April news

I suppose one reason for the lapse in recent posts has been that there's not much to report.  On the home front, Gabrielle has been doing fairly well, which is a huge blessing.  She had a clear scan in March and doesn't need to get another one till sometime this summer.  She's had some significant fatigue and aches and pains which she suspects might be due to one of her medicines she is on. Meets with one of her doctors in a week or so to get that sorted out.  Till then, she manages to keep quite upbeat and cheerful, which is something I really admire about her.  

As for me, I am slowly settling in to my new job, though there have been several different learning curves including learning the electronic health records system (Epic), keeping the office staff sorted out (still only at 20% in knowing their names...they make me wear a name tag but not them), and simply working in a bigger system.  My days are fairly busy, seeing anywhere from 20 to over 30 patients in a day, but they are rewarding as I get to practice medicine.  I miss seeing the same patients, as most everyone is new and they have regular doctors.  Somebody told me that, by definition, people come to urgent care because they can't see their own doctors and right out of the starting gate, I am seen as "second string".  On some visits, I hear how wonderful Dr. So and So is.  I get it.  Occasionally, somebody asks me if I can be their regular doctor, which is a nice compliment.  

I definitely miss my old practice; no two ways around that.  It's nice to have the familiar faces, the smiles, the checking in with each other's lives and such, but life does indeed go on.  When I get to missing things too much, I remind myself of the bigger picture: my desire to have a little more flexibility than I did before, and a little more free time.  I am working a little less and have more time to spend with Gabrielle, though I haven't made much of a dent in her "honey do" list.  

Next week, we are tackling another item on our "to do" list: the parks of southern Utah.  Looking forward to all those nifty place like Zion and Arches and that place where the guy got his hand stuck for 127 hours before he cut it off with a Swiss Army knife (note to self: take along very sharp knife and local anesthetic!).    I am pretty sure I will return with both hands intact.

On the exercise front, I haven't ridden my bike since stopping my commute to Holman Road, and I miss that.  On the up side, I have been walking to and from work over near the Shoreline Home Depot, and that has been quite pleasant.  I still manage to swim in the Sound, usually off of Edmonds, about twice a week.  Friday, it was very windy: whitecaps and waves to about 3 feet, which was a lot of fun, though I did swallow a tad more saltwater than usual.  I needed to dodge kite surfers who were out in droves.  I am discovering that they are a pretty tight knit bunch and aren't particularly chatty with outsiders like me.  I am not sure why that is.  If you happen to be or know a kite surfer, perhaps you could either disabuse me of this impression or let me know why that is.  I suspect they think I am invading their turf the way certain surfers "claim" a beach, but I could be way off base on that.  

Well, that's all the news that's fit to print.  I'll let you know how things went in Utah.  I am a little nervous, as I have heard that Starbucks has not made too many inroads down there yet.