anna in med school

Liz, thank you for sharing Kristof’s op-ed on Susan Retik and Beyond the 11th.  The strength and beauty of some people…staggering.

You surprise me sometimes.  Here I think you’re going to be all long and tedious, smack-dab in the middle of the week, and then you fill up with so many good things.

Congratulations to Caitlin and Chris on their marriage today in Ireland!

And to my beautiful eldest niece, who started kindergarten today!

After we talked ethics in genetics (dude, people who never participate became so vocal–love it!), I got my hair chopped by Mo at Aspara, the coolest hairstylist ever!  She is in a the performance group Zombies are Forever, performing at Philly Fringe…I’m pretty excited about anything having to do with Zombies…I mean, I did do my post-bac at Goucher College, home of the original Humans vs. Zombies.

Not sure if it’s a residual effect of Hurricane Earl or the first inkling that fall is just around the corner, but today was simply stunning, with relatively low humidity, vibrant blue skies, and tons of cirrus clouds.  Oh God, I’m gushing pathetically.  You would too if you spent yesterday in the biological sciences library.  It smells like mold and too much AC.

The course offering directory (otherwise known as the COD)…the day it would pop up on the UVA website was Christmas in April, or November.

It turns out, PennMed allows its students to take up to three courses outside of the med curriculum at the university free of charge (a $4,000-$7,000 value, each!)…talk about temptation.  I need to limit my perusing of the Penn catalog to, oh, an hour a day?  Okay, I haven’t made it under an hour twenty yet.  There’s a course being offered on the politics of food!  And then there’s clay wheel throwing, and photography, and bioethics with Art Caplan.  And all the English lit classes…because what I need more of in my life are more books….

Help?

We’re completing our embryology course with a brief study of embryonic, adult, and induced pluripotent stem cells.  In the words of our course packet, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are adult cells that have been genetically reprogrammed to an embryonic stem cell-like state by being forced to express genes and factors important for maintaining the defining properties of embryonic stem cells.  Flippin’ awesome, no?

Okay, why is this a really big deal?  While I recognize that there are still ethical dilemmas to consider, this study is less controversial than the use of embryonic stem cells, and perhaps even more effective.  If iPSCs can be used for cell-based therapies (like repairing a damaged heart, forming insulin-producing cells that could be used in transplantation therapy for persons with diabetes), there is a far lesser chance of rejection by the host, since they were, in fact, derived from the host.  We might even be able to use iPSCs to test new drugs.

Our embryology final is on the 14th, and this movie comes out on the 15th.  Weird coincidence.  I’m already totally freaked out, but excited to see it, even though Keira Knightly, not my favorite.  Love Carey Mulligan.

What Would Hermione Do?

Hermione would buckle down, watch the biochem lectures she missed (as if she would ever miss lecture!) on virtual curriculum (VC), and study cell bio.

I should get bracelets made.

I might have stolen this idea from Kyle.  Just sayin’.

Oh New York!  You and my beloved New Yorkers are good for the soul.

As I settled back into a corner of Chapterhouse, stack of cell bio notes in hand, I almost teared up twice out of withdrawal from all the good lovin’ I experienced this weekend.  And so, since I wasn’t getting anything done as a result, I decided to jot down the highlights.

I got a chance to stay with this crazy kid on the Upper East Side.  Kyle was one of my roommates during the post-bac year at Goucher, and he just started at Cornell Med (which, yes, is in Manhattan, not Ithaca).  The picture pretty much sums up my feelings for him.  So lucky to spend some snuggly time!  Kyle is probably the smartest kid I’ve met, and I’m really excited to see how he takes the medical field by storm.  Why are we not at the same med school?!  God, I miss living with him, staying up all hours watching Golden Girls instead of doing physics homework…him probably consuming something with mustard, me engulfing blueberries.  Plus side: we get a chance to visit our respective awesome cities.

Matt + Claire = an outstanding couple + a celebration of how extraordinary, fun, and whimsical love can be!  A night on the town with these two is always a treat.  Kyle could only meet them briefly, but as I was wolfing down gluten-free Mexican with them, I got this text from him: “Gosh, they were just lovely, clearly great people all around.  Thanks for introducing me to them!”  Then we went to a wine bar, at which the waiter spoke to us mostly in Italian (which none of us speaks), and I proceeded to get mildly inebriated from a third a bottle of Malbec.  Serves me right for forgetting to drink alcohol during the first month of med school.

Caitlin and Chris are getting married on Wednesday in a castle in Ireland!  And then they’re running a marathon in France four days later!  Talk about another incredible couple.  They serve our country in the Air Force, run marathons and even more crazy-ass races (wilderness relays, ironmen–these two are nuts!), swing dance, cook together, take care of two of the best dogs in the world, share a beautiful spirituality, and somehow make time to be wonderful friends and gallivant around NYC with me.  Thank you for taking me to the Met:

I tried, I really tried to be productive on Saturday night.  I ended up just walking myself down to the Tasti D-Lite on 1st Ave. and 73rd, wishing that it was our local J.P. Licks and that John was meeting me there:

Charlotte (to Harry): “I think it’s romantic that you walk me to Tasti D-Lite every night.”  Ain’t that the truth!  I don’t even think John likes frozen yogurt all that much, but he always orders some anyway (maybe just to keep me company, maybe to help me feel like less of a glutton)…now that’s love, baby.

Before leaving the city, I got to have breakfast at the Green Kitchen with Eunee (above right with fellow fun foodie Katy).  She is an MS2 at Cornell and has been quite the inspiration to me during the whole med school application process.  After Goucher, I got to spend one wonderful year in Boston with her–Eunee has a special knack for finding wonderful places to eat, with irresistible ambiance, flavor, and character, and I was so lucky that she let me accompany her on food discoveries.  It was so good to catch up with her over perfectly-cooked eggs florentine and admiring her stories and pictures of her Tanzanian adventures this summer.  I’m so looking forward to the cooler weather bringing out Eunee’s toasty hoodie…she going to be the best pediatrician!

There is simply too much that I want to write about.  Med school is the best, everyone should do it!

In all seriousness, I think this is the first time in my life I’ve felt incredibly overwhelmed, but really not stressed.  Somehow, I believe the higher-ups when they say that we’ll all get through, and I’m just trying to ingest what I can.  It really is like drinking out of a fire hose.

The cool happenings for today:

• Awesome nerve lab (okay, a little tedious, but who doesn’t appreciate a good dorsal root ganglion…I know I do).
• My FIRST presentation in med school with part of my learning team…it was in Biochem on the Pentose Shunt, and I didn’t look like a total idiot.  Rad.
• A class meeting to discuss possible certificate programs; they’re like concentrations (MD with a certificate in Global Health; MD with a certificate in Community Health…you get the point).  I didn’t think I would be interested (because, as I said before, I’m feeling a tad overwhelmed), and I can’t really explain it, but I think I would like to do a certificate in Women’s Health…more on that another time.
• We had a case presentation on Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis, complete with a video-chat with a little boy who recently got his sight back following treatment.  This doctor is giving kids (and dogs) their vision back by using gene therapy.
• Absolutely incredible presentation by a revolutionary in fetal surgery–I still can’t believe I get to learn from physicians at CHOP (an unfortunate acronym for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia).
• Got together a group of phenomenal women for Anatomy!
• And then I ran ten miles…it was painful, but it had to be done.  For reasons beyond my understanding I signed up for the Philly Half-Marathon back in May…the race is in two weeks and I have not been training.  The 19th will be a day of pain.

My day “ended” with a wonderful phone date with Ben, a quick trip to Trader Joe’s for some study goodies, a long-distance kiss goodnight with my main squeeze…and now I’m trying to catch up on cell bio…sigh.

Excuses in advance for the radio silence this weekend.  I’m making a quick dash to NYC to visit good friends and give Caitlin and Chris my hugs and best wishes as they take off for Ireland to be married!  So excited for you two!  I love New York and hate New York because it’s so jam-packed with favorite people, and I can’t see everyone in 36 hours  Will report back.

I got a letter from John today.  I’ll spare you the mushy stuff, but I can’t help but share just a little…it brought me so much joy tonight:

“Your granola makes me happy.  The images of you making it using the tiny stove in your/our apartment, “with love” of course, manage to flash across my mind with every bite…I can’t stop thinking about finding a job in Philly, so that we can move back in with each other and cease this distance nonsense.”

Love that kid.  Embryo can take a backseat while I reread it 4-8 more times.

I guess I wouldn’t be Anna if I didn’t fall asleep in class every now and then…

Embarrassing?  Absolutely, but I was definitely not the only one who struggled through today’s first genetics lecture on complex diseases (they’re not as interesting as they sound).

I’m thankful for the small group sections spliced into every day.  Today was genetics, which I normally enjoy a great deal.  We’re assigned problem sheets, and then we go over them in a group of about twenty, everyone taking a turn to explain an answer choice and his/her reasoning to the group.  Nothing earth-shattering, but certainly a good break from lecture.  Today was all about the Chi-square test, log odds ratio, and gene mapping.  Lots of math.  I dig it.

Need to get over the caffeine addiction I only worsened on the honeymoon…