Doc's Progress Notes
Week of May 8, 2000
Last Updated: 5/14/2000 at 9:09 PM PDT
Monday Tuesday
Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Most Recent Update
No update.
No update.
No, I am not on vacation nor am I sick or injured. I am tired, however. I started to go back and do a Dr. Keyboard and post something for each day I missed but decided to be more honest than that <G>. So, fasten your seat belts and here we go with my story (and I'm sticking to it).
Friday night wasn't too bad. Interruptions in sleep all night to answer the phone but at least I did not have to go back into the hospital to take care of something. Then, Saturday I helped round on the patients in the hospital before going to our Saturday clinic. This is supposed to be for only urgent problems which take a relatively short time and the patients are scheduled with that in mind. That turned out to not be the case however so I saw some very sick patients both Saturday and Sunday in the office. There are a couple of gastroenteritis (vomiting and diarrhea) viruses going around here right now, one of which is Rotavirus in kids. I ended up admitting a couple of patients to the hospital each day from the clinic which slows you down tremendously, especially when all the appointment slots are already full. So, I did not get finished Saturday night until after 6:30. I went home and crashed on the couch and watched old home movies with Delanae and the kids before falling asleep about 10PM so no update was done on Saturday.
Sunday was worse! I got to the hospital around 8 AM to make rounds and managed to make it to church for about thirty minutes of worship, ate a sandwich quickly and then it was back to clinic. Clinic was probably busier Sunday than Saturday. Almost everyone was complicated and all the appointment slots were full plus we added in a couple more. I did admit two kids again that afternoon. After finishing the clinic patients, I went back to the hospital to see the new admits and some other patients that needed to be seen again. Then, I got called to the Emergency Department to see one of our medical assistants from the office(who is doing fine now). I finally got home somewhere around 11 PM that night and discussed the day with my family rather than update this journal. The phone calls continued throughout the night of course but again I did not have to go back into the hospital.
Monday after being on call the weekend is supposed to be a day off. However, being the masochist that I am, since I had a 7 AM meeting scheduled I decided to go ahead and work since I was going to be there anyway. BIG mistake. Rather than being a fairly easy day it turned into a very long day again with complicated problems. I finally finished dictating about 7 PM and went directly to worship team practice until 9 PM or so. After Delanae and I got home, we stayed up late talking to Stephen and about Stephen (more details later) so I again skipped writing this journal trying to catch up on a little sleep Monday night.
Yesterday was another full day. All but one of the patients I put in the hospital over the weekend has gone home so rounds are much shorter. The morning in the clinic was rather slow but the afternoon is very busy again. After that we had our mens group meeting then worship team practice again then home. Again, I had to choose between getting some sleep or staying up and doing an update; sleep won out again. So, here I am having caught you up on my past four days. They all seem like a blur now but, at the time, seemed like they would never end.
Now, I promised you some details about Stephen. He is almost sixteen and we have been having some behavioral issues with him for a few months now. He brought things to a head Friday night when he sneaked out of the house at 1 AM and rode his scooter to a friend's house where he and the friend went to another house. They were gone until around 3 AM and he got back home sometime after that. Of course, we found out from the friend's mother what had happened and confronted him about it. He, at first, showed no remorse but Sunday broke down and told his mother he had been repressing anger for years over her divorcing his biological father. Apologies were said and tears were shed on both sides and hopefully there has been a real breakthrough with him now. We are trying to make time each night to sit down with him and just find out what happened that day rather than wait for him to come to us. That stress made the weekend even more intense.
I am finally catching up on reading the other Daynoters sites now. I am up to date now on everyone. My apologies to them for not e-mailing words of encouragement to those who were also having a stressful time. I simply was not able to read any of their sites until yesterday morning and this morning. I was very happy to see that Shelley had made it through surgery without any problems and was ready to go to WalMart again quickly. Delanae is now scheduled for a minor procedure under the knife on Friday and I hope she bounces back as quickly as Shelley evidently has.
I must go now and run some errands. Maybe more later, no promises though.
No update.
I'm finally surfacing again. Yesterday was devoured by the on call monsters again. Busy day at the office then at the hospital afterward until after 10 PM. No more call days until next Thursday then I have something like three weeks until another one pops up. I was awakened every half hour through the night last night to answer the telephone. Consequently, I am feeling very sleepy today.
Delanae had her surgery today and is doing fine. I took her in to the same day surgery department then saw patients at my office while she was actually under the influence(anesthesia). I made it back upstairs(one flight) to help her wake up from the anesthetic. She is now home with me, sleeping, which means she will be up very late tonight. I have a dinner with a candidate for a job with our group to go to for a couple of hours so the kids can take care of her during that time. She was going to go with me but now obviously can't. Then, I am bringing her ice cream home and it will finally be bedtime for me! Stephen has already asked to go to some youth get-together tonight, conveniently forgetting he is still grounded. He can now use the computer again but is not allowed to go to events other than church on Sunday morning and Wednesday night.
This weekend is supposed to be nice here. Temperatures in the low 70's with partly cloudy to fair skies which will make for good outside working conditions. The garden needs weeding and hoeing and the grass needs trimming bad. Also, we will be rearranging our detached garage so one of the vehicles can be parked in it again. Too bad Delanae will be under the weather and unable to take part in the fun. She really enjoys working in the yard, especially the dirt. Stephen says he enjoys it so we will test that over the next two days.
Now, I have time to go and run before I get ready for the dinner tonight. I also need to get something together for Delanae and the kids to eat tonight. This weekend I need to go and forward Delanae's e-mail from work to her computer here. I thought I had set up a rule in Outlook 2000 to forward her e-mail but I guess I did not do it right since we have no work related mail here yet. I'm looking forward to Tom's book so I will be able to look up how to do things like this since she uses Outlook 2K at the office and I use Outlook 98 here. So, I am off and I will see you later....
The yard is done. The garden is weeded but the weather has been so cool at night here that not much except the peas have germinated yet. I have a few beans coming up and three corn stalks. The rhododendrons that I transplanted to different spots earlier in the spring are beginning to bloom which I did not expect this year. All in all, the plants are doing well. Oh, Delanae's flowers are still not up yet in the front yard, again victims of cool weather at night(and daytime too).
I just realized that I forgot to cancel our reservations tomorrow for Mother's Day lunch. Delanae will not be going out of the house until at least the middle of the week due to her surgery Friday. We have gone every year for Mother's Day lunch at the same restaurant which is in an old mansion here. It has become a tradition very quickly but this year will have to be different. I had made the reservation a couple of weeks ago to be certain we had a time that we could make immediately after church. Stacey is now taking orders for Mother's Day breakfast for tomorrow morning. She does this for us also as a Mother's Day tradition. I end up getting breakfast in the morning too since the kids are usually visiting in Arkansas on Father's Day.
The candidate last night was very impressive. She is a nurse practitioner who is being interviewed for a position helping to take care of our nursing home residents during weekdays. The nurse practitioner currently in the position is leaving to move back to the Seattle area. This candidate is from New Jersey and she and her husband want to relocate to the Pacific Northwest to raise their children in a less congested area than New Jersey. She is doing the same job in New Jersey right now and loves the job but hates the congestion. They want a place in the country where they can have animals. She will probably be extended an offer, then we will see if she comes. Dinner was great, I had grilled salmon with a wild rice pilaf and broccoli after a Ceasar salad to begin the evening. Dessert was a delicious chocolate mousse. Did I sound like Chris W-J?
I hope everyone has a great Mother's Day tomorrow. I don't know what we are going to do for lunch tomorrow yet but we will figure something out. Good night.
Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. Delanae will remember this one for the rest of her life and will laugh at it I am sure. The kids and I went to church this morning then went by and picked up pizzas for Mother's Day lunch since she could not get out due to her recent surgery. Her favorite pizza is Roastin' Toastin' Garlic from Round Table Pizza so that is what we brought home for her. I forgot that Stacey made breakfast for Delanae and I this morning also. She got it ready in less than 25 minutes and we went on and on about how good it was. Then, this afternoon we watched the Blazers and napped which is Delanae's favorite thing to do on Sunday afternoon anyway. She told me that she is so well rested after so much sleep the past two days that she is ready to get up and do something but she cannot until after Friday at the earliest.
I spoke to my mother back in Arkansas this afternoon. We sent her a denim shirt with her grandchildren's names embroidered on it and she liked it so much that she wore it to church there today. My brother and his two children spent most of the weekend with her so she was not alone on Mother's Day. Hopefully, she will come out and visit us again before too long.
Tonight, I am printing off some documentation for insurance company applications which have to be redone every two years in most cases. Most of the information is unchanged but I have an updated CV to send them and updated board recertification documentation also. Our credentials office cannot seem to keep anyone's file completely up-to-date so I am sending them the latest information which will be out of date again in six months probably. It keeps me on my toes.
That's about it for tonight. Hope you have a great Monday tomorrow.
