Lieber and Stoller

Lieber and Stoller,
Soundtrack to recent week's news
And television.

Singer/Actress B.J. Crosby Dies at 63 - Playbill.com

From the "Mad Men" premiere.

Part of the final Letterman season. By far, the best rendition of "Stand By Me."

KS, Baby

Walked into a scene right of "Angels in America" last night.
This play is so embedded in me that it will never leave me.
30 years in the AIDS epidemic, I saw my first Kaposi's sarcoma last night, uncommon in the age of antiretrovirals - and the scene below flickered in my mind.



In eliciting the "history of present illness," I saw that the patient and his partner were more like Prior and Louis. I was spared the crying, but not the drama of it all.

Dropsy

Finally getting around to "Downton Abbey", a Masterpiece Classic update of "Upstairs / Downstairs" on PBS last year.
Loving it more now that they introduced a nurse as one of the main characters - an undesirable addition to the titled family because of her profession. She saves a man's life by advocating for pericardiocentesis and a dose of adrenaline on a patient with dropsy.

Dropsy?!

"Dropsy to the heart or the liver?" she asks.

What in Flo's sake is dropsy?
A colloquial British term I've never heard of?
Google to the rescue; dropsy means edema.
So, what other archaic terms for medical conditions that have gone the way of smallpox.
Le grippe, consumption, ague, coryza, Saint Vitus's dance, suppuration ...
Not to mention the more recent ones. We don't call it left-sided or right-sided heart failure anymore. It's now either systolic or diastolic dysfunction.

Since gerontology will be my specialty, someone old enough is bound to use them. I can only imagine:

"What can I do for you today, Mr. Smith?"
"My podagra's acting up again."

BMTs

Personally, I find allogeneic BMTs frightening for its upsetting side effects. GVHD has horrendous clinical manifestations. But I have to let that go because it is what the patients want. T. Brown, RN on the NY Times' Well blog felt the same distress, but who are we to take that hope away? Below is a feel-good piece that re-affirms why I do what I do. I applaud those who are on the registry. I know of one who's on the registry who worries they might call him one day. Take heart, "walking funny for a week" and some pain seem to be the only unpleasant complaints for a donor post-collection.

The Gift of a Lifetime
How a Woman Who Died in April 1999 and an Infant Diagnosed With Leukemia Became Connected by an Act of Kindness
from "CBS Sunday Morning"

"Take Me to the World"

Savor an early Sondheim.
Pre-You Tube, my friend and I went to the Museum of TV and Radio to watch this.
Ah, musical theater gleeks worshiping their idol on Kinoscope.

It's Norman Bates and Liesl from "The Sound of Music."

National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Only hospitals can circulate this kind of memo:
That I should tune in to watch Harry Smith's colonoscopy live on TV while Katie Couric holds his hand.
And in case I missed it on TV early this morning, they sent another memo linking to it:




As an oncology nurse, I'm proud of it.
Will this make my Dad schedule one?
We'll see.

"The Cost of Dying"

"We don't ration rationally."


Watch CBS News Videos Online


A naive reductionist phrase: "Pulling the plug on grandma."
A question with a too-often unknown answer, "What did grandma want?"
"Do Not Resuscitate" does NOT mean "Do Not Treat."
Less aggressive treatments at end of life yield better outcomes across the board:
Palliation, quality of life, less moral distress, and yes, less cost.

1-866-IDOLS-0?

I've never seen day nurses give report so fast and clear out the station.
Didn't catch on until one of them said she had to leave NOW so she can be home to watch the showdown on “American Idol.”

Watched it this morning and the standout was Adam Lambert's rock and soul cover of “Change is Gonna Come.” (The Idol producer chose “What's Going On?” for Kris Allen to sing, which sounded so passe considering change is in the zeitgest compared to war protest.)

I had two people text me at work about how Adam “rocks” and that I should vote for him. However, they neglected to give me the extension to dial so I can participate in the “democratic” process of voting as many times for my candidate of choice.

Kidney Now!

Long, exhausting night at work: a shift when I felt like a nurse, waitress, janitor, and unit clerk all rolled into one. Come morning, when the powers that be start nitpicking and screaming "Who's the nurse for _," all the things one does (within and outside of one's department) are unrecognized. One feels like s/he has not done any thing right in the past twelve hours.

To unwind, I curled up to "30 Rock's" season finale that served up an ending that chased the work blues away.

"WHEN YOU GIVE A KIDNEY
AND WE REALLY THINK YOU SHOULD
WE PASS THE CUP
THEY STITCH IT UP
YOU DO SOME GOOD."

"Mama"

I don't usually mark these Hallmark holidays.
I'm a bad son. I can't remember the last time I got a present for Mother's day.



Charice Pempenco sings "Mama" in Sharon Cuneta's (!) show.
The song, first sung by Smokey Mountain, was originally a hit way back when in the Philippines. It's sappy and hews closer to a Broadway melody than a pop song.
I recall adopting this as a theme song when it first came out since my mother was trying out her luck at a med-surg unit in Long Island at that time. I even called the radio station to request it.

Full Song: Smokey Mountain's "Mama."

"Ladette to Lady"

Almost stayed home and ditched work to watch the marathon of this show.
Love seeing the girls get trashed so hilarity could ensue. It's like "Pygmalion" with eight Amy Winehouses.
Shamelessly classist and sexist. The courses taught to the ladettes are straight from a 1950s syllabus (flower arranging?!), which includes watching them them pluck feathers from a goose and stuff it with a freshly plucked pheasant (and another fowl). The coveted job after this boot camp is for chalet girl. I've never heard of a chalet girl before. I've been hanging out with poor people.

"Nutmeg"

Downgrading Nat King Cole’s version of “The Christmas Song” this year.
New holiday staple: the yummylicious John Legend crooning his craving for "Nutmeg."
Warms my heart (and other parts of my anatomy).

"Histeria": Taft

Strolling down memory lane at work and only one other person knew "Histeria."
Smart, funny, and edumacational - in other words, doomed for cancellation.
The segment I most remembered from it is this:

Funky

I know, it's an ad for a credit card. And this is probably one reason why we're in this financial mess. But this commercial's plain irresistible. Wish I had one of those to drop off in school.

SLINGS & ARROWS

Just finished watching all three seasons of it and can't get enough of it.
Adored it, of course. A show that gets the theater right from top to bottom and made me miss show business.
The show tracks a Canadian festival's mountings of Shakespeare plays and one musical.
They almost made me like "Romeo and Juliet." And I'm now a "Hamlet" convert.
I'm partial to the stage manager character, of course. But I have a fondness for Anna, the associate administrative director.
Can't re-fashion it into an American show, like "The Office" or "Queer as Folk," because we don't really have a national theater or a theater festival familiar enough to portray. No Stratford or Shaw Festival or RSC. Transposed to community theater, it might work.

Emmy Dis

I'm with Katherine Heigl snubbing tonight's primetime Emmys.
(Did you know she sells her own line of medical scrubs? It makes me "Izzie.")
Not because the writers slacked off, but the awards' nominating body dissed HBO's "The Wire" for the fifth time. Get this. Only 2 nominations for its entire run! I know that its language/dialogue/street poetry poses the main barrier to appreciating it. So turn on the subtitles/close captioning! And prepare to get lost in its octopus-like storytelling tentacles.

Related article:
‘The Wire’ receives one last Emmy snub - Show received only one nomination, for the writing of its series finale
From: Associated Press

Despite that, I'm rooting for Tina Fey, "30 Rock," and the resuscitated "Lost."

Cable v. Satellite

Back to regular cable after 2 years of satellite dish TV. Shaving off a chunk from the monthly bill by combining phone, TV, and internet. The other reason for the switch was because The Filipino Channel is now available through Cablevision with cheaper subscription. Can finally tear down the unwieldy dishes and cables off the roof. Re-adapting to cable's pros and cons:

Some cable pros:
-We can watch TV now during a rainstorm. No more messages about "searching for a signal."
-More DVR space.
-On Demand!

Some cable cons:
-Less HD channels. What do you mean USA is not in HD?
-Less channels: No more Cinema One - must Netflix my Tagalog movies from now on.
-Less user-friendly search menu.

"Picture this ..."

Thank you for being a friend ...
Estelle Getty played Sophia Petrillo from one of the best TV shows ever, "The Golden Girls." I dare you to watch an episode and not laugh. (But if you happen to catch one of the serious episodes - you'll appreciate what makes it a good show.) Well, she's now looking down on us from her lanai in the sky.