Captain Bryan

Yesterday, was such a wonderful day!

After 9 years as a sergeant (and 9 years without ANY promotions), they announced that Bryan will be one of two Sergeants who will be promoted to Captain.

This whole process has been like watching paint dry... the original announcement came out weeks ago... then they all had to file in a letter of intent... with a resume... then the chief had to interview them all.

Weeks and weeks (on top of the years of waiting)... finally... they called Bryan in to tell him his new role.

Very exciting... Wonderful day.

Outdated medicine

Last month, Olivia and Meredith spent the weekend with my parents - which is something they do on occasion. While they were up there, Olivia got a really bad headache. She gets these sinus headaches about one a month, never sick, just a headache. I guess it is allergies and usually just slip her some Claritin - which doesn't do much.

So that weekend, my mother gave her Drixoral, which is a decongestant. She didn't call to ask us if it was ok - she had the medicine and gave it to her. And it worked!! Took away the headache wonderfully.

When she came home the next day, my mother sent her home with the almost empty box (only about 2 pills left).

Nice Grandmotherly thing to do, right?

Did I bother to check the box? No, why would I? I stashed it away in case one of those sinus headaches came back.

Now, even though Olivia is almost 10, she weighs 110lbs. For most medicines that are weight-based for dosing, her body can take the adult dose.

Over the last month she has had to take those two pills... with much success. Works wonders.

Last night, another headache... empty box. So, I send my wonderful hubby to the drug store and ask him to pick up a box of Drixoral for her. Innocent enough...

When he couldn't find any on the shelves, he approached the pharmacist to ask for the med. He said that the lady almost came out of her skin... turns out that Drixoral has been off the market for 3 years!!!

Yes - this made me pick up the box and check the expriation date... EXPIRED AUGUST 2005!!!!!!!!!!

Honestly, it never occurred to me to check an expiration date. Who really looks at that anyway? I have taken many meds that were a few months expired... most are still good. And, actually, this one was probably too - exprired drug usually equals loss of potency. But still....

How embarassing for Bryan, who got lectured on exprired meds (he had the box with him)from the pharmacist. And how this med is not for children.... she doesn't know mine is as big as me.

My mother wasn't even swayed when we called her. She actually said not to worry about not getting it, b/c (are you ready for this?)....

SHE HAS ANOTHER BOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know why I'm surprised.... in my house, growing up, leftovers were always good for weeks. (not like the days of my home today). And I never did realize that my mom always had a spare bottle on anitbiotic sitting on the refridgerator shelf.

Never occurred to me that these were NASTY things... just life as normal.

Needless to say, switching back Olivia to Claritin.

Lesson learned... right?

Halloween

So, Halloween has come and gone... and we are getting ready to throw ourselves into the holiday season.

I can't believe how fast this year went by.

Got some photos here of the kids last weekend. Everyone got lots of candy - everyone went trick-or-treating.

Looks like I had a bunch of pirates, a queen, and a 50's girl.

It was a long day, but worth every minute.

I shouldn't go this long....

Believe me when I say that I think about updating this blog everyday. There is just not enough hours in a day for me lately... something has to give and unfortunately it is my blog.

Briefly, here is the updates....

1. School, for me, is going well. Managing to keep an A or A- in all 5 classes. I am finding that the studying does NOT come easily and that I have having to work hard for these grades. (don't forget that less than 85% is not passing at this level, so when I get an 86% on a test... sounds good but it is not). I like to have breathing room and enjoy the high A's that give me that.

I got to intubate my first patient in the OR the other day. Mastering my own knowledge of maintaining airway in patients is crucial to this field... we are a patient's guardian when they are under for surgery. I breathe for them, provide pain relief for them and keep them stable.

Trust me... I am exhausted at the end of each hospital day (and it has been many years since I felt that way).

2. Meredith is picking up with the reading. Getting better but still needs much improvement. She doesn't seem to care that 40% on a math quiz in school is 'failing' and continues to just randomly answer questions - doesn't read directions, etc. It is frustrating, but I'm waiting for her 'Helen Keller' moment to come... so far it has not.

3. Our guest bathroom is done!!! completely redone and the kids are moved in - which is nice since they have not used their own bathroom - EVER. I will try to post the before and after photos, but I can't promise anything. It does look nice.

4. Weight loss for me is about 22lbs. The last five pounds or so, I didn't even pay attention to... it was just a result of not having time to eat and when there is food - it is not healthy so I just skip it. I've decided to keep going and try to lose another 10 pounds. Bryan wants me to quit b/c I am not working out and, he says, just losing muscle.

All I know is that I'm fitting into 'pre-Olivia' pants, jeans and shorts - actually I am getting ready to pass through those too. (they fit but not for long).

5. This week is the carnival for our church. Me and the kids, not Paige - who was with Bryan, went on Thurs. nite. We got soaked but the kids had fun. Bryan is heading there tonight with the kids so I can have a few hours of study time.

6. Bryan's dad just got out of the hospital, again. He has a bad heart and every few months it catches up with him. This time, my mother in law brought him here and he was admitted into Memorial Reg. I didn't even get a chance to go see him.

Between school, hospital, studying, and keeping up with homework for the kids, reading with Meredith and the never-ending pile of laundry... I just couldn't go.

Such is my life for the next two years.

After a full night's sleep....

I do feel better than I did yesterday. I was tired and cranky, for sure.

I forgot to mention that I am ONE pound away from reaching the 20 pound mark on weight loss. Depending on the scale, of course... but I'm pretty darn close.

One silver lining - I actually wore a pair of jeans to school yesterday that were 'pre-Olivia' jeans. The last time I fit into them was the week that I found out I was pregnant with Meredith.

Actually, everything I bought over the summer is starting to become too big. I can still wear them, but they give more than I would like... so in my search for a pair of pants, yesterday, I DARED to pull out the old jeans - and they fit!!!!!!!!!

That was my silver lining on a really bad day.

The bathroom drama was made worse, for me, b/c Bryan's cousin Mike is in town and was over to have dinner and watch the football game with him. Each year, Mike comes down and MUST eat at our house 'take out' from Disalvos, Italian rest. It is always the same order - he must get the 'ala vodka' pasta... it has become a tradition.

So, when they were ordering food - I ordered the same. I haven't had pasta in 3 months and thought I deserved to eat some serious carbs. (bad day and all)

Well, during the whole bathroom tile drama... I start serving out the food and realize that Bryan had only ordered one 'ala vodka' order. I'm thinking that this one was mine and couldn't believe that Bryan didn't order one for Mike.

Mike answers that he had had a late lunch and wasn't very hungry. THEN HE TELLS ME THAT HE WOULD JUST SPLIT SOME OF MINE. I was like, 'What makes you think I want to share with you?' but I could never say that, of course. So, I had to swallow hard and just say - sure.

The kicker is... I was so mad about the bathroom being tiled wrong - I wasn't hungry and didn't eat. So, guess what Mike did? He took home the pasta!!!!!! I got ZERO.

This plus the fact that he played with my computer, while I was in the shower, and downloaded some stuff. You would think he would ASK first, but he did not and the stuff he downloaded wasn't compatible with my anesthesia stuff - warning, blinking lights kept flashing.

I was livid! but I was livid for the whole evening so I just gave up and went to bed quietly.

Trying to concentrate on the weight loss... not the evil thoughts I was directing at the men in this house.

Yesterday...

I don't even know if I can describe how bad of a day yesterday was for me. Sometimes the day is just off from the minute you get up... it was one of those days.

It all started at 3am when an awake Paige didn't seem to think that darkness was sleeping time. She is not usually a kid that wakes up but, for whatever reason, she was up at 3a, 4a and finally at 5a Olivia brought her to me b/c she had been talking so loudly.

Turns out that she had a fever... she didn't feel warm earlier but I could have been just too sleepy to notice.

So, both her and Meredith had to stay home. Meredith had a temp of 103. Paige was 102. Bryan had to stay home.

I had two MAJOR exams that I had studied for ALL WEEK. I was disappointed in the tests; I thought they were tricky. So did everyone else, but I was unfortunate to not have GUESSED correctly on the first one.

I ended up with an 84 and 90 on them, which took the wind out of my sails. Those scores are NOT a reflect of the amount of time I read those books. The class was a mixture of grades, but most did OK. Better than me.

So, disappointed in the day, and cranky from being up at 3A, I come home to see that the contractor had finished tiling the bathroom tub area....INCORRECTLY. It was a long story, but when I was telling him how to lay out the tile, I knew he was confused and left a detailed drawing of it AND laid out some tile on the floor in the pattern I wanted.

Between him and Bryan, neither one understood - ignored my cartoon and just did something different. I just about had a heartattack.

Have you ever been SO mad that you started to cry? well, that was me. I was demanding that they start over, they were saying the tile was set and too bad. I was threatening to crack every tile with a hammer overnight.

We went back and forth, but the Bryan starting pulling off the tile, which wasn't dry. So changing the pattern was easy and only took an hour.

It helped; but the reality was - I just needed to end my day.

Today is a study day for me... but I'll have at lease two kids home and I need to go buy the grout at the tile store.

Maybe this is why I didn't get a higher grade? Right?

My school...

I wanted to add that our first exam was last Monday... I got a 98%.

It was a pleasant surprise that I had studied correctly and KNEW most of the answers. (the one I missed was a 'what would you give?' type of question and I narrowed it down to two but guessed wrong). If I had to take it again, I would still have given the wrong answer so I don't beat myself up over it.

This Monday we have two tests - both in classes that are harder than last week's so I'll have to post updates on that later.

My clinical assignment will be at Memorial Pembroke... which is wonderful b/c it is exactly a 1 minute drive to the little one's daycare. (I could have been assigned to some hospital in South Miami and had a 1 hour commute each day to be home)

I really lucked out and think that this whole program is turning out to be a blessing. Sometimes the planets line up for you just the right way, don't they?