swimming pools and spoons

Sometimes you just need a swimming pool. They are doing construction on the hospital and I snapped this picture on my way in today.

The pools were filled with gravel and dirt and I have no idea where they are taking these... You would think they there would be a more sophisticated way to move around the excess dirt and gravel but the plastic pools seemed to be doing the job.

Which reminds me of the spoons, way back in my first rotation, during Neurosurgery. Let me explain. If a patient had a subarachnoid hemorrhage and we needed to remove the clotted blood from the brain we used... a spoon. Again you'd think there would be some tool or special device made for such a procedure but if there is I have no idea what it looks like because we always used spoons. Just plain, regular tea spoons.

This post has no real purpose I don't have anything profound to say. I'm just reflecting on simple things that somehow get the job done. I'm 10 days away from being done with third year and I just emailed my final patient write-up to my preceptor. It feels good.

Now if you excuse me I'm going to enjoy a glass of wine and ponder the simple things in life. Like swimming pools and spoons.

Happy Easter- links

Happy Easter.  Happy Passover. Or simply Happy Spring, whatever you may or may not be celebrating I hope you have a wonderful Sunday.

Here are just some links for the day from my early morning reading before I head to the hospital in my Easter socks. The Easter egg hunt and decorating has been postponed to next weekend when Dr. Boyfriend will be visiting (and also it will be Greek Easter then.)

-A "Good Friday" post  on death, but beautiful all the same. Grady Doctor often makes me cry.

-Reflecting on my non-zebra patient and wondering if/when he'll get his kidney. Here is a story of love and hope. 

-Call for all of us to do our part and fight childhood obesity. That means you, dad/dude!

missing you

I don't know if its the ho-hum of rotations (8 weeks into IM) or the fact that I'm away from truly good friends for so long but I've been missing Grenada lately. I miss the warm breeze and the chance to go swimming in clear blue 80 degree water. I miss my friends on Friday nights when we would chat over a bottle of wine about our week and our plans after Grenada. I miss the study breaks and the ability to go kayaking on a random Tuesday morning before class. I miss the island time lifestyle and all the awesome Grenadian people. I miss Prickly Bay Pizza and I miss my path group. I've taken to wearing my Path Group NOS scrub tops to the hospital lately... I just miss it all.

I don't miss being an MS I or MS II (being and MS III, almost IV is much better) but I do miss the people and island and good times.

I randomly started talking to one of my favorite clinical assistants at the hospital yesterday. He was born in Mexico City and was telling me how beautiful his home country is and how I should go on vacation there... (and I'm sure he is right) but all I could think was, I'd rather go back to Grenada!

I do like California and where I am and what I'm doing. But it would be super nice to be sitting on the beach looking at St. George's with a good friend calling me to join her for a swim in the warm, sun-kissed aqua water....

Happy Friday!

Ode to an Attending

Get curious! This is what Dr. M would write on a sign which she would then display and point to, each and every time she asked a question re: your pt that you couldn't answer. And there was always a question. During the middle of your presentation it seemed nit picky that she would want to know if your pt's knee Sx from 18 years ago required hardware since you had no plans for your pt to get an MRI and her knee hx was in no way relevant to her CC of SOB or HPI... But the point was, Dr.M wanted YOU to know. Ditto for alcohol drink of choice, where your pt was born, what motivates your pt, LMP, current Hep C status and so on. Dr. M would say, "I am interested in all of your pts and their problems and want to hear about whatever you want talk about." And the thing was, she WAS interested and although she had already looked at the labs and read the PT report and seen the CXR she still let you fumble through your presentation, because that's how you learn and because she knows you need the practice. Dr.M would spend 45 mins to discuss the case of a pt in a vegetative state. A patient that had no chance of ever improving. But she wanted the team to help the patients family prepare for his eventual demise and she wanted everyone involved to feel comfortable with end of life issues. Dr. M would tell you exactly what you were doing wrong but she would also tell you when you did a good job, and you just had to accept that the ratio was closer to 10:1 than 1:1. Dr. M would answer her own questions and order consults when she already knew the answer. But she also admitted when she had her facts mixed up. Dr. M made you aspire to be better, and in the end, isn't that the point?