New

Driving in the car through all sorts of weather made me smile as I listened to "New" by Bethany Dillon.

'What is this sun that conquers mountains
Singing over what has been asleep?
What is it that softens all my doubting?
It's you
Morning brings a hunger for new eyes
That have been covered by the hurt of yesterday
Who could create in me the vision of a little child?
It's you
You take an ordinary day and turn it into flowers like the month of May
You see all my pain and You cry over it for hours till I'm new again
Yes You do'

good food, good company

We just got back from a trip to Houston to visit family and friends, and despite getting the windows of my car smashed out in a random act of vandalism, it was overall a great trip. We spent some real quality time with my brother, my best friend, and their respective significant others. And we spent a lot of that time together over great food. My love of good food is only a close second to my love of great music, and Houston definitely has great food. Interesting decor, creative flavor combinations and visual presentation, and great conversation. What could top that?

We also visited the Body Worlds exhibit, which was fascinating, especially given our medical background. Really it made us wish that we had been able to study anatomy from plastinated bodies. The notion of dead bodies posed as art was interesting as well. In one way, there is no better display of God's creative power than the human body, but in another way, putting preserved human flesh on display for view by the general public seems a little irreverent. Either way, one of the most fascinating and amazing displays I have ever seen in a museum.

Fool For You

Song of the Day: Fool For You by Nichole Nordeman

"I admit that in my darkest hours I've asked what if, What if we created some kind of man made faith like this, Out of good intention or emotional invention, and after life is through there will be no You. Cause they want proof of all these miracles I claim, 'Cause only fools believe that men can walk on waves.

I would be a fool for You, all because You asked me to. A simpleton who's seemingly naive, I do believe, You came and made Yourself a fool for me.

Unaware of popularity, and unconcerned with dignity, You made me free. That's proof enough for me."

Marriage

John Patrick is a doctor and thinker who I respect very much, and today I came across a paper he has written analyzing the institution of marriage. Maybe you will find it as provocative as I did.

"Marriage is not an end but a means. It is no more the high point of life or the institution of status than a hammer is the high point of the tool box or the tool of status. Marriage is the best tool we have for building a sound society, but it is not the only tool we need, since it is a tool that is difficult to make strong enough to do the job. Marriage is called an institution because it is essentially a social instrument, a structure devised to give all the people born of heterosexual unions (everybody) the best chance in life they can have, that best chance being the stability of a family."

http://www.johnpatrick.ca/papers/jp_22mistakes.htm

Rich Mullins

I heard a song today that brought back a vivid memory. The song was Sometimes by Step by Bebo Norman in a sort of posthumous duet with Rich Mullins (a la Natalie Cole with her father on Unforgettable). It was the first of many Rich Mullins songs to touch my life. It reminded me of the time in college when I found out that Rich Mullins had died in a tragic car accident. I was at church with a friend, and the pastor announced that he had died. He asked us to pray for the youth group for whom he was on his way to lead worship, and we bowed our heads in silence. After a few moments, a solitary voice sang out, "Our God is an awesome God, He reigns from heaven above..." The entire congregation joined in on Rich Mullins' most famous song, in full harmony, and the air in the room was alive with energy. By the end of the song, there was not a dry eye in the place. Though he is gone, he lives on through his music. Thank you, Rich Mullins.

Another gross medical story

If you find medical stories gross, please feel free not to read the rest of this post.

I really don’t like doing pelvic exams. Thus, I was excited going into this year since I don’t rotate on ob/gyn and thought I wouldn’t have to do any more pelvic exams. Alas, I forgot about my 2 months on ER, where I ended up doing more pelvic exams than I did in all of medical school. So that brings me to my story.

It was 6:35am at the end of a typical ER nightshift, when I looked in the chart rack and saw that there was a 20 year old young lady with pelvic pain and discharge who had been waiting over 10 hours to see a doctor. I thought it would be an easy STD case, so I picked up the chart. In talking to the patient, she mentioned that incidentally she had not had a period in over 2.5 months, which was unusual for her. Her pregnancy test was negative, so I wasn’t too worried. Then we went to do the pelvic exam, and her cervix looked normal. But as I pulled back the speculum, I saw something white in the top corner of my view. I calmly turned to the nurse and asked her to retrieve some forceps or tongs. She gave me a puzzled look, but when she returned with them, I proceeded to pull out a tampon that had apparently been in there for the past 2.5 months.

The patient looked up and asked, “what is that?”
When I said it was a tampon, she said, “But I don’t use tampons. I saw something once about someone who got sick and died from leaving a tampon in too long, so I don’t use them.”
“Well, I don’t know what to say because this is definitely a tampon,” I replied.

I don’t know whether it is worse that she had it in there for so long or that she didn’t know how it got there. I mean, who’s putting things in there that she doesn’t know about? I’m glad for the patient that we found it, but I’m even more glad that I shouldn’t have to do any more pelvic exams for the rest of my career.

phases of marriage

Janelle and I just celebrated our third anniversary this past week, and we had wondered if we were no longer newlyweds. We had a marriage Q&A this morning in Sunday school, and the moderators discussed the five stages of marriage. The first two years are the Young Love phase, and the next phase is the Realistic phase for years 3 through 10. I guess since we're in Phase Two, we are officially no longer newlyweds. According to our moderators, one of the principal tasks of the Realistic Phase of marriage is "child-proofing" it. Janelle says that seeing firsthand the trauma of the birthing process on her ob/gyn rotation has successfully "child-proofed" our marriage for now, though not quite in the way our moderators intended when they used that phrase. ;)

An update

We're headed to Birmingham at the end of the month to look at houses and hopefully find our future residence. While that is very exciting, it's been more like drudgery the past few weeks trying to sort through all the different financial options for a mortgage. Match Day is this week, and we're excited at the prospect that some of our med school friends may be joining us in Birmingham. We're keeping our fingers crossed...

Angel Doves

"When you're blind-sided and deceived, and chained to the floor,
When it's difficult to see the writing on the wall,
Keep on believing that God is soaring above a world that's running out of love,
Pouring hope out over us, His angel doves."

-'Angel Doves' by Mindy Smith-

My favorite old medical story

Setting: surgery rotation, third year med school, surgery clinic on some Wed. afternoon

So I picked up the chart of the next patient to be seen and saw that he was there for a post-op check. Like a dutiful med student, I looked up his operative report to see what type of surgery he had done. The op note read, "Mr. So-and-so is a 33yo AA male who presents with bilateral inguinal hernias to the level of mid-calf..." At first I skimmed right by it, thinking it said mid-thigh. But no, it clearly was mid-calf. I read on and groaned when the report said, "a urology consult was obtained to place the foley catheter intraoperatively as we were unable to locate the meatus." Instead of the usual small incision over the hernia to place a small piece of mesh, the patient had full laparotomy incision to pull up all the bowel and place a 12 x 15 INCH piece of mesh into the abdomen. There must have been 25 pounds of bowel in his scrotum. When I actually saw the patient, he told me that he had had the hernias for 15-20 years. All I could think about were questions like what made him finally decide to go to the hospital on that fateful day? How did he use the restroom? My question of what kind of pants he had to wear was answered when I saw him in (very) baggy overalls. Though the hernia was repaired, he had not yet had the plastic surgery to resect the redundant skin. I didn't have the guts to ask him why he had waited so long to seek treatment for the hernias. I guess it's a testament to the power of denial. Sorry that the first story is such a gross one.

Intros

My first post on my first blog. I'd like this blog to become a chronicle of the funny stories and beautiful songs I encounter so frequently. Or maybe it's beautiful stories and funny songs. Either way, as I remember them, and as new ones appear, I'll record them here.