Charleston drivers- beware!

Taylor is a proud owner of a South Carolina learners permit as of 11/21/11 at 4:15 pm.

This means:

1) Taylor can drive 6 a.m.-midnight with any licensed driver 21 years or older accompanying her in the front passenger seat.

2) Taylor must practice a minimum of 40 hours while holding your permit, with 10 of those hours being driven at night. This practice time counts only when she is being supervised by your parent or legal guardian.

3) Taylor must keep her permit for at least 180 days before applying for a regular driver's license.

What this means for me (and the rest of charleston drivers):

1) We are getting OLD- i can't believe my little girl is driving!

2) I am going to invest in a football helmet and padding, especially for my neck because she breaks so hard

3) For Charleston drivers- WATCH OUT for the blue Mazda Tribute driving down the road with a red headed teenager driving and a passenger wearing a football helmet...and possibly screaming....and praying at the same time!

My daughter, the reader

I love that my daugher reads.
Especially since the only thing i read now are:
1) pulmonary books,
2) trashy magazines, and
3) recipes.
*not a great example

Anyway, this past weekend (before the clumsy bump and subsequent CT scan), my daugher asked if we could take her downtown to King Street so that she could get some books signed and get extra credit for her creative writing grade. I didn't even care what it was- extra credit is always good.

So Saturday afternoon, we took a trip to downtown Charleston, so that Taylor could attend "YALLFest." YALL as in Young Adult Literature (plus an L), hosted by Blue Bicycle Books, which hosted about 20 authors who write teen novels. And let me tell you- it appeared to be a sucess- and it was all because of books! There were hundred of teens roaming the street, listening to talks by the authors, and then going to book signings.

To read more about it, go here:
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/yallfest-brings-the-yas-out-in-force/Content?oid=3643838


AND....check out the picture of my famous daughter! Her picture is in the paper! WHOO HOO!

ps- all those books in her hands- they got signed- plus the 4 others in her purse! i love that she loves to read!!!

My brain is ok

I am not a hypochondriac and i do NOT like going to the doctor, let alone the ER.
This comes from me, the girl who never thought she had a disease in med school, and the girl who rarely goes to the doctor unless i think i am dying.

Well, this morning, i thought i was dying....or at least had something wrong with my head.
So last night while trying to get my super cute new boots on, i bent down to fiddle with the zipper and came up quickly and *BAM*- i hit the top of my head on an open dresser drawer. It hit pretty close to my shunt (yes, i have a shunt- it feels weird and i always warn my hairstylist when she washes my hair so it doesn't gross her out) and it hurt A LOT! I took ibuprofen, pouted a bit, and then went on with my evening.

I had a headache when i went to bed but took my usual 1 gram of ibuprofen and hoped it would go away. I was wrong. This morning my headache was worse, i was nauseated, and had blurred vision. I took more advil, ate breakfast and had to get ready for work (i was on call today starting at 7 am). But the advil didn't help and i felt worse as i was getting ready.....and it made me nervous. AND my head had been bleeding- not a lot but there was blood and that is never good. I have been slack in the past about getting my shunt looked at (suppose to get a MRI once a year) but hitting my head could mean bad things. In my mind my headache, nausea, and blurred vision either meant:

1) the shunt stopped working because of the hit or
2) a hematoma (collection of blood) in my brain that was making me feel bad

So, i did what any normal person would do after taking 2 grams of ibuprofen and still had a headache, nausea and blurred vision- i went to the ER and made them do a CT scan of my brain.
:)
Now, the very very nice ER attending agreed that it was a good idea to do it- better to be safe than sorry- and a CT scan would show blood and if the shunt was working.

Well guess what?

My head CT is normal.

This is my actual brain- and the big white thing in the center is my shunt- working very well thank you. And there is no blood. And my brain is normal (much to the argument of my brother and co-worker). And then i felt like a fool. A big hypochondriac fool.

I still have a headache- despite more medications. And i still feel nauseated (no, i am not pregnant). But i think i am going to feel even more sick when i get the bill from the ER.....

thigns i have learned in 7 days

The past 7 days have been a whirlwind of results/emotions/tears/laughter/FEELINGS.

This just touches briefly on what i have learned:

1) Laugh- things will still be funny.

Especially Jimmy Kimmel's "I told my kids that i ate all their halloween candy."

http://youtu.be/_YQpbzQ6gzs


2) Be thankful for your family, friends, and loved ones. Tell them how thankful you are for them.


3) Be thankful for your health. Just within the past month.......

-Giuliana Rancic (E! host and reality show darling) at age 37 was diagnosed with breast cancer
-Heavy D (rapper, all around bad ass) at age 44 died
-Ethan Zohn, age 38 (famous for Survivor, which i never watch) has recurrent Hodgkin's lymphoma


4) Life. Goes. On.
Need i say more?


Hope everyone has a good wednesday!

Happy 15th Birthday Taylor!!

Happy Birthday to my daughter, Taylor!
She is 15 today- wow! The year has flown by. Here is a few pics of the past year.


Taylor and Cali- Nov 6, 2010 (yes, one year ago today)

Cousins always ruin the pics (lol)........Dec 2010

Another hair color change......summer 2011

Taylor with her 1st Lambert cousin- Ava Ray

Another hair color change- Oct 2011

Nov 2011- Coastal Carolina Fair

Nov 5, 2011- Pre Birthday dinner at Quyen

I am so blessed to have such a beautiful, wonderful, talented, and sweet daughter. I thank God every day for her! And i can't believe she is going to get her learners permit tomorow- WATCH OUT CHARLESTON!!!!

The good, the bad, and the A-mazing food in Hawaii

The good

1) Pho in Chinatown, downown Honolulu

B enjoying it while watching football (saturday football at 5 pm in Hawaii was 11 pm in SC)

The bad

2) Mini burgers and nachos at Cheeseburger Wakiki

TOO EXPENSIVE AND TOO SMALL OF PORTIONS

It was our 1st meal in Hawaii- we were jet lagged and it was NOT a good experience. We ate and went to bed.

The A-mazing

3) Spam sushi

Also known as Spam musubi

We got ours at a sushi restaurant, but you can also find it at the local 7-elevens in Hawaii!

Also, our president, Obama, is a fan of this type of "sushi."

4) Japanese Fighting Fish- fried and served whole
We ate at a Thai food restaurant across from the Hilton hotel. It was visited by the Travel Channel's Anthony Bourdain. And this fish was its signature dish.

Obviously it was good.

:)

5) Helena's Hawaiian food-

We watched Man V Food on the travel channel and Adam went here and had an amazing meal. We decided to eat there our last day before heading to the airport to try "original" Hawaiian food

This is Laulau-

Basically, you take the fattiest chunk of pig-butt and butterfish that you can find, salt both of ‘em , and then wrap it all in taro leaves and place it in an underground oven. A few hours later the laulau is ready to eat.

So delish!!!

So yes, we had good, bad, and A-mazing food in Hawaii. B says that Helena's was the best part of the trip for him.

More blogging about the trip later.

The reason behind the trip.....

......i actually had to work! Yes, i went to hawaii to WORK, LEARN, AND PRESENT!
And of course have fun!


So over the past 9 months, i have been working on Pulmonary research looking at sepsis mortality in the ICU and health disparities in South Carolina. And there are 2 large pulmonary conferences each year that our faculty likes for us to attend- so when i heard the ACCP 2011 meeting was in Honolulu, i said "sign me up!"

I spent 6 days and 5 nights in Honolulu at the CHEST convention (yea!). I was able to attend a Fellow's Conference that gave us lectures and then hands on simulation (see video below), i heard lectures from other fellows, and of course, i got to present my research in poster form.

Here in the Conference Center-


Here is a pic of me from CBS news Hawaii- i'm learning critical care ultrasound techniques




And here is my poster!

Oh- and then remember how i said i was on the news?!?!? Well, here is the link. I had NO IDEA they were filming me- i was actually in "learning mode" because i don't know much about critical care ultrasound. So cool!!!

Chest doctors converge in first Hawaii convention - Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL Home