Between thunderstorms we have had some hot weather and have used the slip and slide, sprinkler and the plastic pool. I am not sure of why Jan and Alec need goggles in the sprinkler, but they assure me that it's better that way.
Pati and Anne enjoy alot of the same things right now. Which pretty much means they play together and bicker a bit. Somehow Pati got into the drivers seat and there was no pushing her out. She is close to the same size as Anne so Anne doesn't have much of a chance.
Grandpa Carne and Grandmaria made it out to Ohio for our first real week of summer weather. It was fun to have them and the kids are already talking about next time. Growing up I always lived nearby my grandparents and I figured that I was the luckiest little girl in the world to be able to live within walking distance of them. It has been good to discover, though, that kids remember more than you give them credit for. Even though we do not get to see any set of grandparents or cousins or aunts and uncles on a daily or weekly basis, the kids remember them all with a fierce sense of family and ownership and it never seems as though it has been very long since we have seen them. David is in the middle of a plastic surgery rotation. He is home more than he was last month,(hooray!) but the hours are unpredictable. He takes beeper call from home which means that he might get to sleep at home, but it also means that he might not. Last night it meant that he didn't. So he is spending his Father's Day trying to catch up on sleep since he is also on call today and tonight. The only really bad thing about home beeper call is that it does not actually count toward your hours, so even if you spend the night working at the hospital, you are required to function as though you didn't. At least it is the weekend and he just had to round this morning instead of staying until suppertime. He made it home for some lunch and I hope his beeper keeps quiet for a few more hours.
Today David is on call at the hospital in Cleveland won't be home until sometime tomorrow. Often these days take forever to pass and so early this morning I decided to get some grocery shopping done up in Cleveland since I haven't done Costco and Trader Joe's for several months. This morning at breakfast, for the first time in a loooong time we all had scrambled eggs. A year and a half ago I had Anne tested for IgE allergy to eggs and it came back negative. But a year ago her IgG allergy test came back positive for eggs so she has not had eggs for a year. We just got back the results from a restest of IgG allergies and it said that she could have eggs. So we had them scrambled. 15 minutes after breakfast Anne's eyes got really red and itchy. I gave her Benadryl and thought "Oh great." After about an hour it looked like that was all, red itchy eyes, so I loaded everyone in the car and we headed to Cleveland. At the first store she started to get red and blotchy. We were there too long because of bathroom stops and all the kids wanting to use the kids size carts, etc etc. By the time we got to the second store Anne's nose was swelling and she had a bright red rash on her legs. It was Costco, but it isn't like Costco in the NW. Everything takes FOREVER. We stood in line at the food court for 30 minutes (I had promised the kids before we left home) and then realized that there was nothing that Pati could eat. I threw hot dogs and kids in the cart and tried to get my shopping done quickly while Anne kept getting worse and I worried. I opened a package of Benadryl from the pharmacy section and gave Anne a piece of an adults pill (the only children's Benadryl had red food coloring in it...I think that whoever thought of red food coloring in medicine for sick or allergic children is an idiot) and then headed to the checkout. It took a long time. Then the kids had to go to the bathroom. By the time I finally loaded Anne into the car I was crying because she looked so terrible, I was 45 minutes from home, had no way to reach David and didn't know what I should do. I really didn't want to call 911 - didn't know if I should. I decided to try and make it back to Akron Children's Hospital since I didn't know if insurance would cover anything at a Hospital out of network...and I didn't know where a hospital was anyway. Anne's face was red and purple, her lip and nose were swollen and she had a rash all over. Her voice sounded different. But she wasn't wheezing and seemed to be breathing OK. I just didn't know how far or fast it would progress. I got a call from our friends who live down the street who are ER doctors (one of them is a pediatric doctor) and they helped me alot. They said if she was wheezing at all to pull over and call 911. Otherwise I should take her to Children's or to their house (they live about a mile from us), 20 minutes from where I was at that point. I got to their house and they had the right medicine, although Anne didn't like getting two shots. Then the big kids said their memory verses and everybody got prizes - I was pretty grateful for friends like that. It sure beat spending a long time in the ER with four kids who hadn't had naps. Anne was back to a normal color and the swelling was gone. I went to the pharmacy to pick up my very own epi-pen. Our doctor friends had given the big kids marigolds to plant and they promptly spilled them all over the back of the car. Now it was after three and I had a VERY messy car, melting groceries to put away, Pati to feed and a horribly messy house.
It is now almost 6:00 and I have stopped cleaning and picking up long enough to sit and type this out. I suppose I will rummage around for something that won't send anyone into an allergic reaction, feed them and maybe try to get everybody out for some exercise. Which really means getting on clothes and shoes, loading up a stroller and two bikes and bike helmets, driving somewhere, unloading aforementioned equipement and assembling it, adjusting bike helmets and strapping in babies before trying to run a few miles without having to stop at too many outhouses along the way. Then it will be back to the car and the whole process in reverse. Then baths (sunday tomorrow) and hair dryers and pajamas and cream and stories and water bottles and prayer and bed. For me too I hope. I am thankful for a little girl who can breathe. I won't be scrambling eggs any time soon.
When I was six my Mom cut my hair off in one big (I thought) braid. I still have it, in my baby book. The kids have looked at it whenever I would let them get it out. Jan has been planning to do it when she turned six. She worked up her courage and had me cut her hair off in one big braid. My braid next to hers suddenly becomes an anemic little strand of white-green hair (my birthday is in the summer so mine was cut off after months of swimming in chlorine water). Not sure if Jan gets her beautiful hair from her Dad, her Aunt Robyn or my Grandma Copper, but it isn't from me! Her hair was more difficult to cut off in a braid than I had anticipated. I hadn't realized quite how thick it was. The scissors moved and moved again. I think the picture shows the uneven cut across the top of the braid. Jan was looking in the mirror and could just see the front view. I had front and back views and the back looked terrible. Jan smiled and tucked hair behind her ears and laughed with excitement about how beautiful she looked with short hair while I smiled and nodded and tried not to panic about how to fix the shingly looking hair in the back. It worked out alright with a few layers. It is easier for her to take care of herself which makes life easier for me. It makes her look so grown up.
My Mom came and visited us for her birthday and we enjoyed her. I think that Anne thinks that she lives at the airport though. Jan and Alec have been chipmunk trapping again which has been exciting. We haven't caught any chipmunks, just other things. The chipmunk population took a big hit last year when we caught and relocated 18 of the pesky things. There are three lists taped to the coat closet door. They are titled "Chipmunks" (that list has no marks) "Squirrels" (that list has a black mark...they caught a black squirrel) and "Poop" (There is one mark on that list too). I told them that they can't set the traps overnight anymore. It has been warm enough to sleep with our bedroom window open and David and I were up one night listening to a racoon wrestle the traps. He wouldn't leave it until he had eaten all of the peanut butter, but he was too big to fit inside. It was loud. David has been commuting to Cleveland this month which has good things and bad things that go with it. He has to get up before 5:00 and often isn't home until 7:00 or 7:30 and then has work to do to get ready for the next day. He is learning good things and doesn't have so many overnight shifts this month though. We are looking forward to June. David has a week of vacation and we are hoping for some good weather!
We are now finishing up our second year here in Akron, Ohio. Spring seems like it has finally arrived and I know this not because it was 75 degrees outside yesterday, but because we have been treating multiple motorcycle crash victims at the hospital.
The family went up to Cleveland last weekend to shop at a really neat marked called Westside Market. It is a two part market that is indoor and has a produce section and a larger section for meat vendors and dairy and bakery vendors, along with a few fish market types. It was very crowded and pushing the stroller with the two littles was an experience. I suppose the market would be reminding me of a more organized and permanent Farmer's Market in a way, with each vendor owning a tiny piece of real estate that is tastefully displaying their fresh edibles. It was all very pretty and done in cash, so you holler your selections across the produce and the owner puts them in a bag for you and at the end tells you how much.
The kids were impressed with the real pig head, the whole fish and skinned rabbits the most.
Jan and Alec are becoming quite the swimmers. They both can swim for quite some distance in the big pool, and Jan has even dared to take the plunge off the diving board. Jan has been trying the breast stroke, with Alec tackling the butterfly most recently. Anne wants desperately to try it out but with her skin we are going to wait for a while.
Pati is now a bit rashy as well, and seems to have set the record for consecutive weeks of teething, so that makes her congested and irritable. Maybe we will have to give her a flavored rock to knaw on or something.
I finished my time with the Cardiac Surgery rotations, and had a splendid time. I learned a ton, including that we will very likely experience a massive shortage in surgeons to do heart bypass surgery in the next 10 years or so, as well as the fact that they once were at the top of the food chain, but now are practically bottom feeders. Quite sad, actually. It seems like nobody appreciates them much anymore, and that is a shame given what they can and do perform every day.
I have been allowed to do more and more of the operations I am involved in at the hospital. Have completed several surgeries completely by myself, and have started getting more involved in others.
This month I am back on the Trauma service, and so far have been very busy. Next month I go up to University Hospital in Cleveland for a month on their transplant service. Not looking forward to this, the long hours and 45min commute each way, but at least I don't have to be gone to distant hospitals and cities for months at a time like most programs.
I finish out my year with a month of Plastic Surgery before I welcome the incoming new class of residents in July by being with them on the general surgery service. Then August---October finds me across the street at the Children's Hospital doing pediatric surgery for three months. That should be good and I am looking forward to it.
Well, we are trying to get back into shape here. I was sick for a good month and a half, and didn't get much of any exercise. Indoor soccer league is over, and Softball has started by not really due to bad weather last weekend. We should have a game tomorrow but it is supposed to rain again. Figures, both weekends I am off this month are cool and rainy (better days to be on call as less busy, typically). Oh well, just more experience for me.
Some time I should write about my Etrade experience, but I think I will spare you. To summarize, if you have three returned deposits from a bank you are trying to transfer funds into or from electronically, your account is automatically locked. This takes speaking with 5 or 6 different representatives over 2 months, a failed wire transfer, and submitting special requests to resolve. In the meantime, you most likely have bills the become due, delinquent, and the whole process costs you about 2 years worth of interest that you were hoping to earn above your local bank interest rate. I thought this was the new age of electronics and such, but I guess I was better off where I was, even if the grass was a bit more brown.
Okay, it is Saturday and I should be cleaning up all of my clutter from the past month or two that I have been busy and not around much.
As always, you can view any new pictures of us at our picasa web picture album site by clicking on most of the pictures that we have posted on this site.
