Katie’s Notebook: August 12, 2024
I am starting to see front porch back to school photos on social media, which means the out-of-school part of the summer is coming to a close. We still have a few weeks before classes starts again here in North Carolina but I am getting excited for routine again. Last year was my first time navigating 10 weeks of time off for my eldest and it was pretty stressful. I learned a few things that I applied to my summer planning this year that made things easier:
No camps more than 10 minutes away.
Full-day camps instead of half-day camps to optimize child entertainment and personal work time.
Schedule camps with friends and set up a carpool schedule.
Plan vacations and weekends away. Our annual family lake week is hugely beneficial to everyone involved — shared meal and childcare responsibilities makes life a little easier all around. 10/10 recommend.
We also made a summer bucket list so when times got slow we picked an activity to do together. Ice cream for dinner + a movie night was a big hit!
Let’s jump into my 5 shares for the issue!
One of my favorite newsletters is Neha’s Notes from Motherhood/ Untitled. It’s rare for me to want to click almost all of the links in an email, but this is one of them! It is beautiful, short, sweet, and full of valuable content. I am currently sitting next to The Scicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza, which was recommended in the newsletter and is a fun summer read.
If your summer is also going on for a few more weeks (or just the weather!) I put together a summer survival pack with some of my favorite things.
The CDC is finally providing guidance for pain management for IUD insertion and the internet is going wild! The big takeaways are there should be a doctor-patient discussion around pain management options (duh?) and new language around the use of lidocaine (either topical or paracervical block aka injection.) I have mixed feelings about the guidance that would probably warrant a full blog post…but I’ll try to keep it brief. On one hand, it’s great that women’s pain is being taken seriously. IUD insertion is no picnic, especially for women who haven’t already had children because the cervix and uterus are still on lock down. I am also glad that the discussion is becoming more public. On the other hand, I don’t feel like the recommendation really solves the problem. The pain from IUD insertion comes from multiple elements of the procedure. The lidocaine block might help with the part where they grab the cervix with a spiky metal tool to hold it still for the actual insertion, however it wouldn’t help with the sounding (sticking a tool in the uterus to see how deep to put the IUD) and the actual insertion and aftermath, which can cause significant cramping akin to labor pain. I’ve contemplated that the duration of an egg retrieval and an IUD insertion are about the same… and yet egg retrieval patients get fentanyl and propofol to relax patients and reduce pain. Why could’t we offer propofol or midazolam for IUD insertions instead of forcing women to bear it? I know that the practical answer is that because there are wide ranges of experiences of IUD insertion and “the medical community” doesn’t want to overmedicate when pain isn’t a guarantee. Another issue is staffing…egg retrievals are done under the supervision of an anesthesiologist which would make IUD insertions more expensive from a staffing point of view and require more time in an exam room for recovery. It’s a complicated issue that I hope we continue to explore.
I got an Oura Ring about a week ago and have been having fun learning about my body and comparing their insights to those from my Apple Watch. I’ll be sharing a full product review after a month of use, but here are 2 little takeaways: I like that I only have to charge the ring once every 4-7 days and it charges quickly. I am getting used to wearing a fairly thick ring on my small hands and I hope that in the future they can slim down the product a bit.
This interview between MobiHealthNews and Daisy Wolf, investing partner at Andreessen Horowitz discussing the digital health landscape was really interesting to me. Have a look!
That’s all for this issue! Until next time,
Katie
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