simple pleasures

My electric shower was fixed today by the awesome guys in the hospital bodega (workshop)! I'm looking forward to my second hot shower since arrival (first was at the invitation of my kind neighbor to use hers...) sometime in the coming days. The cold season is still in full swing and I don't want to miss my golden window of opportunity to enjoy a warm shower before cold ones become a necessity given the ambient temperature. A friend today described her rating of hot season days as 1 shower (regular and somewhat bearable), 2 shower (unbearably hot), or 3 shower (hellish) days [brackets added are mine].  I'm guessing the warm shower won't be all that necessary when those days come.

My widow-maker

Anyone who has traveled in Latin America has likely experienced the method of hot water heating. Commonly known as 'widow makers,' they are fixtures that fit directly on to the shower heads that use an electrical current running through appliance to heat the water as it comes out of the spout. Conventional wisdom holds that electricity and water should be kept far, far apart. Here, I'm told, you just don't ask too many questions about things that don't make sense.  Like water running through an electrified appliance.

In other news, I've had the pleasure this week of delivering a couple of "continuity babies" (residency-speak for pregnancies in which you see mom for prenatal visits, attend the delivery, and take care of the mom-baby couplet afterwards). These continuity deliveries are hands-down my favorite part of medicine. And this week I got to deliver 2 precious babies in the same day! I had seen both of their moms the weeks prior for prenatal care and was on call when they both came in to deliver. Hugging and kissing the babies as they went out the door for home this morning made my heart glad.