Change is in the Air Again!

Okay, although I am totally overwhelmed, I need to write. So much has happened this month. Much of it has been very, very good and exciting. A lot of it is scary. And no, I'm not pregnant.

Basically, next month is the culmination of the research year. Some of you have already heard that my molecular biology project was going really slowly. However, the fellowship I'm on expects us to have a finished, completed project that we did ourselves at the end of the year. So around December/January, I panicked a little bit and tried to think of something I could do that piqued my interests, aligned with my abilities, and was feasible in a condensed time frame if I worked hard. The project I came up with looked at predictors of refractory disease in rheumatoid arthritis patients, which I was totally psyched about because it was clinical, had statistics, and dealt with both medicine and health disparities/epidemiology.

I've basically been working every day for a long time on this project, and I finally have results! I love my data. But they are alarming, showing differences in outcomes based on level of education when adjusted for medication use and other factors. I am beyond excited that it looks like we have some interesting data. I just sent the dataset to my mentor, so I'm just crossing my fingers that she doesn't run my numbers and get something totally different. That would be a minor tragedy. My big boss I think was a little skeptical at first, but she seemed pleased at my lab meeting today and had some great ideas for what to do next.

So next week I have to somehow do the following: Finish and practice my talk, actually do the 10-minute talk for a symposium, present my poster, finish my resume and personal summary form for the Dean's office to kickstart the residency application process, go to a 2-hour evening journal club (which curtails my ability to speak with my husband on the East Coast, sadness), finish additional data analysis for my presentation, work on a different poster for a different project I've been doing on the side, and pack for a 3-day conference the week after that. Oh, and remember to give my little boss a birthday present. Actually, when I write it all down it doesn't feel so bad anymore. Thank you, therapeutic blogging. I was sad to miss meeting up with my Auntie from India, who was only in town tonight, due to a confluence of work-related and traffic-related factors. But she got to hang out with my dad (she's dad's brother's wife).

In the next month, I have to finish all my research because then I'm back on the wards! Here's my 4th year clinical schedule:

2 weeks of adult pulmonary medicine
4 weeks of neonatal intensive care nursery
4 weeks of child neurology
4 weeks of pediatric genetics
4 weeks of child rheumatology
4 weeks of adult internal medicine
4 weeks for residency interviews + some vacation time (or time to mourn lack of interviews!)
4 weeks of To Be Determined + some vacation time
4 weeks pediatric infectious disease
4 weeks of end of year required curriculum

I am so excited about this. If I do apply in child neurology, I'd like to fit in some adult neurology somewhere. So little time, so much to learn. Many of my old classmates are graduating soon. I'm a little sad when I think of it, but I'm very, very glad that I took a research year. Although I've been in medical school so long (6 years next year!) that when I graduate, it will be quite a shock to my system. If I had gone straight through, which is a big if, I could have been a 2nd-year resident by now. Then again, hopefully the added maturity will be a good thing when I have an MD behind my hybrid name. I should blog about changing my name. Anyhow, I am also nervous/excited because I finally was able to arrange a meeting with the child neurology department chair, whom everyone literally raves about (Pediatric department chair: "I'd trust her with my life...in fact, I have").

In fun news, I'm also doing Bay to Breakers! So are three people from my lab, one of my old friends who is coming in from out of town, and B. I'm so pleased B agreed to be my running buddy. He usually tries to do shorter distances because he needs to be able to sprint for Ultimate, but he was really nice about the 12K. I'm told the entire first half of the race is uphill. Ick. But then, I was also told that it's so crowded that you are forced to walk at points.

For those who asked, B is doing well. He and the other employees got to take a big group photo with The Boss of the House that Shall Not Be Named. Pretty snazzy.

And, just in case you were wondering about my political views, you heard it here first:
Keep your MITTens off my kittens. No more drama. Vote Obama.