Return from Vacation

Vacation was lovely. Two weeks without my books, or any thoughts of anesthesia. The first week I spent in Portland. While my husband worked, I went to Sauvie Island during the day, which is in the northwest end of Portland. Sauvie Island has a few public beaches, which are on the river but are sandy and perfect for replenishing Vitamin D stores in the summertime. I got lots of sun there, knowing that the following week was supposed to be stormy.

The second week we both packed up and went to the Oregon Coast, where we rented a house for a week. Actually we stayed at two different places that were close to one another--in a town called Neskowin, about 15 minutes north of Lincoln City. The first 3 days were, in fact, stormy--almost winter coast weather, actually. But the last few days we were there were nice and sunny and we had fun playing and relaxing on the beach.

We mostly cooked our own meals, only eating out a few times, and I ran on 3 days while I was there, but still gained 3 pounds. I think it will come off soon, though. I actually ate way too much, and challenged my band far more than I should have. I didn't PB or barf, but I did have that strange left shoulder pain that people sometimes get when they overeat--the referred pain from the diaphragm being pushed on by your food baby. Never had that before, and I'd rather not have it again. I think some of it was that I was being very bad and drinking (wine) with a couple meals. Instead of washing food through, it made it swell more, and I got fuller long after I stopped eating. Won't do that again! I got better about my vacation eating after that, but still ate far more than usual.

I celebrated my 35th birthday while we were there. We did some typical coast things--ate fish and chips, went to the Rogue Brewery--but mostly we stayed in on the stormy days, and went to the beach on the nice ones. It was lovely.

Today I went back to the hospital and tried to remember how to be an anesthetist again. I had some rocky moments but had a great CRNA to work with and got through the day fine. I even got to respond to my first code in the ICU, which was a good experience (for me anyway).

Now it's time to go run. It's raining today, so I'm not that thrilled about it, but it's going to be like this in the fall and winter anyway (until the snow starts) so I'd better get used to it. So, I'm off!