still no stuff or car! we're getting a little bit of cabin fever. ian was a bear today. he's tired of being cooped up and the park is too far away to walk to. i think i found a daycare for him though! the hospital i'll be admitting to has a daycare. i'll be stopping there about two mornings a week and on the mornings that i just go to clinic it's an easy detour. the hours are 5:30 am to 12:30 am; and they're open on saturdays. wow! sounds like they have a spot for him and i'm going on monday to check it out. excellent luck!!!!

my mini is apparently made and waiting to be shipped:

i went and saw the new office. it's really nice! they have an office for me all ready and waiting to be moved into! and exam rooms with low tables in case i have to use the wheelchair. it's amazing. i already know many of the docs i'll be working for and i like and respect them. it's all looking really good

so much to update!!!!! where to begin? i guess with the travel day, last thursday. it began with ian being on the "no-fly list". i didn't know what that was, but apparently it's a list of names of known terrorists who aren't allowed to fly. hehe that got sorted relatively easily! it was a long day. it included being grounded in a small plane in orlando, waiting for a storm to pass, with only peanuts and 90 degree water to subsist on. it ended with tom's friend dave's car being towed right before he was about to come and get us from the airport, and us forgetting one of our bags at the airport. whoops! oh, and the renters not being ready to move out on time so we had to spend our first night in a hotel!

it's been great to be back though. we've hung out with friends a lot. ian has had a lot of attention, especially from tom's sister heidi. the house is pretty dirty (think two bachelor students and a big dog) and the carpet is TRASHED! our first errand was to lowe's to order new floors. we're getting hardwood downstairs and berber upstairs. can't wait! i've been painting the baseboards. they're trashed too and i want to get them done before the new floors are put in. and i've been cleaning. a lot. an example of how grimy it is.. there's dog pee all over the walls - yellow gooey streams everywhere! YUK!

our stuff is apperently supposed to arrive on the 20th. the car we don't know yet. tom's friend has lent us a car until friday so i'm planning on doing a lot of errands tomorrow! one cool thing.. it's a convertible. i'd actually never driven one before. i loved it. can't wait for my mini! today is the day that it's supposed to be completed, and shipment from england should take 3-4 weeks so i'll have it by the 2nd week in august!

tomorrow is an open house at my new office. when i say new, i mean brand new! they've moved offices and i'll be working in the new building. i guess that's what the open house is for. anyway, i'm planning to go and say hello.

that's all for now. not much exciting going on. oh, one more thing.. aside from some twinges in my elbows from painting, i'm doing great! down to 3 mg of prednisone, and have used my pain med once since getting here! i think i'm going to do so much better with this different lifestyle! i'm still terribly bummed about losing dr gorman, but hoepfully my dr here will be good. it doesn't look great so far.. dr gorman had to call her personally in order to get me an appointment and then it's not until september even though dr gorman wanted it to be this month, and she only sees patients on wednesdays, which is one of my clinic days. *sigh*. at the moment i've asked work to give me some time for the first appointment, and i'll beg the dr to allow me to make friday appointments, when she supposedly only sees kids, but it's a non-clinic day for me so it won't cut into work. why can't it be easy? there isn't a single internal medicine dr at that clinic that's accepting new patients. and since i've been gone for 3 years i'm considered a new patient.

aaauuuuurrrrggghhhh! the moving company messed up the dates and had us down for the 8th somehow! our flight is tomorrow so the 8th doesn't work so well.

turns out tom's friend dave was going to fly up from florida and surprise us at the airport when we arrive tomorrow, and stay for the weekend. but if our flight gets pushed back because of the moving van he'll have to change his flight too!

tom and i aren't stressed any more. this is pretty much the most disastrous thing that could happen to thwart our leaving, and since it's already happened, what else is there to worry about? it's all good...

our house is a shambles! the movers come tomorrow morning. the truck they're using is humungous! i don't think our stuff will take up half of it. only have a minute here to update. need to crash so i can get up early and finish the last minute kitchen packing & a couple of errands before the car gets shipped too. i'm having a hard time parting with a few things.. the things i'm having trouble separating from are kinda random - my cleaning supplies is the big one. i have my system and my tools and it's gonna be hard to be without! i'm actually going to put the most essential items in the checked luggage! *ocd* my wheelchair.. scary to be without it, even for a week. i want to take it on the plane and do the last minute check thing but with the airline change idk.. not sure they can do it and i'd have to clear it through both airlines. but if i had it it'd be easier to cope with ian and powder (cat). i won't be able to carry either of them without it. poor tom!

so much more to say but need to go. we leave thursday early morning. tomorrow will be nuts. we'll be in richmond thursday night!

last night was nice.. went out to dinner with two good friends from residency. they're both staying here. we were talking about maybe having everyone that left town come back for boards so we can all be together. i think that'd be awesome! boards is apparently over halloween this year.

this morning we went out for breakfast with friends from richmond that have been staying here for a couple of days. they're the kind of couple that you can't help but like immensly as soon as you have a conversation with them. so it's been fun to have them around. they left this morning after breakfast. i ran some errands then tom and i put up signs for the yard sale tomorrow. i hope we get a lot of people! amber came and babysat ian for a few hours today and tom and i packed and packed. actually, i've been going kind of slowly because i'm giving as much stuff as possible to the yard sale and that's always hard for me! i get all indecisive about whether or not to keep stuff!

now i'm suddenly feeling pretty tired, sore and ill. i'm hoping a couple of hours in bed will refuel me so i can tackle the basement! i might have to take a little extra prednisone if it doesn't. i have to get this done!

i should mention that i got my virginia state license notarized, fingerprinted and mailed in, and all the other paperwork requested. the only thing missing is that dr gorman has to write a note for me, commenting on the still's disease, my prognosis, and fitness to practice. it's kind of a bummer that it has to have anything to do with my license application. makes me fear being discriminated against because of the still's. but i guess the law's on my side so i should be ok. and, i know i'm fit to practice. in fact, i'm a better dr in many ways since this started.

finished! finally! it was an insane night. crampage right and left, from the moment i arrived! the poor intern.. it was his first night ever on call and he got sick from stress, had to run to the bathroom! i felt so bad!

but i didn't do anything dumb, and everyone survived the night. myself, my intern and my patients included! we had champagne in the parking lot this morning and tom had mimosas waiting for me when i got home. so sweet!

i think i'm going to take a nap before i get back to packing!

had my last appointment with dr gorman today. there were a lot of loose ends to tie up, which took forever, so i made her late for her next appointment. whoops! i tried to persuade her to move to virginia. she said she'd ask her husband! i gave her my gift & card. she seemed genuinely sorry to see me go and hugged me twice! she should move to virginia, darn it!

i still don't have a rheumatologist in richmond. am totally getting stonewalled at the university (my med school). no-one's accepting new patients at the satellite office that's relatively near my office. someone downtown is accepting new patients but they don't have openings until october (!), i don't know who they are, and it'd take FOREVER to get downtown, get a parking spot, and navigate the hospital. i'd never be able to do it in an emergency without taking half a day off work. so dr gorman is going to try calling this doc she knows there and see what she can do. *fingers crossed*.

now i'm off to work while *sob* the rest of my class is going out to celebrate the last day! one other third year, lessli, and i are the only ones that have to work tonight. sad us! she's bringing champagne and we'll have a toast in the morning at sign out!

and then, thank GOD, i'll FINALLY be DONE!!!!!!

i'd like to put in a request with the powers that be, however, that there please not be any codes tonight, or any major medical errors caused by yours truly. i've gotten through residency so far without doing something horrendous to anyone and i'd like to finish tomorrow with my patients (and myself) unscathed!

incidentally, i did not get ANY sleep today, so there is going to have to be large amounts of coffee involved in keeping this not-killing-patients streak going!

it's 3:20 and i can't sleep.  arg!  got woken up for two admissions and can't get back to sleep.  i think i'm just wound up because of everything that's going on these next couple of weeks and all that has to be done.  two of tom's friends are staying with us, from yesterday through saturday.  the house isn't at its most presentable right now, with a living room full of boxes and a dining room full of stuff to sell at the yard sale; and i don't have much time to be hospitable or to socialize!  today once i'm done here at work, i need to get my virginia medical license application notarized, then i really need to work on packing and yard sale stuff for a while.  then i have my last appointment with my rheumatologist.  i have a lot of things to ask about..  i'm wondering if she sent a letter to the doc i'm hoping to get in with in virginia - actually, i should call them to check on the status of that.  i should find out the results of the DEXA scan (for osteoporosis).  there's other stuff too but i can't think what right now!  this is why i write questions down before i go, since i always seem to space them!

one more shift!  and this is officially the last day of residency! (although i work 8 hours past midnight so unofficially i have one more day).  lessli is bringing champagne for us to have at the end of our shift!

aw man, i thought i was done with all my state medical license paperwork but there are still a few hoops to jump through. i took care of getting my DEA (drug enforecement administration) license renewal a while ago but apparently i can't actually get it until i get my virginia license. i think i have all the million documents pulled together to get that, at least! i hope it comes together so that it's all done soon!

sooo ready to be done! 2 more shifts!

omg check this out: http://sites.gizoogle.com/?url=http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=littledoc

ROFLMAO! try it with another website! just go to gizoogle.com

the funniest part is that i got the link from one of my attendings! lolololol!