Locals.

A classmate of mine made a "What is that thing in the sky?" joke today, which is an acceptable comment on the weather 80% of the time in Oregon. "Better soak it up before it rains for the next ten months."
To which I replied "There's still sun on the rainy days, and we get way more sunbreaks than Washington."
Then he stepped over the line and replied "You Oregonians are so defensive!"

So I had to explain to him that all year long, we hear non natives whine about the weather, the economy, the politics, and the way of life here, and all of us natives wish that if the non natives don't like it very much, they would just move back out. Instead of complaining about the (normal state occurrence) here.

I don't go to Pennsylvania and complain that it's hot and flat there, bro. I don't move to New York City and whine about how it was so much quieter at my rural home. I don't live in Georgia and then complain that I have allergies to all of the plants there. I moved up to Washington, thought their recycling program sucked in my locale, missed taking beer cans in for my refund, hated the increase in rain and the decrease in temperature- and you know what I did? As soon as I could, I packed up and moved back to a state that I like. Oregon.

This state is like my family. It's ok for me and other natives to make fun of it- but the instant an out-of-stater starts jumping in, we turn on them and defend our own.

Disorganization

kills my soul.
At least, in a professional setting where I am depending on the resources I need being available so that I can plan out my life and get things done on my schedule. The last week and a half have been so very disorganized- syllabi not available, notes uploaded in the wrong order, scheduling not agreeing with syllabi, "surprise" weekend required retreats...
I know that deep within, I have the peace to overcome these challenges and roll with it.
But right now, my inner id is all "What?! you want this pregnant girl to sleep on the ground? and eat communal food despite major aversion to everything? I'm going to stay in my featherbed and quit!" and "What?! you want me to print notes 10 minutes before class? I just won't print anything at all. Ever."

Stop sulking, id.
We just need a list of how we're going to get this done and in what order....;)

Ugly Truth

• 1 in 5 pregnancies end in miscarriage.
• Pain in the abdomen, especially on one side, is a possible indicator of an ectopic pregnancy.
• Abdominal fullness, nausea, vomiting, lightheadedness, shoulder pain, and a strong urge to defecate without being able to do so are all signs that an ectopic pregnancy may have ruptured the uterine tube.
• Often the first sign of miscarriage is light spotting with abdominal cramping.
• Probability of the next pregnancy also ending in miscarriage rises with each subsequent miscarriage.

Often there is little to no support for those undergoing miscarriage. There are clinical websites that list the above facts in whatever arrangement they favor, and that’s it.
During my two previous miscarriages, there was no information on what to expect when suddenly not expecting, and it was terrifying to not know what my body was doing while simultaneously dealing with the misguided sympathy attempts from friends. I know by the odds that there are at least a few women on tumblr/the internet undergoing this process right now, so I wanted to cover the things that your doctor will do as well as the things that may happen in the next couple months, so that the terrible experience will hopefully be less awful (or at least, as less awful as something so terrible can be.)

• When you suspect a miscarriage or an ectopic pregnancy, go see your primary care physician instead of the emergency room. Losing a baby is a long process, and there’s often nothing that the ER can do for you that you can’t do less stressfully with your primary care doc.
• Your doctor will want you to retain the blood and tissue that you’re losing. There’s no graceful way to do this. It’s morbid. However, the blood and tissue is sent to a pathology lab where they will make sure that the miscarriage is complete by verifying that all of the baby tissue is present. This can help rule out complicating factors.
• Your doctor will also want to take a blood test for beta-HCG every other day for a test total of three days. This will give your doctor a baseline for completeness of miscarriage.
• Your doctor will also send you for an ultrasound to rule out complicating factors.

I was seeing a naturopath during my last miscarriage, and she was incredible. I don’t remember everything I was taking, and all of the treatments I did, and this will vary from doctor to doctor anyway. Choose the healthcare forum in which you feel most comfortable.
If, God forbid, things get worse and more complicated-

• Your doctor will refer you to a GYN surgeon. The tissue, beta-HCG levels, and ultrasounds will come into play here, as they give the surgeon an idea of what is going on.

In my case, I had a heterotopic miscarriage, which means I lost one from the womb and had a second baby stuck in the uterine tube. I bled for a month straight, which is too long, and burst my uterine tube. I bled internally for three days (and still went to class) before I had my surgical consult, and went into surgery same day.

• Recovery sucks. Your friends will say the most insensitive things. Some classic winners of the insensitive contest that I experienced were people offering to let me babysit their baby after they delivered in a couple weeks, people who offered to be a surrogate and have sex with my husband, and everyone who told me that I’d have another baby when God decided, as if a replacement would take away the pain. (which, by the way, pregnant again and hopefully healthy this time- but still get sad about the three babies I lost on a near daily basis.)
• Depression is normal. Make sure that you have a support system around you, and reach out to a therapist if you need to.
• You may start losing a lot of hair, thanks to postpartum hormone rushes.
• Miscarriage is hard on you mentally, physically, and spiritually. Give yourself space and forgiveness, especially if you’re taking longer to get back on your feet than you’d hope.

If you have any questions at all about miscarriage, I’m in the unique position of both having had multiple miscarriages and being in medical school, so I can research any questions you have that I don’t know, with an entire medical library at my disposal.

To The Pacific!

I'm going to the beach today.
I haven't been all summer, and really, that's a shame.
For a local who used to ditch classes in high school to go climb the dune at pacific city, there has been far too little beach in my life this year. And last year. And every year since I got a job and started having responsibilities.

Though this year was less about responsibilities and more about just not feeling up to doing anything. (Also, throwing up for a month straight greatly reduced my desire to leave the house.)

I don't know if I have the energy to go careening around the headland like a goat, but I'm really looking forward to poking tide pools, chasing waves, and reading a book.

I'm also thinking about bringing Gordie, the world's worst kite.

(Gordie in his natural habitat (the ground), gleneden beach)

He prefers to be drug across the sand, in true turtle fashion.
I wanna know who the person was that thought "Turtles! Of course! They have no inclination to fly, they're not aerodynamic, but they would make Such a Cute Kite!" and then sold it to the dollar store to trick unsuspecting broke college students into thinking they could fly a kite.

I think I'll just bring a book and a sweatshirt.
<3

Just Made a Shopping Cart on Amazon to See How Much My Books are Going to Cost This Quarter

before I get my school money on monday (first day of class)
And the total, if I round down to the nearest hundred,

Is $700.00 dollars.

Guess I didn’t want that stipend to buy groceries or other school supplies. -_-

Illogically Enthused (What medical nutjobs fail to see)

I was tumblin’ this morning like ya do on summer break after sleeping for 14 straight hours, and I came across a post on my dashboard from another local mama-to-be detailing a barrage against her well reasoned hospital birth plan.

This is where both sides of the medical fence are in error.

While she catches hell for wanting a hospital birth with legitimate life threatening complications that no reasonable midwife would take on at home or a birth center anyway, I catch hell for being healthy and young and planning on a birth center birth with no intention of even looking at OB/GYN practitioners.

No matter what either of us chooses, based on our own history and needs, there will be a medical field nut job/ advocate/ unreasonably bossy person in our lives telling us that we’re wrong purely because they prefer a different type of medicine.

I love naturopathic medicine, and I’m nutty about midwifery. That didn’t stop me from being on serious narcotics and having surgery to remove my right uterine tube earlier this year. Sticking with natural medicine in that situation would have killed me months ago. My surgeon told my family post op that she was guessing, from the amount of blood in my abdominal cavity, that I only had about a day left to live if that completely necessary, fully invasive procedure hadn’t been done.

There is a time and a place for both types of medicine. In 3 more years, I’ll be a full fledged primary care naturopathic physician here in Oregon. I’ll be able to take care of all of the things that a primary care physician needs to be able to take care of- hormone balancing, stitches, prescribing drugs, basic health support of all kinds. I’ll also be able to gauge the situations and refer to an MD or a surgeon when a health situation escalates beyond primary care.

This is an important and very necessary step!

No health care provider can provide all care for every patient. We need to be open minded and logical as we look at health care situations. Personal decisions based on the comfort level of the patient, the history of the patient, and plausible outcomes of the patient should never be judged and found wanting, just because our own personal beliefs disagree

Reckless Endangerment.

When I woke up at 8:30 this morning, my husband wasn't home.
Knowing that he hadn't slept well the day before, I hoped that the hospital hadn't asked him to stay over for a double, or even for a couple hours. Night shift is exhausting all by itself.
8 minutes later, he came through the door and I heard the distinctive rustle of what I thought was a grocery bag.
Except it was a biohazard bag.
(though he had gone to the grocery store, for color safe bleach)

We both know that healthcare can be an incredibly dangerous field. Especially with my compromised immune system for the next 6-7 months, we've been hyper aware of the dangers around every corner.
We say it like it's a joke, that "everyone has herpeghonnaclamidyaids".

But I stopped smiling, upon finding out that my husband had Hep C bled onto his scrubs and shoes last night. For patient confidentiality, I won't say anything other than they knew what risks they were exposing the staff to.
They knew.
But now my dryer is full of bleach and detergent and scrubs and shoes, and the incident has been reported to human resources, and my husband is safe in bed, asleep. Contamination risk is very low, and I know from my microbiology classes that the transmission rate of Hep C is very low without blood to blood contact. I still did a scratch check, to make sure the patient hadn't inflicted any wounds on him during their attention grubbing episode of self harm.
I'm not going to touch the laundry until it's been through 3 bleach and detergent cycles, and then we're going to run the washer empty with bleach water.

I've never seen my husband come home from work so upset.
I've never seen him give up on a patient before.
But I've also never seen the after effects of someone intentionally using themselves as a biological hazard to try to infect other people before.

Health care is dangerous.
The scare is always a good reminder. Wear your gloves. Wear the other indicated personal protection equipment.
You never know what a patient is going to do.