Ugly Gun Sunday

Odd.........that's the same pattern on my 10 year old Golden's naked gut. Who's running around making camo patterns based on dog moles?

Yay Food!

Ketamine- helping patients wake up with terrifying visions of hell post-procedure since.......holy shit, did you see that flying lizard?

Ugly Gun Sunday

Jeez, doing this stuff to pistols is just wrong. I'm waiting for the technological breakthrough that allows temperature sensitive polymer frames that change color. Mood-guns, anyone?

Yarr!

Happy International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Another excuse to drink rum.............

A Good Day

It's been only three days into the week, and I've already had my fill of the weird. The patient with a flea infestation, who both doesn't seem aware she has them, and went to the Tammy Faye Baker School of Cosmetology; the near centenarian who didn't know where she was, why she was here, or what the hell we were doing to her, getting her next ten years of pacemaker power; the female patient with more tattoos than most bikers will ever consider getting. But today, one little jewel shone through, even though his family was enough to make Mr. Rodgers consider going postal. An older man in his eighties, here for procedures to help diagnose his leg pain. A short word by the patient, "Uff-da" on being stuck with a needle, led to a question by the physician about being from a particular ethnic group. Which led the patient to say he wasn't, but his wife was. Which led the doc to note his wife was descended from that group, and that her parents came over after WWII, after her teenage father had spent years avoiding conscription by the Germans. Which led me to note the patient had been twenty in 1943, and saying he was probably somewhat familiar with the situation the doc's in-laws were facing. Leading to his Army Air Corps years in '43 to '46, working on Mitchell bombers, and an even better story of the two Master Sergeants, a bottle of whiskey, a bet in a bar, and a B-25 that had it's landing gear punched through its wings and nose by the end of the night.

These are my favorite patients; reading their personal accounts of their service fed my love of military history growing up in the '70s and '80s. I hate to think of them fading away so quickly.

Jackass.......

I see Jimmy Carter has been on NBC saying that most of the resistance to President Obama's policies are due to racism. As far as I can tell, the Left must think that if a person isn't white, and the person disagreeing with them is, there can't be any reason to disagree with them other than skin color. Outside of my perception that whites are becoming quietly sick to death of being accused of being racists, I have come to believe that the politically active Left has at least one of the following core beliefs:

"People who don't think as I do are:"

Stupid

Evil

Self-serving

Greedy

Amoral

and...

Evilly Stupid Except When They're Malignantly Brilliant By Persuading The Unwashed Proles To Vote Against Their Own Best Interests As Defined By The Left.

I personally wouldn't waste a rat's rear on worrying about someone's forebears being from a different continent than mine. I worry about self-satisfied, smug, intellectually vapid, narcissistic individuals who feel the need to tell me what I should think and do to meet their standards. And socialists. But I repeat myself.

Carter's an intellectually bankrupt hack who's spent his time after the Presidency validating rigged elections in dictatorships; the only time he'll have me worrying about my ethics is if he says something I actually agree with.

Ugly Gun Sunday

Yech. But, note the upper right corner of the price tag. Somebody was thinking ahead.

Good Intentions & Bad Decisions

Something people need to consider when it comes to extending the life of a family member is, just because it can be done, should it be done? Is it what the patient would want?

Recently I've assisted in placing defibrillators in people who cannot walk, eat, use the bathroom, or get out of bed unassisted. And never will again. Because they're not only so elderly that they are incredibly frail, and weakened, but mainly because most of who they were isn't there any more.

Nobody wants to think about a loved one having dementia so severely that they no longer recognize their family, can't care for themselves, or communicate. It's something I personally consider worse than death. Day after day, sitting in a chair or lying in a bed, not knowing anyone, developing bed sores, totally dependent on others to feed, dress, and clean you. Think about it: nothing to look forward to, no comprehension of what's happening, just a steady degeneration into a shell of what used to be a vital, active person.

Why, if you love that person, would you choose to ensure that someone will have to endure this for another one, two, or ten years? Why do you want to have a device in them that will deliver a substantial unexpected shock, or series of shocks, to them when you have decided to list them as DNR in the medical record? Do you really think that's the caring thing to do? Is it what you would want for yourself?

Someday, perhaps that won't even be an option. Many of these devices are well over $10,000. If we get to the point where we're looking at cost/benefit models for getting a procedure, I'd guess a lot of these defibrillators won't be going to people we do them for now. I don't particularly like that approach. But I do recognize none of us are supposed to be here indefinitely. And at some point, if we last long enough, quality of life will reach the point where most of us would rather not be here. Work in a hospital long enough, and you'll see people in conditions you'll never see on TV drama. Their quality of life is almost zero. Feeding tubes, IVs, bruising, bleeding, and opportunistic infections; blood clots, bed sores, poor circulation. Sooner or later, everyone goes. The lucky ones go fast, and sometimes even in their sleep. For most of us, it will be a long, slow decline.

Think long and hard before making that decline harder and longer for someone you care about.

Ugly Gun Sunday

Gold-plated AKs seem to be a dime a dozen these days. But gold-plated sorta Krinkovs with utterly useless horse head front sights and pointless thumbhole buttstocks that can't really be mounted to one's shoulder? That's taking it to the next level.

Thanks to Mr. FreeMarket for the picture, and an outstanding blog. If you've never been there, check the African Infantryman series for a fine compilation, and combinations, of the worst in fashion and gun-handling all in one.