ARCHIVES - 1996 to FOREVER

I awoke this morning to some chest discomfort, but I didn't quite get awake... I started dreaming about little chunks of my heart muscle deteriorating and floating off into space.

And I dreamt that our lives... heart patients... often end suddenly and surprisingly. And I was wondering what that surprise might be like, and wondering if that was happening right now.

I eventually woke up enough to go take some tums, and everything was suddenly better.

It wasn't too bad of a day, but I was the runner, and my legs are killing me.

But I did get to do a biopsy-like procedure first thing this morning... we put a wire into a lung lesion, and also injected blue dye into the lesion... this serves as a marker to the surgeon, so he knows when he's got the lesion. Always kinda fun.

And I hit some tough veins today, heh... always a good feeling.

One patient really wanted me to inject a deadener (local anesthetic) into her so it wouldn't hurt. Well, there are some people who do that... but not me nor my compadres. Why have a stick and a sting when a simple stick will suffice? Anyway, I talked her into doing it my way, and when I was done (one swift stick) she said, "You da *MAN*, Doug!"

I almost didn't get outta there on time, but I pretty much had to... the oncology nurses group that I belong to was having a meeting and a lecturer that started at 17:00... and I badly needed a shower.

So I got there on time, and it was an excellent talk and an excellent meal... the meal was free.

The presenter was a lady from Chicago and her subject was hematologic cancers... and almost everything that she said was way over my head, but riveting.

I got home about 20:00, and I'm almost completely done in.

And it's gonna get up to 90°F tomorrow... the official end of spring in Kansas is when the thermometer hits 90. Yeah, you're right, I just made that up, but it works for me.

"If God only exists in the gaps in our knowledge, why not make lots of room for him by staying as ignorant as possible?"

--Don Baker on the atheist list at yahoo