Doin Yosemite, Family Style

Went on another mini-vacation this weekend to Yosemite (ps- I need to stop going on these because it is really hard to eat healthy on the road).  It was really nice spending some time with my family and enjoying the gorgeous outdoors!  I think one of the funniest parts of the trip was when we had a bee in our truck on the freeway and we were all trying to squash it or get it out the window while my dad is swerving and my mom is holding mine and my sisters' jackets out of the window.  Good times.  Here is some family magic:

Lady Bug Fren

Gorilla Moss?

Painter (so cool!)

Everyone Has A Story

Today I shadowed my preceptor for Doctoring 1 again at Kaiser.  I really like shadowing her because she is really good with patients (someone I would want to model myself after).  Also, I personally have Kaiser Insurance so its pretty cool to see the other side of things.

My preceptor practices adult medicine, which I had been sort of turned off to lately, but being there today sort of sparked my interest again.  Pretty much all of the patients we saw today had a laundry list of medical problems.  I was really impressed with the fact that my preceptor remembered every patient we saw today from a previous encounter.  She was very empathetic and understanding of their needs, and I could tell they were all very pleased with her service.

Also, for some reason - today more than other days - I feel like I really got a quick glimpse into each of the patients' lives (outside of their medical issues).  Each one of them told their stories and just wanted to be heard by someone.  Maybe they just wanted some sort of acknowledgement.  Whatever it was, I felt my preceptor gave it to them.

This brings me to the point of this post: something that we often lose in medicine is our patients' stories.  Its way too easy to get caught up in thinking of your patients as "clinical vignettes", medical "problems" that you must find the "solution" to.  But it is so much more than that.  Our patient's physical health is one aspect of their multifaceted life.  Each one of them has a story, whether it be joyful, heartbreaking, heart-warming, or just easy to relate to.  I love being given the opportunity to hear patients' stories because I find that they re-inspire me every time.  There is something about just connecting with a patient that gives me the warm & fuzzies.  Sadly, the way medicine is today, we don't get much time to listen to our patients.

A little visit to La La Land

Thanks to a cheap deal on Southwest,  I spent the three day weekend visiting some friends in LA.  I love when Southwest has cheap deals.  I really should get one of those rapid reward account things.

Anyway,  I got to see people I missed very much and we had such a fun time eating, going out, and walking on Venice beach in 80 degree weather!  PS- Sac is like 30 degrees these days....

Anyway, here are a few pics from our Venice beach excursion.  Unfortunately I did not capture any photos from our lobster pizza fiasco (can you say "most awkward situation of 2011"?!)  I took a "vacation" from my diet for the trip since half the fun of visiting friends is eating out.  Unfortunately, I gained back all the weight I lost in the last two weeks in a matter of three days.  Ooopsie!  That's okay!  Back on the healthy train!

Speaking of the healthy train, today I went to my primary care provider to get some blood work done.  My dad has extremely high cholesterol and the rest of his side of the family doesn't trust Western medicine/never goes to the doctor so I have no idea what their levels are like.  I figured it would be good to just know where I stand because its something I will probably just have to be extra careful about.  While I was getting blood work done anyway, my doctor ordered glucose levels, TSH, CBC, etc too.  Might as well just make sure everything is fine!  I'm still waiting for my results.  I hope everything is normal!  One good thing is that I noticed my blood pressure was nice and low (116/71) which is good.  I don't wanna have to worry about hypertension any time soon.

Anyway, enough of my jibber jabber - here are some pictures of the weirdos at Venice (there were more out than usual)... oh and my friends :P