peanuts and kiddos and toddlers and tweens

This was quite possibly the longest week of my life. I thought I was busy at ORS, but turns out I didn't know what busy meant until I started at Children's. And the funny thing is, I only see 5-7 patients a day now, compared to the 30ish I saw in IL. Yet these days feel oh, so much longer. I'm gone a minimum of 12 hours (11 in the clinic, hour round trip commute), or 13 if I'm motivated enough to get to the gym. Babies wear me out. 

But let me start from the beginning. I have two CIs now. Neither works more than 3 days a week (I'm not the only one who thinks these hours are RIDICULOUS). The other weird thing is that all the kids come in once a week, versus the 2-3 appointments per week in outpatient ortho. So while I don't think I'll get to know my little kids as well, the cases I'm seeing are quite a bit more challenging. I have yet to meet a kid with just one diagnosis. It's always delayed milestones + developmental delay + torticollis, or Down syndrome + idiopathic toe walking + type 1 Chiari malformation, with a few mysterious orthopedic cases here and there (if anyone has any ideas about what could be causing a medial patellar subluxation in a 15-year old girl, please clue me in). 

I was flattered.

After my first 7:30 am- 7pm day on Monday (Tuesday is the only earlier day-- 6:30am-6pm), I wasn't so sure about this peds business. And while I'm still not sure this will be the field for me (the clinic is quiet, subdued, female-dominated), I'm warming up to it. Babies do that to you. As soon as I got my hands on one, I immediately forgot I was working. I also love the 9-year old girls, who love telling me their stories and showing off all their cute clothes. But oddly enough, I've seemed to hit it off best with the 3-5-year old boy demographic (including a brother of one of my patients, who colored a beautiful Halloween pic for me today-- see right). Crazy to think that some of the parents bringing their kids in are younger than me, though. What I do know after week one is that I have absolutely no desire to have kids of my own in the very near future, because if I'm exhausted after an hour-long treatment session, how on earth could I deal with the other 23 hours of the day?

My favorite room?!

The pros: I never have to wear shoes. I play all day (yesterday, I spent half the afternoon playing Wii Fit by myself for the sole purpose of unlocking new "exercises" for patients-- and of course there's the ball pit, rock climbing wall, trampoline, yoga mats, and iPad, just to name a few). Babies are cute. I leave so early and come home so late that I don't hit rush hour. I am right in Arbor Lakes (and only went shopping during 2 of my 4 lunch breaks this week- now that's self-control!), next door to a Five Guys and to one of my all-time fav restaurants, Claddagh's. Yet another two months with 3-day weekends. I get to visit the Children's hem-onc (cancer), aquatics, chronic pain, and serial casting clinics. One of my CIs reminds me of Kristen Wiig. 

 I am a pumpkin in the lobby.

The cons: The drive to Maple Grove is kind of long. The hours are really, really long. The documentation is soo much more demanding than ORS. I miss wearing jeans my last day of work for the week. Toddlers. I'm still a little self-conscious talking to babies, especially in front of their parents (but I'm getting better). My lunches are only one hour long (ok, that's not that bad). I miss ORS. 

On my to do list-- practice my songs (i.e. Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle Twinkle, Itsy Bitsy Spider, the clean up song), and learn sign language so I know what the heck my nonverbal kids are saying. 

I have so much more to say-- but I was brain-dead by the end of the day today, and left my notebook with all my notes and homework for the weekend on my desk. Can't wait to drive back to Maple Grove tomorrow to get it. That's a lie, I'm not looking forward to the extra drive at all. But what I AM looking forward to this weekend-- watching the Wild on a tv and not a computer (even though wow, they're bad), happy hour for Alina's 25th at Il Gatto tomorrow, scrimmaging against the Ole girls in Northfield on Saturday, and shooting some engagement pics for two of my favorites, Alina and Carl, on Sunday. Ahh, it's good to be home.