OK - this is going to be gross, just so you know...

I had to share, because here I am, sitting at my desk reading about fatal mucus impaction.

Told you.

When I got to that part of this journal article - I laughed. Which is why I felt I needed to share this with y'all.

I'm not sure how I avoided the squeamish gene, but I did. Now, I don't particularly like watching fully grown 21 year old girls in bikinis on reality tv shows eating raw cow rectum, but the fact that I can handle it without retching is more to the point.

I guess I'm a little disappointed in myself for not having enough self-knowledge when I was in college to go pre-med. After all, I like medicine (in every way), I'm kind of a science geek, I don't get all queasy when I see blood and guts. I learned a couple of years ago how to draw blood and I started giving myself shots at like 11 years old.

All I knew was that medical school wasn't an option because I disliked (and by disliked I mean nearly failed) math. I dismissed the idea of it and held on to not being, what we called at the time, a "scantron major." So I majored in Religious Studies. A lot of good that's done me.

Now some of you cheerleaders out there may say, well, you can still become a doctor, it's not too late. Actually, I would disagree with you. It is, in fact, too late.

You see, there are parts about becoming a physician in one's mid-thirties that I am not willing to undertake. These include, but are not limited to:

1. Going more than $100,000 into debt with nothing but a piece of paper and two letters after my name to show for it.

2. Then starting out at the bottom of the totem pole as an intern.

3. Going to school with a bunch of 22 year olds who can stay up past 9:30 without taking drugs.

4. Spending less time with my husband and friends than I already do.

5. Having to start taking math seriously.

Frankly, now I want a house more than a degree. I'm just a bit wistful for what could have been.