Archive for May, 2005
24 Hours in the OR
Posted by: | CommentsYesterday was my first 24 hour operating room call. I have had to do other overnight OR scheduled time before but this was the first time I was scheduled for an entire day. Being a Saturday night and a holiday weekend made for several interesting cases.
During the day on Saturday we were busy with pick up ortho cases that were left over from the weeks work. Nothing to big just a couple of ankle fracture repairs, an elbow and an incision and drainage of a big old abscess. Nothing like the night to come.
I thought that the Los Angeles County hospital had all of the action but I was mistaken. It seems there were a few parties that got out-of-hand and friends started shooting friends, brothers started stabbing brothers and what not. We had two ORs going until the very early morning. At 03:45 we broke the two ORs for 15 minutes and then the final gun shot wound came up. It seems this guy was shot through and through across his hips taking out some of his bowel – he had blood in his stool. This case ended up pretty messy and did not finish until 6:45 just 15 minutes before I was scheduled to leave. Oh joy I can go home now.
All in all for the 24 hour schedule I did 6 cases, a couple of them fairly long. I did get an hour nap Saturday afternoon around 4 O’clock so it was not too bad. Looking at the coming schedule I will be doing another overnighter next week and the following week another 24 hour shift on the weekend. Gladly it is not a holiday weekend and maybe the natives will not be too restless.
Message in a Bottle
Posted by: | CommentsI have an idea for a book of poetry and letters. Actually this will not be a book just a set of writings surrounding a central idea really. There is a poet artist, Vincent Van Gogh comes to mind actually, that is fascinated with forbidden love. The artist is infatuated with his benefactor’s wife and does not have a way to express his emotion except through his art, letters and poetry. His dilemma is that no one is allowed to see or read his thoughts. It would be the end of his patronage and embarrassment for his intended mistress. Thus, the poem in the bottle. The artist is able to poor out his heart on paper and sends it off in the bottle but in reality these expressions will never be found out. He is torn with his angst and passion but is unable to let his feelings be known. This is an interesting idea – this message in a bottle thing. I just don’t know if I can pull it off very well.
This idea came to me while reading Irving Stones, “Lust for Life” which is a fictionalized account of Vincent Van Gogh’s life.
To see the rest of these great Vincent Van Gogh paining you can go the Van Gogh Gallery.
Lust for Life by Irving Stone
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Lust for Life by Irving Stone, 50 th year aniversary edition.
I just went out to buy this book today. After Xiao Hui mentioned it to me during our discussion of Vincent Van Gogh’s life and times. I have to keep up or I will be left in the Dark, do not want that to happen. Art history is fascinating but can be very complex. I remember the art history class I took back in college, it was very tough. Great subject but can be very deep.
This book by Irving Stone is perhaps his most famous. During a off times I will start reading it.
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