Well, it has been quite some time since I have been commenting here. The summer feels like it is on the downswing of things. Partly because it is getting dark sooner in the evenings, and partly because we have some weather that reminds me of fall in the northwest.
I have been able to spend some time doing transplant surgery up in Cleveland, which was a good experience, but one I have no intention of repeating. Lots of sick patients, and lots of incurable diseases or nearly incurable diseases (which may be worse, since we try to cure them).
Now I am nearly half done with a rotation at the local children's hospital doing pediatric surgery, as well as burn surgery. The days are quite busy, and I rarely have any spare time to sit down or study as I am one of 4 or 5 residents and we have between 40 and 70 patients we are responsible for, and if the pediatric surgery stuff doesn't keep us busy enough, we have the burn unit to deal with, which really sucks our time away. So far, I have been blessed with some good cases, and one night I stayed extra to operate on two kids who had injured their pancreases, so we operated on them.
My life is pretty much drainage of pus from all manner of wounds, usually involving the hind parts, fixing hernias, taking care of burn patients, and trauma patients. I have had several bad trauma patients, all involving ATV's. One girl is paralized from the shoulders down, a 16yo boy is paralized from the thighs down, and another girl is now intubated in the ICU for the past week or two after having her spleen and right kidney removed, her bowel repaired, and her liver packed and fixed, tubes in both sides of her chest, and two tubes in her abdomen.
As for the burns, I have had one man assaulted, left unconscious in a house, and then had the house set on fire on top of him.. He made it about a week before he died as he was severely burned. Another man got drunk and sat down in the middle of a campfire, and will never sit the same again. Various young people have played with matches and gasoline or lighter fluid, and I guess I may be biased because I only get to see the losers, but I suppose winning isn't worth the risk.
They say there are no normal burn patients, and this is pretty much the case as for some reason most of the burn patients seem to have some underlying psychiatric disorder as well. One exception is a guy I have taken care of for a month now, a semipro hockey player who was working with a landscaper and was riding a professional lawnmower that exploded underneath of him. He has had 7 surgeries so far, with many more on tap, and should be able to get his breathing tube out pretty soon. We expect him to make it out of the burn unit, but not for a while, and not without serious rehab, as he was burned everywhere except the small of his back, buttocks, and from his knees up to his waist and his feet.
So, rules I can pass on to you are that if your kid rides a bike, wear a stinking helmet, be careful with handlebars, they like to damage the liver, pancreas, and spleen when they wreck and hit them. Don't play with fire, it burns you. ATV's should be banned, or at least we should only let those with lots of insurance and no reason to live ride them.
I also have been able to work a bit with the little guys. I have taken out dead bowel and fixed abnormalities in guys weighing in at less than 1 kg. That is pretty small, and I find good use for my loops (eyeglasses with telescopic lenses on them) in these cases.
The family has been enjoying summer. Jan and Alec are swimming like fishes, we have enjoyed good visits and help from family, and we are somewhat sick, but are going up to Cedar Point, a large area with amusement parks and such to a large water park there tomorrow since the hospital was giving away free tickets, so I picked up $200 worth of them and we are going up there tomorrow to see if the children float.
Speaking of floating, Anne is now starting swim lessons thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Carne, and is incredibly excited about it.
Alec has started flag football about 30min south of here, and I think he feels there is nothing else better to live for at the moment. He was pretty excited because last practice they did drills for being on the line, and he was able to push the bigger kids around due to his attention to the coach on the technique and balance.
Well, we have been enjoying the bikes, and getting some runs in here and there. We most likely will join our church (finally) so Kristi can do some teaching with the kids, and we can have more input from the leadership and protection.
Oh, I suppose you are wondering what the deal with the pig fairy is. Perhaps I blogged about it a while ago, just one of those passing comments that Alec made at my dad's place when he had been playing with a little plastic pig of Jan's and had left it under his pillow when he went to sleep. The next morning Jan wanted it and he couldn't find it, and when asked about it replied, "I don't know, maybe the pig fairy took it." Well those comments and others seem to be more commonplace now... lately, seems you can send all the kids into fits of laughter by mentioning any of the top four: bottom, potty, poop, and haymay. Don't ask me what a haymay is, but Anne says Pati is one, and I can't tell her different.
Okay, I suppose that is enough to catch you up for now. Have fun during the rest of the summer, wear your helmets, don't play with flammable liquids, and if anyone suggests you ride one of those three lettered words with wheels on it, punch them in the nose and run as fast as you can in the other direction...
David
