Lab Coats

When I was in 2nd grade, I decided that my favorite subject was science. It allowed me to pretend I was making brilliant discoveries in uncharted mental territory (i.e. make home-made sky blue Gak). This romance with science has stayed with me for the rest of my life. I'm pretty sure that the only reason I got accepted into my undergraduate research team was becase I wrote in the personal history part of the application that as a child I used to stay up past my bedtime to fill blank journals with all the information I could find on my favorite topics: dolphins, stars, tigers, and dinosaurs. At the time, I thought this was research at its finest - collecting everyone else's findings and compiling them into something great. Nevermind the fact that I was completely plagarizing at the age of 6. Sometime in college I narrowed down my "what do you want to be when you grow up" answer to "Someone who gets to wear a lab coat." And I do. As a dietitian, (Diet-Titan) I get to wear my white lab coat wtih a stethoscope around my neck, sans the 5 years of graduate education to get an MD at the end of my name. The stethoscope is for checking your blood pressure with a cuff - the good old-fashioned way, not like these crazy gadets they have now in hospitals. Side-note - - it's really hard to check your own blood pressure this way. And this isn't just ANY lab coat, mind you. It's a 100% cotton, empire waisted with princess seams lab coat - a gift from a dear friend who knows me all too well. Yes, I am a fashion-conscious medical professional. I'm trying to make the health field more beautiful, one step at a time. Once in a while innocent patients mistakenly call me Doctor. I correct them...sometimes. Song of the Day: When a Heart Breaks by Ben Rector