IT'S NOT A GREAT
STORY, IT'S JUST WHAT HAPPENED
22 January 2002
On this new "eating plan" I do a lot of keeping track of
what I eat and when I eat it. (I'm sure that will go by the wayside when the novelty wears
off, but I'm still in the honeymoon phase). So since I've been spending so much time
recording every single thing that passes my lips, I thought it might be interesting (to me
anyway) to record how I spend a typical day. Those who are bored with such things have my
permission to click over to some other journal now (but thanks for stopping by).
So here goes
- 4:15 - I got up. I hadn't written the review of the
Patti Austin show that I saw after the Torch relay Saturday night, and it had to be in to
the newspaper by 8 a.m. on Monday, so while there was nothing on TV to distract me, I sat
here, sweated a few bullets, and got the review written (gave her 5 stars).
- 5:00 - When the review was finished, I started on
the leftover dictation from the day before. I had two tapes here from the psychiatrist and
one from Dr. G. I had to finish at least Dr. G's and one tape from the psychiatrist. I
managed to do both before I went to work, and the work from the psychiatrist is still
sitting outside waiting to be picked up. Sigh.
- 5:45 - Made coffee
- 6:00 - Took coffee upstairs to wake Walt up; he
reminded me that he had today, Martin Luther King day, off. (I didn't)
- 6:30 - The morning chat with Peggy, since cricket or
tennis or Australian football or some other sport didn't lure her away from her computer
to the television. We talked about some of the great photo sites we've discovered lately.
If you like panorama shots, try this one of
Niagara Falls. Pretty neat. (Wait till it's daytime, though, or all you'll get
is a black screen!)
- 7:30 - Time for breakfast (oatmeal, low fat toast, 1
tsp butter [yes, I use real butter; if this is going to be a plan that I live with for the
rest of my life, I want to learn how to incorporate the things I like into it, in moderate
amounts].)
- 7:45 - With the dictation done, I had time to check
the Internet--checked the new WeightWatcher
message board I just discovered yesterday. Then I looked in on all my friends via web
cams (it's overcast in Seattle, raining in Boston, snowing in Rochester, and nighttime in
Perth).
- 9:00 - Walt goes off to run an errand and dropped
Patti Austin's photos off at the newspaper for me, while I stay home to finish
transcribing Dr. G's tape.
- 10:00 - The computer froze while I was trying to
send an e-card, so I went to have an apple snack while computer is rebooting.
- 11:00 - Packed up the car and left for the office.
- 11:03 - Got halfway to office, realized I'd left the
office checkbook at home, drove home again.
- 11:05 - Left the house to drive to the office again.
- 11:10 - Opened office, checked mail, telephone
messages (10 of them), and got the speculum bucket because I knew we were running low and
they needed to be sterilized. When I opened the bucket, which is full of something called
"surgical milk," a solution into which Dr. G drops the used speculums, which
keeps them from rusting until I get around to washing them, I discovered someone had
tossed a paper exam gown in it, thinking it was a garbage can. So first thing I had to do
was fish the gown out of the bath, then dump the bath in the sink, put the speculums in a
solution of bleach and water, turn on the sterilizer to warm up, and then I went to the
supermarket to get a snack to have later in the afternoon (I knew I wouldn't have a chance
once patients started arriving).
Bought myself a couple of apples and walked back to the office.
The sterilizer had heated up, and the speculums were ready to come
out of the bleach. I got my handy dandy little toothbrush scrubber and scrubbed them all
with anti-bacterial soap, then put in the sterilizer for an hour to get rid of whatever
the surgical milk, bleach, and soap didn't kill.
- 1:00 - Ate lunch at my desk--half a sandwich (1 Tbsp
of peanut butter on a fat free slice of bread with 1 tsp of fruit spread--mighty tasty)
and some pear tomatoes (my staple on this diet--I love 'em!)
- 1:25 - The first patient arrived
- 1:30 - Dr. G arrived, bringing roses from his
garden. Dr. G is, among many other things, an avid gardener and each Monday morning he
brings fresh flowers from his garden for the waiting room and for his office. He asked me
to arrange them once. I didn't think I did too shabby a job, but he hasn't asked me again,
and makes a point of telling me that "he'll be back to arrange them."
- 1:40 - Got the patient all checked in and ready for
her appointment. Took her chart back to Dr. G and he snickered about how clean his desk
was because his wife had come in to dust over the weekend. (yay!)
We saw four patients through the day. One older woman and I
discovered we had mutual friends in common and, in fact, I promised to get her an address
of these former neighbors of hers for her.
Another woman returned for a follow-up visit. Her first visit was
last week. She stormed in, angry with the world. She sat in her own little black cloud and
made it known that she was NOT happy to be there. But she was also afraid of developing
some sort of cancer, so she reluctantly came for an appointment. The belligerent way she
filled out her paperwork let us know that she'd had bad experiences with doctors and had
little hope that Dr. G would be any better.
After her first appointment, she called to ask me to thank Dr. G for
not pushing her, and for taking the time to listen to her. When she arrived today, she was
a totally different person. Friendly, relaxed. She even laughed. Amazing what having a
doctor who actually listens to his patients can do!
The patients came and went until 7 p.m. I was called to take one
blood pressure. My reading was 140/90 (this one wasn't dead). Dr. G felt he'd better
double check, knowing that I've been having problems, but his reading was the same--and I
felt good about that. Not about the patient's borderline blood pressure, but good
that my reading had been accurate.
At 7:15 p.m., I locked up the office and headed
home (yes, I'd been there 7 hours without a break). Came home and fixed dinner before I
even checked e-mail. We had chicken curry on rice tonight (10 points) along
with a salad.
Now I'm sitting here writing this and will soon start doing some
more transcription, what was left over from last night. But I might take a little
time out to have a Skinny Cow first (98% fat-free ice cream sandwiches, 2 points each,
that make you think you can't possibly be on a diet!)
As I warned you, it's not a great story, it's just what happened.
(Paul used to say that in his shows when he told a story that didn't
get much audience response...same as I'm pretty sure this entry has done...or not done!)
|
