New photos!!! Click the link! They are from Wimbledon and Rollerblading.
I have been very negligent of my poor blog lately. Sorry for that! I don't know what has gotten into me..
Saturday was quite uneventful. I was still feeling sick so Lizzie was my nurse (imagine that??!!) and we stayed in all day and rested.
Sunday was quite the opposite. Ha. We slept kind of late and I had come up with the brilliant idea that we should all go rollerblading aka "blading" in Kensington Park. I had seen an advertisement for rollerblades "for hire" so I talked all of the girls into going with! We paid 10 pounds and rented them for three hours! Not bad! The store clerk offered knee pads and elbow pads to us but we refused gracefully. Or rather, I said, "I'm too cool for those. Thank you anyway." :) I knew we were in for trouble when Liz and Tori had to hold onto Macon's arms to cross the street to get to the other sidewalk. The girls finally gained some confidence so we all bladed across cobblestone (made for a bumpy ride, let me assure you) around the park. We went by Kensington Palace, former home of Princess Diana, but weren't able to go in since we had on our blades. Long story short -- I am attaching Liz's video description of the happenings -- Liz had a huge wipeout, Tori fell on her butt, and I ran into a tree in a matter of thirty seconds. Tori and I were fine but Liz fared much worse. She has some serious battle wounds. Fortunately, she took it in good stride and was tripping out the entire time. She was too embarrassed to turn her blades in (she was sure that everyone who passed by was looking at her knee), so she waited outside as we paid and such. We stopped by the pharmacy and picked up some supplies to nurse her wounds. She took a bath to clean it out right when we got home and I got the pleasure of pouring alcohol onto her legs and arms. I am sure it sounded like I was slaying her at that very moment. Ha. It happened almost three days ago and the pain hasn't subsided much at all. I feel terrible for her, but she won't let me love on her much. Booo..Thank goodness for Tylenol PM! I think thats the only way that she is able to sleep.
Monday morning, we all got up and readied ourselves for our first days at our internships. I arrived at The Birth Company around 9:30am and by 11am, Dr. Gibb and I were on our way to Portland Hospital to deliver twins via Cesarean section. I was pumped!! We changed into our scrubs and headed right into the operating room. It was incredible. I will save all of the gory details in case you don't have a strong stomach. If you do, however, please ask about it. I love sharing stories!!! Basically, though, it was unlike anything I have ever seen before. Beautiful and disgusting all at the same time, to be honest. The babies were absolutely perfect. The boy came first weighing in at 5lbs 3.5oz and the girl came less than a minute later and weighed 5lbs 3oz. The parents gave me THEIR camera so I was responsible for taking photos the whole time! Ahhh! The poor daddy was sitting up by the mother's face and had to breathe very deeply at even the thought of what was going on below the screen. After they sent the new family to the recovery room, Dr. Gibb sort of threw me for a loop and said he had to hurry back to the office so I basically had to fend for myself to get changed, leave the hospital, and get back to the office. Now, I know that doesn't sound too difficult, but when you don't have an employee badge in and around an operating room, it can prove to be quite challenging. I finally found my way around and figured out how to get back to the office. I took a quick lunch break and then went back to the office for the afternoon appointments. Most women that came in had scans to check for abnormalities, growth, well-being, etc, of their babies. We had a range of patients come in and I was so intrigued by the different backgrounds, medical histories, and stories of each of the women. I got to see scans of pregnancies from 7 weeks to 10 days overdue! Dr. Gibb delivered all good news yesterday so it was a very inspirational day for me! Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed my first day.
By the way, I must say that I feel such like a "city girl" as I walk through the crowded streets of London on my way to and from work :)
I went to work for a half-day today. Dr. Gibb is on "holiday" so one of his associates, Dr. Abbas, was there to fill in for him. I got to see a CVS today and that was quite impressive. Again, not trying to gross anyone out here, but it was the coolest thing. CVS's are performed to determine if the baby has Downs syndrome or any other chromosomal disorders. These tests carry a risk of miscarriage and must only be performed if there is significant reason to believe that the child may suffer from one of the disorders. Anyway, Dr. Abbas discussed the risks with the patient and proceeded with the test. Dr. Abbas then performed a scan to see where the placenta was located. Next, he put on some local anesthetic and then stuck a needle about as long as my forearm (no kidding) into her stomach. We watched the scan the whole time and I saw the needle go right into the placenta! What an amazing thing! He then drew up a sample of tissue and blood and that was it! We checked for the heartbeat and it was still there. Seeing the heartbeat means that the risk of miscarriage is reduced from 4% to 1%. Anyway, moving on from the medical jargon.....
We were finished with appointments by 3:45pm so stopped on the way home to buy a much-needed fan for our room. I have been so freaking hot. I packed for chilly, rainy weather and it has been neither since we have been here. It got up to 84 degrees today. Blech. I know that doesn't touch what y'all have been getting in Georgia, but this girl never likes hot weather anyway. Plus -- I wasn't mentally prepared for it, you know? ;) I got the okay from Mama to get some shorts and other hot-weather gear since I foolishly thought I wouldn't need mine. Oh well...it won't hurt me to get a fewwww new things, will it? Haha...
We are all watching The Queen right now. We are all feeling very Brit-ish, I guess! I'm getting sleepy, though, so we will see how long I last. Hope everyone is doing well! I miss the States!
Lots of love,
Abbie
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