office

The work day before a long weekend or major holiday is usually a frantic one. There are often a lot of ‘no-shows’ as people forget they have an appointment today. There are also lots of frantic telephone calls from folks in hysterics about to leave for the airport needing their medications renewed right now – usually valium. I wrote this entry in piecemeal when people failed to make their appointments.

What I should be doing now is rummaging through my office desk and cupboards to discard old journals and such, the things I’ve squirrel away ‘for later’, papers I’ve completely forgotten about and are outdated anyway so into the rubbish they go.

I just saw a patient with “SAD” which is seasonal affective disorder. This means depression/anxiety worsens in the winter months. When I lived in Michigan I had a lot of patients with SAD. There are not as many of these cases in Arizona. All the same the lack of light this time of year makes even the locals sluggish and logy. On top of SAD are the ‘holidays’ with all their stressful elements hohoho. Unfortunately hibernation is not a feasible option for most: the co-pay on this prescription is outrageous.

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My office – PHX branch

Speaking of winter my office is as cold as witch-tit. As you can see I have the corner office is half windows. When we moved into the place everyone was initially mad-jealous that I got the corner office with its view of the mountains and Evita-balcony. We soon discovered for half the year in the summer months the morning sun bakes it hot as an easy-bake oven and in the other half of the year it’s positively arctic. No one will swap rooms with me now for love or money. I need to remember next week to bring in a little space heater as I am freezing my wrists off even as I type.

Today at noon we are having a telephone conference sales pitch about some sort of device or metric flogged as something useful to my practice. At the moment I can’t think of anything useful I want right now other than someone or something that fills out prior-authorization forms.  The salesman has already lost a few points by putting this at lunch time and not providing food. Thrall #1 (the dear!) went out to fetch us some tuna fish sandwiches served on buns and things.

Later – the  teleconference zoomed in and out in half an hour and I still don’t know what it was about. Imagine someone trying to explain quantum mechanics in thirty minutes. It seems to be an on-line do-it-yourself cognitive exam for patients. It has all sorts of fancy charts ups and do-dads apparently to see how bad is your memory. My soul swoons with questions on its use, privacy issues/HIPPA laws, and the price of such shenanigans. Imagine me telling an elderly patient struggling with memory to go on line to a website and follow the instructions to set up an account and do all the tasks and have it generate a report to send to my office. The saleslady wanted me to sign up before I hung up and she wasn’t one to take no for answer. I’m afraid she had to live with disappointment – at least until I can figure out what the hell she was talking about.

It looks like I may get out today on time enough to go to the gym and then head home for my four days introverted cocoon weekend. This evening I plan on making some bread. It shall be my Thanksgiving treat.