I saw a framed advertisement for a contact lens, dated 1959.  A portion of the caption underneath partially read:

This lens is a symbol of new vision for patients of young and old…of the near blind who have been almost miraculously helped…of old psychological barriers removed…

Psychological barriers? I guess some people just don’t like glasses, but I’m a little bit surprised that the phrase made its way on a billboard.

I believe that the concept of contact lenses dated back to Rene Descartes, who wrote about how he touched the bottom of glass vials to his eye and noticed an improvement in vision. I’m sure a dozen other psycho philosopher/mathematician/scholars had done similar deeds in his time.

The breakthrough in contact lenses came around 1959 when soft hydrogel lenses were invented. Prior to that, rigid gas permeable lenses were the only option. Silicone lenses didn’t come around until the late 90’s up until now.

This is amazing technology. Of course, I didn’t go to medical school so that I could fit contact lenses in my practice…

Uncategorized

I recently jumped on the Twitter microblogging bandwagon, as part of my gradual attempt to reconnect with technology that I’ve shunned ever since committing my studies to medicine. I’ve been content with my progress. So far, I’ve been tweaking the website’s inner workings to make it SEO friendly, and tightening up some security interfaces.

Twitter is a welcome beast useful for obtaining links to other websites that incorporate technology and medicine. I grin in triumph when Twitter notifies me of a new follower, which has been happening frequently. Is it a product of the sweat I put into this website? Perhaps… That is, until I discovered Twitter spam.

Yes, Twitter spam. Just when email users thought spam was under control, spam comments on blogs began rampant. Now there is Twitter spam. It’s disgusting. From what I understand, spam bots seek out Twitterers (is that a word?) and mass-market their products. They “follow” the victim, who receives an email from Twitter–this only happens if the email option is enabled. The victim then views the spam box’s Twitter page and clicks on its link, which usually leads to a banner ad or product page.

So much for fame and glory. My viewers are simply spammers. There are some ways to pare down these spammers. (1) You can disable email notification or filter out these notifications from your email. (2) Find a cleaner like Twerpscan. It peruses your loyal followers’ profiles, and helps identify those bots. There are other available services online, but this has worked for me. Twerpscan simply flags those Twitter accounts that seem to be following a disproportionately high number of people. You can then block them from your list. Yes, it’s crude and may have low specificity, but it works especially if you have a small list to begin with. Twitter has also been working on an internal fix to block these clogs that bog down the web. Good luck.  And if you’re a real live person out there, find me on twitter!

computing web

I was surveying the kitchen utensil aisle at the local hispano supermercado, and came across a molcajete! One of those volcanic rock mortar and pestles that you see in Latino restaurants to grind up guacamole. This one is the classic shape: three legs with a pig face in the front. The accompanying pestle is called a, “tejolote”. It reminds me of the guacamole appetizer at Mama Mexico. It also looks like the one I saw at Crate & Barrel earlier in the year (see bottom picture). The appeal? Keep using it over the months and years, and the basalt crystals will slowly release an intense flavor that you otherwise wouldn’t get in a wooden or ceramic bowl. And you’ll never be able to get them 100% clean either. These cool little gadgets are also dangerously coarse, sort of like a pumice stone.

Are they worth it? This one at the Mexican store sells for $19.99. The one at C&B goes for $32. I initially thought they were similar, but don’t be fooled! This cute little piggy at the Mexican store feels a lot like concrete. It’s much smoother than the C&B one. It almost looks like they painted a concrete sealant over the mold (like on your garage floor).  While it may not necessarily be that crude, I think I’ll choke up an extra $12 for something that looks a little bit more like volcanic rock. That is, if I ever have the kitchen space to stock a piggy in my cabinets.

misc life

I’m always amazed at the types of food that hospitals serve in their cafeterias. I remember that I once saw a McDonald’s in the basement of one of the teaching hospitals of Baylor. The food court of the Cleveland Clinic (in Cleveland, not to be confused with ones in Abu Dhabi or Florida) also has a McDonald’s, right across from a TexMex stand that serves tasty nachos. Yes, why don’t we serve a 1500 calorie extra value meal to a guy whose family member just had an MI? What a great way to strum up future business in the cath lab!

My current hospital is no different. During my block of night float, I discovered that the cafeteria grill cooked items off menu. Off menu! I liked that. So on the last night of my block, when the only parts of my body that hadn’t been punished were my arteries, I custom ordered a Texas Toast grilled cheese sandwich. Two extra-thick processed slices of white bread painted (yes, painted) with a glistening coat of grease, with FOUR slices of american cheese in the center. Wholesome goodness. They should serve that with a statin.

medicine humor, toon

We have several days of outpatient electives during our rotation blocks for the year. This week I’ve been bouncing around various private ophthalmology offices in the area basically shadowing the attending. For the most part, it’s like being a medical student, because the private offices are usually swamped, and there is little time to discuss cases with the attending while the patient is in the room.

Today I was at a busy retinal office pretty much observing intravitreal injections for diabetic retinopathy and wet AMD. By noontime, we had fallen about 8 patients behind schedule (that’s about 1-1.5hrs). Both the attending and I had realized that I was not getting much education out of this. Thankfully, she dismissed me to go back to the hospital, knowing that keeping me around would delay her schedule even further.

I thanked the attending and walked around the corner (marked on the diagram above).  As I was blowing my nose (I have a lingering cold), the following dialogue took place:

[I blew my nose on a tissue]

Nurse: Ha. You must be picking up at cold going around the office!

Me: Yea, I guess so. (I had never been to this office before)

[Office coordinator, with BMI around 35, storms in]

Coordinator: (Yells at me) No chatting at the nursing station! You are supposed to be with Dr. [attending's name] at all times!

Me: Is there a problem? I am blowing my nose, and I’m about to head out.

Coordinator: Where is Dr. [attending's name]?

Me: She is next door with a patient.

Coordinator: Residents are assigned to be with the doctors at all times!

At that point, I walked out and left.

I have no idea why the office worker was so furious. Firstly, residents are also “doctors”. Secondly, even if she is responsible for arranging resident schedules, she has no right to enforce arbitrary rules upon the residents. How does she benefit from making me sit through another Lucentis injection? Does she get a salary bonus if she’s able to make me follow the attending like a puppy? If I sneezed in the patient exam room, how would that reflect upon the office hygiene practices? Maybe it’s some stupid office wager they have going on…

Otherwise, the only other reason I have for her domineering attitude is that she just got high off this power trip at my expense. L-O-S-E-R.

medicine rant