Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Quote of the Day

"The key to happiness is to own your own slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don't. If you keep saying your slippers aren't yours, then you'll die searching, you'll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny."

From Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese, the book I'm currently reading.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Watson's Drugstore for lunch

My Grandma and I just had lunch here at Watson's in downtown Orange.
It first opened in 1899!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

My very own place

It's official, I have my own place! It's a cute little 1-bedroom in Menlo Park, a little over a mile from the med school campus. So exciting! Not only is it my own place, but it has great amenities like a dishwasher and garbage disposal and laundry on-site. I'm super close to bike trails, downtown Menlo Park, and there's a Starbucks around the corner.

Menlo Park has a great history, rich in Irish heritage. It was founded by two Irish settlers in the 1850s. The word "Menlo" comes from their town Menlough, from County Galway, Ireland. County Galway is just south of County Mayo, where my relatives immigrated from. So you know I'm living in a good neigborhood, stepped in Western Ireland tradition. ( I heart wikipedia for making all of this information easily available!)

The weather is always beautiful, lots of hiking, a great golf course and I will definitely have room for visitors, so start planning your trip!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Goodbye to the BCC


Friday was my last day working at the UCSF Breast Care Center. It has been an amazing two years. I helped launch a national nonprofit website, BreastCancerTrials.org. I supported 68 women through difficult appointments and treatment decisions. And most of all, I learned so much from the amazing physicians, clinic staff, and all of my colleagues. These folks in the picture above have become some of my closest and dearest friends and are going to do amazing work in the field of health care and medicine. No doubt about it. The photos below are of me with my lovable supervisor and the BCT queen, Elly Cohen, at the AVON walk and me with my mentor and role model, Laura Esserman, the woman who makes this all happen... I have no doubt that the BCC has left a lasting impression on me and I look forward to doing the best I can at Stanford with such enjoyable and meaningful work under my belt. I may be leaving for medical school, but the BCC will always hold a very special place in my heart.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

My Intern Presentation

2nd year of BCC Interns

First year of BCC Interns

Winding down at the BCC

I'm in my last week of work at the BCC. It has been an eventful and fulfilling two years and it's still a bit surprising to me that I only have 4 days of work left! I invested a lot of myself into my job, and I'm proud of my contribution. As I train my replacement, I realize how much I really learned. It humbles me to think about medical school and the pace at which I will be absorbing new material and subjects. As with most of my experiences, my favorite part has been all the wonderful and unique people I've had the opportunity to work with. I will miss the interns, my colleagues, supervisors, and the patients I worked with so much! Fortunately I'm just a drive on the 280 away. :)

Sunday, July 12, 2009

SF MOMA

Yesterday I went to the SF MOMA with Amy and Hannibal to see the Ansel Adams and Georiga O'Keefe Exhibit, which was fabulous. Here is one of my favorite of Georgia O'Keefe's work that I had the pleasure of seeing first hand:

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Quote of the Day

"Never forget that as physicians, we must always be advocates for our patients, not our specialties."

-Laura Esserman 7/6/2009

Regenerative Medicine

Imagine the world when we don't need organ donors.
Or prosthetics.
When organs invaded by cancer can be regrown/replaced with new organs.

How cool will that be?

I just watched a TED talk by Alan Russell that completely inspired me and made me see the potential for regenerative medicine. He asks, "if newts can regrow their limbs, why can't we?". He also showed powerful examples of how we already use regenerative medicine today.

The best thing about this is that Stanford is building the largest Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center in the NATION and is doing their best to recruit the top-notch scientists from around the world to be part of the team. HOW COOL IS THIS?

We can't regrow limbs, replace cancerous organs, or completely repair heart damage



yet.

Clinical Reader

I'm trying to find an easy way to stay updated on recent medical news, events and publications that I should be aware of. I found Clinical Reader, a website that allows you to review all the major journals and also summarizes what they consider to be key findings. Let me know if you have better ideas or websites that you use or are aware of!

Monday, July 6, 2009

Must Read Author: Nevada Barr

A good friend recently clued me into the mystery author Nevada Barr. She writes amazing mysteries that are based in national parks and other scenic places. Her protagonist is tough-nosed middle-aged ranger Anna Pigeon. I finished High Country a few weeks ago and I couldn't put it down. I'm about to finish Ill Wind, another great read. I love the fact that she writes with such vivid imagery and gripping story lines that I can't wait to turn the page, but at the same time love to take in her amazing talent of describing the scenery, air, and feel of the location. These books are great for nightstand reading, beach reading, and definitely awesome if you're traveling. May be a bit scary if you're camping...(I am speaking from experience!)

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Bluetooth!


Thanks to Andrea, I now have a bluetooth headset! This is so great! It means I no longer have to think up contraptions for holding my iphone while driving! This combined with the voice activation feature of the iphone 3GS is just ridiculously cool.

Quote of the Day

"It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all." -Edward De Bono