Knowing is Half the Battle

We found out what the seh of our child is this month. Yes, I said seh. Our family has an inside joke that we don't say sex because it is a bad word. Instead we just say seh. That has kind of morphed into other uses such as call me on my seh phone rather than cell phone but I digress. Anyway, Kuulei and I went down for an ultra sound Dec 14th the Monday after I came home from Grenada. I had a huge smile on my face just like cookie monster always does when he sees cookies. I saw a head, arms, legs, and then we got down to the nitty gritty to see if it was a boy or girl. I saw what seemed to be a boy then all the sudden the ultrasound got into focus and there was no doubt we were having a girl! I was very happy and excited but at the same time I thought, "heaven help me when she is a teenager". I am sure I will be one of those dads. We had Ezekiel as a name for a boy and Alette for a girl's name so looks like our daughter is going to be called Alette Ke'Alohimaikalanimai Harker. I have been practicing saying her middle name. Kuulei's eldest brother came up with the middle name for us, it means the shining brilliance from heaven here upon us. I thought that was quite fitting because that is how I feel about the whole thing. Our little angel, I can't wait to see her in person.

All Now Rejoice the Long Night is O'er

It was a funny feeling, Jan 11 I usually head back to Grenada for another round of school. This time though, I stayed here. It wasn't because I couldn't get a flight, nor was it because I was sick. Ok well, I did have the flu that week but that isn't why we didn't head back to Grenada. We stayed in Utah because I finished all of my work in Grenada!!! 5th term was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. Of course you can't go through a semester of medical school without a lot of stress as well so I experienced a lot of that too. As most of you know Kuulei got sick with morning sickness and had to go back to the U.S. so I was stuck in Grenada to fend for myself. I found joy in cooking treats for neighbors that were always so kind and helpful to me, and I also enjoyed hosting weekly BYU football games. We were fortunate enough to have some classmates that had slingbox so we could catch the Cougs in action. Without cooking and football I had nothing to look forward to each week other than the Sunday night skype with the fam and Kuulei. 5th term was fun, I enjoyed pharmacology and did well in that class. I didn't like the way pathophysiology was taught and I especially didn't like the way we were examined in there either but I figured out a few tricks that helped me do well enough. I won't comment on clinical skills for 5th term, they know what they did and I hope they make the changes for the other incoming 5th termers this semester. Shame shame shame. Anyway, I actually did the best grade-wise in 5th term. I also got to go to the hospital on rotations once a week and it was fun to see how the hospitals ran, or didn't run, in Grenada. I always enjoyed meeting patients and it was fun to see that I am actually able to kind of piece together some of the things I am learning in school to actually help people feel better. I am glad that I am done in Grenada, but I already miss some things. Coke, ting, sitting on the bus and chatting with my pals and who could forget going to church! It was a long tough two years but I find great joy and satisfaction in knowing I accomplished something like that. I believe we all have the power to accomplish great feats no matter what it is if we are tenacious, hard working, and never give up.

All Apologies

Well we have kind of slacked a little here on our little blog. For those of you who like to follow along we are sorry about the lack of updates. For those of you that don't like to follow our blog, don't worry about it because you didn't even notice! Kuulei told me to tell everyone how the end of my 5th term went and about our baby update. I have written about both of these on my own personal blog nickolasharkermd.blogspot.com. However, maybe not everyone follows along there so I will post about these two stories here. I hope you enjoy the news!

We Know Where We Are Going!

I think one of the hardest things about beginning a career in medicine has been the unknown. I began doing this in 2005 not knowing if I would even get in or not. I was an art major and didn't care about my grades because all I had to be was a good artist. For two and a half years I worked on getting pre-requisites done and trying to get a decent MCAT score. I had always hoped that I wouldnt' be wasting my time. Two and a half years is a long time. Luckily, St. Georges was willing to give me a chance and suddenly a lot of the unknowns became known as I knew I would at least be in Grenada for the next two years. Once I got to Grenada I thought, "Well what happens after Grenada? Will I be able to get good enough grades to make it? More unknowns crept back into my life. I made it to 5th term and did well on my first two sets of exams and only had one more set to go. It appeared that it would be very difficult to fail and I would be able to move on to the next step in life. However, I had no clue where that next step was. Friday night I found out though, we are going to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, NJ! It is nice to have an idea where we will be and how much money it is going to cost. (A lot!) I think each chapter in life is going to have a lot of unknowns but it is not worthwhile to worry about them. One of my favorite books is "The monster at the end of this book". Sesame Street's Grover is the star and the whole book is about him trying to convince you to stop turning the pages because there is a monster at the end. He tries to rope up the pages, and build brick walls to keep you from turning the pages. Quite ingenius really. At the end of the book Grover finds that the monster at the end of the book was him. It turned out there was nothing to be afraid of. I can liken our experience here to my favorite book. It is scary and we try not to find any monsters but in the end things have always had a way of working out. We are excited to move to New Jersey and see what it has in store for us!

The Sweetest Husband in the World

Today started out like any regular day. I woke up excited to talk to Nick, ate some breakfast and started to dread about going to work. Well, I finally decided to get ready for work and make my lunch. I got to work like any other day thinking about all the stuff that I had to do and all the time that was left in the day. I just got off the phone with a client and had to ask one of the guys a question. I walked to his desk and was talking to him for a couple minutes when a the receptionist came back with a bouquet of flowers. I thought to myself, thats really sweet. Some lucky gal is going to be getting those beautiful flowers. Well she walks up to me and says "would you like me to put these on your desk". For a minute I look at her like she was crazy, and I finally said "yeah, my desk would be great". When I finally came to, I realized that my wonderful husband had sent me a wonderful surprise. The guy I was talking to started teasing me because I had blushed so red I could have blended in with the roses in the flower arrangement. When I got to my desk I looked at the card and was filled with overwhelming emotions (I'm sure because of the pregnancy these emotions are magnified). I started bawling my eyes out. What had made these flowers so precious to me was that, my husband, who is thousands and thousands of miles away had taken the time and thought about me and thought to do something for me that was so sweet and thoughtful. Yes, these flowers will die in a week but the way he made me feel will go well beyond that time. I love my husband, and it's been very difficult for him and I to be apart from one another but we love each other no matter how much distance you put between us. Nick is a wonderful husband.

Where We Go...Nobody Knows!

Yesterday, I submitted something that I have been anxiously awaiting to submit. I was allowed to finally submit my top three choices for rotations. This will determine where Kuulei, Baby, and I will be living for the next two years after Grenada is all said and done. My first choice was Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, California. We wanted to be near family in Utah and Bakersfield is somewhat similar to our home town Orem. Crime is a bit more and it might have more people but the general feel is pretty similar. I have passed through a few times on my way to LA. Anyway, I am not sure if we will get it or not. I hear there are very few spots and I thought we were the class with the largest amount of available spots! Sad that a large amount is still actually quite small. Also a GPA of 3.2 is required for the pediatrics rotation. As smart as I am I definitely don't have a 3.2. Second choice was Lincoln Medical Center/Sound Shore Medical Center in New York City. We thought we could live up a little bit north of NYC and I could take the train into town to work. I am not sure how trains and stuff will work out just yet so we will just see if we get placed there and I will deal with how to get to work after that. We just wanted to kind of be out of the city in the suburbs but we will see. Third choice is St. Barnabas in New Jersey. A lot of our Grenada friends are there already so it would be cool to see them again. They could also show us the ropes and tell us which neighborhoods not to live in. I don't want to have a loaded gun on my nightstand haha. Anyway, it is really exciting. I have lived in Grenada for 2 years and I am anxious to close this chapter of life and see what there is to read in the next chapter.

My Two Favorite Letters

I don't know why, but for some reason I have always been on the hot side. Don't judge, I don't mean to say I am extremely good looking with a perfect body. What I mean to say is when others are cold I am either too hot, or perfectly comfortable. I know that men have a higher temperature than women from testosterone, higher red blood cell count, and higher metabolic needs. Maybe my thyroid is slightly over active? Who knows, but what I do know is I have always just seemed to have ice in my veins. People would ask me where I wanted to go to medical school. I would always reply, "somewhere with 4 seasons". As luck would have it I have ended up at a school where there is one season. SUMMER! A summer that constantly feels as if it is in the height of the July heat in Utah. Not only that but a stifling humidity has made things for this snowman especially difficult to bear. I have good news though! Our church finally installed some AC! Yes, that is right AC! My two favorite letters in the alphabet. Just yesterday we took the new AC for spin and church was a lot more enjoyable when I was no longer sedated by the day's heat. The Grenada branch has been growing, there seem to be baptisms each week with people who really seem to be solid and committed. We have had to put an addition on the church as well and I am happy to see it filled to near capacity. I mainly wanted to blog about this so my old Grenada friends could hear the news and see the progress we have made in such a short amount of time since they left. It has been neat to see things change so quickly.