picture update

My new house


My mom's new car



Saturday Afternoon at Lake Murray - a great view, eh?!



After helping me move

catch up video

Has it really been that long since I've blogged?! I think I've figured out how to post videos. Oh BOY! You'll get to see me paddling on the Madawaska river somewhere by Palmer Rapids, Ontario and Boundless Adventures. Oh so much fun! This rapids is called Rifle Shoot, and we didn't tip over! We did get a lot of water on board... but we were still upright at the end! Check it out, I'm in the front.

Untitled from super woman on Vimeo.

Oh, and here's a picture of Greg's new haircut. What do you think?

Hagarsville, Ontario

I'm sitting in a coffee shop now, one of my favorite places to be, reminiscing on my trip with Greg. You see, he had the 10-13th off, and will have the 21st to the 26th off. During his last break we went on a paddling trip down the river. Great fun. Hung out with tons of his friends - overwhelming at first, but soon fun. Then another paddling trip. Rapids were amazing! I am becoming a good paddler (at least I think so)! And I really feel like I can have a bit of control of the boat, maneuvering it through rapids, around rocks, and well, wherever else we need to go. My shoulders are growing in size too (is this sexy, I don't know... I think Greg may like it...).

I was also amazingly sick during this first break of Greg's. Just after the second day run down the river, I had a high fever, and was feeling horrible. I had diarrhea and stomach upset (probably from the delicious potato salad that may have gotten too warm), as well as congestion and coughing for the past couple days. After a hot bath and a lot of sleep in a comfy bed, I was feeling a bit better. After a couple of days now, it's still hanging on and clouding my thinking with yucky snot. In fact... I'm going to get a tissue and blow my nose right now...

Ahh... much better.

I'm hanging out with the Okimi bunch now. Mom and Dad Okimi have been gracious to open up their house to me and let me bum while Greg is working. We've been having lots of fun! Yesterday we made strawberry freezer jam. I had no idea that jam had so much sugar in it! Whoa! It's like spreading liquid sugar on your toast! Yummy! I have also been able to spend some time with the youngest Okimi - Alejandra. What a cutie! She is such a fun little girl - alway on the move! I think I may have become her friend yesterday, we'll see if she still wants to hang out with me next time. :)

So, that's the updates from me.
I have a clip of me and Kendal going through a large rapid. Whoa. So much fun! And we didn't flip over either! We were so proud... check it out!

OK... well, the upload took longer than expected... 45 minutes later, still no video. Hmm... well, guess you'll have to do without for now until I figure out a better way. Tata for now
~nancy

Palmer Rapids, Ontario

Today was wonderful. I paddled on a day trip down the river with 3 other amazing paddlers, one of which was my wonderful boyfriend, Greg. Who, may I be the first to let you know, CUT HIS HAIR last night. All of it is gone, except just a bit on the top. I'll have to post a picture of it soon, but we kind of are in the middle of nowhere, and I'm lucky to be right next to a computer now.
I'm in love with the Madawaska river, it's just so breathtakingly beautiful!
More to come! I haven't blogged in a while have I?

bittersweet

My time in Guam is quickly coming to a close. It has been a wonderful time here and it seems like my schedule is so full once I'm almost to leave! I have dinner's here, meetings there, work here and there, and some serious snorkeling to do! There's so many other good snorkel spots that I haven't been to.

The docs here are so nice! I learned that one of my preceptors is the Grandpa of my Taco Bell Buddy from college! What a small world, eh?! I've leaned tips about casting, infections, abscesses, diabetes, scarlet fever, and much more to list. I've also learned about the red-footed booby, and traveling on a remote island!

A bittersweet parting it will be. Bitter to leave such a beautiful, tropical paradise, and yet so sweet to come home and have not only friends and family, but also my Greggy-pooh nearby.

Tonight I need to exchange pictures with the nursing students that are here from Andrews. We've had some fun times! I'll have to post some pics...

best and worst purchase

My best purchase today.
I absolutely love snorkeling. Who knew there was a whole new world under there! Today I snorkeled all afternoon with a friend that I met on the flight over from Hawaii. I saw him in the parking lot, we went to K-mart, picked up some gear, and hit the beach. It worked out well! I totally have to get an underwater camera to share the joy. It's like a gigantic saltwater tank - beautiful fish everywhere you look!

On a sad note, look at the prices below. Everything is that way - it's kind of depressing.

Guam Beaches

I'm aghast at the beauty of the beaches here. I've alway been a lover of the beach and love to visit the beach of California when I can, but this is something else. They're so clean and white! Not like the beaches that smell like... well, fishy or like stale salt water. WEll... I guess I do have a cold, so perhaps they do smell and I just can't tell. I'll have to update you on that later when my nose is back to proper functioning. :) Here are a few pictures from just our trip home from church.

Guamin'

I leave Nebraska at 530am Thursday. I didn't change my watch during the various time changes so that I could see how long I was traveling to get here. But when I arrived I was just a little confused... what day was my watch on? And was it am or pm in Nebraska? After some deep consideration, I think I arrived at what would have been about 5:30am Friday morning (in Nebraska) but was actually 8:30pm Friday night here in Guam. What a long day. The sun only set once and it was just a couple hours before we landed in Guam.

I made it safely!

There were wonderful people to meet me! They put flowers around my neck, took me to my new place, showed me around, and brought me my car. Am I spoiled or what?

It's Sabbath Morning and I just found out that I have internet in my apartment, but I have to get ready for church they're picking me up soon!

horsin' around

Seems to be the trend that I find a horse to ride on my various rotations, wherever they may be. Well, this time it was the Doctor himself who provided the fun horse to ride! This horse's name is Dusty, and although he hadn't been ridden in a couple years, he was a perfect gentleman! It was rather cold that day, and it took my legs about 4 hours to defrost after the ride, but it was great fun. I love riding :)
He was a sucker for a good scratch and would curl his nose in delight. What a cutie!

New Favorite

Greg is so amazing. For Valentine's day he sent me just what I wanted. In fact, he sent me a myriad of appreciated items! One of the many things I love about Greg is his incredible sense of what I would absolutely love. An example of this is when he gave me Dance Dance Revolution for Christmas. I love that game, and I've had so much fun with it!
He sent me booties pictured below (almost exact). They are amazing! They're like sleeping bags for your feet, and they are instantaneously warm. My feet seem to have always been cold, but not any more! As soon as I get home in the evening, they're on my feet. I would totally wear them to work, but I might get blood or something even grosser on them.



Don't get me wrong I love Greg for more than just his gift giving abilities :)

Indigo

I held intestines.

We were taking down a colostomy, which is basically attaching the colon back together. There is a very large midline incision for visualization, and those darn intestines just keep getting in the way.

This surgery, in itself, is a pretty interesting surgery - cool procedures, nifty equipment, but it became a much more interesting case when, as we were dissecting around the rectum to clear a spot for anastamosis, we could see the foley (catheter placed in the bladder). Uh-oh. Apparently the bladder had, after the origional colostomy, adhered to the blind pouch which was the rectum (I wish I could draw a picture so you could know what I'm talking about). It was basically wrapped around the rectum - the site we wanted to reconnect to. So now there's a tear in her bladder.

After some swearing, we sutured it shut and consulted the urologist. He came in to take a look, put a camera inside and filled the bladder with saline. It was amazing to see the bladder looking down from the open abdomen! It was full and you could see the light from the camera inside. Up on the screen the images were being shown of the interior of the bladder. The repaired tear was identified and it was closed well, and then we looked at the inlet for the ureters.

Just as we were looking at one of the ureters it shot out a blue liquid! The urologist had ordered Indigo blue when he got in the room and apparently it takes about 5 minutes to get through the system and through the kidneys. As we peeked over to the other ureter it shot out some blue urine as well. Wow. It was pretty much amazing! We now know that we did not cut any of the ureters, and the bladder is in wonderful condition. The patient peed blue for quite a while.

The rest of the surgery was, although amazing, uneventful (which is good... for the patient).

I like surgery.