Ireland trip

For the past few months I've been debating whether I will go to Ireland this summer. For the most part, I've brushed the idea aside for several reasons. First off, I was blessed to go on an 11-day tour of Ireland with Grandma, Grandpa, my mom, and my sister in August of 2005. We stayed at Nora's in County Mayo, Grandpa, my mom and I successfully reached the summit of Croagh Patrick together. We also saw Dublin and Killarney. It was an extremely memorable and wonderful trip, I will never forget pushing Grandpa up the Holy summit that symbolizes so much of his spirituality and faith, nor will I forget Grandma's ability to know the oral history of every every village and street we visited, and how could I forget Abbey's ability to "Baa" in the car for 4 hours straight on the windy roads strewn with sheep on both sides. It was a trip of a lifetime--really, it was.

Regarding the upcoming trip, I've been in the mindset of, "I've done this before", "it's expensive", and as a new member of the work force (the sooner I'm back in school the better!), I put a high value on the limited resource that is known as "vacation days". There are other things playing into it as well, applications for medical school are rolling through in August, the new batch of interns could really use my help at that time, etc.

Recently, I came to the realization that I have not been putting enough value on what this trip really is about. It's not about "Ireland" per se, it's not about Grandpa's 80th birthday (his birthday is not even in August!), and it's not even about Abbey climbing Croagh Patrick. It's about family.

Honestly, how many opportunities do we have in life to travel together? Let alone as one big family to the place of our heritage? Many of those going on this trip I only have the chance to see at either weddings and funerals, wouldn't it be nice to get to know them more outside of these rather formal contexts? How awesome is it to have a chance to gather for the pure enjoyment of being a family? How many chances will there be in life to do something like this? What wonderful memories we'll be able to share for years to come? For some, this may sound a bit cliche, but really, how awesome of a chance. Looking at the big picture, instead of focusing on the immediate logistics, helped me to realize how fortunate I am to have this opportunity and how I should take full advantage of it. The logistical realities are still true and valid, but are so small in the big scheme of things.

This past year I've worked very closely with women diagnosed with breast cancer, some of which has been very serious disease. While this experience has increased my passion for medicine, it's also made me think about other things as well. If there is anything I've learned from talking with these women, it's the importance of priorities in life. It shouldn't take a life-threatening disease to reevaluate our priorities, to realize how we've been swept up in logistics, burdens, and constraints instead of doing what we truly we want to do. I talk with women who are facing a cancer that can't be cured, that has spread to their brains, their lungs, their bones, and I see what they want, what they cherish, what's really important at the end of the day. At the end of the day, it's all about family. We have our ambitions, our goals and passions, but we're social animals, we want to be there to create memories and experiences with our family and those we love...From this experience, I think it's important that we are constantly evaluating our purpose, our roles, our actions and how they play into the bigger picture, of what brings us happiness and what brings those we love happiness and satisfaction. To me, it doesn't matter if we go to Ireland or Death Valley, Ireland is a nice perk, but just getting together with so many relatives is a wonderful opportunity that I do not want to miss out on.

And, truth be told, someone's got to be there to photograph Grandpa when he's tied to a rope between Pat and Mike climbing up Croagh Patrick... :)

In the spirit of all things Irish, I'll close with the old Irishman's Philosophy...

There are only two things to worry about:
Either you are well or you are sick.
If you are sick,
Then there are only two things to worry about:
Either you will get well or you will die.
If you get well,
Then there are only two things to worry about:
Either you will go to heaven or hell.
If you go to heaven, there is nothing to worry about.
But if you go to hell,
You'll be so damn busy shaking hands with friends
You won't have time to worry!

Olympic Torch Relay history

From the official Beijing Olympics website:

"The Torch Relay, as the opening of the Olympic celebration, was revived in the Berlin Olympiad in 1936 and since then the Torch Relay has preceded every Olympic Summer Games. Starting from Olympia and carried by the first runner, the young athlete Konstantinos Kondylis, the Flame traveled for the first time hand to hand until it reached the Berlin Olympic Stadium. Since, the Flame's magic has marked and has been identified with the beginning of the Games.

Olympiads that followed, the Torch Relay continued to play an important role, having been enriched with the characteristics and cultures of the host countries. The choice of the athlete who lights the Flame in the Olympic stadium is always symbolic to the host country."

I wonder why the Germans decided to revive the torch relay? According to a 2004 NY Times article, the Olympic Torch has some very modern motivations..

"Hitler, who admired the powerful imagery of Greek gods like Zeus, wanted his Games to promote his belief in Aryan supremacy. The torch relay, memorialized in Leni Riefenstahl's film, "Olympia," was part of Hitler's elaborate attempt to add myth, mystique and glamour to an Olympics intended to intimidate pre-World War II Europe. In Hitler's eyes, the torch symbolized the perfection and victory of the German nation."

My question is regarding the nature of symbols. The original symbol of the Olympic Torch in ancient Greece stood for the symbolic creation of the world, renewal and light. Hitler reclaimed the torch to symbolize Aryan dominance and world power. Since then, many claim that the nature of the 1936 games, largely due to the brilliance of Jesse Owens, reclaimed the symbol of the Olympics ( thus also the torch) as a place where all nations can compete equally and peacefully and come together promoting world peace through sportsmanship. This has been my feelings about the Olympics, a positive, global symbol of peace and good will. But what does the torch symbolize? Have we successfully taken back the symbol of the Olympic torch to be a benevolent symbol of the games? What symbolism does this year's torch bring? Through China's dogged refusal to adhere to basic human rights policies for their citizens and the citizens of Tibet, has the torch come to symbolize protection of a false truth? Is it more right to send police to protect the torch then to send police to China to protect those hurt by China's human rights abuses? In the spirit of the games, is it wrong for those to protest what they believe in? Was it wrong of the IOC to select China to host the games? Controversial yes, but was it wrong? Will it do more harm then good for the immediate future? For the long term?

If history is any indicator, the Chinese Olympics will ignite a flame on a global scale, bringing the blatant corruption of the Chinese government to stand on the world's stage. I think we are going to see retaliation on the part of the Chinese in the near future. In the long term, Hitler failed, Germany reformed, and I have hope that the Chinese Olympics will help reform China in the long term as well.

MRI report

My doctor called this afternoon with the MRI results of my knee. I have a cartilage divot behind the knee cap that is the cause of the knee locking cracking, From what Dr. Allen told me, arthroscopic surgery to shave the cartilage to make it level is the treatment for this.

I am not so sure about knee surgery, I've been running better then ever for the last month, and only 1 or 2 times out of the 67 miles I ran in March did I have to stop and pull up because of sharp pain. Would surgery, time off, and rehab be worth minimizing those 1 or 2 times a month? If this was August, when I couldn't run, had trouble walking at times, I would say yes 10/10 times, but now that I feel pretty good this option doesn't make sense to me.

Today I did an interval workout: 400m, 300, 200, 100, 100, 200, 300, 400 with 100m walks in between, at decent paces and felt fabulous, better then ever -better then last year at this time when I was training for track! Given this, the only reason I would consider doing the surgery would be if this divot would cause long-term damage to my knee (which I'll probably have regardless!)

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Medical Interpreters

I've had the fortune of working with several different medical interpreters at my job. Russian, Japenese, Cantonese and Mandarin speakers. I've come to respect their role for patients who do not speak english, it can be a tricky one. I wish I spoke a different language because I've very interested in learning what exactly changes through translation. I see the role of the medical interpreter to be one of complete translation, word for word, what the physician says to the patient. But given the variation in language this can't be true 100% of the time. My other respect for medical interpreters is derived from the fact that they work in all different types of health care settings, disease areas and spectrums. They must know so much medical terminology! This cross-work in different areas of medicine must give medical interpreters a very unique perspective on the health care system. I wonder if anyone has taken the time to ask them what they thought of how care is given in these different settings? What they thought could be done better?