It has been so fun having my Sister and her kids so close. We spent another great weekend at my parents house, just spending time together. We made jam, played outside with the kids and went on a hike...even got some wedding stuff done. Da and Sis helped get the save the date cards done and I am just thrilled with them. Plus Mom and Sis finished the fitting bodice for my dress...and it is PERFECT! I am super excited already and it just is going swimmingly.The kids loved showing us their bike and trike skills and Elie and Isaac enjoyed some bike "Don-foolery". As always a great time was had by all. It just stinks that we can't all be together all the time! All the fun makes it a little hard to go back to work life. But I am keeping a good attitude and it does make all the difference.
This week at work we are interviewing for a new worker, and so far it has been a bit of a bust. People see "receptionist" and they think regular reception work. I don't think people always realize what the job is really. I did however get to see something I had never seen before...while looking at a fecal sample I noticed something not normal that I hadn't ever seen and I felt was a parasite...so I asked the Dr to come and look. "Yep." Dr said. "It's a parasite all right." It turns out that it was a Strongyloidies, or Intestinal threadworm (it looks like a tiny clear worm that is round on one end and then gets long and pointy on the other) and it is not super common like rounds or tapes. It has a weird life cycle in that it takes a rather circuitous route to get to the intestine. It infects through skin penetration primarily, then the tiny larvae work their way into the lungs where they develop. As they grow and irritate the lungs and the host coughs, they get coughed up and swallowed and then they go to the intestines where they have larvae (which is what I saw) rather than eggs like most worms. Then the larvae are passed in the stool and the whole thing starts all over again. The super yuck part is that it is zoonotic...good thing I always glove up! Anyway, it felt good to have an answer for the symptoms the patient was having (not only diarrhea, but the owners had mentioned the pet sometimes had a dry cough!) and I was proud to have found it. I think it is pretty cool that there is the opportunity to learn something new everyday at my job. It makes up for some of the not so cool stuff.
Don and I are looking forward to this weekend, it will be chaos-but chaos of the best kind! All the family is coming to stay at our house and we are going to do some stuff in Portland. I am super excited to get to see everyone again before they have to go next week, and to get to have them here. Again, it is so nice to have something so great to look forward to!
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