Had a great day in the operating room with Dr. Cuauhtemoc Vasquez, MD the promising young heart surgeon I told you about several months ago.  I have some absolutely breathtaking photos of the case – but I want to double-check with the patient before posting anything potentially revealing in such a public forum.

Todays’ surgery was at one of the public hospitals in Mexicali – and while technology was sometimes in short supply – talent sure wasn’t.  I was frankly surprised at the level of skill and finesse Dr. Vasquez displayed given the fact that he is so early in his career.

He’s also just an all-around pleasant and charming person.  I know from previous encounters that he’s well-spoken, interesting, engaging and an excellent conversationalist –  We didn’t talk at length on this occasion – because honestly, I really don’t like to be distracting during cases – especially since much of the discussion was in an English-heavy Spanglish.. (He is fluent in English but we both tend to slip in and out of Spanish.  I mainly slip out when I start thinking in English and come across a concept that I am not sure about explaining or asking about in Spanish.**

But don’t worry – I am planning on seeing him next week – where I can hopefully lure him to lunch/ coffee or something so we have a more lengthy discussion – so I can give you all the details in a more formal fashion in a future post.

As a crazy side note – finally got that ‘great’ picture of the good doctor.. Oh, the irony – not during a thoracic case but while he was assisting Dr. Vasquez – (the good doctor is board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon, after all..) I didn’t post it here because there are some ‘patient bits’ in the photo..

**I know this can be frustrating from my experiences with my professor – but it’s also frustrating when: a. a question gets misinterpreted as a statement (because of my poor grammar) or b. misconstrued completely – which still happens pretty frequently.  Luckily, people around here are awfully nice, and tend to give me the benefit of a doubt.

Also – I need to post this photo of one of my favorite operating room nurses – Lupita.  (Lupita along with Carmen and Marisol) have been an absolute delight to be around even of those very first anxious days..