Arcadia California is known for its Night Blooming Cereus. I have found that they will continue to bloom during the daylight hours but only if you are lucky. The bloom of the Cereus will only last a day at most two. Jennifer cultivates them for her pressed flower collection. Eventually this magnificent flower will end up in an artwork pressed flower picture fit for the walls of a museum.

Arcadia is a beautiful little hillside city in the midst of the San Gabriel mountain chain. This area was once a smog filled area but in the past 20 years or so the air has gotten much better. During the fall months especially the views of the San Gabriel’s are quite nice.

Outpatient anesthesia is the coming thing. Our lecture today given by Dr. Gold at the Keck School of Medicine program of Nurse anesthesia. It was concerned with Surgical Center and Office based anesthesia based practice.

It is estimated that currently 60 to 70 % of all surgical procedures in the United States are done on an outpatient basis (Ackerman, 2002). This is a dramatic change in the last 20 years or so. The main driving forces for this move to ambulatory surgery has been financial incentives. Additional benefits that have come from the outpatient surgical movement is earlier ambulatory of patients, decreased exposure to nosocomial infections and patient convenience.

Anya Bibergal SRNA

Like it or not, having surgery as an outpatient is here to stay. It could easily be predicted that in the next two decades the numbers of hospital based surgeries will decrease and sicker patients will be treated as outpatients in Surgery Centers. These Centers will have overnight stay capability and hospital access for patients that need higher levels of care. Its impossible to stop the move to more decentralized care and this includes surgical as well as medical treatments. Physicians and Nurse anesthetists will be providing this care, working together to ensure patient safety.

The entire lecture and notes can be located for your perusal in the archives.

Happy students after receiving their test scores from the Anatomy exam!

This week is Birthday week in the nurse anesthesia proram at the University of Southern California. Robert Olson made a great chocolate cake by himself. Robert did admit to burning a yellow cake earlier in the evening before finishing up this great cake we were presented with today. Yummy, thanks Robert.

The birthday people from left to right:
Douglas Brannan, Amy Engelmann, and Elliza Ong (“Little Star”)

This little celebration came just at the right time. We are all very tired and worn out from the exam schedule this week. Monday was our midterm Anatomy exam to be followed this Thursday by an Anesthesia Principles exam. This comes on top of a couple of papers that are due and a Pharmacology exam last week. We are all a little under the weather mentally and this little break was really nice.

Just to show you how stressed out we are a little bird was looking in on several of us this morning spying. We get to see what is going on behind closed doors. Before the lights are out on the street lamps students are pouring over books in the study area discussing the finer points of anesthesia practice.

Later in the morning when we all get together just before our lecture for the day on pharmacology several of the students have their stuff spread out. This method of study has been shown in double blinded trials to increase retention by 0.005 %. We use the technique anyway even with the low efficacy rate.

You have to notice that “the boys” have hogged the table. In a personality profile of nurse anesthesia school applicants those that were polite and thoughtful of others, ended up on the alternate list. Actually that is not the case here. This class gets along so well and generally cheers for each other every day. Even as stressful as the last month has been we are all getting along really well. That has been the best part of the whole experience so far.

There are some students that study for other classes during lecture or spend every free moment thinking about what nerve goes where. We have all been studying very hard and some of us are having a hard time relaxing lately. We decided to all meet for dinner and drinks after our Thursday exam just to blow off a little stream. This will give us a few moments where we are not worried about what premedicaiton is appropriate in preoperative management for prevention of nausea and vomiting. After our exam this Thursday we well forget for a few hours HOW MUCH FUN we are having at school at USC. Yippeee!

The little bird will be in the midst of all this fun. Pasadena here we come!

Today’s spotlight is on our friend Christy Davis. You know when you are in the presence of greatness when you hear truth. Today was such a day.

“You guys need to trust me more……my roots are naturally brown!”
10/24/2004 Christy Davis

Now I am not one to doubt when I hear such things. You could call me idealistic but there are things that ring true and this was one of them. There was witness to this.

Last weekend the CANA Fall conference was held in Berkeley California. During the trip we were able to drop across the water to Fisherman’s Wharf twice for lunch and then dinner with friends.

Flying in over the San Francisco bay is a beautiful sight on a clear fall day.

The Airbus Express flight from Los Angeles to Oakland Airport was very quick. We barely got into cruising when the decent into Oakland and the landing across the water began. Landing into Oakland Airport is a great thrill because of the descent very close to the water.

Anyone that has been to San Francisco will tell you that these are the steepest streets around. This is a shot of Lombard Street, one of the famous hill climbs in the city. From this lofty height most of the bay can be seen.

The next must see stop for any tourist is Fisherman’s Wharf. Between you and me, I have had better sea food in San Diego at the Aqua Blu in the Gas Light district. One of my eatery recommendations for a cafe must see and taste is the Aqua Blu. Life is too short not to visit this wonderful place in San Diego.

The San Francisco fisherman’s Wharf is more of an event kind of place. The afternoon that we were there, the Snowbirds from Canada were doing fly overs. There were kinda cute with their Red bottoms and while tops. They seemed to be much slower than our Blue Angeles.

The crab was really good and the clam chowder not bad. Nothing like fresh cracked crab to make your day really shine. What makes the crab taste so good is the cocktail sauce that goes with it. If you are a purist maybe its the butter and lemon that you prefer?

The Golden Gate bridge is still standing. With all of the terrorist talk you have to worry. God I hate even thinking about it. The toll for the Golden Gate bridge is still $3.00 per person and I hear that the cost is going up to $5.00 per person. If you have to commute I would hope that you could get a monthly pass or it would break the bank if you had to fork out $10.00 just in bridge fees every day.

Oh my God, the gas prices are out of sight. With the price of oil going for nearly $60.00 dollars a barrel, President Bush has got to be crapping in his pants. How can this administration survive with gas prices this high. Maybe its a communist plot?

Ok, back to reality. Sorry for wandering around but its been a long day and I am preoccupied with thinking about the tests coming up in Pharmacology and Anatomy next week so my focus is not on this writing. If you are new to this sight, trust me, I don’t do this wandering thing much at all. I am on a roll now.

My friends were at the airport for the flight back to Los Angeles and reality. Brian Le, a senior nurse anesthesia student at USC and Helen Huynh a first year student, were travel companions during the trip. Brian is such a funny guy, he had all of us rolling for two days straight. Just one thing. You have got to watch this guy when he drives at night. Do you remember the story of The Wind in the Willows and Toads wild ride. Brian reminded us of Toad in the way he drives anyway. Having Brian along was such a great treat for us. Looking back on the weekend now, Brian made the trip for us. What I bring back is great memories and a new friendship. I am humbled and blessed.

The four USC students before take off, tired and ready to start a new week. Brian is off to clinical rotation at the VA or somewhere and the rest of us will be cracking the books bigtime.