Email to post!

A cool thing offered by blogger.com is the ability to simply email to
post. It even works with picture attachments! Look forward to
reading more frequently than initially anticipated (I can still only
post 40k per photo, so they'll be low res anyway). Handy, that!

Little black strings

Today was stitches removal day. I've been noticing these little black strings becoming more and more visible in the back of my mouth as the swelling has reduced. Only thing that was unusual was that the dental assistant actually laughed when he looked in my mouth. He didn't say why, but I have a sneaking suspicion. Upon noticing the black strings in my mouth, I noticed part of the very back of the inside of my cheek had been also stitched to my gum. Odd.

A note to oral surgeons, if the dental assistants laugh at your work, maybe you need a new glasses prescription.

Boston man removes wisdom in the name of science!

Hello all,

I realize that the blog is brand new and that nobody even knows it exists, but I had an urge to actually create and write a little about the MISHAP-X experiences thus far.

That last couple months have been a battle to become PQ'd. For those of you unfamiliar with working through government or government grants, these people are huge fans of acronyms or at least turning phrases into their initialed components. PQ'd really means physically qualified. Now at first, this may seem like a boot camp of sorts: dire conditions require tip top physical condition! You must be able to withstand 10 minute sprints without feeling fatigued!!!

Not at all really... All you really need to do is make sure you have no major disabilities and all your immunizations are in order. This may be different for those staying on the actual continent of Antarctica, but since we are on a boat for almost the entire six week duration, we can skip the syphilis testing. Yep, that's right: syphilis. You also need an HIV test if you're staying overwinter. I guess people get a little stir-crazy during 24 hr darkness.

As a person who has had numerous bad needle experiences (small, rolling veins + caffeine allergy + inexperienced nurses as a child = bad experiences), the blood testing could have gone better. After being poked once, thinking I had given all the blood that I needed for the huge panel of tests, I found out later that I needed more taken. The second time around, my veins weren't as cooperative and I needed to different vein entries. Needless to say, I almost passed out and was wheeled into the pediatrics room on a big blue recliner. It would have been a kicker to receive a lollipop. But alas, no lolli.

So blood drawn, tests done, one down. Physical exam next. Oh, the normal exam process which is always uncomfortable for everyone. No details needed, I'm sure - but it is nice to know my doctor keeps his hands warm. You can tell a good doctor by the warmth of his hands, in my opinion.

Wisdom teeth removal is next. As part of a complete evaluation and filling of any suspect areas, wisdom teeth must be removed unless they are uncannily healthy. Almost nobody has acceptable wisdom teeth it seems. I had mine removed Tuesday. One impacted lower left tooth has left the left side of my face rather large. Luckily no signs of infection yet. That was an interesting experience since I was only under local anesthetic. Yes, all of my wisdom is now in the garbage somewhere.

Our cruise has been delayed 5 days out of Punta Arenas due to the earthquake in Chile as well. So our official day for leaving Boston will be May 2nd, 2010. Wish us good look!

First Post!

Greetings all to the MISHAP-X blog written by UMB professor Dr. Meng Zhou, Research Associate Yiwu Zhu, and graduate student Eric Wilcox Freeburg. As with most blogs, this will be set up to give insight into the day-to-day operations of the MISHAP-X cruise from the UMB participant perspective.

All three participants have access to this blog and will post their own experiences and/or photos from time to time. Although we'd like to share every photo taken, limited bandwidth via satellite uplink will limit our ability to do so. Please be patient for the complete set of photos - they will be posted at the end of June!

Thanks again for visiting and we hope to have more for you to read soon!

-EWF