Dr. Eric Freeman writes from China
Pictures from China by Dr. Eric Freeman
5/11/08 8:15 pm
Who needs American Idol...I'm on KTV
Well....It's been quite a long, yet memorable weekend...On Friday after finishing our cases around noon, 10 anesthesiologists, including myself boarded a nice luxurious bus for a 4 hour treck to Lian Yun Gang, a city by the seaside. The annual meeting of the Jiangsu Branch of Anesthesiologists of the Chinese Medical Association was to be held there. I would also be giving a lecture there on Sunday. The past few days I was preparing for it with Dr. Zhao, who would be my translator. I made sure my camera was fully charged as this was to be a memorable experience, plus my mother wanted to see pictures when I returned to the States. I only had a half-hour to speak, including translation time so the grand rounds lecture that I gave a few months ago on "Non-Obstetrical Anesthesia for the Pregnant Patient" had to be seriously edited.
The 4 hour drive was relatively painless. I got a bit of studying down so that was good. We stayed at a 5 star hotel where the meeting was being held. I am told that about 500 anesthesiologists were in attendance. I roomed with Dr. Xieke, and after a quick change and shower we all headed out to dinner. We had a large table in a cornered off section of this fancy restaurant. The food just kept coming. Of course before shoving it in my mouth, I asked what I eating. The duck was great. I think it is pretty popular in China to just cook fish whole and not de-bone them. The beer was served warm. I am told that the Chinese feel that cold beer can upset the stomach. After a great meal, I decided to retire early.
Lectures began at 8am. After about half and hour I left and decided to eat breakfast and do a little studying, which would be more productive than trying to figure out if I one reads Chinese from left to right or vise-versa. I took a stroll to the floor where the exhibitors were. No airtraq or glidescope here. I showed one of the residents an esophageal stethoscope on display. He had never seen one. There was one company I never heard of with some type of LMA on display. Aspect medical was showing off their world famous BIS monitor. I took a few brochures with some different drugs on display. A Chinese company that produced Etomidate made it in a lipid-emulsion formula; white like propofol. Maybe I will see this when I do some cardiac cases.
In the afternoon a group of us took a van one hour away to the seaside. Most of them had not been to this area of China before. It was quite nice and I took some great pictures high up on the mountainside. A hotel nearby held the evenings dinner. Around 630pm multiple buses atarted to arrive with everyone from the meeting. We all had dinner in a very large banquet hall. Dr. Cui was in a great mood since he was elected among a few others to be Vice President of the Jiangsu Province of Anesthesiologists. He introduced me to many distinguised Chinese anesthesiologists, some of whom were his mentor. The wine was flowing and we did many cheers. It was quite funny when Dr. Cui said "Bottoms up" numerous times. After another great dinner we took a bus back to the hotel to continue the festivities.
It was time for KTV. For those of you not familiar with it; it stand for Karyoke TV. KTV is an extremely popular thing to do all over China. I think it is also big in Korea and Japan. I have seen so many of them all over Nanjing. Bright neon light are flashing "KTV" everywhere. There was about 20 of us. We had our own VIP room with our own waitress who kept the food and drinks coming. A sophisticated karyoke machine was in the corner. The acoustics were pretty good. After much arm twisting, I agreed to sing a song. Searching the machine, I really couldn't find a song that I liked. There was no way I was singing any Michael Jackson, George Michael, or Beegees song. Well, maybe if you put a 16 gauge in my antecubital and hung Smirnoff with a pressure bag. Ah, finally found a decent song...."You give love a bad name " by Bon Jovi. This was all caught on video with my camera. Now I know why I got a C in chorus class in middle school. It was an entertaining night had by all.
The next day was my big day. It was a bit of an effort to find someone to iron one of my button down shirts as there was no iron in my hotel room back in Nanjing. My lecture went over quite well. I made sure to speak very slowly. Dr. Zhao did an excellent job translating, which I am sure was not easy. There was a program guide made for this meeting with every speakers entire lecture printed in it. It was so nice to see mine and they added "Visiting Scholar of Nanjing University Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine." I think Dr. Santos, director of Obstetrical anestehsia would have been proud of me had she been here. She reviewed my lecture when I gave it at our weekly grand rounds. A final send-off lunch was had by all and everyone had a toast until next years meeting.
We all boarded the bus for our journey back to Nanjing. I was exhausted. Dr. Cui came over to me and told me that I did a great job. He handed me a rather large frame. It was a beautiful frame of a Chinese flower. Additionally, there was a certificate of appreciation from the Chinese Anesthesia Society acknowledging my lecture. I was really at a loss for words. This was so nice of them, yet totally unnecessary. I will put the certificate in a nice frame when I get back to the States. Well.....I'm off to bed. I am quite tired and have 2 scoliosis cases tomorrow. For some reason I don't think that the neurophysiology guys will be getting in my way .....