Several Spo-fans (the dears!) have sent texts and emails asking if I am OK. My near-daily blog entries are dropping out and I’ve left no comments on others’ blogs – a sure sign of me missing in action. Not to be worrying! I am not sick, nor depressed, nor am I locked up in some dungeon at Heorot Johnsons III.* The matter is work. It is about a week into Athena, the new EHR at work. I am getting the hang of it, but it is oh-so-time-consuming. Like the Colossus at Rhodes, I am straddling the old and the new systems. When I get to work, I normally make a hot cup of tea, set up my day, and with time to spare I write an entry prior to work starting at eight. That time is now being used for copying and pasting notes into the new chart of every patient on the roster. Like sourdough, this acts as a sort of inchoation to get things going. It isn’t difficult work, just tedious and time consuming. Evaluation patients are the worst as there is no access yet at home where I dictate notes at night. I have to do this at work or by hand, worse luck! I generally see patients every three months, so this copy/pasting endeavor should be mostly done by mid-September. Until then it is going to be challenging to write and read blogs. If I am careful with time I ought to be able to do some just not at the frequency I fancy.

This is a temporary situation. Soon I will be able to dismantle Mr. Rhodes and be firmly docked on one side of the harbor with time to spare for more important things like sleeping and writing.

Hang in there.

Avoid Ravens bearing vague but menacing parchments telling you to put out or else.

*TBDHSR is trying to serve a subpoena to come to HJ3 for a friendly meeting to process things, not unlike Martin Luther being summoned to Rome to discuss his thesis.