what the surgeon will be doing to me tomorrow...

A 3-cm incision placed 4 cm superior to the zygomatic arch and posterior to the temporal hairline can be fashioned to allow direct access to the arch. This approach (ie, Gillies approach) allows accurate fracture reduction via a bimanual technique. After creating a skin incision, the dissection is carried down through the superficial temporal fascia and the temporalis muscle fascia (deep temporal fascia). A plane is carried forward, superior to the temporalis muscle to the zygomatic arch.

Once this conduit is created, a periosteal elevator is positioned beneath the zygoma. Lateral traction is placed on the elevator while the surgeon's free hand palpates the fracture site during reduction. Once hemostasis is ensured, the fascia and skin are closed in the usual fashion. Take care to close the wound with all layers reanastomosed to their respective anatomic partners. Advantages of the Gillies approach include a scar camouflaged by the patient's hair; accurate, bimanual fracture reduction; and a remote chance of injury to the temporal branch of cranial nerve VII.

if only I ran instead of biked..

There are days when you look back and think about the decisions you made and all the what ifs that could have changed your current predicament. Today is one of those days.

What if I decided to go for a run instead of a bike ride? What if I chose to walk my dog or hop in my car and drive to the beach instead. What if I wore my bike gloves and kept my sweatshirt on while biking down Illinois St. rather than stop earlier on 3rd St. and resort to wearing my tank top because it was getting warm?

Of course, it's pointless to think about the what ifs because the damage is already done. I had a bike accident.

I left my house that Sunday morning around 10:30a and rode down Geneva to Bayshore to the blocked off streets designated by the Sunday Streets event. Once I arrived, I felt safer and more confident riding without worrying about vehicles. Maybe the false sense of security made me too confident.

I was standing to the left when this photo was taken before I rode ahead ten minutes later. When I reached Illinois St., there were old train tracks criss-crossing the road. I tried to cross perpendicular to the tracks and failed miserably when my front tire fell into the track groove. I fell down on my left and my face managed to break my fall first. My helmet was unscathed and probably saved me from a concussion. I suffered various lacerations to my hands, shoulder, side and wrist as well as bruising along my thigh, hip and arm.

My left side of my face received the worse damage. I fractured my left cheek bone and dented it inward. There's minimal road rash on my face but I'll have a huge black and blue mark around my eye and cheek. There's likely nerve damage because my face is still numb from below the eye socket down to my upper lip.

I can't open my mouth that much without feeling a dull pain. There's a constant smell of dry blood from my left nostril. I have one of those freakish half smiles that looks more like an evil smirk. If I stand up or move my head around too quickly, I can feel the blood flowing through my face. It leaves a tingling sensation like crawling ants and I have to let the feeling subside before I get too lightheaded.

Since the accident, I'm down to 128lbs. That's fairly slight for my frame. I think I lost most of the weight from throwing up all day in the emergency room Sunday. Everything made me nauseous. I'm eating more now but it'll be a while before I can gain the weight back. I can already tell that my body is breaking down muscle mass for energy.

I'm currently taking Augmentin, a penicillin type of antibiotic. And I was also given Phenergan to treat nausea and vomiting as well as Vicodin. Despite the dull pain in my face, I'm not taking Vicodin for the time being. I figure after surgery, I'll need it but right now, I can deal with the discomfort.

we all scream for ice cream!

The ice cream man is visiting South Park TODAY @ 1:30p passing out a choice of six different ice cream bars until they run out!

all look same..

There's the Chinese stereotype and then, there's this..

Mine are just as loud..

why didn't anyone tell me..

I had pen markings on my face and the few internal clients that visited my office this afternoon pretended that nothing was wrong. Did they really think that those pen markings would magically disappear on it's own? Why doesn't anyone say anything?

Lucky for me I made a trip to the bathroom...

Next time someone has a booger hanging out of their nose, I'm not saying shit.

Lunch in South Park

Seriously, there are way too many people working near and around South Park. It's like the invasion of 20-something web 2.0 conference members descending on the few worthy, and inexpensive lunch places in the area.

I remember the good ol' days right after the dotcom bust and all those startup companies lacking in real services to sell to the populous ran out of funding and folded. There were no lines in front of Mexico au Park stretching out into the sidewalk. You didn't have to wait 15 min for a table at the Butler and the Chef. Brickhouse actually didn't run out of soy milk. Now, all the kids have returned with new ideas and new funding from well-established companies like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.

In any case, I was patient today (cause it's my b-day and old age slows you down) and amused myself with guessing if the 15 or so guys standing in line with me were programmers, analysts, project managers or dba's.

when does "digg" become part of my job?

About once a month, my company has a mini meeting where the head honchos give us all an update on what's in the pipeline and how we are meeting budget compared to last month.

As always, online is growing and print is holding steady. So, what can we do to bring more traffic to our site and boost revenue? Why not get everyone in the company to create a Digg profile and start "digging"? Honestly, I don't have time to join yet another social networking site let alone read articles and give it a "Digg" or not. I want to get my work done rather than surf the web clicking on articles all day

Social networking sites are time vacuums. I should know, I'm on several social networking sites (facebook, myspace, friendster, flickr, linkedin, orkut, sportsvite, and yelp to name a few). One too many, I think. It's hard enough to keep track of what's going on with my friends and what's worthwhile to read that I find I spent most of my day following someone else's day and reading up on things that aren't currently useful to me now. Next thing I know, the day's over and I forgot to eat and it's time to go home. Bah! Someone else can digg. I don't have time.

the 3rd and final bust up

KTVU's tips for keeping cool during this short heat wave..

What parent would bath their child in alcohol? I would like to know..