Louie

Let me start with a disclaimer: I love my dog very much, possibly too much.

BUT

He is a lot of trouble. Last year we had the three tumors removed: one on his eyelid, under his chin and the one on his foot that ultimately caused him to have his toe removed. We couldn't just have one surgery. No, his foot became infected which required another surgery for debridement and antibiotic therapy. By the way, I could have died when I found out we paid $24 for cephalexin. Let me just say I didn't pick him up because I would have had it filled at the pharmacy for 24 cents.

We thought all of this was past us, but a few months ago another tumor came up on his shoulder. This time panicking still from the toe, we immediately took him to the vet. We ended up just having it removed for sake of not having to worry. Everything seemed like it was going good, and Gabe and I removed the stitches Monday night 10 days after the surgery. The next day I get home from work, and was getting ready to bother Louie as always. I looked down at him and noticed that there was a gaping wound. The wound had popped back open. It was like 3 inches long and 1.5 inches wide. It was so nasty you could see the muscle and everything. Anyways it required another office visit and sedation to have it restitched. Why on earth did I think we would get this done in one visit? Gabe and I calculated how much we have spent on vet bills for Louie. Lets just say most people would call us crazy.

So, in honor of my troublesome and costly dog, here are pictures of him over the years. He is very photogenic.

I don't think he was impressed with his pink flashing New Year's crown.

Here is a picture of him right after his toe removal.

He really didn't need this cone, but I made him wear it for a picture.

Writer's Block

Well as I am sure you can all tell, it has been a while. I have had multiple people tell me that I need to add a new blog, but I am just having a writer's block. I am also trying to work on our wedding website and can not even find the words to write about Gabe and I's relationship. I have this week and next and then I have a 2 week break from rotations. I definitely need a chance to get away for a while. I have been going strong since January with no more than a week off. I am exhausted from pharmacy. I want just one day to take my camera and do something that I love. I don't know what I will photograph, but I am sure I will find something.

As far rotations,
I am at the Sullivan Hospital now and absolutely love it. It is definitely so laid back. I actually wouldn't mind working at a hospital like that after my student loans are repaid.

I am embarrassed to say that I have absolutely no new pictures to add.

Updates...

Ok so there has been a lot happening in the last 2 weeks. Not only have I been trying to process my mom's news, but I started my acute care rotation all within the same 2 day period. I am slightly behind posting but it is going to be a busy 5 weeks. I am actually at MO Bap in STL for 5 weeks doing my acute care rotation (you know the hard one that every student dreads). Altough I am busy, I actually am really enjoying what I do. I do not hate getting up and going. Cal me crazy. Even though I am enjoying my rotation, I am still counting down the days left (its 18 days by the way).

So I guess I can finally tell everyone of my future plans after graduation. I have signed on with Sandy to be the PIC at Sinks in Belle. They should be receiving my signed letter in the mail within the next couple of days. I am really excited about this especially since we have decided to move closer to Owensville. Hopefully if everything falls into place, my house will be on the market at the start of the year and we will be moving sometime within the next year. The sooner the better in my book. This house is not big enough for the 4 of us. However, this will all be dependent on the crummy housing market.

Bored

I think I am losing my mind. Gabe and I have not seen each other all week. I know it is only Wednesday but it will be until friday night before I see him again and then I have to work on saturday and sunday is a work picnic. I am getting extremely bored at home by myself. Although I am so bored, I am very proud of Gabe for taking all of these evening classes. He should be officially done with Firefighter 1 and 2 tomorrow, leaving only Haz-mat Opts and his state exam. I think he is slightly nervous about taking his exam but he had the highest grade on his mid-term out of his entire class. I am pretty sure he has only not passed one quiz (at least that is all he has told me about) but that was because he apparently forgot to flip over the paper and take the last 3 questions. That is ok Gabe, we have all had those exams. I am having flashbacks to Therapeutics 2 when I forgot to give my pregnant patient a prenatal vitamin. I will never forget that.

Here are some photos of Gabe and some guys doing pump training and making rainbows.





PS...Our friends had their baby. I can't wait to get some pictures of him, but the last 2 times I was there I forgot my camera. Also I will call him baby L and not by name since we do live in Franklin County and we don't want anyone getting any ideas. As I am sure you are all aware, we have some real weirdos here and are known for our kidnappings and missing children.

Wedding Dreams

Well it is time for me to take a break from wedding planning. I woke up the other night crying because I had a terrible dream about my wedding day. Everything that could go wrong did. Here's what happened:
1. My dress didn't fit.
2. I had someone do my makeup and they used so much that it was peeling off.
3. My hair was falling down.
4. The flowers wilted.
5. Gabe saw me before the wedding.
6. Gabe refused to wear a tux. He was insisting on blue jeans and a t-shirt although the other guys were in a tux.
7. My bridesmaids wouldn't help me redo my terrible makeup.
8. The photographer wouldn't take pictures.
9. Gabe had every guy I didn't like in highschool as groomsmen.

I am so glad that I finally woke up because who knew what would happen next.
Because of all of this, I decided that I need some time to stop thinking about planning my wedding and take a break.

Residency

OK to set the record straight. I am NOT doing a residency. I am so sick of everyone jamming a 2 year residency down my throat. It is just not going to happen.

So here is the deal. When you are on rotations, every preceptor seems to think that a residency is right for everyone, and for my first three rotations, I would humor them and say that I am still trying to decide. However, in the back of my mind I'm thinking no way. Well on this rotation, I just decided to tell them heck no, not going to happen. The Pfizer rep that I was having lunch with that day was slightly taken back by this comment, but I don't care. Put me in a retail pharmacy to count pills all day. That is kind of what I went to school to do. Check prescriptions and not touch people. During this lunch "meeting" I proceeded to think through the pros and cons of doing a residency, and here is what I came up with.

Cons:

1. Two additional years of no income

2. Two additional years of being bossed around

3. Two additional years of being told "Look it up"

4. Two additional years of doing someone elses work at 5am while they come strolling in at 8

5. Two additional years of reading primary literature (I hate primary literature)

6. I would like to get married some day.

7. I would like to have children before the age of 35.

8. I would like to finally say that I am no longer a student. (It's been 18 years, 19 if you count Kindergarten).

9. If everyone did a residency, where would we all work? There's not that many clinical positions.

10. I may be mistaken but retail makes more than most clinical positions.

11. There is no hospital within 45 minutes of where I hope to live.

I am sure there are many more, but I am tired of typing them out...

CONS:

1. ?? I am pretty sure I thought of one the other day.

I was trying to find an old picture of our white coat ceremony to post only because the school received our lab coats like hours before the ceremony, and they were all wrinkled. It was slightly humorous, but I couldn't find them.

So here is a cute picture of Lizzy, my mom's dog.

Wedding Frustration

So I was doing ok on the wedding plans, but I have hit a total road block. The bridesmaid dresses. I have no clue what to pick out. Angie and I went and found a few but everything was so expensive, and how are you suppose to decide what will fit everyone? When Kinsey and I went to look at dresses in Washington, it was a very interesting adventure. The dresses were all crammed in this back room that smelled of moth balls. Not to mention we felt like we were in the 90's. So Kinsey was a sport and tried on 3 dresses just so we didn't feel so bad just leaving. Yuck they were aweful.

As for my dress, I am kind of waiting a little while before I go and look just because I want my mom to come too, and since she can't ride in a car for 6 weeks, it may be a while.

If anyone has ideas, PLEASE email me.

I really like this picture of Gabe and I. I am considering using it in our wedding invitations except for cropping it up from the waist.

Are we not all so cute. I think by this time my father was tired of taking pictures, but he was a good sport.



I love this picture of Gabe. I am sure that this photo was taken as I was sitting down my camera and it just accidentally went off.

MOM

My mom is finally starting to recover from her surgery. It was amazingly fast how quick they were able to get her in. She went for her appointment on tuesday and had the surgery on thursday. I think slowly she is regaining some of the major things she has lost but it may take up to 18 months before we know exactly how much is regained. Anyways it was pretty awesome sunday, Angie and I were both home and were able to catch up with each other and the rest of the family that stopped by.

Wedding Details

Well to do a quick update, Gabe and I got engaged July 21, 2008, and I am already stressed out from wedding planning. The first thing I did was book my photographer which to me seemed most important despite what my mom thought. After many days of whinning, everyone gave in and I got Travis Duncan, so I was happy again. Gabe maybe just gave in because he was suffering from an appendicitis and at the time didn't care. After many long debates, we have decided to get married at the Catholic church at Neier which I am so happy about. So we have the following booked: 1. A photographer 2. A church 3. A reception hall (the old brewery in Washington).

I am still trying to decide how I am going to convince Gabe that the dogs (charlie and louie) need to be at the wedding. But oh well, there is still 360 days to figure this out.