Everybody needs a little time away

It seems I get inspired to blog about once a month so here goes February! (Happy leap day btw)

As of February 17 I'm halfway through my 3rd year of med school, and I've been on my 3 week break. Since I'm not likely to get much time off in the near future my mom booked us a family vacation to the Bahamas so here's a little recap of the trip.

Day 1 - Sunday, Feb 19
We flew in from Detroit to Dallas to Nassau. For the first flight my mom & I were blessed with 2 small children sitting behind us that yelled, squealed, and kicked our seats for much of the 3 hours with no attempt from the parents to get them to behave. I mean seriously, you've gotta at least try. Anyway, we got to the resort about 4pm and explored a bit. Seeing various shapes in bikinis gave me the courage to wear my own brand new one - the first in a good 13 years I'd say. So here's my first beach trip in the Bahamas:


Day 2 - Monday, Feb 20
We took the bus downtown to see the sights, and we visited the Straw Market (don't ask me why I was surprised that they mainly sell straw woven crafts, [but also t-shirts, jewelry, and wooden carvings]) and some of the shops in the morning. Then in the afternoon we headed to the beach and I did some snorkeling. I was hoping to go kayaking, but unfortunately I learned that a red flag means the water is too rough for water sports. I stayed within the designated swimming area to avoid being run over by a jet ski, and I found a big star fish and a small variety of fishes, one of which played hide & seek with me in its little cement block home. At one point when I was coming back to shore a guy was bringing 2 star fish back to the water and handed me one:

I like the little suction cup feet. Yes, I took it back to its home after a short time examining it.

Afterwards we went to the main dining room for dinner, and then we caught the free shuttle to the casino where I played blackjack for almost the entire 2 hours on just $20 that my dad gave me. I was almost winning for a while.

Day 3 - Tuesday, Feb 21
Sea lion day! Before the trip I had done some google searches to see what we might want to do there, and I was sold on this one. Sure, most people prefer the dolphins, but sea lions just have these fun, goofy sort of personalities that lured me in. Plus, I think I just like to do things differently from the rest sometimes. ;) Anyway, we took a boat ride to Blue Lagoon Island where Dolphin Encounters is located, and we were taken to the sea lion area where we had a brief educational lecture about the fun-loving creatures. After that we went down to the dock and posed for pictures with a sea lion kissing our cheeks (Bonny was her name). Then we got into the (freezing) water and stood waist-deep while taking turns frolicking with Bonny's mom Maggie. We each got to stroke her soft fur, feed her a fish, shake her flipper, give her a hug, check out her tail and the little claws on her back flippers, and get a big ole kiss on the lips - Maggie's sort of a player, I bet she can't even name all the people she's kissed! Here's a picture of me & my dad with Maggie (purchased from the lovely photographer there):


That night we did manage to get reservations for the Garden of Eden Restaurant. Trying to get reservations for the 2 resort restaurants is ridiculous fyi, but the food was great and the atmosphere was lovely. And after dinner we watched some of the resort entertainment - they have a different show every night, and Tuesday included a guy juggling knives & torches.

Day 4 - Wednesday, Feb 22
We started the day off with a trip to the Ardastra Zoo. They have 41 animal exhibits and their claim to fame is a 1957 feature in National Geographic Magazine about their marching flamingos. A military man trained a bunch of flamingos to march in formation and follow commands. It was pretty cute, and you can get up close & personal with our feathered friends - one actually walked right into me. He didn't even apologize, dreadful manners.


This zoo also offers the opportunity to feed their Lory parrots, so of course I did that too. They provide apple slices and the birds stand on your hands (or shoulder or head) and enjoy the juice from the apples leaving somewhat of a mess of apple pieces (in your hand or your hair).

Besides the interactive attractions, I enjoyed the lemurs, various monkey species, and the big cats as well. And overall it was a cool experience to walk through the shady & lush gardens rather than the typical concrete atmosphere of the American zoos I have visited. It felt more intimate & natural.

Anyway, then we spent the afternoon by the pool, and I participated in a balloon toss with my dad, beach bowling (which I suck at), and bingo poolside. In between these resort activities I soaked up some rays and enjoyed some of Richard Castle's "Heat Rises."

Wednesday night we had dinner at the resort's other fancy restaurant, Martino's. This waiter, Keno, provided even better service, and the food was fabulous. We again went to the nightly show, listening to Funky D & the Summer Breeze band and watching cabaret performances involving Grease & Michael Jackson & Tina Turner. The performers were all quite talented.

Day 5 - Thursday, Feb 23
Naturally, being the day we left, this was the only day where there was a green flag enabling all water sports. We left at 12:30pm and were welcomed home to Michigan around 11pm with a snow storm.

Since this was an uneventful day I'll throw in a family photo from Martino's:

Drivers Beware

As any of my friends would know, I have recently had to make a lot of repairs to my car. This is a story that I think the less car savvy should be informed of so that they don't get taken by the dishonest mechanics of the world.

A couple of weeks ago I got my muffler replaced, and after that noise was resolved I started to hear another sound that worried me: a clunking, rubbing, dragging sort of noise. So I took my car back to the Muffler Man that had just changed my muffler to have them check it out. Less than half an hour later I'm reduced to tears as one of the mechanics informs me that I need new front wheel bearings that will set me back $244, and that if I don't get it done soon my right wheel will fly off & likely kill somebody as I drive down the expressway. As I cry, the guy tells me it's ok and not so bad, and he makes me an offer to work on my car on the side for only $150. But I can't tell his employers because he'd get fired.

Well, for some reason or other I was skeptical that the wheel bearings were truly my problem. So I did some research & called my mom & planned to take my car to a mechanic that my friend recommended for a second opinion. My research (and my mother's conversation with a trusted mechanic back home) indicated that faulty wheel bearings would result in a humming or grinding noise (not my clunking that I was hearing) and a great deal of wobbling if they were bad enough to need to be replaced as emergently as this mechanic had led me to believe.

Fast forward to a few days later when I manage to get an appointment with the recommended mechanic in town. This guy first impressed me by caring enough to fit me into his schedule to make sure my car was safe before I wanted to travel out of town. He then spent greater than 30 minutes examining my car, and he comes back & tells me that my wheel bearings are fine. Some big branch auto mechanics will hustle customers for new wheel bearings because they are expensive but easy to replace, and big commercial companies pay their mechanics based on commission. He let me know that the noise was due to bad rear struts but that getting that fixed wasn't necessary & would just be an expensive repair to get rid of the noise. He did recommend that at some point I should get my back breaks adjusted (or something) because they haven't been working & that would cause my front breaks to go bad faster (which explains why I had to just get those replaced again this past summer), BUT that's less than $60. I then left without having to pay anything.

So the purpose of this is just to tell my fellow drivers to be careful who you trust before shelling out the cash. If you are able, get second opinions and shop around. Unfortunately for Muffler Man, this one bad employee of theirs has cost them all future business from me.

What happened to you?

I recently had an encounter with a 3-year-old who had developed a mysterious limp. Dad asked what happened & the kid shrugs. I ask what happened & the kids shrugs. Dad asks "Did you drop something on your foot?" Kid nods yes. I ask "Did you fall?" Kid nods yes. I ask "Did you step on something?" Kid nods yes. Dad asks "Did you close your foot in the door?" Kid shakes head no. Well, at least we established that the kid did NOT close a foot in the door. So we accept that kids will sometimes just be a mystery.


Enter Miss R. "What happened?" Kid: "A wolf bit me."

"Really? Do you have a wolf?" Kid shakes head no.

"Where was the wolf? Was the wolf in your house?" Kid nods yes.

"Well who let him in? Did you let the wolf in?" Kid agrees again. The child also went on to explain "I shooted the wolf though." Whew, good thing that dangerous beast in the house was taken care of. Wouldn't want him to go around biting more kids!


So the moral of today's story is that if a small child won't tell you how they got hurt, you should keep asking or get more people to ask. They may just be trying to hide that they let a wolf in the house.

Thanksgiving Reflections

So this year was the first in 3 years that I got to spend Thanksgiving with my family. Brief recap: 2009 was my first holiday away ever, and I ordered Thanksgiving dinner through the school and it was possibly the saddest event ever. Seriously, I went to bed hungry and lonely. In 2010, I had planned on boycotting Thanksgiving due to the happenings of the previous year. I had every intention of getting Chinese food & pretending the holiday didn't exist. But something sort of awesome happened. A large group of students & families planned a feast, and it ended up being a great time & a true expression of the day. You can see here for more about that.

So anyway, now it's 2011 (newsflash, I know), and I found out in October that I was being gifted the return of a family Thanksgiving since we would have our exams on the day before. Now don't get me wrong, it was nice to be with everyone, but I feel like it wasn't a real Thanksgiving. Throughout the whole day there was no acknowledgement of what we were thankful for. It was actually sort of stressful because, well, you know, you've gotta plan who's going where & what time, and you don't want to exclude anybody, but then you just can't be in 2 places at once. So my parents & I had a dinner at 1pm with my mom's side of the family and another at 3pm with my dad's side, and it felt like more of just going through the motions than really taking the time that the day was meant for. And now I'm going to take a few moments to actually think about the things in my life that I am thankful for, because God is pretty awesome, and crap can happen sometimes, but there's always something good.

I am thankful for:
1. my loving & supportive parents (even though they drive me crazy sometimes)
2. my awesome little furball, Storm, that brings me a smile at least once a day (even though he drives me crazy a lot of times*)
3. the opportunity to learn new things
4. the comforts of home, ie my pillow
5. clean water and the fact that I have never had to go hungry
6. good friends
7. good music
8. my lack of any serious ailments (when you're healthy you don't really give it much thought, but being able to walk & breathe & all that basic stuff is pretty awesome)
9. adventures (see previous posts & read my mind about some of the incredible opportunities I've had**)
10. books & games
11. my contacts, without which the world would be a much more terrifying place where people have no faces
12. hugs & smiles

*for example, I have had to take away my razor from the tiny monster 3 times tonight, in addition to stopping him from drinking my water & apple juice, chewing on the Christmas tree skirt, and falling into the toilet when running & jumping at full speed
**okay, since you may have difficulty breaking into my mind this evening a few of the things I've loved are: a Caribbean cruise, canyoning, frequent snorkeling trips, vacations to Niagara Falls, Las Vegas, Disney World, and repeat rounds of CMA Music Fest... yes, this is a very truncated list

Ok, I'm satisfied with that list. Time to hit the hay. Good night.

A new stage in learning

omg, I'm still alive. It's true. Anyway, I've just completed my first rotation for my 3rd year of medical school, and I thought it would be a good time to update. For those on the outside of the med school world, the 3rd year involves 6 core rotations including 6 weeks each of Ob/Gyn, family medicine, pediatrics, and psychiatry, and 12 weeks each of internal medicine and surgery. That's the order I'm going in, so I started Ob/Gyn on September 6 and finished Friday with the dreaded shelf exam. Now this post is dedicated to what I've learned.

I'll start off with the best part: I got to deliver 3 babies. :) I saw like 12 new people come into the world, but those 3 I actually got to deliver/help deliver.

Ok, so during my 2 weeks in gynecological surgery I saw/learned about:
-dilation & curettage & endometrial ablation (getting rid of the endometrial layer of the uterus)
-hysteroscopy (a camera that looks inside the uterus)
-total abdominal hysterectomy
-robotic laparoscopic hysterectomy
-vaginal hysterectomy (didn't even know that was possible 6 weeks ago)
-repair of cystocele (cystocele = the bladder losing support & bulging backwards)
yeah, sadly surgery was the most boring part

2 weeks on labor floor, including 1 week of nights:
-preeclampsia (high blood pressure, protein in urine, & swelling)
-HELLP syndrome (Hemolysis, Elevated Liver enzymes, & Low Platelets)
-postpartum hemorrhage
-Cesarean sections (both low transverse & an inverted T-shape)
-twin delivery (apparently most of the time twins are delivered by C-section, but this was a natural birth & the 2nd baby came out butt first/breech)
-ectopic pregnancy
-non-stress tests (to check on how the baby is doing before it is born - when the baby moves its heart rate increases, just like exercise makes your heart rate increase)
-fetal heart tone monitor
-AFI (amniotic fluid index to make sure the baby has enough fluid in there)
-how to tell if a woman is actually in labor or if her water has broken
-aaaand, something NON-related to the Ob/Gyn field: the effects of smoking bath salts (no, it's not really bath salt, it's like cocaine & causes hallucinations, racing heart, paranoia, and suicidal thoughts, among other things)

and during clinic, I did a whole lot of measuring pregnant bellies (fundal height) & using a Doptone to listen to fetal hearts. Also did a few speculum exams, pap smears, bimanual exams, and breast exams. And I learned about colposcopy and got to play with an ultrasound machine a little - much harder than you'd think.

Ok, sorry if that was boring. I'll try to throw in an interesting post about my summer soon. Or something.

Do you believe me?

I recently read a book about a boy with Asperger's (House Rules by Jodi Picoult) that I thought was pretty profound, but also a little disconcerting because I couldn't help but relate to the boy. I marked a passage that actually sums up how I feel sometimes. This boy is being tried for murder and his attorney asks him why he doesn't show that he misses the victim. This is his response:

"If I know I feel it, that's what counts. Don't you ever look at someone who's hysterical in public and wonder if it's because they really feel miserable or because they want others to know they're miserable? It kind of dilutes the emotion if you display it for the whole world to see. Makes it less pure."

While I don't conform to this quite as strongly as an autistic person, I often feel that blatant expressions of emotion can be construed as insincere. A person should not have to prove or insist how he or she is feeling - trying harder makes me wonder if they are trying to convince me. I feel the same way about compliments. Compliments are nice, but when it is emphasized repeatedly I wonder if they mean it or just want me to believe it.

Alright, that's enough of that. It's hard for me to articulate all of my thoughts on this topic. Anyway, good book - I'd recommend it.

My Life in the Future

Hey there, miss me? Ok so I haven't had a whole lot of inspiration to entertain you with. Sorry about that. But since one of my faithful readers has requested my return I figured I'd better not disappoint!

Aaaand today my mother & I worked on cleaning out the terrifying office. If you saw this room you would understand that statement. To put it mildly, the office is/was very messy. Among the deep-cleaning we shredded 1.5 giant garbage bags full of old documents, and then my mom pulled out some of my old school papers. I decided to share with you what I had predicted for my future when I was in 5th grade. I'll bold the words that I filled in & will leave the blanks in so you know what I had not decided, and I'll leave the spelling as it was back in 1996. Enjoy.

"My Life in the Future"

"In a few years I will attend Northern High School. I will be the star of the Basket-ball team. I will join the Drama club, and graduate with an A average. I will drive a Corvet and work after school at Burger King. My best friend will be ___.

After I graduate from high school I will go to Michigan State University. I will become a famous Author. I will build a ___ house in the state of California. It will have 8 rooms, and the best part is that it will have a swimming pool. I will drive a Mustang Convertable. My hobbies will be roller-blading and bicycling. For vacations I will get in my ___ and take off for ___. Once a week I'll go out to dinner at the ___. I will get married when I am 21 years old and have 2 children. My husband and I will make sure they always have fun and I'll be sure and tell them ___. I will retire when I am 50 years old and spend my old age visiting all my good old friends from ---* Elementary School and doing ___."

Please note that at some point I erased "Burger King" and "Mustang Convertable" and crossed out "State" from MSU. Now at the ripe old age of 26 I can tell you that so far the only true predictions are that I did indeed attend Northern and I still enjoy rollerblading. (I recently bought myself a new bike too.) I can also tell you that I laughed hysterically at the idea of driving a corvette in high school and retiring at age 50 (my mom, who is past 50 also got quite the kick out of that one). As for my other predictions, I didn't play basketball beyond that 5th grade team, and I never joined drama. I spent several years writing stories and loved it, but I only finished the short ones. My inability to write a full-length novel sort of killed that dream of being an author I think. Some days I still think I'll go back and finish some of those long stories I started.

I guess this just goes to show that life doesn't always work out quite the way you planned.

*I removed the name of my elementary school so that you cannot travel back in time & kidnap me.