Quilting Updates and the Community Photo Challenge

Please visit my other blog site for the latest:

Veronica's Paper Cuts

I start my new rotation on the Orthopedic Surgical Service tomorrow at ECMC. I am sure that I will have some interesting stories, and photos, to share....

Until then!

A Cold Day in Buffalo

Because of the Easter Holy Days, I had a few days off from my current rotation on the Hand Surgery service. I also had a friend come into town, so I did a bit of the tourist thing. Since there isn't much else of interest going on, I thought I would share some of the photos from this weekend. I hope the Easter Bunny was good to you and yours, cheers!

From the Right Side of My Brain

For those of you that don't know, I have another blog site "Veronica's Paper Cuts" which shows off my more creative side. I just bought a sewing machine so now I guess I will have to add "& Fabric" to the title. Here's the first entry discussing the new toy. Enjoy! Back to the medical madness soon...

Veronica's Paper Cuts

I've Been a Bad, Bad Blogger....

All right. So it's been a while.

Let's recap:
I finished my time in the pediatric ICU. While controversial, I still maintain the idea that sometimes just because we can do something to prolong life doesn't mean we should. Also, I did get to see one child placed on ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxidation); sort of a mini-heart/lung bypass machine but not within the sterile confines of the O.R. Big and scary.

I completed my month-long rotation at the main hospital BGH. This time, not so bad. If you remember back to last year, I was rating my days in the number of beers I needed to get over the shift. This time, I don't know... maybe it was the responsibility. Maybe it was knowing more than I did last year. I actually sort of enjoyed it. And, I learned a lot. Maybe I'm just growing up academically.

After three weeks at the "General", I took my vacation, and tonight just returned from the Miami area of Florida were I spent the last week. A couple of things that I learned: the Everglades are awesome, alligators are an important part of the ecosystem of the Everglades, I continue to not like foreigners who travel because they're just rude, and I think I would be suicidal on a cruise if I had to be on the boat for longer than a day. Oh, yeah, and Key Lime Pie... tasty!

So, tomorrow I start my two months on the Orthopedics' service. It starts with two weeks of Hand Surgery. I'll have a better idea in the morning of what that entails. Hopefully, something new and interesting to blog about. It will take some time to catch up with everyone else's blogs, so forgive me if I haven't posted recently.

Have You Googled Today?

So, my PICU (pediatric ICU) rotation is winding down. Just one more 24+ hour call left on Saturday, and then it will be over. I plan to write a wrap up of the month on Sunday night. Today, though, post-call from the PICU, I was thinking about how much Google has changed the way I live.

I got an iPhone for Christmas. It's a fancy little gadget. Lots of buttons. Lots of memory. An ok camera in a pinch. The ability to play movies and games wherever I am. And, the all important, 24/7 connection to the internet and Google. I didn't think much about it until we took the trip to Gettysburg a couple of weekends ago.

My husband had planned things out for the most part. The route, how long it would take, etc. We used the GPS map (which, by the way is GoogleMap) on the iPhone to confirm where we were and check traffic conditions. As we got closer to the town where the bed and breakfast was we looked for a place to eat and were able to bring up a menu.

On Saturday, we used the map to guide us around the monuments in Gettysburg. When we had a question (like where were the Confederate monuments and where were the Confederate soldiers buried since they didn't seem to be at the National Cemetary - most were left on the side of the road since they were considered "traitors" but a group from the Hollywood Cemetary in Richmond, VA worked to collect them and transported a great number of the over 18,000 Confederate soldiers buried there) we would Google. We found the wax museum at the American Civil War Museum by Google. We checked out various places to eat and looked up the history of the Farnsworth House Inn.

Now, when we watch movies, we Google. We're planning for "Life after Residency" and have been Googling everything from real estate to where to mail order chicks. We've looked up draft horses for sale and have learned how to sheer sheep. We also have seen how to sheer an Angora rabbit and how to spin our own yarn.

During rounds in the PICU, I have pulled out my iPhone to check when diseases were first discovered, how to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, and what the water content is of, um, BM's (bowel movements - otherwise known as your poop. Which, by the way, is 75% water; just in case you wanted to know.)

Google has certainly changed the way I am living. So, how has Google changed your life?

Everybody Needs a Little Time Away

I haven't been writing a lot because to be honest, there really isn't much to write about in the PICU. Sure I see my patients every day, and it's really great to see a child you intubated come out on the other side extubated, doing well. But, a lot of our patients have congenital problems, and I have been carrying the same two patients for the last 2 1/2 weeks. I've had other patients come and go, but these two have remained.

So, instead of boring you with the humdrum days of the PICU, I am only writing when something interesting happens... like this weekend. My husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary, and he surprised me with a trip to South Central Pennsylvania. He made arrangements at the Olde Fogie Farm Bed and Breakfast in Marietta. It's a real working organic farm full of animals.

We had been talking for a while about "life after residency," and I have been talking about having chickens and some small livestock. So he wanted to show me what it might be like. The B&B organizes "chores" for the guests, so I spent my mornings feeding the animals, collecting eggs, and generally absorbing everything. I think I could get used to the lifestyle.

The other part of our trip involved going to Gettysburg. I think I learned more about the Civil War than I ever imagined I would. It was also interesting being that my husband was raised in the South, so he brought a different perspective to everything. We spent some time at the American Civil War Museum looking at the wax figures and animations. We drove around to see the monuments, mostly those from the South.

We bought a tour book and followed a part of the driving tour and somehow ended up at the brand new Gettysburg National Military Park: Museum and Visitor's Center. It had just opened last weekend, and it was awesome. There is so much to see just in the museum part that we spent several hours looking at the exhibits. There are also some multimedia and film options with admission, but we arrived later in the afternoon and just had time to walk through the museum.

The next day we drove through Lancaster County. Unfortunately, it was Sunday, so almost all of the stores were closed. Which was a bummer since I was shopping for quilts and some good dry goods to replace my stores. We did drive through some beautiful countryside and up across a part of the Appalachian trail. It was really hard coming home knowing that I would be on overnight call the next day, but I felt so relaxed and re-inspired. Sometimes, you just need that little time away.

Happy Anniversary, Honey! ILY

On Scene

As some of you know, I live in Buffalo, NY. As some of you also know I am in training to be an emergency medicine physician. I have talked about my adventures in the emergency departments of our local hospitals, and I have talked about being a part of SMART (Specialized Medical Assistance Response Team) for Erie County. We provide medical support as part of the public health and emergency response systems. We were called to action on Thursday night.

I wasn't able to go to the scene that night, but several of my colleagues did. The next day a new shift of my colleagues went to the scene. And, on Saturday, a colleague and I did. We are there to provide medical support to the hundreds of investigators, evidence collectors, workers, and firemen who are helping with the scene.

As I arrived I thought it would be bigger; larger, somehow. As I walked down Long Street I kept trying to see it. Sure, there were a line of emergency vehicles parked on the street, but still. As I tried to figure out where I was going to meet my colleague, I spotted one of our emergency trailers so I kept walking up the street. And, suddenly, there it was.

They had not been able to begin work the day before because hot spots were still being put out. Suddenly I saw the potential dangers for the workers: large and small twisted pieces of metal, pieces of wood with nails, potential sinkholes, cinder blocks that could potentially trip someone, etc. We made arrangements to be able to administer tetanus shots. We checked our suture materials. We made sure we would be able to arrange for follow-up.

And, so there I was, in the midst of the scene, starting to hear the stories.

I spent the first part of my morning surrounded by the team from the medical examiner's office, and I heard all of their plans for the day. I spent time in their tent. I watched their work.

One of the firefighters from the Buffalo Niagara Fire Department was sitting in his firetruck at the top of the scene where an airport fire truck had sat every night since the accident. I had met him during an exercise almost a year ago, and he waved when he saw me. I spent some time with him as he told me the stories related by the firefighters.

I met members of the FBI and local law. I listened to NTSB and FAA officials as they collected their evidence. Everyone wanted to talk. Everyone wanted to do more.

I was there as support, but I also watched a group of people come together and work for a common somber goal. I watched their painstaking work. I watched the respect with which each victim was handled. Suddenly, I felt the enormity of the situation. And, the scene didn't seem so small after all.