Memoir of a Lost Grandpa

Lloyd Perkins, Sr

1929 - 2012

The world lost a special man today - Lloyd Perkins, Sr.  To me he was "Grandpa", but to others he was a husband, son, father, brother, uncle, grandfather, great-grandfather, cousin, and friend.  He was a businessman, a fisherman, a do-it-yourselfer, an entrepreneur, a man who loved his grill, a happy hour expert, and an all around good guy.

Grandpa and Grandma with the 3 kids - 2009

Graduation from Agnes Scott College - 2006

Royce and Grandpa

All of the boys.
I love this picture!

Husband and Wife

I remember the summer vacations my brother and I enjoyed as kids at Grandpa and Grandma's Englewood, Florida beach house.  It was literally a child's paradise.  The memories I have are endless:  long afternoons at the beach, skiing and knee boarding, fishing from the dock, cracking peanuts on the deck, watching a wild pig run through the back yard, sitting around the grill and chatting while dinner cooked, late afternoon movies and naps, playing Lego's underneath the staircase, watching sea turtles lay eggs on the beach, and playing endless rounds of solitaire.  

Enjoying dinner at Sharkey's

A Dad and his sons

Are you taking another picture of me?
Grandpa wasn't a fan of cameras.

Mom and Dad with Grandpa and Grandma

  

The guys take on all of the world's problems after dinner.
At some point, Grandpa likely chimed in "Do you want to be right or happy?"

Enjoying Spring Break 2008 at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

My favorite part of this picture is Grandpa sticking his tongue out at the camera.

I love you Grandpa, and will miss you terribly.  In addition to all of the memories you have created, I am most thankful for the loving, strong, thoughtful, and entrepreneurial son you raised who I have the pleasure of calling Dad.  You may not be around for me to share a happy hour beer or glass of wine, but rest assured I'll carry you closely in my mind and continue to celebrate the life that you charted.

Firecracker Fun

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

Regardless of whether you ran the Peachtree Road Race, soaked up the sun on the water, grilled a tasty meal, gave thanks to those who have served our country, watched fireworks, or simply enjoyed time with friends and family, I hope you had a fantastic day celebrating the USA!

Here's a look at how I spent my Independence Day

A late breakfast after I slept in until nearly 9:30am
Patriotic pancakes and eggs

Someone thought it was a brilliant idea to go for a 10k run at 11am.  

What was I thinking??  It was hot as Hades out there!

Salad greens topped with quinoa and tofu.
Served along side of an incredibly sweet and juicy Georgia peach.

An ice-cold root beer and some shades

 For dinner, I created my own summer grilling feast - minus the outdoor grill.

Mushroom brown rice burger with all of the fixings, corn salad, and watermelon

The corn salad was very simply and incredibly good.  Add this to the menu of your next summer meal.  

Tangy Summer Corn Salad

Simply saute a chopped red onion, 1/2 cup chopped banana peppers, and 3 cloves of garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil until they are soft.  Add three ears worth of corn and continue to saute for three additional minutes.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool.  For the dressing, combine the juice of half a lime with one tablespoon of dijon mustard and a hearty amount of freshly ground black pepper.  Toss the corn mixture with the dressing and then refrigerate until ready to serve.

Taking a step back to yesterday, I joined some of my ortho family at a Summer Pops Concert in the Park, featuring the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra.  The park was packed to capacity and we all enjoyed a festive night with lots of patriotic themed tunes.

Tacos from the Harvest Moon food truck - all local and organic ingredients.

I brought my new camera along with me with the intention of trying my hand at capturing fireworks on film.  I alternated between many different settings to try to get a feel for all that the camera is capable of doing.  I think I took a few good ones.

One last firework erupting over the South Park amphitheater

Officially a PGY-2

One year ago, I was preparing to take a huge step.  Remember this post?  Nerves, excitement, and anxious energy were the themes as I set forth on my first day as an orthopaedic intern.  Now, exactly one year later I have officially finished my intern year!  What a year it has been - filled with new experiences, exhaustion, tons of learning, frustrations, and developing as a doctor.  It's been a year of highs and lows, and at this point, I'm just glad it's behind me.  No more trauma intern pager, general surgery call nights, or random "24 hour" off periods that are supposed to count as a day off.  It's all orthopaedics for the next four years, and I couldn't be more grateful.

To celebrate, I finally cooked myself a real meal.  It certainly wasn't anything elaborate, but it is a huge step in the right direction.  I whipped up a quinoa salad with black beans, red onion, and home-grown tomatoes, bell peppers, and banana peppers.  To amp up the flavor I created a citrus dressing of EVOO, grapefruit juice, dijon mustard, and cracked pepper.  Along with the quinoa I pan seared tofu that was coated with cornmeal and barbecue seasoning.

I stepped outside for picture taking and was quickly overcome by the heat and humidity.  It was a balmy 106 degrees in Charlotte yesterday.  I have a strong suspicion that I'm going to have some foul language for my Duke Energy bill this month.

A couple weeks ago, the annual CMC Graduation Banquet was held.  It was an evening free from work to celebrate our chief residents and their service to our program over the past five (or six) years.  Jason, Tim, and Brian were great chiefs and I certainly learned so much about orthopaedics and about being a doctor from them.  We'll miss you guys!

Dr. Frick, our program director, is headed to Orlando to tackle a new challenge as chairman of orthopaedics at a children's hospital.  To say that he will be missed is an understatement!  How many program directors do you know that offer to take primary junior level call to experience first-hand the frustrations with the emergency department?

We were minus several residents for the celebration, but we had a fantastic time nonetheless.  After seeing the drama, frustrations, and bitter personalities in some of the other residency programs this past year, I'm so happy I get to call all of these guys my friends and colleagues.  

And with that, let the PGY-2 year begin!  For the next two months I'll be a spine doctor, learning all that I can about that pesky back pain that seems to plague nearly everyone.  My first junior level call is Saturday and the nervous energy is already palpable.  Maybe I should go do a little reading . . . 

Two Days To Go

Two more night shifts as trauma intern stand between me and becoming a PGY-2.  Words cannot even begin to do justice to how ready I am for intern year to be over.  This past three month stretch of trauma ICU, general surgery, and trauma floor has been exhausting both mentally and physically.  It's a good thing I chose orthopaedics, because if I knew my future was anything like the past few months, I'd quickly be reassessing my career choice.

My life has become a constant repeating sequence of workouts, work, and sleep.  Food has become an after thought and I don't remember the last time I prepared a real meal.  Instead, I've depended on Earth Fare's salad bar, smoothies, hummus or peanut butter sandwiches, or salads from the hospital cafeteria.  I'm desperately craving a big hearty meal fresh off the grill enjoyed at a relaxing pace without worrying about the ten other things I need to cram into the hour left in the day.

My favorite meals include bites of lots of different salads.

My attempt to de-stress after a long day with sugary snacks

Pasta salad, Kale, Egg, and Pears
Random, but a satisfying meal

A raspberry smoothie bowl topped with Chia Charger and raisins

I have a feeling the next two nights could be brutal.  Friday and Saturday leading up to the July 4th holiday just screams "get drunk - drive a car - shoot people - assault your "friend" - and do lots generally stupid things."  In other words, do everything in your power to make the trauma intern's life a living hell.  To top it off, I got less than 5 hours of restless sleep today, so my enthusiasm is quite low.  The only saving grace is that it's 105 degrees outside.  Charlotte, just stay inside and lay low these next two nights.  Please, and thank you.

Lessons From The Trenches

Today I thought I'd share just a few tidbits I learned while working nights this weekend.  I don't necessarily recommend that you adapt these to your own lives.

1.  Liquor-cycles, aka motorcycles and mopeds, require that that the driver have a minimal blood alcohol level of 250 to start the ignition.

2.  A 40-year old man who jumps head first into a pool will earn himself a giant scalp laceration, an hour spent in the OR reattaching the scalp to skull, and a giant hospital bill all in the spirit of celebrating his birthday.  Next year you might want to leave out that case of beer or develop better judgement with regards to the impact of gravity, a concrete pool bottom, and your noggin'.  

3. If you spray gasoline on your legs and then proceed to light brush on fire, some singed legs hairs will be the least of your worries.


4.  Personal hygiene is far under-appreciated.  The medical staff cannot take care of you if we ourselves become trauma patients after passing out from your horrendous body odor.

5.  In Charlotte, we have very classy ways to demonstrate appropriate child rearing.  When one mother disagrees with the parenting skills of another mother, she goes into her kitchen, grabs a crock pot full of boiling oil, marches back outside, and tosses the oil at the other two adults and their four children.  Congratulations, you may consider yourself a great Mom, but you just ruined six people's lives.

6.  The smell of burnt flesh will be embedded in your nose for days.

7.  Ninety-two year old demented ladies may quite possibly be my favorite trauma patients.  Their biggest concern is being covered in blankets to keep them decent.

8.  The combination of sleep deprivation and trauma patient number 22 in a twelve hour time-span will make you scream.  And then you'll laugh at yourself, because this stuff doesn't even happen in the movies.

9.  Sunday morning's hot shower followed be curling up in bed was worth a million dollars after the hellacious night at Charlotte's Miracle Center.

10.  Seeing the bright smiles and well rested faces of the new intern class is priceless.  Life as they know it is about to change - and they have no idea what's coming.  My life is about to change as well, and I can't wait to pass the baton and welcome them to the world of general surgery trauma in 2 weeks!  Good-bye gen surg, hello ortho!

10.  Taking the time to prepare a home-cooked meal full of delicious garden produce, fresh wild salmon, and hearty bread reminds me of the great life that exists outside of the hospital.  Now if only I actually got to spend significant time outside of the hospital.