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Ever since I was a small boy in the Philippines I wanted to go to the USA, especially California.
Even when we would be out in the basak planting rice I would pass the time by daydreaming about the day I would finally go there....it would be my dream come true!
Chris planting rice in Surigao del Norte, 1961, age 10.
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May 3, 2005: Imagine my excitement upon finally landing at San Francisco International Airport in CALIFORNIA!
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Everything is BIGGER and BETTER in America!
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I went to visit my mom in Brentwood, near Stockton in California's Central Valley.
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She has become a 'birdlady' with a house full of birds.
Here's 'DC-3', a previously-wild pigeon with a lame leg...adopted by my mom from the shelter.
Here's 'DC-3', a previously-wild pigeon with a lame leg...adopted by my mom from the shelter.
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Next day we took the pigeon to a avian veterinary clinic... specializing
in birds. Dr. Scott Ford had taken x-rays of its legs last week, but couldn't find
anything significant. So today he took more x-rays, this time with the pigeon
strapped down and with its left leg externally rotated so as to get a lateral
view of the tibia and knee joint..
Bingo! He found a very sharp bend at the end of the tibia, although it was difficult to tell if the bone had actually fused in that abnormal alignment.
So......he offered to do a de-rotational osteotomy with external fixation: drill small holes in the pigeon's distal tibia near the sharp bend, enough so he could break the bone (de-rotational osteotomy.) Then he would use the small holes to place pins in the bone; then put the bones in proper alignment, and attach the pins to plates on the outside of the leg (external fixation.) These would be left in place until the bone had healed. "Come back on Friday for the surgery!"
Bingo! He found a very sharp bend at the end of the tibia, although it was difficult to tell if the bone had actually fused in that abnormal alignment.
So......he offered to do a de-rotational osteotomy with external fixation: drill small holes in the pigeon's distal tibia near the sharp bend, enough so he could break the bone (de-rotational osteotomy.) Then he would use the small holes to place pins in the bone; then put the bones in proper alignment, and attach the pins to plates on the outside of the leg (external fixation.) These would be left in place until the bone had healed. "Come back on Friday for the surgery!"
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Due to a heavy schedule at the clinic, the surgery was re-scheduled for the following week, after I'd already be gone.
Darn, I wanted to watch!
I did get to see the construction boom around Brentwood: lots and lots of new houses going up, like this humble shack...
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