Speculative Speculum

The boys helped me make chocolate covered pretzels just for fun. We used some left over sprinkles from the summer.

My history courses are coming to a close, and I have done nothing but writing, writing, writing. I didn’t take my kids to swim lessons this week, I have done little organic chemistry, and I will be so glad when I have these three papers completed. I’ve decided to take the next month off from my history degree. I’m low on tuition money, so at least I will have time to save up. I think that it will be a nice break since I have had one since I started my graduate degree. I have not studied anymore for the MCAT this week. Work has been so busy also. We’ve had a lot of sad things happen in the ER.

Organic chemistry is going well. I have another test coming up on Thursday. For the last test, the scores ranged from a 43 to a 98. The girl who got the 98 didn’t study at all! I wish that I could be like that. I love chemistry lab, and I love my teacher. She gives us so much confidence in what we are doing and doesn’t treat us like we are stupid. She says that we are already her collegues and that the skills that we learn in the lab will help us in our future careers. I also love the microglass kits. Who knew chemistry could be so cool?

Notetaking has been going fine. I’ve certainly got into the swing of things, and it will be nice to get a paycheck at the end of the semester! I started two new clubs at my college: the International Studies Club and the Math and Science Society. My sister was the president of the Math and Science Society two years ago, and my brother was in the International Studies Club and went to Europe last spring. I’m going to run for treasurer of the Math and Science Society and president of the International Studies Club. The meetings align perfectly in my schedule which is great. I wish that I would have joined more clubs when I was younger since it has been nice to get more social interaction with school peers. The International Studies Club plans on going to New York this spring to see the 9/11 Memorial which I feel is worth visiting at least once in a life time.

D1 has been so funny and sweet lately. D2 is so handsome and likes to dress up all the time, and D3 started walking! D3 has also started letting me put bows in her hair, which I love doing. She looks so pretty! Daycare has been going fine, and D1 is doing well in the school there.

I’ve been asking around to see if anyone would be interested in becoming a faculty advisor for the pre-health club that I’ve been trying to initiate. So far, I don’t have any bites. This is kind of dissapointing especially from the nursing department which is the area that could most benefit from having students better informed about going into the health care field. I will keep trying, however.

Maternity Hospital During Siege of Warsaw, Julien Bryan, 1939.

Life Magazine:

“Siege of Warsaw by German forces in September of 1939. Nurses care for infants in a makeshift maternity ward in besieged Warsaw. During bombardment, the hospital moved all new babies and their mothers down to the basement. The doctor in charge stands in the background. Some women are still in labor. Some of their babies barely recovered from the rigor of childbirth, were hit by shell fragments, but were pulled through by the doctors. Some did not survive.”

***The two babies and mother in the left lower corner are the same people who are in this picture. The twins died five years later during a bombing in 1944.

Two Polish mothers pose with their newborn infants during the siege of Warsaw. The twins died pictured here died 5 years later from a shell blast in 1944, Julien Bryan, 1939.

This is copied from an update on a study on hyperemesis gravidarum (severe nausea and vomiting in pregnancy):
We have completed and published 11 studies based on your survey results! Two of our most recent studies providing evidence for a genetic predisposition to HG, and showing HG can lead to long-term effects in children, have received worldwide media attention. This will help greatly to increase public awareness, make doctors take HG more seriously, as well as inspire more HG research. I have pasted links to summaries of our studies below. Thanks to you, we have made great progress but we still have a long way to go.

We currently have:

•1981 Eligible Participants (1317 HG, 664 Friend Controls)
•1600 Enrolled (had phone appointment and sent in signed consent forms)
•1084 DNAs (764 HG, 320 Friend Controls)
•892 complete the entire survey
•1239 survey sections one and two completed

We can NOT find the cause of HG until we have a minimum of 2,000 DNAs (1,000 HG and 1,000 friend controls)

PLEASE help us by checking the list below to make sure you have completed ALL the necessary steps and please refer your friends (HG and non-HG) to participate (as you can see we are very behind on the non-HG friends).

1) If you haven’t completed your SURVEY, please do so at http://www.helpher.org/HER-Research/2007-Genetics/

2) If you had HG, please have your FRIEND CONTROL email me at nvpstudy@usc.edu if you haven’t already. If possible, please refer extra friends.

3) If you haven’t sent in your CONSENT FORM, please do so as soon as possible.

4) If you haven’t sent in your SALIVA KIT, please do so as soon as possible.

5) If you had HG and haven’t sent your MEDICAL RECORDS relating to iv treatment, please do so as soon as possible.

6) If you have any problems/questions with the survey or anything else, please email me at nvpstudy@usc.edu

7) Please spread the word to your OBs and friends so we can get our 2,000 participants as fast as possible.

We have also begun a new study to determine medication effectiveness. If you are trying to conceive or newly pregnant and have had HG in a past pregnancy, please consider participating in this study by filling out this short survey as close to your first positive pregnancy test as possible and thereafter to let us know how medications effect your intake and nausea:

http://www.helpher.org/mothers/current-research/2011-survey/

Thank you all very much for your time-each one of you is making a difference for generations of women and their children!

PUBLICATIONS LIST:

Risk factors, treatments, and outcomes associated with prolonged hyperemesis gravidarum.

http://informahealthcare.com/eprint/UM2GzTh8Cj6sFwWUEC8d/full

Prenatal exposure to hyperemesis gravidarum linked to increased risk of psychological and behavioral disorders in adulthood.

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8351138

Posttraumatic stress symptoms following pregnancy complicated by hyperemesis gravidarum.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21635201

Recurrence risk of hyperemesis gravidarum.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21429077

Familial aggregation of hyperemesis gravidarum.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20974461

Symptoms and pregnancy outcomes associated with extreme weight loss among women with hyperemesis gravidarum.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20044860

Patients with a history of hyperemesis gravidarum have similar symptoms during egg stimulation and develop ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome: case series.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19878938

High prevalence of severe nausea and vomiting of pregnancy and hyperemesis gravidarum among relatives of affected individuals.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18752885

Secular trends in the treatment of hyperemesis gravidarum.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18260047

Elective pregnancy termination in a large cohort of women with hyperemesis gravidarum.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18061703

The psychosocial burden of hyperemesis gravidarum.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18059463

PLEASE NOTE: For those of you who are not enrolled yet in the study, please email me as soon as possible at nvpstudy@usc.edu to participate-we need you!

Or, email me if you would like to be removed from this list.

Thank you!

Marlena Fejzo, Ph.D.
675 Charles E. Young Dr. South
5535 MRL Bldg., Slamon Lab
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Fax: 310-825-3761
Phone: 310-210-0802
nvpstudy@usc.edu

I walked out of my first organic chemistry test feeling really stupid. I was the sixth out of 8 people done. Hopefully, this just means that I took my time and made less mistakes. I don’t know of any problems that I got wrong for sure, and I left nothing blank. There were two questions (multiple choice) that I more or less guessed and will have no clue of whether I got them wrong until this Tuesday.

What does this mean for me? I need to study a lot more and work through a lot more problems. Everyone in there is bright, so I think that my teacher expects the best from us. I’m feeling pretty crummy at the moment. The good thing is now I know her testing style and what kind of questions that she asks. We have five more exams left!

I know that I really lost my mind when I was driving yesterday and was looking at the gas prices. I saw something like 3.6, 3.7, 3.8… and then 4.01. I equated them to GPAs, but when I got to the 4.01 I thought, “imposibru!” It looks like I’d rather pay more in gas because a 3.9 looks prettier than a 3.6 Haha! Being premed has changed my entire worldview.