-met A today and she is 30. but she is pregnant with her 10th child. my initial reaction in my brain was, "WTH?!" but anyone who i expecting that i see i always start by saying, "congratulations!"
of course i tried to get the story. she had her first baby at 14. the youngest one currently is age 1. her parents have been very supportive. the baby daddy, however, is a different story. he 'finally' agreed to get married after getting out of jail. but it perhaps made things worse for her. she thought/wanted him to change but he didn't. he still comes and goes when he pleases and cheats on her. she's not sure what she's going to do with him next but she kinda wants out. she has 6 boys and 3 girls. the next one coming is another boy. she seems content.
the first delivery was the most frightening. but the 3rd delivery was the hardest/biggest baby/toughest labour.
she sometimes wishes she could take a vacation.
really?!!! i wonder why! hehehe.
anyway, i love having moms enumerate the names of their children. i think it's beautiful, like poetry. kinda like listing off the tribes of israel. or the twelve disciples. or the 7 von trapp children. or the 10 provinces of canada. in order. i like order!
A listed off her children's names with a slow start, but once she got going the names just flowed. i didn't have time to ask her to list off all their birthdays. she needs half her teeth out.

-C came today and reports that she is extremely afraid of health care providers because of a failed toe surgery. perhaps the doctor placed too many steroids while correcting a hammer toe. now the bone is necrosing and she will likely need an implant of some sort. she shared and shed some tears. we prayed for her. and then she went on her way.
this tends to happen a lot.

-helen came back w/ A and N from dawn's place. it's been challenging. but these ladies are so spunky despite who knows what kinds of crazy hardships they've endured in the so-called brothels of harrisburg.

-blanked out on suturing for the first time in a long time. took me 10 seconds to recall how to properly tie a knot. perhaps need to practice.

-i love sewing! that's the worst reason to become a surgeon. if someone wants to become a surgeon they should love surgery. kinda how people get rejected from engineering school if the only reason they write on their personal statement for applying is that they love playing with legos. anyway, i'm gonna stick w/ sewing fabrics.

-why i wash my hair every day:
when doing some suturing earlier this week i leaned my head in and calvin, who is like a foot taller than me, accidentally ran the bloody suction tip into my head's field of movement. one day perhaps i shall invest in a hair net. his look of remorse was quite amusing. but we both quickly get over these types of things.

-yesterday i could hear some patients who had kinda given me grief in the past, but we still love and respect each other. they were talking to one of the nurses in the hallway. there was a time in my life when i was completely conditioned to be an extrovert because i thought it was the christian thing to do - to be super outgoing and friendly and whatever. anyway, after college i've been gradually resorting back to my natural "I"dentity. instead of going out to say 'hi' despite having a lot of free time at the moment, i hid in the corner behind the computer, out of sight, and read a slew of brady hoke articles.