A Halloween Legacy 2006-1010 and more to come next year!

HALLOWEEN 2010 (SUPERMAN & SUPERGIRL)

HALLWEEN 2009 (DISCO'S DIVA'S)

HALLOWEEN 2008 (BIKER DUDES)

HALLOWEEN 2007 (VAMPIRES) 

HALLOWEEN 2006 (FAIRY & MAFIA-MAN)


HALLOWEEN 2005 (???? I DON'T HAVE ANY PICTURES AND FOR THE LIFE OF ME CANNOT REMEMBER WHAT WE WERE, OR IF WE EVEN DRESSED UP????) OUR FIRST HALLOWEEN TOGETHER AND I CAN'T COMMENT!

CAN YOU FIND ME?

MY OR SUITE LECTURE AND SKILLS LAB FROM YESTERDAY!
SEE IF YOU CAN FIND ME
HINT (I'M IN BLUE)

Is there such thing as absolute Solitude?

 Standing outside an old mine from the 1950's

 My dirt mustache

Because my school is Jewish, I celebrated the lovely holiday of Yom Kippor all last week and I went home to visit my family (while Jake stayed at home and worked).  A highlight was (one of many) going to Goblin Valley with my dad, sister Haley and some uncles and cousins.  Goblin Valley is an ATV paradise where you can ride for miles and miles into otherwise non-reachable gems of dessert.  Our first ride was a 60 mile loop, we started at 10:30 AM and ended at 6:00 PM.  We had only a few mishaps due to rocks breaking the glass oil gage window and my dad stuffing it with a washcloth, until going back to camp and a rock hitting off the chain of another ATV and I was high centered a few times.  Other than that a great, amazing experience, one I will never forget. 

My New "Medical" Blog

So I finally made another blog, beause I had a lot of people having difficulties with my medical posts on my personal blog, sooooo after a lot of work (because I don't know how to do this kind of stuff very well) and enlisting my sister Sara to design it for me, I have my new PA/medical blog

http://kimsmedicalmeandering.blogspot.com/

I have created a Food Friday Post for today so take a look and enjoy.

Of course we are still keeping our current blog.  Please become followers of my new blog, as I have been getting a lot of feedback from people really liking it, but I want to see who you are!

Thanks everyone!

Til' we meet again! Kim

Philadelphia & New York! Our vacation three weeks ago!

So over my intercession break, Jake and I completed one of our dreams.  We went to New York!  First we flew into Philadelphia and me up with my sister Sara who was living in Cherry Hill NJ.  We had such a good time, Cody and Sara work for Pinacle Security and they just had someone move out of the Pinacle housing and so Jake and I had our OWN apartment!!!! It was a blast.  The first thing we did was go to the Jersey Shore (no I didn't see Snooki???).  I have to say it was one of the very best beach days I have ever had.  I absolutely was in heaven.

Me obviously (self portrait) I do those a lot!

Jake and Cody decided to build a huge hole in the sand (??? don't get it) but it was very successful!  I think they dug this hole for an hour :)

Sara (my sister) who is so cutely pregnant and Cody!

As you can see Jake was full of ENTHUSIASM upon arrival to the beach!!! He loves the beach!

This little guy, WAS MY MOST FAVORITE PART OF THE TRIP (no offense Sara & Cody & Jake).  This is Sara's dog Peanut!  he is awesome and I just love him, I wanted to take him home with me :)

Me again, lets just say I normally don't like swimsuit pictures on my blog, but I want some proof someday that I have not gained myself in body weight in PA school YET!!!  hahahaha  hopefully we can keep it that way (a good 10 lbs or so is fine)

After the Jersey shore, the next day we went to downtown Philadelphia and our first stop was the Betsy Ross House.  If you notice my sister and I wore red, white and blue in honor of our historical tour, yes maybe we are annoying.  Notice that Jake did not dress for the occasion!

Here Jake is making "pretend" homemade food at Betsy's house!  It was funny cuz, this was one of our favorite parts of the house!

Me making a Turkey pot pie in the wood burning oven, ahhhh the joys of modern cooking that we don't have to deal with that :)

Next we went to the oldest inhabited street in the US, "Elfreth's Alley."  It was so charming and I adore old architecture and walking down this historic street was a blast to the past.

So pretty, RIGHT!

Of course the Liberty Bell!

My sister and I in front of Independance Hall, I was so bummed because there were not any more tickets for the day, so I missed out on one of my lifelong dreams, of standing in the same room as John Adams!  But, honestly it was just as lovely on the outside, as I'm sure it is inside.

Next we of course had to get the famous "Philly-cheese-steak" at this cute diner!

Another great attraction we visited was the Ben Franklin Institute.  Of course you have me in front of my favorite museum attraction "The Heart"  you actually walk through the heart on sort of a "little tour."  It was fantastic!!!

Jake and Cody inside the Left Ventricle of the heart, sooooo awesome (notice red & blue and me in white and blue... we are so patriotic!).

Jake playing with small crane!

We attended the Nefertiti Exibit, we were not able to take pictures in the exhibit, so we took pictures in the gift shop. It was so interesting and best of all the Nefertiti exhibit is sponsored by Hilti (Jake's company).

From Philly we then went to NY, NY! First off, I thought SF had a lot of people, NY blows everything out of the water, so amazing!

Then comes my most favorite part of our entire trip, Mary Poppins on Broadway!!! This play was so amazing, I was in love with it the entire time.  Jake was so awesome and bought me tickets to  see it, he absolutely loved it too, HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!

This is me trying the world famous Frozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity.  BTW if you noticed a change in length of my hair from beginning to now, my sister took me to the ghetto's of Philly where I had it done for ultra cheep, the woman who put them in didn't even speak enlish.  This was my anniversary present from Jake!  He's so sweet!  BTW I didn't love the frozen hot chocolate, just OK.

Jake with his TO DIE FOR cheesecake at Seredipity.

Times Square was one of my favorite things, it glows like crazy at night and was so chuck full of people and things that it could almost make you dizzy.  Jake and I sat on some little tables with creme sodas and watched people and looked at the lights and adds for over an hour at 11:00 PM, such an experience.  A bit crazy there, but truly a fun experience. 

We did not do the Statue of Lady tour, so if you look really close at this picture you can see her in the background (very small).

And last but not least the NY, NY Temple.   My friend told me that the temple walls are built again on the inside, so that they do not touch the world in any way.  So the outer walls that you see are not the actual temple walls!

A so concludes our adventure, which was so fully enjoyed!

Two fantastic blog posts; extremely thought provoking!

I do not have anything from myself today as the rigors of school find me almost a basket case :)  But, I wanted to share a link to my sisters blog.  When I read both of these posts I fell in love with them. My sister has a real gift for writing and always has, this is something I lack and I often HATE writing (unless it's blog posts about vaccines or food!).

The first is about our attitudes and our ability and freedom to change them.  I loved this post and absolutely loved how it made me think deeply inside myself and remember that I always have control over any situation (it just might not be how I want it).  That control is my attitude. ENJOY here!


The next post by my sister (Sara), is based on an article written by an LDS San Jose State professor (who is Sara's friends mom).  The article particularily focuses on differentiation between envy and competition.  The actual article is entitled "Toward a More Authentic Sisterhood."  This article addresses LDS women and how to better support, uplift and prize one another. I am so grateful I had the opportunity to read this article and ponder many of it's points.  I especially like Sara's take on it!  ENJOY this post here!

Many days of drought!!!

I know it's been three weeks since I've posted for anyone who is interested.  I was in finals week and then in NY for a week and then my mom was visiting for a week and on top of that, no internet installed in my new house yet! So stay tuned if you like my posts for new ones this week!

TTYS, Kim

The First Vaccine Ever Invented: Smallpox Vaccine

Many people think of vaccination as a modern invention, but the actual concept of vaccination originates in 1798 when the smallpox vaccine was developed.  The virus which combats smallpox was discovered a few years later, is still the exact virus we use in our current vaccine. Other vaccines developed in the early 1900's include vaccines for the Plague, Diphtheria, Pertussis (whooping cough), TB and Tetanus.  Over the years many more vaccines have been developed. There are currently two vaccines (Hep B and HPV) which have the power to combat cancer.

Vaccination is the best, most cost effective, and easiest mode of disease prevention in the entire world!

Today I wanted to write about the history and miraculous outcome of the very first vaccination ever created, THE SMALLPOX VACCINE.

CURRENTLY SMALLPOX IS COMPLETELY ERADICATED WORLD-WIDE; THIS IS DUE TO VACCINATIONS

In the early 1900's 13 million people died from smallpox and it has mortality as high as 80% in children.

                                                                    smallpox 1912
The smallpox virus is one of the largest, most complicated viruses in nature. Smallpox virus has the longest genome of any virus in the world,187 genes, in comparison HIV/AIDS virus only has 10 genes! 

The earliest account of  smallpox"virulation" (i.e. vaccination)  is from as early as 1000 BC in India physicians would take a scab from a smallpox sore and grind it to powder.  The ground powder would then be blown into patients noses. Perhaps of more significance is,  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was the wife of a Brittish Commissioner serving in the Ottamin Empire of Turkey, when she learned about the ancient practice of virulation, she "vaccinated" her children, then brought the vaccination/concept to her country of origin, Brittian. The "vaccination" was used in the royal family which fueled support from the European public.

The problem with this powder "vaccination" was that 2-3% ended up contracting smallpox from it, and ultimately dying as a result of the illness.  Despite this 2-3%, the use of this "vaccine" reduced contraction of smallpox and therefore the death rate ten fold and determined worth-the-cost.

Edward Anthony Jenner was the creator and inventor of the current vaccine.  He discovered that you could use "cow-pox" instead of "human-pox" (i.e. smallpox), without the 2-3% mortality rate.  This was discovered by following a patient of his whom was a milk maid.  Milk maids, were known to have very beautiful skin.  Their beautiful skin was because these maids never contracted smallpox, therefore they never developed the insidious scarring which results from smallpox.   Jenner found that milk maids  contracted "cow-pox," as a few lesions, only on their hands.  It became apparent to him that exposure to the "cow-pox" created a type of immunity against smallpox.  So Jenner made a vaccine from the cow-pox, eliminating that 2-3% mortality, and vaccinated his own son to prove it's efficacy.

Even though Jenner's smallpox vaccine was developed in the 1790's,  smallpox still raged on, because of production and transportation limitations.

In 1855 the US government mandated that all school age children get vaccinated for small pox, this legislation promoted mass production and access nationwide.

                                     D.A. Henderson with his Presidential Medal of Freedom in July 2002

For a while the last cases of US small pox were in 1949, of 8 people and two died. That was until we utilized mass air-travel.  This travel gave the US access to India and Brazil which had raging epidemics of smallpox.  The CDC calculated how quickly smallpox could spread via air travel,  only 14-21 days to a raging epidemic.  This air-travel dilemma fueled the desire to eliminate the epidemic entirely.  In 1967 Dr. Donald Henderson led a team with the goal to completely eliminate smallpox epidemics worldwide.  WHO workers vaccinated 25 million people but, there were still many un-vaccinated persons.  With a disease that's as infectious as smallpox, you MUST HAVE 98% of the population vaccinated in order to prevent spread.  The next mass vaccination of smallpox was started soon after in Sierra Leone, which had the highest levels of smallpox world wide. Within 9 months small pox was eradicated entirely in Sierra Leone.

WHO officially certified smallpox elimination,  December 1979. This declaration occurred 2 years after the last case of recorded smallpox in a 23 year old man named Ali Maow Maalin from Somalia.   

This eradication included the use 

of over 100 million vaccines worldwide

After many, many years presently the smallpox vaccine is no longer needed or used (except for the Commander in Chief and possibly the militia).  Three vials of the smallpox virus exist, they are held in three, level four, high security facilities and are carefully guarded.

In some states routine vaccinations are not mandatory.  But, please it is my personal opinion which is also shared by the medical community at large, THAT YOU PLEASE VACCINATE, I hope this story proves to be an excellent example of vaccination miracles!

As always remember I am a Physician Assistant student, I am not certified (yet!) and I am not a physician.  The comments on my blog come from lectures I attend in school, personal thoughts and opinions on the subject and other sources.  Before making any health care changes, please talk with your doctor first! Kim :)