Week of September 10, 2001
Monday
Tuesday Wednesday
Thursday Friday
Saturday Sunday
Most Recent Update
What to write about today. I only had one patient to see this morning; a very cute little girl who is now two days old and ready to go home with her mother. Her mother is just a child herself however being less than 16 years of age. What will happen to the smallest child? Her mother is going to parenting classes locally which will help but how about her childhood? Forever lost now. The father of the child is nowhere to be found and not even aware of his child; at least according to the mother. Grandmom is helping out but will this smallest child grow up to think she should be pregnant as an adolescent? So many questions and very few answers.
The rest of my day was fairly benign. I had a couple no shows mixed in with several people who took a lot of time. As a result, I got done on time and got my medical assistant out of the office before 6 which is great. I also got to run this afternoon before coming home which is again a very good thing.
Stacey is starting on her volleyball team tomorrow. She will be the starting middle blocker for their first match. This is the eighth grade team and no one but the starters have guaranteed playing team unlike last year when there were two seventh grade teams and everyone got to play in each match. She says that middle blocker is not a good name for her position at this level as she gets very few chances to block a shot as there are very few true spikes tried. We are very proud of her and I am very sad that I will miss the game. I will get to see a few this year but it is very difficult with all the matches starting at 3 PM on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays.
I have changed my mind about how to upgrade my system. I am very happy with my current system based on a Gigabyte motherboard but the kids' system needs upgrading very badly. I can take the motherboard and processor out of this system and put it in their computer along with a new power supply and instantly upgrade theirs. In addition, put the Maxtor 20GB drive that I am using now into their system which will further increase the speed of that system.
I will then replace my current motherboard/processor with a Gigabyte GA-7ZXR(Rev. 3.0) bundled with an Athlon 1400 processor and an IBM or Seagate Barracuda or Maxtor DiamondPlus 7200 rpm 40GB hard drive. The motherboard has Creative CT5880 PCI sound integrated in it so I would not need a new sound card right away although eventually I would like to get a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card. I would need to buy a new video card, probably a Matrox Millenium G450, and a new external modem to use until we get cable modem service here. I figure all this would cost around $600 and give us then three very good systems. Later I would get the new case and power supply for my system as well as a new 19" monitor, CD burner, and DVD player. I do not know when I am going to do this but I will keep you posted on the process.
My country has been attacked! We have witnessed an act of war today that cannot go unpunished. I awoke and turned on the TV this morning to a horrifying story of planes crashing into the World Trade Center. I then awoke Delanae who could not believe what I was telling her. Then, before I was able to leave for work there was the horrible images of one tower crashing down onto the rescue workers and others trying to escape the towers. On my way to work the other tower crashed down.
Throughout the day it has been very hard to concentrate on patient care as the events have occupied all my thoughts. I found out bits and pieces more as the day went by from Delanae and on the Net. It has not completely sunk in yet but I know I am MAD! Mad that this act of cowardice has been directed toward my country that has stood around and allowed terrorism to flourish in other countries simply because it had not touched our country to any degree and we should not get involved in other countries' politics. Mad because we allowed a madman like Saddam Hussein to live through Desert Storm and did not destroy him when we had the chance. Now we have an act of war committed against my country and its people. We simply must, as a nation, have the guts to stand up and retaliate in like kind. Anything less will not discourage terrorism, it will simply encourage more attacks on this country as terrorists will perceive we are soft and unwilling to respond.
My parents lived through Pearl Harbor. My father went to war after that infamous day. I talked to my mother this evening and she cannot believe this has happened again and this time is much worse because mostly innocent civilians were attacked. We now stand at a crossroads of history and I am alive when this is happening. Stacey cannot understand why I and her mother cannot turn off the reporting on TV, doesn't understand what it is like to be living history as it is being written. Stephen is napping on the couch while I am wondering how I will be able to go to sleep tonight. I would gladly be part of avenging this act of war but will leave it to the professionals who I know are just waiting to be released upon these cowards.
I have already sent e-mails to our senators and representatives expressing my outrage and demanding that they fully support military retaliation against these cowards not to stop until ALL their organization and supporters are executed by the courts or executed by our soldiers. I do not say this lightly and without considerable forethought as I believe wars should be avoided but this is one which cannot be avoided. If we do not respond like this then the attacks will only get worse. I do not believe that we should decrease freedoms in this country in the name of security but that we should use the fear of retaliation to keep terrorist cowards from taking advantage of our freedoms here. If our elected representatives do not support military response to wipe out terrorist organizations then we should vote them out and I intend to do just that.
Sorry for the rant but that is what is on my mind today. I hope we all have a better day tomorrow and please remember to pray for the families of the victims. One day all believers will live in a better place.
I can't get away from the events of yesterday. I have been drawn back to the continuing live TV coverage all day today. I did manage to break away long enough to see a couple of patients in the hospital this morning, one of whom I discharged. Then, I went by medical records to sign a couple of charts. After that it was back to watching the coverage punctuated only by a break to run just before noon today. Now, we are heading to the church for dinner and services. Maybe something later, if not then I will see you tomorrow night.
Things are returning a little more to normal at work today. Hospital rounds this morning on two patients again even though I sent one home yesterday morning. One more got admitted yesterday afternoon by one of my partners who has been the inpatient physician for my group this week. I take over tomorrow for him and have the position until Monday morning.
I did get all my charts done today and the ones I had left over from Tuesday and Wednesday also. I only had one meeting today, that one at noon so I was able to work uninterrupted all day. Tomorrow I am the inpatient physician and have something like four meetings to try and get to, three of them during the noon hour. I may make an appearance at two or all three but not stay through all of any of them.
After what happened Tuesday morning, somehow some things don't seem as important anymore. We are at war against terrorism and I am still having a hard time concentrating on the normal stuff at work. I find my mind wondering off all the time. I must get control and concentrate better, otherwise I will forget to do something that needs to be done. I am improving and being the inpatient physician all weekend should snap me out of it. Unlike most IPP weekends, I will not have Saturday night call this weekend. I am going to take next Saturday night for someone and she is taking this Saturday night for me. That works for me, it means I won't be as tired Monday morning which looks like a busy morning for me.
After work tomorrow night, Stephen, along with a couple of his friends, and I are traveling to his team's football game. The game will be in a town about thirty miles south of here. Hopefully, we will make it on time. Delanae and Stacey probably won't go since Stephen is not playing yet. He goes off suspension in time for the Oct 5th game which coincides with when my mother is here visiting. Her trip to New York City this weekend to go on a cruise up the New England coast would appear to be off. I need to call her tomorrow morning to be sure.
No update.
My son's high school team had a good win last night. The final score was 45-28 with the game being played at the opponent's home field. That should give his team some confidence, especially after their loss last week. They should get some of their upperclassmen back also. Stephen and a couple others will be back in three weeks which will then help more.
It seems so strange not to be trying to watch some college football. The major colleges were right to postpone this weekend's games but it seems really strange not to have any football games on this weekend. I can usually catch a little football while rounding on patients on Saturday and Sunday but not today. Continuing coverage of the Attack on America was on most TV's.
I did work today as I will again tomorrow. This afternoon was fairly slow but the morning was busy. I had five new patients to see as well as the ones I had seen Friday. Three will probably go home tomorrow which will thin out the number some for whomever takes over Monday morning. I need to look and find out who that will be.
One of our friends' husband just left her and she is getting rid of some stuff before moving into a smaller house. She does not want to get rid of her tanning bed, however, so we are now storing it in our downstairs family room until she gets set up in the new place. Stephen and I moved it tonight after I got home from working and running. My back will probably be very tight in the morning as it was heavy and awkward to move. Wish me luck in moving around tomorrow morning as I get ready to go in to the hospital.
My back is doing very good today, better than I had expected. Not too tight and not too much pain. It reminds me every once in awhile that I lifted and carried something heavy and awkward last night but I can live with this. Luckily, I did not have to sit in one place for very long today.
My day went rather well. I was busy this morning with two new admits overnight but they had both been discharged before I left this evening. I rounded on the others from yesterday and discharged two or three of them. All told I really pared down the service for my partner to take over tomorrow. We would rather start out the week with a low number of patients. That way the person coming on service has a chance to learn the old patients first then he will learn the new patients as he admits them. There is nothing worse than coming on new on Monday morning and having 20 or so patients to have to learn.
This afternoon I had enough slack time to clean up my office at work some. Rather, I threw away some things that I had been meaning to pitch for a long time and refiled some things and rearranged my desk again. This is the fourth rearrangement of my desk since we moved into this building two years ago last month. Hopefully, this one works better than the others. The problem is that I keep accumulating stuff and put off pitching those things I need to. I still am in need of a file cabinet for work, I think I will ask my office mate if she wants to go in with me on the purchase so we can both use it. Then, we have to decide whether to get a vertical or lateral file cabinet and how many drawers to get. I think I prefer a lateral file but we will see.
Tomorrow begins with our biweekly Leadership Council meeting then I have another meeting at noon. Two meetings should make for a busy Monday. Hope you have a good week(it has to be better than the last one), and remember to pray for the USA and her leaders as well as all the leaders of the free world.
