So, thanks for the emails and the comments on the blog and the general well-wishes. I also want to thank my Jacobi friends (ok, mostly Chertoff...) for all the pictures from Graduation. Wish I could've been there. I'll miss my Jacobi buds.
And, thanks to Schultz for the pictures from the Kenyon 10 year reunion! So good to see you guys-- sorry I couldn't make it!
It has been commented that the postings have been “depressing.” While likely true, this is mostly my fault. You'll notice pictures are primarily of things and situations and cases. I think this is partly because I'm taking, and therefore not in, most of the pictures. And, probably also because I don't imagine people who aren't here are going to be interested in random pictures of people. And maybe it's because my personality is such that I focus on situations and goals and “the work” and less on “the relationships.” That probably is true of me, but I also hope some of it is because the good stuff I like to live while I'm there having it, and the pictures of it sort of fall by the wayside. I'd like to think that's true, anyway.
So, this is a wholly positive posting to counter the "not uplifting" naysayers...
The kid in the bed smiling was hit by a car, a pretty common reason kids come in. While I was examining his leg, he actually sat up in the cot, grabbed my elbow and bit me. I looked at him, attached as he was to my arm, and said “Really? You're biting me now? I can't believe you're biting me.” He laid back down. But now we're friends, because pictures don't lie.
He also introduced me to a phrase I've been hearing a lot with these kids. Introducing the concept of pre-examination analgesia/sedation, I often draw up a bunch of meds in front of them. To a toddler, they all scream out “White Man, don't juke me!” I have learned this means not only “trick” or “get the better of” but also very specifically “Don't stick me with that needle,” it's most common usage. I enjoy that this verb has evolved to serve so specific a purpose. I'm reminded of the verb enratonar, which Chris Stoltz from high school and I found in one of the Marlows' old Spanish dictionaries. It is a verb (regular conjugation) meaning “to become sick (vomit) from eating too many rats.” I'm pleased not only to imagine that this was a common enough occurrence to warrant an entire dedicated verb, but also to think that there existed such a thing as eating an appropriate number of rats...
Speaking of which, the two mice in my room (I've named them “Lassa” and “Hanta” for reasons close to my heart-- don't worry, hemorrhagic fever is mostly a late rainy season phenomenon. Mostly...) recently finished off the rest of my trail mix (thanks, Dorrit II). They are pretty acrobatic in that they enter the room by climbing down the window-side of the 7 foot dark red curtains that hang over and next to my bed. I would hear this progressive scratching on them at night and used to wonder, but then I hit the noise with a flip-flop and one of them, Hanta I believe, fell from the other side. So now it's kind of reassuring to know they're there.
And while on the topic of interesting fauna, the biggest example of the common Hobo or Aggressive House Spider I have ever seen, Nemesis, is no more. He's documented here, living in the supply closet designated for HEARTT equipment.
The other day I was looking for c-collars because the President of the country was going on a trip and one of the admins thought it'd be a good idea for us to lend them some (I'm not kidding), and Nemesis jumped out of a box of cardiac monitor adhesive leads (We have no cardiac monitors). And maybe I screamed like a little girl. Look, I'm wearing my Keanes, which offer no protection, ok? So one of the patients on the trauma side of the ER came over and killed Nemesis for me, as I cowered in a corner. Not really cowered-- I was trying and failing to squash him with an old Harriet Lane handbook. Still, this surgical patient thought I looked like I needed saving. Score one for manliness, USA.
Oh, and the reason I'm giving a talk about rabies to the medical students is because this little beast was in the common lounge in the medical dorms the other night when I'm trying to post to this blog. It's not enough to hope there's power and signal and time, now I have to hope there are no bats.
Ok, soldiering on...
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