yay i'm tanned! (ok...burnt..)
finally the weather has gotten nice enough for me to lay outside and tan, which i did today after taking a morning jog to the beach. i found a new trail that i can bike on with my new bike! anyhow, my new shoes didn't fare as well 2 days in a row...as i developed a new blister on the opposite foot, under the arch (stupid flat feet of mine), so i had to walk instead of jog home. anyhow, now i'm nice and pink! not too painful, but should turn a nice shade of brown soon to cover my pasty self. can't wait to develop a nice summery tan. on another note, i'm addicted to nutella! it's so good yet so bad...i can't let myself buy another 'cuz it's just too yummy, esp on a tortilla/crepe! YUM!guess what! after 1/2 a year, i'm nearly done with Da Vinci Code (ok, i'm 3/4 done, 100 pgs to go)! my goal is to finish before movie comes out in a few weeks. most of my friends know i'm EXTREMELY slow at reading books, i'm still on pg 100 of the last Harry Potter and i started reading it the 2nd day it came out! oh well...i just don't have the patience to sit still and read...or watch tv...or see a movie...my mind just starts drifting! haha =P!
male birth control??
what do you guys think about the "male birth control"? i think guys should have the option to protect themselves too! but then again, would it be popular among men, since women have always had to bear the "burden" of birth control? some guys don't feel manly without sperm! comment on what you think!http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060428/hl_nm/pill_men_dc_2
"hello" sucks!!
i'm so annoyed!! been trying for 3 days to post pics onto my blog, but stupid "picasa hello" doesn't work! won't log in for me! anyone else have this problem? how do i fix it? i've uninstalled and reinstalled/restarted 4x, but to no avail. computers SUCK!! UGH!!! =(
liposuction and orthopedic surgery
so i began my new rotation last week...and my hours are back to insanity. i'm in the hospital ready to go at 5:30am...we round, then go into surgery from basically 7:30am til end around 6-7pm. exhausting. i get home, eat, shower, and bed by 9-10pm. surgeries are really cool but LONG and SLOW. i'm in ortho trauma, which means we fix all broken bones of motor vehicle/motorcycle accidents. it's soo sad seeing young 20 year old men with arm amputated, or all four limbs broken and requring rods/pins/plates/screws to hold it all together. they are in soo much pain too, 'cuz we drill and pound at the bone. ugh. now i'm extra cautious about crossing the street (we have a pedestrian that got hit, he's in critical condition), and for all you drivers/bicyclists out there, be VERY VERY careful! my attending tells all his schedule dpatients, "i can't guarantee any set operating dates--it's peak motorcycle season, you never know what may come!" and don't sit too close to the dashboard when driving--lotsa broken hips as the femur bashes against the dashboard and rams into the pelvis, shattering it. and broken kneecaps, but not as serious. believe me, takes 5-6h to fix a cracked pelvis, and it's not fun to not be able to move below waist for several months!enuf about the rotation--it's long hours but interesting. i have a 4th year medical student from Columbia (the S. American country) rotating with me, and she revealed that she had liposuction a year ago! she's about 125 lbs now, 5'3...she said at one point she was 160. she looks much better (obviously), but said she would NEVER do it again 'cuz of the pain she had to go through. she has very tiny scars, just large enuf to get the instrument into parts of her body (buttock, thighs, arms, abd, back). she said spot reducing really made a difference in appearance, but she had to maintain a diet/exercise regiment as part of the process. for the first few weeks, she had to wear a full bodysuit and have daily massages to get rid of the fluids. she cried through all the painful massages. anyhow, i was surprised that someone so young would opt for lipo, but i guess anyone could! only cost her $2000 in columbia! we got upon this topic when the OR (operating room) next to the one i was in had a breast reconstruction case that was to last 8+ hours! i've always thought it'd be nice to throw some buttock fat into the chest, but after seeing how ardous and painfully long it takes, i'll reconsider! they basically stripped off a HUGE chunk of abdm skin/fat to bring it to her chest (she had masectomy from breast cancer), and prob will pull down abd skin and tighten it. not sure...she'll have massive scars it seems. ugh! wish i chose a plastic surgery rotation, would have been interesting!
test tried again
yup, i took my new saucony's out again to run the 3+ miles up to East Rock cliff park today, lovely warm 60 degree weather, not a cloud in the sky. they are proving to be worth every penny...felt great! but still got a slight pain on the run back where my blister was...at least i could run a bit further today before the pain began! yay for new shoes!
new shoes!
i've officially retired my old pair of Nikes running shoes, at over 1,000 miles! i quickly estimated that i owned the shoes for 1+ years, and for at least one year, i ran about 3.5 miles/day for 7 days...about 24 miles per week, x 45 weeks..is 1080 miles. but then i realized that i owned the shoes longer than 1 year, so probably total of 1500 miles! wow!! that's one great shoe--my fav pair of running shoes ever, well-worth this $85. now the soles are completely worn, there is a hole developing on the right foot...and it's time to move on. so i got a great deal at a saucony outlet for 29.99 for a $90 pair of sneakers. not very good-looking, but nice and comfy! i took it out for a short test run of 2 miles, and developed a slight blister so i have to break it in some more. hopefully it'll last as long as my other pair!p.s. i have a pair of size 6 Nikes one year newer model than the one that i just retired, but it's slightly large for me. it's baby blue, sliver, and white...and the most comfy running/walking shoe ever! anybody interested in buying it off me? i'll sell it for $55...called Air Max Moto II.
chinese buffet!
reading shally's blog about superbuffet reminded me to blog about my visit today during lunch to "century buffet", one of CT's new asian buffet restaurants. I basically starved myself til 3pm while radu put his mtn bike together, and the restaurant gave us wrong directions so we got to the restaurant past the 3:30pm lunch deadline for the $6.99 price...and had to pay the dinner $12 price. yeah, i know, i'm very asian and cheap and following after my parent's footsteps, ack! =O scary! even worse...i get there, and i'm loading my plate "asian-style" with king crab legs, shrimp cocktail, grilled salmon, broiled fish, anything seafood even tho i'm not a huge fan of seafood, just to get my money's worth! and then i come back to the table where radu and his bro were sitting, and i see them eating hot and sour soup, white rice, beef and broccoli, bbq chicken, wontons, egg rolls....i didn't want to say anything, but boy, they need to learn how to eat at a buffet! (or maybe i need to learn to restrict myself better!) i've never eaten so little at a buffet 'cuz i didnt' want to appear like a pig...i was on plate #2 and they were already done with dinner and having fruit for dessert (yup, they skipped most of the pastries). i guess it's a good "diet" to eat buffet with them, what control they have! but still, one day i'm gonna have to teach them how to eat buffet like a true asian!
new bike!
i got a bike! it's not new...it's a hand-me-down from radu's bro, but i'll take it. radu just bought a $1600 mtn bike (yeah, i know) so his bro gets his old one, and i get his bro's. i don't mind--a bike means i can get around town! it will be nice when the summer months come =). hopefully i'll get to do some real mtn biking, not just road biking!
driving stick!
after much convincing, i've finally been granted the privilege of driving radu's manual car! i've been car-less in new haven since i got here, and it seems silly that i can't just borrow his car and take it out when he's not using it. so tonight after lotsa begging he agreed to teach me shift in his car. it's my second time trying it, and it turned out pretty well! the most difficult part was changing to first gear, but i managed to not stall even once! =) so now i'm ready for amazing race! shally--are you ready? =)
however, i do have a question: radu says that a girlfriend asking to drive her boyfriend's car is the same as a boyfriend asking the shave off all of his girlfriend's hair. Now, i need a vote from all the male readers: is this true? my ability to continue driving his car depends on your vote! so america, cast your vote now!!! =P
i miss *real* taiwanese food!
i'm a FOB! i want authentic chinese food! no more orange chicken, fried rice, chicken and broccoli! actually, i haven't had that in a month or so...but what i miss is my mom's home cooking! i missed it enough to venture out to the 20+ food carts...50 yards from my dorm...and try the one and only "taiwanese" cart. i actually didn't know the lady running the cart was from taiwan, we eventually got to that in our small talk. she was speaking to me in chinese, describing the foods such as fried tofu, tofu with hard-boiled eggs in pork/meat sauce, malaysian style curry, sushi, dumplings, buns of all sorts, shumai, zhong ji (the triangular bamboo leave-wrapped rice balls) etc etc! it all looked very greasy and salty...but i could not resist! i ended up getting brown rice with the ground pork/egg/tofu over it, and some grilled chicken with some asian sauce. i shouldn't say "some"...'cuz she gave me like FIVE pounds of food! for $5! and most of it was meat! i'm not joking...either 'cuz i came late at 2pm, or that i'm chinese! either way, i have more than enough food to last me for days! so i quickly ran back to my room, eager to devour "real" chinese food...turns out it wasn't half bad, just too salty and bit too oily for me. my mom's is still better by far! but then my stomach began to rumble...and i had to quickly run to the bathroom twice shortly after eating just 1/5 of the meal...hehe. ;-P oh well, it was worth it, kinda. i can't wait to go home to eat good food! i even went as far as calling my mom to simply tell her about the meal! i rarely call home just to chat (yes, i'm a bad bad daughter), but at least this time it made her quite =). so that's good...i'm still awaiting good chinese food, and i know there is none to be found in new haven! hopefully boston will have more options next week...still waiting for suggestions!
sad sad news =(
oh i can't believe i forgot to mention this...i got a very upseting email from LHS badm coach yesterday regarding a former team player. i don't remember if i ever posted about my good badminton friend's Jack (yes, the freshman FBLAer when we were seniors, also played on Cal badminton team, lives 2 min walk from my house in Saratoga) and his little brother Jon's fight with leukemia. well, Jon finally lost the one year battle, and died on Sat at age 19. i could not believe it--i still cannot.his (jon, the one who died) blog is here: http://www.xanga.com/fatCOWlickerit's his story...i'd scroll back to around april 2005 or something 'cuz he recaps how everything began. anyhow, prob 'cuz i'm in medicine, lotsa stuff he says allows me to see the patient side of things. though i only saw him prob 3x in my life, thinking of the suffering him, Jack and his parents went/is going through is heart-wrenching. i wish them the best.
trying to increase my blogs, or maybe i'm just slackin' again
on request of some people who complain i blog too infrequently and need "continuity" to gain "momentum", i'm attempting to blog some more. sadly, there is really nothing new to report, but i'll try!so i think i've hit my "bonk"-ing point--where i just feel like slacking, staying home, sleeping, enjoying 60 degree sunny CT weather. you guys are probably thinking, "What?? i've bonk-ed long long ago!" or "my life IS a bonk"...but out of my 14 days of pediatrics, i've only worked 6 days! i ditched last week from thurs-->monday, finally went in today where i was absolutely EXHAUSTED after just working from 8am-5pm! either i'm getting way too old, kids are just not my thing, or the warm weather outside is calling me, but i've been slacking like i've never slacked before! thank goodness i'm the only student on this pediatric rotation--nobody knows/cares where i am. in fact...next week, i plan to take the entire week off to spend in boston (boston marathon on monday! i found out too late to volunteer my athletic training/PA student services) with radu. it'll be my "vacation", though i had initially hoped i could take a real vacation somewhere (canada, florida, etc)..too bad there is nobody to go with! =( i need more friends out here who aren't working or in school! so boston will be it--should still be lots of fun, too bad radu has manual stick shift so i can't cruise around in his car. =( he's afraid i'll ruin his engine if he tries to teach me stick in his car, but i'm gonna make him anyways! it'll be fun regardless--any suggestions for where to go to sightsee/eat/play?? let me know soon!
no kids please!!
oh i forgot to add on my former blog, i am NOT ready to have kids for SURE, not now...don't even know if ever! i know i'm jumping the gun here seeing how i'm not even engaged, but being in pediatrics for just 2 days, i know i'm not ready for the responsibility of little kiddies running around. babies strike fear in my eyes!!! my boss sent me in to examine an 8 month old kid with vomiting/diarrhea x 3 days...and i came out saying, "i'm sorry, i don't know what to do!" he looked at me strangely, and said, "just do as you would an adult...look into ears, throat, heart and lungs..." Ugh, the baby is so squirmy, how do you make an infant open his mouth so you can look inside? how do you not poke out his eardrums when he whips his head the other direction while you are trying to examine his ears? and doing this all in front of an overly anxious parent? EGAD!! nerve-wracking...i don't even know the stages of a normal kid, such as when they walk, talk, when they stop breastfeeding, when they are toilet trained, when then can understand people speaking, how big they are supposed to be, when they start teething, etc. TOO MUCH!!! i swear, you gotta be a mommy or daddy before getting into peds. oh, and i must mention, germs everywhere. i haven't been sick once in 1.5 years here at Yale...and now i'm sick with just 2 days of pediatrics work. just lovely. oh, and in the mornings, i do newborn rounds where we go from each new baby to examine them for genearl health. every student/resident/md is ooohhhing and aaaahhhing over each baby, and yes, i agree they are cute. but i don't find myself oohhing or aaahhing. i don't do all that baby talk, tickle them, snuggle, etc. i'm just...not that interested. just little people lying in plastic basins. haha, i sound so harsh! but yea...i def don't feel that cutsie bond with newborns. =(so turns out delivering babies in ob/gyn was great (i just read my old blog, can't believe it was that long ago)--i'm not deterred from having babies from that. very cute, not all too painful with an epidural and a good doc who can guide the baby out slowly and not have any skin rips. the one thing i know is that i or the baby will have to be near death before they even consider a c-section. i was in more c-sections than births (not surprisingly anymore), and it looks absolutely brutal and gruesome. i've never had so much blood on my gown, gloves...face mask even! thank god the mom can't see, and thank god the dad's not looking. so many moms are going through c-sections 'cuz it's "faster" for the docs, and less risky in case the fetus is in distress. i'm gonna hang as long as i can.so that's that...for my married friends...any plans for kiddies yet? i know i have at least one friend who doesn't want kids...i may have to join you! =P i guess only time will tell, a very very very very very LONG time, hehe. =)
yes i know i need to blog more often!
sigh, now i can't even achieve a monthly blog log! how sad is that! and it's not even that i'm busy with school or whatever...i'm just lazy. but turns out my boss is out on vacation for 3 days that he didn't forewarn me about...otherwise i could have taken a vacation myself! so i'm being a huge slacker and cutting out on my pediatric rotation. i haven't gone in 3 days, but nobody knows 'cuz it's the pediatric emergency room and it's so crazy hectic that nobody knows who comes or goes. plus, i'm sick, thanks to all these kiddies with germs...either that or allergies. sniffles, congestion, sneezing, watery eyes, sore throat, cough. no fever, very mild headache. so if my boss returns and asks how my week went, i can say i got sick and wasn't able to come. =P sneaky, eh?so the weather has finally improved! i hear from my parents that it rained 20+ days in March in "sunny" cali, while here it is officially SPRING!! 60-70 degrees! =) so yesterday, i decided to take a run outside to East Rock Park, a 2.5 mile run one way. So i got there...and wondered what it would be like to run on the trail? once i started, i couldn't stop, so relaxing and peaceful! i ended up going all the way to the summit, prob nearly another mile! hahaha, i couldn't believe it when i was at the top. Usually radu and i drive to the base, and then walk up to the top. It was soo windy up there, but very nice view of the ocean. then i had to run back home....total trip, 2 hours, about 6-7 miles. what a sense of accomplishment when i got home! and surprisingly today...i'm not too sore! =) wowzers! maybe i'll try that again if the weather continues to be so pretty.i'm coming home to cali again soon! i will be in SF from may 27-30 for the national PA conference (job searching and networking time), then i will be home in SJ from june 8-11 for a badminton tourney...and once again, radu will come. besides competing in the tourney, he will be speaking with all the badm ppl in the bay area for job prospects in case he decides to move to california. there is actually a full-time position open at GGBC in menlo park, run by my old Cal badminton coach! such coincidence...but we'll see where things go, we're all working on it together. i'm just happy to be going home 'cuz 1) i need to straighten my hair, i chopped off 7 inches of it to donate to kids with cancer just last week, 2) i MISS chinese food!! mom's cooking! tapioca! chinese bakery! 3) i miss chopin...his hair must've grown longer by now! no more shaggy dog! 4) i get to see my gf's hopefully again! oh yeah, and my fam. =) hrm not much more to report. i finished my psychiatry rotation which i actually really enjoyed. i had two great patients for the entire month, one with schizophrenia and bipolar, the other with borderline personality and schizo. interesting people...one got good enough go to another hospital, the other is probably still there. =(the borderline lady was sooo hard to deal with. i have never been sworn at so many times in a month by a patient. she's very labile, unpredictable, moody....because she pretty much sees things as black and white, good or evil. in the end though, i think i developed a good relationship with her...as her parting words were, "i'm gonna miss you so damn much." haha...then she proceeded to get mad at me when i wouldn't let her beg a cigarette off a person on a street, and still chased after the man until she got her cigarette. sigh...i guess one month of psychiatric treatment with a student doesn't do enough good. it was a great learning experience though, now i can analyze people better! =Pafter pediatrics, i have orthopedic surgery rotation in April which is probably the field i will go into. i love working with my hands, sports injuries (no duh), and it pays well, good hours. so i better kick some bootie during that rotation to get recommendations. if all goes well, i may even do a second ortho rotation in Cali in August if i get a job offer out there. we'll see. =) can't believe i have 4 more rotations until i graduate sept 18, 2006! WOW! scary! such uncertainty...
