Knitting Class 2!

It is amazing how much life changes once I'm back in the hospital again. Yuck!! But that is another story. Posting this blog entry to change my blah mood.

I had my second class this past Friday. They teach a lot of things in 2 hours. The first class I had learned one type of stitch - the knit stitch. This week I learned the purl. The basis of knitting is these two stitches. And basically it depends on how you use these two to get different types of fabrics. For those of you that have never knit before...you basically can alternate or do one of these stitches and create a different pattern to make a piece of cloth. If you guys look at any of your sweaters - they are all basically knit and you will see different patterns.

I started the scarf that I will be making. Thought I would show you guys my progress. Raj and I were trying to be artistic with the pictures but they just ended up dark. Oops. I am using a ribbed knitting fabric which means I knit 2 and I purl 2 and it creates this funky pattern!

Raj suggested I add a life lesson to each blog. I liked the suggestion :)

Life Lesson: You can do more with your hands than just type :) Like make a scarf!

Reflections on the jail

I am ending my rotation at the Cermak Health Center - affiliated with Cook County Jail. Tomorrow is my last day. :( I wanted to do a quick reflection to clear my thoughts in my head and simply share.

It was a really good month. If residency was like this the entire time...wow how amazing would that be. I loved that I was a balanced person in life. I've realized I really love balance. I want to be able to determine how I spend my time and allocate a little bit of time to all of the things I'm passionate about. At work...I loved what I did. I learned so much this month. I was really glad to learn a lot more about HIV and feel so much more comfortable in taking care of patients with the disease. I think there is so much to learn about each patient with HIV. Even asking the simple, yet so personal, question on how one got the virus has led to so many glimpses of people's lives. Some have said a partner gave it to them unknowingly, some say drug use, some say they don't know. Each person takes the news differently and is in various forms of acceptance/understanding of the disease. There is a huge correlation to people of color and in general people that lead "riskier" lives having a higher chance of having HIV. There is a definite disparity in access to care that exists as well. It ties in all aspects of life. In general, all health care should tie in all aspects of life but this disease especially, you have to look at everything all the time. I found out about this program called MATEC from one of the attendings that I am going to look into. Its a series of lectures, conferences and practical information and at the end of it, you get a license saying you can practice HIV in your clinic. At Rush, I don't get the best exposure to HIV patients in general. At Monte, definitely got a lot more. This program if it pans out would be good learning.

I also finished my Bupe training. Finally! For those that don't know, buperenorphine, is an alternative to methadone. It is basically meant for those people that are addicted to heroin or any sort of opioid substance such as prescription pain pills. I first started getting involved with addiction medicine at Monte working with a harm reduction organization called Washington Heights Corner Project. I got to learn about what addiction means, see people that the "heroin addicts" but learned so much more about them then just the label. I could get into a lot of detail on this but maybe some other time. Buprenorphine helps people that want to quit heroin or their addiction to pain pills and does it in a less stigmatic way. It puts people more in control and allows them to be treated in the office instead of an organization that dispenses methadone on a day by day basis. You need to have a special license to prescribe it and it took a little over a year for me to finish a stupid 8 hour online course. But it is finally done! I got another connection at the jail to possibly work with this other doctor at the CORE center and actually practice prescribing the medicine and working with people that want to quit.

All in all, I just felt like I was with like minded people again this month and it helps my perspective so much. At Rush, sometimes I feel like I'm drowning in subspecialty, fellowship driven medicine and I want to scream out at the top of my lungs. While there were definitely people at the jail that saw people as "criminals" and nothing more...for the most part people cared and just wanted to work with people. I got to network and have 2 things that I can continue to pursue. Especially now that the end of residency is in sight..(basically 1 year and 1 month!!!!), I have been thinking about next steps a lot. I want to continue to work with the community, I want to continue to build relationships and go deeper. Its hard to do while in residency. This month has made me realize I really like HIV. And then the long term picture would be how can I integrate holistic health in all of these subtopics of medicine. How can we take a step back from all the disease labels and look at a person as a whole and make connections to live happier, healthier lives?

Some final thoughts...I am apprehensive about this next rotation. It is infectious disease which I've always found interesting but it is in the setting of the hospital that always brings me down. My balance will be taken from me and I never do well with that. Who knows how much I will be blogging. I am thankful for these months because they are always a breath of fresh air. I had one last ah ha moment but its slipped my mind. Till next time! Would love to hear people's thoughts! Or any other suggestions for next steps.

Kettle Moraine State Park

Blogspot is really annoying in its formatting. It doesn't allow pictures to go where you want them to. So I thought I would only do pictures on this post but I think this one is ok. Maybe. A bunch of us went to Kettle Moraine State Park today! The weather was BEAUTIFUL!!!!! It was so nice to get out of the city and in nature. This is one of Raj and I's FAVORITE activities. Whenever we have some time...we get in the car and pick a pretty state park. I think in the span of our relationship, we must have gone to over 10-15 state parks across the country. We've been to places all over California, New York, Illinois, and Wisconsin. We love looking for little critters. Today's was a garden snake that Raj almost stepped on. We had great company. Met some of Shilpa's friends as well. All in all just a great way to spend the day.

Knitting - Class 1 :)

When I ended this year's India trip, I had come up with a fool proof plan for myself. This plan was basically just a list of the things I look forward to in life and a source to turn to when residency affects me more so than normal and affects my ability to stay sane. One of the things listed was to work with my hands more in general. We had the opportunity in India and I was inspired by Chaiti and her ability to make so many crafts with her hands. She had knitted us some hats for our wedding and was working on a variety of projects during and after the trip. It inspired me to learn knitting as well! So I've signed up for a class that will take place 5 times for the next 5 Friday's! It started tonight. They include the starting materials and we'll learn how to make a scarf and a hat. I have partially learned in an attempt to make a blanket for my nephew. While I didn't do anything with his blanket, I did start to learn the basic process.

The class was really informative for the first one. There was only one other student and one teacher so a small, personal setting. We learned how to cast on with a long tail cast on and we learned how to do the knit stitch. I think the coolest part is my mom attempted to show me and I was so confused. Had no idea when I messed up or just didn't understand the basics. But now that someone has explained it to me, it is so GREAT. This class is really going to set a foundation for future projects. I've gotten some requests already - socks from Farah. :) And I want to make a lot of gifts for Ishan. Some pictures of the first class and the practice knitting. The hat and the scarf are what we're making. The blue yarn is what I picked. And then some practice and some other randoms.

Ishan!!!!

This past weekend I spent 4 lovely days in the Bay area. The primary purpose of the trip was the spend lots and lots of time with my adorable little nephew, Ishan. Then obviously the rest was to spend time with my growing family/friends. The random thought that popped into my head is that it is crazy that my world has expanded so much after meeting/marrying Raj. I have gained a sister, brother, new set of parents and loads and loads of cousins/friends. And now this
latest addition, my first immediate nephew. (many cousins babies but this is the first direct). And oh is he precious. He lights up my world completely. One smile and I melt. Do you know that he wakes up each morning so excited to start his day. He is literally giddy to start crawling and moving and laughing. He'll sit in bed with you and crawl towards you with the CUTEST smile. (at this point you are supposed to not be reacting to him so he goes back to sleep...but so hard to do..i have to turn around to keep myself from smiling back). I've watched him grow up and it is fascinating to see him take in the world. Discovering his hands, learning to crawl, grabbing food...the things we all take for granted but we forget we learned these moves. It is the funniest thing watching him crawl over a bed...boy has no depth perception, no fear and will go right off a bed if you don't watch him. If we all still had that fearlessness. (not to fall flat on our face but to have the guts to try anything.) It was a GREAT weekend. Missed my husband :( But got to see a lot of people that I hadn't seen in a while. And much more calm then a wedding weekend. Major quality time. Smiles all around thinking of it. Thanks to Ami(r), Mom, Dad, Mom's cousins, Sunil, Pooja, Sushil, Kev, Priya, Biggie....the list goes on for an AWESOME weekend. :)

Also check out some other pictures from the weekend.

Farah and Taham's Wedding Week

It was one of my best friend's wedding this past week. Farah and I have basically grown up together. We initially met in high school and have been close since. This past week was spent being part of her big wedding day. She married an awesome human being (Taham) who is absolutely perfect for her and the whole thing just makes me smile. It was a blessing to be part of their day. Unfortunately, I missed another wedding (Sam and Payal's) who are also dear friends. Raj and I wanted to be at both but because both took place on the same day, we chose to split to represent both weddings individually.

The whole wedding week was beautiful and Farah was stunningly beautiful throughout. :) We all couldn't stop staring :) Tons of Masallah's being spoken throughout. I think my favorite parts included getting to have mendhi put on, getting to be Farah's chauffeur (great bonding moments), and all in all just being part of it. Everything was organized perfectly. They had the band Funkadesi playing and it was great to see such a diverse group of people creating music together. Thank you guys for letting me be a part of your big day, for being such gracious hosts, and Farah for being an AMAZING friend all these years. Taham, welcome to the family!!!














Final thought...I've realized I truly love Pakistani culture. This was my first Muslim wedding and I find it amazing to see the grace that exists. There are obviously so many things that are similar to Indian culture - the language, the rituals. But there is also this extra grace/poise/poetic nature that was present. I don't know if I'm making sense but I felt something that was just nice to be a part of. Then part of me always thinks about the tensions that exist between Pakistan and India and if only we could all realize that we have so much more in common then different.

I thought the above was the final thought, but to throw a shout out for Sam and Payal, I want to include an amazing video that their video people put together by the time of the reception. So sad I wasn't there guys but can't wait to visit both couples (they're both going to be in Boston) soon!

Sameer + Payal SDE from Avec Lumiere Productions on Vimeo.