Oh...hello there.

Well as many of you may have heard, my car was stolen last Tuesday.  It was sitting right in front of my house, locked, and luckily nothing of importance inside.  Thank God for great insurance! I'm driving a rental right now-they set me up with a bright red 2011 Chevy Impala-I'm not complaining:)

This weekend was Oktoberfest in the STL!  Emily, Abbey, Emily's sister and I went to check it out on Sunday.  Here's what we found:

• 14 bands including my favorite-Polka Floyd.  They are a Pink Floyd cover band with a polka twist.  They really were pretty amazing.  
• 2,000 kegs.  Yep.
• A lot of girls wearing VERY traditional German attire.   See picture below. 

Emily and her sis dancing to Polka Floyd

Welcome, Fall !!!

My medicine rotation went swimmingly...I learned a whole heck-of-a-lot!  I was able to watch a colonoscopy which was interesting.  The most interesting part is that the Gastroenterologist was a resident and this was only the 2nd colonoscopy he'd ever done.  That being said, the procedure lasted 2 hours and the patient was groaning in pain the entire time.  They kept reassuring me that the patient would not remember the procedure.

Lesson Learned: Make sure your doctor is NOT  a newbie.  I'm not joking.

I'm not heading into my second week of my Geriatrics rotation.  I'm working with a population mostly in rehab for amputations or for post-surgical rehab.  It's very different than the acute setting. These patients are here for up to 6 months and there's a TON of paperwork involved in their care planning.

In more exciting news...

Last weekend I met up with Levi in Kansas City.  We met up with my cousin Ruth and Chelsea Heidtbrink to watch the game.  It was nice to get to hang out for the weekend.  We went to a Husker watch site in K.C. to watch the game-made me feel at home:)

This weekend we went apple and eggplant picking at Braeutigam's Orchard in Belleville, Illinois...I used the eggplant to make a vegan eggplant casserole:

I filled a casserole dish with whole wheat rotini pasta noodles, 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce, 2 diced eggplant, 1 diced onion, 3 cloves diced garlic and topped it with vegan cheese shreds and toasted breadcrumbs.  Deeeeelicious!

I promise I will find something more entertaining to blog about soon...Have a wonderful week :)

Zookeeper Jayne

My Zoo Adventure:

Yesterday I volunteered at the St. Louis Zoo with the Children's hospital and hung out next to this guy all day:

He's a charming young man-a 17 year old Sumatran orangutan named Robbie.  I got to stand next to him (glass between us, of course) and talk to kids about fruits and vegetables.  Robbie's diet is primarily vegetarian and he eats a lot of fruits and veggies so it was an easy way to get kids excited/talking about their favorite fruits and vegetables.  One kid told me his favorite vegetable was his sister.  Kids say the darndest things.  Fun day!

In other news...

Grace came to visit me over labor day weekend and she brought along a little surprise....LEVI! I had no idea he was coming.  Grace got to my house around 3:30am and asked if I could help her unload her car.  

Half asleep I agreed and walked over to the car.  Upon opening the door I detected a map that appeared slightly out of place.  I lifted up the map to find LEVI huddled up underneath with a giant smile on his face.  It was a great surprise!  

We went to the Japanese festival at the Botanical Gardens while they were here-it was beautiful and very interesting...sumo wrestlers and people dressed in anime attire.  

Giant Sumo Man

Floating Glass Art

Stretch the Sumo!

Internship update:

I'm done with my outpatient counseling and diabetes rotation! 3 very interesting weeks.  I actually feel much smarter now so I can be happy about that.  My next rotation is the Medical Intensive Care Unit rotation where I'll be working in an acute care setting with patients who have pancreatitis, liver disease & diseases of the GI tract and contributing my "expert" opinion of the appropriate nutrition and diet interventions.  


I get to watch several procedures which will be cool- a colonoscopy, endoscopy, and possibly even removal of part of the colon or small intestine.  I am praying that I don't pass out.  I'll keep you all posted:)

Update!

Allow me to describe my first week of rotations...

My first rotation is 3 weeks long (1.5 to go) and is based in Outpatient Counseling and Diabetes.  I work in two outpatient clinics at the JC (John Cochran Hospital) location.  In one clinic, I do diabetes counseling and in the other clinic I see patients for a variety of ailments including (but not limited to): weight loss, weight gain, malnutrition, High blood pressure, high triglycerides, high cholesterol, Gastroesophageal reflux disease (aka GERD).  The most eye opening experiences have been working with the diabetes patients and the patients who are underweight due to psychological reasons and HIV.

Before this rotation here were my thoughts: 

"diabetes should be pretty simple to figure out."

"I think i'll like counseling." 

"I hope I like working with the veterans."

Here are some of my thoughts (and actions) throughout the rotation thus far:

"I hate counseling"

"I want to go home"

"can I go back to bed?!"

"I didn't learn crap about diabetes in undergrad...what am I doing?!"

evolving to...

*crying

*anxiety

evolving further into:

"I'm starting to understand this diabetes stuff."

*enjoying the challenges of the learning process

*being OK with not knowing everything-that's why I'm here.

"I loooove the veterans!"

"Life is good."

A roller-coaster to say the least.  I felt so inadequate at first but my confidence has soared in the past 2 day.  A huge benefit to this job is that the mood at the hospital is always incredibly positive! I'm so amazed at how friendly and helpful everyone is-and the vets are no exception.  The veterans are absolutely wonderful and just being in their presence puts me in a better mood.  So far in outpatient they have been nothing but gracious, kind, and complimentary (really good for my ego).

Last Friday night we had a party at our house for all the interns (current and past SLU interns included).  We had over 50 people in our house- 4 were men.  It was a blast.

The festival of nations was also this weekend in the park by my house-tons of international food, entertainment and stuff to buy...here are some pics:)

Above: A whole lotta food booths and people

Farmer Jayne

Today I was an organic farmer...OK maybe "weed puller" is a more accurate label.  Nonetheless, I had a great time and was really amazed at the commitment and the knowledge it takes to run a successful organic farm.

Earth Dance Organic Farm employs techniques like companion planting-meaning they plant certain crops next to other insect prone crops in order to deter pests.  An example of this would be planting fragrant basil next to tomatoes in order to protect them.  They also manually walk the rows of plants, pick off the beetles and other pests and squash them on the spot.  Pest control at its most primitive.

Earth dance Organic Farm Website

Grow Organic Website

Here are some photos of the experience:

Tomorrow I start my actual rotations-There is so much to learn!

"High-tech tomatoes.  Mysterious milk.  Supersquash.  Are we supposed to eat this stuff?  Or is it going to eat us?"

 ~Annita Manning

During my internship, i'll be at several locations but mostly spending my time between two hospitals: Jefferson Barracks VA hospital and John Cochran VA hospital.  

Jefferson Barracks (JB) history: click here !

A view of JB with the river in the background.

The Barracks has a lovely (and huge!) cemetery which contains about 20,000 gravesites! It's really amazing to see.  Reminds me of Arlington National Cemetery.

It's very common to see deer at JB-They walk around the cemetery and eat the grass and flowers.  They are NOT afraid of people at all.  Very cool!

John Cochran, also known as "JC," is closer to downtown St. Louis-right next to the fabulous Fox Theater!

John Cochran VA medical center

I'm official as of today! I got my badge, pager (haha!), and keys to the hospital offices.  I can't wait until I get my first page...

Happenings.

Below: Friday afternoon shopping at Soulard Farmers market.  It's my favorite place in St. Louis so far- I got 2 packages of strawberries for $1.00 from a sweet little old man.  

Also, today (Saturday) I went with my roommate Amber to a church called "The Journey" that's just across the park from our place.  It was a great service except for the communion part.  Apparently, in true Jayne fashion, I wasn't paying attention to their way of doing things.  So I went up, got my bread and proceeded to grab the communion cup and tip it to my mouth (just like we do at home!).  The guy holding the cup seemed a bit resistant and I was embarrassed to notice (after I had already tainted the cup with my chapstick and germs) that people were dipping the bread into the cup-not drinking from it.  GOOPS!  I got some looks.  I laughed.

Above: Cloudy view from our dinner spot in the backyard

Below: Amber (roommate) and Matt ready to enjoy some dinner