Gold Humanism Honor Society

Proud wife moment... so I'm gonna brag on the hubs for a second here...

While in Grenada, one of Nick's professors nominated him for the Gold Humanism Honor Society award. This award is for medical students, residents, and physicians who are recognized for “demonstrated excellence in clinical care, leadership, compassion and dedication to service. Furthermore, the GHHS is dedicated to recognizing, supporting and promoting the values of humanism and professionalism in medicine and are committed to working within and beyond medical education to inspire, nurture and sustain lifelong advocates and activists for patient-centered medical care." 

This year 153 people were nominated for the award and less than half were selected for the award and officially inducted into the GHHS. So this is a huge honor for him and I'm so proud! Nick works so hard and it's so nice to see that his efforts, dedication to learning medicine, and character are recognized by the professors and physicians he works with. 

GHHS pledge:  

As a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society, I pledge to:
1. Model, encourage and sustain the values of humanism and professionalism
2. Enjoy a shared vision of a balance between science and humanism
3. Lead, mentor and inspire colleagues to promote humanism at all levels of healthcare
4. Advocate for humanism in medicine - on campus, in practice, personally, locally and nationally
5. Nurture fellowship in membership
6. With humility, reach out to and support those bowed down by barriers to humanism and medicine
7. Be a force for better healthcare for all

Way to go, Nick Dawg! We're so proud of you!

Pediatric Rotation/Baby Update

Another rotation bites the dust as Nick successfully completed Family Medicine last week! Family Medicine is the one rotation that does not require a shelf exam so his grade is based solely on his oral exam with his attending physician- which he rocked (surprise, surprise!) They actually loved him so much in the clinic that they kept teasing that they were going to fail him on purpose just to get more time with him! :)  I can't blame them either- he's a rockstar. 

Now he's onto Pediatrics. Unfortunately, Pediatrics is not one of the more popular rotations here. He kicks off this week doing inpatient. So far he's worked with LOTS of new little babies- which is fun but has also been hard for him! Seeing sick and sad little ones is not his favorite. It has already been beneficial for the SOON to-be-dad though as on his first day he has already been taught how to swaddle!

So far pediatrics hasn't been as hands-on as Nick would like. There's been a lot of standing around and shadowing. Also, a lot of "book learning" and homework. At this point, students are much more into the hands-on and less about the putting together presentations and memorizing 500 page textbooks type things.

In other news- Baby Leo is still hanging out in my belly. I swear he/she cannot be very comfortable in there! Every moment I make definitely impacts his/her position so there is constantly a lot of readjusting going on. I keep trying to tell this little one that it is much more fun out here... it's even been sunny and a bit warmer recently! We've made it to April though so it's officially BABY MONTH and we expect baby to be here anytime within the next week and a half :)

Oh, and speaking of Baby Leo, we had attempted to get Maternity pictures done for a couple weeks as Nick really wanted some. Things continuously kept falling through however and the more bloated and swollen I get the less fun doing them seemed so I finally just said screw it and told our photographer we'd go somewhere else if we wanted to get them done. Wellllllll, enter the beautiful weather we've had this week and a nagging husband who seriously really wanted pictures and on Monday we grabbed my father-in-laws camera and my sister and hit the park to take a few shots. They aren't anything super fancy, but for being done with only 20 minutes left of sunlight, following a long 8 hour work day, no time to re-do hair or make up outside of playing with it during a car ride, and being 38 1/2 weeks pregnant... I'd say we couldn't have asked for anything more! They turned out great and are perfect for us. AND FREE. Can you really beat that?!

   

House Tour!

This is pretty overdue as we moved into this house in late October and it's now the middle of February... but hey, better late than never. We are currently renting a house in St. Clair Shores, MI- only about 3 miles or so from St. John's Hospital (which when your hubby is rotating through St. John's... is totally awesome and clutch!)

Our street is directly off of one of the Main Streets in the area so we are within easy walking distance to many smaller restaurants, bars, and parks and within driving distance to many, many more! There is definitely a lot to do in the surrounding St. Clair Shores/Grosse Pointe areas! Since we moved in right before this ridiculously cold winter hit we haven't had a chance to explore the area on foot but we've already purchased a baby jogger to make jogging/walks in the area easier this spring/summer once baby comes!

So here's a visual tour of our little home that we love very much and feel very blessed to have for this phase in our lives. Oh.... and don't mind the poor quality pictures... I didn't have patience to try and get good angles and the lighting in here isn't ideal. Annnnnddd my motto for life is/has always been that I prefer a happy house over a perfectly clean house.... AKA ignore some of the clutter that is laying around haha. We keep it pretty clean in here, but with our busy schedules and as I get more and more pregnant some days small things definitely just get put aside so we can have a relaxing evening of quality time instead of knit picking every little mess!

Front of the house :) 

This is a picture from spring/summer that our landlord showed us when we were inquiring about the house... however, I decided to use this one instead since right now we have over a foot of snow currently on the ground and huge piles surrounding the driveway/sidewalk that this really shows the house much better than any picture I'd take right now! Our house right now doesn't have the pretty landscaping, but we're planning to bring that back come spring! :)


Backyard/Garage

Under all that snow is grass and a little landscaping... maybe we will see it again someday! :) But all fully fenced in backyard with awesome 2 car garage! And behind our house is a school/open field- also awesome!

Living room + living room with view of dining area

The first picture is when you walk in the front door and look the left and the 2nd picture is from the far side of the living room looking back toward the direction of the door/ dining area :)

Kitchen + dining area

1st picture = when you walk into the kitchen and look to your right. 2nd picture = when you walk into kitchen and look straight in front of you and 3rd picture= when you walk in and look to your left. And obviously the last picture is just a backward shot showing the dining room table.

** Also, notice there is a first aid book on our kitchen table... this was the case in Grenada and continues to be a staple on the table here.. some things NEVER change when you're married to a medical student!

Hall that leads to guest bedroom- bathroom- baby's room- and our bedroom

First door on left is the guest room, first door on right is a huge hallway closet, then at the end of the hall (not pictured) is the bathroom to the left, baby's room is the door ahead that you see, and our bedroom is to the right.

Guest bedroom/Office

Not a huge room but definitely big enough to serve it's purpose! 1st picture= view from the hall with the bed on the left and a desk on the right. 2nd picture = our half finished Grenada picture wall. Still have so many to print and add to it!

Bathroom

Bathroom. I guess I could have done a better job with this picture haha. It's super small though, so all you don't see is the sink and a small closet :)

Our bedroom

Our bedroom! It's actually larger than this picture makes it seem (probably because my super AWESOME pregnancy pillow just makes all things seem small in comparison... it's seriously the greatest thing ever, but I digress). When you first walk in there's our dresser and then our bed and bedside tables. On a not pictured wall there is a small closet and probably 2 feet of walking space from the end of the bed to the wall with a window that looks out into the backyard :)

Basement

Fancy flooring and bar eh?! haha makes me laugh. But this actually doesn't do our basement justice. It's really large, with a second bathroom and laundry room. However, it's currently our workshop so very MESSY and thus, will remain un-pictured!

So that's our cozy little home! It's absolutely perfect for our little (and growing) family! We've had a ton of fun making it our own with projects (ie: our DIY projects that resulted in our bedside tables, shelves throughout the house, and a basement ottoman!)

Family Medicine Rotation

Wooo hoo! Nick's surgery rotation is OVER! Having that crossed off the list is a super great feeling. Now, of course it wasn't all bad... he learned lots of cool stuff, saw/participated in some pretty cool/crazy surgeries, and came out with a lot of great stories... however 12 weeks of all that was more than enough for this household! Nick completed his shelf exam for surgery on Friday and rocked it out with another A for the rotation! Wooo hooo! He's doing so great and really impressing everyone he works with!

Family medicine has been a wonderful change from surgery. Nick's first week has gone very smoothly and with the setting of the clinic, he works closely 1-1 with a doctor, which means he gets to do A LOT and is learning stuff all day long. The doctor he is working with the majority of the time sees a lot of patient's every day, so he's definitely been busy! But she lets him go in and see patient's on his own first and come up with what he thinks the diagnosis is and treatment should be, then goes in with him and does her own assessment and a lot of the time Nick has been right on! So basically, he's becoming quite the diagnosing king!

The majority of these 6 weeks will take place in the clinic- which is about 15 minutes away from St. Johns, however he will do 1 week inpatient where he is back at St. Johns.

His schedule for Family is pretty awesome. He has to be at St. John's for lectures occasionally between 7:30-8:00am but on other days he does not need to be at the clinic until 9:00am and on most days is done between 5:00-6:00pm.  All the doctors do rotate "urgent care hours" which means they stay until 8:00pm but since they all rotate this is just once a week or so. All in all, it's a much more "normal person" schedule!

So far this week he's seen a wide variety of issues in the clinic and people of all ages. Just to name a few of his experiences: child well-visit check ups, pregnancy confirmation, rashes, suicide ideation, cold/flu, skin biopsy.... andddd more but pregnancy brain leaves me blank! Bottom line- lots of different things :) 

So he's traded back in his glorious scrubs for dress attire but otherwise we're definitely enjoying the change of pace that family medicine offers and Nick feels much more productive and "Doctor-y" as these Doctors are much more into teaching and letting the students participate in things- so that makes for a pretty happy hubby!

:)

Pregnancy Update/Wives-tale Gender Predictions

We're officially a couple weeks into the 3rd trimester which is absolutely crazy! Time really is passing super quickly! We are so excited to meet this little baby and are trying to wrap our heads around having a baby of our OWN in just a short 10 weeks! The belly is impossible to hide and I am definitely past the stage where people don't really comment- everywhere we go and at least 10 times a day at work I am involved in some sort of baby conversation surrounding when I am due, whether I am carrying low or high, people's guesses on gender, and stories of random people's birthing experiences and/or pictures of children and grandchildren. It's amazing how a pregnant belly can bond complete strangers! I enjoy it though and everyone has been so nice, supportive, and excited... even if I literally JUST met them for 5 minutes!

Also, since we have decided to wait until baby's big arrival into the world to find out if we have a baby boy or girl on our hands, I've been extra into "baby predictions" that come with many different old wives-tales. I've been keeping a personal blog for baby (aka an online baby book for easy printing... haha oh the technology generation) but thought this was fun and that I would share it here as well:

Here are some of the fun/weird wive-tales predictions we have done and what they predict Baby Leo will be:

• Ring test: BOY
  
• Chinese Calendar: GIRL
• Carrying low (boy) vs high (girl): NA. or BOY? I swear I'm in the middle/this baby takes up every inch from pelvis to ribs! But I have heard recently several people who say I am carrying low... so maybe boy has the edge here?
• Basketball (boy) or watermelon (girl): GIRL
• Cravings: NA- I've definitely eaten a lot more sweets while pregnant, but still love my salty snacks... basically I just like eating. A lot.
• Heartbeat (140 and below = boy; 140+ = girl)= GIRL. Heartbeat is currently 156 bpm
• Morning sickness: GIRL. They say if you have pretty bad morning sickness it is a sign of girl and I'd say throwing up until 16 weeks was pretty rough!
• Breakouts: BOY. I think I've actually had less breakouts while pregnant! Can't complain about that!
• Mayan Legend: GIRL (determined a baby's sex by looking at the mother's age at conception and the year of conception. If both are even or odd, it's a girl. If one's even and one's odd, it's a boy). 
• Linea nigra: BOY (If you get a linea nigra and it runs from your pubic area to your belly button only, it’s a girl, and if it goes all the way up from your pubic area to the bottom-most part of you rib cage, then it’s a boy.) 
• Hairy legs?? (yes = boy; no= girl)- NA. Started out faster then around 25 weeks practically has stopped growing all together!  

So looks like GIRL has a little bit of an edge but BOY definitely isn't too far behind and for some I really feel like it's a 50-50 split. Soooo.. really all this highlights is how we really have NO CLUE and no way of really finding out until this babe makes it's appearance. So until then... bring on the baby bets, I love hearing everyone's guesses!

Do we have a Mini Nick or Mini Lindsey on the way!?!? Only 10 weeks until we know... either way, I have to say this child will be pretty adorbs! Not to toot our own horns or anything.... ;)

It's so cold in the D...

Seriously, so cold. Yesterday, it was something crazy like -13 and -30 with windchill. Very pleasant...

Not even the hospital was safe from the cold.

Basically, a pipe froze and burst causing water to rush into the hospital leaving about 6 inches of really nasty water on the ground in the ER.

So a word to the wise... don't be like this guy and drunk shovel without gloves on, on the coldest day ever in Michigan because the closest ER may not be able to assist you...

Never a dull moment in Detroit. Lesson learned? Gloves are good.

So long 2013, hello 2014!

I am still grappling with the fact that 2013 is over and 2014 is upon us! 2013 FLEW by. So much happened and it was such a great year of adventures and accomplishments.

2013 in a nutshell::

•  We kicked off 2013 on our Honeymoon Cruise enjoying tons of sun, relaxation, fun adventures, and of course lots of love!  I'd like to do it again, please.

• Lived up our final 5 1/2 months on the wonderful little island we called home with lots of cliff jumping, scuba diving, ocean swimming, and simply just embracing all that the island had to offer.

• Nick completed his first 2 years of medical school and our time in Grenada came to end.

• We moved back home to Michigan where Nick went completely MIA- living in the library studying for STEP 1.

• Nick completed the STEP and we were able to enjoy some quality fun time and celebrate with a trip to Nashville!

• We found out Nick crushed his STEP 1 and that we are expecting our first baby all in the same week! Talk about a week full of BIG and exciting news! We're pretty blessed!

• I didn't open a fridge for 2 1/2 months due to extreme morning sickness and smell sensitivity. Unfortunately, this is not a joke and yes, was semi neurotic!

• We were placed right here in Michigan at St. John's Hospital for Nick's clinical years which was a huge blessing! Thank you, SGU!

• We are renting our first home together in the US in Saint Clair Shores and enjoying life as new home-renters.

• I continued to be in awe and love pregnancy! We decided not to find out the sex of our baby- so we continue to toss boy and girl names back and forth and have been loving the suspense and are excited for the big reveal in April!

• Nick completed his internal medicine rotation and is halfway through his surgery rotation.

• After 200+ job applications, countless interviews, passing out my resume at tons of offices and random shops near our house, constantly being told I was over-qualified OR under-qualified, I got hired by Karmanos Cancer Center in Detroit and start working January 6 (don't all 6 month preggo people start new jobs?!)  Wish me luck! 

• We celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary!!! Wooo hoo! 

• We wrapped up the year with Nick having unexpected time off to celebrate Christmas and New Years and we definitely have taken advantage of every minute! It's been the perfect combination of relaxation and laziness and fun with friends and family! We made 4 different stops for Christmas to ensure we saw everyone and rang in the New Year with 2 of our close couple friends! It was the absolute perfect ending to a great year!

Cheers to a great year past and another great year ahead! These next few months will be a complete whirlwind with Nick continuing to chug away through Surgery with multiple night shifts, my new job, Nick's family medicine and peds rotations, seeing what the 3rd trimester of pregnancy has to offer, and finally welcoming our baby in early April! Whew! And that's just a summary of the first 4 months of the year!

Bring it on, 2014! :)

And a few recent pictures just because!

Family minus those crazy little bros who were too busy running around to pose!

A few from our first big snowfall of the winter! We got almost a foot of snow! Don't be fooled by our sad faces... we DO miss our little island for SO many reasons, but also do love wintery weather and SNOW!

Only one shovel and being preggo = husband shovels and wife does not. Pregnancy perk? Yes.

I only threw a few snowballs at him while he slaved away..... ;)