Mirjam's Siegesgesang

Look what I found NOW!!!
Mirjam's Siegesgesang = Mirjam's victory singing (!!!)

HA! Take THIS 3rd digit!

... anyone speaks German well enough to translate this whole solo piece completely for me?

'Kvetch'

06-29-07
I’ll call this entry: “Kvetch”

What do you say to a guy who doesn’t look ahead when he makes a left turn right in front of you, not yielding to you when you have the right of way, causing you to slam the brakes as hard as you can and realize that there is no way to prevent an accident.

… ugg…

I was pretty impressed by how I handled everything. I was a little irritated with this young men (who is actually a 2nd year medical student), but I stopped honking my horn I took a big breath, made sure I was not hurt, got out of the car and asked him if he was okay. Since he looked like he was going to cry, and I on the other hand was just cool as a cucumber, I took control and orchestrated everything until the cops came.

I treated this guy the way I would have liked someone to have treated me if it was the other way around. I did say to him—why didn’t you look? To which he said—“I didn’t see you coming” This accident was unnecessary. The only thing that just really annoyed me is that the first thing to come out of his mouth was not “are you okay?” but rather… “I’m very concerned about my car” (a Beamer (BMW for those who don’t know the terminology)). I just wanted to kick him.

Anyways, I’m okay, the guy is okay, his car is a little bent on the side and mine… had to be towed. I have no idea what kind of monetary damage “Bobby” sustained, but I called the insurance and now it is their job to figure it out and fix my car for me. In the meantime I am getting around in a neat little car from the rental place.

Well, I’m glad my car served me well in protecting me from bad injuries. Since no one was hurt I think that on my personal scale of importance, this is down at the bottom. It is just a little irritating, that’s all.

OK. No new flowers for this Friday night… the gorgeous Daisies are still flourishing and I don’t have the heart to throw them away. I’ll post a picture of the new flowers as soon as I get them.

I just finished my two weeks of elective pediatric rotation—I LOVED it!!! I enjoyed it better than I did surgery. It took me about 2 days to get used to the slower pace, but after that I was hooked once again. I am now certain as to what specialty I will be heading—obviously this can still change, but I truly love this field.

Whenever I worked with Dr. G he had a special “question” or “problem” or “interesting thing I think you’ll enjoy thinking about” … I loved those small sessions with him—he really made me think, and I worked hard to figure things out! For the first time ever, I felt like the information was in my brain just popping out when I needed it. That was great :o) Thank you Dr. G!!! Dr. K, Dr. I and Dr. C were just wonderful as well. I have learned so much from each and every one of them—there is so much information I still got to gain, and all of them were great teachers.

Oh—there was a 3rd year medical student in with me. Well… I’m technically still a 3rd year medical student, but I’m at the end of the year and she is at the beginning of the year. It brought back memories… :o) Experience makes such a big difference. I can’t wait to have a few more years under my belt! This student was excited and asked for my thoughts regarding how to approach 3rd year. It was nice to give her my opinions and suggestions.

Dad stopped at my place for a day! It completely makes my day when Dad comes to visit. We got a neat little futon at IKEA together. Last time I was at IKEA, it was with mom (buying my much needed dinning room table). This time we knew what we were getting, so it was a quick stop. We came home and started to build it. We finished it today (okay… Dad finished it today, I was at work). It’s tiny and adorable. Dad said it didn’t go well with the rest of the furniture, but, I still like it. I napped on it this afternoon—it’s not as good as my bed but better than the couch and definitely better than the inflatable bed.

That’s about it. I am studying for a test I have on Monday— I am doing many questions in preparation, but it’s a pain. It would have been so much nicer not to have to worry about this, but, I don’t have that luxury, so I shouldn’t even entertain that thought.

Last thing—the ‘furries’ are doing well—napping a lot, chasing one another and waking me up way too early to feed them…

Have a good weekend,

Reut

Queen and Cat-I'm-a-kitty-cat

I've added another Queen song that both dad and I liked and made us sad. It's on left side bar below the other queen song. What can I say-- Queen is just... amazing.

Secondly, below you'll find the most annoying youtube find-- it's "Cat I'm a kitty cat" Mom would have laughed SO hard if she would have seen this!!! Totally that funny sense of humour that we very much like :o)

Below that you'll find my current youtube love-- Nalts, singing the cat song and annoying the hell out of his kids, his wife and everyone else :o) I like nalts, that silly sense of humour makes me laugh.

Enjoy!

Shabat

06-22-07

Shabat is here. I stopped and got these wonderful Daisies at the store. Our dog Daisy is named after daisies which are mom’s favorite flower. I was happy to find these daisies at the store, but very sad that I can’t share them with her.

I had a thought this week, and it was that if there is a God, he is an asshole. Anyone wants to argue differently? Eh? Just ask Job.

Anyways, school stuff—I’m in outpatient pediatrics, which is an elective for me. I decided to have it at the end of the year to make sure I like it before I choose pediatrics as my future occupation. The first two days were a big let down from surgery… Surgery was just so packed and fun and exciting, that nothing can really compare to it. But, I don’t think I would like to have the life of a surgeon. I mean, would you? Yes, life at the hospital is very full and exciting, but they don’t have too much time for life outside of the hospital…
I really like pediatrics—I like the interaction with kids, I like the interaction with their parents, I like the fact that I can sing songs, make faces and tell someone that “I don’t see any boogies in your nose today!” If I wasn’t going to be a doctor, I would have probably become an art teacher for the elementary school age. The important thing to remember is that I need to get into a big residency program so I would have the opportunity to see a lot of pathology and cases that I wouldn’t necessarily get to see on a daily basis out of the hospital.

We had a kid today that I saw, and she wouldn’t let me examine her… so I examined her doll first and only after I did that she got so fascinated and wanted me to do the exact same thing on her… and so it went, I asked the doll to open up her mouth and say ahh, and then asked the child to do that and then asked the doll to sit still so I could look at her ears and told her what a good patient she was, and only after that the child sat still and let me examine her ears… etc… :o)

Vega and KC are well… they got very upset at me for not getting up exactly at 5AM today because they were hungry. And they just couldn’t fathom it that I shut them out of the bedroom so I could get 30 extra minutes of much needed sleep. They protested until I woke up and fed them. Fat lovable fur-balls. I love them.

Well, have a good week.

Reut

Mom's birthday 06-19-07

Hey. There is way too much you are missing.

I wrote an Unpublished Entry a few days ago, and censored it. Nevertheless, I want to make it clear to everyone who is happy right now, for whatever your reason might be, that I highly dislike you. (and this is saying it nicely).

Enough of that.

I enjoy buying flowers, and I do so on Friday nights, put it together with the Shabbat candles-- it makes the house look fantastic. A while back I bought an amazing vase for $3.25! I saved about 15 bucks from the original price. I personally thought it was a good deal.

Here are a few pictures of some of the flowers, a good picture of dad and I, and a picture of KC doing what he does best. No piccies of Omer at this time, as I don't have any new ones.

06-15-07

06-15-07

Well, my main follower of this web blog is now gone, and I contemplated stopping writing here, because, really, what’s the point. But… the truth is that I like writing here, and there are a few other people other than my mom who read this blog. As this is also a censored journal (you’ll notice that up to this point there has been zero mention of how sick mom was) and is mainly about school, I think I am going to continue writing here.

So. I returned here from Israel, very angry and very sad, but I called school right away so I could start catching up. This has been a wonderful decision on my part, as it allowed me to be insanely busy and not have way too much time to think. On the other hand, I really could have used some time. But… I returned to work two days after I landed.

I had to complete one last week of internal medicine. It was… awful. I don’t like internal medicine, I don’t like the rounding. I don’t like it. That sums up that week. Glad it is done now.

Then… Surgery!!!!!!!!! I LOVE surgery!!!!!! It is the hardest rotation anyone can ask for; the hours are terrible, the work load is phenomenal, but, it is so much fun! I have learned tons in this rotation.
The main things I learned are:
1. Always work hard. It pays off.
2. Listen to those who know more than you… they can teach you. --> I learned from the attendings, the residents and especially from the nurses.
3. Learn skills fast (for example, yesterday I closed with staples, and one of the residents asked me if I have done it before. I told him I saw it done, and will now listen to him tell me how to do it, and just… learn fast. It works—when you put your mind to it, you can do anything)
4. Be insistent—if you want to learn something, keep asking to learn it until you are taught. I’ve learned I am responsible for what I get taught… I wanted to learn how to tie sutures with one hand, but no one had time to show me… I kept asking until they showed me. Then I mastered it! The other thing was putting in Foley catheters. I only done male Foleys, but on my next hospital rotations will make sure to do female ones.
5. Let stuff roll off, have tough skin and don’t take things to heart…. (Because there are people out there who take their frustration on anyone who passes in their path)
6. Always be professional—it makes a wonderful working environment
7. Lastly, the road to success usually involves failure--> meaning: becoming good at something takes a lot of work; it is unlikely you’ll be good at it right away. It is okay to make mistakes, but fix them and don’t repeat them. And if you don’t make these mistakes you’ll never learn.

I’ve learned a whole lot more, but this was just what stood up in my head as I was writing it… I guess I was surprised I loved this rotation as much as I did, but the person who wasn’t surprised it dad.

My friend who just finished this rotation before me, told me what horrid time she had and how much she suffered, but… now I know—don’t listen to others, form your own opinions!

Well, that’s that for now.

Reut
PS—heartfelt apologies for my non school friends who had no idea I’m back. Sorry. I really should have written you an email, but it was just too much. You’ll forgive me this time around.

Here, a few more

More pictures