Snow Day

Knitting update: 

I finished another pattern, this time of ribbing. It was knit 2 purl 2 and then the reverse on the next row. It turned out well although you can't see the ribbing very well in the picture.

I bought some bright pink homespun yarn and bigger needles and I'm attempting a scarf, probably for C because she is the smallest. 

We were off from school for MLKJr day on Monday. I texted one of E and L's friend's mom on Saturday and invited their friend for a Sunday night sleepover. I'm enjoying the control I have right now over who their friends are. I know that'll go away. I picked one of my favorite of their friends and we had a great time. The only problem was the delicious chocolate chip cookies we made together on Monday; I completely overindulged. The friend introduced my kids to the program H20: Just Add Water about Australian girls that turn into mermaids. It's the beginning of lame older kid programs. Blech.

Oh, the other problem was that the sleepover made me totally forget about Downton Abbey. I had to avoid spoilers until we had time to watch it Wednesday night.

Speaking of older kids, we had to cancel a case at work this week because the patient's pregnancy test (standard before any procedure on a female under 50 unless she's had a hysterectomy) turned up positive. She was 14. ACK, I said on Twitter and I stand by that.  

We had another young girl who needed an implanted defibrillator and chose to have it placed submammory instead of in the usual subclavicular position. It's mainly for vanity's sake and only offered to young people - if you've seen anyone with an implanted pacer or defibrillator, you know you can see a small bulge where the generator is located. You can't see that submammory.

The plastic surgeon came in to assist. He made an incision at the bottom of the left breast and separated the breast tissue from the muscle, creating a pocket for the generator. Then the EP cardiologist threaded the defibrillator wire down into that pocket from above the breast. The bottom line is that at one point, they had her breast tissue separated from her chest by about four inches. It was gruesome. It's all done under general anesthesia, but still. I would always choose the regular position if possible. I am traumatized by the procedure; it was the first one I've seen.

On Tuesday morning I was driving to work when I got a phone call from school telling us it was a snow day. My stress level skyrocketed as I worked to figure out what I could do with my kids at the last minute. This is the worst part of working daytime hours. I had just used my FIL last week while C was sick, so I called Karen to see if her kids had a ridiculous (seriously- very little snow, just cold temperatures) snow day, too. They did and she graciously agreed to watch mine, too. I put my name on the board to leave early and we had finished enough procedures that I got to leave by 2:30. It worked out well, but unexpected lack of school is stressful.

Comments

[Steff]

Sigh, I've quit Twitter and miss/wonder about you all the most, thank you for this post! :) Not in a creepy sort of way more in a what will the next episode bring kind of way.

[Julie draper]

Gah!!! A pregnant 14 year old... Lord life as a mom is tough at any age but 14... My heart hurts for her and her parents ;(

[Angie]

My 8 year old daughter also watches H2O - yuck. I tried watching it with her and I just couldn't, but she absolutely LOVES it. She has watched it over and over again. I told her she should watch the movie Splash with me because it was one of my favorite movies as a kid. She balked when I told her it's from the 80's!

[Liz S]

Miss lactation consultant here can only think oh crap what if she wants to breastfeed at some point in the future..... I don't know the rest of her history and if that will ever happen but now she is high risk for lactation failure.

I had a 15 year old patient the other day. ACK, DAMN, Shit, you totally ruined your life is what I think. And then I bite my tongue and am professional.

[Missy]

I work in clinical research for one of the pacemaker/defibrillator companies, and I didn't even realize submammory was an option! Love hearing stories about the new job. Well, other than the 14 year old pregnancy! Yikes! Hope that girl is getting all the support she needs.