Reminiscing in Redding

Over the summer, my friend Erin's family loaded me up with all sorts of goodies from their garden in Bethel, CT. I would come home with boxes filled with fresh lettuces (which apparently they harvested until December!), cucumbers, peppers, herbs, squash, tomatoes, pickles and stewed veggies in tomato sauce which were a killer starter for veggie chili! Above is just one of the many salads I made with all those veggies. Today we finally returned their mason jars stuffed with homemade french toast (left) and frittata (right). Nothing like garden fresh and homemade food :)

Erin and I pulled out the old high school yearbooks today and were amazed by how some people changed so much over the last 15 years, and other things have changed so little!  Erin has become an incredible jeweler - check out her beautiful stuff online here, visit her next weekend in Windsor, CT at the Get Baked bakery pop-up market, or find her jewels at Ally Bally Bee in Ridgefield, CT! 

Year of the Monkey

We are very fortunate to have a happy and healthy growing baby!  Here's a peek at the ultrasound from yesterday. She kept covering her eyes and smiling, and the MFM was even able to snag a pic of her yawning. 

According to this article from Bloomberg.com (here) "those born in the year of the monkey are crafty, clever and charming." The year of the monkey starts Feb 8th and a baby boom is expected in China! Our little monkey will be in good company.

What's your Chinese zodiac?  Find out here

I'm a dog, David's a rooster, Rachel is a goat, and Jill is the prized dragon! 

Banana pancakes

This is the first time since August that I don't have AirBnb reservations lined up! 4th year of medical school has brought me to DC/Maryland, Chicago, Florida and now NYC which means I finally get to move back home. 

It's so good to be home!!

Mosquitos and Zika virus

For two years while in Grenada I tried to escape Aedes mosquito bites, the mosquito which transmits Dengue fever and the now-devastating Zika virus (and many others).  This mosquito is a day biter, making it especially hard to avoid their bites because wearing long pants and long sleeves in the blazing Caribbean heat is just not practical and jumping in the bath-like beaches (or drowning in sweat from the heat #thingsidontmiss) washes away any insect repellant. Anyways, I remember a few of those darn skeeters biting me right through jeans and me often wishing that Grenada had done more in terms of mosquito control.

During medical school we learned from our Parasitology professor that historically African and Caribbean countries alike would invest in vector (disease transmitting species) control programs during outbreaks of disease, but then when disease burden diminished, the vector control programs were dropped only to allow the mosquitos or tsetse flies or whatever the species was come back again. Then the cycle started again - the disease came back - people died, tourism tanked - and the control programs went back in effect...

Now with the Zika virus "spreading explosively" we are reminded again of the importance of vector control and we are also reminded that infectious disease issues of countries outside of our own country are our problem too in this highly mobile world.  I was perusing what the costs of mosquito control might be and stumbled on this great summary of the importance of vector control published by Dr. Goddard from the state of Mississippi Dept of Health (here) in case anyone is interested.

Where can I buy maternity scrubs?

I survived the DC blizzard...but not without the amazing hospitality of some friends who took me in for the duration of the storm!  I was happy to get back into scrubs today and head back into the OR for my favorite rotation of medical school - gynecologic oncology with my favorite surgeon and PA duo.  I was especially glad to find that Starbucks was open for my daily espresso shot and then to be greeted at the hospital by a beautiful sunrise. 

As a preggers med student I am faced with a new challenge - tying the scrub bottoms.  I've already surrendered to the fact that the small scrubs are just too small now.  But while I was on the interview trail I was made aware of another potential problem: scrubs falling down during surgery. The story goes that a preggers surgeon was struggling with the same thing, how to tie the scrub bottoms on tight enough when there's a baby belly in the way, and one day her scrub bottoms just slipped off during surgery. Adios pantalones! Scrubbed in, she couldn't pull them up herself, so the male med student who wasn't scrubbed in was asked to pick up her pants from below her sterile gown. I can't even imagine! What I learned from that story: tie the pants tight...and wear cute undies just in case :D