Just have to make it through today, then: Tomorrow off!

Tonight: Happy Hour!



How is everyone's Thursday so far?

I was just reading over a new patient's past medical history and intake form.

There's a check-box for coffee. 'Yes' if you drink it; 'No' if you don't. Pretty simple.

She checked yes, and then wrote down her order: Venti Americano.

Okaaaaaay...

Didn't really need that level of specificity, but...

It's been one of those days...

Sipping on a little sherry tonight. Ask me anything.

Mainly cause I'm booooooored...

Hi, Loungers!...

Wagner's 'The Siegfried Idyll' is the 'end credits' of the Ring Cycle.

That's what I've come to believe.

Ever see a movie (usually, but not always, a war movie - like 'Platoon'.) where the end credits feature footage of the actors listed in the credits? Scenes taken from the film, or out-takes, or something. The snippets of film show the actors in character, or staring dreamily into the distance.

I always thought of that as the director's way of saying to the audience: "See? It's all right! Nobody's dead; nobody's hurt. It was just a movie."

That's how I view Wagner's 'The Siegfried Idyll'. The Ring Cycle ends with all of the characters dying, and the world essentially coming to an end. The Siegfried Idyll, which features themes and motifs originally thought to be taken from the Ring operas, but actually pre-dating the composition of the Cycle, is like Wagner's way of saying: "See? It's all right! Nobody's dead; nobody's hurt. It was just a opera!"

Thoughts?

Saturday, May 18th. The Weekend Edition of William Shakespeare's Thought For The Day.

Had another ticklish procedure today.

Not ticklish for a trained surgeon who has done a residency and everything.

But kinda ticklish for me. I excised a lipoma, or a collection of fatty tissue, usually benign, from a patient's scalp.

You have to be careful around the scalp since it's so highly vascular. Lots of bleeding. I kept dissecting and dissecting, trying to find the core of this thing. I was just about to give up when I struck the motherlode.

I kept extracting all this fatty tissue; I thought I'd never be done.

I finally finished, and sutured him up.

But it was, you should pardon the pun, a little hairy...

I just got an odd phone call from my supervising physician.

He rarely calls me socially. He asked me if I was going to the next continuing education seminar in Seattle next month.

I probably can't make it. The clinic manager already has three providers out that day, and no one will be able to cover for me at the homeless clinic.

Anyway, we chatted for a while, and I kept waiting for him to make some kind of point, but evidently he just wanted to talk for a while.

I think he's lonely. Poor guy...

How is everyone out there tonight?

Not lonely, are you?

Friday Clinic! - Release the hounds!...

My one day of the week when I'm not working at the homeless clinic. Working at our mainstream clinic makes me appreciate the homeless clinic that much more...

It's Miller Time!

Except I don't drink mass market swill...

It's Manny's Pale Ale time!

How's everybody doing tonight?...

Lab coat on. It's game-time!

Whenever I put on my lab coat, I always feel like I'm donning a suit of armor. I'm tilting at diseases...