Central Dispatch is open

There is a cool new group blog called Central Dispatch that is geared towards people in the area of Emergency Medicine. Most of the posters seem to be EMTs and paramedics, but yours truly hopes to change that by adding his 2 cents from time to time. My medical type stories will be posted over there, and maybe here as well depending on my level of forgetfulness. Just add it to your bookmarks, so you can get me either place!
Steve

I suck

Got into a religious discussion (read: argument) with my dad at the dinner table tonight. It was concerning prayer in schools, but the topic is irrelevant. Dad is a very religious man, and is extrordinary in his faith. He also happens to be the best man I have ever known. If somehow I could be half of the person that he is, I would be pretty satisfied with how I turned out. If you've read my earlier posts on my thoughts on religion and God, you know I am searching, and still trying to figure out what I think. I have a problem expressing faith publicly, because I feel like a hypocrite. I barely even remember saying this, but apparently I said that he drives me further from God with his constant talk about the subject. The context was people that constantly evangilize in every coversation, but the pronoun you somehow entered the sentence. So, of course my dad, who works only to make his family happy heard this...."...blah, blah You are driving me away from God, blah, blah." Very nice. Needless to say, I ruined his night, and now am left to find the way to apologize and make him understand that my issues have nothing to do with him. Joy. I hate hurting people, intentionally or not. I wish I could just have him read this and give him a hug, but I guess that would be a cop out. Any suggestions?
Steve

The power of the mind is truly amazing....

Check out this article in the UK Guardian. Scientists are developing a brain implant that has allowed a quadriplegic to move a robotic arm. The goal is to have people walking and functioning in society again. Awesome. Stay tuned kids, the future is going to hold some unbelievable stuff...
Steve

A Used Car Salesman I am Not

Well, two more things are out of the way for our upcoming move to Texas. We sold our 2 old cars today. To say we took deep discounts is a gross understatement, but at least they are gone. We may have even helped out a couple of families in need in the process.
One was a young Mexican family who have spent the last 4 months living in Children's Hospital with their baby, who almost died and had to get a colostomy. Only one spoke English, and there were about 3 brothers rushing to ATMs to get money out. I said 1250 was my bottom dollar, but they could only come up with 1180. What was I supposed to do? I couldn't say no to a family who is working hard, trying to live the American Dream that most of us take so for granted. Call me a sucker, but it still feels good.
Steve

Long time no post....

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I know all three of you who read this regularly ( and you, too Mom) have been waiting with bated breath as to what brilliance would next spew forth from these 2 fingers that I type with.
I've been working on my last inpatient rotation at the VA Medical Center. (My interns are great, but my chief is a psychopath. Seriously.) If that isn't bad enough, I am stuck on the team that admits all cancer patients. A full 2/3 of our census is either being followed by Hospice or will soon be. Very depressing, giving bad news all day long. I have learned what an amazing tolerance to opiates one can build up. A man on our team with diffuse B-cell lymphoma was proving very difficult to keep pain-free, so we made a palliative care consult. He is now on 300 micrograms of fentanyl via patch, and 50mg of morphine every 30 minutes!! That is by far the largest dosing schedule I have seen thus far.

The big topic at work right now is the Terry Shiavo case in Florida. It looks like the tube is staying out for now. Every doctor I have talked to at work is in favor of letting her die. I have a hard time with it only for the fact that her husband seems like a total scumbag, and I would hate for my fate to be decided by a prick like that. I suspect, however, that it is for the best, and that the "expressions and reactions" her family describes are basic reflexes, and that there is no cognition involved. I have already let my wishes be known to my wife and family, as should all of you. I would have been dead a long, long time ago. I have no wish to be kept alive in that situation. I wish the politicos (mostly on my side of the aisle) would get off of their high horses and quit exploiting this sad situation. Would they want to live like that?

On a lighter note- check this video out. It cracks me up. That had to have hurt. I hope his tetanus shot is up to date.

I am home right now taking care of my daughter, Riley. She has been throwing up every 20 minutes or so. She was supposed to be at an ice skating performance with big sis Haley. She is very disappointed. I will sign off for now. It looks light a long night ahead. I still have to clean house at some point, we are showing it tomorrow.
Talk to you soon!

Open up and say ahh...

Another super weird one from Drudge.
Apparently a dentist has been charged with assault on several women after squirting his own semen into their mouths during exams. Getting rejected from medical school must have drove that fool crazy. ( Just kidding to all my DMD brothers out there! ;-) )
You can find the whole story here.
People continue to amaze me with their depravity.
More later.
Steve

Dad- You never talk to us!!

Check this article out. It seems as if some elderly siblings figured out that their father had expired on the futon. The cops say he has probably been dead for 10 FREAKIN' YEARS!!! They began to think something was wrong just recently. He must have really been the strong, silent type. Daddy turned into the mummy!
Steve

Ahh..the simple things...

I just got through doing one of my favorite things as a father...I pulled my six year old's top right front incisor. I'm sure the dental guys have a number for that tooth, but when it comes to the mouth, I'm an idiot. Haley looks so cute with it gone. It makes me proud, yet a little sad. She is growing up so fast. Right now it's lost teeth and an attitude, tomorrow cars, boys proms and an attitude, and next week marriage and children (also with an attitude!) Thinking back on my life, high school seems so near to my mind; my first attempt at college really seems like yesterday. Life goes so fast. Depressing stuff. 30 years old and already contemplating mortality...yuck.
Well, I had better sign off- I have to see several patients at the VA (yuck again) and write notes by seven AM, and I have to go watch Carnivale on HBO. Anybody else watch it? It's a weird show, but addictive. I'd be curious to hear how you guys think it will end.
Have a great day!
Steve

House fever

My wife is losing her mind over a house in San Antonio she found online. She has been scouring the internet every since I matched in December. She's talking bridge loans, flying down to Texas like right this second, and possibly killing the owners and stealing their identity. OK, I made that last part up. It's the pool in the backyard that is driving her crazy. She is somewhat of a sun goddess and a pool has always been her dream. I really hope we can sell our house soon, so we can think about it!
In other news, Tobi is scheduling an interview for a school nursing position when we go to visit San Antonio. The pay is probably crap, but it would be great as far as the kids are concerned. Hopefully everything will come together.
Steve

People are strange...

Here's a little story via Drudge that makes you feel all tingly inside. (And not in a good way!)
The first paragraph of the story says it all...
The adoptive parents of a 17-year-old boy who weighed 49 pounds when found in a home where he was forced to wear a diaper and sleep in a locked, cage-like bed have been charged with child neglect, authorities said.
Very nice... now all of you- go unlock the cages and feed your kids. or the cops may find YOU next!
More posts soon!
Steve

What IS a mahnamahna, anyway??

This little diddy cracks me up more than my kids, and I'm not even sure why!!
If you have broadband, check it out and tell me what you think! Muppets rule!
Click!

Steve

Monkeys must really hate cake...

IMAO and Annika write about the ABC News Story about the chimps that mauled a couple when they went to throw their ex-pet a birthday party at an animal sanctuary in California. Two chimps escaped and attacked them as they were bringing the chimp- (that was removed from their home for biting off a woman's finger) a cake. The woman got a bite on the hand, but the man had his nose torn/bitten off and nearly lost a foot and his *gulp*- testicles! Just goes to show what happens when you lock big, strong animals up away from their natural habitat and forget to bring enough cake for everybody.
"Your cake or your boys, buddy- your call. "

Unisex Bathrooms

Begging to Differ has a post discussing the pros of unisex bathrooms, as discussed in the NY Times. The discussion was prompted by transgenders in NY and other places fearing harassment.
At the New College of California, a liberal arts college in the Mission District of San Francisco, men's and women's rooms have recently given way to "de-gendered" restrooms, devoid of urinals as well as of white stick figures with pants or a skirt. Signs on the doors proclaim the new restroom politics: "Lots of people don't fit neatly into our culture's rigid two-gender system."
Rigid indeed. How many genders do they think there are?
BTD thinks that that would make restrooms cleaner for all. Perhaps. I have seen (and cleaned) some womens bathrooms that would rival the worst of the men's. Women tend to spray pee and poo all over the place in an effort to keep their precious rear ends off of the seat. Not to mention flushed maxi's that clog up the works. I could go on...
I for one don't want to do my business in the same room with the fairer sex. Some of the sounds and smells that occur in that room are humiliating for other men to be around...but women?? Men would hide in the stall all day just to avoid being seen! I assume this would go double for the gals. Maybe I am wrong. Educate me.
Steve

Hetero-NORMATIVE??

This story, covered by Begging to Differ, highlights the reason I will never send my kids to an Ivy League school. Or one in California. Maybe I'll send them to welding school. These idiots have completely lost all touch with reality when they say that a straight woman- speaking of her own experiences and thoughts, was offensive to the gays, lesbians and transgenders (why transgenders are lumped with homosexuals I will never understand) in the audience.
Quote:“Some of the content was extremely heteronormative, and made BGLTSA members feel uncomfortable,” he said.
Read the rest of the story here.
Signing off in a totally non-offensive and hetero-abnormal way, Steve

Oh...My...God

Check this link out. I know high school boys are a horny lot, hell, I was one. This however....wow.
Link via Drudge.
Steve

The Art of Pimping

This is a funny article from JAMA that all medical students should read. It is really funny. I have been very lucky/unlucky depending on your point of view to rarely, if ever get pimped by an attending. I'm sure it's coming next year, though! Pimping is the medical profession's S and M version of the Socratic Method. It is teaching by asking questions, and is practiced in many law schools. It is medicine, though that has refined it to its rotten, humiliating core.
Enjoy!
Steve

Robbed...

Just got through watching my Indiana Hoosiers struggle back from 11 points down at Wisconsin to go up by one, only to get the game stolen by the refs. In the last 3 minutes they called three fouls on us that weren't and didn't call two obvious ones against them. We still hung tight and lost on a last second shot. Grrrr... we really needed this one, too. We are on the bottom of the bubble for the NCAA tourney, and this would have likely locked it for us. Oh well...just a game, I guess. Congrats to Mike Davis on a well coached game, no matter the outcome.
Off to bed- my last day of plastics tomorrow. We are filling a shotgun hole on the side of a face with skin from his shoulder. Crazy. G'night!
Steve