Back to School

Today was my first day back at school for my 4th semester (of 7). It was a clinical day. I got home last night at 9pm and didn't really want to dig my car out that late, after a 6 hour car trip. (My classmate drove; my car was being snowed on in Spokane.) So I got up this morning at 4:15 to get ready for clinical and allow myself enough time to dig out the car. By 5:30am the car was all shoveled out, but stuck in grooves of ice. I needed a push. No one is hanging around at 5:30 am just waiting to push my car...so I had to walk to the hospital, which took about 30 minutes and made me late. I was so tired by the time I got there, I felt like I had already put in a full day.

Clinical went well; I did knees and a hip. I placed 3 spinal blocks today (with style! :) and one was a general anesthetic. 3 people got new joints that will work better for them, one person found out that the knee pain wasn't caused by the prosthetic joint, so that will undoubtably be bad news. But for me, it was a pretty good day. I worked with a CRNA who is really good to work with, all that went well.

Hubby, however, didn't have a good day. He was laid off. It wasn't unexpected, and it probably will turn out to be a good thing. He has lots of leads, and should be able to find a job even with the economy in the state it is in. But, him being our only source of income, it's a bit stressful. Think good-job-thoughts for him, ok? I know many, many people are in this same situation these days. It's a very uncertain, stressful time for so many people.

I started the plateau busting diet today--Sandy (Moonshine)'s tool. It is essentially a version of Atkins, and it is limited to no more than 2 weeks. I will go 1 week and see how I am doing. I was really surprised that just one day of limiting my sugar/carb intake made it so much easier to resist the bags of cookies in our classroom/breakroom today. I am starting at 175, and I want to get to 160. I would prefer to do it by the end of summer, but I'm just going to hope for forward motion. My general, vague plan is to do this for 1 or 2 weeks, then go back to The Band Rules and determine if I need a fill. If I do, I'll schedule one (when we can pay for it...). I expect that this PBD will help get me off the carb-devouring mania that I have been on recently. I don't believe in severe restriction in the long term (and I'm not a fan of Atkins, or of dieting for that matter, since they don't work), but it's got to get better than what it's been lately. And we all know that the less sugar you eat, the less you want to eat.

I am also hoping to join my university gym this week, if I can drive there at all. Or maybe next week, after I have my financial aid check. I won't be able to run on the streets of Spokane for quite a while. We have had over 6 feet of snow in 3 weeks! The berms on the sidewalks and ditches are ridiculous. We are running out of places to put shoveled snow. Some people who have snowblowers can keep their sidewalks cleared, but for the most part it is just not happening. So I will need to run indoors, which pains me greatly, but it appears inevitable. I hope the university gym proves to have natural light and enough treadmills and late enough hours that I can utilize it. It's $150 a semester for grad students, or about $30 per month.

Happy 2009 everyone! May we all achieve our goals this year, whatever they may be.