Monday, September 6, 2010

Lovestruck



I have the best Giulia ever. She went away to Dallas for the weekend and comes back with the things I love just for me...a dishtowel, with cupcakes on it. and oh. my. gosh. Sprinkles cupcakes... love much?!?!




oh and a note on men:
I am in such trouble. it's unbelievable.

Monday, August 23, 2010

The Universe


I think the universe is taking care of me.
I need to remember to just let go, and have faith that things will work out as they should

I've been feeling like this mainly because I am so happy with being busy studying heme/onc (and doing well so far) but also happy from talking with WI! I get to study all I want but I still get to talk to a guy who makes me happy. I'm happy to have a great guy who i get to see soon but sometimes it's difficult to be apart. but it allows me/us to focus on achieving our own personal goals. It allows me to completely focus on medical school (and he's reeeeally good about knowing that school comes first), so I get to be the best med student I can be. But I find myself looking forward to talking with him or getting a text from him that just makes me smile...so my world is supporting me right now.

I'm really loving heme/onc block. It's super interesting to me and has me thinking that doing a peds heme/onc rotation would be fun during 4th year. I just don't know if I could survive/love the clinical side of this specialty... But I'm loving heme/onc soo much that when our professor asked us to research the reasoning behind a phlebotomy treatment for the treatment of Porphyria Cutanae Tarda, it peeked my interest. I found out that releasing blood in turn lowers the iron levels which helps because the enzyme, urophoryprinogen decarboxylase (UROD) is inhibited by iron. So by decreasing blood levels, the enzyme can return to functioning at a normal level and the porphyria pathway can continue, thus allowing heme production and RBC production to continue. This clears up the cutaneous symptoms of PCT! ta-dah!
Yup, I so impressed the professor with the research behind my answer ( I literally found an old article & copy/pasted the source that listed additional source with articles that tested phlebotomy vs iron-chelating therapies)....that he gave me $20!! He said that I was the nerdest medical student (but a kindred soul in heme?) hahaha! I was congratulated the rest of the day by my fellow med students for winning the prize out of the 11 of the 150-something students in our class!

Also, I performed my first female genital exam & fake pap smear yesterday! It wasn't so bad and actually interesting to see/feel a cervix for the first time. It was really intersting that I immediately started talking to the SP completely comfortably...like I was in an actual clinic and had no problem talking with the patient (yay! thank you summer clinic work!). The standardized patient even said I did "great"!


i want one these for my trip to Wisconsin.

i was thinking, it would be great to be able to share my life, share my day with someone. But then I realized I do! I do with Giulia at our house & my classmates at school. I get to talk with my family & WI. And if I need a little extra cuddling, claudia & eddie do just fine.

That's probably an example of how I have just been thinking differently lately. I'm not preoccupied with dating or guys anymore. I'm completely happy with talking to WI and studying. I love it!!!!! It's the first time that I've ever felt my mind calm down. Maybe that's because I know I have a 10 in my personal life & i'm doing excellent in my academic life? :)

Oh and apparently there was a real physical reason I was craving chocolate. haha!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

I love chocolate.


So I've been eating a lot of chocolate these days....today.
I'm eating chocolate because it's easy to sneak into the lecture hall (where you're not suppose to eat anything) and perfect for those times when I get so bored of learning about important things like antineoplastics and reticulocytes & my mind starts to wander...chocolate is my substitute for other distracting cravings. like making out with that cute guy in the hat over there. yeah, those kinds of cravings.

I'm trying to behave myself lately for two reasons.
One, I'm technically single but I met this really great guy in Ecuador (he's from WI) and I'm still talking to him. He's basically the most genuinely good guy I know. Oh and he's really funny & really attractive. He's pretty much everything that I 've been looking for in a guy: confident, funny, intelligent, good-looking, hard-working, loves dogs, likes actually getting to know each other -just talking, dependable, sweet yet wild, attentive & likes to cuddle! I mean come on. The only thing is he happens to live over 1,000 miles away. It's so not fair. And I'll be flying out to WI to see him in Septemember...so even though we aren't officially dating, we have been texting & talking to each other every day. So I feel like if you have someone that awesome, you should just appreciate that.
Two, since I am single, I've been trying to decide what this means for myself. Should I be dating and hanging out with guys just to have contact & that kinda interaction even if it doesn't lead to a relationship (or that I don't want a relationship with someone) until I meet someone (like WI) who I truly want a relationship with? Or should I be keeping to myself, not taking part in any kind of physical contact until I'm in a solid relationship again? Also, what as a Catholic should I do?

....ahhhhh! and then part of me just says stop worrying! worrying does no good. So for now, I'm just eating lots of chocolate. And going on lots of runs because of aforementioned chocolate.

Check out these other things that also entertained me when I should have otherwise been paying attention to lecture:

Scratch off map

summer lasagne