New Blog

A while back I started a side blog. I have no idea why. This blog was always more Spencer's than mine, since he started it and all. You can check it out here if you have any interest. We'll probably keep up with this still from time to time when interesting things happen. Until then, happy reading.

Way Too Tired for Blogging

With Spencer in the throws of 3rd year and me too tired from trying to do all that I do and pick up the slack this blog has all but fallen by the wayside. However, I am hopeful that once we are through this OB rotation things will get better. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Time Management

We have had a very busy summer. July was full of vacations and travel. I think I was on 10 different planes if you include all the transfers we did. We went to visit my parents, went to southern California with Spencer's family for some fun at the beach, and I went with some friends to Dallas for a BeautiControl conference.

August has been somewhat different. We've finally had a taste of what "doctor life" will be like. As Spencer previously mentioned, he is in the throws of his first rotation: anesthesia. He is loving it! He even got some positive recognition for a case he worked last Monday from the head of the course. Being at the bottom of the food chain though means some long hours and early mornings. That Monday he went in before 7am and came home after 7pm. Yikes!

I am working hard at my day job and hard on my business. So between the two of us, we are pretty busy. Compound that with a broken alternator and dead car battery and we have entered the lovely new world of better time management. That being said, there have been some changes. I am working harder to get my business up and going which means making calls, doing spas, and helping people get their own businesses up an running. My desire to work the business in combination with a $500 gas bill meant giving up my membership at the WAC. Oh well. Such is life. It's good though because I have more time to be with Spencer, more time to make dinner, and more time to work BeautiControl.

Rotation: Day 1

Today was my first day at the hospital on my RPM rotation. That's Resuscitative and Perioperative Medicine, or in short, anesthesia. I arrived at the hospital nice and early this morning and followed the regular employees into the building. I had no idea where I was going. I eventually found my way to the Anesthesia Department and was told where to change into scrubs. I met up with my other 2 junior medical students and hung out in the anesthesia resident's work room. I was then assigned to a resident who was doing two MAC cases (Monitored Anesthesia Care). Basically this means that we were not going to put our patient to sleep, but rather give them enough pain killers to not notice the invasive procedure they were going to undergo but still be responsive and able to respond to commands. We had no complications today and I learned a lot about anesthesia. Tomorrow I am planning on being in some general anesthesia cases.

London

Some of you may have noticed that we stopped posting on day 3 of our London trip. We got tired. Suffice it to say that the trip was wonderful, I threatened to stay in the UK, and after traveling for 24 hours we made it home. We have more pictures, but they are on the other laptop. Spencer will post them soon. In other news, I am heading to Lincoln, NE next week and last week I had my first chair massage!

London Day 3

We have had a long and productive day here in London and visited multiple sites. We started by waking up and going to Westminster Abbey as it opened. We then went to the Churchill Museum and Churchill War Rooms which was very interesting. We then went to see if there were half-price tickets to a play that evening. There were and we purchased tickets to see Les Miserables in the evening. We then went to the British Museum and viewed the large collections of historical items. We started with Ancient Egypt, moved on to Assyria, and then to Greece. We viewed a few other items before moving onto the British Library. Inside the British Library there is a collection of historical books and documents including one of the four remaining copies of the magna carta. We then had dinner at wagamama, a modern asian noodle house which was delicious. We then saw Les Miserables at the theatre it has been at for the last 20-something years. It was a great production and we enjoyed it greatly. Megan and I are worn out and are going straight to bed. Pictures will come later. Good Night.

London, Day 1/2

We have arrived safe and sound in London and have already been enjoying the sights. Our trip began with our friends driving us into Chicago and dropping us off with plenty of time to spare at the O'Hare Airport. We checked in, received our boarding passes and went to the United boarding gate. With only a few minutes before boarding they asked for volunteers to go on a flight 45 minutes later on British Airways. Megan and I volunteered and at the last minute they sent us off to British Airways. Well, when we arrived at British Airways they denied us seats and sent us back to United. Now we had no boarding passes and no flights for the evening. We went to the only United personnel we could find, the baggage claim office. There we met a wonderful woman who was kind enough to call the supervisor of our original flight. Luckily, our original flight was delayed as the plane was broken! They decided to replace the plane with a plane that was 10 seats larger. They gave us seats in the Business Class seats and we were off (at 1 AM CDT). BTW, business class is one of the best ways to fly international red eye flights. We arrived shortly after 1 PM in London.

We reclaimed our bags and took the Tube to Trafalgar Square where our hotel was. There was a large St. Patricks Day celebration on the square and we had to navigate through the sea of people to our hotel. Once there we cleaned up and got ready to go out for dinner. We began walking up the streets near our hotel and decided on a pub, the Brewmaster. Megan and I ordered some good food and enjoyed the cozy pub. We then took the tube to the London Eye, a large ride that took us high into the evening sky for great views of the London skyline. We are tired after just this half day and are going to get a good night's rest to prepare for another busy day tomorrow.

Pictures:

New Job

I recently had the opportunity to go to a "spa" party hosted by one of my friends here in Wisconsin. It featured a great product line called BeautiControl. I loved the products so much that I decided to become an independent consultant. I am now available to do SpaEscape parties which are a great way to relax and try products in the comfort of home. I also have a website. Check it out at www.beautipage.com/meganetrussell. Be sure to take the online skin care e-profile, which will help you determine which skin care routine and speciality solutions are best for you. I am also available to help with any questions you may have. Ask me about it!

Happy New Year!

Some pictures from our New Years celebration. I happened to be at home this time when I posted :) Enjoy!


The evening started with a friendly game of poker.

Everyone indulged on chocolate and sparkling grape juice.

The crackers were noisy and fun!

Spencer took the liberty of decorating. I think it looks rather nice.

Kiss at the stroke of midnight--aren't timer great?

We had a great evening!



Spencer and I head off to London on Saturday for spring break!! We are bringing the camera and hope to use it. ;)

More on the weather....

I know I write about the weather a lot out here, but it's on my mind a lot because it's been so cold! At any rate, the other day it was about 40 degrees (which is saying a lot since I don't think it had been above freezing since at least November) and I thought it felt warm. In fact, I ran errands in a knee-length skirt without insanely thick wool tights and I didn't even get chilly. My coat was almost too warm. The other thing I've noticed is that when I wake up and check the temperature is if it's 10+ degrees I usually think something like, "oh, it's only 12 degrees. That's not so bad," and then I skip grabbing that extra sweater or pair of gloves and instead of wrapping my head so only my eyes show I just grab a simple scarf and hat. Funny how when you've been forced to walk to work when it's -40, 10 just doesn't seem that bad. I do have one thing to say though: I want to do residency in Florida! or Hawaii!!