Yesterday Dr. Pott and I performed yet another leg amputation, along with a skin graft and 2 hernia repairs. I also paid a home visit to an elderly gentleman in Hopkins. In the past this man has complained to me about weakness on one side of his body that I think is due to vascular disease from his 60+ years of heavy smoking. Up until now, he’s refused to go to the hospital, but even if he had, there’s not much treatment we can offer an 83-year-old with this problem, other than quitting smoking (which he declined to do). On this visit, he showed me a mass on his breast, and he finally agreed to let me take him to the hospital next week to see Dr. Pott, so that we can remove it. I'm hoping it is not malignant.

The elderly woman that the man lives with saw me and exclaimed, “Oh, she’s gaining weight!” with a congratulatory tone. (Not exactly what I wanted to hear...) Here, larger women are considered more attractive.

Photo: While in Guatemala, I visited an ancient Mayan ritual site. Here, a shaman is making offerings (e.g. coca-cola) to the gods.