On Canine Faith

I'd like to preface this post by saying that we love our dogs and they are very well behaved as canines go.... and I know that Kelsey has some separation anxiety issues that we're trying to work through as a family - so the following tale is more or less my fault.

Today I came home from work to find that my Study Bible had been shredded. I did not request that it be shredded - although I didn't explicitly tell the dogs not to shred it either so I can see their side of the issue.

We talked about it: My point of view is - While books are in fact for consumption (especially the Holy Writ) this consumption is more mental than physical. Battlecat and Kelsey disagreed...

To date they have consumed a fair number of books that I really liked. Here's a sample:

Reformation Study Bible (ESV)
NIV Study Bible
MacArthur Study Bible (NKJV)
Bavink's Reformed Dogmatics: God and Creation
Chapell's Christ Centered Preaching
Raymond's New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith

Together they have consumed a pretty significant amount of theological works... including three translations of the Bible... and it makes me wonder. Are my dogs burgeoning prophetic agents? Am I going to get thrown down upon Balaam and the Donkey style (Num 22)?

Right now Kelsey is sacked out on the couch and Battlecat is asleep on the Love Sac.... I found various portions of Haggai strewn about the room and no doubt eating the Old Testament will make one drousy....

In addition to various texts on faith - the dogs have shown they have a remarkably diverse palate when it comes to VHS. We went through a phase where both dogs roamed the house freely while we were out... this phase didn't last too long.

We have a box of old VHS tapes that we keep behind the TV and each time we returned we'd invariably see pieces of their cinematic fare distributed across our floor. I think the girls secretly yearn for a more old-school reel type of format and were eating VHS out of protest.

One of their first VHS meals was: Beaches. This was the first indication I had that they were in fact agents of the prophetic. Beaches is like a multi-hour trip to the craft store... the one where Erin just wants to look around for ideas. My Mom liked to watch Beaches when I was little and I believe we had the soundtrack on tape because the first time Erin put in the movie - I... to my complete horror - knew all the words to all of the songs.

We tried to duct tape the VHS box closed but to disastrous results. Mallrats and BASEketball were also eaten and I came to appreciate the inner-turmoil that rages within a canine. The constant struggle of light vs. darkness... chick flick vs. movies that don't suck. At that time they'd only eaten two of our Bibles and I'd like to think that after today's feeding they'd make better decisions if presented with the VHS box.

All in all I'm sort of bummed out about my Bible but I take great solace in this passage:

Matthew 5:6 -
Blessed are those hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Clearly our dogs are hungry....

Hooray for Me!

Another exciting milestone...
Today I took 2 tests this week to complete my OB/Gyn rotation,
and I am now finished with all my core rotations for medical school!
Only 2 electives and capstone remain,
with hopefully lots of vacation time.

Feigin Rounds

In late April, while on my Sub-Internship in Pediatrics, I had the opportunity to present at the famous Feigin Rounds...and there just happened to be a photographer there as they were redoing the student brochure for Baylor and I was able to get copies of the pictures this week, which are especially meaningful to me now.

Dr. Feigin did teaching rounds with the residents and students 2x each week...the goal was to "stump Dr. Feigin" with the most difficult case in the hospital that week, but of course he was NEVER stumped and would lay out very extensive differential diagnoses and arrive at the proper diagnosis if it had already been made or give us guidance if the diagnosis was still unknown.

Some Days Suck

and yesterday was one of those days...from beginning to end.

Beginning with the end of a shift when a mom in her late 2os with a full term pregnancy came in complaining that she hadn't felt the baby move in several hours and we discovered it had died. She had multiple medical problems related to the pregnancy, and it turns out her placenta had abrupted, and over several hours decompensated and as the shift was ending they had to rush her for a c-section.

So then that afternoon when I was trying to sleep, I got a text that Dr. Ralph Feigin, the world renowned Physician-in-Chief of Texas Children's Hospital and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor and man of the "Golden handshake" had died rather unexpectedly...which was very sad for me because he was an amazing man--brilliant, compassionate and nice, and always smiling--and I had so been looking forward to getting to train under him during residency.
Check out this website to see how amazing he was: http://www.bcm.edu/pa/feigin/index.cfm

Then when I went to work last night, the day continued to go downhill...we found out that the woman from that morning had coded in the OR and had coded 3 more times since then...and later that night died...leaving behind a husband and four small kids. After that we had 5 c-sections almost one right after the other and also delivered a baby with anencephaly :(

So, in total as I worked 70 hours over the past 5 nights...
I did get to deliver several more healthy babies...which was amazing and very exciting.
But in those 5 days we also delivered 3 full term dead babies, 2 with horrible congenital anomalies...and lost a mom.

It's been a very long week...

Vagina Monologues

Today, on my brother's 18th birthday, I did my first vaginal delivery!
And I didn't drop the baby!
This being the most important instruction given to us for obstetrics...
(and you don't realize what a real possibility it is until you are there seeing the wiggling slimy baby come out in a rapid gush of fluid).
And I must add that seeing these vaginal deliveries is making me very nervous to have a baby myself. I think I am definitely going with the epidural!

Since being on OB/Gyn...conversations around me have been rather interesting. Including very fervent shouts of joy by the attendings when a wife reports her husband has gotten a vasectomy...in the indigent population we deal with in Houston, this is apparently a rare occurrence.

One such conversation around my house that still has me laughing almost 4 weeks later went like this:
Jake: "So Erin, how many vagina's do you think you've seen this week?"
Erin: "Oh probably close to a hundred."
Other guy who works in finance whose fiance is standing next to him "Wow, really? That's more than I've seen."
Erin: "I would hope so...by A LOT!"

Now for Jake's perspective on this rotation...I think he has learned far more than he ever wanted to know about female health issues.

First off - I just want to say that I have nothing but respect and admiration for all the ladies out there who have hosted human beings inside their bodies and brought them into the world. You are all tough cookies... so thanks Mom.

Erin's rotation has been a hot topic whenever we have friends over - she has a pregnancy wheel that you can use to determine date of conception and date of birth based on certain milestone events. Lately our friends have been trying to determine just what exactly was going on with their parents way back when.... one of our friends discovered that his parents liked to ring in Thanksgiving Day with a very special celebration. As for me - I prefer to think I was conceived in a test-tube. Please allow me to remain in my ignorance.

Being around medical students all the time I've long since perfected the art of staring off in the distance and zoning out (JD style - like on Scrubs). Conversations tend to go places.... dark places that I don't like to visit. This Friday night there was a mixer at Berryhill Baja Grill for first year med students - we went a little late and picked up our friend Lori (also a 4th year med student) on the way.

So we're sitting there eating tamales and the conversation naturally turns to labor and delivery.... which is my cue to slip into a coma. It's not that I'm not interested... it's just that medical people speak in code.... something about a woman who was G7, and P6 - I knew we weren't playing bingo so I just tried to watch the Astros game craning my neck to see over adjacent booths. But some things simply can't be ignored.... Lori and Erin started discussing medical Spanish... specifically terms for liquids a woman might pass... you know... downstairs....

We weren't in an airplane so there were no vomit bags available and I tried to disengage my mind and find a happy place - but the content of their conversation was the verbal equivalent of a train wreck.... you don't want to look... but you can't stop staring.

Fortunately the conversation ended on a note that I could identify with... they were discussing patients recovering from C-Sections and the questions they'd have to ask them in the morning to determine if their bodies were functioning properly so they could discharge them....

As I dipped my chip in some queso trying to see the score of the game and begging my ears not to listen, Erin asks: What's Spanish for 'Have you passed gas this morning?'

Girls are gross.