mr.skullman?

The other day as Jenny and I were on our way to Portland...we passed by the strangest sight. From a distance, I thought I was either delirious or terribly crude for staring at someone with an incredibly obscure disease. As we got closer, the man came into full view and I realized that his obscurity was actually about 7 or 8 skulls glued to his skull. Uhmmm...my first thoughts were along the lines of "WTF?!" (Skull man continued to headbang to his music whilst pushing the buttons for both adjacent crosswalks) But then I started thinking...what if I was different? What if I was someone who found the need to glue mini skulls to my head? It was quite the strange thought. But he seemed to enjoy the attention from the people (in all their normalcy) staring through their car windows at him. Where are you now mr. skullman? I hope that you are doing well and that you feel a slight burst of honor for being featured in this prestigious blog. 

Legacy Emanuel Hospital

Whoa! I'm on a roll with the blog (sarcasm). Excuse my "half-post" from a couple of days ago. I guess you could call it my very first attempt at something that may or may not (hopefully) resemble something along the lines of a hazy, preliminary college admissions essay? DONT LAUGH. 

Anyways. The real reason for today's post: I job shadowed in the Trauma center at Legacy Emanuel Hospital today. I was finally able to actually shadow and follow THE trauma surgeon. It was an awesome experience. Here's a copy of the email I sent back to the doc (he had asked for my impressions):

First of all, I'd like to thank you again for allowing me to shadow you. I truly enjoyed my time today. One of the first things I noticed while in the TRACU was the unexpected level of calm amongst the majority of the staff. I was surprised to see that so many people essentially caring for many patients with life-threatening conditions were able to stay level-headed all the time and work efficiently without panicking (like when the patient lost control of his bowels and yelled for help). I also learned that there are actually many people that "do rounds" together with the attending physician. Watching you, your interns, the pharmacist, the nutritionist, the nurses and the PAs all work together to care for the patients seemed somewhat confusing and frantic to me as an outsider at first, but as rounds continued I realized that the team was extremely well-orchestrated and very efficient in that everyone contributed to help each patient in a different way. Although there were some terms/acronyms and drugs (like oxycodone and coumadin) that I recognized, there were so many new terms that I had never heard of before (Paige was really nice and explained a lot of things to me). I also realized that the role of the trauma surgeon cares for so much more than just the immediate admission. I had thought that trauma surgeons wouldn't be as much apart of the patient's care all the way until they leave the hospital. I appreciated being able to watch you react with the patients and assess them almost through casual conversation. I especially admired your sincerity and care for each individual patient and their needs. 

The lunch/seminar was "a little bit above my head (to say the least)," but I appreciated being able to sit and listen to you teach. It was interesting to see exactly how much actual science and numbers factored into much of the clinical work (especially of just trying to maintain homeostasis). 

In short, I realized that some of my preconceptions of "the trauma surgeon" were wrong, but my experience today has done nothing but reaffirm my interest and longing to pursue emergency/trauma medicine. 

Enjoy the copy/paste extravaganza.

Unfortunately (I AM a terrible person), there were no traumas. 

I seem to continue to be the anti-trauma.

which may or may not be a good thing (probably a good thing...but still kind of frustrating sometimes).

-Your Future Trauma Surgeon 

Tony, my italian grandfather.

if i ever finish this post (and it turns out good). i'll post it back up. :)

a short trip to the ER

So I've been having jaw problem for a few months now. It really hasn't been that bad, just the occasional popping or tension. Although I can't say the onset was super surprising. I'm probably the poster child for any type of jaw problem (I chew gum hourly, bite my nails, eat lots of "taffy" candies, play the violin, and if all of that wasn't enough...jaw problems run in the family). Anyways, the jaw popping started becoming more frequent and problematic this last week and culminated in last nights adventure. Last night, after sitting awestruck in front of the tv, watching Joshua Bell play the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto live from Lincoln Center on OPB, I retired to my room to make sure facebook was doing okay before I called it a night. As I scrolled down the page, I let out a semi-big yawn and, what do you know?, my jaw pops out. This had happened to me before, but I've always been able to shove it back in within a matter of seconds. This time my jaw would not budge and I was literally stuck in a less than attractive "gaping mouth" expression. So at 12:30 am, we all changed out of our pajamas, and headed out to the Salem Hospital ER. Having been unable to tour the new ER yet, I did kind of try to look at my visit positively. I got to experience all of the "hospital" that I enjoy, but this time as the patient-ish. Anyways, after making a spectacle of myself in the not-so-private check in center, the nurses ushered me into the triage room where I'd be briefly seen. The lady took my blood pressure and temperature and felt very bad about asking me to answer some questions (true statement: it IS hard to talk when your mouth doesn't close). Then they sent us out to the waiting room where I tried to ease the pain by touching my jaw. Somehow, my muscles must've relaxed during the half hour period everything took, and my jaw popped back into place. "It's back in Dad, let's go home." And we did. The nurses probably laughed some more and we all said goodbye. It was a transient, but good experience. I think once was enough though.