Lots of Things on My Mind

Let me introduce you to Elphie Mo:

No, Ryan and I did not get another cat. Gotcha!! Elphie Mo is one of the cats Ryan and I saved from our bon fire at Ryan's parent's house nearly two and a half years ago.  We rescued Elphie Mo and her three siblings when they were tiny, tiny.

From bottle feeding...

...to finally drinking out of the bowl

See. Tiny, tiny. I wasn't lying. We bottle fed them and slowly started adopting them out. Mo {as we initially named Elphie} really grew on Ryan and I. We adopted out her three other siblings and were set to keep her. We weren't super thrilled about adding a third cat to our liter but we only wanted good homes for these little guys that we had vested so much time in. So, Mo was ours. Then along came the M family {gotta kept people's identity somewhat private on this little 'ol blog of mine on the big world wide web - ha!}. Melissa and George were friends with our neighbors who happened to be out of town on vacation. We also happened to get huge snow storm #548 of the winter. Since our snow blower didn't blow snow very well, the neighbors had told us if we had a big snow storm when they were gone, we could use there big snow blower. Perfect. Big snowstorm, neighbors permission to use their snowblower, we had the keys to the neighbors house and the snowblower - things were falling into place perfectly! Except, when we went into the neighbors garage, the car was blocking in the snow blower - what?!?!? There were no car keys to be found and there was no getting that snow blower out of the garage without moving the car. Well, to make an already long story short, Melissa had taken our neighbors to the airport in their car and decided since a snow storm was in the works, she would park their car back in their garage and keep it covered instead of parking it on the street at her house. Are you still with me? Anyways, by some miracle, our neighbors received Ryan's text message plea for help, called Melissa and George who then came over to move the neighbors car. So, Melissa and George, not even knowing who we were, came to out door to let us know they were moving the neighbor's car. We started chatting. Zoey, Cooper and Mo all came to greet them at the door. Turns out Melissa and George are cat lovers too! They had three kids and two cats. Turns out, the cats sort of showed preference for their older two and so they were thinking about getting a third cat for their youngest for Christmas. Anyways, again, to make a long story short, they ended up going home with Mo that night as a Christmas present for their son! I was so happy and heartbroken at the same time because I had become so attached to Mo. They ended up naming her Elphie but kept Mo as her middle name to keep her roots :) Elphie Mo ended up with the perfect family and we couldn't have been happier with how everything turns out. {Seriously, do things not happen for a reason or what?! Snow storm, neighbors on vacation, snow blower stuck in neighbors garage, neighbors get text while out of the country, neighbor's friends show up at house and adopt little Mo.} Ryan and I occasionally stopped by Melissa and George's house for visitation {because that's what adoptive cat parents do - ha!} and Melissa also keeps us updated via texts {hence the picture of Elphie Mo chilling in their bathroom sink}.

So anyways, what does this all have to do with what's on my mind? Well, tonight after getting home from a complete blah day at work, I decided to walk down the block in the cold to get the mail since I figured there would be some Christmas greetings inside that would help cheer me up. Well, we got a Christmas card from Elphie Mo's adoptive family. It melted my heart and definitely helped cheer me up. It's the little things in life that make things worth it!

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Let's see what else is on my mind. My current state of being a resident. Ugh, some days I just want it to stop. I want residency and everything associated with it to just stop. Here are a few reasons why:

#1) The Dreaded Pager
I would be such a happy person if I never had to hear my pager go off again - ever! No joke. I cannot put it in writing just how maddening a tiny little beeper can literally drive a normal person absolutely insane.  Honestly, it is relentless sometimes. I have dreams of throwing the pager against the wall and rejoicing as it busts into a thousand pieces {not really, but I think I might enjoy that dream - ha!} Several {nearly a hundred and that's not an over-estimate} times per day I have to remind myself that the people paging me don't know that several other people are simultaneously paging me. Sometimes, we'll get two additional pages as you are returning the first. So I take a deep breath, pick up the phone, let the big breath out, dial the number and say "Hi, this is Dr. Thorson returning a page" in the most calm and collected voice possible. On my normal rotations, the pager usually isn't that bad {key word: usually}. On my current off-service rotation, carrying the pager is awful. Awful, awful, awful. Us residents joke {likely as a form of therapy} about the stupid pager and how it drives us into complete insanity on a daily basis.  {*deep breath* This is only temporary. This is only temporary. ha!} Oh well, here's to many more years of pager insanity to come!

#2) Awkward Moments
I don't know what it up recently, but I've been having several awkward moments lately. Twice in the past week, I've been stopped by people {one walking out of the hospital after a 28 hour shift and the other in the cafeteria} "Hey Dr. Thorson, you delivered my baby!" And then I have to scramble and go on damage/image control as I have no idea who they are which makes me feel bad.  I love what I do, I just wish that I could remember every couple I help deliver their child. And that's what's hard about residency. Since I don't have my "own" patients necessarily, I end up meeting people for the first time and then deliver their baby shortly after. I just can't wait until residency is done and I have my "own" patients. I usually have one or two of these awkward encounters a month so to have two in one week is a little much. {I could elaborate further about other awkward moments that get old, but I'll spare everyone the ho-hum details} Here's to several more awkward moments in the years to come!

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This is on the flip side of my awkward moments. When I was a first year medical student, I participated in an OB elective. We were paired up with an expecting mom and went to their OB check ups with them and then got to be at their delivery. I got paired with the best expectant mom in the world. She was so laid back and wonderful to work with.  {I think it's important to note, I had never even seen a delivery prior to this. Must have made a big impact on me because look at where I am now.} Anyways, we've kept in touch over the past five years. An email here, an email there, Christmas cards, birthday party invites, an occassional get-together when I'm up north etc.  Well this past week, she found me on facebook! I can't believe how big her kids are getting. It's so good reconnecting in a more main-stream facebook kind of way.

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There are several other things on my mind like the recent school shooting in CT. {Whose mind is it not on, I mean, really, come on.} My heart literally breaks for everyone involved - those families of all the little kids, those adults that were killed trying to help save other kids, the family of the shooter, the shooter himself.... I can't even imagine being in any of their shoes. Awful. There is no other way to describe it. What is this world coming to?! What happened to the days of kid getting to be carefree? Ugh, I think about the way things have progressed since I was a little kid and worry about what this world is going to be like when I have kids. It's a very scary/concerning thought.

~Ashley