North to the Olympics

That would be the Olympics of sporting fame.  Driving through Vancouver for the first time in a month, we saw signs everywhere warning us of the imminence of the Olympics.  Yesterday began the road closures, but we didn't exactly run into any of them.  On our way out on highway 17, a very big/long truck had turned itself over entirely onto its side, leaving traffic to the Tsawwassen ferry backed up a very long way.  And maybe 5 K beyond that, we went through the Massey Tunnel, which last night was closed in both directions for a number of hours after a car caught on fire in the tunnel.  There's more disorder and chaos around in the outer world, too, I guess.

Yesterday, Ed talked to our friend George about the Orchard House work, and this morning as we left, George was at work screwing in dry wall.  It feels good to have this in his hands.  Now we are up on the Sunshine Coast.  My plan is to get rid of everything that won't be moved eventually down to Point Roberts.  Ed's plan is to finish the railing and put up the trim.  We hope to talk to the realtors who, alas, seem to have left for the winter.  But maybe they're around.  This seemed disastrous to me (everything has the potential to seem disastrous to me, at least until I think it through), but now I think it is not such a big deal.  We can sign papers by mail.  Getting the house ready for sale, not actually selling it is the task at hand, and that is our job, not the realtors.

I was thinking back last night about our visit to Ed's surgeon.  In the old health policy and bioethics days, there was this issue of quality care about determining how often somebody had done a procedure.  The patient, it was said, ought to know that because physicians who do newer procedures and have done them more frequently are likely to have better outcomes.  So, over the years, I have occasionally urged people to find this out, although it never occurred to me to consider carefully how you actually ask the question.  Ed had been advised by a doc friend last week to find out whether this surgeon had a lot of laparoscopic experience.  Here's how that conversation went, more or less.

Ed: Can this colon resection be done laparoscopically?
Surgeon: Absolutely.
Ed: Have you done a lot of laparoscopic colon resections?
Surgeon: Oh, yes.
Ed: Could you quantify that?
Surgeon: Well, two years ago for my recertification, I counted over a hundred in that year.
Ed: Good.

I could maybe have asked the first question.  I probably couldn't have figured out the way to phrase the second one.  After he says, 'Oh, yes,' to say 'Well, exactly how many?' sort of implies you think he may be putting you on.  But, 'Could you quantify that?'?   So much more friendly; so much more elegant.

We'll be up here in B.C. for a week, then return to Washington.  Ed's daughters will come there for a few days, and a friend from UCLA will move through briefly as he and his son take in a few Olympic competitions.   We look forward to seeing them.