PaddleFest

Foreman and I headed out last weekend with Italian and Smiley up to Palmer Rapids for some very needed R&R and CANOEING. I have missed paddling desperately and couldn't wait to get out on the water. We rented this boat from this crochety old guy across from Limeridge Mall that said he had a " no whitewater clause" in the rental agreement but after I explained to him that I've guided for 8 years he said we could do what we wanted (thank God!) As he's strapping the boat to the top of our Grand Prix he begins to tell me about how he had to replace the deckplate because that particular boat was the boat the people went over the dam with in Paris, ON. Why would you tell people that? That is not good publicity. So we promptly called it the Paris Death Boat for the entire trip...here it is.

After a 4.5 hour drive we got to this little sleep town of Palmer Rapids that reminded me of Water Valley. That night we had a great time staying up late, drinking and talking. Foreman was so happy that he drank and stayed awake (a rare triumph) and proceeded to try to light Sambuca in his mouth and Italian kept trying to stop him so that he wouldn't light his beard on fire. The next day it was still a little cold and wet so we went up to this cute little diner that Italian and Smiley have gone to for every breakfast on the long weekend since they've been married (which is 10 years). We had a great breakfast and it was still a little chilly so we took a drive to the Sierra Designs factory (like heaven!) and I bought a $130 rainjacket for $30 and Foreman and I both bought fleeces and Foreman got a great orange toque that Italian picked out for him. After our purchases we were all psyched to get out on the water. Even in our Mad River canoe with no knee pads. We had a great time playing at the bottom of Palmer Rapids practicing our ferries and eddy turns. We ran the second set too which was very technical with a lot of holes and fast moving water and Foreman did great. I portaged our canoe back up like I always did and all these Ontario people were so shocked a girl could portage her own 17' boat - that's right, I'm from the prairie!

That night little Narico arrived at our campsite along with his dad and another friend of Italian and Smiley's. They were great fun especially Narico who's 15 months and likes to "cheers" drinks all the time - he was great fun. We had a great night chatting away with old friends of Italian and Smiley's and new friends to us.

The next day we had another great breakfast in town before suiting up for our big day on the Lower Madawaska River. Smiley lent Foreman her wetsuit which was great because otherwise he would have completely frozen to death. We had great runs down all the rapids and it was really fun to paddle with people who are so positive and upbeat and like paddling as much as we do. There was one little "incident" where Italian led us down this really strange line that ended up with Foreman doing the most amazing high brace and me leaning on my low brace until I sank into the water but it was a great campfire story later that day and Italian was hilariously apologetic. All in all, it was a really wonderful weekend with great people and has completely solidified my belief that Foreman and I will continue to camp and paddle until we are old and grey (and still after that).

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Sometimes no matter how well you think you're doing you can get sidelined by insecurity. I went shopping yesterday because I don't have any "grown-up" clothes for school, especially spring clothes. I tried on some clothes at Old Navy which is usually a good store for me and it just wasn't working. Some of the clothes were too big others were too small but for some reason because the clothes didn't immediately fit I was devastated (I'm blaming this on being overly emotional due to hormones but still it's ridiculous).

I have always had a problem with my weight. I've had the typical issues that other girls have with hair and skin, etc. but that I feel is a little more "normal girl stuff" as opposed to my issues with weight that have been more dysfunctional. (aside: I got a new haircut that's making me more self-conscious but I'll get used to it). I'm not overweight, according to the Health Canada weight-for-height scales I'm on the high end of the normal weight ranges. I was a bit heavier when I was younger but still not that big. But for some reason I've always had issues with this. I came home from shoppig devastated and I get really disappointed in myself that it affects me that much. And then my feelins about this seep into how I feel about myself and all of my looks and my self-worth. Hence the mantra "I am a MENSA Supermodel" which was something I used to say to myself to make me feel better. I've gotten over my "body depression" but I'm still not happy with my body and it makes me sad that as feminist as I am it can bother me this much. Life Objective #352: Deal with my body dysmorphic disorder.

Starting OB/GYN

So today was my first day in obstetrics and gynecology and I really think I'm going to like this rotation. It was pretty apparent to the rest of my group too that this is definitely an area I'm passionate about. We talked about a lot of the things that I care about today: recto-vaginal fistulas, female genital mutilation and proper female pelvic exams. However, we had one lecture today that got under my skin. I tried to be as diplomatic as possible to this male gynecologist that had been practicing for 40 years but these things definitely irked me. He said that if a woman hasn't had sex she doesn't need a pelvic exam (and he meant sex with a man). He flat out said that nuns, celibate woman and lesbian women did not need to get pap smears. This upsets me on numerous levels - the major reason being that a woman needs her vagina "opened up" by a penis so that she can get adequate medical care. I know this is because HPV is sexually transmitted and the major cause of cervical cancer but still what if women share sex toys? And what if there's a huge uterine tumour that can be seen on pelvic exam? Or a sexually transmitted infection that can be seen in a pelvic? And when I asked about a lesbian's right to a proper pelvic the man looked at me like he hadn't even contemplated this idea.
The other thing that he said today was that HIV is not a notifiable disease. For those of you that don't know HIV has been a notifiable disease in Canada since 2000. This means doctors have to disclose if they've had a patient with this disease, their age and gender but not their name. This is a very important part of public health and doctors, regardless of number of years of practice, should know this.
So yeah, obstetrics and gynecology might be my path seeing as how I get this passionate about some of the issues in this specialty on the very first day.

Time for a Fresh Start

So I haven't updated on my old Diaryland diary in a while and I realized that I really wanted my own place to branch out and write things about my life here, medical school and married life, new friends and missing old ones. So I think it's a good time for me to do this. Life for me right now is ok. I just finished my pediatrics rotation and I am soooo happy to be done that. I love kids don't get me wrong but pediatrics has much less to do with loving kids and far more to do with dealing with shitty parents and medicating kids that don't need to be medicated. I could rant on and on about this but I won't because I'm done pediatrics and I should move on. This weekend is really nice because I'm in between rotations right now and so there's a little bit of down time. I get to relax and see my friends and do things other than work or study like clean and go to the gym and sleep in. Yay for real weekends when I'm not on call. I'll post more later but I just wanted to start my blog and I need to get the hang of how this thing works. In the meantime here's a picture of my hubby wearing a fantastic shirt that he got from a very dear friend of mine, Genetics. We have a "sisterhood of the traveling shirt" and our shirt says "Not Everything is Flat on the Prairie" and just so my hubby didn't feel left out she got him this shirt for his birthday which is awesome.