I like to hammer stuff! Above: A picture that appeared in today's New York Times about the president's public declarations of tree hugging on this, Earth Day 2002. (Read the full story >>) When I see front-page pictures like this that so clearly make el Presidente look foolish, I think it's just very, blatantly obvious that the Times is a newspaper with a firmly liberal bent. And yet, I'm fine with that. |
Monday . April 22 . 2002 . 9:03pm |
ear nose and throat First day of Otolaryngology, a.k.a. ENT, a.k.a Head and Neck Surgery. What we got to see ranged from the sublime to the mundane. First, the sublime--a radical procedure in neck surgery so new and rare that has been attempted maybe only 20 or so times worldwide. (I would explain it better if I understood it, but honestly, I don't. So far as I can tell, it involved taking the trachea and both raising it and bringing it anterior, anchoring in place with sutures between the thyroid cartilage and the mandible. It's supposed to help patients with dysphagia, and prevent aspiration. I know, blah blah blah, right?) And then the mundane--in clinic, I saw a woman who presented with the chief complaint of hearing loss and earache. Turns out her ears were clogged with these giant clots of wax, with we obligingly broke up and sucked out for her. Oh, glamour. So the surgery today was interesting, but just so, so long. And it wasn't even long by surgery standards, running only about 4 hours total. I got to scrub in, which seems like it would be cooler than just watching from the sidelines, but in some ways its not, because you can't really move, scratch, or duck out for a snack or bathroom break the whole time the procedure is going on. I got to do the standard ignominious med student tasks-- retracting skin flaps to infinity, irrigating, cutting sutures, stapling up the incision at the end. At one point, I almost fell asleep, because nothing was going on. But then I almost fell off my little standee stool (I'm too short for the OR tables so I need a little height assistance) and that sent such a jolt of adrenaline running through me that I was hyper-vigilant the entire rest of the time. There was also another procedure going on in the Children's Hospital next door that Andy and I peeked into between adult cases. It was described to us as some kind of a benign tumor resection from the skull, where basically the kid's entire face would be peeled back to expose the mass. We were both really excited. We have never seen anything like that, and figured that it would be something totally gory and cool, like that movie "Face Off," starring Nicholas Cage and John Travolta ("I will become him"). But in reality, there really wasn't that much to see. I mean, her skin was pulled off her skull, but only from the crown of her head to her brow. Also, there were, like, four surgeons hovering over the table, so we really couldn't see anything at all. In other news...Joe and I are getting ready to mail out our "Save the Date!" cards for the wedding. More details (and pictures) to follow, but I don't want to ruin the surprise early for people who are actually going to receive them in the mail. We also made an appointment to meet with a prospective wedding photographer this Wednesday. Let me remind you that the wedding is still a year from this Saturday. A year. I know it's important to lock down dates early, especially in the city, but I feel like we're really, really, really ahead of the game so far. Let this be a warning to you all of what can happen when two such neurotic people decide to get married. xo Michelle |
Bikini Briefs |
I like to hammer stuff! Above: A picture that appeared in today's New York Times about the president's public declarations of tree hugging on this, Earth Day 2002. (Read the full story >>) When I see front-page pictures like this that so clearly make el Presidente look foolish, I think it's just very, blatantly obvious that the Times is a newspaper with a firmly liberal bent. And yet, I'm fine with that. |
