I can't believe tomorrow is June.
Had a nice memorial day weekend -- mostly relaxed, somewhat social -- caught up on errands and sleep on Saturday; Jules (my good friend from freshman year at Wes) was in town so I spent a large part of Sunday hanging out with her, which was an unexpected pleasure; Steve and I spent about an hour on Ocean Beach yesterday, sitting on the sea wall watching people and dogs and kites frolicking. We also did a drive by tour of the memorials in San Francisco, the legion of Honor, the WW1 and Holocaust memorials, the presidio and the military cemetery.
This weekend will mark my first trip to San Diego, to watch two of our friends participate in a marathon benefitting the leukemia & lymphoma society, and to finally check out the hippo exhibit at the zoo there. It will be a quick jaunt -- won't even interfere with work - but I'm looking forward to it.
Happy Memorial Day to my Dads and half-brother, Skip, and to all the other veterans I know.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Some of you may find the following post distasteful -- I apologize for that. But as it was a major moment for me, I'm using the blog to write about it. I believe most of you will be fine with what I'm about to discuss, but please know that I go into detail as I go along. That being said:
Yesterday about 10 of my coworkers and I went to the San Jose Coroner & Medical Examiner's (for brevity purposes, c/m.e.'s from now on) office for a standard orientation field trip. I was unable to go when I was actually new so I went this time around. For those of you pondering the link between organ donation and c/m.e.'s, it's that as soon as a person is declared dead under certain circumstances (any unnatural death -- accident, homicide, suicide -- or any death which occurred more than 20 days after a visit to an M.D. for a major medical problem) it is criminal to move or tamper with the body until the c/m.e. gets there or gives their express permission. They have to determine the cause (literally -- "lung disease," or "gun shot wound," etc.) and manner (natural, accidental, homicide, suicide or undetermined) so any intervention could seriously tamper with their investigation. Since nearly all brain death is from a sudden or traumatic death -- aneurysms, head trauma, asphyxiation, etc. -- this means nearly all of these patients have to go through a c/m.e. first. Thus it's good for us to have an understanding of them, and they of us.
And what an understanding we got.
I have now seen close up photographs of every type of death-causing wound one can think of -- gun shot, stabbing, blunt instrument, asphyxiation (whether self-imposed or homicidal), MVAs, burnings... I have seen examples of rigor mortis -- with discussion of its stages and the length of these stages; liver mortis or lividity -- when the blood in the body drains into whatever is the lowest part of the body after death because the heart has stopped pumping and gravity takes over -- and its stages and their lengths; early decomposition -- with bodies turning green, bloating, and sloughing off the skin, and the eyes sinking back in the head...I also saw the stages of an autopsy -- a photograph of the Y incision, a photograph before the removal of the chest plate, a photograph after the removal of the chest plate (where you could clearly see that the guy smoked somewhat -- his lungs were a little dark -- ate badly -- his heart was almost entirely encased in fatty tissue -- but didn't abuse alchohol -- his liver was still shiny and smooth), and a photograph after the removal of the organs. Apparently, when they're done dissecting your organs, they put them all in a garbage bag and then back in the chest cavity, as preparation to be sent to the funeral home for embalming. I wish more people knew this because those who are squeamish about organ removal and keeping the body 'whole' and who won't donate because of it might see things in a different light if they knew the body rarely, if ever, stays whole.
Some of it was reminiscent of some of the flashy stuff you see on CSI: a motorcyclist who'd been hit and run over, who had the tire mark of the offending car so plainly on his shirt that you could easily see the word "steel" -- such that a car in question's tires could be digitally photographed and matched via superimposing transparencies; a man with bludgeon lacerations on his head, one of which also plainly showed letters which ultimately matched to a brand name etched onto a wooded baseball bat; strange patterned head wounds that clearly match a framing hammer; conjunctival petechiae, or tiny ruptures under the lower eye lids which indicate that death was by strangling or other asphyxiation; the nature of a person's lividity showing that they were obviously lying on something lumpy such that if it wasn't still there, then the body must have been moved; determining whether a badly burned body inside a car had died by the force of the accident or by the fire by checking to see whether the throat was sooty deep down; using clay strips on a skull to slowly reconfigure the face to the point of creating a photograph to be sent to law enforcement agencies, such that a missing person can potentially be matched; and of the importance of gathering the skin "glove" from a decomposing corpse -- the skin sloughs off just like a snake's, and if you can gather the skin and keep it whole, you can get fingerprints for identification purposes;...and so on.
The real event, however, being that after seeing this power point, we then toured the facility.
And yes, there were bodies around. Nothing completely uncovered, but I definitely saw toes. Lots of dead toes. And in two cases where the coverings had slid off slightly, dead stomachs. They were mostly pale, and yellowish. (I was struck by how yellow the human body can be. We mostly see ourselves as red and white inside, but really, all our fat is yellow and it shows plainly when the red is gone.) And yes, there was a distinct smell -- not of rot or anything like that because the rooms we were in were either refrigerated and/or well ventilated, but an earthy, dusty smell. The closest I could come to relating it to Steve was those times when you are in traffic on the highway and you end up rolling slowly past road kill that has been thoroughly smashed and dessicated. There's no 'tang' to the smell, no rancor, just the earthy, dusty, odor of a fluid-less body.
I think the creepiest part was the pruning shears. Medical grade ones cost $300, so they were using your standard $30 ones...
Enough said, I think.
I have a continuing fascination (perhaps inherited from Mom) with the human body in all its gorey and glorious detail, so I wasn't at all traumatized...mostly just startled. I hadn't expected this trip to be so much about detail and so little about donation. I hadn't expected photographs and the tour and dead toes. But I'm glad I went. I know this much -- after seeing the effects of not wearing a seat belt, not using a child seat, and drunk driving, I'll be an even more careful driver.
Thanks for listening.
Yesterday about 10 of my coworkers and I went to the San Jose Coroner & Medical Examiner's (for brevity purposes, c/m.e.'s from now on) office for a standard orientation field trip. I was unable to go when I was actually new so I went this time around. For those of you pondering the link between organ donation and c/m.e.'s, it's that as soon as a person is declared dead under certain circumstances (any unnatural death -- accident, homicide, suicide -- or any death which occurred more than 20 days after a visit to an M.D. for a major medical problem) it is criminal to move or tamper with the body until the c/m.e. gets there or gives their express permission. They have to determine the cause (literally -- "lung disease," or "gun shot wound," etc.) and manner (natural, accidental, homicide, suicide or undetermined) so any intervention could seriously tamper with their investigation. Since nearly all brain death is from a sudden or traumatic death -- aneurysms, head trauma, asphyxiation, etc. -- this means nearly all of these patients have to go through a c/m.e. first. Thus it's good for us to have an understanding of them, and they of us.
And what an understanding we got.
I have now seen close up photographs of every type of death-causing wound one can think of -- gun shot, stabbing, blunt instrument, asphyxiation (whether self-imposed or homicidal), MVAs, burnings... I have seen examples of rigor mortis -- with discussion of its stages and the length of these stages; liver mortis or lividity -- when the blood in the body drains into whatever is the lowest part of the body after death because the heart has stopped pumping and gravity takes over -- and its stages and their lengths; early decomposition -- with bodies turning green, bloating, and sloughing off the skin, and the eyes sinking back in the head...I also saw the stages of an autopsy -- a photograph of the Y incision, a photograph before the removal of the chest plate, a photograph after the removal of the chest plate (where you could clearly see that the guy smoked somewhat -- his lungs were a little dark -- ate badly -- his heart was almost entirely encased in fatty tissue -- but didn't abuse alchohol -- his liver was still shiny and smooth), and a photograph after the removal of the organs. Apparently, when they're done dissecting your organs, they put them all in a garbage bag and then back in the chest cavity, as preparation to be sent to the funeral home for embalming. I wish more people knew this because those who are squeamish about organ removal and keeping the body 'whole' and who won't donate because of it might see things in a different light if they knew the body rarely, if ever, stays whole.
Some of it was reminiscent of some of the flashy stuff you see on CSI: a motorcyclist who'd been hit and run over, who had the tire mark of the offending car so plainly on his shirt that you could easily see the word "steel" -- such that a car in question's tires could be digitally photographed and matched via superimposing transparencies; a man with bludgeon lacerations on his head, one of which also plainly showed letters which ultimately matched to a brand name etched onto a wooded baseball bat; strange patterned head wounds that clearly match a framing hammer; conjunctival petechiae, or tiny ruptures under the lower eye lids which indicate that death was by strangling or other asphyxiation; the nature of a person's lividity showing that they were obviously lying on something lumpy such that if it wasn't still there, then the body must have been moved; determining whether a badly burned body inside a car had died by the force of the accident or by the fire by checking to see whether the throat was sooty deep down; using clay strips on a skull to slowly reconfigure the face to the point of creating a photograph to be sent to law enforcement agencies, such that a missing person can potentially be matched; and of the importance of gathering the skin "glove" from a decomposing corpse -- the skin sloughs off just like a snake's, and if you can gather the skin and keep it whole, you can get fingerprints for identification purposes;...and so on.
The real event, however, being that after seeing this power point, we then toured the facility.
And yes, there were bodies around. Nothing completely uncovered, but I definitely saw toes. Lots of dead toes. And in two cases where the coverings had slid off slightly, dead stomachs. They were mostly pale, and yellowish. (I was struck by how yellow the human body can be. We mostly see ourselves as red and white inside, but really, all our fat is yellow and it shows plainly when the red is gone.) And yes, there was a distinct smell -- not of rot or anything like that because the rooms we were in were either refrigerated and/or well ventilated, but an earthy, dusty smell. The closest I could come to relating it to Steve was those times when you are in traffic on the highway and you end up rolling slowly past road kill that has been thoroughly smashed and dessicated. There's no 'tang' to the smell, no rancor, just the earthy, dusty, odor of a fluid-less body.
I think the creepiest part was the pruning shears. Medical grade ones cost $300, so they were using your standard $30 ones...
Enough said, I think.
I have a continuing fascination (perhaps inherited from Mom) with the human body in all its gorey and glorious detail, so I wasn't at all traumatized...mostly just startled. I hadn't expected this trip to be so much about detail and so little about donation. I hadn't expected photographs and the tour and dead toes. But I'm glad I went. I know this much -- after seeing the effects of not wearing a seat belt, not using a child seat, and drunk driving, I'll be an even more careful driver.
Thanks for listening.
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Time has flown...in so many ways. This past weekend I finally met up with my half-siblings, for the first time since I was 6 years old. 20 years!! The whole fam-damily flew in to San Francisco for my Dad's 80th anniversary in this world, and rather than being what you'd expect of a reunion -- family drama, conflicting egos, skeletons in the closet -- it was instead pleasant, fun, jovial, and above all, fulfilling. (I guess not talking for 20 years helps avoid resentments!! I mean, really, what can a 6 year old do to offend anyone?)
So there's a new cast of characters:
Barbara -- the eldest of the House Clan of Children -- my only (half) sister -- calm, considerate, demuring -- If you recognize the name it's probably because she's audited you! -- mother of my eldest nephew (24 years old...ha!) -- married to a wonderful, sassy, I-swear-I'm-not-a-chef-but-I'll-cook-a-5-course-meal-for-you man named Ron, her college sweetheart -- owner of a lovely, quiet, ranch house in Danville, frequented by jays, quails, mourning doves, and hummingbirds -- an Aquarius.
Skip -- a.k.a. Tom the Second (don't dare call him Junior) -- the eldest 'middle' child -- the name and military legacy in our family -- father of my 3 other nephews, one of whom has served in Iraq and is headed back -- an extreme extrovert, swinging single, ski-or-die-trying type -- housed in Colorado Springs and a staunch lauder of all things Coloradian -- honestly, you'll never wonder what this man's thinking because he'll probably already be telling you! -- but don't let him tell you you're a doctor unless you really are one -- the Taurus legacy.
Todd -- the 'first baby' of the House Clan of Children -- a former auto-mechanic to the stars who has retired to the less exhausting (ha, get it?) world of electrical supply -- not to mention politics (if you see sneaker footprints on the republican campaign trail, I'll bet they're his!) -- the bird lover legacy (unless they be pigeons, in which case the raptors outrank them) -- the most bearded member of the family -- the self-described most emotional of the family -- married to Tuni, artiste extraordinaire, a triumph of the heart in multiple ways, and patron saint of wild pigs, lizards, rattlesnakes, cats, and jack russell terrors (though supposedly theirs isn't a terror, and is more of a napper...) -- a Capricorn.
And this is what I've gathered from a mere 4 days and a few emails of knowing them -- imagine if I actually use the next 20 years?
So there's a new cast of characters:
Barbara -- the eldest of the House Clan of Children -- my only (half) sister -- calm, considerate, demuring -- If you recognize the name it's probably because she's audited you! -- mother of my eldest nephew (24 years old...ha!) -- married to a wonderful, sassy, I-swear-I'm-not-a-chef-but-I'll-cook-a-5-course-meal-for-you man named Ron, her college sweetheart -- owner of a lovely, quiet, ranch house in Danville, frequented by jays, quails, mourning doves, and hummingbirds -- an Aquarius.
Skip -- a.k.a. Tom the Second (don't dare call him Junior) -- the eldest 'middle' child -- the name and military legacy in our family -- father of my 3 other nephews, one of whom has served in Iraq and is headed back -- an extreme extrovert, swinging single, ski-or-die-trying type -- housed in Colorado Springs and a staunch lauder of all things Coloradian -- honestly, you'll never wonder what this man's thinking because he'll probably already be telling you! -- but don't let him tell you you're a doctor unless you really are one -- the Taurus legacy.
Todd -- the 'first baby' of the House Clan of Children -- a former auto-mechanic to the stars who has retired to the less exhausting (ha, get it?) world of electrical supply -- not to mention politics (if you see sneaker footprints on the republican campaign trail, I'll bet they're his!) -- the bird lover legacy (unless they be pigeons, in which case the raptors outrank them) -- the most bearded member of the family -- the self-described most emotional of the family -- married to Tuni, artiste extraordinaire, a triumph of the heart in multiple ways, and patron saint of wild pigs, lizards, rattlesnakes, cats, and jack russell terrors (though supposedly theirs isn't a terror, and is more of a napper...) -- a Capricorn.
And this is what I've gathered from a mere 4 days and a few emails of knowing them -- imagine if I actually use the next 20 years?
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