Floozy Speak!

Our operative Dan seems to be keeping up with the rigors of experimental sugery. Furthur reports are we receive them.

--The Shadow Keepers

today i witnessed a lower anterior resection, essentially a cancer in the anus, unfortunately for the patient they had to remove her uterus in order to reach the cancer

seeing organs being pulled out of people is something im still not very used to seeing, and i think its better that way really, i dont want to get used to seeing that, its been interesting work here so far in beijing, the doctors have all been wonderful hosts in taking us in and its made for some excellent ethnography on this project

everytime i enter the operating room area i cause a fuss, the head nurses all little ladies about 5' if that, usually shorter stare at me and then bark at our interpurter chen, i know what shes barking about, "we dont have a gown, let alone shoes big enough for this hulk in the hallyway here", i quickly show my oversized 8xl scrubs, 8xl cause the place i ordered them from said always order 4 sizes above what is comfy, and 4xl is comfy, so they said 8xl, now 8xl on the shirt is actually tight, no way thats an 8xl, but the pants, imagine wearing a sail from a sail boat, they are huge, ok back to the scene, im special, i get escorted down a few hall ways, they give me a locker and i change into my super blue, i stand out like a frickin blueberry 6'5 american, i quickly get asked in broken english from other docs changing, "you big american... tall.. good doc?", "no im not a doc.." i say, then i debate what to follow it up with, yesterday i said "film-maker", i mean sure why not, today i said "video guy", i put on my oversized sail and move on into the or

occasionally we get approached by the smooth talkin doc, his english is like good pick up girls english, very smooth, shakes everyones hands, talks about american cowboys, interesting stuff, in todays proceedure they ran around and tried to hook up a surgical cam for us to get deeper and show us the tumor and cancer inside the patient, at one point i get the feeling there are far tooo many cooks in the kitchen, 3 americans, and about nine docs and nurses buzzing around this patient, all in a small room, i back off, i become the wall, occasionally i lean into view and with my arm crane over the docs and zoom in with the sony dscm1 to take speed burst shot, six continous shots, today i got the comment from one doc "you are like human crane, very tall",

i made the comment with the rest of my team yesterday that watching the docs operate is alot like watching jawas, its funny actually, they all use these blocks to stand up on around the patient, and then when its down, its like they all climb down, but they are serious performers, the docs here are doing some cool research to solve many problems in the rectal cancer realm of things, some even mix homegrown remedies into the mix of high tech medican, in the or, lots of talk about nourishment

we visited the great wall today, it was big, nice and windy, and steeeeep, we rode a gondola up the side of the mountain to the oldest part of the wall, and of course we were greeted by souviner vendors, bird whistle?, doll?, metal statue?, a shirt that says "i climbed the great wall", heh, they are persistant sellers too,

i took a stroll up a few staircases, its definately magniciant to see, probably even better if it wasnt so hazy with air pollution, the mountains themselves are awesome jagged featuring rocks, but the haze kinda kills it for me, least we had a good breeze,

at one section i stop to take pictures and with in a few minutes i become part of the great wall attraction, "hello" a young chinese girl approaches and says hi, "how do you like our country?" she smiles giggly with her friend behind her laughing, grandma and mother are in the background as well fanning themselves in the heat, i tell them china is an amazing place, big, very nice, sure i wanted to say something about the haze, but ahh well, they are just kids, and they were so exicited to see a 6'5 american i figure, i was wearing my sleeveless shirt, cause its damn hot here, i bet i looked like a basketball star or something, next thing i know im taking photos with all of them,

i join up with the others and take a break, i ask chen how much an ice cream cone is, she suggests "no dont buy here, not good u get sick" ok... its good to have chen our interpurter. eventually i hear some grabled mandrin over the loudspeaker, i jokingly say "attention shoppers the great wall is closing, please make your way to the exit" and chen turns around and says "thats right, how did you know?" heh.. some things are universal, we head back to the hotel

we ended up getting a cabbie to take us to the great wall, wait on us and return us to the hotel, about 3-4hr adventure all for about 55 bucks american, not bad really, air conditioned cab to boot

on the way back we pass disney world, least it looks like a disney world, but its a castle happy world, that looks just like a disney world the cabbie tells us,

i still have a hard time taking in the poverty of beijing, maybe im just not used to big cities, but i always feel like im on the west side or east side, or the bad side of town