My Books
An Exciting Announcement
I have two books coming out soon!
The first is my memoir. I am calling it "Cutting Out: The Making and Unmaking of a Surgeon." The cover illustration is above, and fairly self-explanatory. The second is a collection of short stories and essays. This one is entitled "Joie de Vivre, As I See It." The same artist, a dear friend, will be drawi
I have two books coming out soon!
The first is my memoir. I am calling it "Cutting Out: The Making and Unmaking of a Surgeon." The cover illustration is above, and fairly self-explanatory. The second is a collection of short stories and essays. This one is entitled "Joie de Vivre, As I See It." The same artist, a dear friend, will be drawing a joyful cover for that one as well.
The memoir is the story of my journey, through a privileged background and highly competitive educational background to medical school. And from there, through a challenging surgical residency and on to the private practice of surgery. I describe my special interest in weight loss surgery. All along the way there are anecdotes, many of them humorous, some quite the opposite, but all, I hope, entertaining.
From my surgical career, I take the reader through a transition period and ultimately a to career change to the teaching of yoga.
The key part of that transition is the story of how I met the love of my life in college, went a different direction, tried twice to reconnect on a permanent basis--both times without success--and finally got it right 16 years ago.
It is a modern version of the archetypal story of the journey to find one's real calling and reunite with one's soulmate.
This memoir is the culmination of 4 years' of writing, rewriting and editing. It began as five pages of one-line reminders of interesting events that I compiled over a 30 year career.
The book started out as something I wrote for the kids, but became a work with general application.
The other book is a collection of short pieces I wrote in the white heat of inspiration during the Fall of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic. The stories and essays fill in gaps from the memoir. They are about baseball, music, theater, reading, walking in the neighborhood, living on a floating home, teaching yoga, and driving cars. There is almost nothing about my surgery career in this book, which tells you how far I have come since those years.
Archway Books, a self-publishing subsidiary of Simon and Schuster, will be bringing these books out.
More later.
Yogis have more fun
A nice way to start your day is with simple Vedic Sun Salutations. These are easy enough to do. The combination of back bends alternating with forward bends is beneficial for early morning stiffness and chest and sinus congestion.
Vedic Sun Salutations:
- Interlace thumbs, bend knees a bit, and lift with inhale to standing back bend; breathe.
- Exhale into forward bend w/ knees bent, head & chest low, fingers to floor; breathe.
- Step R foot back and kneel; inhale into backbend, arms down; breathe.
- Slide L foot back to plank, raise hips & lower –on exhale knees, on inhale chin and chest, extending toes.
- Inhale into Cobra : head and chest; breathe.
- Exhale into Downward Facing Dog; breathe.
- Slide L foot forward, repeating c.; breathe.
- Exhale stepping into forward bend, repeating b; breathe.
- Interlace thumbs and roll up on inhale to standing back bend; breathe.
- Exhale hands to heart w/ knees straight; breathe.
- Repeat above 10 steps with opp. leg forward.
- Repeat whole sequence twice more, once for each side, this time without extra breaths in each pose.
- Repeat sequence twice more, once for each side, again with extra breaths.
One of the best ways to get the kinks out after traveling is with strap twists.
Supine Strap Twists
- On back with strap handy, both knees bent and feet on floor.
- Put strap on ball of R foot (not on the arch, not on the toes).
- Lift up R leg with knee straight on inhale (Keep L foot on floor.).
- Both hands on strap and advance hands toward R foot, keeping shoulders down.
- Yogic breathing with gaze focused on one spot on ceiling. 5 breaths.
- Move L foot to midline, take strap in R hand, bring L arm straight out from shoulder (palm down).
- On exhale, move R leg straight out to R side, keeping knee as straight as possible. At same time, L knee goes to the L. Try to keep L hip from lifting off the mat. Rotate R hip to aim heel more upwards than toes. Continue to look at spot on ceiling and breathe 5 cycles.
- On inhale, lift R leg back to straight up and extend knee as much as possible; both hands back on strap with shoulders on mat while hands move up towards lifted foot. Extend L leg and flex ankle. 5 breaths.
- Take strap in L hand and with exhale cross R leg over body to L side, keeping knee as straight as possible, and turning head to R as leg crosses over to L. Let R hip come way off the ground, coming to outside of L foot, with ankle remaining flexed. 5 breaths.
- Inhale leg back up, take off strap, soften both ankles, and draw R knee gently down toward chest. 3 breaths.
Then repeat steps 1- 10 for opp. leg.