Bulleted thoughts

• I'm off of Ob/Gyn and on to pediatric surgery. I love pediatric surgery and always have. And when the residents compliment my pretty sewing, my heart twinges just a little thinking about my future of stapling, rather than suturing, abdominal incisions. If only you didn't have to do general surgery to do pediatric surgery...
• I've been on two interviews so far, with another on Halloween and another two the following week. They've both gone really well, although the traveling is already exhausting. I have a carryon-sized suitcase half-packed at all times. All I need to add is my suit, a clean blouse, and my toothbrush and deodorant, pretty much, and I'm ready to go.
• In order to go on interviews that require plane trips (which all but one of mine do), I take overnight call, then schedule my flight for the next day when I'm post-call, and have my interview the following day and fly back that night. That way, I only skip one day of work, but I also lose out on a lot of that post-call sleep. I'm pretty good about being able to sleep on planes, especially with my handy-dandy travel pillow, but it's still not quite the same. This led to me interviewing with a splitting headache at Washington Hospital Center last week. Not good. Am going to have to figure out a better combination of sleep/caffeine/pain meds.
• Another article that pisses me off. The part that pisses me off? The thing about mandating the doctor's script. Describing fingers and toes in a first-trimester ultrasound? I'm not really so sure that's really so plausible.
• Doctors prescribe placebos, apparently, even though I have always been taught they are unethical. But seriously, I can think of a number of situations in which they would be useful....
• The Phillies are in the World Series! Woohoo! A potential final game is tonight!
• More healthcare articles:
• AIDS treatment should start sooner. This is a big, big deal. It means patients will be treated much differently than they are now, and hopefully it will be for the better, with more patients surviving longer.
• Rotavirus vaccine cuts diarrheal illness. Another big deal for preventing major illness. I did my master's research using data from Merck's rotavirus vaccine, so I have a soft spot in my heart for it.
• New fetal DNA tests trigger debate. I think it's a good thing to keep offering testing to parents. The thing is, a lot of people don't even want prenatal testing, and that's fine. We ask our patients, "If the result were positive (meaning there's a problem with the fetus), would it change your plans for this pregnancy?" In Kentucky, especially, a lot of women say, "No," and therefore don't even bother with the test. If you would change your plans for the pregnancy based on test results, I and most physicians don't think that's a bad thing. We don't tell people to terminate; they have to make their own decisions. At this point, it's all an ethical debate, which, don't get me wrong, is good to have, but the reality is that things don't work that way. I think equating termination of fetuses with known major, severe abnormalities with eugenics or the Nazis is a little extreme. Spend a day or two in the NICU and watch those horribly sick babies slowly dying day after day and you might have a different opinion about what a quality life consists of.