JoE

Joe started rotations the first week of July this year. This is an exciting time in his medical education because it's the first time he has really been able to step out of the classroom and into a patient oriented setting. Joe very much enjoys working with patients and the staff in the hospitals where he has done rotations so far. He has tons of exciting stories, things that would make you choose to steer clear from "learning hospitals," which is excitedly shares at every opportunity. He still has another year before he needs to decide what Residency programs he wants to apply to, but for right now he hopes to try and potentially choose from: radiology, radiation oncology, neurology, anesthesiology and emergency medicine.

Any patient who has Joe as a doctor should consider themselves quite lucky. Joe is an extraordinary person with a great deal of compassion for the people he currently serves and the people he hopes to serve in the future. Medicine was the perfect choice for Joes profession because of his awesome personality. I hope, we hope, that he continues to be served with many incredible opportunities throughout his life!

Summertime

If you want to know how much weight I have gained in the past 7 1/2 months, don't ask. I have no idea. I close my eyes when I get to the scale at the doctor's office. The less I know right now, the better I'll feel about myself. Right?!?! The last ultrasound I had was two weeks ago and Henry was 2lbs 8ozs. The rest of the weight I've likely gained, well, lets just hope it's not the ice cream. I'm still feeling really well, despite being uncomfortable with a huge belly. I suppose I have been extremely lucky to not have any of the expected pregnancy complaints.

Joe is still working feverishly on our house. The kitchen is really AMAZING now. It went from a terribly designed, unfriendly kitchen to an immaculate user friendly workspace. There was no detail left untouched. Everything is perfect, from the beatiful pergo floor to the backsplash and undercabinet lights. I'm lucky to have a husband who loves me so much that he'll make me the perfect house! If you haven't seen it yet, you really should stop by. I just wish we had before and after photos because you wouldn't believe the difference!

Because of the house we (especially Joe) haven't had a very exciting summer. Just a lot of work. Joe wants to do some relaxing sometime before he starts medical school in August, but what can we do? If you have any fun ideas, let us know. We always enjoy a little excitement.

We did go to Mexico in May. We had a great time, relaxining by the beach. The hotel we stayed in was beautiful. The only thing between the hotel and the sand on the beach was an equally fun swimming pool. I think Joe definately deserves another relaxing week in Mexico, but after buying a house, and checking prices on all of the baby stuff we have to buy and fixing our car twice now, we probably can't afford to just go to Mexico. Too bad... I'd really love to go again!

I now have to go to the doctor once a week for "non-stress tests". I'm not entirely sure why I have to do them, or what they're really looking for. All I do is lay on a bed with fetal monitors attached. The doctor said it can take anywhere from 1/2 hour to several hours, depending on how well Henry cooperates. And, on top of that, I still have to have my regular OB appointments every two weeks. This feels like it's becoming a full time job already and Henry's not even born yet!

Speaking of jobs, Joe got a summer job at Discover Card. He looked for quite a while for opportunities that would he would really enjoy, but everyone who was interested in hiring him became uninterested when they found out he could only work until August. So, he's stuck helping people transfer balances over the phone... Only problem is once the training ends, there's only 2 weeks left before school starts, they probably won't ever actually get very much work out of him and they knew it when they hired him. Crazy company must be really desperate for employees.

Denver

The events of the past month were quite exciting. We went to Denver to see Wicked, which is an awesome show. The story, which follows the lives of the wicked witch from the west and glinda the good witch, develops the characters from the Wizard of Oz ten fold. The special effects were awesome and of course the music was the best of all. I've been listening to the soundtrack for about a year, so it was fun to see how different the show was from how I had imagined it ~ even with all of the information from the various songs. Anyway, if you have a chance, you should definately see Wicked. The picture at the left is all of my family at the Buell Theater in Denver, where Wicked played.

Just before going to Denver our house was broken into. What a mess! They didn't take anything - likely because we don't have anything good to take - but they definately went through a bunch of stuff. I had the police come and do a report and they took finger prints, foot prints, all kinds of pictures, if the person who did it ever gets caught they have no doubt that it was him becuase he left his tracable prints EVERYWHERE!! The same week, unfortunately, two of our neighbors houses got broken into, our neighbors car was broken into and another neighbors bike was stolen. And, besides the bike and the mess, nothing was missing from any of the homes/car.

Joe got his tonsils out on Monday. The recovery is supposed to be 10 days but today is only the 3rd day and he's already back in class. We've been told he went to the best ear, nose and throat doctor in the state, so maybe that's why. Either that or the constant popping of percocet. Yumm!

I also had my bi-annual endocrinologyst check up . My A1C was 4.8 which is very good. The American Diabetes Association recommends below 6.5 or 7 so 4.8 is looking pretty good. Now my doctor is concerned that I'm having a hard time realizing my "lows" which in the long term is not a big deal but short term, it could cause me to go into a comma or have minor troubles. I think I'm fine, besides unless I let up on my control of my highs, I will always be a little unaware of the lows. I'd rather risk having a few short term troubles than face the consequences brough on by having high blood sugar levels (you know: blindness, neuropathy, loss of limb, kidney failure, etc.).

Work is boring as usual. I have another article that will print in the Salt Lake Tribune in the next 2 weeks or so. You can look for it online, it will be in the Suagrhouse edition either this friday or next, I think.

Until next time... Pray for Joe to heal and do well at his medical school interviews (and to get more).

And then...

We've just returned from West Palm Beach, FL. We worked most of the time we were there, however, we were able to take time to enjoy ourselves as well. Probably the most exciting thing we did while in West Palm Beach was watch the Leatherback Sea Turtles lay their eggs on the beach. After dark turtles begin to emerge from the beach... we were lucky enough to see three in various stages. They would crawl out of the ocean, find a nice spot, dig a hole, lay approx. 100 eggs, fill the hole and then crawl back into the ocean. It's really an amazing thing to watch.

Joe has now applied to medical school. There are 16 schools that he has applied to so far. He applied to several in California, several on the east coast and a few in between. He should receive his MCAT score tomorrow, finally, and we'll know at that point (we hope) if he's a good candidate for any of the schools he applied to. He may apply to a few additional schools, depending, of course, on his MCAT score. For those who are wondering, this is a long process, Joe probably won't even hear back from most of these schools for several months and he probably won't receive any acceptences or rejections until around Christmas.

Life is good for us. We're excited to spend a lot of time outdoors this summer - camping, waterskiing, hiking, and what not. We've got a few small camping trips planned and hopefully we'll find our way to Lagoon sometime soon (they have several new rides neither of us have been on).

IN THE BEGINNING...

Universal Studios, Hollywood, California
February, 2005

I've decided to join the rest of the world and start "blogging". It's been kind of fun to create a mini-website devoted soley to ME (and joe)! I figured now is the best time to figure out how to maintain a blog, because in a year (hopefully) we'll be moving far, far away. Right now, however, Joe and I are excited to enjoy our first school free summer since we got married. We're even thinking about another fun trip (since it'll be the last of it's kind for about 10 years).

Joe has already began the long arduous process of applying to medical school even though he won't begin submitting applications until June 1. We should receive the scores from his MCAT (medical school entrance test) on or around June 15 at which time we will have a better idea of which schools he is well suited for admissions to. Some of the schools we have considered are UCLA, UCSF, Dartmouth, Tulane, Duke, Mayo Clinic, Ohio State and many, many others. We will keep you updated as aplications are turned in, requests for more information are received and hopefully (in about 9 months) acceptances received!

Unfortunately, my life is no where near as fun to talk about as Joe's right now. I work 30-40 hours a week, read books, work out at the Field House and do whatever else come's up. Which, for those of you who wonder regularly, does not currently include getting pregnant. I can, however, refer you to several cute babies if you need something to ogle (consider: Madison Spilker, McKenzie Atkin, and many, many Johnstun/Barrett/Jack babies). And, if that doesn't satisfy you ask Joe - he'll descibe the physiology of babies, pregnancy and the like and probably bore you to death while he's at it!

So, for anyone out there interested in what's going on in our lives, check back periodically for more news and information from Heidi & Joe Atkin.