It's a Twister

All night long the wind has been positively violent. The entire house is shaking, creaking, and moaning. I keep imagining the walls of my room being blown away Wizard of Oz style, leaving me in my patagonia layers under 12 blankets to fend for myself against the elements. Auntie Em!

I gave up on sleeping and have turned to much more exciting early morning past times. Like blogging. And checking the weather (-14 currently, windchill making it -47. MINUS FORTY-SEVEN? It baffles the mind. But would explain why my room, set at a balmy 72 degrees, feels like an icebox). You'd think up here in the tundra the building materials would be weather proof, but it's difficult and expensive to haul good building materials this-a-way (thousands of miles via plane or boat = $$$). I've heard local folk talk about heating bills around $500 per month for a small 2 bedroom apartment. Yikes.

My most exciting past time this morning, though, has been packing. I'm a day early (not leaving until mid-day Monday, after half a day of inpatient work). But you might say I'm eager. It took me all of 6 minutes to pack seeing as though 80% of my cargo on the way up has been consumed.

Which brings me to my next point: meticulous and stellar food rationing. I am down to 1 packet of oatmeal (for tomorrow), about 2 tsp of brown sugar (yes, I brought brown sugar in a teeny-tiny tupperware), 200 cc of milk (the reason I know the precise quantity is that after the milk ice cube thawed I found it easier to drink and pour it from a Nalgene bottle which is marked with volume measurements), 2 chocolate chip cookies (hooray for milk!), 2 apples, and 2 meal portions (half a can of tuna with carrots as one portion and mac and cheese left overs as the other). That leaves tuna + apple for lunch today and mac and cheese + apple tomorrow. I am only slightly short (not much for dinner), but I would be able to scrape together a meal of couscous, salsa, and melted cheddar cheese if need be. But I might be invited to one of the other doc's house for dinner tonight. How's that for some thrifty food packing? Brilliant. I must say I'm looking forward to broadening my meal options (a veggie might be nice. and a protein that is not beans or packeted orange powdered cheese).

One and a half days on the wards awaits me. Yesterday wasn't too terrible. The OB floor was eerily quiet meaning today might be a hailstorm of preeclamptics or premature ruptured folks. Seems to be a special we are running here. I got 3 new admits yesterday: small bowel obstruction (someone I admitted in September for the same), cellulitis, and a kid with a broken leg. But (fingers crossed) everyone is pretty stable right now. Even my pregnant 21 year old who came in scarily septic with pyelonephritis has bounced back nicely after a transfusion and some strong antibiotics. Her kidneys are back in the game and she is feeling much better.

I think it's time to peel off my pj layers in favor of more work appropriate clothes. Although honestly no one would bat an eye if I showed up to round on patients in an entirely fleece outfit.

Hopefully I'll be able to steal some time away to hunt down a tv for some quality foot ball time. Bears vs. Packers - this former Chicago and Milwaukee girl is torn!