Much to do this weekend

Hello, again, hello.

Ah a weekend off, just lovely. Nothing to do today, the schedule is clear as scotch tape. I love it, but it is not always easy to do nothing. I slept enough last night. The way I know I've slept enough is because I dream, which doesn't happen too often. I've had far too many nights with little or no sleep, in the past because of work hours, recently because of bad sleep hygiene and too much late night TV. This morning's dream was a recurring one: I couldn't finish the operation. It's kind of funny, but when I finally get so worked up in the dream that I wake suddenly, all want to do is figure a way back into the dream so I can finish!

In the way of a marathon training update, Meredith and I ran a 5K race in Milton yesterday; it was a Rotary benefit to help end all global incidence of polio. It was a fun little race that criss-crossed the Susquehanna West branch in and out of Milton state park. We shuffled in comfortably at 30:30, (Edit: Correction, the time was 29:30! No reason to cheat ourselves out of that extra minute!), which didn't put us in any danger of winning. Meredith dipped into her store of luck and won a door prize of a waterproof shoulder bag. Here's a picture of Team Love Life! at the end of the race, upright and uninjured.

I was glad to make it through comfortably because I had been fighting a pinched nerve in my left arm after lifting the tandem bike onto the van too many times.

Here is an impressive photo essay by Craig Walker that won the Pulitzer Prize.

http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/2011/12/special-project-welcome-home/26786/ 

It features veteran Scott Ostrom, who was amazingly frank and open about his PTSD, letting Mr. Walker photograph him at his most pained and vulnerable moments.

 (photo from Denver Post)

 There are so many suffering like Scott, alone, in silence, hidden. In Scott's story I see so many signs of promise and hope: he has self-awareness, he is seeking help at the VA, he is in contact with other veterans, even the fact that he has a dog is glimmer of hope.

This video tells Scott's story very clearly:

http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/2011/12/special-project-welcome-home-2/26794/

What struck home most for me was Mr. Ostrom's haunting memory of an act undone, something he didn't do. I can understand the weight of a missed opportunity, never to return, even if a rational analysis of the event reveals that nothing could have changed the outcome.

There was also time this weekend to rack the most recent batch of beer after its primary fermentation. When I opened the bucket, it had a deep caramel hue, but tasted much lighter.

It is a wheat beer so that is fine with me. It had good layer of sediment at the bottom which I was able to leave behind when I siphoned it into the carboy.

I mixed in apricot puree and sealed it up for secondary fermentation for a couple more weeks.

Lastly, I got to clean out part of the barn. This winter, the Taiwan Coppolas sent us some butterflies to hatch. We nursed them through the caterpillar and chrysalis stages, and most of them were able to unfold orange and black painted wings. They were quite a bit out of season, but I tucked them into a corner of the barn for shelter, hoping they might lay some eggs.They left behind beautiful corpses; time will tell if a new generation will rise.

Please consider helping us raise money for Fisher House, a home away from home for injured veterans. The link below leads to our Team Fisher House donation page. We will be training for the Marine Corps Marathon to take place this fall.

http://www.active.com/donate/FisherHouse2012MCM/lovelife

Help me support Fisher House through the Marine Corps Marathon

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hi to all after a long break of not writing anything on this blog. No worries, life has been good. I have participated in some very interesting forums with discussions of war medicine, and have a few talks coming up in the near future. I've been lucky enough to be included as an author in an upcoming review of care delivered at the military hospitals in Afghanistan and Iraq. Along with these activities I have been hustling at my day job as a pediatric surgeon at Geisinger Medical Center, and had a recent three day period where I slept a handful of hours between 12 operations. All in all it is good to have a job!

I'm writing today to report that Meredith and I have taken leave of our senses and committed to run the Marine Corps Marathon this fall. Ah yes, what better way to while away four (or five, or six) hours of a beautiful day than constant knee and pavement pounding abuse! The last time I ran a marathon, we had recently fought the first gulf war, and I can assure you that the intervening years have not yielded more cartilage in my knees.

I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that Meredith and I are hard charging and psyched for this feat, and much of the reason for this is that we are part of Team Fisher House. We will be dedicating our run to the many troops who have sustained injuries fufilling their military duties. We will be raising money to benefit Fisher House, which has provided an oasis of security and comfort to families of these same troops when they were receiving  medical care at military treatment facilities.

If you are able to give, please click here:

http://www.active.com/donate/FisherHouse2012MCM/honeybadger

to donate to "Team Honey Badger's" efforts to raise money for Fisher House in the Marine Corps Marathon.
No amount is too small. It all helps. Fisher House has an amazing track record with 95% of donations going directly to help troops, and over 50 family homes on bases across the country and even overseas.

If you cannot give, please think of us and send us your support as I try to keep up with Meredith shufflin' my decrepit body around central Pennsylvania in some semblance of training.

Best wishes,

Chris

(A picture from long ago when I had fewer grey hairs and better padding in my joints.)