A bit of aquatic thrill!

Yesterday, Mehrdad, Mr. Saririan, and I officially openned the pool and spa in our backyard for business. The dust in the house is finally cleaned out, thanks to the tireless efforts of Shahrzad and her mom. We got in the swimming pool and Mr. Saririan noted that his pain is much better controlled in the water. Kamyar also made a special guest appearance at our pool. Enjoy!

The City of Angels

This past weekend, Shahrzad and I attended the Wedding ceremony of Amir, my cousin, and Francesca. There were two ceremonies: a glorious Baha'i celebration followed by the Catholic wedding that was held at the Saint Monica Parrish in Santa Monica, California. We were impressed that the priest welcomed this union and even quoted from the writings of Baha'u'llah during his speech. Following the ceremony, we were again impressed at the reception that even though the bride's family was of Italian Catholic background, out of respect for the Baha'is, they agreed that no Alcohol would be served.

We found the greater Los Angeles area to be a maze of many twisted highways overly filled with cars, trucks, and bikes. It is not unusual in LA to be in traffic for over an hour for a destination eight miles away. We started to miss "Charlottesville traffic" once we found ourselves in the midst of cars in LA.

Attached you may find some pictures of our trip to the "City of Angels," Los Angeles!

The Pitfalls of the County Hospital

This past Monday, I started my first job after residency at the Maricopa County hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. Although I am excited about the new position and its potentials, and yes, even the patient population, I find that the infrastructure for providing the best care to the patients is not there. As you can imagine, the county system is probably slowest to change. For instance, I found that there is no acute pain service at the hospital to manage patients postoperatively. This was one of the strengths of University of Virginia's program. If I choose to do an intervention to help postoperative pain such as a thoracic epidural, I will have to work harder to follow up with the patient on the daily basis. Regional anesthesia is also another rarely practiced adjunct to anesthesia. The other issue is that it is hard to do procedures in patients who do not speak your language. Interpreters are also not always available, so cases are held up to ensure that the informed consent happens appropriately. Lastly, there seems to be no production pressure, Turn-over times that are up to 45 minutes certainly slow the day and make it longer on the other end! Nevertheless, there is potential for growth here and I am looking forward to being part of the "growing pains"!