Monday, February 11, 2008

Bleargh.

So much for posting 4 times a month. It's been almost a month since I had a minute to sit down, and, unfortunately, the only reason I have this minute is because the entire Whoo household has been stricken with a nasty little GI bug. It started out with the Bean. I picked him up from daycare on Thursday and he promptly annointed me with copious amounts of vomit. He continued puking for the next 24 hours. Poor little man, they just look at you after puking like "help me!" Mr. Whoo stayed home from work with him on Friday. I was on call for the weekend, and by Sunday the Bean seemed to be feeling fine. That's when CindyLou picked up puking, followed shortly by myself. She and I puked all last night, and now Mr. Whoo is starting to get the chills and nausea, and, we just got the call from the daycare that Bean picked up vomiting again this morning (odd after almost 2 days with no sickness!) We are a sad little family today. Just pitiful. CindyLou and I slept in, and have just ventured on to ginger ale and crackers. Hopefully we are turning the corner soon!

In work related news, I had this lofty goal of not having any inductions this month. (To be honest, that is my goal every month, but with just a handful of patients due, all relatively healthy with few risk factors, I felt I'd actually be able to accomplish it, for once!) Well, that came back and bit me big time, as of this morning I have 2 40+ week patients with severe oligo, and another 39 -weeker threatening pre-ecclampsia. All three are now on the books for induction, thankfully not today, since I'm most uncomfortable straying too far from my bathroom! Also in the works in the coming months, I have 2 sets of twins on the way. I keep waiting for the 3rd set to complete the trifecta. I have noticed a little more activity on the billing front with respect to OMFH. I have a meeting scheduled to go over financials, so I'm sure she's scrambling to set things right. My application for oral boards is looming due at the end of this month. I am scared to take these boards! Any good advice for review courses? I was thinking of trying to do one before I have to turn in my list, so someone can look it over.

Sorry so short, but feeling sick and looking at computer screens does not go well together! Thanks to all that have been checking in on me. I will try to be more present in the blogosphere in the coming weeks.

P.S. Hah! This is my 100th post. A post about puking, how un-monumentous!

13 comments:

Margaret Polaneczky, MD (aka TBTAM) said...

COngrats on your 100th post!

As for the boards, I took a nice course some years back in Chicago. I highly recommend it, mostly because you will find NO TIME in your real life to review, and this is a forced review away from the office and your life.

As far as the orals, your best review is to practice good medicine every day. Know what you do, why you do it and most imrpotantly, how you do it. Basics, basic, basics. No need to memorize pathways of theories. (Although you will need to memorize some path slides - that's what the reivvew course is good for...)

Good luck!!

Anonymous said...

I just took the boards this year (and passed)
I'm also a working mom with little time to study. I found EXAM PRO extremely helpful and high yield.
They also offer a case list prep course in the spring I wish I would of went to.

OB in BNA

Anonymous said...

Hope you feel better real soon. My daughter, son-in-law and grandosn got this all at the same time. We had to go to their house and look after grandson (2 years old) because neither parent could leave the bed/bathroom. I was really careful but he gave it to both of us as well. So I can relate--it is SOOOO miserable. I did get home from the office before throwing up on a patient, but it was a NEAR thing. Good news--it doesn't last long. Hope all the Whoos fell better soon.

Anonymous said...

Sorry you are all sick. Icky. I am so glad you try not to induce often. My OB mentions induction to me very early in the process because I can "be at the hospital" and "plan for childcare" since I have so many at home. Hah. I like to let my body do it if I'm healthy. I really was worried maybe this time I'd be induced as sonogram dating was done with me breastfeeding when I got pregnant. I went only past my due date 3 days, still within normal. I told her I wouldn't induce until 42 weeks as I was already having NST's and she was NOT happy with that at all. I understand, but I promised to be a good girl and do the NST's if there was an issue. Glad I didn't need it.

My family just got over the icky pukes too. I had some comforter pukes, and one child got four comforters at once. The day before I had two to wash so I was not happy. Plus, a big giant stuffed teddy bear was icked on. I scrubbed these things out in the shower first as we have a big healthy drain. I hated last week!

Dawn

Anonymous said...

Oh, honey. I hope you all are feeling better!!! Incidentally, (a) I somehow do not have your phone number anymore, although as much as I would love to call to catch up, I am a little afraid because you are a busy little Whoo! and (b) you were in my dream last night. Randomly, we were at some sort of seminar in a beach locale, but instead of sunning on the beach, we were wearing helmets in a classroom and every once in a while you would jet off to do doctory things and then you'd come back and we would have to close our eyes to keep out the salt water because we had no goggles. WTF?

Tomekia said...

Congratulations on your 100th post! I am an OBGYN out of residency since 2005. I've been practicing on a Indian reservation in Arizona via the Indian Health Service. I did the accelerated oral board tract. I used the Columbus Course OBGYN Review and found it an absolute life saver.

I hope you and your family recover soon.

I may be board certified, but at least you've found family bliss!

Have a beautiful Tuesday!

Tomekia

dr. whoo? said...

TBTAM~ Thank you so much! I am certain I will have *no time* to study. That is why I am so darn scared! I think I practice solid medicine every day, but I know how one can get into a rut without keeping up with evidence based medicine. I am also worried because I don't do a heck of a lot of uro-gyn, and I am not sure how that will affect my interview. I am actively looking at review courses, so thank you for the suggestion! :)


anon OB in BNA~
Hi to a fellow working mom! Thank you so much for the suggestion! I checked out the ExamPro website, and it seems like a really good course. I am going to check into doing both the list prep and board prep courses. I appreciate your advice. Just where is BNA? (If you don't mind me asking?)

Hi anon~ Eeek on almost puking on a patient! It is so rough to be sick and to take care of a sick kiddo. At one point we were practically trading places at the toilet. Ick! I knew we were doomed when the Bean's teacher said that every baby but one in the class was out due to the stomach virus...I knew we were all going to have it! You are right, luckily it was short lived! Everyone is better now, thank goodness.

Dawn~ Hey, how goes family life? Yes inductions are not my favorite things to do, but medical necessities do arise, unfortunately. Planning a labor is like trying to herd cats, if you know what I mean. Four comforters! That has got to be a record! Fortunately all comforters and stuffy animals were spared in the onslaught...I have enough laundry backlog as it is. Hope all is well!

Lara~ Hi! You have email, complete with pseudo-dream interpretation. Call me any time (hint, I am off call this weekend) I would love to catch up! Miss you!

tomekia~ Hi! Congratulations and Thank You so much for the recommendation on the board review course. I graduated residency in 2005, too, dammit. Now I wish I had done the accelerated track (except I was too scared...oral exams *scare* me!) Thank you for reading. :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, family life is pretty good. I have some homeschooling (public virtual school) and we are getting behind. A baby in September and all the illness has really gotten us down. However, we trudge forward. My little one is over 5 months old. I keep saying she's a "good baby." Not that babies are bad ever, but this one is especially of good temperment. She smiles even when she is sick. The doctor thought she had RSV (didn't test, but I took his word for it) and with a fever through her popcorn breathing, she was laughing at him when he was speaking. I already have 6 but she makes me willing to have more. It's fun to see the older kids with her too. The nurturing comes out when they speak to her or play with her. My 11 year old boy had tagged her "Pookerkins." So cute.


Dawn

CNH said...

Oh man, we had that awful bug here earlier this winter. Exact same thing. Kids felt better for a couple of days and them whamo! it was right back for another couple. Oh so horrible. ***HUGS***

Sorry to hear you have to induce. BTDT twice and it wasn't fun (course mine were not for medical necessity @@). I'm expecting twins (TWINS!) in May. YIKES! Bolting down the protein to try and carry them big and to term.

Dragonfly said...

Happy 100th!!
Hope you feel better soon.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Obi-gyn: Sermo has a thread about a t-shirt that has, I promise, Ob-Gyn Kenobi with an interesting (?) logo. Probably not what you want to wear to orals, though.

Anonymous said...

Hi...enjoy your blog....
I highly recommend Exam Pro with Dr Shamroth.....the first time I took the boards I didnt know how to prepare....i took Osler...but didnt really help and I failed......when you take exam pro it specifically prepares you for ORAL BOARDS...when i took the test for the second time i knew i passed...the course covered jsut about everything you need to know for the oral exam...I recommend taking the one day case list preparation course, then the 4 day review in October...you will feel very confident when you are done with the course because you will notice that everyone else is in the same position as you are...and you may even find yourself in a better shape than others...one thing I did do was the weekend before my actual exam in Dallas, i took a one day mock oral with Dr Wall as my last minute prep....i felt very prepared with Dr Shamroth and I really shined at Dr Walls mock oral...in fact I spoke to few of the mock oral test takers who prepared primarily with dr wall and they still felt unprepared even days prior to their test....if you have any questions id be glad to talk to ya...u can email me at noel926@sbcglobal.net....GL in your career and the boards...

Novae said...

Hi there,

I just love your site, and you've inspired me to start my own blog.
I'm a Ob/Gyn too, and it's a hard life, but I do love it, as I can see you do too, hope that you still frequent this site, and would love to see you post more,
it is nice to commiserate with another Ob/Gyn.

Novae