I Heart MV, Menemsha ed.

Somehow I never get tired of Menemsha. This old fishing village provides endless points of interest with a constant rotation of rusty boats, fishermen unloading their catch, and cormorants diving through schools of minnows.

MV '09

Two days into the new job (Assistant Chemist) and I feel that a vacation is necessary.

All good things...

...come to an end, and so too have my carefree postdoc days without responsibilities. So long freedom. Tomorrow I start a real job.

Automotive Acquisition

It's not the first time that we've said that we're going to buy a new car, but you don't want to rush these things. Anyway, this time we really mean it.

The Car. It has been clear from the start that we would get a 5-door Honda. So once the minivans and supersized trucks were eliminated, that meant a Fit/Jazz, an Insight (the new Hybrid) or a CR-V. In a close race, the CR-V edged out nearest rival, the Fit, with the option of all wheel drive. Its not really for taking us off-road but for better traction on-road-on-snow when driving to ski fields etc).

The Color. A tough choice, with all options available at the local dealer. Navigating a maze of Green Tea and Urban Titanium our minds changed constantly before arriving at Tango Red Pearl.

The Deal was easier than I expected based on the how-to-negotiate-a-car-price articles I read online and good/great according to truecar.com. Internet quotes rock!
The Drama. No sooner had we paid our deposit and driven away in the faithful old Civic (to pick up the car and the loan on Monday when the credit union opened) than several engine warning lights appeared. Maybe we should have traded it in...
The Delivery. We immediately returned to the dealership to expedite the purchase, taking delivery of the new car and dropping off the other at the service center for repair.

It's a new car!

Ambi-navigatious

I am now legal to drive on both sides of the road.

If it's Friday...

Apparently it takes 6 weeks to recover from cardiothorasic surgery. As such I MUST officially be better now.

Hit 'n Run

The DrG-mobile feels the force of Wisconsin drivers while "safely" stowed in the hotel parking lot.

Madison WI

Home to Bruker ASX, the Bruker User Meeting and the Bruker shine to Spam. Surrounded by 3 lakes, Madison is a lovely little town suited to those interested in boating during Summer and ice fishing the rest of the year.

Better Late Than Never

I've been cleared for the long trip back across the pond. The flight went smoothly with a nice upgrade to Qantas Premium Economy with its better seats and service.

Family Portrait II

Family Portrait

Ben's back

After 2 years in Toronto, Ben has returned home and has promptly traced the shortest path from the front door to the piano.

Satsuma Sashimi

Taking full advantage of my extended stay in Sydney to catch up with my Aunt and Uncle for dinner while they're in town for a meeting. On the menu was some fantastic Japanese. All the dishes were tasty and beautifully presented although the sashimi special and the grilled fatty tuna were particularly fantastic.

Escape!

Shortly before 5pm today I staged my escape from the SAN. They sent me home with the Coach - to practice breathing. I'm supposed to aim for 2600mL which is a long way from the ~1000mL I can manage at the moment.

Still a Mystery

Dozens (and dozens) of tests later and they still haven't been able to identify the cause of my current medical predicament. (Of course this also means that a lot of potential nasties have been eliminated.) I feel like I'm starring in my own personal episode of House only without everything being resolved within the hour's episode.

I've been trying to get some "exercise" (i.e., walking down the hall) to help with the lungs. Hopefully the ~1 cm diameter chest drain can come out soon so I won't be dragging so many cables/tubes around.

The Day After

After spending the night in the first class care that is the ICU, I (with attached drips, morphine pump, chest drainage tubes and monitoring electrodes) was moved to the cardiac ward. I scored a nice single room with en-suite and a view. On the agenda for the day, a full torso CT scan with contrast. That's 6 glasses of vile lemonade-from-hell flavored contrast chugged in quick succession.

Thanks

Thank you to Randy and my friends at XSD for the beautiful Australian floral arrangement.

O is for Operation

Well I survived surgery, all 25 min of it. Despite having a cannula installed in my left hand when I was admitted, the anesthesiologist had put a new extra large (~1 mm diameter) one in my right arm. With particularly low blood pressure, my veins were extra hard to find, making installing this IV a super fun process of trial and error (leading to considerable subsequent bruising). They also put in an arterial IV providing "on tap" blood for testing.
Apparently, while I was sleeping, they made a ~2 inch incision, spread some ribs apart, and pushed aside (i.e., collapsed) a lung to access the heart and put a drainage window in the pericardium. I'm guessing that I'll end up with the scars of a one-sided boob job without the associated augmentation.

Disclaimer: This post has been back dated to more accurately reflect the timing of events. In reality it would have been difficult to blog immediately following surgery in a post-anesthetic/morphine-induced haze with IV's in both hands/arms.

Parched

Nil by mouth from midnight = a very very thirsty patient waiting for late afternoon surgery. My morning ultrasound showed a ~1.5 cm shell of fluid surrounding the otherwise normal heart. Of course the extra external pressure had my heart beating more than twice as fast as normal. Incidentally, its quite fascinating to watch one's heart+valves at work.