December is my elective month, and I chose to do 2 weeks of rheumatology and 2 weeks of neuro-radiology.  Both specialties are pretty low key and also pretty applicable to ophthalmology.

Since I had , and I had 2 extra days off for , I only had 3 days of rheumatology before my 2 weeks was up. One of those days was my , so I really only had 2 days in clinic.  Oh well.

Now I’m on to neuro-radiology, which is going to be reading a bunch of head and spine MRIs.  I think it would be pretty awesome if I could get a little more comfortable reading head MRIs, since lots of ophtho patients will have imaging, so that’s my goal for the month.

I started yesterday out with a big bowl of Puffin’s cereal.  I haven’t had cereal in ages and it really hit the spot!  I cute up a pear and sprinkled in a few cashews before covering it all in almond milk- so yum!

You can also see the contents of my desk in this picture- multiple coffee mugs, multiple other beverages, a note pad, and some nail polish- typical.

After spending the morning in the dark radiology reading room (how do people work in there all day!?!?) I had an hour break, so I ran home for lunch.  I ran out of time that morning to pack lunch, so I was stoked that I had enough time to go home.  I didn’t want to eat a boxed lunch.

After work, Kyle and I did something really excited, but I’m not going to write about it until tomorrow.  So let’s pretend Sunday night was yesterday night, because I went to the gym.

I really enjoy ending my workouts with some medicine ball abs, push-ups, and stretches.  Push-ups are so much more fun if you roll a medicine ball between your hands each time!

I found this medicine ball workout article on – I have to try some of these exercises!

For dinner, Kyle and I made shrimp, broccoli, and rice.  For the shrimp, I mixed sesame oil, olive oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sweet soy sauce (or you could use brown sugar or maple syrup), fresh chopped ginger, and fresh garlic.  I marinated the shrimp in the sauce for a while, and then spread them out onto a baking sheet.  I roasted them with the shells on for 10 min at 400F and they were fantastic!

Dessert was banana and almond milk with some cocoa powder- one of my favorite healthy desserts.

By 9pm it was lights out!

Science share:

(I’m trying to incorporate more interesting articles and such into ADITH)

I just read this about the presence of E. Coli and Salmonella in produce from farmer’s markets.  I know that personally, I am so bad about always washing my fruits and veggies off after I buy them.  There are a few that I always wash, but sometimes if it’s labeled as organic, or I know I bought it from a local farmer, I skip rinsing it.  According to this small study, of the 133 samples tested from various California farmer’s markets, 24% had E. Coli or Salmonella.  16 of the samples were unsatisfactory according to USDA standards.  So, even though this study isn’t huge or life-changing- it does highlight the importance of washing your produce no matter where you buy it.

Here’s the actual article:

Donna J Levy, Nicola K Beck, Alexandra L Kossik, Taylor Patti, J Scott Meschke, Melissa Calicchia, Rosalee S Hellberg. Microbial safety and quality of fresh herbs from Los Angeles, Orange County and Seattle farmers’ markets. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 2014; DOI: