Brittany-Los Angeles: March 2009

Hey fam! I made bread yesterday and it's super yummy. I ate way too much. But honestly, who can resist warm-fresh baked HOME-MADE bread?! I know for a fact that NO Maughan could. We live bread. Bread is life!

Basically--Brad and I are seeing how much things we can make on our own. So far we have mastered bread, hummus, guacamole, and fresh juices. (All--staples). Next...corn chips :) Brad and I also have a goal---we have "goal BMI's" (body mass index--it helps determine if you are considered underweight/overweight/obese/or within normal weight). And we have goal weights. SO we weight ourselves every so often, we've added more exercise, and we eat really healthy foods. (Who woulda thought weight loss could be so easy!)

So.. I'll keep ya updated on our progress. I think I've made a pretty good impact on bradley. He's currently "VEGAN" (vegetarian with no animal products--including eggs and milk--and sometimes even honey). It's great. I used to have to portion out our meals--but now we're pretty good at sticking to the good stuff, with good portions (except warm baked homemade bread!)

Anyway.. I thought I'd share my bread pictures :)

Temple during x-mas

Why am I so bad at this BLOG thing? Well if I logically think about it... I have some pretty good reasons.. (or excuses)

-I work 12-13 hr days at the hospital.
-my computer took a dump--it crashed--losing EVERYTHING.
-And I'm just bad at this blog thing

So currently, I'm here at my house, just dropped B-money off at LAX...and I'm feeling slightly queasy from too much mexican food--so why not blog! :) And it's foggy out..otherwise I'd be basking in the sun.

I thought I'd do an overview of the past few months/rotations--since I haven't blogged since November?! (wow).

Foodservice--I finished it! yes! It was a pain.. but it's over. No more plating thousands of cookies, waking up at 4am, cooking with no measuring cups, creating menus for no reason, and dealing with the worst scheduling mis-haps!!! yes! BUT good things--I loved the people. And now I get free sweets and foods I shouldn't eat from the chef. :) Benefits of foodservice first.

ORTHO-My first rotation. NOT too exciting, but I did see a stab pt (who got stabbed on Valentines day.. :( ...) and my first TB patient.....and a severe case of AIDS/Cancer. Loved the preceptor. Overall--good first rotation. PLUS.. it turns out, I actually like clinical (who would have thought?!) AND I got called Doctor a few times.. ha ha ha..(and of course, I didn't correct them!)

CARDIOLOGY-Kinda freaked me out. I'm definitely going back home to get the parents in shape!!! And anyone reading this...PLEASE take care of your heart! (if you need help, ask me!). Got to see lots of post heart attack patients, congestive heart failure patients, and by-pass patients. And one really sweet patient who referred me to some great restaurants in LA. :)

NEUROLOGY-Absolutely LOVED this rotation. Not to mention my preceptor is the sweetest woman, who's other ambition in life was to be a jazz pianist--needless to say... we had lots to talk about :) Got to participate in rounds! (just like the TV shows!). It was pretty intimidating... since I had to answer to this Dr, who reminded me of an older Jim Carrey, and who could make you feel pretty stupid, if he wanted to. One day, we were waiting for the nurse to present the patient--she was taking too long, so he said "Brittany--can you tell me the diagnosis of this patient?"... I freaked out..."ummm, his head!?" ha ha ha (he had this HUGE bandage on his head, with one leg flailing in the air)..."On his left side, most likely paralyzed on his right side"....etc... it was pretty funny. You had to be there. :) Was exposed to lots of head trauma, comatose patients, paraplegic patients...pretty sad. But really made me appreciate my consciousness. :)

DIABETES-SO I thought I knew everything there was to know about Diabetes (DM), so going into this rotation.. I was like-- I know this!...boy was I wrong. DM is a little more complicated then I thought, especially when it comes to insulin dosing. So it helped me develop a great understanding of why patients aren't as compliant, and why it's more difficult sometimes.. plus my preceptor was a great teacher. Overall... great rotation. Saw lots of patients with out of control blood sugars, with pending amputations, and vascular problems--overall--very sick patients. :(

RENAL-(Kidney disease patients)-I was really scared to do this rotation. Basically when the kidneys have problems--A LOT can go wrong. (Your kidneys filter your blood, and balance your fluids and electrolytes, and balance hormones) SO a lot of nutrition needs to be applied--individualized to each case. Saw a lot of very SICK patients (what's new?!). But I made it through, and really like it. AND learned a lot. PLUS... I had a really cool story---I noticed this patient was LDS... so I kinda took a little more "personal" interest into his case. Turns out he has cancer :( So I'm doing my best to help him out (he's been unable to eat for days!!--can you imagine?!) So I just spent a little extra time chatting... finally upon my next visits with him---I saw a BofM on his table... so I finally put it out there--and told him, I know this isn't professional, but I'm LDS too! :) SO I think he's a little happier--to know he has someone he can relate to--someone on his side. :) You can feel depressed and unimportant as a patient---doctors are just trying to fix you, and get you out. So other than being a clinical waitress (taking food orders.. lol) and a dietitian, I'm a psychologist--providing counseling. Anyway... it was kind of a cool experience.

NEXT TO COME...
-Oncology
-Surgery UNIT
-Burn UNIT
-Out Patient
-Medical ICU
-Pediatrics

So... blogs are pretty lame without photos.. SO I'll post whatever photos I do have. :)