I don't live in TX anymore?!

Since my last post in this blog, in 2013, a lot of things have happened in my life! I finished my residency and I moved to San Francisco for my fellowship.  I haven't really cooked anything special in a looonngggg time.  Isn't that just like residency, to destroy all your hobbies? Ahhh, residency. I certainly abandoned my 10 recipes per week goal.

I took up running about 8 years ago.  I could start blogging about running but SF is kicking my butt with the hills so that would be embarassing.  I'm only running like 8 miles per week.  That is a far cry from 30-40 miles per week.  I could pick it back up and get in the best physical condition of my life, but the older I get, the less realistic that sounds.  I'm 30.  I can't be in peak physical condition.  It's all downhill from here.

I haven't bought any new shoes in awhile.  My priorities have changed. Comfort is paramount.  My new goal is to only wear sweatsuits.  Scrubs are just a thin cotton variation of a sweatsuit.  Clinic clothes still stand in my way of 24-7 comfort.

Well, I am supposed to blog here about things I like.  Recently I am liking peppermint Luna bars. Delicious! I also like eggs.  And lunch meat.  Candy - a classic favorite.  Chocolate, cakes, cookies.

Fitnesswise, I've been running up this hill on a 1.3 mile loop every day and a 3.5 mile loop on the weekend that I can't yet run continuously.   I'm not sure the grade but I swear it's >15%.  Because I can consistently defeat the small hill, I'm going to increase my distance starting today, or consider running the small hill twice. Last week I also announced my intention to do 2 pushups per day every day but I only was able to stick to this for two days, during which I beat my goals by 50% by doing 3 pushups.  I must have overextended myself.  

Mi Ma Hua Tang

This stuff is the bomb diggety. It's a sticky maltose/honey impregnated fried dough that comes as a little packaged dessert.  The sesame seeds and honey topping are optional but always welcome in my book.  When I google "mi ma hua tang" zero images for this come up on google, but then when i 蜜麻花 there are sixty bajillion results. I guess Americans don't eat much of this.  Also, note, they are NOT more healthy than other fried dough sugar snacks, like those mini powdered doughnuts that I love so much.

Sugary snacks

Well my dog died on 2/4/13 and it's hard to imagine that i could still like stuff, or be happy without him.  I look at his pictures a lot and remember the good old days.  I miss him very much.  A lot of things are going on in my life right now and it's been very busy.  Anyway that's enough of being a debbie downer.  Now onto more stuff that I like --

I really like being a Chinese American.  I also liked being exposed to Arabic food in Dubai, as you can see from my previous halawa post!  Today, all sorts of sugary snacks will be featured.

This Chinese honey alternative is maltose - like honey made from barley! It's thicker, stickier, and also has a malty flavor!  Delicious on cookies/candy and by itself!  YUM.

Everyone knows and loves baklava.  My favorite is when the honey sinks to the bottom and makes a honey puddle.  I also like when there is the rose syrup added.

Finally, an American classic!  This one isn't as syrupy/sticky, but I loooove Hostess powdered mini doughnuts! wow they are super unhealthy too!  I especially like the nutmeg/ginger undertone in the cake part and the sugary sprinkly outside!

And, my dog loved all these snacks too.  I know this post would have made him happy.

Other stuff that rules

I was supposed to go to an xmas party today but I was feeling lazy and my dad offered to take me shopping so I passed on the party.  My dad and I go shopping a lot because I'm a voracious consumer.  This is what we bought today:

 This yogurt is super creamy, sweet, and rich.  It's smooth in texture, with a mild and milky aftertaste.  Reg price: $0.89 per container.   It was on sale for $0.50 so I bought 20 of them!  The only thing I like more than candy is the feeling of getting a good deal.  And shoes.

MARSHMALLOWS.  Even the name sounds delicious.  I like these on hot chocolate, in mocha, in mini s'more sandwiches (2 teddy grahams, 1 mini marshmallow, 1 chocolate chip), and by themselves.  I also like how the penguins on the bag are really cute.  Also, if you eat the entire bag in 1 sitting, it's only 900 calories!  Cha-ching!   I also saw a jumbo version.  Things that come in mini and jumbo are both awesome.  The jumbo one looks like it could fill the whole mug.  Unfortunately I could only find one package at the store, and that package was looking a little roughed up, so I didn't buy it.

In conclusion, I had a great time shopping with my dad.  I like to think he had fun too, especially the part where we went to Target and he stood there watching me sample every single tester lotion and paint each of my nails a different color.

Oh, and, in other news, my yeast culture came in the mail, so all my loyal readers can look forward to bread making posts in the near future!

Old Man's Beard

When I was little my Arabic teacher Ms. Dunia would always be bringing in Arabic candy for us to class.  It is a well known fact that I am a candy fiend.  I love candy more than any other food in the whole world!  My favorite candy that she brought was something she called "old man's beard."  She always brought it in a brown paper lunch sack looking thing.  When I moved to the US, I looked everywhere for this candy but it seemed to not be available to Americans.... until 2 weeks ago!, when my mom brought home a box from the Mediterranean grocery store containing.... 

OLD MANS BEARD! also known to adults as floss halawa, or to Greek people as halva.  I had no idea this was related to another Arabic / Mediterranean candy that I love -- regular halawa!

I like the pistachio flavor.  I also like pistachio nuts.

YUM.

more stuff i like

1) slow cookers rule for busy people
2) i want an e-reader / tablet computer SO BAD
3) gyn consults has been pretty fun so far

generally, i like residency.

pelvic surgery

this website is AWESOME
www.atlasofpelvicsurgery.com

things i like about it
1) it's FREE
2) it's like learning from a comic book. how many times have i told people that large blocks of text are just not that interesting? When I see huge paragraphs, my eyes glaze over and wander to the first sentence of the next paragraph. and so and and so forth until all the pages of the book have been flipped. then when someone asks me what the book is about, i can generally only tell them what the main character's first name was, and whether or not he/she died at the end.
3) pelvic surgery is fun
4) and exciting.
5) i love ob/gyn.
6) my life is great


oh yeah, and why is te linde's like 200 dollars, that is not worth it.
and why are the prologs like 500 dollars? that is SO NOT WORTH IT.

PRK 6 months later

my eyes are practically the same now. right eye 20/15, left eye 20/30. i heard it's never getting better. i also can't wear a contact in my left eye because i only have astigmatism but only very slight so even the lowest powered contact would overwhelm my corrective needs. so. i guess that's that. too bad about the left eye.

also, after almost 20 years of wearing glasses, and then 6 months of not, i still find myself reaching over to the nightstand for my glasses to check the clock in the middle of the night.

PRK 3 months post op

hi guys, long time no update. i went on vacay to beijing and came back in that time. anyway, back to PRK. my left eye is still lagging behind my right eye, upsettingly. I put up a snellen eye chart in my house. My right eye is consistently 20/15 which has been nice. My left eye wavers between 20/15 VERY rarely if i have recently put in lubricating drops and it's in the morning. it gets worse over the course of the day and is around 20/30 - 20/40 in the evening. i'm not sure what to think of this. Dr koch said my astigmatism correction was significant and he didn't find anything worrisome at the 1 month post op. my 3 month post op visit is next week so we'll see what he says.

New things I like:This is "jungle," the solid conditioner by LUSH. It's in a new shape (previous shape was a nondescript block, as if shaved off a gigantic cheese wheel) which is easier than before to hold. Formula is the same. It's a pretty strong cypress/ylang ylang/sandalwood/ various fruits odor which can be offensive to some people but i really like it. the scent lasts all day and it makes my hair feel awesome. i may like it better than Retread but i don't know - i've only had this for 4 days. will revisit this topic at a later date. I also bought a crapload of half price Redken conditioners so I guess it'll be a long time before I buy another LUSH conditioner. I dig hair products.

PRK again

POD 27: vision in my right eye has been excellent for about a week now. vision in my left eye is not really as good. for example, today i was looking at a tree. with my right eye, i could see all the branches and leaves in great detail. with my left eye, the tree was fuzzy. vision in my left eye has been fluctuating but overall is worse than my right eye. I'm at POD#27 so I worry that my left eye may not continue to improve, although I know that I should wait it out until the 3rd month to decide. i had just heard so many stories of people being 20/20 by POD#14. Disappointing. :(

PRK update

POD12 - reading is getting easier and easier. I can read a sheet I printed out with size 6 font today which I was having difficulty reading for the last several days in a row. Still, sometimes my vision blurs and I have to blink a lot to read small text. For example, I went to Saks today and I was having difficulty reading the clothing tags that list washing instructions/material/size and I had to either pull the tags close to my face or blink 5-10 times. No sensation of eye dryness but eye drops improve my visual acuity.

POD 8

POD 5 - painless but with mild photophobia relived by wearing sunglasses. Visual acuity was 20/40 at post op check. Bandage lenses removed. Vision felt significantly blurrier after bandage lenses removed. a rough, gritty sensation against my eyelids was present all day.

POD 6 - gritty sensation resolved. Still having difficulty reading the computer all day. Big things were visible.

POD 7 - easily reading the computer if i enlarge the font to size 14-16. Painless.

POD 8 - Much improved, reading size 8 font with ease, size 6 with relative ease. Size 4 is impossible from a normal distance.

post op continued

POD3: went well. I walked outside to petsmart and came back with a bag of dog food. I was having issues reading because my vision is really blurry and I had to enlarge the font and put the monitor 3 inches from my face. Haloing effect continues but only about 1/3 as severe as POD2.

POD4: went running this am. no issues so far. Vision is still significantly blurry.

PRK adventures

POD1: Feeling good. I drove to my post op check with my nervous mother in the passenger seat. Dr Koch asked how I was feeling? "Good." I said, and he said, "The pain will probably begin tomorrow, so party today" so I raised the roof. He liked this and raised the roof with me. This reaffirms my observation that roof raising unites people and strengthens the therapeutic alliance. In the afternoon I went shopping and blew my budget on jeans and a pair of cool shoes.

POD2: worst. day. ever.
They had already warned me that this would be the worst day. For some reason I hadn't really believed that it would happen to me. As soon as I woke up, I slid up the dimmer switch on my bedside floor lamp and felt immediately like someone had punched me in both eyeballs. I started tearing profusely. My photophobia was so bad that I could not force my eyelids to open. My father had to pry my eyelids apart for my qid steroids and abx. I lay in the dark literally all day. I couldnt' watch TV or use the computer. I lay there exchanging 2 ice packs between my face and the freezer for hours. The light from the closed blinds bothered me so much that I considered hanging out in the pantry. I took 3 naps on this day and was stir crazy. I visited my dog outside at night and the moonlight was just enough light for me to see comfortably, so I spent 1 hr playing with him. The headlights of the passing cars and lights of the neighboring houses were uncomfortable to look directly at. When I was getting ready for bed, I turned the closet light on so that I could use the filtered light to see in my room. This was relatively successful but when I went to turn the closet light off I accidentally looked at the light bulb. MISTAKE. Severe pain ensued for 30 minutes and I finally decided to break open my toradol eye drops. They didn't help at all. Luckily, I fell asleep shortly thereafter.

POD3: vision is blurry today. I had been warned about this as my corneal epithelial cells grow back together and meet together in the middle, forming an uneven ridge, which should flatten out significantly over the next 2 weeks and continue to improve x 3 months. Pain and photophobia resolved. Typing on computer today! Put in my own eye drops at breakfast and lunch. Took the day off school yesterday as I couldn't forsee how I could possibly go to school if my eyelids were swollen shut, but seems to be back to normal today. No school + no pain = PARTY (per ophtho consult).

PRK, POD#0

I got PRK today. I was slightly apprehensive due to people's PRK disaster stories on the internet, but I knew that I should probably not be worrying since there is something like a 99.9% satisfaction rate.

pre-op
I arrived at 10am with my mom and was brought back at about 10:30 for the nurse to go over my meds with me. Dr Koch came and asked if I had questions - no. He told me I could go ahead and take the alprazolam if I brought it with me. I was not feeling anxiety but took the xanax just to see (in the spirit of experimentation & b/c I'd never have an excuse to use it recreationally). They cleaned my eyelids and brought me back into the room. I lay down on the bed and we did the time out. Never been on the patient side of a time out before.

op
When the laser was brought above me, I knew the xanax was NOT working. My left eye was covered with an eye patch and my right eye was held open by a tegaderm x2 + some sort of wire retracting device (not painful). The epithelium was debrided with some sort of rotating sander which was painful at first because I was inadequately numbed. More tetracaine was applied. The cells were scraped away with a spatula and sponge. I was instructed to stare at the laser - a ring of light with a blinking orange light in the center. Continual encouragement was voiced by Dr Koch while I fixated on the blinking red light and my corneal stroma was lasered x 2 minutes. It smelled like they were bovie-ing my eye. The laser was removed and I saw Dr Koch's face above me. My eye was irrigated and a soft contact lens was placed on the cornea to protect it. They repeated the procedure with the other eye.

post op
The fellow came in the room to check my eyes post op and was not communicating well with me in lay terms - I could see how it could be confusing for a regular person. I told her I was an MS4 and she could speak in clinical terms with me. She was relieved and said, "Omg thanks. I am glad you told me I could talk normally." Then Koch checked my eyes. Then we paid and peaced out. My family went to Fadi's where I had a beef shwarma and a celebratory baklava + 100 complimentary pita breads.

post op goals:
vision: I would compare my current vision to when you are wearing contact lenses but you fell asleep in them and now they are sticking to your eyes, so fine print is fuzzy. My vision improves to perfectly clear when I put lubricating eye drops in my eyes . I don't know if it is my vision, or the fact that I'm wearing this protective contact lens that is causing this issue. I don't know how long this will take to resolve.

pain: Slight discomfort, like a feeling of grittiness in both eyes. Discomfort resolves with lubricating eye drops. I hear that POD#1-3 are the worst. I am dreading tomorrow.

other: They gave me gatifloxacin eye drops to use 4x/day x 5 days. It goes down my nasolacrimal duct and tastes fucking gross. I hate it. Other things I hate - vitamin C bid x 1 year <-- can I remember to take something 2x/d for a year?!? and wearing sunglasses outside x 1 year <-- I hate sunglasses because they make the world look dark... but I don't think that I'll have too much of an opportunity to be outside in residency.

Something that is really bothering me is that I really hate sunglasses and I'm going to China for vacation, and I'm going to have to wear sunglasses. I won't be able to see all the colors on all the tourist attractions! I guess I'll bring that up tomorrow at my post op check.

i love everyburger

so delicious. picture is self explanatory. chocolate and cookie, yum.

interesting and new things have come to this blog

First interesting thing:

In this first photograph on the left, you might believe that there is nothing notable about this image of a smiling dog, except for the fact that he is nature's most perfect, well-formed, most likely smartest, and most obedient dog. But, AHA! in the second image, I have zoomed in to demonstrate that there is a suspicious looking stick on the shrub next to the dog! In the third photograph, the stick has walked on over and up onto the side of the house!

WHAT A CRAZY INSECT!

For larger images, please right-click on the thumbnails on the left and select "open in new window" or "open in new tab".


Now, I will proceed onto the next new and interesting thing.

I was at 99 Ranch Market (which I have always called 99 Cent Ranchmart for some reason) with my mom, and I came across this bizarre fruit. It's called a dragon fruit and it comes from a cactus. Apparently you can eat it. I had never eaten one before so I bought it.

In the photographs it is sitting on the counter, being washed, has been cut open, the flesh is scooped out and cubed, and voila! Time for eating!

You may be wondering what the eating experience is like, which is what I was wondering too at the time that I purchased it.

Texture: Slimy like the sliced segments of a banana, but more like a kiwi in firmness and due to little black kiwi-like seeds.
Flavor: slight sweetness, not a strong or memorable flavor.
Juiciness: similar to a strawberry, except the juice is slimy.
Smell: no strong aroma.

Again, click on the thumbnails to the right to see larger images.

mmhmmm

Rawr! what an inspiration.

pedi gyn and yogurt

On pedi gyn now, which gives me lots of free time!

In other news, I've started making my own yogurt as of last weekend. I've made it twice now, both with equal outcomes. It's cheap and delicious. I use organic whole milk (what I drink anyway even if it's not going to become yogurt, or if my mom buys 2%, then whatever is on hand) and the cheapest single serving plain yogurt I can find.

I definitely think it tastes better than ye olde storebought yogurt. Yum.

Recipe:
1) Dump as much milk as yogurt that you want to eat into a pot. I eyeball about half of whatever is left in the carton of milk, so we'll still have milk left. It's been around a quart cause we get the half gallons.
2) boil it while stirring so it doesn't scald
3) leave it alone for a couple hours or somehow wait for it to cool to slightly warmer than body temp. I just eyeball the temp too, by putting my hand on the outside of the pot and imagining myself bathing in water which is the temperature of the yogurt. If I think it would be comfortable, I proceed.
4) take half of your single serving plain yogurt and put it in the pot and stir with a spoon. Put the other half away for safekeeping, or eat it while you're waiting.
5) Here is where i have used different methods. The basic principle is that the bacteria proliferate the best around 120 degrees F (so I hear), but heating them too much will kill them (but I haven't killed any yet so I'm not sure at what temp they die).
a) If it is Texas in the summer, during the day - put a heavy opaque lid on your yogurt and stick it out in the sun.
b) If not - heat your oven to 150 degrees F, turn off the heating element, put a heavy lid on the yogurt, stick it in the oven.
6) wait for 6-10 hours.
7) look at your yogurt. it should look gelatinous. optional to pour off the whey. Put it in tupperwares and refrigerate.
8) when cold, I like to eat it either plain, with honey and grapenuts, or I would mix in jam or preserves for a fruity taste, if I liked a fruity taste, which I don't.

More rice puddings

Rice puddings are delicious. I've made a couple types now, and I prefer them cold to hot. I think it's because it's getting to be hot out.