Another year in the clear #birthday #covidvacation #fundraiser

Although the days seem long during the pandemic, this year is flying by! I can’t believe 3 months have already passed since my last scan. First off, what everyone is interested in: I went in for a scan last month and things remain stable. COVID-19 precautions are still full scale, but otherwise it felt like a routine appointment.

Since my last post in July, I have been settling into my new role as an OMFS Attending at VCU Medical Center. It has been a fun and relatively easy transition from being a resident to becoming an attending, and I think it is due to the fact that I had completed my residency here. It feels more like a natural progression instead of starting a new job completely. I do appreciate the autonomy and finally calling my own shots during surgery. One of the perks of the new job is having my own office!!! It looks pretty boring but it’s nice to have my own space.

We also managed to get in a couple of trips away from home. Before COVID-19 hit, we had grand plans to take a trip to Europe for a few weeks to celebrate completing my training and explore new places that we’ve never been. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen this year (maybe next year?), but we were at least able to have a couple of nice family trips to nearby Lake Anna. We were able to spend time away with Avery’s cousins, my in-laws, and some close family friends.

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Last month, I also celebrated by 33rd birthday. Varisara helped to start a fundraiser during my birthday month last year to raise money for ALK Positive lung cancer research. This year we were unable to have a dinner event like last year (for obvious reasons), but thanks to my cousin, Liem Tran, and his amazing work family we were again able to partner with Wild Ginger in Midlothian, VA. Liem created a very special Tran Roll that was available for the whole month of October where $4 from every roll sold will go toward research for ALK Positive lung cancer. In a time that has not been easy for small businesses, we are extremely grateful for the support and glad we have been able to support small businesses as well (we have ordered takeout from there almost every week!). Even more fortunately, Wild Ginger will continue to have the Tran Roll available until the end of the year! I guess sushi will be on the menu in the Tran household weekly for the rest of the year 🙂

If you are not local to Richmond and also wanted to support the cause, feel free to donate directly to my ALK Positive campaign here: https://lungevity.donordrive.com/campaign/Dan-s-Birthday