Mark Greene, MD

rapid eye movement

2006-05-19T19:15:00.000-05:00

has it been this long since an update? life is going pretty well for us. reilly is 4 months old, and getting bigger by the moment. ella is about to turn 5, elizabeth and i just had our 5 year wedding anniversary in april. work is going pretty well, kerry is on the crackdown and romano is playing devils advocate.

we got two new attendings so that's not so bad in the wake of things, and we have 2 new surgeons, a thorasics and a peds unit. elizabeth is certified finally, she and romano are the only two doctors in our area that are qualified to perform these procedures. pretty cool huh?

rachel is graduating next week, i can't believe she's about ready to emerge into college. shes interviewing at northwestern next week so we have our fingers crossed.

to sum it up

2006-04-19T01:47:00.000-05:00

reilly had surgery last week for pyloric stenosis, he was in post op then in recovery and spent wednesday - saturday in the hospital. my wife and i split our shifts so at least one of us would be working so reilly wouldn't be without one of us. and the other could be with ella, or with reilly in his room. we had a lot of support from our departments, and a few times had our friends visit him and that was comforting. they discharged him saturday and he was still on medication, but has since been doing better. no longer throwing up and slowly being able to adjust to a normal diet, although its going to take a while. he is getting his sutures removed tomorrow, and has one week post op appointment with romano.

ella is doing good, she has this entire week off of school for easter break, and rachel is still with her mother she comes back on saturday. i haven't been able to get ahold of her but im going to keep trying because i need to get the correct flight information to pick her up.

friday is my 5 year wedding anniversary. how weird is that, im excited though. my wife is everything to me so i need to make sure its amazing.

untitled entry

2006-04-12T21:48:00.000-05:00

when reilly was born we made the decision to have him seen outside of our work hospital. elizabeth and i thought it was best to have him seen by a pediatrician outside of our hospital. our son was born 3 weeks early and was (in my opinion) discharged far too soon. so far his pediatrician has been alright, no real question on her skills. about three weeks ago reilly came down with what was assumed to be a common cold. after a few days it got worse, and assumed it was gastroenteritis. his pediatrician thought it was a stomach flu and wanted to put him on antibiotics.

he seemed to get better, but about a week ago our nanny brought him into the er because he was crying and had a fever. after an iv he seemed to get better and elizabeth took the rest of her shift off to go home with him. since then, his cough has gone away but he's developed something worse. at the time we thought it was a regular case of spit up, but over the last 4-5 days it's turned into a case of projectile vomiting. both elizabeth and i agree that it's not gastroenteritis, he's not favoring any other symptoms of the flu.

i had to work today but elizabeth took him to his pediatrician appointment at 10 this morning. she came in with reilly in his carseat around 11:30 or so. i was with a patient but looked through the window and she was on the phone with someone and then picked up his carseat and kerry was looking at him talking to her. after i was done with my patient i went to see what was going on and reilly was crying in exam 2 while elizabeth was doing an ultrasound with kerry. elizabeth pointed to the monitor and said "there, it's right there". and kerry said "ill give you a few minutes". she left and elizabeth told me that our pediatrician only gave us a script and pedialyte. so she brought him in to do an ultrasound.

he in fact has pyloric stenosis, and needs surgery. kerry and chuny started a line on him and elizabeth filled out the chart and he was laying on the gurney. i kissed his head and had his fingers, kerry came in and said, they can take you up. i went to triage to give my charts to kovac, and elizabeth took reilly up to the surgical floor. i got up to surgery about 5 minutes after she did and she was in scrubs, i asked her what she was doing and she said, 'im scrubbing in'. shirley gave me scrubs and said i could watch from observation. i went and changed, when i got back elizabeth was in observation, she got kicked out of the o.r too. they got off to a great start with romano operatiing, they went in lyproscopic, but he seemed to be bradying down a bit, elizabeth having a fret fest. she was on the intercom with romano for about 10 minutes. during the 2nd hour romano gave us a thumbs up and my wife started crying.

neither one of us are able to take time off of work at the moment, we're down an attending as it is and i know that surgery just lost a resident and surgeon. my wife is at the hospital until i leave here, elizabeths mother stayed with ella today and katherine is on her way because her mother has conference tonight. since im working tonight, ill be with reilly. elizabeth works tomorrow so there will always be someone with him, there at the hospital until he's discharged.

i guess i should have listened to my wifes inner voice ha! the only good thing about them operating on him right away is that he won't be in any pain or discomfort when he eats from now on. he should be home by friday or saturday, if he progresses and without further complication.

silent movie

2006-04-12T03:48:00.000-05:00

that's kind of the best way to describe my wife and i right now. we're not talking but we're not fighting, it's awkward and i don't like it. i guess i should change it? i think she's waiting for me to say something yet i don't want to.

jenn called today to let us know rachel is feeling better, even though that doesn't really mean much right now. i talked to rach and basically told her, "im glad your feeling better about the situation because everything over here is still screwed up". theres really nothing that im going to do about it until she comes home.

reilly is going to the doctor tomorrow, he's still vomiting most of his formula and it's causing dehydration. my wife of course thinks of the worst case scenario, being (pyloric stenosis). im hoping everything is alright, and he's just spitting up and my wife is over reacting.

doctor this, surgeon that

2006-04-11T01:58:00.000-05:00

thursday evening during my shift an attending and i were caught in the middle of a fight in our bay. there was a 5 patient fight going on and the 2 of us vs. them. i was hit from and that's the last i remember.. the attending was kicked, stepped on, hit and badly beaten. kerry and kovac came out and we were taken inside, elizabeth and romano came down after they heard what happened, the other attending didn't need surgery but is now out of work for the rest of the month healing from a broken leg, wrist, and 3 ribs. i came out of it with 3 broken fingers, a sprained wrist, 2 bruised ribs and a bruised shoulder. it could have been a lot worse. i had friday off but came to work saturday.

my wife worked friday and didn't get home until amost 1am saturday morning. and then had to go back saturday, we worked around the same time. katherine was able to stay with the kids and rachel was at her game. saturday goes by and around 8pm we have a multi trauma come in, by the time all was said and done 2 patients were going up to surgery it was 11pm and my wife came down to tell me she was going up to surgery. we were taking care of the board (and down an attending) so i called home and katherine stayed the night at our house. i ended up getting home at almost 2am. i woke up late and rushed to work sunday morning, katherine told us she was only able to be there until 1pm. which was no problem because rachel was going to be home that morning around 11 so she could leave when rachel got home, and i called rachel and she said it was no problem. i got to work and went to the lounge and got my coat and went the boards.

kerry, kovac and i waited in triage, in walks carter and elizabeth with coffee and kovac says, 'your shift starts at 8, it's 8:15 we have rounds'. my wife looks at him and says, 'no actually my shift hasn't ended from last night and i dont even work in the er so keep your comments to yourself and worry about the doctors who aren't pulling a double and walking in late'. she walked to the elevator and went to surgery. i looked at kerry and said, 'shes been here all night' kerry says, 'yeah and shes on today'. kovac looks and laughs saying 'i feel sorry for our patients'.

the day went well, rounds were good, carter, kerry and i were on for the day shift and we got the board managed and patients in and out. katherine called at 11:30 asking when rachel was coming home, i told her not to worry that she'd be there. we had a little girl come in with the possibility of a hot appy, i paged surgery and elizabeth came down for the consult. its now almost 1:30 in the afternoon, the girl does need surgery and dr.lawson came down to take her up with his resident to perform the surgery. katherine came in with ella and reilly, elizabeth asked what was going on she said rachel never came home and she had to leave. my wife...is now, off the wall pissed off.

elizabeth and i took the kids to daycare for the rest of her shift which ended at 2:30, at that time she took the kids home and rachel was there with her friend. they had an explosive arguement. rachel came to the hospital to talk to me, when we went home she continued to run her mouth and back talk, this got her into even more trouble, she shouted at ella and was in general being difficult. she ended up leaving, slamming the door. the rest of the day went by and elizabeth started getting worried about where she was, its now 7, 8 and 9 went by and now we started to panic. we called the police and hospitals around,her friends and their parents. but nothing, i went out to look for her and found her around 11 at the pier. we talked for a little bit but nothing came of it, she wanted to go to her mothers for spring break which started today (monday). i called jenn and she agreed she could come out to WI. rachel left this morning and jenn called around 12 or so letting us know she got there alright.

i worked today but ella is on spring break and we gave katherine the day off and elizabeth was off and had the kids today. im hoping tomorrow is a better day. my wife and i aren't exactly on speaking terms, things are a little..no a lot tense and theres nothing i can do, she won't talk to me and i don't really want to be bothered right now. im at a loss.

ella's theme

2006-04-06T01:58:00.000-05:00

as predicted last night. i was sitting on the bed setting the alarm when elizabeth came down the hallway and shut the hall light off and ella came in behind her. elizabeth said 'i cant find her bed set'. ella walked over to me and said with the saddest face, 'hi daddy'. it was all over. i picked her up and my wife says 'don't baby her mark'. so i layed her down and she fell asleep within minutes. around 5 this morning i wake up and ella is across the bed where elizabeth sleeps. i got up and went downstairs, my wife was asleep on the couch and reilly was in his playpen asleep.

i woke elizabeth up and asked her how long she was downstairs for and she said 'well, i came down around 4 with reilly because ella kept kicking me in her sleep and got reilly to bed so about an hour'. i gave reilly a bath and fed him and rachel came down for breakfast and ella came down without a fever, and ate breakfast so she went to school. around 6:40 katherine showed up and my wife left for work. i took ella to school since i had the later shift.

i took ella to school and rachel came to work with me since a group of her classroom students were coming in with their teacher for an er experience/tour. the group of 6 came in around 11am this morning and kerry gave them an educational briefing in the lounge for about 30 minutes. i took them around triage and the exam rooms, they met carter, susan, and kovac. the girls really enjoyed following kovac. we had a trauma come in and the kids (who wanted to observe) were in curtain area window. kerry and i were explaining to the kids what they were doing. after they sent the patient to surgery, kovac, elizabeth and abby came out and answered the kids questions. although they seemed way more interested in the cracking of the chest and surgical part of things. so i think they're going to have a fantastic time tomorrow up in the surgical ward.

carter and i have a basketball game bet tomorrow at 9 in the bay. 2 to 1 odds.

middle of the night

2006-04-05T03:15:00.000-05:00

don't you love it when your day goes well, you get in and out of work with a fantastic 0 mortality rate and not one weaver conflict. coming home to rachel saying everyone at her school loved the presentations elizabeth and i gave on our careers and that they're doing an er tour on wednesday (tomorrow) and friday for elizabeth. my wife coming home in a good mood from work (most likely because romano isn't there for the rest of the week) and having a nice dinner with her mother and the kids (minus reilly because he's sick and was sleeping most of the evening) elizabeths mother went out this evening and we went to bed early, which was fantastic because we didn't actually sleep until almost midnight, but it was so worth it.

the downside to our day? about 20 minutes ago (3ish am) having ella crying down the hallway calling for elizabeth. which woke me up and then my wife turned our bedroom light on. i got up to check on ella and she was in the bathroom with elizabeth throwing up. elizabeth was going to give her a bath so i took all of her bed linens off the bed and washed them. i went back upstairs and got clothes for ella and gave them to elizabeth. i checked on reilly and now here i am.. i think it'd be best if i went back to bed before ella gets the opportunity to jump in the bed and kick her way through the night.

point of view

2006-04-04T02:18:00.000-05:00

mondays are the worst as far as staffing the er. between our residents and med students it's hard to keep under control. i had to leave the hospital around 10 this morning to go to rachel's parent career day at school. the kids number one question was 'have you ever killed anybody'. that's the typical med student question too so i'm used to answering it. about 45 minutes of this and then the teacher volunteered to have a group of the students interested to come to the er for a day as a doctor. when i got back to the hospital kerry actually thought it was a great idea and is setting up a boring presentation for the students. good luck to elizabeth who is going tomorrow to talk about surgeons, maybe she'll have a better run with the students than i did.

carter and i had the patient from hell today. bitched and moaned for 2 hours about their parking spot and how the meter where they left it was going to run over and their car was going to be towed. carter called elizabeth down and when she went to give the consult the patient decided to bitch and refuse to be see by a non-american surgeon. she asked him a series of questions but he ignored her, carter asked him and he answered. elizabeth went to start the consult by feeling his stomach and he started swinging his arms and knocked over the tray of tools. carter and i jumped on him and put him in soft restraints and my wife says "fine, bleed to death". and walked out of the room. we gave him a sedative and she came back and confirmed he didn't need surgery. all of that for a p.i.t.a.p.

simple things

2006-04-03T01:21:00.000-05:00

daylight savings time, the excuse of the day. i swear we had at least 4 people use their being late by default of daylight savings time and the clocks not working properly. it was a nice save by weaver to jump in and say 'well i left you a message'. i woke up and it felt like i didnt get any sleep at all. this is partially true seeing as though reilly was up almost all night and elizabeth and i were trading off every hour just to get sleep for work today.

i had to talk elizabeth into going to work. she wanted to stay home with the baby since he's been sick. i think she thought it out and realized that leaving him was easier than dealing with romano when she returns. my shift was at 7 this morning and i made it in alright which is good because the weather was crappy. i did rounds with weaver led by kovac who went home. kerry, susan, and i covered the day shift and carter, kovac and pratt seemed to have nights this week. lawson covered the er consults from 7-1. while elizabeth was in the or all morning. we were getting backed up from 12-2 because elizabeth and lawson had to switch off. but once she came down and had a drunk vomit on her i think she melted right in with the rest of the staff. for a sunday ill admit it was pretty intense.

a little after 3 this afternoon katherine (our nanny) came in and jerry came into the trauma room where elizabeth, kerry and i were working and said, "dr.corday, or dr.greene i've got a katherine in triage with reilly and she needs one of you to look at him". i sent elizabeth to check on him. chuny came in a few minutes later and said, "dr.greene, dr.corday wanted me to tell you that they're starting your son on an iv drip". kerry said. "go mark we got this" i told her, "no it's alright if it was serious elizabeth would have gotten me". we finisehd up the trauma and sent the patient to surgery. i went to the curtain area and reilly was laying on his side while elizabeth was listening to his heart beat. she said he was really dehydrated but otherwise doing well. they put him on oxygen just to help his breathing because he was incredibly congested, and they gave him a breathing treatment. it was weird seeing him laying there with the breathing treatment and oxygen with an iv. something i dont like seeing.

he stayed until almost 5pm, his fever was down and he was responsive but the medication made him tired. elizabeth took the rest of her shift off and went home to be with him. i called her around 6:30 and she said he had a bottle and was sleeping. everyone was asking how he was doing, its a great group of people we work with. i got home just before 8 and had dinner with my wife. it was nice it was incredibly quiet but not in a bad way. it gave us the opportunity to talk. i went upstairs and watched a show with ella and walked the halls with reilly until he fell asleep. i put him to bed and elizabeths mother came home and we talked. i called rachel and am going to her school at 10am tomorrow for an in class talk about being an emergency room doctor. this week is going to be interesting.

sutures relationships

2006-03-30T02:26:00.000-06:00

its amazing how fast the week goes by. ella had soccer since hockey season is over and she isn't a social child. during her soccer game one of the other girls grabbed her hair and pulled her away from the ball so ella (having way too much of her mother in her) turned and grabbed the girls jersey and threw her down on the grass. this started a huge fight and ella has been kicked out of the next 2 games for a 'game misconduct'.

i had a baby come into the hospital who didnt make it and immediately when dealing with children it hits home having three of them myself. our son is sleeping in his playpen more than his own crib. last night was the first night he slept in his crib and he did well he only woke up once which is a record for him. my wife and i have a wedding anniversary coming up in april. one of our new med students were in a trauma with elizabeth and i and she left, he turns to me and says 'god she's hot, i wonder if shes married'. chuny looked at me smiling and he looks at her and says 'is she married?' chuny rolled her eyes and left. i went to tend to another patient. later on in the afternoon ella came to the er to get a school paper signed. i came out of the elevator and ella was sitting in the admin chair upset and elizabeth was comforting her when the same med student walks up and says 'is that her kid' i said 'yeah' he says 'well, maybe the kid needs a role model' chuny looks over and ella looks at me and elizabeth turns and the med student says 'see shes looking already' ella gets down from the chair and runs over to me and i picked her up. elizabeth walks over and says 'can i talk to you' so we go to the lounge. about 20 minutes later my med student approaches me and says 'hey dr.greene was that your daughter', i said, 'yes', he says, 'your married' and i said, 'yeah to that surgeon with the curly red hair and the ego to kill'. he smiled and said 'your one lucky bastard'. i told elizabeth that story and she laughed.

im promising that reilly is going to roll over soon. elizabeths mother flew in this afternoon, its been tense and i haven't seen her yet. i got off of work late and she was asleep when i got home, my wife on the other hand is tense and in need of a venting post. m&m tomorrow, hopefully everything will go well.

2214

2006-03-28T01:43:00.000-06:00

night shifts are the worst to work. especially now, our son isn't sleeping through the night. we've set up his 2nd playpen in our room so he sleeps there to cut down on the trips down the hall with the chance of him waking ella or rachel up. i had sunday and today off i go back tuesday so it wasnt so bad. we got our nanny katherine back and the kids love her, so the trainsition period there has been good.

elizabeths mother is flying in on wednesday so this will be interesting. she hasn't seen reilly yet, elizabeth is less than thrilled though. we have a trauma conference tomorrow morning and im the only one not doing a presentation. instead kerry is covering the e.r and elizabeth is covering the trauma e.r. information. overall it should be good.

my son is getting so close to rolling over.

one thing

2006-03-22T02:24:00.000-06:00

i haven't worked since saturday, i took sunday off and monday and today were my days off this week. i feel like crap and there really isn't anything i can do. i am going back to work tomorrow since i feel better today than yesterday but overall i still feel crappy. my wife is a trooper she went to work the last 3 days and took today off so she can go in tomorrow. i have a stomach flu but elizabeth has upper respiratory problems. it sounds like either laryngitis or bronchitis. she came home this morning after romano sent her home and she couldn't talk. even better i couldn't understand her.

i picked ella up from school today and when i came home elizabeth and rachel were in a huge fight. rachel stormed out and elizabeth got into a fight with me about not saying anything when i couldn't because i didn't even know why they were fighting, but elizabeth had reilly and he was screaming because they were yelling and it was not what i wanted to come home to. rachel came home about two hours later, they still haven't talked.

we're in a scramble for a new nanny, callie is moving back home to be closer to her family after some health issues have come up and therefore has left us in a tight spot with the kids. we really don't want to do this because the kids are used to her and we want someone they know, my wife called katherine today who was ella's first nanny to see if she was still available. she left after ella started going to scholactic daycare and we didn't have reilly yet. we called and she has a family she's working with but that if we were serious she would put in a notice because the circumstances with the current family aren't good. this is a step forward and hopefully everything will work out in the end.

im on nights this week so it's 6-6 for the next week. i hate to say it but im looking forward to it.

tears and rain

2006-03-20T03:07:00.000-06:00

i took today off of work, this cold is kick my ass and i wanted to sleep. elizabeth went in on an emergency surgery. when she came home she said that the er was short 3 attendings and a nurse to the flu. if i dont feel better tomorrow im going to stay home again. i think i've gone through enough colds/flu's at the hospital to take a day or two off to recover and bounce back.

rachel had a soccer game today. elizabeth and i felt bad because we more often than not don't get to go to her games because we're both working. actually today elizabeth got home around 2pm and the game was at 3 so we decided to go watch her game. there were actually a lot of parents there and it was reilly's first time at the park. one of the other parents came up to us and introduced themselves, then commented on how cute ella and reilly were. our daughter is rachels biggest cheerleader and rachel was excited that we came. reilly loved the sun and slept the entire time in his stroller.

rachel and her friend came home with us after the game, elizabeth and i made dinner and had to keep yelling for ella to leave rachel and her friend alone. elizabeth and i didnt eat dinner, we both felt like crap. but how is it that im the one getting sick. i watched the san jose/colorado hockey game with ella. rachel and ashlee were in her room, elizabeth was in the offce/computer room working on a research article for the certification class and reilly was in his bouncer on the floor. after the game ella took a bath and reilly was crying so i fed him and went and read elizabeths article. it was really good, there were good pros and cons of the device and overall it'll go over well. ella went to bed around 8 or so and reilly was in his swing in our bedroom since thats the only thing that keeps him from crying. we've also counted about 13 pacifiers around the house, they're everywhere. it's ridiculous.

our son isn't sleeping through the night and neither elizabeth or i feel like walking down the hallway to get him 3, or 4 times a night. especially when rachel's friend is over and they have school in the morning. i went to the car and got his playpen and set it up in our bedroom. i put reilly on our bed while setting it up and elizabeth took his swing downstairs. it's a clutter of crap downstairs. we've got his carseat, swing, high chair (he doesnt even use) his bouncer, activity mat, toys and crap everywhere. after spending almost 15 minutes setting up his playpen elizabeth tells me that his other playpen is downstairs next to the couch. good to know after the fact i guess.

my wife brought in a couple blankets and another down crib comforter for his playpen, we gave him his pacifier and he went right to sleep. he hasn't woken up yet but give it time. elizabeth and i swore that tomorrow we're going to find places for all of the baby's stuff. i highly doubt we'll actually follow through with it though.

walk away

2006-03-19T05:03:00.000-06:00

i dont think the er has been this crazy since romano was appointed chief. we were short nurses, doctors, pa's and surgeons. i went in at 6 because of a page from kerry. elizabeth went in at 7. we were backed up for 5 hours and had a blood shortage, the staff started donating in sutures. our entire staff is exhausted, and finally today we got a full staff. residents, med students and nurses. we're still short surgeons and one of our doctors got into a verbal fight over the phone with my wife about a consult. we have a resident who calls elizabeth 'mom'. everyone but elizabeth thinks its funny.

i felt terrible around 1 or so this afternoon. i think i caught was my wife has, i felt like i was hit by the el train. i went home early to find out that my parents left chicago for san diego and that has pissed me off. i wouldnt be mad if i didnt go out of my way to make sure my dad was in good hands and my wife didnt go out of her way to book him a spot in the hospital.

ella and rachel were gone for most of the afternoon/evening. reilly slept on top of me for most of the afternoon. ella came home after 5 from hockey and took a bath, i made dinner and she watched a movie. i gave reilly a bath and he was laying on our bed, i layed next to him and eventually we both fell asleep. the next thing i knew my wife was looking down at us and i looked at the clock and it said 9:12pm. she said ella was asleep and asked where my parents were. i got up and we talked, she took a shower and came to bed. reilly slept between us until i got up because i couldnt sleep, hes still sleeping next to elizabeth. after writing this im now tired again.

recognise

2006-03-18T02:31:00.000-06:00

we are living in a high stress situation. the kids, my parents and work it's pushing the limits of the human body. elizabeth and i have both been working more than we would normally due to staff shortage. we just started seeing a change in the shift block this week, but i think we are one week too late. i worked from 7-7 and came home spending 2 hours fighting with my dad about his health and oxygen. after that my mom and i got into a fight about the same thing. i didnt get ella to bed until almost 10:30 because of this. i helped rachel with homework and took a shower, elizabeth came home after 12:30 in the morning from work and she went in the same time i did. we talked for almost an hour about everything going on but i was too tired to keep up the conversation. reilly decided to play the crying game and woke us up at 2am, 3:15, 3:50, 4:15, 5:00am. i got maybe 3 hours of sleep last night.

elizabeth and i got into a fight before work this morning, ella was late to school and i was late to work. elizabeth and kerry got into a heated discussion about paging for a consult without giving a proper workup. this sends my wife pissed off back to surgery. kerry approached me halfway through my shift and asked if everything at home was alright. obviously seeing exhaustion and a very obvious personality change in my wife. i told her the truth, we're are short staffed and its putting a lot of pressure on everyone to work longer hours. i did approve the shift blocks and things are looking better especially with having 3 more residents on staff and our med students on er rotation. elizabeth was sitting in the bay as i was getting coffee. i asked her if everything was alright and she said she was fine and got paged back inside. she came down for a consult around 5pm and whoever paged her didnt page the cancel page that we didnt need the consult and all hell broke loose. i took her in another exam room and asked her what was wrong. she vented the frustration of the paging system and quickly escaladed to crying.

elizabeth is on call for a patient who had surgery and at any time they could call. i work from 7-7 tomorrow which gives elizabeth they day at home with the kids. i think next week one of us starts the night shift rotation.

i believe in you

2006-03-17T03:31:00.000-06:00

my dad even though he's been home has been fighting off illness and its not going very well. i came home from work tonight and put his oxygen on him, he knows he is going to be hospitalized if he doesnt take care of himself. we dont get along very well and we arent close at all but the hardest thing to do right now is to watch him self destruct, in my position of doctor i feel more than obligated to do everything in my power to help him, even if it means working 12 hours in the er and come home to take care of him afterwards.

i made a promise to ry last night that i wouldnt be the kind of father that mine was with me. when ella was born i had a very easy adjustment. i had raised a daughter and somewhat knew what to expect. for some reason having my son has taken an emotional toll on me. he's 2 months old and i feel like i havent been there for him, its a terrible feeling. i feel like im doing what my dad did with me, be a father when they need you.

self discovery is a bitch, and it sucks even more when you dont know what it is your trying to uncover.

doctor online

2006-03-15T01:32:00.000-06:00

its close to 2 in the morning, the dark light from the moon is bringing enough light into our bedroom to see my sleeping wife. im still in my scrubs and kneel down on the floor next to the bed as she sleeps. i put my fingers in her hair brushing it from her face, she smells amazing. her perfume has rubbed off on my pillow and i love it. she woke up as i was running my fingers in her curls, she asks what time it is and puts her hand on my face, i can still feel how warm they are. she sits up and says 'mark your freezing'. i tell her, 'its not that bad'. she leans over with the most concerned look of compassion on her face and says 'do you want to talk'. in my mind im saying its 2am, she worked a 10 hour shift and came home to the kids, yet she doesn't even hesitate to ask. at that moment reilly started crying and she got up to get him, i told her i was going to take a shower, she turned and took my hands, they were so warm i almost didnt want to let them go, she kissed my cheek and said she'd be back.

after my shower i open the bathroom door and the bedroom is dark, i shut off the light and walk towards the bed, which is empty. i lay down and my pillow smells like my wife, there is something amazing about that. just as start to close my eyes she comes back. she lays next to me and asks if im awake with a soft spoken voice, her accent makes it that much better. i said 'its the jewish in me, just as things are going well i brace for something terrible to happen'. i feel her warm hand on my back, it put me at ease. we talked for almost an hour, about my dad, rachel, ella, reilly and the crappy day at work. my wife is logical and makes sense of things that i try to contradict. we listened and vented to each other, we talked and made plans.

elizabeth was laying next to me so i gently brushed the hair from her neck and kissed the side of her neck. there was something incredibly romantic about this night, this moment, this kiss. we fell asleep with our hands interlocked, and my arms around her. this was the first night in almost 2 weeks where i slept well.

we're working the er together tomorrow, our shift block is going to kick a lot of ass. it reads as followed; [surgeon on er call] - e.corday. [cheif of er] - k.weaver. [attendings] - m.greene. s.lewis. j.carter. no residents, interns or med students due to wednesday calls and rotation switches. we're short 2 attendings and two nurses. i think we're floating 2 nurses from icu and another surgeon on call.

good news though, our nanny callie is back full time and tomorrow is the first day in a while where reilly isnt going to the daycare, and ella in the afternoon. rachel comes home tomorrow and my dad has a doctors appointment. reilly is gettin shots on thursday and elizabeth, carter, lewis, romano, weaver, kovac, lawson, and i should be getting bloodwork back tomorrow or thursday pending toxic chemical exposure.

its going to be a great week.

anyway you want it

2006-03-12T02:35:00.000-06:00

rachel was discharged from the hospital yesterday (friday). i got a page from elizabeth early friday morning informing me that rachel had been discharged and jenn left a message at the admit desk stating that she was taking rachel home with her. i was incredibly pissed off by this, first she can't be bothered to even call and see how rachel is doing but then she wants to play super mom? unbelievable.

after work last night i came home and rachels stuff was everywhere and she was gone. i called jenn and we had a huge fight over the phone and her reasoning for this entire bullshit plan was that elizabeth and i are working and no one would be home with rachel while shes recovering. this isnt true, my mother is home and i had taken 4 days off of work, but that would require jenn to think of everyone but herself. shes only doing this because she is on shitty terms with our daughter. brilliant plan.

ella is more than upset about this however, theres nothing we can do. ella spends a lot of time with rachel and it wasnt seen until now. ella was in her room today picking up all of her stuff and putting pictures she drew on her desk. i called and left a message and when elizabeth came home from work she asked if rachel called back and i told her no, she left a message too.

reilly was in his swing and ella was playing her ds on the floor next to him and when she got up she was talking to him and he grabbed her hair and was twisting it around in his hand which caused her to scream on the top of her lungs. elizabeth told her not to move, i ran downstairs and couldn't help but laugh. ella ran upstairs crying and really pissed off and told me not to laugh because it wasnt funny and elizabeth started laughing and told her to stop being a baby about it.

the kids went to bed early, my dad came home from the hospital today and tomorrow we're going to get him some exercise this should be interesting. elizabeth and i have tomorrow off, this gives me an entire day to help ella beat princess peach for her ds. tuesday is our attending/resident/medstudent dinner and elizabeths associate surgeon/resident/medstudent dinner. it's always interesting when kerry weaver organizes events.

theres no i in team

2006-03-06T01:55:00.000-06:00

it doesn't feel like sunday, but more like thursday. last night elizabeth my mother and i took ella and reilly to the greater chicago area for dinner with my cousin who is in town for the week. except for bad parking and freezing weather it was nice. he's coming over to the house on wednesday with his fiancee for dinner.

over the last week rachel has been sick, elizabeth had her stay home wednesday through friday where she had a fever with flu like symptoms. her fever went down yesterday and she was starting to eat again. she didnt want to go to dinner last night because she was still feeling sick, when we got home she had tea with elizabeth and went to bed.

after a few days of calling jenn finally returned our call today to see how rachel was feeling. they spoke on the phone for a few minutes and rachel went upstairs and took a shower. later on this afternoon rachel was laying on the couch and elizabeth asked how she was feeling and she said she had a stomach ache, elizabeth got her some medicine but when rachel got up to take it she was favoring her side. elizabeth asked her if it hurt, she said it did. elizabeth had her lay down and checked out her abdomen and said it could be an appy. i didnt want to panic but she could tell i was starting too. elizabeth said she was going to take rachel to the hospital to do an ultrasound and if it was an appy to make sure it doesnt rupture. she told me to call jenn and meet her there with the kids because if it was an appy she was able to scrub in because shes a surgeon.

i called jenn and my mother insisted the kids stay with her so i went to the hospital and rachel was being taken up to surgery, i asked chuny if it was an appy and she said yes. i asked her "whos operating" and she said, "dr.corday, rachel didnt want lawson to do it". i went up to the surgical ward and elizabeth was coming out of the surgeons locker area in scrubs, i stopped her and asked her 'has it ruptured yet'. she said, 'no but my fear is that we'll get in and it'll rupture'. she went into the o.r and scrubbed in.

as i waited....and waited....and waited...it seemed like it took forever, jenn finally showed up and asked what happened, i filled her in and she seemed a little pissed or maybe annoyed for being pulled away from her life away from rachels. romano came up and walked past us pretty quickly and went into the o.r. a few minutes later shirley, elizabeth and romano came out pushing rachel, elizabeth was talking to another doctor following them.

elizabeth walked up to us and said her appendix did rupture during surgery therefore took a lot longer than expected. the left a tube in her side to help drain additional fluid just so that an infection doesn't occur. jenn asked elizabeth how long rachel will be in the hospital and elizabeth said 'well, it depends..if it hadnt ruptured she'd be home in 2-3 days, but since it ruptured during surgery it could be 4-7 days. without any further infection/complications with fluids not draining properly".

jenn asked elizabeth, "i thought you said this was just a flu and now shes in the hospital, you both are doctors and you missed this?" my wife, the genius...says, "she had a flu, appendicitis doesn't attach a 103 fever without abdomenal pain." jenn said, 'then how do you explain going from a flu to appendicitis", elizabeth said.."my honest opinion of the situation is that she had offset symptoms of an appy, however since appendicitis can linger for weeks before its diagnosed it initially was a flu, although when you take antibiotics it causes the appy to progess rapidly". it was interesting.

rachel woke up and was somewhat out of it, around 5pm jenn was going to leave. elizabeth asked her if she wanted to stay at the house until rachel was well enough to come home. needless to say jenn is staying at the house. we left just before 6pm. jenn asked when elizabeth was going to be home and i told her that she's on call at the hospital tonight so she wasnt coming home until sometime monday midday. she seemed a little shocked but i told her that it wasnt too bad because she'd be with rachel and would call if anything changed.

ella asked jenn why she doesnt see rachel, i told her to be quiet, but secretly it was hilarious. my mother and jenn.....a rivalry waiting to happen. everyone actually got along, the kids are sleeping and ive got the phone next to me in case if elizabeth calls. ive got to remember to get up early to take ella to school because elizabeth is going straight from the hospital to the medschool for that certification class with romano. as elizabeth said tonight on the phone when she called, there is no i in team. if that were the case the i would die of exhaustion.

the act of attention

2006-03-03T02:07:00.000-06:00

dad is doing better, his tests are all showing positive signs. we started him on medication and that should clear up his P.E. we're hoping that he'll be able to come home by wednesday of next week. his breathing treatment is going well. all of this is making my mom more at ease with him being in the hospital, and a plus that elizabeth and i are there to look after him. this morning my mom was in his room when he started having a hard time breathing, elizabeth came in and got the oxygen on him and started his breathing treatment. my mom was really upset and there were 4 other doctors in the room and tonight my mom told me that elizabeth cleared the room and told the nurse and my mom 'everyones going to take a deep breath with david, we're all going to relax and breathe'. after that she calmed down and dad started breathing better. my mom told me that story tonight, i felt the need to share.

rachel stayed home from school again today, i think elizabeth is overly paranoid about it. shes got a high fever but nothing more than a flu. jenn still hasnt called back so this morning i called and left what was now the 2nd or 3rd message for her in regards to rachel. ella however went to school and elizabeth and i went to work.

around 10:30 this morning ellas school had called and elizabeth had to pick her up. the class was going for their weekly walk to the park, well they didnt go last week because of liam being hit by the car, ella was freaked out about walking across the same crosswalk and refused to go. she spent the rest of her afternoon in the hospital daycare.

i work tomorrow and am off saturday and sunday. at least ill have a somewhat relaxing weekend.

she said/she said

2006-03-01T23:54:00.000-06:00

im back in chicago tonight, i got back to town around 1 or so this afternoon. elizabeth called me around 4am (california time) so it was about 6 or 7 chi time. she wanted to let me know that rachel was running a 103 fever and was staying home from school. when i got home we got my dad into the hospital, they wouldn't even admit him until elizabeth and the neurologist dr.mcmillam admitted him. after we got him situated elizabeth was paged up for a surgical consult, he was favoring his side and she pushed on it and asked if it hurt, he said yes. they got some cultures and tests done. most of which were negative, the neurologist sent him up to cardiology and then to see the ent doctor. we'll know more tomorrow.

the kids are doing well, my mother was excited to see ella and i went up to surgery to see how my wife is doing. she and robert were in the surgeons lounge with a stack of papers and elizabeth was on the phone with rachel, i didnt walk in right away. she was telling her to try and sleep. after she got off the phone she dialed another number which was jenn, she was telling her that rachel was sick and she thought she might want to know and if she wanted to call us back etc. i went in and she asked how my dad was doing. you know even when shes up to her eyes in work her sincerity is incredible. i got reilly from daycare and around 5pm we were all leaving, elizabeth and i, the kids and my mom when elizabeth was paged. she said it was 911 and so we went home and she said she'd meet us at home later.

she got home not too long ago actually, she asked how rachel was feeling and i told her she was sick but alright. she said goodnight to my mom and the kids. we talked for a few mintues and now she's taking a bath, i've missed having her around me. it's good to be home, and to have my dad closer for close observation.

i could never leave your beautiful eyes

2006-02-28T02:39:00.000-06:00

rachel was listening to a song today and it reminded me of my wife, i do believe the lyric was "but ill wait i could never leave your beautiful eyes i know your sorry i know what you must be going through and i feel sorry for you please dont leave me now"... i do feel bad for my wife being at a medschool class for 4 hours of her day. i miss her already, im supposed to get discharge papers for my dad to be released from this hospital in a transfer to my hospital in chicago. it wouldnt have happened if it hadnt been for my wife. i should be back tomorrow because i do have a shift on wednesday that i have to work.

sleep pattern

2006-02-25T02:06:00.000-06:00

the night shift sucks, it always screws up a good sleep pattern. i worked a night shift last night and didnt sleep well today. when i came home this morning rachel already left for school and elizabeth was rushing to get ella to school, reilly had been fed and changed and was sleeping. i went to bed and got about 3 hours of sleep before he woke up. after he woke up i stayed up and took a shower then we went and got ella from school, i came home and ella had lunch and played her nintendo ds in a big chair we have in our bedroom while reilly slept in his swing in our room. this meant mark got another 2 hours of sleep it was fantastic.

i took ella to her hockey game tonight. her team had banners for liam around the rink. elizabeth showed up about 20 minutes after i did in scrubs so i knew she got held up at work. a few parents came up to her asking how liam was doing and thanking her. the hockey game was good, ellas team won in overtime ella had 2 goals and 2 assists they named her 2nd star of the game. after the game the parents usually chat and let the kids interact but elizabeth was paged back to the hospital and left. she left her hospital id clipped on my coat so i took ella and went to drop it off for her. they sent us up to the surgical ward to wait, she came out of an o.r 2 and got it, ella was looking into a room with pictures hanging everywhere, my wife called her over and she asked if that was liams room, my wife nodded. she knelt down and asked ella if she wanted to see him. she nodded back.

elizabeth took her in the room and his parents were there and elizabeth talked with them and ella told them they had won the game for liam, his parents were nice enough to step out of the room for a moment and ella talked to him for a few minutes. afterwards i took her home where rachel had been watching reilly, he was sleeping in her arms on the couch while she was asleep with moulin rouge on tv. i got ella a bath and to bed. by now elizabeth came home and took reilly up to bed and put a blanket on rachel.

i think ella seeing liam helped a lot, hes on day 4 of a coma and ella has been having nightmares and not sleeping well so like my wife and romano said, sometimes facing it helps in the end. there was an urgent call on the phone for elizabeth from one of her family members. however i dont think its serious, it could be their just pushy. now if only i could get on a decent sleep pattern tonight i'd be a happy guy.

im not here

2006-02-24T00:17:00.000-06:00

if anyone asks this isnt me updating when it really is, its absolutely dead in the er at the moment, everyone zombie like...welcome to the night shift. my last entry was deleted or somehow is now missing so to brief you...the little boy who was struck by the car tuesday morning is still in a coma and being taken care of and visited by all of the doctors. including romano and my wife. his brother said yesterday 'wow he must be lucky to have 5 different doctors and 2 surgeons'. its a case thats hitting home.

right now id like to think everyone is at home asleep, or at least ella is, maybe elizabeth is up with reilly and rachel is either sleeping or working on a report for school.

im going to get back to doing nothing.

1 month, 1 week

2006-02-20T02:14:00.000-06:00

our son is almost 6 weeks old and yet it seems like just yesterday he was born. elizabeth worked today so i had the kids today, ella has pinkeye and isnt allowed in reillys room. i dont thing it would be as bad if she didnt rub her eyes and touch everything, the medication however is at least clearing up the infection. she had her nintendo ds and tv today. she spent a great deal of time in an oversized chair that we have in our bedroom near the french doors. if she wasnt there then she was in her room or the kitchen. she did good with staying out of reillys room and washing her hands when id remember to remind her.

reilly didnt sleep through the night last night, but the perk was he didnt sleep at all today, he took maybe an hour long nap if that. he went down around 7 tonight. he slept in his bouncer on the floor next to ella and i while we played xbox. the girls dont have school tomorrow so rachels friend came over for the night. i completely forgot so when she got here reilly was screaming because i had just given him a bath and he was in just his diaper. thankfully he wasnt too pissed and calmed down pretty quickly. ella was upstairs in her room watching a movie so i got reilly dressed and the girls wanted to see him, rachels friend asked what his name was and they played with him for a little while.

the kids went to bed and the girls are watching a movie downstairs. elizabeth is working tonight and should be home soon, i cant finish this article im working on because i left the papers at work in my locker, so itll have to wait until tuesday.

all in a days work

2006-02-18T03:44:00.000-06:00

i dont even know why im awake right now but i guess its times like these where this blog comes into good use. especially when my work affects my outside of work patterns. we had a patient thats really bothering me, not only me but my wife and the rest of our staff. its going to be a pretty hard weekend, i stayed an hour over my shift with this patient and im just hoping everything we do can and will help. theres only so much us er doctors can do before the patients are put in our surgeons hands.

im off today (saturday) and sunday so this should be good, came home and held my son for almost two hours. when elizabeth came home she went into ella's room and she wasnt in her bed, but on the floor next to her bed..she has a tendency to sleep on the floor from time to time, especially if shes hot. rachel is failing her biology class therefore has to stay home on weekends until the grade comes up, no car or friends either.
===================

i sent this song to elizabeth for valentines day.

did i disappoint you? or let you down?
should i be feeling guilty or let the judges frown
cause i saw the end before we'd begun
yes i saw you blinded and knew i had won
so i took whats mine my eternal right took your soul and into the night
it may be over but it wont stop there i am here for you if you'd only care
you touched my heart you touched my soul changed my life and all my goals
love is blind and that i knew it my heart was blinded by you
i've kissed your lips and held your hand
shared your dreams and shared your bed
i know you well i know your smell
i've been addicted to you
goodbye my lover, goodbye my friend
you have been the one you have been the one for me
goodbye my lover, goodbye my friend
you have been the one you have been the one for me
i am a dreamer and when i wake
you cant break my spirit its my dreams you take
and as you move on remember me remember us and all we used to be
ive seen you cry ive seen you smile
i've watched you sleeping for a while
i'd be the father of your child
i'd spend a lifetime with you
i know your fears and you know mine
we've had our doubts but now we're fine
and i love you i swear thats true
i can not live without you
goodbye my lover, goodbye my friend
you have been the one you have been the one for me
goodbye my lover, goodbye my friend
you have been the one you have been the one for me
and i still hold your hand in mine
in mine when im asleep
and i will bare my soul in time when im kneeling at your feet
goodbye my lover goodbye my friend
you have been the one you have been the one for me
goodbye my lover, goodbye my friend
you have been the one, you have been the one for me
im so hollow baby, im so hollow
im so, im so, im so hollow

communication

2006-02-17T03:08:00.000-06:00

everything is in adjustment with my wife back at work, not that its bad or good its just an adjustment. like all things i presume. work is work, its not going well nor bad, our surgical ward has been in chaos due to elizabeth and robert (they both run surgery one is COS and ACOS) so nobody knew what was going on for about 4 days. elizabeth came back and had to reorganize the o.r and boards. but then got into it with dr.nicholes which i knew was going to happen because shes got an attitude on her...they both were going at it during a trauma with their course of treatment and kerry said 'this is a trauma not a surgeons pissing match so take it up to your own ward if you want to bitch like two med students'...the entire room got quiet and elizabeth threw the gloves on the floor and told the other surgeon to figure it out on her own. of course she couldn't do it and we ended up paging lawson to come down instead. other than that works been great...as far as our department goes.

valentines day was tuesday, my wife worked so my plans somewhat fell through, she was supposed to work a night shift but took a day shift instead (shes not big on the holiday) but i still did something. i actually took the kids to work for about a half an hour and they gave her flowers, it was pretty cute. since she got off at 10pm she called before she left so i knew she was on her way home and the kids were asleep, i set baskets of roses through the house up the stairs where i had the bathroom lit up in candles and a hot bath waiting for her since she was at work all day. about twenty minutes later i paged her because i knew she'd get it and paged her with her voicemail number because earlier i had called her and left a song on her phone. after i paged her i got the hot water ready for when she got home, and a glass of wine. she got home and was pretty shocked with the entire thing, although...i gotta say it paid off well ha! all in all it was nice, and actually she did something for me which was pretty amazing. it was in my locker and i got it when i went to work wednesday morning.

ella for the last two nights has ended up in our bed, it wouldn't be bd if she didnt kick so much.

its just like riding a bike...

2006-02-14T02:23:00.000-06:00

those were the words of wisdom i gave my wife this morning before she went back to work since having our son. she ended up going in before 6am. reilly woke up early so i gave him a bottle and got ready for work, callie got to the house around 6:30 and ella woke up just before i had to leave. since she was asleep when elizabeth left i had to inform her that her mother wasnt going to be home because she went back to work. this in my opinion is far too traumatic for a child, especially ella who for the last month and a half has spent everyday with my wife. she was in tears when i left, but i called callie after i got to work and she said all was well and ella was fine.

it was a long day at work, bad weather = bad traumas. surgery needs to get their shit together. bottom line, elizabeth (associate chief of surgery) has been gone, a repalcement was sent in and she screwed everything up. romano is out of town this week in coast rica (dont ask) so its elizabeth, vascuarl surgeon, a peds surgeon, two residents, an intern and 2 med students on surgical rotation, which really only leaves our hospital with two active trauma surgeons. not ideal for a day like today. i got on at 7am and left twenty minutes after my shit tonight and elizabeth was still up in surgery. I came home just before 8 and our nanny had gone home just after 4pm when rachel got home, reilly was asleep in his crib and ella was watching the polar express in our bed. elizabeth got home around 8:30 tonight and saw the kids and went to bed.

I feel bad I think today kicked her ass a little bit. I'm covering the morning shift and it looks like Elizabeth is on call for the night shift 6-6. I didn't even know she was on until I saw her name on the boards. Tomorrow is Valentines day and our daughter has a calendar marked down, I think it's pretty cute the way she's excited. It's a damn good thing Elizabeth and I took care of this on Saturday.

theres no i in team

2006-02-12T01:08:00.000-06:00

reilly had a doctors appointment today and hes doing great. i took ella today to the mini mites hockey tryouts. i think her size throws people off. when she walked in with full equipment on the parents were in shock. the coach asked what position she could play and i said she knows how to play forward (center), leftwing (defense) and goal. they had four goalies so they had to try for center. one of the other fathers asked if she could skate as she was getting on the ice. the coach had her skate to center ice he ran a series of shooting drills, one from the blue line, another from one of the points a wrap around and a freestyle shot. for the freestyle shot she picked the puck up and skated from left to right, pushed the puck way out to the left and brought it back in to the right as she switched skates and turned to the left shooting the puck in off the right post. the coach had her skate back to center ice and asked me how long she had known how to skate for, i told him almost 2 years. then he asked where she learned to play hockey, i told him i played a little when i was younger and some friends have taught her how to use the stick. she kept up with all the kids during the skating drills and was one of 4 that knew how to skate balanced backwards. she made the team and at the next practice (wednesday) she gets to pick her number.

our nanny has agreed to take her to the practices that elizabeth and i aren't able to make. i took reilly to this kid rocket shop today, he got a kick out of the noisy light up bobbleheads they have. i needed to find something for rachel. according to elizabeth that's her new favorite place.

tomorrow is sunday, i dont work and we've got one hell of a snow storm heading all over the east coast. i wouldnt be suprised if i got paged into work.

its been a while

2006-02-10T01:31:00.000-06:00

there hasnt been a whole lot going on. work, elizabeth and the kids have been keeping me busy. elizabeth was called in on an emergency situation yesterday and so it got her back in the groove of work and helped us out in the er. we got word before she left last night that all systems are a heads up in the intimacy department. 2pts for mark! hah..

what better time to go for it than the present right? wrong. i got home late, rachel was watching tv and the kids were in bed, elizabeth was in the shower. i went in and talked to her and my plan was to join her but reilly started crying so i went to get him. sat in the chair in his room and gave him his bottle told him about my day and he went back to bed. finally! i go back to the room, of course shes out of the shower so i took one and that took all of 15 minutes. now we're getting somewhere. i get out and my clothes are gone...so i open the door and shes sitting at the end of the bed, so i walk up to her in my towel and ask her if shes seen my clothes. she said maybe, i see my shirt and boxers behind her and go to grab them and she grabs my towel off. it catches me off guard and she laughs and throws my clothes at me. well now im confused because it's as if, wait.. is sex something on her mind? am i jumping the gun? all of these questions in my over paranoid brain. well she made her intentions clear and i was all for it.

things started getting pretty good between us when reilly wakes up again. this time my wife gets him, about 10 minutes later she comes back, we pick up where we left off..not even 10 minutes go by before the phone rings. its work.. i have to go in early tomorrow. but lets just say all the delays were worth it. for many reasons my wife and i had the most explosive intimate time together in a long time. im also not one of these men who lives majority on sex and intimacy but man....this was fantastic.

reality tv

2006-02-01T00:56:00.000-06:00

my parents left over the weekend and had a safe return to san diego. doug and carol are here until tomorrow and work is work. over the weekend we went out to dinner with carol, doug, carter, and susan. we had a great time, rachel ended up babysitting the twins, ella, cosmo and reilly. although when we came home everything was going well and the kids were playing, cosmo was sleeping and she was holding reilly.

carter had to go back to work so susan came over to the house with us and we had a few drinks, got caught up on all the recent happenings. we had about 4 hours worth of chatting before susan crashed on the couch. carol and elizabeth went to bed so doug and i decided to polish off a bottle of jd. i think i got to bed a little drunk, it was really bad...here my wife is sleeping and when i get remotely drunk it brings out a horribly unattractive sexual personality. not one of my better qualities, i kept waking elizabeth up but i pissed her off so bad that she threatened to kick me out of the room or go sleep in rachels room. i finally passed out and got some good sleep, i worked yesterday and i work tomorrow night.

doug and carol fly out around 7am tomorrow morning, we had another really nice dinner with all of us and the kids tonight. we had a toast to always be here for each other no matter what, see...before i knew it, carol and elizabeth had a good friendship before she and i started a relationship. they're great friends, i think elizabeth and i need to go out to seattle this spring/summer to visit them. we definitely need to keep a strong tie with them, doug is one of my closest friends in fact, a brother...maybe not through blood, but it's a sure thing.

its like living in an over priced hotel

2006-01-29T03:23:00.000-06:00

those are the words to describe our house right now. my parents leave for san diego in the morning but elizabeth and i got cross communicated with when they were leaving and when doug, carol and the kids were flying in. having said that, we have my parents, friends and their twin girls here. on top of that, we've kind of started housing a med student...weird?? not so much since weaver housed carter for a while.

doug and carol got into town around 1 or so this afternoon. i forgot how big the girls have gotten since we've seen them. they've had a blast with little ella though, and since kate isnt into sports she got to hang out with rachel for a while. doug and i went to the basketball court, that brought back so many memories..joking about us being old, it was great. since my parents are leaving tomorrow morning, and our friends flew in we had a nice dinner. my hat is off to elizabeth for pulling it off. i hate to say this but im actually going to miss my mother, my father...not so much for the simple fact that we dont get along. i did so many things just to piss him off that we fought more than we got along which is straining our relationship now. something im swearing against with reilly, i just dont think im going to be against understanding and accepting his choices in life. the kids went to bed somewhat early tonight and that gave us some quiet time around the house. my parents went to bed early so they would be rested for their flight in the morning.

what better than to crack open the alcohol for some drunk stories of the past with friends. we shared some good times, i consider doug a brother. the brother i never had? ha! my relationship guru, it was horrible...since hes known me the longest he had some stories for my wife that i had completely forgot about. it was fun to say the least. just wait until we get together with susan and carter....now there are some good times there, casting carters leg while he was sleeping, rapid dating that susan went on, all of the weaver insider. it'll be good to say the least.

at this time...

2006-01-26T15:17:00.000-06:00

elizabeth and i got into a fight yesterday that started on ella and quickly grew towards our own issues with each other. we didnt talk the rest of the night. i went to work and already having issues at home work wasnt much better, we have nicholes (a surgeon) who is pretty much taking over elizabeths position as acting associate cheif of surgery. and we have a resident surgeon who has a problem with authority.

the day shift left a gracious amount of rollover patients and i was the only attending on call besides carter. we had to call up for a surgeon and one of our new resident doctors asked who was in charge of this particular procedure and carter said 'well usually its dr.corday' and chuny, haleh and the resident looked at me of all people, then the resident went to the phone and a few minutes later i yelled 'where is our surgeon!" and the resident said "well i paged corday but no one knows where he is"... haleh started laughing and carter said to page nicholes down. jerry put his head around the corner and said 'dr. greene, dr.corday called about 20 minutes ago asking if someone paged her'. nice...

around 11 last night jenn came in wanting to talk to me, shes been acting weird lately. always popping into town, tonight she was outside when i went to the car to get some charts that elizabeth wanted romano to have. she asked me how things were going and if we could talk, we went across the street and started talking. she said, 'is that your car or elizabeths' (commenting on the escalade). i told her it was mutual..then she said, 'well first seeing your house mark, then the car, and you and elizabeth having another baby and all these things it seems like im losing rachel'. woah wait what the hell? i dont think our lifestyle has anything to do with rachel, when rachel is with jenn she isn't happy. she made me feel weird, when we were married it was nothing like how it is with elizabeth, the love is different, the whole relationship is different. jenn left me, and now her fight with rachel is now my problem. i dont think so. but now she wants to make this an issue....i have to talk to elizabeth about this now. wonderful!

this morning elizabeth came in and we talked, it was the best talk we've had in a while. we needed it, i feel like we're in a better place with each other because of it. i told her about jenn and her being the amazing woman she is, it went well. we went to her appointment and everything is going good. for whatever reason her doctor keeps reminding us that there is to be no sexual contact for 6 weeks, well now i think its more like 3 or 4 weeks? yeah something like that... anyway, they wouldnt even check out her cough and raspy throat because its not their 'department' so afterwards we went down to the er and took a curtain area. kerry told us not to start a chart since it was elizabeth, she didnt have a fever so i didnt do a rapid strep test however i did do a laryngscopic exam. mild sore throat shes got a cold nothing more. she went home and i finished work.

i got home around 1 and ella was playing her games, i asked elizabeth where she was and she said 'where she always is' so i went to the couch and turned the tv off that she was upside down watching while she played her game, i picked her up and told her we were going to do something other than play games. i got her and rachel and my dad and went outside and played soccer. elizabeth and my mother were inside and when we were done i took a shower and i think ella will sleep well tonight she ran all over the place. im going to take a shower and catch a few hours of sleep before dinner.

you know your tired when....

2006-01-23T23:49:00.000-06:00

that was the question we asked each other all day, susan, kovac and i were on back to back shifts from last night and had to cover for a short staff today. all day when we would see each other we'd say "hey susan, you know your tired when' and she would say "...when you mistake an lol for a peds case" it was pretty funny. i ended up getting off around 7pm tonight, so much for morning shift only huh.

i feel pretty bad about missing a lot of home life with elizabeth, rachel, ella and reilly...not to mention my parents, i was on a night shift saturday and slept most of sunday then was on a back to back last night through today. to make up for the lack of home life i watched part of this completely irrelevant mtv show with rachel while ella took a bath, after she was done i played a video game with her and she went to bed. fortunate for me elizabeth hadn't given reilly his bottle and so i got to give him his bath and i took him in his room and fed him and let him fall asleep and put him in his crib, when i layed him down he opened his eyes and i told him to go to sleep and he smiled at me....really, the highlight of my night.

my parents are still here driving my wife crazy, shes like night of the living dead zombie with no sleep, fragile emotional box and i love it. they arent kidding when they say surgeons wear their egos on their sleeves, therefore when she is in the frame of mind as she has been lately it's wonderful. almost humanistic. ha! tonight will be the first night in 3 days where ill be able to lay in bed with my wife.

music is a cure sometimes

2006-01-21T00:25:00.000-06:00

its funny how a song, or album and sometimes a band or artist can make you feel better. this little girl that came into the er today and needed a shot, so to take the attention off of the shot chuny and malik sang a song to her. around 1 or so we had a regular come in and since she was drunk she wanted someone to sing to her...it was priceless watching susan sing "good riddance" by greenday to her, what a day.

i came home from work and do my usual rounds with the kids, rachel had friend over doing a report for one of her classes. ella was discussing the boston tea party with my dad. reilly was in his swing in the living room sound asleep with his pacifier in his mouth and had the ipod on. i went in the kitchen where my mom and elizabeth were and elizabeth said that rachel put the ipod on him and he stopped crying so they left it on him. i think we are at a point with kids where whatever makes them stop crying is what we use. i got home at 7 and he slept in his swing until 8. i gave him his bath and got him dressed and fed him before he went to bed to give elizabeth a break. he wasnt fussy at all it was pretty cool, except he hates baths. he went to bed around 8:30. ella fell asleep around the same time and rachels friend is staying the night.

tomorrow i work the night shift so i have the day off and promised my dad we would go to the navy pier, and ella wants to go. hm, everything is pretty normal. jeff fixed our door censors so they don't beep unless someone actually opens or tries to open the door. no more windy alarms, it kept waking everyone up at all hours of the night.

this weekends tasks, do we take ella off the sippy cup or not? its nice when shes in the car/around the house because they don't spill but...she is 4. this could be a problem.

miracle workers

2006-01-20T01:10:00.000-06:00

i went back to work today and it was like i never left. we have a temp surgeon by the name of dr. nicholes, she came down for a consult and ripped me apart in triage over simple prognosis. kerry later informs me that shes here for the next month on a temp position pending elizabeths return and jeremy's boards. after the 3rd public lecture we had civil words. she was at the board getting ready for rounds and jerry answered the phone and says "Dr. Greene it's Dr.Corday for you"...she gave me a weird look and i told jerry that i'd take it in the lounge. when i came back she asked me how i knew "dr.corday" and i told her that she is my wife. that got her to shut her trap for a while. susan, carter, luka, sam, chuny and haleh all asked me when elizabeth was coming back because even she is more forgiving than dr. nicholes. when i went home i told elizabeth about her and she said that she knew who she was but had never met her and in fact even romano hates her.

tonight was dinner with jenn and her husband craig. im sure our introduction could have been better, ella had gotten sick just before they got to the house. elizabeth was panicking and she gave her a bath and thankfully it was on the tile floor so nothing major. i was holding her trying to get her to stop crying when the doorbell rang. she was somewhat relaxed and had stopped screaming when i opened the door but her hair was dripping wet and she was in big red socks and a big hockey jersey. jenn had this priceless look on her face and asked if everything was alright. i had them come in and we went to the living room and jenn asked if "the baby" as she calls ella had been crying. i just told her 'yeah until the doorbell rang'.. we sat and talked about their work and jobs etc. rachel came down with elizabeth and at this time ella was asleep and rachel was talking to jenn. elizabeth offered to take ella up to bed but i told her it was alright and took her upstairs, she woke up midstep and told me she didnt want to go to bed so i put her in her bed and told her she could watch tv or a movie. eventually she fell asleep. dinner was alright, conversation was better than expected and afterwards jenn and i talked about rachels spring break and graduation to try and plan something. reilly woke up and elizabeth brought him downstairs to feed him so jenn got to meet him and her husband comments to elizabeth 'wow i would have expected the baby to be much older' and elizabeth asks him why that is and he says 'because you dont have the body of a new mother'. i looked at her and looked at him and she just stood there. that went on for almost a half an hour before they left.

i dont even know what to think, my exwifes husband was flirting with my wife. too weird for words, i told doug on the phone tonight and he laughed his ass off. what are friends for right? i have a nice shift tomorrow, it'll go well as long as i dont have to work with nicholes. all bets on if any of the kids wake up. or my parents for that matter. elizabeth is already asleep and that sounds really good right now. the pillow and i have some catching up to do.

battle of the wives

2006-01-19T02:06:00.000-06:00

tonight rachel had a school theatre performance that her drama group put on, by her drama group i mean the kids that need to take the class as a mandatory program in order to keep a high gpa. this means all the kids there really couldn't care less. rachel stayed after school until the performance. my parents wanted to go so they got ready and elizabeth and i made ella dinner. i gave reilly a bath while elizabeth got ella warmer clothes. i fed reilly and elizabeth made him a bottle to put in his bag. we left around 6:20 and when i put reilly in his carseat he decided he wanted to cry, he cried until we got halfway down the street where he then fell asleep. we got to rachels school and decided not to take reilly out of his carseat, so we put his carseat into the lock on his stroller and put a blanket over him and another over his carsteat. ella fell asleep on the way to the school so i carried her. jenn was there and ended up talking to elizabeth through most of the performance, reilly and ella slept through the entire thing it was nice. since jenn is in town for the rest of the week working on a case elizabeth and i invinted her and her husband over for dinner tomorrow night, jenn said she wasnt sure because she'll be in court for most of the day and part of the evening which works out better because i dont get off until 7. shes coming over at 7:45 with her husband. i told elizabeth tonight that it was nice of her and she said she did it for rachel. when we told rachel she was really enthused so hopefully this works out well.

we got home tonight and reilly was changed fed and went straight to bed, and ella didnt even wake up when we got home so i put her right to bed. rachel had to stay and break down the sets and she got home around 11, elizabeth made her some tea and we talked about her mother coming for dinner and she went to bed. my parents went to bed and then elizabeth was on the phone with romano for almost an hour and i have a feeling shes doing work for him via home/internet etc. i go back tomorrow and i secretly can't wait.

our house remodel is going to be done tomorrow morning, they're installing a flat screen monitor in our office and another in reillys room and fixing the wires to the monitor in the kitchen and adjusting the motion censors on the doors because twice ella set them off while getting up in the middle of the night. everything else is looking great.

blood draw

2006-01-18T02:00:00.000-06:00

am i the only person having a weird day? maybe it is possible to wake up on the wrong side of the bed. i woke up to rachels alarm this morning at 5:45. It kept going off and eventually woke ella up so i went in her room and shut it off and woke her up. she went back to bed and when i got back upstairs ella had gotten into our bed and was sleeping next to elizabeth who too was sleeping. i went into reillys room and he was asleep so i went downstairs and made some coffee. elizabeth got up around 6:30 and soon after reilly was up. the hospital called today for elizabeth so i fed reilly this morning (just one of the perks of elizabeth not breastfeeding him) she got off the phone and made ella breakfast and i told her that rachel wasnt up yet so she went into her room and woke her up and that seemed to get her out of bed. elizabeth gave reilly a bath and i got ella through breakfast and she picked out her clothes for today.

i had to pick my parents up from the airport so elizabeth took the girls to school. i got reilly dressed after his bath while elizabeth got ella dressed and was doing her hair. the hospital called again for elizabeth so i left for the airport. their flight was delayed by two hours so i ended up sitting around doing nothing and i had to be home by 10am to go with elizabeth to reillys doctors appointment. 10 comes and goes and i was pissed off, their flight comes in and we leave the airport and get back to the house. elizabeth isn't home and i thought they were at the doctors appointment so there was really nothing i could do. she came home around 1pm. she picked ella up from her school on her way home and i told her i was sorry and she asked what for and i told her for missing the babys appointment and she said that it is actually the 18th which is wednesday. i cant keep the days straight.

my parents are here for two weeks, my mother wants to be here for us and the kids and she thought it would be a good idea for my dad to be around doctors 24/7. elizabeth yelled at him twice for his smoking. elizabeth and her mother had a blow up over the phone. rachel called around 3 to tell us she had a ride home from school and my wife asked her a thousand questions. my mom laughed and told her she was really good with rachel and that made her feel somewhat better. doug, carol and the twins are coming down this weekend, i do believe we are getting together with abby and carter. i go back to work on thursday. jenn is in town tomorrow to attend rachels school function, this is going to either be horribly awkward or very easy going.

as of thursday our home remodel will be complete...it'll be nice to no longer have someone in the house doing something, shutting something off or drilling something.

my mother had the opportunity to feed reilly tonight and then my dad talked him to sleep over a bunch of planes on a history show.

sleeeep

2006-01-15T00:29:00.000-06:00

elizabeth and reilly were discharged from the hospital this morning. the phone has been ringing since we got home from friends and family that want to see him. elizabeths father is flying in from england to see the baby, and in my opinion its nice but elizabeth thinks that her father and mother, since they are divorced it's going to be a pissing match of 'whos the better grandparent' as it was with ella.

im off until tuesday so ill get to spend some time with elizabeth and reilly. ella is adjusting pretty well and rachel is helping a lot. carol and doug called this morning to say congrats. it was pretty cool to hear from them, not to mention a complete suprise. even more shocking they are coming to chicago to see us. that was the best news so far. my mother and father called and that was nice.

some of the stuff we got for the baby.

carseat/stroller set

swing/playpen set

highchair

bouncer

this is display of what we got in the mail from doug and carol

1. newborn starter kit. this had a note that said: "not even a doctor can be too prepared"

2. new pacifier temp.

3. medicine giver...or something like that?

4. new starter bottles, soft squeeze

5. squishy pacifiers

elizabeth got these.. they are totally rubber, and a little weird.

we got quite a bit of sleep last night considering. as i type this elizabeth is in the shower, ella is asleep in bed, rachel is at a movie with her friend and reilly is in his bouncer sleeping with his pacifier. all in all things are going well...its so nice to be home and be able to watch a full football game tomorrow. chicago is playing, and ill be able to watch the game with doug, just as long as he isnt a seahawks fan it will be all good.

jan13: 2:03am

2006-01-13T20:46:00.000-06:00

as of 2:03am elizabeth gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Reilly Landon Marcus Greene. he weighed 7.2lbs and was about 17 inches long.

elizabeth started feeling slight contractions on wednesday evening, she told me about it that night on the phone while ella and i were in san diego visiting my father who was hospitalized. i talked to her late wednesday night and she said things were fine and all was good. well thursday she called and she was having contractions again so i played it safe and got a flight back home. i talked to her around 5pm and she wasnt feeling well, so i told her as soon as my flight got in we would go to the hospital if the contractions got closer together.

my flight was sort of delayed and we got after midnight, rachel left a note saying they went to the hospital because elizabeth had a low grade fever and had thrown up. i got to the hospital and elizabeth was in a trauma room and romano just so happened to be the attending on call in the ER that night doing rounds so he took her chart. they had called her o.b. but she was out of town because her fligth had been delayed due to bad weather. her fever was gone and when romano and neela went to move her from the trauma room her water broke. elizabeth was now forced to deliver in the er and with her choice of romano, kerry, carter or i to deliver. romano was down to see if it was necessary to do a c-section. everyone is pretty much intimidated by elizabeth so she said she wanted kerry to be the one to do it. i think that shocked kerry.

the clock says 1:57am and carter and romano are in the halls, chuny and i along with kerry are in tr1 with elizabeth. she had good vitals, she didnt sleep at all the night before so i can only imagine how restless she was by this point. kerry and i had to talk her through the contractions. and at one point she started crying and i talked her up a little and kerry stood up and grabbed her hand and told her "elizabeth, you can do this...its only going to be a few more minutes".

2:01am, kerry is talking to elizabeth and chuny and sam are getting prep ready for the baby. its now 2:02 and my pager is going off. romano comes in to ask a question, elizabeth screams at him..hes in shock for a moment. kerry trying not to laugh says he can observe if he'd like. the look on his face was a cross between seeing a ghost and having his balls kicked in. the baby starts to cry and elizabeth finally releases my hand. romano looks at the clock and says 2:03am. he walks out of tr1. i cut the cord and kerry put him on elizabeth. it's a boy, and he is beautiful. chuny took him to get cleaned up and they kept elizabeth in tr1 for a little while to monitor her and make sure everything was okay.

kerry and chuny were taking care of elizabeth and i went and made a few phone calls. i had to call elizabeths parents and my mother. rachel was waiting at the desk with carter and romano was talking to ella about how to insert a foley. i told everyone it was a boy. they got us a room upstairs just before 3 and elizabeth and our son are both doing great!

everyone from er/surgery have been stopping by and elizabeth has been sleeping, ella loves him and rachel loves his name. brown hair and blue eyes. for more reasons than one elizabeth has decided she doesnt want to breastfeed him. im almost glad because i was able to feed him this morning and this allows my wife to sleep. ive been stuck at the hospital all day, so i did actually go down to the er and see a patient or two while elizabeth was sleeping. if all goes well they will discharge elizabeth and reilly tomorrow.

Corday-Greene Parents

2006-01-13T02:48:00.000-06:00

This is just a post to keep the families notified of any further baby news as it comes. Since they are both pretty far away, and neither Mark or Elizabeth will be able to keep you in the constant loop.

5:00pm - I got word that Mark and Ella were taking or have already taken a flight back here to Chicago.

11:07pm - Rachel called and said that Elizabeth has been throwing up and running a mild fever, but she is asleep so there is no contraction update, if at all even happening. sit tight, we'll update when we know something about the baby. Still no status update on Marks flight back to Chicago.

2:37am - Elizabeth came in between 12 and 1am, long story short she gave birth at 2:03am to a healthy baby boy! Mom and baby are doing great.

posts made by Jerry

birth-day

2006-01-12T02:05:00.000-06:00

as of tonight we are officially on baby alert. this doesnt suprise me, carter and susan jinxed it because they both said 'when you leave is when the baby will come'...here we are, shes having contractions but still at home. they're still pretty far apart and knowing my wife she probably provoked it. my dad is feeling much better. almost (and i hate to say this) not worth flying out. his breathing decreased because he wasnt using his oxygen at night and he continues to smoke. the man is asking for a death wish. my mom is asking me every 20 minutes if i'd talked to elizabeth. this is the funniest thing thats happened all day. she has assured me that shes not in actual labor and i should stay with my dad. i did however call the hospital and talked to a great confiding friend who told me that elizabeths ob said she wasnt in actual labor and it could be days or even weeks if the contractions stop. more or less our child is just energetic.

they are going to release my dad in the morning...they just gave him new oxygen and told him if he keeps smoking hes going to die. he said he was going to keep smoking, and he didnt care what the doctors said, that it was his life and so on. it would have been fine but ella was in the room and was really bothered and upset and he looked at her and i said, "now say that to her"..i picked ella up and we left. she cried, and i was a little pissed off because he knew she was there and he knows better than to say that kind of crap in front of her. right now, i dont have anything to say to him so hopefully he'll have plenty to say in the morning.

father and son

2006-01-10T02:10:00.000-06:00

if elizabeth only knew what our daughter saw today. long story short, we are in the middle of a horrible snow storm so our daycare was closed. ella spent the day in the er. we have a new attending who had a transfer to our hospital that had asked who her mother was and since they dont know elizabeth carter tells her, "oh you dont know who dr.corday is, well your missing out then". everyone laughed. work went well until ella decided to wonder and found herself in a trauma room with weaver.

i got to work at 7:30am and we left around 8:00pm, ella was sleeping in the lounge so it was easy to get her home. everyone at work was asking how elizabeth is doing, besides being driven up the walls by romanos paperwork i heard that benton and lawson were on the board for saturday but elizabeth and robert are still crossed off the boards for next week.

i came home to a very pregnant elizabeth, she was asleep when i got in. i usually give her all the details of work because shes not there, but tonight was different. the phone rang around midnight and it was my mother telling me that my dad was admitted to the hospital and they dont know whats going on and they wouldnt tell her anything. i told her i would try to make it. so i woke elizabeth up and she told me to go be with him without hesitation. i booked a flight and am leaving for california in a few hours.

intubated, stable and detoxing

2005-12-31T00:31:00.000-06:00

it was nice having some time off work. there was over three feet of snow so we didnt have hardly any traumas in the morning, football in triage and wheel chair races through trauma 1 seemed to make things go faster. since we had three patients on the board in a period of 6 hours, carter and i went to lunch at 1pm. when we got back chuny said there had been an accident at a warehouse. since we were the closest hospital they sent us more critical than minor and that filled our board. since kerry is gone until after new years i had to call in staff. i paged luka and susan in, but romano and benton are out of town. elizabeth is very pregnant and at home, and lawson has a stomach flu so as a last minute effort i called elizabeth. she couldn't have been happier to come into work, everyone thought it was hilarious. at least no one needed a surgeon and she got to go home.

its new years eve, its been 5 years since my surgery....and im working the er. its going to be busy night.

it looks worse than it is

2005-12-30T00:48:00.000-06:00

im enjoying the last night of peace and quiet before work tomorrow. elizabeth had a hard day at work today so ive been playing the supportive husband role. which is good because when a fellow doctor/surgeon has a bad day we know how to relate to one another.

elizabeth and i took her parents to the airport a little after 5am this morning. there was obvious tension and i walked away from them so she could have some privacy with her parents. when she came back she looked like she was going to cry and from what i could tell nothing was accomplished, she had to go to work so i dropped her off before going home.

carter called the house while i was taking elizabeth to work so my mother told me that he called and that she was going to watch ella so that i could go work out with carter, this was sort of nice because we hadnt done it in a while. i feel out of shape.

while we were out my mom went upstairs to wake ella up and noticed her mouth had bled a lot while she was sleeping and it was swollen more than it was last night so she called elizabeth at work and elizabeth told her to bring ella in. when ella got there elizabeth looked at her mouth and used saline to clean it. she gave her a shot of meds to bring the swelling and discomfort down and made sure ella didnt have a reaction to the medication. a few people thought ella got into a fght because she has a bruise under her eye. ella told chuny that it looks worse than it is, chuny told elizabeth that she is definitely our kid, i thought that was funny. elizabeth paged me after my mom called so i went to the hospital and picked ella up and everything went well.

the medication ella is on is making her want to sleep all the time. elizabeth called her coach to tell him she wasnt going to be there tonight and her coach called me at the house today to ask if my wife was angry about what happened. HA! elizabeth mad? never! heh...i told him she was fine and ella just needs some rest and time to heal. im working a morning shift tomorrow and i have a feeling my dad is going to come in...call it an intuition. finally, its time to get some sleep.

to full advantage

2005-12-27T23:13:00.000-06:00

i worked christmas eve and have been off since sunday. i go back to work on thursday and work three shifts to finish up 2005. kerry and i finished up the january shift blocks per attending. im off sunday and monday then im on a week of 7am-7pm shifts then im on a week of 9pm-9am shifts, then its back to days and i finish up the month on nights again. the 1st of the month is the most chaotic because for the first week we have promotions/position changes staff meetings and new med students and an attending briefing. now that i think about it im going to enjoy the rest of this time off.

we had a nice christmas, i think if one more person asks to touch elizabeths stomach shes going to snap at them. shes already not a big touchy person this only makes it worse, her mother is on her ass about it which is quite entertaining, and then i get the look and thats my que to leave. rachel made some big saves with elizabeth during christmas, stuff that my wife by now should know not to get into, her and my father have these weird conversations about the british and american wars. pretty boring if you ask me.

pros and cons to christmas

2005-12-19T18:28:00.000-06:00

im beginning to think that christmas isn't about love, family and kindness but instead...fighting with strangers, stealing parking spots, cutting in lines, shouting at people and being rude to others. what is it about a holiday that is supposed to bring people close that make them act like animals? I give up. i went this afternoon and bought some stuff for rachel and ella. The only one i have taken care of is elizabeth because i did it in november. i don't know what to get rachel, ella wants a nintendo ds but elizabeth doesnt want me to get it for her but she always kicks lukas ass at need for speed for xbox. i dont know how or where she gets that from. and we still have some of the staff to buy for. at least elizabeth and i have a pattern, she buys for her family and signs my name and i buy for my family and sign her name it always works out in the end. this is rachels last week of school, its christmas week at ellas daycare/school, today was pajama pancake christmas breakfast day and tomorrow is parent day [dress up as your mom or dad for the day] culture christmas lunch. wednesday is white christmas carol play wednesday night. thursday is gingerbread house day and friday is christmas day in the classroom. each student drew names and have to buy 1 present. ella and brayden have to exchange gifts. its a good thing they're friends, his mom works in picu ha!

a life like this

2005-10-22T21:33:00.000-05:00

elizabeth and ella are both sick in bed with the flu. it was a bloody mess at work. i worked 32 hour shift and came home to a vomitting ella. i got three days off of work so at least this will give me time to catch their flu and take another few days off to recover. thank god for compazine.

shift coverage happens

2005-09-06T02:07:00.000-05:00

if people had more common sense then i would be out of a job. we usually get the normal, mva's/gsw's/ alcohol poisoning/drug overdose patients, but this year we had more surgical candidates than simple er patients. things put in places they shouldn't be put. fireworks gone wrong and my personal favorite.. "It was a bet, I didn't think it'd get stuck". I got to work a little after 8pm, pratt and chen went home and it was just lewis and i working with one med student and an intern. two nurses called in sick and we were short two surgeons. elizabeth/romano and lawsons names were crossed off the boards, so we were sugically short staffed. we didnt see a lot of traumas until 1am or so. i was supposed to get off at 8:30am but two attendings called in sick and chen had a family emergency so lewis and i were stuck on call with carter and kovac. our peds surgeon is in ireland and romano is still out of town, it looks like we have two surgeons for the entire hospital.

chemical balance

2005-08-26T21:15:00.000-05:00

elizabeth is going through horrible mood swings, this makes me incredibly happy because romano is getting the worst of it. rachel is supposed to come back from her mothers this week so we can get a school enrollment going. i really dont have anything interesting to say, but when i do i guess ill post it.

a time, a change, a growth

2005-08-13T21:05:00.000-05:00

elizabeth and i went to her appointment today, there were so many men there that looked stiff and uncomfortable it was funny. the doctor though said that elizabeth was further along than we expected and told her that its not uncommon for women to be pregnant and still have their period. it looks like our baby will be born in 06 and had a healthy heartbeat and all was good.

phased and confused

2005-08-11T02:52:00.000-05:00

we took ella out of this early school program because of recent events. i worked half a shift in complete and partial darkness due to crappy power outages. my wife told me she needed to talk to me tonight, i got into it with romano about her leaving again this time to paris? it was strange because he made it seem like i had something to do with her denying the offer. weird because she never mentioned it. maybe she can shed some light on whats going on.

we have an ob apointment next week, we are going to keep this private as long as possible...once word gets out at the hospital we are kind of screwed.

at halfway we meet

2005-08-10T00:16:00.000-05:00

elizabeth woke up several times during the night and i kept waking up and she would apologize and say its her sleep pattern. i made ella breakfast in the morning and gave elizabeth some tea, when i gave ella her cereal elizabeth looked at her and got up and went upstairs. rachel looked at me like 'what the hell'...so i went after her, she got sick. i waited in our bedroom and when she came out i asked her if she was okay and she said yes. everything seemed alright.

later at work, susan asked me if elizabeth was okay because she was getting sick and i said i wasnt sure, so i asked if someone had seen her. she was outside sitting down so i went up and sat with her and asked if she was okay. she took a deep breath and looked over and said she was pregnant. i asked her if she was sure she said yes. i really was about to say something when a patient crashed, i went back inside and told her we would talk later. i told her everything was going to be fine, but really...she didnt seem fine.

home sweet home

2005-07-23T01:13:00.000-05:00

we got the call, elizabeth is coming home on sunday. it was pure irony, i was up at the surgical ward with susan when the scheduling nurse was doing the boards for monday and elizabeths name was on the board. i went up to the desk and she said 'oh yeah dr.corday will be back on sunday" and then my favorite 5ft tall smart ass walked in, to my shock. he said 'ah mark nice to see you, you'd be proud of lizzy she did great" and i asked him if she knew he was back and he said "why should i have told her, its not like she'd miss me". susan looked at me and said 'uh oh, shes going to be one pissed off surgeon". we went back to the er.

at least while at work elizabeth called the hospital and i got to talk to her for about 30 seconds but that was enough just to say i love you i miss you and ella is great. i got her flight info and everything seems to be going according to plan. now i just have to break the news to her that our daughter saw a trauma and is now having nightmares because of it. maybe ill tell that to her after i tell her some of the crap thats been going on with jenn.

my life, my wife the peacemaker

2005-07-21T01:43:00.000-05:00

elizabeth has been gone since monday, ella has been going to the hospital daycare everyday since monday, she hates it. i think shes over the lets hate dad phase and now maybe i can get her to work with me. i was in the cafeteria with ella today and carter came up and we were talking. he was joking about getting a transfer and i said 'maybe then the patients wont throw up on us' and ella turns with this look and starts asking "who threw up daddy?!?" so carter goes on to ask her 'hey do you miss you mom' she got quiet and i said 'thanks carter' he said sorry and i took ella to the daycare.

i had a staff meeting tuesday that got us nowhere since we're missing an attending. we got new med students today, one who is supposed to be elizabeths surgical student has now taken on the er untils shes comes back. they hate the er. at least they know how to intubate. i work thursday and friday but have saturday and sunday off. we have an attending briefing saturday, but we rescheduled for tuedsay. my parents went home, jenn has been leaving weird messages for me. she wants to see me tomorrow but i think im going to kindly decline.

just call me dr.chaos

2005-07-17T02:44:00.000-05:00

elizabeth went to london to assist with the recent state of emergency with their hospital. along with elizabeth, we let neela and jeremy go and assist in the trauma department. the next week is going to be a pain in the ass because now we're three surgeons and a resident short of a full staff. at least kerry came back to work today.

since my wife is in london until next week and our nanny is out of town so ella is going to the hospital daycare. my parents flight has yet again been delayed and the snow is getting worse, this may not be such a bad thing all things considering. i didnt work today, so i took elizabeth to the airport this evening. her flight left after 7pm and she will be in around 4am our time and 12pm london time, at least i think? oh well..as long as she gets there safe thats all that matters.

ella is being a rebel because she misses elizabeth, so i caved in and took her to hockey practice. rachel and jenn flew in tonight. when we got home ella thought it was elizabeth and froze when she saw it was jenn she gave me a weird look which she got from her mother and smiled at jenn while she introduced herself, even though jenn has met her before ha! i told ella to go lay down for bed and rachel went to her room. jenn and i went into the kitchen and i made some coffee, it was weird because not once did we talk about rachel. this was really the entire point of her flying in, kind of weird in my opinion. she was talking about our past (even more weird) kerry called and elizabeth was mentioned which broke up this vibe jenn was creating. i got off the phone and jenn said she had to go, she left in a hurry and didnt say much. i hate to say this but i feel better now that shes gone.

i have a shift tomorrow and ellas going to the hospital daycare. i think my parents are taking a mid-day flight to san diego and all i have to do is keep tabs on rachel and i think the week will go smoothe.

before, during and after

2005-07-07T18:49:00.000-05:00

its fantastic to read between the lines of my wifes words during a major trauma. carter said 'wow dr.corday if you ever decide to give up the surgeon gig you'll always have a home here in the er'. the last week has been good, work has gone well, every patient that's come in i've treated with assistance from the AR staff. you would think some people would learn after the 3rd trip to the er after infection that they shouldn't go to an underground clinic for a suture. i worked from 7am to 7pm and when i was supposed to be off i got stuck covering for someone until 2am. i have to be at work at 7am again.

my wife the english, showed her americanism on the 4th. it was almost funny, she has lived here long enough to not use the 'im british' excuse for a patriotic holiday. though, she did have valid points.

explicit

2005-07-02T03:13:00.000-05:00

have you ever had one of those days where you got very little sleep and when you try to go to bed you've got such an incredible feeling it's almost impossible to close your eyes...welcome to my state of mind. elizabeth and i have been married for 4 years now and with that she has figured out all the things that drive me absolutely crazy. our alarm went off a little after 5 in the morning even though neither one of us had to get up until after 6. i shut the alarm off and went back to bed, before i could actually fall asleep elizabeths hand was pressed against my chest, this is somewhat odd because she is usually sleeping. her hand slowly moved down to my stomach and she leaned over my shoulder and whispered "did that wake you up" and I turned and said "yeah, did you have to get up" and she said "no", she was pressed right against my ear and leaned in kissing my neck, she knows me too well.. she wasn't stopping and i wasn't going to make her, i turned to her and kissed her, in my mind i was saying "YESSSSSSS!". i leaned in further and kissed her now being on top of her, she kissed me and with force ended up on top of me, the moonlight lit up her blue eyes and her red curls covered her face. i brushed her curls out of her face and kissed her neck, (I have a thing for her neck).

this is a side of my wife that i haven't seen for a while, she started to kiss my neck and push my boxers down, my mind saying "holy crap!". her kisses move down to my chest as i feel her hips press down on mine. intense is the only word that i can think of that comes close to how everything feels. its almost as intense as the first time, it's as if all the sexual tension we've had the last couple weeks has been removed and we crash into each other with all of the energy, remarkable. this lasted almost two hours.

our night ended better than our morning started. our lucky number for today was 6.

learning a lesson the hard way

2005-06-03T02:11:00.000-05:00

Kelly (our nanny) is back today (thank god!) elizabeth went in during the morning/afternoon and i went on at 12pm. around 11pm elizabeth came in and brought me coffee (she reads my mind well) she has to put a presentation/slide together for surgical med-students on rotation. this is all part of romano's payback for the 'fight' in the er the other day. she stayed until my shift ended and we came home together. i gotta say i miss spending that time with her, just her and i on the el at 12:30 in the morning, talking...its nice.

dr.strangelove

2005-05-26T01:33:00.000-05:00

i'm on emergency call at the hospital tomorrow and im working a partial morning shift. rachel has decided to go to her mothers for the summer instead of staying here. so ella is going to have a full summer of either daycare/ or a nanny since elizabeth and i are working. romano and weaver got into it in the hallway today, mild humor ran through the halls for about 20 minutes after they verbally attacked each other before moving on to elizabeth and carter. now im really looking forward to the next week of work. i have a bid for the 4th of july off work.

no introduction necessary

2005-05-20T00:42:00.000-05:00

i feel like i should give some sort of introduction...forget it, thats not necessary. i was recommended this site from a fellow doctor, i think the blog will listen better than our own psych residents. ella is 4, rachel 16 and my wife and i have been married for 4 years....possibly expecting a 2nd child in the fall/winter of 2006.

since this is a blog based on a television character who was killed off i figure we can change the story because it really was going nowhere.