A Big Big Day At Work

In the world of organ and tissue donation, there are some big stories, like the time we ended up on ESPN. That was big for us because it generated a lot of goodwill for donation. But on a regular day, it's the little victories that add up and make the work worthwhile.

I'm in training, so every day there are new things to learn and do. Early this morning, I took a giant step forward. This morning was the first time I called the family of a potential donor to request they go through the donation process.

It was very hard for me to do this. Anyone who knows me will tell you how much I don't like asking anyone for anything. It's literally the one part of my job I've been dreading since I got hired.

Luckily, the family I approached was pleasant. I can't go into too many details, but it was relatively painless on my end to get the paperwork completed. I really sympathize with this family and I pray they get peace for their situation.

Even though my hands were freezing as all the blood in my body ran screaming from my extremities, I got through it. Now that I'm on the other side, I can only think about the good that family's gift can do. I was so appreciative of the choice they made in such a difficult time.

It takes a big person to think about someone outside themselves even when they're hurting and grieving. I'm truly blessed to have the job I do.

The Last Of My Dream Dates... And Back To Chicago

Date #3: Tuesday Afternoon. I thought we were going to spend the whole day inside, just hanging out when we first woke up. But then Easy announced he had some errands to run. He invited me along, but oil changes and hair cuts aren't exactly couples' activities unless they truly can't stand to be apart. I hope we're not that far gone yet.

And while I was waiting on him to return, I figured I'd get my day's blogging done. And then I have no choice because I was scared to leave the bedroom. I think Easy had booby trapped the door, possibly on accident. When I grabbed the handle to go to the bathroom, it came off in my hand. Door handles don't just come off. They are weakened over time before they give in. And I'm not the one always unaware of my own strength. I'm just saying.

Now back to the date. Easy got back from his errands and we got ready to go. We were off driving, headed towards the park that's right near Barnes Jewish Hospital. I always forget the name of that park. We stopped at the skating park section. We walked up to the door. And there was a sign on it that said "Skating Season Over." We looked over at the outdoor rink and it was melted, filled with remnants of the previous day's rain and snow.


Easy was so upset that for the second time, our attempt at ice skating had fallen through. I think he really is very good at surprising me with something that will delight me, just not when it comes to ice skating. I tried to make him feel better because he really tried and the thought did count. We tried to figure out an alternative plan and ended up going to the Galleria mall that wasn't that far away.


We went shopping where I discovered this new store that honestly makes me think of Forever 21 on an LSD trip. I'm not exaggerating. That was one of the most over-stimulated experiences I've ever had in a store. I had fun with Easy in the mall. I learned a bit more about his style, and felt like I got a better grasp on what I wanted my own style to be through trying to explain it to him. I think I'll write a blog post just about that.


Easy ended up purchasing for me a really cute shirt/dress thingee. I'm going to wear it as a dress cause I'm super short. It was basically the money he would have spent for us to go ice skating. We had fun walking around the mall laughing and holding hands and it felt like something you'd see in a montage in a romantic comedy, but it didn't feel staged or contrived. It felt natural and I liked it.


He did good with his three dates. A great plan, some kick ass backup plans, and a good sense of humor can make any moment feel perfect. And I'm extra glad I have this blog so I'm not that girl when I get around my girls in Chicago and unable to talk about anything except how wonderful Easy is. I will not be that girl!


So today I head back to Chicago. It will be the first time, I think, that Easy and I are both headed to Chicago and not going there together. But we both have plans and activities, so we are going our separate ways when we get to the city. But I know we'll spend waaay more time together the rest of the week than we should considering we've been together for over a week straight, and we haven't really spent time with anyone else. I am glad to be heading back to my city. Sweet home Chicago.

Making Exercise Part Of Our Couple's Routine

Easy and I have plans to go jogging when he gets home from work today. We've discussed it for a while, but never quite got around to it. He said he liked the idea when I mentioned it the last time I was in St. Louis. He accidentally told on himself though. He pointed out that he just realized he didn't have running clothes. He pointed this out last night. Which means when he said he'd go running with me two weeks ago, he didn't think on it past the point of, "sound like a good idea. Maybe."


I didn't call him on it cause I know he'll read this blog post at some point anyway haha. But I'm just glad he's thinking about it now. The best laid plans blah blah blah. But I'm definitely going running this afternoon. It's so warm down here in St. Louis. And I want to keep up this running thing. I've only been doing it for three days now, but I like it so far.


I've avoided running because it's my least favorite exercise and I worry about having to have a knee replacement when I'm 50 or something like that. But yoga is doing nothing to get rid of the last vestiges of jiggly-ness on my arms and stomach. So I'm trying running and hoping for the best. I'm just glad Easy is going to run with me.


We enjoy doing things together. Based on my parents, who are doing Weight Watchers right now, getting all sexified with your partner only had positive effects. Easy is definitely sexy, but getting rid of our jiggly-ness as a team should be a fun thing to do together.

Weekly Goals Accomplished? Part Four

I had from Sunday to Saturday so hopefully I got everything done! There are fourteen goals in total. This covers 11-14 to 11-20


Family Member Goal: I'm supposed to reach out to a family member I haven't talked to or spent time with in the last month.
Accomplished?: No. I intended to, but never got around to it.

Career Goal: Fill out at least 50 job applications.
Accomplished?: Close, but no cigar.

Career Goal: Do research on grad schools, and on how to acquire a clinic/scholarship program/homeless shelter.
Accomplished?: Um... No.

Career Goal: Have an updated resume by the 10th of this month.
Accomplished?: This was finished by the 11th of this month.

Hobbies (Piano Playing) Goal: Spend at least one hour practicing the piano and/or studying music theory.
Accomplished?: Not a whole hour, but some time was spent.

Hobbies (Reading) Goal: Read at least one book in the last week.
Accomplished?: No, I swear I used to read a lot, I don't know what happened.

Hobbies (Writing) Goal: Work on novel at least once in the last two weeks.
Accomplished?: Haven't done this either.

Hobbies (Gardening) Goal: Work on indoor garden plan at least once in the last week.
Accomplished?: Nope

Hobbies (Yoga) Goal: Go to five yoga classes.
Accomplished?: I didn't make it to any yoga classes this week. I didn't get back til Wednesday night. Honestly I just didn't feel like it Thurs, Fri, or Saturday.

Hobbies (Cooking) Goal: Make one new and one old recipe.
Accomplished?: I did do this. I made a great dinner for Easy and I while I was in St. Louis on Tuesday. The cheesy shells I'd already made. But the chicken with a Chardonnay cream gravy was new.

Hobbies (Cooking) Goal: Write down the recipe for everything I've made in the last week.
Accomplished?: I did do this, just not on time, but it's done now, so that sort of counts.

Hobbies (Travelling) Goal: Leave Chicago once a week, leave Illinois once a month, leave the Midwest once
a season, and leave USA once a year.
Accomplished?: I was outside Chicago and Illinois by being in St. Louis from Sunday to Wednesday. I also left Chicago on Friday to go bowling in Dolton, IL. Still working on leaving the Midwest and the USA.

Hobbies (Bowling) Goal: Improve league bowling average and lower handicap.
Accomplished?: I have improved. After tonight, my team has moved into second place in our league! And my average is up to 95 while my handicap is down to 94.

Hobbies (New Things) Goal: Try something brand new.
Accomplished?: I was very upset about something, and I was able, for the first time ever, to fully speak my mind while not saying anything I would end up regretting. I was a fantastic feeling because I expressed my anger and disappointment without saying anything horrible. There was no mean streak to apologize for later.

6 out of 14 isn't bad. It's an improvement on last week. I am getting progressively better.

Yoga Is Awesome!

Today I took my first yoga class. My mother and I were supposed to take the class together, but she had to cancel on me at the last minute for a work thing. We'll make it up on Wednesday, hopefully.

But even though she couldn't go, I decided I was going by myself. Yoga is something I have been interested in for a while. I have a bit of exposure to it between a DVD I bought once at Wal-Mart and Wii Fit. But it's so different in an actual class atmosphere. I am a weirdo and I abhor gyms, so I was super excited when I found this place Core Power Yoga, that just has yoga classes. It is not a gym. And they do hot yoga, which I have heard is the best thing to do.

An acquaintance of mine swears by hot yoga. She said she did it three times a week for six months and had a six pack and tight everything. I am trying that approach. Ever since I decided to eat healthier and exercise more often, I've lost weight (more weight than I intended) and I almost have a flat stomach. Attending these yoga classes should take me over the edge towards flat stomach-ness. Hardly anyone has a flat stomach these days. I hope to be one of those people by Christmas. that gives me three and a half months. Here goes.

I've Finally Had Busy Day

Since I withdrew from medical school, my life has been uneventful. This is sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad thing, depending on how I'm feeling on a certain day. But I do know that it finally felt good to have more things than I had time to do today.

I had to be up at 8:25 to get to a hair appointment by 9 am. I've been waking up in the 8 o'clock hour the last couple weeks or so, but having to get up is different from waking up and just turning on HGTV until I pull out my laptop and begin applying for jobs. I get to my hair appointment around 9-ish and I get done around 1-ish. That is a long time, but it's because of my hair. I'm growing dreadlocks and my hair is kind of thick, so it takes longer to tighten my locks than it does for some people.

At 1, I ran some errands and picked up lunch. My keychain is now heavier because I've got spare keys to my great aunt's house now. I'm imagining the extra duties that will come with that... Then I came home and got ready for a trip to the beach. I joined my girl Michelle at her job and we headed to the beach as soon as she got off work.

We had fun at the beach making the world's whackest sand castle (definition of whack; it's #2 and #3), but at least we had fun doing it. We left the beach and went to pick up food for a meeting at our church. After the meeting, Michelle headed to choir practice while I went home to pick out clothes for our night out. I still hadn't decided by the time choir rehearsal was over, so I just headed to her house so she and our other friends could help me choose my outfit.

Then we headed out to this great spot in downtown Chicago called the Fit. It's a rooftop club at the Doubletree Hotel on State & Lake. Great atmosphere, pretty good crowd, ridiculously overpriced. But I recommend it if you pre-game first. We had fun talking, laughing, and people watching. I texted Easy to crack a joke about drunk-texting (he was amused, thank goodness). Turns out he played at the Fit last month sometime. Must've been one of those random gigs he went on that I heard about in passing. That definitely would've been one I would've wanted to attend.

I finally got home about 30 minutes ago. I had a 17 hour day. I haven't done that since early April. I must admit it feels good. I'd love to have days that are busy more often. But instead of hair appointments, errands, and hanging out, I'd like all of that to be spaced out over a number of days and to be stuff I did after work. Oh, if only I had a job to go work at, stupid Chicago unemployment.

Another New Blog

I've decided to add another blog to my list of blogs I write. Why? Because I want to.

It's about Chicago. Well, it's about my activities in Chicago. The places I go. The things I do. Check it out and see if you like it.

Re-Designing My Blog

From the moment I began blogging faithfully, it's bothered me that I have a limited choice of templates for my blog from which to choose. I googled some templates, and finally found one for free that didn't completely suck, but I use that for my blog that isn't public.

I think I may have found my solution! I will have to pay to have someone else design a personalized template just for me. I don't know if her prices are reasonable or lot. But I've spent about an hour going through all her samples and terms & conditions, and I think I'm going to go through it. The question is what colors to use? How fancy should I get it? I don't want my blog to look cluttered, but then again, I want it to look like me. I want to visit other blog pages without coming across my template!

So, in a quest for originality, I am taking a big step into the blogging world. I am paying to have a template that's original. Am I crazy? Possibly, seeing as how I'm not using my blog to hone my writing skills (I'm writing a novel, but I'm not a writer. I'm a scientist). But I'm also a hedonist. And I want a blog that doesn't look like anyone else's.

Also, I need a new title for my blog. I think my title is too general and not very specific to me, you know?

Plus, this woman has skills!

Netflix

Okay, I am ridiculously happy for a new development. Netflix now allows you to get instant view movies on your TV through your Wii!!! This makes me so ecstatic. I've always been envious of my friends with PS3s who could get it. Especially since there were extra movies available that I couldn't get just on my PC. I'm super excited. Can you tell?

I love love love movies. Seriously I love them. I don't love all movies, but I do like what I like. Currently, I'm all about most everything Disney makes (go The Princess and the Frog), heists (Ocean's Eleven, Italian Job), romantic comedies (He's Just Not That Into You, Sleepless in Seattle), musicals (Guys and Dolls, Hairspray), epics (Lord of the Rings, Star Trek), some suspense (Sixth Sense, Memento), action flicks (The One, Iron Man), comedies (Blades of Glory, Bringing Down The House), concerts (Luther Vandross, Michael Jackson), and some dramas (Black Snake Moan, We Own The Night).

That's a lot of movie types, I know. But I left out foreign films, film noir, classic old films, kung fu movies, and movies made just to win Oscars (like The Aviator). Oh, and emotional chick flicks like Nights in Rodathe make me hurl. If you're gonna make a movie emotional, I need some action, like The Blind Side or Remember the Titans. For every sad scene, someone got knocked down on a football field!

I'm just so excited at the new possibilities. I like to put in a movie before I go to bed. My options will be extended now if I decide I don't want to watch one of my DVDs. That will be interesting if PT ever makes his way up here and spends the night. He likes to watch TV when he goes to bed too. But at his place, it's usually Sportscenter. That's totally fine with me, but it'll be different at my place, lol.

I'm so excited to get my disc I need to use Netflix (they could've just given us a download from the Wii store, but I'll let that pass). I'm supposed to get in 1 business day and I hope that still applies even though I didn't request it until after close of business today. I have a really nice television (32" HD something or another, my daddy picked it out, lol) and I'm looking forward to the picture quality as compared to my laptop. But it's about more than just my laptop. It's also about my internet speed, but my Wii pulls up the weather and new pretty quickly, so I've got my fingers crossed!!

My Friend Is Applying for Biggest Loser 10

Last week, I agreed to help my friend do something. She wouldn't tell me what it was; she just said it would be awesome. I showed up as promised and was surprised to find she wanted my help in making an audition video for her application to the next season of Biggest Loser.

She wants to lose 100+ pounds and she came up with a very fascinating idea for an audition tape. She's creative and an A-typer personality, so there is no way she would make a tape of herself standing there talking for six minutes straight. She decided to make her video partly her talking straight on to camera and party narrating the scenes.

Yes, there are scenes. I'm in them. Anyone who knows me well would know that I do not like the idea of being a YouTube video. Or any video that has the potential to become public. But, I did this because it means a lot to her. The video was fun to make, and in my down time I got to play with one of the M4's daughter. She is a great little kid with a big imagination and I loved refreshing mine. Seriously, if you have little people to entertain, let me know so I can share the new games I've learned.

If you click the title of the article, I've linked the YouTube video. Check it out and see how awesome my friend is!!

Maybe Not a Mistake

I posted a couple days ago that I was making what I was pretty sure was a mistake. I did it anyway, on the off chance that I would finally yield a different result.

And I got lucky! I seemed to have gotten a different result. The man who inspired me to repeat my mistake is reacting in a way that is so different from the men before him. I am relieved and joyful. Obviously, what I've done doesn't mean we'll live happily ever after. But it does mean that perhaps the behavior I am instinctively desiring to engage in isn't something I should beat down and avoid.

I like being me, and I like it when my quirks and behaviors actually have real-life applications. I don't often see the world the same way as those around me, but I like when I'm not so off the beaten path that no one can follow me.

So, we'll see what happens with this man. But I am hopeful because he's the first to respond positively to behavior that is, to be quite honest, ingrained in who I am.

Seeing Patients in Clinic

At U of I, at least here is Rockford, we have what is called a Family Medicine obligation. For us second year medical students (M2s), that means we spend one half day a week in the clinic. We started this even before we had completed all of our work for History and Physical Examination knowledge.

As we continue to work, we are learning things about how to interview a patient, write-up a report, diagnose problems, and prescribe medication. Epocrates is my friend. Epocrates is this fabulous application for PCs, Macs, Blackberrys, iPhones, etc. It's so useful. If you want to check it out, go to http://www.epocrates.com/. This site has everything you could possibly need to get through clinic as a medical student.

I used it today to diagnose a patient. Of course, I had to have the basic clinical knowledge. I had a thought of what her diagnosis might be. I pulled out my Blackberry, hopped on Epocrates, and looked up the disease. I was informed of the basic symptoms, what I'd see on exam, and expected patient history. I was told about the best ways to treat it, drug interactions, and counterindications. That's just the tip of the iceberg. If you are going to go to medical school or join the medical profession, get Epocrates.

I am just really enjoying the experience though. Each new experience (at least the ones where the woman is pregnant or needs a pap smear) brings me closer to realizing that I'm interested in OB for real. This makes me happy. I'm just the kind of person that gets happy when at the end I want the same thing I wanted in the beginning.

Male GU Workshop

We've been doing a workshop to learn about a Male GU check-up. GU stands for Genito-Urinary. We have done a full clinical skills class for everything except GU for men and women. I've just completed the male portion. It was quite the experience. Just like the rest of our clinical workshops, there was a process.

We had a brief orientation where we learned the basics of what was expected of us. Then we were responsible for reviewing the relevant material in Bate's Guide to History Taking and the Physical Exam. Then the very next day, we had a demonstration on the proper way to conduct a genital and prostate exam. I was completely unprepared for my reaction.

First of all, I've seen prostate exams before. I've done preceptorships with doctors who perform them. But it's quite different when someone is doing it slowly for educational purposes. And I was awful close to the proceedings. Like, really close. Really really close. I was taken aback and slightly embarrassed. I still don't know why. I really hope I don't have that same reaction when we do the females. Because that would be my first indication that I really might want to look into something else besides Obstetrics/Gynecology. Because right now I know for sure that I should never be a Urologist and maybe not even in Family Medicine.

I really can't figure out my reaction. For the workshop where we had to perform the exam (multiple times on different men), I was so incredibly nervous. I literally needed more oxygen; I couldn't breathe very well. My heart was beating so fast. I had to leave the room and go to the bathroom. But once I got to the exam, I did it very well. My father swears I'm going to have horrible bedside manner (I'm pretty sure he's joking), but every time I have to deal with a patient, things always go so well. At least so far. But that nervousness was there. And each time we switched to a new person, the nervousness came back.

I got through it somehow, and I feel better knowing I am more proficient at clinical skills, but the Male GU exam will not be a part of my practice of medicine as an actual physician.