Bad news

Well, this week has been a great week for school and home. But at school, the theme seems to have been "bad news." Anywhere from giving bad news or watching a video depicting the families who were struggling with a child with cancer or just learning about different cancers and learning where we are and where we are not.

But yesterday turned out to be a very interesting and at point, wonderful, day. First, our class got out at 10, which is always amazing. Then we had free BCM lunch of pizza, coke (no lemonade like usual) and a wide variety of little debbie cakes. I was on cloud nine! Then a couple of us practiced our EarNoseThroat exam (ENT). Next I had to go to FLG (faciliated learning group). I normally have FLG on Wednesday but for some reason, was studying in the core lab and fell asleep (not very comfortable down there) and slept through my entire FLG group! Yea, I know, it was crazy! So I went to FLG group on Thursday and I got to be the one to practice telling my patient that they had just been diagnosed with CML or chronic myeloid leukemia. It was an incredible experience. I even got the guy to break character and laugh at the end of it.

It was interesting because different aspects where more difficult that I would have imagined, like simply saying the words you have chronic myeloid leukemia. It was easy to encourage him but hard to the encouragement bounce off of him as one aspect after another continued to swirl in his mind. It was easy to reassure him that I knew that this was not the worst diagnosis and he would have at least 10 more years of carrying on life as he had been, but extremely difficult to see him not believe those words. So, it was definitely a learning experience, but one that left me thinking, I could do this. I want to be there for these people when they have to hear these kinds of things. I want to have the privilege to hold their hand through one of the most difficult times of their lives even to their deaths.

So this week has been very enlightening to me. Like Dr. Marion said (an amazing oncologist), our field is not depressing but is an absolute privilege to be able to do what we do. Everyone has to die at sometime, we are able to be with them so that none of our patients have to do it alone. How amazing is that man? I can't think of anyone else I could want as my doctor if I were suffering with cancer.

Then, Roger's last day was yesterday. I was sleeping on the couch and Roger came in and asked: Do you want sushi? Music to my ears!!! :) very very happy. Had a great talk, then went for sushi. Roger said he met with Warren Jackson (music minister at Church at Red River) and Warren asked him to go to a conference in Atlanta next week, do a bunch of videos for their Christmas production and possibly join the staff part time in January to help them gain some technological ground. How amazing is that??? God is so good. Also, the people at Highlifter were so excited about what Roger has been able to do that they guaranteed that they would call him and give him some contract work (we'll see what happens but what a compliment!!).

Then, on top of all that!! We got a text from Bro. Randy asking if we were interested in his GPS/bluetooth system. We said yes, then got word that it was a mass text and first come first serve (first text actually) and we were first!!!! (Rick was 5th, hahaha) too funny. Who knew fast texting would come in so handy?! And Bro. Randy won't let us pay him for it! I felt like we won the lottery last night. So we'll try to compensate him with technology, websites, free hosting etc in the future.

And even on top of that.... We had 2 new episodes of Chuck to watch last night!! How amazing was my day!! It don't get much better than this.

Bad news now is that we're not going home for the weekend. But that doesn't change my weekend much except not studying in a car. I can't wait to see everyone but we're still not sure when that will be. But until then I'll try to keep you posted. Email me and let me know how you are doing!! I miss hearing from everyone.

Love you and miss you terribly.

-A

Venipuncture

Sorry it's been so long. Meant to write sooner but also trying to keep up with lectures. Had an absolutely wonderful time learning venipuncture on Tuesday. Now, I know that this is not a pleasant experience to get your blood drawn or to stick someone else with a needle, at least not for normal people. But what's normal, really?

I was smart and paired with a girl that has great veins and has also done this before. It still hurt a little but it wasn't bad. The coolest part is knowing that I might now be at drawing blood from someone but if in a pinch, I can get the job done. It is amazingly refreshing to be taught one of our first hands on skills. We've learned some exam skills but most of us feel like we don't know what those findings will tell us, we just know if something is normal or abnormal. Our differentials for abnormalities I am sure are laughable. But then again, I don't know enough to know if they are laughable or not! :)

So, it's a learning process, but I am thrilled to know that I could draw someone's blood if the time came where it was necessary. No, I haven't been told to practice this skill at home and do not have needles and tubes to place the blood in at the house waiting for the next time you visit. So don't worry. I will not be drawing your blood, I promise. Unless your life depended on it and I pray that doesn't happen for both our sakes! :)

Well, I have to get back to studying. It is amazing how much we change from first to second year medical school. Case in point: I don't see anything wrong with me being at the library on a Saturday night studying hard for our Monday exam. I am actually happy and well rested and content. My how things have changed!

I love you all and miss you. Can't wait to see y'all again, although not sure when that will be. On to learning about leukemia and lymphoma and multiple myeloma, oh my!!

Outlive your life by Max Lucado

This is a book I must highly recommend. Roger and I are both reading it right now. Let me know if you want to borrow it after we are done. It is incredible how encouraging it is.

I first heard about the book on KLOVE. They mentioned that they would be reading it the entire month of September. They even provide the first chapter of the book on their website for you to read to see if you'll like it! I read it, then decided to tell Roger about it...I think it would have been faster for him to read it himself then all the talking I did to try and explain what he was saying! :) but I was really excited about it and Roger was too.

The basic premise of the book is to live a life that will continue to impact other after you're gone. Yes, he words it so much better than I just did and it's not morbid at all but very very encouraging. One thing I really liked about it, is that you can impact people long after you are gone by doing things that you already love to do. Most books like this refer solely to evangelism. Whereas, Max Lucado's book refers more to loving people. It's a subtle difference but it takes the focus off: you should, and puts it more on Christ and letting his love for us overflow into others.

We are only on Chapter 3 right now. I'll keep you updated. Would highly recommend that you read it for yourself or get your church library to pick it up! If you start it, let me know what you think!

Beach retreat!

It's been a while since I've been here to let everyone know how the Craig's are doing. As you all know, Micro (or the worst course of medical school) is over!! I am so excited to be in a new section (hematology and lymphatics). From here on out, I believe that the majority of the courses are 4 weeks long with a test every two weeks!! Yea for weekends!!

Roger and I had an absolutely wonderful time at Galveston on Saturday. The people we went with really knew how to set up for a day at the beach. I don't think that there was one thing that wasn't there that I thought should have been. And there were a ton of things there that I would have never thought about! They had a table piled high with food a tent, a dedicated blanket for the floor to store all of the stuff on so it wouldn't be in the sand. I was very impressed. Absolutely loved getting to talk to my sister!!! :) I am actually about to go get some books ready to mail to her. Roger had a lot of fun but ended up looking like a lobster. Bethany was never so happy to give up her throne of lobster queen! He looks a lot better today.

In case you didn't know, I get to learn to stick people tomorrow! There are a lot of people from the hospital going to come in and teach us how to draw blood. It should be a lot of fun. We paired up and we get to draw each others blood. We will even take a smear and look at our own blood under the microscope in order to see what is normal (if we are all normal, that is! :) Then they will do a lipid profile and we will get to see our cholesterol and learn during the next block (Cardio) all about those numbers and what they mean! not really looking forward to learning my cholesterol. I definitely am for the ignorance is bliss part of this argument. But I am going to be good and try to remember to fast tomorrow (our session is from 11:00-12:30) so not sure i'll make it. this girl likes to eat!!

I'll write tomorrow and let you know how that goes. I hope everyone is well. Sorry we didn't get to see everyone when we were down. We had three couples on our list that we didn't get to go see. But we got in from galveston at 2 am and decided to take it easy and sleep in. We look forward to seeing everyone soon! We love you so much.

almost done!!

hey,

it's been awhile. have been pretty busy these past couple of weeks. Trying to study and then trying to also have somewhat of a life during the breaks. So, here's the updates:

Molly: desperately in need of some play time. Her play time lately has been watching daddy sweat over the deck, and watching her mommy watch her daddy and dance around singing "sitting on the dock of the bay" over and over b/c she can't remember the rest of the song.

Feiona: no one really cares about the poor cat. but she's gotten more playful, especially in the morning. I got her a string that she loves to play with and she does this funny thing with her butt (sticks it up in the air and wiggles it back and forth) before she jumps to catch the string. it's really pretty funny. so we've been doing hunting exercises in hopes of building up her kill count.

sidenote: roger saw a mouse come out onto the room yesterday while we were taking a break outside. Molly saw it and really wished she could jump that high (based on the look of her face, no, she didn't "say" anything). and i had feiona turned the other way and was petting her so she missed it. but we're working with her. She's a slow learner (as are all cats).

Roger: is doing amazing work!!! The picture of the new deck are on facebook. He did all that in three days!! how incredible is that?! so incredible proud of him. He was pretty sweaty and nasty though!! Which was yet another inspiration to do that 5 loads of clothes that have been needing to be done. They are still not put up yet but they at least are clean and laid out in piles on the floor. also they are making great barriers for our sneak attack cat to hide behind before she pounces on her unsuspecting prey (mostly my stack of notes/note cares/pens/alarm clock/etc).

Me: I'm boring as always, studying. but had a great time spending time with Roger working on the deck. It was great to be outside and use my muscles a little bit (but just a little, don't want to get too carried away or anything!)

OK, that's it for now. Now it's time to get some hard-core studying done. Look forward to seeing everyone soon!

Thrift store inspiration

Don't know if y'all saw this on Yahoo a couple of days ago, but thought it was incredible! Very inspirational! I haven't fully read her story, but the basic premise is that she lost her job and decided to (or had to) stop spending money on clothing. So instead of giving up clothes for the next year, she decided to take thrift store finds ($1 a piece) and modify them to something she would wear. She always shows you what she starts with and how it ends up. She is making 365 dresses from 365 dollars. So incredible.

Now that is inspiration for any thrift store girl! and you know i like to be thrifty (or just plain cheap).

http://newdressaday.wordpress.com/

one day.... one day I will do this. can't wait to have time to get my sewing machine out again. already have one pattern cut and waiting to go. one day...

Re-learning Kindergarden Lessons

This past week has been a huge growing experience for me. Last week was very difficult. It seems that to join in a conversation at school you have to be complaining about something because that is all we talk about right now. No one scan talk about TV shows or going home or anything else for that matter because no one has any time. So we talk about the one things that we are all focused on: micro and how much it sucks.

Well, joining in on this little ritual was very costly for me. Everything got worse because of it. And, therefore I had more to complain about. And the cycle continues. I know that this is old news, everyone knows how this works but I don't think I have ever experienced it to this degree. You see, as a result of my decision on find the negative, that's all I found. I ate poorly because, "What's the point?" I didn't want to study and procrastinated worse than normal (which is a lot!) because "it doesn't matter, and I don't care anymore." To sum it all up, my anxiety level went through the roof and my energy level and mood went through the floor. It seems that during micro, everything is amplified and this was a prime example .

So, in the middle of this week, I made a change. I began to just thank God for who He is because I was having trouble finding things to be thankful for. Each day since then, I find more and more things to be thankful for. I remember all the ways that I am bless each and every day. I also learn these viruses and am thankful that I will not personally experience most of these viruses. These will not be my daily battle as they will be for some.

It is amazing the simple concepts that take so long to sink in. So, this week, I am on the battle of the mind. I can stay positive because my God is positive. I can quote scripture and know that it is true and that it does matter. It matters the most! So, as I am unable to attend church yet again (and I truly truly miss worshiping to the music and during the sermon), I'll have my own church service here for now. Enjoy your Sunday.

Crazy craziness

Well, micro is officially in full swing. Not like, is underway and everyone is in a groove. More like we're in a boxing match and micro is currently swinging away and landing punches that just seem utterly repetitive and unending kind of way. I would say that it's not that bad but I don't want to lie. So I'll just chalk it up to a tough week. We are basically back in biochemistry: how a virus enters the cell, via what mechanism, how it replicates, etc etc. They tell us that this is important because if we understand the virus and the differences between the virus and our cells we can manipulate that information to make a vaccine. One problem with that justification: the only MD that makes a vaccine is the one that also has the letters PhD also behind his/her name. So our teachers are officially full of bull and no longer trying to hide it.

This block is by far the toughest that we've been through. I know we are on week 5. Everyone, including myself, is simply exhausted. It's hard to try and care about your grade and to find the motivation to try harder when you keep getting thrown curve balls. The "hard" teacher gives straight-forward (but very detailed) questions and the easy going, laid back teachers who "tell you what was going to be on the test" completely screw you over. Such is life.

But there is some good news to all of this. We're all healthy over here. We're not suffering from any of the viruses, parasites or bacteria that we are studying about. I have my husband here instead of Iraq and I don't have a happy baby that likes to play at 2:30 every morning. There is a lot going on and it's hard to remind myself that I do have a lot to be thankful for. It's so easy to complain, especially when that is what everyone else is doing too. But I've been getting better sleep lately which is a God-send, although I still feel like I could sleep for a week. I have an incredible husband who supports me and fixes me food and talks me through my crazy spells. (haha, you should have seen the check out lady at the grocery last night, she must have thought I was drunk or high...i was simply exhausted, funny funny moments).

So, I have a huge request to ask of all of you. Please send a funny story, a joke, something that makes you laugh. Just need to get my mind off of things and be reminded that there is a world that I will be able to rejoin in 19 days! If you don't want to post something here, send me an email. I'll be anxiously waiting to see what is going on with everyone, what everyone is doing during the day. Any exciting news or just the every day.

To lift my spirits some, and hopefully yours I'll share a little bit about my quiet time these past two days. I've never been more on my face in my entire life as I have been these past two days. Really feeling like I don't know how I am going to go on because I physically don't have the strength. I thought about Paul's verse, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. This verse is anything but a cliche to me right now. When I don't feel like I have the strength to look at another piece of junk that I'll never need to know again in my entire life, he gives me the strength. It is with his strength that I can get up each morning because the fear of missing class has long since left me. When the fear of failure has disappeared in the face of exhaustion, it is ONLY through his strength that I am able to have a smile on my face (besides the one that comes with delirium...which, by the way, is always a medical emergency until proven otherwise, in case you wanted to know).

So, if you are having a rough week like I am, think about that verse in a new way. Not the way the stranger tells it to you while having absolutely no idea what you are going through and simply throwing a bible verse at you. Think about it in the way Paul must have meant it. It was through God's strength that he was aroused back to consciousness after having been beaten to a pulp by rocks thrown as hard as possible at his head. It was His strength that he used to physically pull himself up, emotionally put himself back together, and to continue to walk down a path were he knew it would happen again (which to me is the most amazing part) because he knew he couldn't do anything else.

Well, I apologize for the grim tone of this post, but it helps me to get out there what I'm going through. My pride has kept me miserable for this long, thinking that I could handle this. so, i sit here humbled once again into having to say that I can't handle it.

Well, I think we are turning in early for the night. Please say an extra prayer for us as we face what's ahead, whatever it may be. God only knows (really).

It's Sunday

Micro has put me on the strangest schedule. I hate Friday afternoons and love Mondays. Not sure it gets any weirder than that!!

We had a great visit in Lake Charles. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any good studying done so we had to come back early. Haven't been feeling great (not horrible, just not right), so that has added to the stress a little on trying to get something done. If you could see me now, i am trying to type a million letters per minute so I can hurry and leave and head to the library and start studying. But to study you have to slow down or else it is a colossal waste of time.

Well, I truly appreciate all the prayers. I need the more now that ever! We had some great visits while we were down on passions, what do you with your time and how to make wise decisions about the future. It was interesting how everyone had a different take on everything. Roger and I talked the entire way back to Shreveport about our dreams, were we want to settle down, what we want to do, when to start trying for children. It was amazing just to dream together about all the possiblities. We are young and have a whole life ahead of us. I can't wait to see what is going to happen.

But for now, it's to the library for me. Pray for me that I am able to soak up all this information and learn everything they have to tell me. It is truly fascinating, and if time would permit, this the study of microbes would truly be a lot more enjoyable! :)

Love you all and am so glad I got to see most of you. It is going to make these next three weeks that much easier.

love always,

Anna

It is Tuesday, right??

I am trying to write every day on my blog. I am finding it to be incredibly therapeutic to have some place to get my thoughts together and keep in touch with everyone. School is getting hard, not the course work, just the ability to find motivation. Everyone at school is getting pretty tired. The jokes are become more morbid; such as:

1 how are you

2 eghhhh

1 yea, we all want to jump off the [8 story building] too

and:

"After that test, I just want to go home and cry"

"Hey! How great would it be for one of us broke down in the middle of the test and started sobbing!! That would be awesome!"

You can't see it, but this makes me laugh. We all feel the same way, and we're all tired but we at least have each other. It pretty funny being this tired. It definitely brings you closer together with your other classmates. This block is bordering on torture and we are all in it together. Everyone shares their struggles that they are going through outside of school. Some seems completely unbearable to me. One girl got married in January, spent 3 days with her new husband only to ship him off for his 2nd tour of Afghanistan. Her husband also just moved to a new part of the base where he no longer has skype (or any private internet) and they don't talk but 5 minutes a day on the phone (while he sits in a public area). I don't know how she does it, she's just amazing. She also is doing all this after having lost her faith in God's goodness. She could use your prayers.

Well, I guess that's about all for today. Not much more to say. Gotta go learn my parasites for today. But don't worry about me after reading this. It's incredible the mood you get into after going through this. It's like taking a 24 hour car ride or staying up all night to do something you have to do. You know it'll end, but you're going to go a little nutty in the process. (Colora--do) You just hope there is no permanent damage! Hahaha. (yea... i might stay this way). And at the end, you are rewarded with know that you have gotten through the worse block of these two years and survived!

Looking forward to the light at the end of the tunnel! Really hoping it's not a train! :)

Love you all and thank you for the prayers.

inspiration versus motivation

What is the difference (to you) between inspiration and motivation?

Please comment and let me know what you think. I was talking to someone at church this past Sunday and he gave me his take on the matter. It got me thinking. So, what do you think?

I'll post later what Mr. Lance said.

and you thought engineers were bad...

Test 3 was not fun at all and was pretty tricky. Our professors love to ask minute details that are only relevant to someone studying that organism in a lab whom the powers that be only let out once a year to lecture to medical students. Some of our professors are the definition of a nerdy stereotype. Their jokes are beyond bad. They are not even groan worthy as they have to be announces.

Ex. We're not sure about the sexual reproduction this class of fungi. Some group of people are sitting around in a lab trying to see if they have sex (as oppose to asexual organisms)...that was suppose to be a joke.

...maybe the microbe thought it was funny. I don't know. I can just assume that these guys are so brilliant that they don't let them out of the lab very often! And they are brilliant. They are make some of the major medical advancements in their respective fields. They just haven't updated their wardrobe since the 80s!

New kitchen??

There comes a time in every study period where your brain will turn to mush. That time happened on Saturday afternoon. Roger had been home from work for 2 days and was feeling better but not great. Molly was neglected from both of her parents being occupied and my brain refused to absorb any forms of information, including what I was trying to eat for a snack. So, it was at this moment that we all piled in the car for a ride. Where to? The road. We drove around all over the city, going no where in particular. We did need milk from the grocery store but that seems the one thing that we didn't get on our trip.

To tell you the state of my brain, I volunteered to go to Lowes to look at cabinets and didn't even think to ask for my usual payment of a DQ blizzard!! Shocking, I know!

We looked at their kitchen cabinet options and priced out the cheapest decent kitchen we could put together including new appliances. We were surprised to find some prebuilt cabinets already assembled at Lowes that were a very decent price. The unstained ones were by far the best price. So, this is the direction we are leaning towards for now.

After this, we came home and measured out the kitchen and Roger plugged the values into a program on the Lowe's website. Here is what we came up with.

Our fridge would stay and go in the corner and we would get a smaller stove (than they made in the 50s) and put a small cabinet to the right of it to cover the side of the stove. Molly loves to run around the corner while I'm pulling something out of the oven and it makes me really nervous.
We thought it might be nice to leave that far wall open, without cabinets because any cabinets would cover the window (which we would need to shorten). Still not sure on that idea, we're playing with a few different options.

Behind the wall is the laundry room which will just stay with the existing shelves. Isn't it so neat that the computer put light coming in from there because of the window! so cool.
And here is the view from the back door looking at the dining room doorway. That is a lot of counter space!! We are still up in the air about whether to put in a microwave with the vent over the stove. There is plenty of space for it on the counters but it would be nicer over the stove. Still a toss up right now.

We found some cheap ceramic floor at Lowe's for under 1$ a square foot that we'll probably go with for the floors. We think that there are hard wood floors under the linoleum but would cost 3$ a square foot to redo. It would look great, but ceramic will be fine and much cheaper if we do it our selves.

So this is our prospective kitchen. I reasoned out that I was still studying while working on the kitchen layout. I was studying the environment that bacteria and mold/fungi like to live! Yea, it's a stretch, I know.

So, what do you think? Everyone has their preferences on kitchens and we want to make a good decision on the layout, etc so that someone will eventually want to buy this house for lots of money! Love you all!

Complete H&P

So I did my first H& P today on a real patient. It went amazing only because my M.D. is very easy going and wants us to get the most out of this experience while understanding the current load that we are under. So, Dr. Grier is an ER doctor who works part time in the ICU. She is amazing and her patients love her.

She assigned a my patient who she had admitted to the hospital from the ER for a severe asthma attack that require intubation. It was a very enlightening experience. In our report we have to say who the historian is and if they are reliable or not. Dr. Grier asked me what I thought. I said that she was completely reliable. Well...the patient claimed that she had an asthma attack after smoking a cigarette on Saturday. Her lungs continued to get worse until she began vomiting on Tuesday and had to be rushed to the ER and intubated. For the most part, she was truthful. The only snare is that she was smoking crack instead of a cigarette. So, according to the drug test, the patient was not reliable.

But the most interesting thing about the case that I learned was not about the patient or about medicine. It was about me. When that woman came into the ER, no one cared what had happened to get her into her current situation or whose fault it was. No one cared her race, her economic status or her political views. The only thing anyone was focused on was saving this woman's life. The moment she entered the ER, she was a human being whose body was failing to function.

So many times, in all areas of life, we look at people based on stereotypes. This is not a horrible trait, this is the way we were made. Stereotyping is our way of classifying data in an effecient matter. If we know that one red stove is hot and you should not touch it, you stereotype all red stoves as hot. The evil in stereotypes is not that they exist but it what our stereotypes are.

From this experience and from medical school in general I am learning some valuable lessons:

1. everyone suffers their own battles. everyone is suffering from something. our bodies have ways of adapting to our environment but very very few of us have absolutely no health problems whatsoever. so cute everyone some slack, you have no idea what they are going through.

2. everyone has experiences in their past. we can complain about these experiences as some do or learn from them and become wiser from them, as we see in others we admire.

3. the most important thing that I am oh-so-slowing getting in my thick skull is that not everyone is like me and that is a good thing. Not everyone will think the way I think or vote the way I vote. That doesn't make them any less amazing. I also cannot expect everyone to have the same morals and values that I do. The lady today did crack cocaine and has never had a job. She is lost and looking for something in her life. She's not a bad person. She's a lost person who needs help. Non-Christian people probably will not have Christian values. And if they do, what do they need Christ for?

We all need a Savior. We are all fearfully and wonderfully created. And we all have an incredible amount to offer. The lady in the ICU bed that I spoke with was one of the most easy going, fun loving people. Open hearted and encouraging me, we laughed together as I ask about every manner of her life.

A patient has to trust you for you to treat them. I cannot judge the person while I am trying to treat them. I can alway judge actions as right or wrong, but never ever people. As the bumper sticker says: Even God waits till the end of a person's life to judge.

Ward History and Physical

I do my first Ward H&P tomorrow. That means that I go see my M.D. that I've been assigned. Then, I go meet with an actual patient on the wards. I interview them and get their entire medical history. That means everything!!

What are they in the hospital for and that entire history

What other medical problems do they have and an entire history of each of these.

Their past surgical history, their family history, who they live with, what they do, do they drink? do they have sex with men/women/both? do they use any street drugs, then list everyone that I can think of.

Then a full musculoskeletal and neurological work up with vital signs (since that is all they have taught us how to do).

So basically this will be the most extensive work-up this patient has ever had. Then we get graded on a verbal and written presentation. So...pretty nervous about all of this. I have done all this before an a standardized patient (or mock patient) who knew I didn't know what I was doing. But this is the first time on an actual patient who will view me as a doctor (so they tell me). It's pretty scary thinking that I'll have someone's life in my hands one day. But this is the best way to learn. I plan on making the most of this experience. I just hope I remember to ask everything!

Wish me luck!

Wild Wednesday

This is more of a place to update my friends and family on what is going on in our day-to-day lives. Being in medical school and studying all the time means that I don't have much variety in my life, but I'm OK with that, as long as there is an end date.

Yesterday was kinda fun and a little different. I was struggling to study and stay focused. Roger came home at 5:30 and we were suppose to be at a spouses dinner for the first years at 6. The dinner is for first year married couples to meet with second year married couples to get advice, encouragement and contacts. Well, Roger came home sounding like James Earl Jones, his throat sore and not feeling well, so we decided to stay home instead.

Immediately, being the doctor-in-training that I am, I set up a recovery schedule for the night. We sat and talked about his day and just anything until 6:00. At that time I went and made us eggs in a basket (multiple ways so i could get the hang of it) and waffles. It took me a while to get the hang of eggs over easy, especially the over part. Molly got the first egg and didn't complain at all that I had broken the yoke. Then Roger and I ate our wonderful breakfast for dinner.

Next on the agenda was to watch two shows on hulu. Since we had already watched the new Burn Notice, it was Covert Affairs and an episode of The Good Guys. After that, Roger was to relax for the next hour and a half, not doing anything. His options were to take a bath or play on the computer. He complied with my request, only because he didn't want to fight his doctor. I spent that time studying. We both went to bed at 9:30 and both got some much needed sleep. Even Molly was hard to wake up this morning.

I told Roger that he had to call into work today so that he could rest and get better. He has not yet received his doctor release to go back to work tomorrow. Although I have enjoyed his new deep voice, making him say all kinds of fun things, from radio commentary to television commercials, I want him to feel good again. But with any cold, it's simply a process of waiting it out.

Well, that's all the excitement for now. I have a day full of studying today and a real patient to interview tomorrow, so I have to brush up on my exam skills. adios.