camp!

ok so i fail at trying to keep this updated...but i have done better this month. im at diabetes camp for kids about 7-16. its been alright so far...VERY hot!!! like in the 90's. hilton head is going to kick my butt next week. but i'll be on a beach so i suppose its ok :) we've been responsible for preparing the celiac kid's meals since they can't be in any contact with any gluten-containing food. also we count the kids carbs once the get to the end of the buffet line so they can have their insulin dosed by the med staff after they eat. a lot of the guys try to get awaya with sneaking food, which can be bad if they don't get enough insulin with it!! its definiately a lot to deal with if you are a kid...but they know a LOT about whats going on with them...whether they have high blood sugar, low, what can happen if it gets too high and stays there. but i guess if you are living every day with it, you would know it inside and out. i give them a lot of credit, i would have a hard time adjusting to all those needle pokes.

four of us interns got to play on the water trampoline and slide last night and it was way cool! except i had to wear a stinking life jacket. really?! couldn't i just tell them i've been a lifeguard for 5+ years and have been able to swim since i could walk?! gotta love lake water though. camp has made me remember camp michindoh a lot...and how great it was!! i miss home!! i wanted to be home sunday to cookout and go to the pool with my family for father's day. i hate missing out on stuff like that...i think im reminded daily (especially right now) how thankful i am that i do miss them and having that to look forward to going home to. its great :) two days til hilton head and jordan!!!!!! i am SO pumped!!!!

yessss.

so i found my job. well, not really because someone already has it...but i LOVE working in pediatric neurology with the keto diet. its awwwesome. i helped advance a little 1 yr old's diet from a 2:1 to a 3:1 ratio today and talked to the dad about it (by myself!) and am doing the education tomorrow for it. and i wasn't nervous! it feels nice knowing what im talking about to some extent. i might even get to DO a tube feeding tomorrow when we show the dad how to prepare the formula, so cool! i got to update about 15 recipes for a kid whos ratio was being increased because his seizures were increasing, so that was cool too. unfortunetly, this is such a specific field, it might be hard to find a job in this area...but im keeping my fingers crossed and saying a little prayer because i would seriously LOVE to work in this field, the brain is so amazing. its so interesting, sad, but very interesting. its not sad though when you initiate a diet for a child who has no other options and get to see their seizure frequency decrease-or cease altogether, what's cooler than helping a family do that?! perhaps its so cool to me since i've been there...maybe not as severe as these little ones, but i know the frustrations.

it feels so good to finally find something i truly enjoy. not just kind of enjoy, but something i really like. i talked to the rd im with about the pediatric fellowship they offer at children's, which i feel like im way more interested in now. i feel like this (peds) is where im supposed to be! yay! im ticked off that our stupid RD exam review is Thurs-Sat and cuts this rotation short by 1 1/2 days, lammme. welp, that was my day, it was excellent!!! off to pack some-ten days left til vacatttion!!!!! :)

yay!

hooray! today was really good! i had my first day of my peds rotation with the ketogenic rd...and it was great. we started a little one year old with infantile spasms (an epilepsy syndrome where babies can have up to hundreds of spasms a day) on the diet today. i also got to work in a computer system that allows the RD to come up with specific recipes the keto kids can eat. everything has to be measured out in grams and typically consists of 90% fat, 7% protein and 3% carbohydrate. so its a lot of fat (butter, cream, sour cream) and very little carb (no sugar really). Most kids are on a 3:1 ratio (3 parts fat to 1 part protein/carb) so the computer system lets you adjust food portions to meet calories & come up with the right ratio. its neat. i really liked working with kids since nutrition is so important to their development. i felt like what i was doing actually mattered.

i wish i didnt worry about money so much. i hate worrying about it. i feel like i am smart with what i spend it on, but i really can't stand just spending what i take out in loans since i can't work right now. i hate that i can't have a job and i feel like i can't provide for myself right now. i know what im doing now is helping me be able to provide for myself & my family later on, its just hard now. i know im in pretty good shape compared to the large majority of americans and am blessed with what i've been given thus far, but it's still a stressor and i'm praying i find peace about it all. i don't know how people let themselves get into mountains of debt, i can't imagine how suffocating that must feel. i couldn't deal with that.

eleven days til hilton head and jbl for a week :) :)

hes just not that into you??

so i rented this movie (hes just not that into you) today to watch tonight and i got about 3/4 of the way through and turned it off. it was stupid. one of the plots of it was a girl and a guy (who was married) and how he slowly starts to cheat on his wife with this girl...what is that? and then a couple of the other guys in the movie talk about how no real guy ever wants to get married...how a guy who doesn't marry a girl after a while is just a jerk so thats why they get married. ok, so, maybe i am reading way too much into this movie...but it just really bothered me! all that cheating crap is ridiculous and i cant stand watching it, even if its just a movie. maybe the movie ends differently and i should have watched the whole thing. i just thought it was dumb.

im really hoping tomorrow goes well at childrens with the keto rd. i got a ton to do before camp and vacation!! 12 days til hilton head with jordan!!! :) :) i love summer.

another update!

so im going to try to update this more often :) we had our diabetes camp orientation today...it was boring. but im sort of looking forward to camp, it should be a fun week. i would def be a nervous wreck if i were a counselor or a med staff member...so many kids with diabetes and so much testing, monitoring, insulin injections, etc...its a LOT. and a LOT could potentially happen if close attention isn't paid to each kid. very scary. i don't think most people realize how involved having type 1 diabetes is, especially as a kid. thats a lot to deal with when you just wanna be a kid! needles, always watching what you eat, more needles. its intense.

i ran eight miles this morning! it was a GREAT run. no sun, cloudy, and a nice 55 degrees outside, oh and some nice sprinkling towards the end. it was one of those runs where i felt like i could keep on going towards the end-which is promising for when i have to run 15+ miles! running is so freeing after a while...it just makes me feel GOOD. (well usually, sometimes i want to die lol) its totally a mental thing and im pretty pumped to run my marathon :) and im excited to run with tay too and to have her finish a half!

i feel like im constantly reminded of the blessing of good health with everything i've been surrounded by lately. and how important it is to pray for those who are not so fortunate. sometimes its the only thing you can do and i think the power of it is often overlooked. i know i overlook it when i don't see immediate results. well thats all for now...im off to bed soon, im so exhausted. 13 days til vacation!!!

done with dialysis

im all done with my dialysis rotation...yay!! it was interesting..but i did a lot of sitting, doing nothing, so that part was terribly boring. but i think its a job i would like to do, so that was encouraging. i just hope i never have kidney disease and need dialysis-not sure how i could do that. the needles they use are huuuuge, like i have never seen bigger ones before. and they get stuck twice with them, every other day!! sick.

my peds rotation is next week and i am SO excited!!! im spending the week with th RD that does the ketogenic diet kids...im pumped. it should be really interesting and im really hoping i like it. i think i will. we have a busy couple of weeks coming up...camp orientation all day saturday (sick) and then an RD exam review session thurs, fri and sat next week...then diabetes camp starts sunday. so bascially no weekends til vacation. blah. BUT then its to ctown and down to HILTON HEAD!!!!! AHH!!! so excited. i cant wait to show jordan everywhere we go there and just relax and hang out with each other for a whole week. its going to be grrreat!!!! :) oh, wednesday was the half way point for the internship-nuts huh? i cant believe its been that long. the second half is going to fly by. we'll prolly be able to apply for jobs come october, which will be really strange. anyways, thats whats going on. sorry i stink at updating this. i dont know if anyone reads it anyways! i miss home and my family a lot, i've been lucky to be able to see them a lot the past month or so. thats all for now!!