C-Sections and a Political Rant

 Yeah, so here's a photo of my peach tree. I post it to show you both how nice it looked a couple days ago and to lament the loss of such marvelous buds as the last couple freezing nights have taken the flowers away. I am sure that by tomorrow, they will be little more than shriveled blobs on a bare tree.

In other news, today I got to see a c-section on the labor and delivery ward. I am taking an elective in anesthesiology where we get to go around and observe different anesthesiologists in action. My turn in the OB started with a meeting in the break room where we all huddled around the white board where all the patients were listed. The Dr. that was heading our group (let's call her Dr. LaGrange) gave us a brief overview on the current OB situation. You'd think that it would be pretty boring; it was anything but. One of the patients apparently belongs to a religion that believes in the refusal of all medical treatment. Well, this wouldn't normally be a problem, except that this lady was "severely preeclamptic" at 38 weeks of pregnancy. While I am not sure of all the symptoms, her heart rate was over 200/130 (yeah, that's a 130 diastolic pressure--not good). If that baby doesn't come within the next couple hours, she will probably die. She has signed an order to forgo any medical treatment to resuscitate her and ordered the same for the baby. If you are like me, you are probably wondering why this lady ever checked herself into the hospital in the first place. If you are going to refuse all medical treatment, then just have the baby at home with a midwife or something. But then as we talked more about the case and how unfair it all seemed to the child, Dr. LaGrange brought up the fact that it was Georgia law to protect the life of the child, even if the mother desires otherwise. I think this lady came in because she knows she is in pretty bad shape. She knows that she can deny herself medical treatment, but can't do so for her unborn child. This way, in the back of her mind, she has a way out of the guilt associated with killing her child. "Well, I told them not to, but they went ahead and saved my child's life, which is what I wanted anyway." I sincerely hope that some kind of a miracle happened and she already had that baby. And then there is the question of what to do in those states who don't have laws regarding the child in this case. I think I would throw the parents wishes aside and save the baby. So sue me.

I just realized that this will be a long blog entry. Sorry. The c-section was cool. You wouldn't believe how white the fat is when you cut into the belly. It was glistening and pearly, bleached white. I was also surprised how little blood there is with that initial incision. Of course when you get deeper down and start cutting the abdominal muscles there is quite a bit more blood, but still, most c-sections are done without a blood transfusion. This impressed me after I learned that the heart sends about a fifth of your blood to the uterus in a minute--meaning they have to work fast. While we "helping" to set up for the procedure, Dr. LaGrange was working with one of her residents. He seemed nice enough, but Dr. LaGrange was treating him like crap. I felt bad for the dude, as it seemed he could do nothing right. Every little thing he did seemed to annoy Dr. LaGrange and she let him know it. I couldn't believe the way she was talking down to him, as though he was a 7-year old child. Dr. LaGrange was really nice to all of us in the class, but it kind of scared me that maybe that is how all attendings treat residents. I really hope that is not the case, but I'll be sure to let you all know in a couple years.

So, back to the c-section. It was really cool to see the baby pop out of the uterus. It was so bizarre to see something so human come out of a large gaping hole in a woman's abdomen. Seeing it in real life was quite the experience and I was glad to be a small part of it (albeit a very small part--I injected some drug into the lady that was supposedly 80x more potent than morphine). Oh, and one of my classmates totally passed out during the procedure. We were standing on these little footstools against the wall observing, when all of the sudden she crashed to the ground, bumping her head as she landed. To her credit, it wasn't because of anything she couldn't handle (it was towards the end when she passed out, during a rather boring part), but rather that she had locked her legs for a good while and blood wasn't reaching her head.

Oh, and Before I end this one, I wanted to make a small political rant. I don't believe so much in democracy in this country. Well, I believe in democracy, just that I don't think what we do is democracy. Politicians pick who they are gonna have run for president in the primaries. They pick from amongst themselves. In the end, when we head to the polls to pick a president, we are picking from two different people, who were picked out by politicians. Sure, we have a choice, but I don't feel my vote counts because the people who I want to vote for, who have the same ideals as myself, aren't one of those two running for president. Yeah, I voted for Bush in the last election, but I really don't know why. Yeah, he was the lesser of two evils, but is that what democracy is supposed to be? I thought it was voting for that which makes sense to me. Voting for what I want, not voting for the person who has offers the least bad stuff. I'd much rather vote for someone who has the most good stuff. In the next election when I have to chose between Hilary and Gulianni, I won't really want either of them.

Amateur Sketch, as promised

 Yup, here I am in all my glory shooting that AK-47. Even though I was kind of bummed when I forgot my camera, I feel I made up for it through this personal rendition of the event. If you were to follow that bullet all the way out to the target, you would see that it hit the center of the bull's eye (no bigger than a dime) from 25-30 yards out. But seriously, I forgot to mention that in my previous post. I was the only one to hit the bull's eye all day, and I did it with an AK-47 (without a scope). I was proud of myself.

Oh, and the other part of the story that I forgot to mention. Later that night, Haley and I attended a wine and cheese party with some of our med school buddies. I hope to post some pictures of that event as the pictures become available (I didn't take my camera, and am waiting on people to email me). But I was talking to some second year med students and they wanted to know who I went shooting with. Though I had no intentions of telling them who in the area had a small arsenal that Charlton Heston would be proud of, they pushed me when I told them it was someone they all knew. I gave in and revealed the professor's name. I am hoping that one doesn't haunt me later on when this person asks why I am spreading rumors about his armageddon bunker.

Guns and Such

I have a new favorite gun. Now, I'm not in any way a gun person, but I challenge any of you to go shoot an AK-47 for the first time and not get a rush out of it. The event was organized by my church (who says LDS people don't have any fun?), and it just happens that one of my medical school professors also goes to my church and also happens to be ex-special forces. Yeah, he had a LOT of nice guns. I learned a lot about my personal tastes for guns. For example, a .38 caliber handgun is quite manageable. On the other hand, a 44-magnum is too much gun for me (though my professor's 12-year old son seemed to really like it--it nearly hit him in the head from the recoil after every shot). the .22 rifle seemed a bit weak. Oh, and then there was the fully automatic machine gun. I'm not sure if those are legal, so I'll leave names out of this entry. The machine gun took 36 bullet cartridges and you could whiz through those in a couple seconds if you wanted to. Of course, by the time you were getting to the end of the magazine, you would be shooting somewhere behind you from the recoil. That was a fun one. I gotta tell you, though, I really liked that AK. They say if you are ever gonna learn how to shoot a gun, it might as well be an AK-47, seeing as it is by far the most popular rifle in the world. Really, though, it is pretty sexy. Maybe I've been watching too much 24, but shooting guns is cool. I was pretty upset with myself when I realized that I forgot my camera, and for this reason, I am planning on putting together an amateur sketch of myself with the AK and posting it sometime in the next couple days.

In other news, Gob enjoys helping us with the dishes.

Quiet Voice

So, you know that guy from undergrad who didn't have a quiet voice. You know, that dude in the library that would ask you a question at full street volume? That guy, who when you see him coming over, causes you to hide your face in your copy of "Harper's Illustrated Biochemistry for Medical Students" in hopes that he will ask someone else. Well, that guy happens to study in the same corner as the library as me. He has only one volume, and it is LOUD. I actually told him to shush the other day, not on purpose but rather as a natural reaction to an abnormally loud volume.

Oh, and here's my other funny story. I'm not really into the social networking sites as much as many of my peers are. I only recently created a myspace and facebook account years after most people. I have been lazy at keeping up with my myspace account because I don't have that many friends that use myspace. Then the other day, out of the blue, I receive an email telling me that someone made a comment on myspace. So I check the site to find the following message "Hey, you are a freak." The message came from an old high school friend that I haven't talked to in years. I thought it was kind of a strange comment to make, so I went over to his myspace site to see what was going on. When the page loads, I don't immediately notice anything unusual. Then I scroll down to find rather strange pictures posted on his "wall" (the comments section). One of photos was of two cats sitting next to each other, one with his arm around the other and the caption read "lets be friends." There was another with a picture of a smiling, pointing Jesus with the caption "Y'all going straight to hell!" Well, I thought those were kind of strange. Then I noticed something even stranger: My username and picture were next to the pictures, saying that I had put them there. Thoroughly perplexed, I shared this with my buddy, Andrew, who I was studying with at the time. Andrew just happens to be another myspace contact and told me that I had been posting really strange things on his wall also. He had been meaning to talk to me about it, but it had apparently slipped his mind. So, I go to his site and see more pictures, this time even more crude in nature. One was of a baby looking at a pornographic magazine with the caption "mmmmm, milk," once again with my picture and name by it. This was starting to concern me at this point, and I checked other contacts on my list. It turns out that I had sent one to an old friend from high school that had a scantily clad girl sitting in bed with the caption "call me when you hit Lotto."

I later called my brother, who is very big into myspace, facebook, and all things related to internet social networking. He told me that I had also posted strange things to his site including to check out a link to the "best butts on myspace 2007 awards." He also told me that it means someone hacked into my account and was using my username to post on other people's webpages. OOps. I ended up changing my password, which I hope will solve the problem. Otherwise, I guess I'll delete the account in order to stop scaring off old friends.

Gotta Love My Scrubs

A bad case of ADWS

From Odds and Ends

All the symptoms are there. I am experiencing sadness, cravings, emptiness, and instability. I don't know how I am going to get through the next couple days, let alone the coming months/years. I knew when I was getting involved, that the resource was limited and that I should partake in steady amounts. If I got too involved too quickly, I would go through the very thing that now plagues me. But once things got started, I couldn’t help it. I was high on good times, laughing constantly. Unfortunately, like many out there, I got involved too late. By the time I found myself addicted, I knew there would come an end. My supply was going to be cut off. I knew it would not be pretty, yet I needed the instant gratification and sense of well-being the emanated from partaking of this indulgence.

Yes, I am talking about the show Arrested Development. How I will miss Tobias' homosexual innuendos. I will miss George Michael's forays into the forbidden fruit of cousin love. Buster, I hope you get that hot nurse that was only in love with you only because you were comatose. Michael, may you find happiness in whatever you do next. Lindsay, I hope you are finally able to have that affair on your husband that you have been craving for so long. Maybe, be strong and good luck with the family signing the rights over to make a movie. Lucille, good luck in jail with the new SEC investigation. George, be strong and enjoy your retirement down in Cabo. And last, but not least of all, Gob. I hope the alliance finally lets you back in, you deserve it and so does Franklin.

And now, I bid you adieu as I go through the shakes and cold sweats associated with Arrested Development Withdrawal Syndrome.

From Odds and Ends

PS, Haley is going through an addiction of her own, CBA (Computer Boggle Addiction). Mainly this stems from the false belief that she was invincible at Boggle, until one night we played with Garrett and Hannah, who wiped the floor with our trash (or asses, as a bishop I once lived with put it). She is now determined to win back her title and is practicing every free minute she has.