Five Questions for Friday

1. Should I be embarrassed that two days ago I used my iTunes giftcard to purchase several songs on Jordan's "Nineteen for Nie" (the girl has mad mixed tape skills), but I also purchased the new Taylor Swift song Love Story? (Obviously she has seen Pride and Prejudice one too many times.)

2. Is it okay to take my kids to my girlfriend's house (we do a swap every friday with two friends), even though she called this morning and said her baby has a temperature? Sure we are going to drop off late, so the febrile baby will already be asleep, but I feel a little guilty letting her babysit all 7 (my two + her 3 + other friend's 2) when she has been caring for a sick baby.

3. Even though I'm on a spending hiatus, does it count that I purchased a plate yesterday, when said plate was a special ordered from 2 months ago?


4. Why do they make a Y incision when performing an autopsy?


5. Does anyone understand how they are going to explain why Izzie is no longer seeing Denny on Grey's Anatomy even though her "visions" are directly related to her supposed aneurysm? So is the aneurysm no longer "flaring", since he is gone? How does that make any sense?

and just for kicks

6. Can someone explain to me why I'm even trying to make sense of Grey's Anatomy in the first place? Furthermore, why I'm even WATCHING it? (Adam just sits and screams at the TV and usually moves to another room because it is SOOO ridiculous.) I mean really. Two weeks ago they had a plastic surgeon and an orthopedist performing a surgery (I think they were removing a gallbladder or something). I know, I know.. it isn't real, but if you are going to use real professions try to at least make it look credible. It is like saying a plastic surgeon is performing a heart transplant. Okay, maybe not that ridiculous, but it is close.

and just because I spent 10 minutes at the Coke machine

7. Why haven't they calibrated the Coke machines to accept the new quarters? Seriously- I just put $4.00 worth of quarters in the machine (and watched them return to the change cup) in order for $1.00 to be accepted.

On My Mind

• We got the heat fixed. Evidently SOMEONE flipped the switch and turned the entire system off. The guy (his company happened to service it a couple of weeks ago) IMPLIED it was possibly either us or one of his workers that did it. I was quick to point out that OBVIOUSLY it wasn't us, because we were completely unaware there was even a light switch and it is in the most ridiculously hidden place we would have never even known it was there.

• My girlfriend is teaching me to knit. Tasha taught me a couple of years ago, but I let it fall to the wayside. I actually have 2 hats that were nearly done when I stopped, so my girlfriend finished one of them off quickly last night. NICE. Isn't it pathetically sad?
  

• The kids and I went to the grocery. (Do you think it odd that I just call it the grocery? I also call the post office the post.) But, once we arrived, I discovered I left half of my list at home. BLAST! Luckily it was my Sam's Club list that was AWOL, so I was still able to do the bulk of my shopping. This week we are having:

• Fricassee
• Salmon w/ Lemon and Pine Nut Relish
• Manicotti
• Paninis
• Gnocchi
• Shrimp Etouffee
• Buffalo Chicken Strips
• Slow Cooker Pot Roast

(Can you tell I'm married to someone with Italian blood?)

• Last night Adam was on the phone with his intern and I overheard this conversation.
  

Adam: "Did he let you exam him?"
Person on phone makes a response.
Adam: "So you are telling me he let you put your finger in his bottom and exam him?"

This is a VERY NORMAL conversation for Adam to be having. Afterward I asked him about it, and he said if what the intern was telling him was correct, this guy would have been WAAAYY to uncomfortable for a full exam. See- according to doctors.. everyone lies.

• We had another lecture on Tuesday night. It was the Museum Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (or the MET). I'll admit it, after the US Ambassador to China I was apprehensive (ohh the pain), but it turns out he was really engaging and interesting. He told several different anecdotes, but my FAVORITE was about the painting at the top of the stairs after when you enter the museum. Evidently some German guy had it in his BARN in upstate NY for 30 years or so. He died and the executor of his will actually offered it to the MET. They were skeptical, but once they physically looked at the piece they knew it was authentic. This was just one of his great stories. He also showed pictures of an exhibit that they incorrectly measured and in order to get it into the museum they had to cut out the door frame, parts of a ceiling and a ridiculous number of other things. It really was fantastic.

• I love that my husband and I are both in the "medical" field (him more than me). We always have really interesting conversations and I'm sure most people would be appaled at our dinner topics. Even Lulu was begging to watch a video of Adam removing a growth from some ladies liver. But, on the flip side, I hate it when I learn about the TERRIBLE side of humanity (all of the crazy kid stories he has), life ironies (congratulations- you got a new liver two weeks ago, but because of a complication you need a new liver), and how ridiculously long the pathway of healing can be. Sometimes I wish I still lived in the land of "not knowing better." It seems ohh so mucn happier.
  

I Swear I Didn't Make This Up

Adam came home a couple of days with this story. I repeatedly accused him of lying, but really.. who could ever make this crap up.


Adam is currently taking care of transplant patients. He was in clinic and a patient came in (along with his mother) needing "access" for his dialysis treatments. They started asking the patient general health/medical questions and quickly learned that the patient received a kidney from his mother. The transplant was done in Mexico. Great! When did the new kidney fail? The patient couldn't provide them an answer, so they contacted the patient's nephrologist. He explained that while the mother has a scar indicative of a kidney harvest (he had examined her), the son's scar is not "normal" for a kidney recipient. After further investigation (an ultrasound and CT scan) the donor kidney could not be found. They could tell, because usually when a kidney is transplanted they leave all the old kidneys in place and just add the new kidney. I asked Adam to explain why.

From Adam: "The ureter length and the artery and vein are technically easier to deal with if the kidney is in the pelvis"... yeah.. thanks or in non technical terms the tubes aren't long enough to connect your kidney to your bladder if you just put it back in the same old place.)

So, the point is that they suspect/know that although the patient's mother gave a kidney, it is likely that her son did not get said kidney. The funny thing is that NO ONE wanted to tell the mother that her kidney is out there somewhere.

I guess all those crazy urban legends of people waking up in baths of ice with a scar are slightly true.


the end.