Bomba X 2

The grace period on my student loans will end in forty-three days. Though my monthly payments will be relatively low since I qualify for income-based repayment, I plan to pay at least double that every month. And I owe a lot of money. A lot. I've been enjoying the last few months of no payments, by which I mean climbing out of the hole I was in during the penniless period between finishing medical school and starting residency. I paid off my lonely credit card, bought new clothes, a new winter jacket, and even a new pair of sneakers. Living that doctor life and all.

In all fairness, I've made enough that I also got to see plenty of movies at the theater. I've gone out to eat with friends and family fairly often, and most of the time I even bought desert. Usually, I default to the warmed-up chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream option, but yesterday I went for a fancy passion fruit gelato with white chocolate:

Enough ice cream for four people right there. $8.00 USD

It was good, but certainly not worth as much as I paid for it. The tangy edge to the gelato totally overwhelmed the white chocolate crust, and since there was no warm portion to the desert, I lost an entire dimension of sensation. If that makes sense. I suppose there's something to be said about the price of information. This restaurant is right down my block, and now I know that I don't think their fancy "Italian" treat is worth it. I tried their tres leches a couple of weeks back, and it didn't compare with the tres leches from another restaurant further down the block.

In a move that I'm sure any restaurant owner would appreciate, I will share some pictures of menstruating/very late secretory endometrium under the cut, though the desert and period blood are in no way connected.

Though I suspect some women would disagree that ice cream and period blood are not related:

Looks swirly, right?

This is not something we see every day, though endometrial biopsies are fairly common. They're done mostly for post-menopausal women who have vaginal bleeding (long story short, it's a common presenting symptom of endometrial carcinoma). Post-menopausal women are obviously not menstruating, so we get to see dozens and dozens of dormant/atrophied endometrium, as well as the occasional cancer.

Among younger women, endometrial biopsies are done as part of a work up for infertility. To avoid ending a very early pregnancy, clinicians will usually perform the biopsy right after a woman's period ends. It's an understandable precaution, especially because most women being evaluated for infertility are desperately trying to get pregnant. But it means that we mostly get to see early proliferative endometrium from younger women.

Anyway, I thought it was topical.