Convocation

Convocation is in 4 days!! I’m so so so so so excited, I will soon be reunited with my dear fellows and faculty in Florida, we will learn more about osteopathy, I will meet up with an esteemed doctor in the field of OMT & OBGyN research (secretly hoping she’ll mentor me), and I will visit a state  I’ve never been to!

Lot’s has been going down the past few weeks.

First off, my first race! Quick recap:

-It was awesomely inspiring and amazing and I already signed up for a 10K next month

-I cried a few minutes into running b.c I was so overwhelmed by everyone running

-I ran the entire thing (goal #1, Check!) and I LOVED it (goal #2, Check!). The pooch and the husband came to watch, it was awesome.

-I ran in under an hour! {{I know…5K in an hour?! but I was worried…and I ended up running it in 36 minutes, which is certainly something awesome for me}}

-I did it all on my own and it felt great to challenge myself, try something new, and accomplish something I’ve been wanting to do. Feels great to expand.

Some pics of the fun event:

The race was ~ 500 people, lots of families, even some doggies, it was awesome! This is my cheering section:

And before you wonder…is that a muzzle!? Nope, it’s a ‘snoot loop’ you can google it, it’s the original version of the ‘gentle leader’ that cesar milan came out with. It helps me control this strong poochie when we’re walking, if I have control of his head, all’s good  You know how some people put harnesses on their dog? Well we’ve tried really hard to train him to be a good walker and a harness only lets him pull with his ENTIRE body weight…which makes no sense, so with this nifty sucker, I can walk him like a charm. It’s awesome.

After the race, the hubby and I drove to Malibu for our 4 year wedding anniversary. We were celebrating by renting a vintage airstream trailer on a property in Malibu for the night, romantic, secluded and beauuuutiful. Here are some pics:

our sweet trailer overlooking the Santa Monica Mountains

The owner of the property has 8 goats, on our hike the next morning we had a visitor follow us back to the airstream. This was snowflake, she was sweet and even came up to sniff us a ton…eventually licked my leg…and even gave it a nibble, harmless and VERY sweet! We hung out with her all afternoon before we left. **Note snowflake running after the husband Didn’t want to leave our side!

 

This is what the pooch was up to while we were away…he was having a sleep over at our friends house, and what fun he had!

 

Since that fun weekend, things have pretty much been business around here.

I’ve been finishing my OMM rotation, in fact, today was my last day. LOTS to talk about there…another post coming.

Other news, my mom is moving! She’s been wanting to move for a while, but isn’t really in a position to. Just serendipitously, my aunt has a house next to her going up for sale and it’s basically a dream come true to have my mom and aunt live right next door to each other…AND 15 minutes closer to me Now we just have to work on selling her house…

I organized my office

Made homemade doggie treats…pumpkin spice!

And am currently gearing up for exams, new rotations in the hospital, convocation in Florida, and helping mom with the house!

I’m working on articulating my post about my last rotation soon. The quick and dirty, it was awesome, filled with self reflection and amazing. I was challenged but walk away from it feeling more deeply rooted in my connection with health, patient care, and why I want to be a doctor. I also feel closer to my goals and have a better idea of what kind of physician I want to be.

 

 

 

 

 

5K

This week was good, in a weird way. I can’t tell if I LOVE what I’m doing every day, or if I HATE it.

Basically what I’m doing now is reallllllly demanding mentally, emotionally, and sometimes physically. I have to think hard while treating someone to feel things and to then bring it back to normal. At the end of the day, even if we’ve only had 3 patients, I’m drained.

Why I love it:

-truly treating patients ENTIRE body: mind, spirit, leg, arm, etc… all in combination

-it’s pretty amazing what we can do with our hands to heal

-the schedule is great

Why I’m not loving it:

-can be boring

-sometimes I don’t want to work that hard

-sometimes I don’t like treating the entire person bc I feel like they’re manifesting problems that aren’t actually there

-sometimes I don’t think I FEEL anything

-sometimes I don’t know how to approach a patient with treatment and feel frustrated

-I wish I was better at treating

**it’s so helpful to see it written down! a lot of my ‘dislikes’ stem from lack of confidence or knowledge…interesting.

I have a very busy day today, getting all of my life taken care of before my hubby and I head off for the weekend to Malibu.

Currently researching bunions, feeling like a  podiatrist, and anxiously awaiting my hike with my dear friend and pooch — just a few more hours!

Tomorrow is my race, my FIRST 5K!! I’m getting really excited! This is a big ol’ deal to me and I’m simply hoping to ENJOY and RUN THE WHOLE THING.

I’m going to re-write my goals later.

Never Ending

This weekend is never-ending and I LOVE it! Thursday night my husband, sister and myself met up with some friends to see a show — husbands friend from high school in England is in a band that’s touring the U.S. right now. It was such a fun night…there may have been tamales from someone’s trunk at 2am.

The next morning, Ant and I walked around Los Feliz w the pooch and had an awesome breakfast at the Mustard Seed Cafe, breakfast burrito Later that day I met friends for sushi and ended up seeing Identity Theft…super funny!! Of course, that day couldn’t go by without attempting my life-long pursuit for the perfect storage option for my office.

I have such a small office and it’s getting to a pnt where I need more storage and need to purge my space of unnecessary stuff. This weekend I’ve been to 7 + stores looking and haven’t found anything! I might go to Ikea later…

One of my projects this weekend, his and hers laundry hampers out of trash bins –

Last night I had the pleasure of meeting up with 2 dear friends (one with child, yay!!!) and we had drinks (mocktails for mama-to-be) and dinner at the bar my husband works at, deeeeelicious! Lots to catch up on and chat about, it was lovely.

Today has been very productive. Finished a paper, sent a billion emails (more like 4 important ones..but it felt like a billion took a quiz, organized and updated my CV, put together my packet to ask for letter of rec from my last preceptor, updated my ‘to-do’ list…ate lots of yummy snacks while being productive.

Something weighing on my mind..My pooche’s foot! We played ball w him in a tennis court yesterday and about 20 minutes in, we realized he was bleeding from somewhere. The pooch DOES NOT mess around when it comes to the ball, all of his skidding and running had split BOTH of his front foot pads, with pieces kinda hanging off and bleeding We stopped and headed home, I put some neosporin on them last night. But when we got home, the pooch proceeded to throw up…probably a 1/3 of a gallon of mucus! He hadn’t eaten breakfast yet and had downed a ton of water while playing ball…maybe the heat got to him? We layed low all day after his throwing up and he was very protective over his foot. He did eat dinner, thankfully, and no throw up. But today he seems like he’s in a lot of pain with his feet, I just can’t handle his sad whimpering!! Probably going to the vet this week.

Excited for…This weekend when I run my FIRST race!!! and hubster and I head out on a romantic evening to celebrate our 4 yr wedding anniversary. I’ve booked something in Malibu for the night and I’m so excited!!

Thankful for…the amazing sun today, my husband that loves my dog so much, my sister for being so damn amazing and literally the best sibling, and for my mom, whom raised my sister and myself on her own and is the strongest woman I know.

Fusion Barre

On Monday I attended a fusion barre class at a new studio in town. Basically I woke up early one morning the week prior, noticed an amazon local deal for 20 dollars to purchase 3 classes of barre at this fun looking studio. I purchase said deal. Next, I looked up the studio online to check out the schedule…well, it turns out the studio is literally BRAND NEW. It hadn’t even opened yet lol. So, I decided to reserve a space in their fusion barre class on the very first day of business for this studio.

When Monday rolled around, I was super excited to try something new! I headed over to the next town, parked up and found this cute new place in the shopping center. When I got inside…a pit formed in my stomach….I was the only, ONLY person there for class. uh…

This studio is very ‘open’ and I didn’t want to be the center of attention, on the other hand, one-on-one classes, cool! Thankfully, 1 other person showed up so it was the two of us, 1 employee, and the teacher. The class was neat, a little unorganized, but perhaps thats to be expected.

The only bummer, I think I overworked my hip. I couldn’t even walk the dog yesterday or the day before. My hip is aching SO BADLY! I’m hoping it will just slowly go away….

Some good news: I got an honors in my previous GI rotation! That is the highest grade you can get and on the ‘comments’ section he simply wrote ‘excellent with patients, excellent student.’ It made my entire week to read that. Now, I have to get up the courage to go BACK to his office and ask him for a letter of recommendation. agh.

I’m currently at a local OMM doctor’s office. It’s a completely different ball game, but in a good way. I’m with 4 other classmates, all of whom I really adore, and we’re having a lot of fun so far. I’m also learning to trust my hands in treating SO much more and it’s only day 3.

Will be back with more info on the rotation soon, also thought this would be a good time to delineate between M.D. and D.O. on a nametag

Too Early

You know what bums me out? That I’m up too early and most of my favorite blogs have not updated from the weekend. I like to have a cup o’ joe and update look through blog posts…and I’m in CA so I’m 3 hrs behind anyone on the East Coast, I suppose it makes sense that people have jobs etc… lol … I guess I should be studying anyway.

Yesterday I made the most delicious combination of veggies: green beans [really into these of late], large great northern beans – canned, shallots, chives, and last but not least about a tablespoon of worcester sauce (the secret ingredient) DEEElicious!

Then, in the afternoon, my cousin called from downtown, she was sat at the bar with her boyfriend chatting to my husband as he worked (he was bar tending) AND she mentioned a going out of business sale at the store next door. I rushed down town and found some gems

TOMS for 14 dollars!!!! What’s the catch?? Well…they were all mens sizing, so One of them is big and the other even bigger…My sister is going to take the ‘big’ ones b.c I think they’ll actually fit her well, and I’m going to enjoy my 14 dollar bigger ones with socks and maybe I’ll try shrinking them. Amazing, no!?

Last, but not least, I wrote up a list of goals for my upcoming race. My FIRST race ever!! Will share soon, for some reason the post I wrote was deleted, so now I have to write it again, boo.

Starting a new rotation today!! OMM all day every day Woo!!

 

missed the boat.

I missed the boat on beach weather!! Yesterday was beautiful, sunny, light warm breeze and PERFECT for the beach. However, today was our beach day and this is what we have to work with:

Should’ve gone to the beach yesterday. I guess this means I HAVE to clean, study and prep for the week ahead.

Today includes 1 exciting thing though…

Grocery shopping, meal planning, cleaning, laundry, studying, organizing, maybe some thrift shopping for a piece of furniture we’ve been needing, fusion barre at a new fitness place in town…::cough cough::  A FITNESS CLASS!! I haven’t been to one since cross fit…and that made me hurt so bad. I hear barre is hard, so I’m expecting the worst, but I’m super excited to be in a group class again!!

Also, yesterday was my man and my 7 year anniversary (for dating…when do you stop counting dating and just celebrate wedding?? Our 4 year wedding anniversary is in 2 weeks…is it time??) I still count both b.c I feel like we’ve been through so much. We dated across countries for 3 years!! Part of that time I was abroad in England (he’s English) and there were SEVERAL trips to see each other, but we mastered long-distance and I’m proud of it. The marriage has been easy compared to it, we live together and that makes planning life a LOT easier!

To celebrate, I’ve planned a surprise for my love. In 2 weekends we’re heading away for a romantic night in an airstream trailer (the old silver ones) that someone rents out on their malibu property, overlooking the ocean. I’m so excited to be secluded, in a beautiful place, with beautiful things to do around us — we can go to the beach, roam through the meadow, enjoy wine out side of our trailer watching the sunset…. ahhhhh

I hope he likes it!! {{He doesn’t read my blog, so no worry about him seeing it here}}

Off to officially start my day with coffee

Sunny California

Today has been one of those CA days that makes you just smile from ear to ear. I was able to sleep in, get up with my pooch, and enjoy my cup of coffee out on the porch in the glorious 70 degree weather with the beautiful sun beaming down on my skin. 

The pooch was around to enjoy the action and soak up the rays as well

He has to stay on the yard leash while we’re in front b.c there isn’t a gate and if this pooch sees a cat take a stroll by, he’ll be on his merry way…chasing the cat….like he needs dinner. No bueno. 

After coffee, we had a run and walk around the neighborhood, ran for 30 minutes and walked briskly for 35, ended up in the back yard doing some box jumps onto and off of the porch. The dog thought that was fun…and then went crazy. Not really crazy, but the kind that is fun to watch and reminds you that pooches need to play games and have play dates too. It’s time for one for sure! 

Got home, had a massive lunch, headed over to a house in our friends neighborhood that’s for rent (we’re looking to move soon)…the house was crappy, got home and juiced some veggies and got into a stupid fight with the man about moving (lame) and then got past that (yay) and am now packing for my mom’s house. 

I’ve got a lovely night with my mom and sister and our two pooches planned. Excited to get some family time in. 

 

And excited for the 3 day weekend. And the sun. And life. x 

 

 

 

Beer. Pooch. Weekend.

This week has been busy! Finished today, pooped and ready for a very restful weekend. I promptly took myself home, walked the pooch, ate more valentines day chocolates:

and have been relaxing and planning my weekend/upcoming weeks since.

Saying goodbye to everyone at the hospital and clinic was hard today. I have realllllly enjoyed all of the folks that have helped make this rotation so great, the nurses, medical assistants, techs etc… and especially the clinic staff! Most of all, I’ll miss rotating with my dear friend!!

Saying goodbye to colonoscopies and the lab wasn’t as hard, haha, but actually I’m really going to miss the procedures and the clinic work, it was an awesome rotation and I’ll be going back at some point for sure.

Valentines day was pretty uneventful, I stopped by TJ’s on the way home from work for beer, chocolates and a special can of wet dog food (you can’t forget your furry loves on vday!!) and when I got home, my sweet husband had flowers

chocolates (pictured above…and almost gone : / , dinner, and more beer We ate and then he went off to do some work and I did a fun workout with the pooch. I took him around the colleges and did some intensity training (is that what you call it?!). We ran up and down stairs, did squats, threw balls and raced to see who would catch it, all in all…exhausting at 9pm! I got home and slunk into bed and fell promptly asleep. Husband has been working on a script for the past month and is nearing a deadline, so he was up late.

Tonight has been filled with this

 

Planning life in my Georgia O’Keeffe planner…my FAV artist AND trying on my 5 pairs of warby parkers. This site is great! They send you 5 for trying on at home and they send them for free with all of the shipping labels and box for the return as well. I think I’ve settled on my favorites, but currently wearing a close second to see if they usurp the first place ranking. #2′s are red. hm…

Excited about this weekend. Will visit with mom and help her add rock to her yard, woot! Hopefully see sister for a brief visit, and most importantly spend some time gearing up for my next rotation!! Excited!! Also, will try a new fitness class, Fusion Barre, due to my groupon I purchased at 6am in bed when I was waking up and checking my email. Maybe I’ll make all of my decisions in the morning haze. Less time to ‘think about it’ and more time to DO! haha.

 

 

 

 

it’s all good.

Woke up to a WEIRD dream and then husband brought me my HUGE cup of coffee with ‘its all good’ printed on the side. Indeed it is all good when I’m in bed with my pooch, coffee, sun streaming in from outside and my laptop perfectly positioned for my research on postcholecystectomy syndrome. Ahhhh

Yesterday we were slammed! It was 2 students (before it was 4) and the doc…we saw 33 patients in 4 hours (it was 4 because the doc had an emergency meeting at the hospital, so he was an hour late). Last night was a night to relax.

Today I’m thankful for the birds currently chirping outside as my bedroom door is open to the backyard, its a beautiful day here and I’m truly thankful for my life in California. I’m also thankful for the food we’re able to buy. We’ve been stocking up on healthy and nourishing food and I’m so appreciative that we’re always able to buy what we need. Finally, I’m thankful for my workout buddy: pooch. He has been my buddy the past week and I love him so x

Weekending.

It has been a great weekend!

I’ve been holding true to my desire to spend lots of time with the dog, instead of yoga I’ve gone hiking and running [both with the pooch which makes them SO much more enjoyable ] and I’ve just finished weeding and raking the back yard!

My favorite co-pilot and I off to the horse trails for a hike

 

Playing at the park with pops x

I also put together a big ol’ salad for the week, am currently roasting veggies [potato, sweet potato, chives, shallots and onions + olive oil/pepper/cayenne pepper/salt/rubbed sage]…and later will put something together for the morning. I LOVE having time to prepare meals, just simply one of my favorite things.

It was also a great weekend b.c I got some great friend time in. We were at a friends house on Friday, her husband made crab and we brought dessert — it was awesome!!!! I don’t know what he did, but it was loooovely and we enjoyed a very long dinner with giggles and full bellies. Today I hiked with my friend and her two pooches, both adorable and about 1/5 the size of Rooney, but the love each other all the same

This upcoming week is my last week of GI. As mentioned before, I’ll be deciding if I should ask for a letter of recommendation. I’ll also be putting together my ‘thank you’s’ and my baked goods that I bring to say goodbye. I wish this rotation was 2 months long, then it would be perfect! That being said…I’m excited to move onto my next rotation in OMM.

P.S. this morning it was 39 degrees…in Southern California…again, toooooo cold!!

OH and I finally got new shoes for work {i ended up cutting off the tassels, I thought they were silly…}