Feels like home to me?

As I wrote previously, this past weekend I was on call from Friday to Monday. This means I was on duty and slept at the hospital on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday night.

It's not as bad as it seems. Some nights are very busy, but some nights, you might get up just the one time to deliver a baby.

Anyways, I think my living arrangements of late have really scrambled with my sense of home. Regardez:

1) I've lived in a different city roughly every 2 months this year. (In order: Hamilton, Vancouver, Grimsby, Hamilton, Ottawa, Hamilton, Vancouver, Brantford)

2) I moved to a different house in Hamilton just this past September. This means I've moved EVERY single year since leaving home. That's six moves in six years, not counting summers.

3) I spend one out of every four or five nights sleeping in a hospital.

Remember the first time you went to a sleep over? Or the first time you slept in a hotel room? I remember (vaguely) that it felt very unusual. It just didn't feel like home.

I don't have this problem any more. I can (and will) sleep anywhere. I don't get thrown off by different sheets, different mattresses, different floors, different toilets, different taps. It doesn't bother me that I'm not surrounded by "my" things, or "my" people. I think I've lost that feeling of having a place where I'm "most" comfortable.

I wonder, have I lost my sense of home?
Or have I internalized it?

Babies galore

I'm on call Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon this week.

This means that I'm writing this on a Saturday night, and that I've been working since Friday morning. Hopefully, I'll get to go home sometime Sunday afternoon to shower or something.

Call isn't always pleasant, but there is no denying that it's the time when you get to see and experience the most.

I think at last count, I've delivered around 8 babies. I think... I'm starting to lose track. And the majority of these occur while I'm on call.
And I've seen some very interesting things.

The thing about Obs/Gyn is that it's very truly life and death. The life I was expecting. Babies are born, and it's an incredible event. But I wasn't expecting the ladies who lose their pregnancies, the lady with young children who showed up with inoperable cervical cancer.

This rotation has without a doubt been the best clerkship rotation yet.

The hours can be long, but I bear them with good grace.

Je t'adore. Je t'adore.

Catch!

I did my first night of call for obs/gyn yesterday which was wonderful and mostly sleepless since there were babies and phone calls and the first baby last night came at a fairly reasonable hour and it was a boy and my supervisors hands were over my own when I delivered it but I still count it as MY delivery and the second delivery came in the morning and THAT one I did mostly by myself and all in all it is a joyful and exciting and wet time and there's nothing like holding your own breath while waiting for a baby to take his very first one because it's like you're both breathing for the very first time and did you know that the majority of women tear during a vaginal delivery which is really something I didn't expect because it would appear that Mother Nature really did make the opening too small and she's not one for mistakes like the rain that's smattering outside that tells me it's Autumn that it's another season and another day and I wonder if the rain will follow me home for Thanksgiving and when I think about it I don't think I'd mind if it did because I'm going home to hear my zany sister play the ukelele anyways.

Turkey Trot

If all goes to plan, I will be bussing home with my sister on Saturday. I think we could leave on Friday, but she's got some post-exam parties to attend. You never really remember the exams you write, but the parties stick with you.

I feel like this blog is becoming boring. I hope this is not a reflection of my life.

It's all relative

So I'm currently living with some family friends in Brantford. They are the most wonderful people, and it's been very good times.

I was talking to my sister this weekend, about our family, and other families etc... And I think that we all just assume that what one's own family does is normal. Every family has its little rituals and conversation loops and habits. And when you experience another family environment, it's a whole world of interesting to realize that there really are many many ways to skin a cat.

On another note, they have a dog and a cat in the house. I'm really not much of a pet person. In fact, I feel kind of silly calling an animal any sort of name. I usually call the dog "Hey Dog", and the cat is "Hey Cat". And while I don't mind poking them with my feet, I feel that I should wash my hands after petting them.

The fine line between Hero and Goat

I played my first soccer game of the season today. We tied 1:1.

We were down 1:0 at halftime. Then we scored quite a wonderful goal (I got an assist!).

With five minutes remaining one of my team mates got fouled within the box, and our team was awarded a penatly shot!

The referee put the ball down. I realized that my team expected ME to take the shot! I reckon this was because:
1) I am one of the strikers. We score goals. It's what we do.
2) I'm in 3rd year, so I have seniority.

Anyways, I really wasn't nervous stepping up to the ball. But I was a whole world of dismayed when I blasted the ball straight over the net. aii!
Just like Beckham and Baggio before me.