For the Victims of Virginia Tech

Between Delicate Petals
Originally uploaded by WTL photos.

When I heard of what had happened to the students of Virginia Tech ...I was stunned. How horrific of an act to such innocent lives. Many prayers will be said for the 32 victims and for their families but yet nothing will ever be the same. They are gone forever.
How did no one see it coming?? How did the teachers, professors, faculty, physicians, psychologists, family members not see that this individual , Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui, was in need of serious help. He fell through the cracks in so many ways and .... in the end cost the lives of many. How is it that an individual that had to seek psychological help after being accused of stalking and harassing two women and was taken to a psychiatric hospital on a magistrate's orders, was considered possible suicidal, was later able to purchase a gun?

Reading the two plays that Cho wrote clearly spells out the fact that he was in need of serious help. He even sent to NBC studios numerous pictures , video clips of himself saying : "You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience. "You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people."

Its a sad story ... a horrific one ... and something must be done.

The plays

America's Next Doctors!

Hello everyone .. Today I thought of helping out some fellow medical students in their journey towards becoming AMERICA"S NEXT DOCTOR! Its an overwhelming process but definitely one worth doing. I don't have any physicians in my family so being the first one was tough. There are a lot of things to be learned and discovered as a first timer going through the process. Medical school is a 4 year graduate school , which means you first need to finish your bachelors degree. Then you must complete the MCAT exam http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/start.htm. Once you have completed this admission exam you are ready to apply to medical schools. To apply to medical school you must complete your application via http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/start.htm <--a centralized application service for all US medical schools. ..... once you are accepted you begin your medical school education . Usually medical schools are broken down into 2 years of actual classroom curriculum and 2 years of clinical (in the hospital) experience. The great thing is that you get a tast of all the different fields of medicine before you decide which one is right for you. .... Its not over ..... Once you have completed medical school you apply for a position as a resident at a hospital via ERAS http://www.aamc.org/students/eras/about/start.htm. Depending on the program and specialty ...each is a bit different you submit your application to : THe National Residency Match Program (NRMP) http://www.nrmp.org/ <--- Which is a kinda like a lottery system but much more complicated. Putting in their words......"The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) is a private, not-for-profit corporation established in 1952 to provide a uniform date of appointment to positions in graduate medical education (GME) in the United States. " One special day usually in March is assigned as "MATCH DAY" and across the US Medical student graduates find out which hospital has hired them to work as a resident . Its soooo excting! I wish all of you great luck in succeeding in your future endeavors. Any questions please feel free to leave a comment so that I may help you. There is also a great forum for medical students with great information to offer http://forums.studentdoctor.net/index.php .

PS If anyone is in need of great KAPLAN REVIEW PREP material for boards please contact me ...

oh and dont forget to add yourself to my MAP !!! http://drlongo.blogspot.com/2007/02/new-frappr-map.html

The Beginning

Hello ... and welcome to my blog . I am Wendy and you are??? I wonder who you are ? Where are you from and what brought you to by blog .... Regardless .... I Welcome you !!!

I am 28 and living here on Long Island, NY. I am from an Italian background ..both of my parent s were born there and then moved here to the USA. I grew up with a big extended family ,... I believe we are 13 first cousins ..I started losing count (haha) . I have one younger brother , who studied and works in the aerospace engineering field. I on the other hand went the medical way.... I finished medical school last year and am working on getting back on track to start residency for next year' 07. I will be pursuing pediatrics . Its the lesser evil of the fields in medicine.
Lets see ...what else can I say about myself ??? hmmm.... Its kinda of strange to start this blog since I have never done anything like this . I feel it would be a good way for me to open up and share my stories and perhaps even relieve some stress.....ahhhh
I had a crazy year last year and I have soo much accumulated stress that its lasted me a whole year and then some. I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. ( if you dont know what this is ...its a cancer that affects lymph nodes , you know the stuff you feel in your throat that gets swollen when you have a bad sore throat) I guess that is my best lay way of describing it. Any how ...I was diagnosed Dec 04 and was told I would have to do 6 mos of Chemotherapy. You have probably seen those images where people lose their hair , eyelashes , eyebrows . That was me ! I went through hell and back and hell and back ! I cant even begin to explain the ordeal , the pain, the suffering , the trauma, the shock , the agony one goes through with such a disease. Cancer! Cancer such a scary word ...one never spoken in my family thank god until my diagnosis. The good thing is there is light at the end of the tunnel. My cancer is what some physicians call curable (in that once it goes into remission you rarely see it reappear) ** My fingers are staying crossed* . They say if you had to pick one cancer to get this is the best one . ! I dont know how one can say such a statement but oh well. The cancer has been in remission now for 1 year . I finished my chemo in 05 and have been doing well since ...considering everything. My life had to be placed on a hold a bit but I guess thats ok since i am still alive. I wasnt able to start residency with all my fellow classmates , and I had to postpone my wedding til 2008 but other than that I am ok.
I guess I just wanted my career to start ... I was in a rush to start working and all but while writing this blog I realize even more how great it has been to take a break from everything ...and just enjoy life. Life is not a race . Its made to enjoy , savour moments, be happy and not always think about the future. Sometimes life has little adventures in store for us that we dont plan and we need to just stop for a second and enjoy what we have around us.