Lots of exciting things have been going on at our house lately. David is finishing up his third and final year of residency. Next year he will still be at OSU as Chief Resident, then it is off to fellowship. We should find out this December where that will be. David has been working so hard and his efforts are really paying off. He is now officially published! The research paper that he presented at a conference with the American Society of Clinical Oncology in 2013 has been accepted by some journal. I'm sorry, I can't recall the name of the journal right now. He was so excited about that! Getting published is really important for getting into a good fellowship, so this is huge! David is currently working on another research project, so hopefully he will get published again sometime in the next year. Right now, however, his big project is his Grand Rounds presentation. Grand Rounds is a presentation every Thursday morning for the education and advancement of attendings (doctors done with their training) in the hospital. Usually the presenter is an expert in their field and is often brought in from other hospitals and universities. This is not something that residents really ever present. So this is very important for David and quite cool that he gets to do it. David is going to present on Survivorship in Young Cancer Patients, a topic that is quite important to him. He has been doing lots of research and consulting with experts such as cardiologists about follow-up for cancer survivors. I love seeing how animated he gets when talking about this project. You can really tell that he has a passion for his work and a desire to help those patients he will be taking care of. His presentation is coming up in a couple of weeks, so say a little prayer for him that all goes well.
Speaking of cancer survivorship - David is now a five year survivor of lymphoma! Five years is a big deal because after five years, you are considered cured! David has a follow up appointment with his oncologist next month. I'm not sure what happens after this. I would guess that he would probably continue to follow up with the oncologist at least every once in a while because even though his lymphoma will be considered cured, he is still at a higher risk of developing a secondary cancer or other complications from his treatment like heart disease or thyroid disease. Oh how my heart rejoices with this anniversary! I love this man so much, and can't believe how lucky I am to get to spend my life with him and raise our children together. I pray every day for his continued health and a long long life with us. All things are possible through God who gives us strength!
As for the rest of us, I am still working in the NICU at Mount Carmel. My job is going really well and I feel like we are settling into a nice routine. It was really stressful to switch jobs after William was born, but I am so glad that I did and that David supported me in this change. I love my job. It is the perfect mix of challenge and critical thinking with the sick babies that I care for, with sweet snuggles and joy when they are doing well or getting to go home. In February, the nanny that we had since I started my new job gave us her two weeks notice. She recently got pregnant and could not handle the long hours or stress of working with Eliana and potty training (sometimes I wish I could quit this potty training job too!). That was really stressful for us, especially since she gave us her notice on the first day of our weeklong vacation. Not a good way to start vacation, let me tell you! Basically that meant we had a week to find a new nanny once we got home. Luckily, we had lots of support from our family and friends during the search for someone new. Poor Eliana couldn't keep track of all the names of the sitters she had for a couple of weeks. Eventually she gave up and just started calling them "Nanny." However, we found someone who I think is great who started in mid March. She is actually from Bolivia so her main language is Spanish. I think that is really cool. Although I do not speak much Spanish at all, we have not had an issue communicating since she does know some English. I think this is a great chance for David to practice his Spanish, which has gotten a little rusty, and for Eliana and William to maybe learn a little Spanish. However, Eliana has been refusing to speak Spanish with the nanny. That girl is so stubborn! She loves Dora and will speak speak Spanish along with the TV show or when we read Dora books. But she tells the nanny she doesn't know Spanish, and says William doesn't know it either when the nanny speaks with him. I even got several Spanish picture books from the library because Eliana loves to read so much. However, I don't think she is letting the nanny read them to her. Hopefully once she gets used to the new nanny, she starts to enjoy this opportunity. So far, everything has been going well with the nanny, who seems to enjoy spending time with the kids. Her other part time job is nannying SIX boys, so this job is like a piece of cake to her. Perhaps the stress of loosing our old nanny was a blessing in disguise.
That's my long update. David had some really busy rotations earlier in the year, but now everything is calming down. I'm really looking forward to the next few months and getting to spend some great family time together. "The days may be long, but the years are short." I don't want to miss a moment of this beautiful time in our lives!
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