GF! What's that?

Gluten Free!

So I've had some abdominal pain off and on since 2007 that started getting worse last year. Well OBGYN thought ovarian cysts, but ultrasounds were normal. So they put me on the pill thinking that stopping ovulation would stop the cysts/pain. Nope still pain. Then they said IBS gave me medicine which only dropped my heart rate, made me dizzy and light headed. Then she thought oh maybe endometriosis, so she put me on a pill that stops my cycle all together. Nope still pain. UGH!!!

I also have really bad knee pain in the morning, during the day and at night. I have a family history of rheumatoid arthritis on dad and mom's side. I went to my family doc back in August who checked for Rheumatoid Arthritis as well as some other things and xrays. Everything came back negative, so he gave me some anti-inflammatory pills. Nope still knee pain. Then I went and bought the super expensive not so cute support shoes to wear. Nope still knee pain.

Then 2 weeks ago I had bright red bloody poops. Yep pretty scary! I went back to my family doc and told him all about the abdominal pain discussed above. He did the infamous rectal exam checking for hemorrhoids. Nope nothing. Phew! So then he decided lets do a CT to check for masses or inflammation. Mainly checking for Crohn's. CT was normal, so now what.

I went back today and he suggested going to a GI doc and get a colonoscopy. UGH!!! We also discussed making dietary changes too. He is thinking possibly Gluten Intolerance. Hmmm....

So I'm going to tackle this gluten free life style. We'll see how things go. Thank goodness for Wildtree and the gluten free items they have to offer. I'm just overwhelmed right now, so if anyone has some great websites discussing food products with/without gluten or blogs with recipes please feel free to share.

I also ask that you please pray that dietary changes is all I need to do to take care of my abdominal pain as well as my joint pain. :)

Christmas Already?

Wow! I can't believe I haven't posted anything in an entire month. Sorry! Rotations are going great; I LOVE Child Psych. As in LOVE so much that I'm thinking it might be my career choice!

Anyways back to the reason for the post. Christmas is almost here. This is our first Christmas as "The Adcock Family." Today marks 10 months that we've been married. We love each other more today than on our wedding day. Time flies when you're having fun!

I just loved decorating our little apartment. My wonderful mother-in-law took us to buy new ornaments from Hobby Lobby, so our tree looks great!

(I'm currently on Eric's Mac computer and not having much luck uploading the pictures of our tree, so I'll post them from my computer in a bit.)

Surgery!

Sorry I have not blogged anything lately. Life has been pretty crazy right now. I am doing surgery this month for my clerkship. I was terrified of surgery. I knew I would hate surgery and thought I was going to be miserable all month long. It turns out I kind of like it except for the hours.

I am out in Richmond, MO which is about 65 miles from our house, so that adds on an extra 2 1/2 hours to my day with the drive time. I've been getting up at 5:00 am to be at the hospital for 7:30. We have three different hospitals that we work at, and the surgeon is the only general surgeon for all three hospitals. That means he is on call 24/7! We start at 7:30 am and finish around 6:30 pm which means I don't get home until close to 8. I feel like I've been neglecting Eric a bit this month, but he is so understanding which is great.

The surgeries I have seen include a ton of gallbadders, hernias, hemorrhoids, breast biopsies, lumpectomies, mastectomies, and a ton of skin lesions/cysts. From day one, the surgeon had me making 2 of the 4 gallbladder incisions. The first day he let me try to close up my one little incision in the time he closed his 3. Lets just say I wasn't close to finishing in the time he closed up all 3 haha. By the third surgery, I had it down. When we do the mastectomies for breast cancer we split the incision in half and race to see who finishes closing first. After a week and a half, he started to just walk out of the OR and leave me in there to close all by myself. In the clinic I have shaved off some skin lesions all by myself and even placed the stitches. :) The patients have even commented that I've done a great job!

I am very lucky to have received such a great preceptor. He is very patient with me and makes comments such as don't worry you have all month to learn. There is a possibility of surgery as a career choice, but I'm not sure if I could handle the hours. Also, I'm not sure if my body can handle standing for so long. My knees have been killing me when I get home and they get swollen as the day goes on. Hoping to get some good shoes for Christmas, so that might make a difference. I am enjoying things and still can't believe I'm so close to being a doctor.

Next month is my elective in Child Psychiatry.

Paging Dr. Adcock

This last week we had a patient that came in with bursitis. A bursa is a fluid filled sac at a joint that helps to lubricate the joint. Well bursitis is when this bursa gets inflamed. Due to the inflammation, more fluid is made. This little sac then expands with excess fluid. Here is a picture I found online.


See the big knots on his elbows? Those are bursa that have become inflamed. You're probably thinking ok no big deal so what. Well to take care of these, the doctor has to aspirate it (drain it with a needle). OUCH!!!!

Well the doctor got everything set up and then while slapping the stool, said "have a seat." He walked me through the injection to numb it as well as aspirating it. WOOHOO!

Not a big deal, but one more thing I've done that only doctors can do.

I Secretly Married Josh Hamilton

So most of yall know that Eric and I are HUGE Texas Rangers fans. If you didn't know that, now you do. We use to go to games way back when we first started dating 7 1/2 years ago. That was well before they were good, so we didn't just jump on the bandwagon.

Last Tuesday when the Rangers won their first post-season series, we both shed a tear. We were so excited!!!! Eric said, "the smile on my face might just be as big as the one when you walked down the isle." That sure got him a nice look from me. He then responded, "The smile might just be bigger if they win the World Series." WHAT? haha

After they won Tuesday night, we jumped on stub hub to get tickets for the American League Championship Series. Eric and his dad went to so many games growing up just hoping for a good year. They went to a playoff game back in the day. Lets just say they've been waiting for this season for a long time. His parents got us tickets to Saturday's game, so we decided to drive to Dallas for a quick weekend trip. But wait it gets better.

I told Eric I get done on Friday at 12, so maybe we could leave around 3 if you can get off a little early. He looked at me and said, "But the game is at 7 on Friday, and I don't want to miss it." I then responded well we can listen to it on the radio. His response was, "But I want to watch it on tv." (with an ever so cute pouting bottom lip) So we left Kansas City Friday night at 10:45. Yep we drove all through the night, and made it to Greenville at 6:45 am on Saturday. We went to sleep right when we got there and slept until 9:30 am. Then it was time to get ready for the game.

If you didn't know. The Rangers WON Saturday!!!! WOOHOO!!!! It was such an amazing game. Here are some pictures from our quick trip to the ballpark.

Our seats were on the fourth row of the upper deck. They were really good seats. We could see everything that was going on plus we were in the shade.

We were super excited that the Rangers won!!!

What a great game!

On another note. I think I married Josh Hamilton! haha Not really. I have a little crush on Josh Hamilton. Eric laughs at me. He's an amazing player, and has a really great story. I tell Eric the only reason I have a crush on him is because he has blonde curly hair, blue eyes, and gets hurt running into outfield walls. Eric dislocated his big toe the day I met him trying to make a play in a college baseball game, and Josh Hamilton fractured a couple ribs while trying to make a play at Target Field. Here is a picture of Josh Hamilton for you to compare. Don't you think they look a little bit alike?

This is all in fun. I love you Eric!!!!

P90X

My goal is to look like her. Want to know my secret? P90X!!!!

I lost roughly 12 lbs for the wedding. Well now that we've been married for 7 1/2 months, I have gained back all 12 lbs plus some. Thanks sweetie!!! I weighed myself last Wed at the doctor's office and then again this past Monday. I had lost 1 lb!!!! I know it's not much but you gotta start some where.

We even took before pictures, but I won't be posting those until the end. I will post my before and after pictures to show you my results.

Last week Eric and I started P90X workouts. Then this Monday we decided to go ahead and add on the nutrition plan which is intense. The entire program is 90 days long. It's broken up into 30 day increments. After 30 days the workouts change so does the nutrition plan.

Here is what was on the menu for me today.
(Eric's menu looked the same except for his portions were larger)

Breakfast:
6 egg white omelet with 1 oz fat free mozzarella cheese
2 pieces of turkey bacon
8 oz skim milk

Morning Snack:
protein snack bar (I like special k chocolate peanut butter)

Lunch:
6 oz of shrimp stir fry which had shrimp, onion, garlic, ginger, water chestnuts, and broccoli
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 oz cashews

Afternoon Snack:
1 fat free string cheese

Dinner:
6 oz chicken breast with pesto
1/2 cup zucchini
1 cup brown rice

So if you're a friend of mine here in KC, next time you see me just humor me. Make some comment about wow looks like you've lost weight please. Even if it's not true just say it to make me feel better haha. I always start workout programs with good intentions, but when I don't see results I give up.

Paging Dr. Adcock

(Wow it's kind of weird to see Dr. Adcock and to think that really is my last name even after 7 months)

As many of yall know, I am done with the classroom portion of my medical school career :) In August I started my 2 years of clerkship. The next 2 years I will spend 1 month at a time in different specialties. I thought I would kind of update everyone on the fun things I'm doing.

August: I spent the month in an outpatient internal medicine clinic. I was very nervous with this being my first rotation, and the fear of the unknown set in. The doctor I was with was very laid back and it was a nice ease into things. This doctor didn't really let me do much on my own, but that was ok for the first month.

After the first week I started seeing patients on my own. I would go in and get the full history of what's going on and do the physical exam such as ears, nose, throat, heart, lungs or range of motion if it was joint pain. I got to see a lot of hypertension, cholesterol, and diabetes. I did however get to perform a few prostate exams and observed well women exams. The doctor also let me do a lot of OMT on patients with back/neck pain. (this is the portion of osteopathic medicine that is similar to chiropractic)

September: This month I am in a small family medicine clinic with a physician who is semi-retired. I was not thinking I would like this month due to the slower pace, but I have enjoyed this month much more. Even though this doctor is 68, he has let me be all hands on. From day one he handed me the chart, so I'm the one documenting everything and the one writing the prescriptions. (I did not do either of these last month) I have seen a lot of allergies, sinus infections and UTIs.

On Monday we had a mole removal, which I saw quite a few of those last month. However, this doctor handed me the scalpel after he numbed it and outlined the margin and said just follow the margins. I was the one who removed the mole. Then he put in one stitch while explaining to me in great detail. Then he handed me the suture kit and said now your turn. The patient was great. He was a younger gentleman and the mole was on his calf. He was very patient and said sure keep practicing, that's fine. The doctor was very patient with me as well while I fumbled with the tools a bit. I put in 2 stitches and I was so excited!!!

I've even gotten to see some kiddos. I love it!!! :)