Goodbye Tiny Tim

Well, we have begun the process of saying goodbye to Ohio and we started with Tiny Tim, our pet turtle.

The thought was that T-squared would have the best chance if we sent him to Turtle Nirvana well-nourished and still moving around. I figured we would be making him a spot in the flower bed next to Spike the fish, but the kids did a great job figuring out that these little guys need to have little live worms, and they won't eat unless they are under water, but not too much water.

We are down to the last few weeks here in Ohio, and have enjoyed being here. The kids seem to be just starting to settle in and make some friends, have been quite involved with activities and sports, and the weather is finally reasonable after 6-7 months of nastiness.

We still have to put a few final touches on things here, such as packing, selling our house, finding a place to live in Oregon, and such but I am looking at only 4 more calls left at the hospital, and most likely one about 2 more weeks of real work.

Have been using all of my "spare" time studying for my upcoming board exam in August, as well as putting the finishing touches on 3 different research projects.

Seems like it has been much longer than 5 years to me, but I suppose there are those who didn't even know we were even gone from Oregon. The children really don't have too many memories except here, so that part will be rough for them for a bit, but they will adjust well I am sure.

The training seems like it could go on forever before I am really "comfortable" doing things by myself, but on the other hand I am feeling safe enough to do large cases and even difficult ones on my own. Fortunately there have been all types of attendings here to train under. Some of the attendings always scrub in with me on all of my own cases, which is nice. Other attendings don't scrub in at all, and just call in to ask how I am doing, or if I have a question I call them in. At first that is a little nerve-wracking, but after the first case or two I actually appreciated that supervision, as it really gave me confidence that when I leave here and do my own cases by myself, I will have no problem, because I have actually been doing my own cases for many months now, and even some large complex cases.

Really happy about not having to take any more trauma call pretty soon. Really happy that I won't be up all night ever 4th night, pulling 30+ hour shifts and just getting farther and farther behind in my rest and out of contact with my family. Will really be glad to be busy, but I would much rather be really busy with my own patients, and not doing all of the mundane residency stuff, ICU coverage, trauma call, backing up all of the neurosurgeons, vascular surgeons and in-house residents.

Have enjoyed many things of the training process, and have been able to work with some great surgeons, but am really glad it is coming to an end soon.

Well, good bye Tiny Tim. We hope you are swimming around in Frog Pond where the worms fall into your path, the sun shines on your log, and you find other turtles to play with.

Suppose we will have to get a pet lizard or something that the girls aren't allergic to when we move out to Oregon next month.

Tiny Tim

From Spring 2011

This little fellow is cute. (Alec is too, but he hates it when we say that.)

The turtle is a Midland Painted Turtle. Very common in Ohio. Probably not more than two weeks from hatching. About the size of a quarter.

Our children have wanted a pet so badly. In the midst of this time of upheaval and change I think it is a marvelous gift from the Lord that he would provide this tiny creature for the kids to dig worms for and laugh and coo at. I read once in a good book that children need three things every day: Something to DO. Something to THINK ABOUT. Something to LOVE.

They really do love that little thing. Anne has allergies to dogs and cats (and probably to other hairy creatures, but no one has ever offered to test her for allergies to horse or cat or gerbil :)). Although the kids know that it will be difficult for us to ever have the kind of pet they long for, they still hope for it and talk about it and ask about it. Often.

So I feel especially blessed by God that He has provided this very real pet for us to enjoy for a few days/weeks.

We have been worried since we had read that it is very difficult to get hatchlings to eat. The plan was to keep the turtle a day or two and then let him go quickly if we couldn't get him to eat anything. This morning, Tiny Tim sat in the old fish tank (with a little bit of water and some rocks in it) in the middle of breakfast table so the kids could watch him while we ate. He started to pull on the worm that the kids had picked up off the pavement. They were delighted to see him pull off a big piece and chomp away on it. "He's eating! He is happy with us!" I don't know about that, but it is good that he is eating and it will make me comfortable letting them keep him for a couple more days.

X

Hard to believe it, but ten years ago today, Kristi and I were wed. Seems like just a few days ago in some ways. Seems like a distant memory in others. I was asked by many staff I was working with today as to what my grand plans were to commemorate such a grand occasion. They weren't too impressed that I was going to study a bit, and find a place to go have dinner as a sitter was coming over for the evening. One of them suggested that I needed to further increase my current debt by throwing jewels at my bride. I quickly vetoed that suggestion. Not because I don't have a great desire to shower my lovely lady with expensive items that will make other marrieds wish they had just been so luck to have "caught" me, or give the fair maidens hope that there may be hope yet. I think it was somehow related to the natural progression of the conversation in the OR, which had me doing my own case, hip deep in a 330# gallbladder case, and the staff filling me in on all of the current events; namely, just how many wives Elizabeth Taylor had been, how many children she had had, whether or not her eyes really were purple, and just how big her ring really was.

They took ET out of the google que and put in 10 year wedding anniversary, to see which one it was. I told them I hoped it was rice, or beans, or something. They seemed to think it was Diamond. Well, it originally was aluminum. Perfect, I figured we could go to Chipotle and get a foil-wrapped burrito, and that would count. Then they said the more modern 10 year anniversary is diamond... I figure it should be 75 years or something, but most likely that one isn't very popular in the commercial world because nobody stays married that long anymore. Sell lots more jewels if you move it up a few decades... Don't go from tin to Gold, and then Diamond, just get the diamond out of the way while you still have a chance.

Seems pretty ridiculous to me that everyone expected me to have these amazing plans of driving home from work in a limo, picking up my wife with flowers in hand, ring in the box, and whisking her off to the most expensive eatery in Ohio. I suppose anything less would be a sign that I don't really love my wife, right?

Well, she had to settle with me coming home a few minutes early so I could stay with the little kids while she went to pick up Jan from her running class, and swing by and pick up the sitter on her way home. Then we went off to a romantic appointment in our 14-year old car (that works perfectly well, by the way) where I dropped her off at the salon to get her hair done for about 2 hours (have to take advantage of a sitter when you can get one). I spent the time studying for an exam I have here in a few days, and then we went out to one of our favorite restaurants and had a wonderful time talking about stuff and things (something we hardly ever get a chance to do).

On our way home we went to Barnes & Noble to look at books, never bought anything, and came home. We had a wonderful time, I think, and I didn't have to go into debt. We have one of the best relationships I have ever seen, or been around as far as I can tell. I am continually amazed by how wonderful my wife and best friend is, and do my best to help when I can, talk and listen when I am awake, and tell her how much I love her as often as I can. She does an amazing job of never criticizing me, helping me, protecting me, and keeping an amazingly good attitude in spite of a horrific schedule, 4 young children to rear, and a challenging income and environment with few real friends or family readily available.

Not sure what the next 10 years will bring, but if I get to spend any part of them with her, it will not matter. How did I ever get so blessed to be married to her for 10 years? She said "sure," when I asked her.

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