As many of you know, the grocery stores here in the Hampton Roads area blow chunks! What I wouldn't give for the Kowalski's or Bylery's of home! Or the Whole Foods, Winco's and New Seasons Markets that were every where you turned in the Pacific Northwest! There is NOTHINGGGGG here that even comes CLOSE to the gourmet selection at Byer-sees... or the endless aisles of dirt cheap bulk dry goods for pennies on the dollar at Winco- a short bike ride from Pacific's campus (and conveniently located on the way to Blair and Justin's apartment- white chocolate pretzels and a $5 bottle of local, Pinot in one stop? YES PLEASE!) but nope... not around here. There are no bears... no cheap pinots... and nary an organic item on the shelf- and if you do stumble upone one, gauruntee it will NOT be under $10.
Anywho, out of the negative, into the positive. Taking matters into my own hands, I've been trying to prepare more meals from scratch and delve into my cookbook/recipe clipped library to make healthy, whole foods myself. It's cheaper, it's healthier- what not to love?!?!
What I'm really excited for is SPRING when I plan on going NUTS with organic gardening. I'm also lobbying Ryan to let me have a chicken... that's not going so well for me.
In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite recipes lately all from The Book of Meg. Enjoy!
Homemade Foccacia
3 Cups Flour
1 Tbs sea salt
1 packet active dry yeat
1 cup hot water
3 Tbs olive oil
Red Onion- sliced
Fresh Rosemary
More Olive Oil for brushing
Mix flour, salt and yeast in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle, and water and olive oil. Mix until dough forms a nice ball. (add flour or water 1 Tbs at a time if too wet/dry).
Place dough ball back in said mixing bowl sprayed with Pam, cover with plastic wrap and let rise 1 hour in a sunny spot or near the stove/ heat vent.
Punch, kneed and Roll out the dough into a 12-16 inch round pizza shape. Use your fingers to press little indents all over. Brush finished round with Olive Oil. Sprinkle liberally with Sea Salt. Top with sliced red onion and fresh rosemary. Cover with plastic wrap and again let it rise 30 min. Pre-heat oven to 425. Bake for 25-30min. YUM!
**************************************
Breakfast Muf-kies!
These are a mixture of a muffin and a cookie- and you can make some substitutions to make them very low-cal (Ryan doesn't notice the difference when I make either version, and usually he eats all 15 of these in day, while I get ONE)...
1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour (can use white if you want)
2 cups Oatmeal
2 Tsp Flaxseed Meal
1 tsp Salt
1 Tbs Baking Powder
1 Tsp Vanilla
1/2 teaspoon Lemon Extract
1 Stick softened butter
2 eggs (or substitute 1 cup Egg Whites)
1 cup sugar (or sub Truvia)
1 cup Craisins
1 Cup White Chocolate chips
1/2 Cup slivered almonds
Beat eggs (eat whites), melted butter, vanilla extract and lemon extract and sugar (Truvia). Add in flour, oatmeal, flax seed, salt, and baking powder. When just mixed, add in white chips and craisins. I like to bake these in a 16-cup silpat cupcake pan. But you can scoop little ice-cream-scoop iced blobs and just place on a cookie sheet. Muffin pan or sheet method, once you have your little balls formed, press some slivered almonds on top. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Cool to room temp and enjoy for a snack or for breakie! :)
**************************************
Hummus
1 can White Cannellini Beans
4 cloves Garlic
2 Tbs Olive Oil
2 tsp Salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
Using Food Processor or Blender, pulse garlic gloves. Add in beans, and salt pepper and blend again, with machine on drizzle in olive oil, puree til smooth, and serve immediately, or put in a tuberware and use for the next 1-3 days. (other fun add-ins to this: 1/2 an avocado or 1/2 of pitted olives.)
Bon Appetite!
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
I'm backkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk...
It has been EONS since I have posted (my apologies to my 5 devoted blog followers...) BUT now I'm BACK and determined to get back on the blogging train. Starting out with THIS little gem... brought to my attention via Ryan- who knows all too well my distain for American "Emergency Medicine". He thought I'd like this article (I did!) so much so that I am passing it on for said adoring (though miniscule) public to enjoy as well. Food for thought on this hump day. Look for less cynical posts to return shortly... xoxo Mego
"Treating a Nation of Anxious Whimps" by Dr. Thomas Doyle
"Emergency departments are distilleries boiling complex blends of trauma, stress and emotion down to the essence of immediacy: what needs to be done, right now, to fix the problem. Working the past twenty years in such environments has shown me with great clarity what is wrong (and right) with our nation’s medical system. It’s obvious to me that despite all the furor and rancor, what is being debated in Washington currently is not healthcare reform. It’s only healthcare insurance reform. It addresses the undeniably important issues of who is going to pay and how, but completely misses the point of why. Healthcare costs too much in our country because we deliver too much healthcare. We deliver too much because we demand too much. And we demand it for all the wrong reasons. We’re turning into a nation of anxious wimps.
I still love my job; very few things are as emotionally rewarding as relieving true pain and suffering, sharing compassionate care and actually saving lives. Illness and injury will always require the best efforts our medical system can provide. But emergency departments nationwide are being overwhelmed by the non-emergent, and doctors in general are asked to treat what doesn’t need treatment.
In a single night I had patients come in for the following complaints (all brought by ambulance): “Smoked marijuana and got dizzy”, “stung by a bee and it hurts”, “got drunk and have a hangover”, “sat out in the sun and got sunburn”, “ate Mexican food and threw up”, “picked my nose and it bled, but now it stopped”, “just had sex and want to know if I’m pregnant.” Since all my colleagues and I have worked our shifts while suffering from worse symptoms than these (well, hopefully not the marijuana), we have understandably lost some of our natural empathy for such patients. When working with a cold, flu or headache, I often feel I am like one of those cute little animal signs in amusement parks that say “you must be taller than me to ride this ride” only my sign would read “you must be sicker than me to come to our emergency department.” You’d be surprised how many patients wouldn’t qualify.
At a time when we have an unprecedented obsession with health – Dr. Oz, The Doctors, Oprah and a host of daytime talk shows make the smallest issues seem like apocalyptic pandemics – we have substandard national wellness. This is largely because the media focuses on the exotic and the sensational and ignores the mundane. Our society has warped our perception of true risk. We are taught to fear vaccinations, mold, shark attacks, airplanes and breast implants when we really should worry about smoking, drug abuse, obesity, cars and basic hygiene. If you go by pharmaceutical advertisement budgets, our most critical health needs are to have sex and fall asleep.
Somehow we have developed an expectation that our health should always be perfect, and if it isn’t, there should be a pill to fix it. With every ache and sniffle we run to the doctor, or purchase useless quackery such as Airborne or homeopathic cures (to the tune of tens of billions of dollars). We demand unnecessary diagnostic testing, antibiotics for our viruses, narcotics for bruises and sprains. And due to time constraints on physicians, fear of lawsuits and the pressure to keep patients satisfied, we usually get them.
Yet the great secret of medicine is that almost everything we see will get better (or worse) no matter how we treat it. Usually better. The human body is exquisitely talented at healing. If bodies didn’t heal by themselves, we’d be up the creek. Even in an Intensive Care Unit, with our most advanced techniques applied, all we’re really doing is optimizing the conditions under which natural healing can occur. We give oxygen and fluids in the right proportions, raise or lower the blood pressure as needed and allow the natural healing mechanisms time to do their work. It’s as if you could put your car in the service garage, make sure you gave it plenty of gas, oil and brake fluid, and then expect the transmission to fix itself.
The bottom line is that most conditions are self-limited. This doesn’t mesh well with our immediate-gratification, instant-action society. But usually that bronchitis or back ache or poison ivy or stomach flu just needs time to get better. Take two aspirin and call me in the morning wasn’t your doctor being lazy in the middle of the night; it was sound medical practice. As a wise pediatrician colleague of mine once told me, “Our best medicines are Tincture of Time and Elixir of Neglect.” Taking drugs for things that go away on their own is rarely helpful and often harmful.
We’ve become a nation of hypochondriacs. Every sneeze is swine flu, every headache a tumor. And at great expense, we deliver fantastically prompt, thorough and largely unnecessary care. There is tremendous financial pressure on physicians to keep patients happy. But unlike business, in medicine the customer isn’t always right. Sometimes a doctor needs to show tough love and deny patients the quick fix. A good physician needs to have the guts to stand up to people and tell them that their baby gets ear infections because they smoke cigarettes. That it’s time to admit they are alcoholics. That they need to suck it up and deal with discomfort because narcotics will just make everything worse. That what’s really wrong with them is that they are just too damned fat. Unfortunately, this type of advice rarely leads to high patient satisfaction scores. Modern medicine is a blessing which improves all our lives. But until we start educating the general populace about what really affects their health and what a doctor is capable (and more importantly, incapable) of fixing, we will continue to waste a large portion of our healthcare dollar on treatments which just don’t make any difference."
Dr. Thomas A. Doyle is an emergency physician who practices in Sewickley, PA. He is the author of the forthcoming book “Suck It Up, America: The Tough Choices Needed for Real Health-Care Reform”
"Treating a Nation of Anxious Whimps" by Dr. Thomas Doyle
"Emergency departments are distilleries boiling complex blends of trauma, stress and emotion down to the essence of immediacy: what needs to be done, right now, to fix the problem. Working the past twenty years in such environments has shown me with great clarity what is wrong (and right) with our nation’s medical system. It’s obvious to me that despite all the furor and rancor, what is being debated in Washington currently is not healthcare reform. It’s only healthcare insurance reform. It addresses the undeniably important issues of who is going to pay and how, but completely misses the point of why. Healthcare costs too much in our country because we deliver too much healthcare. We deliver too much because we demand too much. And we demand it for all the wrong reasons. We’re turning into a nation of anxious wimps.
I still love my job; very few things are as emotionally rewarding as relieving true pain and suffering, sharing compassionate care and actually saving lives. Illness and injury will always require the best efforts our medical system can provide. But emergency departments nationwide are being overwhelmed by the non-emergent, and doctors in general are asked to treat what doesn’t need treatment.
In a single night I had patients come in for the following complaints (all brought by ambulance): “Smoked marijuana and got dizzy”, “stung by a bee and it hurts”, “got drunk and have a hangover”, “sat out in the sun and got sunburn”, “ate Mexican food and threw up”, “picked my nose and it bled, but now it stopped”, “just had sex and want to know if I’m pregnant.” Since all my colleagues and I have worked our shifts while suffering from worse symptoms than these (well, hopefully not the marijuana), we have understandably lost some of our natural empathy for such patients. When working with a cold, flu or headache, I often feel I am like one of those cute little animal signs in amusement parks that say “you must be taller than me to ride this ride” only my sign would read “you must be sicker than me to come to our emergency department.” You’d be surprised how many patients wouldn’t qualify.
At a time when we have an unprecedented obsession with health – Dr. Oz, The Doctors, Oprah and a host of daytime talk shows make the smallest issues seem like apocalyptic pandemics – we have substandard national wellness. This is largely because the media focuses on the exotic and the sensational and ignores the mundane. Our society has warped our perception of true risk. We are taught to fear vaccinations, mold, shark attacks, airplanes and breast implants when we really should worry about smoking, drug abuse, obesity, cars and basic hygiene. If you go by pharmaceutical advertisement budgets, our most critical health needs are to have sex and fall asleep.
Somehow we have developed an expectation that our health should always be perfect, and if it isn’t, there should be a pill to fix it. With every ache and sniffle we run to the doctor, or purchase useless quackery such as Airborne or homeopathic cures (to the tune of tens of billions of dollars). We demand unnecessary diagnostic testing, antibiotics for our viruses, narcotics for bruises and sprains. And due to time constraints on physicians, fear of lawsuits and the pressure to keep patients satisfied, we usually get them.
Yet the great secret of medicine is that almost everything we see will get better (or worse) no matter how we treat it. Usually better. The human body is exquisitely talented at healing. If bodies didn’t heal by themselves, we’d be up the creek. Even in an Intensive Care Unit, with our most advanced techniques applied, all we’re really doing is optimizing the conditions under which natural healing can occur. We give oxygen and fluids in the right proportions, raise or lower the blood pressure as needed and allow the natural healing mechanisms time to do their work. It’s as if you could put your car in the service garage, make sure you gave it plenty of gas, oil and brake fluid, and then expect the transmission to fix itself.
The bottom line is that most conditions are self-limited. This doesn’t mesh well with our immediate-gratification, instant-action society. But usually that bronchitis or back ache or poison ivy or stomach flu just needs time to get better. Take two aspirin and call me in the morning wasn’t your doctor being lazy in the middle of the night; it was sound medical practice. As a wise pediatrician colleague of mine once told me, “Our best medicines are Tincture of Time and Elixir of Neglect.” Taking drugs for things that go away on their own is rarely helpful and often harmful.
We’ve become a nation of hypochondriacs. Every sneeze is swine flu, every headache a tumor. And at great expense, we deliver fantastically prompt, thorough and largely unnecessary care. There is tremendous financial pressure on physicians to keep patients happy. But unlike business, in medicine the customer isn’t always right. Sometimes a doctor needs to show tough love and deny patients the quick fix. A good physician needs to have the guts to stand up to people and tell them that their baby gets ear infections because they smoke cigarettes. That it’s time to admit they are alcoholics. That they need to suck it up and deal with discomfort because narcotics will just make everything worse. That what’s really wrong with them is that they are just too damned fat. Unfortunately, this type of advice rarely leads to high patient satisfaction scores. Modern medicine is a blessing which improves all our lives. But until we start educating the general populace about what really affects their health and what a doctor is capable (and more importantly, incapable) of fixing, we will continue to waste a large portion of our healthcare dollar on treatments which just don’t make any difference."
Dr. Thomas A. Doyle is an emergency physician who practices in Sewickley, PA. He is the author of the forthcoming book “Suck It Up, America: The Tough Choices Needed for Real Health-Care Reform”
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
So a PA walks into a bar...
Good for a yuck, these are items forwarded to me by one of my professors as actual patient notes from the real world. Some are typos, some are just plain poor word choice, others are clearly intended correctly but got lost in translation by the poor transcriptionist assigned to decode someone's horrible hand writing or crackly/muffled tape cassette dictation. And let me just say - from my personal experience in the medical profession: no, I don't think these are made up ;) Enjoy! xo Mego
1) Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities
2) patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year
3) on the second day, the knee was better, and then on the third day it disappeared
4) Patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed
5) The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.
6) Discharge status: alive, but without my permission
7) healthy-appearing decrepit 69-year old male mentally alert but forgetful
8) The patient refused autopsy.
9) The patient has no previous histry of suicides
10) Patient has left White Blood Cells at another hospital.
11) Patient's medical history has been remarkably insignificant with only a 40lbs weight gain in the past 3 days
12) PAtient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch
13) Between you and me, we ought to be able to get to get this lady pregnant.
14) She is numb from her toes down
15) While in the ER, she was examined x-rated and sent home
16) The skin was moist and dry
17) Occasional, constant, infrequent headaches
18) Patient was alert and unresponsive
19) She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life until she got a divorce.
20) Rectal examination revealed a normal-size thyroid.
21) I saw your patient today who is still under our car for physical therapy
22) The lab test indicated abnormal lover function
23) The patient was to have a bowel resection. However, he took a job as a stockbrocker instead
24) Skin: somewhat pale but present
25) The pelvic exam will be done later on the floor
26) Patient was seen in consultation by Dr. ______, who felt we should sit on the abdomen and I agree
27) Large brown stool ambulating in the hall
28) She has no rigors or shaking chills but her husband states she was hot in bed last night
29) Patient was found in bed with her power mower.
1) Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities
2) patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year
3) on the second day, the knee was better, and then on the third day it disappeared
4) Patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed
5) The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.
6) Discharge status: alive, but without my permission
7) healthy-appearing decrepit 69-year old male mentally alert but forgetful
8) The patient refused autopsy.
9) The patient has no previous histry of suicides
10) Patient has left White Blood Cells at another hospital.
11) Patient's medical history has been remarkably insignificant with only a 40lbs weight gain in the past 3 days
12) PAtient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch
13) Between you and me, we ought to be able to get to get this lady pregnant.
14) She is numb from her toes down
15) While in the ER, she was examined x-rated and sent home
16) The skin was moist and dry
17) Occasional, constant, infrequent headaches
18) Patient was alert and unresponsive
19) She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life until she got a divorce.
20) Rectal examination revealed a normal-size thyroid.
21) I saw your patient today who is still under our car for physical therapy
22) The lab test indicated abnormal lover function
23) The patient was to have a bowel resection. However, he took a job as a stockbrocker instead
24) Skin: somewhat pale but present
25) The pelvic exam will be done later on the floor
26) Patient was seen in consultation by Dr. ______, who felt we should sit on the abdomen and I agree
27) Large brown stool ambulating in the hall
28) She has no rigors or shaking chills but her husband states she was hot in bed last night
29) Patient was found in bed with her power mower.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Pouf!
I was trying to post this pic with my LAST post... but my computer was being fiesty and didn't want to upload any photos that day... so here you go.
This is what the croquembouche is made of. They're like a crispy outside, soft cookie texture inside and filled with four different flavors : vanilla, chocolate, cafe mocha, or grand marnier! And the drizzle coating you see here, is CARAMEL! what's not to like? Can I get a big OUI OUI?!?! hehehe YAYYYYYY :)
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Croquembouche! French, for wedding cake :)
So yesterday morning I met with the fabulous Pascal Tiseur - a real Lyonais transplant who owns 4 diferent bakery cafe locations in town. He'll be making our cake for our wedding - I say cake-for-our-wedding instead of "wedding cake" because neither Ryan or I LIKE regular cake. And the traditional French wedding cake called "Croquembouche" (translation: cracks open in your mouth... hehe) is a nice shout out to my beloved Franceland... and Ryan is getting HIS favorite desert - in the form of S'MORES as an alternative desert at the wedding as well. If you've never seen a Croquembouche, a simple google image search will give you an idea of what the tower cake compromised of little puff pastry balls filled with whipped cream look like. For my taste-test with Monsieur Pascal, he made me a PLATE of 12 puffs!!!! I ate ONE and took the rest home... and will be bringin the other ELEVEN in to work with me tomorrow, as I do NOT need puff pastries laying around when my wedding dress fitting is 3 weeks away! LOL But let me tell you, come August 14th, they are going to be worth the extra calories :) Our croquembouche will have four different signature fillings: chocolate, vanilla, coffee, or grand marnier flavored whipped cream inside each of the puffs! Who knows what flavor you'll get when you pull one off the tower at the wedding... but trust me, you can't go wrong with any of them. They're amazing! Can't wait for you all to be at the wedding in August - and maybe taste your first Crouquembouche too :) xoxo Mego
Friday, April 15, 2011
7.5 down, 2.5 more to go!
I'm updating the blog by popular (or not-so-popular- who really reads this anyway?! lol) demand, merely because I feel I SHOULD post an update since it's been 2 weeks, although - to date this rotation has been - while FUN and EDUCATIONAL... simultaneously, pretty... well... boring! haha But of course, now that I've actually put that to TYPE, I'll be reporting back next time with multiple days of gore, mayhem and my own fumbles and incompetence... For now though, things are blissfully calm. I am working a 7-days on/ 7-days off schedule in In-patient medicine. My preceptor is an older English gentleman named "Ian" (whatelse would his name be?). He is a GREAT teacher, and has an even better sick/ sarcastic sense of humor. He jokes around with me a lot, pimps me a lot, and always buys me lunch - which is SUPER nice, but also makes me uncomfortable, as he is treating me EVERY day. Really, too nice. After our first week together, he told me in his thick Manchester accent : "Meghan, I think you're practically BRILLIANT... I just don't want to see you get your ass-kicked on your boards".... with those words of encouragement and wisdom, I have set out to read the ENTIRE Washington Manual of Critical Care in my 7 days off... it's going... welll, average. Time will tell on retention! But at least I'm getting a first shot at exposure... and it'll DEFINITELY take REPEART exposures to the material to get it cemented in my little Meghan-head before I take my Boards in August. And truth be told, I've been 'balancing' (generous "balancing") between studying and getting some of the loose-ends taken care of for the wedding. 2 of the 3 girls have their bridesmaid dress. I've got a START on their gifts. The invitations have arrived - and are awaiting assembly. I have meetings with the caterer, vineyard and frenchie cake-maker in my next week off. So I've been takin' care of some FUN business on the side too :) Speaking of which, while work remains "status quo" I suppose there are some interesting 'personal life' developments worth updating! The first of which is: Ryan got approved to "separate" from the Military... this means he gets to get out of his current Active Duty contract and become a Civilian! This is what he was hoping for and we are super excited they are actually LETTING him! This way, instead of hammering out 1-2 classes/ semester as he serves Active Duty full-time, he'll be able to walk away, free and clear, and just be a "regular" civilian. This fall semester, he'll be a full-time college student for the first time in his life! We figure if he can take a 16 credit load, he should be able to take the MCAT for Med School in about 3 semesters. This exciting turn of events doesn't mean that he'll be done with the military for good (he hopes and plans to go to USHSU (pronounced: "you-shoes" - the Armed Forces university for med school in Bethesda, Maryland). If he does that, he will of course owe time in service back to the Air Force when he completes his residency. But all that is several miles down the road, for now, we're just pumped that he can buckle down and focus on school where he'll be enrolled at Old Dominion University when we move to Virginia this fall. As for me, my assignment in Virginia still stands (hence why we're driving out there!). As soon as I pass my boards ( I plan on testing ASAP post graduation- hopefully, within 14 days) I can leave for the next possible ODS (Officer Development School - get used to me talking in all these abbreviations for the next 3 years! lol) that is, the Navy's version of bootcamp for officers in Portsmouth, Maine. ODS is only 5 weeks - and thank goodness - because once I graduate, I won't be getting a paycheck til after I graduate ODS! So with THAT pressure on me to pass my boards, I better wrap up this benign post and go study. Miss and love you all! And whether I see you in my travels in the next 2.5 rotations, or at the wedding this summer, I can't wait to see you all! Know you are very missed and loved! xoxo Mego
Saturday, April 2, 2011
PPS week!
So I haven't blogged in a week, because I've been too busy enjoying trailer park life with the Bears at the Elks Lodge. We were back on campus all last week for our "PPS Week" - which is just a fancy acronym for a weeks worth of seminars on professionalism, resume writing, and various pertinent topics in medicine. It's actually kind of enjoyable - well, the sitting still for 8 hours is hard to get used to again (can't believe we did that EVERYDAY for the first 12 months of our education!)- but the plus side is, versus the school year, there's no homework or studying once class is dismissed! So it's just show up for face-time, and punch out and go play shuffle board and drink $3 (strong) mix drinks at the elks with the bears! :) I start my next rotation on Monday, but I don't yet have my schedule. I've heard through the grapevine though, that it's a 7 days on/7 days off schedule- which would ROCK! I spoke with my preceptor earlier in the week and he seems like a very nice British gentleman. I'll have more to blog about once the new rotation starts, but for now I'm just dividing my time between the gym and playing with the bears! Just wanted to check in with my loyal followers and say, all is well, and more adventures to come! xoxo Mego
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
