D-Day

Finally figured everything out with the doctors and as of this coming Thursday I'll be tumor free (fingers crossed). I'm still in the process of seeing other doctors about my other problems, but I'll be glad when this part of the whole ordeal is done.

Hopefully the surgery doesn't change my boobie size, I would hate to be left unbalanced.

mamma mia

Ciao tutti,




As you all know, I started school last week. What an epic adventure my summer was and it was the last one before I go off into the real world. How sad!



But, anyways. On a slight side note the tumor was not cancerous, but sometime soon I'll be making the appointment to get it removed. It can still grow, turn into clusters and continue to make my life sad. I am also going to go to another doctor to get a 4th opinion to figure out whats the cause of my other problems. I do not understand how doctors think saying "hmm thats interesting, I don't know whats wrong" is an acceptable answer. Anyways..



SCHOOL:



So its only been a week and I am already ridiculously busy, its disgusting. I have started back at my internship and hippo. I work between 26 to 32 hours a week (yes, I know I am crazy). And my classes are fantastic.

Italian: First time I've had a male teach me a language before and more importantly he is from Long Island. The man is ridiculous and is actually a legit teacher.

PSC: This is a political policy class and to be honest, I have no idea whats going on. I mean, I understand the topics, but it just doesn't interest me.

History: This class fits both into both my minor and major. Its a class on Race, Medicine and Public Health: African Americans. The class requires tons of readings, but is super interesting. The teacher is extremely knowledgeable and the information is extremely relevant.

AIDS: I am taking one grad class and it is called: Biology of HIV/AIDS. Now, this class requires the most work, but is the most interesting. Did you know that you can't test a baby born to a mother with HIV until it is 3 months old because it still has its mothers antibodies till than? Anyways, as everyone is extremely aware science is normally not to my liking, however this class is just beyond interesting. I even find learning about DNA, RNA, nucleotides and all of those other fun words extremely interesting. But don't get me wrong, I am scared sh*tless of this class. There are only 3 other students in this class....One of them is a PhD student. O.o

Public Health: My last class is this Global Public Health class taught by this man who has worked all over the world and for organizations like WHO and such. This class will be good, I am thinking it will be one of my easier classes, because I sort of know about global public health already haha. However, whats interesting about him, is that someone who works for AHMC knows him and his son. I think this should mean I get an A no matter what type of work I put in, rightttt



As for my new dorm situation. AMAZING. 2 rooms, 2 bathrooms, common room and kitchen. Its better then all my previous dorm spaces. My roommates are also ridiculous. The other day my roommate came home from a costume clothes sale and brought home old aprons. The whole concept of me attempting to cook, be domestic and a typical 50's housewife just got even better! We also all have different schedules and activities which makes having alone time easy. And we all are ridiculously busy, one day I'll learn to sit still.



But besides doing all this work I am having fun. I went to eastern market for the first time and fell in love with it. It is an absolutely magical place. I've also gotten to hang out with people in my fraternity a lot more recently, I loves them. Now that Leah and I are living together, theater people are always around. The conversations that occur and the topics that are covered are ridiculous. I thought I was funny, but really I'm far from it. The biggest shocker was when I came home and found navy uniforms sprawled throughout my bedroom and common room. While I was at work 11 people from the navel academy had stopped by and changed into their civilian clothes. I won't lie, I was disappointed to not witness all the gentlemen in their white uniforms, however I was home when they came back!





And lastly, I am no longer a blondie, I've switched it up a bit and turned into a brunette.

I think I've developed a fear of needles...

Update: I’m all done with the procedure and it will take a few days for them to get back to me. They did end up putting a piece of metal in me, in the case that I do need the nodule removed. It was pretty quick, the numbing part was a little painful. There were a few tears, but nothing too bad. The needles were intense, doctors should learn to not show their patients the needles they are going to be sticking into them. Its just cruel and unusual punishment. Now I just can’t move my right arm and have to wear a ice pack for the rest of the day. I’ve already started to bruise and such, but the doctor said it should be gone in a week, overall not too bad. Although, I do wish that I was given the results today. The wait is going to be intense.

Lastly: the icepack I have to wear in my bra makes it look like I had a boob job on one of my breast, but not the other. classsy..

Doctors

I've told a few people about this but not all, but since its getting to the tail end, its easier for me to just write it here then to tell the story multiple time and answer a multitude of questions.

At the beginning of this summer I started to show some of the signs of breast cancer, I went to the gynecologist and then a breast specialist. Neither of the two could find lumps, but they couldn't say what was wrong with me either. The breast specialist said that either my boobs were just messed up or that I might have pagets disease. Its a type of breast cancer, but the likelihood of me having it would be extremely rare (I would be the youngest person recorded to have it).

Yesterday I went to the radiologist and had a ultrasound on my boobs. A nodule was found and the doctor believes it is a fibroadenoma. On Monday i am going to a have a biopsy done and a possible mammogram. We will know the results then. If it is a fibro.. then it is noncancerous and can just sit and chill in there or I can have it removed if it is large enough or if I just want too. It does mean that I will have to go in for check ups fairly regularly because it means i am even more susceptible to breast cancer.

Once i know what it is for sure, i'll let everyone know. As of now I'm not too worried, but I would appreciate any and all kind thoughts or prayers.

My upcoming plans

1)Tonight: have mom take all my stuff home
2)Sunday: have mom bring the furniture back and squat at Leahs
3)Monday: doctors: biopsy
4)Tuesday: Econ Final
5)Wednesday:Move into new dorm illegally
6)Friday: Be legal in my dorm and last day of internship for the summer
7)Saturday: be move in volunteer.

Now onto the good things in my life:
1) The roomies and I decided we are going to be painting our room this year. Leah has picked color combinationms and such. We are such grownups. haha
2) I get to go home and relax for a few days. It will be AMAZING.
3) I'm finally going to get answers from the doctors
4) my internship has been extended to the fall. YESSS
5) Alexa and I will finally be roommates
6)I'm going to get my hair cut
7)My birthday is already planned out, yes I know its in February, but a girl only turns 21 once. My tentative plan is lady gaga the day after my birthday and then wine tastings at vineyards during the weekend. I'm thinking classless to classy.
8) Soon I will have Internet AND cable in my place of residence. This means I no longer have to get exercise to waste away my life. I now can return to my typical routine of TV and computer in bed. LOVES
9) I will be sitting outside tanning and relaxing some point before school starts....
10) I want to do one last trip somewhere before the 30th. WHERE SHOULD I GO?

I hope everyone is having a fantastic friday :-) much love.

And to make everyone's fridays a tad bit better, here is a quote from the blog spot about interns. DC interns are just plain ridiculous sometimes.

"I was riding the metro on my way to a Nationals game when three interns boarded and started having a conversation about DC sites and the White House. One intern was commenting about how much fun it would be to climb the fence on Pennsylvania Avenue and explore the White House grounds. One of her friends wisely advised her that this was a bad idea, because “the social security shoots people who try that.” I laughed for the rest of my ride to the stadium. "

This morning I woke up a little earlier than normal to run some errands, but in general thought it was just another hot and humid day in DC. I figured I would just ride the metro to work and then walk the 2 extra blocks to work, maybe even stopping to get a smoothie if I got to work early enough. Boy was I wrong!

This morning there was a bomb threat in the park across from my office building. Normally it is just filled with homeless people, but in the last two weeks there have been 2 bomb threats. Today’s threat blocked off the whole entire park and multiple blocks surrounding it. No matter what way I tried to get to work I failed.

You would think I would be worried about the bomb threat and my safety, but if you thought this you would be wrong. My thoughts were more concerned with how hot is was outside, about how my food was going bad, and whether or not I should study econ or read my kindle (my kindle won that contest). The fact that the bomb threat barely caused a stir to my mental happiness is quite interesting. Two years ago I would have been freaked, but today I just thought “Ohh D.C., yet another bomb threat. When can I go inside?” What’s even more interesting, is that everyone else’s thoughts were about the same as mine. Countless people asked the police if they could just go into their buildings and that everyone already knew that the “suspicious” package was nothing.


I find myself wondering if it’s sad or not that people have become immune to life threatening events. I wonder if we have developed this mentality because we live in the nation’s capital and if by default we already know we put ourselves at risk everyday by just going about our normal business. Or I wonder if everyone around the world thinks like me and everyone else whose day got put on hold by the threat. Is the world becoming more dangerous because of the increased amounts of threats and violence or because people are more concerned about where they’re going and what they want to do instead of their safety?






And lastly, while I waited outside the same quote from JAWS kept popping into my head: “We’re going to need a bigger boat.”

My Book List

Today at work, when I finally had a breather I checked my email and noticed that Borders, Barns & Noble, and Amazon had all emailed me about their new books and deals. From the selection, I made a quick list, and then went back to work.

Here is the quick list  I made. If anyone has any other suggestions, let me know!

• Disappearing Spoon
• Charlie St. Cloud
• Shit My Dad Says
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
• I am Nujood, Age 10 & Divorced