Nov 22-28th

Monday until Wednesday Richard was studying all day, all night. Well except Monday night when the 3 of us attended the relationship seminar held at doernbecher. We had dinner with fellow couples in 1st and 2nd year of med school. We listened to psychiatrists talk and then a panel of 3rd and 4th years that shared some wisdom of what they wish they had known and what they have learned. Most people said the 1st/2nd year has more time if you are planning to have a child--some suggested treating it like a job: gone 8-5 and then come home to help, and some made it clear that time goes by fast and you need to support each other. It was great advice and nice to hear, also nice to meet everyone that is going through the same thing. After the dinner Richard went back to studying for wednesday's exam and Tilly and I got a few things ready for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was wonderful! The night before we celebrated with the Sanders, and the Sethis. The Sethis made some wonderful indian food that we all enjoyed while watching Soraya and Tilly doing their cute little baby things. On Thanksgiving Richard, Tilly and I got things ready while watching the parade and dog show. Allen came over and we all ate for a long time. Then Krisanna and David stopped by and we played Trivial Pursuit until it was Allen's birthday! The rest of the long weekend was so wonderful! We went to the farmers market, did a little shopping, and cut down our tree!! Tilly was so cute picking out her first christmas tree (we did not get one last year). Tonight we sat around decorating, listening to christmas music and watching the fire!

Back to School tomorrow!

Nov 15th-21st

On Sunday Richard went to record The Subcons new album over at Fletcher's house with a med13 friend Raj who plays tabla. He also practiced for the Gosce test that he would have on Wednesday. Monday before class he had a student council meeting and after class he attended the Mednet gathering- where all classes get together, it was run by the 4th year students. Tuesday he got assigned Dr. Toffler for the baby beeper. He will attend the appointments of a woman around 8 weeks pregnant now, and help with the delivery when june/july comes around. He took his Gosce test on Wednesday (where they have the actor who plays sick and you have to preform certain exams on them) I heard from a few people that the written part was sooo hard!! Anyway after the test they went to the student center to listen to Dr. Morton talk, he asked me to join, and convinced me by saying Krisanna was there. We ended up going to a restaurant after the talk down at the base of the tram. Thursday morning he had his advisee meeting with Dr. Taylor, then class, then a dentist appt., and finally the sleep apnea support group. He started Friday off right by getting a breakfast pizza at slice of heaven with David -green eggs and ham is highly recommended. Its been a lot of studying for this coming Wednesdays test since then.

I realized I'm not doing a great job following what Richard is studying. I know they are done with anatomy and on to cells or something like that. The pictures they are learning from are just gorgeous, I like to look over his shoulder and pick out shapes I see in the up close picture of cartilage or whatever it happens to be. Like this one where you can clearly see a black crow with a large eye and one long leg...

My days have been filled with Tilly, sewing, and watching Moses. Which by the way, his dad came home from Africa on Wednesday and came to pick him up right from the airport, it was so fun watching them reunite! So much love on both sides. Other than story time and playing around the house, we have been getting ready for Thanksgiving, and hanging out with Brian, Allen, David, Krisanna, and Richard whenever they pop by to say hi.

Nov 8-14th

Richard had his last exam for anatomy last Monday, he got honors in the class... we are very proud. He spent most of the rest of the week with us, helping around the house and putting Tilly to sleep- She loved that! He had a few meeting on Wednesday as well as an essay due for PCM. Friday he got his H1N1 shot and we both got our TB test for the volunteer program we are signing up for. Saturday he spent the day with Tilly down town. He took her to story time, the farmers market, and then hung out with Allen at a coffee shop. During that time I was cleaning the house and organizing my sewing stuff. After he got home we all went to Allison and Ryan's house to visit Arthur(2mo). We also met a little friend Alta who is 13mo, she and Tilly played well together while we enjoyed fondue. It was a wonderful week- I'm not expecting he will have time like this every week, but it was lovely to have a break from the regular study mode.

week 10 recap

Nov. 1-7

Our newly 1 year old had a wonderful week! She had her check up on Monday and everything is great. Tuesday-Thursday our friend Moses was over and we had lots of adventures, read lots of books and had such a fun time playing. On Thursday Moses, Tilly and I went to story time and met another Tilly! It's her real name, not short for anything. She is 18m and a cute little blonde. We were pretty excited about it :). Moses and Tilly played wonderfully together with all the kids there. Friday Tilly and I took a few walks to break up the day because we both were pretty tired! Today we wore ourselves out by going to story time and the book store. It started really raining out and it is so nice to be home now, warm, and drinking apple cider.

I feel like each week I write what a busy week Richard had, but this week I hardly saw him. Along with all the regular electives, volunteering, and studying he had a senate meeting Tuesday. He has also been interviewing and videoing patients for the Voices of the Uninsured project he is working on. Thursday was his last day of lab and he has an exam this coming Monday. We wish him good luck!

week 9 recap

Oct. 25-31

This week was crazy! Richard got back from Boston, while Tilly and I were playing hearts with our favorite neighbors ;) He had so much to do when he got back, and so did we. We prepared for her birthday (Oct. 31) the whole week with trips to trader joes, and finnigans toy store, and of

course the thursday story time at the library. The whole week went by really fast, really this whole year has just flown by. I can not believe she is one!!

On Monday morning before class Richard had a Student Council officers meeting and talked about all the projects they have coming up. A few days later he gathered his classmates together to talk about a video project for uninsured people. He wants to go out into the community and interview people who are uninsured or care for uninsured people. They will put the interviews up on a website to raise awareness about the issues for the general public and Congress members who are voting on healthcare reform. On Thursday he went to a dinner at the Hooper Detox to learn about how people with addictions are treated in portland.

To wrap the week up we celebrated halloween in style. Friday was the OHSU halloween party, everyone was dressed amazing! Tilly loved the lights and the big spider decorations. Saturday was Tillet's first birthday party! We had so much fun with everyone who came to celebrate. Now we are reminiscing about that day one year ago when we were all cozy at the hospital with our great view.

week 8 recap

I have gotten behind in a lot of things, this blog is one of them. So this is what we did the week of Oct 18-24th.

We all celebrated our friend Miles' birthday on Sunday with a CRAZY animal party! Tilly was a lady bug, I was a frog, and Richard was our crazy vet! The rest of the week Tilly and I went about our normal schedule, some nice walks, story time at the library, and gorgeous views from our tram rides. We did get out and pick up a few things for her party. We have also started a new sleep routine that is throwing everything else off (in a good way). On Sat. Tilly and I went to an ORFN halloween party that was so much fun, we came home so tired!

Richard had his 3rd exam on Monday, he got honors again. Tuesday was a slow day for him, for some reason he missed his am class, went to lab, then had to come home and miss his preceptorship.... hmmm wonder why!!! Wednesday he jumped back into everything and had PCM, Thursday was regular with the sleep apnea support group added on and Friday he left for a PNHP conference in Boston, MA after class. There he met many doctors and medical students who support a single payer healthcare system (like a Medicare for everyone) and was able to convince a doctor in Utah to sponsor the uninsured video project he is working on with his classmates. He got back late Sunday night to an awake excited little T, who yelled DADA as soon as she saw him!

week 7 recap

With the end of PFW last Sunday Tilly and I have been trying to get back in to our routine, trying to clean the house, trying to get back on our sleep schedule. All are work in progress as of now but we did go to story time today, something we are going to do on a weekly basis. She loves it! She was with 2 younger boys today and showed off her skills of climbing up some stairs and throwing the toys out of the bin, while they did their tummy time. It was a lot of fun, and gets us out of the house while Richard is studying or off on one of his many adventures.

On Monday Richard had a Student Council/Patient Memorial meeting (talking about how they will honor the people who donated their bodies for their anatomy lab). As the president of his class, he was invited to meet with US Representative Blumenauer, along with a few other executives of OHSU. Richard asked him if he would vote for a single-payer amendment if it came up in Congress, and he said he would! Richard spread this news to his fellow Physicians for a National Health Plan members, who were very excited. Afterwards, Richard went to meet with Dr Al Lewy about the study they did of Tilly's circadian rhythms when she was 6-9 weeks old. Richard had dug up some data and created an animated .gif of her rhythms as they changed during that time. Dr Lewy was excited about the new visualization, and said he was going to present it to some of his biorhythm colleagues at a conference next week. Later that night, he was trained on a diagnostic neuropsychological exam for ADHD, as part of his MRI research study.

Thursday was an exhilarating day, as Richard and one of his classmates joined a sit-in at the Blue Cross/Blue Shield building downtown. They had planned to sit in the offices until BCBS agreed to cover all the people they had denied coverage for due to a pre-existing condition. They were willing to risk arrest for the cause, but there were some complications as a few employees tried to muscle their way through the protest and claimed they were hurt and would push charges of assault. Once it became too risky, Richard and his friend backed down, but were overwhelmed with emotion watching their fellow protesters (11 of them) be carried off to jail. That night Richard and I went to our first doctors visit at the Family Medicine department.

Friday was a busy day for Richard as he went down to Salem with four classmates for the Archimedes Movement conference, put on by former Governor John Kitzhaber. Kitzhaber understands the intricacies of the healthcare system like only 20 or so people do in this country. He is one of the visionaries, and well-formulated plans for getting healthcare coverage for all Oregonians in the next 5 years.

Next Monday will be exam 3, so Richard is studying hard as usual.