Moving in 2 1/2 days!

I can and can't believe my time here in Charleston is coming to an end. It was a long hard year, but yet if flew by! It is somewhat bitter sweet to be leaving as I will miss the friends I have made here. While I have learned a lot at MUSC, I am excited to be done with my time there. I know Vandy/Nashville will be a good change and a fresh start - hopefully it will give me the motivation to complete another year of residency!
My mom came last weekend to help we pack and we were very productive - had my entire place packed up in 2 days. I was so thankful for her help and could not have done it without her. Having that behind me has allowed me to de-stress some and enjoy the last few days of Charleston. I have managed to eat at many great restaurants over the past 2 weeks - trying to get it all in at the last minute - and have probably managed to gain a few pounds in the process! My community group took me to dinner last week and then I was able to hang out with several of them over the weekend - more good food and kayaking! We went kayaking in Shem Creek in Mt. pleasant - it was so fun. pictures will be coming soon. Some of my favorite restaurants have been: COAST, Basil, The Fat Hen, Cru Cafe, and Amen Street.
Friday night we had our annual residency roast - a chance for the preceptors to roast us and then for us to roast them - it was hilarious! We came up with several funny skits and a whole presentation of celebrity look alikes. My cheeks hurt so bad at the end of the night from laughing so hard.
Anyway, movers are coming Wed right after work to load the Uhaul and then we will pull out Thursday morning. It should be about a 9 hr drive to Nashville, so it will be a long day. Hopefully I can get settled on Fri and Sat and hopefully try and make it to the lake with the family on Sun/Mon. I start at Vandy on Tuesday!

More pictures

Here are a few more pictures from the weekend/reunion weekend. It was quite busy! Enjoyed seeing all of my friends and family. It rained 3 1/2 inches on Saturday, so the wedding had to be moved inside Fountainview, but it still turned out great - Andy & Richelle didn't seem to mind. They are still honeymooning in Mexico. I was exhausted after the wedding, but managed to get enought energy to go to my 10 year high school reunion. It was great to see everyone. I wish we could have had a better turn out, but it was still good. It did seem like a wierd dream to be back around all of those people! Sunday and Monday we went to the lake to relax and see more of the family. Katie, Campbell and Ben also stopped by on Monday - we took Campbell on a boat ride and she absolutely loved it. I returned to Charleston Tuesday night to start my MICU rotation Wed... I can't believe I only have a few more weeks here! A lot of things to wrap up with the residency, pack and then move July 1st!

Wedding Pictures

Here are some of the pictures from Andy and Richelle's wedding this weekend! We'll have more soon. It's been a great weekend - very busy! Sad to go back to Charleston tomorrow... will update soon with details and the rest of the weekend's events.

just a few more days...

I'm on call this weekend, then 3 more days in the PICU, then I get to go home for 6 days!!!! I am SO excited and this is the only thing that has gotten me through the last few weeks. Things have been a little rough - a combination of being burned out, very tired, and feeling like my brain cannot possibly absorb any more information. Because of the wedding and the high school reunion I will get to see ALL of my family and ALL of my best friends from home... plus their adorable children.
One cute story to share - Katie called me earlier this week to tell me something that Campbell had said... The previous night, there was both a frog and a rabbit outside of Campbell's house. Katie said she was SO obsessed with them and kept looking at them all night. The next morning on their way to bible study, Campbell said, "Mommy, we need to pray - we need to pray for the frog and for the rabbit, and for jess!" I'm so proud to be in the list of things Campbell is thinking about these days... The Lord knows how rough things have been for me lately, so maybe he put me on her heart! Precious. I love you Campbell and can't wait to see you VERY soon!

Blog slacker

So, I admit I am a blog slacker. Residency life does not allow the luxury of having time to type my out my thoughts, much less think about anything other than residency! But things are going well... just started in the Peds ICU this month - its going to be a tough month, but I will learn a lot. Only 1 1/2 months to go...
Update on plans for next year - for those of you that don't know, I will be moving to Nashville July 1st to start a 2nd year pharmacy residency in pediatrics at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. I am a little burned out right now with residency, but am looking forward to learning more about pediatric pharmacy. Hopefully my schedule will be less demanding during the program there.
I will certainly miss Charleston, even though I don't get to enjoy it as much as I would like! I love driving over the harbor each day to and from work. I hope to soak up some beach time before July 1st.

Other life happenings:
Andy's wedding is in 3 weeks, along with my 10-yr high school reunion - looking forward to being home for several days.
Will was able to return to college golf for the spring season and played in most of the tournaments - they are heading to NCAA Regionals next week. His pacemaker hasn't worked like they thought - still turned up high and the leads aren't connected quite right as they sometimes stimulate his pectoral muscles, which is quite annoying. He will likely have it replaced this summer - but this time with an endocardial version.
My great friends, Katie, Kimmie and Joy came to see me in Charleston in March - we had a great time together - I somewhat wish I was moving back to Birmingham to be closer to them! But the Lord knows what is best for me...
My friends Zac & Allison Boman adopted an adorable little girl from Russia and finally made it home with her last month - check out their blog "Home called Grace." I'm so excited for their family.

Well, that's all I have time for right now. Maybe I'll get back into this blog thing...

Christmas Eve

They checked Will's pacemaker this morning and it was requiring the same voltage as yesterday morning, so they didn't make any changes. We were hoping it would have gone down but at least the requirement didn't go up. They are going to let him go home today and he will cone back Monday to have it checked again. We are just waiting on the PA to come fill out the paperwork to discharge him... Hopefully soon so we can be home for most of Christmas eve. I know Will will be more comfortable at home. And we all have to make a few last minute shopping runs... :-)

Will update

Well, we are still at UAB and will be until tomorrow. Around 7 last night his pacemaker started not capturing as well as it should. He would go several beats where only his atria would beat and the ventricle wouldn't respond. He could definitely feel it and would get lightheaded, etc. It went on all evening but followed no pattern. Sometimes it would go 5-6 beats without capturing. Mom and I left around 11:30 and dad waited for the Dr to come by. The Dr was finally called around 1an and the pacemaker tech came in to make adjustments. He had to increase the voltage so it would capture better. This morning he wasn't requiring as much voltage, which is a good sign. They think it may all be due to the inflammation from the surgery and have given him steroids to help with that. The fact that it is better this morning is good news - because if it wasn't there was talk of them having to go back in and put new lead wires or something more serious/complicated. So he won't be going home today as we hoped but pending no other changes with his pacemaker they will check it first thing in the morning and he can go home then. He was just moved out of the ICU to a regular room which is great. He is moving around a little bit and has just begun to eat a little solid food. He is sore but doing well with pain, etc. Please continue to pray for a speedy recovery and for the pacemaker settings to all normalize.
One funny story from last night: the nurses changed shifts last night at 7 and he changed from an older gray-headed woman to a cute young brunette who just graduated from Samford in May. Once she introduced herself and left the room, Will looked at me and said, "game on!". Needless to say, I think he enjoyed his 12 hours with nurse Laura. :-)

Surgery Update

The doctor just came out and told us the surgery was over. They did find a lot of scar tissue which is probably why it took so long. They only had to replace 1 of the 2 leads to his heart - the atrial lead was still working well. We thought he might come out of surgery with a chest tube, but he did not need one. The doctor said he will stay in the CICU overnight and go home tomorrow. We should be able to see him within an hour. Praise the Lord that everything went smoothly!

Will's Surgery

I know, I know - long time no post. But hopefully I can catch up over the holidays!

Today my brother Will is having surgery - he was born with congenital heart disease that required several surgeries when he was young to repair the defects and finally a pacemaker at age 4. He had the pacemaker replaced in 1999 and now has to have it replaced again today (due to battery life). Today he is also having new lead wires placed on his heart that connect to the pacemaker in his abdomen. They are attempting to go in thru his ribs to place the new wires and must go through a lot of scar tissue from previous surgeries to do so. Our hope and prayer is that this will be successful and they will not have to open his chest (which would require much longer recovery). We are at UAB and they took him back to start the surgery around 8am. He was cool as a cucumber, as always... I'm sure he will be flirting with the nurses and have them wrapped around his fingers before too long.
We appreciate all the calls and texts today and definitely appreciate everyone's prayers! We are trusting the Lord to take care of him and guide the surgeons in everything they do. I will update my blog when he is in recovery!