Days #18-20, October 17 to 19, 2016 - The ACS Meeting in Washington, DC

Days #18-20, October 17 to 19, 2016 ACS Conference, Washington, DC

Today was my start of the American College of Surgeons Meeting in Washington, DC. To beat the traffic on the beltway, Edgar likes to leave at 4 am and work out in his gym before going to his office where he is the Director of Budget for the Guarantee Pension Fund Corporation. However, to make it somewhat human for me, we left his house at 6 am. Most of my sessions started at 7 am and this worked out perfectly for me as his office is only three blocks from the convention center.

I enjoyed most of the sessions but did not learn too many new things until I went to a session that was entitled “What’s New in Surgical ICU Care for Septic Shock.” Here they reinforced that early fluid resuscitation and antibiotic treatment are very important and that Norepinepherine is now the pressor agent of choice over Dopamine. To judge adequate fluid, there was a great talk on using the trans-thoracic cardiac echo to do this. Swan Ganz catheters are out.

I did attend sessions on breast cancer, hernia repairs that are now mostly done with a laparoscope, and a fews sessions on thoracic and cardiac surgery. I was ready to exit the sessions by 4 pm and did earn 47.5 CME credits for my attendance.

On the final day, October 19th, it was Earline’s 61st birthday so we all met at the Marriott hotel next to the conference center at 4 pm and drove to a restaurant called the Blue Jacket that was a brewpub for Earline’s benefit. The beers were unique but the food was just average. However, it was a nice place for Earline to celebrate with his brother, sister-in-law, her nephew, his wife and six-month boy and her husband of course.

Returning home in time to watch the final Presidential debate, we stayed up until 12:30 am discussing the fiasco. Off to bed a bit later because we must drive to Summersville, WV in the morning to see Earline’s older brother, Earl and his wife Bonnie at their cabin that the purchased next to Earl and Bonnie’s daughter. They wanted to be near their five grandchildren.