A Holiday Outfit with Stitch Fix and PeachBox

Merry Belated Christmas, friends!

I hope this holiday season has been wonderful for all.

Our Christmas took a slightly unexpected course when our entire family (sparing my husband) was plagued with with an illness that involved a lot of vomiting and.... well... let's just say I'm so glad we have more than one bathroom in the house. Despite this "crappy" turn of events, the warmth and love of the holiday season embraced our home, and still was a wonderful Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We spent a few days in Chicago the week before, so we were able to see both sides of the family. Today, I finally felt somewhat well enough to wear my first stitch fix outfit and accessorize with some BEAUTIFUL jewelry pieces compliment of The Peach Box!

Beautiful, elegant, high quality, rose gold pieces that are a perfect compliment to any casual or professional outfit

I love the sculpted, futuristic designs The PeachBox offers

Outfit: Stitchfix

Accessories (Ring and Bracelet): Thanks to The PeachBox. Now Select items 30% off!

Shoes: Toms

Merry Christmas from Grace (4 years) and Nathan (17 months)! 

Linking up with Sarah this week 

Share your Christmas/Holiday fashion! 

Stethoscope Stories: Physician's Blog Hop Volume 5 & Belated Thanksgiving Post

Happy Holidays!

Welcome to Volume 5 of Stethoscope stories- A Holiday post for the busy working mom...
With Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's so close together, it's often hard to get all holidays off, especially being in the medical field. How you you guys balance your career and spending time celebrating the holidays?

When I was an internal medicine resident, it was almost impossible to fight through all the time off requests. Aaron spent many holiday evenings alone - eating microwaved meals while I was on a night shift rotation or ICU call. It was really sad at times. We didn't have kids then (this was over 4 years ago) I remember one Thanksgiving evening, he felt sorry for himself- so he reserved a table for 1 at Cracker Barrel and indulged on their pre-made cranberry Turkey meal combo, then came home and played video games all night :) Poor guy

Now as an attending, there's much more flexibility. Mayo gives all employees certain Holidays off, and this includes Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years! Another great perk of working at Mayo Clinic :) Sometimes I do have to cover a nursing home, but this is usually for half a day and am able to spend the evenings with the family. What a difference!

If you are still in the grueling training period... there are many ways we can make the most out of working over the Holidays:

1.  I would rather be working than be sick in the Hospital. Remember your patients- they are probably depressed and miserable. If you have a few minutes, do something outside of your comfort zone. One Christmas, I took my dinner into a patient room and enjoyed a nice meal and conversation by their bedside. It was the highlight of my day

2. The hospital holiday meals are actually really good. Much better than my cooking, at least!

3. If you have kids, and have a few minutes to spare, have them visit you in the hospital! It'll be a nice change of pace

4. Gather some co-workers together and while on rounds, try some caroling by bedside. Super fun!!

In other news, happy belated Thanksgiving!! This was our Turkey, made by mama Chen and stuffed with sticky rice with Chinese Sausages

And can't forget the outfit of the day! Brought to you by SuperDry

Coat: Superdry

Watch: Daniel Wellington

Bracelet: Chloe and Isabel

Jeans: AG

Shoes: Toms

How was your Thanksgiving??
How do you handle Holiday coverage, and making the most out of working through the holidays?

Here are a few "rules" of the link-up.

1. Add your post link below, not the blog home page.

2. Link back to this post. 
3. Optional: Grab the button above and add to your post. 

4. If you haven't done it yet, please follow your hosts: here's my instagram account

5. Visit as many posts below and  leave a comment.

6. Have fun and enjoy! start the blog hop party!

Link up at: www.disisd.com

Stethoscope Stories: Physician's Blog Hop Volume 4- Birth Stories

Welcome to our 4th post of Stethoscope Stories: A physician's Blog Hop! This really is the only time I've been posting now, big thank you to Sarah for keeping me active on my blog... or else I have this really bad habit of becoming MIA when things get busy!!

This month's prompt is: BIRTH STORIES

First of all, 10 years ago if you asked my how many children I wanted- I would've told you zero. I never really saw myself as a mom, and never really gave much thought into how I envisioned childbirth to be. Even when I was 1 week from my due date with Grace, I didn't have my emergency bag packed. Aaron and I didn't know how to work the car seat. We didn't even have a first outfit picked out. I was totally unprepared and felt no stress about any of this- when the baby comes, she'll come! What will happen before or after the birth? eh.... we'll figure things out when we get there :)

Grace's Birth Story:

I started having what felt like contractions around 5AM. I poked Aaron awake in bed and said, "I think I might be having contractions"

He said, "oh ok" ....and went back to sleep because he had to get up early to take a licensing examination for his job.

Contractions continued to 7AM and were about 10 minutes apart at that time.

I said, "Um, I think these are real contractions!"

"Seriously? Well, I have to take my exam and will be back in an hour. Do you think you can hold it until I get back? If there are any problems, just call this number xxx-xxxx" said Father of the year.

He finally got back around 8:30AM, and by that time, I couldn't sit up straight and we decided we should probably go to the hospital, at which time I was already 7cm dilated. Contractions are the most viscerally uncomfortable sensation I have ever experienced, and I can't tell you how happy I was when the epidural finally went in and I was able to take a nap, read some magazines and start pushing. 

When it came time to start pushing, I was startled to see a group of seriously good looking male abercrombie model obstetric doctors walk into the room. The doctor who had been watching over things up until then was a young, sweet, female MD, but she was now supervised by her senior resident, chief resident, a rotating emergency room doc and finally the attending consultant physician. All of whom looked like they all walked out of a J.Crew catalogue. My mouth dropped. Aaron's mouth also dropped- I'm suppose to push in front of all these people?!?

Well, the next half an hour of exposing everything and pushing was the most embarrassing thing ever. I was the most uncoordinated person ever. I had a group of hot abercrombie model docs cheering me on from behind the sheets, I was pushing so hard I pretty much pushed out my bowels, and Aaron (who was suppose to be holding my left leg) kept dropping my leg because he was trying to see the baby come. 

Grace was born around 1:30PM, a little over 8 hours after my contractions started. I'd say that was pretty quick for the first baby! When I saw her, I was flooded with an overwhelming new wave of emotions, love, and a sense of protection I have never experienced. It was like everything that I subconsciously suppressed over the years just come flooding out all at once. The most amazing thing ever!

Nathan's Birth Story:

Not quite as exciting. Went into labor around 7AM, delivered around 12:30PM. No hot abercrombie model docs involved. Epidural didn't get placed as quickly so I felt the WHOLE ENTIRE THING from beginning to end.... the wrath of Eve's punishment felt like the sting of a thousand suns, but it's amazing how a woman's body prepares for this process. I totally felt empowered and pumped up with adrenaline during the whole birthing experience, and at the end felt this sense of tremendous accomplishment- like I got to experience something only women have the privilege to go through. Painful, but liberating. It was totally neat that both birthing stories were so different, but I wouldn't have expected it any other way.

Link up time! Can't wait to hear yours!

Enjoying free cookies at HyVee!

An InLinkz Link-up

Here are a few "rules" of the link-up.

1. Add your post link below, not the blog home page.

2. Link back to this post. 
3. Optional: Grab the button above and add to your post.

4. If you haven't done it yet, please follow your hosts: here's my instagram account

5. Visit as many posts below and  leave a comment.

6. Have fun and enjoy! start the blog hop party!

Physician Mom's BlogHop Volume 2: A day in the life of a working mom

I really should call this a WEEK in the life of a Geriatrician- because we are involved in so many different things and often practice in various settings throughout the community! Everyday can be different. For those of you who are not familiar with this field, Geriatrics is the practice of caring for the elderly population and their unique needs. A little background- currently there are about 35 million older adults over the age of 65 years. By 2030 (which is not too far away), this is projected to double... to about 72 Million!! There are certainly not enough providers equipped to handle this volume right now. Caring for the older adult is different, and requires understanding of not only the medical aspect of their health, but also the social, psychological, environmental, functional aspects that all play into part of healthy aging.

The older adult may be in different stages of their health, and often transition between settings. Many are healthy and functional enough to live at home independently, but others are in long term care settings like nursing homes, assisted living facilities, memory care units, etc. I care for the elderly in all of these settings, therefore each day may be a little bit different.

I do work at an institution affiliated with a medical school and residency program, so I am able to work a lot with the medical students and residents- who actually, in my opinion are MY best teachers because they encourage me to keep learning. They keep me on my toes.

Mondays- Mornings are filled with patients to see in the outpatient clinic. I try to dictate all my notes between patient messages and phone calls, all the while trying not to spill my coffee or lose my stethoscope. Most of my patients are above the age of 65 y/o, but occasionally I will see some young folks too (these are usually visits associated with acute illnesses). Over the noon hour, I facilitate the geriatric fellowship core curriculum and teaching didactics. Various topics in all of Geriatric medicine are covered during these meetings. The afternoons I staff our geriatric fellows in their clinic, and occasionally will do some teaching/goofing off :)

Tuesdays- Primary care internal medicine conference are held in the mornings, followed by a day of administration work for fellowship planning, course directing, and research.

Wednesdays and Thursdays- These are usually full clinic days. However, this may vary as well depending on what's on my calendar that day. Last week for example, the afternoons I taught a course to the medical students on history taking. Next week will be covering rounds in the subacute rehabilitation facility. The week after will be admitting new patients at a nursing home. Every week is a surprise! If things aren't too busy over the noon hour, I'll call Aaron (who works for supply chain at the same institution) and we'll grab "Happy Lunch" together- which is usually sushi or something at a local food court :)

Fridays- By this time, I am totally ready for the weekend :) I stumble through the day trying not to be haphazard, but for some odd reason- the sickest and most complicated people want to come in on Fridays... at 4:30PM... right before things are starting to wrap up. So I'm usually sticking around pretty late on Fridays :)

                      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The evenings are a battleground with the kids. Aaron and I would usually get home around 5:30PM. Immediately after opening the door, we are greeted with happy screams of delight, followed by frantic cries of "where have you been??". We are so very fortunate to have wonderful parents who are around to watch the kids during the daytime and prepare delicious food for the family :)
The next couple hours are filled with food flying everywhere, chasing the baby around, bribing our toddler to eat her dinner- which usually ends up with her in the time-out corner throwing a fit. Trying to brush her teeth... which also usually ends up with her in the time-out corner
Nathan is super easy to put down. You just give him his milk, throw him in the crib and he's out in 5 minutes
Grace.....
Ends up again, in the time-out corner before she finally is too tired to complain and agrees to go to sleep. After we read her monster book at least 8 times...
After she has her mandatory cup of milk....
After she requests to find all the animals on her animal book

Then Aaron and I give each other sighs of relief.. and we end the day with a nice episode of our latest television/Netflix show. Right now it's Fear of the Walking dead. ANYONE ELSE WATCHING THIS??

So.. in a nutshell, my week in the life of a working mom and Geriatrician. Rock on.

LINK UP! Make sure you leave a link back to this post, or on Sarah’s page so that your readers know where to find the rest of the blog posts. You may also use the button below and copy the html.

An InLinkz Link-up

The dates and prompts of our future linkups are:

October 7 - What you wish you'd known before entering medical school...
November 4 - birth stories! Link them all up!
December 2 -Tips on how you handle work or call during the holidays. How do your child(ren) handle you being away?

Here are a few "rules" of the link-up.

1. Add your post link below, not the blog home page.

2. Link back to this post. 
3. Optional: Grab the button above and add to your post. 

4. If you haven't done it yet, please follow your hosts: here's my instagram account

5. Visit as many posts below and  leave a comment.

6. Have fun and enjoy! start the blog hop party!

The link up is LIVE till the end of September.