Plans...

So, I've been plotting some of my favorite things...

futures!

I've been making plans for the next year, and I'm dreaming big these days.
I thought I would go ahead and scatter these confetti dreams to the 4 internetchi winds,
because once they're out there in the ethers,
they're hard to take back.

So what am I planning?

Well, I've been toying with the idea of taking a year off of medical school for a while,
but now I'm starting to set the wheels in motion.

I want to live in this:



Learn how to do this:


And practice some of this abroad:


I want to decipher what I need to learn in my last year of medical school by practicing medicine in its bare bones form, free from grades and malpractice fears and healthcare reform debates.

I want to learn the practical skills I'll need to create the sustainable life I want to live. Growing food, natural building, community planning.

And I want to live a beautiful and free nomadic life.

In order to shimmy my life down its little path,
I've been brainstorming some changes and schemes to support this year 'off'.
Methods that fit with both my schedule (haha, oh man) and values.

So, things to look for:

1. Blog Update
This blog has mainly been an outlet for me and a way to keep in touch with my family (Hi Mom! I'll teach you how to comment soon!) and friends (Hi Kathleen! Thanks for commenting!),
but I think I want to focus it a wee bit more on three of my passions:

Design Sustainability MEDICINE

And all the places where they intersect.
If those places exist...


2. An Etsy Store
Since I'll be downsizing into a trailer for the foreseeable future,
I'll have to part with many of my flea market treasures
and vintage store steals.
Lucky you guys!

3. Art
I have thousands upon thousands of photos
(just ask my hard drive that is about to run out of room),
so within those thousands,
there are bound to be a few winners.
I just need to figure out a way to sell them?
Also, little know fact:
I've been keeping a list of ideas for artwork for quite sometime.
I just haven't attempted to make or sell any of said ideas, because,
well,
the thought of putting myself out there with art
makes me
a bajillion times more uncomfortable
than performing a rectal exam.
Weird? Probably.
True? Definitely.

So, now that that's all out there...
I guess I have to make some of it happen!

I took the first step today and opened a savings account.
All before the age of 30.
Look who's got her big girl pants on now!

If you have any suggestions to help me get there,
there will always be a spot for you in an airstream trailer.

------------------------------------
"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it."
-Goethe

eeks, I don't know where I got these images.

I heard a cardiologist
talking to a group of residents
about treating patients with congestive heart failure,
and she talked about how
sometimes even when we try all the treatments and drugs we have in modern medicine
some people
are at a stage beyond our help.

With congestive heart failure,
you get fatigue, swelling in your legs, and fluid starts to back up into your lungs making you short of breath.
It's also usually found with a constellation of
other health problems.

"I have one patient,"
the cardiologist, a doctor of the heart, said,
"We'd tried all the drugs, and she would still come in crying about her symptoms every time.
Then she discovered this "healer".
And let me tell you, we're in the wrong business,
because this guy does "ceremonies"
with her
and he charges hundreds of dollars a session!"
She cackled at the absurdity.

"But," she continued, "the patient has never been happier. Nothing has changed in her physiology, but she claims she feels a lot better."

And all I could think,
as the residents laughed at this woman gaining some peace from a "placebo effect", was

"Aren't we supposed to be healers??"

We've been told over and over again in medical school to treat the person, not just the disease.

And yet,
the prevailing culture in medicine is still
treat the physiology.
It doesn't matter if the patient is crying in your office every visit.

Don't get me wrong.
I'm not saying I'm there.
My "practicing of medicine" in this clerkship year of medical school,
mostly just involves
trying to remember the right questions to ask so my attending won't yell at me when I tell them about the patient.
But I hope one day
to be more like that "healer"
and less like that cardiologist.

-----------------------------------------------------------
"It's not one thing that takes away pain.
Sometimes it's herbs. Sometimes it is having someone take your hand.
Sometimes it is telling somebody something wrong you have done and letting them take the weight of it away from you."
-Juniper, Monica Furlong

"The fact that people were attentive to his body
does not compensate for their ignoring his being."
-Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese