tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13443130542121576842012-04-11T17:07:49.754-07:00Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.comBlogger179125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-51204505497148365362011-05-10T18:23:00.001-07:002011-05-10T18:23:35.822-07:00

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-81292240798881461082011-04-16T08:06:00.001-07:002011-04-16T09:48:07.049-07:00

There are a lot of problems with this country and a lot of things that work right. It is always easier - and often more productive at times - to focus on the problems rather than the successes of any system. This short video episode below looks a little at both. Our emergency medical system in this country is amazing but the people in it are getting burned out by the overwhelming needs of the

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-19173838312292054112011-01-28T13:31:00.000-08:002011-01-28T13:31:11.814-08:00

Remember toy cameras like the Holga or Diane? Plastic bodies and lens - Polaroid films? Those cameras took horrible photos but so many people used them to document so many lives that the snapshots they revealed have become a rich part of our culture. How many people still remember the smell of a polaroid photo or waiting to peel it back and see the image left on the paper? They were imperfect,

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-28983593664936284852011-01-10T09:14:00.000-08:002011-01-10T09:14:53.999-08:00

Blogging is a strange activity. Facebook is even stranger. I wonder sometimes what the historians, philosophers and social scientists are mumbling about as we have seen human culture slowly (rapidly) change over these past 20 years. I imagine grumbles about false social interactions, shallow human relations, catering to the short attention span, etc... These are actually not the topics on my mind

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-78983534854627986192010-10-10T13:08:00.000-07:002010-10-10T13:08:21.315-07:00

I turned forty years old in August. Despite really never paying much attention to my birthday in past years this one seems to have had a subtle but appreciable effect on me. Perhaps it is just the number - 40 - that lends one to introspection. Perhaps it is because I realized that being a male in the United States I have less time left to live now than I have lived up until now based upon our

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com1Downtown, Sacramento, CA, USA38.57578281862776 -121.4902496337890638.57158881862776 -121.49754513378906 38.579976818627756 -121.48295413378906tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-19642979692872565492010-08-14T12:15:00.000-07:002010-08-26T13:58:32.904-07:00

While on this ICU rotation I am seeing a lot of sick people and a lot of dying and it has inspired me to focus a little of my writing and reading on a personal interest of mine - Palliative Care in the Emergency Medicine setting. There are a number of articles recently that deal with issue or something near it and I wanted to consolidate a few here as well as transcribe a comment I posted on a

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-88223864145914285892010-08-12T20:58:00.000-07:002010-08-12T21:20:21.925-07:00

Last night was the worst night in the MICU I have had so far in residency. It was not for any one particular reason but I found today when I woke from the 3 hours of sleep I enjoyed after that 32 hour marathon was something of an emotional, physical and spiritual hangover. Of the 30 or so critical ICU patients I was supposed to be watching over with the Intern on call and the new ICU admissions

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-44717279543355022092010-07-31T01:18:00.000-07:002010-07-31T12:13:27.277-07:00

I sometimes think that being a physician was a dream born at the end of another life when I was a different person. I sometimes wonder how I came to that decision being who I was then because it is inly a memory to me now. Perhaps the process of becoming a physician brought about a new life of its own creation. I am starting to feel that we do truly have multiple lives shaped and created by

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-1599709521512461902010-07-20T17:24:00.000-07:002010-07-31T01:29:22.684-07:00

The title of this post refers to the terms often applied to those of us that require the pursuit of many diverse interests rather than focusing entirely on one to the exclusion of all others. I don't claim to be said hominid but I have been accused of it many times and I am often secretly proud that others think of me in this way. My hesitation about truly accepting this title comes from my own

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-48565665159962537042010-06-11T09:55:00.000-07:002010-06-11T09:55:41.700-07:00

Yesterday I delivered my 16th baby! The residency requirement for Emergency Medicine is that I perform 15 spontaneous vaginal deliveries. This means I have now completed all the official procedure requirements for my entire intern year of Emergency Medicine! It feels good. Very very good. This was a hard year in so many ways which I have eluded to in past posts. It got quite dark in the first few

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com2Southeastern Sacramento, Sacramento, CA, USA38.55434082866844 -121.4552307128906238.52078032866844 -121.51359571289062 38.58790132866844 -121.39686571289063tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-85910265162444134852010-05-11T16:59:00.000-07:002010-05-11T17:00:33.527-07:00

Homeostasis (from Greek: ὅμοιος, homoios, "similar"; and ἵστημι, histēmi, "standing still"; defined by Claude Bernard and later by Walter Bradford Cannon in 1929 + 1932[1]) is the property of a system, either open or closed, that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, constant condition. Typically used to refer to a living organism, the concept came from that of

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-84519792803341546362010-04-27T13:09:00.000-07:002010-07-31T01:30:27.480-07:00

“These too are of a burning color—not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of the [California] poppies.”

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-7588583524486949702010-04-19T20:48:00.000-07:002010-07-31T01:35:00.352-07:00

Working in the medical  ICU (MICU) and my own experiences as a resident this last month had me thinking about my own "Hurt Locker". It is a decades-old colloquialism recently made popular by the movie - slang for being injured, as in "they sent him to the hurt locker". The medical ICU can be fickle and unpredictable and this volatility is part of what is unnerving. One day you can have

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-87825824855483336092010-03-15T17:40:00.000-07:002010-03-15T17:40:39.771-07:00

I am listening to a Podcast of RadioLab in the few late afternoon hours I have before my overnight shift in the ER. Radiolab is a show I just discovered - it is very similar in format to This American Life, one of my other favorite public radio shows which has become legend much in the same way A Prairie Home Companion has. I can't imagine listening to public radio without either of these gold

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-61344539611912372472010-03-12T11:12:00.000-08:002010-03-12T11:12:21.780-08:00

I am closing in on the end of my first year of residency, my intern year, and have only a couple more months to go before I lose that lackluster title. Currently I am back working in the ED and have one last very hard rotation to look forward to, the MICU before I coast out with my final ED/vacation month and a month of OB/GYN focused on delivering babies. This year I have seen many challenges

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-85187820085732413882010-02-20T19:39:00.000-08:002010-07-31T20:39:45.458-07:00

This post was inspired by an email response I just sent moments ago. I realized that I said something in this reply that was very fundamentally at the core of who I am and why I am here. I wanted to share it. I am not sure if I should try to "revamp" it into a post or just paste it verbatim.... I think this will be something in between, perhaps I can expand a bit on parts of the email.  The

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com2Haiti18.61501328321048 -72.23510742187517.31366528321048 -74.102783421875 19.91636128321048 -70.367431421875tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-37692137532646151952010-02-08T08:02:00.000-08:002010-02-08T08:02:18.890-08:00

It has been hard finding time to write this last month (January). I started this post at the end of January and just now have time to finish it! I was on an "off service" rotation, Internal Medicine "wards", which is a huge time sink. We were allowed 4 days off over the entire 4 week block, the minimum allowed by the residency rules. The work is not really hard or brutal, it is simple tedious and

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-18664682559638544392010-01-11T17:34:00.000-08:002010-01-11T17:35:24.494-08:00

I am not a fan of "New Year's Resolutions" but perhaps that is just because I am contrary much of the time. I quite often like not doing what everyone else is tending to do it seems. I thought I was growing out of this childish trait though, but found that same feeling return when I decided to make some "resolutions" this last weekend. "Everyone makes resolutions and no one keeps them...", I

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-371182436544616202009-12-12T03:49:00.000-08:002009-12-12T03:49:49.189-08:00

It is 3:47am and I just cleaned my kitchen. I am 4 days into a stretch of sleeplessness which is a new phenomenon for me and a bit confusing. Most of November and early December I was on a Trauma Surgery rotation that was mostly night shifts, 14-15 hour shifts starting at 6pm and although I thought this would be difficult I found that I adjusted pretty quickly to my waking hours being primarily

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com0Sacramento, CA, USA38.54709138531694 -121.4524841308593838.41283588531694 -121.68594363085937 38.68134688531694 -121.21902463085938tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-42862074719915626572009-12-10T15:27:00.000-08:002009-12-10T15:32:48.859-08:00

I don't normally post promotional material as this blog is more or less my own public journal to rant about whatever I wish. A somewhat anonymous way to give a public voice to private thoughts without too much risk. What surprises me is that I often get sent emails from various places asking me to post something about their event or other activity, a simple way to get some free advertising I

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com0Islesboro, ME, USA44.3084113 -68.903365144.18557130000001 -69.1368246 44.4312513 -68.6699056tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-20726912694074792032009-12-07T02:33:00.000-08:002009-12-07T02:42:56.797-08:00

Sigur Rós is one of my favorite bands of all time. They create some amazing soundscapes and their music is not meant simply be listened to, it is designed I think to dig down inside you, find something important, and then pull it back out to the surface. I recently viewed the DVD they made in 2007, Heima, meaning "home" or "homeland" (you can watch the trailer HERE). It was evidently made from a

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-19231670061849860762009-12-01T07:58:00.000-08:002009-12-01T07:58:03.463-08:00

This last month I have been on my trauma rotation here in residency. This rotation during your first year is mainly secretarial. Not exactly as dramatic as it looks on TV (although I have not seen it on TV, but I assume it is dramatic). I think the schedule was designed to maximize the ill effects of circadian disrhythmia. I work 5 nights in a row, 6pm-8am, then I am off for a day, then work 2

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com0UC Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA38.55494 -121.4565338.538160000000005 -121.4857125 38.57172 -121.4273475tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-63267198605082379922009-11-20T20:03:00.000-08:002009-11-20T20:03:52.611-08:00

I am running out of enthusiasm. I am not sure if this is residency talking or the move from Seattle and the loss of my close friends and familiar neighborhoods. I am just not sure at all why I am feeling like I am in such a rut. I worry though, because it is interfering with a number of things and it is not sustainable. I feel as if I am living on spiritual credit right now. Every day I am

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-15322940191970793502009-11-12T15:53:00.000-08:002010-07-31T01:50:30.514-07:00

I am sure many of you have heard of Michael Pollan and his take on the American food industry, but I thought this was a nice summary sent to me by a friend. This is the "negative" message. He focuses on the problems in this little 29 minute video but there are also positive arguments he makes in his books, about the benefit we could see as a society if we changed this. The great thing is how this

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344313054212157684.post-23072486963797120362009-11-08T14:36:00.000-08:002009-11-08T14:36:16.153-08:00

A recent event in Sacramento has prompted a lot of news articles and comments regarding the cost of health care in our country, but Emergency Care specifically in this case. I wish I had more time to write on this, but I discussed a few items that things brings up for me in my comments to the article (which I will paste here with a few edits). The case is sad, a young man at Sacramento State

Noel Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17995585482168059050noreply@blogger.com0