2009年7月29日 星期三

LOVIN' THE NEW LAYOUT




haha yes..after one year of the same ol' thing i finally changed my layout! This looks awesome..i'm lovin' it so much i think i'm gonna have to keep it..for ANOTHER YEAR.. haha.

Ok so aside from that. i had a SUPER productive day. i woke up this morning feelin kinda groggy and whatnot. had a big healthy breakfast with whole grain + flaxseed toast and soy yogurt and beef franks and milk + multi vitamin, and went back to sleep some more. gotta maximize my day off! then i made myself a salad upon waking up and got ready to leave for the coffeeshop to study. I was super efficient at Starbucks and finished 80% of my final presenation. now i just have to fill in some of the blanks and make slides out of it but basically the whole things is done. That should free up a lot of my time this weekend with my parents.

speaking of my parents, who are arriving in less than 24 hr (yay!), I have been systematically cleaning the house in which i made a total mess. I believe it's been more than half a year since i even vaccuum the floor. AFter finals i left for hawaii immediately and when i came back i started my 2nd rotation right away, which left me no time to organize any of my notes or to put things back where they belong. So after my productive 4 hrs at starbucks, i went to the mall (Express) to exchange a slightly inappropriate skirt for some more work clothes, had a quick dinner with a close friend at Cheesecake (yummy appetizers) and went home to clean til about 11pm. whew. what a day. which made me extremely tired... i'm sure i'll be feeling the backache tomorrow morning. Oh well, at least that keeps my mind busy.

a friend leaves tomorrow. i don't like goodbyes!

2009年7月28日 星期二

negativity

so before i meet anyone who can prove me wrong, i'm gonna say i have no luck with men i like

case in point: guys who are attracted to people AROUND me but not me, guys who already have gfs, guys who only hit on me because they've been single forever...

what did i do wrong in my past life? ;)

thoughts

So i finally met up with a friend who did the rotation with me in HI for the first time. i was able to talk freely about the experience and have someone be able to relate to it. last time i saw her we were saying our goodbyes to Tripler with lots of sentimentality and now we are both back in LA carrying on with our lives. i guess things do change pretty quickly dont they. i am now at the end of my second rotation and preparing for a presentation AGAIN, and before i know it, i'll be done with 1/3 of my rotations and finally go on a break. i NEED that break desperately. mentally i've already checked out 5 weeks ago at the end of my medicine. i literally went from my excruciating 2nd semester into both my rotations. i need to take a break and just BREATHE. and SLEEP.

Aside from that, lots of goodbyes for the upcoming months. 2 of my closest friends will be departing for B school. and i just had my final farewell dinner with one on sunday. and 2 of my close roommates will be married by the end of the year, so there's some adjustment to do as well (mostly having to look REALLY happy and REALLY comfortable at the single's table).

I guess being busy helps with the goodbyes since i will have less time to focus on it. but also i'm sure i'll be thinking lots about my upcoming rotations and where i want to be. right now i'm looking at some critical care ones in norCal to see if i can handle stressful situations. if i really do a bad job 5 months after having my medicine rotation then i know residencies and i are just not meant to be. ;)

2009年7月12日 星期日

need..to..get..pictures..out..

so today i realized that i have another unexpected reader of my blog...or rather follower of my blog. which again made me somewhat embarrassed. For those who dont actually talk to me on a daily bases and only read about my life i probably sound like a depressed maniac everyday with lots of anger..who has no life, and enjoys nothing...

IT'S NOT TRUE!

I do get out of the house and do "stuff"...all kinds of "stuff"...random stuff, dorky stuff, family stuff, friend stuff, fun stuff, boring stuff, and work/school related stuff...but i think my blog is starting to give people the wrong idea..;)

DISCLAIMER: I only blog when i feel down!! yep. i realized that i started this blog because I wanted to be positive, i wanted to record the happy thoughts in my life..and look what i've done NOW. Perhaps i should start ANOTHER blog and stick to the happy thought STRICLY. so people are not gonna be calling in prescriptions for Paxil or Zoloft for me. Maybe i should take them, but not right now (or yet). ;)

So yeah, i'll be working on my photos for the next couple days so i can get my Hawaii pictures out soon. So people won't actually think i sat in my room and did nuthin' when i was 2 thousand miles away from home (or is it 1,000 miles?). anyway...be looking out for the pictures in your mailbox..soon. :P

you get out of your experience however much time you put in

yes. i need to drill that into my head. and stop doubting myself. my thoughts usually end with "can i do it?" or " they wont take me" or "i'm going to be miserable and regret my decisions". i dont know how else i can self-talk myself into being more positive about everything in life (as you can tell now from my blog lately).

just give it your all and you wont regret anything.

2009年7月9日 星期四

A cathartic experience

After coming home for so long...i'm starting to be able to really look at the HI experience objectively and dissect it completely. And I must say that I am about 70% recovered. I am starting to listen to the music i liked before i left and enjoy my ME time more and enjoy the presence of my friends. Today I was finally able to write the evalutation for the organization I am in so people in the future will learn the in's and out's of this rotation. I was finally able to breakdown my likes and dislikes of the rotation and what i liked about each component of it. I was able to give constructive suggestions on how to improve your experience at this site and what you can expect. I am hoping that, through my expereince the next student will be able to avoid the pitfalls and really get the most out of it. I did learn a lot, in many ways. About myself and about others. I've learned that I am tougher than i think. I was stressed everyday from having to deal with the hostility from some of the doctors but i didn't sink. i was able to give it my all and walked away with the guidelines in my head and the clinical pearls. i was able to retain the good habit of always showing up super early and reading up on anything questions that come up during discussion. I was able to manage up to 18 pts at a time even when it was only the 2nd week of my rotation. i was able to speak up during rounds and make intervention even though i got shot down sometimes by the attending physicians. i was able to sit through all that male-oriented discussion about everything i hate and not kill everyone in the room (haha). I have become more assertive, in answering questions and thinking critically and finding out answers and in dealing with other members of the healthcare team.

and i've become more driven. I have come to realize how little i really know. So maybe this is the upside of my PTSD experience. during my free time i read different literature because i know one day this will all be useful. I am a lot more serious now about doing a residency/fellowship. be a cheaper labor for a couple years before i can reach that dream job. i mean..it's probably going to suck, and i will really regret it when i work 14 days straight and pull 10 hr days. but hopefully there's light at the end of the tunnel. hopefully...

(if not, i'll really have to come up with a Plan B...)

2009年6月30日 星期二

how i got here i have no idea

this morning i was having breakfast with an old friend. from back in college. i was spilling lots about my rotation, and good thing he wasn't the least bit scared by my reaction (i hope). i have tried to refrain myself from talking too much or feeling too much because everyday i'm getting over it a little. but from time to time it is like PTSD, i remember scenes that have happened and they would make me very sad.

For some reason, the hawaii rotation felt like a old relationship you have with someone. it felt like a bad breakup. I was probably so hurt from it that i walked away with lots of regrets. in a way, i can't believe how much i've learned, and grown from the rotation. in that way it felt very much like a relaionship. jumping into it i had no prior experience in hospital, had no prior exposure in clinical pharmacy and what these pharmacists actually do. i had never worked with doctors before (good OR bad). and i had no time to review any material because it started the week after school ended. So today, when my preceptor was talking about the new rotation, and how there would be a learning curve, and how she didn't want to overwhelm us with too much assignment, i was thinking that i've had to handle ALL THIS. when i didn't know any better. And i was suffering so much. everyday jsut feeling bad about my incompetency. I would go home and sleep and wake up and read the guidelines until i fall asleep again. and then the next day starts. I would go in early to work up my patients just so i can have something to say during rounds. I wanted to be everything. i wanted to prove everyone including myself that i can handle it. And then when third week came around i hit rock bottom. I was crying on the way home. and i had to stop by the pharmacy just so i can get melatonin to help me sleep. i couldn't digest anything fully because i was too stressed. and i was sad from everything.

But this rotation, we have all the time in the world. we dont have to deal with physicians (good OR bad). we dont have too much reading to too. most of the time we just sit there and listen. if there's anything i'm not familiar with i am told the information. compared to before i'd be stared in the eye by the pharmacist who put you on the spot so bad that you started to doubt your own IQ. this right now is a walk in a park.

i have no physicians who would ignore me in the morning. or someone who would in appropriately flirt with me. I didn't have to show up at 6am just to work on things that no body cared about. this is like dating someone new. who is a lot more appreciative of you. who doesn't break your heart. who is nice to you and communicates with you. who you want to be married to.

i often wonder (nd my friend said so too) how i got to where i am today. a single independent girl who (seems to) care nothing about relationships and who does everything on her own, who constantly wants to challenge herself and who knows how to take care of most things in life. and i've had to explain in a way that makes sense to me, although not to others really, that ive had to learned to do all this, not because i want to beat the MEN out there. i only learned these skills because if i dont do them, nobody's gonna do it for me. and i've been single for so long that over the years i've had to do EVERYTHING. and the more you know/do, the less men find you interesting. and hence the more you have to do on your own. and the more pessimistic you are about your dating aspects. because somehow you became INTIMIDATING, or had HIGH STANDARDS, so they would say about me.

so i keep getting comments like you must have a lot of guys who hit on you/like you...and i keep having to deny it in a non-sincere way. its not even the fact that i am self-concious about my look. i am FINE with the way i looke. more than fine. i dont think i'm hot, and nobody should be allowed to say that about themselves really. but i dont get that much male attention at all. when i did, they'd stick around and act flirty, until they see my hot friends/sisters (who i'm completely fine with) and then they checked THEM out and tried to get my friends. i have not had one person prove me wrong. not one. i can list them in alphabetical orders too, these men. the most recent one, the cute french guy who i sat next to on the plane, who decided out of the blue that he would also friend-request my friend based on the fact that she looked cute. and we spent 5 hours talking on the plane before we exchanged fb information. I usualy dont do things like taht. bt he was a pleasant guy to talk to, and i didnt' get that creepy vibe from him at all. but after i realized he was trying to get to my hot friend, i blocked him.

guys do that, and they actually have the nerves to even tell me about it (how much they think my firend is cute..).

and so i am where i am today. even more pessimistic about men. even more withdrawn. because the ones i like are hard to come by, and when i do find one, they are usually married/have a gf, the ones who are single, and douchbags who are only interested me until the moment they see my better looking friend, and the ones who seemed to be interested, but never did a darn thing (he' jsut not that into you).

and i realy am fine with the way i am. I dont belong to the 2 categories of girls who men find attractive: innocent/naive looking, hot/revealing/slightly bitchy/flirts back. I am in my own catetogory. for the longest time, i thought i'd end up with someone who i will be very happy with, who would love me for me an my quirky response and my drive in life, the way i look. but i'm really not so sure anymore. i dont know how i got here. but i know this path has deviated from everyone else. and now it's jsut me, and my career.

and all i wanted was to find the person who i can be happily married to.