Spring Break 2011 = New Car!!

Chi Bath!

Baths are so trying.

Glove and Gown

I am in the middle of the Women's Health module. However, this past Thursday evening we headed over to Tuality Hospital which is on campus for an OR experience. We got to scrub in, glove and gown, and check out a general surgery and laproscopic OR set-up.

Me in the middle, feeling groovy

In the laproscopic OR, the nurses had set up a simulation for us using the camera with one hand and a grippy graspy thing in the other hand to try and retrieve a toy. In my case it was a rubber spider. I hate spiders. I was saying "I hate spiders" over and over the whole time. But it was still good fun.

French sourdough whole-wheat loaves

Last weekend I got to play with my sourdough and the bread book Andrea got me for Christmas. These are boules of "pain Poilâne"

I just scored.

Snow!

We awoke to a beautiful snow day. It is so peaceful! Check out this video.

http://www.whitevinyldesign.com/solarbeat/

Vertical Mattress

As we started the surgery module this week, we are continuing to learn fun techniques that are practiced on a fresh round of pig's feet. Yesterday I solidified my vertical mattress suture and learned the running subcutaneous sutures. The vertical mattress is useful when you need to apply a fair amount of pressure to close a wound but do not want to invert the wound edges (this leads to a nasty scar). Subcutaneous sutures are sewn with an absorbable suture material and do not need to be taken out. When you get a nice run of those you really see how small of a scar the pig will have. Happy pig.

vertical mattress

We also got to numb a wound with lidocaine -- that was super fun! You insert a syringe into the subcutaneous tissue and numb as you go. It's difficult not to say this out loud: num, num, num, num, num, num, num.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFf90Yl91-4 Click on this video link to hear the rhythm and melody. Warning: this will stay in your head for quite some time.

Yesterday my pig's foot also had a punch biopsy done, wound closure with a staple, and I froze off something that I pretended was a wart.

GBHs and Odd Weather

The Great Blue Heron is considered the Portland city bird. They nest all around this area, and this is the time of year when they are choosing where to nest and raise their young. They've been staking out the conifers near the Hillsboro Public Library over the past couple of weeks, and last week I found these 2 sentinels peering down on the foot traffic. Look closely and you'll see a nest!

Nest top/center

This morning it was snowing (see the video) and this afternoon, tiny hail and rivers in the parking area.