Hello my friends! So Lindsey, my cuz, came out to see me this last weekend and we had ourselves a great weekend! We went to the coast, playing in the ocean and saw a whale!! We got dressed up and went into Portland to eat at the Portland City Grill- a nice restaurant on the 30th floor in downtown. We hiked to the top of Multnomah Falls. Oh, and Lindsey made me buy a bright yellow dress- not like me at all!! It was fun and wonderful to see her. I hope to see more people soon!! Enjoy the pictures.
Ahh yes, it's that time of year again. The birds are chirping, sun is shining, and the sequence and neon stripes are sparkling once again. Yes I am talking about the Tour de Fat. It had about 1/10 of the people as the Fort Collin's TDF, and there were alot of confused faces as we rode by with our costumes and bubbles and bike bells. But we had lots of fun playing on the trick bikes, running through fountains and dancing around like idiots. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
South Pacific was AMAZING! Ben totally hooked us up!! We were 11 rows from the stage- right in the middle. It was incredible! We ever got a tour backstage after the show. You can't really tell, but I'm totally dolled up! See, I'm even wearing sequence shoes. Emily has other pictures of me, that i might need to steal. It was great to see Ben and meet his wife. We figured out we hadn't seen eachother since I was 17. Man, I feel old. It was nice to catch up and so good to see Ben. THANK YOU BEN!!
It's been awhile since I updated so here goes! (You might want to get food and water, this is gonna be a doozie)
Life here in Portland is pretty grand. I've been hiking so much that I have permanent blisters and a dirt ring around my ankles from my sock line. I love it! Emily and I have conquered most of the hikes in the Gorge and have now set our sites on Mt. Hood and/or Crater Lake. We have to take advantage of the amazing weather we are having here! That beautiful Oregon summer really exists!! (pictures are of Angel's Rest and Herman Creek Trails- both overlooking the Columbia river.)
Tonight I get to see Ben! He's my brother's good friend who I've known since I was about 14? He works on the national tour of the broadway show South Pacific. He hooked me up with a pair of tickets- so Em and I are having a date night! I even bought a new dress (insert gasp here) and makeup! (gasp again) and shoes with sequence on them (gasp again). We have been listening to show tunes all week in preparation and I couldn't be more excited!! It should be a great show and a great night. Don't worry- I'll post pictures of the girl version of me soon.
My internship has been incredible. There are parts that I hate (the busy work and computer crap) and parts that I love. It has made me realize that I dont want to be a personal trainer for the rest of my life- but has also made me realize that I am a people person. I love seeing the same people everyday and knowing them by name and them knowing me.
I have another month at my internship and would LOVE to get hired on, but know there isn't money in the budget for someone else. I am seriously considering going to nursing school. I LOVE working in a hospital and even though it's huge (over a million square feet) you see the same people and I can't walk down the hall without stopping to talk to someone I know. The University of Portland has a great nursing program- but I wouldnt start school until a year from september. The thought of going back to school kills me a little bit on the inside- but nursing is a guaranteed job and the make GOOD money. It would only be another 12-18 months of school. We'll see. Something to think about I guess. Maybe I'll skip nursing and go right to being a heart surgeon! yeah!
I hope that wasn't too long and you are still awake! I'll add some pictures soon! I miss everyone and hope for visits soon!!
I've had a chance to see another heart surgery- ok one and a half heart surgeries. I have become friends with the profusionists (who control the heart/lung machines) and was invited back to see another sugery. I'm a veteran now and even have my own scrubs. Most of the people know me by name up in the CVOR so I can go up there pretty much whenever I want to now (with permission from Victor- the head RN of course). The first (partial) surgery I got to see was a woman who was in for her 3rd open heart surgery and had also had radiation and a double massectomy for breast cancer. She was a TINY woman and pushing 80 and such a trooper! So the surgeon started doing his thing and when he was cutting the sternum he all of a sudden started yelling "oh my god! oh dear lord, shit!"- not something a surgeon should be saying! Within a few minutes there was probably 20 people in the room and blood was POURING out of this poor woman's chest. I was huddled in the corner, trying not to get in the way, hoping I wasn't watching this woman die. Then Victor came in and told me this wasn't the best case for me to watch- uhh, ya think!? So i left and watched from outside for a bit. Don't worry- the woman lived and is recovering nicely. Turns out- she had so much scar tissue from the surgeries and radiation that her heart and surrounding tissue was fused to the chest wall (whereas there is normally an inch or 2 space between) and when he was cutting the sternum he nicked the aorta. The tricky part is in order to repair it- they needed to open the chest up- which required cutting away the heart and all the tissue from the chest wall- which takes quite a bit of time. If they just try to open it like they normally would- they would be literally ripping her heart apart with it. Needless to say, it was a very tense situation- but everything turned out good!! (thank goodness!!) So I went up later that day and saw another open heart- a much calmer surgery. Steve the profusionist (AKA hot doctor)who I've become pretty good friends with was working this case so we was able to show me everything he does and also explain the surgery and what the surgeon was doing throughout the whole thing. It was pretty cool and I was so glad he was there! Steve also does surgeries at the children's hospital in Portland. He had a case yesterday where a 7 day old baby was born without one of the valves in his heart- So this tiny little 6 lb baby had open heart surgery to save his life. Steve said it would be easy to take me over there to see one of those surgeries- which would be soo cool. I don't know how I would handle seeing a tiny little baby with his chest split open though. I'll have to think about that one...
