All By Myself...

Whoa. Silence.

Mr. Couz has loaded up big dog and velcro dog and headed out to the boonies to spend a few days with his family. Dr. Couz, of course, is stuck working. But now I have four whole days with an empty house and I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do with it.

But I'd like to state proudly for the record that within 20 minutes of my husband leaving the house, I had managed to blow a fuse in the kitchen for having the audacity to run the kettle and the toaster at the same time. Ah, the glory of living in a 100-year-old house. That's not what I'm proud of, though. I ventured down into the dungeon-like basement, located the fuse box, and solved the problem. Considering that it was something I had never done before and that I am usually irrationally afraid of our basement (don't ask), this was a pretty proud moment. Hey, I appreciate the small victories.

So now I'm headed to the gym to do my long run for the week-- 10k (or a little over 6 miles for you Americans out there). It will be mind-numbingly boring to do it on the treadmill, but there is a lot of very slippery snow on the sidewalks and it would be a really bad time for me to be on crutches. Plus, it's not the same without a furry companion.

Then, the plan is to shower at the gym and head out to pick up a few groceries for the week. Due to my schedule this job is usually done by Mr. Couz, so I'm actually kind of excited about doing it today. There hasn't been enough money lately for fun shopping, so I'll take whatever kind of shopping I can get to get my fix.

Post-groceries I'm headed out to Starbucks to continue my studying (okay-- start my studying) for my CCFP exams. They're fast approaching. And I'm not doing much of anything about it.

My day might be shot to hell, though, as it seems that my LAST prenatal patient (the last patient we have scheduled to deliver while I'm still on service in family medicine) has ruptured her membranes. She's term (39 weeks), GBS negative, and the baby looked fine on the fetal monitor so there's really no cause for concern, but for some reason they admitted her last night anyway. So now I'm waiting to find out my preceptor is going to induce her or what. And if he does, I'll probably have to make the hour trek out to the community where I practice to deliver her. She's a primip, so she might not be pushing until tomorrow morning. I don't understand why they don't just wait at least 24 hours and see if she goes on her own. But either way, I'll be tethered to my cell phone waiting to hear if I'm expected to drive two hours just to catch a baby. I'm not quite as enthusiastic about the deliveries as I was before as I've recently learned that I've exceeded my obstetrical requirements for family medicine threefold easily, and have decided not to include uncomplicated obstetrics as part of my practice in the future. A pretty easy decision to make now that I have a spot waiting for me in the emergency medicine fellowship.

Lots of blogging on the burner, though. I have posts in progress on the subject of the us vs. them mentality that so many practitioners of alternative medicine seem to possess, the answer to a commenter who wondered if I'd come to terms with my childbirth preference or if I was still torn between the extremes of elective c-section and midwife-assisted birth, and some thoughts on the anti-vaccination movement. Now that I've committed to these topics, I hope I'll feel forced to see them through to completion.

And don't forget that Grand Rounds version 3.20 will be hosted by yours truly on February 6th. I can't wait to start reading the submissions. If you have a recent blog entry that you feel might interest readers, send it in. I'm not going to be terribly strict in enforcing the theme this week. The deadline for submission with be 10pm EST on Sunday, February 4th.