An account of my Chicago weekend

I was able to go to the American College of Osteopathic Surgeons conference this past weekend in Chicago. I treated it as a mini-vacation. I love Chicago.

 

FRIDAY: I went to class in Des Moines all morning and walked around in downtown Chicago all evening. How cool is that? I’m getting ahead of myself though. On the plane there I experienced the single biggest jolt I have ever felt on an aircraft. Sometimes in rough air you can look around and see everyone tensed up, but with this one single jolt the entire cabin actually audibly gasped (like a startled, hushed scream). It was really windy out but I think it also must have been new pilot training day because it was not smooth sailing. I got to the airport and took the subway into town – about a forty minute trip. Then I started walking east toward the hotel. After about twenty minutes of walking I snapped a nice picture of the sunset with my cell phone. Then it hit me – sun sets in the west. I had been going the wrong direction for a long distance. I finally made it to the hotel 2.5 hours after touching down. I was exausted but set back out on foot to find a decent place where a guy can eat by himself and not feel awkward about it. I passed a grocery store on the way back to the hotel and decided to check it out so as to experience what daily living in the heart of the city was really like. I returned to the hotel with a pop and a single beer. I enjoyed the beer and then decided to walk to Millennium Park. It was late on a Friday night and people were all dressed up for Halloween – I even saw a person in an all-out mascot suit (big stuffed head included) riding a bicycle down the street. While at Millennium I was lucky enough to see a firework show coming from Navy Pier. I went home and crashed.

SATURDAY: I got up and walked to the Field Museum. It was cold, I was under-dressed (insulation-wise), and the walk was LONG. Much longer than I thought. With blistered toes and a runny nose I made it to the museum. My legs were tired but just the thought of a museum to myself gave me an energy boost. It wasn’t busy at all. I’ve always wanted to go to the Field Museum by myself, just because I don’t think anyone else is as giddy as I am about that sort of thing. When my heart was content, I did the smart thing and took the cab to the hotel. There were some other DMU students coming to town and I was ready to emerge from my solitude. While waiting for them, I walked to the bar across the street to see if I could catch the ISU game (the bar advertised 42 TVs so I figured my odds were best there, but alas, no game). I got to do another thing I’ve always wanted to do – show up at a bar alone and see if I have what it takes to make some stranger-friends. The place was packed and I sat at one of the only open stools at the bar. These really drunk people started talking to me and long-story-short it turns out they were med students from Kansas City! I assumed they were also there for the conference but this was not the case – just a really strange coincidence! I also learned that a one-bedroom apartment downtown costs $2000/month! When the economy was better it was closer to $3000! And parking spots cost nearly as much per month as my share of my apartment in Des Moines! After a good time with those guys I finally got a call from my classmates who were two hours late because a car took semi truck’s mudflap to its radiator back around Davenport. Amy, Jimmy, and I walked around downtown to find a restaurant to eat at and finally settled at a brewery. Amy was dressed as Indiana Jones (complete with hat and whip) and Jimmy was a Boeing ground crew member (complete with yellow reflective coat and ear protection, but without the glowing orange sticks to direct planes around with). I was lame and dressed as myself. We then walked FOREVER to this strange bar to meet up with other med students from around the country. We thought someone had played a joke on us – the bar was really weird (it was named The Funky Buddha) and was full of men dressed as women and whatnot. Halloween, I guess. Or the regular crowd. Who knows? Mixed drinks were $10 so I got pretty drunk on water. There were VIP tables, but no one was at them, so we took one until we got booted to the dance floor with the other med students and all the, uh, uniquely-dressed people. We took a cab home and hit the sack.

SUNDAY – my reason for being in Chicago. The conference was interesting. We went to some good talks and some boring ones, but I learned some things. Probably my favorite tidbit: a neurosurgeon in Iraq gave a talk about the military surgery hospital there. During his time in Iraq two people came in with explosive devices implanted in their bodies. Really! It’s not just happening on Grey’s Anatomy. It was a good day, but there isn’t much that can be said that makes for a good story. I walked to the train station, rode it to the airport, and flew back to Des Moines. Back to reality.

Honoring Amy at Relay For Life 2009

Last night was Iowa State University’s Relay For Life. Amy’s story was read and a slide show of her was displayed. For those who couldn’t be there, here is what was said:

Amy Kapler came to ISU in the fall of 2006. Though she grew up in Fort Dodge, she attended high school in Minnesota. She opted to return to the state of Iowa to be a Cyclone, as were her father and brother. Amy led the life of the typical freshman: staying busy with schoolwork, enjoying the dorm life, and trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life – she chose English education. She would later call her freshman year at Iowa State the best year of her life.

Throughout that year, she began to have increasingly frequent bouts of nausea. She was misdiagnosed several times until the summer of 2007, when a doctor who had run out of ideas did an ultrasound of her abdomen and found a six-inch diameter mass on her liver. A biopsy showed it to be malignant – Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma. It is a rare strain of cancer that only affects young adults at a rate of approximately 200 cases per year, worldwide. There is no genetic predisposition to Fibrolamellar – Amy was an unfortunate random victim. It was unfortunate that doctors hadn’t caught it sooner, but no one suspects a nineteen year old girl to have liver cancer.

Doctors were optimistic that they could remove the tumor, which they did in July 2007, along with one-third of her liver. Unfortunately, they found that the cancer had already spread throughout her abdomen.

Chemotherapy was the plan of action, and this presented its own problems. Amy’s type of cancer is so rare that little research exists on it and no clinical trials are performed on its behalf. The doctors who worked with Amy pioneered a treatment. Since rare cancers are underrepresented in the medical community, treatment of them is hit-and-miss, at best. The chemotherapy drugs given to Amy had no proven track record. Of the different drugs she tried, only one seemed to slow tumor growth, and only for a short time.

Amy’s life turned into rest at home, pain management, trips to hospitals, and struggling to maintain her weight. There was the occasional escape – through the generous support of friends and family she was able to do some traveling. She went to Florida with her mom to spend some time on the beach, and also got to spend time on an island off the coast of Georgia with her family. Aside from that, life consisted mainly of home and hospital.

Last year, Amy ventured away from the Twin Cities and came down to Ames to take part in Relay For Life. Events like this are needed to honor survivors, to remember those who cancer has taken, and to lift the spirits of all who have been either directly or indirectly affected by this disease. After Relay For Life last year, Amy said that “it was great to feel like a normal person again for a night.” She was able to hang out with her friends. Though at home she had to sleep frequently, here she stayed awake and active until after midnight. At home she rarely had the energy to walk even short distances; here, she walked around the track more than ten times. And while at home she took a regimen of pain pills, here she got by with almost none – and was all smiles. For one night Amy got to put aside her illness and the Kapler family is forever grateful for it.

Amy was excited to be a part of last year’s Relay. She was an advocate for fellow cancer sufferers. When she wasn’t wearing cyclone gear or her shirt that in big purple letters stated “CANCER SUCKS,” she proudly wore her Relay For Life shirts, practically wearing them out.

She had a lot of reasons to be cynical… but never was. She was cheery when everyone else was sad. Her positive outlook lifted everyone else’s spirits. She was polite when she needn’t be. And typical of Amy, she made everyone smile when it seemed as if there was nothing to smile about.

After a bleak couple of weeks, Amy died in her home on September 13^th, 2008, after a year-and-a-half battle with the disease. She was wearing a “BEAT IOWA” shirt. The Iowa – Iowa State football game was later that day. The Cyclones lost that game, and the world lost Amy Kapler.

Amy suffered greatly during the last year of her life, but Amy’s family thinks that she wouldn’t have wanted us to dwell on that fact. Amy is remembered by her friends, family, doctors, and nurses as an upbeat girl with a positive attitude, contagious smile, and an unforgettable sense of humor. She was described posthumously on Facebook as “always smiling,” “one of the funniest people I know,” “everybody’s friend,” and “bright and lovely.” She inspired everyone – from her doctors to people whom she had never met.

Amy was a fighter. She outlived every prognosis given to her. Everyone who knows her feels lucky to have had as much time with her as they did.

If there is one thing made blatantly obvious by Amy’s struggle with cancer, it is that cancer is an ugly disease from which no one is safe. Events like this one are needed to bring light to cancer and the issues surrounding it. In a time where our Nation’s financial situation has put a considerable amount of pressure on Washington to cut federal science funding, the money raised in events like this is crucial. On behalf of Amy, the Kapler family would like to thank all of you for your participation.

Amy would have been about to finish her junior year.

She was so beautiful, so funny, so happy, so brave, so loved, and is so missed.

To read more about Amy’s fight, Google “Amy Kapler.”

Syracuse / UConn 6OT

After PubStumpers last night (~10:30pm) we went out for a couple beers. We were lucky enough to catch the end of regulation of the Syracuse-UConn game – a buzzer-beating shot by Syracuse was ruled to not have been off before the buzzer sounded.

We proceeded to watch one overtime, then two, then three… six total. What a game. I figured it was worth mentioning on here.

Here is a recap: Syracuse and UConn put on a show for the ages – ESPN.

Watch this while it is still up:

Epic:

The game lasted three hours, 46 minutes. The final box score and play-by-play was a meaty 10 pages, type filling up the front and back of each. Combined, the two teams attempted 209 shots. They took 93 free throws. Eight players fouled out.

Syracuse won: I went home after the game was over… it was late.

Call me bitter, but I’m kinda happy that Wesley Johnson had no role in this victory.

A new chapter in the book of me

I just finished my last class at Iowa State. My time at ISU is over. For real this time.

It got me thinking… When I came to college I knew I was going to be a mechanical engineer. Two years later I was studying biology. Three years after that I was certified to teach high schoolers science. Now I’m preparing to go to medical school in the fall. Never in my wildest dreams would I have predicted my current aspirations.

Some other thoughts…

What if my high school GPA would have been 0.03 points higher? I would have gotten that scholarship making Purdue as affordable as any in-state school. I could very well have been an engineer by now. I could very well have uprooted and made all new friends. Life would be drastically different. [A similiar thing to ponder: What if I had been accepted by MIT. Same thoughts apply.]

Some might be apt to call this unpredictable path I’ve taken religious predetermination. Gross. No.

It’s just funny how things turn out.

So, for fun: I predict that in five years I will be just starting a medical internship/residency in the state of Iowa. I will be serving in some branch of the armed forces. I will be unmarried. People will be fueling up their cars with hydrogen, but I will still be forced to put petrol in my car that I can’t afford to upgrade. Obama will be in his second term. Let’s see how wrong I am.

Hello 1984

If you know me, there’s a good chance you might know him…

Andy Flattery has a new album.

Get it here: Hello 1984.

I’ve got my Halloween costume picked out…

Greatest. Costume. Ever. You won’t understand this unless you watch Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Gotta love Charlie.

No Words

Amy Kapler 6/17/88 - 9/13/08

Help wanted…

…for Pubstumpers trivia night at Legends.

Successful applicants must:

• be familiar with the great authors and their works (1400-present).
• be familiar with roman/greek/norse gods.
• be familiar with obscure religions.
• like a free beer.
• be old enough to recognize songs only old people should know.
• know album covers.
• always carry a spare pen.
• be comfortable with losing.

An estimated 2-4 team members meeting those criteria might let us crack the top five.

Tonight is a… school night.

…the horror!

This semester I am an undergraduate again. A bachelor’s degree, then a master’s degree, and then a semester spent as an undergraduate! Who does that? This guy, apparently.

You see, this semester was supposed to be a freebie – teach some labs (which I enjoy!), take some classes, and you get enough pay and scholarships to cover school and living expenses. My undergraduate status made me a hard person to pay… it didn’t work out. I scrambled to figure out something to do and now I am a full-time student. Instead of being free, this semester is costing me a helluva loan.

So I’m going to make the most of it. Hopefully, you will hear about it. Check back.

P.S. Go Obama-Biden

Downtime

I’ve been done with student teaching for two weeks now. Where has the time gone?

Well, the first week I had off was devoted to paper-writing, there was a few days devoted to oral-defense prep and job searching, I’ve spent a good number of days up in Minnesota, and then there was a couple days where I did absolutely nothing. It’s been nice. I even grew a beard for a while there, until I woke up and looked in the mirror and said to myself “you are living a lie – the bearded look is not for you.”

In vehicle-related news: I am dying to get the motorcycle out but a little worried that it’s going to need some work. I tried to tint my car windows but learned that people get paid to do that for a reason.

I’m trying to get a part-time job for the summer but my schedule is making that look impossible. As for the fall… I do not know what the heck is going to happen.

If you are a WCHS student reading this, study hard, and watch this (Lyre bird with more sounds!)…