Always Wear Your Seatbelt!

I had to chuckle when I looked at my blog today. It seems like it has been about a month since I have last given an update; not totally unexpected since I am on surgery. In fact, this afternoon I finished up my first 30 hour shift in one of the local level one trauma centers. The first eight hours was spent in lectures and studying, but a good portion of yesterday afternoon, evening, and early this morning were spent dealing with traumas. I am probably a little delusional at this point as I haven't slept in about 33 hours, but I wanted to write about my experience while it was still fresh on my mind. Only four days have past since I have been on one of the trauma services, but even in that short amount of time I have realized three very important things which I feel obligated to convey to you.

1) Always, and I mean always wear your seatbelt! I just grimace when I hear of an "unrestrained" driver or passenger. It seems that often times, it is connected with "ejected" driver or passenger. I don't understand why people don't buckle up. And, if you are the driver, don't start that car until people are belted in.

2) Never ever drive a motorcyle. Have you ever heard of a "fender-bender" on motorcycle? I didn't think so. I used to drive them when I was a kid, but it was always off road and at low speeds. I think 25-35% of our patients are the results of MCC or motorcycle collisions. Your bodies are not like Lego. You are more like Humpty Dumpty and the nursery rhyme should read something along these lines:

Humpty Dumpty rode on a motorcyle.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the trauma surgeons and all the medical students
Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again.

3) Watch out for the other crazy drivers. You can't overstate the importance of defensive driving. Remember, there are just too many bad drivers out there.

Anyway, last night as I was moving between patients, I concluded that I wanted to have a big helmet for my ride home which would be made at 10mph under the speed limit. In fact, it seems reasonable for humans to have to wear helmets every time they leave the house and that clothing should come with built in airbags.

Well, on a little more positive note, I had a chance to get out the the Texas Scottish Festival and Highland Games in Arlington this past weekend. It was fun to seem some top notch bagpipers in action. I certainly have a long ways to go. I also attended Kevin and Cristy's graduation. Assuming all goes well, in about 360 days I will be walking across that stage to get my degree. By then, I will have need to have picked a specialty too. Any suggestions?