200th edition of Grand Rounds up!

the 200th edition of Grand Rounds is hosted by Grunt Doc! he has hosted 6 times!

Best burger in the world

Unknown to many, i actually quite enjoy cooking. Mainly western stuff. But this is probably a one-off post; this is not becoming a food blog like the many out there which my girlfriend Vanessa checks out every couple of days.

So this is the burger i made yesterday. I got the recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Oliver Twist show. The same recipe is actually available online at Jamie’s Dinner website. Check it out and make it. It’s easy and tasty.

Of course, i improvised a little with the addition of rocket salad.. And since i didnt have a mortar and pestle, i got cumin and coriander powder from the supermarket instead. I’m sure it would have tasted nicer with chuck steak pulsed in a food processor, but since i didn’t have one, i just used minced meat.

Real life Grey’s Anatomy

Ok so i was a fan of Grey’s Anatomy for the drama and all. But who knows? Now, ABC has done better and produced an all-new series called Hopkins. 

Nearly eight years after the critically acclaimed series, Hopkins 24/7, ABC News returns to Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital for a new six-part documentary entitled Hopkins, which delves even deeper into the world of caregivers at this hospital. Hopkins offers a rare look at the impact this high pressure profession can have on doctors’ personal lives. For four months ABC News’ high definition cameras had unparalleled access to this legendary hospital and to more than a hundred caregivers and patients who gave their consent to be filmed. Hopkins captures astounding scenes of medical crisis, with young doctors forced to make life and death decisions on the fly. The result is a stunningly intimate portrait of the men and women who call this hospital home.

You can even watch the episodes online for free.

House 104: Maternity

In the 4th episode of House M.D., we have Dr House sitting in the lounge overhearing conversations of other doctors. One doctor was telling the other how a baby gets a fever, and had a seizure. He discusses the baby’s bowel obstruction. House overhears their chat and quickly leaves…

House presents Maxine to Cuddy as Exhibit A. Exhibit B is Baby Hausen, another newborn who is also ill, brought into the NICU for FUO. House thinks it is a nosocomial infection, but Cuddy doesn’t believe it’s the beginning of an epidemic. They fell sick within 4hrs of each other, in the same delivery room. House takes his team in the maternity ward to check the other newborns in the hospital, and they find one more baby with a sudden fever and similar symptoms. Later, they find another infant who is developing symptoms as well.

Fatties

Much has been said and discussed about the obese. There is no doubt that being clinically obese has its deleterious health effects. Dr Rob at Musings of a Distractible Mind has written a highly popular post “Shame” on a patient who held his head in shame, thinking Dr Rob his family doctor was going to lecture him on his weight and all. His post got highlighted in the NY Times and got a whopping 499 comments!

Grand Rounds in Seinfeld style!

This week’s Grand Rounds is hosted by The Blog that ate Manhattan.

My post on House was included among the tons of great posts.

“Elaine has a rash that needs diagnosis, but no doctor will look at her rash because she has been labeled as a difficult patient. Too bad she didn’t see House. He’d have figured it out, knows Monash Medical Student, just as he diagnosed this week’s case of subacute sclerosing pan-encephalitis.”

It’s funny how a restaurant is named Grand Rounds. I wonder if the owner knows what it means in the medical world. Or in the world of the Internet.

SurgeXperiences 201: Better

Welcome to the first edition of the second season of SurgeXperiences, the blog carnival for everything surgical and more! 

Here’s 2 pieces of great music to go along with this edition. 1st up: A pop/rock song, “Better Man”, by Robbie Williams

This 2nd smooth jazzy rendition by Rickie Lee Jones, entitled “Saturday Afternoons in 1963″.

 

I think we all have a desire to be better at what we do. For the doctors in the medical profession, it probably started with that incessant drive for excellence in pre-med years. We do our best to get into medical school. In medical school, we aim to do well. If we graduated top of the class, even better. We try to boost our CVs to attain a favourable match for residency positions. Then we aim to be the Chief Resident. Get to the most prestigious fellowship program. Set up and maintain the most profitable practice. This is a gross generalization, but i think we all have an innate desire to do better. For one reason or other…

Eye for design

Mayne’s Giant Group Pharmaceutical Headquarters (credit) 

Posted here are some pictures of well designed and aesthetically pleasing buildings… 

House 103: Occam’s Razor Review

In this 3rd installation of House M.D. reviews, Brandon and his fiancée are having sex in their house when Brandon suddenly passes out. Brandon ends up in the emergency room where he presents with cough, severe abdominal pain, rash, nausea, hypotension, and fever…

Gen Surg Clinics

To pack my 4-week vacation time, on top of social meet-ups and the like, i met up with a beloved mentor of mine at TTSH Dept of Gen Surg and did a few days of hospital attachment. Please understand, he is probably about Sidney’s age, and is semi-retiring. So he only does one OR day, and 2 clinic sessions. As a general surgeon, he does mainly hernia repairs, thyroidectomies, mastectomies and gastrectomies. At clinics, these are the problems we encounter all the time. Most of them are follow up cases who are here to  be reviewed, e.g. thyroid function tests, wound healing, etc. Its easy, but not very exciting. I suppose this is the run-of-the-mill problems you encounter. So, its not entirely impossible to establish a long-term relationship with patients as a general surgeon. 

On that note, i have decided to get Sidney’s book “Cutting remarks“. I emailed him to ask if it was possible to get it signed and he offered to sign a panel thingy and mail it to me for free! This fantastic offer was posted on his site. I’ve had a little read and it’s fantastic. I might do a review on it sometime soon.