where'd his face go?

so there's this episode of grey's anatomy where this little boy is really scared to go into surgery because he doesn't know what's going to go on. one of the doctors (george o'malley) asks for special permission to be able to take this little boy into an OR to see a surgery. it's supposed to be a really easy, clean surgery. a laparoscopic appy or something like that. something where he wouldn't actually see anything.

anyway, george accidentally takes the little boy into the wrong OR and the little boy sees what i got to see recently during my clinical nursing rotation through the OR.

what is it that this little boy and i saw?? well, take a little look for yourself. if you just can't wait, scroll ahead through the youtube video to around 1:00.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeekk!!!!!!

yeah, that's right. i got to see the process of surgeons taking someone's face off. while it wasn't exactly what it looks like in grey's, it's the same general idea. they just incise up and around from ear to ear and then start working away at pulling down. i got to see about 5 hours of this. when i left, they still weren't done! they were still working around the eyes! 

isn't that truly amazing? seriously! how in the heck did someone ever figure out that you could peel someone's face off and then put it back on. and who in the heck was the first person who consented to allow doctors to do that? 

i wonder sometimes if we sometimes go too far in medicine and take on a god-like role in preserving life when naturally, life shouldn't exist. that in itself is a topic for another day. it's just amazing how many things we can do and how many things we've been able to figure out about the human body. 

i'm so happy i'm doing what i'm doing now. i love it!

meet the new roommates.

We had a ward gathering at my apartment recently. I was in charge of introducing myself and my two other roommates. Oh boy, it was fun. It was intro a la statistics style. For your pleasure...

between us 3, we have had 74 roommates. 

we've lived in 20 different apartments, 7 different states.

we have 3 bachelor's degrees from BYU and are all now enrolled at U of U.

we took 442 credits and 26 religion classes total at BYU.

collectively, we have been playing the piano for 45 years!! whaaat??

we've served 3 missions, to 2 countries (canada and paraguay)

combined, we've had 39 companions and served in 16 different areas.

we've had 24 different callings since we started college.

we've done ordinances in 20 different temples.

we've visited 4 different continents and 15 countries.

we own 31 scarves, 84 pairs of shoes, and 62 tubes of chapstick/lipgloss/lipstick - 45 of which are owned by one person -- take a wild guess. yup, that'd be me.

just 2 broken bones - both pinkie bones.

3 surgeries - 1 each.

we've run 2 5Ks, 1 10 mile race, 4 half marathons, and 1 ragnar. actually, that was all 1 person. there's only 1 runner in the house.

together we've had 7 boyfriends ranging from semi-serious to pretty dang serious.

we've kissed 18 boys. 2 of us actually kissed the same boy, back before we even knew each other. small world, right??

i love my living situation right now. i'm so lucky to be with such great friends. it's a riot every single night!

why i've been AWOL

i do like blogging. i really do. i like writing. i do!

i found out i liked writing on the mission. weird, right? not poetry or novels or anything like that. this kind of writing. bloggy-type writing. i got to do it every week with my email home on the mission. i had a captive audience and pretty much the best material anyone could ask for. paraguay and the mission provided for some pretty entertaining stories. turns out my real life right now provides for some pretty entertaining stories too. 

so why have i been AWOL for like the past million years? what has happened since my last post that was like back in FEBRUARY? 

i graduated from byu. (yaay!!)

vacayed in AR for 2.5 weeks.

started nursing school at u of u.

had the busiest summer semester imaginable.

almost died taking my pharmacology class. that class was a beast.

3 hours commuting every day. yikes. made for good study time though.

tried to maintain a fun social life for my last little bit in provo. summer in provo is just too fun.

i invested a lot of emotion dating a boy who told me he loved me. it didn't work out but that's for the best.

oh and i moved to salt lake. 

so needless to say, i've had a few things on my plate. but now things are a lot calmer. my semester is much more mellow. no 3 hours every day of commuting. no staying up way too late and waking up way too early. no more pharmacology (that in itself makes everything calmer). and i found myself missing writing. 

it's not the great american novel or anything like that. if anything, it's just the weird, jumbled ramblings of my random mind. but it helps me feel good.