well. the polls just closed here. it'll certainly be interesting... i was voting just after the polls opened this AM (it was conveniently on my way home from boxing). i felt bad for everyone in line with stinky/sweaty me... but, hey, if i didn't go then not sure i would have gotten there...
*sigh* children's was tough yesterday. still working on the 5 year old with the brain stem tumor, and it's just hard, because he doesn't get better and has been in the hospital for months... it's so heartbreaking to see the family and read all the charts (about the parent's meeting with the psychologist, etc...). and then saw an almost 4 year old who has some abdominal tumor and has been in the hospital for 3 weeks, and wouldn't even let us touch her... poor kid, and you wonder if it's just a product of being in the hospital for that long and stuck with hypodermics (we were just going to do massage and magnets, no needles) or if maybe she has some abuse history? and then hung out with this 16 year old girl who was just supercool and full of life, but has been in the hospital for a few weeks and has some condition where her white blood cell count is virtually non-existent - she's not allowed outside. and they have no idea why - she woke up one day with a crazy fever and it just got worse from there. anyway, she's been seeing EVERYONE, infectious disease doctors, haematologists, oncologists. read her whole chart and a possible diagnosis is HLH which i had actually never heard of (went home and did some research)- a rare blood disorder where your macrophages eat all your other blood cells - really weird. and fatal if not treated. and even when treated (chemo, bone marrow transplants) there isn't a very high 5 year survival rate. so SO sad. this girl is such a typical teenager, plays on the soccer team, has tons of friends, a boyfriend... *sigh*, it's just so hard to think that there is such a low survivability rate if she does in fact have HLH... she was sitting there and started crying because she just wants to go home... and we can't even do needles because her white count is so low, we don't want any risk of infection... anyway, had a couple other patients. but all in all, that place just makes me think and feel and all these kids are so young and have so much going for them, yet... have the unfortunate circumstance of having some horrible medical condition.
on a completely different and much less depressing note, i LOVE cooking. and mama just sent me a fabulous cookbook (chocolate and zucchini - which is a great food blog, if you haven't seen it) and i have been really into food blogs and being inspired by some of their recipes and photos, especially smittenkitchen.com! in that vein, i made a BIG pot of soup on sunday to eat during much of my week... and while it's not the traditional version with kafir lime and lemongrass (i didn't have it at home) i made a quick and easy makeshift Tom Yum soup (thai style spicy!) and it came out pretty damn well... i just used chicken broth, a couple fresh-squeezed lemons, lots of sriracha, ginger, garlic and then veggies (bok choi, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms) and some shrimp and voila! (see below).
*sigh* children's was tough yesterday. still working on the 5 year old with the brain stem tumor, and it's just hard, because he doesn't get better and has been in the hospital for months... it's so heartbreaking to see the family and read all the charts (about the parent's meeting with the psychologist, etc...). and then saw an almost 4 year old who has some abdominal tumor and has been in the hospital for 3 weeks, and wouldn't even let us touch her... poor kid, and you wonder if it's just a product of being in the hospital for that long and stuck with hypodermics (we were just going to do massage and magnets, no needles) or if maybe she has some abuse history? and then hung out with this 16 year old girl who was just supercool and full of life, but has been in the hospital for a few weeks and has some condition where her white blood cell count is virtually non-existent - she's not allowed outside. and they have no idea why - she woke up one day with a crazy fever and it just got worse from there. anyway, she's been seeing EVERYONE, infectious disease doctors, haematologists, oncologists. read her whole chart and a possible diagnosis is HLH which i had actually never heard of (went home and did some research)- a rare blood disorder where your macrophages eat all your other blood cells - really weird. and fatal if not treated. and even when treated (chemo, bone marrow transplants) there isn't a very high 5 year survival rate. so SO sad. this girl is such a typical teenager, plays on the soccer team, has tons of friends, a boyfriend... *sigh*, it's just so hard to think that there is such a low survivability rate if she does in fact have HLH... she was sitting there and started crying because she just wants to go home... and we can't even do needles because her white count is so low, we don't want any risk of infection... anyway, had a couple other patients. but all in all, that place just makes me think and feel and all these kids are so young and have so much going for them, yet... have the unfortunate circumstance of having some horrible medical condition.
on a completely different and much less depressing note, i LOVE cooking. and mama just sent me a fabulous cookbook (chocolate and zucchini - which is a great food blog, if you haven't seen it) and i have been really into food blogs and being inspired by some of their recipes and photos, especially smittenkitchen.com! in that vein, i made a BIG pot of soup on sunday to eat during much of my week... and while it's not the traditional version with kafir lime and lemongrass (i didn't have it at home) i made a quick and easy makeshift Tom Yum soup (thai style spicy!) and it came out pretty damn well... i just used chicken broth, a couple fresh-squeezed lemons, lots of sriracha, ginger, garlic and then veggies (bok choi, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms) and some shrimp and voila! (see below).
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