the dizzy dance.

Okay, so it's not Monday anymore. But the fabulous ladies linking up for Medical Mondays have written some pretty great stuff, so any of you readers who are med students, spouses, medically inclined, nursing students, or someday-midwives, check out their stuff! 

I don't have tons of time to write these days, but I figured explaining the dizzy dance that is our lives these days would be a nice update for friends and family readers as well. I'm going to answer some questions we get pretty frequently from people we bump into and haven't seen in a while (which is almost everyone because we don't see much of anyone these days). 

1. How far are you guys? Where are you at in school? What do you do all day?

Mrs.

Mr.

Well, that's a fabulous question. I think sometimes we lose track ourselves. Chris is on the tail end of MSIII, meaning he is in his final semester of his 3rd year of medical school. He no longer spends his days in the classroom, but instead is doing clerkship rotations at many different hospitals in most of the main branches of medicine (surgery, pediatrics, OB/GYN, psych, etc.) He is enjoying the being back in the hospital so much and truth be told, he's killing it (as in doing great....not the patients....). I don't want to brag BUT he's such a smart and compassionate person and he shines in the clinical setting. He will be finished May of next year, 2014 (I CAN'T BELIEVE WE CAN TYPE THAT NOW).  I, on the other hand, am actually nearing the end of my midwifery education (GULP). I'm in my second to last semester and will be finished in August (hopefully taking comps/boards/etc. in a similar time frame). My peers and I will walk for our master's degree graduation in May (because it was either walk 3 months early or 9 months late). I am currently on my intrapartum rotation, meaning after two semesters of all prenatal/GYN visits I'm finally attending births! And it's thrilling and terrifying and wonderful all at the same time and I'm totally in love with it. I've been in this clinical 2 weeks and I've caught 2 babies. I'm hoping things pick up soon. Most of the skills I need to learn the most can only improve with experience so I just sit and wait for the babies to come. I still have three classes I'm taking this semester as well, so there's plenty of work to be done as all these babies decide they're not ready to be born. 

Babies and pelvises!

My lovely sutured chicken breasts, practicing vaginal and perineal repairs.

2. Do you ever see each other?

Yes and no. It depends on the day. Now that my schedule has turned to call instead of scheduled clinic hours, some days I'm around a lot and some days I'm not (I was at the hospital from 1AM to 4:30 AM two nights ago to go catch my second baby!). Conversely, it also depends on his schedule. Certain rotations have been more time intensive for him (ex. surgery, OB) whereas other have been less so. Pediatric outpatient was a fun one with a nice schedule. On OB he was taking call overnight at the hospital. The past few weeks we've been having our evenings together which is nice. We've also carved out some time to take a few little trips within a few hours of home and attempted to catch a few movies (we got a bunch gift of cards for Christmas and my birthday...best gift you can get us!). It's been nice spending some good time together. I've also made an effort to meet him at the hospital for dinner. The food is usually super cheap.

Date night at the children's hospital.

3. What kind of doctor does Chris want to be?

This one is easy! Since his undergrad days working as an EMT he has wanted to be an emergency medicine physician. I think this is such a fabulous fit for him. During his rotations he has also enjoyed internal medicine and OB. 

4. What kind of midwife do you want to be?

Well, I'm going to school to be a certified nurse midwife (CNM) meaning I was(/am) an RN before going back to school. There are many different credentials for midwifery for varying entry into practice and education levels and it can be quite confusing. To learn more about midwives and our philosophy/model of care you can read about us here. For definitions of the different midwifery governing organizations and different types of midwives click here. CNMs tend to work in the hospital setting but may also practice in attached or freestanding birth centers or at home births. I hope to have an opportunity to pursue birth center practice in the future but am also really enjoying my time at my current hospital clinical site. We'll see where this path leads me.

5. WE WANT PICTURES OF VIESA, DANGIT.

Okay, that's not a question but our dog is really cute and awesome and is the perfect med dog. She is patient with us and forgiving when we both spend long days attending to our respective patients. She is the best stress reliever and gives us a great excuse to get outside. 

We love you, Vies. I don't think we'd be able to survive all this without you!

There's a tiny glimpse at what's going on with us. I can't go any further because I have a study guide and an assignment due tonight and I'm on call tomorrow! Happy reading, friends.

Love,

Ash

updates, oh the updates.

I have four or so updates posts in the works covering Christmas, New Year's Eve/Day, my birthday, etc. but they'll all have to wait because every moment I spend not doing homework/studying I am thinking about doing homework/studying.

I just popped by to say I reached an exciting milestone in my midwifery career today....I attended my first birth as a primary provider! A powerful mama delivered her big, beautiful baby boy into my waiting hands. It was absolutely down the coolest thing that's ever happened to me (which I feel better describes it than saying it's the coolest thing I've ever done...she did all the work!).

After baby came we discovered a true knot in the umbilical cord! This occurs more commonly with a long cord or with identical twins whose cords can become entangled, seen in ~1% of pregnancies. True knots are dangerous to babies if they become too tight and cut off the oxygen supply to the baby. Luckily in this case the knot did not appear to be tight and mama enjoyed hearing about how her baby was probably summersaulting like an acrobat inside of her. My preceptor said she does not see true knots very often and I'm choosing to view it as a beautiful omen. :)

It looked similar to this example of a true knot (from this source):

This very special baby also got a onesie given to us by our midwifery faculty for our first catch. We were so in love with this idea when they were given to us and it was such a joy giving it away (the mom thought it was so cool). [It says: "A Georgetown midwife helped me out!" with our mascot, Jack the Bulldog.]

All in all, today was a great day and I believe - as one of my midwife preceptors told me earlier today - that this feeling is what keeps midwives coming back to work every day (even with the long, demanding hours and sleepless nights). It's like magic. And how many people get to say they see real live magic every day?

This lucky girl says goodnight. I've got 24 hours of call (hopefully full of many babies!) coming up at 7AM tomorrow morning.

XO,
Ash

2 years.

i'm emerging from [grad-school-induced] radio silence to say that i am in love with a wonderful person. we have been together for seven and a half years and as of today we've been married for two of those.

christian, you are my world. it is a privilege to be your partner in life. and who knew it could be this fun??

here's to us on our anniversary.

Warning: one cannot simply watch one episode of Downton Abbey

I have a huge paper due this coming week that I've barely started so obviously it would be the weekend I decide to watch ONE episode of Downton Abbey while I do dishes and become absolutely engrossed - I've had it on my 'to watch' list forever. This whole TV online thing is a blessing and a curse but mostly a curse (to productivity at least). This show is every bit of naughtiness and craziness of soap opera dramas and trashy TV that I cannot stand to watch unless set in early 1900s England.

I'm already a PBS nut and in love with period TV/films/books. I should've known I'd be headed down a slippery slope. "Just one episode..." Who was I kidding? Reminds me of when I started watching Mad Men in early 2011....a sad (or awesome?) 6 days in sweatpants in front of the TV/computer. Sigh. I think I may need a media time out. It's hard when you go to school online, though. It's not like you can just open all your paper stuffs and walk away from the computer for a while. All my instructions, lectures, assignments...all online. I guess in the scheme of things, though, I'd rather my Achilles heel be awesome TV (with arguably some sliiiiiiight educational value??...Am I stretching too far here?) than stupid old Facebook.

It doesn't help that I've been sick on and off all week. And Christian was in LA over the weekend presenting his research at the American Heart Association Resuscitation Conference - have I mentioned lately what a proud wife I am? I'm usually less-than productive when he's gone.

All right. I suppose now there's nothing left to do but to do it. I'll try to use my less-than-legal means of watching season 3 episodes as a break time reward. Wish me luck.


XO,
Ash

ZOMBIES!

[BEWARE: PHOTO HEAVY!!!]

The past few years we've made it a tradition to have friends join us in Phoenix around Halloween for some scary movies and haunted houses - there are a ton of them up here. And by 'we' I mean everyone else because I don't do haunted houses (and I only do the scary movies with the lights on). What can I say.....Halloween can be fun but the super scary stuff just isn't really my shtick. So last year when everyone came up we decided to hit up the downtown Phoenix Zombie Walk. We had a great time and everyone talked about joining in next year.

So this year, we did! Well, again...they did. I know I sound like a party pooper but I didn't feel like getting all made up and someone had to document the fantastic-ness. My sister, her fiancé, Christian's brother, and our friends Clinton and Courtney made up our troop. 

Transformations:

 

Christian decided to just zomb-ify his Halloween costume. World, meet zombie Lloyd Dobler. Unlike at the Halloween party we went to last night, his costume was a huge hit....mainly with the 30-50 year old crowd but a hit nonetheless. He even got videotaped by the news. :)

 

We had a great time. Clinton, Courtney, and I tailed along and took photos where we could. Christian got stopped by people for photos a lot. Then we went to Z Pizza for some chow and ice cream next door. The boys went for the chocolate covered bacon for the first time. They're not sure if they liked it or not. :)

 

 

They're all at the haunted house now then it's Paranormal Activity 3 when they get home. I miiiight just get sleepy and hit the sack when that goes down....

Hope everyone is enjoying their Halloween weekend. We sure are!

Love,

Ash and Vies (she hates wearing it but she'll let us drape it over her)

PS - Hi Dad! Happy Halloween! Enjoy dressing up like a pilot. We miss you. :)

Monthly update time!

How sad is that?! Well, I suppose it happens when you're a husband/wife grad student team. I'm exhausted just thinking about the last month, as I'm sure Christian is as well.

A few fantastic things:

• No more surgery! Christian took that Surgical shelf (no score back yet but I'm sure he destroyed it) and said farewell to our least favorite (so far) rotation of clerkships. He is now weeks into his internal medicine rotation and might I say I much prefer this one. Chris is learning a lot and rocking it out, as usual. I'm so constantly proud of him. 

• Two of my oldest friends got married! And to each other, no less! Megan and Kyle and I all had classes together from Freshman year of high school and Megan and I were lucky enough to get into nursing school at the U of A at the same time! They got married in Oceanside for my very first beach wedding experience and it was beyond fantastic. And to top it all off, I got to enjoy some time more old friends from middle school (hi Sam!), high school, and nursing school. I had a wonderful time...the only thing that would've made it better was if my husband had been been able to join me. 

  

• We're halfway through my semester! Semesters are an odd way to describe each "term" I complete for school because we don't typically get breaks between terms so they keep going and going, meaning they start and end at odd times of the year. Somehow they caught up to normal school-like schedule so I'll finish this semester the middle of December and get the holidays off! This is unlike last year when the semester started in November and rocked right on through the holidays (which was miserable).

• I am enjoying my clinicals. So much. Every day I'm in the clinic I feel like I do a little better. I've started inserting IUDs (one of my first "big-girl procedures") and am enjoying seeing patients more than ever.

Breastfeeding PSA poster at my Indian Health Services clinic.

• The weather is feeling more and more like fall every day! (And then less and less like fall for a few days, then more and more like fall again - typical Arizona). Christian has had the yard done for Halloween since the week after his birthday, although it is still a constant work in progress - the neighbors just got their stuff up a few days ago and he has a list of things he needs to add to our yard now. 

We are basically plugging right along. This is always a nutty time of year for us (and everyone else). Hopefully we'll be able to squeeze in as much fun as possible while maintaining our super grown-up responsibilities. Our aspiration in life.

Happy fall to all of you.

XO,

Ash, Chris, and Vies