We know where we're heading this summer!!!!

It’s been a while so we’re due for an update! So much news to share! Let’s start with where we’re heading! We made a decision and are going to……

SALT LAKE CITY!!!

for the next 3 years for my Peds GI fellowship! I loved San Diego and Denver’s programs too, but they’re definitely more research-oriented and I want to see patients and work clinically for my whole career…. Research is part of every fellowship but the typical setup is 2 years of research and only 1 year of clinical training, which I was not psyched about, and Salt Lake is such a busy program that I’ll get the opportunity to do tons of procedures and they’re willing to work with me to help me develop a good research project and once I finish that can focus more on clinical stuff for the rest of my fellowship (their planned split is 18 months for each, which is great). The people were definitely a better fit for me too. I got to meet the other fellow they’ve selected to start this summer and he’s great, as are all their staff. It really felt like a great place for us to go and somewhere I feel I’ll fit in and love working!

The other huge bonus of Salt Lake is definitely that we’ll have family and friends so close! Bob’s brother Jared lives in Provo and his sister Jen and her husband Jap and their kids (Mady, Brooklyn, and Jay) live in Pocatello, the Lloyds (one of Bob’s best friends growing up and his wife and son) live in Layton, our friends Kate and Kirk live in Salt Lake and are both training at Primary Childrens (they were both 3^rd year residents in my program when I was an intern, and now they’re doing pediatric critical care and peds cardio fellowships there), and we know people from everywhere we’ve lived that have friends or family here so hopefully we’ll have lots of visitors! Great snowboarding, ~300 days of sun a year, affordable housing, and we get to stay West and somewhat close to home. We’re really looking forward to it!

We are definitely getting sad about leaving here too—we try not to think about it! That’s always hard… we hate leaving friends with every move, but are grateful for all the fun we’ve had along the way! We also love our house and will be sad to leave it… We’re hoping to sell but will rent it out if we don’t get a great offer… a house in our neighborhood just sold for a LOT more than expected though, so that definitely helps drive up the comps and improve our chances!

While we're in SLC we saw the Jeppsens, Lloyds, Jared, and even Bob's Grandma Zellma who was down for a visit! We saw Kate and Kirk a few times too so it was a great trip--Bob was just there for the weekend and I was only there 2 more days, so it was quick, but we made the most of it!!

As usual, these are somewhat out of order, but here goes...

This is an awesome wood craft store Jen wanted to go to--I bought these HOME letters--every month you change out the O for a different symbol for the holiday. How cute is that? There's a turkey for Thanksgiving, the mitten for winter, a ladybug, a sun, flower, etc. Who knows when I'll get around to decorating them, but super-fun.

We went to the Children's Museum with the Jeppsens and the girls loved this helicopter, until I pushed the start button and it made very realistic noises and they really thought it was going to take off!

These blocks were sooo awesome. I don't remember what they were called, but we were thinking we'd buy some for the girls at the gift shop but they were ridiculously priced! Like $75 for a medium sized box.... they were awesome though--they had magnets inside of them so you could really make all sorts of cool shapes!

Brooklyn in her boat

More cute stuff at the woodcraft store

The girls and Grandma Zellma!

Bob and Jay!

The girls--Jen, Brookly, Mady, and me (and a handicap sign!)

Bob and I by the temple

In other news, the Poteets came to visit last weekend and we had so much fun! They were only here for a short time but it was so nice to have them as always! We made gnocchi and the boys played lots of Wii Fit together and Mario and we just loved every second with them! Wish we could be neighbors, but that will still have to wait a bit longer… some day! Maybe when I’m out of the Army? Or they could just follow us around… J

We played kickball for morning report at work this week and had a great time! When was the last time you got to play kickball? My friend Bethany said she saw a GIANT kickball at Toys R Us this week, so I should have bought one of those and it could have been even more awesome, but we had a great time!

In slightly less good news… I took a tumble at basketball. I’m totally fine, but a little banged up. I play in a girls bball group Wed nights and have loved it—it’s seriously one of the biggest highlights of every week for me, but this week it resulted in a trip to the ER. I got a rebound and was out ahead for a moment on the fast break, but someone came from the side trying to steal the ball and unfortunately her foot took out both of mine while I was running and I bit it hardcore…. I flew forward and landed on both knees, my left hip, and my left hand, but still was moving…. My head just barely hit the floor and bounced up, but it was at a bad spot and I split the skin over my left eyebrow wide open. Yikes. Lots of blood, and I was definitely a little scared—it was a big fall and knocked my breath out of me, but I remember thinking, that wasn’t so bad, until I took my hand away from my head and it was covered in blood. I made a big puddle of blood because your head just bleeds so much! Somehow I didn’t get any on my shirt though, so I consider that a small victory. The other girls thought fast and were so sweet to me. Nobody was sicked out by my blood and they just got me ice and gauze and towels right away. It didn’t hurt that much, but the ice and pressure definitely stopped the bleeding quickly, so I really wasn’t dripping by the time Bob got there to take me to the ER. They cleaned up the floor so he wouldn’t see the big pool of blood when he got there and we didn’t wait long at the ER, so that was nice. I definitely questioned all of their assessments that I definitely needed stitches, but when I pulled down the mirror in the car I couldn’t question it anymore! It was definitely ugly. Steri-strips would not be sufficient! I was thinking the cleanout of the wound was really going to kill, and ditto for the local, but it wasn’t bad at all! They put LET on it when they first brought me back (topical numbing cream) and then I didn’t feel it at all when they were scrubbing it up, and it was still numb when he started injecting the local, so I didn’t feel the poke at all, but just the burn of the medicine which only lasted a second each time. I felt the cold of the needle with each stitch, but not the poke, and could feel the pulling, but it felt weird, not painful. So weird to be a patient! I was not a snobby doctor and did not demand plastics to repair it—it was a very straight lac that as not deep, but just wide, so not a complicated repair. It doesn’t go through the eyebrow, so it won’t be a terrible scar. The ER intern did it, after his attending assured me she’d supervise him and he told me he’d done lots already by this time in the year, and really, it’s Feb, so in 4 months he’ll be a 2^nd year, and ER terns do tons of suturing, so I wasn’t worried. Besides, we all learn somewhere, and if no one let me do anything when I was an intern, how would I learn? He did a great job and was very meticulous. I get my stitches out tomorrow which will be great because those little strings draw a lot of attention! Every patient and parent I see questions what happened and if they don’t ask right away they don’t hear anything I say because they’re just studying the wound the whole time and thinking about what it could be! I now have a better understanding of what it’s like to be a patient and hopefully it will help me be a better doctor. I always try to remember to explain everything I’m doing, even when the parent is a physician too, and they all did a good job of doing that for Bob and I, although obviously this wasn’t a complicated visit. I definitely have headaches and some sore bruises and floor burns, but feel a little better each day, or I did until this horrible cold hit yesterday!

These are graphic, so if you're grossed out by blood, look away!!!

Here's the lovely spatter I showed up to the ER with--my ear was the grossest--I had turned on my side to keep it from going in my eye after it happened and so blood pooled in my ear and was all crusted! Not to mention my poor hair... See what I mean about the ice though? It slowed down the bleeding and it was pretty clotted when we got there.

7 Stitches later I'm good as new! When they irrigated it it really cleaned up my hair and ear too.. Bonus!

This is today--fading bruise/classy eye shadow. Looking good!

my poor knee has really been hurting. Can't imagine why. This was my first point of impact. Nice that you can see some other scars too, huh? Makes me look tough! (Or clumsy!)

This is my floorburn on my hand--it hurts pretty bad too--way more than my head! I hit it on everything...

Sorry those are yucky pictures to end on! We hope you’re all well and haven’t been hit by any bad viruses lately! Our ward is full of RSV kiddos right now…. Dang that virus! Wash your hands meticulously! And hope you all enjoy your Sunday!

In the background is a mama koala holding her baby--a much better pic to end on, right? :)

~Cathy