Time, like a train, she's a chuggin' along

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while...the speed of life picked up quite a bit. Katie and I are getting more and more situated in Charlottesville. We've done a lot of work to the house, both inside and out. We're really enjoying our house and learning more about the city. There's so much history here. Yesterday we took a bike ride up through the UVA campus and stumbled across an old Confederate cemetary. It was really neat to read some of the gravestones. Everything was well kept and most of the gravestones dated back to the 1860s.

Up until now I've sort of been an apprentice (for lack of a better word) of anesthesiology. I've been working in the same operating room as more senior residents and spent a week working with an attending in the operating room. My level of responsibility has increased to the point where tomorrow I'll start my working on my own. I'll still work under attending physicians who are assigned to cover two rooms at any given time, so I'll be the resident anesthesiologist for one room. That's probably really confusing and I've never been really good at explaining what it is exactly that I do. Katie had a great idea a few weeks ago. She wants a "Bring your Spouse to Work Day". That way she can really understand what I'm doing day in and day out. That'll never happen for a variety of reasons but I thought it was a neat idea.

I got measured for my tux yesterday also. We think it's going to look really nice. I don't mind dressing up, but I'm such a weird fit that formal clothing doesn't always look the best on me. The menu for the wedding rehearsal dinner is set for the most part. There are still a few decisions left to make but it's all shaping up.

Katie found a dress that she loves, which is great. I can't wait to see it! Only a couple of months left. And by how fast my weeks are speeding by, it'll be here before I know it. I hope you all are well...can't wait to see you!

July 4th and back to the ole' grind

Friends and family,

We had a great 4th of July.  I had Friday the 3rd off of work, so we hung around the house and got some work done.  I actually went into work for a bit to help paint the anesthesiology ready room (the room where residents hang out during break times/lunch/between cases) in the morning, and Katie and I got on the road around noonish.  We rode on down I-95 back into the NC, through Goldsboro, Kinston, and some other small eastern NC towns and BOOM, 6 hours later we were in Atlantic Beach.  We hit the beach hard Saturday morning, did some kayaking, leisure reading in beach chairs, had fun times in the agua, and just relaxed.  Late in the afternoon we realized how poor our sunscreening application session in the morning was.   So very poor.  I got sunburned just above my right eyebrow in just enough of an elliptical shape that it looks like I've been punched.  I also got sunburned on random places on my chest, so it looks like I was wearing a wifebeater all day long.  Oh yeah, I also have sunburned spots on the medial (inside) aspects of both knees.  Good times.  Katie's burn was worse.  Right wrist, right forearm, stomach, and other random areas.  We sprayed sunscreen and rubbed it in thinking that would be enough, but alas, it wasn't.

So we took our randomly sunburned body parts along with the rest of ourselves and went to see Katie's friend Christine later in the evening on the 4th.  Her family has a beautiful house on just a gorgeous plot of land on the Sound, in Beaufort.  From her back porch we could see 4 different sets of fireworks: those in Beaufort, Atlantic Beach, Emerald Isle, and some other place.  It was an amazing view to say the least.  I was in Boston for the 4th one year in college and saw fireworks over the harbor, but other than that, I haven't had better imagery on July 4th.  It was good times.

We had to make the long haul back on Sunday.  I'm in "boot camp" this week, where I sit in the classroom all day long and learn the ins and outs of basic Anesthesiology.  So far we've learned intravenous anesthetics, volatile anesthetics, preoperative evaluation from an anesthesia perspective, and neuroanesthesia.  All good things.  

Last Friday I got my first paycheck in over 4 years.  I was excited to say the least.  Hope you're all well.  

Spreadsheet for songs at wedding

On a friend's (Emily Knipper) suggestion I created a Google spreadsheet with wedding songs on it.  You can go to the site and edit the spreadsheet, adding songs you'd like to hear or just songs you like in general.  Get to it!

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=r7RUqQ74QJk781wyQkBdaQw&output=html

If this doesn't work for you (can't edit the spreadsheet for some reason) let me know. This is the first time I've tried this so it's likely I did something wrong.

Daniel starts work

In 2001 I decided I wanted to become a physician.  This week, I finally started work as one.  Ha...that's slightly melodramatic huh?  It was a pretty nice and easy week filled with listening to various talks centered around the various aspects of patient care and taking care of myself.  I filled out a lot of forms.  I have good health insurance, which Katie will also have when we're married, which was actually more exciting than I would've thought it would be.  I can now go see a dentist for the first time in a long time (I could've gone earlier but such things are considered extravagant on the salary of a student...that is, $0).  

I have a big heavy white coat with my name followed by MD on it.  Katie tried to take a picture of me with it on, but I ran.  I have hospital IDs, hospital scrubs I'll wear Monday morning, cards with all sorts of telephone numbers for people in the hospital that I'll likely call at some point in the next 4 years.  I have a pager so the hospital is never far away.  I even have some sort of walkie-talkie called a Vocera, that people can call me on within the hospital.  I guess it's another mode of contact in case I leave my pager off at some point?  I have email which I have to check regularly (I'm OCD about that anyway), new innovations to log work hours (can't go over 80 per week, averaged over 4 weeks), a ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) website to go where I log every single procedure and case that I'll do during my entire residency, so the ACGME and the ABA (American Board of Anesthesiology) know that I actually will have an idea of what I'm doing by the time I finish residency.   I apparently have money put on my ID each month to use in the cafeteria (I foresee the large majority of it going towards coffee).  

So, it's official, I have a job.  And at this point it seems like it'll be a job in itself to keep track of everything I have to do daily aside from patient care.  I'm sure I'll get the hang of email, logging hours, logging cases, etc., in due time.  Right now it's a tad overwhelming.

Next week I'll shadow residents in the OR (operating room).  Anesthesiology is a unique field of medicine that requires a skillset in order to be useful.  Regardless of what I've learned over the past 4 years, I am completely useless right now as an anesthesiology resident.  I'm a blob of clay in need of molding.  The molding process starts next week.

After that, I'll start "boot camp", which is a several week long process where I'll hear various anesthesiology faculty lecture us on different topics, work in the OR with faculty, work in the OR with my fellow interns, and perhaps then I'll be sufficiently prepared to do a little work on my own.  Maybe, we'll see.

So that's that, I'm officially a working physician.  It feels nice.

Katie gets a job!

Katie interviewed for a job at Monticello High School on Saturday and was offered the job at the end of the interview!  She's really excited about the job as it allows her to continue working in teaching rather than having to switch fields which she feared due to the difficulty of finding a job in this economy.  The school is in Charlottesville, close to our house, and seems like a really great school.  She'll continue teaching in English, and is excited to have an actual office with scheduled office hours (something she did not have at South Central in Greenville).  She'll also be working with seemingly very motivated kids who'll be invested in what she offers them as a teacher (something most kids at South Central did not take full advantage of).  Needless to say, we're both really happy, excited, and feel unbelievably blessed.  She'll start work in early August with the new school year.  

I was able to move all of my stuff into the house in Charlottesville on Saturday with the help of my Dad and Katie.  I'm going to hang around here for a while to get things situated and do a little work around the place.  I've been getting some emails from people in my residency class about having a get together before our orientation starts, so I think we're going to try and meet for dinner sometime next weekend.  It'll be nice to meet the people I'll be working with for the next 4 years.  

More pictures of the house

I took a lot of pictures yesterday at the home inspection, which went really well.  Enjoy!

room to right of washer/dryer area containing gas heating unit

sink in bathroom downstairs

mirror in bathroom downstairs (guest starring Bob Durrer)

washer/dryer area

bathroom downstairs

basement area (to the left of staircase and other end of room than built-in cabinetry and bathroom)

bedroom/useable space in basement

basement staircase

view into bedroom/useable space in basement

built-in cabinetry in basement

view of back end of basement (including built-in cabinetry and bathroom at far end)

closet in master bedroom (bedroom on right)

attic entry in hallway (lot of storage space up there)

master bedroom on right side of hallway (probably just a little bigger than 2nd room on left of hallway)

closet in 2nd bedroom on left

window in second bedroom on left (faces the street)

2nd bedroom on the left

looking into living room from back of hallway

across the street and to the left

directly across the street from us

across the street and to the right

second bedroom on left in hallway

looking into bathroom from hallway

closet in first bedroom on left

view into hallway from first bedroom on left

first bedroom on left (smallest bedroom)

standing in living room and looking down hallway

side entrance in living room

wood burning fireplace

living room window and front door

side entrance door in living room

looking into street from front porch

right side of backyard

left side of backyard

back of house/backyard/Dad and Tiff's puppy

back of house/railing around steps leading to basement

steps leading into basement

view of side entrance/driveway from backyard

back of house

side entrance area

view of back of house

looking down driveway

side entrance area

side entrance area (enters into living area)

railing on front porch

front door

left side of front of house

walkway leading to front porch

view of driveway/house from street

view from street