I spent my holiday week (plus) casually shopping, eating cookies, playing with superhero bobble heads, reading, sleeping, and generally enjoying my family. It was a very good time, and I was ready to go back to work, which is always a good sign.
Today was a frosting-induced buzz kill.
7:30: Check email -- M.'s sweet dog, Peanut, died last week. It was good death for a great big doggie who had a long, happy life, but I know M. is sad and H. will need therapy.
9:00: Man in mid-40's -- "Excuse me for crying... I just have this brain tumor and I know it's going to kill me... I don't know what to tell my kids".
10:00: Man in mid-40's -- so close to returning to driving 3 years after his stroke was told by his neurologist that no, he wasn't going to be medically cleared to drive for another year as he'd recently had a seizure. (On the good side of the coin, when asked about his holiday he produced the multi-word sentence "Mac computer [his son's name] I got it", which has been a therapy goal for over a year).
11:00 Pair of men in their 50s, both professional type As who both had strokes and are angry about it -- both feel that the medical profession can only guess what's gone on and what will go on (true) so why trust it? Sigh.
12:00: Chat with parents of one of the gentlemen in the 11:00 pairing - they are concerned his quick anger trigger is him faking it and using it as an excuse to be difficult. Double sigh.
12:50: Check phone messages -- new hospice guy died. Nuts -- was looking forward to getting to know him.
1:00: One of 2 scheduled patients come -- the fact that the other didn't worried me, she's having real difficulty getting the support she needs from her family, including getting her to and from therapy.
2:00: breathe, type like the wind to finish the reports lingering from the week before I was off
3:00: Woman in her early 60s had just come from seeing her physiatrist (one of our own). This MD read the letter I sent with her explaining why I thought this woman was ready to go back to work (she's doing great, her boss is flexible, she can retire if it's just not working out) and that therapy was wrapping up, then said, "No, you don't need to rush back to work, and besides, I want you to have a neuropsychological eval first". The next available eval time is April. You've got to be kidding.
Advent is over but it definitely feels like I'm still waiting for something.
No comments:
Post a Comment