Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Quote of the day

"What we believe about ourselves can hold us hostage"

The Obameter


The St. Petersburg Times is keeping up an Obameter and is tracking Obama on over 500 promises that he made during the campaign...

Here's an example:

No. 458: Invest in all types of alternative energy

The Promise:

"We'll invest in research in every form of alternative energy - solar, wind, biofuels."

Update February 20th, 2009:

Stimulus provides money for alternative energy research

Is this normal?

Ever since I've been accepted to medical school I've been stressing out about the fact that I'm going to medical school! Financial aid, budgets, preparing for national exams, the shear breadth of knowledge I will need to conquer, studying, stress, duress. I've just been worrying myself senseless! I guess I'm realizing how much dedication and perseverance is going to be required for the next 4 years...Not to mention residency...

I think I'm taking myself too seriously. Overcompensating for my lack of mental and career preparation for college, I want to get this new start right. But I can't stop myself! It's gone too far! Help make me normal again!

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Incredible Insight

Before every therapeutic session, Dr. Rogers takes a moment to remember his humanity....

"There is no experience that this man has that I cannot share with him, no fear I cannot understand, no suffering I cannot care about, because I too am human. No matter how deep his wound, he does not need to be ashamed in front of me. I too am vulnerable. And because of this, I am enough. Whatever his story, he no longer needs to be alone with it. That is what will allow his healing to begin..

Southeast Health Ctr Breast Health Fair

Hannibal and me working the mammography and breast exam sign-in table.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Obama Sushi

I wish I could take credit for this or even finding this, but I can't (Thanks Tiff!)

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Check out Medpedia


I wrote about this Medpedia a while back when it was in Beta, well now it's launched so you should check it out.

It has 3 main objectives:
1. Be the go-to website for accurate medical information (Edited by physicians only)
2. Social networking site for medical professionals (View my roommate's profile here)
3. Create online disease/illness/health interest communities

Pretty awesome idea, I definitely joined and I encourage you to do so as well.

Intelligence

More and more I am coming to the conclusion that being intelligent means you are able to identify the important questions to ask.

Having ambition means you will pursue the full extent of the truth to those questions with all your might.

Wisdom is the acknowledgment and acceptance that you'll never have all the answers.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Not-so-comfortable anecdotes

I'm currently reading Kitchen Table Wisdom by Dr. Rachel Remen. It is a wonderful book, very insightful and I love all the stories and morals that come out of everyday people and everyday things.

In one story, Rachel explains how she used to secretly kiss the heads of the infants in the NICU, but then stopped doing so because she was afraid it would seem unprofessional and risky. She concludes with the reflection that, "In some ways, medical training is like a disease, it would take years before I would fully recover from mine"

Another humbling moment of self-reflection comes after she had to tell a mother and father that their baby could not be saved...Here is the excerpt:

"I went to tell these parents that we had not been able to save their child. Overwhelmed, they began to sob. After a time, the father looked at me standing there, strong silent in my white coat, the shaken intern by my side. 'I'm sorry, Doctor,' he said, 'I'll get ahold of myself in a minute." I remember this man, his face wet with a father's tears, and I think of his apology with shame. Convinced by then that my grief was a useless, self-indulgent waste of time, I had made myself into the sort of a person to whom one could apologize for being in pain."

Kitchen Table Wisdom, by Rachel Remen, M.D.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

What Not to Wear

The other day I realized that I have a lot of clothing hanging in my closet that I never wear...So this evening I set up my tripod, my awesome camera, and decided to mix and match some clothes that I have rarely worn in the past year, to see if they were worth keeping.

Check out What Not to Wear, the Julia edition

I realized that taking photographs of your outfits is helpful for 2 reasons
1) Makes you realize what you look good/bad/okay in
2) Helps you create an inventory of potential outfits

I plan on doing this with all of my clothing, and creating a iphoto album of all the potential outfits I have.

Here's my favorite from the night

Stimulus Bill

You can read the full bill that recently signed into law here

I prefer primary sources over pundits.

Friday, February 13, 2009

The Physical Exam

"The importance of the ritual of one patient baring his or her soul and body cannot be underestimated. Rituals are terribly important to human beings because they signify transformation. This is how you earn your right to say, 'I am your doctor.' If as a doctor you shortchange the ritual, you end up making patients feel you aren’t interested. They lose trust.” ~Dr. Abraham Verghese

Read the whole article, Lessons from the Bedside Exam in the NY Times.




Thursday, February 12, 2009

Question of the Day

If you had a little over 2 years to study for the biggest test of your life, how would you go about preparing for it?

The content of the test can be found here, it's the first PDF download

So amazingly glad about being accepted to medical school, freaking myself out a little bit thinking about how much I still have to learn and memorize!!!

Some words to live by....
There's nothing like biting off more than you can chew, and then chewing anyway. ~Mark Burnett

Many people think they want things, but they don't really have the strength, the discipline. They are weak. I believe that you get what you want if you want it badly enough.

Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal. -Vince Lombardi

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

8 Ways the Stimulus Bill Will Improve America's Health

From Division A, Title IX
  • $600 million for the training of nurses, primary care physicians and dentists and to boost funding for the Health Service Corps
  • $1 billion to renovate and rebuild health centers and health IT
  • $1.5 billion to the NIH specifically for funding more scientific and clinical research
  • $700 million to fund comparative effectiveness and evidence-based research (Ie the beginnings of a Federal Health Board made up of physicians in federal agencies that will examine current clinical patterns vs. the evidence-base and will create an annual report to the president and congress
  • $2.1 billion to expand the Head Start program
  • $2.5 billion for immunization and disease prevention programs
From Division B, Title III
  • Extending COBRA benefits for those left unemployed
Division B, Title IV: Health Information Technology (HITECH Act)
  • Policy and Requirements for national health IT standards and implementation
You can read the whole bill for yourself here

Monday, February 9, 2009

Question of the Day

What would you dare to dream if you knew you wouldn’t fail?
Initial thoughts that came to mind...


Become the best heart surgeon in the world
Claim the title of best heptathlete in the world
Be elected President of the United States and do good work
Hike the PCT from Mexico to Canada
Design a healthy community from the inside out
Run a mile under 5 minutes
Figure out how to prevent alzheimers
Find the way to prevent cancer from developing
Learn wilderness medicine
Change the core values of the US Health Care System
See every country, especially New Zealand.

Hot Cholocate, Marshmellows and a Rainy Evening

Equals bliss!

Last night was so serene, after decluttering my room it began to rain pretty hard outside. So I snuggled up to watch The Office with a melt in your mouth batch of homemade hot chocolate with mouth-watering marshmellows. Simply wonderful!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

My Decluttered Room

Before today I had 8 boxes and 3 suitcases in my room, as well as an entire recycle bag of papers that I sorted through...Here you can see the right side of my room. I got creative and made a vanity area for getting ready in the morning...

Here it is up closer...

And here is the other side of my room...You just can't appreciate all the organizing I did!



The bookshelf up close...

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Beginning to look like Spring in San Francisco


Update: A few minutes after this lovely photo of the blooming flowers, it started to rain. On me. So not quite spring time yet!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Wednesday Farmers Market

Caroline from work gave me a tour of the Farmers Market near our work
today. I learned what kale, rainbow shard, and collared greens look
like! Haha

Monday, February 2, 2009

Ever wondered, what's the big deal about blogs?

This is a great, short video explaining blogs and why they are so cool:

The world that keeps on giving

So, 4 days removed from the best news of my life (yes even better then being able to say President Obama), I must say that I'm still on Cloud 9, so excited and humbled that I have this opportunity ahead of me. I had a wonderful trip to southern California over the weekend, shopping with Grandma at the Grove in LA, meeting up with all my wonderful aunts and uncles to celebrate my good news, and soaking up the rays in Laguna Beach.

Life is Good.