Estoy nadando.

There's a very calming effect of snorkeling or diving caused by the disruption of sound waves as you submerge. As you pull your head beneath the water, it's kind of like leaving one world and entering another. There is no sound, just you, and your steady breathing. In. and Out. In. and Out. It's a perfect past time for the introvert.

I can pretend I'm diving under at times, even while standing upright on dry ground and in the middle of a crowd. There's a well-known Disney/Pixar fish with short term memory loss who likes to say "Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming!" This fish is quoted quite often. I've heard my co-residents say it more than I can count. It's one of those safe phrases like, "it'll all work out" that is ment to be encouraging but really isn't saying anything. But if you say it at least twice and in a sing-song voice, "Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming!" it'll at least elicit a smile.

I dove under at 3am this morning. We had a trauma come in with report that the patient had fallen down a flight of stairs and now wasn't moving his arms. The ED Attending last night has really bad ADHD or something. She buzzes about me spouting all these worse case scenarios, not standing still for two seconds. She got even worse when the patient actually arrived. I wasn't able to complete my full trauma exam because she started asking the patient a million question getting distracted about this one time that he vomited three months ago in Toronto. At this point I caught the eyes of one of the nurses and could tell she was feeling the same frustration. (vomiting three months ago in Toronto, 100% irrelevant to the case right in front of us). Low and behold the patient was not only moving his arms but was 100% neurovascularly intact. This ED attending didn't believe my exam so actually repeated the exam herself. When she got the same intact exam she shook her head, as if refusing to believe what she herself had just witnessed and continued talking to me under her breath about spinal cords injuries and huge work-up that the patient would need, and then throwing onto the end of her vomiting of words that the patient was probably drunk (even though he denied it).  Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming! I called my Attending and convinced him we needed to put this patient on observation. I had justifiable reasons, the patient needed IV rehydration and reevaluation in the morning, etc, etc..., but really, I just wanted to get the poor patient away from this ED attending. There's a few people like that I cross paths with as a surgery resident. One's like the ED attending I'm referring to above, I just preemptively dive under when I realize who I'll be working with. Keep it calm. Keep it cool. Keep it happy.

Here's a few bonus photos from the Galapagos, taken on Jenna's GoPro, to help us all Just Keep Swimming!

 Hello Mr. Sea Turtle

 Las Gietas

 Las Grietas

 Cliff jumping at Las Grietas 

Cliff jumping at Las Grietas

Snorkling at Tintoreras take??

Snorkeling at Tintoreras take??... who cares, we got one!! :)

 Much Love.