PEARL: Shameless Proselytizing

I am a shameless proselytizer. My cause? Vegetables. Also, fruit – although I feel the cause somewhat less desperate with fruit. My favorite dish to bring to a potluck is brussel sprouts, sautéed in olive oil with shallots and finished with white wine. One of the best things about living in the south are the local fresh vegetables that are available year-round. Trendy as it may be, the “locovore” phenomenon (striving to eat predominantly local foods from small organic farms) is one that I hope will continue to grow. Every week, I get a box of vegetables and fruits from small farms near the Atlanta area via the Moore Farms CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Once you eat a salad of fresh greens, roasted sweet potato, purple carrots, and other delectable goodies (see below for recipe), I don’t know how you could go back to shopping in the fluorescent glare of the supermarket. After learning to love vegetables, eating well becomes a treat.
I have time to think extensively about vegetables because I have just finished taking Step 1 of the USMLE (otherwise known as boards). Step 1 is seven hours of 336 questions testing the medical student’s understanding of the basic sciences, pathology, pharmacology, and physiology. Since there’s so much material, it takes about 5-6 weeks of full-time studying to prepare. While the time spent studying for the boards will decidedly not go down as the favorite time of my life, I must admit that it is pretty incredible to see just how much material one can synthesize in six weeks.
And now, it’s over! For two weeks, I am leading a life of luxury, worrying about vegetables and how much healthier the country could be if we all took the time to sit down for a good meal prepared at home every day. At the beginning of February, I will move back into the laboratory, starting on my Ph.D. Most of my classmates have the month of February as vacation before they begin in the clinics, learning to put their book knowledge to good use. It is an exciting time of transitions for us all.

Roasted root vegetable salad

Two handfuls pecans
3 small turnips
1 large sweet potato
2 medium or 1 large potato
Fresh thyme (not dried!)
1 clove garlic
2 heads lettuce, washed, dried, and torn into bite-sized pieces
3 medium carrots, washed and sliced thin
½ c cherry tomatoes, washed and cut in half
2 baby Vidalia onions, washed and sliced

Rice wine vinaigrette
1.5 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
½ shallot, minced fine
1-2 teaspoons kosher salt (to taste)
1 teaspoon sugar
½ c high quality olive oil

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spread pecans on a baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes until they are brown and smell nutty. As you wait for the oven to heat, prep the sweet potatoes, turnips, and potatoes by peeling and slicing into ½ inch rounds. Toss vegetable slices with high quality olive oil, fresh thyme, and kosher salt to taste in your salad bowl. Spread evenly on a baking sheet. When pecans are finished toasting, turn oven up to 425 degrees. Roast vegetables at 425 degrees for 20 minutes until they are easily pierced with a fork. Toss pecans with olive oil and salt in the salad bowl. Crush the garlic clove and spread it about the bowl. Prep the remaining vegetables and make the vinaigrette (combine first four ingredients, drizzle in olive oil while constantly whisking). Combine everything, toss well, and enjoy!

PEARL: On Science and Medicine

I am a not-so-secret lover of science. I giggle over it (consider this), talk about it at length, think about it even more, and threaten my friends’ patience at social events when I turn the conversation back to my favorite subject. Despite all this, I have never seriously doubted that I will one day practice medicine. In fact, at the end of my undergrad I felt uncertain about a future in bench science, and chose to apply for M.D. programs instead of M.D./Ph.D. programs. Within a month of entering medical school, I realized I couldn’t live a life without science, and applied into our M.D./Ph.D. program here at Emory.

Why pursue both medicine and science? There are obvious talking points, and they are true – physician-scientists have considerable insight into the needs of the medical community and can thus direct resources (both human intellect and money) toward appropriate problems. They also have intimate experience healing those affected by the very diseases they study. But the joint degree program means much more to me personally. Much as I love science, the day-to-day reality is that progress in research moves extremely slowly (as I am sure many of you are acutely aware), and I am far too dependent on instant gratification to live exclusively in the research world. In a sense, I want to be able to make my cake and eat it too, all at the same time. Medicine doubtlessly rests upon the advancements of science, and I do hope to contribute to this body of knowledge. I don’t personally have the patience to see these contributions make a difference in someone’s life, which is what compels me to get out there with our imperfect knowledge and make as much of a difference as I can in the here and now. We’ll see where it takes me!

Update on school life: we second-years are finishing up with three weeks of psychiatry. We have two more weeks of neuroscience and two weeks of “summation” before we are finished with medical school classes(!). I will take a week off for Thanksgiving, one week off to rest my mind and rejuvenate, and then dive into boards studying. After boards on January 16th, I will be moving back into the science world full-time as most of my classmates begin their rotations on the wards. It is hard to believe that we are so close to ending this chapter of our education when it feels as though it has just begun.

Update on life: Atlanta has cooled off after a long summer. The fall weather really hit its stride about a week ago, with nights in the 40s and days in the 70s – it is glorious! I just recently adopted a dog, Lilly, and she has been great company for me and many of my med school friends as we get outside to play in the fantastic weather. I hope, wherever you are, that you are enjoying the weather as much as we are!

PEARL: Boards, Electives, and Break… Oh My!

It has been very busy the past month, but things are definitely exciting down here in the ATL. Here’s a quick re-cap of my life at the SOM.

BOARDS: are coming. Now that we’ve started second year, this fact is sinking in. We have only three months of classes left, followed by a month of organized board review, and then we’ll be studying full time for the boards after winter break. It is simultaneously amazing to me how much we have learned in twelve months and how much more we have to learn. Right now, we’re three weeks into our endocrine module. Part of our reading assignments are case reports from the New England Journal, which are fascinating, complex cases that I would not have understood a year ago (see nejm.org for examples). These cases have inspired me (uber geek that I am) to get a subscription to the journal so that I can read them for fun on the shuttle in to school.

ELECTIVES: Right now, I’m hanging out on the 8th floor of Grady, monitoring a pager that will let me know when a trauma patient arrives, so that I can head down to the ER to collect data on the fluids that patient has received before reaching the hospital. I just watched a patient with a gunshot wound to the left chest lose 450 cc’s of blood through his chest tube. He stabilized and things calmed down in the trauma bay for about 10 minutes, until his blood pressure started to drop and his heart rate slowed. The nurses quickly got his fluid and blood IVs flowing, the head of his bed was dropped, and within perhaps a minute and a half, his pressure was back up. It may be cliché, but I love that people in medicine are prepared to deal with such critical situations. It certainly has the potential to be depressing when your best effort fails, but you’ll always be able to say that you did something important at the end of the day.

This research project is part of my sophomore elective in trauma surgery. In addition to collecting data one night a week, we will regularly shadow a trauma surgeon, read weekly articles related to the field, and write up at least two case reports. There’s a lot of flexibility built into the course, so that if we decide that we’re really interested in cardiac surgery, we can shadow cardiothoracic surgeons. Best of all, our mentor is an amazing surgeon and compassionate doctor, with whom I am thrilled to be working. Our class is in the process of choosing electives this week, and there is an incredible variety – emergency medicine, radiology, medical Spanish, humanities in medicine, and independent studies in anything with a faculty mentor.

BREAK: We had a three week break at the end of June. I spent the first half of it in Costa Rica, practicing my Spanish, surfing, ziplining, horseback riding, and mountain biking. I went home to Maine for the second half, sailing, hiking, swimming, biking, and blueberrying. Basically, I spent the entire time “verbing” – trying to pack as many activities into three weeks as I could, and it was fabulous.

MISC: A few final miscellaneous notes. I’ve joined a women’s cycling club that was co-founded by one of my classmates (Sorella cycling). I’m hoping to compete in a few road races before the end of the season, which should be exciting and hopefully not too dangerous. I am also in the process of hunting down a mountain bike, which should provide for many adventures in the months to come. Oh, and I competed in my first triathlon about two months ago. Who said you can’t have fun in medical school?!

PEARL: My Take on Housing

Prepare yourself. I’ve written out all of my thoughts on finding housing for the upcoming school year, and it’s a doozy of a post. That said, if you’re moving to Atlanta from far away (as I was) and you’re unable to visit before you start school (as I was), I think that this will at least be worth the 5 minutes it probably takes to read. At least, that’s my hope! Feel free to contact me if you’ve got any questions.

The first thing to decide is whether you want to live on campus or off campus. Clairmont campus is very nice: there’s an Olympic lap pool, tennis courts, soccer field, and shuttles that will take you to campus in about 10 minutes. The apartments are on the smaller side, but are very nice and will be well-maintained. Living at Clairmont also presents you with the option of getting a furnished apartment, which will save you the time and energy that you’d have needed to put into getting your own furniture. You can choose to have a roommate (who the housing office will set you up with) if you don’t have anyone specific in mind, but don’t want to pay the extra money for a one-bedroom apartment. The medical students who live at Clairmont tend to have enough people there to form their own little community, which I know they like. Unfortunately, with Clairmont the rates are relatively high for what you get. Also keep in mind that you will have to pay extra for parking in the Clairmont garage.

If you decide to live off campus, you’ll have lots of options. Obviously, you first need to decide if you want to try to find a roommate. If you do have a roommate, you’ll be able to get a nicer place with your money. Many incoming med students find roommates by connecting over our Learnlink conferences and/or meeting at housing weekend (if that’s an option for you!). I knew I wanted to live with roommates, but I didn’t want to live with other incoming medical students, so I found a room in a house for rent on the Off-Campus Housing Board (http://www.housing.emory.edu/off-campus/home.cfm). This website is fantastic – you can find lots of different housing options.

Once you know who you’re living with, you have to decide if you want to live in an apartment complex, a carriage house, a house, or some such thing. The complexes are nice, generally well-maintained, and usually have amenities such as tennis courts and pools. I have a lot of friends who live in places like these and really like them – Gables Rock Springs, Highland Square, and Post Briarcliff are three of the ones I hear good things about. There are LOTS of others. The complexes may be “cookie cutter” and a bit suburban, but they are definitely a solid option – you’ll pay less than Clairmont and know that you have a decent place to live. Unfortunately, the complexes can be targets for crime. There was a string of muggings at Post Briarcliff this past winter, including at least one armed mugging. Things seem to have settled down a bit since, but it is something to consider. I don’t believe this has deterred too many of my classmates from living in these complexes.

Finally, if you decide that you’d rather go off the beaten path, I highly recommend the off-campus housing finder. You can find a place to live on your own (lots of studios and efficiency apartments that are parts of houses, etc), or you can find a house or condo to share with others. Craigslist is another option, especially if you’ll be able to come down to look at places before you commit.

Overall, when you’re considering where to live, there are a few key neighborhoods you should know. Druid Hills is the local Emory neighborhood. There’s a small village with a few shops (pizza place, coffee shops, and my favorite – Falafel King). Avoiding driving to school every day is one of the key advantages to living in Druid Hills – if you can avoid Atlanta driving, I recommend it!

Another popular neighborhood is Virginia Highlands (the area surrounding Virginia and Highland on a map). Morningside (another neighborhood) is between the Highlands and Emory. In the Highlands, you’ll find lots of shops, restaurants, bars, yuppies, etc. It’s a very happy neighborhood.

Decatur is east of Emory and another popular place to live. There’s a very walkable downtown area, with lots of shops, coffee shops, and bars. There’s also a free shuttle that runs from Decatur into Emory every day (no driving!). You can find this shuttle and others at Emory transportation (http://transportation.emory.edu/shuttles.html) – living along a shuttle route is a great way to save gas money AND the environment!

That’s all I have for now! I hope that was helpful. Again, feel free to contact me via Learnlink if you’ve got any more questions. Ultimately, though, relax! It’s all going to work out great!

PEARL: Can you DIG it?

Emory hosted its revisit weekend last Friday, which was great fun. The revisitors got to attend our small group PBL (where we discussed upper gastrointestinal disease), hear some amazing stories about things that happen at Emory (cracking open the sternum for a heart-lung transplant, starting up a program to teach inner-city high school students medicine and science, and many other things), and – best of all – attend our “Apollo Kauffee Haus,” an eclectic talent show that must be experienced to be fully understood. DIG – our dance interest group – choreographed and performed a short number for AKH that I’ve linked to below. There was certainly more to revisit, which I’m sure some of my fellow bloggers will be writing about.

From left to right in the opening formation, the dancers are Dena, me, Howie, Laura (the first soloist), Austin, Mike, Eric, Nayla, and Ny-Ying. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7bHeRpkEmo

PEARL: A Vacation in Your Own City

Three of my best friends from undergrad visited me from Chicago this weekend. I love to have visitors – it’s a great excuse to take a vacation in your own city and do all the fun things you’ve been meaning to do for ages. Since Meg, Rada, and Karyl arrived in Atlanta late on Friday night, we relaxed the first night, running out to the 24-hour Kroger in my neighborhood to pick up some essential snacks – goat cheese, corn muffins, baby carrots, cheap frozen pizza, Champagne, and orange juice. This is where we first met Engelbert – a thank-you gift from my guests:

He is, in fact, even more fabulous than these pictures can express. And – I must admit – a little bit frightening. I’m still jumping a little bit every time I walk into my room and see him on my bed, but I’m sure that will ease up with time.

Saturday morning, we all woke up early and trekked over to the Highland Bakery for breakfast (http://www.highlandbakery.com/). Highland Bakery is a great brunch spot –you can walk in, put your name in for a table, grab a cup of coffee and a paper, and head to their back waiting area to sit and read the paper while you wait for a table. I think the best way to describe their food is that it’s good – the ricotta pancakes are light but delicious and the crabcake benedict is unusual …but delicious. The restaurant space is full with a great energy of happy people eating fantastic food without being cramped or crowded. When you’re in Atlanta, this is definitely a place to check out.

After breakfast, we rolled our stuffed selves out of the restaurant and headed down to Zoo Atlanta (http://www.zooatlanta.org/home.htm) to walk off breakfast and see the baby panda. It’s a nice zoo, with elephants, meerkats, lions, gorillas, and lots of other exotic animals. We went to the petting zoo, bought too-expensive kitsch at the gift store, and got super cool panda tattoos:

After a full day, we headed to Joe’s Coffee Shop (http://atlanta.citysearch.com/profile/35878675).  Joe’s is in East Atlanta, my neighborhood, about five miles south of Emory. East Atlanta is very fun and funky – according to one review, it’s the “epitome of cool,” where anything and everything goes (http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A18645). Joe’s is the neighborhood coffee shop, with excellent coffee, a desk, and very rich cupcakes. I’ve spent many hours studying anatomy in that coffee shop, which certainly leads to some interesting conversations as folks walk by and see me studying pictures of dissected cadavers. Rada, Meg, Karyl, and I grabbed a giant couch and did some dramatic readings from Creole Caress – a romance novel we picked up from the local bookstore (http://www.boundtobereadbooks.com/).

After relaxing in the afternoon shopping in Little 5 Points (another great neighborhood you can read about here – http://www.l5p.com/), we toured the Emory campus and then got dinner at Saba in Emory Village (nice pasta place within walking distance of school – I like the pumpkin ravioli and the spaghetti bolognese – http://www.saba-restaurant.com/). We headed back to my house, where we re-grouped and got ready to go out.

We met up with friends from school and went dancing at MJQ, a club that is literally underground and nearly impossible to find if you don’t know where you’re going – above ground, it is literally a shack. It was a great place to actually dance, though, with two good D.J.’s running two floors and people from all walks of life who just want to dance.

After a long day, we returned home to crash. Unfortunately, my girls had to leave early this morning, but I think they (and you, vicariously), got a pretty good slice of Atlanta life. Now, it’s time to study hard. We’re in the middle of our pulmonary module, which is definitely ramping up on the intensity, but very interesting because the lungs are kind of critical (that whole oxygen dependence problem…) and a site for a lot of infections and pathology. We’ve got two weeks to the exam, which means the entire class will be stepping up the studying to get ready. Until next time… the very best to you and yours!

PEARL: Hold onto your horses, folks. This is my life.

Hello all,

This is the start of what will hopefully become a regular chronicle of my life at Emory med school. Before I begin sharing tidbits of my life with you, the hypothetical future Emory student, I’ve written out an introduction to my life – a little bit of context for future entries. Enjoy!

The easiest way to explain my life is to introduce my family. My father is a boatbuilder, who grew up in Tennessee, joined the Coast Guard after high school (claiming he never would have made it through college and certainly didn’t want to go to Vietnam), and then met my mother on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. My mama grew up in the Midwest, the daughter of an English war bride and a first generation German-American, who dropped out of her conservative college in the Midwest at her first opportunity and promptly moved to the Outer Banks so that she could be where the wild horses live. My oldest sister Wendy, fifteen years older than me, now lives in Miami where she works as a public defender and spends her weekends jetting about Miami Harbor with her friends on her boat. My sister Belle runs my father’s boat shop in Maine and has truly earned her spot in my mama’s heart by having two daughters (Daisy age 6, Anna 4) and one son (Ryder, 10 months). I am by far the baby of the family, totally spoiled with excessive education (three years at the state’s math & science magnet school in far northern Maine surrounded by potatoes, followed by four great years at the University of Chicago). I decided to follow up Chicago with Emory because I loved the people I met there, felt like the faculty and staff were especially supportive, and really wanted to train at Grady. As I figure it, the warm weather is just a bonus – but a fantastic bonus. Don’t let anyone tell you that you shouldn’t go south because there are no seasons. Seasons are way overrated, as you’ll discover for yourself when it’s 70 degrees in January (!). Life at Emory is great – I get to learn science and medicine by day, have fun with my classmates on the football field and out dancing on the weekends, and take occasional trips to South Georgia where I’ve learned to shoot a shotgun and eaten raw peanuts straight from the ground. In addition to football, I like to play soccer, basketball, and volleyball and then climb or play tennis when I’m not playing team sports. Other than that, I watch football (go Patriots!) and spend my time cooking, eating, and being merry.

That’s all for now – I’ll check back in with y’all soon!