oncology superstars, plus dinner

my nephew likes to hit the bottle

So, I've pretty much been living off bagels, fruit, oatmeal, and cereal, partly because I hate to cook/can't cook, and partly because the shared kitchen on my floor is.....not ideal. For anyone. My roommate is the same way - in our room on our shelves we have peanut butter, bread, Sarabeth's jam, animal crackers, triscuits, cereal, blue corn chips - and in the fridge we have water, diet coke, cherries, apples, and coconut water. So my "real" meals lately have been last Friday, out to dinner with Emily, and Monday night, out for authentic Mexican food with Jessi. And I've supplemented with Pinkberry, Starbucks, and Dunkin' Donuts. Nutritious, I know. And I actually took nutrition of children and mothers! So at work today, I decided to splurge and pick up dinner somewhere. Given that this is Manhattan, any kind of cuisine is at my fingertips. I went for comfort food and decided to go Italian - Osso Buco is a restaurant in my 'hood; there's also one in the Village. I ordered garlic bread and penne alla caprese (penne with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese). It's right down the block from me, so I went and picked it up - heavenly. The portions of both were so big that I have dinner for tomorrow night, too. It's amazing how much better I feel now that I have a nice big real Italian meal in me.

Practicum is going well, I think I have a topic for a Master's Paper, and the addendum to add me to the retinoblastoma study finally got approved, so hopefully I will be talking to patients soon!


Yesterday I had one of the most fantastic experiences - I met someone I never thought I would. Jimmie Holland is a pioneer in psycho-oncology. She basically FOUNDED the field. She's amazing. Her book The Human Side of Cancer is one of my favorites. I used to joke with people that I wanted her job - I never, ever thought I would actually get to meet her. But yesterday, when I got to work, as I was going through the turnstile in the lobby, I ran to catch the elevator, and she was in there. She saw my ID and made a comment about both of us going to the 7th floor. I knew who she was, but I said, "You're Jimmie Holland, right?" She said yes, and we had a great conversation that didn't stop when we got to our floor. She actually stopped in the hallway and didn't scan her ID to get into the Counseling Center - she took the time and made it clear that she wanted to have a conversation. She had the kindest eyes, and was incredibly down to earth and very friendly. She thanked me for introducing myself and said she'll see me around the office. Wow. I was speechless afterwards. I have so much respect and admiration for her, and aspire to do even half of the things she's done for psychosocial oncology. I'm sure she gets people like me coming up to her all the time, but she was so personable that it caught me off-guard for a second; I'm not quite sure what I expected. But it reminded me of something she did last week with the Fellows' Symposium - several of the fellows were really really nervous, and I empathized with them because public speaking terrifies me - and numerous times, after someone who was clearly nervous finished, she would praise them on a job well done. That struck me as incredibly nice and really supportive, which was heartening to see. You hear so many horror stories of the medical field being cutthroat - and maybe it is - but the feeling I've gotten from MSKCC so far is anything but.


I have to give a shoutout to Dr.Chu, my biostats prof from last semester - I admit, I dislike math and am not very good at it, which doesn't help the math anxiety I have. But somehow, some of it actually sunk in, and when I hear people in the office talk about "power" of a research study, or talk about SAS - even regression, which is just so abstract to me - I feel like I actually know what they're talking about. And even Epidemiology, from first semester, with Vic - people years, incidence vs prevalence - it's all coming together in practice, and that's neat to see, rather than just from a textbook.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? - Albert Einstein