the view from up here

So, Obie and I moved waaaay up to northern Maine practically on top of the border with Canada.  Our first morning here it was -15.  He tried to balance on two legs while peeing, and glared at me for all he was worth before scampering back to the front door expecting to escape the chill.  Luckily things have only gotten better since then, and I survived my first week of surgery minus the Monday holiday!  50 hours later I am wondering what a full week will look and feel like, cause pseudo week felt a little like a train running me down.

It takes a surprising amount of muscle to stand in one place for a four hour surgery while holding your arms mid body so as to not break the sterile field, and then intermittently holding a clamp for just long enough to make you develop a fine tremor before releasing it and returning to mid body robot stance.  And at the end of that, it's almost amusing how shaky and jittery you are when you are asked to do the one task your baby student hands are somewhat capable of handling: suturing the incision closed.  Sutures in the ED are one thing. Pull up a chair and stay awhile why don't you!  On my last rotation a nurse came in to the room just as I was finishing up an arm laceration to ask me if I'd like him to bring in the sewing machine because it had been quite a long time since I had started.  Well, in the OR, ain't nobody got time for that!  At the end of a long surgery, it's lickety split time and you better step briskly so you don't get run over.  Which is why when you are finally up to bat, after standing immobilized for forever,  it's the worst time for the muscle memory of movement to momentarily escape you!  Thus, I spent one afternoon practicing on a chair in between patients.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.  In fact, week one was good.  Exhausting and awkward and funny and good in spite of it all.  And this means I only have one more first week of rotations to go.  One more round of accidentally introducing myself to the same person three or more times, one more awkward hover dance in the doorway of my preceptors office while I try to decide where to situate my body so it's most out of the way, one more building to get lost in the layout of, one more set of codes to memorize to get into the various restricted places.   SO CLOSE.

Yesterday and today I woke up to beautiful sunny days with temperatures above zero!  Julia, Oliver, and I took advantage of the lull in precipitation to go snowshoeing.  It was absolutely gorgeous!

We blazed a trail in the back of our house, which was a ton of work, but really fun.  I tried to get a video of O trying to navigate the snow, but was unsuccessful.  So in words this is what he looks like:  three steps on the surface of the snow because he doesn't weigh too much, and then his back half will sink, causing his front half to sink while he attempts to pull himself out of the hole, then a couple more steps on the surface and sink, sink, sink, surface, surface, surface.  He alternates between that and following in our trail, so closely that he is more often standing on the snow shoe and looks personally affronted when you lift your foot up and startle him.  I know, his life is very hard.  He is currently passed out at my feet from all the excitement.  I think he likes life up north so far!