So I went to my Grand Rounds this morning and Cal and I survived with his maternal attachment and my boobs intact. My mom actually came over this morning to watch him until I got home (arriving at our place at 5:00am--behold, the power of grandparents!) and he required only one bottle feeding during my absence, at 8:00am. By the time I walked in the door at 9:03am (I must have looked at my watch twenty times this morning) he was hungry again and raring to go. No problems with his latch. Worries allayed.
The Grand Rounds this morning actually was more of a JCAHO prep-course for the entire hospital. There were residents and attendings from all departments of the hospital present, and it took place in one of the larger auditoriums on campus to accommodate the size of the audience. (One thing that's been bothering me, because clearly I don't have enough on my mind: why do people pronounce JCAHO "JAY-co"? Seems to me that the correct pronunciation would be "juh-CAH-ho". Just look at how it's spelled! But anyway, that's just my thinking.)
What can I say--the prep course was necessary, but kind of painful. It was pretty much exactly like the presentations that we got during the hospital orientation prior to starting our intern year, about fire safety and patient confidentiality and what have you, only even more tortuous than our first go-round due to the loss of our wide-eyed dewy wonder at being DOCTORS in the BIG CITY HOSPITAL. There was one particularly drawn out short film about hand washing ("Now, let's go over the three methods of hand hygiene individually in excruciating detail...") that was basically wasted on me, because since having the baby, Joe and I have become nearly obsessive compulsive with our use of antibacterial soaps and alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Did you know that Purell is owned by Pfizer? I just wanted to give you that tip, in case you wanted to buy stock.
One thing that I did learn from the Grand Rounds, however, is that I'm going to be good and ready to get back to work when the time comes. I still have four weeks left in my maternity leave, for which I am eternally grateful--but being back in the hospital, talking with other residents and thinking about taking care of patients again lit that little fire in my (shrinking) belly. I started getting excited about work. Don't get me wrong, I love having this time with the baby and I wouldn't trade these early days for anything, but I think that when September rolls around and I'm getting ready to resume my other life, I'm going to be kind of excited to re-enter the world of medicine. So long as I still have most evenings and weekends to spend with my family, I think that having work that fulfills me outside of the home is important for me personally. It may just make me a more interesting person, and possibly even a better parent to have something else to obsess over.
Anyway, it would be a huge waste of four years of med school tuition otherwise.
Currently reading: This article in The New York Times about the making of the movie version of "The Da Vinci Code," and how they're changing all these plot elements to avoid pissing off the Catholic church. I don't quite get it. If they change all the plot points that the church objects to, doesn't it become a different story altogether?
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