ARCHIVES - 1996 to FOREVER

I was stationed in the scan room today, and by noon my toe was killing me... figuratively, of course, toes don't really kill people, unless they get them stuck in their tracheas when their feet are in their mouths. Anyways, I took some Tylenol and made it through the rest of the day OK.

And I think that I got a good nights' sleep last night, I'm not quite so tired today anyway. But maybe it's just the pain in my toe that's keeping me alert?

I was told by several of my co-workers that I should really try to remember if I ran over my toe with a cart or wheelchair, since I couldn't really remember hurting it in the night... that way it would be covered by workman's comp. However, WC is not exactly a good thing to get involved in, and I'd rather not go through that hassle, even if it were true. I mean, like, it's just a damned *toe*, after all, and not even a major toe at that. And it's just pain that will go away in a few days, no matter what, and there's no fixing that needs to be done, just time to heal.

Tomorrow is gonna be a fun day... assuming that I get some sleep tonight, of course.

Karen and I are going to a reunion in Lawrence. The reunion is her deceased ex-husband's family, and I've really liked every one of them that I've met, and we were invited as a couple, and it's guaranteed that there will be many excellent edibles around.

And then, later on in the evening, JD will come rolling in... I figger 18:00 or 19:00, if he doesn't have any problems, and he's got a brand-new truck now, so there shouldn't be any problems.

I'm really looking forward to spending the next week with him, it's gonna be fun and educational. He had inherited the (male) familial gift for BS, and we can hit some conversational highs that would make mere mortals shudder.

Well, my patient should be getting here any minute, so I've gotta go find a radiologist now.

20:23...
Got the outpatient done, clocked out and closed down and was heading out the door when the phone rang. I paused, not really wanting to answer it, but it only rang once. Well, crap; I couldn't leave now... checked the computer about the time that the printer light started blinking. An ER patient, a 12-year-old, unconscious... with a blood-sugar of over 1500.

Did that, then I spent a few minutes in ER, explaining to them why I was there and not the regular evening CT tech.

So I decided to leave and do some errands and see if I could maybe make it home... it was about 18:30 or so, I figgered I'd be back there in a half-hour or so.

I figgered wrong. Been home ever since.

I got a 160Gig drive in the mail today, got it off of eBay last Sunday at a damned good price. Need to get it put in, probably in Zephyr, but I think that I'll wait until tomorrow, or maybe later tonight. I hate to get going on something like that and get called away in the middle of it, y'know? Especially on my main machine.

Brother Dan brought up something about the toe that I'm hating to think about... the possibility of gout. And this is especially pertinent since I don't really remember injuring it, just a vague, very vague, idea that I stubbed it on something in the middle of the night.

Gout, I think, would mean even more pills, and I'm already suffering from a surfeit of those...

And even worse, I guess... even more pain, pain that won't just go away in a few days.

But I shall retain my optimism, in spite of the world, dammit. Don my rose-colored glasses and go blithely on my way, with just a little limp and a quite stiff upper lip.

Fighting back the tears, not because of the pain of the toe, but the greater pain of knowing that the world would inflict such injury on such a kind soul as myself.

Go ahead, laugh, that's why I wrote it. To get a laugh. So laugh, dammit.

I am such a lucky bastard all of the way around, y'know? And I'm really happy about being so damned lucky, and I hate to take it for granted, as I mostly do, hell, as we all do. There are millions of people out there who would gladly change places... and, as mothers all over the world have been saying since the beginnings of time... there are kids in China starving, and you don't appreciate your brussels sprouts. My mother, you will be happy to hear, was not among them, and she never, *never* made me eat brussels sprouts.

20:52... what the hell is happening out there? Still no calls, so I'll go play some music, after I get this put up. I'm gonna have to go in sometime tonight and drop the pager off, sometime before 07:00 tomorrow, anyway, and besides... I need to make some money.

O'yeah, speaking of which: I got my evaluation today, it was excellent, as usual, and I got the now-usual 3.5%. And, contradictorily, I am now at the top of the scale, whereas I was about two bucks short of it last year. Curious, that. They've lovered the top to meet me, and not the other way around. So anyhoo, I'll get a lump sum. That's always nice, but a raise is always better, of course.

23:00...
I finally got called about 21:15, went in, did one patient, clocked out and hung around with some old buddies for a while. Checked the ER on the way out, and it was relatively quiet, and nobody knew of any reason for me to stay, but, given the doc that's on, they all thought that it was stupid for me to leave. I just think they like my company, heh.

So, I'll put this up, then got to bed, see how long that'll last....