4/10/01

I haven't written, I haven't answered my e-mail, I haven't done much of anything except try to write my thesis proposal and a lot of running.

This weekend was a bit more exciting. Saturday I went running along the beach and it was so windy my nostrils dried out and I felt like I couldn't breathe. Apparently I didn't learn my lesson, because I went running along the beach again today, with Andy this time. It was just as windy today as it was over the weekend, but the sand was drier today, so the wind was pelting me with sand which stuck to the sunblock on my skin, and then after I took a shower my tub had a huge pile of sand in it. There's still sand in my ears, too, I can feel it.

Anyway, getting back to this weekend, I think I also finished my taxes on Saturday, and started reading Robert Sapolsky's new book A Primate's Memoir, which deals with his time spent studying baboons in the wild in Africa. It was an engrossing read for an armchair primatologist like me--I love the idea of traveling to Africa and studying free-living primates, but I could never handle the whole living-in-a-tent-and-drinking-cow's-blood-with-the-Masai thing. I'm a wuss. Anyway, the book is excellent! I was glued to it all weekend, and couldn't put it down until I finished it this morning. As a result, this was not my most productive weekend ever, but at least I was well-rested on Monday.

And I went bowling on Saturday night for the second time ever. The first time was a couple of years ago when I went with my mom and my sisters while we were on vacation on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and there wasn't anything else to do. I think I actually won that time, but I don't really remember it very well--the only thing I remember is that they told us we didn't have to wear socks with our bowling shoes, because it was hot out and we'd all been wearing sandals. So, we went sockless, but I was convinced that I would contract some horrid foot disease from the shoes.

This time, I had socks on, but I was the worst bowler in our group for the first hour or so, until some other friends showed up, and one of them was worse than me. In fact, she was so bad that I wasn't sure her ball was going to make it to the end of the lane a couple of times. She finally switched over to a two-handed strategy towards the end, and that worked a bit better for her, but she was still even worse than me.

The weird thing about this bowling place, though, was that they weren't serving beer! They had a little restaurant there that sold it, but I guess it's only open during the day, so we were stuck with vending machine fare. Also, it had this fancy computerized scoring setup, which only kind of worked and kept cheating me out of turns, and the balls kept getting stuck in the little ball-returning thingy, but we were all just goofing around anyway, so it didn't matter.

Sunday morning, I called my parents like I always do. My dad wasn't around, but I talked to my mom and my sister and learned that my sister is also coming out to visit when my mom does on Thursday. It's going to be awfully cozy with 3 people staying in my studio apartment, but it's actually a very good thing, because now I won't feel guilty about going to work and leaving my mom by herself so much. And, of course, I haven't seen my sister since Christmas, so that'll be good, too.

I've spent much of my free time this week getting ready for their visit. I've done laundry, gone grocery shopping, straightened up a bit, although I still have some serious cleaning to do. I nearly burst out laughing when I read that Jen Bombpop had described me as "organized and clean", because little does she know that I just stuff all my crud in my closets whenever anyone comes over to visit! Also, I was a very messy child and got a lot of grief for it from my entire extended family, so I will forever think of myself as a messy person, although I guess I'm not really so much anymore. But still, my closets are a disaster...I think closets are the true test of organization. You know who has the most beautiful closets I've ever seen? Eleanor! Her closets look like something out of the Hold Everything catalog, with little plastic zippered bags for all her sweaters and stuff. I'll never be like that, but I figure I should at least scrub my toilet before my guests show up.

So, after an utterly unproductive weekend, I've been having a pretty productive week so far. I've made a lot of progress in my proposal writing, and I even went in for my annual gynecologic and opthamologic exams (the exams were totally separate, in case that wasn't clear). My eye exam was today, and it wasn't actually an "annual" exam, because I haven't been to the eye doctor in more than two years, but my contact lens prescription was running out, so I finally broke down and went. I never would have gone otherwise because for one thing I don't have vision insurance, and for another thing, I didn't feel like my vision had gotten any worse since the last time I went in. And, as it turns out, I was right--I am exactly as nearsighted as I was two years ago, and my astigmatism is actually less bad than it was then, which I don't understand, but the doctor said it was normal for astigmatism to fluctuate a little bit.

My gyn exam didn't go so smoothly. It started out OK--the nurse called me in to weigh me and take my blood pressure. All this running has gotten me in just about the best shape I've ever been in, and the nurse complimented me on my low blood pressure, and told me "OK, I hate you!" as she wrote down my weight. I sat back down and waited for the doctor, who called me in a few minutes later. I'd known that the doctor would be a male (I'd never had a male gynecologist before, but hey, I'm not sexist!) and that he was a third-year resident, but what I didn't know was that he was a general medicine resident just doing a rotation through the student health clinic, and I think this must have been his first day there, because he was visibly nervous.

Even so, I was OK with it, because I wanted to do my part to advance the cause of medical education! The doctor took my medical history, which was kind of silly because I'd just written it all down on a little form before my appointment, so it was just basically him reading stuff off the sheet. "So your father has Type I diabetes?" "Yup." "And your grandmother had a stroke?" "Yup." Blah, blah, blah...

Anyway, then he left the room and told me to change into the paper gown which was meant for someone three times my size. When he returned, he was accompanied by another doctor, a woman, who introduced herself and told me she was there "for moral support." My doctor did indeed look like he was in need of some moral support, and I felt sorry for him. However, my sympathy for him waned somewhat when he inserted the speculum, and I felt excruciating pain. Now, I've frequently heard other women describe pap smears as being uncomfortable, but I'd never really thought they were a big deal. But lying there on the table, I was in agony. I probably should have said something, except I thought that maybe it had always been this painful and I'd just forgotten, and also, I felt kind of bad about critiquing the guy's speculum technique when he was clearly so nervous.

So, I was gritting my teeth and staring at a spot on the ceiling and taking deep breaths and feeling my face turn red from the adrenaline when the female doctor told the guy that the speculum wasn't in the right place. I was quite relieved to hear that the speculum would be moved...but then he moved it and it felt even more painful than before!

I was finally on the verge of speaking up when the female doctor took matters into her own hands and told the guy doctor to step aside and let her demonstrate. She slid that sucker right in there, and I could barely feel a thing! It was amazing! She then went on to do a perfectly painless pap smear. Both doctors thanked me profusely for being patient--I didn't really mind, because I felt bad for the guy--I'd be scared if I had to give someone a pap smear, too, and I probably have a lot more experience with them than that guy did! But if you have a low pain tolerance, I don't recommend volunteering to be someone's first pap smear patient.

Other than that, the week has been pretty quiet so far. Tomorrow I'm going to a student reception at the UCSF chancellor's house. I think it's going to be a pretty swanky affair, so I'm looking forward to scoring some free food and drink and hanging out with my friends for a couple of hours. Then on Thursday, my mom and sister are coming, so I'll probably be pretty busy after that.

In the forum: Medical ineptitude.