Monday, February 25, 2008

Flipperectomy


Mr. Hanukkah Penguin, I am happy to report that your amputation site is clean and appears to be healing well. You may now resume your hazardous occupation as a dog toy.


Side View

So, I don't know about you guys, but I used to find amputated limbs and the stumps that remained to be slightly disconcerting. No longer! During my ortho rotation - I scrubbed into a partial hand amputation. That was definitely a memorable experience. And I also saw several patients in clinic who had undergone below the knee amputations for non-healing diabetic foot ulcers. And let me tell you, few things are more heartening than a well-healed, happy looking stump on a patient plagued by neuropathy and poor circulation (both contribute to some serious foot ulcers and infection.)

The weather here is still terrible. More snow in the forecast for today. A couple weeks ago, I was leaving the hospital in the car, and I hit a patch of ice when I applied the brakes as I was coming down a small hill, I realized that I was not going to stop. I was only going about 20mph, and I ran into the back of a van that was in front of me. The driver got out, and I thought she was going to yell at me for not being more cautious in such crappy weather. She was so nice. She said she just wanted to make sure that I was ok, and she was not interested in jotting down my insurance information, just in case she developed a neck injury later and wanted to sue me. Raul said the other day, that if you took every Southern Californian, and put them in a car out here right now, they would all be in the ditch (or worse) within minutes. And they would be totally mean about it, too. These Midwesterners....the weather surely does not make life easy, but it really seems like people look out for each other here. It's nice.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a work of art! If only we could get the dog to poop out the flipper, then everything would be ok.

On an unrelated note, I took the car in to get the oil changed and they mentioned that as soon as they backed the car out of the parking spot the front license place fell off. Must be corrosion from all the salt on the roads...

Shannon said...

Yes - all the salt and ice are very corrosive. I am quite sure that is what made the license plate fall off. It must happen all the time - spontaneously, without the front of the car experiencing any sort of trauma.

Unknown said...

I am glad that no one was hurt, and that she was nice about everything. And the comment about us Southern Cal - well I resemble that remark. I also wanted to tell you I like the bag you made. You do very good work on all your projects Shannon. I think that is great that you like to try a wide verity of crafts.
Love Dad

Anonymous said...

Wait, so you're suppose to stop when you rear-end another car? Man, the lady must think that you are really nice! Good work on the flipper, the bag, and the husband. Keep up the good work sport :)

 
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