Mazel Tov Matt & Lindsey!

Our co-resident Matt got married this weekend in St. Louis, MO.

There were seven of us surgery residents that escaped the clutches of the Chester to celebrate with our friend and colleague. We tidied up our respective services Friday morning then headed off, leaving the hospital in the capable hands of those brave few staying behind. It was such an amazing weekend. I only took a handful of pictures the whole weekend myself, but of the seven of us, we shared everything so I have plenty to help remember.

The wedding was held at the Ritz-Carlton in Saint Louis. We arrived Friday afternoon with just enough time to freshen up and attend the rehearsal dinner for the start of the wedding festivities. 

  L to R: Me, Adi, Dzeba, Monica, Alyssa (Ash's gf), Ash, Hanjoo

 L to R: Ash, Dzeba, Hanjoo, me, Monica, Adi

 L to R: Dzeba, me, Monica

 Mazel Tov Matt & Lindsey

Hanjoo, Adi and Ash enjoying themselves

Considering we had nothing scheduled for our mornings I awoke much earlier than I was expecting. But it proved beneficial as I then had that much more time to enjoy being with my friends and just enjoying time together. 

On Saturday Adi, Hanjoo, Monica and I went to the Saint Louis Zoo and then to the Gateway Arch.

 Love the Elephants!

 Gorillas

 Sea Lions!

 L to R: Adi, Hanjoo, Monica, me

 Zebras in the Fall

Sharin' some Giraffe lovin'

 L to R: Hanjoo, Monica, me, Adi

 The Gateway Arch

Hanjoo was on call Thursday, left with us for the weekend Friday morning, and was never really able to catch up on any sleep though try as he might.

And then finally, the event of the weekend. The wedding. 

 Union blessed. Glass smashed. Presenting Mr. & Mrs. Matthew Bronstein.

 

Surgery Residents L to R: Ash, Hanjoo, Dzeba, Jo Lopez, Matt, Adi, Me, Monica 

 Jo Lopez, Ash, Hanjoo, Matt, Adi

 

 Matt & Lindsey take the floor

 

Hanjoo, Jo Lopez, Dzeba and myself.

 It really was a fantastic weekend celebrating our friend, celebrating each other and celebrating life. So thankful I was able to attend, and thankful I get to come home and go to the hospital tomorrow.

Much Love.

Estoy creciendo mas.

At some point the pupil must break off on his/her own. At some point the teacher must turn the role over to the student. Blood, sweat and sacrifice put into the process of transforming the student into the professor. I saw a glimpse of this process the other day as I scrubbed with my attending on the creation of an Arteriovenous Fistula. Fistula created and wound clean my attending broke scrub with instructions not to close the wound until absolute hemostasis was achieved. In other words, make sure that everything had stopped bleeding. It quickly became evident that what we had thought was hemostasis was not as I had come across some uncontrolled bleeding coming from a corner almost underneath the artery with no obvious source. My Attending took a look as blood continually filled up the surgical site almost as quickly as I could suction it out. He asked me if I could handle it. (Now, I'm way past the point of ever saying no to that question. I want nothing more than to "handle it". Let me figure it out and learn!) So I told him yes, and he left the room. I knew he didn't really believe me, but the fact that he was giving me the chance to attempt to prove myself was the best birthday present I could have received. I found a hole in the artery that had probably been caused by our clamp during the procedure, I put a tiny stitch in it and voila, hemostasis achieved. When my Attending did pop his head back into the room prepared to have to scrub back in, I was already closing the wound. Student's starting to flap her wings!

I was priviledged to be able to attend the Wedding of Marcy Bahler and Myron Kaeb this past weekend. While staying up in CT, I was surprised with a birthday cake of chocolaty deliciousness.

L to R: Kate Walder, Amanda V, me, Jenna, Emily Walder, and visitors for the wedding Kelsey and Dawn.  All stopped by for a happy birthday and a hug!

What's a birthday without my birthday song?


And an additional birthday song this year :)


"Give me freedom, give me fire
Give me reason, take me higher
In the streets our heads are liftin'
As we lose our inhibition
Celebration, it surrounds us
Every nation, all around us
Saying forever young
Singing songs underneath the sun
Let's rejoice in the beautiful game
And together at the end of the day, we all say
When I get older I will be stronger
They'll call me freedom just like a wavin' flag"

Praising Jesus for granting me another year!
Much Love.

Estoy preparando mis proximas adventuras.

Week one of Vascular down and another Saturday call over.
At approximately 4am...

This is Clara. It took a whole two seconds for her to be dead asleep. The secret is to never sit down!
On the other hand you have to grab the sleep when you can.
Same as the sunshine. You have to grab it when you have the chance. And I saw a glimpse on Sunday afternoon, once I was finally arrousable from my post call crash. With the weather/seasons changing I called a friend in an almost panic that it would be my last chance to see the warm sun, and I wasn't about to miss it.
We went to a nearby Wilderness Area called Hardscrabble.

 

We spent only half of the time on the actual trail. Not always on purpose. But we kept the setting sun to our West and in the end, could triumphantly say to each other that we conquered the Hardscrabble.

Much Love.

Estoy cambiando el horario.

I had a new experience my last on call. At approximately 9pm one of the interns runs up to me in the trauma bay, and half out-of-breath quickly proclaims, "so, one of the trauma patients just died on the floor!" And the million things I had pending suddenly didn't exist any longer. Funny how that happens. And I paused. He didn't continue, and I turned to look at him, my continued silence prompting him for an explanation. I had questions, but one glaring thought, that I wasn't about to admit outloud. I thought that it was unfair. There had been no code, no request for help, no notification that a patient was in trouble, no nothing. Telling me a patient is already dead is too late for me to do anything about it. And the following morning when I stand up and present the events, how can I justify allowing a patient to die, when I had no opportunity to even attempt to stop it. The intern appropriately interpreted my silence and finally continued that the family had not wanted it stopped anyways. And I could take a breath again, suddenly aware that I had been holding it.

I stayed late post-call to not only round on my service, but also to round on the Vascular service. My run as Minimally Invasive Service mini-chief has come to an end. It was a good run. But moving forward I am on Vascular Surgery service for three months. The transition was a bit rough to say the least. Our chief was away yesterday and then today as I was walking to the hospital I got a text that she wouldn't be in today either, so it was just me, my intern, a long list of patients and a really busy service. But I think we got the hang of it. And now, whenever our chief does happen to be there, it'll be like an added bonus!

Someone put eyeballs on the mirror in the women's dressing room at the OR! 

Much Love.