Changing Tune

As many of you have noticed, entries for this blog are about as consistent as Haley's Comet. I've thought endlessly about why this is and have come up with a few answers:

• I am one of the least prolific procrastinators I know.
  
• Writing is like running, until you've managed to make time for it in your daily or weekly routine, it becomes a random act.
• Lastly, I've come to this realization, it feels unnatural to write about myself. As an anthropologist at heart, being an objective observer of my fellow humans and their behaviors better represents my comfort zone.
  

So I present to you a closing episode of Amoussou:

Out of the blue, an update from the bowels of Brooklyn, New York. It has been a month since starting my new job as an Emergency Department PA in Brooklyn and have finally found a situation that is pretty sweet as far as jobs go for new PAs. The hospital is located in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, a mere 10 minute bike ride from our apartment in Park Slope. That 10 minute stint of pumping my calves is my 'cup of coffee' for the day preparing me for the hectic buzz of the 12 hour shifts, from 7a-7p or the other way around. Day shifts during the week are buzzing for 12hrs straight while night shifts tend to creep by like a slow roller. I see patients on my own and present each one to an attending physician to discuss a plan of care. This works well for me as I grow accustomed to the pace and clinical acuity of each case. As Suru deftly described in his comments to my last blog entry, the ER plays out like this:

"Drug seekers, hypochondriacs, and drunks all need to be sorted out from the truly sick. ER is puke, shit and blood (in that order). There's also a lot of time pressure in the ER, where you often need to see 6 to 10 patients at the same time."

Accurate, indeed.

Central Booking also happens to be a few blocks from the hospital, which means every one who is arrested anywhere in Brooklyn is sent to a holding facility to await a judge's decision , merely two blocks from our hospital. Many of them claim to be sick are sent in cuffs and in custody of two police officers to our ED for treatment. Their chief complaints range from 'I can't breathe without my asthma medications --- to--- I need a clean toilet to take a dump.' Conditions at central booking are probably on par with Abu Ghraib. It's often a challenge to examine patients who are hand cuffed to a wall and have shackles around their ankles, many of whom are belligerent and screaming for a dose of Methadone. Anything goes in the ER, where comedy, desperation and the sense of entitlement rule the air.

As this chapter comes to a close, I'd like to introduce a new theme for our curious minds. Over the years, I've found myself living in some interesting places for varying periods of time and it's the freaky people I was lucky enough to befriend who have made those places outrageous. They range from airline pilots to folk-musicians, photographers to authors, FBI agents to gardeners, surfers to soap opera enthusiasts and everywhere in between. Every other week (that's my goal) I will host an interview / dialog with one of you. In an effort to incorporate an interactive feel to this blog, I'd like to introduce each subject in the proceeding entry so that you can submit your questions and curiosities for the ensuing subject.

My inaugural interviewee will be Reid Kincaid. Reid and I met while I was on clinical rotation in the Emergency Room at Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor, ME. He was one of my clinical preceptors and happened to be one of the best teachers I had during my PA education. This guy has had some far out experiences that have taken him to a few crazy places throughout the world. Prior to entering the Physician Assistant profession, Reid served as a Peace Corps volunteer and dabbled in computer programming in DC. After graduating from PA school in Philadelphia, Reid moved to Alaska with his family and served as a Physician Assistant and the only health care provider in a remote town near Kodiak Island. He is the author of Extreme Survival Almanac: Everything You Need to Know to Live Through a Shipwreck, Plane Crash, or Any Outdoor Crisis Imaginable. Published by Paladin Press (Jan 2002.) Available at Amazon.com. When I asked him how he could possibly write such a book, he responded saying ' after having been through each of those disasters I thought I'd be qualified to write about them.' My favorite part of the book is when he discusses the topic of how to survive a Grizzly bear attack. I will forever be grateful to Reid for always being gracious in answering my endless questions about the time he spent in Iraq as a Physician Assistant in the US military between 2004-2005. I believe he is currently working on his second book.

Please don't be shy in sending your inquiries for Reid to me as we delve back into my anthropological comfort zone. And be thinking about what makes you so freaky, after all, YOU might be next!

Y'all come back now ~ Amoussou