Island Med Student

“Fire escape gardens are so 2009. Plantar boxes hung from child safety window guards are the new black.”

- Kendra Campbell

I feel very accomplished right now. I managed to get quite a few things done today. I woke up this morning and wrote an article for Medscape (soon to be published). Then I went for an 8-mile run with the doggies in the park. Even at 10:00 a.m. this morning, it was close to 70 degrees (it got up to 86 today!), and the doggies were panting like freight trains by the time we got home. I then managed to plant my new veggie/herb garden. Since I no longer have a fire escape, I purchased planter boxes, which hang from the child safety guards on my window ledges. I planted tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, mint and thyme. My local nursery was out of basil, but I hope to add that (and more!) soon as well.

I had a very “Kendra moment” when planting this morning. In order to do the planting, I had to put a ladder outside of my window and climb in and out with bags of soil and such. When I was climbing out of my window, I slipped on the ladder and fell down to the concrete below, crashing onto my knees. As if my knees didn’t have enough to worry about, now they are EVEN MORE bruised than usual.

After about an hour, my knees hurt so badly that I could barely walk. I contemplated calling in sick to my endocrinology rotation, but in the end guilt won out, and I went in to the hospital.

I hobbled around and actually had a great time. My attending is so incredibly awesome. He teaches so well and I very much respect and admire him.

When I got home from the hospital, I took the doggies on a nice walk and picked up some grocery items. My new neighborhood is so very awesome. I’m starting to befriend a lot of my neighbors, and I love how incredibly friendly everyone is.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day at the hospital, so I guess I should go to bed early tonight. I’m starving as well, so it’s time to make some din din.

Enjoy the photos of my new “garden” with this post. I hope to take some better ones in the future. (I was in a hurry today.) I think everything will soon start filling out nicely. Something about having a pseudo-garden in the city is oh so very satisfying to me!

Just got home from my first “real” day of endocrinology. I worked at the endocrinology clinic at my hospital, did one consult, and rounded on all the patients. I just got home around 8:30 p.m. No, I really should not be complaining because I didn’t have to go in until 1:00 p.m., but I think I’m just spoiled from certain electives with “cake” hours. I actually learned a lot, too.

Since I moved 2 weeks ago to be closer to my residency hospital, I am now not within walking distance of the hospital at which I am doing my last rotation. This means that I actually have to DRIVE to the hospital. Drive? What’s that?!

This experience has confirmed for me what I already knew: I am not a driver. In fact, I’m not a commuter, at all. I need to walk to my place of work. Not only is it a perfect way to de-stress, but it’s great exercise. Not only that, but I’ve realized that I take all of my best photos and videos during my walks! Who has time to take photos or videos when you’re zooming (or even not zooming) by all the wonderful things on your path?

Because of this, my daily photos have suffered, and so has my “2010 Video a Day” Project. I will either have to scrap the idea all together, or come up with some sort of creative solution.

Only 8 more days of actual work at the hospital, and then I am “qualified” to be a doctor. Life is very sweet.

Note: Photos are all “trashy” pics taken in Brooklyn a while back. As soon as I’m back to my daily walking again, I will post some trashy photos from my new ‘hood.

“Trash Talkin” Photo Series

Check out my post on Medscape to learn about how much I enjoy being a part of my community.

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I’m finally about 90% moved in and finished arranging and decorating my new apartment. Today was home improvement day. I potted plants, hung plantar boxes, screwed in curtain posts, staple gunned all the wires on the floor to the trim (turns out staple guns are my new fave thing), and did a bunch of other small home improvement projects. My new apartment is really starting to feel like a home. Once I have a few more items situated, and all of my pictures hung on the walls, I think I’ll really love my new digs. I’ll also post some photos for your viewing pleasure.

Yesterday I went for a long doggy walk in Prospect Park. Today I realized that you can hear the park’s drum circles from my apartment’s windows. I also am getting to know my new, local grocery store. Today I went grocery shopping and they asked me for my ID to use my credit card. I had forgotten to bring it so I used the “I’m new to the neighborhood, but will be shopping here all the time,” line, and the manager agreed to let me buy my groceries on credit.

Tomorrow I will hopefully start a 2-week endocrinology elective rotation. I say “hopefully” because it’s not actually officially on my schedule yet. I will be going to the hospital tomorrow to beg for the elective (and using the “I only need 2 weeks of electives to graduate”) line. We’ll see how it goes.

More good stuff to come!

Photos:
1) View from my window. The Q train in my backyard.
2) Tower of plants. Created today.
3) Curtain post thingy. I heart power tools.
4) My bathroom orchid.

I’ve had this entire past week off from the hospital, thank my lucky stars. I’ve been sick (recovering now, from a cold), and unpacking my life away.

Yesterday I had a fun adventure. For the first time in over 15 years, I needed to use a public laundromat to do my laundry. I overcame my fear and purchased an “old lady cart” at the grocery store. (I’m officially a New Yorker now.) I packed my dirty clothes and headed to the laundromat. It wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought it was going to be.

I then went for a nice, long doggy walk in the park. When I returned, I found my son Tom stalking me from a nearby coffee shop. We put back some brewskies, and had some yummy sushi.

Today I went for a long run in the park with the doggies (and it was warm enough to only wear my shorts and sports bra, yay!), and then had to take another trip to a new (better, and closer) laundromat. I met two awesome kids (brother and sister), who ended up stealing my laptop from me and using stolen McDonalds Internet to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles videos on YouTube. They also ate all of my french fries. I helped them with their math and spelling. It seemed like a fair deal.

I’m not sure what the purpose of this post was, but I think it had something to do with a fear of laundromats turning into a love for them. Yeah, that was it.

Life has been a blur lately. I drove down to Baltimore on Friday night, incredibly sleep deprived and tired. I woke up Saturday morning, drove to Virginia, rented a Uhaul truck, and with the help of my parents and Micah, loaded up most of my items out of storage on the farm into the truck. Micah and I set sail from the farm around 3:00 p.m., and stopped once in Baltimore. By midnight, we were back in Brooklyn. We unloaded all of our stuff from the truck into our apartment.

Everyone always told me “just wait until you do peds…you’ll get sick!” But I thought I had been incredibly lucky and superhuman. I didn’t get sick one day during my peds rotation. However the day AFTER the last day of my rotation (Saturday), I noticed that I was developing a sore throat and dry cough. By Sunday, it had developed into a full blown cold. I feel like a steaming pile of poo.

I’ve been hopped up on cold meds for several days now. It’s been non-stop raining for several days now. I’ve been unpacking and arranging for several days now.

I just now got to a good stopping point, so I decided to eat some veggie chili. Somehow, the chili, combined with the fact that I’ve quit taking the damn cold meds, has made me feel a lot better. The medication-induced haze is beginning to lift. Now if I could just coax the sun to come out long enough for my doggies to take a poop.

Photo is the beginnings of my new “office space.” It’s so good to finally have a desk again!

Check out my post on Medscape to read how happy I am to have a taste of permanence in my life.

Click Here To View the Entry

Ever have just one of those days? Well I’ve had just one of those weeks. I learned a lot during my pediatrics rotation, but man did I work my butt off this last week.

Last night, after my 17-hour shift I came home and went to sleep on my hardwood floor. Several hours later I woke up to go to the hospital for my final exam and sign out. I got ready, walked the dogs, and then left my apartment to drive to the hospital. After walking for over a mile, I realized that the worst possible situation was upon me: my car had been towed. I was soooo tired the night before, that I parked in a spot in which my car needed to be moved 20 minutes prior to the current time.

I was so screwed.

It was now rapidly approaching exam time. I knew that if I tried to subway, I’d likely not make it in time. My car was towed. So I decided to walk and try and catch a cab. Several gypsy cabs pulled over, as my hand flagged them down in the cold air. “Where are you going?” they asked. “To the hospital,” I replied. The drove away. I had cabs REFUSE TO DRIVE ME SEVERAL MILES TO THE HOSPITAL!!! I even flashed my white coat and stethoscope, trying to impress them with a sense of urgency. But I failed.

Finally, after walking for nearly two more miles, a gypsy cab pulled over and agreed to take me to the hospital. “You look upset…what’s the matter?” the taxi driver asked me.

It was at this point that my week of stress, morning of hell, and dread of my upcoming exam (for which I had not the time to study) all came down on my like an emotional pile of bricks.

I started crying. I tried to hold back the tears, but I simply couldn’t. I had reached my maximum capacity. Lack of sleep, lack of food, lack of everything drove me to weeping.

And then I had the coolest 20 minutes in the world. The cabbie literally provided me with free of charge psychotherapy. He told me to take a deep breath in, relax, and tell him all about my troubles. So I did. I let it all hang out. And he listened, and he listened.

New York City may suck for many reasons. But having a random stranger from Bangladesh listen to my personal woes and console me with his words is something truly special and wonderful about New York. And even though the city is full of anger, hate, and frustration, there are those moments where it shines. Where the city/world suddenly seems so small. And for a moment, you connect with a stranger, and everything seems okay again.

I made it to my exam with several minutes to spare. I gave the taxi driver a huge tip. And I finished my exam in record time.

Miraculously, I found out an hour later that I did very well on the exam. And I received an “A” as my final grade for pediatrics. Some things do work out.

After a ride to the impound lot from a wonderful friend in pediatrics, standing in line for over an hour listening to someone cussing out the person behind the bullet-proof glass, and giving $200+ to the city of New York, I had my little Honda Del Sol returned to me. Dirty, and with grease pen scribbled all over the window. But I had it back.

I’m now home. Starving. Tired. But surprisingly, mostly unscathed. Life does go on.

And I’m supposed to drive down to Baltimore in several hours. We’ll see if that actually happens. But at least I have my dogs to lick me. And the business card of my new favorite NYC taxi driver.

Life has been a bit of a blur for me this week. Combine moving to a new apartment with long hours of pediatrics at the hospital, and you get a somewhat overwhelmed Kendra.

According to the Life Stress Scale, moving to a new home gets me 15 points. Actually, if you add up all the other points for me on the scale, you get a not so good number.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy as can be about my new apartment. But moving never comes without stress. And in fact, I’ve had a few stressors thrown my way.

Note: If you don’t want to read my stupid rants about seemingly insignificant stuff, skip the next paragraph, and read on.

So, I’ve had an issue with our new toilet. It kept getting clogged and overflowing and my cheap little toilet plunger just wasn’t doing the job (even with my partner Micah roasting it on the stove). Long story short, I have finally fixed it (bought a SUPER plunger from a hardware store), but it wasn’t without a great deal of pain, (including, shhhhh using my bathtub for unintended purposes for two days). Then there’s the story of my air mattress. Another long story short, we don’t yet have our real bed, so we’ve been sleeping on an air mattress. All was well in bedland until my doggies decided to rip a hole in the side of my air mattress. Last night, I woke up to find myself laying on the cold, hardwood floor, in a deflated pile of plastic. I re-inflated the mattress, and then woke up 2 hours later to do it again. And so the night went, every 2 hours. I have used the mattress patch, and duct tape, and everything else I could think of. I think the original hole has been fixed, but the mattress is still leaking from somewhere. If I can’t figure out from where, it will mean sleeping on a cold, hardwood floor for the next week. I do hope the air mattress fairies come and save me.

I hate to rant, but sometimes it’s the best way to de-stress. I’ve had a bunch of other assorted issues (including trying unsuccessfully to overcome my made in 1924 plaster walls), but I’m sure everything will eventually work out.

Thanks for allowing me to rant. I do feel better now.

Note: First photo is the testing kit for our hospital’s new heplock system (I forgot the name). I had a lot of fun the other night sticking needles into the rubber vein. The second photo is my first “trashy” pic from my new neighborhood. Blew out a flip flop!

“Trash Talkin” Photo Series

Ok, so I know I keep talking about it, but I just can’t stop. My new apartment is the bizomb. In addition to everything else, I am also a few minutes walk away from an awesome sushi restaurant. I spent the entire day today running errands, but to celebrate Micah’s belated birthday (we were too busy on Friday), we had dinner at our new favorite sushi restaurant. It’s super close. It’s super yummy. It delivers. It’s got what I need.