Da Vinci- A Reason I'm Glad I'm Not in Chile Now

I'm really picky about my doctors. Doctors practice medicine and I do lots of research to find doctors who are excellent at what they do with lots of practice. I've personally seen a good doctor versus an "ok" doctor being the reason I was born in the first place, for saving my life since, and saving the lives of others I know.

My son recently had a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection). His pediatrician really pushed me to get further testing done after the antibiotics had killed the infection and not just wave it off and wait to see if it happened again. I was hesitant to get the tests done because they were not fun for my 5 year old but this doctor is awesome and I listen to her. Turns out he has reflux of his ureter and damage to his left kidney. I took him to a Urologist (who I also researched) who was able to diagnose exactly what was wrong but needed to talk to his team of Urologists and specifically one of his partners to see if he would be comfortable removing the lower part of his left kidney (which is where the blood supply runs) via a laparoscopic method which is less invasive than a longer abdomen cut and allows them to more precisely fix the ureter. Turns out that this Urologist proposed that his partner does part of the surgery using a very cutting edge (no pun intended) robot called the Da Vinci to fix it and he would take care of the rest. I looked up this robot and it is really cool. It was actually featured on Grey's Anatomy. Check it out- http://www.intuitivesurgical.com/index.aspx

The reason I titled this post the way I did is (1) somehow relate it to Chile and (2) because I checked the web site and there are no Da Vinci surgeons in Chile yet so I'm glad he has this option here.

He won't have this operation until August and I don't think I'm going to tell him about it until right before nor will I show him the robot until after. He HAD to watch them put the iv in him when he had one of the tests run so if I show him the robot before he will probably want to refuse anesthesia so he can watch the robot.

Also, while I'm on the topic of medical things- just yesterday this article was posted regarding the side effects of using the nasal form of Zicam and the FDA wanting the company to put a warning on the product. This is related to the post where I warned people about this due to what happened to my friend.

Que Paso Lurker?

Why do people lurk? I understand the occasional Lurker just surfing/stumbling upon things but I don't quite get why someone would read a random blog like this several times a day every day regularly and never comment. When people are kind of tied in loosely to this gringa/Chile/ExPat community I can understand checking it out regularly and perhaps not commenting. When someone is clearly outside of that and I think has no connection whatsoever to this community checking this blog out regularly it gives me a weird vibe. My blog is NOT that cool and there are MUCH more interesting ones out there. This has made me start to think about why people lurk. Maybe it's just that I'm really outgoing and seem to have something to say about almost anything but there are no blogs that I read regularly that I don't at least comment every once in a while. Anyone else have any insight? Do any bloggers out there have regular Lurkers? Maybe someone reading this who has never commented can tell me why they don't comment?

1 year Anniversary

This weekend on June 7th will be our one year anniversary. S has shown me a love that I've never experienced before and I never want to lose it. I think that the fact we have grown together even more over the past year is a great thing to celebrate.

Last September I went to a friend's wedding and the day after the wedding they announced that the groom's cancer had returned (they kept this a secret from everyone until after the wedding so that at the wedding wouldn't have any elements of sadness to it). I just received an email today that from my friend that her husband
passed away and after they took the life support off she "hugged him, kissed him, and sang to him" during his last hours. I sent her a note back with my condolances but saying that they were lucky to have such a great love story even though their time was cut short. Sadly, some people spend lifetimes together and don't experience love to its fullest. This was a good reminder to me to cherish what S and I have together.

Our first Christmas together (really apart because he was in Santiago) he sent me this. It was the best Christmas present I have ever received. It was the perfect gift especially when we were half a world apart and I will always treasure it. (He gets really embarassed when I share this so not sure how long I'll be able to keep this post up if he finds it and makes me remove it ;) )

Here is the link to my present (S sang and recorded this for me):
http://www.box.net/shared/n7jqb4hnlq