Had to share this awesomeness. I can totally see Coke stealing this idea. Or my brother. You can find more at www.wherethehellismatt.com. Enjoy.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Rock, Roll and Run
I ran 13.1 miles today. In a little over 2 hours. I'm pretty pleased with myself. And, except for the last 2 miles, which kind of sucked, I had a great time. This probably means that I am a crazy freak. Though, as demonstrated by the hordes running today, at least I am in good company. 25000 people registered for the half and the full marathon. It sold out over a month before the race date.
I was a little worried going in, since my longest training run had been 10 miles, and it had been a slow 10 miles. What I had forgotten is how much better running a race is than a training run. It was a new route! With people handing me water every mile or so! And bands (though I was a little disappointed by the bands - there seemed to be fewer than advertised).
The weather was perfect. 60 and sunny. A lot of the route followed Lake Washington, which is one of the prettier areas in a lovely city. The first 8 miles or so just flew by. If I had been able to stop at 8 miles, I would have done 9 1/2 minute miles, which is really good for me. Actually, if I hadn't had to stop half-way for a bathroom break, I would have broken my 10 minute mile goal. As it was, with a time of 2 hours and 11 minutes, I hit my pace right on the mark. About mile 10 my knees started to protest, but hey there was only a 5k left to go, couldn't stop then. And then I was at the finish line, with enough energy to kick it for the last tenth of a mile.
I have been training for 14 weeks, starting with 3-4 mile runs back in March, and today I did 13.1 without having to stop and walk. My free time has been pretty much strictly scheduled to fit my training needs. There were days (ahem, sleeting) when I did not want to go out the door. Today it felt so fricking amazing to go out there, and see how my hard work paid off. And to come through feeling good for most of the way, and feeling like I could even see myself doing this again. That was something.
Anyway, despite a good cool down walk, and lots of stretching and ibuprofen, I feel like an arthritic old lady right now. A really kick-ass arthritic old lady, but creaky all the same. Luckily for me, Bobby is sound asleep and our lovely large tub is ready and waiting.
I was a little worried going in, since my longest training run had been 10 miles, and it had been a slow 10 miles. What I had forgotten is how much better running a race is than a training run. It was a new route! With people handing me water every mile or so! And bands (though I was a little disappointed by the bands - there seemed to be fewer than advertised).
The weather was perfect. 60 and sunny. A lot of the route followed Lake Washington, which is one of the prettier areas in a lovely city. The first 8 miles or so just flew by. If I had been able to stop at 8 miles, I would have done 9 1/2 minute miles, which is really good for me. Actually, if I hadn't had to stop half-way for a bathroom break, I would have broken my 10 minute mile goal. As it was, with a time of 2 hours and 11 minutes, I hit my pace right on the mark. About mile 10 my knees started to protest, but hey there was only a 5k left to go, couldn't stop then. And then I was at the finish line, with enough energy to kick it for the last tenth of a mile.
I have been training for 14 weeks, starting with 3-4 mile runs back in March, and today I did 13.1 without having to stop and walk. My free time has been pretty much strictly scheduled to fit my training needs. There were days (ahem, sleeting) when I did not want to go out the door. Today it felt so fricking amazing to go out there, and see how my hard work paid off. And to come through feeling good for most of the way, and feeling like I could even see myself doing this again. That was something.
Anyway, despite a good cool down walk, and lots of stretching and ibuprofen, I feel like an arthritic old lady right now. A really kick-ass arthritic old lady, but creaky all the same. Luckily for me, Bobby is sound asleep and our lovely large tub is ready and waiting.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Inducting my toddler into the cult of the material
Bobby turned 2 today! 2 years ago at this time, I was 2 hours out of surgery and attempting to breastfeed my 5 1/2 pound son, who was unexpectedly born 3 weeks early. Today, he said "boob." Oh how they grow.
Stalking the birthday package.
There's something in here I know!
Moving in for the kill
Now what do we have here?
And how can I use it to cause the most mayhem?
Oh yes, he also said "happy birthday today." Just thought the needed to be shared. Because of the awesomeness.
Stalking the birthday package.
There's something in here I know!
Moving in for the kill
Now what do we have here?
And how can I use it to cause the most mayhem?Oh yes, he also said "happy birthday today." Just thought the needed to be shared. Because of the awesomeness.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Not enough caffiene
June has been something of a (half) marathon month, with this next week looming like finals' week. Something about trying to balance working, visiting family, training, Bobby, and the husband's school end obligations has made me want to curl up in a little ball on the couch and just sit for the next week or so. Bed rest has never sounded so appealing.
I applaud all of the single parents out there who manage to raise their offspring into productive adults. I don't know how you manage.
This week's schedule includes 44 hours of work, the last 4 days of training for my half marathon, going downtown to pick up my number for the half marathon, running the half marathon (oh help), finishing shopping for my son's 2nd birthday (really??), putting together his birthday party, and going to a friend's baby shower. Oh yes, and actually spending time with my husband and son. And, I suppose trying to do things like cook, clean pay bills, and maybe get some sleep.
That seems like a lot, doesn't it? At least, I think it seems like a lot. Possibly, I'm just lazy, because I somehow feel like this is what normal people do without making a big fuss. This is adulthood, so deal.
And really, I'm just trying to distract myself from world events. I suppose in the light of one scary bat-shit crazy totalitarian leader threatening to shoot missiles at us, and the sham of election/ escalating threat of human rights meltdown in another country, my worry that Amazon won't ship my dinosaur shaped cookie cutters in time for Bobby's birthday seems pretty petty.
Anyway, just to shift the attention away from my whining, and frightening, depressing world events, I will just share another photo of my son. Let me state that this photo paints him as a quiet and exceptionally well behaved child. It is a lie. I think I really need a 6 pack of Jolt Cola ( do they still make that stuff?) to keep up with him. Please ignore the mess in the background.
I applaud all of the single parents out there who manage to raise their offspring into productive adults. I don't know how you manage.
This week's schedule includes 44 hours of work, the last 4 days of training for my half marathon, going downtown to pick up my number for the half marathon, running the half marathon (oh help), finishing shopping for my son's 2nd birthday (really??), putting together his birthday party, and going to a friend's baby shower. Oh yes, and actually spending time with my husband and son. And, I suppose trying to do things like cook, clean pay bills, and maybe get some sleep.
That seems like a lot, doesn't it? At least, I think it seems like a lot. Possibly, I'm just lazy, because I somehow feel like this is what normal people do without making a big fuss. This is adulthood, so deal.
And really, I'm just trying to distract myself from world events. I suppose in the light of one scary bat-shit crazy totalitarian leader threatening to shoot missiles at us, and the sham of election/ escalating threat of human rights meltdown in another country, my worry that Amazon won't ship my dinosaur shaped cookie cutters in time for Bobby's birthday seems pretty petty.
Anyway, just to shift the attention away from my whining, and frightening, depressing world events, I will just share another photo of my son. Let me state that this photo paints him as a quiet and exceptionally well behaved child. It is a lie. I think I really need a 6 pack of Jolt Cola ( do they still make that stuff?) to keep up with him. Please ignore the mess in the background.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Oh Bloody Hell
Of course this would happen on a night that I ran out of coffee, and that it was so hard to drag myself into work, away from the sunshine and my family.
Night started off lovely, with a beautiful birth about 30 minutes into my shift. Laboring naturally, pushed about 20 minutes, and the baby came out pink and screaming. Baby was doing great, mom was doing great, what more could you ask for?
About 50 minutes after delivery, the mom suddenly felt very faint. Laid her down, and checked her blood pressure. 76/50. Crap. Checked her bleeding - suddenly in the 15 minutes between fundal checks, she had passed large gush, with some clots. Double crap. Got the charge nurse in, and paged the resident. My charge nurse really mushed down on the uterus, and out gushed about 300 mls of blood. Resident came and gaves some misoprostol in addition to the IV pitocin that the mom was already getting. BP came back up without any intervention (and that was the only time it dropped, so I don't think it was related to the bleeding necessarily).
So we continued with the recovery, when the mom said that she felt another gush. I checked, and yes the bleeding had gotten heavy again. So then I really massaged her uterus, and out gushed at least 3 times as much blood and clots as the first time. Paged the resident again, and got another, more experienced nurse in to help. No response from the resident (turns out she was delivering another baby at this point), so I gave some methergine, and the other nurse went to the OR to grab the attending (of course a C-section was also happening at the same time, nothing is ever simple is it?), who came in and immediately stuck her hand up the vagina into the lower part of the uterus, which was apparently not contracted at all, and full of golf ball sized clots.
At this point, the attending decided we needed to go back to the 2nd OR, so I pulled the emergency light to get extra help, and away we went. The poor woman continued to bleed while anesthesia got set up, and while we gave more methergine and hemabate. She ended up with D&C for some retained placenta, and a Bakri Balloon. The OB attending estimated that she lost about 2700 ml of blood, which in case you are wondering, is about half your blood volume. Her hematocrit was 16 at one point. After having giving birth we are happy with anything about 30, really. 16, not so much.
Amazingly enough, for all that blood loss, she kept stable blood pressures, and while she felt like crap at first, after 2 units of blood, she was able to cuddle her baby and breast feed again. She was on antibiotics and scheduled metheragine, and still had the balloon in her lower uterus when I left, but hopefully she will be fine in the long run. It just sucks when this happens, and you don't know if you feel like a floundering moron because you are new, and don't yet know your ass from your elbow, or if you missed something (which I don't think we did- the docs had looked at the placenta when it came out and it looked intact, and I am militant about fundal and bleeding checks).
And, I have to say, while I fully support healthy women having their babies at home (and I have had some beautiful, normal births recently- one 15 minutes after the patient walked in the door), you really need to be sure of your provider, and have a transport plan should shit hit the fan. None of this unattended birth nonesense. Because emergencies do happen, and while people like to pin the blame on OB over-intervention, I would like to point out that all of my bleeding issues have happened with woman who had totally natural, unmedicated, no intervention births. Just saying.
Also, have to wonder why I seem to have all the bleeders? Did I mention that I have a friend, who had the same damn thing happen to. Only difference was that she was 2 weeks post-partum, and we were having a barbecue, when I had to send her to the ER. Geesh.
Night started off lovely, with a beautiful birth about 30 minutes into my shift. Laboring naturally, pushed about 20 minutes, and the baby came out pink and screaming. Baby was doing great, mom was doing great, what more could you ask for?
About 50 minutes after delivery, the mom suddenly felt very faint. Laid her down, and checked her blood pressure. 76/50. Crap. Checked her bleeding - suddenly in the 15 minutes between fundal checks, she had passed large gush, with some clots. Double crap. Got the charge nurse in, and paged the resident. My charge nurse really mushed down on the uterus, and out gushed about 300 mls of blood. Resident came and gaves some misoprostol in addition to the IV pitocin that the mom was already getting. BP came back up without any intervention (and that was the only time it dropped, so I don't think it was related to the bleeding necessarily).
So we continued with the recovery, when the mom said that she felt another gush. I checked, and yes the bleeding had gotten heavy again. So then I really massaged her uterus, and out gushed at least 3 times as much blood and clots as the first time. Paged the resident again, and got another, more experienced nurse in to help. No response from the resident (turns out she was delivering another baby at this point), so I gave some methergine, and the other nurse went to the OR to grab the attending (of course a C-section was also happening at the same time, nothing is ever simple is it?), who came in and immediately stuck her hand up the vagina into the lower part of the uterus, which was apparently not contracted at all, and full of golf ball sized clots.
At this point, the attending decided we needed to go back to the 2nd OR, so I pulled the emergency light to get extra help, and away we went. The poor woman continued to bleed while anesthesia got set up, and while we gave more methergine and hemabate. She ended up with D&C for some retained placenta, and a Bakri Balloon. The OB attending estimated that she lost about 2700 ml of blood, which in case you are wondering, is about half your blood volume. Her hematocrit was 16 at one point. After having giving birth we are happy with anything about 30, really. 16, not so much.
Amazingly enough, for all that blood loss, she kept stable blood pressures, and while she felt like crap at first, after 2 units of blood, she was able to cuddle her baby and breast feed again. She was on antibiotics and scheduled metheragine, and still had the balloon in her lower uterus when I left, but hopefully she will be fine in the long run. It just sucks when this happens, and you don't know if you feel like a floundering moron because you are new, and don't yet know your ass from your elbow, or if you missed something (which I don't think we did- the docs had looked at the placenta when it came out and it looked intact, and I am militant about fundal and bleeding checks).
And, I have to say, while I fully support healthy women having their babies at home (and I have had some beautiful, normal births recently- one 15 minutes after the patient walked in the door), you really need to be sure of your provider, and have a transport plan should shit hit the fan. None of this unattended birth nonesense. Because emergencies do happen, and while people like to pin the blame on OB over-intervention, I would like to point out that all of my bleeding issues have happened with woman who had totally natural, unmedicated, no intervention births. Just saying.
Also, have to wonder why I seem to have all the bleeders? Did I mention that I have a friend, who had the same damn thing happen to. Only difference was that she was 2 weeks post-partum, and we were having a barbecue, when I had to send her to the ER. Geesh.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Happy Birthday
Things I should be doing right now - sleeping, or since that is proving impossible, cleaning the guest room in anticipation of my brother's arrival on Wednesday. Given his most recent lodgings (prior to a stop at the famial residence in Philly), I'm guessing a stained toilet, and stinky cat box probably wouldn't prove too offensive, but it's a matter of pride. My house may be bursting with plastic toddler leavings, but at least I can provide clean towels!
Speaking of my brother, today (or, I suppose, now technically yesterday) was his 27th birthday. I had planned to serenade him with verses comparing his odor to that of a simian, but chickened out when I got the answering machine. Somehow the mechanical voice guarding my parents' phone is more intimidating than an actual person. When did my baby brother become 27, a world traveler, and a towering 6+ foot behemoth?
In the past 6 months he has traveled from Burkina Faso, biked 14oo km along the West Coast of Africa, to Philly, before heading to Ecuador for 3 months. Now he will be sleeping on the futon in my Seattle townhouse, reminding me again how much more exciting life could be (Do you think toddlers travel well in crowded buses, through dystentary plagued countries?).
Should anyone be interested in reading about his adventures (and you should be), he has a blog. I realize that most people stop here searching either for nursing stories or adorable toddler photos, but a little diversification never hurts. Don't say I never did anything for you.
Speaking of my brother, today (or, I suppose, now technically yesterday) was his 27th birthday. I had planned to serenade him with verses comparing his odor to that of a simian, but chickened out when I got the answering machine. Somehow the mechanical voice guarding my parents' phone is more intimidating than an actual person. When did my baby brother become 27, a world traveler, and a towering 6+ foot behemoth?
In the past 6 months he has traveled from Burkina Faso, biked 14oo km along the West Coast of Africa, to Philly, before heading to Ecuador for 3 months. Now he will be sleeping on the futon in my Seattle townhouse, reminding me again how much more exciting life could be (Do you think toddlers travel well in crowded buses, through dystentary plagued countries?).
Should anyone be interested in reading about his adventures (and you should be), he has a blog. I realize that most people stop here searching either for nursing stories or adorable toddler photos, but a little diversification never hurts. Don't say I never did anything for you.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Epiphanies and Goose Poop
Thumbs up for the new running shoes. 6 miles today and no blisters.
After all of our snow and sleet and rain, it seems like we have jumped into early summer. Who needs spring anyway? Today was sunny and in the seventies. When the weather is nice here, I can't really think of a more beautiful spot.
Tonight, the husband and Bobby met me at a beach/park at the end of my run. They came bearing sandwiches, and we enjoyed a picnic dinner. Or, rather enjoyed eating sandwiches on the move, while Bobby ran about chasing ducks, and exclaiming "Goose! Goose!" I think we finally left around 7:45, when we could no longer deny that it was past his bath time.
Watching my toddler stomp through the goose crap, with the mountains out over the water was the closest thing to a perfect moment I've had in a while. Really, can't want much more than that.
After all of our snow and sleet and rain, it seems like we have jumped into early summer. Who needs spring anyway? Today was sunny and in the seventies. When the weather is nice here, I can't really think of a more beautiful spot.
Tonight, the husband and Bobby met me at a beach/park at the end of my run. They came bearing sandwiches, and we enjoyed a picnic dinner. Or, rather enjoyed eating sandwiches on the move, while Bobby ran about chasing ducks, and exclaiming "Goose! Goose!" I think we finally left around 7:45, when we could no longer deny that it was past his bath time.
Watching my toddler stomp through the goose crap, with the mountains out over the water was the closest thing to a perfect moment I've had in a while. Really, can't want much more than that.
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