Revisions and more revisions

For the past week or so, I've been diligently working on my personal statement and studying for the MCAT. Truth be told, wriitng a personal statment isn't a big problem. Trying to compress your success and struggles in only 5300 words, is a HUGE problem especially when you have so much to say. So with help with all this, I met with my primary mentor, a married mother of 5 who is also the first MD/PhD I'd ever met. Imagine that, I was in my late 30's before I met a woman who looked like me (literally, I could be her daughter) and did what I aspired to do. So it probably goes without saying that having her in my life is without a doubt phenomenal. With that said, I'd encourage anyone reading my blog, no matter where you are in your career, to find a good mentor.

Anyhoo, she's the ONLY source for proofing my statement I have on this because I've learned that "too many cooks in the kitchen isn't a good thing". But in talking to her I've also became aware of some other things I need to be thinking about for example, have I really thought about the impact relocating my family is going to have? I'm a strong believer in pursing ones passions but you must also consider the impact on those around you as well. The other thing I realized is that it's a risky proposition to apply to med school with an average MCAT score because not all schools are willing to wait until the new scores come in. In other words, if I apply early will all the schools be willing to hold onto my application until my scores arrive in early August? Perhaps, but should I risk it? Luckily, I have very strong relationships with most of the schools on my list so this may work out for me in the end. Worst case scenario is that I'd just apply early to those schools who are willing to wait and then after I get my scores, add the others.

Stay tuned!

What a pain in the arse!

Currently I'm neck deep in completing the AMCAS aplication. And when you've attended 13 different colleges/universities (yep, you read that right), and have almost 4 college degrees (which isn't bad for a person who once flunked out of college) it can take a LOOOOOONNNNGGGGGG time to fill out the coursework section of the application.

I'm also consulting with my LOR writers/mentors in putting together a list of schools. As much as I talked about not applying to schools outside of the area where I currently live, I think I'm going to do just that. I've got the FULL support of DH so it's pretty much all systems go! I simply have to decide where to apply which isn't as easy as some would think. The only real limiting criteria I have is that the schools need to either have a solid Pathology program or be near one locally so that isn't very limiting. I'll also be staying on the East Coast so as not to get too far from my stepchildren and family. Other than that.......................

I've also upped my time in Path conference/sign out so that's been cool. I've found quite a few websites with path unknown cases, so there's no shortage of places for me to get my pathology on. I do miss using my microscope though, but I'm sure they'll be PLENTY of that in my future.

In other news, my daughter and I will be taking our annual mother/daughter trip soon and this year we decided to go to Providence RI. She's really into architecture, so we plan to take a ferry ride to Newport to do the Mansions tour! It'll be great fun and I can't wait! We're taking the train so we can see some of the country, because I HATE driving, and because I refuse to get ripped off by the gas companies anymore than I have to for normal daily activities. At any rate, I'll be sure to take so pics and post then when we return!

Ziltch!

So today, I checked the preliminary results of my second project and the results were negative. Of course, this wasn't a suprise AT ALL because I told the PI from the get go that we're looking at the wrong receptor!

Dude doesn't want to invest the whoppin $300 dollars necessary to buy the receptor the literature indicates is likely there. And I say likely because this is a well thought out hypothesis, but oh well, I don't have the power or resources to make things happen...........................yet, so I'm off to focus on the MCAT and preparing my application for the class of 2013.

Speaking of my application, I'm so glad on too many levels to count that I waited until NOW to get this ball rolling again. The most important factor in this was my daugher's performance in school and the fact that until recently she had never consistenly fulfilled the academically gifted designation she received when she was 5years old. To go from a recommendation by 5 so called "professionals" to be placed in special ed in the 4th grade, to gifted/talented classes in the 6th grade, the Honor Roll (all A's and 1B one quarter), and a 1st violin player in the Orchestra is quite a stretch. And I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have to have my ass kickin attitude in place to keep these racist from destroying my daughter's self-esteem and future. I'm simply blessed that God put the right people in my life (shout out to DH and the 2 positive teachers my daugher did have) so that I wasn't alone and had the financial means to do what needed to be done. Sadly, the strongest voice for placing my daugher in special ed came from a woman who's black but she doesn't know it (ie she's from an island off Africa, with skin 10 shades darker than mine). Anyway, I won't go off about this again because it's done.

Now that DD is one her way to fulfilling her destiny, I can now focus 1000% on mine. I will have my app submitted on the FIRST day!

I almost forgot.......

.......to mention this (really I wanted to see the grades posted to my permanent transcript first) but I made straight A's this semester for the first time ever in graduate school! In fact, I only earned 1 "B" all year so needless to say, I'm feeling pretty good about my application this year! I can smell it, Path201X MD, Class of 2013! Boo-Yah!!!!

PS- With a PhD to be finished in residency/fellowship, lol!!

Pimped like a *itch!

Today, I attended 2 conferences at a local university's Pathology department, and of course, it was an absolute blast (as much as these things can be considering that the dx made changes people's lives forever). And even though the conferences were related to cytology (Hemolytic transfusion reactions) which is my least favorite of the 2 main areas of pathology (the other being Anatomic), I not only managed to enjoy the conference, but I asked some good questions too!

The second part of my morning was spent in the sign-out room of the hospital which is where diagnosis of patient samples occurs. And it was here that I got pimped like a *itch, lol!! Now the Attending KNOWS that I'm not a Resident, but ironically this is the same Attending that made it clear the first time I sat in with him that he didn't have time to explain anything to me because he wouldn't have time. No problem, I keep my Robbins and Coltran Atlas of Pathology as well as my Gartner Atlas of Histology handy, so it's cool. But I felt good about answering 3 of 5 questions correctly and I had NO problem saying I don't know to questions I didn't know, because faking it in medicine can kill folks. But we had a little meeting of the minds when he asked me what was the most common type of thyroid tumor, a question I should have known the answer to because I've had thyroid "issues" too. When I couldn't name it, he asked me to name one type of thyroid tumor and I said "the only one that comes to mind was medullary thyroid carcinoma". Now my experience from the NIH taught me to always be mindful of "zebras" or rare malignant tumors. That's not a bad strategy for a place like the NIH which often gets those rare cases no one else can figure out, but a good Pathologist has to be able to differentiate a "zebra" from a "horse" since there are far more "horses" than "zebras". Then he said "medullary carcinomas aren't that common, where else are they found?" (and by now I'm thinking this guy sure does talk a LOT for a person with little time, lol!!), and I replied "kidney". Then he replied "no, they aren't found in the kidney, what is the most common kidney tumor"? I said "Clear Cell" which I knew from my work at the NIH, which was primarily kidney and prostate cancer.

So now I'm thinking THIS is one reason why there are disparities in cancer mortality. Renal meduallary carcinomas are a very rare form of kidney cancer, but for unknown reasons, they're found an overwhelming majority of the time in young, black, pateints with hemoglobinopathies. BUT YOU HAVE TO KNOW TO LOOK FOR IT!!!!! So when a sickle cell patient comes in complain about hematouria, SOMEBODY had better start thinking about "zebras" because this is a very aggressive tumor and thus is highly fatal.

Now I'm the kinda person that has taken practically EVERY research project I've ever worked on and tried to find how my work can improve morbidity/mortality in minority populations.. For instance, my current project involves breast cancer, so I made SURE to look at cells lines relevant to black/minority women (namely ER- tumors). I did the same thing when I was at the NIH, I started looking for biomarkers in Renal Medullary carcinoma that could help dx this disease in its early stages (didn't go as far as I wanted to take it). Unfortunately, there isn't nearly enough research being directed at diseases which disproportionately affects minorities.

So in my quest to have my research career, you can bet that if I'm "forced" to for example, to conduct research in Thallasemia (which irronically runs in my family), I'm gonna throw in a little sickle cell anemia too for good measure!

Oh Happy Day!!

So now that my semester is over, I can now start again sitting in on sign out and attending Pathology conferences. To brush up, I've visited the JHU unknown website (http://pathology2.jhu.edu/sp/) and also dusted off the Robbins Path book and well as my Histology atlas. Did I mention how much I LOVE Pathology?!?!

Other than that, I'm also studying more for the MCAT and I'm scheduled to take the test again on July 10, 2008. That puts me smack dab in the middle of my Medical Physiology course and well post surgery, so I think I'll be OK. I managed a 30 hour/week clinical position last summer while taking Medical Biochem/Molec Bio/Endocrinology last summer, so everything should work out.

On the family front, I've also been looking into summer camps for my daughter and it looks like she's going back to the YMCA for Tennis camp most of the summer after a 2 year hiatus, to a 1 week camp for future Architects, and 1 week of Violin camp. Man this kid is really blessed because I didn't go to camp until I was in high school for band and majorette camp. One thing I won't do is waste money on one of those "high falutin" camps like I did last year and where she was miserable! Kids from wealthy families can be so unbelieveably snotty (not mine), but the all you can eat buffet for lunch was the bomb! I STILL can't believe some of the items they had to choose from! So this summer, we wanted to make sure we got some cultural and economic diversity, but given that the camp is the richest county in Maryland, it will barely be economically diverse.

Well I guess that's it for now. Just couting down until I can attend Path conference this Thursday! With my foot propped up, of course!