Well, as of right now, the main CT machine at work is still... not working. This is not good. It has been not good ever since it bit the dust yesterday morning. Today wasn't really all that bad... I didn't have to do a bunch of running, at least, I was in the room taking care of the patients, which is my joy, most days. But it was still grindingly slow work. And there are a few exams that we can't do on the back-up machine, so those patients had to be rescheduled. Next week, there are no openings in the schedule at all - we're booked solid all week. We've had people calling begging to get scheduled in, wanting us to do triage on previously-scheduled patients, in effect, to do *their* patients. And we're like, "If it's an emergency, send them to the ER - their patients *always* have priority!" And then they're, "Well, I guess I'll have to call the other hospital then..." used as a threat, more than anything. "Well, gee, I do hope that *they* can work you in over there!" The games that these people play... all for the good of their patients, of course, not just for the convenience of the docs that they work for. However, we always wind up doing what we think is best for the patient... if they can come up with a legitimate reason, we will usually have the patient come in and sit and wait and we *will* work them in. Always sacrificing the time of some other patient. What else can we do? We're there to help people, and as many people as we can. It's our job, and it's what we love to do. Anyhoo, back to the central subject: the CT machine. There are engineers there now, replacing a part that was too heavy to ship by air. That's a *big* part, and it has to do with converting the high voltage in the x-ray generation. Big *and* complicated. And *heavy*. And, uh, very expensive. And they're not even really sure that it will solve the whole problem. When it blew, it might've taken the x-ray tube with it. There is another tube in KC, though, just waiting for a call. I do hope that it doesn't come to that, though. So, I'm on call until about 17:00 on Sunday, which means that I will be pretty much sleepless until then... I'm covered until 20:30 tonight, and kinda until 23:00, but after that I'm on my own. So... I'm gonna get a nap before I get called, I hope. And maybe I'll get to put up an entry tomorrow if I'm lucky. And catch up on Sunday night, if there's any energy left.