Birthdays remind me of childbirth; fascinating!

Childbirth is fascinating to me.

So on this day when two of my own children were born on the same day four years apart (and yes, the older one, my daughter, is still upset about sharing her birthday!) I sit with a cup of tea and think about something we all must go through one way or another......you were born, right?

I am not a particularly religious person, but when I do ultrasounds on those very early fetuses where the arm and leg buds are barely visible waving in the breeze, I wonder how something that starts out as only a glob of cells divides and grows and further divides and specializes into a complicated human being. A person, that at the end of one year after birth, can walk and talk and think and learn and explore and be a little people.  In my view, I imagine a force setting the wheels into motion, sitting back with their own cup of tea, and beaming with pride every time one of these little creatures comes out into the light.

Each of my own birth experiences was very different from each other as most are.
Ok, there are those people who get to schedule their own c-section, but most of us do not.

1) Seth was born when I was only 18 years old.  My mother couldn't understand why Ron   would want to be present for an event that is so private to the mother.  He was born in the day when we were still wheeled to the delivery suite without an epidural yelling at everyone that "I HAVE TO PUSH!!!"  And push I did; the blood went right up backward in my IV.  The day after, when I was holding him, I listened to another young mother sobbing in her room as she had made the decision to give her child up for adoption.  I have never regretted going against my mother's advice to me to do the same.

2)Danielle was the easiest delivery I had. Being a medical student at the time, I bugged my obstetrician with some of the craziest and most obscure questions that he had ever heard from a patient i.e. "I've been exposed to CMV sepsis in the ICU, is that bad for my baby?"
I'm sure he would have rather me asked about my swelling ankles.  For her labor, I used visualization to get me through, and even though labor pain sucks (see #3 below), she came quickly and smoothly.

3)CJ is the reason that you should never give birth after you have passed your specialty board exams.  His giant melon head became stuck in the wrong position, and after a horrible labor, yelling "I HAVE TO PUSH," begging for a cesarean, loud wailing, not letting my poor overwhelmed husband step out for a break, CJ responding with steeply dipping heart tones, a vacuum extractor buried to the hilt, and a broken umbilical cord he was born.

With everyone of these three deliveries, immediately I was beaming with pride.
I also can't help but beam with pride during virtually all of the many hundreds of deliveries I have been involved in as a physician as that wrinkled red (bald or hairy) head emerges into the light for the very first time.

Childbirth truly is fascinating!
Happy Birthday Danielle and CJ! 
Happy half Birthday Seth (born 7/16)!
I love you all!  

P.S.  See Aline beam  :)

Human Behavior and the Electronic Health Record

There has been a lot of jibber-jabbering going on at work in the past couple of weeks.  We are getting ready to go to a new electronic health record (note EHR) in January, and everyone is getting their panties into various stages of a wad over the whole thing. And for good reason.....change sucks!
It seems that this move to yet another computer program brings out the best and worst in human behavior.....

1) There is the cheerleader (and one of our fearless leaders) who has the job of telling us all how it is going to be and then spends lots of time jumping up and down in e-mails encouraging us and yelling "Go Team!!!"  as we all sit in our offices and grumble about how tough this is, threatening to throw spit wads at our computer screens.

2) There are those of us who are overwhelmed in our jobs, who have taken too much call in the past couple of weeks, who are seeing too many patients and trying desperately to negotiate the old EHR, who haven't been to the gym in over a week, who've been looking for extra help for two years, who are flatly replying to the cheerleader's e-mails;  "I have too much to do."

3) There is a large group of us who are forced to work 60-100 hours per week in a desperate attempt to cram our heads with all the medical knowledge currently available in three short years and now being asked to do "one more thing," but who are so overwhelmed by it all that we can't even complain in a loud voice.  How can the promise of pizza and beer on a rare weekend off be so well received?  Because it allows us to bond!

4) There is the one who simply says "I'm not talking right now."

5) There are very many patients out there who are probably trying to understand just why they suddenly are being told that they have to wait approximately six months before they can see any of their regular providers.  So, en masse they troop through the ER in an attempt to get a follow-up appointment that may be only three months away.

6) There is the staff that shall remain unnamed that is working diligently away at all odd hours of the day and night to move the project along and have us ready by the middle of January.

There is nothing like "change sucks!"  to stress all of us out in an already busy and stressful holiday/cold and flu season. 

But overall,  I think we're going to come out on the other side A-ok.

At least we'll have enjoyed some good pizza and beer.