Saturday, June 21, 2008

crazy koreans and keeping up with the lims (limses)

i'm trying to keep up with my wife's blogging frequency but it can't be done. regardless ("irregardless" ... i still laugh when people say that ... if you don't know what i'm talking about then don't worry about it but listen for a chuckling asian man in the back when you say it), i think this is the most number of posts i've had in this short a time span in a long time. i hope that made sense.

anyway, i wanted to include a link to a new york times story. in case you have been behind in your asian politics (maybe you haven't been tivo-ing overseas news), the korean president has been trying to get american beef back into korea. there's been a ban for a few years due to a mad cow scare. i think one cow came down with mad cow and american beef has been banned ever since. well, if you didn't know, koreans tend to be a superstitious bunch. pardon the pun but there also tends to be a herd mentality--less individualism and more group-ism, i guess a result of the confucian influence. even though seoul is one of the most modern and technologically advanced cities in the world, koreans tend to be pretty gullible and naive. hmmm, interesting. i just thought, maybe that's why i tend to get suckered into things at times, like paying $10 for some dumb word of the day texting service. it's in my genes. i can't help it.

getting back to the story, in the article they mention how all these koreans are protesting (koreans love protesting things, too) the decision by the president because they worry about getting sick from contaminated beef infiltrating their country. what i found most striking was the accompanying slideshow. the third picture shows an amazing amount of people on the streets with candles protesting. unbelievable how many people are out there and it's funny how once you get people protesting, others will come out to protest all sorts of other things. others were out there protesting inflation. "nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd" as soul asylum used to sing. i love the flyer that's being passed around, "mad cow drives our people mad!"

here's another article in time about the fears. a separate wall street journal article also talked about how koreans think americans are even paranoid and don't eat american beef but instead import their beef from australia and other places. i wonder what they would think of me. there is a chance i will be involved in 3 meat buffets this month, 4 if you include baby's b-day party july 5.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

tim russert

by now most of you may have heard about the unexpected passing of tim russert this past week. apparently he had issues with his weight (not a surprise), cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. it's interesting to follow the media (including the medical media) about his untimely death--so many questions about whether he was on the right medications, could his death have been prevented, should he have had more testing. by all accounts, it seems like he was getting the proper care. the bottom line is, no matter what you do, even if it's the right thing, people will still die. having said that, i did find something very interesting in an article i read recently. click this link to get to it. karen has a weekly celebrity post so maybe this will be the start to my weekly if not twice-monthly medical post. i call your attention to the last paragraph in the article. someone was performing cpr with mouth-to-mouth when the paramedics got there but it's unclear if anyone did chest compressions. regardless, obviously they did what they felt like they could.

new guidelines

BUT, the word needs to get out: if you see someone collapse with what is assumed to be a cardiac arrest, don't bother with mouth-to-mouth! please, spread this word. the guidelines have changed recently after much effort. once someone becomes unconscious (i.e., "witnessed cardiac arrest"), there is enough oxygen in the system to last several minutes. the most important thing to do is to start chest compressions to get blood circulating. DO NOT BOTHER GIVING MOUTH-TO-MOUTH the first few minutes! now if you know me, you know i hardly ever use all caps but this is that important. another reason the guidelines have changed is because mouth-to-mouth typically has been a barrier to people helping out. if that is removed, then people are more likely to do the chest compressions which is most important.

proper cpr

most critical is getting the blood pumping and that requires pounding on the chest at a rate of about 100 times per minute and pressing down on the sternum about 1-2 inches. incidentally, if you do not feel any ribs breaking then you are probably not pressing down hard enough. if the point of the ribcage is to protect the heart, then you realize that you have to break some ribs to have effective chest compressions. forget about the ones you see on tv, they are nowhere near how they should be (although i will admit i am a sucker for medical shows). the easiest form is to lock your arms and put your weight into it. this maneuver is very tiring and you can't last more than a couple of minutes so it's important to have someone ready to take over. if you don't lock your arms and just try to push down with your hands, you won't last 10 seconds. of course, the best plan is probably to take a cpr class but at least you have this info just in case. plus, the guidelines have changed only in the past couple of months so any books you use might still have the old info. hope this helps.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

happy father's day!

or is it fathers' day? i guess it could really be both but probably fathers' if we're including everyone out there. i mean, it's not just one father out there who has the holiday, is it? if so, that's one cool dad. i have had a nice and relaxing day watching various sporting events while my wife has been tending to the babe. kate got me a nice card with $50 stuck inside! i guess with the high gas prices and the weak dollar karen has been upping her allowance lately. incidentally it's the same amount i asked karen to get for me from the latest bank run.

last night we had the graduation for our residency program. over the past few years the residents have recorded a skit making fun of the attendings and even other residents. now that i'm on the "other" side, we rallied the attendings together to film a skit. i would post the link but there are too many inside jokes to be funny for the general populace. anyway, it was fun filming and editing the thing so it rekindled my interest in making a movie. i have already pitched a few ideas to my sister and one day do want to write a real script but i could start the process at home with a tv show or movie starring kate. the show would be called "one and a half asians," kinda like the charlie sheen show "two and a half men." we could have kate getting into various shenanigans--spitting food at us, reaching into drawers and throwing everything out, clips of us accidentally whacking kate's head against various things (as recently as this morning i accidentally hit her head on the car frame putting her into the car seat ... in my defense i had a bloody nose this morning, worse than usual (and i didn't even pick my nose to instigate it) so i wasn't feeling the most normal), her laughing at me when i do pushups and how she tries to grab my hair as it goes up and down. so many stories we could share. could probably get a couple of seasons out of it before it gets cancelled.

on another note, at the risk of completely embarrassing my whole family, i have to share how i got swindled out of $10. interestingly, at times i don't think through things completely and in certain vulnerable moments i tend to throw away money (fortunately not a frequent occurrence). well, somehow i got to a link to check my i.q. online in less than 10 minutes. since i'm korean and bred to compare myself to other people, i thought i'd check it out. i must have really been bored or delirious. the test is like 10 questions and actually multiple choice but truly easy multiple choice questions so i automatically thought this was a gimmick. after finishing, it tells you to text a code to a number and it will text back your i.q. by this point i've already invested 2 minutes out of my day to do this so i'm not going halfway at this point. i text the code and i get back a text saying my i.q. is 10. not 110 but 10. now i'm thinking what a waste of time that was (imagine that, wasting time on the internet) but oh well, no harm no foul, right? next thing i know, i'm getting a text like 2 or 3 times a week with a word of the day. i don't have unlimited texting on my phone so i'm getting annoyed at these texts so somehow i get back to the website after a search. of course when i initially texted the code i didn't see that i was signing up for this service that costs $9.99 a month and i get a word of the day texted to me. the ironic thing is that the page talks about the greek origin of the word intelligence and how words of the day can make you smart, etc. yet you have to be a complete moron to actually sign up for this dumb service and probably even worse not to realize that you're signing up for the service by texting something to them. you live and you learn.