The End of an Era.... Finally!

Something tremendous has finally happened for us! Good health insurance for free!! Woo hoo!! 

For, oh, I don't know, I think the last five years(?), we've forked out more than $500 a month for health insurance. It was way more than we poor little med-schoolers could afford but, hey, skimping on health insurance (especially when you're trying to have a baby, and REALLY especially when you DO have a baby...) is just one of those things we aren't willing to do. (We DID go a little crazy, oooooh, by dropping maternity coverage when Seth was born so that our premium would STAY in the $500's instead of jumping to $800, but when you have fertility issues as badly as I do, and you know you won't try for another baby in the next few years, that's not much of a risk.... Still, it's about as crazy as we could possibly get when it comes to flirting with no insurance, and we were a little nervous to do it.... :)) 

So, the recent story: year after year of really expensive health insurance, that still required some out-of-pocket expenses, like prescriptions, $30 office visits, $1000 for Seth's birth (that actually cost over $30,000, so we got a good deal :)), $500 for an outpatient surgery Matt had a few years ago, etc., etc. 

Current story: awesome health insurance ($5 copays, free surgeries, free hospital, free baby deliveries, $10 90-day prescriptions...) for $1100 a month, covered entirely by UCSD! 

Woo hoo!!! I just can't say how exciting it is!! HURRAY!!

Now we can focus on losing money to other things.... Hehe.

A Week in the Sun

After spending so much time this week parked at the beach, watching myself and my darker in-laws all sunburn on top of sunburn, this article kind of amused and interested me. (I don't know how to do hyperlinks in blogger. Does clicking on the word "article" take you to an article? I guess we'll see! :))

I liked the comparison to cigarette manufacturers—it's an apt parallel, I think. Makes you wonder if it's a morally ok thing (in terms of respecting your body) to intentionally blast it with radiation. All for a stupid tan (that, at the very least, will make you wrinkled in a couple decades anyway. What then?). I'll admit that I've been intentionally foregoing the sunscreen lately, hoping for a good enough base tan to not get sunburned too easily (we spend a lot of time outside living here! It's great...). I'll also admit that I think Seth's tan is adorable and that Matt looks funny when he gets pasty. Hehe. But it was interesting to talk a little with my Radiation Oncologist (cancer doctor) brother-in-law this past week and remember how common and real the risk for a deadly skin cancer is. I think he had the right idea to keep more covered up than the rest of us.

Denver, or maybe even the whole state of Colorado, passed a law a year or two ago that prohibits minors from using tanning beds without a prescription from a doctor. It caused a big stir (from the tanning bed people, of course) but what a great idea. If some goofy teenager out there is depressed to not get to sit in a cancer-bed, maybe this intelligent and fun article can help them feel better about it. It's at least made me think twice, and I already try to protect myself (at least a little...) from the sun. Maybe I should try more.

The Water Bill

There are a lot of things to complain about when you have a sunburn. For me, the absolute worst is that it actually turns a hot shower—that most glorious of luxuries!—into a harrowing experience you'd like to avoid. You either end up in horrible pain with a hot shower, taking a cold shower (likewise in horrible pain), or with greasy hair from taking no shower (putting others in pain :)). It stinks!

This has turned my world particularly upside-down this week since, honestly, I'm a shower-loving FIEND. Hehe. Even though I've always taken a morning shower, I can hardly ever resist taking another one at night. Usually, one of the two showers is long enough that I only got out because the hot water was gone. When I was pregnant, Matt even bought a dual shower-head for me, and a collection of bath mats and pillows (and turned the water heater up all the way so it would last longer...). I used to set up a little bed in our oval bathtub, pull one of the shower-heads down low, and rest in the shower for what felt like forever. It was about the only time I didn't have to feel gross from having so many contractions. When I had food poisoning so badly a few years ago, I would only stay out of my shower-bed long enough for the hot water to come back. I think I puked 35 times that day (I lost 10 pounds in about 14 hours!), but survived thanks to somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 hour-long showers. I could spend my whole life in a shower. Hehe. They're very therapeutic! 

The problem with my shower obsession is that, for the first time in our lives, we have to pay for our water. Other places we've lived had a home owner's association or property managers who were responsible for water. Now we're in a grown-up enough place to, grrrr..., have our own water meter. Are you kidding me? To make matters WORSE, our shower ROCKS!! The water pressure is amazing! I try so hard to force myself to turn the water pressure down, but I just can't.... It's too fantastic. Then I try to tell myself I don't need a second shower in the evening, but I'm pretty sure that I do. Hehe. I'm also pretty sure that my shower-loving could put us in the poorhouse. (Actually, I have no idea, since we haven't gotten a water bill yet. :))

At least there's this sunburn. It ruins the day, but could save the water bill. We'll see.... :)

A Veritable Heat Wave

Yesterday, the high was 89 degrees, which broke the record for the hottest June 21st in San Diego EVER. 

I don't know whether to be bummed out that we had to feel 89-degree weather for a day, or to laugh with glee that even in June, a freak heat wave can only get us up into the 80's. YES!!!

Today we should be back into the 70's, and back to good ol' 72 in a couple days. I love it here. :)

Things I Learned in Medical School

So I may not have been the one to actually graduate and become a doctor, but being married to a medical student definitely felt like an educational experience. When Matt came home from "work" and I asked, "how was your day...?," the answer often included a description of surgeries he performed, diseases and disorders and syndromes he diagnosed, symptoms he observed, and treatments he administered—which descriptions often required a basic tutorial in physiology, chemistry, anatomy, and/or a lot of other things I can't quite put my finger on at the moment. If I had written down everything I once learned while going through medical school with Matt, it would probably seem rather impressive. Too bad that I only internalized a few basic, interesting "ah-ha!" tidbits! (I suppose over the years, being married to a doctor might afford millions of revisits of information I keep forgetting, so there's still hope for me.... :)) Here's a list of things that rocked my world enough to keep me remembering them:

1. Hydrogen Peroxide (we always called it Magic Bubbles) is generally a bad idea for basic wound care! It makes sense, though—while it's very effective at killing the germs, it also kills (drumroll please...) healthy tissue cells! So, 2 seconds after killing the germs, when you reintroduce germs to the area, they have a perfect little place to live and grow: your defenseless wound, now dead, unable to try to kill invaders! So, unless you want to gurgle with magic bubbles (I guess it's great for that...), pack 'em up. Fascinating, no?

2. If you thought that was fascinating, get a load of THIS! The thing that makes neosporin work is not the antibiotics—it's the vaseline! Studies demonstrate very clearly that neosporin is no more effective than plain-old vaseline. The vaseline is a great barrier, keeping further germs out of a wound, and doing something (I forgot—maybe through hydration...?) to help your cells fix things. Furthermore, neosporin is not recommended over vaseline because a significant percentage of the population (20% or something like that...? and it keeps rising) actually develops a skin reaction to neosporin that can be harmful. So, first of all, you can spend less money following this recommendation (courtesy of the dermatology world...). Second, you will heal just as fast. Third, you won't be at risk for a yucky skin reaction. Ever used neosporin and ended up with a red wound...? Itchy maybe...? Should have used vaseline. Who knew?! I still can't believe neosporin isn't the miracle I thought it was! Definitely rocked my world. :)

3. When you do CPR, it's true that you need to put a lot of force into the compression, but you need to be sure to let off entirely before doing another compression. Even a small amount of force on the chest inhibits blood flow around the heart. Makes sense, huh? (This was definitely an "ah-ha!" moment for us. :)) So if you ever get to be a good samaritan, just remember to compress hard, then let go all the way. You might save a life with that little tidbit. 

4. Hypoglycemia doesn't exist! At least not the way people think (some rare tumors and things can cause true hypoglycemia). I remember times I used to say, "oh, man, I'm feeling hypoglycemic!" Well, apparently I was making it up. :)

5. A few germs are great for a growing body. To all the moms out there who freak when someone (gasp!) touches their baby, or who are afraid to let their kids play in dirt, etc., etc.... No need to worry so much. Shielding a kid too much from germs weakens the immune system, and puts the kid at MUCH greater risk for things like asthma and allergies. In situations where sanitary conditions in a society suddenly change (for instance, the separation of East and West Germany—then the reunification), cleaner immediately equals bad asthma, among other things. Also, the best time for kids to play in dirt is when they're about 8 years old, when their thymus is huge and their immune systems are on fire. More exposure means better resistance! (I know I sure wish I had been infected with mono when I was a kid and only gotten cold symptoms rather than being one of the lucky few who makes it to adulthood without catching it somehow. That's why people with mono are always in their late-teens and early-twenties. It's about as long as you can go without catching it. Everyone who got it as a kid just looked like they caught a cold, and then became immune [and contagious...] for forever. So kiss your kids! Share drinks! Hehe.)

6. Speaking of kids' immune systems, you can expect a baby to catch a cold about once a month—more if they're in daycare. No worries there, either. A doctor doesn't start to be concerned about a baby catching viruses until.... Well, never for most kids...! Because even much more than one a month is still in "normal" range.

7. Statistically (exceptions always exist for everything...), epidurals speed up labor rather than slowing it down. This was news to me! It seems like the "everyone should have babies at home even though that's insane" nurses have really gotten the word out that epidurals will slow labor down and I, for one, believed it. However, most of the time a woman's own tension is a far bigger factor in inhibiting dilation and the baby's movement than drugs would be. Usually, an epidural, just by letting a woman and her muscles relax, results in a much quicker dilation and smoother delivery.... Which isn't to say it's actually recommended for all normal deliveries, just that it's not not-recommended and has a great chance of being very helpful.

8. Babies don't really have bones, so much. An x-ray of a baby is mostly a big haze. Cool....

9. Noses and ears never stop growing. That's why old people have big noses and ears. It will happen to you, too. :)

10. Botox is the most deadly toxin known to man (same thing that causes botulism!). Seriously. THE MOST DEADLY TOXIN KNOWN TO MAN. "Um, yes, I'd like to shoot some of that into my face, please?" (Coincidentally, frozen-botox-face is the deadliest expression—or lack thereof—known to man. :))

11. A dermatologist can charge the same amount for a cancerous-mole removal that a heart surgeon can charge for a HEART TRANSPLANT. Whoa! Seriously? (Coincidentally, dermatologists are loaded. $$$$$ Yes, that guy you go to for your pimples.... $$$$ :))

As you can see, I can't exactly describe the chemical structure of this or that, and how it effects the intricate structure of this organ and that organ.... Hehe. But those are still some interesting bits of information! And now you know them, too. Aren't we glad we (sort of) went to medical school....

P.S. Don't be surprised if I have to issue a retraction after Matt comes home and proof-reads my tutorial here.... I don't think I exaggerated anything, but you never know what a memory will do. Hehe. :)

What a Too-Close Lens Can Do to an Otherwise Beautiful Child...

For anyone who has ever seen an ugly picture of yourself and said, "What?! Gasp! Do I really look like that? Do I really make that face?" This message is for you. Especially if it damaged your self-esteem and/or made you feel bad about making other people simply look at you. Don't worry! It's the camera's fault! I recently gathered irrefutable evidence that a camera sees things no human eye could ever construct. Observe:

Only a camera could make a kid who normally looks like this...

...somehow look like this.... 

Ha ha ha! Can you deny it? Does it make you feel better then? Good. :) (At the very least, it must have given you a chuckle. I laugh every time I see this picture! HA HA HA!) So take heart! You're not ugly. You just had your picture taken.... :)

Matt's Birthday

It's my husband's birthday but he's gone. So I started a new blog. What could be more natural? 

I just encountered another daddy-long-legs in the shower and squished it with my finger. It was grosser than a few days ago when I squished some other (smaller) spider with my fingers and got its legs all stuck in different places on my skin. When did I turn into a bare-hands-squisher-of-spiders? Not that I've ever been afraid of them to the point that I wouldn't squish them with some toilet paper or something. But to callously just reach out without thinking and off them with my bare fingers? When did I get so brazen? Hehe. 

And, furthermore, can anyone answer this question for me: why are daddy-long-legs ALWAYS in the shower? 

Have you ever seen another spider in the shower? And have you ever seen a daddy-long-legs anywhere OTHER than the shower...? The answers are no and no (I'm sure... :)). Whatever is so symbiotic about showers and daddy-long-legs kind of creeps me out. I want my shower to be symbiotic with just me!