Need Directions???

Do you need the scenic route or the right way?? On Friday I had a meeting in Mcallen, TX @ South Texas College (STC). I looked @ the map (which I am not good with), I saw 6th street, Col. Rowe, and I said "I know where that's at!" My sister lived in that area. Once I was there I stopped @ Walgreens (Dove & 10th) to ask. The employee there told me, yeah it's around here, "Just follow the watto towo (water tower) (it was an oriental guy ok!) Anyways, I was so proud of myself... I thought "I read the map right!!" I find the watto towo and that's all it was, the water tower said "STC" but no STC under it!!! Long story short, I was on the total opposite side of where I was supposed to be! Needless to say, I found my way. The meeting was very interesting. Did you know that robots are performing surgery here in Mcallen, TX??? I had kinda read a headline a while back, but of course.........I did not read the article. Dr. Rick Martinez was one of our speakers. He is a surgeon which is currently using the robot!!! It was a little scary to me because the patient is on the bed, robot with 4 arms over the pt, and the surgeon is a couple of feet away at the "Surgeon Console." The surgeon controls all of the robots arms of course. Patients are really seeing the benefits of this type of procedure. Quicker recovery, less blood loss, shorter hospital stay, alot less painful, etc!! They are doing procedures such as open heart surgery, hysterectomies, urologic, and others. Just to tell you this, with open heart surgery, they would have to cut the sternum. With the Robot, they go in through the rib cage!!!We got to see a video, which was really neat! The scary part is that Dr. Martinez said that the future is......FOR EXAMPLE.. The patient will be in Harlingen, TX and the surgeon doing the surgery will be in Houston, TX!!!! How freaky is that?? He did say, the only way he would have surgery like that would be with a live surgeon also at the patient's bedside (just incase). Patients still have 3 choices right now.

• Open all up
• Laparoscopically
• Robotic

We also had another very good speaker...Aaron Lara from the LIVEstrong Foundation (http://www.livestrong.org/). At age 28, he survived a horrible case of testicular cancer. He is an advocate of the LIVEstrong Foundation, founded by "Lance Armstrong," champion cyclist. Mr. Lara, now 32 says this is his passion. The LIVEstrong Foundation has an awesome resource for anyone dealing with cancer. A copy of the manual can be obtained from him for free or from the website for a fee. Although I don't like to talk about this subject, I had to mention it because he is doing his part to spread the word of support, and I'd like to help, even if it's a little.