Chicago, Chicago - that toddlin' town

This past weekend, Jeff and I traveled to Chicago for that annual American Academy of Ophthalmology conference. It's always good to at least one of the annual meetings so that we keep up to date on the latest studies and technological advances for our patients.  Since we're a bit removed out here in Hawaii, we have to make a bit more effort to stay current.It felt a bit weird to travel alone.  We left the kids at home with my parents and as we made our way to check-in, we kept looking around at our belongings.  Usually when we travel with the boys, we've got the stroller, car seat, diaper bag, suitcase for the kids, lots of snacks, milk, etc.  This time, we literally had one carry on and one suitcase for the both us.  It felt so free!  But, I digress, back to Chicago.  Unfortunately, the conference didn't leave much time to explore Chicago.  But, the weather was great when we were there, so we did get the chance to walk around a bit. And, we got invited out to dinner where the dessert was quite literally the size of my head (it was chocolate mousse and if I could have eaten it all, I would have!). Aside from attending lectures, my new textbook was unveiled at the conference.  This book started 5 years ago when I was in Boston as Dr. Dean Cestari and I were in clinic with Dr. David Hunter.  Dean and I kept talking about compiling a list of Dr. Hunter's interesting strabismus cases, detailing his thought process of how he arrived at the surgical plan.  I wrote the 5 first sample cases before I moved out to Hawaii and each time I visited Boston, I met with Dr. Hunter regarding the book, but it had gotten a bit stalled.  Finally, about a year and a half ago, Dr. Hunter called me and asked me if I still wanted to be  part of the book.  Since I was no longer at Boston Children's Hospital, I could be an associate editor and we added 2 more associate editors - Dr. Gena Heidary and Dr. Bharti Nihilani.  He promised me that it would take just one hour a week.  Not quite!  It has been difficult juggling 2 kids, taking care of my own patients and running our private practice, but the final result was well worth it.  Here it is!  And, it's even on amazon, available for pre-order (to avoid that Christmas rush!) and free super saver shipping (that's like a requirement for me when I order from amazon).  I don't receive royalties, or any payment for my participation in the book, simply the love of academic medicine.So, back to the conference, the exhibit floor of the conference is extremely overwhelming and has hundreds of different vendors.  Here's a panorama view of the exhibition floor.Lippincott was one of the exhibitors and they had a booth selling the latest and greatest ophthalmology textbooks (perhaps, that's a bit of an exaggeration, however, they did have a lot of good books).  It was so exciting to see my book in the flesh and to see ophthalmologists actually flipping through it!

Here's a shot of all of the editors and associate editors.Aside from visiting my book, Jeff and I attended many different conferences and checked out the newest state of the art technology available to better serve our patients.  We'll post on some of the things we learned at the conference later.  But, for now, it's great to be back in Hawaii and see our boys!