Day Zero list #66!

1. I graduated from a magnet, gifted, college-prep high school with above a 4.0 GPA.
2. I was a founding member of said high school’s robotics team.
3. I was the student leader of the robotics team for 2 years.
4. I was a mentor for the robotics team for a year.
5. I was a volunteer for FIRST Robotics for 10 years.
6. I did over 300 hours of community service in high school.
7. I was in the honors program in college.
8. I got my first (and second) co-op jobs on my own, without the help of the college co-op office.
9. I double majored in biomedical and electrical engineering.
10. I graduated from college cum laude.
11. I graduated with a masters degree in neuroscience.
12. My freshmen design team and I won best undergraduate presentation at the Southern Biomedical Engineering conference as sophomores.
13. I married my best friend who is the love of my life.
14. I am financially independent of my parents.
15. I have a job in the field of research I love.
16. I am a moderator on BYDLS.com, and have been for several years.
17. I was a co-host of a successful bicoastal all female tech podcast (Girls Gone Geek).
18. I am the city organizer for a successful non-profit, all volunteer fundraiser (Twestival).
19. I have lived with/fought/survived chronic illness for over 5 years.
20. I was the photographer for the Virginia Orchid Society for a little over a year.
21. I have a great relationship with my mom.
22. I’ve traveled to Turkey and London.
23. I’ve fired a gun.
24. I took 5 years of Latin between middle and high school.
25. I took 4 years of German in high school.
26. I took a year of American Sign Language in high school, and it’s been the most useful language besides English I’ve learned.
27. I was on the Battle of the Brains team in high school.
28. I was on the German Battle of the Brains team in high school as well, and we won at German Convention one year.
29. I’ve met Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers.
30. I’ve volunteered with Dave Lavery.
31. I’ve had a letter published in the editorial section of the newspaper (Richmond Times Dispatch).
32. I’ve been on the local news (for FIRST Robotics).
33. I’ve been a judge for FIRST Lego League.
34. I maintain my own blog (quasi-self-hosted).
35. I maintain my own website.
36. I have seen a show on Broadway.
37. I had a wedding that was reflective of my husband and I and our beliefs.
38. I’m a card carrying member of MENSA.
39. I’ve been to an amusement park and ridden roller coasters.
40. I’ve witnessed kittens being born.
41. I’ve gone to a drive-in movie theater.
42. I’ve ridden a horse.
43. I’ve helped out family members expecting nothing in return.
44. I’ve helped out friends expecting nothing in return.
45. I have friends I can count on in the good times and the bad.
46. I can sew using a sewing machine.
47. I can also sew by hand.
48. I can cross-stitch.
49. I can bake.
50. I can cook.
51. I was in a co-ed performing arts fraternity in college.
52. I was elected chapter representative and secretary (in two different years) in said fraternity.
53. I won an alumni scholarship for my last year of college.
54. I witnessed my grandmother almost die from her liver shutting down due to alcoholism when I was 14. It changed me, but for the better.
55. I’ve done a poster presentation at an international conference.
56. I’ve attended the Society for Neuroscience meeting, the largest scientific meeting in my field.
57. I’ve traveled by myself.
58. I’ve taken a medical school class (Intro to Neuroscience).
59. I’ve seen a show at The Globe.
60. I have two healthy, happy cats.
61. I’ve had a boa constrictor around my neck.
62. I’ve lived on my own, without roommates.
63. I can ice skate.
64. I can roller skate.
65. I take great pictures of kids.
66. I have more than a basic knowledge of carpentry.
67. I also have a pretty decent knowledge of hardware and power tools.
68. I can play a few basics on the harp.
69. I can do multivariable calculus.
70. I’ve been to the Apple campus in Cupertino.
71. I’ve taught a range of kids, from kindergarten to freshmen in college.
72. I’ve survived having my life plan completely changed by failing my prelim exam twice.
73. I’ve seen all 6 Star Wars movies.
74. I designed my own save the date cards, invitations, and programs for my wedding.
75. I’ve designed handouts for a few tech/entrepreneur events in Philadelphia.
76. My master’s thesis.
77. I know how to solder.
78. I also know how to wirewrap a breadboard.
79. I’ve been a vegetarian for 10 years.
80. I’m one of the organizers for Podcamp Philadelphia.
81. I can write an IRB submission by myself in a few days, given that I know the study parameters.
82. I can perform most of the duties of the studies my lab does from start to finish myself, from (some) grant writing and study design to IRB submission to recruitment to running the study to data analysis.
83. I can and have made my own holiday cards for family and friends.
84. I’ve learned how to deal with working overnight and managing my illnesses at the same time.
85. I’ve been to therapy and learned that I actually deal with problems in my life relatively well and normally.
86. If I have the free time, I can read an entire book in a day.
87. I’ve seen the extended editions of all 3 Lord of the Rings movies.
88. I’ve read all 7 of the Harry Potter books.
89. I’ve read all 3 of the Lord of the Rings books, plus The Hobbit.
90. I’ve read all 7 Chronicles of Narnia books.
91. I’ve seen the ruins at Troy.
92. I’ve been to Disney World (twice).
93. I’ve been to Sea World (in Orlando).
94. I’ve been to Johnson Space Center.
95. I’ve figured spiritually what I believe in (and didn’t take into account what the rest of my family/friends believe).
96. I’ve been to the world’s oldest zoo (London Zoo).
97. I’ve been to the nation’s oldest zoo (Philadelphia Zoo).
98. I’ve been to both Busch Gardens (in Williamsburg, VA and Tampa, FL).
99. I’ve been to 3 POTUS houses – Mount Vernon, Monticello, and Ashlawn.
100. I’ve been to Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, and Yorktown historical landmarks.
101. I’ve learned to let myself be happy.

And now putting $10 in my savings account now that this goal is finished!

I apologize for my lack of posting. The crazy weather we’ve been having here on the East Coast has been causing my fibromyalgia and arthritis to flare, plus I’ve been busy with end of the year wrap-up on projects at work.  In happier news, my cousin/sister had her baby, a beautiful healthy baby boy named Leilan Joseph Phillip Caiden, on December 12.  My new nephew is absolutely precious, and a welcome reminder of the beauty of life in a year where I have attended my fair share of funerals.

Plans for things to come in the new year are already percolating.  In January, I’ll be heading down to Baltimore for a job interview as a lab technician in another circadian rhythms lab; this one uses mice instead of humans as subjects, but I’m thrilled and honored to even be considered for the position, as the lab is very well-known and does good research.  I’m also helping organize HealthCamp Philadelphia in March, which is already turning out to look like it will be fantastic.  

Our first event for Geeks Who Give turned out to be a HUGE success.  Over 125 people showed up; 32 boxes of food were donated to Philabundance.  I’m waiting for the official letter from Philabundance on the exact weight of food donated, but whatever the exact number is, it’s amazing for a 1 night food drive.  I can’t wait to jump into more charity events with Geeks Who Give in the new year.

I will hopefully be podcasting more once I get through the holidays as well.  I’m working on the plans for my own podcast, Biorhythms Weekly, where I explain research going on in the field of biological rhythms each week using layman’s terms using both audio and video.  I hope to launch sometime early next year; keep an eye out here and on Twitter for it!

I hope you all have holidays full of love and joy.  I’m behind on my own holiday shopping and holiday card making, so please forgive me if your holiday cards are a bit late this year.

As I’ve mentioned in passing several times, I have quite a list of chronic illnesses. At the end of my junior year of high school, I was bitten by a brown recluse spider, one of the only two types of poisonous to humans spiders. I had a hard, purple indentation on the outside of my upper left thigh; I thought nothing of it originally. I was a busy student, and it didn’t hurt. My bus driver saw it the next day, since I was wearing shorts, and she recognized it as a brown recluse bite. My mom took me to Patient First that evening, and the doctors there didn’t quite know what to do with me. I ended up with a tetanus shot, giant antibiotic pills, and instructions to call a plastic surgeon immediately the next day. The plastic surgeon the next day said the antibiotics were like hitting a fly with a sledgehammer, so I stopped taking those. I spent the summer going to the plastic surgeon to have the necrotic tissue scrapped out every few weeks. I have a small round scar on my leg, that occasionally hurts because of some slight nerve damage.

When I started back at school in that fall for my senior year, I started having digestive problems. I’m not a big fan of doctors, so I just kind of dealt with it for several years. By the end of my freshman year of college, I was down to 85 lbs, and couldn’t keep much food in me. So I finally went to a gastroenterologist, who told me I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), did some blood tests, and gave me a prescription for an anti-spasmotic for my intestines. About a year later, I was back up at college in Philadelphia, and was having horrid abdominal pains, and once again wasn’t able to eat much. I went to another gastro doc, who ran all of the invasive tests this time – abdominal and pelvic CT, endoscopy, and colonoscopy. She ended up diagnosing me with IBS again, and tried me on several different meds, each one just giving me nasty side effects. I got online, did some research, and started treating myself with peppermint oil capsules, soluble fiber supplements, and watching what I eat. I’ve still had flare ups, but I’ve pretty much been able to handle my digestive system ever since.

About six months later, I started having muscle pain in my shoulders and legs. I thought it was just because of my backpack and walking so far from my apartment every day. However, nothing I did made it go away, it just kept getting worse, and I was exhausted all the time. The message boards I was on for my IBS had several people who also have fibromyalgia, a frequently comorbid condition. They suggested I get checked out for fibro as well, as my symptoms sounded very similar and weren’t getting better. I went a rheumatologist who told me I couldn’t have fibro because I wasn’t depressed, which I knew was not a diagnostic criteria for fibro. Doing my own research online again, I found a fibro clinic just north of Philadelphia. I started seeing the doctor there the summer of 2005, and have been going there ever since. Even with all the blood tests other doctors had done, diseases had been missed. I was shortly diagnosed with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic viral infections causing viral arthritis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (autoimmune hypothyroidism), Addison’s disease (low functioning adrenal glands, probably autoimmune), and a serotonin deficiency. I take a large number of bioidentical hormones, vitamins, and prescription pills, as seen above. The above picture is 1 day’s worth of pills for me. I have my blood tested every 4 months, when I can afford it, to check my levels of hormones, etc to see if my pills need to be adjusted.

I wear a medic alert bracelet every day, I have a collapsible cane when I’m having a bad flare, various braces, and heating pads to help with the pain. I don’t take any pain meds, they don’t work. I occasionally end up having to take a day off of work because I’ve done too much and I literally can’t get out of bed. I have to get 8 hours of sleep as many nights as I can, or else I get ill and flare up. Unfortunately, this can limit how much I can do sometimes. I’m usually pretty bad at saying no, and love doing as much as I can. Blogging, podcasting, and freelance voice work are all very illness-friendly tasks for me, which helps immensely.

Brief rundown of Melissa’s life, which seriously I swear is a soap opera:

My appeal to the executive committee of my department so that I could try to remain a PhD student was denied. I am now transferring to be a masters student, and working on my masters thesis. I will defend my thesis sometime in March, and graduate in May. My boss says I can stay on in the lab as a lab tech until August (which is when the grants roll over for the fiscal year) if there is enough money in the lab budget.

My good friend and host of the podcast Girls Gone Geek I co-host Liana Lehua is ill and in the ICU in the hospital. I am trying to upkeep all of the Girls Gone Geek web presences and update our audience about what I can of her condition. She is a very private person, so please don’t be mad if I don’t directly answer some questions; I’m trying to protect her privacy. I’m collecting postcards/cards/letters/etc. to send to her, email me or DM me on Twitter for my address if you want to send stuff to Liana via me.

My sister’s baby shower is next weekend, and I’m frantically trying to put together a menu, favors, and decorations. Luckily I have tomorrow off, since I’m working an overnight study tonight, and Kevin and I have no plans for the weekend, so I can get some shopping and cleaning done. Still need a Halloween costume though….

I’ve decided to take next year off from school, and work at least for one year before going back to finish my PhD. There are very few places that do the sort of research I do, so I will have to relocate to stay in this field, so it needs to be well-researched, and Kevin’s job situation needs to be stabilized.

Thank you to everyone who has sent me emails, Twitter DMs, etc. and been so supportive through this rough patch! I’m working on it!

Photo taken by Mark Blevis

September 6 and 7 I attended PodCamp Philadelphia and met some fantastic podcasters and bloggers from Philadelphia and around the world. One of the wonderful sessions was given by Canadian Mark Blevis, where he talked about how to enhance your podcast by acting like the band the Police. Mark also talked about his podcast about children’s books called Just One More Book. Being the bibliophile that I am, I recommended he attend the Rosenbach Museum while he was in Philadelphia, as I knew there was a Maurice Sendak exhibit there at the moment. The Rosenbach is a little known Philadelphia treasure, two rowhouses in Center City once owned by two brothers who had a love of books and is converted to a wonderful library and museum. I’d been there once before and fell in love with the place. On Sunday of PodCamp, Mark, myself, and two other great Philly PodCampers rushed over to the Rosenbach during the lunch break, and saw the Sendak exhibit and recorded a podcast in the car. The result is posted on the latest Just One More Book, please listen and enjoy: The Art and Books of Maurice Sendak