Super-Size Me!

Time for my quarterly update. Firstly, thanks for all the good wishes from family and friends regarding the new addition. We're obviously thrilled and thankful that everything looks strong and healthy. Of course, I feel vindicated that it's a girl--I don't get to say "Told you so!" too often to Mae.

I'm in the last week of fellowship. It's been a good year--worked hard, learned a lot. Made great friends with my 2 other co-fellows. I'll be keeping in touch with them just like my former chief resident friends. Something about working hard together always develops strong friendships.

One of the other great things about fellowship is that I lost close to 10 pounds since I finished residency. I started fitting into clothes that I haven't been able to wear in a long time. I went down to a Large scrub top from the X-large that I wore for the last 2-3 years of residency. My suit size went down to my size in medical school. I felt and looked pretty good!

All of that has now gone down the drain with the pregnancy. I've heard and read that husbands often gain weight during pregnancy--definitely true for me. I have gained almost all of the 10 lbs back. It's not pretty. She now feels this great freedom to eat whatever and whenever she wants, especially deserts. Deserts are killing me. But they taste so good. Mmm, tiramisu.

I take comfort in knowing I am not alone. My unofficial poll of husbands here in Charlotte confirms that they gained weight as well during their wives' pregnancies. Of course, I know what I have to do to get these 10 lbs off and I feel quite confident that I can accomplish this prior to starting work in August. After all, it doesn't inspire confidence when your weight-loss surgeon is heavy. This is true in other fields; can you imagine going to an ugly plastic surgeon? A dentist with bad teeth? A dermatologist with bad skin?

On the other hand, there is a tub of ice cream that needs to be finished before we move. Mmm, ice cream.