Hello 2012, I've Been Expecting You

I'm about a week late, but Block 5 has already started out busy, so it took me a while to finish this post.  Before I talk about my goals for 2012, I wanted to look back and see how I did on my goals for 2011.

Last year's resolutions revisited:

1. "Do some serious soul-searching/spiritual discovery": I honestly did give some thought to this throughout the year, but I interestingly ended up in the very same spot I started out.  Which is okay with me, it just means that now I am more sure about how I feel!
2. "Lose weight/maintain a healthy lifestyle": I definitely accomplished my goal of getting back to my normal weight after the holidays last year.  As far as eating healthy and exercising on a regular basis, I tend to go through phases.  At times I eat ridiculously healthy and at one point was training for a half marathon, and then there are other times where I gorge myself and don't work out for over a month.  I think overall, the two phases end up canceling each other out so that my overall lifestyle is about mostly healthy. Also, I have been able to keep off all of the weight I lost in 2010, so I'm really happy about that.
3. "Put more effort into establishing and maintaining relationships":  Friendship-wise, I think I lived up to this goal as good as I could have imagined.  I feel like I've really strengthened a lot of my friendships here in med school, and I've learned to appreciate all my friends for all the different qualities they have to offer.  I've also really enjoyed the cooking/dining out adventures I've had with my friends this year, and I can't wait to have more.  What can I say, we just LOVE food!  I've tried to keep in contact with my UCLA and high school friends as best I can, but this is still a work in progress for me.
4. "Take pictures whenever possible": Along with my diet/exercise goal, I went through phases with this one too.  I think I managed to take a lot of great pictures in 2011, and can't wait to take more in 2012.  I will just have to find more opportunities to take them!
5. "Cook some delicious stuff": I more than exceeded at this goal.  2011 was FULL of cooking adventures with my sister or with my friends.  I grew an appreciation for the Food Network.  I also discovered my FAVORITE cook book store in San Francisco: Omnivore Books.  Towards the end of the year, I stopped cooking as much due to lack of time and excess laziness, but I got a professional mixer for Christmas, so I've been re-inspired to cook again!

New resolutions for 2012:

1. Continue a healthy lifestyle:  I would like to continue to eat FAIRLY healthy.  I also would like to get back into an exercise routine, especially with boards studying coming up, I don't want to just be sitting for 12 hours per day for three months.
2. Gun it up for boards (in non-malicious way):  Since all of our classes are graded Pass/No Pass, I've made the conscious decision to spend less time trying to "get an A" in my classes, and more time keeping my life balanced with friends, relaxation, etc.  After an extremely encouraging meeting with one of the school's student advisors, I am feeling energized and ready to work my ass off for boards.  OB/Gyn doesn't require a ridiculously high boards score, but I would really like to have options when I apply to residency programs. I'm feeling like I can get a really good score if I put in the time.
3. Maintain a balanced, happy life with boards studying (and later with clinical rotations).
4. Blog more: about whatever! Towards the end of 2011, I sort of dropped the ball on blogging.  I got really busy, and also felt like I didn't have much to say.  

So here's to another amazing year!  2012 is going to be a year of hard work, and hopefully worthwhile rewards.  

Feely Hearts

Today in The Healer's Art (an elective I am taking), our facilitator gave us each a "feely heart".  A "feely heart" is a small stuffed heart that was originally intended for kids who were dealing with the loss of a parent.  The feely heart, which is small enough to carry around in your pocket at all times, was meant so that these children could just hold it in their hands and remember their lost parent whenever they felt the need to.

A slightly different way to use the "feely heart" as a physician (or physician in training), is to carry it around in your pocket as a constant reminder for us to keep our hearts open to our patients.  It is a great memento to help us reflect on why we are doing what we are doing, and that to really take the best care of  our patients, we must listen to their stories, forming rewarding connections that make our work worthwhile.

My First Glance At Sacramento County Hospital

Today I went with a friend (I won't say who just to protect her privacy) to her doctor appointment at the County hospital in Sacramento - coincidently right down the street from my house in Oak Park.  It was really interesting to people watch, as you see a much different crowd here than you do at Kaiser, but all in all there was a general vibe of friendliness from the patrons of this hospital.  While the triage nurse and other nurses we met were pretty stand-offish and cold, the doctors were surprisingly warm, compassionate and easy to relate to (which in my experience, is the opposite of what you see sometimes).  I was very impressed with the doctors my friend saw.  My friend, who is very supportive of my journey to becoming a physician, allowed me to sit in on her entire appointment, so I was able to see an IUD being removed and a new one inserted.  It was very cool to watch, and I can definitely see myself ending up in the field of Women's Health.

So, I have been failing at keeping up with my 30 Day Challenge of blogging, but that is only because I feel that the topics are lame.  In case you are dying to know the info that I missed in the last few days, my favorite TV show is LOST, my favorite book is The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (I know, I am a nerd).  My favorite authors are probably Michael Crichton and Dan Brown. My favorite quote is the Serenity Prayer, even though I consider myself more spiritual vs. religious.

"God grant me the serenity 
to accept the things I cannot change; 
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference"   - Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr

I like this particular "prayer" because I feel that it is a way of thinking that can be applied to almost everything in life.  Like I said, I'm not particularly religious, but I like the message behind it.  


On another note, I tried two new places in Sac.  Louie's, which is on the corner of Stockon and Broadway, is your typical Chinese restaurant.  It wasn't anything fabulous, but if you are looking for mediocre Chinese food, it's good.  Babycakes on J street is an AWESOME cupcake chop, and is a more "small-town" version of Sprinkles.  I got the triple chocolate cupcake = YUM.