The Pensieve

What are the common causes of post-op fever?
The 5 ‘W’s - Wind, water, walking, wound, womb and wonder drugs!
Doesn’t this remind you of Captain Planet’s ‘earth, fire, wind, water, hot’? haha…

Wind
Pneumonia , due to immobility & inadequate lung expansion post-op, because of pain, and infection (”Splinting” may enter into this because of restricted mobility, but I cannot find splinting as a direct cause of post-op comps.)
Atelectasis (can occur without pneumonia - a condition in which all or part of a lung becomes airless and contracts. Often seen in ventilated patients )

Water
Usually refers to urinary tract infections, very common when urinary catheter in situ

Walking
Refers to restricted mobilty. DVT is a common complication, often treated prophylactically with heparin/ compression stockings

Wound
The most common site for post-op infections

Wonder drugs
Some drugs can cause fever; also consider MRSA, an increasing common hospital-acquired infection caused by over-use of antibiotics.

Womb
In obstetrics and gynaecology this would be the primary site for infection, and comes above drugs.

I’ve heard so much about ‘HOUSE’, but I dun have cable!!! sob sob. WHO HAS THE DVDS???

Last Saturday, for the first time, laoshi and I had a really good talk about art… mainly about surrealism and comparing certain works of art. He said that my sketchings bore the marks of a surrealist influence. (eh… hmmm…) And suggested that if I progressed all the way to oil painting (haha… going to take years…) then I should go towards surrealism.

Anyway, he decided to show me this picture, and highlighted the minute details of the ‘Praying Hands’. It’s so very life-like that one could even use it to study the anatomy of veins on a hand.

He also told me the story behind these pair of hands…

Albrecht Dürer was from a poor German family with 18 children. 18! Imagine that. He and one of his brothers had always wanted to learn art, but the family could not afford to send them to the Academy at Nuremberg. Between them, they decided that one would work at the coalmines to put the other through four years at the academy. After four years, the one would sell his artwork or even work in the coalmines to pay for the other’s art education. A coin was tossed, and Albrecht Dürer went off to Nuremberg.

Four years later, Albrecht had become a sensation at the Academy, his works bringing in more money than those of his professors. He returned to make good the promise to his brother. Sadly, this was his brother’s gut-wrenching reply, “No, brother. I cannot go to Nuremberg. It is too late for me. Look … look what four years in the mines have done to my hands! The bones in every finger have been smashed at least once, and lately I have been suffering from arthritis so badly in my right hand that I cannot even hold a glass to return your toast, much less make delicate lines on parchment or canvas with a pen or a brush. No, brother … for me it is too late.”

In order to pay homage to his brother’s sacrifice, Albrecht painstakingly drew his brother’s abused hands, with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward.

This highlighted to me the importance of being familiar with art history (and not just art history but all kinds of topics, especially philosophy, religion and culture) in order to be able to produce a good work of art.