Mmmmmm...Chocolate Covered Bacon

Here in Minnesota, two weeks are set aside for the state fair. Many of you have been to your own state fair, but you honestly have not lived if you haven't attended the Minnesota State Fair. The Minnesota State Fair is the largest fair in the United States and people travel from all over to come see. The fair is infamous for Fried Food. When I say fried food, I don't mean French Fries or Fried Chicken. I mean fried food like Fried Cheesecake, Fried Sloppy Joes, Fried Snickers...you get the idea. Anything you can imagine fried can be found at the fair...literally. We have been told that food vendors wait about 20 years to sell at the fair. Last year, we went to the State Fair and were overwhelmed with everything. This year we couldn't wait, definitely one of the best times of the year here in Minnesota.

We went with our good friends the Roses yesterday. We had such a great time. During our afternoon smorgasbord, we consumed the following items:

• Deep fried Cheese Curds




• Greek Gyro




• Deep Fried Pickles (Thomas is holding the pickles...)
  




• Nitro Ice Cream (like nothing you've ever tasted)




• Fresh Squeezed Lemonade




• Fudge Puppy




• Chocolate-Covered Bacon




• Deep Fried Snickers Candy Bar

As you can see, we aimed for the low-fat foods. It was a great day. We had so much fun.

Pazzaluna

Last weekend was a happy time in my life: I finished surgery! I am done with surgery rotations forever! It feels pretty amazing. If you weren't able to tell from my previous posts, surgery was not my favorite. I'm happy as a clam!

Last Saturday we went out to celebrate my 26th birthday. (26 sounds a little old. . . I'm no longer in my early twenties. . . I'm closer to 30 than 20. . . But I'm still young!!) So my mom came up and the three of us went out to eat at Pazzaluna. Pazzaluna is an "urban Italian" restaurant located in downtown St. Paul. I had heard good things about it from friends so I was really excited to try it.

Well the food was amazing, except for John's rare steak coming out well done then coming back cold! And the desserts were great as well. It was fun to spend relaxed, stress-free, surgery-free time with my mom and my hubs! Here are a few pictures from the night!

Our yummy food!

John & Me

My mom & me!

and just me.

Thanks madre for the yummy dinner!!

Brynn - My Cute Cute Cute Niece

Sorry for the delay, here are some pics of my cute cute great niece Brynn. I had so much fun shooting her. She volunteered to be my helper. Everytime I asked Brynn to do something, she enthusiastically would say "Yeah!" She made me laugh the whole time. What a cutie! She is like a teenage trapped in a little kids body. She is so smart! Here are some of the pics. If you would like to see more of my children photography. I updated the Children's gallery in my website.

I officially have the cutest great-nephew in the world!

While in Utah, I was took lots of pictures of my family. It was so great to see everyone. The newest edition to our family is my great-nephew Shawn. Yes...that's right my great nephew! He's only 3 months old and has the cutest chubby cheeks in the world! Thanks Tonya for letting me capture these:

Amanda - Senior Shoot

I was lucky enough to take my little niece's Senior pictures while I was in Utah. Here is a sample...more can be viewed on my photoblog http://johnsharpephotography.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday Wifey!!!!

Hey Babe,

I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday! Sorry I'm not there...I promise I will make it up to you! I hope you have a great day! Thanks for being the best decision I have ever made!

Love,
Hubs

Stop and Smell the Roses

I've been in Utah this weekend and took some pics from my mom's flower garden. I will post more about my time week in later, but here are some photos from today:

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

Well, I survived another week of surgery and I only have one more to go! This week we got two new interns added to our team. They are so nice and actually say thank you when we help out. It's been an amazing difference this week. I wish they had been here the whole rotation.

Last time I was on call I brought my camera to take a few pictures around the VA! The quality is obviously not like the pictures John takes.

"The Medical Student Workroom."

Actually, this is a computer room that is used by many people and we often get kicked out. When we are not in the OR, clinic, or on the floor, we spend a considerable amount of time in this narrow room. Yup, those are CRT monitors; I also thought they were extinct. And those chairs are as uncomforable as they look. But anything feels great after you've been standing for forever in the OR.

"The On-Call Room."

This is where all those wonderful sleep-overs at the VA take place. Now don't be fooled, the bed is not as comfortable as it appears. Really, there are springs all over the place. I just had my last on-call shift last night. . . I won't miss this bed!

The Autovalet.

Oh how I love and hate you! When I did my rotation at the university, they use nice machines that resemble big vending machines to distribute scrubs, but of course the VA doesn't have anything that nice, they have the Autovalet. When you swipe your card you hear the machine start working as it scurries through the back room to find your size scrubs on the conveyor belt. I would compare it to a dry cleaning business conveyor system. On the left side of the picture you can see a long slit... that is where you reach your hand in to grab the hanging scrubs. The metal handle on the right is for depositing your dirty scrubs. Now as ghetto and deafening as this machine is, I wouldn't really complain except it has NEVER (not in 5 weeks) given me the size I ask for. I have finally given up and just wear the large bottoms and xsmall top it often gives me. I can say I have learned patience from my many experiences with this machine.

And of course the stats for this week:

Week 5

• Total Hours: only 62 (My second weekend off in a row!)
• Most consecutive Hours worked: 30.25
• Number of times I was yelled at: 0 (I was told numerous times before I started this rotation to be prepared to get yelled at. I have been lucky.)
• Number of days at the hospital: 30 out of 33.
• Surgeries: Axillary lymph node excision, Inguinal hernia repair, lipoma excision, lap cholecystectomy.

Next week will be crazy. We have our oral exams on Monday, practical exam on Tuesday, and the Shelf exam on Friday. I am terrified and so unprepared. But at least the end is near!

A Side Note: I got my PPD (tuberculosis skin test) this week. The first night I had a 2cm red, raised mark. I knew that it was nothing since it takes approximately 48 hours for a positive test to show, but I still had this fear in the back of my mind. I don't want to take INH for 9 months! And of course when I had it read yesterday, there was no mark and I was TB free!

Weeks 3 & 4

I've been so busy I didn't have time to post last week's stats! So here's the last two weeks...

Week 3:
I was on the colorectal (CR) surgery service this week. The attendings and fellow I worked with were great. One attending had many great proctologist jokes.

Total Hours: 84
Most consecutive Hours worked: 27.0
Number of times I was yelled at: still 0; THANK GOODNESS!
Number of days at the hospital: 20 out of 21 possible.
Surgeries: None - unfortunately the CR service only operates on Tuesdays and we have lecture and labs at the University on Tuesday. So no surgery for me. . .
Cool procedures I did: Nothing really. No surgeries and no procedures. I just had a bunch of clinic and rounding.

Here's a link to the colorectal surgeon song. The clip is less than 3 minutes and well worth it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N0w2rORwSc

Week 4:
After spending 2 weeks in the surgical specialties I wasn't looking foward to returning to general surgery. However, this week was probably the best week of my rotation so far.

Total Hours: only 67.5 (This will be my first weekend that I have both Friday and Saturday off. I finally had a call night during the week.)
Most consecutive Hours worked: 30.5
Number of times I was yelled at: 0
Number of days at the hospital: 25 out of 26. (After working 26 days with only one day off, I am looking forward to this weekend!)
Surgeries: Hemicolectomy, melanoma excision x 2, exploratory laparoscopy, spigellian hernia repair, lipoma excision, recurrent retroperitoneal sarcoma excision.
Cool things I did: I Diagnosed a pneumothorax! Yeah, it was the highlight of my week. During my physical exam of my patient I notice he had subcutaneous emphysema (aka air under the skin). The intern told me it was no big deal but I brought it up during rounds anyway. Well the chief resident thought it was worth getting a chest xray and he had a small pneumothorax. My patient called it "Emily's bubble" because I was the only one that found it!