anna in med school

Caught on tape: first hiccup and smile…

Aurelia Carmela Jesus entered the world at 5:43am on October 17, 2012, weighing 8 lb 3 oz, showing off a full head of jet-black hair and a very functional set of lungs.  John and I are overjoyed and so in love with our daughter!

Everyone is happy and healthy, and home now, discharged from the hospital 33 hours post-delivery.  I look forward to telling you more about her and her birth, but she’s just starting to wake for first breakfast.  Thank you so much for all your support and well wishes–words cannot describe how appreciative the three of us are!

xoxo,

aurelia, john, and anna

We reserved our tickets over a week in advance–that’s serious planning for us.  We arrived early.  We stayed until they kicked us out.  The Barnes Foundation delivered.

Who knew that the development of a silver nitrate antiseptic, previously used to prevent gonorrheal blindness in newborns, would foster such a staggering collection!  Can I get a “woot!” for all the physician-scientists who have a love of art?

As we left, John sighed: “That was magnificent!  Okay, you can go into labor any time now.”

Well, as of Friday at 2pm, I am officially on maternity leave…if a full-time, paying student can be on maternity leave.  The last three weeks on the Os have been nothing short of blissful, but I’m happy for the break from all clinical responsibilities for the time being.

Every parent has been reminding me to “sleep while you can.”  I’ve been trying, really.  As in, I’ve been giving myself like 9-10 hours a night devoted to the act of sleep, a luxury I swear I know I’m very lucky to have.  And yet I still fell asleep repeatedly during lectures last week and would find myself exhausted at the end of an 8-hour clinic day.  This morning John filled me in: apparently I now whimper and have leg spasms in my sleep, which seem to correlate with when our darling daughter adjusts her positioning.  I don’t remember a damn thing, but I kind of feel bad for the kid…it just can’t be comfortable in there!

What am I doing with my free time?  Besides napping and taking more hot showers and baths–which, by the way, have never felt so good in my life–I’m working on some projects that I’ve been putting off (certainly not for lack of interest, but just time and energy), John and I are checking things off our philly-area to-do list, and I’ve been both trying to rekindle friendships I’ve been neglecting while fostering a few new ones.

This past weekend was a fabulous melange of all three.  It was kicked off with another classic table 6 vegetarian, gluten-free feast, this time autumn harvest themed.  On Saturday, John and I met up with a fellow mother med student, her husband, and six-week-old son at Longwood Gardens (below are a few pictures of one the orchid rooms that made me think of my dad, the only one in our family with a green thumb).  Then this crazy couple and I created another memorable meal of ginger-soy salmon, cabbage salad with pickled onions, and brussel sprouts with shallots and bacon–needless to say, I have not been eating poorly lately, not one bit.  Sunday I didn’t change out of my pajamas.  I read and I slept and I watched Felix Baumgartner break the sound barrier.  Oh, and John bought a cord of cherry wood for this winter…that’s a lot of wood!

Her: You should not be using the computer!

Me: <genuinely bewildered> Why?

Her: Because you’re pregnant.

Me: So why can’t I use a computer?

Her: <gesturing wildly to my abdomen and speaking as though I was either hard of hearing or unable to understand English> Because. You’re. Pregnant.

Me: What are the risks of using a desktop computer while pregnant?

Her: All the energy and radiation!  It hurts the baby!

Me: I’m not being bombarded by radiation from a computer two feet away.  And, by the way, there has never been a documented incidence of a fetus being injured by the radiation of an x-ray–we only avoid it because of the inferred risks, which are more of a concern when you’re 9 weeks rather than 39 weeks pregnant–let alone the visible light and heat given off by a computer.

Did I go too far?  I tried to be patient.  It’s comical but still irksome.  Not quite sure what bothers me more: that she felt compelled to chastise a very pregnant stranger or that this level of ignorance is present in the library of a medical school.  Am I being patronizing?  Be real with me.

“Oh, by the way, you’re cured.”

I’ve never heard so many variations of that statement and “you’re cancer free” in a three-hour time block.  Pretty damn awesome.

…to an overwhelmingly positive review of one of the hubby’s articles!  (The discussion on this article starts at 31:30 and lasts about 8 minutes.)

I LOVE to excitement in the chick’s voice: “Ohhhh my gosh…this is just…it’s fascinating!  And I hiiiighly recommend it for every emergency medicine doctor out there.  I guarantee you this paper is important to you, this applies to your job tomorrow!!!”  And it only gets better…

Have I mentioned that he’s kind of a big deal?

I’m just…in awe.

Today was the first day of ENT (ear, nose, throat = otolaryngology).  For years I thought this field would fascinate me, being a long-time lover of singing and music and sound.  Maybe it’s the near end of a long year and I’ve mentally checked out, or maybe I’m thinking of all the other projects I’ve wanted to get done before our daughter arrives, or maybe I’m simply on pins and needles about the birth but, frankly, my mind could not care less about ENT at the moment.  It kind of saddens me…like I’m wasting part of my education.

The highlight of today was definitely watching two of my friends–brave souls–get scoped by two other med students.  Ah, to see the arytenoid cartilages work their magic…  The rest of the day was kind of a blur (as in, I fell asleep in most of the lectures and missed the OR to go to my prenatal appointment).  So I thought I might share a quick anecdote about my pregnancy and the practice of obstetrics, since I was reminded of this one at today’s appointment.  I’m worried that, as the days until my due date enter the single digits, I’ll be posting a lot more pregnancy/birth/baby-related stuff.  In all seriousness, please let me know if it gets old.  Pregnancy and med school…it’s been a pretty great interplay so far.

At the women’s clinic where I was for part of my obstetrics rotation, I was given the great advice that, if I couldn’t find the fetal heart tones on doppler after a minute, I should (calmly) ask the mother, “Where does your baby like to live?”  Totally brilliant.  The parents therefore don’t see the med student start to sweat and it gives them an opportunity to contribute a piece of information about their child that only they know…that has to feel a little good after being bludgeoned with information and instructions from the OB or nurse on the fetus living inside them.  Probably 90% of the time, mom would be able to give a relatively specific answer: “Oh, yeah, she normally hangs out in my lower left.  That’s where the doctor normally hears her heartbeat.”

My daughter loves my upper right quadrant.  The higher my uterus extended throughout the pregnancy, the more she liked to wedge herself next to my liver, to the point where my belly looks pretty damn lopsided most of the time.  Of course, at this point, it’s mostly knees and feet, but she’s a strong, stubborn one.  We can actually grasp what we think is a foot and knead it back toward the midline, but she always squirms her way back into her favorite position with more force than before.  John attributes her preference to the fact that he sleeps on my right side and she likes to edge her way closer to him.  Adorable, and perhaps somewhat accurate.  Either that or she is a budding hepatologist.

Possibly the most enjoyable test I’ve taken, and I’ve had some fun tests in med school.

At the beginning of the week, we were given a packet of short orthopedic questions/vignettes (answers included), such as: “People notoriously tear their ACLs while skiing.  Why do most of these injuries occur at 2:00pm rather than 10:00am?”  (In case you’re curious, after several hours of hardcore physical activity for the novice skier, the hamstrings are exhausted and no longer willing and able, if you will, to stabilize the tibia when it twists and turns suddenly, so all the force is felt by the ACL.)  To give you an idea of kind of commitment it took to “study” this material, I read and highlighted it once the morning of our exam.  It took me about 90 minutes, and I read about as quickly as I speak (i.e. not quickly).

The test consisted of 10 questions taken directly from these vignettes.  We provided short answers.  We then went over the answers with the course director, quite possibly the kindest orthopedic surgeon you’ll ever meet, and discussed follow-up questions: “What are some means by which we might prevent some of these skiing injuries?  How might economics play a role in their perpetuation?”  We graded our own exams, giving ourselves 0-3 points per question, then added our total to 70, which was our final score out of 100.

Following the exam, I had an hour conversation with this course director on family and career, the topic drifting from family vacations to the advantages v. disadvantages of his sons receiving Gardasil.  One day I might learn to be a little less outspoken.

I’ve been reminded that the standard two-day weekend does not a stay-cation make.  But between John’s schedule’s lack of any sort of regularity and the whole med school thing, I’ll gladly relish two days in a row with my main squeeze.

We had hoped to get away last weekend, but John didn’t want to be more than an hour or two from the hospital, so our options were limited, and we weren’t so attracted to the idea of spending a ridiculous chunk of change on a B&B 40 miles from our front door.  Instead we decided to take advantage of the Philadelphia area, check off a few things we’ve always wanted to do.

On Friday night, we had a lovely dinner at home with one of our favorite families, who was generous enough to swing by Philly on the journey home to Israel.  Not gonna lie, just writing this is making me a tad misty…clearly a trip to Israel is in store for us in the very near future…well, as soon as our daughter can tolerate a transatlantic flight.  I also had the best 4 ounces of red wine of my adult life during dinner.

On Saturday, we drove out further into the country for raspberry and pumpkin picking, followed by a late dinner at Tinto.  We are slowing making it to all of Jose Garces’ restaurants.  So far we’ve been to five, and I think we might have had octopus at at least four of them.  The food and ambiance at each are worth the advanced reservations, the crowds, the price.

After a very lazy breakfast on Sunday morning, complete with gluten-free pancakes stuffed with fresh raspberries, we made it to the Rodin Museum, followed by the Franklin Institute for the exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Next up for the following weekends are the Barnes Foundation and Longwood Gardens.  Any other recommendations??