Halloween and Yes, I Love Technology

(but not as much as you, you see)

so we enjoyed the bounty of halloween this year with a trip to a fund-raiser haunted house on friday night followed by a drive through of the most decorated street in the area. almost all the houses on the street participate and they go all out. as in entire fabricated houses in front of the real houses and pirate ships and stuff. (i kept wondering if they warn new home buyers who are shopping in, say, july, just what is expected of them come october). and we went to see the halloween festivities at the zoo yesterday and then stayed home to welcome tricker treaters last night. we had a pretty good number of them. fun costumes included a young billy mays, several adorable captain jack sparrows, a geisha, and an apologetic hanna montana who, reportedly, had already lost her wig. and we noticed that kids are either more polite now than we used to be, or more afraid of stranger danger, because they were really quiet when approaching our house. i'd hear a light tap on the door or shuffling feet but very few "TRICK OR TREAT"s at the top of young lungs. i thought annoying all your neighbors was part of the fun.

anyway. we also just bought new iphones. the BHE has been wanting one for a while, and we finally broke down and did it. they're pretty cool. i have to say that the Apple company is doing things right. they're so hip, they appeal to every demographic. while we were at the Apple store there was a demo class on iphones for senior citizens ("but where does the answering machine tape plug in??"). and then a group of middle school age boys came in and knowing exactly how to use all the gadgets they touched- instead of causing mayhem they played quietly and respectfully. it was like a commercial. or a cult.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

the shirt i wore during the half marathon last week says "SAVE THE BOOBS: Big or Small Support Them All" on the front and "Help Save Second Base" on the back. i didn't do the local breast cancer 3 day walk this year, but i plan to recruit as many people as i can and do it next year. there is power in what these women are doing. power and change. if you want to look into breast cancer prevention, screening or the movement in general- i would start here.

I Just Kept Running.

so i learned a lot about seeing things from the patient's perspective when i was a patient in the hospital in august. i've been taking a ridiculous amount of time on the floors lately worrying over all the little things that might be causing my patients pain or annoyance. like, did you know that tape HURTS when yanked off arm hair? or that those flimsy little hospital blankets just don't cut it for warmth? or that, yes, the food is as bad as it smells from across the room. and i am doubly sure to follow up on patient's questions and to give them a hard and fast discharge plan, to communicate regularly, etc. these are important stuffs. their whole world is contained in that little room and they are afraid and unsure and it's my job to help them find their way out of it. that's how i'm looking at it.

and i'm feeling like i've officially moved on from the feeling of being out of control of my body, feeble, weak and needy. i ran a half marathon today. previous to my illness the most i'd ever done was 6 mls, and during the last 7 wks recovery from my illness, the most i'd done was 4mls. so trying to tackle 13 seemed kind of psychotic...but i did it. i ran the first 9 without stopping and then i ran/walked the last 4. i am sore and tired. but feeling accomplished, blessed, and healed.

I've Been Learnt

the last couple days i was at a PA conference. it was nice to catch up with old PA school friends and professors and others. and the lectures were pretty good. everything from new hypertension treatments to vaccination recomendations to wilderness medicine rescue techniques (all the advice came down to- 'splint it, then pack it with snow.') was covered. pretty educational, if not a little boring. i have no attention span anymore.

and while i was sitting in those lectures, remembering all the things i'd forgotten, i got a little anxious about my body of knowledge and my career. i mean, other than the occasional day practicing "medicine" on the floor on post-op patients, i'm pretty specialized in a very hands-on discipline. i don't brain much while i'm at work. :) i'm afraid i'm forgetting all the medicine i learned in school. would i remember how to diagnose and treat diabetes? what about a heart attack, a rash, or head trauma? yikes. my friends in ER and internal/family medicine seem more plugged in to all this. hmmm...will have to contemplate this further. LOVE my job and always saw myself in some subspecialty (surgery, ob/gyn, etc) so maybe this is just my plight. and i'll have to study a little harder for my re-cert exams (every 6yrs) because they're on general medicine....hmmm....