Done with cycling

What a difference eight days makes. Eight days ago, Floyd Landis rode himself out of this year's Tour de France. Everyone, even himself, was already looking toward next year. Landis announced earlier this month that he would have to go through hip replacement surgery because of his years of cycling.

Seven days ago, Landis had his best day as a professional cyclist. He won that day's race stage and set himself up to win the entire Tour -- which he did five days ago. Since then, he has been enjoying the spotlight. That is, until yesterday.

On Wednesday, the international cyclist union announced that one rider returned a positive test. The union president said, "The credibilty of the sport is at stake. The rider, his federation and his team have been informed of the situation.”

Speculation started that Landis may be the rider. Today, Phonak, Landis' team, made the confirmation that he had an "unusual level of testosterone" in the test following his stage win.

I'm so upset now, I can't even stand it! I didn't even know what the Tour de France was until Greg Lemond was the first American to win the race twenty years ago. Then, Lance Armstrong made me and a lot of other Americans fall in love with the sport of cycling. The year before Armstrong began his winning streak, the Tour was rocked by a drug scandal, which really put cycling in a negative light. Armstrong (who has his own drug allegations) helped to increase cycling's popularity.

The night before this year's Tour started, more than a few top riders were suspended and not allowed to start because of drug allegations. We should have known that this was a sign of things to come.

I've decided. I'm done with cycling. I just can't take it anymore! I stopped watching baseball because of Barry Bonds. I'm also done with football and basketball. Olympics - yeah right! Definitely not the summer games. Maybe my beloved golf is the last bastion of honor in all of sport. Unfortunately, I betcha that they'll start drug testing Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam in the near future.

The empire strikes back

Thanks to HealthPsych for this heads up. Petite Anglaise lives in Paris. This post has caused quite a stir. Apparently, this person was fired for blogging.

“I’m afraid I have called you here to tell you that I am obliged to terminate your employment with the firm.”

I sit.

My mouth forms a perfect “O” of astonishment.

“This is because of your internet site.”

Somehow he manages to make “internet” sound like an unspeakably filthy word.

It makes for an interesting read. It has definitely struck a nerve out there, because as of this writing, there are 241 comments, which will undoubtedly continue to rise. It definitely makes me reflect to past posts like this one or this one (oh yeah, I'm talking as if they were years ago -- but they were only within the past month). Is that darth vader I hear coming up behind me?

Swiss seek out blogaholics

CNN reports that Switzerland's Department for the Prevention of Addiction (no joke) launched a poster campaign for potential addicts.

"They are at risk of facing problems in their social surroundings or at the workplace," the department said. Internet addicts suffer from psychological withdrawal symptoms, it said.

I can't believe that they found out I live in Switzerland! I thought I successfully took steps to hide my identity and location. Sheesh!

I'm glad that the Swiss have recognized this problem and are taking action. Does anyone have friends in Switzerland? Maybe we can have a Blogaholics Anonymous meeting there to really help them through this difficult time.

Right to choose

Can the court force you to take medical treatments? This is the debate in Virginia right now. Starchild Abraham Cherrix is a 16 year old diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. He has already went through one round of chemotherapy. He told his parents that he did not want to go through chemo again because of all the side effects. The family decided to pursue alternative therapy instead of another round of chemo.

In a shocking decision last week, the court ordered the teen to report to children's hospital to start chemo for his Hodgkin's disease. In addition, the court ruled the parents neglectful in allowing their son to make his own health decision -- Thereby, forcing the parents to share custody of their son with social services. I already have a problem with the legal system. But this story goes much deeper....

Government Intrusion: The government, through the court system, is going to tell patients what treatments to receive? It shouldn't matter what your political views are. This has got to bother you.

Alternative Therapy: The natural health bloggers are absolutely upset with this ruling and the possibility that seeking alternative therapy was a factor in the ruling. What if this family refused chemo in order to pursue a faith healer?

Parental Rights: How can parents be labelled neglectful after considering all treatment options and deciding to support their son? Some parents do not agree that immunizations are beneficial. If parents refuse their child to receive immunizations, are they neglectful? Can the court force immunizations on children? If a Jehovah's Witness refuses blood products for their child, are they neglectful? Can the court force blood transfusions? Who has final say in the care of children? The parent or the court?

Patient Rights: What's fascinating and troublesome at the same time is that if this patient were 18 years old, an adult, this would not be a news story at all. Adults have the right to refuse any and all treatment, even potentially life saving treatment. This is personified in the phrase Do Not Resuscitate. Hollywood glamorizes this decision making process in TV and movies. What's different about a 16 year old that the court has to step in? No matter what your political view, it is true that in some states 16 year old girls can consent to an abortion. Why can't a 16 year old guy refuse treatment?

Late Tuesday afternoon, the ruling was lifted and a trial date set for August 16th. The joint custody order was also lifted. What will happen next? I don't know, but this story may have huge medical and legal ramifications depending on how it plays out. Definitely a story to keep close watch on. What are your thoughts on this case?

Grand Rounds

This week, Grand Rounds 2.44 is being hosted by Medical Humanities.

Welcome to our garden. We’ve gathered together a multicoloured collection of species from all over the world. We’re interested here at Medical Humanities in artistic and literary metaphor which is why we’ve chosen gardening as our theme this week.

I must say, very creative. The pictures, the layout, and the text itself paints a picture that you're definitely in a garden. Me? I'm in "The Gazebo."

Doctor Anonymous no doubt would also appreciate a holiday. He poses some tough questions after a long night of being on call. He also gets some answers to the question, 'Why?', from his readers.

I know what you're going to say. The first link is incorrect and takes you to diabetesmine.com. I e-mailed them to let them know, and hopefully by the time you read this, the problem will be corrected. Next week, Grand Rounds will be hosted by Inside Surgery.

Update: MH e-mailed me back and corrected the link. Should be ok now.

Doctor Anonymous no doubt would also appreciate a holiday. He poses some tough questions after a long night of being on call. He also gets some answers to the question, 'Why?', from his readers.

Soccer doc

Just another manic Monday -- isn't that how the song goes? (all you 80s music fans know what I'm talking about) Why is it that after a weekend, you feel like you need another weekend? Just like you need a vacation after getting back from vacation.

It's not like I was really stressed out over the weekend. In fact, I had a really good weekend. I don't know if I told you before, but I'm the "Soccer Doc" for our boys high school soccer team. They had a pre-season tournament over the weekend.

I'll go into it in a little more detail as the season unfolds, but working with high school kids is really refreshing to me, mainly because my maturity level is about the same as theirs -- HA! It's a good time kidding around with the kids on the bench as they talk about their summer, school, and, girls.

Of course, I feel older and older every year I do this as they talk about music I've never heard of and movies that I've never seen. We joke around a lot. They call me old when I start quoting movies and music from my high school days. I call them young punks, because, well, they are!

The season starts in about a month and goes through October (I think -- have to double check that). Hope you're having a great day. Don't forget Grand Rounds tomorrow.

And the winner is...

Thanks so much for your feedback on which post I should submit to Grand Rounds. In reviewing the comments, I'm going to be submitting Why. I knew that none of you would let me down. I may ask you to vote again in the future for my GR submission -- That was fun! Although,I have to admit, I did not expect the impact this post would have, because others made their interpretations on their meaning of why....

NeoNurseChic, in her post, Why: One of Life's Biggest Questions, talked about being in a neurology case study and started off her questions with "Why Did This Happen To Me?" She then posed a set of questions of the frustration in her job and with her life. I really appreciated her post in that it really tapped into the emotional state I was in for my writing. Carrie, you and I are on the same wavelength sometimes (feel sorry for you). Thanks for your poignant post.

kt asked some why questions on the lighter side of life in her post It Was A Good Idea At The Time. Funny stuff. I do admit that I'm one of those people who get up at the end of the night to karyoke. My song: "Roxanne" by The Police. Can you imagine this? You don't have to, there's probably video of me somewhere doing this song. Check YouTube.

For Those Times You Ask Me Why, is the title of a post on In My Humble Opinion (formerly the Fine Art Doctor -- I like the name change by the way). It is insightful poetry about being in medical school. His writing ends, "...And all I can say... is sadly, I don't know why."

Ripple of Hope turned the conversation around with the post Why Not? "Why not try to change things and why not get involved?" Interesting thoughts.

Dreaming again changed the conversation again in the post titled, "How, not why" "How do I begin to tear down the wall without putting up another one in it's place?"

I really appreciate all the discussion that has taken place. It has been very insightful to me. I'll finish with a couple of humorous posts asking "Why Ask Why?" One from Use Wisdom and the other from GJ. Enjoy!

Tie or no tie

Following up on yesterday, aside from the heat, we had great weather. I left my pager at home. I left my cell phone at home. I was pleasantly inaccessible to the world. Just me, and golf, and good friends. Just a great time to escape from real life for a little while....

Somewhere on the 18th hole, after many adult beverages (if you know what I mean), we had a knock-out-drag-out yelling discussion about doctor attire. Last Friday, we had a great discussion on whether docs should wear lab coats. And, that's initially how our discussion started yesterday. Then, someone in our group mentioned wearing a tie and a lab coat during office hours. Last week, here's what Dream Mom said about neck ties:

Also, I still like it when the docs wear a tie to work-doesn't matter if it's a bow tie or regular tie. Call me old fashioned, but I like it. As for the female docs, it wouldn't hurt to put a little make up on from time to time; some of the female docs look liked they just got out of bed.

As our discussion got more heated yesterday, someone in our group made reference to this study which stated that neckties carry germs. I think that's a cop-out. Personally, I like the neck tie - Maybe not every single day (like the lab coat). But, for me, most of the time, I wear a tie.
What do you think? Which do you prefer? Tie or no tie....

Update: Nurse Ratched's Place just posted an interesting commentary called "Do You Remember When" which also talks about nursing attire:

Do you remember when you HAD to wear a white dress, white nylons and nursing shoes, and a nurse's cap? The dress was hard to keep white (you know what I mean), the nylons were uncomfortable and would run, and the hat was always getting tangled up in IV tubing while you were counting those infernal drops. At the end of my shift, I looked more like a bag lady than an angel of mercy.

Rock the vote

I know, I know, I know. I actually said I would not blog today. HA! Who am I kidding? I'm Dr. A and I'm a blogaholic.... (it's amazing what sleep does)

This is a history making post! Why? Because I'm asking you, the Doctor Anonymous reader, to vote on which post I will submit for next week's Grand Rounds. In the entire history of Grand Rounds, this is unprecedented (maybe not, but sounds good, huh?).

The only ones that you cannot vote for are this one and this one, because they have already been posted on GR. Any other post is fair game!

According to the blog meters, this is my best week ever! Thanks to all of you out there in blogland. I thought that this would be the perfect day to try this. Will it work? Stay tuned to find out.

After I post this, I'm going to take some "me" time today. Thanks for your advice on this. I'm golfing and I won't be back to my trusty little Mac until tonight. Don't worry, I won't go into withdrawl, I'm wearing the blog patch. *grin*

So, I'll leave the door unlocked. My blog is your blog! Feel free to come and go as you please. I am running low on Diet Coke, so if someone is going to the store, pick up some for me and I'll pay you back.

For all I know, you could have a BA meeting over here today, and I wouldn't even know. My neighbors are used to the noisy parties at my place (if you invite them, that smooths things over).

I'm off to my early morning tee time and I'll be back tonight (don't wait up). I'll close voting sometime on Saturday (or even Sunday) and I'll post the results here. Vote early and vote often. Tell your friends, they can vote, too. Have a great day at my place!

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens [bloggers] can change the world." -- Margaret Mead

Update 7/21: Had a great day yesterday, but I got back late. I will start going through my comments today. Thanks so much for your votes and feedback. If you haven't voted yet, please do! Keep that feedback rolling in....

Why revisited

Welcome back to Dr. A Unplugged. Ever see this MTV show? It was at its peak in the early 1990s when Mariah Carey was still someone you said, "Who is Mariah Carey?" And, nirvana was just another grunge band from Seattle. The popularity of the show was, in my opinion, due to its raw nature. No electronic keyboard, no electric guitar, and no sound effects -- just a guitar, maybe a piano, and just the voice of the singer. Very refreshing when music was (and still is) littered with electronic manipulations.

I'm feeling in that kind of raw state right now. Most thoughts unfiltered -- not going through the politically correct washing machine before it comes out of my mouth or off my keyboard. Kind of a liberating way to blog, let me tell you. I guess that's why I put that out at 3am. I was really close to hitting the delete button. But, I wanted to get it out there, because, life is full of ups and downs. And, your blog should be a reflection of your life, right? I feel like I'm at a Blogaholics Anonymous meeting.

I'm apologize if I'm worrying people today with my posts. It was not my intention to do that -- just to give a little snapshot of my life first hand. Now, I just need to get through the afternoon, finish the work that absolutely needs finished, and then go home and sleep. It's amazing what a little sleep does. It's life's little pause button. Probably take a blogging break tomorrow and make a comeback Friday. We'll see. Thanks for all the well wishes!