Monday, December 31, 2012

Making Plans and You Are Invited

Happy New Years Eve! Do you have big plans? I hope they are better than mine. The kids want to stay up late, so I will be resetting the clocks - they will never know the difference. We'll put a movie on, eat some pizza, and probably be in bed before 11:00.  Maybe we'll finish off the egg nog and apple cider. That's how we do it around here.

But what I am really excited about, and the part you are invited to as my personal guest, is our first Medical Monday's blog hop of 2013! So before you forget, write down this date Monday January 7, 2013. You can join as early as midnight or as late as Friday the 11th. Just come!

If you have a post related to medicine in mind, start writing and get ready to post it on Monday the 7th and then link it up with us. If you don't have time to write a new post, link an old one and give yourself the day off from blogging! If that sounds like too much work (writing, and digging around for an oldie but a goodie), who cares - link up your blog anyway! We want to see you there.

And while you are there, check out who else has linked up. You may find a blog soul sister or mister. Yes, we have a few men who join too! Anyone with a connection to medicine is invited.

Is this is the first time you've heard of Medical Mondays? Read here.

This month we have some terrific co-hosts lined up. In addition to the regulars Your Doctors Wife and From A Doctors Wife, we have the authors of  The Mitten Wife and When Life Gives You Medicine Make Martinis. We are excited to have them join our team! Skip on over to their blogs and take a sneak peak.

If you would be interested in co-hosting a future Medical Mondays blog hop, or have suggestions for making the event even more fabulous send an email! You can contact Emma at yourdoctorswife@gmail.com or Jane at fromadoctorswife@gmail.com.

Wishing each of you the happiest of New Years! See you next Monday!

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Friday, December 28, 2012

What Did Santa Bring?

One year I hope to let loose and only buy gifts that are lavish and non-practical in every possible way. Previous years Santa has brought a new roof, appliances large and small, concrete driveways, and garage doors.... all non-portable gifts, that were subsequently gifted to the owners of the home we used to call ours.

This year there was no house to pamper with our checkbook... that may be the best gift of all! Being practical is a characteristic that is nearly impossible to break. So in true fashion Santa brought life insurance and a passport. Merry Christmas!

Yes, you read that right. Insurance in the form of life for my husband and me, and disability insurance for him. And a passport just for me. I will start out the new year with a new sense of security - priceless.

In filling out the application for the insurance policies they asked some rather unique questions about my hobbies and interests. After reading through their list I can declare myself not only practical but a fat zero on the risk scale.

Do I skin or scuba dive? How often, how deep, where?

Do I mountain climb? How often, how high, where?

Do I sky dive? How often, how high, where?

Do I hang glide? How often, how high, where?

Do I participate in auto, motor cycle, or power boat racing? How often, where.

Have I traveled outside of the country? When? How Long? What for?

Well, I don't do any of those things. In fact, I have never even tried the majority of them and the only one I half considered was sky diving along time ago. At this stage in the game I think my time for that is over.

And then there are the other lifestyle questions about my risky behaviors on solid ground without momentum:  smoking, drinking, drugs (both illegal and legal), etc. No. No. No.

My goodness what do I do?

From the application they will know that I exercise, had four surgeries (all babies), and take birth control pills. What an interesting picture that paints. Rather it makes me feel, blah! Not that I have any overwhelming desire to do any of the recreational activities they included, but I don't think I am boring. There isn't time to be bored, that's for sure.

I suppose getting a passport for Christmas makes me feel a little wild. Maybe one day I will actually go somewhere a passport is required. Dangerous and risky!

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Monday, December 24, 2012

The Gift of Perspective

This weekend my husband was on call at the hospital. It isn't just any hospital, it is where the sickest of the sick go. It is where people go expecting miracles. And sometimes miracles do happen. Other times you just have to pray anyway.

This weekend a toddler came in with a recurring brain tumor...

They are going to attempt removing it again today, but her prognosis isn't good. She likely won't live to see next Christmas.

I was asking about the case, and my husband couldn't even talk about it. We have a daughter almost the same age. That's the problem with pediatric cases, as a parent we always have a child about the same age and one of the reasons he isn't pursuing a pediatric speciality. I can't imagine going through this the day before Christmas and knowing that this may be their last Christmas together.

Other parents are dealing with children already taken too soon. Presents purchased that will never be opened. Plans and futures forever altered.

Sometimes gifts are unexpected, but they are no less valuable. This year I've received the gift of perspective. Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without my children and my family. My healthy children. What is under the tree doesn't hold a candle to the joy my children give me.

My heart breaks for the parents who are without their children, and I pray that they find lasting peace and strength.

Love is an amazing thing. And Christmas is the ultimate celebration of love.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son". John 3:16

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

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Thursday, December 20, 2012

If There Was A Good Time This Would Be It!

Something nasty has hit our household. Part of our household. This week my two little ones and I have been sick, sick, sick.

Symptoms: cranky, irritable, headache, general body aches, low fevers, runny noses, lethargy, want to stay in my pajamas all day (and do), watch moves all day (and do), and no appetite (so I don't). Guess who is the only one in the house who didn't get the flu shot? I wish I could have just had it done at the pediatricians office when the kids got theirs. Why don't they?

If there ever was a good time to be sick this would be it. It took all day, but even being sick I baked and frosted about 7 dozen cookies. They are the cookies that I use as a drug this time of year. They are so good. These particular cookies (sour cream sugar cookies) are probably also part of the reason I find it so difficult to keep weight off during the holidays. But, when you are sick nothing tastes good and you don't feel like eating. Period.

I am going to call it a blessing in disguise. They will be packaged up and sent to neighbors today. Everything takes longer when you are sick so if I start now I might finish before this evening. I wish you were my neighbor, I would bring you some.

And perhaps the best piece of timing: Army Wives season 6 is out on Netflix. So while frosting cookies   I watched 4 episodes, and will probably finish the season before the weekend is up - especially if this illness doesn't pass soon.

I hope the hospital where you are is slowing down for the holidays. Some services seem to, others not so much. Right now, not too many electing to be sliced and diced before the big day. After Christmas might be a different story. I suppose this counts as another "good timing" blessing, because the doctor was home early (4 pm) yesterday and should be home before dinner again today.

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Monday, December 17, 2012

Dress Code - Unwritten Rules

Before you go thinking this is going to be a post on what to wear to the hospital Christmas party you should know that I don't have that problem.... because we didn't get invited to any parties this year which makes the dilemma of what to wear no dilemma at all. I will wear my pajamas thank you very much. It's time to get back to talking about medicine!

This weekend I was watching a cheesy movie that had a character who played a specialist in a big fancy hospital (aren't they all). I didn't pay any attention to the white coat the doctor was wearing, but my husband did! He rolled his eyes and said the "specialist" is wearing a medical student coat. Obviously the stylist on the movie didn't know the unwritten rules for hospital attire and should be fired!

I wasn't even fully aware of the rules until I started noticing that some people wore their scrubs tucked in and others untucked. Some people wore printed scrubs and others didn't. My husband explained to me that only doctors tuck in their scrubs, everyone else wears them untucked. A doctor would never wear printed scrub tops unless maybe they were in Pediatrics. Kind of convenient for judging people harshly when I am out and about the town. You are a doctor. You are possibly a vet tech.

What an interesting dress code. I wonder where it all started? Like who said only doctors get to tuck their scrubs in. What if I like to wear all my shirts tucked in but I am not a doctor? Or what if I am a doctor and want to leave my shirt untucked? Is there really a need to be able to tell who is who when everyone is wearing the same color scrubs? I guess there is, especially if your ego hasn't enlarged the size of your noggin by now. Couldn't they have come up with something else to identify the players?

I remember watching Gray's Anatomy, one of the two times I did, and my husband pointing out that white coats aren't that tailored! Sure they are boxy, but if I were a doctor with the appropriate white coat and scrubs tucked in, I could see having them tailored to fit. I like things to fit. You wear a big unshapely thing and you look big and unshapely. No thank you. I am vain like that!

Good thing I am not the doctor around here. Have you seen the awful shoes they have to wear! Clogs, no thanks. Crocs, wouldn't be caught dead. Tennis shoes.... maybe.

Are there any other dress code rules you know of?

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Thursday, December 13, 2012

Running Around, What's New?

I am trying to clean my plate, which means making incremental steps toward tackling Christmas. What it looks like is a scary woman running around in circles talking to herself and asking her baby to make important decisions, like what would dad like for Christmas?

Today's agenda items:

  • Teacher gifts x 5. There are the public school teachers, pre-school teacher, ballet teacher, and I know I am forgetting one. Starbucks to the rescue! If I can't figure out who the 5th one belongs to it is mine:-)
  • Make the address labels so I can mail the holiday cards when they arrive from Snapfish, hopefully this weekend. They might make it to their destination before Christmas day.
  • Get ready for preschool Christmas party. Learn part, find costume.
  • Make sugar cookie dough so it will be ready to bake on Friday, so we can decorate on Saturday, so we can take and eat on Sunday after church.
  • Buy "penny" gifts for school parties x 2. I wish I could opt out of this one. Each of my kids has to bring 23 small gifts for a gift exchange. That means they are going to come home with 46 pieces of junk that I will collect throughout the week and throw away. Unless the baby swallows them first.
  • Press the order button on my Amazon shopping cart. I love shopping like this! Presents done and shipped, thank you Amazon Prime.

If I manage to get this done today there is a good chance I can curl up with a good book and enjoy the next 12 days. How are your preparations coming?


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Monday, December 10, 2012

And The Winner Is...

It is fun to celebrate the success of friends and fellow bloggers, so today I am going to brag about Doctor's Wives Living.  In case you didn't already know how extraordinary they are they now have an award to back it up. Here is the press release:


New online magazine wins national blog competition after launching in spring 2012                   
Introducing DoctorsWivesLiving.com - Rich with Wisdom

December 3, 2012 –Victoria, BC & Calgary, Alberta -- Two Mompreneurs, Sally Walton and Tiffany Auvinen, have embarked on a journey unlike any other doctor’s wife: launching their own online women’s magazine from separate provinces in Canada. Now they have been awarded Best Collaborative/Multi-Author Blog in Canada through the www.topblogs.ca competition and receive over 160,000 page views monthly.

Doctorswivesliving.com’s five unique sections: To Do; To Live; To Love; To Give, and Doctors’ Wives Living (DWL) Experiences, share articles for the modern woman through writing, photos, videos, and its very own YouTube channel. From love, fashion and fitness to medical advice and healthy living tips, Doctorswivesliving.com has the experience and expertise to keep you in the know.

Doctorswivesliving.com is broken into five sections. “To Do” is filled with recipes, fashion articles, decorating tips, and activity information. “To Live” covers health and medical information as well as valuable tips on fitness and travel. “To Love” tackles sex and relationships. “To Give” is all about paying it forward by showcasing great charities and non-profits organizations. “DWL Experiences” are about businesses that ‘sell’ experiences as gifts or for readers to try.  Follow along with the Doctorswivesliving.com fitness workouts on its YouTube channel or cook to the DIY recipes. Whatever love, look and lifestyle advice you’re after, this online magazine has it all.

You can also follow www.doctorswivesliving.com on
Facebook: Doctorswivesliving.com
YouTube
Twitter: doctorswivesliving@doctorswives


Doctor's Wives Living has been a great supporter and participant of the Medical Monday's Blog Hop. It is never to early to mark your calendar and save the date for our next hop on Monday, January 7th. Make it a New Years Resolution to link up with us! Happy Monday:-)

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Friday, December 7, 2012

Babies, Twins, and Dreams - oh my!

If you are a woman reading this there is a high probability that you have had a dream (or nightmare) about having an unplanned pregnancy. That seems to be one of the hallmarks of womanhood. If you haven't had one yet you will.

Regardless of the type of birth control we are employing there is always a small chance that it won't work. Short of discontinuing the bonds of physical intimacy, babies are a risk we accept until more permanent preventative methods are agreed upon. My husband doesn't want to be snipped, and I don't want to make any final decisions about my reproduction yet either. That leaves us in limbo and subject to the laws of nature.

We know of one couple who had tubes tied and a vasectomy and still managed to get pregnant. I have a friend who conceived while on an IUD (and delivered a very premature baby). Others who have been on the pill, using back up methods, who had babies. Unless they have lied to me. You know couples like this too!

At this current point in time we are very happy with our family. I love babies, especially infants, so I can't help but oh and ah over my friends babies or sweet little ones I see out and about. Currently, my circle of friends seem to include pregnant and recently delivered moms. They are everywhere!

These dreams have infiltrated throughout the years, and sometimes they freak me out more than others.  Usually the ones that happen right after I have had a baby are the most terrifying. And then there are the ones about multiples.

This week I went over to visit my neighbor who had twins a couple of months ago. Every time I see her she looks so worn out. Happy, but worn out. I recognized the look having spent many months (probably years) in that state. The one where your house can't ever get clean, you can't get a shower or a full nights sleep, the baby always needs something, and going somewhere requires more energy than you are willing to expend. She has her hands full times two!

Her husband accepted a new job and moved here the same time we did. They have a daughter who is my daughters age, and now twins. Her husband works a lot, and travels out of town 2-3 days a week. I look at her and think that could be me, only with more kids! I have been trying to think of some way that I can help her because offering "let me know if you need anything, I am more than willing to do whatever you need" wasn't working. So finally I just said, it is crazy that we both go to the school to pick up our kids. Why don't you let me pick up your daughter every day? I am there every day anyway. Would that help?

Of course it would help, and thankfully she accepted. But I recognized something else in her that I also have. We don't ask for help even though we might desperately need it. Possibly because we don't know where to start. So I resolved that instead of just offering vague help to people I would be more specific in the future and have an idea of what I could do. Picking up from school is a small thing for me, but I know it will save her from trying to load up two babies who may be hungry or tired or both.

Back to my dreams. My last one included being pregnant with twins due right after fellowship ends.  Triple whammy. Baby. Baby. Move.

Could there be a worse combination? Maybe, but this scenario seemed pretty bad. I am sure all the pregnancy and new mom hormone vibes around me have created an environment ripe for producing dreams of this nature. Or maybe because I was thinking about my neighbor again, and how hard it is to meet new people when you have just had a baby. Your time and energy are focused elsewhere and not on making friends. And yet a friend is exactly what you need when you move AND when you have a new baby.

It's not enough to have a friend(s) "back home" or friends "online". You need a friend that can run over and check to see if you closed your garage door because you ran out of the house so fast you can't remember. You need a friend who can drop by when they get a feeling you might need a visitor. You need a friend who can look at your house without judging and start putting things away. You need a friend who can hold your tired baby while you make lunch for yourself before it's time to make dinner. You need someone to look you in the eye and tell you everything is going to be OK, I am here.

It hasn't been easy making new friends, and we are nearly at the half way mark in our countdown. 29 weeks to go! But there is value in making connections with people even if they are only temporary.  And perhaps that is the part of the dream that is most frightening.... not having a friend(s) when you really need one. And I would count having twins in a new city a crisis!

Just in case you are wondering, I am not pregnant. It was just a dream:-)

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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

The First Christmas Card

If you haven't already been clued in, I am a little behind in the calendar department and have found December to be in full swing without my consent.

Imagine my horror when I opened the mailbox to see the first Christmas card of the season. I audibly gasped! I am not ready for Christmas cards.

It was my hope to have our Christmas cards ready by Thanksgiving so we could be the early ones. Not because I like being first so as to appear all put together and organized, but because we moved and didn't get around to sending the "WE MOVED" cards so people could update their address books so when Christmas rolled around they would have the correct address. I figured I could kill two birds with one stone by just sending the Christmas cards before anyone else did. Didn't happen. Might not ever happen.

It's already the 4th. I don't have a picture. But I did buy cards. The addresses are collected. The stamps have not been purchased.

Theoretically, I could mail my cards this week. But there is the issue of the picture. My options are:

1) don't include a picture at all
2) include a picture of just the kids randomly pulled off my computer
3) try to get a picture of all of us (scheduling appointments is a nightmare).

If we don't include a picture of the family will everyone assume that I have gained too much weight and don't want to be seen?

If I do include a photo will they think I am just showing off my trim and fabulous self?

Listen to this crazy talk! Who am I sending cards to anyway? We don't send them to people who are monitoring our weight hopefully. Those people can stalk us on Facebook!

Anyway, I will figure it out. In the meantime, I am glad to know that the USPS change of address we submitted in April is still in effect. We may receive all of our Christmas cards this year, even if they are addressed to an old address.

And the joy of it is, we get to do the whole "WE MOVED" again next year, and probably the year after that. Maybe in our Christmas card we should suggest that they write our address in pencil and keep a good eraser handy.

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Monday, December 3, 2012

Medical Monday's Ho Ho Ho!

Did December sneak up on you too! Consider this your early Christmas present:-)

It's the FIRST Monday of the Month 
and you know what that means?

It's Medical Monday!



Medical Monday is an opportunity for any and all medical/med life blogs to link up and meet others. So join us!

Are you confused if you qualify for the party?

Do you work in healthcare?
Doctor? Nurse? EMT? Chiropractor? Vet? Dentist? Therapist?
MA? NA? PA? DA?
Are you the spouse or SO of a healthcare worker/student?
Are you a nursing student? Medical student?
Intern? Resident? Fellow?

You get the picture, right? 

LINK UP YOUR POST!

Our once a month bloghop for bloggers like yourself, where we can build a community of support and friendship, learn from one another and share our stories.


Here are the rules:

  1. Follow your co-hosts via GFC.
  2. Link up you medical/med life blog. If your blog name does not clearly state how you fit in to the med/med life world, please write a little intro or link up a specific post which clearly demonstrates your connection.
  3. Visit at least 3 other link ups, comment, introduce yourself, and tell the your stopping by or following from MM!
  4. Help spread the word by using our button on your post or sidebar, tweet about Medical Monday, or spread the word on Facebook! The more the merrier for all of us!
And here's a helpful tip. . .

If you haven't turned of word verification, it's ON. Please turn it off. We'll all LOVE you!!
Not sure how? Click here for instructions.

Complete step one by following your co-hosts:


Want to be awesome?
Post our button on you post or sidebar and help spread the word:



Want to co-host next month? Shoot Emma an email at yourdoctorswife@gmail.com.

Now, link up below and have fun! The link up is open through Friday, so be sure to come back during the week to check some great reads!


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