Birthdays

This time of year is busy at our house.  We have TONS of birthdays!! My mom, Grandmother, James, me, and about 8 close friends all have birthdays in February.  My dad, sister, and about 4 close friends have birthdays in March.  Busy!!

This year, James is turning 26.  I couldn’t be more proud of him! He is such an amazing man.  I am so proud that he is a successful Medical Student, a superhero Father, and an amazing Husband! He has accomplished so much!

Birthdays are a funny thing. If it’s not a momentous 16 or 21, it doesn’t seem to get the same celebration.  As we get older, we tend to almost dread birthdays.  I have had mixed feelings about turning 30 in a few weeks.  But when I’m feeling a little down about “getting older” I remind myself that, I would give ANYTHING to celebrate another birthday with Paw Paw . . or my childhood friend that passed before starting high school.  When I think of them, I am grateful to be celebrating a birthday. 

I am also a little bit guilty that I get to have a 30th birthday.  There is no logic in taking two best friends, inseparable from birth, and picking one to continue a life here on Earth, and the other not to.  One to experience the dramas of high school, the freedom of College, the pride of a good career, the magic of love, and the beauty of having a child.  All while the other experiences cancer treatments, pain on all levels, the anguish of telling everyone she knows goodbye, and facing the uncertainty of death.  There is no logic, only faith that there is a greater being, and He knows why these two paths parted so drastically, ripping apart two friends.  I find myself taking an extra pause in all life events, to be noticeably grateful that I am getting to experience it.  So I take it in, and breathe it in deep, and try to live it for both of us.  Now don’t get me wrong, life is hard.  But I’m expecting Heaven to be an amazing place . . . and I can’t wait to see my loved ones again one day!  

As for now, I’ll just soak up my memories, and be grateful for every single second that I have with loved ones.  I’m lucky to have experienced loyalty and betrayal, pain and hope, heartbreak and love, desperation and power.  I’ve been swindled, and I’ve been outsmarted, but I’ve also outsmarted others, and learned.  I have made some really poor decisions, and I have made some wonderful decisions.  I’ve been mad as hell, and I’ve felt the power of forgiveness.  I have wrinkles (already!!) from crying frantically, and also from laughing - so hard I have literally peed, yes I’ve done that.  I have scars from paint-balling, barbed wire fences, hiking in Palo Duro Canyon, and from having a baby. . . but they make me -ME.  So here’s hoping that I can take what I’ve learned and experienced from the first thirty years and use it to make the next thirty years even better!   

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My Husband the SUPERHERO

This past week has been one big blur.  I’ve had a sinus infection and body aches like crazy! After a week of being stubborn and suffering, I went to the Dr. and got some antibiotics today.  After the standard 2 hours at the Dr, I drove to the pharmacy to fill my prescription where I was told it would be another 30 minutes.  So I went home to eat. James was sweet enough to go pick up my prescription while I took a bath with Grayson.  Here’s where it gets interesting.

Once at the pharmacy, James asks for my insurance card back.  The pharmacist says that I never gave him a card.  I’m on the phone saying that he is full of it b/c I definitely left my card and the paper RX.  James is clever enough to check the drive thru container. . . turns out we were both right.  I did throw my card in, but the pharmacist never took it out.  

Meanwhile, I’m tired, lazy, achey, and when I make sudden moves, such as bending over, I get shooting pain in my head. I start the bath, strip Grayson down, and as I’m putting him in the tub I realize that he has pooped in his diaper.  I pause for half a second and think, eh, it’s probably all in the diaper. So I strip down, and as I’m getting in the tub I see all these BIG chunks of poop floating around. Perfect.  Just what I wanted to soak in - poop.  Grayson is of course, totally un-phased.  He is playing with his toys like it’s nothing.  I then drain out all of the water and poop, and start all over. 

By this time James is home.  So I quickly clean Grayson and pass him off to James for the teeth brushing, fresh diaper, and jammies part of the night. That’s when I look forward to a nice hot bath by myself. . . except for Parker, who drinks half of my bath water every night.  BUT, by this point there is no hot water left?!!! 

That’s when my SUPERHERO comes swooping in with a big pot of boiling water!! He dumps it in the tub and it actually made it hot! Then he comes in every 3 or 4 minutes with more and more hot water. . .. apparently he had all 4 burners going on the stove to keep up with my hot water demand.  :) Now THATS true love!!

I also might add that this is the second time he’s done this for me. A few years ago in College Station, our hot water heater went out and he boiled water for me so I could take a shower.  I don’t know if we have a better stove or bigger pots, but this time around was MUCH more successful! 

Thanks Sweetie - I love you!!!

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Medical School Adventures

This month James started his rotations! This post may get boring for most of you, I'm writing it more for me to be able to look back on, or for other Med Student spouses to be able to reference.  :) 

It's nice to move a step closer to becoming a practicing Dr., but it also is uncharted territory for us.  We had gotten used to the schedule of the past 1.5 years of classes at Baylor.  He has started out putting in less hours away from home then when he had classes, but the hospital hours are more daytime hours.  The plus about the classroom setting was that he could study mostly in the hours that Grayson was sleeping. This seems to be a constantly changing schedule so far :) 

First up for him is OB/GYN Jan 3 - Feb 25.  First month of that is OB, second month is GYN.  OB is then broken down into 4 different weeks. 

First week: OB - Labor and Delivery DAYS at Ben Taub. This week was ok.  Could have been better, could have been worse.  He typically had to be at the hospital around 5:15am and got home between 6:45 and 7:00pm. Once home, he had about 15-20 minutes of computer work and chart reading to be ready for the next day. He had both Saturday and Sunday off! 

Second week: OB - Clinics at Ben Taub.  This week has been awesome! He gets up at 4:30, has time to work out, gets to the hospital around 6:30 (I think, maybe later) but then he's done by 11:45 every day.  He has spent his afternoons either studying or shadowing different doctors so far.  The rest of the week he has afternoon classes and a Preceptor, but he's been home by 4:30 every day this week.  Now don't get me wrong, Friday is going to stink, stink, stink! He has clinics in the morning, then following his preceptor in the afternoon, then he has OB call from 6pm - 7:30am.  So we're looking at 24hrs straight at the hospital. First time for that, so we'll see how it goes!  Sunday he will have off, and then it's on to week three: OB Intake at Ben Taub!

!!!!UPDATE!!!! 1/22/2012
The 24 hour shift was actually about 26 straight hours. .. but it wasn't that bad! James was totally exhausted, but that's b/c he ended up doing 5 C-Sections that night. Not too bad!


Third Week: OB - Intake at Ben Taub.  This week was pretty easy.  He worked out before in the morning, went in anywhere between 7 and 9 and was typically done around by noon.  He spent the afternoons either in class or following his preceptor.  He was home by 430 or 5:00 every day.  He DID get Monday off though due to MLK day, and then he took Tues. off b/c I was super sick.  So, it was an awesome schedule, but only lasted 3 real days.  There was no going in on Saturday or Sunday. Tonight starts week 4 of Labor and Delivery - Nights!

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