Being a Doctor

Its been way too long since I updated. So much has been happening, from moving to Dallas and living with my parents, to starting my residency and learning how to be a doctor, and most recently buying and moving into a new house. Needless to say we've been busy. The house is coming together, and I'll post pictures sometime in the near future...hopefully.

Being a doctor is kind of fun. My favorite part is having the nurses page me and when I call back I get to say "This is Dr. Banks, somebody paged" and then they respond "yes Dr. Banks, I need you to tell me what to do for this patient...". Although getting paged all day or in the middle of the night while on call is not as fun, I do still enjoy getting called Doctor and being able to decide what to do for a patient and have somebody actually carry out my plan. So far I've mostly been on easy rotations like ultrasound and now breast clinic, while taking in house call every now and then on labor and delivery. I've delivered several babies and already lost count. Probably this Saturday I'll do my first c-section by myself, which is exciting yet scary. I'll keep you posted on how it goes:)

I'll try to do better about updating, for those of you who actually read this. xoxo

Water Works

Yesterday Haley and Grayson came down from Cypress to visit me and go to the park. We went to Discovery Green and let Grayson play on the playground and in the water spouts. We had a lot of fun, and here are some pics:

Grayson getting ready to slide-

It took us a while to get him into the water area, but once he was in, he had a lot of fun!

Running through the water at its highest intensity...he didn't like the water in his eyes.
He wanted Haley to play in there with him, this is about as close as she got!
Drying off a little, and Haley giving him a little faux-hawk.
Fun day!

PuGraduation

That's right folks, Izzie graduated from Puppy class last night. I am such a proud momma! She did all her tricks on command and was mostly on her best behavior. Shortly after this picture though, she threw up all over my lap. Gross. I'm not sure why she threw up or if she ate something she shouldn't have earlier in the day, no idea. All I know is that later that night while watching tv, Sadie puked too. My poor sick girls! Luckily they aren't acting sick today, in fact they've been playing non-stop with their new Kong Wubba toy. It looks like this: They love it. Its (hopefully) an indestructible little rubber ball thing inside some (hopefully) indestructible fabric. Izzie likes tug of war toys best, but these girls shred EVERYTHING, and Izzie always eats the little strings that she tears off all toys and it gets stuck in her...well, anyways. So far the toy is still completely intact, and hopefully it will stay that way.

Just a taste of the outdoors

This weekend Andrew and I decided we weren't going to sit around the house and be lazy like we usually do. Instead, we set off to find something new and fun to do in/near Houston. Our first venture was to drive North of Houston about an hour and a half to a cute little place called Bernhardt Winery. It was the cutest little Tuscan winery, with a bed and breakfast attached, and the most beautiful view from all directions. We did a tasting of their different wines, which were different and fun to try, and then bought a glass to enjoy out on the yard. Here was the view from our chairs:

The winery also allows weddings and receptions, and we were lucky enough to be there while they were setting up for what looked like it would be a really cute little country wedding. Here are some more pictures of the winery, the wedding set up, and us enjoying the beautiful ambiance and each others company.

Look how cute the centerpieces are; yellow sunflowers, lemon/lime towers, and floating yellow sunflower candles. Also note the beautiful tree in the background that Andrew had to practically hold me down to keep me from climbing it.

We got a brochure from the winery about the Texas Bluebonnet Wine trail, and we think we might venture on the whole trail some weekend soon. If we do I think we might stay at this one at the bed and breakfast in the middle of the trail, and if so I am going to climb the tree...just watch me:) On the way home, we drove through Montgomery county, which apparently is where the man who designed the Texas flag lived. So here I am standing by the informational gazebo, and in front of a Texas flag:

Inspired by the satisfaction we had on our journey into wine country yesterday, we decided not to let the weekend end at that. There is an arboretum here in town that I've been wanting to go to, but Andrew always complained that dogs weren't allowed. Well I looked it up, and sure enough, dogs are welcomed, so off we went! Here are a few pics of the pretty place. Hope they make you want to go outside :)

P.S. If you want to see any of the pictures bigger, just click on them and it pulls up a larger version. Trust me, the bugs will need to be seen closer to do them justice....

Sweet Life

I had to put up a sweet picture of Lola to go with my title....
She used to sit in the sink while I got ready all the time, but lately she just wanders around the counter top meowing and trying to get me to pet her, or sits right outside the bathroom door and messes with Izzie. So when she sat in the sink last night, it made me all nostalgic and I had to take a pic.

So I'm done with medical school, FINALLY! Its been a long 4 years, but worth every penny, and late night, and tear, and fight with Andrew, and....well you get it, it was hard.

Now, to celebrate being done, I've spent the last two days doing a lot of my favorite things. I've slept in, cuddled with my girls, gone to eat lunch with Andrew at our favorite sushi restaurant in Clear Lake, Tokyo Bowl, taken the girls for a long nature walk at a new park they've never been to before, gone to eat Mexican food with some of my favorite friends, and gone to get a lovely massage. Now I just need to find a place to lounge around by a pool to get a nice tan before I go on my cruise...

Pretty Sweet :)

Dirt in yo face

Tonight was the playoffs for the coed softball league that Andrew and I played on this season. I have been playing coed softball every season of medical school, and fully intend on continuing to play when we get to Dallas. We'll probably need lots of people on our team, so you folks should start hitting the batting cages to get ready. Anyways, tonight was the playoffs and I was not excited about it. This was the first season we played with this team, and while we were actually really good, I didn't know anybody except Andrew, Keith, and a guy named Steve, so it wasn't as much fun as when we played with my med school friends. I also wasn't excited because I got some kind of stomach bug last night/this morning and really just wanted to sleep all day and night. But, I went to the game, and we won our first two games to put us in the championship. For a tired girl with a tummy ache, two games is a lot, and going into the third one I was exhausted. We couldn't get a hit against this team, and Andrew (who is our pitcher) couldn't throw a strike to save his life. Actually the umpire just wouldn't call a strike at all, so Andrew started arguing with him and then got a lecture about how he better start respecting the umpire or he would be kicked out. Of course I get mad at Andrew and tell him to shut up or else... and we continue to get the crap kicked out of us. I hate to lose, I hate to lose, I hate to lose. But I never argue or complain.... until today. In the last inning, I made the most AMAZING play at first base where I stopped a ball hit to the right of me and dive into first base to get the guy out. He was OUT. But of course the idiotic umpire said that I touched the bag with the wrong hand. I touched the bag with BOTH hands. I lost it. All I could say was "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!" at the top of my lungs, over and over. Everybody knew the guy was out, even on the other team, but the umpire wouldn't back down. We ended up losing, and I ended up with two scraped knees and a face full of dirt for no reason.

On a happier note, I only have two shifts left of medical school....BOOYAH!!!

Stupidity at its finest

As I reach the end of my month in the emergency room, and really my career as a medical student, I would like to reflect on some of the most interesting patients I've seen this month.

1. A 7 year old boy with a tooth stuck in his ear. Was he hiding it from the tooth fairy?
2. A 19 year old girl who injected protein shake into her butt cheeks. I guess she thought thats how J-lo got the junk in her trunk.
3. A grown man with a perfume bottle stuck in his rectum (butt). He told us he fell on it... why was he walking around without pants/underwear, and why didn't he break it when he landed on it?
4. A 19 year old girl with a foreign object stuck in her "privates." All we could see is a little plastic sticking out, and we couldn't pull it out. The xray showed a metal coil inside the plastic, inside her body. She says she didn't know what it was or how she got there... She had to have surgery to get it out, and it ended up being a spray bottle cap. Why???
5. A 21 year old girl with Type 1 diabetes who ran out of insulin, so she came to the emergency room and was being treated, but decided she was tired of being in the hospital, so she left... IV still stuck in her arm, no prescription for new insulin...wonder how long she lasted before she went back to an ER?

I know there are more, but those are the only ones I can think of for now. I wonder what kind of exciting geniuses I will be treating in Dallas??