Life + Train = Lifetrain?

Well life seems to have it's ups and downs in time. Lules and rushes. To this very second(about 1 minutes after I open this back up again) I don't know why I am writing here, since it seems like I have kind of given up on my blog. My wife kind of knows what I do everyday even if I do leave some of the more graphic details out of it. I continue to tease her everyday so that hasn't changed. Most of what I do on here was that. But it might be that right now I'm bored waiting for my proctor to get here, or it could be that I don't really explain much about my life. I might also be that a 3 month lapse was enough to make it so I could come back refreshed(ish). I'm almost done my 5th semester of medical school now. Currenly on my 5th rotation, 6th if you count my study time at home. Radiology is my new rotation which is quite a bit different than my last ones. In many ways it seems. Radiology is different than most other specialties in general. Sitting in dark offices looking at CT scans, MRIs, XR films, US, or Mammograms. However the differences don't just stop there. As a student in a busy office here, the doctor doesn't have time to stop and explain every little detail to me, show me exactly where he is looking and what he is looking for. In fact this particular doctor manages not only all the radiography of Astoria, but 2 other practices in Louisiana, and a New Orleans parish prison's radio graphs. So the hours are long, starting early and ending late. In addition I'll be coming in on the weekends with the doctor for anything that comes during those days. Instead of learning all the nuances of radiography, instead when interesting and different diagnosis come in I look them up, refresh myself on them and come up with a ddx, or try to at least. I study up on what would be the most advantageous model of radiography to ask for each clinical diagnosis. We do some interventional radiology as well such as barium swallows, epidural steroid injections, abscess drainage etc. Well those are what we've done so far, we might be doing some bone aspiration in a week or two as well. Anyway radiology is definitely off my list of what I might want to specialize in, although I hope that this month will be learnative for me. Even if I'm not interested in a specialty there is always learning for when I go to practice I can understand the science/art of medicine better than if I just focused on my individual practice with no outside understanding. Thanksgiving time is almost upon us, and we won't be going to the family trip this year. Well I guess Kristen could but somehow I don't see camping as her preferred choice of how to celebrate Thanksgiving. Especially with my family. Not that she hates us of course, she loves my family of course. But love comes in small doses (apparently she doesn't understand that tickling and light forms of physical torture equate to love {love you babe}). So what we'll do for Thanksgiving I don't know yet. I don't even think Kristen knows. Since she's pregnant I don't think that long term planning is really a forte of hers right now. She has become an expert at nap taking though. Although to be honest she is up when I get home these days. Although that could be because I am getting home 7-8 at night instead of 4-5 and so her 4 hour nap is done by the time I get home. I have also been told to make a better effort to leave anything marriage related out of this blog, and by marriage related anything she wouldn't want her family to know about especially with a 8 yo sister. So not marriage as in "marriage" but marriage as in MARRIAGE... hint hint nudge nudge sort of thing. I don't really know where the line is drawn since what I think is appropriate and what Kristen thinks is appropriate is obviously separated by a wide gulf. In fact I did have a funny story about what my wife watched the other night... but I cannot write it sadly. Anyway. So for Christmas I have Sarah and my brother-in-law Aaron who just got off his mission and is engaged to his soon-to-be wife in January I believe. I have been told to keep all presents PG or nicer(since when have I ever done anything else). Funny thing is that we had Aaron for last Christmas as well, not that it matters of course. Still can't believe I have to keep this blog PG just in case someone reads this(not that they will, but have to keep up appearences). As usual not much to go on, so I'll look around and figure out something they would enjoy having from the heart... usually weird things that no one ever knows about but are like... that's totally awesome afterwards. Getting kind of exhausted at my radiology rotation so I'm going to end this I guess. After 12 hours I don't know what to say anymore I lost my train of thought so rather than try to get it back. I'll gracefully exit

Sickness all around

So sorry about last week and the lack of posting I did. I was on death's door and it was a knocking. Fortunately for me the butler answered and the master was out of town for the weekend. Still it took me to about Thursday to be completely better. I am getting back now to the normal... I will be having less fun and more work now. I don't know what else I can do I have to study study study. I've been studying a few hours a day, 3-4 the normal, but honestly a lot of that was with the help of being at a doctor's office that is super slow and annoying. Nothing really happens and I don't work a whole lot. Which is sad since as a medical student, this is when I'm supposed to be doing everything and seeing everything. I don't do much. Also this past weekend Kristen got the bug as well. She threw up a little, no where near as spectacular as I was. Mine was a fountain hose hers was a dribble of a garden hose that was leaking. But that was about the end of it. By Saturday she was better so we watched the new Percy Jackson movie last night, in 3D no less. It was okay. As usual inconsistencies. I've come to the realization that any new story is going to have huge holes in them because lets face it... story writers these days suck. There was a part that a girl was killed by cyclops and Zeus makes her into a tree that has a force field that protects demi-gods. Only later to have another cyclops (this one a good guy) able to walk through. So guess it's a special force field that understands feelings or something like that. This week we had a physician's luncheon, we had shrimp and spicy sausage, and chicken and all this amazing food... Kristen often gets jealous about it when I tell her, but I laugh... sadly didn't get to eat very much because I was still getting over being sick. In the American World Championship for SC2 a American based player won, from Texas. He was terran which is usually my strongest army. That was nice to watch and see. We also had the missionaries over for dinner today. They didn't have any plans everyone had cancelled on them, so they came over here and we had a nice normal dinner. Spagetti and salad, although they had to take off suddenly due to a conflict of schedules. Which was fine. Anyway unless you guys have any questions or anything, I live a pretty boring life as you can see...

Drugery

Sorry I haven't written anything.. I blame the fact that Kristen hasn't been here. She's been at her family's for that last 9 day without me. Talk about abandonment... and people wonder why I have issues. Well this last 2 weeks have been crazy... Switched attendings last week. Kind of like the mission. First companion was super good. Go get them work hard play hard be hard, 2nd companion wasn't so great. My new attending is a 62 yo IM specialist that has ~5-6 patients a day! That's right a day. With Dr. Baxter I was talking to 5-8 patients by myself first a day. I don't even talk to patients here at this new office. I know I know different strokes for different folks but this isn't much of a learning experience, unless I was supposed to learn not to be a IM specialist. Thanks Sara for the email sent to zachary.s.morrill@gmail yes it works, I got it, it was nice. So much I could write but I don't know how much of it is stuff Kristen wants to get out. Well Kristen and I were in charge of her sister's "gift" basket for their honeymoon, but since Kristen was so afraid of what I would put in it that she did it all herself, only she got caught up in the workings and the fact that their other sister had a baby right before the wedding so their basket wasn't too full. I was saddened. I will have to send some stuff to them after they get back home... this time I will take command and all that fun stuff. But sadly it's just not the same to open a basket on your wedding night and have a bright shiny vibrator there... =( I know some of you that might read this might not agree to such things, but as a student physician and as an LDS person ever girl needs to know her preferences. I even read that in a marriage councilor's ,that is LDS, marriage book. Besides who knows, they might enjoy learning things together... just ask your husband etc well anyway enough of that. Kristen is already going to upset that I shared that story. THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR LEAVING ME FOR OVER A WEEK I cleaned up a bit today since I hear I might be getting a visitor here tomorrow. It depends on what she brings home *wink *wink... secret code between Kristen and I... figure that one out. What else I did get to do a suture all by myself my last day of rotations with Dr. Baxter. A guy was running a woodchipper with an older neighbour and she forgot something about safety and mangled his finger. I put it together all nice and neat after cleaning it. 6 stitches in one finger at an oblique angle.. I did very well if I do say so myself. Just took me about 5 times as long as it would have Dr. Baxter. Not to say that Dr. Bobeck can't teach me things. I just don't like the low number of patients and the fact that the most I do is with the MA. She let me take her blood too, so I have gotten 75% on my sticks so far since I started medical school. Well I have to go back to cleaning I'll talk to you guys again.

Definiton

So basically I'm at the point in my life that all weeks are starting to run together. I don't know what I did, or when I did it. This week, last week, it's all the same. Big things this week. I finally got a new phone. I needed something to get all the medical apps people are expecting me to bring to the hospital. Way too many books have been being carried around for such a little effect. Hopefully this phone situation will improve things tremendously. I got a Galaxy SIII not the cheapest phone but pretty cheap and affordable while being able to do the things I need for it to do. I participated in several minor surgeries this week as well. I participated in a punch biopsy of suspected melenoma in a lady's foot. I basically injected anesthetia in to her foot then used a screwdriver like device to cut a circle around it... cut out the connective tissue keeping it on, then sowed her back up afterwards. There were two lesions technically. Dr. Baxter did one lesion and I did the other. Mine might have bleed a bit more than his, but we got it together in the end. The next surgery was a cyst on a lady's back we extracted. that was pretty cool but nasty at the same time. I also have been seeing more and more patients by myself to help Dr. Baxter keep up with his schedule. Since his nurse practitioner retired a few weeks ago, he's been very busy. We get done ~20-25 visits a day. It's kind of exhausting in the end but fun. I see a lot of the members of the church in his office. For everyone that is reading this I do have a new email address... zachary.s.morrill@gmail.com. That is the email address linked to my phone. I didn't want to be getting a whole lot of spam on my phone when it should be mostly for important, non-gaming type of things. So I got it, you guys are blessed to be previe to this occasion so I am graciously inviting you to partake of it. Gratiuito We had the missionaries over last night and they told us to watch this movie called Unicorn City, by the makers of Napoleon Dynamite. It was so bad it was pretty good. For one watching. Never again. You guys have to see it. It's about LARPing etc. Embarrassing comment of the week was brought to you by Kristen Morrill. We were talking about something I don't remember what and she made some comment about the Morrill boys being horny... don't remember why she said that. But let's just say that out of everyone in this relationship here, someone is definitely more ... biased towards the intimiate relationships, than the other... and it isn't me. So anyway she said that and I looked at here at raised my eyebrows and was like," my family is horny?" She got a little shy then. I have made a new friend here in the area apparently. A pharmacist at the hospital is in EQ. We talk if we are in lunch together, which is about once a week. I am still playing LoL, and it turns out that my soon to be brother-in-law is one that plays that game as well. So we'll see how that goes. Still looking for a new hobby. It's a hard life. Now that we're out of school for the most part, not a lot of ppl getting on our old games together. I guess everyone has heard about the zimmerman case and the results. I am almost ready to get off facebook permenantly because people all seem to know exactly what is the truth and push it on others. I can't stand the hubris of people lately. Funny that the previous sentence just came from me. But it's true. The more I learn, the more I want to go off into the wilderness and watch civilization burn... I don't know that much else has happened. Oh yeah Kristen and I did go across the big scary bridge that heads into Washington and went to check out a sandcastle competition. It was pretty nice. there were a couple of "master" class teams out there. I don't know which one won since we left a bit before they were actually judged. But blame Kristen. She was reminder to take a jacket etc. and everything, but when the time came to actually go of course she forgets. She even refused to use my jacket for most of it till she got too cold to withstand it all. She finally caved in at the end and wanted it. Still it was a nice adventure before she leaves and abandons me for Texas.

This is the song that never ends.

As promised here I am to write again on the blog, this is 2 weeks in a row, I'm so amazing. Especially because of the name of this post. I bet you started singing it over in your head huh? Anyway, big thing of the week was going to watch WWZ with Kristen Saturday. After weeks of chiding her and teasing her about it(she didn't want to see it) she finally gave in and went with me. I guess I went and saw enough horrible movies with her that she felt compelled to go watch it with me. About 30 seconds in she was cringing. 2 minutes fingers covered her eyes and ears. After that it got better(ish). Now at night I whisper things to her about zombies from the movie and it freaks her out. Last night was ..."they're attracted to noise... shhhhhh". Other than that it was a slow easy week with only 3 days of work due to the 4th of July. So we wached some movies, didn't go to the 4th of July breakfast because she slept in after the flag ceremony and was too embarrassed to go in a little late. Hubble got stung by a bee or something this week when he went outside with Kristen one day. She said he swelled up a bit, but I didn't see anything. He is always at the windows yearning to go out and have the freedom of outside. Whenever we open the doors to go outside he is always trying to escape. But when he gets outside he'll sniff around everywhere but is afraid of everything out there. Cars, dogs, ppl, anything freaks him out. A real scardy cat. I've seen a few members of the church here in the doctor's office. Which is weird, due to HIPPA I can't communicate with them until they talk to me first etc etc outside the office. Other than that I've seen a lot of allergies, uncomplient patients, have done a lot of OMT for Dr. Baxter probably because he wants to go on and see more patients and not get too behind. I did get to go drain a mucocele from a guys foot... it was pretty nasty, all this clear junk came out, lubricant like, very slick stuff. I've seen druggies and then watched/heard that they had to go to the ER within a few hours after see us from mixing medications and drugs or too much drugs etc. I went in with one, got her history etc etc etc, came out and was talking to Dr. Baxter. He told me to follow into his office where he showed me her nicotics history... hundreds of pills mostly given by a OB/GYN who knows why for "pain" so basically he said no to her lol. I was suprised that it appears to be so prevelent etc. Very sad. Drugs are a big problem around here in Astoria. For the 4th of July Kristen was like let's go to the beach afternoonish... afternoon rolls around and it's grey and cool and not the beach time she wanted. She made up for it by telling us we'd go Friday. Same problem... Finally I was like, let's just plan on going to the beach one day when we're free and it's actually warm outside. So basically who knows if we ever go to the beach or not. she wants to go but there isn't really much. I'm currently in the process of buying a new phone. Since I'm in rotations now, we've finally caved in and got a smart phone. It'll be for the applications and quick access to doctor stuff that I need. Dr. Baxter is already teasing me about how any books I carry around are outdated and that electronics are the way to go. I wish I could just do that, however we're poor and in school blah blah blah, so I'm slowly working on the cool stuff all the kids have. Since we're married we need to be more careful about what we spend money on. We're not single like all the other students who can just blow all their money on liqueur and cheap sex and cool gadgets. Oh well I think that's all for this week. Let me know if you guys have any questions/ comments etc... I'll talk to ya'll later

Rotations

I guess I should keep writing in this, especially since I don't really talk to anyone outside this house anymore. Now that it's my 3rd year, even though I don't know if I've passed my boards (thanks everyone btw for fasting/praying, for those that did). I'm in a family medicine practice helping out an inactive LDS member as it turns out. They have a nice family, and I'm learning a lot of really cool things. Mostly things I swore I'd be able to identify but when I see it in real life, I'm like wtf mate... the good wtf not the bad one. Anyway I've seen some weird things, some things that aren't even in some of my books/or even wikipedia. I know that's the weird part. I've seen my own patients already but nothing too bad. I've also seen MRSA up close, had to make sure my hands and arms were well washed after that one. It's a totally different experience than school, but very cool as well as freaky and scares the bejibbers out of me when I'm in talking to patients alone, because after I go out and report to the physician he quizzes me etc. Still scared that I actually didn't pass the boards but at this point just have to take it on faith, keep praying, and hope. Well I hope that every Sunday I write more about the week and what I saw/did, and all that good stuff. Maybe now that I'm in clinical rotations it will be more routine and the things I can say will be more interesting than the normal we studied this week blah blah blah. I know that wasn't the most interesting of stuff. By the way if you haven't seen Monsters University yet don't go see it. Worst movie I've seen all year, including the horrible B natural disaster movies on netflick. Yes it was that terrible. And I'll try to get this done before 10 P.M. on Sunday night... Oh yeah Kristen passed out today... like passed out bam fall passed out... like drank too much passed out while pursing in the cupboards... oh well one more thing to tease her about during our time together. It wasn't anything serious just some othrostatic hypotension when she suddenly stood up, but still it was pretty funny. Although to be honest all I saw was the plump on the floor, I didn't get to see any of the spinning or anything like that. Well it's time to let you all go, nothing big but I'll let you guys know next Sunday all the best things

Truckin

Perpetual state of tiredness and sleepiness has entered my life. Who ever thought that getting up at 7:30 would take up so much effort? Not I. Finished another class, dermatology. And yes it is a rash, no I don't know what the different kinds are, and yes it looks gross. That's about what I took away from this class. The most useless class I've ever gone to I think. Funny, they said that after GI, we'd be spending a lot of time board studying and prepping for boards, but no we were doing derm all the time, maybe it's different now. Who knows. Things are spinning up here. With CPEs(clinical boards) and the end of the school year coming soon, it's getting pretty hectic. Since I'm officially through all my system classes with the completion of derm yesterday(I got an 87 in the class) I don't know how to proceed really. Other than I want to lay down and sleep a few hours even though it's only 8:40 in the morning. Our next classes are emergency medicine, and pediatrics at the same time. Emergency medicine is pretty different, basically I've seen a bunch weird things, the normal broken bones, and unusual stuff such as a scalping, burn victims, bullet to the head, car accidents, all the problems and problem solving in emergency situations. I realize I don't really want to do anything like that. Too many times you miss something small and they die before you even know. ruptured spleen with trauma, intra-abdominal bleeding with chest palpitations, shock, and I don't really want to be responsible for losing a life over stuff like that. Even if you're not at fault that'd take the psyche out for a beating in the back room. So life is going to get hectic here pretty soon. Boards, prep for moving, moving, rotations, getting ready for the 4th year. And with all this, I just want to go and take a nap. Kristen's birthday is coming up here in about a week and me being prepared have already bought a present... I'm totally on top of things right now(ish). And no it's not lingerie, it's a real present. Can't get away with that anymore like in the first year of marriage. Conference was good. I listened to all 10 hours and still passed my final so God does still exist. Although on Saturday i was studying in between sessions and was so exhausted that when I went to priesthood session I basically was asleep before they dimmed the lights... Just sitting down and not studying was too much I think... I didn't sleep the whole way through, just the first talk or so. They always save the best speakers last so I was okay anyway. Anyway I should get back to class since it's going on right now. Just throwing this out there since some people don't live in the USofA and other don't answer their phones, like ever.

GI business

Updates are slow here sorry guys. But at least I am updating and fyi for those of you who call me, my phone is horrible remember, and you can always text asking for a conversation. Or even answer the phone when I call you =) Anyway latest news. If you don't know by now after a scare with my reproduction grade(lowest test score in medical school so far) I managed to pull an 87 out of the hat and pass the class easily. The next 2 tests, EOC week and this GI test have come and gone and I managed to pass this GI test with a 76. A little under the average but I feel that I know the material confidently. I just don't really test well, and knowing what material to study and what is extra has always been a weakness with me in medical school. Unlike in physics where everything lead to everything else and you need to know to manipulate data more than remember random weird facts. I am also getting into board studies now. I have been using some q-banks for the last few days/weeks/months. I am hitting about a 50% which for the beginning isn't so bad. Relearning all the material is horrible to say the least but it's progress. I am taking the COMLEX up in Seattle actually the 18th I believe. Or week right before my rotations start. Also all the other juicy news. Kristen had the when do we want children talk. It lasted about 5 minutes basically. This is when... ok... good talk... bedtime. Other news we're going to be making a visit to Astoria during spring break to check out living conditions and all that good stuff. We're still teaching 5-6 year olds in primary. Kristen said the most horrible thing earlier Sunday... That she is going to stop bringing snacks every week for them :-O> I know.... no snacks normally now... is the church really true anymore???????!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! This is the problem with this... I know that there are lots of people who want more information but I really don't have a clue what to write so leave a message in the message box and I'll be back later with the replies...

Sara's Response

Guess I am not a good story teller or something like that. I don't know what ppl find interesting. Christmas I got a cheese slicer(the wire kind like mother likes) 2 pairs of pj pants(they were trying to hint at something) and a check for 500 dollars because the boards I am taking this summer are about 1 grand. I got Kristen a pendant necklace with my birthstone in it, amythest. New Years I was actually awake we were at a friends of the Bonds played games and they talked while I slept. We just switched classes in primary. That was Sunday actually so it technically couldn't have gone in the last blog. We had the 7-8 year olds, now we have the 5 year old. And there are about a million of them(~10) in one class. But at least they are happy to be at church and like to be involved. The last class the boys were terrible, throwing tantrums about being in class and church. So disrespectful. I never did stuff like that when I was a kid. For our anniversary we made reservations at a nice hotel in Portland and spent the whole night .... Actually we went to a nice corner restaurant that was brasilian. Their tri-tip wasn't as good as rodizios in SLC but their top sirloin was probably the best I've ever had. As well as their grilled pineapple. They put cinnamon on top of it. It was delicious. 1.5 hours going there, 1.5 hours eating, 1.5 hours going back lol. The only downfall is that the next day we had to go back to Portland again for our flight back to Texas again the redeye flight. I swear if we ever do more flights like that, I'm getting the upgrade no matter what. Good food, I got Kristen to make a good gumbo for the missionaries yesterday. Only think that it was missing was shrimp(missionaries even said so; and if they said that it must be true) I am also wanting to try to figure out how to make a good cookie dough shake, haven't quite decided how to proceed. Also I had a wonderful cake batter yogurt. It was delightful. I am almost 29 not 30 so your a year off. I thought accountants could count. But I might have been mistaken. You know technically Aang is like Jesus because he has control of all 4 elements and keeps coming back to life. Kristen and I watched the new avatar series, waiting for the next one. Although sadly they don't come out with the new book for a bit yet. Poor Jacob too, if you say, "if you don't tell me what to get I won't get you anything" that is understandable you warned him. But simply asking you have anything SPECIFICALLY you want me to get you, is simply asking if I want anything in specific. Doesn't mean I don't want anything. I was broken hearted. But she made up for it by getting me hot fries and pomegranate and she made some cookies Sunday. We were supposed to have cookie dough shakes but after eating like 10 cookies I wasn't in the mood for more sweets. Bam look at this so much information, sometimes guys just need a little direction **Cough cough ****hint hint ;-)

Back

For some reason I've been a little out of touch with my blogging, if you can call it that. More like you never call and ask me how I'm doing so I write it online for you to read at your convenience. Anyway, tomorrow is the start of the my last semester here at COMP-NW assuming I pass my boards and don't fail a class this semester. I didn't get a snack from the store yesterday =( Kristen got hummus for herself and nothing for me because I couldn't name anything specific. I actually just put this out there to tease her because ... it's funny. I'm going to have to start naming off food at random now just so I get something. But at least we have dinner tonight. Already starving. On the 1-4 church schedule. I thought I got out of this when I finally got married. I hate 1-4. Anything is better than this stuff. Now you have to actually fast for 24 hours :P and on top of that my study schedule is going to be way off. But at least this is only one semester. At least when I was single and going to the YSA ward I could always skip out and go to the family ward early and no one was the wiser. Now I can't and it sucks. Ah I remember now why I don't blog anymore. I don't have anything to say at all. I went to Texas one last time and said goodbye to that house. Um yeah Since I've been here I after our christmas trip I've lived in my pjs I think. Although to be fair I've gone out every night I think. I thought that since Kristen is about to be a single woman again that she should at least see me the days before I leave. that's about it As you can see nothing new is happening... hopefully once i get into rotations I will have something to talk about