The Fall conference of the California Association of Nurse Anesthetists was held in Berkeley California this past weekend. The conference brought together students and old friends to participate in a wonderful lecture series dealing with anesthetic implications for the obstetric patient.

First and Second year students from USC were well represented at the CANA Fall conference. The students from the USC program were the best represented of all student groups attending the conference.

During the conference time we were all work. The lectures given by the Army and navy personal was really fabulous. The presentation of Epidural and Spinal anesthesia is an especially strong point for these practitioners. Joseph Pellegrini, CRNA, DNSc gave a terrific talk on the Anesthetic and Analgesic Methods in obstetric Anesthesia that proved to be First rate.

Installation of a new regime was one of the features of the conference. The past president Joseph Burkard and Board was retired at and a new president was installed. Jennifer Woolley from USC was installed as our new president. In the photo that follows are three presidents of CANA; Joseph Burkard, Jennifer Wolley and of course Chris Stein “the legend”.

One of the greatest treats for me personally was to meet up with a very old friend and long time CANA Board member Bill Jenkins. Bill was a neighbor of mine way back in the dark ages of the early 1980′s when we became friends. It was through Bills example that I changed direction and started on the road to nurse anesthesia school. Many years later and here we are together at a CANA meeting. This is one of the highlights and milestones of my life. It may be a little thing but I have been working at getting here for so long it seems like a monstrous mountain has been crossed. Anyway, Bill is in good health and starting another Surgical Center north of San Francisco. His success with anesthesia and leadership to CANA will always be looked to as an example.

Students get together with old friends that were veterans together in the trenches of the ICU’s that they worked in together. You never know who you will run into at these conferences. The next CANA conference is in the Spring and will be held in Huntington Beach, California. All of the USC students as well as a good representation from the Kaiser group should be in attendance. The professional aspects of the meeting may yet to be determined.

You go girl!

The Fall CANA conference was held in Berkeley California this past weekend. I was fortunate enough to be able to go and visit friends while I was up there for the conference. The story of the weekend will take a couple of posts so just bear with me for a minute. Today I just wanted to post a couple of pictures of Glen Hurtig and his beautiful wife and graduate RNA, Rosanna is studying for boards as we write.

Glen picked me up at the airport in Oakland on Friday. We went straight to Fisherman’s wharf in San Francisco for lunch. It was a terrific day there on the water.

Glen is looking out at his old home there at Alcatraz wondering if they will catch up to him soon.

Rosanna and her mother. Rosanna is a recent graduate from the USC School of Nursing Anesthesia program. She is currently working at Kaiser in Northern California and having a fabulous time. Being a new graduate and studying for boards while holding down a full time anesthesia practice is a tremendous amount of work she tells me, but so much fun!

We had to take a little diversion over to the headlands for a view of the Golden State Bridge. A couple of my classmates and I were ferried over by a Senior. We were so impressed. Mostly we just talked shop and ate a lot.

The CANA conference was the reason that we went up to the Bay Area. In the future this conference will be posted here. Stay tuned.

The CANA (California Association of Nurse Anesthetists) Fall meeting is being held this weekend in Berkeley. As a student in the USC Keck School of Medicine/Program of nurse anesthesia, I will be going along with a few other of the students.

Some important information about the conference is recorded below:
Location Claremont Resort & Spa41 Tunnel Road Berkeley, California 94705-2429
Driving Directions: CLICK HERE
Resort Main Number: 510.843.3000Facsimile: 510.843.6068
Website:Claremont Resort & Spa
Meeting AgendaCLICK HERE for the Meeting Agenda

The agenda will come up in a pdf that you can view now and also print to have with you while attending the conference.

Sponsorship & Exhibit OpportunitiesClick Here for Details.

You can expect a full update as the weekend progresses. Hopefully with lap top in hand there will be wireless access at the Claremont Resort & Spa Hotel. With any luck at all I will be able to publish some pictures and give an accounting of the events.

During the trip to Berkeley there will be some friends that have moved away that will be visiting. So much to look forward to to. Isn’t it great to be alive. God, its so nice to be on this journey.

On Aging by George Carlin

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we’re kids? If you’re less than 10 years old, you’re so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

“How old are you?” “I’m four and a half!” You’re never thirty-six and a half. You’re four and a half, going on five! That’s the key.

You get into your teens, now they can’t hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead. “How old are you?” “I’m gonna be 16!” You could be 13, but hey, you’re gonna be 16!

And then the greatest day of your life . . . you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . . . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk. He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There’s no fun now, you’re just a sour-dumpling. What’s wrong? What’s changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you’re PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it’s all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 . … and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn’t think you would! So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You’ve built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it’s a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday! You get into your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you

TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn’t end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; “I Was JUST 92.”

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. “I’m 100 and a half!”

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

The fall season is the time to see humming birds fight it out for the sweet nectar. As many of you may know, humming birds are extremely territorial and aggressive when protecting their staked out spots. What this leads to when you put up a humming bird feeder is all out warfare if your bird populations are high as they are here in Arcadia California next to the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains.

So what is the solution to decrease the fighting? Can’t we just all get along, someone pipes in. Well in a word, NO. What I can do is to increase the scarce resources so that instead of one big fight there are lots of little ones and a lot of birds get fed. The way to do this is to put up more feeders. Simple solution to a complex problem. How many feeders you put up just depends on your temperament. Currently we have 7 or 8 feeders up scattered around the front and back of the house. All of them are in front of big windows where we can watch them. In front of the kitchen window we have three which attract a lot of attention.

These birds seem to be tolerating each other at the table so why is that. Well I don’t have a scientific answer except for my observations. Manly the birds that get along are the extra females or the immature males. With so many feeders up the dominant birds have a lot of work flying around chasing off invaders to their territory. If you put up a lot of feeders some of them will be open. Seems logical. In practice this is what happens.

The fall seems to be the time when the most humming birds are around here in Arcadia. Maybe that’s because all the babies are beefing up before migration time. In any event, we have birds here all year long but the fall late evenings seem to be the busiest times for the nectar maker. Last week I made about 5 gallons of nectar. The 26 ounce jars were empty by the end of the afternoon while the big 32 ouncer that I have was over half empty every night.

I can put up links for feeder infor if there is interest otherwise just enjoy the pictures.