Thursday, September 22, 2005

Lune de Miel


Hey folks!

I'm a married man, wouldn't you know it!

And what better way to celebrate a recent wedding than to tour les chateaux of the Loire Valley?

I will post some more pictures on the blog once I get home, but for the moment I will whet your appetites with the sumptious Chenonceau, which is actually built so that the River Cher flows underneath it! Pretty wild, huh.

We are going to Chambourd today and Versailles tomorrow. Claire and I come back to the United States on Sunday as husband and wife...

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Je suis en France

Bonjour mes amis!

I have arrived in France and despite the general fogginess that greeted us in Paris, we have made it to the coast and it is completely gorgeous outside! I took a great bike ride to the medieval city of Guerande today with my college buddies Nir and Jason today...it was pretty sweet.

I won't write long, mostly because typing on the French keyboard is a royal pain in the ass (it is not the standard QWERTY format, it's just different enough that I have to use the hunt and peck method every so often and it is quite time-consuming).

T-minus 4 days until the ,arriage of Nate and Claire!

Friday, September 09, 2005

Viruses suck...I'm going to France.

My computer has been infected with some lame-ass virus...hence the slowing down of my regular blogging. Hopefully I will have it fixed soon & I can resume my posts...

Anyways, I'm going to France starting tomorrow, and will be getting married on Saturday, Sept. 17th. Sweet!

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Constant Gardener


I saw the movie "The Constant Gardener" last night with a bunch of friends...fairly complex, very intriguing...definitely kept my interest for the entire duration of the movie.

The topic of drug trials in Africa and other 3rd-world nations is indeed a complex issue.

Now I'm off to buy wedding shoes, and mucho booze for the pre-wedding party Claire & I are throwing at our pad this Friday...

Monday, September 05, 2005

Bustin' Loose


I'm free!

My last shift in the E.R., potentially my last shift in the E.R. of all time, was Saturday during the 7am-7pm shift. Overall, it was actually one of the most satisfying ER experiences of my short career down there.

A 70-ish year old woman was brought in by EMS with altered mental status, a blood pressure of 60's/30's, tachy in the 130's (which turned out to be new A-Fib, an abnormal heart rhythm), and belly pain. We weren't sure what was going on at first...we debated about whether to shock her back into sinus rhythm straightaway, but decided against it, thinking that it was probably something else that was the primary process and that the A-Fib was secondary. Had difficulty with iv access so we scrambled to put in an EJ vein (a small peripheral iv in the external veins of the neck) and then later managed to put in an internal jugular central catheter (a larger iv in the internal veins of the neck). After pumping in about 4 Liters of normal saline and giving 3 different iv antibiotics, her blood pressure was back into the normal range of about 120/70 and her heart rate was in the 80's...interestingly, now in normal sinus rhythm rather than A-Fib! I'm still not sure exactly what the underlying cause of her illness was--it could be some kind of serious intra-abdominal infection, or it simply could have been profound dehydration (she said afterwards that she probably hadn't been eating as much as she usually did & her house didn't have air-conditioning, and it had been a pretty hot week outside). However, we managed to turn somebody who looked like she was on death's door into somebody who's not in the span of a couple of hours. I admit, this is one of the cool things about the E.R.--you are the first line of defense, and often are in a position to help people the most!

As for the Shawshank reference....number one, I'm damned excited to be finished with this ER rotation and enjoy a normal lifestyle for a month or so, as I have sweet, sweet elective & vacation for the next month!