French sourdough whole-wheat loaves

Last weekend I got to play with my sourdough and the bread book Andrea got me for Christmas. These are boules of "pain Poilâne"

I just scored.

Snow!

We awoke to a beautiful snow day. It is so peaceful! Check out this video.

http://www.whitevinyldesign.com/solarbeat/

Vertical Mattress

As we started the surgery module this week, we are continuing to learn fun techniques that are practiced on a fresh round of pig's feet. Yesterday I solidified my vertical mattress suture and learned the running subcutaneous sutures. The vertical mattress is useful when you need to apply a fair amount of pressure to close a wound but do not want to invert the wound edges (this leads to a nasty scar). Subcutaneous sutures are sewn with an absorbable suture material and do not need to be taken out. When you get a nice run of those you really see how small of a scar the pig will have. Happy pig.

vertical mattress

We also got to numb a wound with lidocaine -- that was super fun! You insert a syringe into the subcutaneous tissue and numb as you go. It's difficult not to say this out loud: num, num, num, num, num, num, num.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFf90Yl91-4 Click on this video link to hear the rhythm and melody. Warning: this will stay in your head for quite some time.

Yesterday my pig's foot also had a punch biopsy done, wound closure with a staple, and I froze off something that I pretended was a wart.

GBHs and Odd Weather

The Great Blue Heron is considered the Portland city bird. They nest all around this area, and this is the time of year when they are choosing where to nest and raise their young. They've been staking out the conifers near the Hillsboro Public Library over the past couple of weeks, and last week I found these 2 sentinels peering down on the foot traffic. Look closely and you'll see a nest!

Nest top/center

This morning it was snowing (see the video) and this afternoon, tiny hail and rivers in the parking area.

Prison and Pig's Feet!

There were 2 exciting developments at school today.

#1) I found out that I am going to prison and

#2) I got to try suturing for the first time on pig's feet!

Prison. I knew that a rotation at a prison was possible so I gamely put in for the experience. You have to understand that at this point we don't even know where our 1st rotation in May will be, so finding out that I will do a rotation at the Federal Prison in Sheridan Oregon was huge. I have to fill out something like 19 bazillion forms and attend an orientation etc. so this is why I found out in advance. Gotta love the feds! I don't know when I'll be going, but at least I know that I'm going.

Suturing. Since this is the emergency medicine/surgery extravaganza month, we get to learn to suture. The last few days I've been learning to do the different knots and today was the first day of actual suturing. On pig's feet. Weird at first, but makes a lot of sense. The pig flesh is very similar to people flesh....I know, it's creepy. But hey, at least we are practicing on someone other than our classmates or patients.

Knots!

I started the Emergency Medicine module today with Surgery following in 2 weeks. This week we start to work on knots and suturing. Unfortunately, my handy trucker's hitch, good for so many things in the backcountry, will not be used. How about the ever trustworthy (read: trust your life to when hanging off the side of a mountain) clove hitch? Nope. Figure eight? Don't be silly. But after today I can slowly tie both the one handed and two handed square knots...

No I'm not trying to channel Obi-Wan, I just have a cold.

More to come in the days ahead.

Hillsboro Library Saturday Morning Chi Walk

Andrea's brain was fried from 2 weeks of neurology, so we needed some peaceful outdoor time.

Drippiness was no deterrent, and we were rewarded with some unusual sights.

Duck butts!

Red-breasted Sapsucker

As we were walking, this sapsucker flew low over our heads and then landed on a tree a little way off. Andrea stalked it, sneaking up behind a nearby tree trunk to snap this photo.

Recently excavated sapsucker wells on a tree trunk

Fabulous wood duck

American wigeon (not a socialist commie wigeon)

Is it a goose??? No, a Great Blue Heron! In a tree.

This regal bird was posed for us just below its nest (can you see it?) It really is quite an amazing sight to see such a big bird way up in a tree, perched daintily on its stilt-like legs. The one below was atop (very tippy top) a 200 ft tall fir tree!

WTF.