Author: Doris

Okay. So Sunday I was feeling down. We (Arif, Tahera and I) went to the gym on sunday, where I couldn’t climb anything. A little background – Climbs are rated on a 5 scale. 5.5/5.6 being really easy slightly sloped inward walls with large holds. The scale goes up to I think about 5.15. Tho really, it starts to get pretty hard in the 5.10 range – That’s where you need some technique. I can climb 5.9s sometimes tho those are hard for me. Sunday, I got about 1/3rd the way up a 5.8 and I was shot. Mentally I was out of it. Nasreen had to console me with a story that she told her 2nd graders – the story of Franklin the Turtle who never gave up trying to ride a bicycle until he got it. But it wasn’t much help. I was frustrated. My arms were shot. My confidence was low.

Today, tho, I was feeling much better. We had our lesson, and I felt like I had some staying power. I managed to fly up some 5.8s today without much effort. It’s actually amazing how much better you feel when you just keep moving up the wall without pausing so much. Also, I managed to scale up a 5.9 that was supposed to be our “homework”. I did take a break in there twice, but I think I got the gist of the movements that we were trying to accomplish. So that felt nice. I also felt like my bouldering skills helped me a bit to think about what moves to make, and how to position my body better. Anyways, I’m feeling better about top roping. My confidence is high(er).

1 dollar coin
419 quarters
662 dimes
293 nickels
1463 pennies

Remember last year when I rolled my coins? Well, I finally got around to depositing them into a Coinstar machine. Now usually those machines take about 10% of your money, but now they give out gift certificates to places like Amazon.com for zero charge.

Hrm… aren’t I in the market for something snazzy?

I went back downtown today (AKA the land of the Louis Vuitton bag. These things are so popular downtown that it was unusual to see a lady without one. I swear, if I had $1000 to spend on a purse, I would spend it on something made out of leather! Maybe something like this. Yum!) to see an OB/GYN for a bit of a tune-up. The doctor was very nice and explained a bunch of things to me and like every other doctor in Singapore that I’ve ever met, she spent a lot of time explaining medication/procedures and pros and cons of different courses of action. Very nice and sweet. I will definitely miss this when I go back to the states (also the fact that you can call up any doctor and they can almost always fit you in that afternoon or the next day).

The cool thing about this OB visit was that they have a sonogram machine in the examination room and a screen nailed to the ceiling so that everyone can see (including me) and so part of every pelvic exam, they just do a scan to see how everything is. Well, in addition to my cervix looking very healthy, I saw my left ovary ripening an egg, ready to pop it out into my Fallopian tubes in about 2 days. So cool to know that my body is going ahead and doing its thing.

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Common Name: Spider Lily
Latin name: Hymenocallis speciosa

Location: In front of Jeremy’s office.

I had the opportunity today to take the bus downtown during rush hour. I guess you still need to listen to your iPod even though you are trying to sleep. Go figure.

I went downtown for an early doctor’s appointment to get my prescription refilled. The doctor is still extremely curious about Edda’s Rett Syndrome diagnosis. There was hardly any discussion about my own mental health; just a series of questions (Are you sure it’s Rett, it can be hard to diagnose. Yes, we are sure. Can she walk? Yes, she can. I’ve only seen one other case, and I’m a child psychologist! (Does anyone with a Rett child run to a psychologist? A neurologist, a GI guy, an internist, I understand, but probably not a psychologist.) Finally, I offered (as a courtesy – to fill some sort of weird professional education yearning he seemed to possess) to bring Edda in someday so he could see his 2nd case. Whoopee! (whatever) He seemed extremely agitated and said that there wasn’t much he could provide in terms of treatment and that if we brought her in he could meet us downstairs in the lobby so it wouldn’t be too much trouble. It was a bit odd. I kind of want to bring Edda in just to watch him freak out and then Edda and I can have a good laugh over it all.

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I got it!

Common name: Frangipani
Latin name: Plumeria rubra

Location: Right outside our apartment!

Dakshi finally got his much deserved promotion to Senior Member of the Technical Staff so we took him out to a fancy brunch at Au Jardin Les Amis. It’s located in the middle of the beautiful Singapore Botanic Gardens. We’ve been to the Botanic Gardens before, usually with Ruby and the kids, but enjoying it without the kids is a completely different (and quieter) experience.

Usually we don’t eat much western food here in Singapore (except, of course, McDonald’s), so having a nice quiet brunch to celebrate a professional milestone for a friend was an especially special treat.

Yum!

Congratulations!

A dad is putting together DIY head pointing/computer using thing for their daughter with Rett. Here’s the relevant info.

Sometimes weekends are difficult for us. We don’t have a plan and our plan-less-ness leads to grumpiness. (Except for Edda, today she was as happy as a bird with a bowlful of worms.)

Sure I check out girls while I walk around, but this girl somehow stuck in my memory.

Yesterday, I went ot California St to grab some lunch. I parallel parked into a tight ass spot, and as I got out of the car, I saw this girl walking down the street, in the middle of my street, going to my right.

She was Asian, maybe 5’4″, with straight shoulder length hair. Her right hand was in the pocket of her black wool mid-thigh length trenchcoat and her left was swinging a black purse of some kind. She must have been wearing something super short under the trenchcoat, cause she was all leg from the hem of the coat down to her shoes – which I’ve found out, through some of my fashion consultants (thanks Karen and Anna) are offically know as slides or mules to the fashion world. They were black of course, to match, and I remember about a 1 to 1.5 inch heel that had a nice curve to it.

Normally a cute girl walking buy, is just a cute girl walking by, but the reason she stuck out at me, was the while she was purposefully striding down the road, she turned her head back to check me out! Laff, when she turned her head, she turned in over her shoulder, and tilted her head back just slightly, never breaking stride, or never unsure of what direction she was going. And she walked there, with her head turned, looking at me for a good 2 seconds.

It was picturesque.

Yahoo, look who’s home (another gosh darn blurry picture)!

If you have any specific questions lemme know. Also Ted’s kinda a practical doctor, low BS factor. If you want a softer viewpoint I can ask some other folks…

Ted said…

2) Nurisng. The good: Great pay. They get paid more than we do at a lot of places after you count overtime. Am I bitter? Yes. Great flexibility — pick a 12 hr shift. Want parttime? Probably not a problem. Huge need so job security will never be an issue. The best part of the job? You spend a lot of time with the patient and the family. You’re right there, and many times, I would say that the nurse will provide much more comfort for the family than we as physicans can. It’s the time you get to spend that I wish we had more of as physicians. The bad: your sister is probably too smart or any general nursing gig. She’ll want to do something more mentally challenging like ICU type things. Lack of respect: “You’re just a nurse”, you have to take orders from docs. Can be mentally draining since you’re always with the patient. The ugly: who really wants to clean up shit and drool, but depending on the places, there are always other people who are hired to do it.

I think it’s a great profession for her, especially if she wants to learn more about what Edda has and what are some of the things she can do for her. I’m not the best person to ask about this. You’ll want to ask a nurse (obviously). Might want to give Helma a call. She’s an ICU nurse, and I still keep in touch with her. I can also get you in touch with some other nurses as well.