The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: A Meat Story

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the year!

That's right sportsfans. It's Christmas time. The temperature is dropping (sort of), the lights are going up, radio stations are playing Christmas music 24 hours a day, and I have savored the taste of victory. That's right ladies and gentlemen I have complete the first class of my medical school training: GROSS ANATOMY! No more lab or smelling like formaldehyde 24 hours a day. I must say that I truly respect those who donated their bodies so that I could learn but I am also truly thankful that gross is over. Now on to the fun stuff like my birthday. For my birthday we went to a the paradise of steakhouses: Texas de Brazil. Now for those of you who have never heard of this restaraunt let me just start of by saying that the Brazilians do meat right. At this place there is a huge salad bar with all sorts of salad, cheeses, soups, side item, and the most wonderful lobster bisque I have ever tasted. I mean the salad bar alone is worth the price of admission. But this is a meat story so back to the meat! At your table there is a little button type thing that is green one one side and red on the other. Now when you flip the button to green about thirty servers descend upon your table with giant four foot skewers with all sorts of meat like lamb roast, lamb chops, filet mignon, flank steak, parmesan pork, BBQ ribs, and the list could go on forever. It should be noted that as long as the button is green then these people keep offering you stuff. It was all so delicious and it felt like thanksgiving except I didn't have to waste stomach space on the "fixins". It was so good if I haven't mentioned that already! As we rolled ourselves home all I could think was "Happy Birthday to me!"

Double Out? No, Double Wins!

The Champs!

Well Sportsfans,

This time I really am writing to you about sports. The Caugdawgs were rollin' champion style in their softball division (more specifically the Boss dog). Since this weekend was prior to the start of the third block, yours truly didn't have any work to do so the Boss informed me that I was going to come to her final softball game(s). Not really knowing any of her work people, I jumped up and down like a five year old saying "But I don't wanna!!!Do I have ta go?" To which I was told in no uncertain terms "yes"! When the time came I got my game face on and we trucked it out to Bartlett for the semifinal game. Double Out (the name of Casey's team) recruited me to be their official scorekeeper (whupwhup). Next thing you know I am a full fledged member/errand boy and I couldn't have been prouder. After a rough first inning, Double Out easily won the semifinal game and earned a date in the final with the "Knockers" (yeah, I'm not making this up.) See, this is the kind of crap you get when you give rednecks poetic license. Instead of Shakespeare you end up getting some sort of double entendre like the Knockers which is about one step up from fart jokes. But enough of the social commentary. As the game got started one of the ladies, Angie, got called into work to take care of an "emergency". And for those of you not in the medical field, typically this means that you have to drop whatever you are doing to go assist with the "emergency" and you end up sitting around for an hour or so before you have to do anything beacuse of tests, delays,etc. Most of the true emergencies just come crashing through the door without any warning. Since the roster had already been turned in the rules being what they were dictated that every time it was her turn to bat it was an automatic out. Strike One! The Knockers got off to an early lead which was then matched by Double Out and the game settled down. Double Out lead most of the game but the Knockers were always within striking distance and could easily pile up runs thanks to two incredible hitters. So fast forward to the 7th inning. Double Out was leading by two runs, and the Knockers took the lead by one thanks to some great hitting as well as a few lucky rolls of the ball. As Double out came to bat it was the top of the order with the lead off man, Kevin, getting a single. Then Angie's automatic out. Then Jonathan came up to bat. This guy could outrun a cheetah folks. I mean he is so freakin' fast that he could bunt the ball and score a home run before the catcher could throw the ball to first. Anyways, he got to first which put Kevin at second. At this point I cleaned the vomit up off the scorebook because I was so nervous...and i wasn't even playing. (just kidding about the vomit though) Then mighty Paige came up to bat. I mean it was textbook bottom of the ninth, 2 outs that kind of thing when she drove the ball into right field scoring Kevin and Jonathan which meant that Double Out was the one, the only, the CHAMPS!!!! Cue the champagne, the cheezy Queen lyrics, I mean you name it cue it up. I was so proud to be a part of the winning team especially because my pookie hit well and fielded well (even taking a line drive off the shins). And all the rest of Double out played incredible as well but since this is my blog I get to write about whatever I want so that means I am a little biased but I will give ya'll a shout out as well! WHUPWHUP! So that's it. I am married to the champ! And until next time keep it real!

Jeff aka 'The big Dog'


Yolanda, Cassie, Casey, and Lauren (aka LeBonheur Child Life!)


The Champs celebrate in true fashion! Welches Grape Juice!

Doctoring: Tales Of Viagra and Squirrels

Welcome Back Sportsfans to the Dogpound!!! It has been a great week here in Memphis this week because it is PCC/ DRS week!!!What is that and what does it mean you ask? Well, Prevention, Community and Culture (PCC) is where we learn to evaluate literature as well as gain insight into issues such as epidemiology, ethics, blahblahblah. Doctoring: recognizing signs and symptoms (DRS) is where we get fed to the wolves because we go to our preceptors office out in the community to further reinforce how much we don't know! As if gross anatomy wasn't enough. So what does that mean for us as students? A much needed break from the daily grind where I get a reprieve from smelling like formaldehyde and Casey actually gets to see me.
So what did I learn this week? I did a lot of growing this week as an infant physician. Clinically, I learned that it is the patien'ts whole story is what matters and to refrain from taking statements out of context to make an assumption. Case in point. At Dr. _____ office we saw patient X who had had a rough year medically speaking. He was a 74 year old gentleman who had almost died several times and had had numerous surgeries. We got to the end of the interview and he asked the Doc if he could have some Viagra. I always wondered how I would react when this subject came up and my first instinct was to laugh to myself and think "This guy has been watching too much TV!!!" Well, no sooner had I thought this than he continued on saying that the following was his 49th anniversary (yeah that's a long time) with his wife and that they wanted to "Give it a whirl." To that I say, "Well played! Go, boy, go!" Lesson here folks is that you are only as old as you feel and take time to get the whole story in whatever it is because your first instinct might not always be right.

Changing gears. This week is supposed to be little more relaxed than other weeks. Since it was a gorgeous day I decided to take Vanna for a walk to the park that is at the end of the street which Vanna loves because it is filled with squirrels. so when we got down there sure enough there were tons of the little devils running around and as all dogs do she takes off running. Now would be a good time to bring up the fact that she is on a retractable leash because her attention span is so one track minded that if she weren't she would chase one thing after another and end up in California or something. Meanwhile back at the ranch, I decide to start running as well. BAAAAAADDDDD IDEA! For onething, she is is about 10 times faster than I and when focused can provide a tremendous amount of force on the leash. Needless to say, she ends up pulling me off balance, I stumble forward topheavily trying to keep my balance, and end up landing face first in the ground which was reminiscent of Anna Nissen and the Great Beach Ball Incident of 2002. In my defense, I think I pulled it off with all the grace of the proverbial bull in a china shop but I think I got a 9 of 10 on the landing. The point of this is that it was really a lot of fun chasing squirrels with my dog in th park and it was a great way to blow off some steam. Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously and need to be reminded of the bigger picture. So, in the words of Porky Pig, "BBDBDBDBD, that's all Folks!"

RUFFRUFF,

The Big Dog




ps- is that the face of a killer or what?

The Short, Short Version!

Welcome Sportsfans,

To the official website of the awesomest pack of people you will ever know: the Caugdawgs. Individually the members of the pack are as follows: Jeff 'the Big Dog' Caughran, Casey 'the Boss dog' Caughran, and Vanna 'the furball' Caughran. For those of you who didn't know, there have been quite a few changes that have occurred in the past few months. We left the big town of Chattanooga in the hottest month of the year to move to the land of the "Delta Blues", Elvis, and the Big Muddy (aka the Mississippi River to begin my career as a med student and Casey could continue her career as a child-life specialist at LeBonheur Children's Hospital. So, I love school, Casey loves her job, and Vanna loves the backyard filled will lots of squirrels! So enjoy some pictures from the past few months! So here is our blog and its purpose is to bring together all the other members of our pack (family, friends, etc.) Feel free to post comments about what is going on in your dog packs anytime about anything. We'd love to hear about those times that you ran with a big dog, bit the hand that fed you, or howled at the moon. And as always keep it real and keep it clean! RUFFFRUFF!!

Much love,

Jeff a.k.a. the Big Dog