Mostly Smooth Sailing

I meant to post this over the weekend, and got sidetracked. I think I have PMS. It is about the right time, and I have the usual symptoms; crabbiness, bloating, chocolate cravings. I fly off the handle at the slightest thing lately.

Things seem to be going smoothly, for the most part.

We finally sold our house. It sold for lower than we wanted, but it did sell. Thank goodness. Now we have one less payment to worry about. We are waiting on a settlement date, though. Hopefully we will know something soon.

Hubby’s practice is going well, and taking off slowly. He has started making the rounds of the courts and local lawyers for the past week, and he already has about five cases. They are all court appointed or pro bono, but you have to start somewhere. I think that is a good sign. He has one client from Tappahannock who wanted to keep him on, and they are paying him. That is also kind of neat, I think. Heis doing a lot of juvenile cases. He has experience doing juvie stuff, and has also done guardian ad lidem cases. Most of the courts in the area are really happy about that. He is thinking of getting into bankruptcy law, as well. Apparently there is only one other lawyer in the New River Valley who does bankruptcy law. It all seems to be going well.

I am finally learning everything I need to do to do my job. As an OR nurse, I need to be able to scrub and circulate. I have been sent hither and yon to see how things were done at this hospital. It is sort of neat. It gave me an idea of the big picture and I think it will help me as a circulator and a scrub. I finally got to start scrubbing Friday. I reviewed some info on scrubbing this weekend. I usually am reluctant to do pre-reading, but I think I needed to in this case. It will help me learn it faster and hopefully do a better job. I also need to get a notebook for cheat sheets and other useful info. As I work with all the different surgeons, I can learn how they do things and what equipment they will need. I understand a lot of this information in theory, but it always seems different when you do it in practice. Today I scrubbed in on hernia repairs all day. I sort of get it. If I could get past my nervousness, I would probably do better. I am new, and I will get better with time.

It is sort of funny. I am really excited about learning to scrub. It is a skill I know I need to do my job. But I really do not like being bad at things. I am a bit of a perfectionist, and anal to boot. If it is bad or wrong I do not like it. As I start to learn, I will make mistakes, and I need to accept than. I do not have to like it, but I can accept it and learn from it. It will likely help me learn faster if I learn from my mistakes.

I attended a Quaker meeting on Sunday, and one of the women in the group talked about being comfortable with uncertainty. I have a lot of that right now. I never know what the next day will bring. I need to be open to anything. That is tough for me. I like to anticipate what will happen and plan for it. I am trying to be open to uncertainty. It is pretty scary.

In other news…
Our boy dog has been having trouble going down stairs. Hubby took him to the vet, and the vet thinks it may be early onset of wobblers syndrome. That is a bit of a concern for us. I hope we caught it early enough that we can treat it. He got a steroid shot and is staking prednisone for a little while. We a little concerned about the steroid though. He has been drinking a lot, and he has been really hungry lately. He is peeing out all the water he drinks, and the dose gets reduced starting today. I may wait and see if it gets better with the reduced dose. I have not noticed weight loss, but it has only been a few days. We may call the vet, and make sure there is nothing we need to worry about. His gait is better, though. Hopefully this will help, and it will degenerate and come back.

Status quo...

It has been a while since I updated my blog, but there is not much to say.

I started work, and I am orienting everywhere. They send me to all departments related to OR, so that I understand the perioperative flow in the hospital. Tomorrow I have the second week of my OR class, where I learn how to handle myself the OR. I think they will teach me both circulating and scrubbing. Yesterday and today I put together trays and started to learn some of the equipment I will need to know. I now know the difference between a hemostat and a Kocher. I also know the difference between a Crile and a Kelly clamp. It was sort of interesting to see all the different trays and what they are used for. A GYN tray looks a lot different from an orthopedic tray. The craniotomy tray I put together had a lot of crazy equipment. I think I am interested to see what neurosurgery is like. It seems like it would be very fine and delicate work. I will just have to wait and see where I end up. I get to rotate through all the specialties and pick the ones I like.

Hubby has set up his office. He seems to be more excited about things. I think setting up the office made it more real to him. He made letterhead, and is working on a sign for the door. He sent letters to the various courts around Christiansburg to get on their court appointed lists. He has a lot of free time right now, so he has been doing a lot of the cooking, which I really appreciate. He plans on cooking a special meal for me for Valentine’s Day. He said he is cooking me lamb. I like lamb, so I am looking forward to it.

For the part things are rolling along like they should be. Not much to report, really.

Back in Civilization

I thought I would post a picture of my "babies." The dog on the right is our boy Oscar, and the dog on the left is our girl Gertrude. The little cat is named Belle. Now that we have high speed internet, I can post pictures! Now I just need to take more pictures..


I have not updated in a while because things have been really hectic. We finally moved out of Tappahannock, and the change in both of us is amazing. Hubby is more relaxed, and he is enjoying some of the routine activities that were such a pain before we moved. People in the grocery stores are nice and polite. The food looks good and appetizing. Not to mention the beer and wine selection.

The house still has not sold, though we do appear to have someone interested in buying the house. Now if we could get them to stop looking at it, and just put in an offer, we would be really happy.

I am very exited about my job. It is so awesome to be in the OR again! I am very excited to learn to scrub and possibly specialize in one area. The people all seem to be really nice, and appear to be happy to be there. Even when they complain, they are pretty positive about what they do and where they work. Of course, people could be putting on a brave face for the new hire. In general though, people seem happy. We will see how well I live with this job.

I did not realize that Lent started yesterday until my mother emailed me. I am not catholic, but I like the custom of giving up something for Lent. I decided to give up cable TV. We were sort of already doing it, but now we will wait until spring instead of “just until we can afford it.” I think it will be good for me. I think I had gotten used to wasting time in front of the TV, and now I can get back to things I want to do, such as regular meditation and regular workouts. The other part of the Lent custom is to do something. I decided to journal all my food on Weight Watchers. I am paying for the service, and I have not really used it the past couple of months. I will try to do better with that. We will see how it goes. I will try to keep the site updated on my progress.

Finally Moving!

Move day is tomorrow! It seems like the closer I get to the move, the crazier I get. I am very excited because it is happening, and I am leaving this area. Finally! There are times when I thought this day would never come. I also start my new job on Monday. The first couple of days are orientation, and then I think I will dive right in to the OR. I am excited to do OR again!

Hubby is doing better with the move. I think he is almost looking forward to it at this point. He is more relaxed about things because he is not looking for a job anymore, and he is putting a lot of his energy into starting his practice. I think he is getting pretty excited about starting his own business. That is good, and a change from one month ago. There was a time when the only people who were happy in our house were the dogs. And one of our dogs was a little worried. (Our female is a bit of a mommy’s girl and she can be affected by how I feel. She does better if I am around and feeling good.)

In other news...
Hubby and I discussed infertility stuff recently, and he told me that he was trying to figure out how he felt about using donor sperm. This sort of surprised me, because last I heard from him, having a child with his DNA was very important to him. IVF is expensive, and using donor sperm would be a cheaper alternative. Personally, I think we will love whatever child we have, no matter the source of genetic material. But Hubby has to work through this on his own. The male factor infertility hit him hard, and it hit him at a time when everything inhis life was changing. There is also the whole nature vs. nurture argument. People seem to be somewhat affected by their DNA, but the environment they are raised in, and how they are raised also seems to have a large effect on who they are. Science is still trying to figure out how much our genes determine who we are and how we live. I think any child we have would be loved by both of us and be affected by us as parents.

I mentioned the fact that we could choose a friend to be sperm donor, (if the friends sperm was all right), and mentioned some of his friends from college. He thought he would feel wierd asking them, but I have a hunch a couple of them would get a kick out of it. One of the first people I mentioned was his best man at our wedding. He is a big black guy, but both of us really like and respect him. (Both hubby and I are caucasian.) My immediate family would probably be all right with that, but we thought his family might not be able to deal with a mixed race baby. I also mentioned another one of his roommates from college, but he also thought of a reason to reject him as well. (He is also caucasian, but he is too whilny, he said.) Ah well, there is always the anonymous sperm donor. That may sit better with Hubby should we decide this is the path we want to take.

The closest thing we have to compare children to are our dogs. I know, they are not exactly the same as children,but we love our dogs a lot. Right now, they are our children, so that is all I have to compare parentling to. I think we would love any child we had, especially if I went through the pregnancy. I love my husband and I would do IVF with him in a heartbeat, because I would love to have a child of his genetic legacy. But having a family is important to me as well. I am not as concerned where the genetic material comes from. In fact, I am the one who has brought up the subject of adoption, and he is the one who has rejected that option.

I think I will leave the decision for IVF vs donor sperm up to him. I can do either, but I want him to be happy with the decision. We should do this together, so we should be in agreement about what we are doing. We also need to be at a point where we can afford to do something. This infertility stuff is expensive, and right now money is tight. We need to sell our house and get settled in Roanoke, first. One thing at a time.