| ugh |
[05 Jul 2009|06:37pm] |
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mood |
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 tired |
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music |
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ask for joy - peace |
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not dead.
i miss being able to write here.
rosencrantz passed last night, aaron was here with me and was of great comfort.
it's fucking hot and all i can think about is moving somewhere better.
this was not a good weekend.
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| That was weird |
[05 Jul 2009|09:21am] |
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music |
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Seagulls :: Great Big Sea (Play) |
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While at work the other day, I was between ORs with nothing to do. Can't use Facebook at work, not going to use LJ. So I ended up browsing Barnmice, which I've meant to do for a while. Ended up creating an account, my usual non-revealing sort of account.
What I didn't expect was getting an email from someone calling themselves the site administrator??? ... wanting to know if I had a number they could reach me at. And I'm talking getting this email within minutes of signing up. This person certainly seems active enough, appropriately so, on the site to be a site admin. But. Huh??
I replied, after a few days of trying to decide if I would bother. I just asked what it was about. Guess we'll see what is said next.
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| Engage ooBase (are belong to us) |
[04 Jul 2009|11:46pm] |
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music |
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Jump Around :: House Of Pain (Frosh Two) |
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I guess it really IS time to start doing some show management. Got our first entry form.
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| what I learned today |
[04 Jul 2009|11:27pm] |
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music |
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Nostalgia :: Ivana Santilli (Brown) |
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Keeping in the trend of trying to sum up my work days with a few "learning points." These aren't necessarily things I didn't know before, but still came up today and I'm solidifying them to some degree here.
1. percutaneous transhepatic cholecystostomy drainage may not be compatible with CAPD... check with your friendly neighbourhood nephrologist.
2. the transition point identified on CT? probably really is.
3. if another 10 U PRBC barely scratch a hgb of 70 after somebody else clipped the bleeding DU... get in there, and if the clip area is still dry, look for the second ulcer.
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[04 Jul 2009|11:17pm] |
Spent most of today in the OR. Just one thing after the other. Can't get the smell of necrosis and old bloody shit out of my nose. Ugh.
The Boy did not make it to the horse show. He was almost there and then took a wrong turn. In Saskatchewan, if you aren't quite sure where you are and you're hauling a horse, that can be a big deal. In the end it was easier to just give up -- he would have missed the classes he really cared about anyways. Sucks, there's just not enough shows that are close enough for our liking, and this was one of the rare ones that was.
If the rest of the night treats me good, plan for tomorrow is ward round, lawn care, show management, trail ride, dog park, read, prep cases. All in a day? Well, why not.
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[03 Jul 2009|11:40pm] |
I'm still adjusting to being at the Rectory again. And the whole awkwardness of being PGY-4.5. Awkward.
The surgical assist, a foreign-trained surgeon, stopped me in the hall after we did a mastectomy. Congratulated me, said I'd really come a long way, and had good skills. That was speechlessly nice.
Tonight, we stopped by a 4H fundraiser tack consignment sale. Nothing much caught our eye, we took a gamble on a headstall hoping it would fit Tucson (it doesn't) and a set of split reins, good heavy 2-ply ones. We've got some stuff in the sale, and I didn't see it all there, so maybe some already sold? Here's hoping. We also posted some horse show posters there. Rumour has it we've got even more sponsors (the guy who owns Faran's sire), and starting to hear rumour of people planning to enter. I'll be happy when we start to have tangible numbers.
Rode my Fair Mare tonight. Stayed inside due to bugs. She was excellent. We've been working on rather simple patterns in the arena, and it's starting to feel like we're balancing through them better. I am, she is, it's a good combo. Some of our circles were even roundish in shape. :P Never mind. We did have some smooth loops up the long sides. And she was sweet all through. We cantered -- just a little -- a half-arena both ways. That was all I needed from her tonight. We stayed nicely balanced around the corners. Better and better. The saddle is a help. Big help. Overall, very satisfying, and hopefully that's enough joy to last me all weekend (because I'll be on call... boo.)
While I rode her, and Anton after that, the Boy prettied up River for a little last-minute horse show he found for tomorrow. Due to being on call, I can't go. Maybe next time. I told him that next time, I'll take Tucson and we'll challenge River for our zone's high points in speed. :P (River's possibly leading our zone, simply because she's the only one.)
After my ride with Faran, I took her outside for no reason at all.
Then I couldn't help taking pictures of her with the Blackberry.
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[02 Jul 2009|10:17pm] |
First full day at the Rectory. I generally hate that hospital for some reason. But there was always one thing I got a kick out of. It's got, like, modern security systems on the doors in and out of the OR. I love the whole prox-card-wave thing, and then the doors that open for you, it's such a power trip.
Yes, I have issues.
BUT! BUTBUTBUT! Even bigger power trip! The PD went to bat for us and got all surgery senior residents parking passes for the D LOT! D Lot is the old-school doctors' lot, that is right in front of the hospital. Its not very big. But traditionally, it was for all the docs that would come and go throughout the day, rather than them having to fight through the parkade. It was a default senior surgery parking lot, because we are the first there in the dark mornings, last to leave in the dark nights, and back many times throughout the night. It's less scary than the parkade in the dark, in that dodgy part of town. But they suddenly took it away from us a few years ago, announced that you needed a special pass to park there, and that pass went to (wait for it) administration. That's right, the 9-4 crowd.
But now we got our own D-Lot passes! Yay!
I'm not sure how to negotiate around the fact that my team operates tomorrow and yet I've got mandatory attendance rounds. This hasn't happened to me before. Hrm. Well, guess we'll see.
Had a good ride on my Fair Mare tonight. She now won't turn to the left. But that's okay, that's normal, that's my fault. I can't seem to get weight off my left hip. I've had this problem forever, it's why I wore through the left pocket of my jeans first all the time. Probably that scoliosis one of my fellow medical students diagnosed me with when we were in our MSK block in second year. So I worked hard on trying to rebalance (and now have a sore back as a result, oops.) But she was a hard worker for me.
Anton's been stiff quite a bit since his girl was here. He worked a lot harder for her, and I think he's feeling it now. Upped his glucosamine, and spent all of today's ride letting him long, lots of just long walk and long trot. When he seemed ready, I let him canter long too, I just stayed off his back all the time. After a while he did seem to have finally loosened up a bit. I think we'll have to stick to a lot of carefully planned exercise rides to try to loosen him back up again. He seemed a bit backsore to the left side before the ride, but afterwards he was a lot better. I did think about lunging him, but I'm not sure I can handle that fairly with my protected (gimped) finger. I'll see what he's like tomorrow, he might need bute.
The Boy went grocery shopping today... with the truck. He usually just walks. He took the truck, though, and stocked up and so much stuff. Bess was so thrilled, she tried to lick the cheese. And when she got scolded for that, she deposited a ball in with the canned soup.
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| atchoo |
[01 Jul 2009|11:02pm] |
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Goddamn these allergies. What the hell is in the air? This is the worst I've had since leaving Ontario. Did someone import ragweed here? It's a bit early for that, though.
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| Stat Holiday! |
[01 Jul 2009|10:15pm] |
Today was damned good!
Started off by sleeping most of the night, even though I was on call. Got woken up about 10 minutes before my alarm by getting clocked in the chin. I think it was Bess, somehow, unless the Boy punched me in his sleep. It hurt. (I really think it was Bess).
Rounded on my new team of patients in very acceptable time. I think I can handle this team after all. We'll see.
Rode the Faran today. She was awesome! We had some discussions, and we're all the better for it. She's so much happier without wood in her gums. :P I don't think we embarrassed G. in front of his albertans.
Afterwards, the Boy and I hung out with the buckskins outside. Worked the outside arena just a bit, me mostly moseying on Faran and gossiping with another boarder, while the Boy worked on some of the things he learned at his lesson yesterday (he and L. hauled horses to a reining trainer).
We rode out to the polo field, and this is monumental because it's the first time we've ridden this particular combo into the expanse. I think a real hack will still require the presence of one of the old boys, because River's nervous about new stuff, and Faran feeds off River even though she's seen that same stuff before. We had a couple spectacular spooks (River started them, Faran just copied) but in true QH fashion they mostly involved rollbacks and snorting.
We also got rides in on the boys... Anton's pretty stiff today and breathing a little rough. More 'roids for him. Tucson was coughing a lot too, so he got dex'ed. He went lovely though. Level. Sound. Had his teeth done yesterday.
THEN we still had time to take Bess to the dog park where... YAY! They've installed a fence, a real fence, around the slough. NO MORE SLOUGH DOG!!!
And then home by 8:30, got some stuff done, now shower and bed. (Been waiting for the laundry/dishwasher to quit so I could get some hot water...)
Great day! Such beautiful weather, a good ride, a good walk with the dog, and early to bed (or would be, if it weren't for the water issue). No complaints!
Tomorrow will be something though, so I'm not thinking about it.
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[01 Jul 2009|12:32am] |
I suck at stapled appies because I can't fire the GIA. Had to get help. Stupid finger.
So ends my run at the Fortress, for now. 6 months of service at the Rectory. Need to wrap my head around it. Could it possibly go anything better than total suckage? Let's find out!
Starting with rounds tomorrow. Canada Day or not, still gotta round.
Then I plan to ride my horse. Anton's back on my roster too. But mostly I'm interested in my mare.
Speaking of which, finally found out Dreamhost had moved us to a new server, and so I can upload pictures again.
Naptime for the herd.
The technical problem of drive-in movies in Saskatchewan June. It's 10:30 pm.
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| Post-Shower BTW |
[29 Jun 2009|11:42pm] |
After a shower, I still have to let my finger dry out before locking it up in that damned splint for the night.
Which leads to my post-shower BTW.
I posted a ranty thing about an instructor at the barn but deleted it because it sounded way bitchier than I intend, and I don't want it written down after all. But we are looking for a part-boarder for Tucson, who would just love having a teenaged girl to play with his fabio mane, and one of the conditions of use would be that the part-boarder be taking lessons, and that those lessons be with an instructor or coach that we approve. And there's one, in particular, that we don't, and she happens to have the lion's share of the beginners.
I deleted the post after ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) coanteen replied to it, though, apparently. Must have done it simultaneously or something. We're planning on splitting the usual board fee down the middle, or almost to the middle, and covering the vet/farrier/etc. costs ourselves.
As seen on Facebook: http://www.northernhorse.com/clinics/overview-clinic.asp?clinicid=3 ... find my horse's book of shadows???
What is with the air these days? I've been into the ventolin and symbicort like nobody's business lately, this morning it was bad enough I was late to work trying to figure out if it was going to settle at all. But then suddenly this evening, while sitting on the bed and watching the TV, the Boy started coughing badly. I tossed him the inhaler. (Don't point, we're both duly prescribed the same doses by appropriate non-biased health practitioners.) But it's not just us, or the house. I've had no issues at the Barn, indoors or out, but Anton's been on extra steroids for the past two weeks, and Tucson's been coughing harshly for two days now prompting us to squirt a dose of ventipulmin (horse ventolin, basically) into his feed -- if he's still coughing tomorrow, I think it's dex (steroid) time for him too. We did just finally get rain, and our spring was so dry I never even saw snow mold, so maybe this is just all the molds finally coming up?
1. The C4 vent-dependent quadriplegic with the 6 month history of "increased spasticity" is at high risk for conversion to open chole. That thing may have been festering for a while.
2. Check the INR pre-op.
3. If you find the cystic duct in the tangled mess after the subtotal chole, you can call it a total chole after all.
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| Excellent! |
[29 Jun 2009|10:12pm] |
We had an appointment this evening with a horse massage therapist who also does saddle-fitting. She's linked in with a store in Calgary, and has a fair bit of experience. We also figured her experience as a massage therapist and equine science major would give her a different perspective than the usual saddlefitter whose main interest is just selling their favourite brand. And any brand favouritism she had would be for the ones carried by the store in Calgary, which are all pretty decent and also things we've never tried before.
So. First she looked at Faran. And I am very happy to report she says the Stubben's a good fit, in pretty much every aspect. The panels touch just about everywhere, with only a slight bridge on the right where Faran's a bit asymmetrically built. The curvature of the Stubben tree pretty much perfectly conforms to Faran's curvy back. She rated it an 85% fit, maybe better, at least for now. The forward slippage perplexed her at first, but she suggested slipped a fleece pad underneath to help support the anterior edge. We have a very nice black fleeceworks that we've hardly used, so I put that in and it seemed good. Went for a ride and yay, no slippage! A very nice ride indeed, actually, between new teeth, no splinters, and no slip to the saddle. And the black looks good too. So yay, I can stop worrying about the saddle.
Oh I had such a good ride on the Fair Mare. She was such a good girl, it took her a bit to loosen up to the right but she did. She curved so nicely. She was gradually lighter on the bridle and the leg, and hardly needed much to keep her in gait. We got some of the nicest smoothest loops on the long side we've ever had. G. will be happy.
Tucson, she hesitated, then she said confidently, "this is a hard horse to fit, but I've got ideas." She pointed out his long wither and his sudden drop off, and his rather caudal low point. Despite that, he has similar curvature to Faran, and needs a non-flat saddle. Stubbens dip too much to the anterior, ideally we need one where the lowest point is farther back. She did some measurements, much more detailed and careful than we've had before, and then set a few saddles on his back. We've got some good ideas, some saddles that conformed to him way better than any other saddle we've tried before, and that cleared his wither with room to spare. As a bonus, the best-fitting of those saddles also seemed like the type the Boy would like-- she can get a test ride soon, but it would be too small for the Boy, but I can try it to see if it does alright by the horse before they order in a bigger one. She didn't have as much experience with the western saddles but still had more intelligent suggestions than any others we've heard.
Then she did a massage on the Toose-man, who just loved it. Practically fell asleep, he was so content. She identified some stiffness in his left shoulder, which we (and the farrier) have suspected before.
And we got all this for way less than we'd paid that other person to come tell us to buy Wintecs. Sheesh.
So hopeful we may finally be on our way to an answer for a good english saddle for Tucson and the Boy! And I'm feeling MUCH happier about the Stubben on Faran.
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| Having done that... |
[29 Jun 2009|02:55am] |
It's 3 am almost, cats are fed, dog is peed, bird is chirping.
Transformers was nowhere near as good as it could have been.
Star Trek was good.
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| [LJ2ME] Mental note |
[29 Jun 2009|12:36am] |
1. The next time we go watch the double feature at the drive-in starting at 10 pm on a night before work... Must remember to bring Bess a sucking blankie.
2. I am so going to regret this tomorrow.
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| Maybe now she'll find the bridle |
[28 Jun 2009|04:01pm] |
Er, so. Since getting back to Saskatchewan, whenever I been riding the Fair Mare I've had some trouble reconnecting her with her bridle. I figured, meh, it's 60% me sucking and 40% her being out of shape and out of practice.
Since getting back riding after my finger gimpery, I've been using my new saddle. And the Fair Mare had such a hard time going to the right. I figured, hrmph, Anton didn't tell me I was sitting so heavy to the right, and I also noticed the long-haired buckskin was trapping bits of mane under the saddle. Her mane lies to the left, so maybe her strange leftward curve was due to being unhappy with her hair being pulled. Or maybe she just was out of shape. To rule out the mane issue, I've been braiding that last chunk of mane so that it falls forward and away from the saddle. Still having issues.
In all this, I did run my hand along her teeth and thought, well, maybe those aren't as smooth as they ought to be. Her last teeth check was at her prepurchase. So, got the vet to come and see her teeth, and also to vaccinate the herd against rabies. She came as soon as the vaccines got here (she's a bit of an a la carte vet).
(1) - apparently, teeth were sharp and pointy. Aw, poor Fair Mare. The vet said she's never been out to the breeder's place to do teeth, which doesn't necessarily mean anything as the breeder could have had the teeth done by the vet school, or by an unregulated dentist, but even so teeth were okay when we got the horse but needed attention now.
(2) - there was a piece of wood stuck in her gums, right upper jaw, and it was infected.
Awesome!
Between the vet and I, and some help from our friend "Ace", we worked that sucker out of there.
Maybe now she'll turn to the right again.
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| The husband |
[27 Jun 2009|10:47pm] |
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music |
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If I Had $1,000,000 :: Barenaked Ladies (Disc 1: All Their Greatest Hits (1991-2001)) |
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I've been told to write more about my husband.
I'm pretty sure he told me my alarm was going off around 6:30, so I only have myself to blame to running out the door at 8:05 when I was supposed to be somewhere at 8:00. I then didn't see him at all until 10 pm when I decided to leave the hospital in the (successful) technique used to bring in tardy consult patients. Guaranteed, if you leave the hospital, the patient from Humboldt will finally arrive.
And then he made me dumplings for breakfast/lunch/dinner, and my junior called and said the first of two itinerant consult patients was in the ER at last, and I'm about to go back in to see that one in the (usually unsuccesful) hope that the second will arrive as soon as I get there.
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