a day in the life

it's been a long time since i've been able to put my thoughts down in writing. be that as it may, a lot has happened since the last time i have. our house is complete and now the moving in commences. i'm a little worried, however. closing costs and taxes seem to be a lot more than i expected. but i'm taking it in stride.

at the nursing home, i've been having problems with this one patient who is a 45 year old woman, mother of two, who ended up having a brain hemorrhage and now is in a permanent coma. the family has been more than sympathetic about it, however, not before they were overridden with guilt for having decided to put their sister on a respirator. after much discussion and time talking to the family, we've decided that comfort care was the order of the day. comfort care meaning only giving palliative care vs. actively treating her with antibiotics, fluid and other medicines. we decided to put her on a morphine drip. however, a nurse, the other day, felt like this was more or less killing her and decided on her own that they would not give any morphine to the patient. this was infuriating because the nurse did not follow my exact orders. as a result, the patient involuntarily bit off half her tongue and i was stuck with the responsibility of telling the family members about it all. well, the nurse was reprimanded and suspended, i got less sleep and the family was stressed unnecessarily.

nursing homes suck.

Weekend Getaway!

So JJ, RH, and I went on a trip to my old stomping grounds, Philadelphia. Its amazing how in college you never are aware of your surrounding city/town particularly at Penn. where all the good times are on campus. Be that as it may, I felt like a tourist in a city where I lived for four years. It was nice to go away and loosen up...I've had a lot on my mind these few weeks and I dare say I needed a vacation. The first day, we walked around mid town going shopping and checking out the reading market terminal. I made the early mistake of drinking some milk products from dunkin donuts- as a consequence my stomach was full of effervescence like you wouldn't believe so I could not conjure up the hunger to eat anything at the market and believe me, there was plenty to eat... Those amish can sure make apple dumplings. After the terminal, the three of us went on a stroll in the shopping district. I don't know if it was the 80+degree weather or carrying RH through it but JJ and I were spent. Spent to the point of retiring at 230PM. We were ready to call it a day! The next day was spent at the Franklin Science Institute looking at the Titanic exhibit which I recommend. I felt like Leonardo  Decaprio stowing away in the first class section though I must say, I think my wife is much better looking than Kate Winslett...They even had a replica of the bannister seen the film. In contrast it was raining like crazy. After picking up some greasy cheesesteaks, it was time to return home for much need rest...from the vacation!

Sad...I'm a duck. 

Tired!

Man, it's been a hectic 2 weeks. Sorry, its taken so long to update my blog but my life is my work these days. Which for the most part is not a bad thing if it wasn't for seeing my wife and child less. RHJ is growing up so fast, I can actually feel her growing in my hands...oh wait that's her pooping. She's definitely filling out though. She has that look all babies get- you know, the michilen man look with the beefy legs and arms. She's starting to raise her head now and looking around and smiling everytime you smile at her...well most of the time. I think fatherhood has changed me alot- which I expected. I don't care that I'm working my ass off because in the end I'm working for my family and not for myself. It only takes a glimpse at the picture of my daughter on my desk to remind myself of this. Anyway, this weekend I'll be getting a well deserved rest. JJ, RH, and I are going to Philadelphia, my old college stomping grounds to get some cheesesteak and frolic in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Should be fun.

Untitled

What a weekend, it's finally over! Not often when you're wishing your weekends to end unless you're working through them. I got a complaint from an unidentified source that my blogs are too medical-- tough beans! I'm a doctor and have no life so deal with it. This is my blog damn it!--Just kidding J in San Fran.

Saturday was a bummer. The minute I stepped into the hospital, they brought in this 19 year old kid who got electrocuted when his ladder made contact with it. They were in the middle of doing chest compressions because the jolt caused cardiac arrest. He had no chance thereafter-- sobering. Made me think of my wife and child a little more who were both spending the weekend down in Staten Island getting good home cooking. I sure missed them. I found myself looking forlornly at a picture of my daughter rhj wishing i could hold her and hug her.

I hope the picnic was fun, sorry we missed it. Would have been fun. Maybe you guys can tell me what you did there and what games you played.

Dopey Daddy

Ok, so I have some time to kill so let me tell you about yesterday. So my wonderful wife decides to go to a Madonna concert leaving me alone with the baby for 6 hours. By in itself it wasn't so bad. So she left for the conert and that's when the snafu's started. After getting poop all over my hands and Rennie's cloths I proceeded to church where thankfully god look over me so that nothing happened. Also, my wife was standing next to me for the whole time I was there so I was covered. Well, she left for the concert and I proceeded to the driving range with some friends though jj objected at first, I used my charm to convince her to let me take Rennie with me. Well, it all started OK until some blockhead of a guy started hitting golf balls by tossing it in the air and trying to hit it like a baseball. I reprimanded him and told him to stop in fear that one of those golf balls could carom off the wall and hit Rennie. Well, the fricken oaf didn't even apologize and told his girl who he was trying to impress "well, at least I didn't punch him out." Nice buddy, hitting a guy holding a little baby- takes a lot of class. I must say that I should thank the ladies that were there with us SC and Sun who cared for Rennie while DC and I tried to prove who was the better driving range pro. Well, in my exuberence I forgot the diaper bag and all its trimmings at the range. Thank goodness, my friends had more presence of mind to pick it up for me and bring it home to safety. I felt so stupid after that and inadequete as a daddy. Who knows, maybe I'd have forgotten Rennie if someone didn't remind me. Certainly, I don't consisder myself a deadbeat dad, but I have alot to learn and much new found respect for my wife who takes Rennie everywhere.

This is getting out of control

What is wrong with these people!?http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/06/21/iraq.hostage/index.html

Happy Father's Day! 

Tee Times

So I went out golfing the other day. I was invited by these older Korean doctor gentlemen around 60 years a piece. I always had a dilemma when engaging in any kind of social event with my colleagues particularly Korean colleagues old enough to be my dad. On one hand, they're older and as Korean's go, i should speak to them as if they were my elders- but on the other hand, they are my peers in the hospital, can I speak to them like buddies especially out on the golf course?

Well, the events unfolded like this- so the round started ok, we decided on a rotating best ball format where we would change partners every 6 holes. My friend, who is my age, were partners for the first 6 holes. After the initial tee shots, our older doctor buddies start giggling like school girls- as my partner put it they must have been hyenas in their former lives. Well, during dinner this may not have been so bad but while you're trying to make a 3 foot putt it did get distracting to say the least. Well, here's my theory: I think Koreans always tend to giggle a lot because of the language barrier. They'll get the initial part of the sentence right, but once their limited vocabulary becomes depleted all they can do is to start laughing. My dad is like that too, but his colleagues think it's funny. Obviously they've never played golf with him. They'll say two coherent words like "nice shot...giggle, giggle, giggle, blah, blah, blah" and you're left with a puzzled look on your face like, what the hell did that guy say? Anyway, the entire round went on like this, and both me and my friend agreed to ignore them as much as possible- is this rude?

We also played for money and these guys were the worst sandbaggers I've ever seen, both claiming they were 40 handicappers! As you can already surmise, I ended up losing a lot of money even though I shot a 77! eck- I hate losing--but that's a different blog.

High Carb Diet

What is it with this fascination with "low carb" diets. What ever happened to just plain eating sensibly and excercising. The average American probably avg. 2-3 thousand more calories than is recommend- around 1800-3000 calories (per day that is not per serving). In my experience as a physician i see people from all walks of life and weight classes. Why does it seem that obese people tend to be the most demanding and dependent? Is it that because of this personality they've become fat because they can't expend enough energy to pick up the marshmallow lying 5 feet away so they have to let others do it for them? Or because of their size, they can't fend for themselves so they rely on others.

The bottom line is that people need to go back to the basics and not rely on fad diets. There may be some validity to high carb diets and why they work but didn't mom tell us not to eat too much sweets years ago already. The worse part of these diets is that once you stop them and start eating bread and rice, you'll gain it all back.

I'll tell you a story that i'll never forget. Years back in medical school during an overnight call, my 4'10" partner, jean and I were paged to assist in a room. What we saw in there was a woman 560lbs apparently very uncomfortable in bed. The reason why we were called to the room was so that we could help lift the folds of her belly so that they could insert a catheter into her bladder. The fold was at minimum 200 pounds of flesh. You see, she was too big to move to the commode to relieve herself she was going in bed. You can only imagine the stench. I apologize for the graphic descriptions but it only reinforces the drama. So it took me, this tiny girl, and 2 other orderlies to lift her enormous belly so the interns could visualize what they were looking for. Much to our horror and surprise what did we see under her belly fold but none other than a partially desicated sandwich...tuna i think. As well as some loose change. Reminds me of my sofa.

As you can see, to get to this point is tragic...i don't know what happened to this woman, but last i heard she had her own reality show on MTV and was representing trimspa. Well, I hope this serves as a wake up call to all you out there on special diets and to remind you that good health and physique are lifestyle changes and contrary to popular belief can not be attained through a magic pill.