I'm an Author!

Wonderful news this morning - my CF project (which I have been laboring over for years) is going to be published!! For those of you who don't know, I started a project in medical school where I interviewed adolescent and young adult patients with Cystic Fibrosis, focusing on what they knew about the genetic side of CF. Short genetics lesson - CF is autosomal recessive (meaning you have to inherit one mutated gene from each parent to have the disease). So we wanted to find out what CF patients knew about their chances of having a child with CF. It's a bit more complicated given that CF patients, especially males, have a really hard time having biological children, but no need to go into all those details here. Anyway, I did patient interviews and then developed an objective survery which I took to CF clinics both at Children's and at UAB to ask patients to complete it, did all the data analysis myself, and got to present my research at the CF conference in California back in October (see Why I'm Learning to Love Medical Conferences). And now my research is going to be published (as a letter-to-the-editor, not quite as good as an article, but not nearly as much work either) in one of the big time medical journals (Chest, for you medical folks). Hooray!

From Renal to the ED

Today is intern switch day; a day that is both looked-forward-to (if you're ready to do something different) and dreaded (because it takes a lot of work to tie up all the loose ends from the rotation you're leaving, and a lot of work to learn the patients & diseases on the new rotation). It is the day at the end of every month when the interns change over from one rotation to the next. (The residents switch the day after the interns, so it's not complete chaos on the same day.) So I tidied up everything I have done on the Renal service this month, and am headed off to my next rotation, the ER, starting this evening.

Renal (a.k.a. nephrology) - kids with kidney problems ranging from acute kidney damage to those with renal failure & on dialysis to those with kidney transplants - has been my world this past month. Maybe not medically as interesting to me as other months (there is a LOT of biochemistry involved in kidney diseases, and that was always a weak spot for me), but I learned a lot.... and that's good for me. I definitely have a sense of accomplishment - and relief - about finishing my renal month. But, I'm ready to move on (knowing that a career in nephrology is not likely in my future!) and glad to be going to the ER!

England... The End

I have been home for a few weeks now but have been so busy I haven't had time to post about the end of my trip! So.... finally.... here it is:

Wednesday & Thursday were more quiet days around Cambridge. Wednesday I spent more time wandering around the old colleges, taking a few pictures (and again realizing that my camera is smarter than I am at this point), and enjoying a good book over afternoon tea and scones. Then Thursday I rested at Eli's apartment (more reading my book, doing some London planning, and packing), and Eli and I went to King's College Chapel for the Sung Eucharist service that evening. I wish I could describe how beautiful that music was.... let's just say that the a capella boys/men's choir, together with the thought of the Lord being worshipped in that wonderful chapel daily (or nearly) for hundreds of years, plus much of the same liturgy that we use in our church (though here, sung in Latin, with translation in our booklets) - it brought tears to my eyes several times. Definitely one of my favorite parts of my trip!

Friday & Saturday were London days for me. I took the bus into town Friday morning, got settled into my hotel, and spent the afternoon walking through Westminster Abbey and Harrod's. Then Friday evening I went to a performance by the Royal Ballet - my other favorite part of my trip! Saturday, Eli joined me in London for a morning and afternoon of museums and more walking London (plus a fish & chips lunch - a must for any London tourist, right?). We went to see the Phantom of the Opera (which I had never seen before) that night.

A few London pictures:

Parliament and Big Ben - backlit

The obligatory tourist pictures! me in Trafalgar Square; Eli with a .... guard on a horse?

Crew

Wednesday's big event: biking to crew practice in the early morning hours to watch Eli row! Rowing is quite the sport around here - each of the individual colleges has a team; so it's like intramural basketball or something at home, at least in that it's much more widely available and more participated in - maybe a bit more committment required since it involves a lot more practice and early mornings (cold, dark, bad weather) and much harder work - but can you imagine intramural rowing? Yikes. So the Cam is quite narrow through most of the course - in some stretches not even wide enough to turn the boat! - which makes for chaos at times when somebody stops, or wants to pass, or catches a crab mid-stream. (Rowers, picture the chaos at the start or the docks of the Head of the Charles - that's daily life around here.) And the coaches ride bikes up & down the path beside the river (some with bullhorns, some just yell).

It was so dark and cloudy that I didn't get many good pictures, but I did have a funny exchange with Eli's coach - after several times of me stopping my bike to take pictures of Eli's boat, he called out to the guys as they went past "Row pretty for the lady! Must be for a magazine or something!" - and when I laughed and told him I was Eli's sister, he turned back to the boat and said "Oh! Eli, row pretty for your sister!" Eli was thoroughly embarrassed I'm sure!

Rowers - this is to give you an idea of the narrowness of the river - and the crowd - and the coaches biking up & down the path on the bank!

Cambridge

After spending most of the day yesterday resting and recovering both from travelling and the past two weeks of work (I slept in, read my book, napped, etc....), today was the day to get out and see Cambridge! (Eli was busy with classes, etc., and unfortunately couldn't join me.) I was so thankful to see the sun shining when I woke up - apparently most of the English winter is cold and cloudy/rainy, and sunshine is a rare treat. It didn't last all day but at least it didn't rain! (And while cloudy weather limits what one can do with lighting for photographic purposes, I had a few shots that turned out alright....)

I spent the morning wandering through some of the "colleges" at Cambridge and enjoying the beautiful green lawns and old architecture. (Cambridge is organized into residential "colleges" - King's College, St. John's college, etc. - Churchill College in Eli's case - that are separate from the academic departments.) I was pretty sure I was an uninvited guest in some cases, as the colleges are closed to visitors (or even charge admission!) for some parts of the day, but I decided that as long as I acted like I knew where I was going, and didn't dilly-dally taking too many pictures, everyone would just think I was a student!

Trinity College Bridge over the Cam:


Then I headed to the Cambridge Botanical Gardens. I knew there wouldn't be much blooming in the middle of winter, but it was still a nice walk.

Snowdrops:


in the Winter Garden:


Orchids in the "hothouse:"


I also stopped by the local art museum, and then headed for a bookstore/cafe for afternoon tea and a croissant, and relaxed with a copy of Jane Eyre (feeling very British by this time!). Altogether a very pleasant day which I may repeat parts of (especially the afternoon tea part!) tomorrow!

In England!

Surprise! I'm currently in Cambridge, England, visiting my brother Eli, who is here studying for a master's degree this year..... As of this time last week I though I was spending my vacation at home working on re-organizing and painting our study, but Matt found a great deal on a plane ticket, so on Tuesday we decided I would leave for England on Saturday, and here I am!

I arrived in Cambridge at about 9:30 yesterday (Sunday) morning, and after making the 30 minute walk from the bus stop to Eli's flat, we headed to 11:30 church. Eli goes to a great Church of England church (reformed, great preaching) in a beautiful old building with stained glass windows and wood pews..... and a modern praise band with piano, drums, guitar, 2 electric guitars, a flute, and an old overhead projector for the words!

I crashed pretty hard after church though and slept through both lunch and Sunday evening service, but woke up for dinner and the NFL football party. Eli had organized a group to get together and watch the games (at 8pm/11:30pm local time), and brought real American snacks (real Lays, Oreos, Planters peanuts, etc).... a huge hit! (Apparently the British version of potato chips aren't quite the same.) We enjoyed watching the game (I think most of the guys watched both games, though I headed back to bed after the Patriots won) and explaining some of the finer points of American football to the Brits.... like the blitz with an extra pass rusher (to which one of the Brits asked, "and where does the extra chap come from?"). It was great.