Isley Family Life: November 2014

In November, I was on Pediatric Infectious Disease. It was one of my favorite rotations ever. There were a ton of residents on that month since the ID doctor had quit and was leaving in January to take a job in Texas, so a bunch of people were trying to rotate with him before he left. The large posse meant that there were a lot of people to split up the work, and also meant that it felt like a party wherever we went with our huge ID team. The ID doctor didn't like early mornings, so our start time was really late, and then he'd be even later than our agreed upon start time, so the hours were pretty chill. The Peds ID doctor is a super cool guy and he tried harder to teach us more philosophy and approach, rather than specifics, which he said we would always need to look up anyway, since there's so much to know and medicine changes so quickly. Some of my favorite pearls from the month were:

Atypical presentations of common things occur more often than zebras... and if zebras do occur, they should look like zebras.
Make the decision that minimizes your future uncertainty.
The purpose of documentation is to illuminate your thought process.

Honestly, the philosophical pearls have really stuck with me and have played a role in shaping me as a physician, so I look upon the month with fondness and gratefulness.

Aaron was on a neurosurgery elective, which was super chill, too. It was the only month he's ever had during residency in which he didn't have to go to morning report, so some mornings he got to start a little later than usual, which was nice. November was such a great month for our family! We both had off the week of Thanksgiving, so we went up to Kansas for Thanksgiving (separate post to follow). Below are some of the highlights from the rest of the month, including a football game and a couple birthday parties :-)

An evening walk after a going away dinner party for some of our dearest friends. Julia misses her first friend!

Football game with Papa Gary!

Sarah stopped by for a little while!

Bonfire out at the my mentor's farm! She hosted a fun evening for residents in my program out on her land. Such a great night out in nature.

Someone enjoyed the smores!

Snare drum fun!

Ice cream!

Julia's spelling skills began really exploding. Here, she has tried to search on Netflix for the PBS show Word Girl. She typed wrgrl ;-)

One day at work, the ID doctor took us to explore the new Trauma Emergency tower and showed us a solarium with a fantastic view of the city.

This girl knows how to destroy a doughnut.

Celebrating Gee's birthday!

Love!

Skyping with Elizabeth!

Julia got invited to the birthday party of the daughter of a friend of mine from residency and they had a pony! We bought her some boots for the occasion, making it official that she was born and bred in the state we live in ;-) Julia sure enjoyed the pony and the party!