I guess it's time for an update. I'm sitting on my living room floor watching the Lakers game, enjoying the feeling after a good hard run followed by a large, nutritious meal. Good times.

The last week has been good for me. I finished up in Dr. RH's lab on Friday, and found out that I was assigned to Dr. MR's lab for this week. Apparently I won't receive a full schedule for the summer. Instead, I have to ask every Friday where I will be the following week. I'd definitely prefer to know before that (I'm a planner), but I guess I'll have to live with it.

On Friday we had a Jackson Free Clinic orientation, which went fairly well. We ate lunch at the school and then hopped on some buses and drove over to the clinic. There were about 40 in attendance. It's nice to keep meeting people before school starts so that we won't all be strangers come orientation. At the clinic, they split us into 5 groups and cycled us through a number of "stations," where they talked about taking BP, drawing blood, performing a lunch and heart examination, measuring nerve responsiveness, etc. Most Saturdays I work at Fleet Feet, but this weekend I'm going to spend the afternoon volunteering at the clinic. I'd like to go as much as possible over the next two years, and possibly during my PhD work.

The research in Dr. MR's lab is interesting (deals with lupus, and the inflammation and hypertension that accompany it), and a lot of the techniques are the same as in Dr. RH's lab, but I'm not enjoying myself quite as much. It's not bad, but I think I got spoiled by the amazing people I was working with last week. I had an awesome teacher who was very willing to let me practice doing the procedures. This week I'm working mostly with college students who aren't exactly eager to teach.

On an odd/interesting note, I've started practicing writing left-handed. I want to improve my manual dexterity, and I can tell a big difference between my left and right hands.

Great day today as well. Even better than yesterday. I've always said that I won't be a surgeon, and who knows, I probably won't, but I absolutely loved the stuff I did today. I got to do some microvascular surgery work today, and it was amazing. We cut out the intestines of a rat, and under a microscope, using tiny instruments, we had to isolate arteries in the mesentery from the fat and veins surrounding them. Oh my goodness, it was exciting.

I always thought that I had shaky hands (one of the reasons I've all but ruled out surgery as a career), and when I first started today, they were shaking some. Especially under a microscope, where those small tremors are magnified. However, I was assured by more experienced folks in the lab that steady hands come with practice, and sure enough, within 2 hours, the shaking had decreased significantly. Hopefully, I'll continue to improve.

Time flies doing labwork, and by the end of the day, I'm not really ready to leave. It's craziness. There's a Chinese doctor who's been doing research in Dr. RH's lab for 6 years, and he's the one who has been teaching me everything. I couldn't ask for a better instructor. He's a bit difficult to understand at times, but he's funny, patient, and extremely willing (and excited!) to teach me.

Yeah, I feel blessed.

Today was very cool. No, I'm not referring to the weather (it's getting disgusting here in Mississippi). I had a great first day in the lab.

My first rotation of the summer is in Dr. RH's lab, and I'm hoping he will be my advisor for my PhD. Part of me wishes I could just spend the whole summer in his lab so I could learn his techniques and get a head start on my graduate work. But I do know it will be a great experience to rotate through all the physiology labs, both to get a more specific idea of the research that's going on in the department, and to get to know the researchers, many of whom will help teach the Medical Physiology course come Spring.

An M1 (rising M2) friend of mine who works with me at Fleet Feet is working for Dr. RH this summer, and he just started last week. It's nice to have a newbie in the lab with me. I know none of the techniques that commonly performed in this lab, so it's both interesting and scary being in there. Dr. RH brought in a former PhD student of his to teach us (primarily my M1 buddy, though, since he'll be performing the procedure all summer) how to insert of blood flow probe around the abdominal aorta of a rat, and to insert a catheter into the carotid artery

Fascinating stuff! The vessels we were dealing with were obviously miniscule (compared to those of a human), which made it challenging. The surgery lasted about 2 hours, and it's easy to see why many surgeons are the way they are (yes, haughty, but also ticked off at everybody and generally in a foul mood). Not only do they work too much, but surgery is stressful. The man who was teaching us this procedure was obviously a laid back, fun-loving individual (based upon our interactions prior to the surgery), but during the procedure he became short-tempered and impatient. He wasn't nearly as bad as some surgeons I've seen and heard about, though.

I heard several people today mutter under their breath, "MD, PhD? (chuckle) Glutton for punishment." I found it funny. I've already wrestled with the decision whether or not to pursue this road, and the decision has been made. There's no turning back, I know, but I'm happy to say that at this point it doesn't bother me a bit. Check back with me in 5 years and we'll see if my opinion has changed, haha.

So I'm all moved in to my new place, and I love it! I have spent altogether too much money recently, but it's been mostly on stuff for the apartment, so that was inevitable. The place has to be presentable, and a big part of that is that it has to be clean. That'll take some work, as neither of my two roommates (one is my brother) are known for keeping their houses clean.

I've been slacking with my running recently. When I was in Virginia I wasn't motivated to run, both because I was hanging out with my Grandma, and because the area around her home is conducive to it. She lives out in the country, and her road has lots of turns and no shoulder. Plus there are bugs galore. I enjoyed being lazy, but it's time to kick it into gear.

The wonderful, cute, old volunteers from River Oaks Hospital are throwing me a goodbye party tomorrow. I'm going to miss them terribly. Helping out and hanging with them on Tuesdays has been one of the highlights of every week for me for the past two years.

Well, the next time I update I will have started my lab rotations and will be sufficiently overwhelmed (my prediction). Later!

I haven't fallen off the face of the planet, but I've been busy. Busy relaxing for the last time for a long time. I had a wonderful week at my Grandma's house up in Virginia, but was ready to get back to life here in Jacktown. I'm moving tomorrow into the Fondren Hill Apartments, then I get to start up in the labs at UMC on Monday. It should be a challenging but productive summer, and I'm looking forward to it.

I'll update more soon...

Dear Mom,

Another year has passed, another Mother's Day has come. My love and appreciation for you continues to grow, as I grow older (and hopefully, wiser) and daily realize more fully how much of a pain I was to deal with for most of my life. Quite honestly, I don't know how you made it, but you did, and you did a fantastic job of raising us. You were a great model of a loving, caring, and selfless woman of God. I am incredibly blessed and lucky to have such an amazing Mom. I love you very much!

Happy Mother's Day!

Love, P

Nearly all of the students have now left Belhaven for home. Craziness. I'm left all alone in the dorms, and it has yet to really sink in that I'm done here. Maybe I'm in denial.

On the 20th, I'm heading up to my Grandma's house in Virginia for a week (I can't wait!), but until then I'm going to be hard-pressed to find good ways to fill my time. I've been reading some books on memory and speed-reading, both of which are intriguing subjects. I was hoping that I could get a good bit of learning done in those arenas this summer, but with the class I recently found out I have to take, and the lab rotations, I don't know how much I'll have time for. I'll see what I can get done in the next two weeks.

Not too much else to report on. The mouth is doing better each day. I still have gaping holes where the teeth used to be, and it's annoying having to clean those out after each time I eat. Hopefully, that will heal up soon.

Oh, I ran today for the first time in a week. I did a 5K harder than I should have, but I couldn't help running fast after taking waaay too long off. Can't wait to get up to 70 a week this summer!