Fireworks safety

This is a public service announcement from Doctor Anonymous.

Since the Fourth of July is next week, I just wanted to review some important safety tips when it comes to fireworks. The Consumer Product Safety Commission and the National Council on Fireworks Safety offer these tips to help make your holiday a safe one.

In addition, please review the following educational video to see what could happen to loved ones when fireworks are used improperly. You may want to turn up the sound a bit to get the full effect. Click here for video. Remember, fireworks are not a toy, so use them wisely. (It's a tough day to be a stuffed animal -- HA!)

Thank you and have a happy and safe Fourth of July holiday weekend!

BA Meeting

Attention members of Blogaholics Anonymous and you know who you are! Because of our meeting yesterday, I am the first chairperson of our fair group. I thank you for this honor and I'll do my best to serve as your chair.

For my first task, I've taken the liberty to deem this "THE Official Un-Official Site" for our group. Warren Buffett graciously donated the funds to get this site up an running. Thank you Warren, you're quite a philanthropist!

Just to let you know, today's meeting is taking place over at Cathy's place. So, don't be late! Don't forget to bring a covered dish and your favorite dessert. As always, everyone is welcome to attend. For prospective new members, all you have to do is click here and take the first step ==> Admit you are powerless over blogging.

Conquering blogaholism.... One day at a time....

Bloggers Anonymous

As I was reading through my comments, I ran into this one from Dr. Engel:

With a gestation period of a mere two months, I seem to have also turned into a BAT. I know I should join the BA (Bloggers Anonymous): I neglect chores, forget to make up my bed, clean the kitchen, leave mail and newspapers behind - all due to the urge to read or write blogs all day long. Why get addicted to heroin or meth when you could blog?
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 8:27:32 PM

Which got me thinking... Hm... Bloggers Anonymous!

I can hear the radio ads now, "Hi, I'm Dr. A, I'm not only a doctor, I'm also a client!" How about this as a slogan, "Join BA today! It's no BS!" Or, "Think you're addicted? Well, let's blog and find out!" There could be t-shirts, mugs, posters, mouse pads, key chains, etc --this could be HUGE!

But, alas, when it googled it, I found this article from the Wired magazine website. Don't get me wrong, funny stuff. But, I think I'll keep my day job. How about BATS Anonymous? Or, Idiots Anonymous? Would those work?

Here are the "minutes" of the previous Blogaholics Anonymous meetings:

My first post 6/28/06

Cathy 6/28/06 (link now inactive)

Dr. A 6/29/06

Dr. A 7/7/06

NeoNurseChic 7/11/06 (blog now private)

May 7/14/06

It's Me, T.J. 7/18/06

Cathy 7/28/06 (link now inactive)

Dreaming Again 8/2/06

Ladybug 8/25/06

Dr. A 9/5/06

Sarebear 9/10/06

Dr. A 9/13/06

The Curmudgeon 9/18/06

Dr. A 9/25/06

Empress Bee 10/7/06

Feeling the love: Part Deux

You guys amaze me! (You know, I'm using "guys" in totally the non-sexist manner. WHEW! Almost got in trouble there...)

I am just humbled by the kudos that I've been getting yesterday and today from YOU, my friends (some fellow idiots), in BlogLand. I thought that the BATS got the best of me, but I knew better (Whoa! Lots of B's in there).

Thanks to DP, Artemis, Cathy, Lea, and Moof for mentioning me in your blog. And, for may more of you who have graciously placed me on your blogroll.

As Gene Hackman said in Hoosiers (BTW, one of the best movies EVER!):
I love you guys!

Feeling the love

So, it's been a week since I've been in the blogosphere. I've been soaking up some BlogRays and wearing my BlogSunscreen -- Like my tan? I thought I would get BlogSick (like seasick - bad joke), but except for dealing with the totally addictive tendencies of the blog. I guess that's been ok. I think the medical term is "Blogger Addiction Tendency Syndrome." I don't know, but I think I have the BATS!

Anyway, thanks to everyone for your advice and support over the past week as I've been getting started. I now have a blogroll going and some of those little button thingies in my side bar. I'm feeling the BlogLove (BL). I hope I don't get BlogOverload -- I don't want to have BO! HA!

Are you an idiot?

So, I'm watching ESPN this morning, and I guess it's the current fad to just call yourself an idiot. Phil Mickelson, one of my fave golfers, lost one of the biggest tournaments of the year last week -- on the final hole.

“I am such an idiot. I just couldn't hit a fairway. I just couldn't hit a fairway all day. . . . I just can't believe I couldn't par the last hole. It really stings.”

Then, the USA soccer team was elmimated from the World Cup tournament this week in Germany. They had no wins, one tie, and two goals for the entire time that they were there. There was a lot of hype also leading up to the World Cup. Bruce Arena, the head coach said this

"Four years ago I was completely burnt out after that whole thing. I was a zombie for about two weeks," he said. "Right now, I'm just an idiot."

This really got me thinking, "Am I an idiot?" I googled this phrase and low and behold, there is this website to help me answer this important question. I took the test and I'm happy to say that YES I am an idiot!
At least I'm in good company. Idiots unite!

Bonjour Monsieur Francois

Did you know that there's this entire world out there other than work and Blogger? I know it's hard to believe, but it's out there. It's a beautiful sunny day following a few blah days of rain.

Went to Barnes & Noble, where I go two or three days a month just to unwind and look around. As I was looking around, these questions ran in my head:
*If Larry the Cable Guy wrote a book, then why can't I?
*What is sudoku and why am I seeing it everywhere?
*Where are the blogging and HTML books?
*Is that my high school french teacher?

Why it was. He was with family and I really didn't know him that well in school, so I did not say hello. I took three years of french, and I don't remember any of it. His classes were fun, though. The only reason I took it was that I knew some people also taking it. It's not like now, where kids are taking three languages when they're five years old. He's still got those facial tics that the students would make fun of, but they are less so now as he has gotten older. As he got up from the table with his family, I saw the cane that he was using. It looked like he really didn't need it -- maybe a sign to distinguish his age and wisdom -- as he told us when we were in his class so many years ago. Au revoir, Monsieur...

After some lunch, I went to the driving range. Golf is definitely something that relaxes me. I put on my iPod, turn off my cell phone, and lost two hours there.

Finally, I had to make an electronics run -- Best Buy and Circuit City. And, I'm proud to say that I was so relaxed following golf that I did not give in to the impulse to buy the next latest and greatest. I wouldn't call myself an early adopter, but maybe the next level, whatever the name of that was.

Ahh, the peace of the weekend. Hey, what's that? Golf on TV. Gotta go...

Even tough to be a monk

For those wondering, my friend is not as upset as he was earlier today. A bunch of us got together for dinner and we talked this thing out a little bit. We'll just have to see what happens.

I got this link from someone today, and I could not help but chuckle.

So, I'm trying to picture monks watching soccer and being told not to cheer or anything. If you do then you'll be defrocked (I had to look that one up myself.) It's almost something you'd watch on you tube or saturday night live.

What the article failed to mention was that the monks absolutely LOVED the DaVinci Code! The movie left them speechless. One monk was quoted as saying, "........................" I couldn't have said it better myself.

On being sued

Got a troubling phone call from a good friend of mine who was just notified that he's being sued by the family of one of his patients who passed away. I don't know any of the medical particulars of the case. I was more concerned about my friend who called me very upset this morning.

You definitely feel responsible for everything that happens to your patients -- even though things may happen that are entirely out of your control. I've never been sued myself, but I can only imagine what he's going through. You cannot help but second guess every decision of what happened. Especially in medicine, there is a lot of grey -- meaning, a lot of judgment calls that need to be made. It's not a slam dunk science that this absolutely needs to happen or that absolutely needs to happen.

With all kinds of lawsuits happening these days, it's difficult to decide to DO something or NOT to do something. Everytime you go and get your prescription drugs these days, you get three pages or more of a side effect profile -- any one of those can happen to your patient -- thereby, they'll be blaming you for the outcome.

On the other hand, what happens if all the signs are iffy and you want to take a wait and see posture? For the most part, the body does heal itself naturally without drugs (like antibiotics) and other treatments we prescribe. What if something bad happens when you do nothing?

Let me reiterate again, I do not know anything of the medical circumstances of this case, and of course, the family of this patient is going through a lot of suffering right now.

It's just that something that is not talked about publicly or privately -- even among doctors themselves -- are our emotions and how we would deal with something like this. He's going through a lot too, and I'm worried about him.

First Contact

I'm so excited that I got my first comments on the blog. I guess it helps to announce yourself by posting to other blogs. Probably everybody does this, but I've been hitting that "Next Blog" button at the top right of the blogger page just to see who's out there. I was amazed by the international blogs out there (must be my American-ethno-centric upringing). Anyway, if I found anything interesting, I would post a comment.

I was a little disappointed this morning when I did not see any comments on my blog. The dummy that I am, I marked in the Blogger set up, that I had to approve the comments before they were posted, and I didn't check my e-mail until this afternoon.

You could probably imagine my surprise and delight when I found not one but two comments sitting in my e-mail box. So, I quickly approved them and then admired them for a little bit on my site. This is really silly, I know, but I've learned that it really is the little things that can bring a smile to your face sometimes.

Shout out to Moof for being the first and for putting me on your blogroll -- My First Ever! Hope I can do the same for you, if i can figure out Bloglines. Thanks!

Also shout out to Little Johnny and thanks for your comment. He recently started a blog also and we must have been on the same brainwave (sorry for you) talking about -- what the heck to blog about -- and love of sweets -- particularly chocolate!

Let's see if I can figure out this blogroll/Bloglines thing...

Happy Summer Solstice

On this longest day of the year, it seems like I've had the longest day of the week at work (and I'm not done yet, because I'm on call tonight). One of the docs called off sick today and the office was crazy today trying to keep up with things. I only just now finished my dictation (of medical charts) for today's work. Whew! Hope this night on call is not too crazy.

When I had a second to try to relax a little bit, I was thinking about how to make this blog more interesting -- at least for me. It seems like it's been missing something. In general, my postings have been blah, blah, blah. I've been reading other blogs over the past few days and thinking to myself what makes them interesting.

Blogging is like being at the podium and to get people to listen to you, your thoughts have to be pretty well developed, or people will walk away. The good blogs that I've run into make me think a little bit and make me post a comment. The interaction with people (conversation like interactions) take place in the comment area. The blog is kind of like the lecture and the comments are like the Q&A.

Feel free to tell me I'm wrong! I still have a lot to learn about blogging, but what I've figured out so far has been very valuable.

I'm number 1,382,557!

Yup, still can't sleep. This whole "add-on" thing is so interesting. Earlier today (I guess now yesterday), I added a statcounter button, which was really cool because I've never cut and paste code before. And, to actually have it pop up on the sidebar was a significant step for me in the editing of this blog page.

So, I just took the next step. In reading other people's blogs, I kept seeing this "Technorati" tag. Over the past hour or so, I've been checking out this site. And, I finally signed up on that site and placed their button and other stuff on the side bar.

When I was finished with the registration process, they proudly told me I was number 1,382,557. Quite an accomplishment only after a couple of days of blogging.

NOT a medical blog

I can't seem to sleep, so why not blog? Just surfing around the internet, I cannot believe all the medical blogs that I have run into. All really good stuff. I cannot help but be intimidated by the quality of the medical information that is out there.

I ran into this thing called "Grand Rounds" in which all of the relevant medical blogs are listed and their latest topics being discussed. I'm pretty confident that this blog will not be anywhere on that list.

This blog is the observations of a doc out there just trying to make it in America today. Yes, from time to time there may be some medical commentary. From time to time there may be some ranting. From time to time, I may even say something funny.

But, as Yoda would say, "A medical blog this is not..."

Angry then sad

I'm running behind in my office hours, which is par for the course these days, then I meet this new patient who is in his mid-50s. I ask him why he's here and he says, "I think I have sugar. I tested it about five years ago and it was 300. Now, my hands and feet get numb." At that moment, I felt really angry because I knew I would have to do a lot of patient educaton on what probably was diabetes. And, this would further set me back in my schedule which would mean I would have to be further apologetic to the patients in my running late. Basically all this stuff about me.

Then, as I was talking with this nice gentleman, I asked him the long list of review of system questions. He asked me, "What does heartburn mean?" My heart sank at that moment. In my experience, I see people who typically abuse their bodies -- like with tobacco and other substances, and then come in on a new patient visit to ask me to fix them. This guy who hasn't seen a doctor in decades, does not even understand the word 'heartburn.' But, through his life experience, knew that 'sugar' (as he called it) probably was causing his 'numbness' and wanted to come to the doctor's office just to try to get better.

Yes, my morning schedule is completely blown out of the water. But, it's nice patients like this that keep you grounded and remind you (every once in while), why you're doing what you're doing.

Safety of anonymity

I had a blog of my own with my name on it. But, somehow I felt restricted. I knew people in this small town would eventually figure out that I was talking about them. And, it's not like they're bad people, but sometimes you get frustrated and just have to vent. Some people would say cowardice, but I think that being anonymous has a certain freedom to it.

Does this thing work?

I've got to admit off the bat that I'm no techno-expert. This entire sign on process was kind of traumatic. Is this what this blog is going to be about -- whining? Hope not. I'm glad just to be up an running. Don't worry, this sparse blogspace will be filling up soon. Just as soon as a figure out what to talk about...