Harvest

I was talking to one of our charge nurses earlier this week about how we get organs for our patients and how difficult it is to coordinate a "harvest" (that is what they call it when they take the organ out of the donor) because of all the people and all the steps involved and how you only have so many hours between taking a heart out of a donor and getting it into a recipient. She said that I should go watch one sometime, but then we talked about how hard that is to plan because you never really know when (or where) and organ is going to become available. I worked the day shift on Monday and then met up with dad and Julie (who are in town for New Years) for dinner. We were about halfway done when I got a call from our transplant fellow, Dave, asking if I wanted to come with him to harvest a heart in Reno that night! Who cares about sleep! I met him and a med student (Saba) at UCLA at 11:45pm where a limo picked us up to take us to a private jet. Apparently someone did the math and figured out it was cheaper (and more comfortable) for us to ride in a limo than an ambulance :) We then flew to Reno (about an hour) where another limo was waiting to take us to the donor hospital. We arrived around 2:00am, waited for the other surgical teams to arrive (who were coming in from all over the eastern US to harvest the other organs) and then began the surgery around 2:30am. We reversed our path and were back to LA around 6:30am. I opted out of watching the implant since I had been up for about 24 hours at this point and instead headed out to meet dad and Julie for breakfast... it was an AMAZING night!

Christmas Feast

The Thanksgiving Orphaned Feast was such a hit that we went ahead and had another one! Those of us who won't be able to make it home to our own families for the holidays (we are "orphans") got together to eat, drink and be merry... there are a couple new faces in the crowd, mostly they are people who were off for Thanksgiving (so they went home) but will be working Christmas (so now they are here):

Top Row L to R: Marissa, Kayla, Ashely, Kim, Paige

Bottom Row L to R: AP, Lilly, Duncan, Lyndsie, Lee, Omkar, Mike

The Nutcracker

Yes, we experienced the magic... but more importantly, we experienced the Rat King in the lobby afterwards.

L to R: Rat King, Paige

L to R: Jocelyn, Paige, Kris

Motorcycle Class

Kayla and I have been living in The 1606 for almost a year now which means that our lease is almost up! Over the course of this year we have discovered that while our current apartment is convenient when it comes to commuting to work, there are far cooler places to live in Los Angeles. With this in mind we are starting the apartment hunt down by the beach. The only problem is that if we do end up moving, it will mean a minimum hour-long commute to (or from) work, depending on what shift I am working. It is not like we are planning on moving that far from where we are now, it is just that LA traffic is ridiculous. Where else is traffic/congestion this bad? Europe. What do they do there? Ride scooters. Now hold on mom, I know you don't want me to get flattened like a bug so I am thoroughly researching my options (which still include my car) but just incase I decide to go the two wheel route I signed up for a Basic Rider Course at the Westside Motorcycle Academy this weekend... it is harder than I thought it would be but also about a million times more awesome than I had imagined. For anyone who is wondering, 'over the ankle shoes' were required and my knee high boots are the only shoes I own in that category (they were a hit with the other students).

Christmas Ornaments

The Frasers

Laura posted about her engagement...

This is the CTICU

I posted this video back in March right before I started officially working on the floor. I can't believe it has been eight months! I am reaching the point where I have learned enough to know just how much there is that I don't know... the studying continues :) Since starting on the unit I have joined our Spirit and Enrichment Committee. We have planned a Christmas party for tomorrow night and I volunteered to make this year's slideshow - I hope you like it! Over the course of the year we moved into a brand new (earthquake proof) hospital (the Ronald Reagan Medical Center at UCLA), that is what you are seeing at the beginning of the video - our "old" unit (in the other hospital) was called the 4 East ICU (4EICU).

Surf Class

When I started working at UCLA I joined the UCLA gym because it was my cheapest option. It turns out that my gym membership also qualifies me for all the student perks that are offered through UCLA's rec program, I finally took full advantage of this by signing up for a surf class last month which was held every Tuesday from 7:30am to 9:30am down at Venice beach. I had mom as a spectator last week and she took a couple pictures for me - lets be honest, I won't be starring in Blue Crush II but at least I got up!

Mom and Kaite

November was busy (this explains five posts in one night) and it culminated with a visit from Mom and Katie... I do not have the energy or the brain power to describe a trip that spanned visiting the Getty villa to seeing Twilight but I would like to note that in true southern California fashion I took them both to yoga:











I will admit that I had only gone twice prior to their visit (actually, I went in preparation for their visit if truth be told) but that added to the fun/pain. I went with mom the day she arrived and I went with Katie the day she left... how very symmetrical, maybe I am more of a yogi than I thought.

Update

my AOWD video works now... katie fixed it.

Orphaned Feast

Mom and Katie haven't been out to LA yet so they decided that Thanksgiving was the perfect excuse for a visit... Mom got in the Saturday before but Katie didn't actually fly in until Thanksgiving day (Thursday) so we decided to have our meal the day after Thanksgiving day (so as not to rush things like icicle light hanging and Christmas picture taking, both of which are just as central to our holiday as turkey). My friends were appropriately jealous that my mom would be visiting at such an opportune time so I decided to share the wealth and plan an 'Orphaned Feast' for anyone unable to make it home to their own family for Thanksgiving. We got together at Duncan, Ashley and Kim's new apartment (it is a tad classier/larger than the 1606), ate until we could barely move, and then played Rock Band to make room for dessert. All in all, I would say it was one of my most favorite Thanksgivings :)

L to R: Paige, Duncan, Mom, Lee, Katie, Brandon, Ashley, Jocelyn

Mr. and Mrs. JBF IV

LaHender is engaged! She will have to (and by have to I of course mean get to) change her email address to LaBacon... Jay surprised her on Thanksgiving morning with breakfast in bed (hence the pancakes and Laura's general sleepiness) I won't give you full details now because I am pretty sure Laura is working on a blog post of her own (I hear tell there is VIDEO involved!) and I wouldn't want to steal her thunder, so a couple pictures will have to suffice:
notice the KD shirt... it makes me proud