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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Locum

Thank u, next.

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Unlike Ariana Grande, I’m not referring to men. The past two weeks have been rather uneventful. It all seemed rather routine… which is also why I’m starting to itch for a change of scenery.

Svikki MD

My patient census number has grown a bit over the past two weeks. There was a steady turnover of patients, nothing too stressful. There were definitely some characters in the mix but for the most part, the patient panel was nice. I was out on time most of the days. A few evenings, I stayed late helping out in the clinic.

Weight-based everything

I had my first pediatric admission this past Friday. I had gone over to the clinic around 3 PM to help the nurse practitioner with a patient. Then, there were a couple of late walk-ins so I offered to see them. That kept me busy until about 6 PM. On my way back to my hospital office, I ran into one of the nurses. She was telling me that they might have an admission. I inquired what the case was and she told me it was a child. My follow-up question was who the physician on-call was. It was one of the internists. I told her they probably wouldn’t be allowed to admit, Internal medicine takes care of patients 18+ years of age. Family medicine sees all ages.

I made a call to the regional president to ensure that I had pediatric admission privileges. Turns out, I do. So then, I had to make sure I had nurses that felt comfortable with a pediatric patient. Once that was all in place, I went and assessed the patient for myself. The orders took a while to enter because medications and IV fluids for pediatric patients are weight-based. Since I don’t admit pediatric patients often, I double-checked every order.

By the time this was all done, it was 8 PM. I drove home to eat some dinner (Girl Scout cookies are not an appropriate dinner… that’s all I had around in the hospital). The admission History and Physical note was submitted at 10 PM and I was spent.

The late evening Friday acute care admission also won me a weekend of rounding. Luckily, kiddos are usually pretty quick to turn around and the patient was ready to go home by Saturday afternoon. That spared me a trip to the hospital today.

Change of Scenery

I’ve been on this assignment in South Dakota for 5 months now, I have one more to go. A workflow is in place and I know most people at the hospital and all the people in the clinic. The work environment is lovely and my co-workers make my job enjoyable. So, now I feel like I’m ready for a change.

I don’t know how much the pandemic plays into this itch for something new. If life was like the “before times”, I would probably be visiting the local movie theater every weekend (one of my favorite activities during residency besides horseback riding). However, I’m not a bargoer and I hardly eat out, so that wouldn’t be any different. Maybe I’d visit a few more of the local museums and attractions if it weren’t for the pandemic.

The major difference in activities would be traveling. If I could take a trip once or twice a month somewhere, I probably wouldn’t be antsy. With the pandemic and (necessary) restrictions currently still in place, that’s not the most feasible option.

Moving forward, assignments that are 4-6 months will probably be ideal depending on workload and where they are. I’m really trying to go to Hawaii for locums and am willing to go there for a year. People have warned me of island fever, and maybe I’ll regret my current stance, but there are many islands to keep me occupied. I’m willing to take that risk 😉

One thing I love: Sunny days after snowfall. We hardly had any snow on the ground last week and then overnight, several inches of snow came down. However, it’s sunny and lovely out today! I’ve already been on a walk.

One thing I ate: Samoas and Tagalong Girl Scout cookies. As a former Girl Scout, I had to support the cause… and my occasional sweet tooth.

One thing I’m grateful for: Books. I feel there is such a slump in interesting shows to watch. Not that there is a lack of content, just a lack of content that interests me. I bought Bill Gate’s new book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster yesterday and look forward to having it on rotation with my medical and finance books!

mfg

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Herstory, Locum

Scenic views, Svikki’s origin, & the scariest Halloween

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I just got back from a 3.5-mile hike in the Black Hills. The weather did an about-face over the past week and there was a high of 60 degrees Fahrenheit today with a beautiful sunny sky. I wasn’t going to let that opportunity pass by. I didn’t see another human being the whole time I was out there. It was just me, the forest and the wind. At one point, I caught myself singing “Colors of the Wind”.

Svikki MD

The other Family doc was out of the office this week. They have been in the area for decades and have a well-established panel of patients. I was on call four times last week. Between covering the other doc’s messages and prescription refills while on call and having quite a few of their patients stop by for same-day appointments, I was pretty busy last week.

Clinic

I am currently still seeing mainly same-day appointments as patients are establishing care with one of the other providers when able. It’s only fair to the patient, I’m only around for 5 more months. The same day appointments have led to some pretty interesting cases. I’ve called up other specialists more than once last week. Although our clinic only has Family Medicine and Internal Medicine physicians, I can find most other specialists either in Spearfish (20 min drive) or in Rapid City (50 min drive).

My instinct to call the specialists turned out to be right every time. Sometimes, I feel doctors are afraid to ask for help because they think they should know how to manage it themselves. I see no shame in consulting a colleague who has more expertise on a subject… at the end of the day, it’s best for my patient’s care and my ego can take it.

Hospital

I took over several of the other doc’s admitted patients while they were on vacation. Consequently, I had a different swing bed patient to check in on every day. My second to last clinic patient on Friday ended up needing admission. That bought me my second weekend in a row going in on the weekend days as well for acute care visits.

On call

There were a lot of call shifts last week. Two docs were out of the office which left me and one of the internists to cover the call schedule. Luckily, the nights were quiet. During the day, however, I was covering calls, prescription refills, and patient messages which kept me busy between clinic visits.

So why Svikki?

I wanted to use this week’s post to explain why my site is called Svikki. Most people know me as Viktoria or Viky or Vik. Only a few people call me Svikki…well, really, it is only my aunt and uncle that do. I have used the name for my social media handles ever since it’s creation though. My aunt is the one who came up with it many, many years ago.

My aunt is a master of fabric crafts. Her quilts are prized possessions in our family. Her basement has a room filled with fabrics, a fancy sewing machine, and colorful creations on the walls. One of my favorite things to do when visiting is hanging out in that room with her. She had fabric tags made for me that say “Svikki” on them so that I can sew them into the things I make. If only I wasn’t hundreds of miles away from my stored things, I’d be able to show you what they look like.

I’ve also used “Svikki” in art work I’ve made for my aunt. For example, this painting I made based on a 1950’s Zwicky Ad. I replaced the cat in the Ad with one of my aunt’s favorite cats she’s had, Pauli. He was a pretty cool cat.

Happy Halloween

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I’ve always been in awe of the annual parties Heidi Klum would throw. When I moved to Germany for medical school, I started hosting Halloween parties of my own. Halloween really wasn’t that big in Germany. It came as no surprise to me that for the first year, I saw a lot of your classics: witches, mummies, ghosts. The people kept on raising the bar year after year though and there were some really impressive costumes over the years.

I would start grocery shopping a week in advance of the party because I would bake so many Halloween themed treats. I’d decorate the apartment for days. Every year was unique and so much fun. Each year the party grew in size and popularity. I love hosting parties and seeing others get invested in the holiday brought me so much joy.

Working in Miami for a year, Halloween was a particularly fun time to be there. I had partied in Miami during Halloween before. However, working there with a crew of super fun people and dressing up for themed nights took it to another level!

The scariest Halloween yet… 2020

Sadly, I spent this year’s Halloween on the couch watching a movie. I’m sure I’m not alone in this. Unfortunately, I also am aware that many people were out celebrating this year. Trick or treating can be done in a safe, pandemic aware fashion, but what truly scared me, more than any scary movie could, is how many people I know went out to clubs or house parties to celebrate.

I TOTALLY understand wanting to dress up and head to the club for a night of fun, but people, we are in the middle of a raging pandemic. Many sacrifices have been made, many get-togethers canceled,… I understand. But last night probably should’ve been another one of those sacrifices. We aren’t ready for that yet,…not safely anyways. It scares me to think about how many more cases will be fueled by this. It scares me to think about my fellow health care workers and myself who have put their own lives at risk to take care of Covid patients.

The ICUs around the country are filling up. The USA does not have the capacity like some other countries do in terms of ICU beds per capita. Even less so in rural areas like Deadwood, South Dakota. Yet, the people were out last night. I don’t want to be mad at people because I know people have sacrificed a lot and want to go back to how life used to be. However, today’s decisions carry much heavier consequences with them currently. I can only hope you are spared but I can in no way guarantee that. So please, stay healthy, stay kind, stay strong, and be considerate of your fellow human beings.

One thing I love: scrolling through old pictures on my hard drive. I’ve had so many fun times in my life and time-traveling back to those times brings me a lot of joy.

One thing I drank: Hot apple cider. It’s that time of the year and I can’t get enough!

One thing I’m grateful for: my friends and family sending me packages. I LOVE getting (and sending) mail. From winter care packages to edible arrangements. Thank you! <3

mfg

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