Jargonator

My vast readership (which at this point can be counted on one hand) informs me that there is too much medical jargon in my posts, but I'm afraid the jargon will just have to keep piling up because part of this blog is really a selfish exercise designed to help me remember the cases I've seen on rotations. When you're working >10hrs/day, things tend to blur and writing it down is one way for me to remember...anyway, I'll be sure to sneak in some bad movie reviews and inane comments about the ennui of the daily grind, but give up the jargon? Did Pepé Le Pew ever give up on love?

So last Friday we did a spinal angiogram with embolization of a tumor metastasis from a renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The RCC had been treated with a nephrectomy (kidney removal) but the location of the new tumor (near L2) is suspicious for metastasis from the primary RCC. This is the first metastasis in this patient, hopefully her last.

I got Saturday off and Saturday night met up with Vince and Andy, two of my crew from back when I roamed the mean streets of the south side of Chicago (okay, so it was Hyde Park...) We saw a movie, which was an exercise in metrosexuality ("Bewitched") upon which I won't comment other than to say there was one really funny sequence with Will Ferrel. I still feel like I violated some rule of the XY club and plan on making up for it by seeing the next meaningless action thriller that comes out...we had dinner afterwards at Mongolian Barbecue and caught up on things past and plans for the future...

Sunday morning I rounded on patients in the hospital for a few hours and then got the rest of the day to spend with family.

Monday we took out the tumor we embolized from the lady on Friday and the procedure went well and the patient is recovering well, thank God, though she is definitely dealing with postop pain. That case took about 5 hours to do and I spent the rest of the afternoon on the floor, rounding on patients.

Today we did a L3-L5 fusion on an elderly lady with degenerative scoliosis, dural adhesions and lumbar stenosis. Preoperatively she was in a great deal of pain, but the procedure went well and God willing she will improve, as we really freed up a lot of space for her. Also saw a cervical foraminotomy today for a lady who had a history of motor vehicle accident (a drunk driver hit her head on). Quick case and a relatively light day today...