Happy Columbus Day! Good weekend thus far. Many of the things on the list have been accomplished, but there is still some more to go. Of course I still need to do thank-you notes. And I still haven't tried Halo 3. But the yard looks fantastic, Kayla is painting the upstairs rooms, and I studied and watched all the necessary sports. I even fired up Brian's Weber Kettle for the first time for some good old fashioned bratwurst. Yum!

I have included some more medical stuff on this here blog. One of the attending surgeons performed a colonoscopy on a sick patient at the hospital. Colonoscopy is what all of you should have done when you turn 50 (or earlier if you have a family history of colon cancer) to look for polyps (pre-cancer). However, this colonoscopy wasn't done to look for cancer. The image below represents pseudomembranes which are created from a severe infection from a bacterium called clostridium difficile. The resulting condition is called pseudomembranous colitis which is characterized by severe diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fever. You can read more by clicking on pseudomembranous colitis.


P.S. For all of your medical questions, remember to ask them on "Ask Dr. Tommy". The link is on the left side of this blog.

P.S.S. Remember that this here blog is just that... A BLOG. It is for entertainment purposes only. If you don't feel well, go see your doctor or call 911. Don't rely on stuff you read on this website or anywhere on the internets to replace medical care.

What to say, what to say. I finally got home to Dallas last weekend. What an outstanding (and much needed) diversion from the daily grind at the hospital. Remarkably I didn't take any pictures to post on this here blog. However, I got to play golf all three days of the weekend. My folks recently joined the Dallas Athletic Club (in Mesquite!), so I had the fortune of playing the legendary Blue course twice and the Gold course once. They are both very nice courses. Blue is more challenging, but the gold is no slouch. They're both very pretty, and the greens are outstanding (even though they were aerated a week before). It was fun to play with Mom and David. I'm especially impressed with how much Mom has improved in only a few months. She really smacks the ball a mile off the tee. Plus she bought me a nice pair of new golf shoes.

I was also able to see a bunch of friends from high school and college. Recently married Travis was in town for a job related training course. And Ryan was in town celebrating his dad's birthday. So all in all it was a very fruitful weekend. I miss Texas which made it hard to come back to New England. However, fall foliage is about to start which is quite beautiful. Of course, that means winter is close behind which blows. It's still warm today though; the high is 86 today and tomorrow which are close to records. Maybe I'll use the pool one last time tomorrow.

I have some interesting hernia pictures I need to post on this here blog. I should be able to do that over the weekend if I remember. In fact, I have a lot of stuff to do this weekend:

The List

1. Study
2. Finish Thank-you notes
3. Scan Picture of Hernia
4. Download more songs to new iPod
5. Watch NHRA Drag Racing
6. Watch Dallas Stars Hockey
7. Watch Texas A&M Football (if televised)
8. Watch Dallas Cowboy's Football
9. Remember My 6 Month Anniversary on Sunday (yes this is lame and gay, but it will most likely score points with the wife)
10. Maybe play golf with next door neighbor Bob?
11. Go to pool store and buy chemicals and pool cover which are now on sale
12. Play Halo 3 for first time (even though I've had it since September 26th).
13. Cut grass
14. Update all my pictures on this here blog, as yahoo cancelled their photo hosting service, and I transferred all of my photos to Kodak.

That will do for now. I'm on call tonight which blows. Maybe I can take pictures of something cool tonight and share. Just to keep you happy, here is a picture of me with a very, very long scalpel designed for cutting things deep into the abdomen. I will also show you the necrotizing fasciitis (very bad infection of the soft tissues between the skin and muscle that spreads quickly and can kill you) that I used this scalpel to cut out. Cheers!

P.S. I published a blog from March which has been sitting doing nothing for 7 months. It's a thyroid I took out with Dr. Coe...but the cool thing is that it's blue instead of red.