A Circle for Valentine's Day

This story begins with me.

To get a better idea of what medicine is like in practice, I started shadowing several in the Salt Lake Valley.

This led me to the man seen below, Dr. Louis Borgenicht

  

"Dr. Lou", as he is known by his patients, is a pediatrician in private practice on 900 E 200 S. I shadowed him a handful of times and got a good dose of what I look for in a physician - using physical medicine. Dr. Lou is old-school in the best way. He doesn't jump to tests that are unnecessary, he uses experience and H&P to treat his patients, all of which love him. As I was talking with him, he recommended a book to me:

 

This book.

This book is amazing. It rang so true with everything I saw in El Salvador, about the coupling of poverty and poor health, and it inspired me to do more good as I returned to El Salvador in 2011. It follows Dr. Paul Farmer in his quest for equality and access in global medicine. It influenced me in both my essays and interviews for medical school in the fall/winter of 2011. Which led me:

 

Here, to Temple University School of Medicine. Where I study, learn, and am tested every day with something new and fascinating. Yesterday while I was waiting to enter my OSCE exam, I read an announcement on one of the many electronic bulletin boards in our beautiful building. An announcement that Dr. Paul Farmer would be the speaker for the annual AOA conference. 

 

 

     This is Dr. Farmer. He revolutionized treatment protocols of HIV/AIDS, MDRTB, and other illnesses of global public health. I have counted him as one of my heroes since I started reading about him, which was after a suggestion from Dr. Lou, who I had shadowed to get a better idea of medicine was like. It is always interesting to see how things will come full circle in our lives. I am so excited to hear Dr. Farmer speak that I almost can't take it. 

Just one more reason why I love my path, I love my school, and I love medicine. 

Happy Valentine's Day.

From the mouth

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.. -Buddha

I just think this is a beautiful quote.

L 

Vows

As I perused some blogs of former friends from high school that have been married for almost as long as we've been out of high school....I decided that I have a decent list of things I vow never to do. Sorry if you thought I was engaged and posting about my vows to my nonexistent fiance...you clearly do not know me very well ;) haha. Ahem.

1. I am not a princess (clearly, I would be queen), so I vow not to attempt to dress as one on my wedding day. Something classy and blue-white for the ceremony, something fun and short for the party!

2.  I vow to have an engagement party and, while I'm at it, an engagement longer than 3 months.Only in Utah is it socially acceptable to announce your engagement via facebook.

3. I vow to have a plated dinner. Dessert spreads are tired. Now a popsicle bar is something I could get behind.

4. I vow not to have a fondant wedding cake. It's a texture thing.

5. I vow not to wholly disregard my own hopes and dreams for that of my partner's. It just leads to spite, regret, and other sad and upsetting feelings.

6. I vow not to rub it in these women's faces that I have a bachelor's degree. An honors bachelor's degree. Ok, take that back...I will try really, really hard not to.

7. I vow to be very excited for them all to have kids. I have nightmares about having kids. So the fact that having them makes these girls so happy is just great. 

8. I vow not to have any type of taffeta/silk/ugly-non-earth-friendly material in my home. period. Not in the form of window curtains, and certainly not in the form of bedding.

9. I vow not to have more than one hand towel on any hand towel rack. More than one is awkward. And let's be real, I plan on not having many house guests for a while...I am going to take full advantage of my newlywed status and the excuses it will make for my ridiculous behavior.

10. I vow to reserve the right to get married at a courthouse if I feel like I'm going to bolt at the real deal. As my friends and family, I'm sure you'd rather have me do that than bail on my own wedding. Let's be honest, I'm a flighty deer in these emotional situations and chances are, if I get scared I'm going to bolt into the nearest thicket. Like bambi was told to do. 

So those are the ten that come to mind. And while I'm far from marriage or married life, at least I hope so, I still think about these things. It happens when all your friends are married or engaged. Meh.

L.

Avatar VS. Ferngully: The Last Rainforest

My roommate Erin and I just had a heated discussion brought on by looking at pictures on Liz's blog from China. She went on a trip to the mountains that inspired Avatar scenes and they have a replica statue of the bird-like things the navi ride on in at this park in the Chinese mountains. I was trying to describe said creature when it came out that Erin has never seen Avatar. This pro/con list is inspired by our convo that followed.

AVATAR                                                                       FERNGULLY

Pro: sweet CG effects                                                  Pro: the original

Con: giant blue people                                                 Con: corny 90s music  

Pro: sweet wormy connections to the earth                   Pro: matriarchal society

Con: long                                                                    Con: mullets

Pro: Sigourney weaver                                                 Pro: Tim curry

Con: guy who plays norm                                            Con: guys who play workers and pip

Pro: beautiful fake scenery                                           Pro: Batty's rap

Con: stole story-line from ferngully                               

Well, that's what we could come up with. And since Ferngully is the original, and has one less con, it wins.

Score one for planet Earth.

L 

Four days...

from now I will be losing a night of sleep. And be stroking out to take it. The time has come and now I need to just kill it. I would appreciate any well-wishes or good thoughts anyone can karma my way this week. bleh.

Can I get an Ohm?

I went running after class tonight to ease my troubled brain. My chakras are all out of whack. Es lo no bueno. I know this because I have been hacking up a lung ever since I got back. It was supposedly around 10 degrees when I went. It's about 3 now. I didn't start to get cold until I was doing my "cool down" hehe, a walk around our block. Note to self: Invest in ice clamps for my nikes. Another note to self: Get better running shoes. Basically, I need a good massage and a good dose of me time. I hope I get a yoga class pass for christmas.