other fun stuff
pelvic health workshop ✮
From 2024-2025, with the help of my friends at LA County Hospital & Keck School of Medicine, I ran a class called the "Pelvic Health Workshop".
It was a free monthly health class, hosted at the Wellness Center, primarily run in Spanish. We learned vulvar, vaginal, and clitoral anatomy (body literacy); we shared stories and sexual health histories; and we discussed best practices for patient empowerment (ie. how to talk to your provider about your pain).
Currently, my friend and colleague Eileen Johnson continues the class at the Wellness Center. She guides patients through common pelvic floor physical therapy exercises, including diaphragmatic breathing and pelvic stretches.
We have presented on what we've learned from our patients, and their site-specific challenges at County, to OB/GYN residents at USC. I am deeply grateful to my friend and colleague Sarah Ponce, MD, who was instrumental in the creation of this class, and who conducted research and presented findings about this class so that it could continue for our patients.
tight lipped ✮
I also organize with other chronic pain patients across the U.S. We are Tight Lipped, a grassroots movement by and for patients with chronic vulvovaginal and pelvic pain. We are changing how healthcare systems treat people like us.
We work directly with OB/GYN residents in teaching hospitals across the country. We run patient panels and provide educational resources, so that all OB/GYN providers know how to diagnose and treat chronic pelvic pain conditions, which affect (conservatively) 1 in 4 people with vulvas.
Tight Lipped began as a podcast about pelvic pain conditions. I was featured in one of the final episodes, "Beyond the Books", about what’s missing from medical education and training on chronic vulvovaginal pain.
credit to ribo.zone for the base code for this website, and other code snippets!!
poetry, flash fiction, & music ✮
palaver magazine (2021)
speak poetry (issue 2): poems from san mateo county (2019)
GAIA magazine (2016)
rc review (2016)
the firefighter
a teenage head-of-household deals with an emergency.
4 pages, 1580 words
lost shade
a disillusioned bassist stumbles upon a mysterious hotel.
3 pages, 998 words
sliver & bonko deliver a baby
two friends go grocery shopping, and end up with other responsibilities.
4 pages, 1221 words
i occasionally dabble in making music, too ♫⋆
