11 days

(I'm still working on my Moscow recap, it will be posted soon!)

Warning: This is a random post about all the thoughts running through my head right now.

11 days left of school!! June 5th is my last day. Then I have 4 days off, and after that I start my summer job. As a doctor. As in, I am going to the the doctor. On a real live ward. With real live patients. Not just as a student. Holy crap. **commence hyperventilation**

I will be doing that for 8 weeks, after which E and I are headed to Switzerland for 2 weeks. And after that, I will hopefully be going home for about 10 days but that's still up in the air. A lot of that will depend on whether or not my operative hysteroscopy can proceed as scheduled on June 19. Hopefully everything will go smoothly.

In addition to waiting impatiently for school to be over, I am waiting impatiently to ovulate. If I don't ovulate soon, I will not be able to have my surgery as planned, since I can't have my period during the surgery. Ugh. Please, body, come on! Do your thing.

Making a difference

First of all, E and I just got back from 4 days in Moscow, which was quite the experience. Full report and pics to come.

In January 2012 (actually, the day before I found out I was pregnant the first time, but that's beside the point) I was doing a rotation in the ER, seeing surgical patients. During this rotation, we got our own patients and treated them ourselves, did everything that needed to be done (under the supervision of an attending, of course!). One Monday morning, I walked into the office and saw an envelope with my name on it. Except my name had "Dr." in front of it. Obviously that made me giddy, but also confused. I opened it and inside was a card from a patient I had taken care of the week before. He was a 40-something-year-old male with some vague abdominal symptoms who turned out to have pancreatitis due to gallbladder problems. Nothing extraordinary. I admitted him for a cholecystectomy and went on my way. In the card, he thanked me for helping him with stomach problems that had bothered him for years.

I was so incredibly touched by his card. I also felt a little guilty, since all the decisions were made by my attending. I was the one performing the first exam and coming up with a preliminary assessment and treatment plans, but my attending made the final decisions. But in any case, I was really moved by his gesture.

Today, I got thanked by another patient. Well, a patient's mom. On Monday, a baby came in severely dehydrated, going into shock. He needed a lot of fluids, but ended up being ok. It was scary, he was drifting in and out of consciousness for a while. I ran into the mom outside the entrance to the hospital and she started profusely thanking me, and asking me to please thank the doctor who was in charge. She said that what we did was amazing. Again, I was truly touched. I wasn't the one deciding what to do, but I did help.

It's nice to feel that you really make a difference sometimes.

Back to spinning

After not being allowed to work out from the day I got a BFP in February until a few weeks ago, I am finally starting to get back into my workout routine. I was able to run 3x this week, which felt great! The runs were not as long or as fast as the runs I had been doing earlier this year, but it's ok.

In an hour, I will be going to my first spinning class in over 2 months. I've been going to the same class almost every Saturday for years (except for this hiatus, and a longer one last year due to my first loss). The instructor is amazing, and the regulars are great. Well, except for this one guy who has horrible BO and stinks up the whole room. Gross! The class is super hard, and makes me want to die every time. So needless to say, I'm expecting a rough morning. Hopefully I won't pass out or puke all over my bike!


Gotta get my game face on!! GRRRR!!

Holidays I Don't Understand

Happy May 1st! Or första maj, in Swedish.

Today is a national holiday here. Why? I don't really know. This is a great example of not understanding different cultural traditions. There are a few Swedish holidays that just make no sense to me. Today is one of them.

May Day is a historically socialist holiday that is only celebrated in a few countries. My understanding is that traditionally, there have been socialist marches and protests for different causes in the city. This tradition is still somewhat alive, and one party (the Social Democrats, Socialdemokraterna) usually arranges a few marches. I don't know anyone who goes to them. Instead, people use this day off to go shopping and enjoy the weather, if it's nice.

In addition to all of that, the day before May 1st is a holiday called Valborgsmässoafton, or Valborg (VAHL-bore-ee) for short. The English translation is Walpurgis Night, but that is irrelevant since the holiday is only celebrated in Northern Europe. Valborg is a very strange unique holiday that I don't really understand. I've asked many Swedes to explain it to me, but I get slightly different explanations each time. It has to do with witches and bonfires. I believe that you build the bonfires to scare away the witches. I'm not sure why the witches come around on April 30th each year, though.

So there are bonfires and big parties in parks all over the country. One city, Uppsala, takes these festivities very seriously. Uppsala is a moderately-sized city but it is home to one of the largest universities in Sweden, so there are tons of students everywhere. They start the day off with a champagne breakfast, and party all day. There is some kind of boat race on the river, where you have to build your own boats. And at one point all the students gather at the top of a hill and run down together. And throw their hats. Or something.

Yeah, I don't really get it.

But today is a holiday. Our schedule for this week looked like this:

Monday - Reading Day
Tuesday - Practical Exam
Wednesday - OFF
Thursday - Reading Day
Friday - Written Final

Um....what? As Dr. Evil would say, "Riiiiiiiight....."

Needless to say, I am not frolicking around outside today, I am inside, studying. I did go for a run this morning and saw what I can only assume is everyone who lives in my neighborhood enjoying the sunshine.

So, um, Happy May Day, I guess? I'm just going to keep studying.