Beth-a-pa-loo-za

So tomorrow is the day. The day that the love of my life leaves her 20s and joins me as a thirty-something. It's a bit surreal. I remember thinking that I'd never be 30. That there was no way that I could reach that age. Well, I have...and it's not so bad.

I do feel somewhat bad for Beth. This surgery of mine has put a bit of a damper on the normal week(month)-long Beth-a-pa-loo-za Celebration. Even though I can't taste food and have basically lived in my recliner for the past 5 days, I do still have a trick or 2 up my sleeve.

I would tell you here, but so far Beth hasn't managed to figure them out. WHICH IS AMAZING!!!! because the woman can smell a surprise for DAYS!!!

There will be some celebration tomorrow, but also, we are going to save some for once I am unpacked (my nose people, pay attention...or at least read that last 2 posts) so that I can enjoy the taste of a nice steak or a bottle of Spanish wine.

Now to the toast:

To the most amazing woman I have ever had the joy/pleasure of knowing and loving:

Welcome to 30. It's an amazing year and the beginning of the rest of your life. The past 29 have taught you many lessons that most of us spent a lifetime learning. You have handled them as well as anyone could expect. With grace and dignity. The thing that amazes me the most is that regardless of what life throws at you, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep going.

You are one of the funniest people I know. You are always making me laugh. And you laugh at me, I mean, at my jokes, even when they're not funny or when you've heard them 1 million times.

So this guys walks into the Psychiatrist office wearing
nothing but saran wrap for underwear...

You are fiercely loyal to those you call friends. You would give your right arm, without hesitation, to any in need.

You are talented beyond belief. Your knowledge of pop culture, alone, stops me in my tracks. You love music and art and poetry and the theater. Our kids will be blessed to have you for a mom. I'm quite sure you'll be the cool mom and I'll be the dork dad. I've been a dork a long time. It's a role I'm very comfortable in.

Your scrapbooks are unique and your talent flows all over their pages.

And your faith...you intimately know the God you believe in and serve. Your faith is your own and not some superficial feel-good. Your parents (all 3 of them) are to be commended. You are a faith giant and a prayer warrior.

Thank you for loving me and allowing me to share in this journey with you. It's been one heck of a ride over the last 8 years. I treasure each moment that I've had with you and smile with anticipation of those moments yet to come.

You give me reason to wake up in the morning and to come home at night. Your blue eyes mesmerize me and and pierce me to the core.

May you have the desires of your heart.

143.

Crash by Dave Matthews
You've got your ball,
You've got your chain
Tied to me tight, tie me up again.
Who's got their claws
In you my friend?
Into your heart I'll beat again
Sweet like candy to my soul
Sweet you rock,
And sweet you roll
Lost for you, I'm so lost for you

Oh, and you come crash into me
And I come into you
And I come into you
In a boy's dream
In a boy's dream

Touch your lips just so I know
In your eyes, love, it glows so
I'm bare-boned and crazy... for you.

Oh, and you come crash into me
Baby, and I come into you
In a boy's dream
In a boy's dream

And if I've gone overboard
Then I'm begging you
To forgive me
In my haste
When I'm holding you so girl,
Close to me

Oh and you come crash into me, yeah
Baby, and I come into you
Hike up your skirt a little more
And show the world to me
Hike up your skirt a little more
And show your world to me
In a boy's dream
In a boy's dream

Oh, I watch you there
Through the window
And I stare at you
You wear nothing, but you
Wear it so well
Tied up and twisted,
The way I'd like to be
For you, for me, come crash into me, baby
Come crash into me, yeah

Crash into me...
Crash into me...
Crash into me...

You know, I'm the king of the castle,
You're the dirty rascal, crash into me.
Please crash into me, baby...

Oh, no no no...
Yes, I see the waves
Come and crash into me.
See the waves come and crash into me.
Crash into me.

This is the pits

The next time I tell you that I want to have an elective surgery...SLAP ME (but not on my nose). I don't know what I was thinking when I agreed to do this, but I must have been temporarily insane.

I can't breathe through my nose. It's constantly dripping. I can't smell, which translates into I can't taste. I have a constant dull headache. And everytime I swallow, my ears pop.

I go back to the doctor on Tuesday and in the meantime, I have to figure out how I am going to go back to work without freaking out my patients.

Here are a couple of pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Post-Op Day 1

Let me begin by saying "OUCH!!"

When I awoke from the Anesthesia yesterday, I decided that I had changed my mind and didn't want the surgery after all. And then the nurse introduced me to Fentanyl. YEAH!!!

According to Beth, since I don't remember much immediately after the surgery, the bone spur was a alot bigger that Dr. Smith first thought. I don't know if that contributed to all the bleeding, but I bled so much that he decided to pack my nose, which he said he doesn't like to do. I now have 2 strings coming from both nostrils taped to my nose. I get to go to work looking like this! Even more YEAH!!

Beth still thinks that there's no way I will feel like taking call on Thursday, but we'll see. I already feel 10000000% better. I will spend the day in my recliner resting and getting better.

Oh and by the way: It's Beth-a-pa-looza! She turns 30 on Saturday.

Maybe I will aim for a post a day since I have a few days off to recover.

Maybe.

This doesn't count

I know that I haven't posted in FOREVER and that this really doesn't count. I just wanted Becky to know that I am still breathing. Although, I am beginning to wonder if she's mad at me because I sent her some info and haven't heard from her. Not that I need constant praise and adoration, I don't. Just a little reciprocal, "Hey, I'm still alive, too."

I am working on a presentation about Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Crohn Disease. So I have to get back to it.

p.s. and by the way...I am having my nose broken (yes, on purpose) by an ENT on Monday, June 25th to fix my deviated septum and help me breath better. Come to find out, I have a bone spur on my nasal septum. I didn't even know that was possible. And though I am sure to be in pain and annoyed at the fact that I can't blow my nose for a week...I am going to blog. I want to post some before and after pictures. Then I can say I have something in common with Jennifer Aniston. It may very well be the ONLY thing that she and I have in common.

3 months...really

OK OK OK!! I admit it. I have SERIOUSLY dropped the ball on blogging. I have plenty of excuses, but none of them are very good. I just haven't stopped long enough to type. Plenty has happened since the eve of my turning 30. I did that, turn 30, and didn't feel much different than I did when I was 29.

I have completed my 6th month of ICU since becoming a doctor. Only 2 more to go in the next 26 months. That's VERY exciting to me!!

I took a job in Lubbock, TX, home of the Texas Tech Red Raiders (my Alma mater in case you haven't been reading long or don't know me very well). This, too, I am excited about. I didn't think that I would ever leave Lubbock. But the medical school match and other events in my life gave me the opportunity to get out and see the world. I'm now about to finish my 6th year here in H-town. My how time flies when you're having fun. But I digress.

Back in August or September, I heard that a hospital group in Lubbock was recruiting primary care physicians (Internist, Pediatricians, and Family Practitioners) because they were going to encounter a shortage in the next few years. Because of this, they were willing to offer monthly stipends and sign on bonuses to residents who were willing to sign an employment contract and come work for them when they finished their residency. It sounded too good to be true. Extra money for the next 2 years to do the same thing that I'm going to be doing for the next 2 years anyway. I job locked up. A place to live. And good friends that are going to do it too. Well, as of April 30, 2007, it's official. On or before September 1, 2009, I will be one of Lubbock's newest physicians. Beth and I are TOTALLY excited. We have AMAZING family and friends in the area, the Daltons are moving back with us (pediatric residents with whom we spend an insane amount of time), and I get to be a true Med/Peds physician in a clinic that it yet to be built and practice medicine. Too cool. Way too cool. I think my mom may be even more excited because she hopes that there will be another grandchild who she can spoil just as rotten as the one she currently has. Kristina, that means you, ha ha ha.

Last, but not least, is my friend Becky. Even though it took her like 2 months to acknowledge my turning 30, I would like to say a few things about her here and now to help her commemorate this occasion. I'm a little fuzzy on some of the timing, but I know it happened.

I don't remember when Becky and I met. I know that I was invited to her birthday party in the 6th grade, I guess that would have been 1989. She had THE PARTY OF THE 6TH GRADE. The details are completely junior high and silly. Let's just say that it's a night I won't ever forget.

As for 7th grade...well, it came and went.

We found ourselves in choir together. I'm sure there were other classes, but it would be choir that would carry us through for the next million years or so. We were also both brass players. She the French horn, me the coronet. And Mr. Anderson...boy was that guy uptight! We made it to high school and...did you go to the Tech Choir camp after 8th grade??? I don't remember. The top choir (which we weren't even allowed to audition for) was going to Vienna, Austria right before Christmas. Mrs. Perkins gave us freshman an opportunity to raise money and go since it was a once in a lifetime trip (even though they went back a few years later). Becky and I were on that trip. Along with Courtney and James Norvell and a whole bunch of other people. 9th grade is the year that we started taking voice lessons together from Ms. Walker. Remember the time you were playing with her pepper spray at HSU and set it off? We had to clear the building because we were choking. Good job. We also went to Tempe and played in the Fiesta Bowl Parade. There are still things that happened on that bus (not between us) that should NEVER be mentioned again! That was a year of trips. Seriously? Seriously.

10th grade is a little fuzzy. It was the summer after that I moved to Tyler. We both ended up in Lubbock in our college years...and well...things happened. We lost touch until it was time for our 10yr high school reunion. I found a website and decided that even though I didn't graduate with you guys...that you're the group I call home. Family. Friends forever.

I have said this before, but I will say it again. Part of who I am today is because of Becky, Eric, Rachel, Courtney, Chad, Jason,...and a host of others.

Thank you Becky for your friendship, your laughter, your phone calls after 10:00 when my dad answered. Thank you for "Joe's Bar and Grill, this is Juanita speaking how can I help you" Thank you for the 6th grade skating party, and the 7th grade Halloween party, and choir and band and voice lessons, and all those times that you were there for me. Thank you for continuing to be a part of my life. While I've not been near as elegant as you in some of your birthday posts, I hope that you know you are one of my dearest friends. Thank you that we have weathered our storms and still remain friends. Thank you that our craziness can still make the other laugh. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your life. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for being you.

I am so excited that you are about to be an aunt. Being an uncle to the cutest 4 yr old on the planet, I can tell you it's one of the greatest joys on Earth.

Welcome to 30...may the next 3 decades be at least as much fun as the first 3.

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You.

Always,

Jeremy

p.s. I came across this picture a few months ago and I can't resist posting it here. It's a good picture and not near as bad as some of mine (which hopefully you don't have and won't repay the favor). It doesn't have the year on it. When was this??

29 years, 364 days

In about 70 minutes, I will no longer be able to call myself a Twenty-Something. I will be a Thirty-Something. It's hard to believe. I can remember when I was younger thinking that being 30 was something almost unobtainable. I had no idea what my life would be like.

I'm a lucky man. I have parents that love me and have tried every day to make sure that I had everything that I needed and quite a few things that I wanted. I am still friends with people that I have known since 3rd grade, and I love them dearly; even the ones that came along a few years later. I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment that we've been able to stay in touch and that we continue to share in each other's lives. I can't name them all, but much love to Eric, Becky, Rachel, Lara, Jason, Chad, Courtney (wherever you are) Martha, Carol, Chris, Paul, Rhonda, Kevin, Joe, Daniel, Chris, Jeremy, Billy, Wes, Mark and several more whose names don't immediately come to mind.

I was blessed with the opportunity to sing in choirs throughout my life that have taken me to New York, San Diego, Vienna, San Antonio, New York (again), and all over the state of Texas. I finished my last 2 years of high school in Tyler, and while there, in fact, 12 years ago tomorrow, I turned 18 while singing with the TMEA All-State Choir. I attended Texas Tech University where I sang in the University Choir, the Madrigal Singers, and started the journey towards Medical School. In 1999, I met the woman of my dreams who would soon become my wife (that was 6 years ago). She knows me like no other, and though she may seem like my exact opposite, we fit together perfectly. I love her and can't wait to spend the next 30 years with her by my side.

Medical School brought new memories, new friends, and new challenges. Now in my second year of residency, the challenges still come.

I have no idea what the next 29 years, 364 days will bring. Hopefully children, a successful practice, more good friends, and deeper relationships with old ones. If I'm lucky, grandchildren will one day be seen. No doubt, more hard times will come.

But I'm a lucky man. God has enriched and blessed my life more than I deserve. I have wonderful freinds and family that fill my life. I love my job. I love my wife.

29 years, 364 days have come and gone.

I'm a lucky man.

A REAL Post

So the Medical ICU is wearing me out. It's q3 call, which means that I am on call every 3rd day and in the hospital for 30 hours. I'm either on-call, post call, or pre-call (the day BEFORE being on call again. It doesn't leave time for much else (like blogging).

I don't think I posted it here, but on Jan. 2nd Beth and I, along with her brother and his girlfriend were in an accident. We were rear-ended and pushed into the car in front of us that I had to slam on my brake to avoid hitting. The guy behind me was already riding my bumper trying to get me to move over because I wasn't going fast enough for him and BAM! a four car accident when all we wanted was to go to Galveston for some seafood. We never made it.

No one was seriously hurt, but we still haven't heard an estimate on the damages to the Passat. It's been 9 days since the accident and 8 since I first talked to his insurance company. COME ON PEOPLE!!!!!

Worse yet, that same night, the phone rang at midnight, and Beth's grandpa had also been in an accident. A 21 y/o kid ran a 4-way stop at a high rate of speed and T-boned her Grandpa. His friend in the car with him was killed. Grandpa is ok, but has spent the last week in the ICU and should be moving to a rehab facility closer to home tomorrow.

It's been a rough start to 2007, but Beth and I are thankful for our health and the safety of our family.

I am making a mad dash to Lubbock on Sunday (post-call) to interview for a job Monday (pre-call) with Covenant Medical Group for when I am finished with residency in 2.5 years. I'm really excited about this opportunity. Bonus: I get to see my sister and 4 y/o old niece, and Kristina's husband too. So that will be nice. What won't be nice, is the speed of it all. I'll basically be gone 24 hours, to turn around and be on-call (30 more hours) on Tuesday.

I have found several old friends on MySpace and look forward to getting a chance to sending them a REAL email.

Lastly, the scale said 233 today post-call. 8 pounds since 12-28, 15 days ago. I already feel SO MUCH BETTER!!!! But I have a ways to go.

Right now, I have to go to bed. Thanks for reading.