I love you.  I always will.

Thanks for marrying me, and taking me away from all that.

And the patient will probably need a transfusion at the end of it.

(Reportedly the printer engaged itself in a loop and printed out blood culture label sets 25 times, so don’t panic).

A tour de force.  What medical blogging aspires to be:

The New Mammogram Guidelines – What You Need to Know

Unless you’ve been living on another planet, you know that in mid-November, the US Preventive Services Task Force released new recommendations on screening mammography, in which they recommended against routine mammogram screening in women under age 50, and recommended that mammograms be every two years in women ages 50-74.

What you may not have heard is that the Task Force has acknowledged that the mammogram guidelines were poorly worded, and have revised their original statement to clarify their intentions, mostly by removing those two little words “Recommends against”.

Update: the BBC report is much better (many thanks to reader Melissa!)

CNN has a (marginally B+) interview with Amsterdam native Jasper Schuringa, the man who subdued the Northwest Airlines terrorist and put out the fire (sustaining burns on his hand in the process).

If you can get through the interview, please watch it.

Interestingly, he said they moved the terrorist to First Class and stripped him looking for more explosives, which seems a very heads-up move.

The courage to act.  He’s a hero in my book.

$100 Christmas Caption Contest

Happy’s got both a caption contest, and a prize for the winner! Go there, and win (or try to…).

Yeah, I’m late to this party, and have just wasted several days figuring out that nobody has a fix for it that’s as easy as older OS versions.

Bummer. I am enjoying the iMac, though. That’s why I’m not writing much (that and if I wrote about work right now I’d need to get a new job).

My yearly Christmas favorite, reposted:

Courtesy of the British National Health Service:

NSFW. Funny, but Unsafe for work, unless your work involves STD’s in which case it’s required.

It’s my seasonal favorite post, and I hope it’s one of yours.

Not the STD’s, the funny song with equally amusing illustrations. The backstory, from a previous blog post:

I have seen several searches of this blog for the British National Health Services’ “12 STI’s of Christmas“, and wondered why. The answer: the NHS site no longer carries the wonderful show, for reasons unknown to me. As for the searches, I guess the Christmas season has people thinking about sexually transmitted infections (diseases on this side of the Pond) set to Christmas tunes.

Merry Christmas!

Yeah, the 70′s were like this. Vests, awesome belts, and a smile into the great unknown.

He’s the smart one (math is hard), I’m the pretty one. (Give me that, otherwise I have nothing…)

Really, Happy Birthday!

iowahawk: Fables of the Reconstruction

Iowahawk explains the stats behind AGW, in an accessible post.

The smartest AND funniest guy on the internet?  Thank heavens I look better…

(I told you we should elect him President…)

Horrible.

Announced over at their place, so I won’t spoil it here.

I will say it’s an honor to read the creative writing submitted every year, from writers with imaginations I cannot even comprehend. And big big kudos to MedGadget for continuing this series!

Always nice to have an etiology…

Sinus arrest without an escape rhythm...

The “First” Medal of Honor Winner from Pearl Harbor is still with us at the age of 100: LT. John William Finn (via the Weekly Standard). Looks like he was a Chief when Nimitz gave him the award.

Thanks to our Pearl Harbor vets.

Accountable Care Organizations, Capitation, and Emergency Care Providers – Lessons Learned from California’s Delegated Payer Model « The Central Line

In case you thought medical payment reform was going to be easy, read this from someone who knows what has happened in California.

» Lead Story » proof that God is a she.

The Other ABC’s.