Week of December 31, 2001
Monday
Tuesday Wednesday
Thursday Friday
Saturday Sunday
Most Recent Update
Am I glad Sunday is over! As you may or may not recall, I had to work yesterday at the hospital and be on call last night as well. My day at the hospital was very busy with several discharges and some admits, not insanely busy however. That all changed last night. At one time I was trying to admit and take care of two critically ill patients at the same time, literally. One had overdosed and the other one had very little blood pressure probably from a heart problem. I was running from room to room trying to stabilize them. One of my partners who is a critical care specialist came in to help and her help was very appreciated. Together we got them both stabilized.
During all this, I was getting still more admissions through the Emergency Department and trying to get stat radiological procedures done on these critically ill patients. Once they were stabilized I then had to go admit the other patients who were less critical. I called Delanae around 10 to tell her what I was doing and realized I had not eaten since around noon. I was not hungry until I realized that then I got a piece of fruit to eat which lasted me until I got home around 1:30 this morning or so. Everyone stayed stable after that and I got a few hours sleep this morning until I had to get up and call my partners about their patients so they would know they needed to be seen this morning. I actually talked to most of them last night before 10 but there were a couple I had not been able to contact. After getting everyone updated and since I am off through Wednesday I went back to bed for a long nap this morning. It felt good to get partly caught up on sleep and not have to work today sleep deprived.
Our New Year's Eve is being spent at home. We have allowed Stephen to have some friends over for a bonfire and New Year's watch party in the backyard. Stacey is at a friend's house who is having a sleep over tonight to usher in the new year. Delanae and I ordered in a pizza and watched a movie while keeping one eye and ear out for what is happening in our backyard. They are being quiet which is one of the requirements for him to do this. He will also be cleaning up after them tomorrow.
I will be getting up early tomorrow to watch the Cotton Bowl where Arkansas plays Oklahoma. Arkansas is a two touchdown underdog but I think it will be a closer game than a lot of the so called experts think. Arkansas will just not give up and will keep fighting hard until the end of the game. The game starts at 8 AM our time which means nap time sometime tomorrow after the game. Actually, it means some serious nap time tomorrow. It also means a run as well as college bowl games between naps.
Now, I must go watch the ball drop. Have a great 2002!
I hope everyone had a safe New Year's Eve. We stayed home for Stephen's party which was not over until sometime after 1:30 AM. I went to bed about that time and Delanae stayed up with them. Several boys spent the night and had an early breakfast sometime before I got up at 7:30 this morning since I found the mess they left in the kitchen. Apparently they did not go to bed until after I got up. Stephen has now cleaned up the mess they left and the last boy just left to go home.
I have been glued to the TV set today watching football. The day began with Arkansas versus Oklahoma which was a very good defensive battle and Arkansas more than held their own with the defending national champion. They ended up on the short end of a 10-3 final score but for a young team they really acquitted themselves well, especially on defense. That Oklahoma defense was just too good for the very young Arkansas offense as it has been for most offenses this season. Arkansas has no reason to hang their heads as they played hard and their defense was the equal of the Oklahoma defense.
Tomorrow morning will come very early for us as Delanae is flying out to see her parents for 10 days. Her flight leaves at 7:15 which means we have to leave a little after 4 to get her to the airport two hours early. She really needs to be there that early for the early morning flights as that is when the airport in Portland is most crowded. She will probably be up most of the night packing but I will get to bed as early as I can. The kids have to go back to school tomorrow so they will have to get to bed early also. I do not return to work until Thursday.
Delanae is back in Missouri now and hopefully getting some sleep as she got very little the last two nights. She probably got none last night between getting everything packed and her normal anxiety about flying. She called me a little earlier to tell me she got there OK and mentioned that they had a lot of turbulence on the flight. I would have hated to be next to her on the plane, that person probably has claw marks on his or her arms. Hopefully she will enjoy her ten days of vacation from all of us.
Stacey has been home sick today. She was up last night coughing and running a little fever. I think she has been asleep on the couch most of the day today as that is where I have found her everytime I have checked on her.
I had an eye appointment today and everything is fine. The ophthalmologist told me he could make my prescription a little stronger but then I would HAVE to have reading glasses to read everything and proceeded to demonstrate that to me. I said no thanks I will stick with my present contacts which is what he expected me to say. No changes for at least two years now.
Tomorrow I return to work. I stopped by for about an hour today and did some of the phone messages and refills so I would not have quite as much to do tomorrow but there will still be a lot to do. I also have a rather strange schedule tomorrow with one two hour meeting and a disability case to testify in. It is supposed to only take 15 minutes for my testimony then I will come back to finish the afternoon at the office. All in all, a long day tomorrow.
My testimony this afternoon did only take 15 minutes. I was really surprised that it only took that long but am very pleased about it. It only took me about 10 minutes to drive to the courthouse which meant I was only gone from the office about 30 minutes rather than the 90 minutes I had feared it would take.
I was busy in the office today as I had predicted last night. I had two patients to see in the hospital this morning then a very busy morning. I did get finished on time both this morning and tonight, however. Phone calls weren't too bad today, neither were refills. I should have more help in the office tomorrow but I also have more people scheduled tomorrow so there will be less open slots for our advanced access scheduling. This type of scheduling seems to be working for us and I can see how it will be much better once we get the backlog of scheduled appointments worked down. No one wants to give up on it yet which is a good sign.
Stacey is still sick. She missed school again today after going to bed early last night in hopes she would feel good enough to go this morning. When I woke her up this morning I knew she would be unable to go. She told me tonight that daytime television repeats itself, she had seen the same programs yesterday with the same episodes on some of them. She has been watching Nickelodeon for the cartoons. I checked her again tonight and she does not have strep throat, it is a virus and I am as helpless to get her well quicker as I am with anyone in the office with a viral upper respiratory infection. I have been making her drink and eat which does make her feel better although she doesn't have much appetite and it hurts her to swallow. Hopefully she will feel better tomorrow.
I topped my record for number of people seen in one morning here in this practice today. I still managed to get to a 12:30 meeting only ten minutes late and got lunch also. Of course, I had some charts to dictate before I started the afternoon but the afternoon was a little less hectic. I had two or three physicals no show today but most of those slots got filled up by seeing patients that called today. Open or advanced access is working for me, I have very few empty blocks of time even with no shows. The no shows are always people who have been scheduled for awhile.
I discharged my two hospital patients today. The hospital census is down quite a bit from last weekend when I increased it so much. It seems like it has been longer than five days ago but it has only been five days.
Stacey is better today but not well enough to go to school. She got up and got dressed but was too weak to go to school. Her appetite is coming back and she is feeling better because she is eating candy again. Also, she ate a large bowl of ice cream tonight after having a plate full of spaghetti. She will be back to normal this weekend. I have to write her a note for school Monday. She is not looking forward to catching up on the homework that she missed these three days. Tomorrow night she and I are going to catch a high school basketball game. Tonight she and I watched "Mission to Mars" on DVD. Great special effects!
Not much computer work happening here today. I got up and did a long run this morning then the kids and I did some house cleaning. This afternoon I managed a nice nap before Stacey and I went to the high school basketball game. I enjoyed it a lot and she said she did also. We made plans to go to another one next week as well as a high school girls basketball game the next night.
During the game I tried to answer two cell phone calls. It is difficult to hear on a cell phone when you are sitting in the stands surrounded by people cheering. If I walked out into the hall then the signal strength decreased enough that the call was dropped. So, the person on the other line said I sounded like I was at a game which, of course, is where I was. One time it was Stephen to tell me where he was going to be; he finally gave up and came to the gym to tell me in person where he and his girl friend were going.
Stacey continues to improve although she still has a cough. She is much more active and her appetite is returning. One of her teachers was also at the basketball game and came down to talk to her. Stacey missed three assignments in her class and she will let Stacey make them up. This teacher is supposed to be on jury duty the next two weeks so Stacey may not get to make them up until after she returns.
Not much going on here today. The day was spent with church, then football, then fixing dinner and doing laundry. Then more football and ironing. Now I need to run to the grocery store for a couple of things and get back in time to get to bed early as tomorrow I have a meeting at 7 AM and one patient to see in the hospital as well. Have a great week!
