Today was rewarding. 

Today was the first day of the winter session of my mentoring program. Of course, no firsts fails to come with it’s doses of stress here and there, especially when it deals with mentees who don’t show up or parents who get lost, but today, despite it being pretty much as normal as any mentoring day could go, I felt really satisfied, proud, happy of what I’m doing. I’m so blessed that I am privileged enough to have possibly made a difference in someone’s life,

Note to self. I should learn by now that NOTHING every goes as planned. Perhaps I should just take to a more spontaneous lifestyle.

medicalstate:

Brainstem from Pinky and the Brain.

This was definitely one of the highlights of today’s plenary. A shot of nostalgia infused with a concentrated dose of neuroanatomy. The other highlight of course was examining and working with brains and brain sections, beginning our long and arduous journey of learning about the brain and our behaviour.

HAHA oh the memories.

sweetupndown:

you thought I didn’t really notice. But I did. I wanted to high-five you.

Yesterday I had a pair of brothers in my store. One was maybe between 15-17. He was a wrestler at the local high school. Kind of tall, stocky and handsome. He had a younger brother, who was maybe about…

OMG CUTIES

(via foolishbeliever)

foolishbeliever:

(via greenlover)

myidealhome:

• door converted into coffee-table

ucsdhealthsciences:

Thinking about drinking

A new study out of Harvard Medical School, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, raises new questions about how much alcohol consumption increases the risk of breast cancer.

As in previous studies, the Harvard researchers found that women who consumed two or more drinks per day were 51 percent more likely to develop breast cancer in their lifetime than women who didn’t consume alcohol at all. What’s grabbing headlines is the authors’ analysis that even light drinking – three to six glasses of wine per week – could boost a woman’s lifetime risk of breast cancer by 15 percent.

Clearly, if the findings hold up, any level of alcohol consumption appears to be a risk factor for breast cancer. Does this mean women should abstain from drinking entirely? There is no simple answer. Clarity remains harder to find than a good claret.

On average, one in 8 American women will develop breast cancer over their lifetimes. That’s the baseline risk. Numerous other elements impact that number. Aging is major risk factor. Two out of every three invasive breast cancers are found in women 55 years and older. Genetic predisposition is another. Women who have inherited certain mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes have a fivefold increased risk, and changes in other genes have been implicated. Ethnicity, tissue density, menstrual history and other particulars also play a role. You can read a fuller list here.

What’s so confounding about effects of alcohol consumption, though, is that it also seems to provide some measurable health benefits. Moderate alcohol drinking has been shown to raise levels of HDL, the good cholesterol, and other substances that promote cardiovascular health. It’s also been linked to a decrease in middle-aged and older adults. And in 2008, researchers at UC San Diego challenged conventional thinking that alcohol consumption was bad for the liver with a study that found modest consumption (one glass of wine a day) might actually decrease the prevalence of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

So what’s the answer? Right now, it seems the best course is to individually weigh the trade-offs. Cardiovascular disease is far more prevalent than breast cancer, so maybe the heart health benefits of modest alcohol consumption outweigh the small increased risk of breast cancer. On the other hand, a woman with known, elevated cancer risk probably should shun drinking altogether.

It remains a personal decision, one best made after serious, sober consideration.

My mom refuses to drink alcohol. Perhaps she has a point, but just as this article concludes, ya gotta weigh the risks and consider how clearly this study actually points us in an appropriate direction.

I can’t wait for Christmas…

for the Pumpkin Lattes

for the lights donning the christmas tree at every night

for “let it snow” 

for blasting the heater in the car

for getting “silent night” stuck in my head

for buying new mittens, even though you rarely use them

for waking up to the smell of coffee and cake

for being home and with family at last

for thinking of what to buy mom and dad

for the crowded malls of kids and laughter, families and happiness

for the pictures and memories

for sitting around the tree that early morning

for sleeping in til 10

for caroling on the sidewalk with your guitar, money for charity

for seeing friends you haven’t seen in a year

for the best time in the year.

Due to a horrible dose of allergies/hay fever yesterday and now with a throbbing earache that incurs sharp pains when I choose to lay down. This sucks. 

This weekend was a whirlwind of crazies. Friday night I went out to my first party lol, but it was fun of course, a short stay of about 2 and a half hours playing beer pong, meeting new friends, and people watching. I’m glad I didn’t drink much (I only had a beer), considering I knew that I had to arise from my comfy bed at 6am the following morning for my CCE orientation.

7am to 6pm orientation. Now that’s crazies. Despite it being physically and mentally draining, I felt like it consisted of incredibly useful information regarding how to interact with patients and skills such as how to feed, ambulate, take vitals, bathe, transfer them from bed to gurney and from bed to wheelchair, and proper safety measures with regards to keeping myself safe when working in the hospital. Of course, before I learned all of this, I was slightly nervous. There have been multiple times at UCSD Thornton’s ED that I absolutely was lost in what I should and should not do. Honestly, PPH is smart to invest effort to training their volunteers because most of us wholeheartedly want to contribute our time and efforts to helping—so props to them making the most of our willingness! 

Sunday was unfortunate as an allergy attack struck. I have to mention that it was a ridiculous case of it, and I eventually persuaded myself to take benedryl to knock myself out. The attack was so bad that I woke up multiple times during the night cringing from the earache I developed and currently it’s still ringing in my right ear. I hope it goes away soon.

Everything is picking up for me here at school. We’re forming new programs in my autism organization and want to plan a week of events during April as it is autism awareness month. We’re going to try to turn this tree in front of our library BLUE by hanging blue lights on it all week. :D now that’ll be cool. Interaxon has school visits coming up so we’re also busy prepping for those, as well as finalizing relations with the Brain Observatory where I used to work. Should be exciting! The rest of the quarter will be a flush of preparing to volunteer as a CCE in Escondido, cracking down on studying for the MCATS, keeping up with school, and just having fun. This year, as senior year is meant to, is fanning out as better than I expected—busy, and yet not too crazy such that I’m still able to have a social life :)

In school…

On the internet

HAHAHAHAHAA So sad because it’s so true

(via thatfunnyblog)