Friday Night Vodka Buzz. Ask me anything.

[Aristus]

Two shots to get the party started. Now, a Mind Eraser. Club soda poured slowly over vodka, poured slowly over Kahlua. No mixing. Yummy, and interesting. But I like mixed drinks better than layered drinks.

Had a monumentally awful day in clinic. No bad patients, no bad cases, just my vaunted time management plans shot to hell the minute we opened. The doofuses in the call center dumped four full physical exams on my schedule, none of them in the slots that make time management easy. My first patient was late, needed an interpreter, and ran into some insurance problems during registration. So I was an hour behind schedule by the time my first visit started.

The day only went downhill from there.

I need a drink. Fortunately, I have one. Hope you do too. Looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

I love you all…

[cachukis]

1. Appreciate the reality and your focus. Better for it.

[Aristus]

2. Welcome!

[kimbutgar]

3. I am drinking champagne and still sober unfortunately

Everyday seems like a drunken hangover nowadays!

We need To escape the craziness and mayhem we are experiencing now by drinking more!

[Aristus]

5. I'm trying, I'm trying...

[surfered]

4. Mind eraser. During this chaos, I need one of those every day.

Cheers🍷

[Aristus]

6. Without question.

I wish we could have a decade eraser. Send us back to 2016 and try again…

[3catwoman3]

9. "I wish we could have a decade eraser."

Damn right!

[Aristus]

10. I can't believe how much of my life has been taken up with this bullshit.

As if eight years of Dubyah wasn’t enough.

[3catwoman3]

13. Eight years of Bush Light was more than enough...

...and we didn't get a break from TSF during President Biden's 4 years because the POS was in the news every damned day, whining about one thing or another.

It's exhausting. And we know chronic stress is not good for our health, mental or physical.

[Marthe48]

7. I have a small sample bottle of mead

My daughter brought it from Ireland last year. I'm thinking of drinking it this weekend. Should I chill it? Or leave it at room temperature? heat it up?

I was listening to history lectures about early Europeans drinking mead, but the lectures focus more on drinking mead before during and after battle, with no instructions on prep.

Thank you for any tips

Rest up for round 3 million!

[Aristus]

11. I occasionally buy a bottle of mead. I keep it chilled.

Yummy!

[3catwoman3]

8. I dreaded those "behind before you even start" days.

During the summer, the peds office would be crazy busy with school, sports, and camp physicals. Instead of our day starting at 9:00 AM as it did the rest of the year, the first patient would be booked for 8:30 to get in a few extra time slots across our 3 locations. The problem with that was that the 8:30 patient would typically show up AT 8:30, and not usually be ready to be examined until at least 8:50, so I'd be playing catch up all day.

For many years, the practice did not schedule patients with particular providers, just into open time slots. Whoever got done first would go to the next room, and you never knew who or what you'd be seeing. Each of our 3 locations would have 2 of us working, and did what they called "3 across scheduling" - 3 patients in each time slot, with the presumption that at least one of the appointments would be a quickie. That was almost never true, and would be another reason I'd almost always be behind. If you schedule 3 patients at 9:00, for sure one of them is not going to be seen at 9:00. I have no idea why they did this, it sucked, and I was happy when they gave it up and went to a dedicated schedule.

Not a coffee drinker, so I wouldn't care for a Mind Eraser, but I do like the name.

[Aristus]

12. The things the two of us have had to deal with...

Are there support groups for burned-out medical providers?

[3catwoman3]

14. I'm sure there are. I'm also sure that if you and I were ever...

...to meet in person, we could talk for hours and hours.

I consider you a friend.

[Aristus]

15. That's sweet.

I have such tremendous respect for you and the things you have done in your career in health.

[Skittles]

16. I'm curious

Ms. O'Hara was situs inversus, did you ever know a patient with that condition?

[Aristus]

17. No.

It’s pretty rare.

[3catwoman3]

21. I had one patient with this - a newborn.

I was stationed in Japan. The base pediatric clinic had 2 pediatricians and me. All newborns got examined twice - an admission physical within 24 hours after birth, and a discharge physical the day they were due to go home. The 2 pediatricians and I took turns with this. If I did the admission exam, one of them would do the discharge, and vice versa. Nursery rounds were always done first thing in the morning, before clinic appointments started.

One morning, I was examining a new baby, and the heart sounds were really distant/quiet. I moved my stethoscope over to the right side of the chest, and BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, there it was. It was quite exciting.

Sometimes it's just the heart that is on the wrong side and sometimes all the organs are flipped. Seeing as this was way back in the late 1970s, I don't remember which way it was for this baby. He/she was not in any distress.

BTW, infant stethoscopes are rather cute. The diaphragm (flat side) is just slightly bigger than a quarter. A pediatric stethoscope diaphragm is about the size of a half dollar. For a premie stethoscope, about the size of a nickel. The last few years of my career, I indulged myself in a rainbow collection of stethoscopes - pink, purple, raspberry, green teal, turquoise, and navy. I'd coordinate them with my clothing colors.

[Skittles]

22. wow!

very interesting

I have read that Donny Osmond has this condition, and had a scare with appendicitis as a youngster - it took a while to diagnose because of its location

[3catwoman3]

23. Appendicitis can be tricky to diagnose. Even when the organs are in their proper...

...places, some people have a very long appendix, and depending on how big the appendix is and what is is in contact with, it can irritate other organs and cause atypical symptoms. For example, if the inflamed appendix rests on the bladder, the symptoms can mimic a urinary tract infection.

[True Dough]

18. Mind Eraser is a pretty cool name for a drink

What is your favorite name for a drink of any kind?

Have a great weekend, Aristus!

[Aristus]

19. It's not my favorite drink, but Shandygaff is my favorite drink name.

It’s a pint, 50/50 with ginger beer and ale or lager.

It’s a nice, jaunty Irish name that seems to promise good times, camaraderie, and barroom sing-alongs.

[True Dough]

20. New one to me!

Like shand through the pint glass.

[Dulcinea]

24. That was the name of a club at my college!

The Shandygaff was a dance place at Penn State University in the 80s. It's probably long gone though.