Role Doctor

I apologize for being AWOL the last week or so. I was up in Maine doing some school stuff, and I've been pre-occupied with studying for my boards. Not to mention, I have my residency application looming over my head. And it's hard to not feel guilty taking time to write a blog post when there's all these other important things to do that determine the fate of my future as a physician. Still, writing on here is very cathartic for me and I should really do it more.

Anyways... I read an article on CNN.com this morning that begged the question, "Should Doctors Practice What They Preach?" Before even reading it, I thought "Of course! That's a stupid question!" But really, is your doctor a "Role Doctor"? (Yes, I made that up!). The article was actually written by a physician, who went on to describe another doctor he worked under in medical school was quite overweight, chain-smoked, and drank Mountain Dew all day. He talks about one experience where Dr. McUnhealthy was lecturing an obese patient to diet and exercise, and the patient responded with, "When's the last time you skipped a meal?" I couldn't help but laugh out loud. The patient rolled his eyes as he walked out the door.

I was reminded of this one doctor I worked with while on my surgery rotation who went out to his car in between every surgery to smoke. One day he just finished doing a resection of a cancerous lung tumor and STILL left to go suck down some nicotine. You'd think that performing lung biopsies and treating patients with cancer on a regular basis would be a good deterrent from smoking, but I guess not for him. And it's certainly hard for a patient to take a doctor's smoking cessation advice seriously when said doctor wreaks of cigarettes himself.

It seems kind of obvious to me that your patients will take your advice more seriously if you are a good role model. Maybe they will think that if you (the doctor) can live a healthy lifestyle by exercising, eating healthy, and not smoking despite having a very demanding job, then they could too. I mean, would you ever hire a personal trainer who was overweight? Or take financial advice from someone who has money problems of their own?

Thankfully I have a great doctor who I can actually look up to. The last time I saw her, I was telling her how I just ran my first 5k. She was so supportive and happy for me. She then encouraged me to sign up for another one next month that she's actually running in herself. Now there's a good Role Doctor!

I bet you wish your Dr.
looked this this!

Now I'm not saying you have to look like the pseudo-doctors from Grey's Anatomy to be a good physician. It certainly takes a lot more to get your patients to actually follow-through with your advice. For one, you have to be relatable, trusting, honest, empathetic.... just to name a few. But it certainly helps to if you can lead by example, which is what I hope to do as a doctor. Just like I try to do as a mother.

Love & Marriage

Two years ago yesterday I married my best friend. My husband is truly my soulmate. Yes, I'm going to get all mushy on ya here. I spend a lot of time talking about myself on my blog and certainly brag about my kid, but I don't mention my hubby too often. Well, that's because usually people tend to complain about their significant others, and I just don't have anything bad to say about the guy. Also, I am a strong believer that your personal/family drama is better kept to yourself and not displayed on facebook/twitter/blogspot. 

Since it's our anniversary, though, I think it warrants a good blogpost. I met my husband in college. We were grouped together in anatomy lab and did a research project on "Laughter, the best medicine?" (which pretty much sums up our relationship). Even though I thought he was cute, I didn't think anything of him until we touched knees one day. I kid you not, when I say that there was a spark. I went home that night and just knew I had to be with him. Little did I know that our innocent knee-touching would lead to us eventually dating, moving in together, getting married, and then having a beautiful baby boy. It's unreal how life just happens.....

To celebrate two very healthy and happy years of marriage we got all dolled up and went out to dinner, followed by coffee and desert at a cute little place downtown. As we were walking back to our car, a group of women who were dining outside stopped us and asked if we were on our first date. My husband said, "No, actually it's our two year wedding anniversary, but we're flattered!" I think it's cute that people see us like we just started dating, like we were still excited to be together (which we are!).

I kept saying all night that I can't believe it's already been two years. I can honestly say I am just as happy, if not more, than the day we got married. No relationship is perfect, but there's something here that just works. My husband is the love of my life and not only is he an amazing husband, but he's the best father. I can't wait to see what the future holds for us.

"Baby since the day you came into my life, you made me realize that we were born to fly. You show me everyday new possibilities. You prove my fantasy of what love could really be." ~ John Legend

Habits I Picked Up During Pregnancy

I told myself that if I finished reading the Renal/Genitourinary chapter of my book that I'm studying for boards tonight, that I could reward myself by writing a blog post. Trust me, it was no easy feat. Learning about renal diseases is more boring than watching paint dry. But I got through it, mostly because I was so excited to write. I came up with a great idea for a new post while I was going to the bathroom at Barnes & Noble earlier today and have been waiting to write it. I know, kind of a weird place to come up with a blog topic. You'll understand if you read on...

Pregnancy is probably one of the hardest things a woman can go through. Things happen to your body that really should not happen. Your body basically mutates to be this living cocoon with the sole purpose of housing and feeding your growing baby. For me the first few months were miserable. I was in the middle of my surgery rotation, having to scrub in and out every few hours to vomit or pee or eat so I didn't pass out. I was tired all the time, I could barely stay up to study after I got out of surgery every day. Then I hit my fourth month and I was happy as a clam. I got to the point where I was obviously pregnant (and didn't look like I ate one too many christmas cookies), and no longer puking my brains out. Even up until the last month, in July, I was still smiling while floating in my parents pool in 90 degree heat.

Now onto the point of this post.... while popping a squat at B&N I realized that I did something that I had only done while I was pregnant and the habit had just stuck with me. Then I realized that there's quite a few things that I started doing during my pregnancy that I still do today. I bet you're dying to know what I did in the bathroom, huh? Okay here goes:

1. Lift my shirt over my belly when I go to the bathroom. It all started when my ever expanding belly started getting too big that I couldn't see past my belly button. I'd wear this pesky maternity tank top that was super tight fitting under all my shirts. Every time I went to the bathroom I'd have to lift up my shirts, pull down my tank top over my belly and then adjust the shirt I was wearing over it. It seems so silly, but I'd always pull my shirts up over my belly before I sat down to pee, and just today I realized that I still do that.

Boppy Pillow

2. Sleep on my side with a pillow between my knees. Pre-pregnancy I'd always sleep on my stomach, but then of course that became impossible as my baby grew and grew. I thought it was so uncomfortable to sleep on my side, but then my mom got me a big Boppy pillow for a mother's day gift. It's shaped like a giant apostrophe, with the bigger part supporting the belly and the end going between the knees. It definitely helped me sleep a little more comfy (as comfy as you can get with a watermelon for a belly). Even post-baby, I still sleep with the pillow on my side.

3. Carry a water bottle everywhere. You probably know that when you're pregnant it's important to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!! So I bought a water bottle and always carried it with me all day, which was super important since I was running around the hospital all day and was determined not to go into premature labor. It certainly didn't help though with the constant need to pee, but at least it gave me an excuse to sit for a minute :) Well to this day I still carry around the same water bottle and try to always stay hydrated.

4. Taking a daily vitamin. I was never one to remember to take a pill everyday, so it was quite difficult to force myself to take my prenatal vitamins. I had to keep the bottle right on my nightstand so that I'd remember to take it before bed every night. Of course I had to continue taking them while breastfeeding too. Then after I was done breastfeeding, I thought "Hey, why don't I keep up the habit?" So I switched to a regular multivitamin and kept on taking it.

So there you have it. It's funny how nine months of doing something can stick with you for what may be a lifetime. At least they're all good habits. Well except for maybe the shirt lifting thing, there's really no benefit to that. And now I'll already be prepared when the next baby comes around!

Are there any pregnancy habits that you've stuck with?

The Big One!

Today my beautiful little boy is 1 year old. Everyone says how fast it'll all go by, but you never really understand until you live it. I feel like it was only a month or so ago that I woke up at five am with regular contractions every few minutes, excited to hold my little boy for the first time. Then we brought him home and I remember the feeling of utter panic come over me. We were responsible for this little human life and I was a nervous wreck.

The first few weeks or after we'd put him to bed in his crib, I'd lay in bed in cry almost every night. Even though he was in the room right next to us, I was panic-stricken leaving him alone. I was so scared that something was going to happen to him. But morning after morning we'd get up and there he'd be laying like a perfect angel sleeping with his arms over his head, sucking on his pacifier. I still think that's the favorite part of my day, going into his room first thing in the morning. Except now he's usually standing up holding on to the side of the crib either crying for us or talking to the dog laying in the doorway.

The first year of your child's life I feel like you're always looking forward to the next milestone.... his first smile, rolling over, crawling, first foods (bananas!), first words. He hasn't started walking yet, but everyone tells me not to rush that one, that once they start walking you're done for. The thing is, I feel like I was always wishing the time away. I always say, "I can't wait for...." but really I just wish time would have gone by a little slower. Because now it's a year later and my little love bug who used to just snuggle on my chest and sleep for hours is now longer that little. He's turned into this little amazing little boy, who crawls as fast as he can to chase our dog, loves playing in dirt, and will eat a whole banana in one sitting.

This past year has been like riding a roller coaster but without the safety harness. There were moments where the ride was fun and relaxing, but there were also moments of sheer terror. At times I didn't think I'd make it off the ride alive. But here we are, almost a year later and we've made it out ok. More than just ok actually... we're happy, healthy, and oh so very blessed. And even though I'm going to savor every moment of the present, I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Bye Bye Ba-Ba!

Turning 1 is kind of a big deal for a kid. You get a slew of vaccines at your 1-year doctor visit. You get to start trying some foods that you couldn't before. In particular, you switch from formula to whole milk. My husband was super apprehensive about that. After watching one too many documentaries, he was protesting against the whole dairy industry and didn't want to fill our child with hormones and diseases from the cows milk. Well, we came to a compromise that it was ok to give him milk, just as long as we buy organic from a local farm. 

Along with the big switch to milk (thank God because formula was getting way to expensive), we have also transitioned to a sippy cup. It was hard at first. We'd only give Killian water from a sippy for the past few months and let him play with it, but now that he's learned that he can guzzle delicious cold milk from the cup, it's his new best friend. So now we bid adieu to the wretched bottle (which had too many parts to wash and was a pain-in-the-butt) and say hello to *Tommee Tippee.

*Tommee Tippee the brand of sippy cup that we finally decided on after trying out about five other ones that weren't to Killian's liking. 

Don't Give Me No Lines and Keep Your Hands to Yourself

As it gets closer to the day that my little man turns one, I've been looking back over all that's happened over the past year. I'll have a more sentimental post next week about how amazing this last 12 months has been. In the meantime, I think I'll write about some annoying things I've encountered being a mom. Oh come on! I know what you're thinking. This isn't a baby-bashing post. I'm talking about how OTHER people annoy me now that I'm a mom.

This is a real sign you can buy online
for your baby carrier.

Nothing attracts pesky strangers more than a baby. And nothing makes a mother more freaked out than strangers. They come up to you at restaurants, in the grocery store, at Target.... They are everywhere!! And they wouldn't be a problem if they didn't come up to your baby and touch his hands or face with their dirty, germy hands. I got so angry one day I thought about making a sign to put on the car seat telling people to keep their hands off! And no matter how politely you'd ask someone not to touch, they would get so offended and think I was a crazy overprotective mom (which I was, but I wasn't that bad).  Even pre-baby I knew it was unacceptable to intrude on someone's newborn like that. It's just common sense.

On top of the strangers implanting strains of Strep and Staph all over my child, they would always ask intrusive and annoying questions. The number one thing people would say is, "How's he sleeping?" Well, how do you think he's sleeping lady? He's a baby! He wakes up at various times in the middle of the night as hungry as a wolf. Then you've got the people who ask, "Are you breastfeeding? How's that going?" Well, to tell you the truth... my nipples are cracked and bleeding and it's painful as hell, but thanks for asking!

Another thing that totally ticked me off, and actually still does to this day, is people commenting on Killian's size. If I had a dollar for every time someone said, "Whoa! He's a big boy!" It's almost like they would say it accusingly, like I was feeding my 6 month old steak and potatoes for dinner. I used to just smile and shrug it off. Then I started coming up with witty comments like, "Must be that nutritious breast milk he gets." Especially now when people tell me he looks "way too big" to only be a year old, I just say, "He's in the 60th percentile for his age. So actually, he's pretty normal."

Not only does everyone have a comment about your child's size, whether they think he/she is a giant or a peanut, but they also have some opinion about their milestones. "Is he crawling yet? No? Oh really? My aunt's cousin's fourth child started crawling at 3 months." Well good for your distant relative. Maybe they'll win an olympic medal for that some day. Sometimes you have to remember that every baby is different and some just progress faster than others. It's hard, but you can't always compare your child to others.

By far the worst thing people do is try to narrate what they believe your child is saying. I have nothing more to say on that except that it's one of my biggest peeves. It's even more annoying when people do it to passive aggressively try to tell you how to parent your child. Case in point: Annoying person pretending to speak for Killian: "Hey mom! I need a new diaper!" Don't you think I can tell when my kid needs to be changed? Really? I have a better idea... how about you do it? Thanks!

I could probably go on and on, but I'll spare you. You probably think I'm an agoraphobe the way I've complained about being in public around people with my child. The truth is, I love taking him out of the house. And I'm not nearly as psychotic as I was when he was just a few months old. I'm still polite when strangers come up and talk to us. I'll never get sick of hearing people tell me how cute my little guy is or how well behaved he is. If there's anything I learned, it's just to take everything with a grain of salt and always carry hand sanitizer.

Is there anything that people do that annoys you when it comes to your child?

It's Summer Baby!

It's only the beginning of July and already we've had a great summer, despite a week straight of rain. I wonder if Killian being born in the middle of summer has anything to do with the fact that he LOVES this season. We've had so many great adventures already, going to the beach, hittin' up the water park, going to the beach again, playing in the backyard, and even driving the boat.
So instead of going on and on about it, I'll just show you in pictures...

Sitting in the river for the first time!

At the park.

Watch out! Killian's driving the boat!

"I'm on a boat!"

Second trip the the beach.

Playing at the water park.

My new sandbox that my Cici & Big M got me for my birthday.

Operation Organization!

Studying for boards has been more than a hassle so far this summer. When I'm at home I study either at my kitchen table or out on my deck. Neither one is very conducive to studying productively. I don't have space to store my paper or pens or whatever necessities I may need. Not to mention I have to pick up after myself and throw all my materials into a bag (at least it's a Vera Bradley). I like to sometimes go to Barnes & Noble or Starbucks to study (and take advantage of free internet), but it's usually noisy and I find myself easily distracted. My point is that I contribute my lack of studying to my lack of organization and an actual designated study place.

So while I was sitting at my parents house across the street on their very uncomfortable leather couch, trying to get some emails and school stuff done, I was once again easily distracted by their ginormous TV with the Nate Berkus Show on. He had Tabitha Coffey as a guest. If you don't know who she is, she was on the show Shear Genius and now has her own "Tabitha's Salon Takeover" show, where she basically goes into someone's failing salon and brutally points out all the things they're doing wrong.

Well they were teaming up to help a woman organize her workspace at home to help better her career as a Pampered Chef consultant. The first thing they laid into her about was her office space not being used for her work and her utter lack of organization. After some humiliatingly "constructive criticism" from Tabitha, Nate showed her an example of a great workstation that she could model after.

It was that moment in time that I decided that I MUST have a desk. You see, we used to have one pre-baby, but since he needs a bedroom and all, we had to get rid of our office. I thought we could make due just stuffing our important files and books and stuff into a closet, but let's be honest... if it's in the closet, that's where it's staying. And if we need something, it's such a pain to drag it out. It really didn't take much convincing for my husband to be sold on the idea. So we headed out to our favorite store to buy cheap furniture: Target. After some rearranging in the living room, this is what we created....

Pretty snazzy if I say so myself! Not really sure what to put in those cute little canvas bins on the shelf, but they look nice. The drawer organizer is actually a Pottery Barn piece we got as a wedding gift. It now serves a much better purpose than it did in the closet. And now I have a nice space were I can study for my boards, check facebook a million times, and write to all you fine folks.

Desk = Success.