My Life as a Medical Student

Sneak preview :o)

2008-06-30T22:20:00.002-04:00

... A few hours before I am starting my pediatric residency, but just a small note to say that I will complete this blog asap with some awesome pictures from graduation, but... just for now, here is a sneak preview!

Tears in heaven

2008-06-03T22:55:00.003-04:00

This song below made me tear up...

Here is the update!!! (late is better than never!)

2008-05-13T16:48:00.001-04:00

05-13-08
I promised an update… but I was extremely busy, and so it took me almost a whole month to get to and journal here…

So, what have I been busy with?

Well, first of all I have finished my last rotation. It was an excellent one and I am SO happy I decided to take it. The first Monday not to be on rotation was very strange… I woke up early in the morning and told my dad (who was visiting) that this was very bizarre and that I couldn’t possibly be on break and that I need to go to work.

But alas, getting used to being on vacation is WAY too easy!!! LOL!

On that Monday dad and I went to my new locations in attempts to find housing. No luck. We looked and looked and drove around, and talked to relators and drove more, and drunk some coffee, and drove more. It was annoying. I wasn’t willing to give up my washer and dryer (heck, I could have had only hookups, I didn’t care), but didn’t want to drive more than 10 minutes to the hospital.

So no luck.

BUT!!!! (and this is to my readers who haven’t talked with me in a while) a day after dad left I found a place!!! It’s a cute little apartment in the landlord’s back yard (over his mother’s place). It has a washer and a dryer. It has two tiny (teenee-tiny!) rooms, a small living room, a kitchen, a sun room, an attic. It didn’t have an outside balcony :o( the cats will have to compromise :oP It is 5 min by foot from the shore and 8 minutes from the hospital with a car!!!

Now I liked it, signed a lease and hoping that this would work out. If it doesn’t… well, it’s only for a year.

So that was the big thing I was happy I did before I went home for a visit. Check.

Okay, so then a few days later I went home to Arizona—It was the first time I went home since mom’s death last year. It was wonderful to be home, but in the beginning it truly felt like mom was in the bedroom.

Anyways, I had several things I needed to get done, the most important of which was to transfer mom’s blog into a book format. It was very difficult to read her blog in full again. It was even harder when I read it a 3rd or 4th time. Still, even though it was the most difficult it was the most fulfilling. Mom left us a treasure. Her words. I am SO happy she wrote this blog. I worked very hard (and definitely stretched Microsoft Word’s capabilities to the max). I love designing the artistic aspects of a book. Well, I think it turned out wonderful. I tried very hard to really understand what mom meant with her words and to find the right pictures/facial expressions/ pictorial feeling.

Then (or maybe it was before), dad and I went through all the books in Hebrew to donate to the center of Jewish Education. We’ve created stickers in the front saying that this book was donated by us and then had 6 different pictures we chose of mom (one for each sticker) in memory of mom… etc. It turned out great! I’m sure that the Israelis in Phoenix will love this new library!

I tried to create a small booklet with mom’s favorite recipes (to make and to eat), but even though I have made a list of all the recipe I didn’t get to making this booklet. Maybe next year.

In the last moment I went through mom’s cloths, and most of the fitted me (how come I’m not surprised).

Hmmm.

I met Omer’s girlfriend who is a sweetheart. I rested. I played with the doggies and took them on walks everyday. I managed to annoy Omer. I managed to make Omer laugh. I ate good. I exercised. I met up with Julie’s family.

And then I went back home.

And then it was the 6th of May, 2008.

A year is a very long time, but it is also a very short time. If I had it my way she would have been here and healthy and happy with me that I am finally finishing up school. But I didn’t get to have it my way. And I miss mom more than words can say; and I know she misses me too.

I am glad we are doing the memorial on the 23rd of May, which is Lag BaOmer.

That’s all I have to say about that.

So graduation is this Saturday. I am flying back to the Midwest this Thursday. I am ready to be done with school, but I know that there is so much more I could learn/should learn… so glad I have residency to go through!!! :oP

Anyways, this is not the last entry on this blog, but I think that after graduation, “My Life as a Medical Student” will officially be over :o) I truly enjoy writing a blog, but will probably create a personal journal to have for myself.

Talk soon,

Reut

Update soon!

2008-04-16T10:27:00.003-04:00

But until then, I found this wonderful story and wanted to share with you :o) Enjoy!

איזה כיף שבא אביב!!!

2008-04-02T22:59:00.009-04:00

04-02-08

Hi everyone!

I am in my very last rotation, which is actually a ‘left over’ from last year for an elective, so this rotation is only two weeks short! I decided to do peds neurology, and I am SO very happy I am doing it!!! My goal was to master the neurological examination, and I am definitely feeling good about it :o) My second goal was to really understand the classification of seizures, and… well… I’m still working on it.

The doctors I work with are very different from one another. One is from Canada, and he is just so kind. I love working with him. Unique to him from most doctors I worked with before is that he likes me to present the patient in front of the patient. I actually have no problems doing it, and was surprised at the fact that I ended up liking it and seeing how involved the patient feels in the process.

The second doctor looks like Savta Adina (my grandmother) when she was in her early 40’s. Tee hee hee! It is very weird to work with someone who looks like your grandmother, because all I want to do is be like… “Oh, Savta, I forgot to tell you about this and that…” This doctor is excellent and enjoys teaching a lot, it’s too bad my time in this rotation is SO short.

The last doctor looks like John Travolta. No kidding. I spent the whole of Monday morning grinning inside because I was chatting with ‘John Travolta’ about neurology and financial plans for residency… LOL! I actually called up my friend Tala when I came home, and exclaimed: Tala, I spent the whole day talking to John Travolta!

On Thursday night my stomach started feeling funny (again), and by Friday I was feeling terrible; but I vomited and felt so much better afterwards that I actually dressed up and went to work. I was there for about 20 minutes and I started feeling bad again, and then after we finished seeing the first or second patient I asked to leave, and they were more than happy to let me go. I spent the rest of Friday and Saturday sleeping it off. On Sunday I woke up and felt better. Yesterday I returned back to my normal self, hurrah!

Last week, or two weeks ago, I told you how everything has started to bloom… now the whole neighborhood looks like the film set for a wedding! It is gorgeous! I promised some pictures, so here you go:

These guys are nice, but…

They leave this around.

I know you saw this one already, but I like it!

The wedding tree! I think E.ma would have loved it!!!

Well, that was my week. I had a small cooking disaster today… I made Avocado Soup from http://startcooking.com/blog/238/Avocado-Soup . Startcooking.com is a cute little website for people who are just learning to cook. Obviously, I have been cooking for a while now, and can usually make decent stuff… However, I really like her videos and enjoy reading the blog. BUT… today… I made the avocado soup. It smelled great, and I was so excited to eat it. The first bowl tasted good, it was smooth and delicious. The second bowl tasted HORRIBLE! I don’t know what happened, but in the time span between one bowl to another my taste buds did a ‘180’. I had to toss out the rest of the soup because I just couldn’t make myself eat the rest. Blah!

But I redeemed myself with this creation (I don’t know which website I got this one from, I thought it was from the same site, but I can’t seem to find it today):
1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 T olive oil
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. Moroccan Spice Mix (see below)
salt to taste (I used about 1/4 tsp)

Spice Mix:
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. chile powder
1/2 tsp. sweet paprika
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground allspice--> didn’t have
1/4 tsp. ground ginger--> didn’t have
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
Preheat oven to 350 F. in toaster oven for me.

Drain garbanzo beans into a colander and rinse well. While beans drain, make spice mix. (Store the rest in a glass container)… I put my ‘Chauayaj’ (the mix) in a zip lock for now.

When beans are well drained and dried, toss with olive oil, spice mix, and salt. Arrange in single layer on baking sheet. Roast 40-50 minutes, or until they are slightly browned and make a rattling sound when you shake the baking sheet. Serve warm or let cool.

YUM! But… this was very filling and I think it should be for 2 people, not just one. Also, no need for extra salt, it would have been okay without. I thought there was too much olive oil.

Anyways, it was very delicious!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My friend Lori sent me an early birthday present… the whole Sweatin’ to the Oldies set!!! Thank you Lori!!! I was disappointed I couldn’t dance with it today, but it was too late to ‘thump’ on my downstairs neighbors. Instead I did weights and toned while listening to the DVD in the background! It is lovely and I can’t wait to start learning the new moves!

Well gang, it is getting late here, and Vega is calling me to come to bed… I better go before KC starts bugging her and then she’ll get all wild up and won’t go to bed until midnight…

Happy Spring!
Happy Birthday to Saba and Abba!!!

Re

Update soon :o)

2008-03-30T21:30:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone!
I was sick and didn't feel well enough to update my blog. But will do so in the next couple of days.

Enjoy this picture I took today (I was feeling better):

Abba-- this one is for you :o)

2008-03-27T22:50:00.001-04:00

As promised, LOL!

Not too busy

2008-03-23T20:53:00.005-04:00

03-23-08

Hi everyone!

Why is it so hard to find a reasonably priced apartment in a good area that allows pets and has a washer/dryer or hookups???

So, dad and I went over to ****** and looked at apartments. The first place we visited was just being built. It will be a gorgeous apartment complex, but the lady who showed us the place was so nasty! Ewww! Anyways, that place is way too expensive for what it gives. Besides, it will be too snooty. My rule of thumb is—if I can’t hang my cloths out in the sun on a nice sunny day, the apartment complex is not for me… :o) This one was definitely too snobbish.

We then visited two more places that looked okay! They said that they might have the washer and dryer option when I come. I need to push them on that one. One of the complexes is close to the hospital and the apartments in both places are a tiny bit bigger than what mine is right now. I was very happy we found these places, and they sure looked decent! When I came home I looked online and read some awful reviews of this place on http://www.apartmentratings.com/ . Uggg. I then looked to see how my own complex ranked now, and there were some awful reviews about my place too… LOL! I got to put everything in perspective.

So… I still have to go down there a few more times to see another complex or two, but I’d like to find a nice place soon.

Oh, we saw the strangest thing when we were down there! We went to the shore, and the ocean was black! It was the middle of the day, and it was sunny and no clouds in the sky, but the ocean just decided to be black. There were lots of shades inside that black—a lot of purple, green, brown. I have never seen anything like it. I am so used to the beautiful Mediterranean, and the gorgeous Red sea that this… well… it just didn’t seem right. I am sure it has to do with currents and winds and other factors, but nevertheless it was weird.

I’m starting my next rotation tomorrow—it’s Peds Neurology, and will be only 2 weeks (the two weeks I still owe the school from last year). I sure hope I would like it. I also hope I will be able to sit down and study when I need to. I’ve been feeling burned out, and my last rotation (family medicine) was easy enough that I didn’t have to sit down and study… I probably should have, but I was tired of working so hard. Blah!!!

Oh, during my family medicine rotation I was able to avoid catching the various sickness the patients had, until the very last two days. My stomach was doing the samba inside me. No other symptoms, just very violent movements of the stomach. Uggg! I feel better now, but was really feeling funny on Thursday and Friday.

Well spring is officially here!! And I saw the first trees bloom last week :o) It was great, beautiful pink trees around my neighborhood. Now the yellow flowers on the bushes are starting to bloom. There are also red flowers on the trees. It’s beautiful! I promise pictures.

I’ve been exercising a lot, and am very proud that it almost has been 2 months!!!! I started blogging it on just for my own records http://makingtimeforexercise.blogspot.com/ . I think I’ve been logging it for about 10 days or so. It would be nice to see the progress in writing. You are welcome to visit there, but don’t laugh at my abysmal lifting abilities… I had to start low or else I would have hurt myself.

KC and Vega are doing very well. They love sitting out on the balcony on sunny days. I love it that they love it.

That’s it! Kisses to all,
Happy Purim everyone!
Re

Mamma Mia!

2008-03-11T22:14:00.001-04:00

Mamma Mia!

03-11-08

So, another week of family medicine has come and gone. This one was pretty much the same as the week before… LOL~ ugg. In anycase, I am trying to enjoy the “vacation” but in all honesty, I enjoyed the hard work and intensity of my sub-I’s. I am just a tad bored with sinusitis, diabetes, coughs, flu, upper respiratory infections, anxiety, depression, and hypertension (high blood pressure). But, even in the repetitive environment of family medicine we do get to see some very interesting cases! Just a few days ago we sent a patient to the hospital with pericarditis; we also had a patient in which we suspected sepsis that was sent straight to the hospital; Henoch-Schonlein purpura (well, but of course I will find that interesting, as this was in a 7 year old pt :o) ).

Dad said that I should reconsider working in an outpatient setting and think about a combination (hospital and outpatient). The reality is that I will have to see next year. It might be that I am the way I am because I ran out of gas (this is truly the end of the year for me), or that these are adults that can be somewhat needy at times, or that… I just need to stop being whiney :o) I have 1.5 weeks left at this rotation and then 2 weeks of pediatric neurology!!!!

As for other news, I’ve been looking at housing for next year, and I am not finding much on the internet, so I am hoping dad would be able to come with me so we could drive there and look around. I have 3 very simple requirements—1. safe area. 2. Pets accepted in the apartment (and they may not change that rule while I’m there). 3. Washer and drier in the unit (or just hookups). Maybe if I wasn’t so picky this would have been easier. But I am known for being very picky, so… too bad.

Speaking of dad, guess what we did this weekend :o) :o) :o) I went up to the city and we saw Mamma Mia! on Broadway. It was GREAT! Until very recently I wasn’t able to bring myself to see any shows. I actually refused to go see a live show with my friends. But, I was ready on the weekend, and was ready to see it with dad. It was beautiful, but it made me cry in several spots because I thought of mom, and how she enjoyed this show with dad, and how much we still have to do that we can’t do anymore.

But it wasn’t just me and dad who were tearing up—another guy who was sitting a row or two down was dubbing at his eyes. So. Everyone has a story. Everyone always looses someone dear. But loving and living is worth it.

Here I liked this:

And this—not the best recording, but definitely shows off the colorful production and amazing cast (although this is the London Cast, I believe). Plus this one really reminds me of mom (I can see her up on stage doing her “Mogley eyes” (of the hypnotizing snake from the jungle book)… and getting the whole crowd to dance)

Dad said that in the show he saw with mom in London, the crowd was dancing in the isles. We tried to do that, but we were the only ones. Our crowd in our show was a bit sleepy!

After the show was done we went out, and we stopped behind the theater—dad was on the phone with Omer. As we were there, some of the cast members went outside (probably to grab some lunch)… so we thanked the guy who played Harry Bright for a great show. Of course, after you see a Broadway show, all you (fine, I) want to do is sing and dance… which is what I did. :o) It’s a good thing dad is used to me bursting in songs. Can you imagine how boring our lives would have been without music?

After we came back from the show and dinner, I saw Elisheva—it was so nice to see her! We sat down at the lobby and talked for a bit about this and that. Then I had to leave and go home. Bummer.

Oh, one more thing I forgot to write about—Last Thursday I decided to see if the movie En Vie La rose (or in it’s French name: La Mome) was playing in our local movie theater. This is a movie I knew was coming out and wanted to see it with mom, but never got a chance to. Anyways, I was happy to see that it was there. I went in to ask when the next showing was, and was told that it was at 21:55. This is a bit late for me, so I asked them when they were showing it tomorrow… and they told me that this was the very last show they had of this film. So I bought a ticket and even though I was very tired and knew I would be tired the next day, I went. It was wonderful. It was sad, and beautiful. I don’t think mom would have liked it, because it had too much of Edith dying in it, but… it really was good. Plus the singing was phenomenal. Savta Blanka is a big fan of Edith Piaf—because she listened to her I always liked Edith’s music. I can remember being much younger and attempting to sing along in French. It sounded something like this: Padam, padam padam, ooo voor doo sheh lo meee ooom PADAM! Or… No… rein de rein no, je ne regrerein…. LOL! OY VEY ZMIR my French is pathetic!!! I can’t believe e.ma was French and I speak only 5 words of it!

….

Well, that’s about it. KC and Vega are lovely. They took well to the daylight saving time, and gotten used to getting up an hour a head, and now are once again waking me up 2 minutes before the alarm clock rings. Booger heads!

Kisses to all,

Re
PS—here is a picture of mom that I like.

It's almost Omer's birthday!

2008-03-02T20:30:00.007-05:00

03-02-08

Hello everyone,

Well, I didn’t write for quite a while. I was very busy finishing up my last rotation. I ended up loving it—it was a lot (A LOT!) of hard work; I have to say that even though I thought I was going to be miserable during the rotation I was wrong. I learned a lot… my responsibility level was kicked up several notches, and it was a good experience.

In my last week there, I was standing waiting for the elevator when I saw this huge furry dog come in. Now, you don’t often see huge furry dogs (or any dog for that matter) in the hospital. This was Tyler… a therapy dog! I pet him and he leaned his huge head on my body. Oh, what a dog! I fell in love! I am such a sucker for dogs…

Also during my last week at my rotation my great-grandmother Nany (Margaret) passed away. She was 96 years old and clear as a bell. Two or three months after I started writing my online blog (so… about October of 2004) I begun sending her copies of every entry I made—I enlarged it to a font 20 so she would be able to read it by herself with no difficulties. It was such a pleasure for me to send it to her. I know she enjoyed it because she told me she did, and that was so nice to know that my little ditties were eagerly read by her and sometimes her dinner-table pals. Anyways, the last thing she said to me was “I know it is you Reut. I love you. Be a good doctor.” Nany also gave me her ‘rubies’ (because she wasn’t “rich enough for diamonds”). Here are the ‘rubies’ from a recent phone conversation:
1. The most important thing is family.
2. Enjoy what you are doing.
3. If you don’t like what you are doing, change it.
4. Be happy.
5. One more time: family, family, family.

…How I wish my own mom would have lived this long…

Well, to “exciting” news: I am in rural family medicine. Ick. It’s okay, it’s just… I don’t know… boring? Tedious? Repetitive? I have 3 more weeks, and then I’ll be done with this. I’ve been trying to set up my last two weeks of medical school… I’ve been having a difficult time with it—I wanted to do radiology, but… that doesn’t look like it’s going to be an option. I tried to set up pediatric neurology, but… it’s not working out too well. Oy! I just need to make up the 2 weeks from last year and then I’ll be done. Would someone let me do a rotation please? (Yes, I am sure it will work out, but I am kind of down to the wire… and would like to get it solved already).

My dad came to visit last weekend—it was so much fun!!! I love it that he comes. There was this huge snow storm and he decided to drive in the snow . He did very well (dad you drove in the snow several times before, right?). I was happy dad drove, because despite driving in it before…I hate ice, and I hate snow. I really ought not to live in this part of the country.

Last bit—I’ve been dancing with Richard (my Sweatin’ to the Oldies DVD) for about 4 weeks now!!!!!!! I love it! It’s getting to the point where it is a bit too easy for me. I need to get his other DVD’s and then add some other ones. I also added some minimal weight training and good stretching. It is such a blast that by the end of the day I can’t wait to do it!!! WooHoo! My friends Matt and Erica moved out of their apartment yesterday, and I helped them carry the heavy stuff down—I was hurting afterwards (because, hey, their stuff was heavy and going down 3 flights of stairs with it was hard), but… I still couldn’t wait to exercise today and felt great about it!

That’s about it. My cats have been doing great.

(KC and the cat nip)

(Vega Sleeping inside mom’s coat)

Have a good week everyone!

This one is for Abba

2008-02-20T19:33:00.002-05:00

Here you go, I think you'll enjoy this one :o)

Re

Match day!!!

2008-02-11T20:31:00.000-05:00

Feb. 11th 2008
Match day was today!!!!

And… I got the program I wanted! I am very excited, but… I do have to say that if I would have matched in my other choices I would have been just as happy. All the programs I applied to were great and I would have been happy in any of them. However, am very happy with my new residency program and I couldn’t be more excited about it!!!! Yeah!

So… my rotation… I did not like the first week, but after two individuals left and our team switched around to new people I am much happier. I am working very hard and functioning almost like an intern. I still am having problems entering orders on the computer, but the seniors are helping me out. The patients are incredibly interesting, and I am studying very hard. I really like it! Last year when I was planning 4th year I asked E.ma if I should do 3 months of family medicine (because it was easier to schedule), or try to schedule 2 months of a sub-internship and a month of family medicine. Mom looked at me (I could “hear” that look through the phone!) and asked me which one would prepare me for residency better. She was right! I feel much better about starting residency next year.

Okay, so I was on call last Wednesday and the on Sunday (yesterday). Being on call means that after your work day (it was for me), you stay in the hospital during night and care for the patients on the floor, as well as receive new admissions. Both nights were actually not too bad. I slept for about 3 hours on the first night and 4-5 hours on the second night. The resident I was with said I was a “white cloud”—meaning that I brought a calm night. LOL! It’s all random really. I’m glad I did these calls, but I still think that night float is a better system.

… I must say that having beds to sleep on is a nice change from my calls in Internal medicine, where for some reason they did not have beds for the students (that was NOT fun.)

Dad came to visit on Friday and Saturday. He decided to drive, and I was so happy he did because I was just pooped. The last time I saw dad it was about 1 month ago, and I really missed him! Living out here all by myself can get very lonesome at times. Yes, I am extremely busy, but I would love it if I had my close family around so I could drive for a maximum of 20 minutes and have coffee with Omer or Abba. But sadly, that’s not going to happen, so I’ll just whine for a bit and then suck it up. In anycase, dad and I ate at olive garden and then dad brought tons of stuff with him from Israel: Cookies made by Savta Adina (Thank you SO much! They are GREAT!), the coolest PJ’s ever from my aunt Isabelle and a beautiful little Hamsa that reminds me of the hamsa Isabelle gave mom and that she was eventually buried in (thanks Izza!). Also a movie that I’ll see this weekend (thank you Yossi(?)). And then from Abba: two shirts from Bangkok, a new book that I started reading today, the coolest black shoes I have ever seen that fit me like a glove! and… this beautiful picture called “Cat and Bird” by Paul Klee, that I saw once with Abba in MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) that Abba got me (Thank you so very much!!!) It feels like my birthday! Thank you for all the attention :o)

One of my favorite things to do with my dad is to go shopping… I think it’s because we mostly window shop and talk. By window shopping I mostly mean sunglasses, watches and shoes :o) Dad always says that E.ma taught him a lot about finding great deals, so we really had fun in several stores this weekend! LOL! Oh, and get this… I was complaining to dad last week that tomatoes cost 5$ per pound (!!!) and they really did, until dad showed up at the grocery store and the price “magically” went down :o) as tomatoes are my favorite fruit/veggie, I was very happy.

Another thing I must tell you… Last week I decided to get an exercise video. I’ve been thinking about it for a really long while and came to the conclusion that I (gasp!) must exercise. It’s really easy to come with tons of excuses and avoid the work out, but I really thought I would be happier and healthier if I made the effort. So… (and please don’t laugh,) I got myself Richard Simmons’ “Sweatin’ to the Oldies.” They way I see it, if it is fun (which this video is) I would be more likely to stick to it. So, after doing this 4 times this week I have to say that this is the greatest fun I ever had exercising! I love dancing to songs and this is exactly what this video is all about. I love the music which includes songs like: dancing in the street, beyond the sea, It’s my party, Peggy Sue, etc. and Richard Simmons is so flamboyant and excited, and it is hard not to have a good laugh while doing this. I love it, and even though I do sweat while doing this, it feels like fun. So I’m going to get more videos and keep doing this. If you have any other ideas for me for other type of exercising, I’ll be very happy to get your advice (just please keep in mind that I am very busy and can’t exercise outside in winter time)…

(Hahahahaha! Okay, even I am laughing a bit, but it is really fun, so… bite me!)

Both cats are well. Vega has gone a bit crazy because it has been too cold to let her sit on the balcony whenever she wants. KC is his normal self.

That’s about it folks,

Love to all,

Reut

3 weeks to go... blah!

2008-02-02T08:48:00.001-05:00

3 weeks to go. That’s what I keep telling myself… LOL! My new hospital is okay, and it is definitely would be a good place for next year. However, learning how to use a new computer system in less than a week (and this one is probably from way back in the early 80’s—not very user friendly) in order to put in orders, which I can do in this hospital, learning where everything is in the hospital, learning what is expected of me…. All of it is hard—you know, the regular stuff one faces when she starts a new hospital.
Anyways, to anyone who cares… I am being asked a lot of questions and constantly am feeling like a ‘poisoned rat…’ Oooooo (or rather, ouch!)… to be completely honest—it’s a very humbling experience. On the plus side, I am sitting down and studying and reviewing the material… so I am definitely learning, and will come out of this month knowing more academically as well as learning a bit more on how to be an intern; but I am tired and ready to be done with my second month of floor.

I have to say, my patients are extremely interesting! So far I’ve seen: Left upper lobe pneumonia, Right upper lobe pneumonia, Atypical pneumonia, Status Asthmaticus, RSV negative bronchiolitis, right upper lobe pneumothorax, marfan’s syndrome, grade IV ulcer, Sickle cell pain crisis, seizure disorder. In patients who weren’t mine I saw child abuse, appendicitis, possible osteogenesis imperfecta, and dengue fever. Quite a variety!

I am carrying 4-5 patients, and keeping everything in line is definitely a challenge.

So, all in all, even though I am complaining, this is an excellent experience, and I am sure I will appreciate it after it is over :o)

Okay, enough!

Vega and KC are doing wonderfully—they don’t get to see me much, but I think they are okay with it… cats are just so very independent like that.

~~~~~~~~~~
02-02-08
I fell asleep last night at this point, so I’ll just add that I had a weird dream with mom in it—Midnight decided to bite Omer, mom was in bed and I tried to help Omer. This of course is a bizarre dream because Midi would never bite Omer, E-ma would have yelled bloody murder if that were to happen (and she didn’t in my dream), and I wouldn’t have been frozen, but would have been able to help Omer. Oh yeah, and Omer would have been able to fend for himself.

But it was just the first dream since the 16th of last month that mom came.

:o( Come more often E-ma. Please.

Okay—great book I read:
תולדות האהבה/ניקול קראוס
Definitely a fun book—Saba, I will send it to you via Abba the next time we meet (which hopefully will be next weekend)

Oh, one more thing-- this photo appeared in the newspaper:

With this underneath:
מרגישים בעננים
מסע ארוך עבר על אלופי אוסטרליה הטריים בדרכם ממלבורן לישראל. הם עצרו לחניית ביניים לבנגקוק, שם עלו על טיסת אל על והצטלמו בקוק פיט עם הטייסים משה גפן ושמעון גוריון. גם כשהצמד המנצח הגיע לארץ, הוא לא ממש נחת על הקרקע

These are the champions for couples in the Australian Open (Tennis). Dad said they were really a bunch of nice guys. Very awesome! (Hey.. who is flying the plane? :o) :o) :o) )

That’s it ladies and gents—this week has been boring…

Love to all,

Reut

PS—I found this great song performed by Yehudit Ravitz and Nurit Galron. It is really loads of fun!!!

It's amazing how fast 4 weeks go by...

2008-01-26T19:25:00.000-05:00

01-26-08

Hi everyone,

Hope you all are having a good week. I am officially done with my first Sub-I. It was awesome. I learned so much. In my last week there I requested to be in the nursery for a few days. In my 3rd year pediatric clerkship no one truly taught me how to do a good new born examination, and… well… I didn’t want to go on without knowing how to do it. So one of the residents showed me and I did it over and over again for 2.5 days. This small deviation from the floor was so very important, and I am very happy to have requested it.

On Tuesday I had my very last interview for a residency program. Since it was done at the hospital I rotated at, and also I’ve had so many prior interviews, I didn’t prepare much. Normally before an interview I go online and research the hospital, the curriculum, the research requirements, etc. Here I didn’t need to… I think we interviewed one another, but not really on that Tuesday, rather from the first day of my rotation. LOL! Well, I truly loved this program. This is where I want to go. I hope they want me as well. But, whatever happens, happens—I’ll be happy wherever I end up.

I think I told you before that the hospital is about a mile from the shore. When I’m in the parking lot I can normally smell the ocean (when it is not 12F). I tried unsuccessfully before, to drive to the shore; there were always houses preventing me from getting through. After my interview day I decided to try my luck again. This time I asked all the residents how to get there. I got 5 different ways and chose one. This time I made it! I was so happy!!! It was pouring outside, but I stepped out of the car and walked on the boardwalk for a bit. I wanted to go down to the water, but I had my nice shoes on and it really was pouring hard, so I decided to go back to the car. However… I returned again the next day to have a better view. The sea is the one thing that can really get me relaxed. It’s not the swimming I’m after, but that calming effect of the rhythmic waves.

The ocean itself looks similar to the Mediterranean. The sand is coarser and not as yellow. There is also a silly picket fence in front of the sea. I thought it was kind of funny! One big wave and whoosh! The fence will fall… But the strangest thing of it all is that the sun rises in the ocean and doesn’t set in it. :o)

Isn’t it really nice? It is probably packed in the summer… eh?

Anyways, on Friday I went out with one of the residents I really liked—it is always fun to find new friends. We went to a Thai restaurant and had some awesome delicious food with good conversation. I never had Thai food before, and I ended up loving it. Yum. Then we drove around—to see the towns in the area. Then we went for some coffee and then I drove home because I was awake since 4AM and the resident had to be on call the next day.

Today I woke up and went to volunteer at the shelter. I walked in and saw a gray kitty that looked just like Lily. I thought it WAS Lily until I saw it was a male cat. Phew. Today I walked the dogs—it was relatively warm outside (30-32F... oi, oi, my island in the sun!) and it wasn’t windy at all. I decided not to wear my coat, and so glad I didn’t because one of the dogs decided to paw me when I took him out of his cage, only he had poop on his paw and as a result I had poo on my shirt. Ick. I cleaned it good and moved on with life, but had it been my coat I would have had to waste time going to the dry cleaner.

Anyways, afterwards I came home I tried to get some of my graduation paperwork done. There is so much of it, and it is such a pain. I need to finish it this weekend though, as I really don’t want to even think about it during my next rotation.

My next rotation is at the hospital I did my pediatric cardiology at. I really liked that rotation, and am kind of excited to go back. However the only difference is that I will be on the floor doing my second sub-I. I hope this will be as good as the rotation I just completed. This new hospital is actually my second choice—I truly hope I will like it, as there is a real chance of me getting there :oP

Match results will be in a little bit over 2 weeks from now. If I don’t match I’ll have to enter my next list for the other match. Anyways, the suspense is killing me!!! I wonder what mom would have said about the programs I picked…

Okay now, really, enough about the hospitals and match and residency… It seems like I can’t talk about anything else!

Vega is all better! She is eating like her normal self again… Hooray! KC is well too!

Hmmm. That’s about it...
Everyone have a great week!
Love to all,

Re

Buzz buzz buzz, I'm a busy bee!

2008-01-19T22:03:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone!

I have been very busy lately, and didn’t write for a while (18 days actually), but my friend Christine told me I needed to update my blog more often. LOL! Okay then!

A lot has been happening lately. I am going to start my last week of my sub-I at the hospital I am in. I’ve decided to drop my dread of the process and enjoy the fact that I am still a student and am allowed to make mistakes and can learn. This is the time for me to learn how to be an intern.

So… I am working hard. I really like this program and actually planning to rank them as my #1 spot. I hope I’ll get it, because I really like the place, the residents and the doctors! They have a great variety of patients and get to do a lot of procedures. When I told my dad that the only problem I see with this place is that it is a very small program and that I feel like they need an extra person, he told me that I’ll have the same hard work and increased number of patients everywhere. I will work like a slave next year, and that will be the case everywhere.

In any case, I’ve been driving back and forth to the hospital. It’s about an hour and twenty minute drive from my house, and I found that if I get into bed by 9-9:30 by the time my alarm clock rings at 4:15am, I am not overly tired. Originally I was planning to stay at the local discounted motel the program had offered, but one of my fellow medical students showed me her bed bug bites and I decided that I will stay there only if it snows or if I am really tired. I stayed there once so far… let’s just say that I’d prefer to sleep in my own bed, but I didn’t have bugs in my motel bed....

During the past three weeks I have had several interviews—I actually drove up to Connecticut, the one weekend it snowed really bad (ugg!). It’s amazing. Every single time I drive to a place that might have snow in it, it does! I mean, my friend interviewed at the same place a week or so before and she had no problems. The snow Gods must hate me! I was very happy dad convinced me to change my tires. We changed it before my drive to Massachusetts, and ever since then I have been enormously thankful! On that snow Monday morning in Connecticut there was a good bit of snow and slush on the ground. My car held well, but all of the signs were covered with snow, so I really had no idea where I was going. I gave some good guesses and surprisingly made it to the hospital without getting lost at all! Wow! By the time my interview ended, the snow have melted and my drive south was so easy.

My second interview was at a beautiful well known children’s hospital in NY. The program is big, but I really enjoyed the place. It’s the complete opposite of the place that I am intending to put as my number one choice, but I can’t deny that this is an excellent program and I would be delighted join it. Oh, on the way back on the train I sat next to some other interviewees (they looked like interviewees, so I asked them if they were, and struck a conversation with them). One of them studies in the American program in Israel— we all exchange emails and I am intending to keep in touch with them. Nice folks!

Anyways… so that’s been my life—either driving to the hospital or driving for interviews…

I should probably tell you about my hospital experience. Our signouts (transfer of patients from night team to day team) starts at 7am normally, although we had a day when we started at 6:30. We have a long list of all the patients with all their medications and medical conditions etc, and then we discuss each and every one of them. The intern from the night team presents the patients in the following way:

Patient So and so is an (age) day/month/year old male/female with (put admission reason or diagnosis here) and past medical history of (put whatever past medical history here). Hospital day number (number here). Has been afebrile (or febrile) with a t-max of (put highest fever here). Is on X amount of liters of oxygen nc (or other delivery of oxygen). Patient is on (put medications here) Overnight patient did well (or not… and then explain what happened). Labs received and lab pending is next… etc. etc.

Anyways, we do this with all patients. I then pick three patients to follow. If this is a week day, I will have at least one patient whom I've followed the day before, and has not been discharged yet. I then ask the residents to photocopy my patient signout sheets so I’ll have all of the information handy and then.

Then we either have morning report (where the residents present cases from overnight or interesting cases from several days before) or we go on rounds with the neurologist. The neurologist is a bit intimidating, but I am glad to learn from him… he teaches a lot during his rounds, and I normally go home or read during the day stuff we have discussed. I forgot a lot of my neurology and am intending to learn more of it before I start next year. Hmmm. Dad made a comment once that he has this image in his head of medical students acting like poisoned rats under intimidating doctors. LOL! I refuse to be a poisoned rat!!! (which means I have to stop writing and go study, right?)

After rounds with him, I go and see my patients. Check them, talk with them and their parents, if it’s the first time I meet them, review the history I received from the night team to make sure it is all accurate. I then review labs and studies to try and catch all that is pending. Then I start writing my notes. By the time I finish my second note it is usually time to round with the attending. Each attending rounds differently—the neurologist does bedside rounding, which basically means that we discuss everything on the go and next to/with the patients. The 3 general pediatricians I have encountered enjoy table rounds—which means our discussion of assessment and plan is done at a separate room where we actually sit and discuss our patients.

After rounds, I complete any remaining notes, work on discharge papers and summaries if appropriate, continue some more labs chasing, try and get my patients to different studies, order medications (I actually don’t get to do that in this hospital as a student, but I remind the residents what we decided to order on my patients). If I have questions about my patients I use this time to ask them and to read about things I don’t understand. We then go grab lunch and go to noon lecture.

After noon lecture we do resident rounds, in which we just review what still needs to get done. We then return to the floor, and I check on my patients again and then chase more pending labs. If anything changes I let the residents know and then we discuss what we should do to change plans. Here is an example: I checked a young baby with RSV+ bronchioliltis and he just did not look good… he was saturating in the low 90’s (oxygen saturation) and had wheezing, subcostal retractions and head bobbing. I described this to the resident and asked if we could put in another albuterol treatment and then reevaluate the patient. So we did that, and we also increased the frequency of the albuterol treatments for him.

Well, by 4pm we have to updates all of our signsout sheets again. We have many consulting doctors that come in and out all day long, so if my patient needed a doctor consultation, I usually tag along with them to see their assessment of the patients, to hear their plan and ask them questions. By the evening we get ready to do signouts with the night team and let them know of any changes etc. Similar to our morning signout :o)
Oh yeah, if there are any admissions during the day I usually go down with a resident to do it.

Anyways, it doesn’t sound like all that much on paper, but in real life it is, and I am also learning how to be organized, and what is important and what is not…. so it is actually is a lot of work.

I asked the residents so many questions about living there, about life as an intern, about any suggestions they have, and so far these are my favorite answers:
-“The first few months of internship suck. It is so hard. I hated it. I was always tired. You’ll probably hate it too. But… it gets better!”
-“The best advice I ever got was: ‘Own your patients. Feel like they are your own, no matter what. If they are important to you as your family is you will not forget to check on this lab or that, because you will truly care about what happens to them.’”
-“Reut here is my advice—get a clipboard! It keeps me organized and it will keep you organized, I’m sure of it!”
-“How do I handle stress? I work out. I ran every day. Yes. Every single day.”

There are many more things they told me, and I just love this group of people I have met… they are so nice and down to earth.

Funny/interesting/wonderful/not-so-wonderful things that happened to me during the past 3 weeks:
-One of my patients had MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and decided when I was listening to his lungs to stick his finger in my nose. EWWWWW! I washed my nose good, he didn’t have an abscess on his finger, but I still feared of being colonized with this bacteria.
-One of my kids was really sick and was transferred to PICU
-a tiny baby came in with some unknown ailment. I was the one to review some of the lab work with mom and get some very happy tears when I told her that her child did not have cystic fibrosis. We still didn’t know at that point what the baby had, but she was so relieved it wasn’t CF.
-I got to see a child with an epidural abscess and learned all about it. I also gave a small presentation on it during our rounds with the neurologist. The triad we need to remember is: fever, localized pain, and neurological deficits. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it now.

There is so much more…

So putting it all together—I know so little, and need to learn so much (Go read!!!) It is so nice to have this time to learn… I am very excited to be starting residency, and now after doing this for 3 weeks, I am not as intimidated by the prospect. What else… oh yeah… sleep is good.

I forgot to mention one more thing—this hospital has night float system, which means that they have a night team and a day team. This is not true for some of the hospital I interviewed at… in the other hospitals the way they do it is by call… every 3rd or 4th night you stay the night and care for all the patients over night time and admit all new patients. Then you stay through morning rounds and leave anywhere from 12-2pm. Hmmm. I like the idea of night float better. Also, if you take me and my personal preference out of the equation, you’ll see that having a doctor that slept all day long and is now fresh for the night is much better than a doc that has been awake for more than 24 hours… plus, you’ll have your day doctor and night doctor. Much more consistent, don’t you think?

Well, enough about that.
You wound never guess what I did two weeks ago… my friend Matt asked me for a ride to the railroad station which is like a 5 minute drive. I offered to drive him to the train station that is 40 minute away, but would have cut 3 hours out of his ride, and then decided to try and see dad who had just returned to NYC from Arizona. And so I did!!!! I took the train to Penn with Matt and then walked to the hotel. Dad and I went to our French restaurant and had a good lunch (it wasn’t as good as our last visit, but it was still good). We then returned to the hotel, dad reviewed my rheumatology translations and suggested a few changes, and then I took the train back here. It was such a short visit, but it was also the first one I didn’t feel sad leaving… I guess it was because it was unplanned and I knew it was short and just pure extra time with dad. I loved it, and will try and do it again!

Next on the agenda cats update—
I’ll start with Vega. Vega has been acting funny for the past few days. She kind of nibbled at her food ate two bites total (!) in the past 3 days and is very ‘lovey’ (which is unusual for her). I took her to the vet this morning, and he said she looked normal on gross examination, but had a low grade fever. He did some blood work on her and will call me with the result on Monday. I hope she has nothing major, and that she starts eating soon. As per vet’s advice, I bought some turkey for her and new cat food. She ate a bit of the turkey and then vomited a big hair ball and all the turkey with it… I am worried about her, but crossing my fingers that she’ll get better soon. My gut feeling tells me to let her rest and eat whatever she can and see if she gets better within a week. If she doesn’t I will then return to the doctor.

KC is fine. He is eating double, as Vega isn’t eating her food. I should have prevented him from eating her food, because he can catch whatever she has, but I didn’t realize what was going on in the first few days, and I am sure if he’ll get infected it is too late now. I will stop him from eating her leftovers from this point on though.

Lily got adopted!!!!!!!!! I came to the shelter two weeks ago and was happy to see that Lily wasn’t there :o) She was adopted by a family that wanted a kitty friend for their cat. Yay! I was told that the family is very nice. I sincerely hope she has found a good home and that she will be spoiled like she deserves to be.

… I didn’t get a chance to go volunteering last weekend, or today, but I will try and go tomorrow… all depends on when I actually wake up, LOL!

Well, I guess one thing I haven’t talked about yet is how much I miss mom. It didn’t hit me all of the sudden, as it was always there, but now that I have a quiet driving time every morning and every night I have time to sit and think a lot. I think about what mom said to me. I think about what we did. I think about what mom would have said to me about stuff that’s going on at work. The other day I met a person that spelled her name Dayana. I just about fell out of my chair, because I thought mom was the first one to come up with that spelling… so on my ride home I thought about how mom would have loved that story.

I also found that whenever I go to bed, between the time I shut my light and the time I actually fall asleep (which, granted, can be just minutes these days, as I am extremely tired) I think of mom’s funeral. And of how horrible it is I can’t have a normal conversation with her.

The sad thing for me this month was that I didn’t get to have mom visit me in any of my dreams. It wasn’t until I said it out loud—“Hey E-ma, you need to come visit me” that she came. I was SO happy to have three straight nights of dreams with her in it. Maybe I just need to ask her to come and she would.

I just feel so sad not to have her here.

Well, that’s about all. I meant to add pictures, but I need to install the CD for the camera on the new computer… I didn’t do it properly the first time around, and got to fix it. In the meanwhile, here is a picture from Connecticut well after the snow had melted (off my phone camera).

Night everyone!

Reut

2008

2008-01-01T18:59:00.001-05:00

1/1/08

I sure hope 2008 will be a better year than 2007 was.

Okay then, so… why am I home? I started my sub-internship yesterday, but they were on holiday mode, and so, I was just shown where to go and got some paperwork done on the first day, but then was told that none of the students were suppose to be there on Monday and Tuesday because of the holiday. I told them no one told me… they asked me to come back on Wednesday… so I (willingly) obliged :o) LOL. The truth is, I would have much rather just start already...but that will happen tomorrow, so no worries.

This new hospital is about an hour and twenty minutes away (a 70 miles trip) and I considered doing this trip back and forth daily, but I think I am going to stay at a local hotel that has reduced price for students… I think I will be too tired for the drive. But we’ll see. KC and Vega would love it if I stayed home with them, but they’ll get used to not having me around for a while.

Anyways, the past two weeks were those of great vacation!!! I had a total of 3 interviews (one of which I believe I told you about already). The two interviews were at great hospitals with great programs. I also managed to volunteer with the animals several times… Lily is doing great! She is just TOO CUTE! I love that cat! I think the word to really describe my vacation is: “Sleep.” I slept so much… I had a very difficult time waking up in the mornings, and found the state of sleep to be very enjoyable. Maybe that’s why the vacation slipped through my fingers like sand… uggg.

Dad came to visit this past weekend, we had tons of fun! We watched another Spanish movie he brought: “Volver” with Penelope Cruz. I loved it! We also watched “the Simpsons”, “The Holiday” and “Juno”—this one was in the theatre and was just a great movie! Dad said it reminded him of “Little Miss Sunshine” (quality wise). So yeah, we watched a million movies… but we also talked and ate really good. Oh, and I forgot to tell you that dad came with me to another interview—I mentioned to one of the doctors that my dad was down in the lobby, and she wanted to meet him right away :o) LOL! So she did, and practiced her Hebrew on him, and then a bunch of other doctors came and talked with him… I enjoyed this, and I think he did too!

Well, the very sad thing of my vacation was that mom’s best friend Julie passed away on Christmas Eve. It’s a ridiculous waste of a wonderful person that should have been with their family for many more years. But as always, we are not the ones to decide who gets to stay on this earth and who doesn’t. The only console I can find it to imagine both mom and Julie being together again. The thing is… if I don’t think about it too much, I can almost pretend that they are both still here… (denial?). I was even at the store with dad and saw this cute little Christmas thing (it was a bear holding up a wire to put pictures on, and he was dressed in red and green) and the words: “oh, we should get this for Julie” were out of my mouth before I remembered she isn’t with us any more.

Well gang, I am off for now—
I’m going to fetch my friends at the airport and get some fuel for tomorrow.

This year will be much better!
Kisses to all,

Reut

Ha'Gashashim הגששים

2007-12-19T20:39:00.000-05:00

Well, I found this one on Youtube, it will probably be removed in a few days due to copyrights issues, but while we can, enjoy!

I love this picture!

2007-12-19T00:17:00.001-05:00

Mom and her best friend Julie in Sedona!

Mom is making her famous "moglie" eyes! Julie on the other hand has starry eyes!

Oh! and another one I found (see what happens with a new computer that belonged to mom...)

I actually never seen this one before!

Hey, anyone with pictures of mom, please send them to me (scanning through email is just fine)... I would be most happy!

12-18-07

2007-12-18T23:38:00.000-05:00

Holly cow! I didn’t write in almost a month!

I wasn’t overly busy this month, but I just didn’t get organized enough to actually sit down and write.

My month at pediatric rheumatology was great! I learned SO much and really enjoyed myself. One of the doctors is from Argentina and he sounds just like my Saba Ramiro did!!! “Doctoora—what do you think?” Everytime I would hear Dr. R. I smiled, because he reminded me so much of Saba Ramiro.

On the 27th of last month I had an interview at that program. I thought it went rather well, but obviously I won’t know anything until either February or March (depending on which match I go on). On my 3rd week of that rotation I had two interviews. The first one was at a place that was a bit run down and I am not sure I will include it on my match list. It wasn’t that it was run down that really bothered me, but rather that the residents all looked very tired and unhappy. Hmmmm. The second place that week was at a hospital I didn’t think would be of any interest to me, but ended up impressing me, actually! For this one, dad went along with me :o) Poor dad! Normally interviews end between 1-2:30 or so. Not this one. We didn’t finish until 4:30!! I felt very bad about it. The best thing during that day wasn’t the interview… it was dinner with dad at this AMAZING French restaurant in Manhattan! The crepes we ate were just as good as Savta Blanka’s! Both dad and I were saying that if mom was here she would have LOVED it!!! Maybe mom could taste the food through us :o) I would love to think that she can. I had another interview last week at a place I really am interested at, but was interviewed by two residents and no attendings. I thought that was rather strange and asked about it—I was told it was fine and that this was the way they did it there. I was glad to hear it, because I truly am interested in that program and would not like to miss out. I might give the director a call and ask to come for a second visit. I then had ANOTHER interview…

This one was in Massachusetts, and I drove up there in pretty bad weather. Dad told me to change my tires before this trip, so my car held great on the road (thanks dad!!!). It was still a very difficult drive. I was very glad to get off the highway and get into my hotel room. The next day was interview day, and I was a bit tired. It’s always a lot harder to be interviewed when you are tired. I think I did fairly well though. Due to the bad weather I had to cancel an interview in upstate New York. I’m glad I did, because I don’t think I would have been able to drive in the bad weather they had. I know dad was glad I didn’t drive. I was very glad to make it home and go to bed last night…

Anyhow, I am on a small break from rotations!!!!!! I have two weeks off, which I can already tell you will fly by so fast that I won’t even know they were here. I have a lot of “stuff” that needs to be done, and also several interviews.

After this small break, I am actually going to have two sub internships, which are rotations in which I will function as an intern. I am a bit nervous about these rotations, as the responsibility level will increase further, but I know this will prepare me well for next year. This is important, and I am glad I will be doing this.

Last weekend dad came to visit me—he brought some cool stuff from home! The first was my mom’s computer. Mine was on the verge of ‘phasing out’ and he thought I would benefit from this computer. He was right! This is excellent improvement! (plus, I enjoy looking at everything on the computer and knowing mom put most of it there!) We also bought two speakers and now I can actually hear the audio really well! I can watch movies without having to use the captions for the hard of hearing now :o) (before my new speakers the old computer wasn’t able to be loud enough for anyone to hear well!)

The second thing dad brought was my mom’s coat! We are very close in size, so we always shared our clothes. Seeing the coat on the chair was almost as if mom had put it there and is in the next room. When I wore it, I hoped to smell mom. But the coat smelled like our coat closet at home. That’s okay though, because the minute I put it on I felt as if mom was giving me a big hug, and that was just perfect!

Dad also brought with him a bunch of other stuff- mom’s shoes and the old paper shredder (lovingly known as “The Dinosaur”). I love it that dad comes, but I hate it when he leaves. :o( Come back soon dad!

Okay… cats update—
Vega and KC are doing great! They are happy and lovable and enjoy cuddling anytime they can! They still wake me up very early in the morning, which I appreciate most days.

Shermen—He is a cat I am taking care of. He belongs to my friends Josh and Brandi, and I am taking care of him until they’ll get back from the Midwest. He is the funniest cat I have ever met! He is lovable and talkative and looks like KC’s twin (just 10lbs larger then KC).
Here is Shermen:

Doesn’t he look just like KC??? I know he is also from Kansas City, so they could potentially be related :o) who knows!

Lastly, thank you for everyone who had given a little prayer for the kitty I picked up!! As you’ll remember, she spent two days at Erica’s, then she spent two days at my bathroom until I was finally able to take her to the shelter. They tested her there for Feline Leukemia, for which she was negative (yeah!!!!) and so they’ll keep her there. When I left her there she was scared and was hissing at the director. I felt awful for the little kitty, but now (a few weeks later) she is very nice to everyone there and is very loving!!! I named her Lily. I don’t know why, and when I was talking to dad today, he said it was because they were mom’s favorite flowers (…weren’t daisies her favorite? She must had more than one favorite…) Also, I told Dr. C about this kitty and she said that she hopes the name brings her luck, because she had a cat named Lily who passed away when she was 17 years old and was the greatest most goofy cat they ever had :o) I know her name can change a few more times… that’s perfectly fine! All I care about is that she’ll find a good home where she will be spoiled like she deserve to be!

Speaking of Dr. C. I thought a long time about who I would like to hood me in graduation… Dr. C is that person! She has the kindest soul and shows humanity to everyone she meets— This would be the perfect way to enter into profession. I am so honored and glad that she agreed!

My Great grandmother has moved to Chicago, so… any family member who reads this and has her new address, please email me so I could send her a copy… :o)

Okay, love to everyone!

Happy holidays for all who celebrate.
Oh! I forgot to tell you how wonderful Chanukah was. I lit the chanukiya (the menorah) that mom brought me two years ago. The first day always makes me sad for some reason. It’s the small candle and the shamash, just standing there trying to bright up the world, but not succeeding much. By the 4th night the lights join together and makes everything very festive. From that point on the lights just intensify, and by the last night, everything is wonderful. Chanukah of course is not a religious holiday, but it is a very fun one! Oh yeah, the other thing about Chanukah is that we were in NYC during the 3rd night and a chabad member gave out those little ‘chanukah guides’ and was saying to everyone happy Chanukah. I couldn’t resist and flashed a big smile at him and said “Chag Same’ach!” Dad thought it was funny… LOL! I really couldn’t resist :o)

Enjoy, everyone!

Reut

Kitty

2007-11-25T18:15:00.000-05:00

11-25-07
Kitty

The kitty chose to come with me this afternoon. I am pretty sure it’s a she—she is staying at my friend Erica today and tomorrow after work I will take her to the shelter to get checked for kitty leukemia. I talked to the director this afternoon, and she said that if the kitty won’t have kitty leukemia, she will have a room for her; if she does I will ask for their opinion about which shelter will accept her. They’ll also check for a chip, just to see if by chance someone had registered her. I asked around the library area, and no one is aware of anyone missing a cat. Uggg… she is very friendly, looked healthy and wasn’t too thin. She has either decided to go out on a walk and got lost, either got dumped not too long ago, either is a local neighborhood outdoor cat without a collar, or a feral cat (which I truly doubt, because she looked for humans and was happy as a clam when we petted her and played with her).

Anyways, that’s the plan. Pray that Kitty doesn’t have any diseases so they could take her in and everything will be smooth.

Here is a picture:

Laughter is good

2007-11-24T22:41:00.000-05:00

Hello again-- 2nd post for the day. My dad's uncle-- uncle Yuval passed away last a week. Yuval was always smiling and laughing (or at least, that's the image that I have in my mind's eye).

Here is a youtube finding with him and Deena in it (at 2:50 and 3:02.) I actually saw this before mom passed away and she saw this clip and loved it so much! It made her laugh :o)

brrrr... it's cold here.

2007-11-24T22:33:00.001-05:00

11-24-07

Hello hello!

Well, I haven’t written for about twenty days or so… I was a bit preoccupied and didn’t have the time or patience to sit down and write my thoughts down. I hope everyone is well and happy.

I’ll start where I left off—my second rotation in the hospital away from home… I loved it! It was a combination of adolescent medicine and sports medicine and the doctor I worked with was so eager to teach me and loved having me there, and I absolutely enjoyed that rotation, and learned quite a lot. It was interesting to see that I actually remembered some stuff from my anatomy course in 1st year! It came in handy :o) I read a lot of x-rays and performed/viewed quite a lot of physical examinations that mainly involved the musculoskeletal system. It was a great rotation. During this rotation I had two interviews—one was at the city and the second one was at the hospital I was in. They both went well, I thought. The whole process of matching is a bit complicated, but I’ll try and explain it:

The idea is that after the interviews, the candidate (me in this case) makes a list of the places she would like to go to, the top being the hospital she would like to work at, and the ones below it those are the 2nd, 3rd, 4th to nth choice. The hospitals also have to provide a similar list of candidate choices, starting with their top choice and going down. The idea is to match between the program and the candidate—this is a computerized system, and I am not sure how exactly it works... In any case, the end results for the candidate is either matching into a program, or not; thus being either “matched” or “unmatched.” It’s a bit more complicated than that because there are actually two match systems I can participate in… and if you haven’t match you can still find an open spot.

The interviews themselves are quite fun, actually, but having to worry about the match is not fun at all. My 3rd interview is on Tuesday, and it is in the hospital I am at now.

Okay, so after my first week in adolescent medicine I came back home and met up with my friend Tala who came for an interview at two local hospitals. We ate a small something and then Tala just crashed. I fell asleep a bit afterwards and was woken up shortly after (or at least that’s what it felt like) by my cute and hungry kitties.

The weekend with Tala was filled with fun. On Saturday it was very gray and cold outside that I managed to convince Tala that she really didn’t want to go to NYC. She agreed, thank goodness! Instead we saw a movie-- “Martian Child.” It was quite an okay movie. It was fun to sit in the warm theatre, drink some hot chocolate and watch the movie. Sunday was a beautifully cold sunny day, and Tala and I got on the train to go to NYC. We visited her cousins for a bit, ate lunch with them, and then walked all the way from 19th St. to 79st to the American Museum of Natural History. When we finally got there all the shows were sold out, and so we just walked around in the general area of the museum, which was interesting but not amazing. We then walked back to the train station, stopping for coffee on the way, and getting back to my cozy apartment. I didn’t have to start until 1pm on Monday, and so Tala stayed until the morning, at which point we went out for breakfast at a local diner, where I had a really good waffle (dad, you should try it!). Anyways, then we both went on our merry ways, Tala to the interview, and I to the hospital.

The next week at the hospital was very enjoyable, and it flew by in what appeared to be the span of about a second… On Friday I returned back to my place, and had my new friend Karen from Florida stay over. She was taking an examination in the local area and needed a place to stay, so I offered her a futon and a warm blanket. I had a lot of stuff I needed to get done around the house, so we didn’t do anything too fun or extravagant, but we did watch two episodes of “Ugly Betty” on Karen’s computer. I never seen this show before, and I thought it was just hysterical! I loved it!

Well, on Monday I started my new rotation—Peds Rheumatology. So far it is very interesting, and I get to do a bit more than I did at my other rotations. I like it a lot. The only thing that’s a bit of a pain is the drive there. It is about 40-75min drive, depending on traffic. It’s not bad; it is just a bit boring. I listen to books on tape on the way there (fun books mind you, not educational ones,) and I found that the drive is a bit better that way.

As I didn’t know the schedule for my rotation, I didn’t plan on having a vacation on Thanksgiving, but it happened that way, and I was very very very very very very VERY happy about it! But the best thing was that Abba was in New York, and I got to spend Thursday, Friday and a big chunk of Saturday with him!!! I haven’t seen him in about a month and it was so nice to finally see him.

Before I get to what we did together, I have to tell you about the little gray kitty…

So, I picked some movies in the local public library on Wednesday evening. I was on my way out when I saw a little gray kitty. She looked to be about 6 months, gray, adorable and a bit dirty. She was very friendly, so I petted her, picked her up and put her right down when she started to wiggle. I didn’t know what to do—I have 2 cats at home, I cannot have another one at the moment, but I felt very bad about leaving this kitty outside. I think she might have belonged to someone at one point or another because she was friendly, but I didn’t think she had a home now. Anyways, I made up my mind to pick her up and take her to the shelter I volunteer at, but at that point the little gray kitty decided she had enough of me and walked away.

Phew! one less thing to worry about. The cat made her choice, and I didn’t have to worry about it.

We’ll come back to that story a bit later, okay?

So I picked dad up at the train station on Thursday. We came home and talked for a bit. I made ‘Banana’s Grandmother’s famous secret family recipe for Cranberry Sauce,’ and Dad made his famous salad. :o) Then dad and I went outside for a walk, because it was just gorgeous outside (about 74 degrees or so). We went all around the soccer field, around the neighborhoods, around the mall, around the library (where I looked for the kitty who wasn’t there, and told dad the story about her, and how she chose to leave and not come with me). Then we walked around another neighborhood, ran (I AM out of shape) and made it back home. Then we had a small Thanksgiving dinner (minus the turkey), and went to bed early.

The next day we decided to go to a movie-- “Dan in Real Life.” Because the show started at noon time we went to my small farm market (they don’t have any more local tomatoes. I am very sad the season is over.) and Target. The weather turned really cold overnight, and instead of the amazing 74 we had the day before, it was about 40F. We got to the movie a bit early and enjoyed some hot drinks from the coffee bar (we have a cool theatre like that) and some amazing cookies we smuggled in (Kashi oat cookies with dark chocolate bits). The movie was a really good movie. It made me laugh so hard at several points I couldn’t stop laughing, and dad tried to get me to stop but not very successfully, and it made me sad at times, and even brought a few tears to both my eyes and dad’s. All in all, this was a good movie, a definite chick flick. I say worth seeing for fun.

We came home, had a little something, and then decided to go to Costco. I love going with dad to Costco!!! He gets excited about the coats and the TV screens and the watches and… he rarely buys any of that stuff for himself, but it is just fun. We got some necessities, but also got me a COOL water filter!!! No more ‘Brita’ (that’s a big water can with a filter for those who have no idea what I’m talking about.) Anyways, we came back home, unloaded, ate and talked some more and attempted to watch some movies on DVD. The first one is “The Family Stone.” About 10 minutes into it, I knew it would involve the mom being sick and sadness in the movie, and to be honest, I just didn’t feel like shedding tears over a movie with Diane Keaton… so I switched it to “My Cousin Vinny,” but I fell asleep :o) Oh well.

Today we took it easy and tried to fix my bed’s headboard. We realized quite quickly that this was not going to happen, and so we just positioned the bed a bit differently but needed to get some pillows, so back to Target we went for a good deal for the pillows. We came back and ate some lunch, and then organized some papers and stuff in my car.

It always makes me so sad when dad leaves. I would love to live close to him and Omer one day. Anyways, dad had to fly today and so I took him back to the station. We had tons of fun this weekend, but didn’t manage to get too many pictures, but here are a few pictures of the beautiful trees at the train station!

After dad left, I drove back home and realized that I promised dad to take one old book we found in the car when we organized it and donate it to the local public library. So I did. And remember the kitty? Well, she was still there, and she came meowing to me. I petted it for a while and was planning to try and put her in the cat carrier I had with me in the back seat. While I was contemplating this, a really tall men carrying his daughter accidentally walked into me. I smashed my knee on the ground, and managed to scare the kitty away. The men and his daughter were fine, and beside my knee hurting, I was fine as well. I learned my lesson though… when you hear a person behind you, always make sure they see you so they don’t walk into you. Stupid way to get hurt.

Anyways, the cat chose not to come with me, which is fine. I am not going to make it, but… one of my friends whom I just picked up from the airport, volunteered to give the kitty a room (if it decides it wants a nice warm place instead of the cold outside) until either the shelter has a place for it, or until she’ll take it to her folks because they want a cat. We’ll see. It is getting very cold around here, and I do hope it finds a warm nook to sleep in at night. Dr. Cole once told me that she helps the animals who want to be helped… I have got to integrate that motto into my mind.

Well, E-ma used to fetch all sort of kitties and doggies… Abba fetched Chaver (mom and dad’s 2nd dog, my first). I think I get it from both of them.

That’s about it… tomorrow I’ll write some thank you letters and study the program in the next hospital I will be interviewing at.

Night y’all!

Reut

Two-fer (two for the price of one)

2007-11-03T01:21:00.000-04:00

10/27/07

Hi Everyone!

I haven’t written in quite a while… and a lot has been going on.

I have completed peds cardiology two Fridays ago. I loved it! It was a good rotation—I have learned a lot and had a lot of fun as well :o) I am now at a different hospital completing peds pulmonology. I hope I’ll learn just as much on this rotation.

The hospital itself (I’m leaving everything nameless so I don’t get stalked) is beautiful. It is about two and a half hours away from home. The housing they provided is… let’s just say: OY GEVALT! It is a small apartment with a horrible mold problem… EWWW! I wear flip flops in the tub because I afraid to catch something. I would do a good deep cleaning, but alas the mold is not just on the walls of the tub but it is on the ceiling and it it has spread away from the shower as well. Nasty. The bedroom is decent. I complained to the person who is responsible to our housing there, and she said she has been hearing it from a lot of people, but the cleaning crew does not belong to the hospital, and since it is a small town that’s the only cleaning crew they have around. So in essence, she said that she can’t do anything about it. Still, this really is nasty. I will be taking a big bleach bottle back there with me to attempt and get the walled cleaned up at least. You can imagine how happy I was yesterday to leave that apartment and go back to my own very clean apartment!

So I am home now. I was so happy to see Vega and KC—life is so much better when you have a purring cat on your lap. They didn’t even wake me up at 5:30 this morning!! They waited until about 6:45 :o) When I am away, they are being taken care of by my cat sitters. The sitters are wonderful, and I know the cats are well taken care of.

It has been raining since Tuesday. Yesterday I encountered horrible driving conditions. I left the hospital at about 5pm, which meant that I had daylight for about an hour or so… The roads were very wet and slippery. Every time a big huge truck would pass me, the car was washed with a sheet of water that the trucks picked up from the road. I had to really concentrate while driving and even considered stopping on the side of the road (but at the end felt like I did not need to). In any case, I’ve made it home safely, and hoping that the roads are better on my way back there.

What else… Oh yeah—Boards scores were up. I passed! WooHoo! Now I have got to concentrate on my interviews. My first 3 are in about a week and a half. I am very excited to start that process again!

Well folks, that’s about it… I’m off to play with my cats and dive into Q’s legacy by Helene Hanff (…Savta, have you read that one?)

Have a good week,

Reut

11-02-07
So… I didn’t get a chance to put last week’s entry up, and so it is bunched together with this one…

I had a very difficult time last weekend—

Omer and Abba bought Omer a cool new car (Omer, you still owe me the pictures :o) ) But they also traded in mom’s Jeep. I didn’t think I would have a hard time with it, but I really did. I know it is just a car… but it was mom’s jeep, and she was SO happy to get it and was so excited to drive in HER jeep… so just like everything else mom touched it had a million and one memories in it, and not being able to see it anymore is sad. Maybe for Omer and Abba the car elicited bad memories (the sickness, the actual death, losing the ability to do things) but for me this car was actually mom’s triumph over the cancer, so I had good memories attached to it. Obviously, I’m not dumb. I know mom isn’t here to use it. I also know that mom would have been thrilled to trade this car and get Omer a new car… Still, I had a hard time parting with this material thing. So now that the car is gone are we going to start giving away other stuff too? I hope not. Since I am not home I feel like I have no say in what goes on… I know dad said he wouldn’t give any of mom’s clothes away (we always shared cloths) and that he will consult both Omer and myself regarding our dog Daisy (bring her to me please). Because I am not there, I can’t be involved in this at all. To be honest, I would much rather be home than at the rotations, but I would like to finish medical school sometime this decade, so I can’t have a month off now. I should be able to take a week or two off in April, but it would be a bit too late for some of this stuff.

Mom has a website (not had… has!). It has a password, and it can open only to those people mom chose to give permission into the site (basically, Omer, Abba and myself). When I asked her why she didn’t keep it open to everyone to view, she looked at me like I was insane (Duh… that was dumb of me). For about a year and a half, this was truly her diary—she designed the whole thing and put pictures and music on… it is really something. I am not sure if we’ll open it up one day or print the material (naturally written in two languages :o) ). But for now, I wanted to share mom’s entry about her Jeep… I was so worried when she drove it, but she told me to stop worrying and let her have her independence. Naturally, she was right.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 07, 2006 3:53 PM
It was a beautiful day
שנה וחצי בלי לאחוז בהגה של הג'יפ. שנה וחצי בלי להרגיש שליטה על החיים, רק צלילה למעמקים לא ידועים וניסיונות נואשים לתפוס בדרך ענף או אבן בולטת על מנת להאחז, על מנת לא לפול לתוך התהום. תשאלו מה מרגישים כשנופלים כל כך עמוק? את הרוח? את הקור ? אולי שומעים הד? אולי לא שומעים כלום? האם רואים משהו? התשובה היא כן! רואים ושומעים ועוד איך! כל החיים עוברים בראש כמו סרט דקומנטרי שיש בו דרמה, אימים, רומנטיקה וקומדיה, סרט שמישהו מימן ואתה היית השחקן הראשי. אתמול נהגתי פעם ראשונה אחרי שנה וחצי של תלות, של אין אונים. נכנסתי,הנעתי וכאילו כלום לא קרה. נסעתי אחורה וניסיתי לזכור על איזה כפתור לוחצים כדי לסגור את הגראז'.. לא להאמין ,שכחתי ! מלבד התקלה הקטנה הזאת, הכל היה כל כך טבעי. בזמן הנסיעה שמעתי מוזיקה ונהנתי מכל רגע של עצמאות ושליטה. מכוניות נסעו יחד איתי על הכביש, היו בהם אנשים נורמאליים אבל גם לא נורמאליים כמוני חהחהחה.... שלטי הענק הקוראים את שמות הרחובות ומספרי היציאות לא השתנו. הנוף היפה מסביבי מוכר וידוע, הנה ההר הגבוה, משמאל המדרון הירוק, מימין קקטוסים ענקיים עם זרועות מפותלות, שאם תתבונן בהם הרבה שנים תוכל להבין את הריקוד שלהם, מלפני הכביש מתעקל ומתיישר הכל כימים ימימה, אותה המנגינה, אותה המכונית, אותה הנהגת ואותו יום יפה

[A rough translation into English by Reut:
A year and a half without holding the Jeep’s steering wheel. A year and a half without feeling like I have any control on life, just a dive to unknown depths, and desperate attempts to catch a branch or a boulder on the way, to hold, to avoid falling to the abyss. Ask what we feel when falling so deep? The wind? The cold? Perhaps we hear an echo? Perhaps we don’t hear nothing? Do we see something? The answer is yes! You bet that you see and hear! Your whole life passes in your head like a documentary movie, and it has drama, horror, romance and comedy. A movie that someone produced and you were the star. Yesterday I drove for the first time after a year and a half of dependency, of helplessness. I got in, I started the car, and it was as if nothing happened. I drove back and tried to remember which switch I needed to press to close the garage… unbelievable, I forgot! Beside that small hiccup, everything was so natural. Through the drive I drove and enjoyed every moment of independence and control. Other cars were driving together with me on the road, they had normal people, but also, abnormal, like me hahahaha… The huge signs announcing the street names and the exit numbers did not change. The scenery around me was familiar… here is the high mountain, on the left the green valley, and on the right the humongous cacti with the torturous arms (if you’ll look at them for many years you’ll understand their dance,) in front of me the road turns and then straightens, just like always, the same music, the same car that you drove, and the same beautiful day.]

Beautiful Day U2
......"It's a beautiful day, the sky falls
And you feel like it's a beautiful day
It’s a beautiful day
Don’t let it get away

See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
See the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colours came out
It was a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
A beautiful day

What you don’t have you don’t need it now
What you don’t know you can feel it somehow
What you don’t have you don’t need it now
You don’t need it now
It was a beautiful day......"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I made dad take a picture of the car for me. I know it is stupid, but it made me feel a bit better.

So… I am childish, and I just shared it with the universe. Oh well. I too thought about keeping my journal with a password, and I will probably do so once I am a doctor, but for now I share my silly thoughts with everyone who feels like reading it.

I don’t know—By the Hebrew Calendar, 6 months have already passed. By the world’s calendar (how do you say Lu’ach Shanah Loazi in English?) it will be 6 months this Tuesday. Mom died just as summer entered, it is 6 months and now winter is entering. I really hate winter. Winter sucks.

One night last week I accidentally dialed mom’s number. We have cancelled the number a while back (didn’t have a hard time with that surprisingly), but I refuse to take it off my phone, so it is there, and when I tried to call Omer, I dialed mom instead. I hung up when I realized what I have done, and didn’t think about it too much. Later on though, just as I stepped out of the shower, my phone rang and the caller id said: “mom”. I stopped and stared at it for a long while. I fantasized for a second that it was mom calling me and not some random person who has her number now… It was a wonderful illusion but knowing that if I were to answer it wouldn’t be mom on the other line put me in a rotten mood.

To add to everything, I had to switch the last two weeks at my rotation to something else (long story and quite insignificant at this point, but it was really frustrating at the time.) I am happy that things worked out, and I am starting the last two weeks in adolescent medicine. I hope it would be a good rotation.

In the hospital I met a really sweet girl from Florida—Karen. She is just so much fun. Since I didn’t have a resident and didn’t have any other medical students with me, it got a bit lonely at times… I was so happy to meet Karen and I enjoyed going to dinners with her, adventuring out in the little town, and just talking. I think I’ve been somewhat of a hermit in the past year or so, and I feel a bit awkward having fun and doing things with people I haven’t known for a long time. But just like Azadeh, Karen is one of those people who you just love talking to—so all of my own “hermit-ism” is of no significant. Please kick me in the butt if I don’t keep in touch with her.

Last week when I was just in a bad mood, I went up on the internet and talked with dad via Skype. He put this huge smile on my face. I know I vent a lot, and I am sure it is no fun to listen to me whine about this and that, but dad just tell me to suck it up and deal with it, in such a way that makes me laugh and be happier. We talked about how once Omer and I will have our own families and children, if any of the kids will look like mom (dark skin, dark hair, dark eyes), we are never going to see them, because they will be hogged by their grandpa. :o) I liked that!

To put all of my annoyance and misery into perspective, I have just heard from my friend Kishore… he lives in California. I called him last week to see how everything was, and to make sure he was okay. He told me he had to be evacuated from his house due to the fires. They were actually only 6 miles away from his house. I was happy to hear his house was okay and that he didn’t lose any of his possessions, but so many other people did. I also saw on TV that some border crossers didn’t make it and died either from smoke inhalation or by the fire itself. That’s just horrible. Nature is so powerful, and we are like insignificant bugs on the surface… it is amazing that we have time for silly human problems and such.

Well, I am now home in NJ. I absolutely love my home. I think the main thing is my cats. They make life so much better!!! They have such personality, and I know I am biased, but I think they are a hoot! On my drive here today I thought of all the things they must have moved during the time I was gone. They actually surprised me, the only thing they really moved were some random boxes I had on the floor. Oh, and Vega climbed on the top shelf in the closet that had the quilt I’m making… it it is a bit furry now…

I stopped at the public library and got two movies to enjoy this weekend. One was “The Children’s Hour” with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine. I really enjoyed it—the topic was about homosexualism, and the power of words, assumptions, and lies. The acting was superb—Obviously, both Hepburn and MacLaine are amazing, but… well, I was impressed! The movie was made in 1961, and so some of the topics were taboo back then, and are now discussed much more openly, but the idea of hatred of the different still holds true. The only thing I didn’t like in the movie was the ending… The other movie is second hand lions. It looked good, but we’ll see.

Well, it is 1AM here in Jersey, and I talked about this and that, vented, gave my opinion of a movie. I think it is time for me to go to bed…

Wish me luck on my interviews next week!!! I will have only two this week, as the last interview was moved to December by the hospital.

Good night!

Reut

Entry this weekend! Until then...

2007-11-01T21:55:00.000-04:00

...I'm putting a song I found on Youtube. This is the 1976 Eurovision winner: "Save Your Kisses For Me"- Brotherhood Of Man. When I heard and saw this for the first time a few days ago I fell in love with it... but when dad told me mom loved this song and used to do the hand movement with it I could see it in my mind's eye and this song become even better!!! Even though I never saw mom sing or dance this I can see it so clearly in my head as if she just performed it... funny faces, big "Mogli" eyes, the funny hand movements... just perfect. :o)

It's just a shame I didn't find this several months ago and had the real performance by mom. This would have been the best.
:o(

Sunday in the Park with... Lori and Banana?

2007-10-14T20:28:00.001-04:00

14 October 2007

Hello everyone,

These past two weeks were pretty busy and I didn’t get a chance to write at all. I have completed and submitted my residency applications. I am so happy to be done with it! I have also received interview invitations and have scheduled 6 out of the 7 I received so far. It is all very exciting!

Peds cardiology is interesting. I definitely like kids better than adults… and I like clinic better than the hospital. I have just one more week at this rotation and then I’m off for peds pulmonology at a different hospital.

Last weekend was a blast! My friend Lori came for a visit. This by itself would have been wonderful, but my other friend Banana came along as a surprise. Ha! Double the fun!! It was great. Instead of driving to Lancaster, we decided to go up to Manhattan. On that day it was exactly 5 months since mom left and I felt both irritated by the fact I was having fun with my friends, but also happy because they kept me occupied and I didn’t over think anything too much. Overall, it was a gorgeous 85 degree day in the city and walking around the park was fabulous! We saw a street show by a couple of acrobats/comedians and rented a little boat and rowed in the water for about an hour. Well… I rowed. Lori was suppose to switch with me half way but Banana got scared when we started moving around in the small boat; so I ended up rowing the whole way. I was not ready to go see a Broadway show just yet, but our day was filled that it really didn’t make a difference. A day prior we went to see this great movie—it’s called “Across the Universe” and it uses Beatles music. I LOVED it!!! I have only one picture of this whole weekend—I forgot all about my camera…:o) That’s okay. Lori and Banana photographed everything and everyone like mad, and they promised to email them to me.

Well, after they left it was quite empty and lonely around here, and I was happy to return to work on Monday.

Dad came here on Wednesday and we had some homemade dinner and talked a bit. It’s always nice that dad comes here. Anyways—he had to go back to the city and I drove him to the train on Thursday morning and then drove back to the doctor’s house—the other student, resident, the doctor and myself then rode to a clinic that is situated about an hour and 10 min. south. I like that hospital. It is such a small, clean, beautiful little community hospital, and the clinic is very efficient. I enjoyed it.

Well that is really it. KC and Vega are doing okay—it turned cold on Tuesday morning, and from the 92F we had on Monday to the low 60’s we have as a high now, this was quite a change. The cats love it though… they come and curl up next to me in bed and sleep a bit longer. Vega still insists we must go out, even if it is cold…

Hope everyone has a good week!

Reut

This and that...

2007-09-29T15:55:00.001-04:00

09/29/07

Hey all,

I took my friend Matt to the airport at 4 in the morning. When I came back I did some work, but eventually fell asleep again. In my sleep I had a dream with mom, and she was strong and healthy and we were talking, and I could smell her!!!!!!! She smelled like she always did, that great Loreal cream she loved so much. Anyways, Omer, Abba, E-ma and myself were there and we were talking, and I said to mom—I just can’t believe you are here! And she said (and that’s the part I absolutely LOVE): Believe it!

Ha!

Well, I was so happy in the dream, and I was so happy when I woke up… and I told dad about it and shed a few tears because it was so darn real to me… that I just have to believe she was there. Besides, she told me to believe it, so… what, am I going to start a new trend and not listen to my mother? I don’t think so.

Anyways, I had a lot of stuff I’m working on. One was completing the ER examination. School was gracious enough to delay it until I was done with boards. That’s done (after 4 hours), but I don’t know if I passed or not because they don’t post the scores… that makes no sense. I hope I did, because this was kind of a pain in the… Well, I still got Cardiology to get through, and then I don’t owe the school any more leftover work from last month.

I’m also working on my personal statement—it had morphed a lot since I last wrote about it… I don’t like it yet, but it is better. I am still waiting for school to scan in my documents (letters of recommendation, test scores, academic records) and then I’ll send it all on its way. I cannot wait to be done with it. :o) I think I’ll have it all completely done by next weekend.

Next weekend is going to be exciting. My friend Lori called me up about a month ago and told me that she must come and see me and hang out because she missed me so much. Well, I miss her a lot too—she is like the little sister I never had! She is so full of energy and cracks me up. Anyways, she is coming on Thursday, I have to work on Friday, but hopefully my cats would be nice to her… we didn’t figure out what we will actually do, but I am leaning towards driving into Pennsylvania and visiting Lancaster… we can feast our eyes on the bright oranges/reds/yellows on the way, enjoy good food (and naturally our own good company) and just have a fun day. We’ll see if she’s up for it.

Pediatric cardiology is a lot more fun than cardiology! Yeah! I like kids, and it is so much (more) fun to see them as my patients. My stethoscope needs replacing. I can hear with it, but when I use the doctor’s stethoscope I hear SO much better. So… I will get that soon (…whenever financial aid decides to give me the second part of the disbursement).

Last thing—my friend Banana convinced me to join facebook. It’s a silly online friends community. Well, it is really fun, but the best part about it is playing games! My friend Matt (a different Matt than the one I drove to the airport) is the best scrabble player I met in a long time. I am putting up a good fight and just having a grand old time playing. I really am not spending a lot of time on there—whenever I log on the computer I go there and place the tiles, and a few hours later would come back and do it again. As a result the games last for days, but it is just pure fun. I played against Karen as well, but she cancelled the games—I was very disappointed! :o( Banana has not done a move yet, Mary is being a good sport…

Well… wow, I talk about this and that, don’t I. That’s okay people. Well, I am going to take my laundry down—it’s been hanging outside (in the amazing warm autumn sun) for quite a while now.

Have a good weekend!

Reut

KC is resting

It's Halloween time everyone!

Only The Good Die Young

2007-09-25T00:11:00.000-04:00

Note—this entry will not be sent to Nany until I know you’ve updated her.

Even though I work in the field where I see a lot of sickness, accidents, deaths I still don’t get why young people die. It makes no sense to me at all.

Tal, my cousin’s husband was killed in a motor vehicle accident yesterday. He is such a sweet and genuinely nice guy and perfect for my cousin. This makes zero sense. Their little baby girl, Bar,—whom I haven’t seen or met yet, will never know her very awesome dad. The loss is so complex and deep. What was the beginning of a wonderful life with an amazing future was just destroyed in a split second, with no reason at all.

Pain is something so sharp and so horrible. I understand pain. I really do.

After mom’s funeral I was very upset at the world, but found a quick outlet at my extended family. We were sitting around my grandparent’s dinner table and I couldn’t stand it that the world just continued to go on. They (extended family) were laughing and acting normal, while my world crumbled into a thousand pieces. No, it doesn’t matter that mom was sick for a long time—I wasn’t willing to have her die, it wasn’t an option, and definitely not something I allowed myself to accept. I was SO angry at them for having a normal life while mine wasn’t. I found it impossible to sit with them and was irritated with the lot of them.

Hindsight is 20/20. I know (and I knew then too) they weren’t happy that mom died. They were just eating dinner and doing things that were normal, because… yes, life does go on. I get it now. I was just too angry then. Also— it wasn’t that I wanted them to have un-normal life… I just wanted my life to be normal. I wanted mom back.

In any case, my aunt Rena was my target of pure anger. She tried to comfort me and I just couldn’t stand it that she could go on and have a normal life while we just lost our normal. The contrast was too much…I couldn’t stand it that they were happy while I couldn’t be happy anymore. I told her that she didn’t understand—(the pain, the anger, the loss). She is an intelligent person and was wise enough to leave the room before I worked myself up to a full explosion. I was nasty, I really was, but couldn’t help it. As she left she said that I would be surprised—meaning that she understood.

Well. The thing is, I am the one who is right, not Rena. People can relate, but they can’t understand. No one can understand the pain of loosing a specific person with a specific relationship to you. My dad who lost my mom can relate to my cousin, but he can’t understand that unique loss because… well, there is only one mom and there is only one Tal. The secretes shared by Paz and Tal are theirs. Loosing him, his kisses, their plans together… only she can fully experience that horrible loss. Others will experience that loss from different angles (his parents lost a son—unique relationship, years of love, hopes for future) Do you see what I mean?

(I am not trying to be philosophical; I am just trying to explain this to myself).

We—Omer, Dad and myself, we all can definitely relate to their pain. We can’t understand the exact loss but can definitely 100% relate to the pain, which is hers and ours and everyone’s. My pain of loosing my mom is just as sharp, but the loss is mine. My relationship with mom is unique and special and cannot be reproduced and so the loss is just as special and unique. Same goes for Dad and Omer’s loss. Same goes for Paz’ loss. Ilana and Effi’s loss. Bar’s loss. Rena and Pini’s loss.

I can’t explain this better, and really it took me a long time to figure this out.

I usually don’t write specific things about my family (especially the—anger at specific individuals), but I know that my grandmother will look at this sometime in the future—I want her to know that she was right (!) life does goes on. We don’t have a choice. I am continuing and so is Omer and Dad. Paz will continue because she doesn’t have a choice. But I also want grandma to know (and I know she knows) that pain is sharp and horrible and the devastation we all feel is just too much that you feel like you are dying yourself. Savta, there isn’t anything that you could have done to make me not angry at you… because I wasn’t really angry at you. I was angry at the situation. I was angry that mom isn’t here. I needed a place to direct my anger at, and you (and Rena) happened to be these individuals. I am thankful you were there to be with us and help us in your way. Without you we would have lost 20lbs instead of just 10… and all of the visitors would have been hungry…. And we would have been sitting in dirt and stench. I am thankful you are here to be with Paz and Bar.

But mostly, I am thankful you are here to remind us that we have to go on. Even if I hated you for it.

And now, as I am crying on the loss of my own mom. I am crying for Paz and Bar, and for the loss of Tal. I am crying for all who had lost. And all who will.

And the thing is… if we are lucky enough to live long enough, we will experience our own losses. We will have our own share of pain. We will be able to relate to other people’s pain. But, if we are lucky enough to live long enough, we will experience love, happiness, hugs, kisses, everything that is wonderful and worth living for.

Tal lived long enough to enjoy the birth of his daughter. To enjoy wonderful time with Paz. But he did not need to die. He has so much more he needed to live for. I can’t fathom this. “Only the Good Die Young” sucks.

The last thing is that happiness and sadness mix together.
Bar was born 9 days or so after mom died—their happiest day came when we were thick in the horror of our loss...

And that’s life.

09-22-07

2007-09-22T21:08:00.000-04:00

Yom Kippur.

Tradition has a lot of power. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to fast this year, but after so many years of fasting on Yom Kippur it just didn’t feel right not to. I started the fast not knowing if I would complete it, but found myself at the end of it this evening. I find fasting a lot easier than it should be… I just decide I am not hungry and live off adrenalin for a day… easy enough. They should come up with something harder to repent for bad deeds and sins :o)
Quick question to those who are familiar with prayers and stuff—if Yom Kippur falls on a Friday (like it did this year,) is there a special prayer to add to the normal lighting of the the Shabat candles prayer? I wasn’t sure… if you know the answer to this, let me know.

This week has not been too exciting. Cardiology is not for me. Why am I rotating through a peds cardiology rotation next, is a question I have to answer to myself as well. Sheesh. Hopefully I’ll enjoy that one better.

This past Friday, after (attempted two months worth of) studying, I took the boards. To be honest, I don’t know what to think. There was a lot more OMT than I anticipated a lot more psychiatry. Since I had difficulties with studying I don’t think I did as well as I should, and I am just hoping it was good enough so I wouldn’t have to repeat it… uggg!!! I am not even going to think about it until the results are back, because there is nothing I can do to change this now.

After the 8 hours I spent in front of the computer screen, I stepped outside and saw that right next door to the testing center, there was a JoAnn fabric store!!! I decided that the best remedy for ‘examination induced crossed eyes syndrome’ would be to go in and take a look at the fabrics….
And….
I found the cutest fabric ever!!!!!!!!! It’s all ‘boy’ and I LOVE it!
So the quilt I thought I would start on will have to wait, because I fell in love with a new fabric.

Well, I already put it all together and started quilting it last night. This one is a larger quilt and I anticipate that it will take a bit longer to complete. Expect completed quilt pictures in… March? :o)

This morning I drove to the hospital because I was on call. Nothing happened in the first hour and the interns ended up sending me home. Can’t say I was too disappointed… I was a bit lightheaded from not eating and drinking and was happy to come home, rest a bit and then clean my abode. It is lovely now, but this morning it was quite messy.

Random things I wanted to tell you about—
We have beautiful geese around our area— this year they gave birth to a beautiful albino goose! I’ve been following him/her for a while. S/he is just beautiful. Yesterday, I saw the white head while driving into my street, but didn’t have my camera with me… one day I’ll take a picture and post it here.

Second random thing—when I was driving to buy some tomatoes at the local farm I stopped right in front of the JCC where smack in the middle of the road layed a shiny black male dress shoe. I guess someone just had it with the rabbi and ran out as soon as he could, not looking backwards when he lost his shoe… I chuckled about that one for several good minutes.

Third—it is officially fall weather. Blah. Overall the temperatures have dropped significantly, the mornings are crisp, the leaves are turning colours (they have since the end of July… I think it must have been from the excess rain we had here this summer, but now more trees are turning golden and red and dropping their leaves)… My friend Banana posted something on her myface.com account on the lines of: “…I wish we could go back to the beginning of the summer so we could have 3 more months of warm weather…” I completely agree.

I actually want to go back several years and enjoy more time with E.ma.

Which brings me to my last, but not so random point—
This is just a request—if you by chance have pictures of mom, please scan them and send them either to me or to dad—I would love to see more pictures. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to not seeing mom again, and pictures and old videos (the few that we have) are kind of all I’ve got, so please add to the small fortune of pictures that we have and help us make it bigger.

That’s about it. Tomorrow I will work on my applications. I should have been done with it ages ago, but didn’t get it done for various reasons (take your pick). I will be done with it soon. I am also planning to see dad—so I’ll either go to the city, or he’ll come down here. That would be so nice.

That’s all folks—I’m leaving you with a picture of mom, her sister and someone else with Rocky (I don’t think it’s her brother Danny, but I can’t be sure). I took this picture of a picture during the Shiva from a small picture my cousin Irit had in her wallet.

So from L (our L)--> Mom, Unknown (I don’t think it’s Danny), Aunt Isabelle. On the bottom: Rocky the dog.

Reut

09/14/07

2007-09-14T18:48:00.000-04:00

Shanah Tova U’metuka?

What a joke. Really.
Still, I wish the rest of you a happy new year.

There’s nothing too exciting here. I am having a lot of trouble studying for my boards—I cannot sit down and concentrate. Never in my life have I encountered such difficulties with concentrating—if I needed to study I just would get it done. Nowadays I feel like the poster child for ADHD. You already know that I postponed the test by two months—I didn’t feel prepared at the beginning of August and thought some extra time and rotations would help me. I don’t know if the extra time helped or not. Sheesh. The test is next week and I’ll be happy to be done with it, and yet I'm to the point that I just don’t care about it, which is never a good thing.

When I was about 13 I participated in ‘Pitzuchim’—which is the Israeli equivalent of Jeopardy. I remember not telling any of my friends about it, and the only people who knew were in my family. To prepare for it I grabbed a stack (and I mean a stack that was taller than me) of books from the library and I studied the books for several weeks. If I could only reproduce this type of concentration and excitement when preparing for my test, I’d be in no trouble at all. To those who are curious, I won 2nd place in the finals. It was a pretty cool experience, and my first time in a television studio.

In the time I spent not studying this week, I found some really cool thing about “Zehu-Zeh”—I finally figured out the words (yes, I could have asked ‘Dr. Google’ and ‘Professor Wikipedia’ about it but obviously my mind needed to solve the mystery on its own.) To those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, just move on to the next section… it won’t make sense if you didn’t grow up in Israel.
So the part I never could make out is this: האוויר הזה, שאף מלוא חזה here, you can see it in the opening bit and see that I’m right—way cool, huh?

What other cool exciting thing? Well, I have a Vega story! I was studying and just got done completing a test when I heard Vega running from side to side on the balcony and then heard a very loud buzzing sound. I took a look outside and saw Ms. Vega with a HUGE cicada in her mouth!!!! EWWWWW! I didn’t want her to bring the bug into the house, so I shut the door before she could enter and she just stood there and pawed the door until I gave in and let her come inside. She dropped the bug (it was about 4 inches long) and I thought it was dead. She then smacked it with her paws and all of the sudden it just ran outside and got away. She ran after it but the cicada really wanted to live so it made an excellent run for it. Vega was very disappointed but completely intrigued for the rest of the day. Way to go Vega!

Dad said that Vega would probably have survived in the wild, but KC would not have. I tend to agree with that :o) Vega is truly a huntress while KC is a big baby.

On Tuesday I went over to another hospital to see a cath being done. I never seen one before and it was very interesting. Despite that exciting day, cardiology is not growing on me. My next rotation is peds-cardiology and I am hoping that it would be a good experience.

On Wednesday—the eve of Rosh Hashana, I had tears in my eyes after hearing a message my cousin Irit left me. It was a very sweet message and it caught me unprepared. I wasn’t planning to do anything for the holiday; I didn’t want to go to services, and knew I’d just be irritated by people if I went to a dinner somewhere. And since I feel like I have absolutely nothing to celebrate, why should I even pretend?

But, at about 5:30 in the afternoon I felt so miserable that I decided I had to see one of my close friends who happened to be in town. Deepa did a two week rotation at a nearby hospital and I didn’t get to see her until that point. So I called her up and invited her over for dinner. She came and we had a good time eating at an Italian restaurant and chatting about this and that.

So there. This is not an exciting entry…
‘Good happy thing’ for today—I bought some wonderful tomatoes at the farm! Yeah! They’ll be gone before Monday, but I was happy to see the season was not quite over yet.

That’s about it.

Reut

I didn't have a picture of Vega with the cicada, but here is KC being a baby.

Just very sad.

2007-09-05T22:58:00.000-04:00

09/05/07

Tomorrow will mark four months without mom.

That’s a very long time. And yet, it seems that just yesterday she said to me "טוב רה-רי, אני אדבר איתך מחר" (“Okay Re-ri, I’ll talk to you tomorrow”) But she never did.

I think that sometimes I’m okay, but the truth is, that I am not, and will never be. I have a huge void and nothing could fill it. No dad, not even a boyfriend. Mom was such a big part of my life that it is only natural that she left a huge crater behind. Of course I am living the day to day life, of course I can laugh, of course I can do things, but it is very clear to me that the beautiful amazing spirit that is not here anymore made my life a whole lot more fun. It was just fun to call mom and tell her about stuff. Show her pictures. Laugh together. Listen to her. It was just fun. And I still need that.

I never believed in anything. My set response for the question of God was that I was raised secular but I really had no idea if there is anything greater. Well. I’ve made a conscience decision to strike that silly answer out. If you’ll ask me now, I’ll tell you that of course I don’t know if there is anything greater or if we continue after death. No one really does. But, I CHOOSE to believe our spirits continue to exist in one form or another—I choose it because I need to know I will be with mom one day.

And until that day, I vow to try and enjoy life as much as mom did. At the moment it is very difficult. But I will try my hardest to enjoy something every day.

I’ve been trying to find something good about these past two weeks, and the things I came up with are that
-My dad came to visit me on Sunday and Monday, and that was just so nice.
-I watched over Erica’s and Matt’s cute cat and she went from being terrified of me to loving me
-The weather was perfect today.
-I get some studying done.
-I enjoyed the free egg salad sandwiches at our Noon Conference today.
-I was a “neshama” (LOL! Dad would understand that one)
-I chose fabrics for the next quilt. It will be very cute.
-I decided to buy a TV after this year is over…

So no, I don’t like cardiology very much. I don’t like the hospital at the moment. Heck, to be completely honest—my life isn’t the most thrilling thing at the moment, and it is mostly lonely here. But, this is not any different than my normal ranting. I will get out of this rut. I know I do enjoy at least one thing every day, and there are plenty days I enjoy more than one thing. Life is precious, and I know that. I really do. It’s just that it is hard to be really happy again.

I will be on call tomorrow night and I just wanted to jot this down before tomorrow.

Reut

That's what I think of when I think of Bet-Herut's cemetery. I KNOW mom would have loved them!!!

Oooooof.... poooof... shmoooof!

2007-08-29T20:57:00.001-04:00

Difficult day today-- I was really tired, which made everything even worse than it already is. Work was fine, and after I took a short nap, studying was fine. I don't know. Reading about the different type of brain herniations doesn't help one bit.

In anycase, I went throught some of the pictures I have on the computer and this one made me laugh a bit. Mom would KILL me for posting it here, but it's going to make dad laugh also when he sees it, so... I'm posting it. I guess she'll kill me when we meet again. I'll deal with that then.

This is from 10/24/05

Long overdue, but here it is—

2007-08-26T21:40:00.001-04:00

08/26/07

Emergency Medicine is now complete. I actually ended up enjoying it a lot… I liked the fast pace, the action, and the fact that I learned some great skills—putting IV’s (I still got to do like 700 more to be really good at it), suturing—I absolutely LOVE that!, tons of vaginal and rectal examination (not as bad as it sounds, really!), EKGs, reading x-rays. All in all it was a great rotation!

Tomorrow morning I start cardiology. This is the rotation I feel I need most. I am not very good in reading EKG’s— my goal for this rotation is to read EKG’s better than I do now, and understand the medications in this field.

Tomorrow I’m also starting my intense board studying… I am actually excited to finally really put the effort into it. Up to this point I studied, but I also gave myself some (okay, A LOT of) rest, and thus it wasn’t as effective as I originally intended it to be. But no fear, intense board study time is here!

Over the past week and during this weekend I worked on writing my personal statement. When I write, I like a ‘quick cut’—it is so nice when thoughts come out easily to the paper and then I can fiddle and fix it later. This time I had a difficult time with it—it was a slow process, and only yesterday I actually was able to put the first draft on paper… Funky (my dear friend and editor), would you mind taking a look at it sometime—it’s not too long, and your opinion is important to me. Same question for Omer... and thank you dad for reading it too!

Somewhere between the last time I wrote and now, we had about a week’s worth of rain and cold weather…It felt like winter in Arizona! It finally cleared up, and today and yesterday it was actually hot!!! Guess who went on a lot of walks this weekend :o)

I’ve been having a lot of dreams with mom in them, talking to dad, Omer and myself. I’ve actually developed a habit of waking myself up after the dream and jotting it down in a notebook next to my bed. Yes, most dreams make no sense, but this is the only way I know of where I’m actually making new memories with mom. I know that these are not actual memories, but my dreams are pretty darn real to me. I miss mom, not just because she is mom and I was kind of counting on her to be here for the next, oh… 20 years or so, but rather because she was so much fun, and more full of life than many people I know. During her hikes in the trails she saw 4 Gila Monsters—these are quite rare, and normally people see them out in nature only once in a lifetime… well, mom always did things with extra gusto!

This next week I’m watching over Addie—Matt and Erica’s cat. She is SO cute, but such a scardy-cat :o) I think that by the end of the week she’ll get used to me. If I’ll remember I’ll take a picture of her and post it here… she is just so tiny and soft! My cats are doing well. I’ve made some green and yellow (do they have an actual name?) beans tonight (all from the farm!!!), and KC followed me like a little puppy… he loves vegetables, it’s so funny! I gave him some in his bowl. Naturally, this food was way beneath Vega’s class…

Have a good week!

Reut

Adorable cats!

2007-08-26T18:08:00.000-04:00

I will write an entry shortly, but I just wanted to post this little video before I forget... KC and Vega are just too cute!

Scaramouch

2007-08-13T12:08:00.000-04:00

08-13-07

Hey Everyone,

So I had the weekend shift, which really wasn’t too bad. Part of it is that on the first day it was so dead in the morning that they told me to go home and come back later on… so it made it easier (I got a lot of stuff done during that morning). Yesterday was really dead in the morning again, but incredibly busy in the afternoon.

Emergency Medicine is busy. I’m getting better at my presentation. I’m also getting better at really listening to the patients… I still go in with a piece of paper to help me note stuff so I don’t forget when I present the case to the resident or the attending, but I would like to eventually use only my ears and brain. It’s hard though—with so many patients, and similar medical conditions there is that danger of mishmash…

Guess what… My car is back!!!! Bobby is finally with me. It’s driving fine so far—I didn’t notice any major problems with it, but when dad comes to visit me next he can drive it and give me his opinion. The PT cruiser I was driving for over a month kind of grew on me… :o) LOL!!! It’s so ugly on the outside and so very comfortable on the inside!!! If I had to buy a new car and had the mullah, I would have gone for a PT cruiser.

I’m still in the process of working on the rest of my 4th year schedule. Everything is up in the air, but there is a chance it will work out (… it kind of has to…). I’m going to start working on my residency and internship application very shortly. It has to be done soon—it’s a good thing dad keeps reminding me of that. Phew.

Speaking of dad, remember that pink bowl of beet? Well… dad decided we would enjoy eating at Panera much more, and thus I ate the whole thing by myself. Oh well. It was very good and I’ll probably make it again sometime.

During dad’s very short visit we drove to that farm market and dad agreed that mom would have loved it. We ate at a diner—I enjoyed it more than dad I think, but it was his request… :o) We came home and dad slept and then when he woke up we went to see that Disney-Pixar Rat movie. Ratatouille. Yes, it’s a kids’ movie, but who cares. It was funny and cute and made me very hungry by the end… Too bad this movie didn’t come out last year, because mom would have laughed (and made everyone else in the same theater laugh with her) from the ‘French-ness’ of this film :o)

Omer is in Ireland at the moment—I think it’s wonderful! I hope he took a lot of photos so I could vicariously enjoy it :o) My friend Lori is planning a trip to Australia in 2008, and how I wish I could say “Yes, count me in!” but with not knowing where I’ll be and what my schedule will be like, there is no way I could even entertain that thought. Oh yes, and the monetary part of it too… Guess I’ll have to visit Australia later on in life. My friend Ofri lives there (in Melbourne)— when the time will be right to visit Australia, I’ll ask for her opinion about where to go and what to see.

And now to a different topic: About a year ago I sign up to receive a “word of the day” from the Webster dictionary website. It’s really cute, their choices are often grandiose and very amusing, but…there are quite a few words that are so full of wit that I end up adopting. Last week, one of the words was: Scaramouch. If you don’t know the definition, go look it up (it’s your assignment). Anyways, being the Queen fan that I am, I had a huge smile plaster to my face after receiving this… Bohemian Rhapsody will live forever. It’s that simple. So as a result of that word of the day, I had Bohemian Rhapsody running in my head for over a week now. “I see a little silhouetto of a man, Scaramouch,scaramouch will you do the fandango- Thunderbolt and lightning-very very frightening me- …” etc. etc.

I found another song from A Night at the Opera which I actually never heard before (shame on me!!!) and absolutely loved it, so I’ll share it with you below—

Seaside rendezvous
Words and music by Freddie Mercury

Seaside whenever you stroll along with me
I'm merely contemplating what you feel inside
Meanwhile I ask you to be my Clementine
You say you will if you could but you can't
I love you madly
Let my imagination run away with you gladly
A brand new angle highly commendable
Seaside rendezvous

I feel so romantic can we do it again?
Can we do it again sometime I'd like that
Fantastic c'est la vie mesdames et messieurs
And at the peak of the season
The Mediterranean
This time of year it's so fashionable

I feel like dancing in the rain
Can I have a volunteer?
Just keep right on dancing
What a damn jolly good idea
It's such a jollification as a matter of fact
So 'tres charmant' my dear

Underneath the moonlight
Together we'll sail across the sea
Reminiscing every night
Meantime I ask you to be my Valentine
You say you'd have to tell your daddy if you can
I'll be your Valentino
We'll ride upon an omnibus and then the casino
Get a new facial start a sensational
Seaside rendezvous so adorable
Seaside rendezvous ooh
Seaside rendezvous
Give us a kiss

…I have a feeling mom would have loved this song—it’s beatle-ish of sort… full of British Nostalgia… LOL!

And more Queen—dad told me that the side bar wasn’t playing… well, I fixed it, so if you are like me and want to cry a bit while listening to “No One But You (only the good die young)”, it’s all ready for you. Just grab a box of tissues.

Well… that was a huge tangent right there… but I think I’m done for today.

Reut

Stunning mom!

2007-08-09T00:18:00.000-04:00

~Photo taken 10/29/2006~

This is taken right before mom and I went to Ikea back when she visited me in the fall of last year.

I was going through some online pictures and even though she hated this (and others I took on the same day) picture, I absolutely love it. When I took this picture, I thought she looked stunning, but she didn't want to listen. I love this picture, becase the hair was coming back in and because mom and I were having such a wonderful time together!!! I love it because of the sunglasses and the very sunny apartment. I love it because we were together.

The thing that truly sucks is that we can't make new memories together. I have more wonderful memories of mom than others have in a life time, but it still difficult to accept it.

Emergency Medicine is not for me...

2007-08-04T19:34:00.000-04:00

08-04-07

Hello Everyone,

I’ve just finished the 1st week of Emergency Medicine on Friday. To be honest, I don’t particularly like it. There are many things I am learning from it, so it’s not worthless, it’s just... I’m not enjoying it too much.

Car update… uggg! My car is completely ready but because of paperwork that should have been (but wasn’t) done by the independent adjuster, and my own insurance, I can’t get my car back yet. How much longer can we stretch this? This is aggravating. Honestly. My own insurance has extended the rental for a few more days, but it’s still a major pain.

I LOVE summer!!! I wish summer lasted all year long!!! I hate it that some of the trees have started shedding their leaves. But… it is boiling hot now, just the way I like it, so no complaints from me… This morning after talking to dad I decided to go to the local Farmer’s Market. I’ve been here for a year and never gone to it. Well, it was about a 10 minute drive… it was very small, but… oh boy, they had some great tomatoes! You do know that I’m a tomato addict, right? I love tomatoes and can eat several of them per day. When I came back from that Farmers’ Market, I remembered that there was another market I never visited, so I decided that I should go there too. I absolutely loved that place! It’s not actually a Farmers’ market, but rather one farm that sells its produce around here. I bought some locally grown corn (Jersey corn is suppose to be the best in the country… it must be the pollution, right?), and beets, garlic and a cucumber. It was very cheap and fresh. For a moment there I almost picked the phone up to tell mom about it. She would have LOVED it! Too bad I didn’t know about this place when she came to visit last year. We could have gone there. On my way out of the store, there was a huge black and blue butterfly flying around— whenever mom saw butterflies, she used to say that Saba Ramiro is visiting us. Maybe mom was visiting me today at the farm store.

When I came home I decided to try a new recipe for the beets. It’s from Beit-Herut’s 70th anniversary cookbook—A expected (or I should say, as usual), I didn’t have all the ingredients, but it still turned out good. It looks horrible, like a big bright bowel of pink puke, but I do like the flavor (non-emesis like flavor). We’ll see if dad likes it (or brave enough to try it)…

My cats are doing great—Vega constantly begs to go outside. I wish I lived on a big farm so she could go in and out as much as she wanted to.

Have a good weekend,

Reut

???? :o) This is the beet dish. Quite tasty, actually, but looks horrid!

Going back to rotations…

2007-07-28T23:56:00.000-04:00

07-28-07

I don’t know…this month I took off to study was needed. I wish I could have another month out of work, but alas if I want to be done with school I have to go back. I’ve been keeping up on my work—studying hard, doing questions every day, but decided to delay my examination date. Instead of taking boards on the 1st of the month, I will now take it in September. The decision was made about two weeks ago when I realized that I will not be ready and would benefit from a cardiology rotation before being examined. This is the right choice for me, and I’m happy I’ve made it.

Last weekend Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out. Originally I didn’t think I had the energy to read it, so I decided to get Omer a copy and wait until I could concentrate on reading it, but… a day after I pre-order the book for Omer, I decided to pre-order it for myself as well, just in case I would want to read it.

And so… exactly a week ago I was sitting in my apartment trying very hard to finish all the questions I intended on finishing that day and waiting for that darn book to arrive at my doorsteps…

The mail carrier was very amused by a little note I left on the door:

“Harry Potter is welcome in this Muggle dwelling. Please knock loudly, as we don’t want to miss you! We love Snape, Snape is good, we like Snape;

… well… you get the point. At that point I still didn’t think I would actually summon up the energy to concentrate on the book, but when it finally arrived… I started reading it immediately. This is the first book (non school book) that I’ve read since mom died—it was good, but I had a few problems with the story—My love affair with Harry has been going on 6 years now… the first book was brought to me by Lori and Banana when they came to visit me back in 2001. I’ve been hooked ever since.

Well, I put the book down for the night, and the next day I took the train to NYC to see Abba. Well… on the way there I was reading, and overheard a loud and lively conversation about the 7th book by a bunch of people. As I didn’t want to know the end, I turned around and asked them not to give any spoilers away (please!). They laughed and said that they would NEVER do that. That’s the true spirit of Harry Potter fans! Well, I was several chapters away from the end of this incredible epic when I got to dad’s hotel. I was happy to see that he was still very tired and needed another hour of sleep… and by the time he got up I finished the book, (but not the epilogue). We decided to go on a walk from South Ferry all the way back up.

This was a nice day with Abba—I love walking and so does he. It was a bit warm but it was just so nice to walk on the riverbank. Manhattan is more than Broadway, and I enjoyed seeing it.

Hmmm… what else. Since Potter, I read another book—צלה של הרוח/קרלוס רואיס סאפון (La Sombra Del Viento/ Carlos Ruiz Zafon). Dad gave it to me saying he liked it a whole lot. I too enjoyed it! It was very interesting and moving. I have no idea what the book is called in English, but I’m sure it was translated to English, so you should get yourselves a copy.

Now completely to a different matter—a few days ago I got sick and tired of questions, so I took a day off. Instead of questions I now faced the scary realization that my 4th year was not (and still isn’t) planned out completely. I emailed one of the programs I’ve been in touch with. Previously they told me that ‘they maybe have a place but not really and they’ll let me know… etc…’ I asked them to finalize it. It was approved, which is excellent, so that’s one less rotation to worry about. Then I contacted MH at school to ask for help understanding what I still need to schedule. Apparently I was wrong in my planning and was happy to find it now. Additionally she told me one of the places I planned on applying with did not take students from our school due to some legal issue on the application process. Ugg! But anyways, I contact everyone I could get and tried to finalize things. I didn’t get very far, but at least until the middle of November everything is now set. I still need to contact one hospital that never approved my application and still need to contact the rural medicine office… I emailed them twice with no success… I don’t have their phone number or else I would have called them already. That’s one of my missions for next week.

Well… if you still want to read my ramblings, you should know that I’m starting Emergency Medicine next week and got the ‘sucky’ schedule—I start at 3 and finish at 11. YUCK. I have one day that I start at 7 in the morning and don’t finish until 11. Again. YUCK. I lacked out on the weekends though—I only have to work one weekend (7-7 both Sunday and Saturday), so at least I get a little bit of a break. … To be honest (and I know I said it earlier in this entry), I would like to have another month off. [I should have been a school teacher—they get summers off if they choose not to teach summer school. I have the highest respect for teachers, and I would have enjoyed doing that for a living. Maybe I will one day.]

My kitties are doing well. They are both shedding a bit more now and they just absolutely love being brushed often :o) I think they actually love it that I was home with them for this month! …yes… they did sleep for most of the day, but when they were up they curled up in my lap and wanted to be petted.

The quilt was finally finished yesterday! Well, it was finished earlier in the week, but I decided to make that sleeve in the back in case they wanted to hang the quilt instead of use it as a quilt. I am both happy and sad to be done with it. I chose this panel together with mom and dad back in December during my winter break, and in some way I see it as mom’s creation as well as mine. There is actually a small part she quilted—she showed me how to do a certain stitch, and I did not undo it, so it stayed and only I know where it is.

This quilt is not perfect—I thought I figured out the binding, only to realize that the corners did not want to go into place… so they are a bit rounded, and I am okay with that. I did learn a lot with this quilt—I think it is a much higher quality than the first I made. The end results pleased me to no ends!

I have two other panels in my closet, but I don’t know if I am up for doing another quilt from a panel just yet… I had this idea of doing a 100 good wishes quilt. It’s actually a Chinese tradition—having people send in square blocks with a good wish, reaching 100 blocks with 100 different good wishes, and then putting them all together. It seems like such a fun idea. If I had a baby, I probably would have done it for him or her. But my baby is invisible… my baby at the moment is my education. I’ve been in labor pains for 3 whole years now… I bet you didn’t know that to have that kind of a baby you have to be pregnant for 4 whole years? Oh yeah… and when it is born, it is premature… it takes 3-4 additional years to get out of the NICU. LOL! Hmmm… I must be a bit tired with my life at the moment. The sacrifice I make is big—and I am quite aware of how big it really is… I realize that I would be rewarded with a wonderful exciting occupation, but, I am still very very tired of the whole process and just needed to vent a bit.

To one last completely unrelated topic—on my winter break of my second year I took my camera home (film camera). This week I found my camera and realized that were 8 exposures there. I completely forgot what was in there—I’ve been taking a lot of pictures with my digital camera and could not for the life of me recall what pictures I might have taken with the 35mm one. And so came the wonderful thought that maybe, just maybe there were some pictures of mom from that visit. I hastily took 16 more pictures (mostly of the cats) and ran over to target to have it developed in the 1 hour place. When I paid for the pictures later I went over to the car and opened up the envelope. No pictures of mom. Not even one. All of them were of the mountains following the snow storm in Phoenix. It must have been an amazing view at the time, but this was a very painful disappointment. It’s amazing how much pain a single roll of film could bring.

Well, that’s really it—I rambled and complained about being in school, I talked about almost everything… I think I should call it a night then!

Reut

(this is before I added the sleeve)

... yeah, I'm a kid at heart (aka a dork). Bite me.

This is one of my favorite pictures that mom actually found online several years ago! So... this is just for family-- find mom :o)

Quilt done!

2007-07-20T23:50:00.000-04:00

This is not an entry, just a small post. I finished the quilt tonight and wanted to share a picture of it with you. It's not the best picture (as it is night time) but I'll add some better pictures of it the next time I make an entry.

I am still considering adding a small sleeve in the back so they could hang it if they want to, but I am not sure.. we'll see.

Oh yeah... my friend doesn't know her daughter will be getting this-- I don't think she visits this space, so it shouldn't be a problem :o)

Friday

2007-07-13T22:06:00.000-04:00

07-13-07

Since mom left I have a horrible empty—everything. Mom is my best friend and without her, everything is quite dull and pointless. But even with all this emptiness, I feel very lucky to have the mom that I have—only Omer knows what it feels like to have a mom like ours. And we are damn lucky… poor everyone else who didn’t get to be mom’s kid. You all missed out big time!

So, nothing is really new here because I am not on a rotation at the moment. I am on a study month. Up to this point I have had two examinations. The first was the end of the year exam to complete the 3rd year, and the second was the physical examination boards. I still have one more set of boards, and that will be next month.

I was VERY nervous for the end of the year exam—the main thing was that I had a very difficult time just sitting down and studying. I did my best as far as preparation, and was relieved that the minimal preparation I managed to complete was sufficient enough to pass. Then came the physical examination boards a week later. Again, I had a difficult time studying for it—this time around, not only it was hard to study, but also it was hard to study alone… preparing for this would have been a lot more fun and constructive if I had a study partner here… but alas, my study-buddy is in Kansas City. So, I studied as much as I could and completed the exam. The results don’t come back for another 8-10 weeks, so I hope that I passed, but will now put it out of my mind and not worry about it until that time (that’s Omer’s advice actually).

And now… studying for the computer based examination is not any easier than the former two exams. I find it very difficult to study and I feel like this is a fight. This is not fun, I am not enjoying this, and I would much rather be on rotations thankyouvermuch. Any suggestions? I’ve tried making schedules and setting goals, but it is just a struggle. Gah!

On Thursday (yesterday) I went up to NYC to be with dad for a day. I had SUCH a good time with Abba!!! I was actually in a very good mood the whole day (up to the point where I had to go on the train to go back home). We visited the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art.) Now, you’ve never visited a museum until you’ve visited it with my dad! Dad’s way of visiting a museum is the perfect way (in my opinion)—he goes in, goes around several rooms and finds the pictures/sculptures/etc. he wanted to see, sees them, enjoy them and leaves :o) :o) :o) …told you… perfect! That’s basically what we did this time around—My favorite picture is Klee’s “Cat and Bird” I actually wanted a copy to add to my slightly bare walls, but they didn’t have a copy in the shop :o( (they had everything but this one) bummer. I’m not sure which picture dad liked best… I’ll have to ask him. Anyways, we then visited the park and just sat and talked and watched people. We tried to go to Carnegie, but they are doing renovations for the next few months. Then we ate some yummy sushi and we went back to Penn station and I got on the train and left :o( It was a very nice day with dad.

Today was another study-struggle day and so I finally gave up and went out on a nice long walk. We have a bunch of geese around here, and several of them hissed at me (!) when I walked too close to them. I never heard a goose hiss, it was an interesting experience.

The quilt for my friend Elizabeth’s baby girl is almost complete! The only things that need to be done are the binding and the adding the baby’s name and year of birth. I wanted to be done with it this week, but I don’t think that it will happen. This is the first time I will bind with a binding I have cut out myself… I’ve never done that before—the last quilt I just used the back edges to create a binding (or rather, an edge as it wasn’t really a binding). So… I have to figure out the width of the binding for this. We’ll see. I read the directions several times and I can envision it in my mind’s eye now… so all I need is the energy to complete this project.

The “Furries” are doing well. They sleep most of the day and enjoy the sun.

That’s about it from here.

Reut

Dragonfly

2007-07-03T17:46:00.001-04:00

... click on it and see how pretty it looks full screen...

Mirjam's Siegesgesang

2007-06-29T21:26:00.000-04:00

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'

2007-06-29T21:24:00.001-04:00

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

2007-06-22T20:19:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-22T16:53:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-19T06:50:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-15T09:31:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-10T20:05:00.001-04:00

More pictures

2007-06-03T05:49:00.000-04:00

2007-05-19T16:19:00.000-04:00

2007-05-19T11:59:00.000-04:00

No post, just 'piccies'

2007-04-29T18:30:00.000-04:00

Between sprinkle to sprinkle today-- cats adore the outdoors! Enjoy!

Another great find on YouTube.com

2007-04-15T15:33:00.001-04:00

This is just lovely!!!

Spring

2007-04-15T15:23:00.000-04:00

04-01-07--04-15-07

Hello all!

I haven’t written in ages!

All is well here, it is raining cats and dogs today. I can’t say I like it too much, but it is way WAY better than snow. I don’t normally mind the rain, but it is making me sleepy today…

The past two weeks were pleasant. I was in ambulatory internal medicine and had a wonderful schedule (ah, sleep is good). The office was about 40 minutes south from where I live. It was in farm land, and was absolutely beautiful! Everyday I would look out the window and see the peach trees progress in their blossom. All the fields were green, and… well, I loved it!

On Passover I went to Manhattan and saw mom and dad who came to visit me. It was wonderful. I wish I lived closer to home. The only thing I regret is that I didn’t bring food with me… that would have been nice. Instead we ate from the various Deli’s in the city. As both Dad and I had our birthdays coming up we celebrated there together. It was nice. Happy Birthday to Saba Tzvika also!

Cat food-- This week I decided to try and make the cats some homemade cat food. I used brown rice, ground turkey and some carrots and broccoli. KC loves it, and Vega tolerates it. I’ll finish this batch with them and probably go back to canned food, as it is easier and less time consuming. But, with the whole pet food scare, I thought I should try and make them some food—at least I know what goes into it. Sheesh.

Human food—I was craving some pasta, but didn’t want to make a heavy recipe. I used http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Greek-Pasta-with-Tomatoes-and-White-Beans/Detail.aspx and found the following:

Greek pasta with Tomatoes and White beans

Ingredients:
-2 (14.5 oz) cans Italian-style diced tomatoes (I used plain ones with reduced sodium)
-1 (19 oz) can cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
-10 oz fresh spinach, washed and chopped (I didn’t chop it and I think mine was 9oz)
-8 oz penne pasta (I used how ever much is in a normal size box)
-1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (I added the cheese to my pasta serving right before I ate it and put about 2 teaspoons on mine)
-1 medium onion
-several garlic cloves

Directions:
-Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente.
-Meanwhile, sauté diced onion and minced garlic in olive oil, add tomatoes and beans. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.
-Add Spinach to the sauce; cook for 2 minutes or until spinach wilts, stirring constantly
-Season as you wish
-Serve sauce over pasta and sprinkle with feta

YUM!

Quilt update: Tiger is almost done. I have 1 whisker to finish on it. Lion needs 6 whiskers. Tree needs to be completed (and I got to get some green thread, because mine is too dark), I’m adding a butterfly and a snail. That’s it, then after that, Just add a few finishing touches and I could bind it. It looks neat, it really does! I can’t wait to be done with it so I could post pictures.

I think that’s about it—I have two weeks left at internal medicine. It was a tough rotation, but I learned a lot during this rotation.

Reut

Recipe for Kneidalach (Matzo Balls)

2007-03-31T11:57:00.000-04:00

No, really, I don't have a kneidalach obsession, but I have noticed that a lot of people arrive to my site via 'recipe for kneidalach' search on the various search engines...

So here you go:

This is from the back of manischewitz matzo mean-- I found that it is the best recipe ever!!! (I don't care if the recipe is from the back of a box...) I changed it just a tiny bit:

(*makes about 16 matzo balls-- all doubled from original recipe)

4 tablespoons olive oil (the original recipe uses vegetable oil)
4 large eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup Matzo Meal
2 teaspoon salt (or however much you like)
4 tablespoons soup stock or water

1. Blend vegetable oil, eggs, matzo meal and salt together
2. Add soup stock or water and mix until uniform. Cover and place in refrigerator for 15 minutes.
3. Bring 3 quarts of water to a brisk boil (or just have your chicken/vegetable/etc boiling)
4. Reduce flame and drop balls approximately 1 inch in diameter formed from refrigerated mixture
5. Cover pot and cook 30-40 minutes

--> grandma and greatgrandma note: if you like them hard (oooo, so good!) add a tiny bit more matzo meal to the mix.

That's it.

Happy Passover to all who celebrate it.
Happy meal to all who enjoy kneidalach!

Finally, an update :o)

2007-03-30T19:32:00.000-04:00

03/10/07 --> 03/30/07
I promised an update, and here it is… I’ve decided to quit medical school.

Hahahaha! Just kidding! (Not funny, I know, but I’m tired, so I can have a bad sense of humour)

Okay, so internal medicine has finally gotten better! I have finished the first month of it and learned a whole lot. The first weeks were very-very difficult—it was just very sad, and it really affected me. So after I vowed never to take another internal medicine course, things started to get interesting, exciting and… yes, fun, so I take that vow back. I moved to a new hospital during the second week. With this new doctor we got to do a lot of learning, a lot of answering questions… basically, a whole lot of thinking. It is interesting—it really is. We had several night lectures which I found very useful. After the EKG lecture, I started reading the EKGs at the hospital with greater ease. I cannot wait until cardiology next year. I think it will be a difficult but very interesting rotation.

Next week I will start the second part of internal medicine at an outpatient clinic. I hope it will be interesting. I’ve kind of gotten used to the hospital routine—get there early, read patient’s charts, talk to patients, talk to the nurses, collect labs and other studies, write notes and… round… long, tiring rounds. Hopefully the outpatient will be exciting.

What else? Weather has been gorgeous!!! It is spring time in New Jersey and I love it. The trees started to bloom and the grass is finally green again. Yes, only a week or two ago we had that bad snow storm, but hopefully it was the last one for the year :o)

I’ve been exercising pretty good—I take my neighbor’s dog “Chance” out on walkies, and it is tremendous fun for both of us.

That’s about it—KC and Vega are doing great. With the whole cat food recall that happened I was a little worried, but luckily their food wasn’t on that recall list. Lucky, really as IAMS was one of the foods I considered at the beginning. I was at the store and met a lady who lost 3 cats to renal failure after they have eaten the food—it is very sad.

Anyways, I must getting moving, I have to start making my Kneidalach for Passover :o)

Reut

Tomorrow

2007-03-29T22:52:00.000-04:00

I promise a new post tomorrow after I'm done at the hospital-- All is well here, I am extremely tired, but I am finally having fun! Yeah! It's already 10pm and I have to work on some more stuff for tomorrow, and sadly sleep is not going to happen until about 23:00. yawn~ ...I'll write more tomorrow.

Re
PS-- Quite a while a go my friends "Funky" and "P-Bear" came to visit. I forgot to post pics then, so here you go now. My friends the dorky historians!

Chai!

2007-03-25T22:34:00.000-04:00

I promise an entry soon... but until then, enjoy the timeless Ofra Haza!
(Eurovision 1983--2nd place, but really should have won...)
-Re

And one more, because I can't help myself! 1978 winner Izhar Cohen with "Abanibi". Such a fun song!

Internal Medicine

2007-03-10T09:06:00.000-05:00

02-27-07 --> 03-09-07

Hello to all,

This entry will cover the past two weeks. All is well here, but I am extremely tired as I was on call last night and didn’t get to leave today until about 3pm. Oh well! I took a short nap and should be okay for the next few hours. Tomorrow night I am on call with my friend Tracy—this one is in a hospital that is about 5 minutes from me, and I wouldn’t have to work the day after, so it should be a bit easier than today was.

The last week of pediatrics was decent. I did learn how to perform new born examination, which is so important. I didn’t like that hospital too much, for it is like a very grim and gray looking castle. I really would like to do another out patient pediatrics rotation though—I’ll try and get it in

03-10-07
Sorry—I fell asleep pretty much within 5 minutes after the last unfinished sentence! I’ll continue this now :o)
…I’ll try and get it in this summer during my 3rd year elective. This will be difficult to manage, but I’ll see what I can do.

So after my pediatric exam I had two free days during the weekend. I worked hard on the quilt—I finished the giraffe, and it looks very adorable. I also went to the public library and took out Denise Austin’s ‘Indoor walk’ DVD. It just that my hours in internal medicine are very long and do not allow me to have free time during day light, so I figured I’ll exercise during the evenings indoors until this rotation is over.

And then… Monday came along and we had an internal medicine orientation and drove to the different hospitals to start our rotation.

So, internal medicine will probably not be my chosen field. However, it is really important to learn as much as I can from the next 8 (7 now!) weeks. What really surprised me is how emotionally difficult this experience is for me. There are a lot of really sick people, and I just get so sad being in the hospital. This has not happened until now. I never got sad working with patients before internal medicine, because up to this point I worked with populations that were relatively healthy.

Suffering sucks. It really does. Being in the hospital as a patient is no picnic—I don’t envy anyone who is in the hospital. For most patients, the hospital is the place they can usually get most help, but… being sick, really sick, is not easy.

So… my plan is to learn as much as I can, read a whole lot and… get my 4th year all set up in the next 7 weeks. The next rotation after internal medicine is surgery.

As I said earlier, I was on call Thursday night. It was a good learning experience. We went to the ER and admitted patients. In between patients we went to the call room where the interns and residents have little beds that they can sleep in. They had beds, we had chairs (students are on the bottom of the totem pole). To be honest, it was quite uncomfortable. My next rotation is tonight 7pm-7am, and then next week I have one on Wednesday and one on Friday. It really isn’t all that bad, but working the next day on very little sleep is tiring.

What else? Cats are doing well. Weather has been nasty. I’m going to see dad today if he feels better!!! That’s about it…

Loads of kisses,

Reut

A random entry!

2007-02-26T19:34:00.000-05:00

02-19-07 --> 02-26-07
Hello to all!

I am in my last week of pediatrics. Last week I was at the outpatient office, and had a good time. This week I am at the hospital (a new hospital for me) and at a child abuse clinic. The new hospital is different… Its forms and way of doing things are completely different than the other 3 hospitals. For some reason they don’t want us writing in the charts, so all of our presentations are done orally. Tomorrow I am going to the other center—I hope I learn a lot.

The thing about 1 week at a place is that it takes a few days (2-3) to get comfortable. I know I said the exact same thing two weeks ago, but it is true. I do appreciate the many different environments I have seen in the past month (2 weeks in a peds ER and the inpatient unit, 1 in outpatient, 1 in a different inpatient unit, and the center tomorrow), but… it is still difficult. My friend “J” says that he feels the same way I do at the beginning of each new rotation. Phew! At least I am not alone. I am trying very hard to look at it the way mom told me to: “worrying about something today doesn’t really make tomorrow any better… it just spoils today” AND… “you know you’ll want to extend your stay for a few more days at the end… this is always the case”. This is of course true. By the middle of last week I would have gladly added a few more days at the outpatient site… it was just loads of fun.

Okay, now really enough of this. I will not be venting about this specific topic on my very public journal any more.

So, last week… it was SO much fun!!! I went to the office and basically followed the doc on the first day (that’s the way they do it there), and then by the 2nd day had asked them if they could show me the computer program so I could walk into a room and interview a patient like I would normally. The nicest thing about last week was that I met one of the patients from the ER (and since she was admitted later on, from the inpatient unit as well)—she was doing so much better. It was very nice to have continuity of care.

The weather was amazing on Tuesday and Wednesday—it was in the 50’s and was sunny, and since we just had the week of 15F as our high, this felt wonderful.

Exercise… I haven’t talked about that in a while—well, during the cold week I couldn’t make myself go outside and walk. It was just too cold. So… I had a small lazy spell. But… Dad is the one who kept pushing at me until I started working out again. (Thanks dad!!!) I got out the old ‘pilates workout for Dummies,’ and I’ve been doing that. You know what I’ve realized?…I have some abdominal muscles I never knew I had… Ouch! It was such a nice change I think I might have to run to blockbuster and find some new work out videos for myself.

Speaking of blockbuster—Not that I have rented a movie recently, but I was thinking of joining netflix. Anyone uses them? Are they any good? Since I really don’t watch too many videos, I’d probably get something cheap. Let me know what you think.

Movies—I might not be renting many movies, but I sure like to see ‘em in the theater! I saw “Music and Lyrics” on Saturday. It was great! I told my friends Karen and Matt that I saw this movie and their response was: “We’re sorry.” Ugggg! Can’t they see how amazingly cute Hugh Grant is? Huh??? I mean, just to see him dressed in 1980’s clothes was worth the ticket price!!! :o)

Peanut butter alert—I ate from a recalled peanut butter jar before I knew they were recalling it. I had a nasty stomach ache and diarrhea. I was convinced I had contracted salmonella from the very delicious... I mean... DARN peanut butter. Well, no, actually, I thought I caught a viral bug from the kids, but it was just so out of the blue, so I had to think about the salmonella. Today I was all better, so hopefully this was the end of that lovely adventure.

Soups—I have made the best soup yet! I used this url for the recipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cream-of-sweet-potato-soup/Detail.aspx

And for those who read this via regular mail, here is the recipe (taken from allrecipes.com)

Cream of Sweet Potato Soup
SUBMITTED BY: Zoey McCullen
"This easy to prepare yet oh-so-elegant soup is a favorite at my house. Because it has a slightly sweet taste, the kids love it, and it's my husband's favorite soup. Serve warm with buttery garlic bread and a crisp green salad. You can also serve cold with cucumber or watercress sandwiches."
INGREDIENTS
• 3 large sweet potatoes
• 3 (14 ounce) cans low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, or more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (to taste)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Black pepper to taste
• Cayenne pepper to taste
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Bake sweet potatoes in preheated oven until soft, about 1 1/2 hours (you can also use a microwave). Remove and let cool slightly.
Peel sweet potatoes, and puree with chicken broth in batches, using enough chicken broth so that it purees smoothly. Bring puree to a simmer in a large saucepan over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in the sugar, salt, nutmeg, black pepper, and cayenne pepper; cover, and let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in cream.
----------------
YUM! Delicious!

Okay, did I babble enough?

No actually, there was one more thing I forgot: KC.
KC decided it was a stupendous idea to get into the trash and eat some of the corn cobs I threw out a few hours earlier. Very clever of him. Not only did he get the whole cob stuck in his front teeth, he then growled and hissed at me when I tried to help him get it off…But, nevermind that, the poor cat puked his guts the entire night. He managed to get all of the pieces out of his belly (I hope). He is feeling great now, and he has already shown renewed interest in the trash. I better get a can with a lid.

Now, that’s an entry!

Reut

Winter sucks. Really.

2007-02-18T08:45:00.000-05:00

02-12-07--> 02-18-07

Hello everyone,

So another week has passed, this was my last week at the peds-ER, which is a shame because I was having a good time. Next week I will be at the out patient clinic, and then I believe I will be at another hospital. “Hooray” for no continuity. Pffth! This of course is said with a high level of sarcasm. This is the one thing I wish I could change about these rotations at this particular site. I don’t like switching places every 1-2weeks. It is very difficult to get used to a location and then have to change it right away. Okay, I promised no venting, so I am done.

The weather has been dreadful! Last Tuesday (I think) it had snowed and then we had freezing rain. I had trouble getting to work because of the icy conditions. I woke up the next day thinking: “I shouldn’t be driving in this… there should be a law prohibiting people from warm climate to drive in this” But I drove very slowly and made it there and back just fine. It was just like driving on an ice-ring; very difficult conditions. If I stay in this area, my next car will be a 4x4 and I will equip it with snow tires. Sheesh. On a happier note, it has been getting warmer—yesterday it was 32F(0C). Because the mercury has been at around 15-20F for the whole week, this 32F felt much warmer than it normally would. I was actually out and about with a sweatshirt only (don’t worry, it was a sunny non-windy day).

OH! I finally got to walk the dogs at the shelter yesterday!!! We were short on people and the director has asked me to walk the smaller dogs. This was great! I walked them (and played with them), moved them to another cage and cleaned their old one. There was a cute one who looked similar to Daisy (but a Terrier, not a Chihuahua).

Well, after I came back from the shelter I made some delicious stuffed tomatoes (a-la-Savta-Blanca-style) YUM! I swapped the tuna for eggs, but it turned just as good. I still have 3 tomatoes left. I also tried writing my scholarship essay—it took me forever to write the little tid-bit that I did. I have to re-read it today and see if I still like it.

That’s about it from here. I hope you are all doing well,

Reut

Kids are fun

2007-02-11T10:17:00.000-05:00

02-05-07 --> 02-11-07

Hi everyone,

I had quite a long week, but I have to say… I really like kids! I mean, you all knew already, but I really do like them—they are fun and completely different from adults! If I wouldn’t have chosen medicine, I would have gone to get my teaching certificate. That said, you can correctly guess that I had a good time in the first week of peds. I mean, it wasn’t fun all the time, and I didn’t like all the doctors, but it was fun for the most part. The first 2 weeks of my rotations are done at the Peds ER. The Emergency Department a completely different environment from anything I have ever done before. I really didn’t like the setting at first, but like anything else, I am getting used to it.

For this whole week (plus a long shift on Saturday) I worked the afternoon/evening shift, which means that I never got home much earlier than midnight. Poor Vega and KC had to get used to a new feeding schedule… they weren’t too happy about it. In the hospital it seemed like the kids started coming in groves at about 6pm with another major surge at 10:30pm. I wonder what the day shift is like. I guess I’ll see tomorrow.

Finally ‘R’ at the school has provided me with an estimation of when I could try and do my ER and Cardiology rotation next year, so I have a bunch of paper work to complete today. Blah. I also have to do laundry, clean my abode, hunt some food in the store and cook. Major blah. I better hurry up and get these boring tasks done so I could quilt a little bit. OH! I don’t know if I told you or not, but I finally finished the lion’s mane on the quilt. It took forever!!!

Better get going.

Re

Squirrel 1 Cats 0

2007-02-04T20:45:00.000-05:00

Kneidalach to warm you up!

2007-02-04T19:37:00.000-05:00

01-28-07 --> 02-04-07

Hello everyone,

***** if you'd like Kneidalach (Matzo Balls) recipe go to: Recipe for Kneidalach *****

Oh, it is WAY too cold outside! I really really REALLY don’t like this weather. BRRRR! I know I chose to come here for my 3rd year rotations, but I can still hate the weather, can’t I?

Okay, so with this nice preamble I can let you all know that I have now driven in snow at least 4 times. I am hoping that no more snow will fall this year, but if it will, I am not afraid of driving in it anymore; careful, yes, but not afraid.

OBGYN is now officially over. I finished the test on Friday and have got to get something signed by Dr. R, but besides that it is all done. I am kind of sad about it—I had a good time in that rotation. As I would still like to write my paper I printed many articles today and hope to finish reading all of them by mid week and start writing it soon.

My pediatrics rotation is starting tomorrow—I got the afternoon/evening shift at the hospital. I am hoping this will be a good experience. I always dread the first few days in a new rotation. It takes me a while to get used to a new place, new people and figure out what exactly the expectations are. Uggg… It is always hard on the first week and then it gets better. Okay, no more venting from me (unless you are mom and dad and then you get to hear it on the phone :o) sorry guys!)

This past week was a tough one as far as exercise goes—since my toe still painful I couldn’t start walking until Monday, but I had an early class (yes, one that we actually sit and listen) on that day. I walked on Tuesday and on Wednesday, but couldn’t wake up on Thursday and on Friday I had another early morning class… I did walk during the weekend. I opted on not running at this point—I’ll attempt running again when the weather gets warmer.

On Wednesday of last week I hurried out to the clinic and as I stepped out my eyes rested on a big package from my friend Lori. I had no clue what the package held and I didn’t have the time to open it. When I came home I opened it up and saw a huge collection of vegetables!!! She works at the Green Houses at a certain park and she sent me a bag full of tomatoes, another one filled with cucumbers and squash and in addition to all of this, a HUGE pomelo!!! I called her and thanked her for all of this, and asked her why she sent me a random present… it’s not my birthday and there isn’t any holiday that I am aware of. She said she thought I’d like it. I sure did! The best was that night when I sat and ate a great big salad!
The next day I once again stepped out (running a tad late) and found another package! This one was from my friend Banana! As I didn’t have time to open the package right away I put it at home and got to it much much later that day… She got me a cool book all about the early days of Queen. I actually think that that is the title of the book (the Early Days of Queen). I called her up and thanked her and asked her why she sent me a random present—she replied with: “Oh, it’s your Chanukah present!” I had a good laugh. What cool friends I have! Now I am itching to surprise them too! I hope to come up with something just as unique for them!

So for the past 3 weeks I have been making Kneidalach soup (aka matzo ball soup)—YUM! I have tried several different soups and the Kneidalach(s) go well with all of them so far! The most interesting was a weird Indian Soup my friend Deepa taught me how to make last year—the kneidalach turned very yellow :o) Today I made them in plain old vegetable soup… yum! So my question to you all is… how do you like your Kneidalach? I like them hard and kind of dark on the inside. We call them Kibbutz Geva’s Kneidalach. YUM! I think my dad likes them soft and fluffy. I believe both Omer and Mom like them hard and dark. So, really, how do you like your Kneidalach? I’m very curious to know!
And then another question, especially to those who cook—what’s the secrete to turning them hard and dark? I always hope for the kind I like, but can never tell how they will turn out…

Wow! That was a complete digression!!! I must be hungry!

Hope all of you have a wonderful week!

Reut

Adopt an animal!

2007-01-27T18:18:00.000-05:00

I was in the process of making a different movie and decided to throw this together-- it's not high quality, but I have been imagining this short film everytime I listen to Queen in the car... Hope you enjoy, and... adopt an animal!

OBGYN is almost over :o(

2007-01-27T12:26:00.000-05:00

01-22-07 --> 01-27-07

Hi everyone!

I have just finished a week of OBGYN at the clinic. It really reminds me of Family Medicine rotation, but just… focused. I really like this rotation… it’s either that I am at the right age for having children and therefore I get really excited about all these families having babies, or… that I really like the fact that this rotation has a little bit of everything (clinic, hospital, surgeries)! To be honest, I think it’s a little of both. After next week, I start pediatrics—since this is what I originally thought I’d go into, I am very excited for the rotation. After that rotation I am hoping I’ll have a better idea of what I’m going to go into…
Funny thing that keeps happening to everyone in the clinic: when we write out EDC (expectant date of confinement (aka ‘due date’)) we keep messing up the year… so instead of having babies in July 07’ we keep accidentally writing July 06’ Don’t you hate the first few months of a new year just for that reason? It really takes a little bit of time getting used to writing 2007.

In trying to plan my forth year (we have to set it up it ourselves) I’ve been talking to ‘R’ here at the local medical school. I’ve been trying to figure out when she’ll be done with planning their students’ forth year so I could find out when there are open slots for visiting students. She will not give me an exact date—I understand that she can’t, but… I really would like to plan next year already, so I will not have a disaster on my hands… uggg.

Outside of school things have been good—I have stuck to my exercising even when it was bitter cold outside— it is very pretty outside when it is all frozen and quite. I like it. Because of all the snow I ended up getting a pair of snow boots on sale for… 10 bucks! I think they are great and hope they’ll last me for at least 2 years.

Do you want to hear how clumsy I am? Well… last night I was in the middle of doing laundry and I wanted to hear some music on the computer, so I ran over and crashed into one of my chairs. Ouch! At first I thought the pain in my foot will go away in a few minutes, but it didn’t. And then my middle toe looked funny. And then it swelled up. I don’t think I broke it, but I am having a hard time putting a lot of weight on it at the moment (12 hours after). I gave up walking and volunteering this morning because I couldn’t quite walk right, but it is getting better. Another ugggg.

Another quick topic—everyone knows I don’t have a television, right? The idea behind it was that I didn’t really need one in med school… that I had too much work and that I’ll end up wasting time if I had one. Well… for the first 2 years it worked great—I really was busy, I really had other things I could do with my time. I appreciated not having a television. But now… I have a little bit more time on my hands. I still don’t want a television, but I found myself on the computer way more often than before… my favorite website at the moment is www.youtube.com where (to those of you who don’t know already) people put videos of everything possible. I really love this website, but it is really a ‘time wasting’ activity. It is ridiculous that I chose not to have a television and then chose to watch that website instead. I guess it’s alright.

Oh! Remember the paper I wrote for family medicine? I received recognition on it! That’s really exciting! I went back and re-read the paper and I still think it was an ‘okay’ paper, but not an ‘excellent’ paper. I guess it’s a good thing I don’t grade my own papers :o) I want to write one for this rotation but I am not quite sure what topic to research. I guess I have the whole weekend, next week and 10 days afterwards to figure, research and write it. Oh brother. I better not waste time on youtube any more :o)

That’s about it—I have a few things I have to finish today—one of them is to ‘buddy tape’ my toe to another toe so I could walk around more comfortably.

Kisses!

Reut

BRRRRR!

2007-01-21T12:56:00.000-05:00

01-15-07 --> 01-21-07

Hello to all,

Man, I’m tired! This past week I had the night shift in the hospital and switching my day all around wasn’t too bad at the beginning, but as the week progressed I become much more tired. In any case, I got to see some interesting things—it was definitely fun!

During one early morning, there was an unexpected emergency (which due to HIPPA laws I will not describe here). At the time, I was at the other side of the unit doing morning rounds, and didn’t get to see/participate in it. Nevertheless, afterwards when I saw the resident, I was very impressed by her actions. Even though the resident was angry at herself and just got yelled at by the attending (that’s the doctor above her), she didn’t do what many other residents do, which is to take their frustration out on the medical student. Rather, she calmed herself down and thanked me for finishing what was needed to get done. Very impressive. I have to remember to behave like this if something like that happens to me—it was very dignified and professional.

It has been really cold here… I HATE this weather!!! My plan is to eventually move to a warmer climate… this is too cold for me (and mind you, this has been a warm winter thus far!)

My exercising is going very well! I am still in the ‘attempting to run’ phase, and settled on plain walking for the most part. That’s more than I did before, and it really makes me feel good. Today I walked next to the lake which was frozen! I threw some pinecones on the ice for pure amusement. It was very quite and pretty. “Michelin Man” is the look I go for during these walks…wearing about 4 layers does look comical… I am hoping beyond hope the weather will improve soon.
According to Dr. C at the Family Medicine rotation, building a new habit takes about 21 days (I have no idea where he got the number from, but there you have it) I just have to keep sticking with it. My schedule is changing a bit next week, and hopefully I could still find some time to walk when the sun is still out; if not, I’ll have to venture to the smelly gym… blah!

Last night I went to a party at Dr. D’s house—he has a wonderful collection of obstetric tools from the 17 hundreds and on. We had about 14 people there, had some great home made pizza and enjoyed the hands on presentation he gave about his “museum.” Dr. D got just as excited about the old tools as Uncle Yossi gets about his Morgan dollars :o)

Today (the only free day I have), I have to run to the store to get some food, finish the laundry and I really wanted to work on the new quilt—I’m off to do all of that!

Kisses,

Reut

Working out: the anti couch-potato medicine...

2007-01-14T22:05:00.000-05:00

Tiny note before I go to bed... My friend Christine got me motivated to start exercising again. I decided to post it here so I am held accountable (LeeAnn once said being accountable helps you actually do stuff and not quit...). I am starting really really slow, and hopefully in a few months my heart and lungs will be able to keep up with the rest of me :o)

I got a beginners schedule from and I am planning to stick with it.

Okay... there, it is out in the open, so feel free to ask me about it-- I'll do my best to keep on top of it.

Night!

Still like OBGYN!

2007-01-14T09:07:00.000-05:00

01-09-07--> 01-14-07

Hello to all!

I really like OBGYN. It has everything in it so far—patient contact, surgeries, thinking. It is exciting! Yes, there is a lot of “down time” where there is nothing going on, but I try really hard to sit and read during these points. Because of the insane malpractice insurance I really have to figure out if I want to work in OBGYN. But… it is definitely fun and exciting!

Dad came to visit me this weekend! He came on Friday night and I picked him from the train station. I had to work on Saturday from 7-3, but we got off a little earlier, which was awesome. I couldn’t believe how KC just wasn’t afraid of dad—the minute dad walked in the door, KC started rubbing his little head on dad’s pants and shoes… Vega was her normal standoffish self =^.^= Oh well… We did a little shopping, and just had a good time being together! Next time the whole family should come—mom, dad, Omer and the doggies (I’m sure the cats would appreciate this last part…)

I just came back from taking dad back to the station. It was really foggy here this morning, but the ride there and back was fine, and now I know how to do it.

You’ll forgive me for another short entry, I have to go conquer the mountain of laundry :o)

Kisses!

Reut

OBGYN!!!

2007-01-08T21:27:00.000-05:00

12-19-06  01-08-07

Hello everyone,

I am back from vacation and begun my OBGYN rotation!!!

Home was wonderful—I had such a great time with mom, dad, Omer, Midi and Daisy… We did a bunch of stuff, but mainly sat and ate oranges and grapefruits :o) I saw “The Queen” with mom, and thought it was a great movie. With Omer I saw “A Night at the Museum” and laughed a lot (I must still be a kid at heart). Abba and I walked with the doggies. It was just a great trip! I had a very hard time leaving them to come back to Jersey. Thank goodness for my cats, or else it would have been even harder…

In any case, the time at home passed by so fast, but now I’m back here, and absolutely loving the first day of OBGYN!!!!! I only got to see one C-section today…seeing someone being born was quite amazing. I cannot wait to see a vaginal delivery. The hospital is about 30 minutes away from me without traffic, so it is a bit of a drive, but it is a nice little unit and I am hoping to see a lot and learn even more.

You’ll forgive this incredibly tiny little note, I’m just a bit tired…—I promise a nice long one next week!

Love to all, I’m off to sleep…

Reut

I finished the quilt!!!

2006-12-22T12:08:00.000-05:00

This is the quilt for little Olivia Grace!

Vega the huntress

2006-12-17T18:55:00.000-05:00

12-11-06 --> 12-18-06

Hello everyone!

Another week has passed, and this week has not been too interesting. On Monday I had an OBGYN orientation which was fine. We had to perform a pelvic examination, and it was nice to see I remembered a lot of it from last year! It was a nice review, and I actually cannot wait until I start that rotation! We had a few tonsillectomies and an esophageal dilation this week… nothing major. Journal club (where we go though our presentations) was cancelled again this week. That’s too bad. I was actually getting dressed and going through my presentation one last time when Dr. M. called me and told me it was cancelled. Bummer. I have prepared two presentations and I am hoping to present at least one of them next week.

The weather has been great! Everyone is worried about global warming, but I am just hoping that this year it wouldn’t snow… I really don’t want to drive in it!

Vega and KC are wonderful—they have both been begging to sit on the balcony, and so I let them. If I don’t let them out right away, Vega starts crying in her little soprano meow.

Yesterday we had a holiday party at one of my friend’s house. It was fun to get together and enjoy one another’s company. Jackie’s baby is adorable, and seeing her made me want to finish the quilt ASAP, but alas, it will have to wait until the end of the semester.

Well, that is about it for now… I realize this is a tiny entry, but not much has been going on this week…

Reut

Getting to know you

2006-12-13T21:26:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth sent me this via mail. This was fun and I figured I'll put this here instead of send it out to everyone; you are more than welcome to answer either here or email me back.

//
Welcome to the new edition of getting to know your friends. Okay here's what you're supposed to do... Just copy, do not forward, this entire e-mail and paste into a new e-mail that you send. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a whole bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person who sent it to you.

1. What is your occupation? I’m a scut monkey (aka a Medical student). Just 1.5 years left… then I’ll be a slave (aka a resident).
2. What color are your socks right now? Purple/lavender stripes (very warm)
3. What are you listening to right now? Queen. I’ve been on a queen kick for the past 4 months.
4. What was the last thing that you ate? Vegetable soup.
5. Can you drive a stick shift? No
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Orange
7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Mom
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? yes
9. How old are you today? 27
10. Favorite Drink? Chamomile tea
11. What is your favorite sport to watch? Men volleyball, tennis, and (when possible) cricket. I also really enjoy gymnastics. But it is so much more fun to play sports anyways.
12. Have you ever dyed your hair? Nope
13. Pets? My two furry trouble makers—Vega and KC (two wonderful cats)
14. Favorite Food? I love tomatoes in any form (minus ketchup, which I have to be in the mood for). I REALLY love stuffed fresh tomatoes!!! Oh heavens!
15. What was the last movie you watched? “Stranger than Fiction”
16. Favorite day of the year? I really love Passover night... so this would be sometime between March and April
17. What do you do to vent anger? Well, I first count to 10, which never works, then I usually vent to my parental unit, brother and various friends. If I am very angry I close my eyes and imagine who ever caused the rage in painful (but not deadly) situations.
18. What was your favorite toy as a child? Kofiko (a stuffed monkey), my markers and swings.
19 What is your favorite season? SUMMER! I love the heat! I can’t believe I am in snow land now. YUCK!
20. Hugs or kisses? One good bear hug could make the world better!
21. Cherries or blueberries? Nope, I can’t decide. They are both SO good!
22. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? Of course!
23. Who is most likely to respond? Errrrr… Anna maybe?
24. Who is least likely to respond? I haven’t the slightest.
25. Living arrangements? A nice small apartment in NJ.
26. When was the last time you cried? About a month ago—I saw a sad movie, can’t remember which though…
27. What is on the floor of your closet? One of those plastic drawer set and shoes.
28. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? Gosh… I know you all for such a long time now…
29. What did you do last night? Prepared a presentation for ENT surgery and worked on Med-cases.
30. Favorite smells? Freshly mowed grass, morning, the sea, and well… mom’s cooking
31. What inspires you? Moving forward, learning, and that silly Nike commercial (Just DO it)
32. What are you afraid of? The unknown—change is hard.
33. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? No thank you.
34. Favorite dog breed? Any mutt from the shelter I volunteer at can come home with me (Well, everyone but Derek; he hates me).
35. Number? 11
36. How many years at your current job? Well… 2.5 years of med school at the moment.
37. Favorite day of the week? Wednesday and Friday night (unless I’m on call).
38. How many states have you lived in? 2 countries, 4 states
39. Favorite Movie? Well… Finding Neverland was just too wonderful.
40. Ever driven a Motorcycle or heavy machinery? Hahahaha… well… I was on a vespa, does that count? (and only for like 20 meters going like ‘2’)
All right, enough about me....what about you?!?

Look what I found!

2006-12-13T16:55:00.000-05:00

In the archives of youtube.com!
Enjoy the lovely Gevatron :o)

15 days 'till I go home!!!

2006-12-10T21:23:00.000-05:00

12-02-06 --> 12-10-06
Hello hello!

Just another small entry… nothing too interesting has been going on in ENT… Well, unless you count the dog bite we have seen the septorhinoplasty (septal correction and a nose job), the sinus surgery, removal of enlarged gland and the tracheostomy. I finally got to scrub in on a case—it was so much more interesting to participate! At the moment I don’t think working in the OR is my heart’s desire, but I cannot deny that it really is interesting.

My presentation last week was cancelled, which was completely fine by me… I was ready, but we did have a long day, and I haven’t eaten anything for a while, and the prospect of sitting and listening to presentations and then presenting myself did not sound as good as let’s say… dinner. That’s okay, I will present it this week. Quite unintentionally I managed to complete my next presentation today… I started reading my material (I am doing this one on obstructive sleep apnea) and just put everything together on PowerPoint, and a few hours later I had a complete presentation. I haven’t run through it yet, so I don’t know how long it will be, and if I’ll have to change things a bit, but the main part is done.

The last bit of school stuff is that I finally finished my honors paper for the family medicine rotation. I worked hard on it and despite the fact that it is not even remotely close to being perfect, I am happy with the paper. My topic was ‘medical mistakes and their disclosure to the patients’ and it was definitely interesting to read and write about!

Tomorrow I have an orientation for OBGYN. I really hope that this next rotation will be fun.

Now to not-school-related stuff:
I have been working on a quilt for my friend’s baby girl. This is a complete experiment, but it is turning out quite nicely! I am not 100% sure of how to create the binding, but I have a general idea, so I’ll play with it. I really wanted to have it done before the end of this year (2006), but I have a feeling she’ll receive it sometimes next spring :o) Oh well! The best thing about it is that I am having a good time and learning something that is completely not medicine related! After I’ll be done with this quilt I am thinking of attempting a very small lap quilt that will not have a pre-print to go with it… We’ll see…

Vega and KC are doing great! We sat in the sun (with a hat on) and read for a good hour today (it was cold, but very sunny!) Is anything better than a good book, purring cats and hot tea on a beautiful day? Speaking of reading books, last Thursday I finished reading a great book—שבע מידות רעות it was a good read, so thank you Saba for choosing it for me!

Last weekend my friends Karen and Matt came to visit me—they were suppose to come the week before, but they ended up not making it. We had such a good time! We went out to dinner at PF Chang’s (a Chinese place for all of you unfortunate souls who don’t know the place), talked for a long while and just had fun. It was so nice, and I really hope that I will have the time to go visit them in upstate New York sometimes during this academic year.

The last cool thing is that my friend Lori got published!!! I am so proud of her! I read this specific short story and thought it was wonderful! I cannot wait to see more from her! Congratulations again!

Well, that is about it for now,

Loads of kisses from here,

Reut

ENT

2006-12-02T08:18:00.000-05:00

11-16-06 --> 12-01-06
Hello to all,

Loads to tell from the past 2 weeks! Last week I have finished my second family medicine rotation. It was very fun in the last few weeks of the rotation—expectations were set (and met on my part), and it was just fun to see some of the patients again for the last time. It was very nice to receive good feed back from the doctors, and Dr. C offered to write me a recommendation letter.

During thanksgiving I stayed here, worked on my paper and made the Laughlin’s famous secrete cranberry sauce recipe… yum! I also watched over Brian and Keri’s dogs (they are a lab mix and a husky—fun bunch!).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
…since I can’t keep a secrete, here is the recipe for the cranberry sauce:
2 bags of cranberries
2 oranges
1 can of either crushed pineapple or tidbits (Dole’s tastes great)
Sugar (if needed… I used two tablespoons this year)
 wash and stem the cranberries, then pass them through the food processor (on the top knife)
cut the oranges to small pieces
 add the pineapple (if you want a water sauce, add the juice, if not, drain the juice before adding the pineapple…)
 add the sugar if needed
 let sit overnight (but if you are like me, half the sauce is gone within two hours of making it.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
But I digress…
On Monday I began my surgery service in ENT. So far it is very slow. I don’t think that this is what I’ll be doing after I graduate, but nevertheless it is a good experience to be in the OR and be able to relearn the anatomy of the head and neck. It is coming back fairly easily. We have to make two short presentations for didactics meetings, and I am probably going to do mine on: cleft lips and palates, Obstructive sleep apnea, hemangiomas in the airways or hearing loss. I am not sure yet. As far as what surgeries I have seen so far… I saw I nasoplasty and a sinus reconstruction, hemangioma removal from upper lip, tracheotomy placement + thyroid biopsy, tongue biopsy, and a lymph node removal (that really reminded me of Omer’s surgery a few years back).

That’s about it… the cats are doing great, we’ve been having amazing weather (up to about 70F!!!) for the past week and a half; the cats love to go out to the patio and enjoy the sun! This weekend I’ll try to get both of the presentations done, so I don’t have to worry about it during the week. Omer said he’ll check my honor’s paper and give me some feedback (he is a great editor!), so I’ll finalize that, and then my friends Karen and Matt might be coming to visit me on Sunday.

Anyways, that’s about it… I’m off to take a shower and go volunteer with my puppies!

Kisses!

Reut

Of Depp and Mercury...

2006-11-24T23:10:00.000-05:00

Okay okay… this is not an entry… I just wanted to write this down for ages, but never got around to it... After I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Finding Neverland, I made a casting decision. I think that if there was ever to be a movie about Queen, Johnny Depp should play Freddie Mercury. Not only do they look alike, but Depp is a great actor and he could play Mercury just right.

Okay, now that this has been said I’ll share this picture with you and tell me if you agree with me or not…

Is casting director going to be my 2nd career? :o)

slide show

2006-11-16T21:45:00.000-05:00

For anyone who is interested in seeing the pics from Nany's party, just drop me a line (either here or via email to those who have it) and I'll email you the link.

:o)

Reut

Happy Birthday Nany!

2006-11-15T19:34:00.000-05:00

11-05-06 --> 11-15-06

Hello to all!

Wow, these past two week were busy! Work was interesting; we talked about hyperkalemia quite a lot, which was nice. I’ve learned a mnemonic from the resident: ‘C BIG K’, which stands for the different treatments for hyperkalemia: C stands for Calcium (but only if there are abnormalities in the EKG), B stands for Bicarb, I stands for insulin, G stands for glucose, and K stands for Kayexalate, which increases bowel movement. Last Thursday we had an amazingly busy day. I saw a lot of patients did a bunch of blood work, gave many shots, and by the time I got home I was so very tired, that I only practiced my presentation once. The next day, Friday, I finally got to present my GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) lecture. I was a little nervous, but not too nervous not to be able to give a smooth presentation. I attribute my ability to keep my nerves at a manageable level to the fact that I practiced presenting this material for over a two week period with the prepared lecture. Since Mom and Omer came to visit me, I made it a point to complete the presentation before they came, and just practiced it since. Well, after my friends gave their lectures and I mine, we had afternoon lectures that were good for the most part. Now, after 3 months of straight ‘learning by doing’, I have a difficult time sitting through lectures… I get a little fidgety and bored a little too easily. I much prefer learning by doing, but I suppose lectures are essential once in a while.

On Saturday morning I flew out to Detroit for my great-grandmother’s birthday. I was so happy to see Nany and to meet her friends: Ethyl, Ruth, Thelma, Syd and… please forgive me, I forgot the name of some more friends… It was nice to finally meet them as well! I also got to see all of my cousins, second cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma, and many new additions to the family. I would definitely say it was truly 'wonderfully-hectic. I think this is a good depiction. With so many people and so little time, having a nice long conversation was practically impossible. Nany, thank you for a good time! I hope that in my next visit we’ll have a bit more time together… this was too short. Anyway, Detroit was surprisingly frigid! I was so glad I brought my big coat. New Jersey is still having a nice long (and very unusual) “Indian Summer”. I’m attaching pictures, and also a picture of the beautiful pillow Nany made for me. I absolutely love it, and I haven’t decided if it looks better on the bed (current location) or on the coach… The flight home was delayed by a few hours, but I made it back to New Jersey by night time, and fell asleep very quickly.

On Monday we had a busy day at work, and I got to see many different conditions, some were unique ones that I haven’t seen yet… others I saw many times before. On Tuesday we had our night hours, and the day just flew by! I saw an interesting condition called: Pterygium (teh-rij-ee-oom), which is basically tissue growth on the medial part of the eye. I have never seen one like that before, and I thought it was so interesting! I also saw two children with conjunctivitis… uggg… I washed my hands very good afterwards. That’s the last thing I would like to get now. For some reason, Dr. C decided it was pizza day, so we enjoyed a wonderful meal at the office. Then today (Wednesday) was very fun as well! I administered a flu shot and did a blood work in addition to everything else I saw. We also had the pleasure of going to lunch with the other Dr. C! It was a nice Sushi place… yum! The question of the day today was: “What are some causes of pancreatitis?” I came up with ‘yellow scorpion venom’ and was right! There are other ones such as: alcoholism, gallbladder stones, CMV, mumps, measles, trauma etc. … I still think scorpion is the most unique one! ...definitely important in Arizona.

Anyways, that’s about it here…

Loads of hugs and kisses!

Reut

The movie for Nany

2006-11-11T01:28:00.000-05:00

For your enjoyment!

Re

Trip to Hershey, PA!

2006-11-08T18:00:00.000-05:00

Family

2006-11-05T18:53:00.000-05:00

10-23-06 --> 11-05-06

Hello everyone!

Well, I’ve been quite busy these past two weeks, which is why I didn’t write. Work is going good. I’ve gotten better at drawing blood, giving shots and figuring things out. I still feel I can learn so much more, and that is pushing me to keep reading.

Fun stuff: Mom came to visit me last weekend!!! She came on Friday night and we drove to Lancaster County in Pennsylvania to visit the Amish people. The drive there was absolutely gorgeous. All the leaves are turning red, yellow and brown, and the roads were so pretty. It was quite cold the whole time mom was here, and when we got to Lancaster county we bundled up good in our coats and walked around a bit, enjoyed seeing the Amish people and learning about their tradition, appreciating their amazing art work in quilting, enjoying the good food, but most of all… having a good time!

On Sunday mom decided that eating on the sofa is not okay anymore, and thus now I have a dinning table… I tried (with no success) to convince her I had no need for a table, but she convinced me otherwise. It’s a cute table from IKEA, and I do like it a lot. The cats absolutely LOVE to have another thing to climb and claw…

On Monday I was at work and the whole day was wishing the day will go by fast so I could go home and be with mom. When I got home mom has made a wonderful soup (yum!) and we both enjoyed a nice quite evening. We watched “Hagashash Hachiver” together, and I have to say that their skits are timeless!

Tuesday was sad, because mom went back home, but by Thursday I returned to my normal self. In attempts to make myself feel better I rented a wonderful movie: “Finding Neverland” which tells the story of JM Barrie and the Davies boys. It was a very emotional movie, and despite crying a good bit while watching it, I still loved every bit of it.

On Friday night (this weekend) I picked Omer up from the airport!!! I barely had a few days without mom and now Omer came… HOORAY!

On Saturday we drove together to Hershey Pennsylvania, the famous chocolate town. We had a wonderful time. The most impressive thing about the town was actually its smell! We rolled down the windows and the whole car filled up with this sweet chocolate-brownie smell! Absolutely amazing. We had a good lunch consisting of ice-cream and chocolate, and then decided to drive back home. Despite not getting a tour of the actual Hershey factory, this was still very fun.

We returned home and watched “Finding Neverland” together… Omer said it was a very good movie. We managed to break the headboard of my bed while we watched the film… Oh well… we fixed it today (Sunday) so it’s all good.

Also today, we went to the theatre to see “Borat”. This movie was weird. I laughed, but thought it could have been done better. Interesting, but I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone… you have to take it with a grain of salt and enjoy the stupid humor.

Well… I just dropped Omer at the airport, and have already finished practicing my presentation once today. It’s on Friday, and I really would like to do a good job with it. Performing is fun, but it is much more fun to sing, not to lecture…

That’s about all,

Kisses!

Reut

Beautiful (gray) fall

2006-10-22T20:30:00.000-04:00

10-16-06-->10-22-06

Hello all and welcome to fall!

That’s it… despite that fact that ‘official fall’ had begun over a month ago, it is finally truly feels like fall around here… it has been cold, rainy, and windy. The trees are absolutely stunning, and the crisp air everywhere… Fall and winter are not my favorite seasons, and I will try my hardest not to complain about the weather too much until springs arrives.

Work is interesting. I definitely get to learn a lot. For the past week I have been getting better and better with the blood draws! Yes! Last Wednesday I drew blood from a lady who had very tiny veins (in my opinion at least), and was so happy to see the blood collect nicely in the tube.

To be honest, I haven’t really seen anything amazing this week… a lot of coughs, runny noses, sinus problems, and many people who come to receive their flu and pneumovax shots. I’ve given quite a few of those now, and I really do like giving shots :o)

The thing I do like about family medicine is that I get to see the patients many times throughout the time I spend in the office. This continuity is wonderful! I love knowing the people that walk in and know that I saw them the week prior for something and find out if they are feeling better or worse, or if they have followed through with tests… I guess you can say that I am always curious to find out what ‘happened next’, and the settings of family medicine allows for this.

The weekend was great! On Friday night I cooked some stuffed eggplants (YUM!) and after I ate them joined my friends for a ‘get together’. They ended up going to a movie, and I returned back home because I was very tired. On Saturday I volunteered with the animals! I had a good time. Cuddles (a nice poodle female dog) was still there and I petted her for a bit—she is going to her new home next week! There was another great dog there—He was a gray St. Bernard’s mix… he was shorter than a St. Bernard, but had the humongous paws and giant head. OHHHHH he was just too adorable! After that I came home and fell asleep for a good while, then woke up and worked on my presentation for a few hours. Today (Sunday) was my non-school day—I went shopping and cooked and did fun stuff with the cats… it was nice.

Well, that’s about it from here…

Kisses!

Reut

My Vega (Sheesh!!!)

2006-10-15T21:35:00.000-04:00

10-09-06--> 10-15-06
Hello to all,

I just came back from the cold outside looking for Vega… I thought I lost her! I couldn’t find her in the apartment and didn’t remember seeing her go out when I went out earlier. I called her over and over again inside, looked in all possible places (under the bed, in the closet, on top of the cabinets, under the sofa, inside the cabinets, in the fridge, oven, etc...) Well, then I went outdoors and looked for her there, but decided to go look in the apartment one more time… She was there! She popped her beautiful head out from underneath the sofa (which she wasn’t under a few minutes prior) and seemed to say: “What? I was napping!”

Sheesh! I am so happy she didn’t run away!

Anyhow, that’s the event of the night…

This week was decent. I had been drawing blood for a while now, but had a short period of time when everything I stuck didn’t give blood… OY! I finally figured out what I was doing wrong and fixed it. Hopefully I can keep getting the blood out. As far as interesting cases, I suppose I really enjoy working with the kids. It is really hard to convince a child that doesn’t feel well to open their mouth and say “Ahhhh,” but it is worth it… they are definitely fun.

On Friday night I went to see a movie at the theater—“Little Miss Sunshine.” It was absolutely wonderful! Everyone came out with a great big grin. I highly recommend it.

The rest of the weekend went by too fast—On Saturday I volunteered at the animal shelter, and then went shopping for something to stop the cats from killing the carpet (they scratch it). Then I came back home, and my place was so cold that all I wanted to do was sleep… and that’s what I did for the rest of the day (Non-productive, I know.) Today started out good, I was intending to write up my complete presentation so I wouldn’t have to worry about it next weekend or the weekend after. I sat with the material and I came up with very little. Ugg. I did make up a good list of what was needed to be inside the presentation, what I had and what I needed to find. My plan is to get a lot done during the week.

Well, that’s about it… I am going to play with my two beautiful cats and then go to bed.

:o)

Reut

Vega's walk

2006-10-15T09:43:00.000-04:00

PS

2006-10-08T20:25:00.000-04:00

Just a short note... for the past two weeks I've been wanting to add a little something about Uncle(Dod)-Yigal, but nothing I wrote came out right... finally a song by the immortal queen just captured it right. It is called: "No-one but you (only the good die young)" and it was written about Freddie Mercury, yet is exactly what I wanted to say.

Just click here: Queen's: No-one but you

Family Medicine and Fall

2006-10-08T20:10:00.000-04:00

10-01-06-->10-08-06
Hello to all!

Hmmm… it is quite amazing how short the weekends have become…

This week was quite interesting. Family medicine is filled with coughs, backpain, insomnia, earaches, runny noses, throat aches, headaches, fevers, elevated blood sugar, gout, rotated innominates, and all sorts of stuff! I can definitely say that I will get a good experience there filled with procedures (blood work, ultra sound treatments (not diagnostics), hernia checks, etc.) It will be a good rotation. Now having said that, I must confess that the first week in any given rotation lasts a bit longer than the rest of the rotation… it takes time to get use to a place, and to see what the expectations are. I have 3 different doctors I am under, and each one of them is different than the other. Dr. C, Dr. M and Dr. S. All very nice. I also got to meet the resident and the intern, and they are both great.

Well, besides the first week in family medicine rotations, all is well. Fall is definitely here, most of the days are chilly (at least in my desert influenced eyes), the leaves are slowly turning beautiful shades of red, orange, yellow and brown, and the air smells like rain most days now. I read somewhere (I believe it was in my daily calendar) that fall is like a second spring… each leaf is like a flower. I personally knew fall had officially walked in when I swapped my short PJ’s into long ones, and within a week I needed a sweatshirt to be comfortable during the night temperatures. I suppose the cats feel the difference too, because I find them sleeping on my bed every morning now, they are cuddling up and don’t hurry to wake up.

My weekend definitely flew by. Friday night I came home and pretty much crashed… I was so tired from the week, I just enjoyed going to bed early and getting in a good night sleep. Saturday morning was very fun—I volunteered at the animal shelter for an hour or so, enjoyed the new doggies, and had to run to the library to return some books. When I was there I happened to see Dr. R who was my psychiatry doctor—it was nice seeing him. Then I took the furry bunch to the vet. Oh man, Vega HATES the vet :o) KC of course LOVES the vet. I have such funny pets! They received all of their shots and I finally had them chipped, so if they get lost and then found they can come back to me. I came back home and attempted to take my post-psychiatry test, but for some reason my code did not work… As a result, I then changed my plans, and begun working on my honors paper. I worked on this paper the whole day today. I haven’t written a paper for school in such a long time that it took me a little bit of thinking and planning to come up with something I thought was descent. I still am not happy with it, but I’ll have Omer look at it and fix my grammar, and point to obvious problems. Then I’ll just turn it in, and will start thinking on my next paper.

That’s about sums it up…

Reut

My beautiful cats!

2006-10-03T21:16:00.000-04:00

End of psychiatry rotation.

2006-09-30T17:32:00.000-04:00

09-24-06-->09-30-06

Hello all!

This week has been the last week of psychiatry rotation. It’s amazing how fast this experience has gone by! Besides being exposed to different psychiatric conditions, I have learned a few things I would keep for the rest of my life:
1. Interviewing skills! I started feeling like I conducted the longest H&P in the world, but ended up feeling very confident in interviewing patients and actually enjoying myself a whole lot!
2. Understanding that the more I put in, the more I learn, and the more I enjoy. Not that I didn’t know this before, but… it was so pronounced this time around! I really put in as much as I could in and just loved the learning process.
3. Never underestimating myself or put myself down! This is actually the biggest thing—I don’t want to sound pompous, but what I found was that I know a lot, have great work ethics, have good abilities, and always have room to learn. I will work very hard on keeping that in mind when I encounter situations where I feel like I don’t know anything (which naturally occurs at this state of my education.)

With mom’s encouragement, I made brownies to everyone at the unit. The brownies turned out great, and everyone told me I should sell them and pay for med school that way :o). I told Ronit that the brownies were a family secret from… Ruth Sirkis (for my non-Israeli readers, Ruth Sirkis wrote many excellent cook books that are still used in most Israeli Kitchens). Ronit had a good laugh, and I explained the joke for the rest of the staff and they just looked at me funny. Oh well… To mark the end of my rotation, and the end of the resident’s time at the unit, Doctor R. took us to a nice restaurant yesterday. That was so nice of him!

I have many good things to say about this rotation, and I can definitely say that I have gained a lot from it.

Do you know what my body decided to do on the free weekend I have this week? I have caught an awful cold! I felt quite horrible at work yesterday. I tried not to breath on patients and kept washing my hands like I had OCD. Oh well…I guess it’s the beginning of flu season. It is very gray outside at the moment, and quite chilly. I stepped out with Vega not too long ago and was very happy to have my nice cup of tea with me to drink as I was walking with her. Brrrrrr!

Well, I am going to go make some Matzo Brie for a small get together we are all having—perhaps it’s not traditional to make this for a party, but I didn’t get a chance to buy some potato chips or something of the sort to bring… so they’ll have to deal with trying new food.

Enjoy the week; I’ll give you an update regarding my family rotation next week.

Tzom Kal, VeGmar Chatima Tova,

Reut

I am not discombobulated, honest!

2006-09-23T18:35:00.000-04:00

(mom and dad requested this picture to be put online :o) This is me when I was about 3 years old... I look like KC and Vega, don't I?)
09/17/06-->09/23/06

Hello everyone,

This week went by really fast! I saw a whole lot at work, and had a chance to hang out in Crisis and see more, which is nice. Next week is our last week for this rotation… I really can’t get over on how fast the time has passed. The busier we get in the rotation, the faster it flies by and the more I feel I learn.

The interesting things I seen this week were: another schizoaffective disorder, major depressive disorder and paranoid schizophrenia. It is amazing how our brains work— I am completely in awe.

My interviewing skills are improving. During one of my interviews, my resident came in to observe me. She said it was pretty good—I personally thought I could have done it better, but it was good to get some feedback. I am happy with what I am doing, and it is nice to know that I will only improve from now on.

I don’t know if I mentioned it, but in the psych unit there is an Israeli women working. In any case, for the past 2 weeks the people at work kept telling me about her and saying that I have got to meet her and how nice she is etc. etc. I finally did meet her, and we had a good time talking. She is from Hadera, which is 10 minutes from where we used to live, and she is now married and has a kid. We talked for a while, and it was nice to just chat in Hebrew. She asked me what I was doing for Rosh-Hashanah, and I told her that I had no plan, so she invited me to her in-laws. Therefore, yesterday, I joined a really nice family to celebrate the New Year! I had a good time, and am grateful for their hospitality.

I woke up a bit too late today and chose to go to the animal shelter tomorrow morning instead of today… It was just too comfy in my bed. I attempted to clean my abode, but after lunch I crashed for a long nap. Oh well, I guess my body required some rest.

KC and Vega and doing great—they both got long walks today, and all is good with the world now…

That’s about it for the week— Oh! I suppose I’ll share with you the lovely new word I learned this week: “Discombobulated” It basically means confused, or like the way you feel when you wake up in the morning and you are very disoriented and confused… I suppose it also can mean upset, but this wasn’t the connotation I learned the word in.

There you have it!

Much love,

Reut

PS

2006-09-16T08:47:00.000-04:00

09-16-06

Oh! I completely forgot to tell you about our expedition to Philadelphia!

Last weekend, many of the Kansas City group decided to go to Philadelphia and walk around all the tourist attractions and such… We took the train, which wasn’t too bad, but I would never want to ride on it alone.

We got to Philadelphia and it was probably one of the last warm days of the year. We walked around a bit. We took a peek at the Carpenter’s hall, which was the meeting place of the first continental congress in 1774. Well… it was very musty and smelly inside, but it was still an amazing architecture and interesting reading materials inside.

I then convinced my friends to go see liberty bell with me. They all saw it before and I was the only who did not. They agreed, and we all went there. Security was ridiculous—I am all for security, but it was just a tad too much. Anyways, we went in, and I browsed through all the reading and saw the bell. I really had high expectations for it, and when I saw it, my first thought was… “what’s the big deal… it’s just a bell…” Not too patriotic, I know, but, really, it is just a bell. I realize that it represents freedom and all that, and that it has importance in the patriotic sense, but… I just was not too impressed. (We still took pictures for the heck of it)

Then we met up with some friends and ate in a local market. Now, that was really fun! I truly enjoyed the great conversation and the delicious food. Ice cream for desert, and I was set on coming back to this market again!

After we were done, we rode back home and later met in another friend’s house and had just good time ‘hanging out’… I was quite tired the next day, but it was definitely fun!

Did you know that Barbra Streisand is coming to Philadelphia in the fall? When we were in the city I saw some signs for it. I looked checked out the prices on the internet and was disappointed to find out that even the nose bleeder seats were over my financial ability. I guess I won’t be seeing Streisand in a real live concert. That’s okay… if Queen will be coming to this area again I’ll see them. Last stage news—“Mary Poppins” is opening up on Broadway in October! I’ve been dying to see this show, ever since I’ve seen the UK shorts about it. I will try and get cheap tickets for later on in the season (although I have a feeling after psych rotations I’ll be much busier…)

Well, that’s my addendum for the other entry,

Smooches again!

Reut

Rotations!

2006-09-16T08:28:00.000-04:00

(not the best pictures, but there you have it...)

09-06-06 --> 09-16-06
Hello to all!

It is early on Saturday morning, and any normal person would be still sleeping… I on the other hand drove my friends to the airport early on, and now I am completely and utterly awake, so I am enjoying the rainy sky, and the wonderful morning.

So a whole lot has happened since my last entry. Last I wrote was the night before rotations… I was a bit nervous and excited at the same time, but still managed to sleep well. In the morning, we got to the hospital at around 9AM for what was suppose to be another orientation… well… we didn’t quite have that :o) The doctor saw us and said something on the line of: “um… do you know how to do an H&P?” (H&P means History and Physical). My friend Matt and I told him we could, but have never done it on a real live patient, just on an actor (this wasn’t quite accurate, as we did have score one last year with the kids, but that was more like a screen for them, not a real H&P). In anycase, each of us got two patients and we interviewed them, did the physical examination and wrote up a note… It was very intimidating at first, but now that I’ve been doing this for a whole week and a half, I have to say that it is not intimidating, and that I’ve actually gotten better at it! Very nice.

Due to confidentiality, I cannot give out too much information, but I can tell you that I have seen a lot of alcohol, heroin and cocain dependent patients with withdrawls. I haven’t seen too much ‘real’ psychiatric patients… but of those I have seen, I saw a patient with Schizoaffective disorder, another patient who attempted suicide, and both antisocial and borderline disorders.

Our two other friends (Josh and Erica) are upstairs in the locked unit. They get to see a lot of the mood disorders and the personality disorders. Originally Matt and I were going to request a transfer upstairs, but… I really like my place, and I finally feel like I know what I am doing, so… I am reconsidering my request.

Our resident is just awesome!!! She has to be the nicest person I have ever met; very sweet, smart and helpful. Our Nurse practitioner is also very knowledgeable and nice—I’ve been following her for a little bit just to pick up what I was doing wrong, and what I needed to improve. And of course, our doctor is very nice and knowledgeable.

You know, Queen (the band, not Elizabeth) has a song that really describes my psychiatry rotation…the first line goes like this: “Open up your mind and let me step inside…” This is definitely the theme of psychiatry! (the rest of the song is all about love…)

Well… so that’s what been going on with my rotations. I cannot believe that we have finished half of the first rotation already! That’s amazing!

Vega and KC are doing well… at the moment, Vega is meowing next to the door because she wants to go on a walk. I already took her out this morning, so she’ll have to wait until later on. KC is snoozing on the sofa—he likes the good life.

Smooches from here!

Reut

The night before Rotations

2006-09-05T22:22:00.000-04:00

08-19-->09-05-06

Hello everyone!

I didn’t write for quite a while… but I was quite busy during the past week and a half :o)

I flew home to Arizona! I had such a wonderful time. I really missed everyone and it was a much needed visit.

During the time at home I rested a whole lot, played with Midnight and Sancho, Cooked with mom, attempted to help with dad’s projects, but didn’t really get to do it, and had fun with Omer.

Everything was well until Wednesday of last week… on that day, dad went on a walk with Midi and Sancho, and during the trip, Sancho’s old owner saw sancho and with tears in his eyes and excitement started saying: “Peppito! Peppito!” Sancho was very excited to see Ramondo (his previous owners) and dad didn’t have a choice and had to give Sancho back :o( All of us were crying. We got attached to the little dog! He was truly a unique dog and no other dog will be the same. So… Sancho went back to live on the ranch with the horses… He was excited but kind of confused. I think he might just miss us.

Anyhow, I nagged mom and dad to look at other dogs. I did this mainly because I thought that another dog might fill the hole that was created. We looked at Nessi, Mickey, Rodney, Midnightah (a girl dog who looked just like Midnight), Chocko and lastly Camile.

Much to my surprise Mom and dad decided to get Camile, and so now she is at our house with her new name of Daisy… She is much taller than Sancho, and very scared. During the time I was home, she opened up just a tiny bit and for a moment we saw the real dog who is hiding inside… I just talked to dad today, and he said that she is feeling much more secure now and is working on opening up (and eating the furniture…)

Well… that’s the home adventures.

I came back to NJ on a red eye flight and landed at 5:15am Monday morning. The flight was disgusting, but I’ll spare you the details. I thought I was going to make it through the day, but I fell asleep for a few hours, which was good. For the rest of yesterday, I was walking around feeling very nervous about the beginning of rotations. It’s a big change, and I am both excited and nervous at the same time.

Well, today (Tuesday) we had an orientation which lasted most of the day. It was important to go through the paper work. The best part about today was seeing all of my friends from school! Tomorrow morning I will be starting at the psychiatry rotation—I will be very glad to have that first day over with!

Lastly, big news—I passed the COMLEX! It’s nice to be completely done with it!

Smooches!

Reut

Dad with Sanchito about a month ago...

The newest addition to the family-- Daisy

Bug (not a full entry)

2006-08-24T20:59:00.000-04:00

Not a full entry, just two pictures....

Yesterday Vega and I were walking outside and than out of no where she just flew to the left, trying to catch this bug. She wasn't succesful. Today, I saw this bug again next to my door, thought it was absolutely gorgeous and took some pictures of it.

Enjoy!

Pictures

2006-08-21T20:39:00.000-04:00

Blogger had some problems and wouldn't let me put these pictures online, so... here they are now.

Gorgeous Ms. Vega

Vega is sleeping

More sleeping...

and of course... more sleeping :o)

KC enjoys sleeping as well

Pensive KC

As the famous advertisment goes: "My mate-- Marmite!" I LOVE it!

Marmite on the inside... YUM!

Of DC, Austen and Marmite!

2006-08-18T16:44:00.000-04:00

08-12-06--> 08-18-06

Hello everyone,

This entry does not begin with vacation boredom, but rather with an interesting drive to the wonderful Washington DC. Azadeh’s and Majeed’s wedding reception was not to begin until 7:30, and thus I decided to leave quite late in the day. The ride there was magnificent! It’s amazing how much green the eyes can enjoy in this part of the world… After years of the desert, this is fun. Well, you’d think that since this was my first time in Washington DC, I’d visit all the monuments and all the tourist attractions… nope, not me—I had a mission: get to Azadeh’s reception; nothing else was allowed to stand in the way.

For some reason, Triple A (AAA :o) ) decided to give me a map to go straight through D.C.’s downtown… It probably would have been easier to go around the city on their I-495. That’s okay—I did really well until I got to the suburbs… I got lost within a mile of the hotel and had to call Azadeh to get directions from her sister.

Well, to continue the complications, the hotel did not have my reservation, and I insisted that they had it, and that they needed to find it (they never did)… As I was talking to the receptionist in the hotel, this nice lady came over and told me she overheard me talk about a wedding, and if I was one of Azadeh’s friends. I was so happy to see this lady and her husband. She ended up being Azadeh’s mother’s best friend, and she insisted that I come to their room change to wedding attire, and if I could please, take them to the wedding, as their ride didn’t show up and they were waiting for it for over an hour.

That’s what we did… I changed to my nice clothes in about 3.2 minutes, hastily put makeup on, and managed to forget my camera in their room :o(

The reception was wonderful. I met some of Azadeh’s good friends from Grad school and we talked. I was made to dance by Ana (Azadeh’s sister) and their dad. I had a good time dancing, but I am not very good at it, so it’s not the first thing I’d chose how to do… The food was absolutely wonderful, and Azadeh’s husband is very nice and seems to be quite the gentleman. Their cake was heavenly… white cake with strawberries and rose-water-petal custard on the side.

Then at about 1am the party died down, and I took the nice couple back to their hotel room, where they asked me if I’d mind giving them a ride to the airport at 3:30AM. :o) Naturally I was up for the adventure, and told them that if they are willing to get lost with me on the way there, this was not a problem. We actually got to Dulles airport without a hitch, and I decided to just drive home from there.

I got home fairly early in the morning, and had a good nap for about 3-4 hours, then woke up and attempted to stay awake all day long.

From last week, up to Today (Friday), I’ve been volunteering at the animal shelter. I really enjoy it. I clean cages, do laundry, do dishes, play with the cats and talk to the dogs. This is keeping me busy and my body moving. I don’t think the people in the office thought I’d be back after the first visit, but I kept coming, and I truly enjoy it.

My furry trouble makers are doing good. Vega has been obsessed about the “outside world” She sits next to the door and Meows until I put her harness on attach the leash, and then allow her to take me on a walk. She is really funny, and I am happy that she enjoys the outside. I do admit that her meows ARE at time annoying. But that’s okay.

Two more things before I sign off… I decided to rent a movie and picked “Sense and Sensibility”—a Jane Austen adaptation to the screen by the wonderful Emma Thompson. This has become my new favorite movie (replacing the wonderful ‘Love Actually’)! I watched it twice already, and planning to watch it one more time before I take it back to Blockbuster… This is definitely a chick flick movie, but… Well… that’s Austen for you. I laughed so hard watching this movie. So far my two favorite scenes are the one when Elinor and Marianne together hear the news about Edwards’ prior engagement… and just the breakdown of Elinor afterwards when Marianne dare ask her: “Elinor, where is your heart?” My second favorite scene is when Elinor cries and laughs at the very end hearing the good news. Okay, enough of me spoiling the movie for those who have not seen it yet.

After watching the movie, I got this terrible craving for Marmite. Maybe it was subconsciously watching a British movie that caused all of this. Anyways, Marmite was no where to be found in the local stores, and I started searching it online. Finally I called another store, and they had it!!! So today I drove there and bought my lovely Marmite. When I told my friends that I was craving Marmite, they thought I was insane, but I can’t help it…Well, after two toasts with butter and Marmite, I feel much better!

That is just about the extent of this week.

Ta!

Reut

more pics!

2006-08-13T15:38:00.000-04:00

Because the last post was so long and quite boring, here is a nice short pictorial entry!

That's KC helping me find the way to Washington DC!

Here is Vega in her new favorite place...

Fun!

2006-08-11T23:04:00.000-04:00

08-06--> 08-11-06

Hello everyone!

Well, this week was not as boring, so I am much happier! Well, to be honest, the first 3 days of this week were actually very boring, as I waited for maintenance to come and fix a few more things in my apartment. It was quite annoying to just sit here in the apartment just waiting for them to show up, but I got loads of cleaning done.

On Monday morning, I somehow managed to ‘kill’ my vacuum brush. Originally I thought the belt broke, so I opened it up to fix it and found a melted ‘end cap’ on the brush… so I ventured to the local mall to get a new brush. This is the second or third time I went to that area, but up to this point I never actually entered this Ghost mall… It is pretty much an empty mall, the parking lot is empty and it is really bizarre and weird. In any case, the inside of the mall is not at all bad! I actually enjoyed it! Yes, it has plenty of ‘for rent’ places, but I truly expected a 1973 style mall on the inside and was much surprised!

Later on that day I met with Vega’s and KC’s new pet sitter! Oh, she is wonderful! I am so very happy that the vet recommended her to me. In any case, we chatted a bit and she met the furry-trouble-makers and in all honesty I didn’t think KC was going to greet her, because he is a ‘scardy-cat,’ but… he did! That’s when I knew it will be okay. So now I am feeling much better about leaving them here when I go home, and I’ll give you updates when I come back.

On Tuesday morning I was still waiting for the maintenance people to come, and they didn’t… not too much of a waste of a day, because I did a bunch of reading and some cleaning.

Wednesday morning I talked to the people in the office and asked them to please, please make sure that the maintenance got there that day, and they promised me that they will. Before maintenance got here, my friends Matt and Erica came by-- They have begged me for about a week to buy their microwave from them. I finally agreed to, and so they came in bringing it and also visiting my abode. When they left I cleaned the microwave, and now it looks brand new! The reason for hesitating on buying the microwave originally, was that I don’t use it all that much; I mainly use my toaster. But… now that I have it, I love it.

Finally on Wednesday afternoon, maintenance came, and the guy painted my balcony, fixed the door, fixed something in the bathroom, but because he had a medical condition, he couldn’t paint the wall next to the stove (he couldn’t move the stove). So I told him I understand, and don’t expect him to do it, but that he needed to find someone to do it for him because I just couldn’t possibly be at home for another day. He couldn’t find anyone who’ll do it, so I called the office once again and asked them if they could find someone. They were great, and within the hour, the guy came back with another guy, they moved the stove, painted that wall, and in 10 minutes, all was well.

That night I decided to go on a big walk around my new apartment complex. I figured I needed to know where everything was. In the last leg of the walk, I saw Vega outside. It felt like my heart just dropped-- Why was she out? Did she figure out a way to run out? Did I not shut the door properly? I started calling her, but she wouldn’t come, so I went after her, and then realized that it wasn’t Vega, but a cat that was practically identical to her! Even the little square on the nose! It was a stray kitty. So naturally, I called it and tried to have it follow me—it was interested in me, but not all that much, so I went home, grabbed some kitty food and the carrier and went out to get him. When I got back there, there were two cats instead of the one Vega-look-a-like. So I knew there was no way I could catch them, and I just left them the food.

On Thursday I went to a local animal shelter, because I wanted to volunteer with the animals before I started being busy again. They were happy to have me, and I had a good time doing physical work—washing dog dishes, folding dog laundry, but also loving playing with the kitties in their cat room and playing with one little dog. I stayed for about two hours, and then headed home again. When I got back home, I made sure to take a shower straight away so my cats wouldn’t get any bug from there, and then I realized my carpets smelled really funky. OY! For now I am just using ‘fabreez’, but if this doesn’t get better, I’ll have to get maintenance here again.

Today, I visited Triple A, because tomorrow I will be driving to Washington DC for my friend Azadeh’s wedding reception (they had a small wedding about a month ago, and now they are doing to big reception for all their friends). It is so exciting! I can’t wait to see her, her family and her husband whom I never met!

After Triple A, I ventured to the Bank, and then to CVS. I am starting to learn where everything is now, but it is still really confusing! The roads are all curvy and twisted here, and I am definitely not used to it… (I love Phoenix’s logical grid!)

In the afternoon I returned to the animal shelter and volunteered there for two hours or so—I did a lot of the same things I did yesterday. It was good. I am planning to keep doing this until I go home in two weeks, and then once rotations start, I really hope to do it once a week if I could, just for an hour or two. We’ll see… By the way, my friends laughed so hard when I told them I am volunteering at the shelter, and they all have a bet going that by the time December comes I’ll have another animal at my house. And they are right, it is very hard for me to go there and not want to take the animals home with me. I have fallen in love with a little cat that doesn’t have eye lids—she is so sweet! I hope someone adopts her soon. I have also fallen in love with a big orange cat… and all the dogs… But, the idea here is to help them by volunteering, not adopting at the moment :o)

All and all, I have been fairly good about doing psychology readings in the morning. It’s only thirty minutes, which is nothing in comparison to the hours and hours of readings I was doing a month or two ago, but, since I’m on vacation, this is the minimum I thought was needed.

Vega and KC have been going outside on a leash. I know it sounds funny—a cat on a leash… But in my old apartment complex we had a big hall where I felt quite safe with them not being on a leash (I was always with them, naturally). Here, with all the open outdoors and wooded area, I am very scared to let them out without a leash. On the first few tries it actually went okay, with them being just minimally terrified, but now they don’t quite like it too much any more. We had a breakthrough tonight though! Vega sat next to the door and asked to go out, and so I put her harness and leash on and we went out. She knew exactly how to go down to the bottom floor, and then she went to the grass and ate some grass! She got really scared when she saw a neighbor’s dog through their glass door, and so she ran up the flight of stairs really fast, and because I wasn’t going fast enough, she was pulled back and fell down a bit (she is completely okay, don’t worry). She is something else that cat! I still can’t get over how she knew exactly how to get down and then how to come up to the correct apartment again! KC got taken outside my apartment without really wanting to, and he just sniffed around and then asked to be let back in.

Well, besides the weather being absolutely gorgeous and the fact that at the moment it is colder here at night than it is during the winter day time in Phoenix (which is just way too cool!) that is basically it…

Have a good weekend!

Reut

Boredom does not suit me well...

2006-08-05T08:27:00.000-04:00

07-31-->08-05-06
Hello everyone!

Wow… you wouldn’t believe how bored I got here this week!!! I have not been bored in more than three or four years… this was definitely not welcomed by myself, and I did all I could to cope with it :o)

On Monday morning I woke up fairly early and had to give R. who is our contact person for the hospital some paperwork. So I drove over there and started looking for her. I ended up finding her without any trouble and she was very surprised I came in person instead of mailing it… Well, in all honesty at that point I still didn’t know where the mail drop box was, and so it was easier to drive it there.

Then I came back home and I had nothing to do. OH NO!!! I sat here for about an hour contemplating what to do, and then I decided that on my small vacation I deserve to watch some movies on my computer DVD. Aha! I knew where blockbuster was, I saw it a few days prior when Omer was still here, and so I drove there. EWWW that blockbuster complex smells like very bad men’s cologne. Blah!!! In any case I plug my nose and moved in and then ended up watching many movies this week:

-Mean girls (because Omer told me it’s funny)
Bridget Jones’s Diary 2 (because I wanted to see it when it came out to the theatre, but I had school)
-Pride and Prejudice (The new version… very lovely!)
-Unfinished life (Was recommended to me by Dorothy, I think. It was okay)
-Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio (I really liked it!)
-On a Clear Day (not the Barbra Streisand version, a new completely different story—very fun!)
-The Christmas with the Kranks (so-so, I got annoyed with it)
-The producers (will see it today before noon)

Don’t worry, I didn’t see them all at once, but this is still a major amount of movies to have watched in one week… probably more than all the movies I watched this whole year total!

On Tuesday afternoon I completed the damage report to the apartment, and brought it to the office—they told me they’ll fix most of it on Friday. That day, Lori called me and told me she was going to be in Wayne NJ on Wednesday and Thursday, and if I was interested in driving there to see them. Well, originally I refused, because I really didn’t want to get lost trying to get there, but after a little thought about the matter I realized that I might just die of boredom, and that getting lost while driving to see my good friend was a good activity!

And so on Thursday morning (very, very early) I left and drove. When I plotted the map the previous day, I didn’t realize I’ll be driving through Newark, and so when I started going through the city my first thought was… “Oh no! I DON’T want to get lost in NYC!” But I didn’t! Surprisingly, I made it all the way to the hotel without a hitch. When I thought I got lost I called them, only to divert my eyes to the left and realize that their hotel was right next to the place I parked at!

Seeing Lori and her dad was so much fun!
I haven’t seen her in about 6 years and have missed her so so much!!! We had so much to talk about, and so the time passed really fast, and when it was time to drive back home I was very sad. I hope I’ll get to see her again soon! Surprisingly, the way home was also very simple and easy, and in no time I made it home and back to my lovely kitties.

On Friday I talked to my folks, and we decided I had to come home. I was worried about not finding a sitter or a kennel for my cats (because the end of my time there would be a holiday weekend (Labor Day)) but we decided to buy the tickets and just look for a sitter later.

In any case, the whole of yesterday I was calling around to different cat-sitters and different kennels. I still haven’t managed to talk to too many of them, but got a great recommendation by the local vet and so I hope these two sisters will reply to me today (I both left a message and wrote an email to them)… I really want to go home, but I must have someone to watch over my babies, and it would be so much better if they could stay at home instead of sit in a cage for a week!

Today (Saturday) started fairly early when KC nibbled on my toes telling me it’s time to feed them… so I have and since then I’ve been doing laundry, loading the dishwasher, and getting ready to watch the last movie I have, and then… Well… I’ve decided I needed to study a bit. As I’m starting with Psych, I’ll start reading this material.

Hooray!

Well, off I go!
Love,

Reut
PS-- I now know where the mail drop box is...

The move...

2006-07-30T23:02:00.000-04:00

July 14th--> July 30, 2006

Hello everyone!

I just got my new cable services, so I am finally able to make an entry and add an entry to the “chronicles” :o)

So after a long tiring week I am finally all moved in to my new apartment. It definitely has been loads of hard work, but well worth it…

Summer session ended on Thursday the 20th. After class in the morning we had a quiz, and then later on a farewell party. Oh my, the food was excellent!!! I just love cheese! The party was real fun, it was nice to see everyone for one last time. Later on that day, I went to help Dr. K with a research project she is working on. She needed people to help her with her wording of the questions—I did just that, it was fun. For all the help, she gave us a small gift certificate at Barnes and Noble, and I decided to give it to Omer.

On Friday I went with Vega and KC to Dr. K (a different Dr. K) the veterinarian. I got some calming medications for the cats (which we ended up not using), one last check up for Vega and weighing for KC. Dr. K said they were both nice and healthy and ready for the move.

On Friday night I continued packing, and did just that on Saturday. On Sunday Omer flew in, and I picked him up at the airport, stopped to get some food for home and enjoyed a small lunch at ‘Applebees.’ Omer was excited about helping me with the move, but was worried about his cat allergies. As it turned out, the Benadryl worked great, but sure made him sleepy.

On Monday morning, I showed Omer around my school and said last goodbyes to the wonderful Dr. Cole and Dorothy. At around 10am we went to get the rental truck. …then we couldn’t avoid it anylonger… we had to work…

OY! Packing wasn’t too bad, but fitting everything into the truck (in essence playing “Tetris” in the real world), lifting and carrying was pretty hectic. We got almost everything in, and had a few leftovers for Tuesday morning. We were both tired and fell asleep really fast.

On Tuesday morning (my move out day) we got up at about 6am to finish the last moving bits… Well, it is amazing how the few little things I had left took us over three hours to finish fitting into the truck. By 10:00 I was ready to check out, and so we put the cats into their carrier (they were most unhappy by it, and the minute I opened the carrier door to give them some water they ran straight back into the now-empty apartment.

In anycase, we finished my walk-through with one of the people from the front office, and I promised them I’ll come say hi during graduation week in two years… Then I went downstairs to the loading-dock, put the cats in the car, said goodbye to Sasha, Phuc and Vivien who were all standing there, and took off.

On the first day of drive we drove all the way to Indianapolis. The drive was easy, but long, and when we got to our hotel, we were both pretty tired. That night, the cats decided to hide under the hotel beds.

The next morning, Omer and I had a nice breakfast (gotta love motel waffles!), we managed to get the cats from under the bed and then took off again, driving across gorgeous Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania (we were in that state for a really long time) and finally, New Jersey. We found our hotel, but this time around the hotel were smart and put a surrounding area around the bed to prevent any pets from going under the beds… Well… that didn’t work too well, because KC found a small hole and hid under the bed again.

Well, this time we decided to go to a nearby restaurant, which happened to be Applebees again… We were both tired of sandwiches and snacks. When we came back to the room, we convinced KC to come out. When he came out he brought with him a big ball of human hair…. EWWWWW!!! GROSS!!! Omer threw it away and I was revolted. Blah! Well, we then managed to block the hole and KC had no choice but to join Vega in the room.

Both of the cats did extremely well on this trip. They did not need any calming medications. KC sat in the small litter box I put in, and Vega sat on top of the upper shelf I built for them. They meowed only when the calming sound of Jim Dale reading “Harry Potter and the Half Blooded Prince” ceased. I did not mind listening to Harry Potter on a CD all the way to NJ, and the ‘Furry Bunch’ needed that noise to calm them down.

The next morning I moved to my new apartment, and this was the hardest day of the whole trip!!! Although my electricity was working, the apartment was very very hot and the air conditioning was not working properly. With 97 degrees outside and about 100% humidity, I thought I was literally going to melt. It was horrid.

We got everything put into the apartment (that was much easier than fitting everything into the truck), and then we started cleaning and building. Omer built my bed while I was cleaning the bathroom. Both Omer and I had flushed faces, and we were just miserable! I couldn’t hold the frustration down anymore and shed a few tears—Omer was quite abashed by my ‘girly’ behavior, and I had to explain that this is how I take my frustration out. But all in all, during the moving in day I just wanted to go back to my very bad neighborhood in Kansas City! I really did not want to clean other people’s dirt.

I don’t know about you, but if the dirt is mine, I don’t mind it, but if it is someone elses… well… I hate it and have to clean very thoroughly. And so I did…

The next morning we continued… I cleaned the kitchen, which was just awful… someone had a food explosion in there, and I cleaned every last bit of it. During that time, Omer was putting together my living room and computer area. By the end of the day we had put almost everything in place. I still had a few boxes that needed to be put in place, and a few more small cleaning projects, but overall, the place looked definitely livable. Before dinner we drove down to my new hospital and I got very excited about it. It is one of the rotation sites where we will end up at. It is fairly close to my place, which is nice… We ended up eating in Olive Garden again… we both like Italian dishes. Then we decided to drive up to the mall and were quite disturbed to see a ‘dying mall’… basically, no cars, very few open stores… very scary!

The next morning, Omer and I drove to the airport, and I said a sad goodbye to my brother who has been just wonderful during this move! Then he went on his flight and I drove back home… I was amazed I did not get lost and then I continued with my cleaning projects.

Today (Sunday), I finally finished all that was needed to be done. All the dirt is now mine (well… hopefully), everything is put away and any mess that I have here is mine! This is much better!!!

I actually enjoy living in the suburbs… it is nice! And now my apartment looks really nice and it feels like home again. My cats are not in hiding any longer, and are actually playing, which is just great. Overall, this wasn’t too bad!

Well… That is it for now.

I hope you all had a great two weeks—
I’ll write soon later,

Love,

Reut

From here on, these are new entries.

2006-07-22T02:25:00.000-04:00

Wow... transfering the blog portion of the old website took a long time... I had to fiddle around with the spacing until I got it right.

Anyhow, this tiny post is just a separation of the old postings from the new ones.

Well, it is getting way too late at the moment, so I am off to bed,

I'll write a real entry tomorrow.

Night!

Reut