diagnose.me.

For as long as i can remember, certain foods have made my mouth sting. Spinach and walnuts were always culprits, but over the years, new foods were added to the list including bananas (particularly the stringy parts), raw broccoli and cauliflower, grapes, pineapple, tomatoes, and plenty more i can't think of right now. Everything has its own level of stinginess. Walnuts are the worst (so i never eat them), pineapples in the middle, and bananas (if i remove the stringy parts), broccoli, cauliflower, grapes, and tomatoes are more mild. I'll still eat most of them (except walnuts), but have recently noticed things starting to bother me more. Tomatoes, for example. I love tomatoes. I grow them in the garden, eat them with fresh basil, add them to a sandwich, etc. Wednesday night i had one with dinner and my mouth stung horribly. It makes me quite sad to think that i'll soon be limiting so many of my favorite foods. Why is it that the healthy stuff has to bother me? It would be much nicer if i reacted to tostitos this way.
So, my assumption (and what i've been telling people all these years) is that i have a mild allergy to certain foods. After talking about my latest issues last night, i started to wonder what exactly i was allergic to- what the foods had in common. After some time on the internet, my best guess is that i have oral allergy syndrome. Basically, it has to do with pollen proteins and similar food proteins. Though i've never seen an allergist (and it looks like tests for these food allergies are not very accurate), i'm definitely allergic to pollen. And since i can eat fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes and still get the stinging, i know it's not a pesticide reaction. However, there are still some things that don't fit 100%. For example, i definitely experience stinging on the roof of my mouth and on my tongue (it feels like having a thousand irritated taste buds)- not an itching or burning as is usually the case with oas. Also, the symptoms don't go away as quickly as they're suppose to with oas, but slowly diminish over about 20 minutes. Finally, my foods don't line up with specific pollen allergies (for example, allergy to ragweed pollen can result in reactions to banana, cantaloupe, cucumber, honey dew, watermelon and zucchini. I can eat everything but bananas without a reaction). Regardless, i can't seem to come up with something else that fits my symptoms. So, if anyone is looking for a way to kill some time (work's not that important), go ahead and do some google-ing, and make sure to let me know if you come up with something more likely. Until then, i'm going with this one.

grate.adventure.

We have a franke sink. It's quite deep, and has a grate that sits midway down and keeps the dishes/pans/etc out of the dirty water. This is particularly helpful when coupled with a garbage disposal (and therefore the food scraps in the sink too). The grate is stainless steel and is coated in a thick clear plastic to reduce rust. At some point over the last five years, someone must have sat a too warm pot on it causing the plastic to melt and eventually, the steel to rust. It was looking pretty gross. So, a few weeks ago, andrea and i were making rounds at home depot, lowes, tile stores, and a plumbing supply store. I brought the rack in hopes of replacing it. Our first stop, home depot, wasn't successful. I carried it throughout the store, asking different people, finally realizing that i'd have to go to a speciality store or special order it. We both loaded up the car and went off to our next stop. A little while later, i was throwing something else in the trunk, and didn't see the rack. Turns out i lost it somewhere, but we were both perplexed. Not being able to trace its path through home depot clearly, we ended up being out of luck. We went back and checked the cart, but with no luck. Luckily, the item number for the sink was in the house file, so i was able to locate one online which shipped out soon. I managed to live without a grate for a week, but it was tough. 

write.your.own.caption.

A recent picture of mandy and me swiped from andrea's facebook page.

number.fourteen.

I donated platelets today. Tried to would be more accurate. They think the vein infiltrated because the return pressure kept cranking up (though it didn't really hurt like it usually does when it infiltrates) so they returned my cells and called it a day. This way i can go back next week and don't get deferred for months at a time. The exciting news was that i'm now at 14 gallons! At 8 donations per gallon, i've had 112 successful donations not counting the many times i've lost pressure, infiltrated or had a bad stick. The sad news is that once i go off to asia, i won't be able to donate for a year, mainly because of the risk of malaria. This makes me very sad. While it wouldn't be a big deal for most people, donating had become an important part of my life. I've seen all these guys every other week for years and it's strange to know i'll miss out for so long. So it goes though. I guess i'll have to find another way to help kids out! 

impatient.

I haven't put a ton of time or effort into this yet, but i'm thinking that my backpacking escapades will send me to southeast asia. Mainly, cambodia, and vietnam, maybe laos and thailand too. Evil's link to the cambodian tree houses definitely helped tip the scales in this direction. Who wouldn't want to stay in a fancy tree house for $25 a night, with breakfast included to boot! I meant to get a travel book last weekend, but didn't get around to it. I read my lonely planet and rick steves europe books cover to cover before that trip and found my two favorite places (chamonix, france and cinque terre, italy) because of it. A. sent me an e-mail yesterday mentioning how perfect the weather is there, and talking about a hike called dragon's back that we'll do when i'm there. It's mostly a ridge hike with amazing views and a fantastic outdoor thai place at one end. I am so excited that it's hard to contain myself. The last time i felt like this was when i was ten or so. It was the night before christmas (and all through the house...) and i could not fall asleep for hours. I felt like i was going to jump out of my skin. With just under eight weeks to go, i don't know how i'll survive!

T-59.days.

I bought my ticket to china! After watching the fares like a hawk over the past few months, i finally bit the bullet and will be leaving at 6am on monday may eleventh, coming back on thursday july 2nd. I figured getting up at an ungodly hour (maybe 3ish?) to fly there would be a good way to start the 20 hour trip. If i'm exhausted to begin with, there's more of a chance i'll sleep on the long flight which would make the 12 hour time difference easier to adjust to. Plus, the trip to the airport will be zippy.

I talked to the b's, and mentioned that my plan is to travel around a bit while i'm there. A. suggested sticking with mainland china because i wouldn't have to pay airfare traveling from place to place (which is where most of the money would be spent). I haven't done any research on this yet, but welcome suggestions. Just remember that i have no income, so will be sticking to more economical places- off the beaten track perhaps. 

My next item to deal with is getting a visa. While i don't need one for hong kong, i will for mainland china. Since i'll be there for almost two months, i'll likely go back and forth a bit, so would ideally get a multiple entry visa valid for six months (as opposed to a single or double entry). I hear there may be some restrictions on this, though it looks pretty straightforward on the chinese embassy's website. The main thorn is that it appears i have to either go to nyc in person to apply, convince someone else to do it for me, or pay an agency/travel agent to take care of it. And, they're only open from 9:30am-12:30pm M-F. Boo. Since funds are tight to begin with (and i want to save what i have for my trip), i may try to take the fancy $10 bus down there the day before good friday, get my visa that morning (since it appears to be open), and head back that afternoon. If anyone knows a better way to take care of this, let me know!

So that's it! Can't wait to be there and see my girls!

observations.

Yesterday was when a new post was due, but it was a busy day. It's technically spring break, but I decided to shadow two other child life specialists to add to my hours. From 8:30am-1pm i was in the proton therapy center. I'd heard so much about this that it was great to actually see the process. I saw three port accesses and kids going under anesthesia (which i'd seen a little of, but not so close together), and then the whole room/set up where the proton beam is used. It was particularly interesting because mgh is one of the few hospitals in the world that has proton therapy. I zipped to wheelock to meet with the field placement folks to talk about my next internship site, then back to mgh from 3-11pm to observe in the emergency department. Though it was a slowish night (apparently unheard of for a monday evening), it was the perfect amount for me- not too overwhelming! Because of slower bus/T schedules at night, i didn't get home until 12:15am and crashed as soon as my head hit the pillow!

run.

This coming week is vacation week. Many people from my program are going somewhere warm, either back where they came from (which happens to be warm), or to someplace like florida. I thought about how nice it would be to go visit my friends in london, but knew i wouldn't go. Though the flights are fairly inexpensive right now, i would have to factor in the money i'd be losing by not working. That would make it an expensive trip. So instead i'm hanging around here, getting stuff done. Since it sensed my disappointment, the weather decided to perk up today. Though i was inside for much of it (working, blah), i did get in a 2 mile run. While the day was beautiful, the run was pathetic. It had been three months since i'd done anything other than school work, and you'd think i'd never run a day in my life. So it made me mad, and now i'll be forcing a 30 min running time slot into my morning at least three days a week (since everyday would be unrealistic). Hopefully the weather will cooperate and give me more 60+ degree days, but since this is new england, i'll be prepared to hop on the treadmill as well.

intern.ship.

I'm suppose to be working on a paper right now, so this is just a quick update about my internship for those who care (probably mom, dad and grandma). 

The inpatient floor (m and t) has been busier with some older kids who can actually do stuff. This is good. I've been able to do more "real" child life stuff with them and have even been to some meetings that have to do with research studies on the floor (statistics!). 

Radiology (th and f) is my favorite. I started out observing all the prep and distraction during procedures, then moved up to distraction for vcugs, then prep for vcugs, and today i added an iv start/injection distraction in nuclear med, as well as mri prep to my list. Both went very well and gave my confidence a boost.

For my mgh project, i'm putting together a glossary of the most common diagnoses seen in radiology (and a few from the floor as well), and so far the list totals 40ish. Not surprisingly, i love doing this and have learned a bunch about the most common childhood cancers, inflammatory bowel diseases, pdd, etc. Good stuff.

The craziness is that we're halfway through this internship already. We've even been contacted about setting up our next internship which will take place in the fall. I'm hoping for an operating room or emergency department placement. For now though, it's back to this paper. I'm tired.

pee.you.

My new commute consists of taking public transportation for about an hour. I love it. It's become my "free" time where i get to read fun books (aka- not school related). I've already read three; unaccustomed earth, three cups of tea, and a map of the child (which was really a school book, but a fantastic read non-the-less). I used to get rather anxious being on the T with lots of people squished in, and wouldn't sit down if it meant touching people on either side of me. I've grown a lot since then, and now am thrilled to get any seat at the end of the day regardless of who i'm squished between. Recently though, i've been stuck with smokers. They seem to flock to me- sitting in front of me on the bus, plopping next to me on the T- and every time i catch a whiff, i want to throw up. I don't get why people still smoke now-a-days. It's so passe and everyone knows it'll kill you. I vote for separate substandard T cars that all the smelly people have to use. I don't need their stinkiness to rub off on me. Blah. 

productive.

I have a paper due friday, and since i'll be working all week, this weekend was my time to get it done. Did this happen? No. Saturday was very productive, in a non-school way. I picked andrea up at 9am and we drove downtown for a haymarket trip. Mike's pastries came first, of course, but the sad news is that they'd run out of their rock candy sugar stirrers. I rarely add sugar to my lattes, but look forward to doing so at mike's. Alas, i survived, and gathered up my fruits and veggies for the coming weeks. I also restocked my spice cabinet at the middle eastern store. I found i like their curry better, and at $2 a bag (which fills a whole foods spice jar 2-3 times) you can't go wrong. I bought two bags of ground cloves and one bag ground ginger for my mom so she can make lots and lots of good luck cookies. Tasty.

Then it was on to building 19. This store has the potential to scare the crap out of me, but at times can be a treasure chest. A few years back, a. and i picked up some cheap temporary rugs there and when andrea mentioned needing one, i suggested this place. Not only did she pick up a very nicely priced oriental for under her new dining room table, but i grabbed a few 18"rug squares (think flor tiles) at $1.99 a piece to duct tape together and use as a large door mat. Treasure chest it was.

After a quick stop at the fabric store, i dropped andrea off at her place. Since she had an assortment of purchases, i helped her carry them up. One thing led to another, and the next thing i knew, we were ripping up her bathroom floor. She'd been talking about laying a new one over the existing tiles, but i convinced her that it wouldn't work. Too many loose tiles and too uneven. It took us an hour and was the most satisfying work i've done in a while. The best news? The original floor (which was buried under the boring one) was adorable, and is in impressively good shape. One section will need some work, but the rest of it looks great. 

Today consisted of morning bookclub, a call home, and working on lots of non-paper related school work. The good news is that i'm done with everything else for a while and will just have this paper to focus on. I guess i'll have some late nights this coming week.