Grand Rounds Tomorrw

The weekend has flown by quickly as usual. It was a bit of a flashback to medical school to pull an all-nighter last night. Tomorrow I am speaking for general surgery grand rounds on the topic of transportable ECMO. I'd never heard of it before residency, so for those who would ask, it is ExtraCorporeal Membrane Oxygenation: a sort of artificial lung to keep babies alive when their lungs aren't working. It was a pleasant surprise to see that I wasn't completely useless today. I ran a mile with B. and then played raquetball with him for an hour. Not bad for an old guy. Anyway, hopefully tomorrow the video works, my uniform doesn't fall appart, and I get up on time. I threw in a picture of our transport systems for fun.

Have fun and love life!

Chris

Getting the Word Out about Some Good We're Doing!

Greetings Friends!

So good to have you stop by. I had the pleasure of putting together an article describing the kids we took care of in Iraq. It was a great chance to get the word out about a little bit we were doing for the children whose lives have been disrupted by the war going on around them. It was published in Archives of Pediatric and Adoloscent Medicine, and you can link to it here. Our awesome Public Affairs department at the hospital put us in touch with a very kind reporter, Cindy Tumiel, from the local paper, the San Antonio Express-News. She wrote this very insightful piece about the article and did a better job than I could converting medical-ese into real English. I loved seeing the different takes that people took on the "message" and it is impressive to see how people can draw such different conclusions: Here, here, and here. I'm just happy to highlight the hard work that the Red Tail Medics of the 332 are doing keeping people alive over there.

Take care!

Chris

Try and find this post

It is such a thrill to discover something that a family ranging from toddler to decrepit adult like me can enjoy together. It is also exciting to realize that there has been a hidden world that you haven't noticed in your own backyard. The boys and I recently discovered the world of geocaching: the sport of using a global positioning satellite receiver to find hidden treasures across the world. Many of them are hidden in little parks and spots of green that I have been driving by for years without knowing the secret stashes they held. The boys really seem to enjoy it. In spite of her contacts, M has the best eyes of all and has saved us a few times when we have been ready to give up. My father did bring up the argument that it couldn't be a sport if it didn't involve a ball, bat, or club, but come on, they call darts a sport!

Have fun, love life, be mello,

Chris