h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Woke up this morning just before six am anything but rested after barely three hours and a half of sleep. Not even the thorough washing of my face and hands by Leopardess made it any better. Snoozed a little to long, and suddenly there was just a tiny fraction to little of time left before leaving for work. I had to rush through my morning routines, a quick detour with the garbage and arrived some twenty minutes late for work. That was not a big problem today since I had no booked appointments and I have plenty of overtime to use.

Started to read through yesterday's patient notes and realised that the junior not-so-young assigned to me once more managed to get a lot of things completely wrong. Since he was not to be found (turned out he had a meeting with some Belgians) I decided to correct the minor faults myself to get things going and put the more severe on hold for the time being.

Then I went for morning and ended up in a heated theological dispute with a fundamentalistic Xtian colleauge. He was very upset when I first questioned the existence of JC, the Saviour, and on top of that refused to believe that prayer by one faithful true Xtian made "God Father Almighty" move an Egyptian mountain and thus convincing the ruling Jews (sic!) about the Superiority of Xtians. When he started to brag about the gold crucifix containg a piece of the original JC wooden crucifix belonging to some ancestor which also magically could do miracles like spontaneosly going into fire without even being hot, I could not take it anymore. I pondered about using tal-shaya but left for my office, and spent the rest of the day listening to Metal (not loud unfortunately), mostly rather dark and trashy such as Finntroll, Slipknot and Domination Black. Later in the afternoon I was more settled and listened to Black Sabbath.


Back in my office I continued to read the aforementioned notes. The most severe mistake, which amongst other thing includes the total mix up of sexes - describing a baby boy having a complete set of female genital organs - I spent most of the day working with. Since the original notes were so screwed up all auxillary tests have been hard to interpret. My memory is not what it was back in the days, and to remember all tiny details after a week and half (including several other cases handled) is not always an easy task. Finally I think I sorted it out. My secretary left early today due to the upcoming Easter, so I have not been able to read my final notes yet.

While working with this case the junior showed up, questioned why I had questioned his notes and I had to review four other cases with him and ask him to rewrite the notes before I could sign them off. Some of the mistakes he made I doubt my daughter and the other 3rd year students would make.

After a short lunch break when I went to the hospital canteen with another colleauge, I was repeatedly interrupted by administrators and other staff and the pile of unattended cases kept growing.

When I finally headed for a break one of "my" told me with tears in her eyes that my other 's leukemia had returned and appearently worse than before. There are even discussions about skipping further treatment and going the palliative route. I'm not suprised, the kind of leukemia she has is "better" to get as a toddler than being close to retirement. I texted my while feeling totally powerless and useless. The planned photo op with my both "old" and the new temporary replacement for the Uni hospital website will most likely be cancelled. I so want my sick longtime friend and co-worker to know that she's part of our team, and to not include her on the photo is just so wrong. See if she'll feel strong enough to let us up to her ward to take the photo there using a camera of our own.

When I finally came to once more review the above mentioned four cases with the junior he was long gone. Turned out he left for the day, week (vacation) and month (Uni rotation). Oh well, I must admit I'm sort of relieved it was his last day. At least he got one of the four cases correct this time... The remaing three I was able to fix myself.

The last part of the afternoon I spent doing "simpler" cases that have been on my table the last week due to lack of time. I'm currently "XO" and my administrative work has increased exponentially. The summer rotation and vacation list is driving me nuts! I wanted it done before the end of March, but there are a few vacancies left to fill.

Another low today was that I learned that the junior I wanted to work with me and hopefully in a few years be my "heir" had turned down the offer to join us, and instead joined "the Neighbours". They will have good use of him. He worked with me a couple of months last year as part of a rotation and he would have been a good addition to the mix of people here.

The Lab closed early today, at 15.00, but I swiped out at 18.20. I didn't exactly feel like cooking, so on my way to my daughter's for some assistance in cat grooming, I stopped by the nearby grocer's and picked up readymade Shellfish lasagna, tiramisu, caesar salad and a couple of non-alcoholic weissbeer. That made an acceptable dinner, though a bit salty. I guess I've had at least a litre of cold water to drink so far. The cats were groomed and I was back in the Lair just after eight. Leopardess was content I was finally home and willingly "helped" putting clean sheets in the bed.

The c********k didn't end of course. When running my long wanted hot relaxing bath the remaing fifth of bath salt left had become a hard lump which landed itself into the tub. I ran very hot water to dissolve it, which needed to be cooled before I could get into the tub. Of course I had too much water in the tub, so the floor was flooded when I sat down. Archimedes was correct, if somebody doubted. Well, the floor needed to be mopped...

Now I'm finally in bed, Leopardess sleeping next to me - and not tired at all... Guess I have another "stay awake until the wee hours" night ahead of me. But at least tomorrow is the first of four days off, so I guess I'll manage. Hopefully I won't sleep in too late. It's just a month left until I move to the River Lair, so I must start to pack my stuff into boxes this weekend.

Sorry, DQ, haven't been keeping up with hootoo and only just saw this.

Sounds like a really tough day. I hope things have improved since then!

(And the religious nut sounds like he should actually read the for himself!)