It's Colder!!!

Ok, i know i am still whinning but now it is snowing i am so not ready. I keep telling myself that it is beautiful and and I should enjoy it but really i am just cold. It is not just cold rain or sleet snow either. It is big fluffy pieces of snow, snowing. Again pretty, but such a hassle. And for all my resisting yesterday, i went back to the store today and bought a heated mattress pad because i froze all night last night (ps air-mattresses are NOT warm). After the store i headed over to my new coffee shop spot and hauled all my books, bags, and computer of the car and through the snow only to find that it was closed! so sad. So then i started driving to a different coffee shop and the snow kept getting thicker and thicker and i began thinking, "should i just go home? are the roads going to get bad? should i give up? if i do is that being scared and weak or would it be smart? is God trying to tell me i should not be out today?" All this is running through my head as i keep turning toward the coffee shop then back toward home alternatly. I ended up going back to my house and i am still not sure if that was a smart choice or an intimidated by the weather choice but either way i am alive (but still cold...)

It's Cold

The sky is gray, it is cold, really cold, and every morning i have to walk what seems like miles from my parking spot to the hospital. Yesterday i was sure that i would freeze to death before i reached the building, that i would never be able to suture because i would never feel my fingers again, and that while everyone tells me it is fall i think utah skipped fall and this is winter. I do love it here but my fear of sliding down an icy hill on my way to work overwhelms me. I know, i am a big ninny, but i am an arizonan!!! Even worse is the fact that the furnace in my home is broken and even when i go inside i am still freezing :( Thankfully it is soon to be fixed.

On the happy side, I ventured outside my little downtown area and drove to Union Fork to visit the super target (very cool) and buy some warm jersey sheets(I fought the urge to buy every blanket i saw). I have an excellent reason to drink more coffee and hot chocolate and was able to easily resist the ice cream aisle.

Otherwise nothing big happened to me this week. I did go out with my roomies last night for the first time and must say the boys here need some help on their girl skills (not that i am responsive anyway but come on..) One told me i was pretty EVEN THOUGH i wear glasses and another asked how i can be a surgeon if i am left handed. Both received my best dirty looks. Stay tuned for more Utah maddness...

Breast Cancer

Many of you know that i am doing a surgical rotation in breast disease this month. In the last four days i have seen more breast cancer then i ever before and i feel compelled to write about it. Breast cancer is a terrible, tragic, life changing disease and this week i have learned that it truly can happen to anyone. Of the patients i saw this week, three were in their twenties, all were otherwise perfectly healthy women, and few actually have a family history of breast cancer (or any cancer). Many had been diagnosed based on their yearly mammogram, not from symptoms or feeling a lump. Yesterday i had a patient who felt a lump in her breast over a year ago. She bought herbal medicine online and never sought medical treatment. She now has a VERY large tumor that has eaten away her breast and metastasized to her liver. I have also seen patients who felt a lump but waited to go the doctor thinking that it was probably nothing. I am writing about all of this because i cannot let this happen to my friends and/or family. There is no certain type of woman that gets breast cancer, anyone can get breast cancer. So tonight i am using my blog for my current soapbox. No matter how old/young you are, if you feel or see something in your breast, get it checked out, soon. If you are over 50, get your yearly mammogram, it could save your life. I am not just saying this because i am in medical school. I am saying this because i have had the crap scared out of me and every preconceived notion stripped from me this week.
Don't let your busy life, aversion to medicine, or fear of results keep you from seeing a doctor or getting a mammogram. As terrible as it is, breast cancer can happen to you.
PS as bad as it sounds, i am loving working with these amazing women who are fighting their disease