While most of the country is freezing, my new bride and I made a return to the North Shore of Oahu for honeymoon 1.2 in balmy 80 degree weather.

We were here last month, but as luck would have it, Shelley was sick with that nasty coughing virus that’s been going around. She is feeling better this trip but still recovering.

While we were here in December for honeymoon 1.1, at the invitation of chairman Dr. Don Parsa, I gave a talk to the plastic surgeons at Queens Medical Center. He was so pleased by the content (& delivery) of the talk, ‘What killed Michael Jackson & how to make office anesthesia as safe as possible,’ that he invited me back this month to speak to the Biennial meeting of the Pan Pacific Surgery society on Tuesday, Jan. 12th.

I was also interviewed for Dr. Denise Davis’ radio show in Cincinnati for an hour long show this morning while watching the fabulous surf roll in at Turtle Bay Resort.

Instead of continuing to ‘bang my head against the wall’ of a largely indifferent anesthesia establishment, I am finding greater pleasure going where people are at least open to the idea of patient-centered ‘Goldilocks’ anesthesia – that which is not too much, not too little but always just right because it is driven by the individual patient’s brain response.

I am confident that ‘Goldilocks’ is no fairy tale.

The forces of reactionaryism can only prevail for so long in the face of a cost-effective, simpler, safer anesthetic that yields demonstrably better outcomes.

Measure the brain

Preempt the pain

Emetic drugs abstain

Aloha!