Doc's Progress Notes
Week of March 13, 2000
Last Updated: 3/19/2000 at 7:19 PM PST
Monday Tuesday
Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Most Recent Update
In Reno!
In Reno!
We're back!!!! Yes, we made it back from Reno last night late and happy to be back. We had a great time there but were ready to get home yesterday. We came back pretty even as far as money goes, not having lost any more gambling than what little we took to gamble with. What little gambling we did, we did on slot machines, mostly nickel machines. We are really big gamblers as you can see. Gambling doesn't hold much attraction for me although the one time I won 200 nickels was pretty exciting but I proceeded to lose them back to the casino within the next thirty minutes.
The flight down and back from Portland only took one hour and twenty minutes, just long enough to get a soft drink and peanuts from the flight attendants. The flights were smooth both ways, I have flown into Reno when the winds made the flight very turbulent. Thank God there was no turbulence this time so Delanae did not get too scared (the tranquilizers helped a lot!!!). I knew the highway from the airport there to the hotel as if it had not been 12 years since I had been there. There were new casinos but it all looked very familiar to me.
Monday, we rented a car and drove around Reno so I could show Delanae where I used to live and practice. Having done that, we headed to Lake Tahoe. She now understands why I have always spoken so lovingly of Tahoe. It was an absolutely beautiful winter day there with clear skies and the lake was its usual deep blue. The snow on the mountains around the lake made for a real contrast with the blue of the water. We drove completely around the lake, stopping at several scenic overlooks and parks. Some of the parks were near lake level and had no snow, a couple were high enough to still have a lot of snow on them. We had the digital camera with us and took a lot of pictures, some of which we will post here or at Delanae's site later.
Good news today! Our new septic tank/system will be put in tomorrow and the new carpet is in at the store. That means that very soon we can start rearranging the house again and get things back to normal. Delanae and I are both very tired of clutter and are ready to get rid of some things we don't need or use. The next few nights and this weekend we will be spending moving things around in the house so the carpet can be installed and both offices moved downstairs unless we change our minds again. Updates will be short because of this activity and the pictures of our trip to Reno will have to wait until we both have more spare time.
More good news!!!! For those of you who don't keep up with sports, the Arkansas Razorbacks surprised everyone by winning the South Eastern Conference basketball tournament and, therefore, automatically qualified for the NCAA Tournament. This was a rebuilding year for Nolan Richardson and the Hogs and they were not picked to win a single game in the tournament. But here they are, back in the NCAA's again and playing Miami Friday night in Nashville. Go HOGS!!!!
Tomorrow, I go back to work and wade through the paperwork that has built up since I was gone for three days. I've already checked my e-mail and voice mail but have not looked at the paperwork yet. I have to help interview an oncologist who wants to join our group tomorrow also. It should be a busy day.
The new septic tank is in the ground but the lateral lines are having to be redone. Our old drain field is apparently no longer useable so they are having to put in new ones which means the project won't be done until tomorrow and will be even more expensive. No final total yet, won't know that until the work is completely done. The carpet installation is on hold until next week which means we have to move furniture all weekend and into next week.
I managed to get almost all the waiting paperwork done and actually got home just before 7:30 PM. The interview this morning started twenty minutes late and I had to leave after 10 minutes to be at the office on time. The oncologist seems to not be very committed to staying here so I probably won't recommend that we make her an offer. We need some stability here among the specialists, we have had too much turnover lately among the specialists. Most leaving are the right decision for us but it still makes the patients uneasy when physicians come and go. Today, though, most physicians will move an average of five times during their careers.
My only hospital patient left against medical advice this evening. He had come in for alcohol detox before going to a residential treatment program. There was not a bed open at one when he was ready to be discharged after the acute phase of treatment, so, rather than send him back home to his house which was being used as a meth lab, we kept him, at his request, until a bed opened up. He has a bed tomorrow but today decided he could not stay one more night in the hospital and talked his mother into picking him up and taking him elsewhere. I doubt he will get the treatment he needs, now.
Tomorrow, we have a wedding to go to after work. One of our medical assistants is getting married on St. Patrick's Day since her fiancee is Irish. It should be very busy again at the office and, hopefully, the septic system will be finished. I can't wait to find out how much the final cost is. See you tomorrow...
The septic system is finally in and we can flush toilets, run the dishwasher, and wash clothes again without thinking twice about it. The tank and drainfield all had to be replaced so it took two days. We don't have the final bill yet for all the work but we will be contacting the people who inspected the system before we bought the house and certified it in good working order since it was obviously not in the shape it was certified to be in.
Tomorrow, we will be moving furniture so the new carpet can go in Monday and Tuesday. We have to take down a waterbed frame which Stephen is using in his room and move it out of his room then put it back together after the new carpet is installed. All of Stacey's bedroom furniture has to be moved upstairs and some office furniture moved into Stacey's room. All in all, a busy day.
Sorry for the short update tonight. Actually, I am having trouble connecting to the mail server at my web site so I don't know if this will even get posted tonight. I will try however.
As you can see, I am back online again. I just got a message from my web page hosting service saying that they are having problems with their power lines and are having intermittent disruptions of power to their servers. They are striving to fix the problem as soon as possible. At least for now, the servers are functional.
Lazy morning here so far. Everyone is sleeping later than normal except me. I am ready to get started on the projects here but no one else is yet. They will be up shortly and will want to work later than me now since they are more night people than me. Too many years of being at the hospital by 7 AM I guess. It is raining here at the present so I will run this afternoon as a good break from moving furniture. I have gotten caught up on all the other Daynoters pages. I missed three days worth of reading during our trip to Reno and am finally caught up now. I need to send a biography to be added to the Meet the Gang Page sometime during all my spare time. More later today...
Well, I didn't get back to writing last night. We got all the furniture moved so the downstairs is now ready for the new carpet to be installed. It will be a two day job so tomorrow night we have to move the stuff from Stephen's room onto the new carpet so his room can be carpeted. That means we don't have everything moved yet but we do have the majority moved. After that, we get to put all the rooms back together again and move two offices and one bedroom. Then, we will finally have this house back together again.
Great message at church today. Our preacher talked about how religion is too legalistic and turns off people due to this. < WARNING: Beginning of rant!> A lot of the so called rules that Christians have been told they have to adhere to by the various churches are actually cultural in nature. For instance, in the New Testament are references to Christians not eating meat sacrificed to idols. When was the last time you or I had the chance to eat meat sacrificed to an idol in our modern culture? In a similar vein it is not against the teaching of the Church in Germany for their members to drink beer and yet in certain denominations here it is strictly forbidden for the members to drink any alcohol. This doesn't mean that it is OK for a Christian to go out and get drunk every night because we do have a responsibility to not lead a nonbeliever into sin by our example and because we each have a conscience and know right from wrong thanks to the Holy Spirit who abides in each of us who have been saved. So, it may be wrong for one believer to drink alcohol but not wrong for another and we have to stop condemning people for doing things that we consider wrong and start asking God if it is wrong. We have drums and electric guitars in our church which are used to worship God, in some denominations this would be considered sinful. We, the Church, have to stop condemning people and begin accepting them for what they are, namely God's creation. Those of us who have been saved have been saved by God's Grace alone, not because of any rules that we followed or deeds that we have done. <End of rant!>
There are photos from our various adventures of the past week or so now up on Delanae's page here. She has written all the commentary for them and I am not adding more, at least at this time. There will probably be pictures of the new carpet later after it is down. She loves that Sony Mavica and taking pictures. We have many floppies around the house that have pictures stored on them rather than taking up hard disk space.
Looking at the upcoming week, it seems that I have a meeting at noon every day but no early morning meetings for a change. I have several appointments on Wednesday, my day off, so I will be running around all day after being on call the night before. Plus, we have a house to put back together this week and next weekend. Updates may be even shorter this coming week than they have been the past week or so. Have a good week everyone.
