Taking care of me and being thankful!

This past week proved to be one of the most trying health wise that I've had in a long while, thanks to a trip to the ER due to my then out of control asthma. And in many ways I wasn't totally surprised since I've been under a tremendous amount of stress at work due to my decision to contest my soon to be former Supv (hear after known as ExSup) formally and in writing. There are MANY details I'd like to share but upon the advice of legal counsel I can't even on an "anonymous" blog, but what I will say is that someone made a bad decision to "muck" with me when it comes to my work.

Unfortunately, I ended up being out ALL last week which was so unusual for me because I normally do a real good job keeping my asthma under control and had never made a trip to the ER because of it in the 15 years since I'd been diagnosed until early Wednesday morning. And to think that earlier Tuesday afternoon, I'd gotten dressed to go to work and turned around when I was half-way there because I just wasn't feeling quite right! Surely, the job I currently have doesn't in ANY way deserve that kind of dedication from me for how I've been treated. But I'm not committed to my job to "please" the people I work for/with per se, I do it because that's part of my overall work ethic.

Moving right along, I applied for over 15 jobs during the time I was out and quickly came to the realization that maybe only 2 are in any way related to what I really want to do right now. Most of them were Lab Management positions, but the ones I'm most interested in are Cancer Research. I'm just praying one of these 2 comes through because of my obvious strong interest in cancer research and quite frankly, the money is right too. Most importantly, I could easily tie it into getting my Health/Medical Informatics (HMI) program paid for.

And that brings me to my next subject, Medical/Health Informatics. You may recall I'd previously mentioned joining the Association of Pathology Informatics (a related field) some time ago and being on their list serve has been one of the most educating experiences I've ever had. To "hear" the conversations of Physicians in academic settings discussing their issues as it relates to electronic health records (EHR's), using EPIC to track data, and CernerPath, a popular computer program used in Pathology labs, has been phenomenal and beyond cool! And it's occurred to me that my experiences in pathology, basic computer programming, data analysis, and in Bioinformatics have positioned me for a very rewarding career as a Physician who's trained in HMI. I envision using HMI to address disparities in cancer incidence and mortality and still desire going this route through an Internal Medicine/Oncology fellowship pathway. Yeah, that PhD is still among my goals too, LOL!!! Equally exciting is that I found some free on line courses in HMI on the internet to try out to make sure this is what I'm really interested in. And I'm pleased to say that I really enjoy it because unlike Bioinformatics, HMI is much more patient oriented which fits in with my decision to pursue a clinical field of medicine. My Bioinformatics background is simply an added bonus!! I also contacted a top notch program about obtaining a certificate in the area (and whose medical school recruited me to apply, NO accident there, LOL), and the feed back I got was excellent! So, for the first time in a VERY long time, I feel deeply that I'm finally on that "track" for what I was looking for while I'm getting my kid ready to fly the nest. Work that is interesting, that has opportunities to address health issues that are important to me as a Black woman, and is in demand is about as good as it gets!

Now, all I need for God to do is to make that cancer gig come through ASAP, then I'll REALLY be in my way! So in the spirit of walking in faith, I'm going to claim that job NOW in His name!!!!!

From Bioinformatics to Health Informatics?

The week since my last post has been pure hell especially on my job. I've read my deceased cat's autopsy report (metastatic cancer), hired an attorney for my job situation, tried to recapitulate my life there over the past almost year which isn't easy, and have also been rethinking changing my current career focus from Bioinformatics to clinical/medical Informatics.



Here again is yet another opportunity I had offered about 2 years ago to learn EPIC which is the software which runs clinical information at a significant number of hospitals, but at that time it would have required a move back to NC which I wasn't feeling. Funny what a difference 2 years makes, I'd seriously consider that change now especially in light of what's going on in my current job situation where I was told by an HR rep that my pursuit of contesting Mr. Insecure's final warning to me would be a "loose, loose" situation for me. Well I guess it's a good thing my attorney see's otherwise, what can I say yet again I KNEW before I took this gig it would be a disaster (see previous posts from Aug 2011).

Then I think about the first Black graduate of one of the military academies who was silenced for 4 years by his classmates while he was there and by silenced I mean that NONE of his classmates said a word to him the entire 4 years he was there. I also think about my grandmother who desperately wanted to finish high school in 1920, but it was against the law for Black students to attend the nearest high school so she ended up being a maid for white families instead until she started her own family. Or the many, many, MANY other struggles of people of color who've had to deal with seemingly insurmountable obstacles and who did JUST that. OVERCAME!!!

I too will overcome, in the spirit of many others who look like me and have done the same!! More than that, there are so many people all over the world dealing with FAR bigger issues than I am, so I'm going to choose to fall back on my faith, stop the worrying, and let God handle the rest!

Just a note to my readers that I probably won't be posting much over the next months or so while I deal with things in my personal life and make some decisions/adjustments to my current professional goals. But be back I will, hopefully with updates on how my efforts towards med school admission are going!

Love lost............

A cat who came when you called her name as long as she wasn't busy doing something very important:



Who didn't always fight her "baby sister":



And who once kept still long enough to take a picture with her "mother":




In loving memory of the sweetest cat in the world, keep my Daddy company in heaven!