter and they are just great guys all around.

They have a daily devotion after their first two classes every day. Seeing as we are in clinic at this time, we don't get to share that time with them, but Friday we were able to attend. They sang very beautiful songs about God and Jesus.. really that's all I could translate, but they sounded nice. They then have a short devotion by one of the third year students and then they have a prayer and concern time. It was very nice that they prayed for our safe travels back to America. After the devotion, all the students and faculty gave us hugs and thanked us for coming to help them. It was very sweet, they even prayed in Spanish and English for us.

Abraham was using the single guys as his test subjects for his PhD project. Something with a force plate and before and after effects of OMM. It sounds a lot like physics and math, which is just too much for my brain to handle. As part of the project to keep the boys involved he organized a futbol tournament for all the participants. Brittney and I were definitely cheering for the red team, even if they are kinda bad. Our favorite Baxter student is on that team, so we are all about the red team. We've promised to wear red on Tuesday in lieu of being able to see the championship games. We expect a full recap via email of the games.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Brittney and Dupree. The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. I did get lots of knitting done… although it doesn't do me much good now. During the inspection of my luggage, my knitting needles were confiscated. I can take them out of the country but not into the country. I really should stop traveling internationally with my knitting, a similar experience happened in Nairobi the second time I went to Africa. If anyone knows my obsession with yarn and yarn related things you can imagine I was almost in tears as I took the yarn of the needles and handed over 3 sets of addi tubors (2 of them being my new lace addi's). All my knitting friends may share in my sadness because they know those are good needles. I've been working on a really hard knitting project that I put it in my checked luggage in case this happened, so hopefully it will be safe there, or I really might cry. At least the only projects in my bag are socks, I can easily put them back on needles when I get home, now I just need to buy more needles… I've heard there is a very nice yarn store in Gainesville (my next rotation site) so I might need to take a trip there ASAP.

I really hope I am able to return to Honduras one day. The clinic here needs so much help. We are working on getting them the equipment for a lab. They have some of the supplies just the machines to run the lab tests. Steve (Dr. White- President of Baxter) was talking about setting up a minor surgery room. I told him I'll be all over that as soon as residency gives me time off. I doubt I'll have any extra free time next year seeing as most of my free time will be used for interviewing again, but maybe the following year on one of my weeks off I'll be able to return… I'll even be an official doctor by then. These little things will benefit the community so much, I hope one day that they become a reality.

If you have never had the opportunity to travel international on a mission trip I highly recommend it. While mission trips at home are also very important, there is definitely a different feeling from an international trip. I am thankful that I've had the opportunity to travel to Kenya and now Honduras. Thank you for supporting these trips and the people that attended them. I hope you enjoyed reading our updates as much was I enjoyed updating everyone at home.

Allison

Link to pictures -- http://www.flickr.com/gp/14059370@N07/4tGU5u

Honduras Part 7

2008-02-28T17:36:00.001-05:00

Well our Honduras trip is almost over… time sure has flown by…

Monday we had a day of clinic… nothing too exciting to write about there. Brittney has gotten pretty good with her Spanish.. me I am still working on it. It’s a long process, and I am slow at picking up languages. It’s a good thing smiling is universal.

Tuesday we all (Brittney, Dupree, Dra. Xiomara, Dr. Ayes and myself) got in the lovely VCOM truck and traveled 3 hours up and down and around the mountains to Catacamas. It’s a little town north and east of Tegucigalpa that has a clinic. The original reason for visiting this clinic was that their people came to see our clinic and we started talking about a program that they run for their chronic patients (diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension). They invited us to see their clinic and take the information they have gathered at their program so we can start a program of our own. Well anyone who knows me well knows that I do not fare well in cars, or boats, or plans, or basically anything that moves. So I had to be medicated and sleep through most of the trip. Brittney was glad she had Dupree to talk to while I slept. I am pretty much the most un-fun traveler in the world. I love to travel and see new places I just don’t enjoy the process to get there.

We met with the doctors that run the clinic and they told us all about their program; how it focuses on family education, especially in the diabetic patients. They have come to the realization that you can’t stop diabetes, you can only prevent the complications, so the best way to help the patients is to help the families learn about proper diet, exercise, you know all the really fun things in life. Apparently eating fried plantains all day is not a good meal plan… and yes, I would eat them at every meal if I could. The program sounds really amazing, and the doctors working on it are so smart. Someone really needs to do their PhD work on this, because it’s a really great opportunity. I hope Baxter is able to set up a similar program here because we see so many patients with chronic diseases.

After we learned about the program they gave us a tour of their facility…. I would go there as a patient or a doctor. Brittney and I were trying to figure out if we could start residency programs there or not. This place was beautiful. It’s in the valley of a bunch of mountains, and the clinic is clean and new and well taken care. They have everything from surgery, ultrasounds, EKG’s, x-rays, physical therapy. .. basically anything you need they have. We took a bunch of pictures there, so you can essentially recreate the entire clinic by photo. The clinic is Christian based and basically runs off donations. They have one main clinic and then several smaller medical clinics in the mountains…If you are interested in more information about the clinic visit their website .. http://www.predisan.org/ Hopefully the students after us will get the chance to work there for a few days, because it would be awesome, minus the 3-hour car ride.

After our lovely visit at the Predisan clinic we did a little site seeing. Catacamas has caves of glowing bones. There are caves in the mountains that were used as a second burial sites way back in the day. The locals would bury their dead, and then several years later take the bones and prepare them again and place them in the caves. The caves have many different minerals including pure calcium. Between the river running through the caves and all the minerals the bones are now covered in calcium which causes them to “glow” or sparkle. We didn’t get to see the actual bones, because they now have them blocked off, especially for those gringo touristas.. we are such trouble. But, we did get to hike through a cave and see some very beautiful stalactites and stalagmites. Brittney and I also saw a bat… and yes it was a bat and not a bird, even if the rest of the group doesn’t believe us. There are some lovely pictures of the caves (from Brittney – my camera battery hates me), and pictures of the national forest.

Wednesday Dupree got to spend some time over at Hospital San Felipe catching babies. Brittney and I ran the clinic. Dra. Xiomara took Dupree over to the hospital and left us with Dra. Julieta came to supervise Brittney and me. We saw and treated patients all on our own with minimal translations. We were like real doctors… it was pretty cool.

In the afternoon, we helped organize some of the many boxes of supplies that the clinic has. Why anyone would need 300 French Tip suction catheters is beyond me… but in case you need some the clinic has plenty to spare. We made boxes of supplies that the clinic can’t really utilize (surgery supplies, etc) and made boxes to donate to the hospitals we work at, basically bribing them to let us keep coming to visit.

Brittney and I cooked up a storm last night, it was very tasty, and we had fried plantains. I told you I really would make them for every meal. Dupree came over, recapped his OB day, and told us stories from the farm. We were all laughing so hard we cried a little bit, so all in all it was a good night. We took our extra food and made up plates for the guards, thanking them for keeping the scary gang people out of the Baxter institute.

Today we had our last Brigade out in the community. Of course, Brittney and I took a million pictures. The Brigades are very fun because we get to go into the community, see where they live and help them a little bit. Most of the time it’s just antibiotics and ibuprofen, but it’s the thought that counts right?

Tonight we are taking Dr. Xiomara, Dr. Ayes, and Marco (who’s driven us around the entire month).. out to La Cumbere which is a nice restaurant on top of the mountains that over look Tegucigalpa. The weather is pretty horrible right now.. it’s windy slightly rainy and only 70 degrees. We hope to get to the restaurant before it gets too dark so we can get a couple good pictures of the city.

I’ll be heading back to the states on Saturday morning. Brittney and Dupree are leaving tomorrow.. I am not sure what I am going to do with all my free time tomorrow without new best friend.

Well that’s all for now…hope all is well at home.

Allison

Link to pictures -- http://www.flickr.com/gp/14059370@N07/4tGU5u

Hoduras Part 6

2008-02-24T17:10:00.002-05:00

Well it's been a few days since I sent an email… I wasn't feeling very inspired. I've been fighting the gripe the last couple days. Snotty noses do not make me a happy person. I've come to the conclusion though if you are going to get sick in a developing country a cold is by far the best thing to get. At least I don't have dengue yet…

Wednesday (2-20) We again tried to see cardiothoracic surgery at Hospital Escuela. We actually got in the OR, and the we sat outside of it for an hour or so. Brittney and I were pretty sure that Dr. Ayes' brother forgot about us. Well it turns out they had the patient in the room ready to be prepped and then decided that the patient was too sick to have the operation. I guess it's a good thing to figure that out before you actually start the surgery. I was bummed. I really, really, really, want to see some cardiothoracic surgery one of these days. I got to touch a lung once, and it was awesome, so I can only imagine seeing surgery on the heart is cooler, especially in developing countries where they make do with whatever they have. Anyway.. enough about me being sad. We finally did get to see some surgery. YAY!!! Turns out there were surgeons from America doing a brigade last week and were operating in the OR next to where the cardiothoracic surgery was suppose to be. We got permission to watch their surgery. The surgeons are oral maxillary facial surgeons and they were working with one of the plastic surgeons from Honduras. They arrived on Friday night and spent all weekend screening patients and figuring out which patients they would operate on, etc. The surgery we got to see.. (not sure on the exact name of it, because I haven't seen much oral maxillary surgeries)… but the young man fell off his bycicle and landed on his face. He had a LaForte fracture II and they were pretty sure it involved the orbits of the eyes. He had a traumatic cleft palate. So they ended up wiring his mouth, fixing the cleft, and places a plate over his cheekbone. Then to see if they fracture involved the eyes, they first sewed the eyelids shut. Then they cut right under the orbit and dissected away the skin and fat to examine the bone. I was totally in awe of their surgical skills… it was amazing. I want to be that good when I grow up. I am working on getting pictures from the surgery... we were told not to bring our cameras, but there was a Honduran medical student there and she took pictures... so I might get them later. I'll keep you updated on the pictures. The doctors were very nice, and it was refreshing to be around a language we understood (and in the OR for me). They even had southern accents, so that made Brittney happy. It's pretty cool to fix someone's face from inside their mouth, so all in all it was a great day in the OR.

Hospital Escuela wasn't nearly as scary the second time as the first. We decided it was mainly the ER is scary in general. ER's in America are scary sometimes, so at the national hospital in a developing country, would you expect anything less than frightening. It was a Monday, and for some reason Monday mornings are always busy at hospitals…. I don't think people do work on Sundays anywhere. And lastly the OR's had just reopened from all the infections, so there were more people than usual. I still don't want to be a patient or a doctor there, but at least we weren't afraid for our lives.

Thursday (Feb-21) We went on a Brigade with the Health department. I would tell you what part of the city we were in if I knew it… so I can't. This brigade was held at a daycare/school. So, I have a million pictures of cute little kids that I kept trying to take home with me. I really just want one. We did pap smears again, but this time was not nearly as scary as the last time. We actually had a separate room, with an exam table. Shocker I know. The only light we had was a flashlight, but it's better than nothing. The ladies weren't really sure about having a male (Dupree) in the room, nor was he really excited about doing pap smears but there were not deaths during the day so I am pretty sure everyone was ok.

After the Brigade we ate Baleadas. Which are basically grilled tortillas with beans, cheese, and cream. There's a lady that makes them that works right across from the Baxter institute. Dupree wasn't so keen on the eating of street food idea… but Brittney and I are so convincing that we all enjoyed a lovely lunch of Baleads. We haven't died yet, so I am pretty sure we'll be ok. Steve vouches for the place, so I think we are safe.

Friday (Feb-22) We had clinic in the morning, but very few patients. I saw patients all on my own. It's a good thing when they bring me lab results for their problems, and it doesn't require me to know much Spanish. One of my patients had H. pylori. I gave her all the medication she needs, but it's hard to treat in America so who knows if she'll get rid of the infection or not. I was trying to explain how important it was that she take ALL the medication and not just some of it and save it for later. Which is what they do. Oh.. one antibiotic now… then save the rest for another time I don't feel well. It defeats the purpose of treating anything.

After our morning at the clinic Dr. Xiomara took us to Hospital Escuela for a tour. Brittney and I took a bunch of pictures. Dupree said we could reconstruct the entire hospital from our photos, and I think he might be right. We saw all the pediatric areas – post surgical, neurosurgery, oncology, ortho, you name it they have it. As we were walking through the Pediatric ER someone stopped us and said.. Virginia as in Tech or UVA? As we explained it was Tech the guy that stopped us asked oh do you know a Brooke Bennis… yeah she's in our class. Turns out he's a medical student from Indiana doing a brigade at Hospital Escuela. We keep running into people that we know or know people that we know. The world is a very small place sometimes. We then went over to the adult side of the hospital and saw everything over there. The rooms have 5-6 beds, some times more, to each room. Blue rooms are for boys, and pink rooms are for girls. They generally have rooms segregated by sex but that's it. You can definitely see why infection would be a problem in the hospital. We saw the area where they treat the TB and HIV patients but we didn't go in. I am not sure it really matters, I think TB lives in the air. So at least if my PPD test comes back positive next year I have a good reason. The nicest area of the hospital was by far the pediatric oncology area. It was actually clean (it's one of the newer sections of the hospital). I still want to see the anatomy lab for the medical students, because from the stories we've heard it sounds rather scary...maybe sometime this week.

Friday afternoon Brittney and I had to give presentations on Folic Acid Deficiency and worm infections to Dr. Xiomara. I won't bore you with the details. But now everyone is smarter because they know the recommended daily folic acid requirements and how to treat intestinal parasites.

Friday night we all headed to the mall, ate some American food for dinner (TGI Friday's), and did a little shopping. Poor Dupre had to wait for us to shop, I kinda felt bad for him. We won't mention the fact that he brought medical journals to read at the mall, because only really nerdy people do that. The mall might have one of the most delicious deserts on the planet… it's a close second the best cannoli on planet earth that I had in NYC. The stand sells fondue chocolate and fresh fruit, strawberries, pineapple, pears, apples, bananas. It's amazing. Brittney and I were trying to figure out if we could franchise it in America, but decided internship probably wasn't conducive to such adventures.

Saturday (Feb 23) Brittney had her 24 hour OB shift. Dupree, David, Carmen (David's daughter) and I all went to see the big statue of Jesus. I should look up the actual name of the statute, but for now it's Jesus Grande. It's at the top of one of the mountains overlooking the city. There is a large catholic population in central America, so Jesus protects them by looking out over the city. It's similar to the statue in Brazil, but the hands are portrayed different than that one. Where the statue is there are also a few Mayan ruins. We saw on the areas where they use to sacrifice people and collect all the blood in a giant pool. Of course I took pictures of that.. seriously how cool is that stuff. That was about all the excitement of the day. I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself without my constant buddy Brittney. It was weird to go to the library or places without her. I am glad she's back now.

When she got home this morning, she gave me a recap of her night. Apparently, they were less busy yesterday than they were when I was there. She did get a couple of deliveries in but not as many as she would have liked. She did get a better explanation of the hierarchy system. Apparently, the female doctoras were all general practitioners so they can only do the vaginal deliveries, and the male doctors are the actual Ob-gyns, so they only show up for the complicated births and the c-sections. So that makes a little more sense. The doctoras asked Brittney if she knew me and then said that I was very quiet.. hahahahaha. Only because I don't speak Spanish very well. That and being sick are the only times I am not talking.

Brittney worked with one of the interns, which is equivalent to our third year of medical school. They change rotations every 15 days… and I thought every 27 was hard enough. Apparently, at Hospital Escuela where they do most of their OB training there is no Doppler, you have a stethoscope and your hand. They monitor the patients every 30 minutes, so if more than three people are laboring, you cannot physically do the work without bending time. I have tried to bend the space-time continuum a couple times and it just doesn't work. She said they are yelled at a lot. It interesting seeing how similar but different the medical training is here compared to home.

So a funny story from this week. Brittney has been on a mission to find low fat or fat free milk since we got here. Well we eventually found some and it comes in a bag. Yes you read that right, a bag. And let's just say the refrigeration of foods like milk and eggs is really just a suggestion in the grocery store. So Brittney had been using the milk out of a bag for several days, saying it tasted funny, but thought it was just the plastic that made it taste that way. The next morning, the milk was definitely chunky. Now we felt bad for poor Brittney drinking rotten milk all week. The funny part is she keeps telling people this story and she usually tries to tell it in Spanish…. Which is hysterical. We bought new milk, and that one also went bad, but before anybody drank it. We sure will be glad to be back in the states where we don't have to buy milk daily out of fear of it being curdled.

Tonight we are going to have dinner with the Whites. They are good people and Mrs. White makes really yummy food so I am looking forward to that.

Well it's been a good trip so far, and I only have one more week left. Hope everyone is well at home. I'll be seeing some people in just a few short days.

Allison

Link to pictures -- http://www.flickr.com/gp/14059370@N07/4tGU5u

Honduras Part 5

2008-02-19T18:49:00.004-05:00

Well… the past couple of days sure have been tiring.

Saturday (Feb 16^th) the whole crew (Abraham, Sofia, Brittney, Dr. David Ayes (who's in charge of the clinic), his daughter and myself) headed up to the top of La Tigra Mountain (a national forest) to do some hiking. We still aren't sure exactly how high we were, but when you are above the clouds it's high. Let's just say the road to get there was windy, and sometimes a little scary. Seeing as I really don't travel well I was looking a little green when we got there, but I wasn't going to let a little car sickness ruin our day. Being Gringos we had to pay $10 compared to the 10 limpiras that locals get to pay... I am pretty sure it's a scam they have going, and completely not fair. We took the moderate course, which had us huffing and puffy not too far into the trail. We like to blame the attitude with our inability to breathe, or the fact that it was steep incline. The forest was beautiful, very lush vegetation, but it was really hard to take pictures of it. Cameras don't really like fog, and have a hard time focuses. I think once we turned off the flash, the pictures started coming out better. Apparently Jaguars live in La Tigra, but we didn't see any. The live higher up on the mountain, all we saw was a groundhog or some other small animal that looks like a groundhog. We have a standing joke that Brittney would give away all our passports to save her life if need be, and for some reason she is always trying to give mine away first… anyway I doubt the Jaguars will stop attacking with just a passport, unless they were really looking for a way to come to America.

After our hiking adventure we went shopping at Valley of the Angels. We didn't have much time in the shops, but we were able to buy a few souvinors before it was time to go. Then it was time to head home so I could sleep before the 24 hour OB shift.

Sunday (Feb 17) -- My OB shift started at 8 am. I basically was dropped off at the triage area of the maternity ward and was told I'd be picked up the next morning. The doctor I was suppose to work with didn't get there until 9, so I just sat around being confused not knowing exactly where or what I was to do. Then he gave me a tour of the maternity area, the laboring room, the birthing room, the OR, and the post partum wings. Then he left me in the laboring rooms with the nurses and doctoras (female doctors) who didn't really speak English. First there was a c-section. I believe the cause was failure to progress, but asking that in Spanish didn't really give me an answer I understood. The male doctors pretty much only show up for the c-sections. The female doctor was first assist and there was also a scrub nurse. Everything was pretty much the same in terms of the procedure as it would have been in the USA. They use washable gowns and draping cloths and they close everything with chromic. I can count the number of times I've seen chromic used on one hand.

After the c-section I was shown how they monitor the laboring patients. One of the doctoras speaks almost as much English as I do Spanish, but between the two I got the gist of what was going on. As you would expect, things are pretty primitive, as there are no monitors or anything high tech. The toco "monitor" is your hand, you place it on the fundus of the uterus and keep it there for 10 minutes, counting the number and duration of each contraction. At least if the machines ever break back home, I am totally ok to still know what's going on. They did have a Doppler for the fetal heart rate, and those were checked every 30 minutes. Other than that, we sat there and watched the patients. They get NO pain meds what so ever. So if I ever hear a pregnant lady complain about the pain, I am just going to ignore it. The laboring room had 10 beds in it. And for some reason all the babies always want to be born at the same time, I still haven't figured that one out yet. But essentially when the baby is crowning they move them from the laboring room to the birthing room, which is the bed with stirrups. A couple pushes later and we have a baby. They do an abnormally large number of episiotomies.. almost everyone got one, and these women have small babies. I think it has something to do with the training, because again I can count the number of episiotomies I've seen on one hand too.

After the delivery mom and baby lay on a stretcher in the hall for 30 minutes or so then they are wheeled to the post partum hall, which is another big room with lots of beds. There really is no privacy or anything along those lines. The moms stay for 6-8 hours, they get 2 Tylenol and a shot of oxytocin and then the boot to the door. I watched several deliveries and how things were done. Later on in the day, I delivered 5 babies all on my own, and when I say on my own, that's exactly what happened. Sometimes there was a nurse there, but mainly she yelled things in Spanish, which I took as push the baby out now. Now 5 might seem like not a lot, or a whole bunch. But on my OB rotation during 3^rd year, we had 6 babies all month. They kept apologizing for it being a "slow" day, they usually have 35+ a day. I think we ended up with 25 or so.

I enjoyed delivering the babies, it was cool, but I still don't think it converted me back to OB-gyn. I do believe I am a surgeon at heart, even if it did take me a long time to realize that. After one of the babies didn't want to come out, and we had to rotate the head and push on the fundus to get the baby out, I am pretty sure I don't want anything more complicated like that in terms of newborn lives. I took pictures of the hospital and one of the babies that I delivered, so check them out.

The overall experience was great. I know that I can deliver a baby on my own, without any high tech machines and things will be ok. Bring on internship.

Monday (Feb 18) I finished work at 7 am, and came back to Baxter to sleep. Brittney, Sofia, and Abraham were all in the clinic. Sofia's PhD project involves nutrition education to moms of malnourished kids. All the kids were coming in for evaluation and medical attention. Brittney ended up seeing all the regular clinic patients on her own in the morning. She did have Amber to help her translate all that, but she did say it was weird for me not to be there, we've been pretty inseparable since we got here. After lunch I met up the rest of the group at the clinic. We finished seeing the rest of the nutrition program kids. There were several special needs kids, which is usually something rare in developing countries. It was a long day for me.. I was very tired at the end of the day.

Also last night it POURED all night. I swear they made up this "dry" season thing, because it rains almost every other day. I'd hate to be here during rainy season, if this is dry.

Today (Feb 19) we were supposed to get to see cardiothoracic surgery at Hospital Escuela but that did not happen. I am not sure if I've mentioned Hospital Escuela before, but I'll go over it again. It's the main teaching hospital in Honduras. The Honduran Medical students all do their training there, and it's where most of the specialists work. They pretty much let their upper level students (our 3 or 4^th years) do whatever they want, they are the doctors. I know that I don't know enough to be completely responsible yet, and I still need to be taught lots of things. Patients mainly go there to die, or that's what they say on the streets. We've been told that there's dried blood on gurneys, and patients stacked everywhere (which after our brief trip there this morning, is true). Many patients will ask to go to one of the other hospitals like San Felipe if given the option. They've had a recent outbreak of infections, which caused them to shut down the OB floor and the OR's due to high mortality. The OR's are still not completely open, so we didn't get to see anything today. We are going to try again tomorrow. I'll give you a full account of the hospital once we actually get to spend more than 5 minutes there.

This week we have another medical student (Dupree) here from University of Florida. He and Brittney were talking pediatrics today (Crazy peds loving people), and I was trying to get all the gossip on MICU (medical intensive care unit) for my March rotation.

We are hopefully still doing a Brigade this week with the health department, so that should be interesting. Hope all is well in the USA. Don't forget to check out the new pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/gp/14059370@N07/4tGU5u

Allison

Honduras Part 4

2008-02-14T18:51:00.004-05:00

Greetings,

This week has just flown by it seems. It seems way too early to be almost Friday.

2/13

We went to the main health department office. We were given a tour of the facility by one of the epidemiologists. The main laboratory is at this clinic. It was by far busier than the Health Department we visited last week. We found out that there are 59 health department buildings in Tegucigalpa alone. There is essentially one for every neighborhood. The main health department clinic has a clinical area solely dedicated to AIDS or SIDA (in espanol) patients. They are able to receive all their medication and medical attention in a separate clinical area. They also have more diagnostic testing in this center, there was even ultrasound. Most pregnant patients are not able to afford ultrasounds, but they try to get all teen pregnancies scanned before delivering.

After our tour we talked to the epidemiologist about how they collect data on various diseases (dengue, AIDS/HIV, pneumonia, Tuberculosis, malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition). Each health department center keeps records on the number of patients they see with these diseases, their age and location. This data is written on a spread sheet which is then brought to the main health department and it’s analyzed. It is often hard to keep track of patients because they do not really have addresses. Most people live in an area, but there is no designation of street or actual houses, they all kina run together. Also some people will visit multiple clinics, hospitals, or health departments for the same problem and each of these will report the problem. So sometimes the information is not always correct.

We spoke to the group that organizes the treatment of AIDS, we learned more about this today… So I’ll only cover our AIDS education once.

We toured Hospital San Felipe, which is where we will be doing our 24 hour OB shifts. The hospital is very nice. We found out that the average stay post delivery is 6-8 hours. That just seems crazy. If you have a c-section you get to stay a whole 24 hours. Then it’s back home, and probably back to work. The design of the hospital is very open and it has a lot of trees and foliage along the corridors. The patient rooms are buildings off these corridors. We were discussing as to whether the design style would catch on in America, but then we figured that birds flying around probably would not go over too well. The OR is essentially the only part that’s not open in some shape or form, so we didn’t get to see any of that.

Last night we went out to dinner to celebrate the Match. Apparently it is “dry” season right now, someone should have informed the weather that, because I think we got about 3 inches of rain, the roads were flooded as we drove to the restaurant. You’d never know it rained today, other than we had to rewash our clothes that were drying outside last night. The dinner was very nice and the 5 of us went with Dr. White and his wife, who are in charge of the Baxter institute. They are originally from the USA, but spend most of their time down here running the school and clinic.

2/14/08

This morning we had clinic. Brittney is able to see patients with little help on the translating. Every once in a while they lose her, but her Spanish is really improving. I can see some patients with no help, but sometimes they still talk to fast, or I don’t know the words on how to explain things.

After clinic today the counselor who works with the AIDS/HIV patients came to talk to us about her job, and the treatment of AIDS. Most detection of AIDS occurs because people ask for the test. All pregnant patients are required to be tested at the health department upon confirmation of pregnancy. The counselor is there to offer support, social work, and guide them through the process of treatment. The government has a protocol on treatment, although sometimes it is changed based on the cost of available medicines, or medications that may have been donated. They have protocols as to when to start different prophylactic treatments, and essentially the only difference from the US version is their treatment of TB in AIDS patients. Since TB is so prevalent they are at much higher risk of catching it than in America. Patients are able to receive CD-4 counts, antiviral medication and the appropriate treatment if there are found to be compliant with their counseling sessions. Pregnant patients have their babies at a National Hospital which has a separate area for AIDS patients. There they are able to receive proper treatments, and also care for their babies. The babies are tested for the virus every 3 months for the first year, then annually after that. The counselor told us some stories of different patients being in denial, refusing to change their lifestyles (prostitutes, etc.), so it seems they face the same problems with patient compliance as we do.

We are hoping to do some hiking in a cloud forest this weekend on Saturday before my 24 hour OB shift. I am sure I’ll have lots to write about that.

If anyone has any questions about the trip, please let me know… and I’ll try to answer them J

Take care,

Allison

Honduras Part 3

2008-02-12T17:44:00.002-05:00

Greetings…

Brittney and I had our free weekend this past weekend. We decided what better use of our time than to spend it at the beach in February. We traveled two hours by car to a little town called Coyolito. From Coyolito we took a boat to the city of Ampala which is the only town on Isla del Tigre. There really isn't much on the island other than a couple hotels, a few beaches, and a few locals that live there. For $55 we got a hotel for the night and all of our meals, which were pretty tasty, and we didn't even get food poisoning and die. It might be the most remote location I've ever been. The beach is beautiful and serene, it's very secluded. From the shore you can see both El Salvador and Nicaragua. I am pretty sure you could swim to them if you needed to, except I don't know if I want to brave the Pacific Ocean and the sharks that live there. Brittney and I spent most of the day basking or baking in the sun. It seems that the temperature in Ampala can reach over 40 degrees Celsius, which is 104 degrees Fahrenheit. It was the hottest day I've personally ever experienced and that's saying a lot from surviving many a summers in the humidity of Florida. We did lather in sunscreen, but the near equator sun was no match for our very pale skin. Brittney and I managed to go through an entire can of sunscreen in 1.5 days... I think that should be a record of some sort.

The random story of going to the beach was that we ran into another group of gringos (non-Hispanic people) that spoke English, which excited us greatly. One of the girls looked very familiar to me.. I thought…. hey I know that girl. It turns out I DO know that girl. She's the younger sister of a kid I went to high school/middle school/ elementary school with. We were both members of the Indian River Youth Orchestra when I was in High School. She's living in Tegucigalpa teaching English at a bilingual school. We are going to try to do a few things together before we head back to the states. Maybe visit the market, see a futbol game, or help her on the weekends when she gives food to needy kids. At the most remote location in the world, I run into fellow Vero Beachers.

Dr. Parish (Evelyn) got in Sunday morning (2-10). We all had dinner together last night and spent a while catching up and chatting. This morning Brittney and I made breakfast plantains, toast, eggs (which we won't talk about), and turkey bacon, it was a pretty tasty meal. Next time we won't add so much salt to the eggs. Brittney and I gave Evelyn a tour of the clinic yesterday and then Brittney was on her own seeing patients. I had a translator this morning, but for the most part I could get the gist of the problem. We saw at least cases of amebas yesterday. Evelyn said she was pretty sure she hasn't seen three cases of amebas in three years, let alone one day.

Yesterday (2-11) was match day….and I matched at UCONN. So I am headed to Connecticut next year, which is super exciting. They were my top program, so I am glad that they liked me. I think it will be a challenging but very rewarding year. Sofia and Abraham both matched at Geisinger and so far everyone I've heard from is happy with their match results. I am still trying to track down a few of my friends, and of course we are still waiting on everyone doing the allopathic match next month.

After lunch yesterday Dr. Xiomara (our doctor from the clinic) took me to the Montes Hospital, which is a private clinic. It is more middle class. They have an OR, a delivery room, and a few overnight patient rooms. They also have an emergency room, which functions like a doctor's office and a walk in clinic. We didn't have very many patients yesterday. But it was interesting to see the vast contrast in the difference between this setting, our clinic, and the health department. Office visits at the Montes Hospital are about 200 Limpiras, which does not include any medication or laboratory services, those are all extra. So that's a very large difference compared to the 30 lempiras or 1 lempira that the other clinics charge with medications being included. We met the doctor who we work with during the 24 OB shift. Apparently he will be out of town this weekend, so I am working with someone else, one who speaks English, and like teaching. I am very excited about this. Brittney is still working with the scary man, but he at least talks slow enough that you can understand most of what he's saying, we just don't always know how to respond in Spanish. Brittney is going to the hospital tomorrow to work with Dr. Xiomara, and then we each have one more day next week.

Today (2-12) we went to work at the health department. They sent a Brigade out into the community. It's like a mobile medical/vaccine/vector group that goes to a particular neighborhood for people that cannot make it to the actual health department building. On today's brigade we had the opportunity to do a couple pap smears and help with medical treatments. First let me explain that the clinic is basically someone's house. A house is volunteered to hold the brigade and one room became the medical clinic and pharmacy and the other room became the gynecology room. Brittney, Evelyn and I all did a few pap smears. Let's just say it was not the most ideal situation in the world. A bed, a sheet and a robe which were both reused, a speculum, and a flashlight were all we had to work with. It was definitely not up to American standards for hygiene or privacy. I can't imagine anyone volunteering their bedroom for strangers to get their paps done. They are able to get their results in about 15 days, which is pretty good. Then in the main living room, were the medical clinic and the pharmacy. We mainly watched the doctors and interacted when possible. We saw a little girl that had 2^nd degree burns on her arm and all over her body that she got from spilling boiling water. We also saw many skin infections, scabies, and the oh so famous gripe (cold/flu).

Abraham and Sofia walked through the neighborhood with the vector group helping to distribute disinfectant for the water basins. Dengue fever is a major problem in this area… just ask Abraham, he managed to get it last time he was here. But the water they use for cooking and cleaning sits in open containers and the mosquitoes lay eggs in the water and this spreads Dengue. The packets of disinfectant last for 3 months. It's just hard to get people to understand why they need to use them. The neighborhood we visited is mostly slum level living. Abraham and Sofia said it was very interesting to see the living arrangements and how they made the best of what little materials they have. Next week Brittney and I will be going on another community Brigade with the health department and we are supposed to help with the vector group.

I'll stop there for now… this has been a long update… Thanks for making it to the end. Hope all is well in the States.

Attached are a picture from the health department, the brigade sign, and one from the beach. I am working on getting the pictures on Flickr, so I'll let you know when those are up.

Adios.

Allison

Honduras Part 2

2008-02-08T19:04:00.000-05:00

Brittney and I starting see our own patients, well we see them together and mostly without a translator. She is able to get most of the history and I can give directions for the physical exam.. it's a good system we have. Mostly we've seen Gripe, which is cold/flu symptoms, presion alta - high blood pressure, and diabetes - which is still diabetes. Brittney and I were both shocked on the number of patients we've seen who have high blood pressure. They don't even have the bad lifestyles and diet like we do in America... it's just proof that sometimes genetics out wins lifestyle. We did have a patient with chest pain today… which was very exciting to us, because one we understood dolor en el pecho, and it wasn’t Gripe. No worries.. he’s fine, and will do well with his anti-inflammatory medications for costochondritis.

Yesterday we visited the Health Department. Let’s just say that was an interesting experience. Each state or region has multiple Health Departments, similar to the county system we have. The medical care is essentially free, they pay 1 limpira which is about 5 cents. The clinic that we work, the people pay 30 limpira, which is about $1.50. So the poor of the poor go to the Health Department. We meet with the director and she gave us a tour, speaking very fast Spanish that neither Britney nor I understood. One of the doctors from our clinic translated little bits for us. We saw the dental area, the pharmacy, the counseling area. They have programs for vaccinations, family planning and nutrition. The vectors program was out and about in town vaccination all the wild dogs… sounds like a fun job to me. Some of the medical students from the Medical University were having class while we were there. All of their students are required to do a social service year, which is similar to residency but they work at clinics like ours or the health department. We are apparently going to go once a week now to work at the Health Department, again… I don’t think our Spanish is up to that, but we’ll try our best. The most notable difference from the Health Department in America to the one in Honduras was the two stray dogs running around. I am pretty sure that stray dogs are not allowed in the health department in America.

Dr. Parish is coming this week. She is one of the professors from our school. I am not sure exactly what the schedule will be like once she gets here, but it will be nice to have another English speaking person around.

Brittney and I went to the mall today to exchange money. I am pretty sure the mall in downtown Tegucigalpa might be one of the nicest malls I’ve even been too. It’s way better than the mall in Christiansburg, VA, but really that’s not really saying much. We’ve decided we need to go back and go shopping later. I still can’t get over the armed guards with BIG guns at every store, entrance, etc. They really like to have guns.

We have many small ninos that live near us that enjoy running around till all hours of the night, so we haven’t been getting much sleep. But things are going well and I will leave you with pictures of our lovely accommodations and some pictures of the clinic and Baxter institute.

Allison

Our house -- Kitchen, our room, and our clinic room.

Honduras Part 1

2008-02-07T08:12:00.000-05:00

Greetings Family and Friends...

Some of you probably know, but for those who don't know... I am in Tegucigalpa Honduras on a one month medical mission trip. I am here with 3 other classmates of mine... We are at the Baxter Institute which is a Theology school. Abraham and Sofia (who are recent newlyweds) are working on their international PhD program thesis. Brittney and I are working in the clinic for the month.

I left for Miami early Sunday morning and actually ended up on the same flight with Brittney, she was connecting from D.C., so it was nice to see a familiar face on the plane and have someone to go through customs with. Customs is always an interesting experience, and it doesn't help that we didn't understand most of what the security guards were telling us. They checked our luggage to my horror all my powder laundry soap had exploded all over my clothes in transit, so lots of white powder fell out as I opened by bag. I am glad that it had that spring time freshness fragrance or I might still be in customs. At least my clothes are definitely clean and smell nice.

Brittney and I oriented to the Clinic on Monday. Today and Yesterday we each spent a day working with the doctor and one day in the pharmacy. I at least know most of my numbers in Spanish, so that wasn't too bad. We did have a minor surgery today!!! and you know how much I love that. We removed a lipoma from an elbow. I've decided that I don't really like suturing elbows.. they are tricky little things. Tomorrow we are going to see patients on our own for the first time... it should be very interesting seeing as we don't know much Spanish yet. I've mastered a few phrases. Abra la boca por favor -- please open your moth, and respire profundo por su boca -- breathe deeply through your mouth. I am working on the phrase that tells the patient that I speak little Spanish and to please speak slowly and answer yes or no when possible. We are going to visit the Department of Health, and spend a few days at the hospital, so that should be fun and exciting. We will be taking 24 hour call at the teaching hospital in the OB department. Which is a little intimidating because the doctor we will be working with will not speak English... but we'll see how that goes.

The only real excitement we've had so far was getting locked out of our apartment. Abraham somehow locked the door so you could only open it from the inside. After several hours of trying to get the door open, someone had to climb up a ladder and climb in our second story window (the only window without bars on it), remove the glass shingles and screen and open the door from the inside. It was quite the drama yesterday.

I am not sure how many times I will be able to send emails... but I will to update at least once a week.

I attached pictures that I took from the plane. I haven't taken many other pictures yet, but I will try.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Take care,

Allison

knitted heart

2007-12-19T11:38:00.001-05:00

P9271606
Originally uploaded by searchn4thought

Here's the worst knitted anatomical item EVER!!!

It really is a horrible pattern, and it kinda looks like a heart. I really just like the coronary vessels that I stitched on. I am so not going to be a cardiologist.

Socks

2007-12-19T11:36:00.001-05:00

PC101662
Originally uploaded by searchn4thought

Another sock... the pattern.. Charade
http://www.imaybeknittingaranchhouse.com/archives/Charade.pdf

I think I am making them for my mom.. not sure yet. I've just started the pattern part on the second sock.

Sorry gina... yarn that wasn't bought at Mosaic. I got this lovely Kougi at Purl in NY,NY. Right before we saw John Mayer walking down the street. Mosaic is still number 1.

Monkey Socks

2007-12-19T11:33:00.001-05:00

PC101667
Originally uploaded by searchn4thought

I did finish my Monkey socks... they are bright...

They need more ribbing on the top, then tend to fall down. but overal not bad.

I didn't die... just moved across the country

2007-12-19T11:05:00.000-05:00

So.... I've been bad about updating. I guess it comes with the fact that I live out of my car, change hospitals every 27 days, have driven 8,000 miles in 4 months, get very little sleep and just don't have the motivation to write at the moment.

Here's a brief re-cap.

October - I was in Danville, PA at Geisinger Medical Center. Rotation - General Surgery. LOVED IT!!.. minus my annoying resident, but he got better by the end of the month. Apparently all I needed to say was I didn't want to be a member of his harem and it made me cool. Who knew.. I would have said that much sooner. I worked mostly in surgical oncology, big belly cases, ovarian tumors, Whipples, lots of breast surgery. All things I love. I didn't knit much, I went to bed at 8:30-9 pm every night so I could get up at 4 am. Yay for rounding at 5 in the morning. But I did get to spend most days in the OR and we all know I love that, so I'll get up at un-godly hours of the morning for that. I interview in Chicago, Danville PA, and Lancaster PA. Chicago was hands down my favorite of those.

November -- I traveled up to West Hartford, CT to do Ob-gyn at University of Connecticut. Love UCONN... don't so much love ob-gyn. I had really great expectations for that rotation and it failed miserably in all aspects. I did get to stay with one of my best friends Heidi and her husband Hank, both whom I went to undergard with (Heidi and I also went to med school together). So it was good seeing them. I think they might have swayed me to pick general surgery... I enjoy ob-gyn in theory but the daily application of it makes me want to kill patients, and that's a bad thing. I did some knitting... started too many projects. I really need to finish projects one of these days (maybe that will be my new year's resolution...) I interviews in New York, Maine, New Jersey, and Connecticut. I liked Maine as a state, not sure I am ready to move that far north or for the moose. I did learn how to properly hit a moose with your car... always from the back, it's the only way you don't die. good thing to know. UCONN is my number one choice right now. I just love their hospitals, and all the things they have to offer. It will be a rough year, but I think I'll be super genius smart at the end of it.

December - I am currently in Hershey PA at Penn State doing Surgical Endocrinology. I've gotten to see thryoidectomies, parathyroidectomies, couple random surgeries here and there.. splenectomy, gastric by-pass, hernia repairs, etc. I did a couple days of pediatric endocrinology clinic, which reminded me why I am not going into anything outpatient based and pediatrics. I like Penn State. I might apply here next year when I do surgery (again 90% sure on this decision... but after next year I could change my mind again). Lots of knitting this month... seeing as I had no friends or TV and my computer was being temperamental most of the month and would randomly stop working. Again started more projects than finished any... I am really bad about that. I head home to Florida on Saturday... 17 lovely hours in the car with my cat....yeah it should be a blast.

I'll spend Christmas in Florida and then head back to the burg sometime after the holiday. I have to move all my stuff to storage. .... long story with the roomie and selling the house etc. I hope to come by the store and oogle yarn, and if mommy listened correctly spend Christmas money on some new yarn (noro sock yarn if any is left... or something equally as nice to look at)... then it's back to Florida until April. The family got tickets to the Orange Bowl, so we are going to that game. YAY!!! I've seriously missed some hokie football this year... it makes me very sad. It's a problem when you have no TV... I am ready to not be homeless anymore. I have two more interviews.. then it's time to sit down and make the final list.

So here's the plan for the rest of the year....

January -- I am doing ER down in West Palm Beach. I'll be quasi close to my family (1 hour) which is far better than normal. My grandparents live down there and I don't see them much, usually only once a year, if my Grandpa is feeling up for Christmas.

Match day is February 11th (the day where they tell me where I am going next year..) I'll be in Honduras... so we shall see if I actually find out or not. I hope I match, I really don't want to have to deal with the scramble process from a third world country.

March -Rotation in Florida... for some reason I decided a medical intensive care rotation would be good.. yeah pretty much retarded on that topic. I should remedy that soon.

Then April I am back to Salem, Va... which is like being in the burg. I'll be doing Plastics and Anesthesiology.. so I should have free time :-) Good job for picking slightly slacker rotations to end the year with ;-)

May I have OFF!!!!...I will be moving to where I match, getting stuff ready for Graduation, going on vacation, and seeing all my friends get married.

June.... GRADUATION!! I think today is 170 days... so close.

Oh.. I passed my Physical Examination Board Exam...where they grade me on simulated patient encounters. so YAY!!! all official board examinations required for graduation DONE.. one more before I get my official licence. Now all I have to do is write a paper, then all requirements for graduation complete.

So that's about it... enjoy the couple of pictures I have uploaded to the web.

al

knit.1 heart

2007-09-26T07:05:00.000-04:00

I am trying to work on the knit.1 anatomic heart, but I just don't have the motivation to do so. I think it might have something to do with my lack of love for cardiology. I have the ventricles, aorta, 1 or 3 arteries and most of one atrium completed. It shouldn't take me much more time to finish the other atrium and but out a couple more arteries and veins, after all they are mostly a tube. If am going to make this for my doc, I need to have it done in two days, along with a presentation I haven't really worked on, and I need to bake something for the office and start packing. Hopefully tonight I'll find some motivation and bust some stuff out...

Ravelry

2007-09-24T16:58:00.000-04:00

I got my ravelry invite this morning... I have a feeling this might be a BAD thing seeing as all I want to do is look at yarn and patterns, and add all my stuff and not do work. Anyway.... I don't know if anyone else has it but I am Kaydgirl on it.. so be my friend.

Congratulations to the Bride and Groom

2007-09-23T21:07:00.001-04:00

Apparently it was wedding weekend... So congratulations to Gina and Bfriend for tying the knot. Congratulations to my KD Big sister Amanda and her new husband Dave.

A couple of pictures from the wedding in Williamsburg...

The Bride

Big Sister and Little Sister

Best Friends from College.. and yes we are in a bar, and that is football on in the background.

Best part of cardiology

2007-09-19T23:30:00.000-04:00

Look how official I look. That's right after the cardiac cath we had today... only a few more weeks until OR time all the time.

So funny...

2007-09-17T23:15:00.000-04:00

The LandLady

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Crochet???

2007-09-13T05:54:00.001-04:00

I might need to learn to crochet just to make that skull... OMG... I need one or 2 or those lying around. I'd prefer to just adapt the pattern to knit, but I am not exactly sure how to do that. It's on the lion brand website if anybody cares (http://cache.lionbrand.com/patterns/70464A.html?noImages=)

I will be making a knitted heart this weekend, so I'll have plenty of knitted anatomy fun soon.

Boards Update 2

2007-09-10T19:16:00.003-04:00

I PASSED!!!!

Ok that is all.

I'll update about knitting soon.. but my head hurts for the moment.

Knitting party

2007-08-26T19:04:00.000-04:00

Ok people..

I'll be home in a week. We need plans for a knitting party during the month of September (mimi and Belinda.. hint hint). I have a wedding to go to during the weekend of the 22nd but other than that I am free.

So who's hosting? And what do we all need to bring (besides yarn).

I am working on another uterus for the doctor I am working with this month. I am also almost done with a pair of socks. I promise pictures soon.

I am also teaching the lady I am living with how to knit socks... so that's fun.

ok back to writing my personal statement on why I need to be a doctor

Boards update

2007-08-08T18:32:00.001-04:00

The NBOME did get all 400 questions... yay!!!

So as long as I didn't fail I don't have to take boards again.... :-)

SOCKS!!!

2007-08-05T21:41:00.000-04:00

I finished my first pair of socks.... sock knitting might be the new crack. As long as it's not boring or on magic loop... *shudders*

I used this pattern...http://magknits.com/Mar07/patterns/rainy.htm

I changed the CO to a twisted rib. I think I did 6 rows.

This is the basic pattern...

Rnd 1: *k1, p1, k2, p1, k1; repeat from *
Rnd 2: *k1, p1, yo, ssk, p1, k1; repeat from *
Rnd 3: As rnd 1.
Rnd 4: *k1, p1, k2tog, yo, p1, k1; repeat from *

At round three I slipped the first stitch on every needle (I used 4) to the previous needle so that the first stitch was a purl. Then at the K1 at the end and k1 at the beginning of the pattern I made a mock cable. So the pattern became p1, K2, p1, mock cable 2.
I did the mock cable as k2tog but don't slip the stitches off the needle, insert the needle back into the first stitch, knit, then slip both stitches off. I got that from Weekend Knitting (see Union Square poncho).

I also made the heel with a twisted rib.

So those are my socks. Now it's off to bed so I can start work tomorrow.

Cross posted

2007-08-03T22:25:00.001-04:00

I wrote this on my lj...

So today was COMLEX Level 2. Started the day at 9:40. Did all my sections, breaks, etc.

I was finishing my last 50 questions. I hit submit and verified YES I want to end this section. Then ERROR.. and the computer restarted. AHHHHHHHH.. I stared at the computer for a good 5 minutes like WHAT??? No maybe if I close my eyes it will go back to the test and tell me it actually finished it. There is suppose to be a survey at the end where I get to tell the NBOME that their graphics suck and I didn't have problems, etc. Well no survey. The lady at prometric couldn't print my verification that I finished the test, her computer was saying it was still incomplete. She called the IT people and they said they wouldn't know anything until after she closed the site. So I called prometric help center at 745 before they closed. The lady there thinks the test was submitted to the NBOME. I have to call them to make sure it actually did and they got all the sections. I left a message with NBOME but they won't be there until Monday at 9am. So I may or may not have a test to grade. I'd really like to not take boards again. I just don't have time to study again, and I am not smart enough to keep all that random garbage that only boards ask in my head for another month. ...uhh.. As soon I called my mom to tell her how the test went I lost it.... stupid prometric people.

There were several EVMS kids taking USMLE 2 today. Sarah and I chatted with a couple of them during our breaks. There is something about taking medical boards ... well that just screams "I AM TAKING BOARDS TODAY"!!!! Maybe it's the lack of sleep look or the stolen hospital scrubs but there's definitely a look. I told one of the kids who I was rotating with next month... and he said "yeah Dr. Archer is a big deal..".. Awesome I am going to look like a moron. Really looking forward to being dumb next week.

That's all for now.. I am too tired to write anything else...

Picture Happy

2007-07-31T14:46:00.000-04:00

So in the process of packing I did eventually find my camera cord, so I uploaded pictures. YAY!! I wish there was more time to play and knit but sadly I need to finish packing and studying.

Anyway I give you tons of pictures...

Here's the clap that I started that will probably never be finished... oh well. It's pretty to look at.

HARRY POTTER
Ok this dates back to Harry Potter 7 release date. Mimi, Loren and I all went out to dinner and headed over to Barnes and Noble to wait for the books to come out at midnight. Miranda and my roommate Ashley met up with us. Of course we brought knitting and found fiber friends near the knitting books. We brought all the house scarves with us.. .even if they are the wrong colors. Oh well. Here's them mostly done. It was our little area until they had potions class at which time we were almost plumbed to death by small children. I would say around 11 pm... Mimi had either too much coffee or not enough sleep, or maybe a combination of the two. This is what happens when knitters go crazy. Watch out they are letting her teach little kids soon.. you might want to home school your kids. ;-)

But the night was not a total waste... Look at the awesome pattern we found. How was my life complete before this... I totally need a knitted Little Tea Pot hat... and with arm gestures and everything. I think this is going to be the newest "it" item... you watch.

But where can I find such an awesome pattern... oh no worries here's the source. Better hurry up and get your copy before they are all gone. I mean with patterns that HOT it's going to be hard to keep it on the shelf.

The latest knitting project (along with the 8 million things I haven't finished... SOCKS!!
Now I thought I hated knitting socks. But for some reason I decided I wanted to knit socks last week. I have tried several times to knit socks, I get 3/4 done with one and get bored, put the stupid thing away and never get it out again. I have decided a couple things. I don't like knitting socks with magic loop, although there are not 4/5 needles, it's just inefficient with all the moving and looping. It just takes too much work/time to get the stitches where I want them. I much prefer DPNs. I also figured out I don't like knitting plain socks. I have the attention span of about 5 minutes (see 8 million unfinished projects.. and I don't think I am really exaggerating). So knitting a stockinette sock kinda makes me want to take the needles and poke my eyes out. So the remedy: knitting a quasi patterned sock with DPN. I give you a modified version of the Rainy Day Sock from Magknits. I turned the rib section between the YO into a mock cable.
So now I am starting the second sock, because right now I have one, and that doesn't do me any good. I also bought a lovely shade of purple Koigu that will be made into socks when I am done with boards.

In other news... I leave for EVMS on Thursday. I take my second set of board exams on Friday morning. I need to pack and study but yarn is way more fun. Ok aback to work...

I just realized

2007-07-15T19:44:00.000-04:00

I have knit 7 uteri so far this year....

1. Russian Uterus
2. FSU Uterus
3. John Deer Uterus
4. Heidi's Uterus
5. Dr. Fox's Uterus
6. Women's Center Uterus
7. Gina's Uterus

I think I might have a problem with either knitting or anatomy.

Harry Potter

2007-07-14T20:19:00.000-04:00

Miranda or Mimi... (or anyone else who reads HP)... you game for getting books at midnight. Miranda I know you are going out of town, but I wasn't sure when you planned on getting your book.

I am super excited about reading the book. I am giving myself 26 hours to read it..... wooo...

I have returned from falling off the face of the earth..

2007-07-10T16:43:00.000-04:00

So I kinda fell off the face of the earth for a while. I was really busy last month being on ob-gyn. I liked it, didn't love it. So that makes me confused on what I want/need to be when I grow up. But right now I am not thinking about that because it causes me stress and to not sleep.

I spent last week at the beach (Sanibel Florida) with my family. It was nice to sit around and do nothing all week. I ate good food, slept, read a little (mostly school related.. I know not on vacation), knitted, and sat on the beach. I have tan lines, and the only part of my that is burned are my ears. I am so excited that I didn't turn into a burned painful mess.

I did visit a yarn store in Sanibel. It was not as lovely as my yarn store here. I still love you the most Gina. I did buy a new skein of yarn, because well you can't go to a yarn store and not buy yarn. I think I will join the bandwagon and knit the clapotis with it..I'll have to take pictures of it later, first I have to find my camera. I am not sure where half my stuff is right now. In the past two weeks I moved from Wytheville back to Christiansburg eptied out my car and suitcases and then headed to Florida for a week. So my stuff is everywhere and I can't find a single thing.

We have end of the year testing this week. It's so joyous, please note the massive amount of sarcasm in that statement.

Well that's my update for now.

I'll post pictures of knitted things when the camera is found.

Graduation Countdown

2007-06-01T09:08:00.000-04:00

In honor of the Class of 2007 graduating tomorrow... I thought I'd start the countdown until my graduation...

Create yours at BlingyBlob.com!

Carry on..

No I haven't died

2007-06-01T08:41:00.000-04:00

Just letting you know I am not dead...

I am DONE with psych. Oh so happy about that. It was funny when we got our evals from the psychiatrist. Everyone in my group (except me) had increased interest in psychiatric disorders. Mine said "well liked by staff." Which is true, but I just found it amusing, I think it's all my preceptor could muster up instead of writing "Allison hated psych and showed no effort in disguising this fact." In other news I got to watch an appendectomy the other night on my way home from Marion. Why you ask, because my surgeon loves me and entertains my neurosis. He still maintains that I will become a general surgeon. I do love surgery but I don't know if I love GI anatomy that much. I was thinking of knitting him a pancreas and somehow also make the surgery rules. He lets me come to a lot of surgeries and is just the most fabulous person in the world, I adore that man. If I haven't taught you the four rules of surgery here they are.
1. Eat when you can.
2. Sleep when you can.
3. Read when you can.
4. Don't mess with the pancreas.

So I think we should start a knitted anatomy collection for my surgeon... he already thinks I am a little crazy, and he does already have a gallbladder. I guess I could cross stitch the rules... because that just wouldn't be feasible with knitted items... because knitted alphabet just doesn't not sound like fun. There is always the computer but really doesn't help the dexterity factor. I'll see how much free time I have this next month on OB-GYN!!!

That's right Ob-gyn is FINALLY here. I start in the OR on Monday morning. We have a couple of hysterectomies scheduled, and a bladder tact (or at least that's what I think it is based on the OR schedule I have). Which reminds me I need to call over there this morning and make sure nothing else was added on.

I turned in square number 16 yesterday. I don't know my call schedule yet for next month so I am not sure if I will be able to make it Blacksburg for the knitting party. But if I am not working I'll definitely be there, otherwise I'll be sitting in Wytheville staring at my pager wishing it to go off thinking of knitting squares together.

Well friends that is my update... now it is time to get my eyeballs examined and find out exactly how blind I've become this year.

For Gina

2007-05-21T16:19:00.000-04:00

This is the first uterus that also has ovaries.. so feel very special. Really this is why you don't give medical students yarn at random hours of the night.... I started the uterus at 1 am finished at about 4 am. Now it's back to squares.

Addiction to squares

2007-05-16T20:26:00.000-04:00

My new book

Tulip Lace in progress

Completed squares from this week... the psych patients stress me out a little, ok. I need to knit.

Birthday money

2007-05-13T22:55:00.000-04:00

My sister sent me a Barnes and Noble gift card for my birthday. Well seeing as I own literally every book in the medical section, and I really don't think I am exaggerating with that statement, I decided to buy a new knitting book. Really you can never have too many books and you can never have too many books about knitting. I looked at the Vogue knitting stitch dictionary thing for a while but decided against it. There was a really nice pattern book based off lingerie type things, but I doubt I'd wear half the things, even if they were pretty. I finally chose the regular Vogue knitting book. It states on the front it is the ultimate knitting book... you can't go wrong with that. I really need to stop looking at the book and do some real work.....

More Sqaures.....

2007-05-13T13:43:00.000-04:00

Check Pattern

Purled VT.. it comes out better in person than in picture.

Eyelet rib

Hunter's Stitch

Houndstooth Tweed

So far I've made 10 squares. I think I will work on the black Alpaca one.

Here are some pictures from Mosaic... look at all the squares coming in.

That is all for now.

Silliness

2007-05-08T22:33:00.000-04:00

Yes I changed my profile picture to the knitted gallbladder... it makes me laugh. So now when I comment.. you too can have a knitted gallbladder on your page.

Squares!!

2007-05-08T22:14:00.000-04:00

Two more squares done. Both are in two color brioche stitch, black and white, and maroon and orangy/yellow respectively. I have another square on the way -- two color houndstooth or something like that. I'll take pictures when it's done. Hopefully the squares will dry soon so I can un-pin them from the floor. (the color on the black and white one is off a little, but the flash kept the stitches from coming out in the picture)

Does this tree remind you of knitting? The leaves look like little I cords to me... maybe I knit too much. Oh well.

Oh and I hopefully should be recovering from the death (sinusitis/ear infection/upper respiratory infection) soon, I started antibiotic today. So my snotty nose, painful ear, sore throat hacking cough might be gone soon. :-)

Frogging

2007-05-06T20:59:00.000-04:00

So the sporty little numbers vest fit horribly in the back. I took it to Mosaic so the knitting geniuses could rescue it. Well due to it's construction it could not be saved as is. Frogging is really no fun, all that time and hard work ripped out in just a few minutes. I had to take out everything but the front. The entire back was frogged to the ribbing. I think I am just going to rib the entire back so there doesn't have to be an entire reworking of the pattern. I am not sure if the vest will actually ever get done now. My schedule is not going to be real nice for the next year for massive amounts of knitting. I won't be living in the same place for longer than a month starting in August. This is my schedule as of right now. August - Norfolk, September - Farmington Connecticut, October -- Danville PA, November -- Blacksburg, December -- Hershey PA, January -- Florida, February -- Honduras, March -- Florida, April -- Blacksburg, May -- OFF (hopefully moving to my new residency), and then June -- GRADUATION!!! I really hope I actually finish it, i will be super cute when it's done.

I made 3 Hokie squares. One was a maroon and orange stripped square. Here is a picture of the fake cable one. It's really soft alpaca (Blue Sky). It's amazing all the varieties of the squares coming in. I hope we get all the squares we need. I know I'll me making more, especially this month.

Here's a picture of pretty yarn. It's Be Sweet yarn. I think I wrote about it already. I am not sure what I am making with it... but it's just nice to look at. I think I have a yarn obsession.

I will leave you with a Panda picture from the National Zoo... because who doesn't love Pandas?

Washington DC

2007-04-28T16:49:00.000-04:00

Greetings and Salutations from our Nation's Capital.

I am here at the Student Osteopathic Medical Association's (SOMA) spring conference. I arrived on Tuesday, I got to spend a few hours knitting in the car. I worked on the Union Square poncho, it's pretty brainless knitting. Just prior to leaving for DC I finished the sporty numbers vest. There are a couple problems with it (I need to bring it to the store for help). It fits in the front but there is just too much fabric in the back. I am really at a loss for how to fix it. I don't know anything about taking it apart once it's together or anything like that. It just doesn't fit they way I'd like it to. So we shall see what I end up doing with it.

Wednesday was my birthday (happy 25th to me). I spent the day at the Zoo. I took a million pictures of the panda bears. They are just so darn cute. I can upload some of the pictures if people want to see them. Again I really bad about bringing the cord for my camera places with me, so you have to wait on pictures. I then spent the rest of the afternoon painting pottery, yes I know it's not yarn but we don't have a pottery place near Blacksburg/Christiansburg. I did knit a little bit on the metro. I felt very cool, even if my stop was only 5 minutes from where I got on, minor details.

Thursday was DO Day on the Hill. Osteopathic medical students and DO from across the country come together and lobby the state representatives and senators on the important medical issues of the year. This year our main objectives are medicare payment for physicians, the SCHIP Act which insures children that don't qualify for medicaid, and the resident physician shortage Act. Did you know that physicians medicare reimbursement is not altered for inflation. Many doctors are refusing to take medicare patients or limit the number they see in their practices. If you know anyone who is a medicare patient this greatly limits their access to good quality medical care. But physicians can't afford to pay their staff if their entire practice is medicare patients. The physician shortage act is dealing with residencies programs. In 1997 Congress said the number of residencies programs we have right now is all that we will fund. The country is very aware that there will be a physician shortage the problem is now we have increased the number of medical students but we have not increases the post graduate programs. Ultimately this also goes back to medicare payments because that is ultimately what limits hospitals on the number of residents they take. But basically I talked about that all day. I did get to actually meet Dr. Dave Weldon who is my Florida representative, so that was cool. I had some free time between my meetings and spent a few hours at the National Museum of Art. And of course I knitted in front of the senate building. Really you think I can go anywhere without my knitting... hahah.. no.

The SOMA conference has been uneventful so far. We spent yesterday afternoon exploring Gerogretown. I found a yarn store because really I need more yarn. I went to DC Stitch. They have three stores, it wasn't quite as big as Mosaic and they had some yarns that I never heard of. I had to buy some yarn, sorry Gina. I still love you more don't worry. I tried to buy stuff that I couldn't get at Mosaic, because well that would just be dumb. I got a ball of Be Sweet Ribbon yarn. It's made in South Africa by women in a job creation program. It's pinky/peach mohair with ribbon randomly tied throughout it. I am not really sure what I'll do with it, but it's pretty and I like it. I also bought a cone of the stainless steel wool. Again not sure what I am doing with it, but who can pass up something so bizarre. I got two skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca, one in Black and one in orange to make Hokie Healing squares. I also talked to the manager of the store and gave her the info about the Hokie Healing project. She'd heard about it but didn't have the details. Gina she also knew about Mosaic, just thought you should know.

Tonight we have our banquet dinner at the Watergate Hotel. Then we will be out and about around town. I love how our conferences are planned around social events and then our work. It's a nice change from the usual pace. Well that's my very long update for now. I promise pictures when I get back home.

Virginia Tech

2007-04-19T23:46:00.000-04:00

This whole week has been very surreal. It's one of those times that you'll always remember what you were doing when you heard the news. On 9-11 I was in Genetics class with Dr. Morvillo I had just come from my 8 o'clock class and I hadn't seen any of the news. April 16th 2007 will also be one of those days. Monday morning I was in the OR watching Dr. Harris, Dr. Deal and Sarah do a colon resection on a very nice lady who is mostly going to die from stage 4 colon cancer. Dr. Perona came into the OR and announced there had been a shooting at Tech. At first it was a shooting in a dorm building. She came back in a second time to tell us there was another shooting on campus.

After my OR time and came back and watched the news for a few minutes before I needed to sleep in preparation for my ER shift. I watched and the number kept increasing. At least 20 dead, then 22, it just kept rising. I would have watched all afternoon if I hadn't had to go into the ER that night. My phone wouldn't stop ringing. All my friend from Florida who don't really understand what rotations are and don't fully understand that the medical school really isn't at Tech called. I got messages... Allison your school's on TV, please call me back and let me know you are ok. Message after message. I answered I am safe. I am not sure if we will be OK from this or not. I hope some day we are, but I won't guarantee that.

We watched the news all night in the ER (remind you this is now 2 am or so). The story kept changing the shooter was still unidentified and was not a student, then about 5 am he was a student. He was a student that lived in West AJ... just kidding, he didn't live there either. It seemed like every five minutes there was a different story. We continued to watch. They interviewed the doctors that worked in the ER at MRH. Dr. Joe was on CNN. Now this is not the local Roanoke news, this is CNN and this is Dr. Joe. The same Dr. Joe who's house I've been to, who's kids I've hung out with and the same man I've been to Africa and back with twice. This is the man that interviewed me during my medical school interviews. And now here he was talking to CNN about this tragedy. By the time I got off work and home it was almost 9 am. Just about the time for the mornings press conference. They announced the identity of the shooter. I spent the rest of the day napping on the couch and watching the news. I watched the convocation. I got upset at the camera men who focused on the father who was overcome with grief in the middle of the service and had to leave. Showing it is one thing, focusing on it for entirely too long is just wrong. The man lost his child, something that I can only imagine is the worst feeling in the world. The family deserves respect. Dr. Giovanni's poem was just amazing. I don't think words can properly describe how inspirational she was.

When Gerri got home from work we decided to head up to Blacksburg and meet up with some of the other medical students so we could attend the candlelight vigil.

I am a Hokie. Although the main campus really isn't something we are very familiar with. It is a part of our school. It's like our big sister, close to us when we need it but also a little unknown and mysterious. It was really great to see the community come together like that. The hokie spirit is definitely alive. It might be bruised and hurting for the time, but it's not dead. We stood there with our candles surrounded by Hokies. We were all there because we love Virginia Tech, to remember those that were lost, and to support those that will deal with the aftermath.

I am sorry that this is what Virginia Tech will go down in history for. Even if some great discovery were to come from the Engineering department, Math department or medical school they will always bring up April 16th 2007. I just hope we do not let this event define who we are. We will endure and hopefully overcome it. We are Hokies.

I pray for the families affected. I pray for the students who are recovering. I pray for the friends that are mourning. I pray for the EMS, Police and Firefighters that came to the rescue. I pray for the Virginia Tech community that not only is in Blacksburg but extends across the state and throughout the country.

No matter your Alma mater or school loyalty today we are all hokies. We are the Hokies...we will prevail. We ARE Virginia Tech.

Meet the FSU Uterus

2007-04-15T23:08:00.000-04:00

As promised here are pictures of the FSU uterus' trip to the ER. This is one reason why I should never be bored in the ER... ah but it was highly amusing to me at 4 am.

Sometime this week it will be mailed to Stephanie and hopefully it will have a nice life in Florida.

Now it is time to read about surgery before bedtime because I am visiting the OR tomorrow (yay!!).

Saturday night

2007-04-14T22:57:00.001-04:00

I just opened a bottle of Williamsburg Winery's Two Shilling Red wine. I am spending the night drinking wine, knitting, watching movies, and doing laundry. Life is just great (minus the laundry)!!

Just a little side note on
Williamsburg Winery in case you've never heard of them. They make some great wines that are decently priced. You can get most of there selection from Kroger. I think last time I was at Kroger the Governor's White was about 7 dollars. I enjoy their Plantation Blush, Governor's White, and Two Shiling Red, just in case anyone wanted a recommendation. I remember the late Vidal Harvest was also tasty. I am a big fan of Virginia Wineries and wine festivals. It's right up there with my love for yarn.

I spent Friday knitting with Mimi at Mosaic. I finished the front half of my sweater, I am working on the back side of the sweater now. I knitted the FSU uterus the other night, I finished it up at the ER. Yes I knit at the hospital even in the ER when I am not busy. I took a couple pictures of it but I forgot to bring my camera cord to Christiansburg with me, so I'll have to upload the pictures later. They are highly amusing.

I might go knit at Mosaic tomorrow depending on how much laundry I get done tonight. I should get a bunch of knitting done next weekend. I am walking in the VT's Relay for Life, so I'll be up for most of the night. I wonder if I can knit and walk at the same time, or if I'll fall over and die. hahaha.

Ok back to knitting, wine, and laundry.

Yarn Ideas

2007-04-04T20:48:00.000-04:00

So because I am working in Max Meadows this month on my lunch break I sometimes have time to stop by Fiber 4 Ewe. I picked up the multi colored hank of yarn seen above. It's yarn from a local spinner (Alana Anderson--The Maidservants Treasures). I have a picture of the sheep it came from.. it's pretty cool. I looked at this yarn the last time I was there but decided on the two seafoam ones (one seen above). Now the problem is I have this yarn and and no clue what to do with it. I want to use all three skeins together, but I am just not sure what. The teal color in the multi skein matches the two seafoam skeins. I have 210 yards of the seafoam color and 44 yards of the multi. The multi colored skein appears to be a heavier weight, but I don't think it's far off (it's a different breed of sheep from the other two). So my knitting geniuses... what should I make??? Not like I have time to knit more projects, but I couldn't resist handspun yarn that I know I can't get anywhere else. Don't worry Gina.. I still love Mosaic more.

I really went to buy stitch holders because I'll be needing them for my sweater, and I'd rather buy them from a local store than Wal-mart. ehhh.. the Wal-mart yarn section makes me ill.

Not knitting related

2007-03-27T23:07:00.000-04:00

Just some thoughts I had on surgery and the OR.

Surgery thoughts

Knitted Anatomy

2007-03-26T17:52:00.000-04:00

So I had a few hours to spare today. My doc gave me the afternoon off. Seeing as I am finishing surgery this week (sadness) I wanted to make something for my doc I started knitting. What else could a general surgeon want than a knitted gallbladder? I based it roughly off the knitted GI tract pattern. I mounted it on a piece of card stock, so it serves as a thank you note and a cool knitted gallbladder. The red thing is suppose to be the liver. What else could be better? Now onto the pictures....

This greatly amuses me. He sure won't forget this month for a while.

I really am going to miss surgery. I think I could be a surgeon... blood and guts are totally fun. And knitting helps with the manual dexterity thing, so it's a win win situation I think.

Works in Progress

2007-03-25T15:23:00.000-04:00

Here's my Union Square Poncho in progress. The pictures are not the greatest for the color. It's a little darker in real life. And the mock rib doesn't come across well in the pictures, but it's really nice in real life. I promise. :-) It's about 6 inches long right now. I only have 50ish more to go, so it will be done in about 5 years.

Here's my Sublime Little Sporty Numbers Vest. This is my first big people sweater, and I picked a pretty complex pattern so again it will be done in 5 years or so. I really enjoy knitting with Sublime. It's a fabulous yarn. And here's a close up of the cable/bobble section. Cables are one of my new favorite things to knit.

Here's a picture of spring. Meredith and I went walking around downtown historic Wytheville. We should have gone yesterday when everything wasn't closed, but it was still nice to be outside enjoying the sun. There are a bunch of cute little shops in Wytheville, so hopefully we will get to them before June.

I love daffodils.

Old pictures

2007-03-23T07:15:00.000-04:00

Seeing as I still don't have batteries for my camera, I decided some old knitting pictures were in order. This is Pennington the cat. He loves to sleep on yarn... good thing he's a Hokie's fan too!! The scarf is some yarn from Mosiac that I bought way back in the day, but I don't remember what kind it is. It's two strands of yarn knit together on size 50 needles. Which are more like knitting with poles than actual needles.

Here's one of the latest uteri that I made. Made for one of my sister's friends in Florida. She wanted a uterus made out of the Russian Flag colors. She has an obsession for all things Russian. So here's the Russian Uterus.

This is the latest knitting I finished for myself. The hat is bright and obnoxious and I love it. The scarf was the bane of my existence for several months. I had to count and make sure I was on the right row, and I would mess up and have to rip it out. Or I'd get off and have to come into the shop and have Sandy fix it for me. But I did finally finished it, and I do love it. So that's really all that matters.

Ok time to go to work so I can save a few lives today. I don't think we are doing anything that exciting, but you never know what the day holds.

Knitting Blog

2007-03-17T12:09:00.000-04:00

So I caved and decided to start a knitting blog, because really I need to spend MORE time on the Internet. It seems all my favorite Blacksburg/Christiansburg knitters are on here, so why not join them. I already have an account on LJ but I am very good about updating on there. My life doesn't seem all that exciting anymore, but school will do that.

So this will be mainly about knitting maybe a little bit about medicine... we shall see.

I am working on my first sweater (well actually sweater vest). I was deathly afraid of sweaters until recently. I've knitted a couple baby kimonos which are insanely easy, and I've knit a dog sweater. So after that how much harder can an adult sweater be. I am knitting the Little Sporty Number from Sublime. I am using Sublime extra fine merino, which is to die for. It is very soft and just fabulous to knit with. I chose the pinkish/red color redcurrant. When I get back to Wytheville where my camera is I'll try to take a few pictures of it in progress.

I also splurged on some new yarn yesterday. Because when I have the day off from working and Mosaic is having a sale I just can't resist. I bought 12 skeins of Louisa Harding Merino blend in Navy. I plan on making a poncho out of it. I know I shouldn't start it now, but I really want to play with the new yarn.

I also bought Weekend Knitting, which I'd been eyeing for quiet some time. Yay for new patterns and things that I don't have the time to knit. Oh well.

I finished a set of Knitty's fetching last weekend. I made them out Debbie Bliss Pure Cashmere. They are just fantabulous to wear. The pattern really needs to be a little longer on the finger part, but other than that it's a quick knit and the cables are an easy first cabling project.

I find it highly amusing that I am known as the girl that knits uteri or uteruses (I believe both are technically correct). My sister keeps asking me to knit a garnet and gold uterus for one of her friends. I have a waiting list of 4 or 5 people that want a knitted uterus, me included on that list. Pennington the cat decided shredding one was a good idea. So maybe this summer when I have a little more free time I'll be a uterus knitting machine.