It's That Time of Year!

Ho, Ho, Ho! Happy Holidays everyone. I can't believe I haven't blogged since August. I feel like I've been bored more in the past few months than I have been my whole life, yet I didn't use any of that bored time to blog. Anywho, we're getting ready to embark on Ella's 3rd Christmas. I can't believe she's 2 1/2 already and it's amazing the difference between this Christmas and last and even between now and 6 months ago at her 2nd birthday. She is soooo into presents. We have a few under the tree already and every morning she asks if she can open them. So, we're counting down the days until our early Christmas arrives. We are leaving for a short trip to FL on the evening of the 23rd, so that morning we're going to have our own Christmas here. So, Ella will be visited by Santa twice and hopefully that won't be too confusing for her. She will be getting some of the gifts that she asked Santa for here and in FL. :)

As for other things, I've been trying to get on the ball with studying for the GRE so I can go get a Masters degree by next Fall. But, it's slow going, especially after taking the diagnostic test and feeling like an idiot for all the things I didn't remember (or didn't know in the first place). I've also been thinking about starting Ella in preschool in Jan. instead of waiting until next Fall. I really think she's ready besides the fact that she's not potty trained yet. But, the place that I have in mind doesn't require that, so maybe they can actually help with it! Anyway, I really think Ella thrives on being around other kids and getting attention from other adults. Since the cold weather has set in Ella and I have been getting on each other's nerves day in and day out and even though we loves each other to death, I think both of us need a change of scenery and I don't think it's going to get better once it gets warmer because she'll be older! :)

As for Stephen, he's on his worst rotation yet, which we weren't thinking would happen. He's on his pediatric cardiology and genetics rotation. And like I said before, it sucks. He's on-call again every 4th night and when he's not on-call, he doesn't get home until 6:30pm or so. So, here's hoping that the 23rd gets here fast and that his Hem/Onc rotation won't be THIS bad when we get back from Christmas break!

Well...more complaining from me. I'm going to try and blog more and hopefully things will brighten up in 2008!

Long Time No Blog

Hey Y'all! Sorry it's been so long since I last blogged. Things this month have been pretty nonstop. We've had visitors for the past few weeks starting on August 2nd. So, Ella has had a blast with her family and friends starting with her great-grandma and her Aunt Angela. They flew up here and stayed for 5 days and we all enjoyed seeing each other. Aunt Angela had a gift for Ella for every day she was here and Ella still talks about all the stuff that Anglea brought her. G'ma brought Ella a Curious George Goes to the Hospital book and a Wee Sing book. Ella is really enoying learning all these new songs. Her favortie right now is "Deep and Wide". She is awesome at doing the motions!

G'ma and Angela flew back to FL on the 7th and Josh and Trish arrived that evening. We were all excited to see them. We've definitely missed our Kantor time! Unfortunately they were only able to stay a few days and the time flew by!! But, we were able to get some babysitting for the last evening they were here and the four of us had an adult dinner just like the old days.
Then, for Stephen's birthday on the 17th, his dad flew up from Daytona and Ella was super-excited to see him, too. They sang songs together and Ella picked up a few more sayings from Papa like "Let's get in the bus!" when we're getting ready to leave. Dad was also busy painting our whole basement! The basement was formerly red and yellow and every time I went down there I craved McDonald's! :) We now have it painted a taupe color and have grey-blue accent walls. It looks very beachy.

So, we are now back to our little family and Stephen is starting a new rotation..unfortunately his next two rotations require him being on-call every 4 nights. I'm not looking forward to the next two months. The first month we were here was like that and it was very hard on call three of us. Maybe we'll be better at managing this time around - I hope so anyway.

For more of an Ella update as I said before, she is REALLY into singing lately. Her favorite songs are "Hey There Delilah" by The Plain White T's, "Irreplaceable" by Beyonce, and "Gold Digger" by Kanye West (the clean version of course). But, like I said, she's also learning new bible songs and I'm enjoying them, too. I haven't heard these or sung these since I was in Sunday School so it's cool to teach them to my daughter. We're still looking for a church in AA. Unfortunately, the task is really up to me since Stephen is rarely able to go to church. Ella has enjoyed all the nurseries/sunday schools that she's attended, so I don't have to worry about that at all.
We're still working on the potty training. She knows what to do, but I think she's having a hard time stopping what she's doing in enough time to tell me she has to go. So, when she tells me she wants to go on the potty, she's already done it in her diaper. I guess it's a start, but after having actually gone a few times in the potty and gotten her reward (M&Ms) I just thought it would be easier for her to know what to do and/or remember when to do it. But, again, I'm not pushing her.

As for other news: We have decided to rent our house in Southwood due to the fact that the market just sucks right now no matter where you're trying to sell. Thankfully we found renters almost instantly and they seem like responsible and professional people. Anyway, hopefully this time next year we'll be in a better position to sell, maybe even to the renters.

Well, until next time, I hope every one is well and hopefully it won't be as long between blogs next time.

Ella's 15 Month Update

Wow, this last month has flown by! I feel like I open every update with that, but time seriously seems to be flying by, I guess because once again we're in a chaotic time in our lives where there are tons of things going on and some major decisions being made that will affect our lives for years to come. Stephen is currently in the middle of his first away rotation at the University of Florida where he's working on a surgical oncology rotation. Shockingly, Stephen has come to find out that surgery is not for him. Not because he doesn't love being in the OR or that he wouldn't be a great surgeon, because that is far from the truth. But after the first week of working nonstop, getting only 3-4 hours of sleep a night and not seeing his wife or daughter (and he's not even a resident yet), he truly feels that life is too short and to be honest, his passion for the uninsured (especially children) and his MPH from Harvard just doesn't fit with the surgical lifestyle. He feels bad that he didn't realize this 6 months ago because he feels like it's so obvious now. I am obviously supportive of whatever he does and I'm just happy that he's happy now that he's going back to his first love in medicine - Pediatrics. Now, if you know Stephen, you'll know that he's not the one to 'just be a Pediatrician', so after his three year residency in Peds, he'll be doing some type of fellowship. Now, what exactly the fellowship will be, he doesn't know. It could be anything from Peds ER, to Critical Care, to Neonatology, etc. So, he will reapply to residencies as he has to cancel his previous application tha the sent in on the 1st. The number of schools that he applies to will decrease dramamtically. He applied to 39 school for surgery, but it'll be closer to 20, possibly less, for Peds. I will definitely keep you informed as he hears back for interviews.

Now, for my usual mothly udpate, Ella is....well, I don't know how to describe her anymore. She is the light of our lives and keeps us going even when we want to slow down, which is a good thing and a bad thing. She's talking more and more and even if she can't pronounce a word right you know she's trying to have a conversation with you and wants you to understand what she's saying. I don't even know if I can remember all the new words she says, but some that she says all the time are ball, balloon, blue...I guess she's working on her b's, now that's she's conquered her d's. Ella's 15 month checkup is Fri. and I don't remember how many shot she has to get this time, but it'll be the first time I'll take her to a checkup by myself, so I'll get to hold her down this time!

Ella is still eating great, too. There's not one thing that I put on her plate that she won't eat (I wish her father was that easy to please)! Her swimming improves every time we get in the water. She's jumping off the edge into our arms now, and she thinks she can swim all by herself and gets pissed when we don't let her! She also loves running. I think in my last update I said she had started to run, but she runs a marathon every day now it seems. She could run back in forth all day long if she wanted to. Her favorite cartoon is still The Backyardigans and she also likes Veggie Tales. Every time the theme songs come on to those shows she squeals with excitement and starts to dance. Ella also loves being outside. She loves the way the grass feels on her feet and she loves picking flowers for her mommy. She's already gotten her first scrapes on her knees and I'm already worrying about her having scars!

I will fill you in on her stats when we get back from the doctor's on Fri. and maybe I'll remember some more of the many different things she's doing and getting into these days!

Realities of first-year residents and being on-call

So, you may be wondering why I'm writing about this subject since Stephen is not a first year resident yet. Well, the past couple of weeks he's been on his Asvanced Family Medicine rotation which is the only residency program here in Tallahassee, so instead of him working directly under a seasoned physician, he's working under residents who in turn answer to an attending.
Anyway, two things have been brought to my attention in the past couple weeks. Being on-call sucks and there are first-year residents who don't know squat. Those two things are really scary to me. First, being on-call for Stephen has been very frustrating to me in the past couple weeks because even though it's only be twice a week, it was scheduled very close together the first week which ended up running into this week. Like last week he was on call Thurs. and Sat. Oh, and for those of you who don't know, his on-call hours are 8am-8am. And even though his rotation may start at 8am he'll obviously get there early in case he needs to rounds, etc. and even though his shift ends the next morning at 8am, that doesn't mean he'll leave right at 8am due to a number of reasons. So, as I was saying, he was on-call Thurs and Sat. last week and then on-call again this week on Monday and will be on-call again tomorrow. Thankfully his on-call day on Monday was nice becaues things were slow and the resident he was with sent him home around lunch and he didn't have to be back until 5pm so he could do rounds on patients and check-in with the new attending that was coming on duty. And then came home around 10:00pm, instead of staying overnight. This was vastly different from his first week when he was working with a resident who, um...I don't know how to say this lightly, but, pretty much needs to be back in medical school, or maybe just not be a doctor at all. He is very disorganized in the sense that he doesn't know how to manage his time to get things done in a certain amount of time. He's also very unsure of himself. If he would fake some confidence, I'm sure it would help him immensely! Anyway, I just felt really bad for Stephen last week because he wasn't learning anything and at times was teaching himself!! There were a lot of slow times which he did nothing and Ella and I would come visit him.

So, my point in blogging about this is to vent my frustation in the facts that I've mentioned above because it's really scary to think that all doctors aren't on the same level and it's also scary to think that Stephen is going into surgery which requires a lot more time on-call and away from home in general the Family Medicine. And after this year, being on-call will definitely not be like this year in the sense that Ella and I can go visit him OR that he'll be able to come home if it's slow. It's also going to be real hard for me to keep my mouth shut when I hear about interns who just shouldn't be doctors or are just incompetent in their areas. I'm assuming that since surgery is so competitive it'll be a lot different than Family Medicine in little ol' Tallahassee, FL. But, then, if stereo-types are right, you get to deal with arrogant pricks in surgery residencies.

Wow, this has turned into a lot of rambling. I'm sorry for that. Just needed to vent.

4th year

It's been a couple months since Stephen started his 4thg year of medical school and I could've sworn that people (including Stephen) told me that this was the easiest most laidback year of medical school! Silly me...things that are supposed to be easy and laidback never are when it comes to Stephen. The story now is that the first 6 months are the worst for us because of the way Stephen scheduled his rotations. So, he's been through ER, OB/GYN, and is now on his Advanced Family Medicine rotation. Tonight he is on-call at the hospital which means for 24 hours he's in-house (at TMH) waiting for something to happen. Even though he's on his Family Medicine rotation, he's working with a resident who is on his OB/GYN stint of Family Practice, so they're hanging out in L&D waiting for someone to give birth. I've been home all day dealing with Ella as she gets over a cold and bilateral ear infections. I did not mind being at home all day by myself, but it gets me wondering how things will be when it's constantly like this. Stephen intern year of general surgery will be like this all the time, most likely 7 days a week. It's scary, but at least I know that he'll be just down the road. Unfortunately, after these 4 weeks in Family Medicine he'll be leaving us for 7 weeks to do away rotations at UF and UNC-Chapel Hill. Of course Gainesville isn't far away and I'll be able to be there as much as I want, but I can't really see myself staying at my G'ma's for 3 weeks straight! And I have no clue what I'll do when he's in NC for 4 weeks! I don't know if I'm more worried about me or Ella. She'll take it really hard, too. Right now, having three dogs is a bear because I can't just follow Stephen around because I can't take them everywhere and I can't afford to board them that long either! This is my life. I'm trying to remember that it will pay off....someday.