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?