On Friday afternoon, I had drinks with a Dana. We had become friends on FB for over three years, yet never really sat down to talk, even though we share lots of common friends. By drinks, we had flavored water and iced tea. It was great getting to know her, and as we chatted, it was very obvious that my household was, and still is, like an army post. Breakfast is always at 7:45, (at least during the week), and dinner is always at 18:00. Dana asked me what do I do about having dinner at friends' homes, if I make my friends put dinner on the table at 6. Well... Sheepishly, I admitted that we don't share meals with friends often, and when we do, yes, we make our friends eat at 6.
After that, I rushed to pick up the children and got them situated with our favorite sitter. Sean is our favorite sitter, because we have known her since Aidan was 6 months old. Aidan's first picture from school is of Sean feeding him mushed peas! Secondly, Sean does not need a TV to hang out with our kids. In fact, she does not even want to know how to use our TV. I. Love. That. Anyway, after she sat down to eat dinner with A&Z, Hubby and I took off to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary.
For 23 hours, we were completely without a schedule. We ate dinner at 7:30, stayed up well past our bedtime, slept way in, ate breakfast (in bed, no less) at 9, dessert came at 1, and lunch came at 2:30. It was so fun!
Happy Anniversary, Hubby!
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Modern Medicine
It is question that my patients ask me often, "Do I really need these medicines to help me?" They say, "I don't want these medicines to change me!"
Of course, I am a prudent psychiatrist, I don't tell everyone who shows up that they need medicines. Sometimes, I just tell them what they don't want to hear, "Look, meds are not going to help. You need to do x, y, z."
However, I do tell people who would benefit from medicines, "Of course these medicines are going to change you. You don't want to be depressed/anxious/psychotic anymore, do you?"
I am a firm believer in modern medicine, in fact, if it weren't for modern medicine, I would be dead, probably.
I probably would have died about 3 months after marrying Hubby, from sepsis.
For a person who never had an ear infection, rarely with headaches, hardly ever vomit, I am a victim of gram negative germs. My urinary tract met gram negative germs on my honeymoon for the first time. (The experts are not kidding when they call it 'honeymoon cystitis.') Dysuria, frequency, it was awful. Not awful enough for me to seek medical treatment, and the symptoms went away after a few days with a LOT of fluids.
Three months later, we went to church, met up with a close friend, had lunch, then went shopping together. Dysuria came along, and Oh. My. Maker. It was incredibly awful. We cut the trip short and went home. I started loading on fluids, especially cranberry juice. But it was too late. Within a few hours, it was no longer just cystitis, but hemorrhagic cystitis. I thought I was going to die from pain. Hubby and I ended up rushing to the ER, and the attending on call saw my urine in the container and didn't even wait for the results and just handed me a prescription for some antibiotics. Within hours, I felt SO much better.
Without it, I would have gone on to fever, chills, with an ascending infection, then it would become pylonephritis, and probably, a collection of pus, then sepsis, then death. Or, if I miraculously recovered, then it would probably have harmed my renal functions, and then I would then die young.
Modern medicine is a very good thing.
Of course, I am a prudent psychiatrist, I don't tell everyone who shows up that they need medicines. Sometimes, I just tell them what they don't want to hear, "Look, meds are not going to help. You need to do x, y, z."
However, I do tell people who would benefit from medicines, "Of course these medicines are going to change you. You don't want to be depressed/anxious/psychotic anymore, do you?"
I am a firm believer in modern medicine, in fact, if it weren't for modern medicine, I would be dead, probably.
I probably would have died about 3 months after marrying Hubby, from sepsis.
For a person who never had an ear infection, rarely with headaches, hardly ever vomit, I am a victim of gram negative germs. My urinary tract met gram negative germs on my honeymoon for the first time. (The experts are not kidding when they call it 'honeymoon cystitis.') Dysuria, frequency, it was awful. Not awful enough for me to seek medical treatment, and the symptoms went away after a few days with a LOT of fluids.
Three months later, we went to church, met up with a close friend, had lunch, then went shopping together. Dysuria came along, and Oh. My. Maker. It was incredibly awful. We cut the trip short and went home. I started loading on fluids, especially cranberry juice. But it was too late. Within a few hours, it was no longer just cystitis, but hemorrhagic cystitis. I thought I was going to die from pain. Hubby and I ended up rushing to the ER, and the attending on call saw my urine in the container and didn't even wait for the results and just handed me a prescription for some antibiotics. Within hours, I felt SO much better.
Without it, I would have gone on to fever, chills, with an ascending infection, then it would become pylonephritis, and probably, a collection of pus, then sepsis, then death. Or, if I miraculously recovered, then it would probably have harmed my renal functions, and then I would then die young.
Modern medicine is a very good thing.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Last Ski Trip
We just got back from Lake Tahoe, or as Aidan wrote about it in his writing journal at school, "Licktohow".
It was a terrific trip, marking the perfect ending to an awesome season of learning how to ski. On the day after Christmas, just a bit over 3 months ago, I thought I was going to die on the slopes. Zoe had refused to go to her ski school, and I was ready to call it quits. Three trips later, Zoe was skiing on her own, down the intermediate slopes, carefully following MY trail. My beautifully curved out S turns. (Hubby skied behind us, and picked her up when she fell over.) Aidan, of course, became a pro at skiing as fast as possible, in as straight of line as possible. (Although he did acknowledge that he probably ought to work on his parallel turns.) We skied all day, with a lunch break between, and basically stayed until the lifts closed! I could not have possibly done this without Hubby- the ever patient companion.
I have to recommend skiing to all you parents out there. It is a great way to hang out with your kids without being driven insane. There is stuff to do, challenges to overcome, fun to be had, and at the end of the day, the kids are exhausted and they always go off to bed early. (They also always eat well, because they are simply, starving.) That then, leaves a perfect opportunity to hang out with your spouse in the evening, without the distraction of household chores, work related stuff, and all-things-that-suck-up-time. (Like blogging.)
We have also stayed at 3 different vacation homes, found through a vacation rental website. It is very intriguing to stay at other people's houses, to say the least.
Our first was Quincy's condo. Her condo was a ski-in-out place at Squaw, and it was a beautiful condo. It was cozy, clean, bright, and void of family pictures. There were, however, hand printed directions of how to use her stuff all around the house, which we appreciated. Her linens matched, as were her towels. She had All-Clad pans there(!), and she even left a bottle of wine for us.
The second house belonged to Tim. It was very spacious, and our kids enjoyed spying on their family vacation pictures. We brought our own linens, I illegally drank a bottle of sparkling water, and it was fine.
The third house, belonged to Dave. OMG. It was awful. AWFUL. While it was ski-in-out, (so I can't complain about the location), good grief, it was terrible. They left WOODEN boards outside the windows (to shield the windows from snow?!) and also, to keep the condo like a CAVE. Dave also owned a lot of stuff. Like a Christmas wreath on the front door. (Dude, it is APRIL!) He must be some kind of lamp collector, because there were so many, yet only a few worked. A dining chair was missing a leg, while there were lawn chairs in the middle of the living room. The heaters stopped working on our last day. And the wifi, apparently, was knocked out during a storm, weeks ago, and never got fixed. Even the kids said this condo was terrible. It was a good thing that there was a washer/dryer combo there, because I washed all the mats for him. Hubby said we left the condo in better shape than how we found it. (If you are going to Tahoe Donner, let me know, and I will help you to avoid this hole.)
I must become a better skier to go back to Squaw, so I can stay at Quincy's again.
It was a terrific trip, marking the perfect ending to an awesome season of learning how to ski. On the day after Christmas, just a bit over 3 months ago, I thought I was going to die on the slopes. Zoe had refused to go to her ski school, and I was ready to call it quits. Three trips later, Zoe was skiing on her own, down the intermediate slopes, carefully following MY trail. My beautifully curved out S turns. (Hubby skied behind us, and picked her up when she fell over.) Aidan, of course, became a pro at skiing as fast as possible, in as straight of line as possible. (Although he did acknowledge that he probably ought to work on his parallel turns.) We skied all day, with a lunch break between, and basically stayed until the lifts closed! I could not have possibly done this without Hubby- the ever patient companion.
I have to recommend skiing to all you parents out there. It is a great way to hang out with your kids without being driven insane. There is stuff to do, challenges to overcome, fun to be had, and at the end of the day, the kids are exhausted and they always go off to bed early. (They also always eat well, because they are simply, starving.) That then, leaves a perfect opportunity to hang out with your spouse in the evening, without the distraction of household chores, work related stuff, and all-things-that-suck-up-time. (Like blogging.)
We have also stayed at 3 different vacation homes, found through a vacation rental website. It is very intriguing to stay at other people's houses, to say the least.
Our first was Quincy's condo. Her condo was a ski-in-out place at Squaw, and it was a beautiful condo. It was cozy, clean, bright, and void of family pictures. There were, however, hand printed directions of how to use her stuff all around the house, which we appreciated. Her linens matched, as were her towels. She had All-Clad pans there(!), and she even left a bottle of wine for us.
The second house belonged to Tim. It was very spacious, and our kids enjoyed spying on their family vacation pictures. We brought our own linens, I illegally drank a bottle of sparkling water, and it was fine.
The third house, belonged to Dave. OMG. It was awful. AWFUL. While it was ski-in-out, (so I can't complain about the location), good grief, it was terrible. They left WOODEN boards outside the windows (to shield the windows from snow?!) and also, to keep the condo like a CAVE. Dave also owned a lot of stuff. Like a Christmas wreath on the front door. (Dude, it is APRIL!) He must be some kind of lamp collector, because there were so many, yet only a few worked. A dining chair was missing a leg, while there were lawn chairs in the middle of the living room. The heaters stopped working on our last day. And the wifi, apparently, was knocked out during a storm, weeks ago, and never got fixed. Even the kids said this condo was terrible. It was a good thing that there was a washer/dryer combo there, because I washed all the mats for him. Hubby said we left the condo in better shape than how we found it. (If you are going to Tahoe Donner, let me know, and I will help you to avoid this hole.)
I must become a better skier to go back to Squaw, so I can stay at Quincy's again.
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