Friday, October 03, 2008

Betcha thought the Yakuza got me ...

Sorry, I'm a little obsessed with that story. It's so ... William Gibson. Black market organ donation, Asian mafioso ... he was writing all about it back in 1984 in Neuromancer.

aaaaaand

I'm sorry I haven't written in four months (June, July, Aug, Sept - yup, four.) I went through a bit of a rough patch, got put back together in the brand, spankin' new Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, had a week's vacation, and then -- poof! -- I'm a second year medical student up to my eyeballs in microbiology.

I started getting more migraines. And more. And more. Being in the dark, horizontal and quiet, was preferable to being on my bike, or eating ice cream or ... anything, really. I was really scared. I was really not fun to be around.

I started a blog called La Migraineuse to try make it all make sense. I discovered a whole online migraine community, but I don't really know where I fit in it, or where I want to fit in it. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the blog.

Eventually, I ended up in what neurologists call "status migrainosus," which is basically one migraine, all the time. I got admitted to the hospital, and they gave me a three-day infusion of anti-seziure medication.


Everyone had a different name for the treatment -- brain flush, brain rinse, Jiffy Lube for the brain. And it worked. My neurons calmed right down and I spent my days chatting with my dad (who spent the visit on the comfy pull-out couch) and ordering food from "Catering Services."

So ... to catch up:

We moved. We love the Bicycle District. Coffee, ice cream at Scoops, the Bicycle Kitchen, vegan food at Pure Luck and the knowledgeable and attractive staff at Orange 2o Bikes. 1:15 to school if you cheat and take to bus, 1:30 if you go for a morning ride.

We went to Burning Man. No one died. Yay. Dusty pictures of us looking dusty to come.

I survived microbiology ... Return of GI, Endocrine, and Reproductive Medicine. Bwa ha ha.
Things that seem like a good idea after a day of rest after finals:

A Dark Century. 100 miles. At night. Two weeks to train? No problem (?)

Learning how to brew beer. Apparently it's the new knitting.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

re: brewing. But the outcome is so much better than a fuzzy hat.

La Migraineuse said...

Autumn, it officially became autumn, somewhere in the middle of the night, when I jumped out of bed to shut all the windows and put on a pair of hiking socks, so fuzzy hats beat out pretty much any alcoholic beverage right now. Once I've found my favorite fuzzy hat -- oh, no, MIA! -- Pure Luck has a few autumn beers that looks like they need a taste.

Anonymous said...

Come on--SoCal doesn't have fall (or really any other season, except some years the rainy one).

Dark century. I like the idea. Might have to try to organize one.

La Migraineuse said...

Drew!?! Thanks for reading. Now you're my third fan, after my grandma.