What a difference a week makes....

Last week, I was posting about the lighthearted mood in the office with Dr G on vacation. Dr L and I joked our way through a very busy, stressful 2 weeks. The office staff was lighthearted and giggling was often heard.

This week, Dr L is on vacation and it is just Dr G and me. Dr G seems to have left his sense of humor in Martha's Vineyard. There is no joking going on. Instead, I am hearing rumbles of mutiny- Can't you hear them (mutiny, mutiny, mutiny). Seriously, this man did not even crack a smile when he handed me his company credit card to but Dr K her new office furniture and I asked if he would mind a detour to Tiffany & Co. Nothing. It fell flat. Dr L would have made suggestions. Part of my mood change is the end of an insane month with only one MD, rather than 3. I am feeling the effects of the extra workload and long hours. It is almost friday, it is almost friday, it is almost friday, it is almost friday damnit!


The day was not helped by the fact that I spent all night talking to the nursing staff about one of our patients. He came from the group home with a severe pneumonia, he has not been able to eat without aspirating food into his lungs for a year, his mental status has progressed to nonverbal - BUT he is one of our Down's Syndrome patients... Those of you who have ever come in contact with these individuals know that they are the most loving, innocent of individuals. It breaks everyone's heart that Danny will not get better. Trust me, we all cried this morning when I talked to his power of attorney and she made him a Do Not Rescusitate and asked that we make him comfortable with morphine. "I cannot bear the thought of him suffering", she said. Neither can I. And so, my blogger friends, I am on my way to check on him and to make sure that he is not alone. I may be spending the night here- all his family is in California and will likely not make it here before he dies. He shouldn't be alone...

Perfect weekend

2 books read +
2.5 days spent with family +
1 Completely Incredible, Awesome, Jaw Dropping Bruce Springsteen Concert = 1 perfect weekend...

Read WATER FOR ELEPHANTS by Sara Gruen. I read it in one day and want to start it all over again. I will say no more because I don't want to spoil it for anyone. It is now one of my favorite books. I had no idea what the book was about and fell completely under its spell. Enjoy!

Have you ever

Found yourself singing along with the fruit of the loom commercial? You know the one, "Daddy was the apple of my eye" and been caught by the friend you were on the phone with at the time....


Me either

We're having a heat wave.....

It is 100 degrees outside and 1oo percent humidity and looks like it will last through the week. Thank God for air conditioning!!

Yesterday, my friend Dee, her daughter Michelle, Michelle's sister in law, and I went to the Kenny Chesney concert. Kenny Chesney concerts are all day affairs with several acts, starting at 3:30 in the afternoon and running until after midnight. Yesterday's concert was outside at Lincoln Financial Field. I think I lost 11 pounds of water weight from perspiration....

The concert was awesome. For you country music fans, I have a question. What act does not belong here: Gary Allan, Leigh Ann Rimes, Sammy Hagar, Keith Urban, or Kenny Chesney?
Every one was incredible with the exception of Sammy Hagar. A little past his prime, he lost the audience and most of the seats were empty during that portion of the show. The kicker of the day was when the stadium ran out of water. SERIOUSLY EAGLES CORPORATION, 100% HUMIDITY AND 100 DEGREES OUTSIDE AND YOU RUN OUT OF WATER! POOR PLANNING PEOPLE, POOR PLANNING. All in all, though, a great time. I recommend the concert to anyone who gets the chance to go- you will have an awesome time.

Office Shenanigans

Dr W is away for 2 weeks which leaves Dr L and me the only full time peeps behind. It also lends itself to a very laid back environment. When I was hired, Dr W worried that Dr L and I were entirely too similar in personality and sense of humor and he would be outnumbered. It is times like these that I realize how right he was.

Yesterday, in the hospital:

Me: why is it that every chart I pick up is falling apart? Why can people not put them back together? Did you know that the human head weighs 8 pounds? (Ok I did not say that but I do have a habit of editoralizing my day as go along but so does Dr L.)

Dr L: Do you realize you that you are a walking commentary?

Me: Uh, Hello Kettle, It is the Pot calling. You're black.

Dr L: Any other comments from the peanut gallery?

Me: Sure. How would you like to spend the rest of your life with my stethescope as part of your cranium?

Dr L: What would my wife say when I got home?

Me: Nice accessory, what did you do to make Amanda that mad?

Insert maniacal laughter from both of us here and strange looks from the nursing staff....

The new doctor started this week. When Dee showed her the office she would be sharing with Dr R, she asked if she could paint it pink. (Dr R would HATE that.) I think I LOVE the new doctor :)

Mouse 1 Piglet 0

The great mouse roundup continues here at Chez Amanda. So far, I have only found the evidence of said mouse and seen nothing more. The first night after finding his mess, Princess P sat in wait, staring at the pantry door. Since then, she has kept her vigil from the bed. I am hoping that this means the mouse has left us to move on to less feline occuppied house and not that she simply has given up the hunt.

I HATE....

That's right bloggers, Mice. Princess Piglet, the great mouser (she has 1 to her credit), went to summer camp at the beach for the last 9 days. Apparantly her absence was noted by the vermin in the area. When I went into the pantry this afternoon, I noticed some droppings and something had eaten its way through a bag of bread mix. After I finished screaming, cleaning up the mess, and putting out traps- it occurred to me that I have not seen hide nor hair of mouse since Princess P came to live with me, 3 years ago. The landlord has had a lot of cosmetic work done to the house and there is a lot of construction going on in the area. Clearly the saying is true- "When the Cat's away, the mice will play".

Beware mice, the great mouser is back in residence....

It is not nice to laugh at your patient's expense...

I started off the morning with a doozy of a consult. As specialists in pulmonary medicine and critical care, our practice is consulted on a large majority of the patients in the hospital. Some of these consults are genuinely needed others are more mindless. This one was a DOOZY.

I walked in the room and was told by the patient (before I even introduced myself): "I do not have Munchausen's Syndrome". (For those of you unfamiliar with the disease, the patient makes themselves ill for attention...). Right off the bat, I am thinking that this is going to be, at the very least, amusing. We continued with the routine questions about shortness of breath, cough, fevers, chills, chest pain- and then got to the social aspect of her life. I asked her what she did for a living (I had read the chart and knew she was disabled and had been living in a motel because her mother had kicked her out of the house). She told me she was a clinical psychologist (REALLY!). This woman has had more admissions to psych units than I can count on two hands but I played along.

What type of patients did you treat?
Famous people.
Really, hmmm.
I have counseled every age- children, adolescent, adults, couples, inpatients, inmates...
That is a wide range, you must have gotten many degrees.
Duhhhh. I also counseled the OJ Simpson jurors but that burned me out and I had to leave the state of California. Actually the state asked me to leave for my own health.
Mmmmhmmm.
I also was on staff at General Hospital.
What hospital?
General Hospital- I was good friends with the Quatermaines.

Ladies and Gents I had to leave the room to stop shaking I was laughing so hard. The sad thing is she was dead serious....

Sleep is overrated...

My mother has been plagued by her right arm for 2 weeks now. It started with pain and numbness and then, July 3rd, she woke up with it swollen 3x's its normal size. The swelling prompted a phone call to me and she finally agreed to see the family doctor and do what he recommended...





Early monday morning (6am), my mother and I left the shore to head to North Jersey to appear at the doctor's office and hope that he would see her. He did, but I must say that I really disliked the man. Disliked in the way that made my skin crawl. There are several reasons (in no particular order):



1. He walked into the exam room and addressed a woman many years his senior by her first name. Etiquette (medical in this setting) requires that you call the individual by Mrs So and So and ask permission to call them by their first name.

2. More time was spent talking about his perfect 4 children than talking about the reason why we were there to see him.

3. He essentially poo poo'd my mothers concerns and spent no time explaining why he wanted her to take a short course of steroids or why he wanted her to see a neurologist.

4. He is increadibly fake and makes my skin crawl....

I have worked with a large number of doctors in the past 11 years and have come across some real sleaze balls. I realize that I am fortunate to work with the physicians I do that are incredibly dedicated and genuine with their patients. This man, however qualified he may be, is an a**. I am hoping that the neurologist is much more indepth and genuine.

eta- Have just spoken to my mother, she liked the neurologist (he's a met fan) and will have the tests he ordered in two weeks. Hopefully more answers for her then...

Office Update

Comments have been made. Dr LR is very unhappy about having to share an office with the poor new doctor. She starts in 2 weeks and Dr LR is acting like a petulant child. It was suggested that one of the partners share an office. Dr LR is not a partner... So apparently, it would be appropriate for one of the full time senior physicians to share an office but not appropriate for her to share with the doctor who will never be there when LR is.

Things that make you go, Hmmmmmmmmmm. Dr LR and Calvin apparently share the same mindset.

I, of course, am LOVING all of this :)

Rudeness!!!!

If someone asks you to do something and you decide that you would rather do something else with another friend, does not Emily Post suggest that you let the person who extended the original invitation know????

Of course, Emily does...