Protective style challenge: Cycle 1 results + anesthesia first 2 days

First of all, I should say that these two days of anesthesia have been good. Besides the fact that I'm always getting lost and sometimes just don't know what to do, I've found the experience thus far, much better than the first two years. The anesthesiology team is super nice. Actually, just about everyone I have come in contact with has been really nice, have helped me out, or had encouraging words. My first case was a robotic total robotic hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy with a laparoscopic sacral colpopexy etc etc, some other stuff. When I saw that, I really felt like I was reading a foreign language. In simple english, the woman was having her ovaries, tubes, and cervix taken out and then having her falling vagina lifted back up. The robot part refers to this huge machine with several arms through which the doc operates without touching the patient. It's kind of like a video game. Cool stuff. What else.....ummm...oh yeah. I locked the keys to my lock in the locker. Just as I locked the locker, I realized the stupid thing I had just done. Yeah....not cool. Thank God (who has continually been looking out for me during these few days), the part upon which the lock sat just happened to be loose and the nurse was able to save me.....Got pimped about the lumbar plexus today. Very random question to which I had no answer for. It's very funny how you try to make up stuff to say when you're asked random questions on spot. smh......I've gotten off before 3pm both of these days. Today, I would have gotten off around 12 but I was too scared to leave because even though one doc said I could go home, I didn't want the other doc that I reported to in the morning, to yell at me. So, I always took the other option. They offered eat lunch or go shopping/go home...ate lunch and came back.....said take a walk, find some other cool procedure, or go home.....i walked around and came back. Then the nurse told me to seriously go home and not worry since there wasn't much going on that I had to stay for. After confirming 3 times, I finally left. lol. Two more days in anesthesia before starting the dreaded surgery. I just don't know how i'm going to do it. For this rotation, I'm required to be ready in the OR by 7am, so I get up at 5 and leave around 3. That has been hard enough. I was sooo sleepy today by 2pm, talkless of the 4am-6/7pm schedule looming in the future. Fingers crossed for continued favor.


Ok, so finally the hair updates. Recap: I'm on a protective style challenge for myself for the rest of the year which consists of twist/braiding my hair for 3 months (redoing individual twist/braid each month) followed by a brief break before repeating. During this first cycle, I followed this regimen and also trimmed my hair between 1in-2in after the 2nd redo. I kept the same size throughout and didn't transition styles, as I was too busy to do so. Shampooed and deep conditioned once a week for the most part, and cowashed whenever I felt like it. Third install had less deep conditioning due to boards but still tried to at least cowash. I wanted to do before and after shots and all that....I have tons of pics just not enough time to show them right now as I really have to go to bed. So for now I'll just show where I'm at and hopefully this weekend, I'll be able to do the collage and comparisons. I made arm pit length! Woo hoo! Next goal: bra strap length.

First Day of Rotations!

Ahhhh!!!! I can't believe it. I'm really starting rotations today. Anesthesia for this week and then the dreaded surgery for the next five. Praying for God to sustain me for the next couple of weeks as I wake up at 4am everyday....*shudder*. Yesterday's in class surgery orientation was long enough (630am-345pm). And we learned that we were to be ready and dressed to go into the operating room by 6am....so when the heck am I supposed to get there?? Smh....it's going to be a long 5 weeks. For now, I'm crossing my fingers that this week isn't as bad or as long since its anesthesia.

Anywho, got to get ready to head out. Random side note: camera had no batteries for awhile but now I have pics to post :)

San Francisco: Day 4, 5, 6

Ugh.....I typed this post up already and stupid Blogger didn't save it. So here we go again....probably without as much excitement

Day 4:
After all of the hiking done the day before, I didn't want to do much walking. Plus, the temperatures had dropped from the nice 80s that we had been experiencing, to the lower 60s. I opted to visit SF Museum of Modern Arts. As I perused the different floor after floor of paintings, photography, and sculptures, I tried to see if I could be one of those true artistic people who can stare at a painting and tell you everything about the art work. LOL. Yeah....didn't work. However, I could appreciate it and enjoyed hearing more about the artists and their work with the audio tour that was provided.
*MJ and his monkey in the Pop culture room at SF MOMA

I left SF MOMA and headed to Fisherman's Wharf to board for my Alcatraz tour. For those of you who aren't familiar with Alcatraz, it was a Federal penitentiary decades ago that was home to the likes of criminals such as Alcapone and "Machine Man" Kelly. It was the most feared prison by criminals due to its strict rules and location on an inescapable island known as "The Rock".
We boarded the boat to head across the water to Alcatraz which lies about 1.5 miles away from San Francisco. Upon arriving at the island, we listened to the quick talk by the ranger, watched a video about the history of "The Rock", and then were left to explore the penitentiary. They offered their acclaimed interactive audio tour, which I utilized to explore the prison. It was awesome to hear, from actual former prisoners and staff, about how life was at Alcatraz, failed escape attempts, and about specific prisoners. One thing that I found to be interesting was that the prisoners found being able to actually see San Francisco at a distance and hear the noise from the city to be the most torturous thing, as they knew that the city was within reach, but that no escape attempts would ever allow them to cross the body of water that kept them away from the city. Even still, some still tried just because they were going crazy at Alcatraz. *On the boat to Alcatraz which is in the background

After returning to San Francisco, I went back to the hostel and retired early. But not without first meeting my funny new roommates from NY. They had me cracking up.

Day 5:
I started my day at the California Academy of the Sciences. I loved this place. I would definitely return in the future with my children (yes, I think about these things already). It has a natural history museum, a gorgeous aquarium, a rain forest, planetarium, garden, and living roof, all contained in the world's most green and platinum awarded, building. I started on the roof, reading and observing how the building was made to recycle water and nutrients, regulate temperature, and maintain the wild life in the building. . Next, I headed to the "Extreme Mammals" exhibit. Here they showed the evolution of various animals, body parts, etc. But, what really touched me about this exhibit was at the end where they showed a list of animals that had become extinct or are now near extinction due to humans. Some species are down to less than 1000 because we keep eating them, wearing them, taking pieces of them for other things, and what ever else we do. Humans are very destructive, not only to ourselves, but to the earth as we know it. smh
I headed to the rain forest where I saw different species of the most beautiful birds and butterflies flying around. The 4 floor exhibit held various unique rain forest animals as well as plant life. It was really nice. Of course I took tons of pics and made videos.
Next was the aquarium that I loved! Many of the sealife were from the coral reef of the Philippines. Absolutely gorgeous! There were several fish, and other aquatic creatures that I had never seen at any aquarium, such as the upside down jellyfish, for example. Someone made a comment about how many colors and beautiful things live down in the water, beyond what we see and how many of them we're probably killing with this stupid BP oil spill. Smh. Once again, humans, messing up everything.
Outside of the aquarium, in the area called The Swamp, I saw an albino alligator and in the African exhibit, I saw the cutest little penguins!
I ended up spending most of my day in this center. There was just so much to see and do. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go into the planetarium since they had given out all of the entrance tickets for the day. Next time!
*Diver in the Phillipines Coral Reef Exhibit surrounded by fish while giving a talk
*One of the many unique sea creatures, this is a special sea horse that has these look alike leaves on its body; a natural way to blend in with the environment & escape predators
*One of the butterflies in the rain forest
I left the center, which is one of the many things in the huge Golden Gate Park, and accidentally stumbled into the Botanical Gardens. I got lost amongst the pretty flowers and took tons of pictures. The place was so peaceful, yet so beautiful; ideal for a couples stroll (saw a few of these).
*Two of my favorite plants in the garden
Once I found my way out of the maze, I took the bus to the Haight area where all of the hippies of SF stay. Walking through there is really like a flashback to the 60s. Bright psychedelic colors, 60s clothes, people singing and saying promoting one love in the streets....truly funny.

I then headed to Chinatown where I decided to have dinner. I found a nice restaurant that was celebrating their anniversary with potstickers, green tea ice cream, and 20% of of your check. Great! I had lemongrass chili chicken with rice, which was good. However, my waitress was terrible. It took her forever to attend to me, and that only happened after she caught my eyes staring at her. After taking my order, I never saw her at my table again. She didn't check on me, although she checked on those around me, and the busboy was the one serving the food, and I had to call the hostess to get my check and clear my table, after waiting forever. I can't stand rude (racist) people. Whatever....
Afterwards, I walked back to my hostel, packed up and prepared for my departure the next day.

Day 6:
My flight was scheduled to be late at night, around 11:57pm. That meant that I would have to find something to do for the whole day, since I would have to checkout of my room. I had two more Citypass tickets which included a 1 hr boat ride on the Blue & Gold fleet and a pass to the Exploratorium. I also considered taking a day tour to Montery/ Carmel, south of San Francisco. But, I didn't want to have to do that. Instead, I decided to see if I could possibly fly standby for the 1:55pm flight.
I checked out and took one last walk down Powell street to Market street and got on the street car (aka train as they call it). I decided to take the advice of one of the hostel reps and headed to the Mission neighborhood to have breakfast. She had suggested I check out this place called Pork Store, that sold typical American breakfast food, but also mentioned the Crepe place right next to it. I was really looking forward to the Crepe place, but got there (after an unnecessary walk as per the suggestion of someone on the bus; I guess I couldn't leave SF without one more hike) and it was closed. Bummer! I went to the Pork place instead, and ordered eggs, hasbrowns, and biscuits. The eggs had fresh salsa, spinach, and mushrooms. It was good (but not the crepes that I wanted). I left with my full belly, only to see the Crepe place now open....grrr! Oh well.
I took the BART metro to the airport, hoping and praying that I'd be able to get on this flight. Otherwise, I would have made my day even more complicated. I got to the counter, and the man told me what I didn't want to hear: there were a lot of people trying to find standby and he'd recommend that I just stick with my flight. Sigh....great! Now what? I tried to figure out what to do to head back into the city. I decided to at least try to put myself on the next standby list for the 10pm. My luck, the woman I spoke to this time pretty much said that the man didn't know what he was talking about and that she was pretty sure that I would be able to get on the flight. Yes! Thank God! He always comes through.....I ran down to the terminal, praying the whole way that they'd be able to put me on. They were able to and not only that, but I was sitting in business class!! Yes!
*Bye Bye San Francisco! Hello business class!
I finally got to experience what it was like to sit in those spacious, comfortable business class seats (without anyone next to me, woohoo!)and have people attend to you every few minutes with offers of drinks, "salties", and "sweets". It was nice. Some people, who also just ended up in business class didn't know how to act with their taking 2-3 stacks per round, and ordering alcoholic beverages as much as they could. lol. They were so excited though. It did suck that we had some maintenance issues that had us waiting for 1 1/2 before we could take off and that threw off everyone's connecting flight. Mind you, the flight that I was supposed to take from ATL was to depart 35 minutes after our original departure time. That clearly wasn't going to happen. But, God worked it out. There were weather issues in ATL that caused 2-3 hour flight delays at the airport. So, even though I had missed that flight, there was as flight that was supposed to have left at 8:55pm and was now to depart at 11:55pm. Yes! I wouldn't have to sleep at the airport after all (some people had to be put in hotels because the next flight to their destination wasn't leaving until the next day). Everything worked out!


All in all, San Francisco was fun. It was nice to have some alone time to reflect on things and to just get away. But, now I'm happy to be back with friends and family:)

San Francisco: Day 3

*note: click on the pics to make them bigger


I guess I hadn't walked enough the day before because yesterday, I walked at least 10 miles. No joke. I think there is a secret hiker lurking in me somewhere.

Anyway, yesterday, I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. I briefly thought about biking it, as everyone always says to do. But, then reality hit me that I hadn't ridden a bike in....ummmm.....forever? So, it might not have been wise for me to suddenly embark on this journey only to find myself running over pedestrians. Instead, I chose to use the things that I know how to use very well: my two legs.

The walk across was nice. I forgot to mention that the weather has been unseasonably warm here in SF (lucked out again! Same thing they said when I was in Chicago). This is great, because it makes the walks and transportation waiting so much more enjoyable. I took a lot of nice pics and did mini video coverage. I don't know how to share those, but I will figure that out and post a link.


After walking the almost 2 miles across the bridge, and doing a victory dance at the end, I realized that I had two choices: walk back across the bridge or keep walking to Sausalito. Usually, they recommend that you bike across the bridge, to Sausalito, and then take the ferry back. But, hey, I have legs right? I'll just walk.

Mistake! I don't know how long my walk was, but I know that between walking on the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito took me at least 3 hours. The walk to Sausalito was about 3-4 miles, I believe. Smh. Oh, what is this place? It's this small waterfront community outside of San Francisco where the rich people live to escape SF. It has its own microclimate, different from SF ( I believe warmer and less fog). People have yachts and boats and live in these nice looking houses that sit on these....I don't know what to call them....hills? You'll see in pics. Nice place though.


Once I finally reached Sausalito, I spent some time looking for an affordable place to eat. I wasn't about to pay big money just to sit by the water. Ended up having fried Cod and french fries, with coleslaw. It was alright.

Then, I saw that they run shuttles for $3 to Muir Woods, the home of some of the last remaining Red Woods in the country. Well, of course, I had to take advantage of that. The tours charge $65 and up for a tour of Sausalito and Muir Woods. Meanwhile, I got to Sausalito for free, and only had to pay $8 between the Muir woods entry fee and bus ride there.

OMGee the bus ride there. The ride to Muir woods is supposed to be about 40 minutes. I got there in less than 25 minutes. Why? Because this crazy bus driver wanted to risk my life and send us flying off of the side of the cliff! On the bus were myself and this family of like 10. When we go on, the kids were laughing and joking, which the bus driver apparently didn't like. He requested that they be quiet or else they would be kicked off of the bus. Initially, we all thought that he was joking until he repeated. So, everyone quieted down.

However, this wasn't enough for the man. The drive was a curvy one that ascended up and around a canyon. He sped, up and around the canyons, tossing us back and forth and making us motion sick. He kept up with the motorcycle in front of us the whole time and almost hit a bicyclist and another bus due to his reckless driving. When we finally arrived at our destination, the mother made a comment and told him how inappropriate that was. His response? "Your kids were loud and annoying,so I drived like a maniac because the faster I could get here, the faster I could get you guys off." Wow? Really? You want to kill us because of that. Needless to say, a complaint is being filed.

Muir woods itself, was beautiful. Some would say that it's just trees, but it's just wonderful to admire God's work in such a peaceful environment. These trees average 380 ft with a diameter of about 22 ft. It was a nice walk along the trail. I only had an hour, so I couldn't do a proper hike and check out one of the other trails that afforded the opportunity to view the trees from the top and to see the ocean. Yet, it was still a nice experience.

From Drop Box

The shuttle back to Sausalito was much better, taking the full 40 minutes. Upon arriving, I decided to treat myself to some ice cream in a waffle cone. I deserved it! We boarded the ferry and rode across the water, back to San Francisco.


All in all, it was a nice (walk filled) day.

San Francisco: Day 2

*Pics of me at the bottom of Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. And from the top, where you can appreciate the hills of San Francisco.

Day 2 in San Francisco was filled with walking, walking, and more walking. I haven't walked that much in such a long time. And the hills??? They are really crazy. I'd heard about them but I didn't realize just how bad they were until I had to walk them 200 times. Needless to say, my body is extra sore from suddenly tossing it back into active work after such a prolonged sedentary lifestyle.

Oh, lucky for me, the weather is suddenly unseasonably warm, rising to the mid 70s yesterday, and 80s for the rest of the weekend. I always bring the warm weather:)

Things that I did yesterday:

-Made some pancakes. It was funny watching the different hostellers, try their hand at making pancakes. Hilarious! Several of them burnt theirs. Others, had pancakes that ended up being broken up and looking like scrambled eggs. Then, they'd note the ease at which I was making my perfectly round fluffy pancakes and try to peep my technique. LOL. It was quite amusing.

-Saw a bicyclist get hit by a cab driver. Great start to my day. Well, actually, I just missed seeing the event actually occur in two seconds it took me to look down at my map. I looked down, heard a boom, looked up, and there was this man laying on the ground in front of me. A few seconds later, the Indian/South Asian man, got out of the car, yelling at the bicyclists for doing "that". I guess that he tried to cross the street while the cars were still going? I don't know. But, the guy was alright in the sense that he was alert and was able to at least be walked off of the street and onto the sidewalk. Meanwhile, I was thinking hmmm, I hope that he really is ok and doesn't have an epidural hemorrhage.lol. For my nonmed friends, that's pretty much when someone has head trauma, seem like they are fine for awhile, and then suddenly are not (ie: die). This man didn't have a helmet on either, so I hope that he really ends up being ok. The Southasian man reminded me of Nigeria though; where they'll hit you or run you over and then yell at you for not being smart enough to move out of the way. Smh lol.

-Took the historic street cars down to Pier 39. Walked around for a bit then went to the Aquarium by the Bay which was cool. Not nearly as big as the ones in Baltimore or Atlanta. But nice, nonetheless. I got to touch a sting ray, which was slimy feeling, and a star fish, wish surprisingly felt like rock/concrete. Not how I expected them to feel.

-Had a brief personal boat ride along the coastline that allowed me to see Alcatraz, the sea lions, Sausalito, the Golden Gate bridge, the Wharf, and some other little things.

-Hate the infamous clam chowder in a sourdough bowl. It was delicious and filling. I couldn't finish that bowl.

-Quickly walked around Fisherman's Wharf

-Walked to Lombard St to see the Crookedest Street in the world. It was interesting watching the tourists record themselves in the car on the way down. It was also interesting how many freaking hills, and stairs I climbed to get there smh.

-Went to Ghiradelli square and had a sample of the most delicious chocolate! mmmmm....

-Walked to North beach and took a little rest in Washington square ( a park).

-Walked some more to Coit tower. Now, half way to this point, my legs started to give out on me. It started shaking and yelling at me. So I tried to catch the bus. Waited, got on, then got off at the wrong stop, which is how I ended up at Washington Square. I ended up having to walk the rest of the way to the tower anyway. The hills and stairs on this path??? Craaaazy! I had to keep telling myself that I was almost there. The view from Coit was nice, although I didn't pay the $5 to get all the way to the top.

-Finally, I got on the bus to head back to Fisherman's wharf so that I could take the cable car back. This was a journey in itself. The street cars were always so full, that they kept driving by us. I ended up crossing to the other side, so that I could ride back to the end of the line, in order to be able to be at the first stop and ride back up.

-Ended up getting off at the wrong stop and had to wait again.

-Finally, got to the stop closest to the hostel and watched some young black street performers do some dancing. The way they moved their bodies as if they had no joints was cool....and creepy. But, still cool. Continued the walk back to the hostel, hoping to partake in the Lasagna dinner for the night which ended up being canceled. Which means that, yes, I had to go and walk again.

-Ended up getting some, what I call Indian Efo/spinach stew. It was spinach and chicken. Tasted pretty good. Of course, I had to order naan. They did disappoint me however, as it was slightly burnt. Still good.

By the time I got to my room and showered, I literally crashed. I had no recollection of anything going on around me. No roommates moving. Nothing. I was just that exhausted.

Let's see what today brings. I'm thinking Golden Gate Bridge(to walk or to bike it?), Sausalito, and Muir woods. We'll see!


Oh and I'll post a link soon, for those of you who'd like to see the pics.

San Francisco-Day 1

After taking finally taking that dreadful exam that had been a parasite sucking on my life over the past month or so, I exhaled, drove back home to MD to be with my family for a few hours, and then made my way to S.F.

The day had an interesting start. I didn't get much sleep since I got so caught up with my family and even while I was sleeping, random board studying recall was occurring ( I swear, the degree of torture....). So, after my 2 1/2 hour nap, I headed out to make my 6am flight. Some things that happened.
1) I wasn't at the right terminal so I had to wait and take a shuttle to the correct one as time was running short.
2) I got stuck in an extra slow security line for 30 minutes since the employee was just learning.
3) Left my credit card in the ticketing machine somehow.
4) Was told to return to the ticketing booth and that I would have to redo security....at 5:45am....only to get there and find out that it was sent to the gate with an m.i.a supervisor. Seeing that I wasn't going to make the flight, she ended up transferring me to another flight going through Milwalkee. This actually worked out better, since it was shorter.

Anyway, after finally getting to San Francisco, I chatted it up with a black couple from Miami and a man on an interview from South Carolina. All of us griped about the transition to the cold upper 50s weather. Somehow the conversation turned into one about my being in medical school and a career in medicine (Ahhhh! I can't escape lol).

We pulled up to the place that I'm staying at called USA Hostels. Yes. I'm staying in a HOStel. And I'm by myself. And I'm black. Apparently, I'm not supposed to do any of the above because black people stay in hotels, and travel with people (other black people) and don't stay in rooms with a bunch of strangers. I guess i'm different. *shrug*

Since I'm running short on time, I'll quickly summarize everything else.

-Staying in a quad: its me, a girl from Scotland, a girl from Peru, and a girl from Australia. Me and the girl from Australia, Annie, spent the day walking around and getting to know the surrounding areas. Got lunch at a Thai place (drunken noodles), and dinner at a burger place. Both were good. Briefly went to Union Street where all the expensive stores are and also saw the Asian museum ( or something like that.) Not too much.

Room is cool. Hostel is cool. Roommates are cool. I've seen 2 black men, for those who were wondering if there are any other black people staying here. Ummm.....It's supposed to be warmer today (71) and really warm the rest of the weekend (80s). San Francisco's weather is unpredictable, and the forecast constantly changes.

This morning I woke up extra early, as my body hasn't adjusted. I made some pancakes with the all you can make pancake batter. And now i'm about to really start exploring.