TB with a side of pi

First off, happy pi day. (My geek is showing).

Next, I did something in clinic today I did not expect I would have to do...treat a 25 year old for TB. Granted it was latent TB, but it scares me because she's a recently graduated nurse, and had negative PPDs. However, her quantiferon gold test was positive, and a nodule showed up on xray. And while she's been asymptomatic, and working (!!!) per the employee health recommendations, I have now sentenced her to 4 months of fairly hardcore antibiotics. It makes me wonder what I have been exposed to.....

Thirdly, I am having so much fun buying things for my Yarn Pron Swap pal! I need to be careful to stop buying things for myself too.... :) Etsy has so many good things, how's a girl to decide?
My Cozy lace shawl is driving me nuts. I've frogged a row about 5 times, and I cannot figure out why it looks like it's in pattern at the beginning, and then towards the end, the pattern is off, and I have an extra stitch. WTF??? I think it's back to the soothing ribbing on my sock for awhile.

Knitting with the Plague

I've been hit by the plague, othgerwise known as a fabulous little respiratory virus that is not influenza, and therefore not covered by the little shot I got a few months back. It has me down and out for 5 days. I don't think I've been this sick as an adult. Every time I'm feeling better, it starts up again with the fevers and chills, and aches and sore throat. Ugh. This is getting complicated at work, as Healthcare Conglomorate terms any sick time greater than three days a "leave of absence."

Are you kidding me? I took one day as a vacation day, two as sick days, and now I need a NOTE FROM MY DOCTOR to go back to work. Oy vay. It makes me want to just hang a shingle out front of my house when I have my own practice, and keep the linear accelerator in the basement. Or at least remember not to get to close with Healthcare Conglomorate. Too much paperwork.

At least I've finished my Big Bad Baby blanket and a calorimetry to compliment my sister's scarf in time for their various events. Pics to follow.

Ice Princess

Good mother, it's freezing here. My weather.com page tells me it feels like -18 degrees F. I am shivering away in my computer room right now, drooling over lovely wool yarns that I ought not buy, but I want to. I want a stash. N would argue that I already DO have a stash, but it only takes up one little square area in a bookshelf. So not a stash.

If I had a stash, I think I would snuggle up under all the balls of lovely warm wooly yarn goodness tonight, and not come out. That's just how damn cold it is. It is certainly too cold to go traipsing out to see my friend's band tonight, what with the dearth of downtown parking, and the smoky bar, and the cold, cold me. Sorry guys, I'll catch ya next time.

We do have to go out to the Superbowl party tomorrow, not because I'm terribly enamored of the Superbowl, but party because our friends throw this party every year, and next year we'll be in Ohio, and therefore not able to attend, but mostly because I am making an AWESOME black bean dip. It's called a black bean dip, but really it's mounds of melted cheesy goodness with some jalapenos and black beans thrown in for good measure. It's from our favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant. I shall post it later, after I dig it out. Yum.

I was on call last night, for the first time in the last month that I will ever do general medicine wards. It struck me how much more comfortable I feel doing this now than at the beginning of the year. I think I've learned more in the six months of my intern year than in my last two years of med school, at least as far as amount learned per period of time goes. I can figure out what's wrong with a patient, I uaually have a reasonable idea of how to fix it, and if I don't I know who to call to get a specialty opinion. This does not mean that I have learned all that there is to learn about the art of internal medicine, of course not. But I've become a much better diagnostician and know how to handle patients in the inpatient setting. I suppose that's what this transitional year was all about. Ok, great, so can I be done now? I'm totally ready to move on to RadOnc and start treating cancers, my true interest and career. I'm over pneumonias and diabetes, I tell you.

You know you're obsessed with knitting when....

The scene: Friday evening, computer room

Husband: playing WOW on his computer

Me: Kissing him goodbye on my way to the gym..spies that he is killing Ice Yaks
(no, I don't make this stuff up)

Me: Save me some Yak fur.

Husband: uh-huh (not looking up from the yak-slaughter).

Me: I wonder what I could knit out of yak fur?

Husband: Weren't you going to the gym?

FO, #1

The Crossover Scarf, for my sister's birthday.

I think it looks better in person than in the pictures...it looks kind of messy when laid out, but it's nice and lacy-looking in person.

I lied, this will be my first gifted knit object, as my friend's baby is due after my sister's birthday, and I really wanted to try this technique before I go back to stockinette in a baby blanket.

Big Bad Baby Blanket

I'm very excited....one of my friends from work is pregnant with her second baby, and she's due in about 6 weeks. Which is of course very exciting. BUT. I am excited because I decided to knit her a baby blanket from the Stitch 'n Bitch book. It will be my first knit gift to anyone, but it's a relatively simple pattern, and I've got all that on-call time next month to knit (when I'm not admitting and taking care of my patients, that is. Right.) I think she would appreciate it, too, as she's very into stuff that's not mass-produced chain-store. Her daughter right now is always dressed inthe cutest little-girl funky stuff, so I know I can get away with making it in a cool variegated blue-green yarn, rather than pastels. I'm getting yarn today!