Three Part Update, Plus Video of E

Today is a new day.

It feels as though we are finally hitting a rhythm at home.  E has good days and not so good days, but he is absolutely blessed with a wonderful daddy who takes care of him.  We laid him on the bed last night and he just giggled and giggled and giggled at K.  He has been really snuggly the last few days and has napped in my arms after I get home.  (I love that.)  He is growing like a weed and has outgrown even more clothes!  

K is hard at work on his master’s degree.  In his “Studies in the Prophets” class, he has to do readings and class discussions every week.  Additionally, he recently completed a timeline delineating important events from the time of David to the birth of Jesus.  He wrote his in the format of movie bylines, writing things like, “…The salvation of the world is not born into a great palace or stately manor, but to a stable. Christ's earthly ministry comes to a conclusion in 30 A.D. when He is crucified and risen from the grave...”  It made it so much more interesting to read!  He is a smartie and its awesome to see him get to work on something that he loves but also that challenges him. 

I will admit that school was hard today.  RUSM offers something called “Working with Questions.”  It is an optional session where 8-10 students gather to take a 20-question quiz individually, then discuss our answers/thought processes with the group.  I left our session feeling pretty discouraged; I didn’t have a good grasp on the material being tested.  I also met with my faculty mentor this afternoon and he encouraged me to keep at it.  He said, “You will have to work even harder than some of your classmates because you have a family here that you’d like to keep when you leave here.  That means late nights and early mornings.”  He is absolutely right and these are just things that I need to commit to in order to improve my study habits.  So I’m going to try plotting out my daily schedule one week at a time and see if I can’t use it to guide my studying and ensure that I’m getting everything done that I need to. 

Here is a video of E!

Sleep? No, we never get enough.

K and I are both dragging today. Last night, E was waking very frequently.  I got up about every half-hour from 11:00-2:30.  Then, at 3:00, I couldn't do it anymore.  He had bitten me pretty good and I just ended up crying on the edge of the bed, willing him to go back to sleep. So K took E out to the living room and sat with him for an hour and a half until he settled back down.  I could tell he was feeling it when I left for class this morning.

E is almost five months old and his longest stretch of sleep yet is four hours (and that was about two months ago.)  He has been teething and two popped through in the last week.  I'm sure this contributes to it, but waking up about every two hours is very difficult when you really need to be focused throughout the day.  While its true that you get used to the sleep deprivation, it isn't fun when your brain needs to work and you can't concentrate because you just want to nap.  (Yesterday, I ate tropical skittles and drank Diet Coke during lecture just to stay with it.)

I'm also breastfeeding the little fella, so I'm the one to get up with him.  K is great about getting up if I ask him to, or if I'm just exhausted and I roll over and poke him out of bed.  That being said, 90% of why E cries at night is hunger, so it isn't worth K waking up to turn around and have the baby handed to me to nurse. We have tried doing the bottle thing at night a few times, but in the time it takes to warm it up, E is full-on wailing! With his teeth now through, once he can sit up a little better, we'll try some cereal and see if we can't fill his little belly more before bedtime.

Here is a video from my youth that accurately describes my position:
"Sleep" by Riley Armstrong

Friends and the First Exam

This morning I took my first exam of medical school.  They give us the first exam so early because they want us to gage how well/efficiently we are studying.  This also gives us a chance to change our study habits if necessary in order to learn and perform better on the exams. Our exams are taken on the computer, so we receive our scores about 3 hours afterwards.  It also includes a summary concerning how well we did in each subject: gross anatomy, micro-anatomy, biochemistry, behavioral health, clinical medicine, and physiology.  Tomorrow, each student will meet with a professor mentor to review our test performance and look for areas to improve.

I have made a lot of new acquaintances here on the island, but I have also had the pleasure of making some wonderful friends.  One of my friends, I call "Hawkeye" due to her love for M*A*S*H (but I might also call her "Aunty E" as she is E's honorary Aunt here).  You might also read about Aunty C and Uncle L.  These friends are my study buddies too and we've spent a lot of hours together since starting the semester.

Anyway, Hawkeye came back home with me and we sat on the couch with Ethan and played with him while watching, "The Office" (American version.)  My brain appreciated the respite. When I checked my score, I found out that I passed the exam, (70%>).  At Ross, not only do you have to pass the semester, but also specific disciplines.  This semester, the disciplines are gross anatomy, micro-anatomy, and biochemistry.  I did well on the anatomies, but I still need to work on biochem.  Luckily, I have an excellent tutor who makes things so much easier to understand.

The upper semester students suggested taking the rest of the day off from studying to decompress.  To that end, they offered a "Snack Attack" on campus with free ice cream and cookies.  Having enjoyed some sweets, K, E & Aunty E, and I walked around the campus before heading out with Uncle L.  Celebrating our first "mini," we ate dinner together at an Indian restaurant, Mango's.  We had a wonderful time discussing travel, food, and family.  I am incredibly blessed to have such great friends here.

I am also reminded on a daily basis how wonderful my husband is.  Because of his devotion and ability, I am able to study for large chunks of time.  I know that my success is our success and his success is our success.  He is incredibly smart and strong, yet tender and gentle.  Every day, I thank God for him.

We are also very grateful for our families and friends at home.  Thank you for praying for us, for emailing us, for writing us on FB, and for following us here.  It is an honor to share our lives with you.

For His Glory,
KCE

My First Patient

I do not know her name. 

I do not know her history.

I know nothing of her, yet I will know her more intimately than anyone besides God.

She is my donor.  My first patient.  The cadaver who will teach me the art of medicine. 

Today, I entered the anatomy lab for the first time to work on my assigned dissection.  I had been in a few times to observe the previously completed work of my colleagues, but today, I made my first cut. 

It is an unusual feeling, to slice into a human being.  Revealing their muscles and fat, their nerves, veins, and arteries.  She is there to teach us.  She offered her body as an amazing gift so that we could learn. 

I do not, nor will I ever, know her name.  But I am thankful.  I will treasure this gift and treat it with the respect it deserves. I will honor her by learning everything I can so that I may treat the living. 

The White Coat

Yesterday, I was honored to participate in the White Coat Ceremony, marking our induction into training as physicians.  After class, I headed home and picked up my very dapper husband and baby and headed to "the Annex," a classroom north of campus where the event was being held.  I learned a few interesting factoids I'd like to share with you.

In the late 1800s, it became the style for physicians to wear white; this also marked the end of the era when doctors wore dark colors (thank you, Dr. Selfridge for this tidbit.)

Both of these paintings are by the American painter, Thomas Eakins.

The first is entitled, The Gross Clinic.  It was completed in 1875.

The second is The Agnew Clinic, completed in 1889.

In the span of fourteen short years, doctors changed the face (and clothing) of medicine.  Today, we honor that tradition by donning our white coats.  It was an emotional moment for me.  It represents the responsibility of learning and training.  There is a weight to the coat which the fabric doesn't supply.  When I wear it, I am entrusted with my patient: his secrets, his emotions, his very body.  I consider it an honor to study medicine. I pray that I will do so faithfully so that I can best serve those for whom I will care. 

We ended the ceremony by repeating the Hippocratic Oath.  Hipprocrates himself is not the author, but because of his early work in medicine, we honor him with the title.  The modern version of this oath reads,

"I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.
I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.
I will not be ashamed to say 'I know not,' nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.
I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.
I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.
I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.
I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help."

I'm not ashamed to say that I had tears in my eyes as my colleagues and I made this vow.

If you are interested in watching the ceremony, you can find the link below:

White Coat Ceremony RUSM January 2017

For His glory,
KCE

First Few Days of School

Wow!  I blinked and it's Wednesday afternoon.

K started his graduate classes yesterday.  He had four chapters of very dense reading to do, summaries and discussions of these readings, and had to watch a few lectures.  He completed it all while watching E.  I asked him about his classes when I got home and got to look at what he put together for the summaries/discussion pieces.  What he wrote was so very academic; my husband is a quick learner with a propensity to excel.  He just blows me away with his abilities!

I am quickly learning what t,he phrase, "drinking from a fire hose" means.  What we would cover in two or three lectures during undergrad is discussed in about 10 minutes in our lectures. For example, yesterday, we covered glycolysis, the link reaction, the Kreb's Cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, and the pentose phosphate pathway.  While I am doing well in keeping up with anatomy, cell biology, and clinical medicine, I am struggling in biochemistry.  Luckily, Ross provides tutors free-of-charge, so I've signed up for a tutor.  For me, its much better to get a tutor now, than to suffer and fall further behind.

This afternoon, I also had the privilege of studying anatomy in the anatomy lab with a cadaver.  Ross divides the class into three groups which take turns dissecting then teaching each other.  Group A dissected yesterday and will explain the dissection tomorrow.  Two of my friends happened to be in Group A and they kindly allowed me to tag along and listen to them practice their demonstrations.  After listening to them, I was able to find the following: (its about to get terminology heavy, so if that kind of thing bores you, feel free to skip on ahead for updates with E....) trapezius (and its blood supply, the transverse cervical artery and its innervation [what nerve goes in it], the accessory nerve/cranial nerve 11), the levator scapulae, rhomboid major, rhomboid minor (their blood supply is the dorsal scapular artery and their innervation is the dorsal scapular nerve), the latissimus dorsi (its blood supply is the thoracodorsal artery and its innervation is the thoracodorsal nerve), the serratus posterior superior and the serratus posterior inferior, the thoracolumbar fascia, and the erector spinae.   I enjoy memorizing the anatomy, though the experience is improved when you can actually see it first hand.  (Another post on the gift of our donors is forthcoming.)

E is doing very well.  It seems as though he has adjusted to being in a tropical climate.  He loves his daddy and I enjoy watching them play together.  He is growing so quickly that some things we brought don't fit him anymore, but there are some smaller babies here (my classmates' children) and so we'll see if they would like some clothes.

Please continue to pray for us as we study to show ourselves approved.

We love you!
KCE

Our Little Corner of Dominica

I've decided to embrace our hill as a daily workout routine.  In fact, I walked it twice today.  Going up is much easier when you aren't pushing the stroller or wearing a backpack and carrying a few bags.  We have a beautiful view over much of our area and can watch the sun set over the Caribbean Sea.  Our home is very nice.  We have a kitchen/living room open space and two bedrooms with one bathroom each.  We generally bathe E and put him to bed in our room, then end up getting ready for bed ourselves in the other bathroom so we don't wake him.  I'll try to post pictures of our apartment in the near future.  In the meantime, here are some pictures of our neighborhood and walk home.

We walk towards the right and then the hill begins.... The red arrow denotes our place.

 This is the base of the hill.  At the top here, it curves to the right and the second portion of the hill begins.

 On the right is a coconut tree under which I usually stop and take a breather. 

We are the last building up the hill on the right.  I've been using my walks up and down the hill as time to think and pray.  I'm still awed and grateful for where God has taken us. 

For His glory,
KCE

New Student Orientations

This week has been building up to the crescendo of our first weeks of graduate/medical school.  K has been completing all of his orientation work online (even with me interrupting for E's bath & bed time.)  I have had orientation and presentations each day covering various subjects and services.  They made it clear that unlike undergrad, there is no easing into it.  We have assignments this weekend prior to the start of classes Tuesday for K and Monday for me. 

We met our lovely neighbors last night.  He is a second semester who is here with his wife and little boy.  We visited for awhile last night and they offered us baby things and any help they could.  (Including letting us use their internet as ours isn't hooked up properly yet.)  What a blessing!

I also found a French bakery on my way home last night.  We enjoyed grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner; it was a nice taste of home.

We appreciate everyone praying for us.  We are here because God has called us and this is no easy task.  Thank you for continuing to pray for us and little E.

For His glory,
KCE

Our First Few Days

Hello All!

Our first few days here have been an adjustment.  We flew through Toronto, Canada to get here...why we go north to go south I don't know. :)  After a few exhausting days of travel, during which E was a pretty good baby for getting up at 3:30 AM, we arrived on 12/30/16 to the Charles Douglas Airport in Roseau, Dominica.

It took a 50 minute cab ride to travel about 17 miles from the airport to the campus because of the hairpin turns.  K let me sit in the middle so I could see out the front, and therefore avoid motion sickness.  (He's so great!)  We had a welcome lunch of chicken and rice for him and green beans and rice for me.  E was the star of the show and all of the ladies of the school were asking to hold him.  We were met by the lady who is substituting for our landlady and she drove us up the hill to our apartment. When I say hill, I really mean large, tiring, out-of-breath-when-you-finish hill.  On a positive note, I'll be losing a lot of weight soon climbing home every night.

Our place is pretty nice, albeit hot.  We only have A/C in our bedrooms, but with E, we've decided to keep the doors open and cool the rest of the house, because its just infeasible to try to keep him in a cool bedroom all day long and do anything else.  We do have that extra bedroom if anyone would like to visit during one of our breaks.  April '17 is spoken for, but we still have the end of August and next April.

Grocery shopping is also different here.  The most "American" grocery store is an IGA.  We went there our first day and were shell-shocked at the price of things.  We spent $70 US and went home with the following: one small jar of Jiff, two cans of tomato soup, one can of Campbell's ready to eat soup, an 8 oz. pkg of cream cheese, a pkg of bagels, a qt. of almond milk, a small jar of jelly, and a dozen eggs.  We're looking around for options now because we just can't continue to spend like that.  Luckily, we may have found something, but I'll keep you posted.

I've had some mini-orientations over the last few days, but the really long days begin tomorrow.  K has been absolutely wonderful with E.  It is such a blessing knowing that he is in good hands and that I can just focus and get stuff done at school.

The pictures are of our view at a restaurant on the beach and the mountains just SW of campus (that building is our mailroom on campus.)

We love and miss you all.
KCE