Week of May 28, 2001
Monday
Tuesday Wednesday
Thursday Friday
Saturday Sunday
Most Recent Update
Today was a day of rest again. I read for a few hours today after looking at some websites. We had rain off and on all day and even some hail this afternoon. Luckily the hail came a few minutes after I had finished my run, otherwise I would have had to seek shelter under a porch or carport somewhere. The area around our sidewalks looked like there was snow on them for a few minutes after it stopped. None of it was larger than bean sized and did no damage here locally.
I did have to play plumber this afternoon. Delanae had noticed water coming up out of the ground near our kitchen window last week and I dug up the area today. It seems that with the earth shifting, either through natural shifting or earthquake, the drain pipe from the kitchen sink to the main drain leading to the septic tank had broken. This created a gap through which water was running into the ground around the pipe. Our neighbor, who is very handy with repairs around a house, says he can put a rubber "collar" on both sides of the pipe which should repair it and mean that we don't have to dig up the entire length of pipe and replace it all. That will save us quite a bit of money. I would much rather pay him to do the work as someone else. This is how he earns his living, he does general repair but his specialty is painting. His family and us attend the same church and his daughter and Stacey are very good friends.
Stephen is back from Portland. His trip was successful as he came home with a new guitar which he says is so much better and more "rad" than his old one. He seems very happy. Delanae and I are betting that in about two weeks he will be wanting another model.
Tomorrow it is back to work. I do not know if I have anyone hospitalized now. I have had no calls tonight telling me that I do have anyone in the hospital so I will see in the morning.
I did have one patient in the hospital this morning. She now is minus her gallbladder because it was full of stones, so full that she passed at least one into the tube between her gallbladder and liver and her small intestine. This stone blocked the tube for a little while causing her to have pain and vomiting and partially blocked her pancreas also. When she came to the emergency department last night she was hurting a lot and her liver enzymes were elevated. An ultrasound at that time made the diagnosis so she was hospitalized. By the time I saw her this morning, her pain was gone. Now she has had the definitive therapy for her problem and should be able to go home tomorrow.
The rest of my day was fairly ordinary. I saw my usual number of patients and did my usual number of Monday refills and messages even though this was Tuesday. With the nice weather now the number of patients I see is down some but my schedule is still full. I just don't have as many work in patients to see. This is normal for this time of the year. It should be less hectic through the summer months and get hectic again when school starts again in the fall.
Tonight was Stacey's last school orchestra concert of the year. Hearing the combined seventh and eighth grade orchestra after the sixth grade orchestra made Delanae and I realize that by the seventh grade the kids can play real music and the audience does not wince listening to them. The sixth graders try hard, and Stacey was one of them last year, but too many of them are first year students in their instruments and are not able to play all the notes correctly yet. Next year, they will be seventh graders and if they keep working they will sound much better. Stacey is going to continue playing in the orchestra in school but not in the youth orchestra or symphony for the community. At least, that is what she says right now.
Slow day today for excitement. I got up late, for me, and went in to the hospital where I had a meeting scheduled for 9. I went by and checked and had no one in the hospital and had no hospital records to do in medical records. After my meeting, I went to one nursing home to start transitioning a patient home.
This afternoon Delanae and I have been measuring our back yard contemplating putting up a fence as our newest dog is beginning to get territorial. We will only have to use chain link fencing on one side and it will only have to run less than 30 feet. The back and one side end in brush so we can hide cheaper fencing in that and it will look fine. The front will be the house and one side will be our detached garage and the neighbor's privacy fence. We will need one twelve foot gate and two small gates. Hopefully, we can get this fence built fairly cheaply in the very near future. Actually, part of it will depend on when our neighbor extends his privacy fence the way he has talked about doing.
Nothing special on the docket for tomorrow. I have a 7:30 meeting in the morning which I need to go in about an hour before to get fully prepared for it. My meeting today has given me some ideas to bring up there. The weather is supposed to be beautiful tomorrow then turn cloudy and rainy for this weekend which is the first weekend of the annual Rose Festival in Portland. The Rose Festival Parade is Saturday night and traditionally it rains for that. The Rose Festival Parade has floats decorated with roses just like the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, California every New Year's Day. It looks like it will rain for the Rose Festival Parade again this year.
Remember me talking about how things had slowed down a little Tuesday? Well, that's what I get for opening my big mouth or keyboard as it were. Today was very intense in the office with one of my busiest days of the year patient volume wise. I had no one in the hospital but did have a 7:30 meeting which I had to go in to the office at 6:30 to get prepared for. It was a good meeting in that we did some thinking about what we as a group want to be doing 5 or 10 years from now. So, my morning appointments started almost an hour later than normal which means I saw a larger number of patients in less time. That is why I feel like I really worked today.
Luckily, no one patient had to be admitted or took a lot longer than expected. A significant number were having problems with allergy symptoms and just needed allergy medication which I could do fairly quickly. I did have a lot of phone messages and refills to do but still got finished a little after six tonight. I don't think I left any significant number of things to do tomorrow before we can get started on tomorrow's problems.
Tonight Delanae and I went to a medical education meeting which was held at a local restaurant. The speaker talked about chronic pain management which seems to be a popular topic for meetings these days; at least I seem to go to them all. It was an interesting talk but I do not agree with all the speaker does in his practice. Most of his basic principles are sound and I do not disagree with them. Some of the things he does I suspect are on the fringe as far as being generally accepted by the physicians practicing in pain management programs full time. Nevertheless, it was a good meeting.
Delanae and I stayed up until midnight last night putting together a new computer desk for her. She is much happier with where her computer is now but we have a lot of rearranging to do, probably this weekend if it is going to be rainy. Right now our dining room looks like Stacey was given free rein to put all of her stuff there. Things will get put away soon.
Tomorrow morning starts with another meeting. This one was just scheduled today and has to do with some of what we talked about this morning. After that who knows. Now I must get to bed earlier tonight so I will talk to you tomorrow.
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