The 2008 Finalists—Medical Weblog Awards

Updated 3/2017 -- all links removed as many no longer active and it was easier than checking each one. 

MedGadget has announced the list of finalists for the 2008 Medical Weblog Awards. Wow, what a great list of blogs!

Last year I was honored to be nominated in the “best new medical blog” category and this year I somehow have been nominated for the “best medical weblog”. Just look at the finalists in that category! What company to be in!

The polls are now open. Please, go vote.
Best Medical Weblog
Clinical Cases and Images
Clinical Correlations
The Health Care Blog
Kevin, M.D.
WSJ Health Blog

Best New Medical Weblog (established in 2008)
Laika's MedLibLog
Life in the Fast Lane
medtechinsider
The New Health Dialogue
Science-Based Medicine

Best Literary Medical Weblog
Notes of an Anesthesioboist
On The Clock
other things amanzi
Reflections by Dr. Bruce Campbell
Running for My Life: Fighting cancer one step at a time

Best Clinical Sciences Weblog
Clinical Cases and Images
Clinical Correlations
scan man's notes

Best Health Policies/Ethics Weblog
Better Health
The Last Psychiatrist
Stuart Laidlaw's Medical Ethics blog
Medical Futility
Respectful Insolence

Best Medical Technologies/Informatics Weblog
AppleQuack
Clinical Cases and Images
Life as a Healthcare CIO
medtechinsider
Ted Eytan, MD
TomographyBlog

Best Patient's Blog
Alin's Site
Beating Social Anxiety
Brass and Ivory: Life with Multiple Sclerosis
ButYouDontLookSick
Confessions Of A CF Husband
Duncan Cross
Furious Seasons
Look Me In The Eye
Running for My Life: Fighting cancer one step at a time
Six Until Me
Soulful Sepulcher
Survive the Journey

Shout Outs

Updated 3/2017-- all links removed as many no longer active and it was easier than checking each one.

 

Dr Edwin Leap is this week's host of Grand Rounds. The theme is “profit in health-care”.  You can read this excellent edition here.

This is the location for Medblogs Grandrounds, January 6, 2008.  Our topic?  The value, or detriment, of financial profit in health-care.  From doctors to pharmaceutical companies, universities to insurers and everything in between; is profit good or bad?

Hat tip to Shrink Rap who links to this article,  "Creature Comforts" (the NY Times) by Rebecca Skloot.  It discusses all forms of comfort and service animals.  Very interesting article.

The first: What qualifies as a service animal? The second: Can any species be eligible?

There are two categories of animals that help people. “Therapy animals” (also known as “comfort animals”) have been used for decades in hospitals and homes for the elderly or disabled. Their job is essentially to be themselves — to let humans pet and play with them, which calms people, lowers their blood pressure and makes them feel better. There are also therapy horses, which people ride to help with balance and muscle building.

These animals are valuable, but they have no special legal rights because they aren’t considered service animals, the second category, which the A.D.A. defines as “any guide dog, signal dog or other animal individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including, but not limited to, guiding individuals with impaired vision, alerting individuals with impaired hearing to intruders or sounds, providing minimal protection or rescue work, pulling a wheelchair or fetching dropped items.”

Hat tip to Helen Jaques  for the link to this nice article on Murphy’s Law 

Among the many fine anniversaries in prospect this year, not the least is the 60th birthday of Murphy's Law, alternatively - though erroneously - known as Sod's Law or, if you're really into this kind of thing, Finagle's Law.

This is the commonly held perception that the world is inherently a perverse place; in other words, if something can go wrong, it will. The proverbial example of the principle is, of course, that if you drop a slice of toast, it will land buttered side down. There are countless others; people have written entire books of them and websites abound (including murphys-laws.com, to which my thanks).

Medical Student Blog has put together a list of folks who twitter and connected to medicine

Below is a list of Doctors, Medical Students and Medicine related tweets. If you know of anyone who’s missing from the list who you think should be included, please e-mail me and I’ll add them. Instead of copying/reproducing the list, please link directly to the post, thank you.

This is not medical, but is praise for a fellow Arkansan, Robert Nunnally,  who, as a hobby, writes music.  He recently wrote a post describing  how he goes about it and how he shares it online.

This weekend became the weekend of "The Seven Virtues". On Friday evening, I conceived the idea of creating songs using only a single audio wave file, an 8 second recording I made while hitting a small Orrefors crystal objet d'art with a tiny wooden mallet.
In order to create the songs from 8 seconds of the 'ping' of mallet upon glass, I used my favorite synthesizer in the whole wide world, a 25 dollar software synthesizer called Sawcutter 2.0.

SurgeXperiences 214 is Up!

Updated 3/2017--all links removed as many no longer active.

 

This edition (214) of SurgeXperiences is hosted by Dr Bruce Campbell, Reflections in a Head Mirror. He is an ENT surgeon and wonderful writer. In fact, he writes a second blog, Behind the Head Mirror, which is also worth checking out. You can read the current SurgeXperiences edition here which Dr Campbell calls “Trees”.

I think that I shall never see
A list of posts so fun to read. 
The writing’s sharp and never dull
Because the topic’s surgical!
The stories come from many lands
And emanate from surgeons’ hands.
So whether doctors cut or write
The anecdotes should bring delight.
So, with a basic theme of “trees,”
We’ll tour the world now, if you please.

The host of the next edition (215), January 18th, will be Jeffrey Leow,"Monash Medical Student". The deadline for submissions is midnight on Friday, January 16th. Be sure to submit your post via this form.

SurgeXperiences is a blog carnival about surgical blogs. It is open to all (surgeon, nurse, anesthesia, patient, etc) who have a surgical blog or article to submit.

Occlusive vs Gauze Dressings–an Article Review

Updated 3/2017-- all links (except to my own posts) removed as many no longer active. and it was easier than checking each one. 

We all have our favorite dressings for wounds. As the cost of healthcare continues to be an issue, it is good to look at the effectiveness AND cost of dressings. This recent article (full reference below) in the Archives of Surgery attempts to look at both.

They compared the gauze dressings

gauze mostly has been used in local wound care, mainly because of its low price and simplicity. The rationale behind this conventional wound management is to absorb exudation from the wound to keep it dry and clean enough to avoid bacterial contamination (also known as the wet-to-dry approach).

and occlusive dressings

Around the 1950s, a new concept of wound management was introduced. This method aimed at occluding the wound to protect against bacteria while keeping it moist to supply growth factors and prevent crust formation, which would impede wound healing.

The study was limited to wounds in adult surgical patients who were admitted to the hospital and had open wounds that required local wound care. The patients were then randomly placed into the occlusive (141 patients) or gauze-based (136 patients) local wound care.

Excluded were patients with burn wounds or ulcerating malignancies, surgically closed wounds, wounds treated with vacuum-assisted closure devices, ostomies or drain openings, and pin holes from external fracture fixation materials and patients receiving chemotherapy or local irradiation therapy or with a life expectancy less than 6 months.

Pain, costs, and healing were all accessed. In their study, few patients in either group need analgesics for dressing changes. Pain in both groups were similar. The number of dressing changes per day was, of course, lower for the occlusive than the gauze dressing group by almost half. The median time needed for each dressing application was nearly the same (4.8 min for occlusive and 5.0 min for gauze).

All dressings used and materials needed for redressing the wounds were counted. Commercial prices of dressing materials and wages of nurses (nurse assistant, 7.00 [US $10.98] per hour; trainee, 11.25 [$17.65] per hour; registered and senior, 19.15 [US $30.05] per hour) in the various working shifts as of January 1, 2005, were used to calculate material costs.

Daily costs of occlusive dressing materials were significantly higher. Nursing time costs per day were higher when gauze was used. However, the total costs were higher for the occlusive dressing group. The number of days spent in the hospital was longer for the occlusive group than the gauze dressing group.

occlusive, 6.43 [US $9.95] vs gauze, 1.85 [US $2.90]; P < .001)
nursing time costs per day (occlusive, 1.28 [US $2.01] vs gauze, 2.41 [US $3.78]; P < .001)

total costs per patient per day of hospital stay (7.48 [US $11.74]) when occlusive wound management was applied than for the gauze-based treatment (3.98 [US $6.25]; P = .002).

Median duration of hospitalization was 18 days (IQR, 8-36 days) in the occlusive dressings group, which was slightly but significantly (P = .02) higher than the 13 days (IQR, 6-27 days) in the gauze dressings group.

There was no significant difference in wound healing time found between the two groups. The authors conclusions would support using gauze dressings over occlusive ones.

The occlusive, moist-environment dressing principle in the clinical surgical setting does not lead to quicker wound healing or less pain than gauze dressings. The lower costs of less frequent dressing changes do not balance the higher costs of occlusive materials.

REFERENCE

Occlusive vs Gauze Dressings for Local Wound Care in Surgical Patients: A Randomized Clinical Trial; Arch Surg. 2008;143(10):950-955; Dirk T. Ubbink; Hester Vermeulen; Astrid Goossens; Raoul B. Kelner; Sanne M. Schreuder; Maarten J. Lubbers

Some Good Recipes to Share

On New Year’s Day I made  dinner using these two recipes: 

Chicken-Chile Cobbler with Smoked Sausage and Black-eyed Peas with Wild Rice Crust Batter for the main course (added a green salad to go with it)

and Chocolate-Cherry Pudding Cake  for dessert.

Wow, were they good!  I stumbled onto the recipes thumbing through the January 2009 issue of Southern Living.  We enjoyed them so much, I just had to share.

New Year’s Resolution – Finish This Quilt

I started this quilt more than 15 years ago.  I used some cottons, linen, silk, and rayons.  Many from dresses I had made.  It was meant to be a wall hanging of the four seasons.

I got impatient.  I put the backing, batting, and top together before all the embroidery work was done.  I then embroidered through all layers, as you can see from this back photo.

Here is the corresponding block from the front.

I wasn’t happy with how it was progressing and did not like the back.  The project got put aside, waded up in a bag in the closet. Just before Christmas I pulled it out and took another look at it.  I decided to just do what needed to be done.  I began taking it apart, carefully, so that I wouldn’t ruin any of the individual blocks.

At this point all the quilt top has been separated from the batting and backing.  The blocks have been separated from the sashing.  The sashing and border strips were discarded.  If you look closely in the upper photo, you can see were they are quite square and pull (or tether) inward.  So now begins the reconstruction process.

Blog Review of 2008

I thought I would look back over my year of blog posts and find ones  stood out for me.  Here they are in chronological order:
1.   My Facial Fracture Series (January)

Zygomatic Fractures
Nasoethmoid Orbital Fractures
Mandible Fractures
Le Forte Fractures
Eye Exam in Facial Trauma
Orbital Blowout Fractures

2.   Amputations, Prosthetics, and War (February)
3.   Tips for Surgery Patients (March)
4.   Bilobed Flap for Repair of Nose  (March)
5.   Medical Leech Use (March)
6.   The Anophthalmic Syndrome (April)
7.   Guidelines for von-Willebrand Disease (May)
8.  Abdominal Wall Reconstruction (May)
9.  Ring Finger Avulsion (June)
10.  Callipygian (July)
11.  Maggot Therapy Revisited (August)
12.  Surgical Loupes (September)
13.  Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (September)
14.  Soft Tissue Injuries of the Finger Tips (October)
15.  Medical Methods Patents (November)
Many thanks to all of you who drop in.  I hope you will return.

I hope you have a great 2009!

Ten Interesting Medical Stories from 2008

Updated 3/2017-- all links (except to my own posts) removed as many no longer active. and it was easier than checking each one. 

The end of the year seems to be a time for making list.  Best of the year.  Worst of the year.  Predictions for the coming year.  Resolutions for the coming year.  So I thought I would share some (not necessarily the best or worst or even in order of importance) of the medical news of 2008 I found interesting.  Feel free to share your suggestions in the comments section.

1.  The changes in Health Policy that 2009 may bring

Thousands of forums have been taking place throughout the nation since Dec. 15, and reports are being uploaded to www.Change.gov. According to the Web site, the Health Policy Transition Team will prepare a report for the President-elect using information collected from all across the country.

2.  In February, Dr Hootan Roozrokh was accused of hastening a patient's death to harvest the organs.

It’s the stuff of horror movies: an evil, deranged surgeon purposely kills people to harvest their organs. In the 1978 movie "Coma," patients were kept in comas and shipped off to a mysterious location where their organs were removed.

In December, he was found innocent of the charge.

Dr. Hootan Roozrokh was found not guilty after two months of trial and two days of deliberation jury. If the court verdict had been against the doctor, he would have faced up to four years in prison.

3.  Dr Michael DeBakey, pioneer of heart procedures, died this year at age 99 years.

4.  November 2008, a Colombian woman, Claudia Castillo, received a trachea transplant using her own stem cells.    Doctors in a Barcelona, Spain hospital used her stem cells into a trachea taken from a cadaver.  Because the new windpipe is "almost indistinguishable" from the her normal bronchi, her body should not reject the transplant.

5.  In March, a little girl was born with facial duplication.   The condition usually results in stillbirth, but not always as seen in this recent news report of this little girl born March 11, 2008.

They are not ashamed of the extraordinary looking little girl, the villagers who live near her, the young parents, the overprotective local doctor. That's because while she may only be 2½ weeks old, she is far more famous than any resident of this part of the country has ever been. She is famous because she was born with a condition known as facial duplication. She has one body and two faces.

6.  Healthcare conscience rule and how they may change patient care / access to care.

Women's groups, state governments, and a host of others have reacted harshly to the new conscience rights regulation put forth by the Department of Health and Human Services last week. The National Family and Reproductive Health Association stated that the "new regulations will limit access to contraception to low-income and uninsured women and men and will create new hurdles for family-planning service providers," Deborah Kotz reports. The National Partnership for Women and Families noted, "These regulations leave the term 'abortion' undefined, so individuals and institutions are free to classify birth control as abortion." And the ACLU also expressed its "grave concern."

7.  Dr Alan Bittner’s office was served with a warrant on Friday, November 14, 2008. 

Dr. Bittner currently has three lawsuits filed against him by three women who had plastic surgery work done at his facility……..Besser confirmed to Canyon News that Dr. Bittner fled the country. It is not known exactly when he fled, and it has been alleged that he is collecting his assets in off-shore accounts. Besser also stated that “Dr. Bittner's home and vehicle were served with a search warrant on the same day that the Beverly Hills Liposculpture facility was served with a search warrant.”

And if that wasn’t enough, it seems he was using the fat removed from liposuction patients to fuel his vehicle.

8.  Cleveland Clinic did the first near total face transplant done in the United States. 

In a 22-hour procedure performed within the past two weeks, surgeons transplanted 80 percent of a woman's face who suffered severe facial trauma -- essentially replacing her entire face, except for her upper eyelids, forehead, lower lip and chin. For the privacy and protection of those involved, no information will be released on the patient, the donor or their families. (A written statement from the patient's sibling is available at http://www.clevelandclinic.org/face.)

9.  A 70-year old woman gave birth to a baby girl.

Rajo Devi delivered her baby by caesarean section Nov. 28, said Dr. Anurag Bishnoi of the National Fertility Centre in northern Haryana state. Dr. Bishnoi told journalists that Devi and her baby, who weighed just over 3lbs, are in good health.

10.  Never Events – so well covered in this post by Buckeye Surgeon

Just when I was starting to calm down about the controversy surrounding "never events", the New York Times unloads a masterpiece of naivete and contempt. Reading this, my eyeballs almost popped out of my skull. One would think that the editorial staff of such a renowned, prestigous newspaper would exhibit a little more intellectual rigor when composing such a denunciatory op-ed piece. I almost thought Diane Suchetka had infiltrated the NY Times hierarchy.

And now, from the other side of the political spectrum, comes a piece from the National Review (arch conservative publication)that uses the concept of never events in such a way to elucidate the danger of government managed health care delivery. (Thanks to Alice at Cut on the Dotted Line)………….

Shout Outs

Updated 3/2017-- photos and all links (except to my own posts) removed as many no longer active. and it was easier than checking each one. 

Moneduloides is this week's host of Grand Rounds. It’s the “Darwin” edition!  You can read it here (photo credit).

 

Welcome to Grand Rounds 5.13: At the interface of evolution and medicine, a celebration of blogging on the myriad ways evolutionary biology influences medicine. Why evolution and medicine, you may ask? Why now? Well, in anticipation of the new year, of course; 2009 marks the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On The Origin of Species, and the one thing that just doesn’t get as much recognition as it should is the role of evolutionary biology in both research and clinical medicine.

The Christmas edition of Change of Shift (Vol 3, No 13) is now up over at Nurse Ratched's Place !  It’s a grand edition and I hope you will check it out (photo credit).  You can find the schedule and the COS archives at Emergiblog. 

Welcome to the Christmas Edition of Change of Shift. Curious George and the man in the yellow hat are hosting this year’s holiday edition. I want to thank Kim from Emeriblog for allowing George to share his Christmas story with the readers of Change of Shift. George recently had a big adventure at a children’s hospital. Take a look.

MedGadget is asking for nominations for the best of medical blogs. Last year I was honored to be nominated in the “best new medical blog” category and this year I somehow have been nominated for the “best medical blog”.  Thank you.

You can make your nominations here by leaving a comment with your choice.

The categories for this year's awards are:
-- Best Medical Weblog
-- Best New Medical Weblog (established in 2008)
-- Best Literary Medical Weblog
-- Best Clinical Sciences Weblog
-- Best Health Policies/Ethics Weblog
-- Best Medical Technologies/Informatics Weblog
-- Best Patient's Blog

Medicine for the Outdoors has a nice post on motion sickness and the side effects of transdermal scopolamine (photo credit). 

The patch should be positioned at least 3 hours before rough seas are encountered. If you touch the medicated (sticky) side of the patch with a finger and then let that finger come in contact with your eye, your pupil will almost certainly dilate and stay that way for up to 8 hours. So, as the distributor strongly recommends, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water immediately after handling the patch, so that any drug that might get on your hands will not come in contact with your eyes. Also, local absorption of the drug through the skin can dilate the pupil of the eye on the same side of the patch, causing difficulty with focusing of vision. The picture here shows someone with a dilated pupil associated with a patch.

Geek2RN has written a lovely post on “Voice Lessons” at her blog Toasty Frog.  It’s about a patient who taught her and I hope you will read the entire post.

…... Once in a while, one comes along who teaches me more than I have to offer in return.

Jerry* was one of those. He had a mental illness that included psychotic symptoms, and was back in the hospital for a medication tune-up. He was very interested in the new medications the doctor wanted to try, and what their effects would be, so we were going over his medications together. One of them, naturally, was an antipsychotic. When I explained that it would help to diminish the voices, Jerry looked alarmed. “Oh, I don’t want the voices to go,” he told me. “It’s too lonely without them!”

I heard this segment on NPR this weekend “Cocktails: A Liquid Year In Review”.  Host Liane Hansen is talking with the curator of the Museum of the American Cocktail, Ted Haigh, about drinking, changes in the world of cocktails, and changes in Americans’ drinking habits over the past year.  I admit to being mostly a teetotaler, but love the various glasses, the names of drinks, and how lovely many of the drinks look.  One of the drinks discussed is “corpse reviver” (recipe and photo credit).

There will be no Dr Anonymous show this week. You can check out the archives of his Blog Talk Radio show.   He’ll be back in the new year after the holidays.  Here is the upcoming schedule:

1/8: Podcamp Ohio
1/15: ProMed Network
1/22: Guest co-host Kim
1/29: Guest co-host Dr. Gwenn

Shoulder Morbidity following Latissimus Dorsi Breast Reconstruction – an Article Review

Updated 3/2017-- all links (except to my own posts) removed as many no longer active. and it was easier than checking each one. 

Not only can the shoulder function be impacted from the axillary dissection when treating breast cancer, it can also be impacted by the reconstruction of the breast.  This is of concern when using the latissimus dorsi muscle in breast reconstruction.  The action of the latissimus dorsi muscle is adduction, extension, and internal rotation of the humerus and plays a crucial role in the stability of the glenohumeral joint.

The authors of this article (see full reference below) wanted to look at this issue from a prospective view as current literature has only looked at it from a retrospective view. 

The literature already supports the absence of long-term effects from this procedure. However, all studies and subsequent reviews are based on retrospective studies, thus making it impossible to assess recovery time scales compared with preoperative values. In this prospective study, the authors set out to define the impact on shoulder function and, importantly, to assess recovery time scales compared with preoperative values.

Their methods included measuring shoulder range of motion, strength, function, and pain.  These assessments were done  preoperatively and then at 6 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year postoperatively.  The biggest weakness of the study (as they themselves point out) is the small number of subjects.  There were only 22 subjects in the study.  The ages ranged from 37 to 69 yrs with an average of 50 yr.

Of these 22 subjects, 17 underwent delayed reconstruction and five underwent immediate reconstruction, with five subjects requiring axillary node sampling. Fourteen subjects required a latissimus dorsi flap with implant breast reconstruction and eight required an extended latissimus dorsi flap breast reconstruction.

Their conclusions (remember too small a group to do statistical analysis).

Range of Motion

A loss of shoulder joint range of motion could be anticipated in the early period after surgery. However, the eventual increase in motion at 1 year after surgery was unexpected. When examining this increase in motion, it was noted that for each plane of movement the increase was less than 10 degrees. This minimal change could be attributed to measurement error, and it is also questionable whether such a small change would be clinically significant to the subject's function. ……. A number of subjects who previously underwent mastectomy reported a feeling of loosening of the shoulder joint following their breast reconstruction. This could have been attributable to release of residual scar tissue during the reconstructive surgery. Further investigation, with larger numbers of subjects, into morbidity following immediate and delayed reconstruction may establish whether this is a factor.

Strength

Although there was a slight decrease in shoulder strength at 1 year compared with preoperative values, this was minimal (<1 kg) and could therefore be attributed to measurement error. This loss of strength would also be unlikely to be clinically significant to the subject's function. The lack of significant deterioration in shoulder strength following removal of the latissimus dorsi muscle may be attributable to the synergistic action of the teres major, as has been suggested in other studies.  However, of the loss of power seen, it remained in the first 6 months, returning to or near preoperative values in the second 6-month period after surgery.

Function

Absence of any significant alteration in upper limb function when compared with preoperative values supports the theory that the minimal increase in motion and decrease in strength have no impact on the subject's activities of daily living. However, this study would suggest that it takes a full 12 months for preoperative values to be achieved. This would fit with the period of significant scar maturation. However, when comparing the extended and traditional reconstruction groups, it is noted that the extended latissimus dorsi group reported a 7 percent higher disability. Further research with greater numbers of subjects would be necessary to explore this finding. This is particularly of note, as the extended latissimus dorsi flap is becoming even more popular. It is not surprising that those subjects whose breast reconstruction was on the same side as their dominant hand took longer to recover their activities of daily living.

Pain

The initial increase in pain following surgery was anticipated. However, the majority of subjects reported a decrease in pain at 1 year compared with preoperative measurements. Further examination would be necessary to establish the cause of the reported preoperative pain. The presence of adhesions following previous mastectomy could account for the pre-reconstruction pain.

Overall, a nice start.  It would be nice to see the study extended to include a statistically significant number of participants.  Until then, the take home message is that it takes a year to get the function and strength back in the shoulder.


REFERENCE
A Prospective Assessment of Shoulder Morbidity and Recovery Time Scales following Latissimus Dorsi Breast Reconstruction; Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery:Volume 122(5)November 2008pp 1334-1340; Glassey, Nicole M.Sc., Grad.Dip.Phys.; Perks, Graeme B. F.R.C.S., F.R.C.S.(Plast.); McCulley, Stephen J. F.C.S.(S.A.)Plast., F.R.C.S.(Plast.)

SurgeXperiences 214 – Call for Submissions

Updated 3/2017-- all links (except to my own posts) removed as many no longer active. and it was easier than checking each one. 

The next edition (214) of SurgeXperiences will be hosted will be hosted by Dr Bruce Campbell, Reflections in a Head Mirror, on January 4th. He is an ENT surgeon and wonderful writer.  In fact, he writes a second blog, Behind the Head Mirror, which is also worth checking out. 

If you aren’t familiar with his blog, Reflections in a Head Mirror, check it out.  Here is an excerpt from a recent post called “Surgery as a Form of Dance”

Years ago, I realized that Surgery sometimes resembles Dance. Just like beginning students of the tango or the waltz, young physicians tend to focus on the “steps” needed to get from Start to Finish. But learning the “steps” is only the beginning of learning how to operate.  

You see, Surgery, at its most glorious, is a form of choreography — a whole team that seems instinctively aware of each other’s movements and focus. When the “Dance” goes well, surgeon, assistant, and technician all drive the procedure forward.  

The deadline for submissions is midnight on Friday, January 2nd.  Be sure to submit your post via this form.

SurgeXperiences is a blog carnival about surgical blogs. It is open to all (surgeon, nurse, anesthesia, patient, etc) who have a surgical blog or article to submit.

Here is the catalog of past surgXperiences editions for your reading pleasure. If you wish to host a future edition, please contact Jeffrey who runs the show here.

Disappearing Nine Patch Baby Quilt

I have a neighbor who is pregnant and due in March 2009.  I have seen this quilt pattern, Disappearing Nine Patch, in many places / blogs this year.  I wanted to make a baby quilt that would work for either girl or boy  and decided I would use it.  The quilt is machine pieced and quilted.  It is 34.5 in X 46 in.  It goes together quickly.

Here is a close photo to show some of the fabrics.