Weekend Wrap-up

I titled this entry weekend wrap-up, but not sure which weekend I should wrap up. It has been a roller-coaster of a few weeks. Where to start? To borrow from Lewis Carroll - "Begin at the beginning, and go until you come to the end: then stop."

The beginning - well I guess that would take us back to the end of February. It was a beautiful time to be in Miami, so of course I left. I headed out to Scottsdale, Arizona for a meeting about lung cancer screening. The weather was awful - it was cold and rainy the entire time, but the meeting was actually quite good. It sparked a few ideas as to where I want my academic career to go and allowed for some great contacts. It was also quite entertaining. The conference was kind of a catch all of groups. There were thoracic surgeons, pulmonologist, medical oncologist, internist, radiologist, and basic scientist involved. The meeting is also quite international with large contingents from Japan, Italy, France, Israel, Germany, Canad, United Kingdom as well as US. You have never seen such a Hodge-podge of people and personal styles in your life. I joked to a colleague that an Anthropologist would have a field day. It was very obvious that "you are what you wear". It was very easy to place people into a profession and usually a country based solely on what they were wearing.

I flew back from the conference, and had barely recovered from the jet lag when I was off again. This time for a Women in Surgery Career Symposium. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but ended up enjoying it immensely. There were no communal bra burnings or male bashing parties. It was simply a group of women who all happened to be surgeons across a spectrum of ages and career developments coming together to see if we had anything to teach each other. Turns out we probably do.

I think it is reaffirming to hear that your story is not unique, and that other women face similar challenges. It is also great to hear how they manage said challenges. No use re-inventing the wheel is someone else has already figured it out. There were lots of talks about work-life balance, surviving a male-dominated culture, academic achievement, and being the woman in charge. I picked up great tips, and heard some interesting statistics. On the upside, women in Thoracic surgery is up almost half a percentage point. We now constitute a full 2% of CT surgeons, and 10% of current fellows are female so the number should continue to improve. Even better, we are no longer in last place - neurosurgery was kind enough to take over that spot.

More sobering was a talk by a economist from the WAGE project. It stands for Women Are Getting Even, and is a look at the gender gap. Don't you just love that title? (By the way, Jessica you should probably be sitting down for this next part away from all sharp objects that you could throw.) As a college graduate, a woman over the course of her working life time will earn $1 million dollars less than her male counterpart. For those of us who obtained professional degrees, the difference is $2.25 million. All I can say is that is a lot of shoes!!!! Part of the talk was a call to arms, but it was also part how to negotiate a fair and equal salary. They have workshops around the country that I would highly recommend to anyone interested.

After the meeting, my roller coaster veered a little off the tracks. It started when the Valet notified me that my car had a flat tire. It got worse when he admitted that they had noticed it the day before, but had failed to notify me. You would not believe how hard it is to get a flat tire repaired on a Sunday afternoon in Clearwater even with Roadside Assistance and AAA. Was eventually off, and headed back home.

Unfortunately, the closer I got to home, the worse I felt. I shrugged it off, and went to bed. Monday was a catch up clinic day for me, so I barely had time to breathe. I was still having GI upset, but assumed it was something I had at the conference. Tuesday I went for my yearly physical, and was pronounced to be in good health, but old. My fault for being called old really - I walked right into it. My doctor was complimenting me on how much weight I had lost since my last visit, and "how good I looked." I expressed my frustration to her about the last 10-15 lbs that don't seem to go anywhere regardless of what I do. Her medical advice - she reminded me that at my age, certain bodies are just unobtainable without plastic surgery. Can we just say ouch.

I shrugged it off, and went back to work. By Tuesday afternoon, I felt so poorly that I actually went home at a decent hour. The rest of the night was mostly a blur. I spent most of it curled up on the bathroom floor in a fetal position constantly examining my abdomen to make sure it wasn't "a surgical belly". I came into work early Wednesday and sent my PCP an email explaining my issues. She obtained some blood work, and promptly started me on some antibiotics. The working diagnosis was e. coli infection. The antibiotics helped with the abdominal pain, but it was Saturday before I could tolerate anything by mouth other than Gatorade.

Since I was not feeling well, I decided to take it pretty easy. Fate was fairly uncooperative. I had a full clinic on Thursday which I followed with a lung transplant, and then got up early on Friday for the second lung transplant. As long as I didn't challenge my body with food, it left me mostly alone. Not ideal, but it worked.

Saturday morning after rounds, I decided to even attempt a work out with my trainer. Luckily she took it pretty easy on me because I had been sick, but must say it wiped me out. I spent Sunday at a "team building" retreat. I don't really understand the science behind these retreats. They mostly seem to devolve into a complaints session, and since it started at 7 am on the morning we all lost an hour with the time change - I can assure you that there was much about which to complain. I finished up the day with a pedicure.

Which I guess brings us to the end. I am now back at work and on my way to my afternoon clinic. I have a relatively light week this week which is good. I have some paperwork to catch up on, and want to get to work on some of these Academic ideas that sparked. It also wouldn't kill me to start in on my now four weeks of laundry. I always new some good would come of my shopping addiction.