The final month

It's not the final month for most things. Well, I guess it is the final month of Spring (even though it is very much summer in Houston). But it is the final month of my second year of fellowship. That's right, I did it. I did two full academic years of research at a cancer institute. And now, I am moving on to the part of my job I really want to do: treat and see patients. I have definitely learned so much about how cancer research is performed, how much time it takes to develop a new cancer therapeutic drug, etc. And that is going to help me as a physician, no doubt. But, I can't wait to move along to the best part of the job: human interaction and being in the OR!

Over the past few weeks I’ve been a mix of back-and-forth emotions of happiness and of anxiety/fear of the next phase.

But I’ve had lots of good moments with the family to keep me grounded and focused on what really matters.

First, Riggs was supposed to have his second surgery but, of course he came down with the next round of day-care virus and was, unfortunately postponed. We went to the ER for difficulty breathing—an all-to-familiar state of being for Riggs these days.

He got a round of steroids, some breathing treatments and was fixed up to be nearly as good as new. So, we went to the hospital on the day of the scheduled surgery hoping that we’d be able to move forward. Appropriately, but sadly, the anesthesia team cancelled us and re-scheduled us for June. This is no big deal, other than the fact that this is when I start o transition to my clinical work and when I’ll have a harder time getting the time to escape for the surgery itself and, more importantly, the recovery.  I guess we got our nice practice run of how the actual day is going to look. Just hope that they have another pretend gas tank to play with on that day.

After the dry-run we still had a few days with Nana & Papa who came to visit and got to do a few fun new things with Adler like go to the movie theater!!

 

She was certainly enthralled, with the movie and the giant tub-of-popcorn.

Tom and I also got to sneak away for a date night at the Astro’s game thanks to one of my attending’s who gave us the club-level tickets!

With his surgery cancelled, we got to transition Riggs to his new daycare (the same one that adler is at) a little earlier than planned as well! Here he is on his first day when we got to do our first day of the new routine of going to the same place each morning! 

He has adjusted beautifully, he seems so happy.

Back to mother’s day for us: we got to have “donut day” together at Adler’s daycare.

And then, of course, back at home we had home made goodies by Adler

Now it’s getting hotter and hotter in Houston and we’re using the tools we’ve come to learn are necessities in Houston: pools, hoses, fountains, hats…basically anything you can do to shield yourself from the relentless heat.

We had big plans to do a 5k in support of ovarian cancer survivors called the Sprint for Life. It was fun, but smaller than anticipated with just the fellows -- followed, of course, by donuts!

Shortly after this, it was Mother’s day. We had an extra special time with Nana before the actual day. It was a wonderful moment going to the spa for the first time with Adler!

She was fascinated by the “bathtubs for our feet” and the nail cutting and painting process. She quite literally gave the entire salon a play-by-play of what was happening to her and us and it definitely made our nail techs laugh repeatedly. It made it even more special. 

Following this we got to go to a nursery for the actual Mother’s Day and I had a lot of help from Riggs for putting the plants into their new homes.

He, of course, had a lot of fun eating dirt….sigh….

I wonder sometimes why he isn’t more like his sister? But, then again, Adler was the strange baby that NEVER put things into her mouth. So she was weird in that way, but she was very normal in one way—she is now a cell-phone loving girl 😊. 

Here she is chatting with JuJu, using the chair as her prop to hold the phone to her face!

And now she's also into her newest class- gym class! 

Riggs is getting more confident at crawling and getting around. And is definitely making more friends

And Adler is certainly getting bigger too. She's reading books on her own and her writing skills are amazing these days! See her thank-you note to my co-fellow for letting us use her pool!

So, as we near the end of May, we have more plans up our sleeves. We’re off to Florida with my co-fellows for memorial day to catch the last “free weekend” before I finish out he research years. I officially start the transition on June 6^th and I’ll be easing my way into my new role and my new office space that I’ve slowly put together for the past month with photos and all the good snacks to get me through the long OR days.

Happy May from Houston!