Got in the much needed run tonight finally. Last night was a disaster. I spent several hours in ICU stabilizing a lady I got as an unattached ER patient who turned out to have a skin infection, and then sepsis from group A strep (the so-called "flesh-eating disease") I feel so bad for this poor lady and her family, who don't know me from Adam and had to hear all this bad news - and now she's in a tertiary care hospital over an hour away from their home with a lot of other docs they've never met and she's so critically ill it's terrifying for them. Not my favorite kind of day.
I ran 4 miles on the treadmill while watching ER tonight, though. And work was better today. I concentrated on not getting bogged down, and it mostly worked. Plus, the medical assistant who is my friend and who is really good at keeping things moving was assigned to me today, so that helps a lot. To clarify, I don't call routine labs to my patients - my nurses call all paps and mammograms and normal labs that are important for the patient to know, I only call abnormals or really important normals. Still, in a busy practice it really adds up. Also, since I only do the more complicated calls, it often means longer on the phone. I'm trying to schedule more return visits when I'm anticipating having a lot to talk about it, but many patients understandably resist - why take off work, pay a co-pay, and have the hassle of waiting for me when I can call you for free? Plus, I frankly talk too much - which I'm working on. It's just that, really, that's my favorite part of being a family doc! And today, how could I resist the 3 yr old who wanted to tell me a story and sit in my lap? I've known her since before she was born - in fact, she was a product of "embryo adoption" in which her parents are not biologically related to her, and I saw pictures of her as an embryo! Thinking about her wonderful, articulate, amazing self growing from that little clump of cells - and I just can't resist letting her go on a bit!
eksmom - we have gone to a full EMR, just this mid-August. Unfortunately, we were hoping to a have a lab and imaging computer interface, and we don't - and probably won't for the next year due to hospital dragging it's feet. This means we now have feet in both the paper world and the electronic world, plus all the aggravation of converting our old paper charts to electronic (which makes seeing each patient similar to seeing a new patient time-wise) and the whole thing is a big hassle. We still receive all our test results on paper, have to go through them by hand, and then still have to get them into the electronic chart. Blech. I read that the first 6mos-1year with an EMR are hard, and after that it's better so I'm trying to stick it out, but it's making me crazy slowly.
On winter running clothes: I can't seem to concentrate long enough to buy something. I keep looking through catalogs and at stores, but I can't make up my mind what would feel good and work well. I'm hoping one of these days dh will just buy me something!
On bras - 36 A here -and don't quite fill them out. I recently got new regular bras and was mortified to have the lady trying to fit me and realize that I'm below an actual cup size, but I did find some comfy ones at VS finally. I'm lucky, though, in that I can wear any small off the rack sports bra comfortably and so far have not run into any chafing. Actually, I need to pick up a couple new ones because my current ones are starting to wear the fabric off over the elastic in the band - but they still don't chafe.
re sick child care, i just found out that dh and my teaching schedules in the winter will allow one of us to be available for backup care anytime the kids get sick. whew!! i was so worried about that. but i still have to design my classes so i can afford to miss prep days...
: I was kind of losing my sh** over it but now it is all taken care of and I feel much better 
OK baby you can come now.....
Eventually, though, the house settled down and we got in a very, very nice visit, I think. If only it could've been longer. Y'all she has a super long trip tomorrow driving right through this northern storm, so everyone wish her luck,k?
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