Baby Burns Photo Shoot

Hello, family! We finally have something interesting to post! We had an ultrasound on Monday July 21st and we got to see our baby! He/she is still very tiny--only about 2 inches long and his little foot is 0.81 cm. But everything is there and where it is supposed to be! We even got to see the heart beating. He was just bouncing around all over the place. Mike liked that part the best. I'll be 13 weeks on Monday. I'm feeling better now and I have much more energy. Now maybe I can actually get something accomplished!

In other news, Mike is finishing up his last weekend of summer classes today and tomorrow. Now he only has 6 hours left. Woo hoo! We decided that he will take one class at UCCS and one class online. This way he only has to go to school one night a week instead of three this fall. Of course he'll still have the work for two classes but it will allow him more time to work on the actual homework part. I think he is ready to be finished. My schools starts on Aug. 20 which means I'll start working here at home the next couple of weeks and then start working in my room around Aug. 11th. I'm ready. It's nice to go back knowing how the school works.

That's all for now. Love you all!

Kim's New Job

Hi Everyone! I accepted a new job yesterday in Gastroenterology (Mike will be happy). It's in Belleville, IL, which is about a 25-30 minute drive and I'll be working 9-5 Mon-Fri with an occasional Sat morning about once per month. I spent Tuesday afternoon following the PA to be sure I wanted the job. She is having a baby October 1st and will be leaving in one month. She'll come back next year two days per week. They want me to continue full-time when she comes back. I'll be seeing more patients than I did in Tulsa. With a specialty, though, it doesn't take as long. In Internal Medicine I always had patients that would say "just one more thing" and show me a callous on their foot or a strange mole on their back. No more! Now I just say, "tell your primary care physician" if it isn't related to GI (gastroenterology). I know that sounds kinda mean, but when you have a long list of patients that start backing up in the waiting room, you have to stick to what is pertinent.
The physician spends every day in the hospital doing colonoscopies and EGD's (where they go into the stomach), so I'll be on my own in the office. That's a little scary, to say the least. The nurses seem to be really helpful, though, and there are a lot of them (I think 4?). In Tulsa, I did a lot of the nurses job like calling in prescriptions, putting a patient in a room, and calling patients back on the phone. I didn't mind it because I didn't have as many patients, but now I'll definately appreciate the help.
So, I start Monday learning from the PA for about 2 weeks and the doctor about 1 week. Pray for me if you think of it! Love you all!!

VBS Week

Last week was VBS at our church. It's our third year to put on a VBS since having our new property and our curriculum uses a different time in Jesus' life each year. We've done Bethlehem, Galilee by the Sea, and now Jerusalem, Jesus' last days. The whole property is transformed with marketplace tents outside, palms and hay strewn everywhere. Everyone is wearing tunics and headscarves and the kids are divided into the 12 tribes of Jacob (actually 20 tribes with several duplicate names). Jack looks forward to it all year. It's very scripture-based and the kids learn a lot. My job this year was in the kitchen. I baked 18 loaves of whole wheat bread (not a big deal with my mixer) that the kids have every day during their lesson and passed out popsicles after their playtime. Almost everyone, including women with kids not even old enough to participate, comes to help out. Dads take off of work to be rabbis or Roman soldiers. Next year Todd plans to take a few days off work and come help out, too. It's so fun to see everyone together every day for a whole week. That being said, I'm glad it's over! It wore me out.

First Two Days

So the first two days of residency have come and gone. I started off not knowing how to use the computer system and where or who to ask for the countless questions I had. By now I'm becoming more and more familiar with how things work, and what exactly is expected of me.

My first rotation is Hematology (blood) and Oncology (cancer). It's a pretty cool rotation and all the PGY-1's (post grad year one, or interns) have to rotate through. Even though there are a lot of sick patients, the nurses are awesome and REALLY helpful and friendly.

I was assigned 4 patients my first day. The first was a 65 year old guy with Hemophilia A. His condition was relatively mild until 2 years ago when he developed antibodies during surgery, now he bleeds with even minor trauma, and requires a $5,000 injection so he will stop bleeding. He went home today (day 2) but will continue his regimen to try and make his disease less severe.
The second is a lady with metastatic breast cancer. She already had a double mastectomy, and had a port catheter placed under her skin so that chemotherapy could be delivered easier over a long period of time. Unfortunately, the port cath became infected with MRSA (methacillin resistant staph auraus - meaning the usual antibiotics are INeffective = BAD). We removed the cath and she is doing much better, unfortunately this doesn't do anything for the cancer. She will probably go home tomorrow.
The third is a guy who was admitted for open heart surgery, a CABG (coronary artery bypass grafting). He also has sickle cell anemia and when he was admitted he started having a sickle cell crisis, which is where you blood cell can't fit through the capillaries and you have lots of severe pain all over your body. By the time I saw him his pain was much better. He went in for surgery this morning and had one-vessel disease. He was transferred off my service and into the ICU.
The fourth is a guy with Hepatitis C who subsequently developed cirrhosis and Hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer). He was admitted for a special procedure where they go though your femoral artery (similar to a heart catheterization) and inject chemotherapy agents directly into his liver, followed by a special gel that clots off the artery leading into the liver -effectively removing the blood supply to the tumor. He is doing well after his procedure.

So my day basically consists of: waking up as early as possible, arriving to the hospital and checking new labs, overnight test results, vital signs, nursing reports (all pre-rounding) in order to get ready to round with the attending. Being one of the hospital newbies, I have LOTS of questions of how to do stuff, where stuff is, and also questions about the management of patients (you know, why I'm there in the first place!) There is no senior internal medicine resident, instead we have a Heme/Onc fellow. Our first 1.5 days there was a great fellow named Seth who was nice and knowledgeable - a seasoned doctor. Today we were introduced to the new fellow who will be with us for the rest of the month. She is new to SLU too, so it's kinda like the blind leading the blind, except she had 3 years of experience on the rest of us. (My second day was her first day of her 3-year fellowship in Heme/Onc, so she'll improve - she also went to East Tennessee, in Jackson City, or something). After rounds we grab a bite (after this week it will be during noon conference) and try to catch up on all the work we need to do: discharge summaries, endless orders, checking on patients, and tons of paperwork. While it's intimidating, it fun too.

Tomorrow is my night on call, which means when my fellow interns are going home at 5:00, I'll be roaming the hospital waiting for nurses to call with any questions they have, or orders I need to write. And if a patient needs to be seen, I'm the one who has to see them. I'll stay at the hospital until we finish rounding the next day (July 4th) at noon, after which I can go home and get some sleep. Fortunately I'm off Saturday, so I think Kim and I will get a chance to hang out with my buddy, Lee and his wife Danielle, who are coming to St. Louis for the downtown arch fireworks and to see one of his other friends and his wife. So after all the work, I think I'll still try to have some fun - I usually do ;)


Someone else needs to post, by the way. It doesn't have to be anything amazing.

The Boys Play Wii Boxing

I added the last few pictures we took with Jack and Hank. They were all taken in the waiting area at the restaraunt we met Jen and Todd at.

Also, we took a couple videos of the boys playing boxing on the Wii. The videos are cute, but the files are pretty big, so I've just added one here. Hope you like it!

Class of 2012 article

Here's a link to an article about inprocessing yesterday. We've been wondering what Matt is doing all day today. I hope they are nice to him!
http://www.gazette.com/articles/cadets_37684___article.html/academy_training.html

Looks like Jack and Hank are having a fun vacation!

Jack and Hank go to Saint Louis!

Alright everybody, we finally have an update for everyone. I don't know if you know this or not, but taking care of two boys is exhausting! By the way, Todd, You were RIGHT! When we're not out having fun, we are all eating or sleeping, which is why we didn't post yesterday.

We are having TONS and TONS of fun though. Yesterday we woke up and played a little guitar hero (Hank was more interested in playing with the music stand). After getting cleaned up we headed straight for the Gateway Arch! It was lots of fun. Then we drove around Busch Stadium and went into the Cardinals Store where both the boys got new St. Louis Cardinals ball caps! After that we grabbed a couple burgers and ate at one of the downtown parks. We took pictures by the water and with the courthouse and the arch in the background (see pictures below). Then we drove over to the Zoo. We went through the snake house, the primate house, and the bird house. Then we walked past the pond and took a ride on the endangered animal carousel. Hank rode on the spotted leopard and Jack rode on the black bear. Afterwards we went Delmar Loop (where Blueberry Hill is) and ate at Fitz's restaurant. At Fitz's they make and bottle their own soda pop, and rootbeer is their speciality - it was delicious! Jack and Hank's meals were served in a cardboard '56 Chevy, which was especially cool. We then came home and watched Revenge of the Sith (Star Wars) before going to sleep.

Today we got up and got ready and make it to the early Sea Lion show back at the Zoo. After that we went to Discoveryland, the children's portion of the zoo. The boys got pretty worn out playing on the playground, which was lots of fun! Then we went by McD's for drinks and headed over to the St. Louis Science Center. It was kind of like the Omniplex in OKC. The was a couple of cool dinosaurs, and a walkway across the big highway. The boys had fun looking down through glass in the floor as cars went by. There were a million different things to do and see and try and we check almost all of them out. I think their favorite part was the human wheel, that powered a large contraption in the main atrium. Now everyone is taking naps and were getting ready to have pizza and veggies for dinner!

We probably took more pictures on two days worth of outings than most people would, there are over 100! (Jack said to Kim, "You take pictures all the time!") Which we do. So instead of posting them all here, I have just uploaded them to my Picasa Web Album. You can click on the link below, or watch the embedded slideshow.
Click THIS LINK or watch this slideshow: (Click to Play)

Introducing Cadet Burns!

Future Olympians!
Matt and Mike rented bikes and rode around Red Rock and Canyon and the Garden of the Gods
Saying good bye
Nothing like cutting your hair at 10:00 the night before! (I made them go outside on the patio.)

Well, Matty is officially an AFA cadet! Jerry, Mary and Mike took him to inprocessing this morning. They got to stay until he got on the bus. We're not sure where he went after that. I think he was ready to get away from all of us asking him a million questions all the time! :) He has 3 weeks of Basic Training and then a day off before the second three weeks starts. So we'll get to pick him up on July 15th for Doolie Day Out. That's not too far away.



We had a good time hiking, watching movies, riding bikes, and of course eating this week. I'm not sure how many gallons of Dr. Pepper we went through but it was a lot! Mary and Jerry headed to the airport about 2:00. I'm sure Grandma Jane will be happy to be rescued from the bulldogs a day early! We can't wait to see them again on Labor Day weekend. Love you all!

Kickin it St. Louis Style

These are the pictures of the fam' riding the zoo train.

This past Thursday, June 19th, Jerry, Mary and I(Matt B.), helped move in Matt and Kim. After unloading countless boxes of Ann Taylor clothes into their new apartment, we went to the St. Louis Zoo. Although we didn't get the chance to see everything, we had a great time. This is a picture in front of a duck pond at the Zoo.

Greetings from beautiful Colorado Springs

Hi all, We're all having a good time in Colorado Springs! Today (mon.) we have been taking it pretty easy since we arrived Sat. We got to go to Michael and Stef's church, really great sermon on our responsibilities as christians to be a part of the political process, used prov. 31:1-9 as text. Stef and I went to grocery store and she has been cooking great meals! Mon. we went to get parts for Jerry to change Michaels oil, and planning to change brake pads tomorrow. Michael and Matt will go golfing at air force academy tomorrow. Checked back in to urgent care today and Matt passed TB test, Yahoo!!! We are working on getting all paper work done for the inprocessing on thurs. at academy, Stef and I are going shopping tomorrow. Yipee. So happy that Jack and Hank will be visiting their Aunt Kim and Uncle Matt in St. Louis!!!

Ben woke up from his nap and when I told him it was time to sit on his potty he ran and hid in the kitchen. He was mad at me for making him sit on his potty, but he really did need to go. All was forgiven when he got his m&m. Check out the bedhead!


Shortly after this, I was grilling burgers in the backyard, going in and out of the kitchen. Todd took the big boys to get a movie and when he came back, he said Ben was on the front porch with a frying pan. He had been playing in the kitchen cabinet and I didn't worry when he left the room, but apparently, one of the boys didn't shut the front door all the way and Ben escaped. We were shaken up but so thankful he didn't try to go down the steps.