Brains and Bobas

"From Arapahoe High School, a Creighton University graduate, yes, she is a Bluejay...Ladies and gentleman..." My attending is so weird. That's how he introduced me to present our case at case conference today. He likes to guess the mascots of our patients' schools, but he doesn't phrase it like a question. It goes something like this: "East High School, home of the...Eagles." And then they'll make a face and say, "Noooo." It's hysterical. He took me and the residents out to lunch today, to some local Thai place, where I had the opportunity to try bobas for the first time. Little tapioca balls in the bottom of your drink, made in any variety of flavors (the drink, not the bobas). Basically...disgusting!!! But, I'm glad I tried it. Add it to the list.

One week into neuro, way too much to learn, a few really sick kiddos. But I like it, not as much as I instantly liked psych, but it's growing on me. Check back in three weeks.

From the diary of a health professional

The House was reunited last weekend. Almost. Sr. Susan Francis was there in spirit (and in photo). Thanks to Michelle (and April and Therese) for giving us a very good reason to come back together and celebrate. I would say it's been a long time since I've laughed that hard, but we must not forget Retarded Vegetables at our last sleepover or Mike's antics during Beyond Balderdash. What I can say is it's been a long time since I've been in such an environment that allows me to be completely who I am and just have fun. The 16 hours of car time and complete lack of sleep was totally worth seeing Bre's "Time of the Month Bunny" and retrying the cup trick and comparing freak triangle muscles. And seeing my very own DNA awarded a doctorate, "with Honors." And taking credit for teaching her about antimicrobial-induced hemolytic anemia in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficient patients.

In other news, I had my last day of Psychiatry rounds on the Turquoise Team today. Many pastries, desserts, and other goodies were passed around in celebration (any excuse for chocolate cake). I got to share my best and worst moments, which, thankfully were hard to pick due to the paucity of worst and the abundance of best. Sorry, four weeks in psych has me using words like "paucity." I was thinking last night that it can be a very depressing field, if you focus on how messed up some of the kids are, and how you can't fix them completely. On the other hand, we laugh a LOT; you almost have to, but seriously, these kids do some pretty funny things. One schizophrenic boy just started a new med trial, and we're pretty sure he got the med and not the placebo, because he was walking around the unit smiling and saying "I can't stop being happy. It's so WEIRD." We're like, yeah, welcome to normal life. He's the same kid who was watching a movie and all of a sudden told his mom, "I feel like I just ate potato salad." Hmm...gustatory hallucinations. And there are the two day-treatment patients who have crushes on each other and have caused so much drama that the whole milieu is on "Slow Down" for like the 5th time in 7 years. . Every time it comes up, one of the therapists makes an "L" on her forehead because she thinks our patient can do much better than a kid who drinks Benadryl daily to get high. We spend our rounds reviewing things like, "Well, is he at least cute?" Oh, I'm going to miss this kind of entertainment.

P.S. I LOVE The Office, and Bones, and the US WNT and their videos. Yay.

Here's a tip for you...

When you're giving a presentation, try not to kick the outlet and unplug the computer in the middle of it. It tends to disrupt the flow.

Saturday morning post

Buckle in, this is going to be random:

Yesterday, one of the therapists on the wards said, "Laura, please tell me you're going into psychiatry. You're so good at it." Totally made my day. Although on Thursday, one of our patients had pink eye, and the attending is all staring at it from five feet away going, "I think it's a stye" and I'm like "I want to touch it so bad." So I got some gloves, poked, prodded, and promptly diagnosed her with pink eye, sent her to her PCP and she got some antibiotic ointment and came back clear as a whistle the next day. So yeah, psychiatry is nice, but I guess not hands-on enough for me. And it's hard, to see kid after kid come in with suicide attempts. I'm not saying it's easier to treat kid after kid with chronic kidney disease or cancer, but...at least we've seen some kids get better. For every new admit, we've had a discharge, and it's fun to see them getting better.

Last weekend, we beat the 2-time-defending-league-champion football team, including their foul-mouthed receiver that made me think violent thoughts. I threw the first touchdown pass, cause it was a girl play (every 4th play), though it was a floater, and only not intercepted due to Andy's mad hops. Oh man, it was fun.

Finally rented Juno last night. I know everyone said it was hysterical, but maybe all the lines had already been revealed or maybe I'm just too deep for light fun, but I found myself more appreciating the drama of it than the humor (although the "nasty eye" was classic). The tragedy of teenage pregnancy and prevalence of abortion, the miracle of new life, the heartache of divorce, the support of a family--those were the things that touched me. Although the image of drinking one's weight in Sunny D was certainly poignant as well. Maybe I'm just a sap. Although I can hear Kelly watching it this morning, and it's a little more funny. Maybe it was just my mood.

Saw "A Man For All Seasons" at the seminary last weekend. So high quality. Just witty dialogue, powerful story, men in tights. Fantastic.

Bones and Women's Murder Club are back, and my addiction to The Office has been fueled by cranking through Seasons 1 and 2 in two weeks (good thing I'm on my psych rotation and not surgery). So good.