We've Officially Spilled the Beans!

Alright all you blog junkies - we know what you've been craving - we know what you've been missing!! You've been waiting patiently to hear about . . . .insulating our attic!! No? . . . . . Caitlin starting a new semester!! Not that either? . . . Jesse's recent election to the board of Slow Food of Central New York (SFCNY)??? Hmmm . . . .what else could I POSSIBLY post about . . . .

How 'bout babies?

Bingo! We are pregnant - or, in the words of my physician when calling me with the results of the blood test, we are "very positive." I do say "we" because while I know that yes, technically I (Caitlin) am the one physiologically preggers, it certainly took two to tango on this one - and our Caitie-Jesse Super Duper Team America is psyched and (mostly) ready to take on Babydom!

I am officially 14 Weeks today according to our first ultrasound back in December. The first trimester included some constant low-level nausea ("morning" sickness is a misnomer! Some women have it at different points throughout or during the ENTIRETY of the day - moi - and some have it last throughout the entire pregnancy - not moi thank goodness), funky things going on with my joints (who knew my xiphoid process would start hurting???), and a general feeling of "oh my doodness."

The second trimester seems to moving along fine - much less nausea, the ability to tell you all (secrets are HARD!), and I think I may even have a bit of a baby bump! We won't be able to tell for a few more weeks if it's a boy or girl, but I've come around to being excited about either :)

(By the way, Auntie Nally has informed me that those are the only options - nothing with tentacles. You got it, dude!)

Thankfully, it looks as if I am going to be able to continue right along with school - though I feel as though there are warnings out there about "best laid plans" . . . .Anyway, I've been talking with the PT Department over at Upstate and they have been amazing in their support and encouragement thus far. My Clinic II (which WAS previously scheduled to be 4 hours away and in the middle of my new due date of July 13) will have to be shifted around a bit, but we are going to try, try, TRY to keep me on track with school. Luckily, a July 13 due date ALSO means that Jesse will be home for the summer from work - so it looks like we'll have 6 weeks of togetherness at home as a threesome! We'll see about those "best laid plans" . . .

We'll be posting more pictures - mostly of my growing belly at this point since there won't be any cute infant-like pictures for about 6 more months!

Love to you all - we are so happy to be able to finally share this with all of you. Happy January!

Caitlin and Jesse

You Think You Know a Person . . .

Alright folks, it's time to reveal our deep, dark secret. Where exactly HAVE Jesse and Caitlin been spiriting off to the past few Thursday nights? What DOES that leather pouch clutched in Jesse's enthusiastic fist contain? Just HOW BIG of dorks are we?

Well, you probably already knew the answer to that last one, but as for the others . . .

Deep, dark confession here . . . .

Jesse and I have joined . . . a weekly D&D group. Now, wait!! For those of you with especially dirty minds (Lois!) D&D stands for Dungeons and Dragons - aka juuuuuuuust about the nerdiest past time that furtively pimpled, creative prepubescent minds could come up with. (Except for dressing as wizards and sword-playing with sticks in the front yard - which we are now that much closer to doing at some point, I'm not going to lie.) Oh, and our group is made up of college professors, work place professionals, food activists, public education teachers, and graduate students.

There! It is finally out! Phew! No more hiding in the shadows - I have been playing as a giant air-being named Kronos, who has a big spiked-chain-on-a-stick that he whirls around and kills werewolves with. Jesse is an elven tracker (think Legolas!) who's race is suffering from a mysterios Elf disease called 'the Gloaming'. We travel with a motley band consisting of a druid, a drunken monk, and a human - going on quests, rescuing kidnapped cousins . . . whoo hoo!

Now, I should attempt to clear something up here for those who are as clueless about D&D as I was only a few short weeks ago. Basically, you and the DM (Dungeon Master!) come up with a character that fits within the 'world' that the DM has created/thought up/etc. The character has back history (family, homeland, a certain race), characteristics depending on their race or orientation (bravery, fighting skills, sneakiness, healing powers), and their own agenda that the rest of the characters may or may not be aware of. Once the character is thought up, the group is given a 'quest' by the DM and the members of the group basically start telling a story, describing how their characters would proceed through the quest. Periodically, the DM says, "nope, that character wouldn't do that" or "suddenly a landslide buries Kronos!" and then inevitably the characters would work together with their different abilities to dig out Kronos, see through dirt, call up a windstorm to clear the dirt, heal Kronos with potions, something like that. It's fun because everyone takes a turn to tell part of the story - and the Thursday night group in general is pretty goofy so we have a good time.

So, there! Our secret is out. On Thursday nights we go to our friend Paul's house (met him and his husband through the CSA, also a board member of Syracuse chapter of Slow Food) and Jesse brings his leather pouch of special D&D dice. As I have been informed, it is NOT kosher to roll another man's die. I have not yet made the final step of purchasing my own multifaceted tumbling harbingers of chance, but I'm guessing it will be any day now . . . .

PS: The pictures are from our 2nd Anniversary weekend!

I am Looking Out the Window AND . . .

I SEE SNOW! Yes, that's right, our first snow fall. I have no idea if it's sticking around for long, but it is nice that it has happened on a Friday (no classes for me!) so I can mosey throughout the house with my cup of coffee, snug as a bug in a rug! I know as a Syracusian we are in for more than our fair share of the stuff, but I can't help still getting excited at the first snow . . .

So! Our night in Philly! It was combo surprise birthday party for Jill's bud Julia and our dear friend Tom (Jilly's hubs). Julia loves surprises and Tom hates them, so it kinda worked out well for both - Julia got to be surprised, and - once Tom realized that, no, he WAS NOT supposed to recognize everyone there - Tom was able to quickly shirk the spotlight and get to visit with us :) Philly is definitely a city we'd love to explore a little more. Jill and Tom live in the Museum District in a small but super cute apartment that--with only 3 months under their belts (and two busy schedules to boot)--they've already made into a home. Meanwhile, Jill is in the throws of grad school, getting her MFA in Directing (yay!!) and Tom has been recently hired as the Technical Director (may have got the EXACT title wrong there, but you get the idea) of Swarthmore College's Theater Department.

After the birthday bash and a night on probably THE most comfortable futon we have ever experienced, we jetted off to a Sunday Funday. No football involved on this Sunday Funday - a baby shower for me and golf with Dad and D for Jess. I've suddenly realized that may have sounded odd - no, I did not attend my OWN clandestine baby shower, which would have been a solo event because pretty much all you folks reading this would be the ones I'd want to be there! Anyway!! It was for cousin Maya! She and Dan are expecting Baby X in early December :) We oohed and ahhed over her impressive belly and played a few baby games (Did you know that the baby name for a Fox is a Kit? An armadillo, a pup? An eagle, an eaglet?!) Though pastels are not my favorite, I've got to admit, the cuteness factor went way off the charts once the bitty baby blankets and onseies started coming out - I've got some great pictures of my sisters scheming for future presents ;)

I GUESS the golf game should get a mention here . . .Jess, Dad, and Damian played in Warwick on THE perfect golf day of the year. They all played horribly and had an amazing time. I don't have pictures of that round, but you can stalk Jesse and Damian on Facebook to see the pictures there.

Oh yeah. Nope, my costumes did not pan out. Ah well - it got to about an hour before we were supposed to show up at a class Halloween shindig when Jesse picked up on my (not so sutble!) aimless wandering through Salvation Army as a cue to come up with some alternate plans. It's my fault for having spent the previous 6 hours on the couch watching an NCIS marathon . . .My husband, however, is brilliant, and he perked me up with the suggestion of a date night - a steak dinner (THAT'S how out of it I was, I haven't craved steak, well, ever) followed by the early evening showing of "Where the Wild Things Are". With some meat in my belly and giant wild fuzzies on the big screen, I was a happy camper. A happy Halloweeny camper :)

First Fellows Fall

I am BACK baby! With Clinic I under my belt, it's actually very nice to be back in the classroom and swapping experiences with my peers. I can't really express how different I felt in terms of confidence from Week 0 to Week 4 to Week 8! I know I've just gotten the tip of the iceberg of learning and knowledge, but at least now I have to tools to climb (descend?) the iceberg! Fort Drum broke me in a bit - and now I'm ready to take on the next year and a half of class/Clinics 2,3,and 4. My classes right now are not too intense, but very interesting: Acquired Conditions (orthotics, prosthetics, and spinal cord injuries) and Teaching. It's pretty amazing to be in these classes right now - I was starting to get a little too used to "higher functioning" patients at Fort Drum (think super active army guys with shin splints). At the first SCI (spinal cord injury) class of this shortened semester, I got a little freaked out talking about patients who didn't have any sensory or motor function below their biceps! Within the space of an hour or so, I remembered why I found physical therapy so exciting in the first place. Many people with spinal cord injuries learn to find THEIR optimal function, they push themselves to challenge their bodies as much as possible in order to participate in their homes and communities to the best of their abilities - how many of us do that on any given day? And in a couple years, I will be able to facilitate that process :) I TOLD you it was exciting!

So, yes! I am home! On the house front, we have two adorable new trees! They are itty bitty now (a crabapple and a maple) but as long as they survive this first winter, they should be good to go. We even had a little help from our friends to plant them :) It was lovely to commemorate putting down "roots" (awwwwwww we are ridiculous) with Damien (and Mustard!), Lauren, and Dan. The tree-planting was about as ambitious as we got all weekend - we spent the rest playing Beatles Rock Band! Finally some songs I knew the words to . . . .

On a mushy romantic note, Jess and I celebrated our 2-year anniversary a couple weeks ago :) As most of you know, our anniversary is October 13th, but since on the morning of the 13th I was driving BACK up to Fort Drum for my last week of Clinic 1, we decided to post-pone the festivities til the weekend. We spent Saturday night at one of our favorite B&B's in Spencer, NY: Slice of Home owned by Bea and Sterling. The morning spread is generous and home-cooked, the owners relaxed and knowledgeable, and the view from the outdoor hottub ("suits optional" as Sterling always says!) of Finger Lake hills fringing an open field is one of our favorites. A bit of wine tasting and a hike (a new anniversary tradition, 2 years running!) through Treman Park near Ithaca and we were happy campers.

Stay tuned soon for our weekend in Philly and my first ever baby shower. Plus, we'll see if I pull off the Halloween costumes for tomorrow - I always have lofty ambitions that rarely pan out :)

3 Weeks To Go

This Clinic I is flying by - I have less than 3 weeks left - how did that happen? It's hard to keep everyone up to date on how things are going. I feel like I internalize a lot - it's hard to tell day to day exactly what I'm absorbing, how it will shape my future PT practice, what lessons I'll have taken from this experience on an army post . . . We have the same schedule each week, but every day I'm honing my skills, picking up on the nuances of things that I thought I had 'down cold' - I can feel my confidence in my ability to communicate my knowledge and ideas to patients growing! That is a nice feeling - I insert my foot into my mouth only on special occasions now ;)

On the home front, Jess and I are continuing to make things homey at The House at Fellows. We are gelling nicely with our new tenant, Gemma. She's a grad student at SU's arts journalism program and she's gone berry picking with us and doesn't mind Jesse howling Grateful Dead at the top of his lungs :)

We have also gone on a bit of a rug binge - an EBAY rug binge - an ebay persian rug binge! We've put some down in the high-traffic areas of the house. I'll post some pictures here for you to take a look - they really make the rooms feel cozy (I feel like I say that with every new addition to the house, but it's true!).

Speaking of berry picking (a paragraph or two ago!) we went a little nuts with the berries - somewhere to the tune of about 50ish pounds of blueberries, red raspberries, and blackberries . . yes, we are indeed insane.

Knees and Ankles and Shoulders - Oh My!

I feel like I'm swimming in a sea of body parts! Gross as that sounds, I've definitely started dreaming in "PT" - which I think is a good thing ? At least it shows that my brain is working subconsciously as well to try and absorb as much as I can - though I've been dreaming about Buffy the Vampire Slayer too . . . hmm . . .

So, these past two weeks? Strikes and gutters, strikes and gutters, my friends :) Within the span of a single morning I can be on top of the world, humming along with a patient eval where I feel confident, proficient, a true PT-in-training! A few minutes later, I feel like a dunce, worse than a novice, slow, etc etc. There is SO much to learn, the brain wheels are turning non-stop trying to differentiate the essential bits from a patient history, a constantly flowing, shifting process of elimination type thing. Now that I'm getting a good idea of what I know that I DON'T know, I (kinda, sorta) wish I could take my first year over again! Ah yes, I should have paid more attention during THAT lecture . . . .

The end of this week will be the halfway mark - can't believe THAT. I've been spending a lot of time in the gym program where more advanced patients do rehab exercises for things like ACL repairs, anterior knee pain, shoulder impingement . . . did more of the foot screening again today as well . . .Today was a bit new in that I also got to spend some time in the 'clinic' seeing what the PT's do for 'post-op' patients. These are patients fresh from surgery the week before (ligament repairs, shoulder surgery, etc) so the tech's/PTA's assess their range of motion, strength, any swelling, how the incision is doing, etc and 'present' the patient to the PT. I got to do a partial eval of a patient actually coming for rehab BEFORE surgery, but next week I'll be spending the day seeing more of what the techs do and how the PT acts while on the receiving end of the post-op information. Again, a lot of winnowing of information to find the really important stuff pertinent to that acute stage. I'm a little nervous to be working with patients who will be so fresh from surgery (think pain, swelling, stitches!) but it will be a good experience - that's my middle name, didn't you know? Caitlin Experience Steeves.

Oi. Love to you all!
Caitlin

2 Weeks On-Post

In this context, I mean "post" as in - Fort Drum is a military post. Apparently, only the Air Force and the Navy have "bases"! And here, PT means Physical Training - it's the running, push-ups, and sit-ups all the soldiers have to do. So it's important not to confuse physical therapy PT with Physical Training PT - so much to learn!

My first two weeks of my first clinical experience have been illuminating. It's a challenge to take a year's-worth of academic information and immediately be able to apply it in a live, fast-paced physical therapy setting - I should say settings(s) because they've got me driving back and forth on post to get between the gym, the outpatient clinic, and medical in-processing! My CI is very kind and patient, but I've still spent a lot of my time there so far trying to not sound and feel like a dunce ("oh my god, what is the name for the head of the femur? what is the name for the head of the femur??!! oh . . . it's 'the head of the femur' . . ." - that was the 'sour patch kids day'). I think I just have to remember that my priority should be to focus on LEARNING, not being right - as funny as that many sound :)

The family I'm living with is very nice - and very large! I share an upstairs bathroom with three boys under the age of 13 - use your imaginations . . . . In addition to the 5 kids, mom, and dad, and myself, there are also 2 dogs, a cat, a turtle, several fish, and a large snake. ! I must admit, the only thing I was not prepared for was walking downstairs the morning after I'd first arrived and being greeted by one of the twin boys (as if by destiny) "We don't drink coffee here because we're Mormon!" It wasn't the Mormon part that took me aback, it was the lack of coffee!! One major withdrawal headache later, and I was headed to Walmart to pick up a box of single-serve instant - kinda more like coffee-flavored weak tea but it would do in a pinch!

Fort Drum is a unique setting in which to be learning. The physical therapists mostly do evaluations and re-evaluations - not much actual rehab with the patients - the PTA's and techs do that. So I'll be getting REALLY good at evaluating patients - plus I do get to see some rehab when we go to the morning gym program, which is for patients more advanced in their rehab. Soldiers in rehab can be transferred to another post, go on leave, or be deployed in the middle of their treatment - it's a challenge to maintain continuity of care. Another interesting twist is that we are working with a population of - for the most part - healthy and VERY active patients. Here, the soldiers get a full medical examination AT LEAST before and after they deploy(ie usually twice a year). The majority are under age 30, so there is little diabetes, hypertension, or cancer. At the same time, a lot of soldiers return from deployment with TBI's or traumatic brain injuries - these injuries, whether mild, moderate, or severe, can have a range of effects from physical performance to mood to learning abilities. The environment is fast-paced and the PT's have a lot of experience, so during their examination of a patient, they are able to modify, skip, and mentally note bits and pieces on the spot - it takes me much longer and I need to learn the 'rules' of examination before I can be so expertly altering them! As a student, that is to be expected, and my CI knows that, which is nice! Though we go pretty quickly, he encourages me to be thorough and to ask lots of questions.

One of the interesting things we do is a foot screen of every soldier who goes through medical in-processing when they first come on-post. These could be soldiers back from their 3rd deployment to Afghanistan or fresh from Basic Training - but, they all . . . run! So the physical therapy department has them take off their boots, take a quick look at their arches and foot alignment, and walk/run across a force plate. The force plate lets us take a computerized image of their foot movement during weight-bearing activities like walking and running. We can see if they are able to maintain their arch or if they flatten out! Based on what we see in that quick little assessment, we recommend different types of running shoes and refer them to set up a physical therapy eval if they are having any issues. We can get through 20 or so soldiers in one morning - I'm learning alot about feet!

I'll try to keep y'all up to date on my time at Fort Drum. I'm pretty busy (studying a bit almost every night!) and I do have to be careful about revealing identifying patient information - so I'll be tweaking what I say :) Will probably be posting on the weekends when I've got time to collect my thoughts and reflect.

Love love love
Caitlin

ps - sorry for the lack of pictures - Miss Nally is sending my camera soon! *hint hint* ;)