WKRP in Cincinnati!

Dear family and friends,

Maybe we could say WKRP stands for “We Know Real People” in Cincinnati now. Since we last wrote, we have successfully moved all of our belongings to Cincinnati, OH, where David is now gainfully employed at the University of Cincinnati Hospital as a neurology resident. We felt very blessed to have sold our home swiftly, and for not much less than we had originally hoped for, given the market situation. In May we went on a house-hunting trip to Cincinnati, and were able to find a home, negotiate a contract, and get it inspected in 4 days. We returned to Dallas to enjoy David’s graduation from medical school May 31st. Much of David’s family was there for the occasion, and Emily’s parents were able to come down as well. After the festivities, we packed everything up and left Irving June 7th. We closed on our new home June 10th, and David began his orientation June 16th, so there wasn’t too much time to get settled before things got busy again. Then we managed to get away to Nauvoo, Illinois for the family reunion of the Miller family for a few days. We had a great time visiting with family and seeing the LDS historic sites there. David's first two weeks of residency were night float, followed by two weeks of emergency department. To “celebrate” having finished his first month of residency, David ripped out our master shower. Now we need to figure out what to do about replacing it!



We are excited to be expecting our 3rd child on January 7th, and Emily is relieved that the morning sickness is mostly over. She and William ventured out to a blackberry field in northern Kentucky (about 45 minutes away), and managed to pick 16 pounds of blackberries! William was a great help, and we had a fun time. Emily made 5 batches of freezer jam, and we froze the rest of the blackberries to enjoy other ways.

William can now count to 20 (almost), knows his colors really well, knows almost all the alphabet (not by sight), and is making progress on potty training. William’s two latest obsessions are tools of all kinds and blocks. He also recently got a tricycle from his Great Grandpa Clark, which he enjoys trying to figure out, and was given an old toy lawn mower by our neighbor, which was an instant hit. He also enjoys playing in a sandbox we put together for him. Since we’ve moved to Cincinnati, he has figured out how to open doors with child locks, so we have had to be more creative in keeping him out of certain places.



David has been thrown right into the medical care arena. He did about 18 days of night float, where he admitted all the patients after 8pm and before 6am. This got him into a rhythm very quickly, and he has cared for those with alcoholic withdrawal to pulmonary hypertension to heart/kidney/liver failure. Every third night he took cross-cover calls, where he took care of everyone else’s patients after they went home. David figured he was responsible for over 100 patients on these nights. Next he worked two weeks in the ER, where he sewed up a knee, casted a broken arm, drained a three-inch boil, and lost count of the gynecological exams he performed, among many other things. His most unpleasant patient was a lady who had not been able to have a bowel movement in seven days. He spent six hours trying to chemically and digitally dysimpact her. The wildest patient was a man who shot up with some “bad” heroin and went into respiratory arrest, after which his drug-buddies did CPR on him for more than 20 minutes before he came back. He was embarrassed about it, and though he was sick, he didn’t come to the ER until three days later. When David saw him, he had anoxic injury to his brain and was in kidney failure in addition to having had cardiac damage. David has just started his next rotation in the VA medical intensive care unit.

We miss all of our Texas friends and family, but are enjoying this beautiful city and cooler weather. If any of you are ever in the area, we would love to have you come for a visit!

Love,
David, Emily, and William