12.5

That's how many weeks are left to boards. Yesterday we had our first afternoon review, where our favorite faculty comes to give us review lectures on their respective areas of expertise. To some of us it was scary and made them nervous, but to me, it helped me get into the mood to study. I think that Friday evenings after these reviews will be my time to relax and hang out with J and the dogs. The rest of the week will be busy as will the weekends, but Fridays, they will be for getting ready for the next round.

Other than studying, not a whole lot is new. The eyes are the same, and thankfully I am lucky because everyone has been very helpful in allowing me to continue on with studying while I can't see or drive. They are recording our lectures in class now so I am able to watch class from home within 10 minutes of lecture being over. That is a huge deal for me and it's been very helpful to feel like I'm missing nothing at all, but also not bothering people to drive me around. I hope this goes away soon so things can go back to being completely normal for me (and everyone else) again.

The dogs will certainly be happy when I feel comfortable running again. Mugs has a serious case of cabin fever!

Looking forward

So, after a whole day of this type of studying I feel a little exhausted and a lot like I need some motivation. This'll work.

And we're off

So, it begins. What begins you might ask? The last semester of real classroom med school. And the biggest study semester of my life. I've spent the last half hour determining my study schedule for the next two weeks. I hate to go much farther out than that because I want to be able to be fluid and change it. But I wanted to apologize in advance for anything I might miss. There may be events that I would normally be at and enjoy myself at, but this semester things are going to be different. This eye situation isn't helping. It takes me much longer to get through things that are heavy on the sight as they fatigue my eyes a lot. I need to take a lot of breaks. Luckily I still have some lectures to listen to so that is helpful. It's gonna take a lot of discipline, and I'm sorry if it takes (even) longer to get back to you when you call, but know I'm thinking of everyone when I've got my nose stuck in a book. It'll be done before I know it.

It's not to say I don't hope to keep up with the blog, but you know, I wouldn't expect a post a day or anything like that.

One day at a time...

2008, etc. etc.

So, not that it's the worst year I can recollect, but I'm glad that 2008 is over. Let's review. Some things made me sad. My grandpa died. My sight took it's own private vacation from whence it has yet to return. I had a personal disappointment last spring that was more difficult to recover from than I cared to admit. I didn't go on any vacations.

But a lot of things made me happy. I started blogging, and hence have wasted countless, ridiculous but completely fun hours writing and reading other people's musings. I finished my first year of med school. I TAed in the anatomy lab. I got an offer to write a texbook chapter. I reconnected with some old friends and made some new ones. I got to see my friend through a pregnancy and even got to meet her lovely daughter! I finally figured out how to make decent meatballs. We got the Mugs, though at first, standing outside in my jammies at two in the morning while he peed made me wonder for a while if that was truly a good thing. I've decided it is. So much more happened this year that has decidedly made me smile. Overall, I can't complain too much.

2009 is off to a good start. Since it started, I've planned a vacation, visited the breweries in Fort Collins, and met up with a friend from high school I haven't seen for 9 years. It has been pretty cool. The trip up to Fort Collins was my Christmas present from J. A bunch of us drove up there together and started out with lunch at Panino's. It's a tiny little family joint that is right across a parking lot from my old office at CSU. I love thir food, it's great. Then we headed over to New Belgium. Here I met up with a friend from high school. Crazy to see her since it's been so long. It was nice to catch up and hear what other people from our class are up to. Not to mention, I'm a huge New Belgium beer fan so that was great too. After New Belgium we headed over to Odell. Odell is much smaller, but I think I might like it even better than New Belgium. After Odell we made our last stop at the Fort Collins brewery where they actually had a beer they called the Baconator. Yes, it tasted like liquid bacon. Disconcerting and disgusting. Blech. After we left the Fort behind we came back down to A-town and had a couple of friends over. We all fell asleep watching a movie. We must be getting older because a few years ago we wouldn't have been asleep until the wee hours of the morning.

I am so excited about the vacation we're taking. I needed something to look forward to after boards. I've always been one to bribe myself into doing what I need to get done. I have about 13 and a half weeks to boards (yikes!) and I need to be on top of it. We talked and talked about what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go. But after spending one afternoon last week looking at photos from our last trip to San Francisco, there was only one place I wanted to go. I adore San Francisco. If I could pick up and move to anywhere in the country, and be miraculously able to afford it, it would be San Francisco. I love the chill in the air all the time that makes it feel like fall constantly. I love looking at the ocean and the bay. I love that you can walk two blocks and be in a completely different feeling neighborhood, complete with its own weather. I love sour dough bread, I love clam chowder, I love wine. I love wine. I love wine. I love the hills, I love how green it always is, I love palm trees. I love wine. I love wine country. If I could do any thing in the world it would be to make wine. Unfortunately, that's not really in the cards, so I have to settle for visiting. But I will register religiously for the HGTV dream house in Sonoma. Don't I wish. But it should serve to motivate me for the big exam and get me rested for 3rd year. I can hardly wait.

Updates, etc.

Hey all, thought I'd write to say thank you all very much for the nice messages, and update the eye situation. The good news is that there were no other spots on the MRI, so I am in the super low risk category for MS. Wahoo! The bad news is the optic neuritis has spread to my other eye. It started when I was just leaving Boston, and for that I'm thankful! I got to see my friend D and her awesome baby girl and for that I am thrilled. I will be posting pictures, etc (but not of the baby, you gotta get those from her!) of the trip later. The pain (I think) is about over. From everything I've read, and those who know me know that's probably been a lot, when the vision starts to go, the pain usually stops. So that's the bummer of the deal. I am significantly more blind than I was a week ago. I've been trying to explain to J what it's like, and the best I can come up with is that I have these spots in both eyes (one per eye) that looks like the imprint you get when you look directly at the sun. Not that anyone's ever done anything like that. When I look at something straight on, it's really not that bad, just feels like I forgot my glasses. But peripherally I don't really see much. So, still not driving. But outside of that inconvenience, it hasn't been so bad since I've been on vacation and all. I've been listening to lectures for board review and that doesn't really require eyeballs, so - so far so good. I have noticed an increase in the times I've knicked my hands in the kitchen, so maybe I can get out of cooking dinner too....Actually that would make me sad so I'll just have to be more careful.

Besides, I made so much food for Christmas we won't actually have to cook for like a week! I took some pictures of the food too, because I'm a nerd like that, but again, I'll post more later. For now I'm feeling lazy, and since it's vacation and I can actually afford to feel like that, I am going to milk it for all it's worth. I hope everyone had a great holiday, or are enjoying thir holiday right now for all my Jewish friends out there. As always, I'd love to see anyone who has some extra time like I do, and as long as I can find a ride, will travel!

Optic Neuritis

Well, the fun never stops. The past few weeks I've been a hard one to get ahold of, so I thought I'd fill people in on what's been up. Last week I woke up and couldn't really see out of one eye. Bummer. So I got my butt to the doc. They tell us in school that nothing sends a patient in faster than visual changes and they are right. You don't realize how much you truly use your eyes until they aren't so much doing their job. I was amazed at how quickly I got shuttled off to the specialist, and to be honest it freaked me out just a bit. But ultimately they got me figured out and I have something called optic neuritis. Basically my immune system got all pissy at my optic nerve and decided to tear the myelin covering off of it. The good news: 92% of people who get this recover full vision and the pain that is associated with eye movements almost uniformly goes away. The bad news, I can't drive and since it's a problem with the nerve and not the lens, my glasses don't do a thing. So, although it's creating some unique problems with my studying abilities, it could be worse and I don't want anyone to worry.

If you're like me, you're probably already opening google to see what exactly this is all about, so I'm saving you the effort. Before anyone freaks out, there is a risk of multiple sclerosis but it is SMALL and since I really have no other symptoms I think that is not a problem. I had an MRI last week and we're having a follow up appointment today, so it should get figured out soon enough. This is all very treatable, manageable stuff so I appreciate all the thoughts, prayers, juju, whatevs, but everything is fine. I will say, however, that the countdown to boards is looking a little more daunting when I can only see it out of one eye.

But, the good times keep rolling. This weekend I'm off to Boston for my first time ever to see my friend D and her adorable daughter. I'm super excited, even if I have to have one of those golf cart-driver thingies get me to my airport gate. In a strange coincidence my preceptor and favorite doc in the world is actually flying to Boston on the same flight, so I'll have someone else who is afraid to fly to have a cocktail with. Bonus. Plus he should be able to point me in the right direction, at least to my seat.

So, I'll keep you posted and I hope all is well with everyone. Rest assured I am still super excited to see everyone who is coming to town and you can bet this is not going to slow me down too terribly much. I am a Christmas junkie and I would enjoy it with no eyes, hope you all are feeling the same!

Palm trees and cookies

We stink at taking pictures. I think the only pictures we snapped over the weekend was a few at the airport bar before we got on the plane (I have a slight fear of flying) and one of J, my grandma and I. I'm a little sad that we don't take more pictures more often. I really need to work on that.

I caught some sort of stomach flu in the days since I've been back. It hasn't been the most fun thing ever. I'm catching up on some rest though, and that's been good. Today while I'm working on some school stuff I'm being serenaded by Mugsy's loud snoring! That little puppy is more like an old man. Better than his barking though.

Although I'm not making it into school today, I am slowly starting to feel better. The soup I had for breakfast is staying put, so I think maybe tonight we'll be able to put up the Christmas tree. And the Chanukkah candles. We're funny like that. I love this time of year. We always end up seeing friends we haven't seen in a long time, and even though its hard to believe sometimes, people are just nicer this time of year (unless they are shopping at Walmart in NY). It's always nice when people pleasantly surprise you, and I think that happens during this season more than others.

I'm doing my best to get in the spirit today rather than get bummed out by the weather. The temps are in the low twenties/teens which totally grosses me out, especially when I have to take the little goob out about 10 times a day. So, I picked a good movie that definitely does not gross me out to watch and decided to make some cookies. But, I'm not jumping into Christmas with both feet, the movie is set in southern California (Tortilla Soup) and I'm just making oatmeal raisin cookies. I'm not going to the store in this ridiculous weather to get the stuff for mexican wedding cookies no matter how much I want them, and while some people have dreams of white Christmases, I think I'd take palm trees from time to time. So maybe it's just what I need.