Bigger or Better: Life outside of Texas

Once again, I get to celebrate the birth of the Savior with family. Sometimes, that just means Mark and me. But this year, it means my immediate family: parents-in-law, siblings-in-law, and nephews; soon I will be able to celebrate with my parents and most of my siblings. Because Christmas means God extended so many blessings to our most treasured relationships—peace, love, forgiveness, and an assurance of the permanency of those relationships—it carries an additional depth of meaning to be able to be near loved ones. But this Christmas morning, as I listen to music joyously proclaiming Christ’s divinity, power, and love, I am grateful for the quiet before others wake. I get to have, in a sense, one-on-one time with Heaven. I get to feel His love for me personally, and I get to feel the thrill of God’s triumph over sadness, pain, and death. That doesn’t mean I don’t have any sadness or pain. At the moment, I am acutely aware of my smashed-in-the-door finger, of a now-chroni...

Last weekend my youngest brother and his wife came to DC, making them our first official visitors. I wanted Jaron and Liz to experience the best we had to offer--which was an air mattress, couch, and cold cereal for breakfast. We don't own red carpet. Anyway, while I was still at work, Mark took them to see the National Gallery of Art, the Air and Space Museum, and probably other things but I wasn't there so I can't say. I joined them for a late lunch, and suggested that if they really wanted to get in the DC mood, they should join a protest group. Turns out they had passed a protest, but since it was anti-vaxers, they weren't inclined to join, and if they--all 3 of them--had protested the protest, they probably would have been insulted and injured. I think that's close enough to the true DC atmosphere that we agreed to cross that off the list. Because we are all adults, we decided it was naptime, which we heartily did for a couple of hours, making us late f...

* note: for some reason I can't add pictures. I will work on that. eventually.* If I ever move to Seattle, I'm renaming my blog " The Seattle Sun. " Because it's quirky and unforeseen and would make me laugh. Although honestly, the past 3 times I've visited Seattle, I've seen a good amount of sunshine. And also honestly, I could be overestimating the sun's sky presence because I was mostly in windowless rooms during the day, because that's the most appropriate place to have an oncology conference. [I don't actually think that; a cancer diagnosis now has a fair bit of hope in it because of the amount of research and money devoted to its relief.] The JADPRO  conference was recommended to me by coworkers, and when I saw that it was a) aimed at advanced practitioners, b) all about oncology, and c) in a city where friends of mine live, I signed right up. I stayed in a very-small temporary apartment place down by Pike's Market, and got awak...

This past week, I attended a medical conference on treatments for gastrointestinal cancers (which include livers and pancreases, by the way). I learned a lot, but the most important thing I learned that day was not to implicitly trust Google Maps. The conference was held at a hotel in Crystal City (geography lesson: the Virginia border near DC), and my husband and I had checked Google Maps the night before and figured out that since it was just as long for me to drive there as to take the Metro, I should take the Metro and thus save on parking. So the morning of the GI oncology meeting, I put in the directions on my phone and rode to the directed stop, The Pentagon (which is also in Virginia across from DC). On exiting the station, I carefully chose to take the stairs that were for non-Pentagon-employees, then held out my phone in front of me like a water-divining-rod and started walking where my phone told me to go. It was tricky, because there aren't a whole lot of sidewa...

I am happy to announce that, although I still don't know exactly what I'm doing in medical oncology, I no longer feel like I'm drowning. Is that positive, or what? Some of my favorite stories: One of my patients reported that when she was first starting chemotherapy infusions, she mentioned to her doctor (Dr W, one of the two that I work with) that she was worried no one was keeping an eye on her mediport site [a mediport is an indwelling IV that can be accessed with a poke of a needle but otherwise is hidden under skin] . He responded, "What do you think the infusion nurses do, throw darts at it?" I was seeing a follow-up patient for a discussion of chemo treatment after surgery when I learned he was still on meds his surgeon had given him 3 weeks ago. I also simultaneously learned he was having bowel movements every 10 minutes. Guess what pills he was still taking? Stool softeners. When I was first orienting to the Georgetown hospital, I met with the r...

Several weeks ago, Mark and I went to the Maryland State Fair. Because I am lazy, I am blogging about it now. Well, I also have a second fair-type event that we went to much more recently (aka yesterday), so I'm just combining the two events into One blog post. I mean, the similarities: both about 1 hour away, both with educational and fun activities, both had food, both had lots of people we didn't know....Clearly, they're basically identical. It is quite possible we enjoyed the second fair more (it was a Pioneer Day celebration, which in Mormon culture refers to the people who traveled from the eastern United States to Salt Lake City in the 1840s-ish ), because it wasn't as hot, and it was free. I also get to brag that I got a "nothing-but-air" bean bag toss in the hole, and I have witnesses. Unfortunately, I couldn't repeat it (I'm inconsistent with my sport skills), but still, it was cool. On top of that, I challenged Mark to a hoop roll race-...

Have you ever had a feeling that a certain moment in your life will define your family for generations? That your grand++-children will say, wow, that girl (or dude) was tough? Maybe. Maybe not. It's certainly reminiscent of Sam's thoughts at the end of the second The Lord of the Rings , when he considers that what he and Frodo are doing is going to become legend for future people, relatives and friends and acquaintances and strangers alike. I am not carrying the One Ring. In case you were wondering. Also, I don't think strangers will ever hear about my life. But I have the distinct impression that how I survive these next few years will drastically influence my [currently nonexistent] descendants. We--my husband and I, as a team--are working through depression and anxiety, new employment and unemployment, loneliness and isolation. We're figuring out a lifestyle that will accommodate the increased cost of rent and groceries and transportation. We're refining a...