Subtle

Here are a few comments I heard today. "You look tired." "You look especially pale today." "Are you anxious about something?" And my personal favorite, "Did you just get back from the gym?" Okay, why doesn't everyone just say it. "You look like shit." So, yeah, it was a great day today. I spent the whole weekend in bed with a fever and my good friend nausea. So I guess I just looked as good as I felt. Really, I wanted to tell everyone that I look better today than I have in about 3 days, but I kept my mouth shut.

I didn't eat for a couple of days so I managed to lose a couple of pounds which is kind of annoying. I've been working my ass off going to the gym 4-5 times a week and watching what I eat. And now, I get sick and feel like crap for two days and lose more weight than I have in the last couple of weeks. Plus, now I know this week I'll lose nothing (and will likely gain) because that was just weight I lost from not eating. My only consolation is that my friend asked me if I had a bruise on my arm and I said no. Then she said, "Oh, that was just a shadow from your muscle."

No exciting news to post, although I may next Monday since I get to spend the weekend in Chicago with college friends to see Wicked. I am looking forward to it and am really glad this sickness came this weekend instead of next.

I guess I do have news. D-Day has been set (the day I take my board exam). June 1st is the day.

"Non-smoker returns from break."

After a nice spring break (aka a 4 day weekend), I'm back into the swing of things. Actually I'm busier now than I was before. I guess since we had 2 days off, they decided we would just make up that time by having a lot of work this week. Well, actually I guess some of that work is my fault since silly me decided to not work during my "break." I know, I should quit complaining and be glad that I got a break at all.

I'm sure by now everyone has heard that "Non-smoker Dana Reeve" died. I find it interesting that it is important that we know that she was a non-smoker. Like that somehow makes it more tragic. I suppose they are trying to imply that had she been smoking, that would have made her to blame. Yes, smoking is HORRIBLE for your health, but just because you smoke doesn't make you a bad person and it doesn't make it okay for you to get cancer. I saw a patient just yesterday who came in severely short of breath. We diagnosed him with bronchitis. It was most likely due to his years of smoking and it will probably only by a matter of time before this develops into COPD. He was miserable. He has not been smoking for a few weeks now, but the damage is done. We didn't give him second-rate treatment because we thought he did this to himself. There are so many diseases nowadays that are caused by poor lifestyle choices. I would venture to say that most illnesses have a component due to lifestyle be it stress, alcohol, poor diet or lack of exercise. We are all guilty of something.