Hurry up and wait

Tonight I'm at the hospital waiting for a lady to deliver. She came into the clinic today with contractions. Normally we wouldn't have sent her down to deliver but she lives about an hour away. So, instead of her having to return in a few days, we decided to let her come down to the Labor and Delivery unit and see if we can't make her deliver a baby.

I've only been on the rotation a few days, but I've noticed that sometimes I do a lot of waiting. At other times, it's all-of-the-sudden an emergency. Today was a good example. We had a patient come in for an induction. We got her going and then went to clinic. This afternoon I got a call stating that the patient was getting ready so I better head down. I got to the floor quickly only to find that she wasn't quite ready. So, after a quick check, I decided to go out to the desk and talk with the nurses. Not 3 minutes later, there was a "Staff Emergency" code for her room. That basically means that the nurse thought she was about to deliver. I ran back into the room, got suited up, and waited. It still took about another hour to deliver the baby.

So, here I sit in L&D, waiting for a primip (that's a first-time mom) to progress. It's going to be a long night. In the meantime, I watch to see how much "Lots of space" there is on gmail. Right now there is 7209.791980 megabytes. And it keeps getting bigger! Plenty of room for emails.

I need some help

So, Lars and I have mostly moved into the new house. My biggest problem area is the front living room.  The front door opens right into the living room.  I've taken some pictures to help you all see what it looks like right now.    We inherited the loveseat, some wooden chairs and an end table from dad's office.  We also have the piano from the garage, "Hack" as it is affectionately known as.  Hack doesn't have a piano bench right now so we have an office chair sitting there for now.  We haven't hung up any pictures either.  I want to get the front room arranged and then I can get pictures up.  So, I'm open for suggestions.  I think I want to get a couch and get rid of the the chairs.  I've thought of moving the piano where the loveseat is right now or against the short wall.  What do ya'll think?

From the hallway that goes to the bedroom, here's the view of the living room.  It kinda looks like a dental office in a way - except for the plants and the books on the floor.

From the front door looking to the "short wall" where we now have the piano, but I really don't think I like it here.  You can see the mirror that needs to be hung as well as the clock (in the very back).

Looking straight from the front door to the dining area.  See Lars on his computer in the dining area.  He thinks this is his desk sometimes.  You can see the "short wall" on the left. Thanks for the furniture mom and dad.  That was really nice.  I think I want to get a cover for it though - it's a little dirty.

This is a shot from where Lars was sitting. You can see our bedroom to the left.

I found this website where I could make a floor plan so I did.  I was just telling Lars that if I'd spend as much time trying to design the room as I did creating this floorplan, I wouldn't be writing this blog today.

Hopefully you are all very visual and creative people and can see what I'm talking about.  Does anyone have any suggestions for making this space more useful?  We are open to purchasing furniture (like a sofa and maybe a big chair or something) as well as wall hangings. I just need someone with some ability to design to help me out here.  I simply don't have that talent...yet.

My great idea

Today in church I was thinking about all the scrapbooking that I need to do. For those who don't know, I'm NOT a scrapbooker at all. My mom bought me some stuff to put together my wedding book and so I've attempted to learn the art. I have to admit that I'm failing but I haven't given up yet. Anyway, I initially wanted to do our entire first year of marriage but I have come to realize that it is way too much. I am falling behind too quickly. So, today at church I decided that I am going to blog it instead of scrapbooking it.

Stuff

Well, Bec referred me to wordle.net to make this. This is using the post Lars did when he asked me to marry him. Now, I just need to print it out and add it to my scrapbook!

Rocky Mountain National Park

For Labor Day weekend, I was fortunate enough to have that day off. I'm not quite sure how I managed, but I did. In the meantime, Lars had concocted an excursion to Rocky Mountain National Park with his family.

It's too bad that not more of them could come.  I haven't been able to spend a lot of time with them yet.  I suppose we will have the holidays though.  

Sam, Uncle Kent, Daddy-O, Mom O, Me, Lars and Kiersten all got together.  We stayed in a little cabin that had a bed room, a loft and a couple of pull-out couches.  Oh, and only ONE bathroom.  We did okay though.  I suppose if it had been much longer or there had been more of us, one bathroom would not have sufficed, but in this case, it worked out just fine. 

We arrived Saturday afternoon and after getting settled, drove to the Park to get in 30 min of walking/hiking.  You see, Kiersten needed to exercise 30 min to get $200 back from her health insurance company.  So, at 7:30 pm we started a little hike.  The only problem was coming back at 8 pm. It was pretty dark. On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store to get some supplies.  We arrived back at the cabin around 9 pm and then had dinner.  

After dinner, we started a movie, "Ocean's 11".  I think I was the only one to sleep through the whole thing.

Sunday we managed to get everyone showered and fed.  Kiersten started the process at 6:30 in the morning.  All of us got to shower and not a single one had a cold shower!  That is pretty amazing.  We went to church at 10 am in Granby.  It was bursting at the seams that week.  They had chairs in the hallways to accomodate all the visitors.

 

After church, a yummy lunch and a brief nap, we were off to the Park again.  This time, we went to Alpine Summit.  It is about 12,000 feet above sea level.  It was stormy and kinda chilly but we walked up to the summit where we got a few pictures.  We also saw a full rainbow here (this picture does not do it justice).

We got home later that evening and had a nice quiet evening filled with MadGab and stories told by Uncle Kent.  (BTW, I think Lars does the best "Uncle Kent; storyteller" impersonation ever!)

The next day, Monday,  we packed up the cabin, loaded our cars and headed to Grand City.  There we found a trailhead to Cascade Falls.  It looked like a nice little hike with only a little bit of incline.  The trailhead indicated it was a 3.4 mile hike.  

That didn't sound too bad until I was about 2 miles into our 7 mile hike and realized I really had to use the bathroom.  After we had hiked for about 1 1/2 hours and still weren't to the falls, I knew there would be no way to survive the rest of the hike without some sort of potty break.  Fortunately, Uncle Kent who happens to be a retired (sorta) hiker, was very prepared with TP.  That was lucky for me.  We did manage to find a latrine (I didn't even know what this was, but it ends up that's a fancy name for "hole-in-the-ground").  So, I did survive the rest of the hike and admittedly, the falls were beautiful.

We parted our ways around 4 pm and I have to say, I was natured out.  I told Lars I can't go hiking for at least one more year.  That was a lot of hiking for one weekend.  However, it was a great time.

And, I think my favorite part was seeing all the wildlife.  Here's a picture of Lars and me with one of the most interesting ones we could find!

ER Experiences

I thought I would try and document some of the interesting things I've seen this month in the ER in Scottsbluff, Nebraska.

First of all, let me tell you that I have NOT seen any grotesque tractor accidents - though Lars likes to tell everyone that's what I do here.

The other day, I spent the majority of the time suturing. From rottweiler dog bites to golfing accidents (where someone tried to remove an ear), I've gotten a little faster and sewing.

There have been equestrian accidents where a pelvis was broken, a rattlesnake bite, anaphalaxis reactions, the common cold, resistant staph infections, kidney stones, heart attacks, heart failure, asthma exacerbations and many other things.

Yesterday was pretty exciting. We had a Unisom overdose, several car accidents and an elderly man who was coding (meaning CPR was initiated right when he came in). Unfortunately, the old man didn't make it. He had lung cancer as well as brain tumors. He was 92. The young man was seizing for over 4 hours and his internal body temperature had risen to 108 degrees. Last I heard, he was still alive but I don't know how long he'll make it.

Our New Place

Lars and I finally settled on a house! It's a duplex located at 2928 18th Street in Scottsbluff, Nebraska (the one on the right). It's located about 5 minutes from the hospital and about 3 minutes from the Church. It is a little small but it will fit our needs for now. Fortunately, Lars and I don't have any furniture. My concern is all my boxes located in my parents' garage.

Bear Lake 2008

Well, I'm finally posting about our trip to Bear Lake this year.  It was right after our honeymoon.  We flew into Salt Lake Tuesday July 1st and left for Bear Lake Wednesday morning.  I guess the fam is going to make this a yearly tradition.  I am quite excited about that, and I don't think I'm alone!

That afternoon, everyone was already down at the lake on the jet skis.  Lars and I suited up and went to the lake.  We had such a blast.  We did that on Tuesday and Wednesday.   Mom decided to feed the gulls.  She had about 50 crowded around her and then she would start screaming when they started getting too close.  Hannah came and decided that she should run through the flock of gulls and see what happened.  We were having fun.  Mom found one that was hooked with a fishing lure.  She tried to throw food specifically to that one and tried to get dad to catch it so they could remove the lure.  Dad tried, but that gull would have none of it.  

We also went to the Minnetonka Cave.  It has over beautiful stalactites and stalagmites, over 800 stairs and is 40 degrees year round.  Mom and dad decided to stay in town and look at the area.  It really is gorgeous.

There were amazing rock formations in the cave, but we also got to see some wildlife.  Here is a photo of one in its attack stance.  Poor Hannah.  She didn't stand a chance.

More pictures at the cave.

Hannah was so excited to see "cute guys" all over the place.  This was her way of getting their attention.  How could anyone resist?

I was sick (really, really sick) on our honeymoon.  I was still trying to get better while we were there.  Tylenol, Chloraseptic and an occasional Vicodin were good friends.

We took a few trips into Grand City for Raspberry shakes...YUMMY!  I'm not sure the topic of conversation while this picture was being taken.

(Don't tell anyone about this) We were short one seatbelt in the van so Danny set up a camping chair in the van with the back against the driver's seat.  When we went to the city, he served as our tour guide.  (In the background you can see Joseph's back which was burned to a lobster red -- poor guy.)

We had an absolutely wonderful time.  The place we stayed in had a queen bed in one room where mom and dad slept and then another room with two captain bunk beds.  Lars and I took one of the bottom bunks.  One morning while Lars and I were trying to sleep in, Danny and Jake decided to climb in bed with us, no doubt to try and get us out of bed.  What a Kodak moment!

Random Pictures

I found some pictures on Lars camera that I thought would be fun to post.

The first one is of a trip that in the beginning of February, Lars and I took to Wyoming. We found a car rental place that was $11/day for a "compact" car. When we went to find the car we had rented, it was a Mustang convertible. What a surprise! The only bad thing about it was it was about 30 degress below zero. We put the top down for a picture, but it was way to cold to actually drive around like that. David decided he should pose with the car as well so that he could post it to his Facebook account.
Then, on our way back to Omaha, we had a while in the airport where I got a hold of Lars camera and started taking pictures. I'm pretty sure Lars loves it when I do this as you can tell by his face.



We had a lot of fun in Wyoming like we always do. Three days later was Valentine's Day. Lars got me some beautiful flowers on the 13th ("because they're cheaper" he told me). However, the next day he surprised me by taking me to a nice dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant and then "Phantom of the Opera". It was a wonderful night!

My Delivery

I started my OB rotation this month. Here is a letter from the family of the first baby I delivered.

Dr. Peterson -

Thank you again for doing such a wonderful job of helping us bring the newest member into our family. I hope all of your future deliveries go just as smoothly!

Sincereley,

Jennie Rogers






Alexander Vincent Rogers
January 2, 2008
12:24 pm

8 lbs, 4 oz
20 inches long