Tuesday, November 29. 2005
faces
catalina's porch
of all the places we've been in central america, perhaps the one that will remain in my mind the longest is catalina's porch. incredible family. their property is the site for the community garden, which is now enclosed in fence, planted, and sprouted, mostly by the efforts of this family and other community members. we set up tent in their yard, and would spend most evenings on their porch, talking, shelling red beans, drinking strong coffee together. it was fascinating to hear catalina's story. she was forced to quit school, run away, and start working at about age 8. despite a rough start in life, and her husband and soulmate dying 3 years ago from leukemia, she is one of the most joyful, and i would say, sucessful people i've met. she has been following christ most of her life now, as did her husband. each of her 5 kids are so unique and full of life, they all live together and work hard to make ends meet, yet their life is not all about work, they spend a lot of time enjoying each other, talking, playing. the hammock in the foreground is one of only a few pieces of furniture, but catalina would say "what more do we need?"
Sunday, November 20. 2005
Feliz Cumplianos!
Friday, November 18. 2005
Champagne Tap
Sorry, no picture today. I haven't really had the inspiration to take any photos lately, hence my lack of posts... Anyways, life is speeding along as always. I finished up my month at CHOC, and I'm still pretty happy with the idea of becoming a pediatric cardiologist. I'm working at UCI now, doing a sub-internship in pediatric ward medicine. UCI's pediatric program is mostly based at Miller's Children Hospital, and interns really only spend one or two months at UCI Medical Center (where I am). As such, it's a very low-key rotation, and I don't follow a lot of patients. Things were very frustrating at first: it took some 30 phone calls to get access to the computer system, they refused to give me a pager so I had to buy my own, and lots of small things like the way they do their discharge summaries infuriated me. But I settled in and now I'm enjoying myself quite a bit. Phew!
Which brings me to the title of this post. To cap off the first week and my first night on call, I got woken up by a page in the early morning because one of my kids had broken yet another fever. The kid needed a lumbar puncture (aka spinal tap), and I had to do it. I got a little scared, imagining the horror of sticking a needle into the spine of a 4-month-old baby and somehow wrecking the spinal cord or something, paralyzing him for life. Which of course couldn't happen if I even barely knew what I was doing, since really the most serious complication would be an infection or maybe an allergic reaction to lidocaine. I wouldn't be poking around where the spinal cord lies, just where the fluid collects.
So I went over the procedure with my senior resident, and we got the baby ready. With the parents just outside the treatment room all teary-eyed and the baby crying inconsolably, I put on my sterile gloves and got to work. Finding the right spot was tricky at first, but I figured it out. I broke sterility. Oops. I changed gloves, and finally put in the needle. I pushed forward in a gentle motion, staying straight as I could, and I felt the pop I was told to expect. I pulled back the stylus, and badabang! CLEAR AS WATER! No blood at all, just pure, pure sweet cerebrospinal fluid (brain urine). A champagne tap! On my first try!
Now I know I was lucky (there are so many variables), but hey, that was still awesome. Bwa! And no, I didn't paralyze the baby. I checked in on him about 30 minutes later, and he was just as happy as he could be. (He was being fed.)
Tuesday, November 8. 2005
NYC
Congratulations to Dan and Margot! I love that photo with Claire looking unamused by the whole experience.
So I'm still in NYC, really enjoying Brooklyn. Somehow I found myself at a
club in Times Square last Saturday night, and I was nearly blinded by
the bright lights when I emerged from the subway station! The party was
worth it though...
Lomo photos from the month are on their way.