Food & Drinks, Locum, Motherhood

Local Leisure

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I’ve spent the last few weekends here in Eugene starting to explore what the city has to offer. We have several different people visiting us over the next months and my AuPair FINALLY arrives this coming Friday. Once she is here and has adjusted, we plan on exploring all sorts of things in Oregon. Knowing that our future weekends will be busy (and thankfully so!), I decided baby and I could spend a few weekends in Eugene. That feeling didn’t last longer than 3 weekends though seeing as we took a day trip to the coast yesterday because I needed a change of scenery.

Food

My local nanny (who is the bees knees, y’all, seriously) gave me a whole list of restaurants to try out. Since eating out is more fun in a group, I’ll try most of them when guests and my AuPair are here. Keeping in mind her and I try to eat mainly vegan, here are her suggestions with notes:

  • Peaceful Palette Food Truck: only open Spring-Fall
  • Bo&Vine: veggie burger & tots
  • Jazzy Ladies: farm fresh brunch
  • Govindas: fully vegan & gluten free
  • Glory Days: veggie-heavy breakfast
  • Wandering Goat: vegan biscuit & gravy and good coffee
  • Grower’s Market: bulk & organic co-op
  • Cornbread: cornbread, vegan chili
  • Vero Espresso: breakfast and lunch in a house with a porch and outdoor seating area

I’ve done a bit of exploring myself and have found a bakery that makes delicious croissants. Croissants are one of my favorite baked goods but I’ve been spoiled and fortunate to have eaten many french croissants, so I have high croissant standards. Noisette Pastry Kitchen is not too far from where we are staying so it makes for a nice walk to pick up some treats. Check out their instagram below. Delicious!

Activites

This is another category where I will have much more to report once I have guests and we check things out together. Baby and I have spent a good amount of time in the public library (also only a short walk away) and local playgrounds.

Cascades Raptor Center is a nature center and wildlife hospital open to the public year-round. We are home to nearly 40 resident education raptors, most native to the Pacific Northwest.

https://cascadesraptorcenter.org

Last weekend, we met up with the nanny and her family at the Cascades Raptor Center. Per their website:

All of the birds have signs posted with their origin story and information about their species. I’ll definitely have to do some more reading the next time I’m there. We witnessed a few feeding and were able to see some of the birds up close. The admission fee is $10 for adults ($9 students age13+ and seniors, $7 for ages 2-7), but it’s money well spent to help keep the place running and saving bird lives.

Local playground exploring

The glorious world of public libraries

I have always apprecitated the existence of public libraries. There is something sort of magical about them. I remember our small public library in Muscoda where I felt so grown up when I got my own library card. The public library in Poland, OH was a beautiful place to study for the board exam. In South Dakota, it was loacted only a block from my apartment and supplied me with the books I read written by or about the Lakota tribes of the area. Here in Eugene, it’s the place my mother took my child and met our local nanny! It is also a place we’ve been to several times now to explore their giant selection of children’s books.

Proud new member of REI

Considering the plethora of hiking trails in Oregon, I figured it was time to get a pair of hiking boots. With a baby on my back or chest, I want to make sure I’ve got a good grip. Furthermore, I also purchased a new baby carrier as my wrap isn’t as functional as I’d like it to be for hiking. I’ve recieved several hiking recommendations (many with waterfalls!) but a lot of them are located outside of Eugene and are on the list to explore with our AuPair/guests. There are however plenty of trails here in Eugene as well.

We checked out one of the trails around Spencer Butte. The trees are so tall here and covered in moss. I’m assuming thats because we are in a valley and there is often heavy fog that rolls through… or stays put for several days. Side note, my collegue told me the Eugen area is one of the worst for seasonal allergies. The pollen content is extremely high here.

Shopping

This is not a category I’ve explored extensively but I did find a few really cute shops the first weekend we stayed in town. Located between Charnleton & Olive Street and 5th & 6th Ave is a row of four adorable and fun shops. Down to Earth Home & Garden has a huge selection of kitchen ware, home decor and garden supplies. Pre-pandemic, they often had workshops there too, according to my medical support staff.

Across from that is Mountain Rose Herbs Mercantile, a store filled with herbs, spices, tea, coffee, lotions and potions. I bought Nurse-Me Rhyme loose-leaf tea and it is delicious. They also are a big supporter of the Raptor Center as evidenced by their logo on many of the signs on the aviaries.

Directly nextdoor, is Farmer’s Union Coffee Roasters. They sell specialty coffees from small co-ops and farmers around the world! The interior decor is light and fun. I enjoyed a decaf oat-milk honey and lavendar latte.

The final store in that lineup is Oak Street Vintage. It’s not just vinatge clothing they sell but also a large selection of cool furniture and decor. Check out their Insta pages for more!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CXewYJOvOx2/

I guess I should pause here for a second and just say that none of the links I’ve posted are sponsored in any way. These are just local places I’ve found and their instagrams do a heck of a lot better job showing what they do than any picture I could take. Additionally, I want anyone coming to the area to have a easy way of finding the places I mentioned. I promise to let you know if I ever get paid or free stuff for something I mention.

Svikki MD

Work is busy. From the moment I get there to the moment I leave, I am non-stop working. I work while I eat and I work while I pump. Between seeing patients, I hurry to finish up notes, refill medications, review labs/image/consults and answer messages. It’s never ending. My inbox usually was empty when I went home during residency. That is nearly impossible now. Some of the other clinics have a refill team that weeds thorugh their refill requests and if certain criteria is met, it gets refilled without needing to ask the provider. I don’t have that service due to staff shortages.

The panel of patients I cover is from a previous provider who worked here for 6 years and accumulated a panel of about 1200 patients. My inbox fluctuates between 20 to 100 tasks throughout the week. It’s usually more on Tuesdays when I first come into work. However, even with working off many of those as the days go on, more tasks come pouring it. I’ve come to terms with the fact that my inbox won’t be empty when I leave for the day and just have to do my best triaging the tasks.

I’ve seen a wide variety of patient presentations in the office and have performed a few procedures. My medical support staff is great! My roomer “scrubs” the charts the day before and makes notes on what the patients are coming in for, which preventative items need to be done, etc. She also knows many of the patients and can provide some context and backstory.

Solo working mom

As busy as I am at work, I’m equally as busy at home during the work week. This will lighten up once my AuPair is here. Currently, my workday mornings are either spent getting ready quickly and packing our bags before the baby wakes up or doing it all with a baby on my hip.

Depending on where the in-home daycare is that day (it varies between two locations) I pack up the car and we drive either 10 or 20 minutes to the daycare. I like to spend 5-10 minutes chatting with the other moms and saying hi to the kids. They adore my baby and my baby absolutely adores the time with the bunch. Then it’s off to work. I’ll usually fill this time listening to music and singing along loudly. As I mentioned previously, when I’m at work, I’m working non-stop.

Before my replacement parts came for my Willow pump (a breast pump that you tuck into your bra without cords), I was using a corded pump and would sit in an empty exam room and pump for 15 minutes twice a day while awkwardly trying to write notes without bumping off the bottles. Thank goodness I can now use my willow. I just pop them into my sports bra and write my notes looking like Pamela Anderson. I’ve even pumped while seeing patients if I don’t have a break. There is time blocked off on my schedule to pump but patient encounters rarely follow an exact schedule.

Once I get home, my baby gets dropped off by the nanny about 15 minutes later. I use that time to quickly unpack my lunch stuff and organize anything I can. Then its time to cook and eat dinner. Following that is our bedtime routine of brushing teeth, reading some books and nursing to sleep. There was a stretch of time where baby would want to stay up until 8 or 9. Luckily that has passed for the time being and baby is usually sleeping by 7. I spend the two hours I have before going to bed largely with cleaning up the kitchen, washing the dishes, the lunch containers and baby’s bottles, and essembling everything for the next day.

The four day work week goes fast because there is so much to do. I am so grateful for my three day weekend. Once my AuPair gets here, I’ll gain back quite a bit of time at home during the workweek. The commute to daycare will no longer be necessary and neither will the packing of baby’s bags. I do still want my baby to see the group of kids so there will be play dates.

I’m so excited for my AuPair to arrive in a few days and look forward to all the guests that will be coming to see us over the next several months! As before, any suggestions of things we should eat, see, or do, send them my way!

mfg

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Food & Drinks, Locum, Motherhood, Travel

Weekend Shenanigans

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Although I am spending this weekend exploring our immediate surroundings in Eugene, I spent the last two doing some traveling. We went to check out Portland with my uncle two weekends ago. Last weekend, we headed to the coast with my mom. I can’t wait for my AuPair to get here so we can start planning all our weekend trips!

Portland

In my head, Portland was going to be this green oasis brimming with bike paths and eclectic people roaming the streets. To be fair, visiting a city in January is hardly ever the time to see a city at its best. Throw in an ongoing pandemic and things look a bit different than you might expect.

We booked a hotel downtown, thinking we would be close to all the action that way. After checking in, we walked directly to the one farmer’s market that was open (again, it’s winter). The walk there was not exciting. However, the Farmer’s Market was a rather decent size and had some delicious things. We grabbed a breakfast burrito, apple cider, and some really yummy, single-source chocolate.

After that, we made our way back towards downtown. While doing so, we passed a lot of empty storefronts and even more tents at seemingly every corner. We stopped at a few coffee shops along the way. While looking at GoogleMaps, we realized that an area northwest of downtown seemed to be rather busy. After a bit of research, we learned that 23rd Ave was lined with shops and restaurants. So, we walked there to see if it was a bit more happening than downtown was.

23rd Ave definitely had more going on. We saw quite a few of the eclectic people I thought might be running around. There were some delicious-looking restaurants but it was still too early for dinner. So instead, we decided to walk back towards downtown and check out Old China Town. Maybe we just weren’t on the right streets, but we basically found nothing interesting in Old China Town. For dinner, we decided my uncle needed a good ole American burger before heading back to Germany and ate at Deschutes Brewery.

Day 2

After a fast and pretty decent breakfast at Cheryl’s on 12th, we took a walk along the Willamette River. I’m sure it is even nicer in the spring or summer when the trees are full of foliage and the temperature is warmer. Before heading back to Eugene, we spent a couple of hours at the Oregon Zoo. It is one of the more beautifully laid out zoos I’ve visited. At times, you feel like you are taking a walk through the woods. We didn’t see as many animals as I had hoped. Perhaps that was due to it being winter. The walk through the zoo itself was already worth our time though.

Someone slept through most of the zoo visit

In the end, Portland didn’t wow us as much as we thought it might. I’m not giving up on it wowing me in the future though. I’m hopeful that with warmer weather, flourishing flora and fauna, reduced pandemic restrictions, and a bit more research, Portland will be more like the Portland I imagined.

Oregon Coast

Last weekend, we headed to the coast with my mother. A little over an hour’s drive due west of Eugene lies Florence. It is a small coastal town with a population of just over 9,000 people. There is a road along the Siuslaw river known as the historic Downtown. The streets are lined with shops, cafes, and restaurants. I immediately felt like I was on vacation when I saw a store selling Salt Water Taffy. For some reason, likely my childhood, I associate that with vacation.

We grabbed some hot drinks at Magnolia Bakery and walked along the historic Downtown road. We stopped to check out a few galleries with local artists before taking a nursing break at the harbor. I grabbed a bagel at River Roasters to eat while we drove to the beach. I’ll have to return to River Roasters sometime though. It was a comfy coffee shop with a fireplace and a back porch overlooking the river.

Hello Ocean!

A quick 10-minute drive from downtown Florence got us to the beach! Getting to the beach was a bit of a workout. First, you had to climb up a dune. Then, once at the top, if you wanted to get to the ocean, you had to maneuver down a steep dune side of sand. After taking in the beautiful view from on top of the dune, I took the baby to go see the ocean up close.

For a while, we were the only two people on that stretch of beach. My baby had never played with sand before and had a blast! We took a walk along the beach and looked for an intact shell. I can’t wait for the weather to warm up a bit to spend the whole day on the beach.

After a good while soaking in the beach views, we headed north up the coast.

Hello Sealions!

The drive along the coastal 101 Highway is very scenic. Every couple miles, there is a sign that reads, “Entering Tsunami Hazard Zone”. The day prior, there had actually been a tsunami wave weather warning due to the underwater volcano that erupted near Tongo. Lucky for us, the warning was over and the sun was shining. This led to some great views.

We stopped along the way to see the Heceta Lighthouse from afar. Little did we know, when we looked down from the cliff, we looked right onto the sealion gathering spot. There were so many of them! They even seemed to have their own little ocean pool.

Our intention was to see the Heceta lighthouse up close as well but when we tried driving there, we realized you actually had to walk a bit to get there. My mother had hurt her foot the day prior, so we decided to skip that part.

At this point, we were hungry for a real meal. Another 20 minutes north, in a town called Yachats, we went to the first place we saw, called Ona. It was very delicious and a co-worker later told me, it’s one of his favorites in that town. So that worked out well.

The last stop was for some ice cream before we embarked on our 1h50 drive home.

The Wishlist

I am making a list of all the recommendations people have been giving me. My AuPair should get here mid-February and I am so excited to spend our 3-day weekends exploring Oregon!

Svikki MD

Work has been going really well. They still had me on a lighter patient schedule these past few weeks. And gee was it necessary! I am getting better at using their electronic medical record system but still feel like I’m not as efficient as I could be.

The patients, for the most part, have been kind. Some are more complicated than others. Some are very complicated. I try to compartmentalize and prioritize, knowing I won’t be able to help fix all their problems in one office visit.

They also closed the previous locum’s in-basket of tasks the other week and all the unfinished tasks, labs, and medication refills dumped into my in-basket. All of a sudden I had nearly 100 tasks to complete. I was quite overwhelmed by this since I tend to have my in-basket cleared before the end of the day. I spent a few hours over last weekend in the office working on tasks. It wasn’t until two days ago, however, that I officially got through it all. Naturally, new things started coming in but 7 tasks aren’t as terrifying as 100.

It takes a village

The first week at work, my uncle was in town watching my baby. The second week, my mom was here to babysit. I had signed up for care.com and messaged about 20 people to see if they’d be interested in babysitting while I am at work and await the arrival of my AuPair. Only two got back to me saying they’d be interested. For many others, our schedules didn’t align. I was starting to get nervous.

The Universe (and my mother) had my back

My mother took the baby to the library the first day they were together. There, my mother observed a woman walk in with a few toddlers and a baby strapped to her back. My mom was impressed by how this woman interacted with the kids. The woman overheard my mother speaking German and struck up a conversation. She told my mother that she had spent an exchange year in Germany (in nearly flawless German pronounciation). My mother then proceeded to tell her of my current childcare situation. The woman said I should give her a call and that she could probably help us out.

I called her that evening. She was amazing. She agreed to add my baby to her cohort of kiddos. They spend their days between the homes of the two families whose kids she watches. One is in the city and the other is out in the country. She stopped by with her two kids last Monday for a face-to-face meeting. Our babies loved each other. I knew my baby would thrive being around this woman and her kids. She is so creative. Her parents were actors and she grew up around the theater. She has puppets to help the kid communicate their feelings, plays instruments, and works on sign language with them. I really hit the jackpot here.

Hopefully, play dates can continue to happen once my AupPair gets here too. The local nanny also gave me a huge list of restaurants to check out. Seriously, she rocks.

mfg

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Food & Drinks, Happiness, Locum

Chubby Chipmunks and Busy Bison

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Hello beautiful people! I know I’ve sort of been on a bi-weekly schedule with posting but it’s been sort of busier at the hospital lately and I had two friends visiting from Wisconsin last weekend.

Svikki MD

So, after a few weeks of a fairly consistent patient census, there was finally some turn over on my list. I family-medicined (we will pretend that’s an actual verb) the heck out of them. Since many were waiting on placement, they didn’t have acute medical issues. This gave me the opportunity to adjust their medications so that their diabetes, hypertension, etc. were wonderfully controlled before they left my care. Once that was all achieved, however, I was ready for some new challenges. I got what I wished for!

A few patients currently are either badly controlled diabetics or hypertensive patients or ones where there are still big question marks in their medical picture for me… I spent a combined 6 hours chart diving on one of the patients this weekend. There are just unanswered questions and the patient is miserable… I’m channeling my inner Dr. House to try to figure out what is going on sans the narcotic addiction and callous attitude.

I’m really enjoying the close work on the floor with the nurses. I try to keep them in the loop at all times and explain why I am doing what I’m doing. It seems to be resonating well with them. This set up also allows me to take a lot more time with each of the patients and keep them educated and informed about what I am doing.

I’ve only ever been a patient myself once when I badly sprained my ankle. For that, I was only in the emergency room, not even an admitted patient. I can only imagine what it feels like to feel so little autonomy while in the hospital as a patient. Thus, I try to involve my patients in my decisions so they know what’s going on and can give their input. I realize this might be easier for me to do with a max census of 10 patients in a critical access hospital, but I think it is so important to try to do this well.

It resembles Veggie Straws!

As I said, I had two friends visiting from Wisconsin last weekend. They have been super conscious about COVID and frequently get tested so I felt it was a reasonable risk to take having them come visit. The county they live in is pretty strict with COVID regulations. It was a bit of a shock to them as soon as they crossed into South Dakota and stopped at a gas station to find that they were (unfortunately) the only ones wearing masks.

Since I still don’t trust doing anything here that involves being around other people, we headed over to Wyoming the first day to check out Devils Tower.

Located only an hour drive from Spearfish, Devils Tower is a large geologic feature that juts up from the earth surrounded by prairie. It is a sacred structure to Northern Plains Native Americans. It’s apparently one of the most famous rock climbing destinations in Northern America. Much of its origin is agreed on but there are still aspects up for debate in the scientific community. It is formed from rare igneous rock and is the largest example of columnar jointing in the world!

We walked the trail around the base of the structure. Along the way, we hypothesized about its formation, the wildlife, and the surrounding area. The comical thing was that after posing a question, a posted sign along the way would answer the question we had just posed. At some point we made it a game to guess what the next sign would tell us.

Where are the bison at?!?

We did a quick pit stop in Deadwood on our second day so that I could show them the historical downtown main street. I had bought them some local chocolate truffles as a welcome gift and they enjoyed them so much, we stopped by the store for them to buy a stash to take home. The place is called Chubby Chipmunk. I was gifted a few truffles upon my arrival at the hospital. They proudly told me that these truffles have been featured in the gift bags at the Academy Awards! They are really good chocolate truffles and look so pretty!

Check out all their yummy truffles here!

After their chocolate shopping spree, we headed to Custer State Park. The road took us past Crazy Horse Memorial. I stopped and gave them the cliff notes version of its history and purpose. I was so excited to show them Custer State Park. After the amazing time my friend and I had there in November, I felt this was the perfect South Dakota location to take them. The Wildlife loop was a bit of a misnomer this time. Not…a…single…bison!! Not ONE! And let’s be honest, that is the number one animal you want to see. The white-tailed deer may have entertained my friend from Miami, but these Wisconsinites didn’t care about seeing deer.

Luckily, after more than half the drive, we came upon the herd of formerly domesticated donkeys! This time, we got out of the car and hung out with the herd a bit. They were more interested in my car as a salt block and promptly got to work licking it all over.

That was basically all the wildlife we saw… donkeys and deer. Not exactly what I had in mind but they enjoyed the pretty landscape nonetheless.

Veggie Vikki

I have been a vegetarian since I’ve been 9-years-old. Granted, my parents weren’t thrilled at first. I was held hostage at the dinner table until I had a bite of chicken. Luckily, that didn’t last long. People are often intrigued as to why I’m a vegetarian. What about all the delicious burgers, steaks, etc out there?!

I’ve never craved meat. As a 9-year-old, the treatment of the animals was a big factor (and still is). My favorite animal growing up was a pig! I collected about 100 stuffed animal pigs…that didn’t make bacon enticing to me. A few years later, I started getting really interested in the environment. I changed things in my day-to-day to be more eco-friendly. Learning about how many resources a pound of beef uses was mind-blowing. A few years after that, learning about how meat can negatively impact your health just continued to underscore my decision. I’ve never missed it and never craved it.

The transition

A bit over a year ago, I finally made the switch to be as vegan as possible. I don’t like labels. I understand why humans use them, they organize the world around us without getting caught up in details. However, I am still not a fan. I think it’s best to live a life that is kind to your body (you only have one unless you believe in reincarnation) and the world around you as much as possible.

A per-definition vegan would not eat honey since it’s an animal product. However, I still consume honey. I believe in its medicinal benefits besides it just being my preferred sweetener in tea. I will also have the occasional sweet treat which is not always truly vegan. But other than that, I have cut out all dairy products and only eat eggs rarely. If I do, only if they are from happy chickens (pasture-raised and preferably from a farmer I know). My justification there is that chickens lay eggs regardless. If they are living happy pasture lives, my impact is minimal on their lives. (I’m sure there are vegans out there that would disagree with me, and that’s ok. Again, that’s why I’m not a fan of the label.)

Being a vegetarian and traveling has never been easy, but I’ve never starved. I will get full off of sides any day. India was truly the nicest place to travel as a vegetarian. Trying to be vegan definitely ups the ante when trying to find meals outside of the own home.

Dinner time!

The thing I started doing during residency occasionally (on a resident salary) and have increased to fairly consistently now, is using Purple Carrot. Like many meal prep delivery services out there, you pick your meals and all the pre-portioned ingredients are delivered to you. No food waste! Dinner was my favorite part of the day during residency. My then-roommate and I would cook together every night and enjoy a freaking delicious meal together. Now that I am alone in SD, the meals are both dinner and the next day’s lunch! I still enjoy the process of cooking. Last week I made this eggplant Florentine with tofu ricotta and chickpea pasta…delicious!

My intention is not to try to convert anyone to veganism. I’m aware vegans have a bad rep for that. But maybe, take some time to analyze what nutrients (or lack thereof) you are putting into your body. Food is medicine. Your body can only be as healthy as the food you give it to run on. Also, if you don’t know how many resources a pound of beef or a gallon of milk uses and how that impacts the environment, do a quick internet search. Even just reducing the amount of meat you eat or dairy you consume by a little will do your body, the animals, and the environment real good.

I’ll continue to share little aspects of how I try to live a healthier, more eco-friendly life. It’s never meant as a sermon or me wanting you to feel bad about choices you make. I just truly believe many people don’t contemplate the impact their food choices have on themselves and the world. I come from a place of genuine concern for peoples health and the health of our planet. Please don’t hesitate to ask questions if you have them or share the ways you are making your diet better! I’d love to hear what you’re doing!

mfg

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