Goal, Gadget, & Good News: OBG-B
Another 6-week block is flying by! I am back on to our core rotation and with such an amazing team. Still thrilled, humbled, and grateful every day. Below is this block’s iteration of GGG. Enjoy!
Goal: Play (even a little tiny bit of ) Piano
Similar to last block’s running goal, this installation’s goal is reintroducing a past hobby: piano. I was fortunate enough to have lessons most of my life and luckier yet to study music in college only to completely abandon piano for the past 4+ years. I cannot take credit for this goal, as it was my fiancé Kevin who all but insisted we invest in a keyboard so I can get back into it. I don’t have specific piano goals but sitting down and only being able to focus on the task of learning (and relearning) songs is therapeutic. It is probably as close to successfully meditating, as I will ever come. I am not a deep, musical genius… I am just so rusty I couldn’t possibly think about anything else while practicing, and that feels really good.
Gadget: Water Pick
After much frustration with Kevin’s installation trials and tribulations, I am completely obsessed with this water pick. I feel like I am power-cleaning my teeth and gums every day. There are also non-shower options available but I cant speak to their water pressure (can you tell I have totally lost my mind?)
Good News: Pap smears **may** be a thing of the past… in the future
Cervical cancer screening is one of the single most effective screening programs for cancer prevention. Sadly, cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality for women in developing countries due largely to lack of access to appropriate screening. Even in well-resourced communities around the world, uptake of cervical cancer screening is still limited by social, psychological, and financial barriers to going to the doctor and having a pelvic exam. A study published earlier in 2019 demonstrated high concordance between urine, vaginal, and cervical samples for detection of high risk HPV and similar but slight inferiority at detection of grade risk cervical cellular changes . While I do not anticipate clinical practice to change any time soon, this could certainly be the future of cervical cancer screening and have a major impact worldwide.
-Ari
**Update from last GGG: there is a 0% chance I’ll be running a marathon in 2020. But I am happy to still be running short distances infrequently and slowly instead of not at all…