My Thoughtful Spot

saturday call

I just finished my last Saturday call as a resident. And since I'm not going to be a trauma surgeon, it was my last Saturday trauma call... EVER. For some reason, people do more stupid things on Saturdays than any other day of the week. So even though it wasn't my last call ever... that's Tuesday... it's still a big deal.

Here are the drive in totals for my last 30 hours of weekend call

• One death from withdrawal of care
• One patient with gun shot wounds (GSWs) leading to me cracking the chest in the ER. We did not save him.
• Two patients who were "victims" of GSWs as part of retaliation for aforementioned death. 
• One butt pus. 
• One appy. 
• Two acute cholecystitis cases.
• One metastatic colon cancer that has grown so big it is nearly causing an obstruction. 
• One kid who flipped his bike (without a helmet), landed on his handlebars, and busted up his spleen. 
• And about half a dozen drunk morons either operating vehicles and crashing them or being terds and getting assaulted.  

Now we're at a baseball game. And I made sure to get a very important companion on the way to my seat. I think I earned at least one of these. They call it a yard, but it's only a half yard. I can drink a yard of margaritas. Don't know if I'll be awake afterwards, but I can...

arrrr, pucker up, matey

We went to the Angels game last night and watched them lose after a spectacular grand slam by some White Sox player in the 8th inning. Some friends were also going to the game yesterday and we wanted to meet up. They had reservations in the Knothole Club, which is exclusively for people who have Club level tickets. We slum it on the terrace level, so the door guy was having nothing of it.

By the time they got seated, it was at a table for six and their party was only four. My friend, ever the smooth talker, convinced the door guy to let us in anyway. After all, we would only spend money, right? So we headed up after the first. The Knothole Club is on the one level higher than our home base, just to the outfield side of the foul pole. It was very neat having a different perspective of the game, even when it means not being as close.

One of the between-inning entertainment bits is the "kiss cam," which I think is pretty standard at baseball stadiums everywhere. They usually focus on a cute couple, wait for them to kiss, and add some kissing sound effects before moving onto the next victims... I mean couple. Towards the end of the little show was what looked like a standard couple. Cute brunette, some dude in an Angels hat. She turned to her partner to kiss him, and her entire eye was covered with a huge bandage. All 37,000 fans in attendance gasped audibly... and then started laughing. Poor thing. I hope she's not scarred for life; externally or internally.

no more free wings

On March 30th, I was back inside a baseball stadium! The smells of beer and peanuts were everywhere. And because it was preseason baseball, everyone who was there really loves the game. It started out with all the people we know and love; Garrett Anderson, Howie Kendrick, Mike Napoli. But when the game score reached 8-0 Angels, we saw people we never even heard of. Which is fine; give them some time in the big stadium!

Last year, there was a deal with Hooters; every time the Angels won a game and scored 10 or more runs, everyone with a ticket had 24 hours to get their free order of wings from Hooters. That happened so many times last year, that we speculated it may not happen this year.

Daniel wasn't able to be there for the game, so when the score for the Angels got to 10, my brother and I decided to bring him a take out order of wings. Free or not. And sure enough, our Hooter girl Jessica confirmed that there is no more free wing deal. She said that too many people would just get the wings and water and nothing else, leave no tips, or both. What she didn't mention was how much money they probably lost as a corporation. But I didn't expect a Hooter girl to theorize about the business model of her employer. ;-)

At that point, we decided that we would institute our own 10-Run Wing deal. Sure, we'd have to pay for them, but it keeps an important tradition alive. There will still be cries of "the winging run is in scoring position" and "free wings! free wings!" And we'll keep the celebration of the win going after the game... at Hooters.

sweep *this*

Being part owner of Angels season tickets, I was lucky enough to have seats for all three games of the Angels-Red Sox match up. These last three days were the only time the Red Sox would come to Angels Stadium during the regular season. I was able to make it on Monday without much difficulty; I actually made it to batting practice. Watched the Red Sox play sloppy ball and lose.

Tuesday was another story. Had a big surgery scheduled for that day and it was supposed to start at 7:30. No big deal; I should get out in plenty of time anyway. The attending surgeon had an emergency case at a different hospital, so we couldn't start until 1:00. Still might make it on time. Okay, so we didn't actually get started until 3:30 because of MAFAT (mandatory anesthesia f**k around time). Might make it for the last half of the game. Nope. Didn't finish with that case until 10:30. The game actually finished before I did. Which, according to everyone I knew who saw the game, was a blessing. Complete pitching meltdown.

Made it to last night's game and was prepared to get swept. What I wan't prepared for was the extreme rudeness of Angels fans. Usually Angels fans are very well behaved and respectful. Not like Yankee fans. But last night brought out a whole new kind of Angels fan. The kind that sit behind you and say what a shitty player Manny is. The kind that defend Matthews when he intentionally tried to knock down Youkilis at first base and call him a baby when his hand got hit by a pitch. The kind that say Tito doesn't have the balls to call for a double steal play like Soscia did. (But Tito did, by the way, and it was successful.) The kind that childishly mimic other Red Sox fans behind their backs. The kind that tell me they should have brought their brooms. I was very disappointed in Angels fans for being so... unsportsman-like. And according to Dawn, it wasn't restricted to just the fans; the announcers on FSN West were being equally annoying.

But the Red Sox won last night. With, I might add, a 1-2-3 9th inning courtesy of small-mouthed Papelbon.

It was great to see the Red Sox play right in front of my very eyes. I just hope next year they play better and the Angels fans stop behaving like Yankee fans. Because if they want the kind of hatred we give Yankee fans, it can be delivered.

the weekend -- bullet style

As I survey the last three days, I realize I've been kinda busy. So here comes a big list of what we did since Friday:

• Went to funeral mass for one of our fathers in surgery.
• Bought goodies at the Container Store to help organize the bathroom. It's now my new favortie room in the house. The Container Store is right... life is more fun when you're organized.
• Lifted weights.
• Went to Angels game and got free wings at Hooters because they scored over ten runs and won the game. Steven joined us to eat my wings because I only eat the boneless ones. I texted him when the "winging run [was] in scoring position."
• Went to Angels game and got free wings at Hooters because they scored over ten runs and won the game. (I put this twice because it happened Friday and Saturday and we went to both games. I'm totally winged out.)
• Studied.
• Worked Saturday and Sunday mornings.
• Ran for 10 miles on Sunday. I haven't done that since May!
• Church. The music for the Mass always makes me bust up at the Angus Dei, which is bad, because I'm supposed to be preparing myself to receive communion. It sounds like the music from "The Muppet Movie." The Rainbow Connection, to be exact.
• Trader Joe's to stock up on protein shakes for the week.
• There's a synagogue I pass by on the way to Trader Joe's. The name is "Congregation Shir Ma'alot." I don't know what it means in Hebrew, but everytime I glace at it quickly, all I see is "Sir Mix-a-lot."
• Get rental car so that we can take in the SUV for electrical work, new tires, and repair the paint on the bumper.
• Finish editing the book chapter I'm working on.

the elusive free wings

Friday night the Department of Surgery bid farewell to the current chiefs at the graduation dinner. It was a pretty good time, but I got food poisoning. Started puking around 3:45am Saturday and kept going at approximate 20 minute intervals until 9:00. I slept most of the day and felt well enough to use our Angels tickets. It's a good thing we made it... Escobar pitched a great game and the bats delivered ten runs. I've been waiting all season (and most of last season) for the Angels to earn ten runs. Because at that score, everyone in attendance gets free wings at Hooters! Once last season the Angels got ten runs but somehow managed to lose the game. I didn't know they also had to *win* the game, so we drove all the way to Hooters and got turned away at the door! Free wings - captured!

bizarro world baseball

As of early this afternoon, the weekend series between my two favorite teams is over. That would, of course, be the Red Sox with the Angels in a distant second. It was supposed to be four games, but one was rained out. I wasn't able to watch all of them, but of the ones that I did see, I noticed a few really odd things that make me think it was Bizarro World...

• Manny ran all the way from left field to center to catch a pop fly. Seriously. He hustled. I'm not sure if I have ever seen that. He ran so fast his cap came flying off exposing his do-rag. (Can I say do-rag?)
• The bats were awake for Wakefield.
• Mirabelli hit a solo home run off of Angels' pitcher Lackey, which is part of the afore mentioned bats for Wake.. This is the guy who weighs twice what his batting average is. Must have been embarrassing for Lackey.
• Lugo actually didn't strike out in a game. (Still waiting for the justification of that off-season acquisition.)
• There were heaters in the Angels dugout. I'll say it again because it bears repeating. Global warming my ass.

The Angels simply don't have a good record against the Red Sox, espeically at Fenway, and especially on Friday 13th. The poor little Angel-pops (Dawn's term) were doing everything they could just to stay warm. Being a California girl who has lived for a time in Boston, I can completely understand how ill-equipped they were to play in 40 degree weather. Hmmm... I wonder if there is a drink called Angel pop? I'm attending a going-away party for a huge Angels fan this Friday... that would be funny.

go to the bathroom... this is going to be a long one

It's obviously been several days, almost a week, since I've been able to post. I've considered several ways of recounting my adventures, trying to comply with the blogging etiquette rule of not making long posts. But without dragging this on for several days, I can't think of any other way to do it. So consider yourself warned. This is going to be a long one. Go to the bathroom, get something to drink, walk the dog...

The 39th Annual meeting of the American Burn Association in San Diego was simply awesome. There were so many people there... probably near 1,000. And not just doctors like at many other medical conventions. There were nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, firefighters... the list just goes on and on. It really exemplified one of the main reasons I like burn surgery so much. It's not just about the science and the doctors (many, if not most doctors think they can work in a little box). But it's really about the patient and the treatment of not just the injury, but also the patient as a whole. The conference addressed every aspect of how to help burn survivors and addressed problems with sexuality, disaster preparedness, management of the critically ill burn patient, scar management, international outreach, and so very much more.

My talk was on Thursday morning. I had practiced extensively and knew each slide before it came up. There were several oral presentations sessions occurring silmultaneously on various aspects of burns. I was in the critical care room -- where all the big names in burn surgery from around the country were. My paper was the first in a series of three that were addressing the same topic. All those years of dance and singing paid off, and I didn't have too much nervousness in front of such a large audience. The question session afterwards was a little tough. All those big names came up to the microphone to ask me questions... some of which I wasn't sure about so my boss had to step in. That's ok... it means that they were paying attention, were interested, and we had spurred some thought. Because really, that's what it comes down to -- finding better ways to do things so we can offer better care to our patients.

Oh, during my 10 minute presentation, some dude in the front took my picture. I remember thinking... "Who is this guy and why the hell is he taking my picture?" After I sat down, I got my answer. He came over and introduced himself as a reporter from "Surgery News" which is a little newsletter I get every month. You know, part of "the industry" junk mail. Everyone I know gets this; one of those things you stick in the bathroom just in case. He wanted to do a feature on our research! Cool! Spread the word!

Once I was done, I could finally relax a bit. That night, we went to this awesome Australian restaurant called Bondi in San Diego's historical Gaslamp Quarter. The food was amazing, but even more spectactular was that they had two separate vintages of sparkling shiraz. One of my friends gave me a bottle of this magical elixir for Christmas; she had picked it up during her travels down under. But I have not been able to find it since. The waitress told me that many Aussies come to the bar there just to have a glass or two. At the beginning of the evening, I was the only one ordering it; by the end, I had converted nearly everyone! If you ever see it anywhere, pick up a bottle for yourself and call me!

Friday was more conferences and a banquet in the evening. Daniel was able to come down for Wednesday night's dinner, stayed for my talk, and then came back for the banquet. I really am so lucky to have his support in all my endeavours; there is no way I could do it without him. It was really so much fun hanging out with our burn nurses; they're such a great group of people to work and play with. :-) I didn't really end up taking many photos. I've been feeling quite uncreative recently and just didn't feel like it. Not something I really want to force, especially considering that I can't find the cord that allows me to put my photos from my camera to my computer. :-P

Saturday morning we checked out and headed up to Temecula. We were going to meet my aunt and uncle for lunch... baseball season is just around the corner and we had to divide up the season tickets! We had a great time catching up over lunch; the two of them are really the main component of our summer baseball family. Since they live quite a ways inlad from us, when they go to two games in a row, they often stay in our guest room and we usually end up chatting on the patio over a bottle of wine. Now to the business of the draft. It took several hours, but I'm pretty happy with the results. We of course got all three games for when the Red Sox are in town and a lot of Big Bang Fridays. We also got the opening day tickets! Hurry up April 2nd!!!

Then we had to make a decision. Do we try to go to a winery or two, or take our chances with Lady Luck at Pechanga (which is a casino on a nearby reservation)? I won, so we went to the winery. ;-) There are about 20 wineries in the hills above Temecula... some good and some bad. We had never been before even though it's only a little over an hour from where we live. My aunt and uncle recommended trying the Mount Palomar winery... it was great! They had some truly excellent vintages. My favorite was the port and the sherry. I felt a little like Homer when he became a food critic and wrote raving reviews of all the foods. :-P We also signed up for their wine club, which is two bottles delivered to your home every other month. Most of the wine clubs I've ever heard of have more than that, but that is just the right amount for us. Best of all, Temecula isn't far from where my aunt and uncle live, so we can crash with them when we want to go winery hopping!

Last event of the day was a charity silent auction for Oak Grove. It is a facility and attached school that houses kids who have behavioral, emotional, and neurologic problems. They also have a focus on autism education. I had never been to a silent auction before! Daniel got a gift certificate to a tattoo parlor (yes, he's going to use it), and we won a winery tour of a place near San Luis Obispo. Several of the students spoke during the dinner; their stories and personal insight were inspirational. Truly a good cause.

A fun and rewarding trip. I'm very thankful that I was able to go. I would say it's good to be home, but I'm not at home. I'm on call. But I like the idea that home is about 12 hours away. ;-)

new seats for '07

Yesterday was the opportunity for Angels season ticket holders to move around the park, based on seat availability. Thank goodness my we share tickets with my aunt and uncle, because neither of us were able to actually go and try to move up. I was in a meeting and Daniel was in a parking lot, I mean the freeway, on the way back from a lawyerly thing in LA.

I got the great news today that they were successful! We have upgraded seats for the new season! I'm so excited. If I were smart with computers, I would put a circle marking where last year's seats were and where we moved to. But instead, I'll leave you the link, if you care to magnify the image. We used to be in the last row of section 227, which is under a big awning between first base and the left field foul pole. This prevented us from seeing the biggest scoreboard. But it was in the shade. This is the visitors' side of the stadium and the seats not under the awning got direct sun during day games. The new seats are basically in a straight line down from our old seats in the back of section 129. SWEET! This means that we'll have full un-obscured vision of the giant scoreboard but still get the benefits of the giant awning to protect us from the sun! Next in the countdown of the end of the baseball winter is draft day... where we meet to divide up the year's tickets!

awesome saturdays

I'm such a lucky girl, when I stop to think about it. Not only for all the many, many blessings I have in life, but I have just experienced two awesome Saturdays -- in a row! (lol... that just reminded me of a funny movie quote. I can't really say what it is here because it's very crass!)

So let's start with last weekend. A week ago Friday I was on nights and getting ready to head into work. Daniel tells me that a friend that I've had since I was 7 was coming to visit from out of state and wonders if it would be a good idea to drive to Fresno to see her. After getting over the inital guilt of not studying or working on my research projects, I decided life was too short, I haven't seen her in over four years, and yes, we should go! It was great seeing them. I'm sick that I didn't take any pics of us, but we were just too busy having fun. Here's one of her nephew... he really wanted to go swimming. But we went to Claim Jumper instead.

When we were done, we went to mom's and crashed in her guest room. Not only was her bed very comfy, but I had been awake since 4pm Friday. The first thing we did on Sunday was head over to Kate's (my sister) new classroom. This is her second year as a teacher and she got a new position for this academic year. I didn't realize this, but it is up to each teacher to decorate their classroom in a way that promotes learning and a nice environment for the kids. She did such an amazing job -- it made me want to be a sixth grader again! The best part was that she had Pop Rocks. Yes, we put a packet in our mouths and drank soda! Did our stomachs explode?? hmmm....

Then we drove over to see the model of the home that Kate and her husband just bought! Oh. My. Gosh. Five bedrooms, loft for scrapbooking, huge backyard with pool, beautiful kitchen... I'm so happy for them. They just have to wait until April when it's done! But it is going to be so great. I hope she does a little mini album about the story of their house!

All that running around made us pretty hungry, so we headed back to mom's for a barbeque and some swimming. It was so nice to see everyone and have a relaxing weekend. I also got to see mom's new studio, which she and Kate just finished painting and furnishing. Can't wait till I have a little more time and we can all scrap in there! Daniel and I stayed until 6pm (we wanted to leave a 4pm, but you know how those things go...) Back in Orange County by 11pm and to sleep -- had to get up at 4:30 Monday morning!

This past week was my last week on trauma until I'm a 5th year resident. My last week. Of eight weeks. So I was really looking forward to the end of the week. Also at the end of the week was an Angels game. They've been doing really well since the All Star break; who knows how far they'll get?

So yesterday we headed over to the Big A to watch the Halos take on the Marniers. It was a great game. Both sides had a few pitching melt-downs (watching Red Sox baseball all season has made me able to diagnose this with just a few bad pitches), but the Halos came out on top 9-7. Plus I got some neat pics. Just love the 10x optical zoom on my camera!