Sounds like working at Google has to be a great, fun experience!

Yesterday, during the Google I/O keynote, Google’s VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, laid out a grand vision for the direction Google sees the web heading towards with the move to the HTML 5 standard. While we’re not there yet, all the major browser players besides Microsoft are aligned and ready for the next phase, which will include such things as the ability to run 3D games and movies in the browser without additional plug-ins. But Google wants to take it one step further with a brand new method of communication for this new era. It’s called Google Wave.

Everyone uses email and instant messaging on the web now, but imagine if you could tie those two forms of communication together and add a load of functionality on top of it. At its most fundamental form, that’s essentially what Wave is. Developed by brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussenand Stephanie Hannon out of Google’s Syndney, Australia offices, Wave was born out of the idea that email and instant messaging, as successful as they still are, were both created a very long time ago. We now have a much more robust web full of content and brimming with a desire to share stuff. Or as Lars Rasumussen put it, “Wave is what email would look like if it were invented today.”

Something for the one of you interested in China’s economy / politics.

The Chinese urbanization rate has been slower than the industrialization rate. And right now, China is making up for its slow pace of urbanization. And urbanization is the major engine for the economy of the world. As we speak, in Beijing, there are three or four subway lines being built underground. We don’t see them; they are very busy working on this. And Beijing is not exceptional. There are many, many other cities in which these [types of] things are happening.

Do a google image search for Shanghai metro map – and you’ll see that they’re buildling the 10th metro line now – with 17 announced lines! Another 7 lines?

When Kyle was born in 2003, there were TWO LINES … by 2023 I wonder how many lines there will be!

This is where we stayed in Kenting, Taiwan for our vacation. It was great!

The kids had a great time, and it was super relaxing! Finally! Even though it was for a weekend (we got back late Sunday) I needed something like that!

Some pics:

From 20090522 Kenting Vacation-DayOne-Dinner-Hotel

Brothers!

From 20090523 Kenting Vacation-Day Two-Beach

Jetski-ing with Auntie Carrie

From 20090523 Kenting Vacation-Day Two-Beach

The raft was the most fun, they said

From 20090523 Kenting Vacation-Day Two-Beach

Hating the additional sunblock

From 20090523 Kenting Vacation-Day Two-Beach

All of us on the Eastern Shore of Taiwan

From 20090523 Kenting Vacation-Day Two-Fun

Super Tall Ice Cream

From 20090523 Kenting Vacation-Day Two-Fun

Some Wacky Taiwanese

From 2 Kids shooting soft-porn type shots at the beach in front of the world at 20090523 Kenting Vacation-DayTwo-Random Taiwanese

Man is Going To Make It Happen

From 20090523 Kenting Vacation-DayTwo-Random Taiwanese

One of the Jet Ski Dudes, or Grandpas

From 20090523 Kenting Vacation-DayTwo-Random Taiwanese

PAF

Came across some photos while searching http://picasaweb.google.com . If you don’t search through their images, then you’re wasting your time randomly surfing.

Came across some soldiers putting it all on the line for those of us with American passports, Red White & Blue in our hearts, and frustration in our gut about how little attention and praise they get.

Nobbit333

Nobbie333
shoots some excellent photos.

We decided that I should do the surgery in June.

Dr Wu wants me to check in to the hospital on 15 June 2009, and he’ll operate on 16 June 2009.

The surgery will be to first completely remove all of the current metal pieces, and then put in all new metal pieces in a different ‘better’ manner.

He says that I’ll be in the hospital for about ten to fourteen days. We’ll see.

As this will be my 8th surgery related to the Christmas Day Crash, and my 16th leg surgery, I’m not so inclined in being in a hospital bed.

More later.

Xcellentl Xrays Xplaining why my L Leg is Xtraordinarily X’d up

On Tuesday, 20 May, I went to see Dr Wu, Dir of Ortho @ Chang Gung Hospital in Taipei.

He ordered the x-rays found here – and then went on to explain why I need the surgery.

This X-ray Pretty Much Shows It All

From 20090520 Chang Gung Xrays

• My right femur is 48 centimeters long, my left femur is only 46 centimeters long.

Also

• My left leg, clearly, isn’t straight; the gray line is supposed to line up with the black line; it’s this deviation that is making my left leg 2 cms shorter.

Of course, click on the above xray and it’ll take you to all of the xrays taken on the 20th of May.

I really like this one:

From 20090520 Chang Gung Xrays

So, after we reviewed the xrays, I politely pointed out that my first surgeon assured me he could operate without problems, and clearly there were lots of issues.

He smiled, laughed a little (as did the nurse), and explained that there are two main areas I should focus. First, he has more than 20 yrs of experience and is the Director of Orthopedics at Chang Gung (leaving unsaid that it is one of the, if not the, most prestigious hospital in Taiwan). Then he took me to the Internet – to their website – and found all of the articles he has published… he has published (at least) 124.

After we quickly reviewed the articles and talked more about my leg, he sowed me the 2nd reason. He reviewed several other patients’ xrays… one of which had a femur which looked extremely similar to mine in 2007. He rebuilt the entire femur (showing me a 2nd xray of it), and 2+ years later he showed me the xray from April 2009 – and asked “Can you see where it was broken?” I couldn’t – and said so. He said, “nor can I.”

My pictures

So I wrote to Dr. CC Wu … as I couldn’t find the articles which he showed me in my last post (during my visit to the Taipei Chang Gung hospital).

Here’s his reply:

Dear Mr. Fairfield,

How do you do?
I have a will to resolve your problems. For me, this problem is not very difficult.
However, it should be a very very difficult work for other orthopedists because they
are not expert in treating nonunion or malunion. I have been a trauma orthopedic staff
for 23 years. You may find a number of articles related to orthopedic trauma written
by me.
I suppose you cannot find my Chinese homepage from the web of Chang Gung Memorial
Hospital, Linko.
I will teach you to check the articles from the Google web:

1. Open the “Google”; 2. Type “Pubmed home”;
4. Type “Wu cc, Chang Gung”
5. You will find 124 articles written by Wu CC.
6. Please choose No. 2, 25, 46, 77. These 4 articles are related to your problems.

Good luck

Best regards,
Chi-Chuan Wu, MD

Now, I went there due to the fact that my tibia was not healing - called non-union (or malunion) – like this image shows.

From 20090520 Chang Gung Xrays

And Dr CC Wu (or Wu CC as he’s called in the articled) wrote a paper about it in the Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma (J Orthop Trauma) published in 1999 (1999 Jan;13(1):33-8). He wrote the following:

High success rate with exchange nailing to treat a tibial shaft aseptic nonunion.

Wu CC, Shih CH, Chen WJ, Tai CL.
Department of Orthopedics, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan, Republic of China.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of tibial exchange nailing in treating a tibial shaft aseptic nonunion and to establish optimal indications for using this technique. DESIGN: Prospective, consecutive. SETTING: University hospital. METHODS: Twenty-five consecutive tibial shaft aseptic nonunions were prospectively treated with the exchange nailing technique. Indications for this procedure were a tibial shaft aseptic nonunion that had previously been treated with an inserted nonreamed or reamed intramedullary nail, displayed less than one centimeter of shortening, was with or without rotational or angular deformity, exhibited no segmental bony defects, and was anatomically suited for conventional or locked reamed intramedullary nail stabilization. The marrow cavity was reamed as extensively as possible, and a rigid intramedullary nail with stable fixation was inserted. RESULTS: During a follow-up period of two to four years (median thirty-two months), twenty-four nonunions healed, on average, in four months (range three to six months). The one remaining nonunion healed four months after a cancellous bone grafting procedure. No wound infection or malunion was noted. CONCLUSION: Because of its high union rate, low complication rate, and simplicity of method, we believe that the exchange nailing technique should be considered preferentially for all indicated cases.
PMID: 9892123 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE

The other three articles are interesting … this one specifically addresses how Dr. Flood screwed up my leg by NOT making the femur straight even though he SHOULD have:

Femoral supracondylar malunions with varus medial condyle and shortening.

Wu CC.
Department of Orthopedics, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung Institute of Technology, Taoyuan, Taiwan. ccwu@mail.cgu.edu.tw
Femoral supracondylar malunions associated with varus deformity of the medial femoral condyle and shortening are rare, and all techniques for treatment of this complication reported to date have limitations. A one-stage antegrade locked intramedullary nailing technique to concomitantly treat these combined disorders was performed in 19 consecutive patients. The following procedures were performed: removal of previous implants, supracondylar corrective osteotomy, one-stage lengthening on a fracture table, antegrade static locked intramedullary nail stabilization, and corticocancellous bone grafting. Seventeen patients with malunions received regular followup for a median of 2.4 years (range, 1.1-5.2 years). Sixteen malunions healed with a union rate of 94.1% (16 patients) and a median union period of 4.5 months (range, 3-7 months). Only one nonunion associated with nail breakage occurred (5.9%; one patient) and one deep infection recurred (5.9%; one patient). Both patients recovered after appropriate treatment. All patients had improved knee alignment and function. Antegrade locked intramedullary nailing is an effective technique for one-stage treatment of combined disorders in patients with femoral supracondylar malunions. Complications can be avoided if patients and surgeons are careful during the treatment course. Protected weightbearing until fracture healing is crucial to successful treatment.
PMID: 17031313 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE

The other two articles are:
here and here. Both about putting hardware in the femur area of my leg.

I’ll keep you updated as to how it’s going once I have the surgery!

PAF

I’m sitting in China Southern’s Business Elite Lounge – I could wonder lots about the ‘eliteness’ of this lounge – but I won’t.

It’s been awhile since I’ve found myself with the time to update my blog… and for the one of you that regularly read my blog, I apologize.

By the way – I more frequently, but also fairly rarely update my twitter – www.twitter.com/parkerfairfield

So my leg:
Well, as we both know, Dr Flood is really losing my respect. I went and visited him at the beginning of the month (there’s nothing like needing to do immigration procedures for two (2) countries (Hong Kong & Taiwan, or Hong Kong & China) twice, plus a 7 hour commute to really make seeing your Orthopedic surgeon tons of fun .

So, of course, he said that I don’t need to worry about the fact that my tibia STILL isn’t growing together.

From 20090504 Xrays

To say I’m frustrated, is like saying an elephant is an “at least medium sized” animal.

So, I’m going sometimes to the Buddhist hospital in Tanzih – seeing Dr. Chen. (Yes, yet another Chen).

Dr Chen says that I need to:

1. do a bone graft immediately to help my tibia heal
2. remove all the screws in my tibia
3. remove the bar from my tibia (it’s inside of the tibia bone
4. drill the whole in my tibia larger to accomodate a large bar (nail) in my tibia
5. insert a larger diameter (13mm minimum) bar

Clearly I’m less than happy about this …

So when I returned to China, I visited a hospital, allegedly ‘one of the best in Guangzhou’ (they all are ‘one of the best’)… anyway. So I visited the Ortho head doctor, Dr. Lu 卢, who turned out to be not only a really nice guy, but IMO quite knowledgeable.

Dr Lu not only speaks decent English, he’s not afraid to speak his mind.

Dr. Lu’s opinion is that I should:

• do a bone graft immediately to help my tibia heal
• not remove the rod – but hope that my tibia will heal after the bone graft

So… I’m flying to Taipei, Taiwan on Tuesday evening so that Wednesday morning I can go to see yet another surgeon (as Taiwan health insurance won’t pay for me to have surgery in China).

I’ll see what the doctor in Taipei says about the rod. Dr Flood swears that it’s too small (11mm) for someone of my weight.

Which obviously begs the question, why did Dr. Flood install an 11mm rod into my leg if he now swears it’s too thin (diameter) for me, and will definitely snap? Shmuck.

Man, what a mess. Microsoft is such a pain the rump sometimes. Lately, I’m feeling that HP is more screwed up.

You’d think that if you ran HP you would have some sort of business requirement that current products should integrate with your your prior printers.

So my HP Pavilion laptop (about 2 yrs old) running that obsolete operating system called Windows Vista, didn’t want to play nice with my HP LaserJet 1000 printer.

If you’re having the same issues – here’s what I did:
1) Get the XP driver from here.

Yes, I know it’s the Windows XP driver – but it works.

2) Unzip the driver into some temporary folder – like c:\temp\printerdriver or whatever you want

3) Add a New Printer (With the Classic menu it is Start \ Settings \ Printers )

4) Add a Local Printer

5) Set it to USB when it asks how the printer connects

6) When it asks for the driver, Say ‘Have Disk’ and select the USB driver

7) Go get a coffee as it installs (took my machine about 10 minutes)

Print a test page when it’s successful
OR
If not successful … buy a new printer

Good luck.