For an essay title that's pretty bad but if there was a theme this week, that would be it. I've been continuing to provide daily support for C and she is moving in the right direction. She and Christy and her new beau are all at the Format Festival this weekend. Christy called this morning - she said it was hilarious bc there was no cell service, it was in the middle of nowhere, and it was like a comedy of an entire (very professionally done, she told me, good, I said, Woodstock 99 docs have given me PTSD) fan base, security, food vendors trying to get cell service the whole time. I just told Cecelia she and her friends should bring lighters tonight, that's what we did back in the day.
Monday was kinda crazy - Jan in transcription's daughter was upstairs delivering her first girl and Tina was at jury duty and Kimberly's brother Kyle came to ED for second day in a row. C'mon let me help you get some info. I grabbed my white coat and walked into the Dr. pod. I introduced myself to a Dr. Melton, they only one in there. I saw Wayne, who I went to med school with, and Lane, who I went to high school with, but I don't know you. I'm Elizabeth. I'm Shane, we all rhyme he said with a deadpan burnout voice but then found Kyle in the queue, told me to talk to the head nurse Michael over there to find out the wait, and honestly tried to talk us out of waiting for the sx he was having.
I went into the overcrowded waiting room that immediately made me hot and dizzy and grabbed Kyle out of the throng of sick people to explain what he could and could not expect out of the ED when our name was called. As Shane walked in he said that was fast and I said I promise I did not pull any strings that's not my intent here but I appreciate it. Turns out Shane went to the same Methodist church in Bryant as Kimberly and Kyle's dad and stepmom and spent ten years doing house calls and supporting them through his multiple myeloma before he passed. So even though Kyle didn't get what he needed (they will not do an EGD in the ED for outpatient stomach pain unless you are coughing up blood and need to be admitted) I told Wayne when I brought two dozen Boulevard cookies for the break room the next day that I see all the posts in BMD. Insurance is squeezing out primary care who are leaving in droves bc they are so miserably overworked then you go to an urgent care bc you can't get in for three months and they tell you to go to ED with a 6 hour wait it's just such a fucked up system. You are under appreciated and overworked heroes. He smiled and said thanks, Liz, it's not a problem. He was always so laid back.
Jan's granddaughter was delivered without problems and that was a high then we found out that Tina got picked for jury duty again and we were like what? Second murder case in a year she has been picked for jury duty. Like she's got a target on her back. We tried to entertain her a little through text until she got back on Friday. It was a nightmare, she said. Evidence was terrible. Forensic path was that new girl I had on the autopsy presentation I forget her name. Ended up being a hung jury. Lots of highs and lows, in transcription this week.
Poor Frankie in micro came out of retirement from being a med tech at ACH to help us during the pandemic. She is no nonsense, in her 70's, with short bristly grey hair and wonderful black blocky glasses, we talk books sometimes. Her hairdresser saw a suspicious lesion on her scalp, she showed me a pic, and wondered if I could help her get into derm bc she didn't want to wait three weeks. She just went through a large melanoma diagnosis and re-excision with her sister in Memphis - I helped interpret reports - so I texted Ahmad and he is going to pull some strings to get her in with Hayden Franks on Tuesday, Christy's derm. I texted you for Dan Smith - yes, Ahmad said, he is my first choice, but he's here vacationing with me. Oh! Tell him thanks - S's alopecia is gone.
Thursday was our annual shareholder's meeting at LRCC and that's two weeks in a row I had to perform on a work night and that just is really hard for me these days. Last week Jack wanted me at this Clinton Library thing to support and watch Hillary and Chelsea's new show Gutsy, which was cute but smacked a little bit of we sophisticated people go back to LR to show you our hillbilly roots, and since Jack mostly hung with his student council friends and sat with them and wanted to talk with them afterwards I got an Uber bc I was ready to go. Thursday night I missed the dinner part supporting Cecelia and I was spinning I was so over it. Choked up a little in front of my partners but regrouped bc I wasn't about to hijack the evening with my issues. I sat there while they talked way past dinner on an empty stomach and three drinks and almost fell out after I tried two Ubers - one said 22 minutes one said 30 minutes as the bill was being paid but luckily Shaver offered to drive me home.
Thursday at four I was working on two hard cases - a metastatic urothelial cell carcinoma to the lung hilar nodes - Moeez (pronounced Mo-ez) Beg, a new interventional pulmonologist, had used me for a wet read the day before. And Gary brought a stat case for a 20 something female with HIV who came in with pneumonia. Pneumocystis all over the BAL. I don't know those NLR docs but this is stat and I googled her to call her - Zafirah Salman. She's stunning, and looked like maybe has ties to Pakistan and a small girl she was tweeting about it. I was worried for any possible family or friends she had over there bc it's drowning (yet we still let Trump and Musk and Putin dominate our news cycle eye roll). She thanked me for the phone call, I told her I knew she probably had been pre-emptive tx her with Bactrim but it was still a very impressive GMS stain. Pneumocystis jeroveckii everywhere.
When Beg called me Friday morning about his case I found out they are brother and sister in law and I was the discussion at their dinner together Thursday night. I got so excited I grabbed the GMS from micro (I had presented the case in huddle and left it for them to see) and took pics and sent them on group text. WOW THAT's AMAZING (no all caps but they loved seeing it they were ebullient). Made me happy.
I'm having a calm girl's night Ms. Kandi Noah's caretaker and Becky Langley who I've know for years and first went to Crested Butte with - she started our single mom's Sunday school which has fallen apart oh well. There's a time for everything. Anyway they are coming over I said let's do a heavy app potluck and I'll have a key lime pie I just cut up the strawberries for it. I'll also do a cheese and cracker and fruit tray. Let's have dinner and swim (suits optional I emphasized - women need a safe space our bodies are so over scrutinized and under appreciated for what they can do) or just put your feet in the water and watch the sunset. Next M-W I'll be in Jefferson City, MO for a lab inspection - the last one ever for just NLR we finally got the two hospitals combined. Conway is a little too far away for that so the CAP inspections will continue there. So more business but for now, calm. Happy Saturday, much love, Elizabeth