Graduation

I wanted to thank everyone for their congratulations on my graduation. This is truly a special time for me, a time mixed with both joy and tears. Joy that I have reached my ultimate dreams and that my family was there to share it with me. Tears that I am telling my friends good-bye as we each take a new path separated by many many miles. The last four years have included some of the most special of my life. The day I delivered my first baby…and then 15 minutes later delivered my second. The day I got a 100 on a quiz in surgery (yes it does rank almost as high as the babies). Also some of the hardest and most challenging….the day I had to tell a mother her child had a brain tumor, the day I sat with an AIDs patient and told him I’m sorry but there wasn’t anything else we could do for him, the day that I called the son of my patient telling him to come quickly, his mother had taken a turn for the worse and then to wait for him to tell him that she had passed before he arrived.

And then my classmates…..they married, they had babies. They lost their parents. One was diagnosed with cancer and another lost their child. We stood together, all of us going through the same battles of being medical students, the lowest man on the totem pole and at the same time doing everything in our power to help one another when something awful happened. We laughed together, we cried togerher. We stayed up all night studying together. We comforted those that didn’t match at their first choice program. And yesterday, for one final moment, we became doctors together.

So here I am, the day after. Everyone asks “how does it feel Dr?” Well ummm Dr. it doesn’t quite fit yet. I still have so much to learn. I was a student on Saturday and now on Monday I’m the doctor? With all the responsibility that comes along with it? WOW….what a difference a day makes! How do I feel? I’m excited, I’m honored, I’m priveleged and I HAVE SO MUCH TO LEARN!!!! I also feel sadness and a since of longing for what I am saying farewell to. What an amazing 4 years these have been! Perhaps the greatest 4 years of my life.

It is time for the next chapter of my life to begin. As scary as it is, I have no doubt that the next 3 years will continue to shape and mold me into the calm, compassionate, dedicated physician that I aim to be. May I also remember that being a doctor is an honor and a privilege, never a right.

Vacation Week 1

SO my first week of vacation is over. One week remains before I start my Medicine AI (blech).

SO what have I accomplished?

Well, I dug up the dirt in dad's garden and I planted grass seed on Grandma's grave. I went to the movies to see Meet the Robinson's (fun movie btw) and sat on a panel about How to get into Pediatrics Residency. I also led my final Medical Student Society Lunch as a medical student (I just couldn't stay away from school completely). Then, after the lunch I went to the zoo.

Talk about a beautiful spectacular day. The weather could not have been more perfect. The tulips were all in the bloom, the animals were active. Here are a few pictures.



This is a picture of the entrance of the zoo....so pretty.



My favorite picture of the day....some of the 88 000 tulips currently in bloom.



The silverback gorilla taking a nap.

And finally,



Mom gorilla and her playful baby.

I also did a fair amount of stitching. I worked on my Britty puppy stocking and Mommy and Me this week. Still don't like Mommy and Me and it shows as I didn't really accomplish much.

Here are some pictures.






Not sure what I will do for the rest of my vacation though I did decide not to take a trip. I'll wait until after graduation for that.

Freedom Writers

I watched the most amazing movie tonight....Freedom writers. It is about a class of high school Freshman in Long Beach in the 1990's. Each of these kids had experienced countless amounts of violence, the loss of friends to jail or death, and a school system that had all but given up on them. It is the story of how one teacher really can make a difference. This teacher introduced them to Anne Frank and the Holocaust an event that none of them knew anything about. She gave them a journal that they were to write in every day. Each student had the opportunity to express themselves in their own unique ways and eventually the class became a family. There journals were compiled and published as a book...The Freedom Writers. They now also have a Foundation that strives to help other schools have the same impact on their children. Check it out here

http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org/site/c.kqIXL2PFJtH/b.2259975/k.BF19/Home.htm

I can't fathom living in the inner cities of the United States and I can't imagine how difficult it is to get through to kids in the most violent schools. Regardless all children need someone to believe in them. All children should be given the chance to succeed.

Here's a clip of the movie preview.

Anxiety

The closer graduation is, the more anxious I become. I'm going to be a REAL doctor. People will depend on me. Do you know HOW TERRIFYING this is? I guess a bit of fear is healthy. It keeps you honest and prevents you from doing something stupid like some of my maverick classmates. I can't help but wonder what internship will really be like. Will I continue to love medicine as I have in medical school? Will my emotions get the best of me (I mean really, I cried when Sanjaya was voted off American Idol last night...and I didn't even like Sanjaya)? Will I get too attached to my patients? Can you really get too attached to patients? All of these and many more thoughts run through my head.

I'm on vacation now. I've done quite a bit of yard work. I dug up my dad's garden and planted grass on my grandma's grave. Couldn't go without some fresh flowers too. How Grandma loved flowers. Hard to believe she has been gone for over a year though she had really been gone for several years before her death. I miss the grandma of my youth and how hard it will be to go through graduation without her.

I seem so melancholy today. I'm not sure why...just sort of sad. Maybe it's PMS or the rain outside or both. I just feel blah. Perhaps this picture says it all....I'm contemplating my future. What path will it take?



Enough gloom for today.....Hopefully the sun will come out later today!

Word of the day

Brio! It means enthusiastic vigor, livliness, spirit.

Kinda sounds like a type of bread doesn't it!

Brio! I can't seem to type it without an exclamation point. What a fun word! Hmmm, how does it appy to my life? It is the way I interact with my patients. No matter how badly I feel or how tired I am, I try very hard to enter each room with brio. It's surprisingly not very difficult for me. I genuinely love patient care.

I'm finishing my last 4th year elective tomorrow leaving me with only one more rotation in medical school. Can it be true? We will remain in denial about that last rotation for now . Vacation begins tomorrow at 3:00! YAY!

I matched!

So it's almost a week after the fact but well anyway.....


I MATCHED!!!!!!

Not only did I match, I matched at my first choice, Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Talk about a nerve wracking day....and I was sick....which made me an emotional basketcase.

So I got to the classroom where matchday was held....I found a seat....and then I waited, and waited, and waited. One person matched at Children's and then 2....holy cow how many will they take. 3 people at Children's....I can't take it anymore! Then at 12:29, almost one hour after match day ceremonies began, my name was called. OMG I can't breathe!! I forgot the money for the fish bowl, have to go back to my seat and then I get my envelope....afraid to open it....approach the microphone....lift the flap and tears in my eyes announce Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital. I felt such incredible relief and tears came to my eyes. What an amazing feeling! When I started medical school I never expected to match into a top program. I couldn't be happier and I am so excited to be entering this next stage in my life!

My terrible, terrible cold put a serious damper on my match day festivities. I missed the Dean's dinner the evening before because I couldn't breathe. I did manage to go out to dinner with my friends on Match evening but then the decongestant wore off and I couldn't breathe again....and we are not talking mildly congested, we are talking there is no air passing through the nostrils...so I spent my anti-climatic evening going to bed early after an unhealthy dose of Afrin so that air could pass through my nose.

I'm finishing up my outpatient general peds rotation now (whch I love love love). Then I have 2 weeks of Developmental peds, followed by 2 weeks of vacation and finally 19 days of adult medicine (blech). Then I'm DONE! And I get a PAYCHECK for the first time in 4 years!

Til next time!

Rain, rain go away

Day 4

We awoke on Monday to rain, rain and more rain as we set off on another long day on the bus. The only plan for today is to stop at La Venta, an outdoor museum in Villahermosa. The museum is located in the middle of the rainforest and if it were not for the miserable rain would have been truly beautiful. We were only able to see about 1/3 of the monuments in this park due to flooding conditions on the paths in the park. We were able to see the hallmark of the park, the giant Olmec heads. I confess I don't know the significance of these heads at all....but they were very impressive.

This is the hallmark piece in the park. Not much is known about their significance but as you can see they are huge (see the person walking next to it?)

Typical for me, I was more impressed with the nature around me. I had never been to a rain forest....and yes it was raining. The leaves on the plants were HUGE.

I also saw some monkeys in the trees and had a great picture if someone had not stepped right in front of my camera....grrrrrrr.

My favorite picture from this park is of the river that it is on. I don't know the name of the river but it certainly was beautiful!

We then proceeded to Palenque in hopes that the pouring down rain would end. This was definitely the low point of the trip after much bus riding, lots of rain, and no warm weather in sight. As a tribute to the rain gods, my brother bought an umbrella from the hotel gift store in hopes that we would never need to use it.

Travelling days

Back to my adventures in Mexico....


Days 3 and 4 of my vacation were mostly day for travelling. It was actually well timed becasue all it did was rain and rain and rain.


Day 3

We set out about 7:00 am for the LONG drive to Veracruz which was our overnight stop. We stopped for lunch in a little town called Puebla. The rain let up enough for us to walk around town a bit. There was a beautiful cathedral in the town but well it was Sunday so church services prevented us from entering. Some people went with the tour director to look at some pottery that is well known in the area called Talavera. Since I knew that I was not going to buy anything (too difficult to travel with pottery), I didn't go. Here is a picture of some of the pottery.

The town was nice but we really didn't have enough time to truly enjoy it. I only got 2 pictures of the town.







This was a fountain in the plaza in the middle of town. You can see how wet the ground is.

















These are some of the flowers in the plaza. I was intrigued by the poinsettias planted. I've never seen one planted outside!











After about an hour and a half, we got back on the bus and continued our drive to Veracruz.....in the rain.....and the fog. We arrived in Veracruz just as the Super Bowl was about to begin. We turned on the TV hoping to watch the game. We found it on 3 different stations....woo-hoo go COLTS.....in Spanish. Well the word "Touchdown" is universal anyway :-)

I only took one picture in Veracruz because it was so wet and dreary.

This is the lighthouse in Veracruz surrounded by their city building. Note the dark grey clouds surrounding it. The rain stopped enough that we were able to walk around the town that evening. We saw some entertainers in the plaza complete with a clown that decided to pick on my brother. We went to bed hoping for a better day tomorrow.

My vacation to Mexico

So here is a description of my 11 days in Mexico....I'm sure this will take a couple of blog entries.

Day 1

My day started at 4:00 am for a 5:00 am arrival at the airport for my 7:00 am flight to Atlanta. We awoke to cold temperatures and snow. The drive to the airport was uneventful despite the snow and we boarded the plane on time. De-icing the plane delayed things about 20 minutes or so and we arrived in Atlanta at about 9:15.

Problem.

Plane to Mexico City leaves at 9:45 in Concourse E. It is 9:25 and I am in Concourse A.

So we run across the airport hopping on the airport tram which I never realized how SLOWLY it moves....we arrived to our gate and final boarding is over. But WAIT!!! The attendants at the gate are waiting for us! YAY!!! We made it!!! Now off to Mexico City, right?

Well, not exactly. We get on the plane get all situated, ready to take off. Announcement. "We are experiencing some technical difficulties, it will be a few minutes before we can take off". OK fine, I want the plane functioning before we take off.

TICK TOCK TICK TOCK....one hour. TICK TOCK TICK TOCK 2 hours.

Yes, we are ready to take off now, they have fixed the plane! We pull away from the gate....it's almost time I am on my way to Mexico....hmmm, why did we stop. Must be a lot of traffic. TICK TOCK...45 minutes. A whole lot of traffic. Uh-oh....announcement.

"We apologize but we have found another problem with the plane, we have to go back to the gate". Lady 2 rows ahead of me freaks out about this being a government conspiracy. She intentionally trips the stewardess and basically goes nuts. Now we sit on the plane another hour before they decide to switch out planes. it is now close to 1:00 in the afternoon (plane was supposed to arrive in Mexico City at noon). Everyone is hungry....and cranky. The give us an $8 voucher for lunch and then tell us that we have 30 minutes to get lunch and make it to our new gate ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TERMINAL. $8 dollars does not go very far in the airport let me tell you.

We finally take off about 3:15 and arrive in Mexico City about 6:00. Fortunately, another couple in our tour was arriving near the same time so we were able to find a representative from the tour group. (We found out that we had been listed as a no show). So we finally made it to Mexico City got in the cab and off to the hotel we went.

We had dinner with our tour group (who were notably much older than my brother and I) and then met our tour director Carlos. Carlos provided us with the weather forecast for the week. Partly cloudy, then RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN the rest of the trip.

Things didn't seem to be starting too well.

Day 2

Now the travels begin. The weather was nice, about 65-70 degrees, partly cloudy. Our first trip was to Teotihuacan. This is an ancient Mexican city dating back to about 150 BC and flourishing until about 600 AD when much of it was destroyed by fire. By the time the Aztecs arrived, the city was nearly deserted.

Here we saw The Pyramid of the Sun, the third largest pyramid in the world. It stands 738 feet across and 258 feet high. I climbed 75% of the way up the pyramid. The high elevation (about 7000+ feet) and lack of time (I had to be back at the bus in less than 20 minutes when I reached my maximum height) forced me to make the descent back down. Climbing up was exhausting, in part due to the altitude but climbing down was quite frankly terrifying. The staircase is steep. and the steps of high. It was quite the challenge. My brother has a picture of me on the pyramid but I don't have it right now.

Other things we saw at Teotihuachan.....

This is the Pyramid of the Moon located at the end of the Street of the Dead. At one time, each of the small structures along the path had a temple on top. The Pyramid of the Moon is not as tall as the Sun, but is located at slightly higher elevation making the peak nearly the same height. I didn't climb this one.

Not sure why I didn't take more pictures here. Will have to see what my brother got.

This is some of the carving inside the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. I know the little circle things on top represent water.

So we left the site of the ruins and headed for the National Archaeological Museum in Mexico City.

This museum is rated as one of the top 5 museums in the world. I admit wholeheartedly that I am not a big fan of museums. I really prefer the outdoor areas for sightseeing. But that said the museum was pretty impressive.

My local tour guide "Jack" however droned on and on and on until I thought it would never end. So I amused myself by trying to read the descriptions of all of the artifacts in Spanish.

Here are a few pictures from the museum:

This is in the plaza area of the museum. It is an upside down fountain with water running from the roof. Probably very refreshing on a hot summer day.

Yes this was my favorite part of the museum.

The pictures I took in the museum were very dark because no flash was allowed. This is one of the many statues I saw. This one is of Coatlicue, the goddess of fertility and childbirth. She is represented as a woman wearing a skirt of writhing snakes and a necklace made of human hearts, hands and skulls. Her feet and hands are adorned with claws (for digging graves) and her breasts are depicted as hanging flaccid from nursing. Coatlicue keeps on her chest the hands, hearts and skulls of her children so they can be purified in their mother's chest. The guide said that the Spaniards were so horrified by this image that they buried it and it was recovered again for more than a century.

This is a fountain in the main park of Mexico City in Chapultepec. We didn't actually go into the park which was somewhat disappointing.

We concluded the day by stopping by the National Palace to see the frescoes of Diego Rivera. Going to the palace was very interesting and there is quite a bit of political turmoil in Mexico right now. According to our guide, you never know when the doors will be open or closed. It all depends on how many demonstrators their are. The entrance is guarded by semi-automatic weapon toting soldiers in camouflage. Kind of an unsettling feeling going in. Pictures of the frescoes are not very good because once again no flashes allowed. But here are a couple pictures.

The pictures portray the history of Mexico from the time of the Aztecs through the Spanish exploration through to the wars in the 1800's. Mexico still seems somewhat bitter about their loss of the now SW USA. You can see better images of this art of the following website.

http://www.fbuch.com/murals.htm

Phew that was a long first day. We went back to the hotel where I had some broccoli for dinner (it was an all seafood meal..blech) and then to the gift store where I bought Cheetos and Diet Coke.

Packing

Why oh why does it take me ALL. DARN. DAY. to pack my suitcase? Could be that I absolutely hate to do it. And packing for 11 days in 1 suitcase? OMG!!! But somehow I did it, and I hope I didn't forget anything (almost forgot my shoes...NOT a good thing). Somehow everything fit and I have even have a little room to spare for souvenirs.

So where am I going? You can check my tour out at

http://caravantours.com

I am going on the Colonial Tour of Mexico. I am ending the trip with a 3 night stay in Cancun. It was $150 more to leave on Sunday compared to Monday and only $134 for the extra night in the hotel so darn, we have to spend another day in Cancun.

I've never been to Mexico before so I am VERY. EXCITED.

I will post pictures when I return!

Tutoring

Why the heck do I do it? I think I like the IDEA of tutoring but come on, it's a nuisance. And when they don't show up!!!

So I'm trying to get ready to go to Mexico and I have a ton of shopping I need to do.....AND it's supposed to snow tomorrow cutting my shopping time in half . SO in the middle of everything, I drive the 15 miles to school, take the shuttle to Children's, walk to UH and wait....and wait.....and wait. Nothing, no one.....grrrrrrr.

Oh well, I finished my shopping went to dinner with some friends and now I'm watch a new design show on Bravo.

So the next time I am asked to tutor what will I say? I will of course say yes and then wonder why I am a glutton.

Match list

WOW....so four years of medical school finally leads to this....the ultimate decision...the MATCH LIST!

What an amazing, awesome, terrifying, exciting, horrific experience this has been! 11 interviews, 10 cities.....some incredible, others forgetable. I've been to St. Louis, Louisville, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Augusta, Chapel Hill, Norfolk and Nashville. We will ignore the 10 others that I cancelled :-)

When I interviewed I tried so hard to pay attention to rounding styles, flexibility of curriculum, reputation of program...but what was ultimately most important was my gut feeling and LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. I know, I know, everyone wants to know the order of the list...but shhhhh it's a secret.

I don't want to jinx myself by giving it away. Needless to say, I will be ecstatic with my first choice, and happy with choice 2-6. Not a bad way to enter the match. So now the countdown is on. My day of reckoning.....3/15/07. I'm both excited and terrified but oh how nice when its all said and done.

Well I'm off to prepare for my trip to Mexico....

Have a good one!