My partner that is. Fellow Family Nurse Practitioner Mary Jane is watching out for my best interests. I walk into her office today and she says, “hey, did you see this?” and she’s all excited! It’s a research study from Yale. She gives it to me. It’s titled “Preserving Fertility for Women”.
Yale is actually removing women’s ovaries and freezing them and replacing them later on in a woman’s life for her to try to have a child then.
Hmmm…thanks for looking out for my oocytes, MJ~you’re the best!
True. Story. Just happened after I finished seeing a farmer patient of mine, whom by the way drove to the clinic in a tractor. (to set the scene up there is the patient, me and Bonnie who is our office manager)
Patient: Doc-do you want a quarter of a cow?
Me: Sure
Patient: Ok, just go on down to the locker to pick it up
Me: Pella’s locker?
Patient: Yep.
Bonnie (whispering): Shana, tell him what quarter you want
Me (whispering to Bonnie): Well, which do I want?
Bonnie (whispering): the rear
Me: Can I have the rear quarter of the cow?
Patient: Sure can, just go down and get it and then we’ll bill ya’, that’s the bad part.
Me: Ok, Thanks…Merry Christmas
——————walking away—————————-
Me: Wait a minute….how big is this quarter of a cow?
Patient: Pretty big, why?
Me: Will it fit in my freezer?
Patient: No, you rent a locker.
Me: I don’t want to do that…can I get an 1/8 of a cow?
Patient: No, just find some friends to share it with.
Me: No, seriously I don’t want to rent a locker. What about a 1/16 of a cow.
Patient: Well, they are corn-fed so they aren’t that big I guess. Maybe you could give some to your family for Christmas. They’d love it for gifts.
*****needless to say this carried on for a good 10 minutes in the waiting room in front of other patients all of which were giggling. Only in rural Nebraska do you come to your doctor and try to sell a cow. It was great. Gotta love it here!!!
Ok people….I know there are quite a few of you out there that read my blog. Tell me what you think. What is this?
H1N1 H1N1 H1N1…anyone else getting tired of it yet!!! And, folks it is just starting let me tell you. The government released some of the nasal spray this week and our clinic received a nice token of ten doses on Tuesday…yippee. Supposedly the injectable will be coming next week. I took the nasal spray yesterday and so far so good. I haven’t started snorting and rooting around in the dirt yet. Seriously, though…I am fine.
What really gets me is that I can’t even get the regular seasonal influenza vaccine for my medicaid or uninsured kids~the state says they are out for now and we may be able to get some more next week or maybe next month (this is literally what she told me~not making this up, people). Ahhh, thanks…The regular seasonal influenza kills JUST AS MANY, if not more than what H1N1 is doing and I can’t even get enough of THAT vaccine!?
I will admit that from what I am seeing in my practice that I DO believe this will be a bad cold/flu season. We have already had our first influenza here which is WAY WAY earlier than ever in the previous six years I have been here. So I am a little fearful as I always worry we’ll lose some little one to pneumonia from having influenza…or anyone really.
Then there is an ENTIRE other conversation that I could have about how I sometimes wonder about how we are immunizing against EVERYTHING and is this good for us? I mean, I consider myself somewhat intelligent and medically literate. I have lots of access to research-based information so I know what is what but I still wonder….
So I guess we should be washing our hands, covering our mouths, etc or we could just live in a bubble and order in our groceries, etc.
I just need to say I had a crappy day today. And, I love my mom. Weird, I know to write those two sentences back to back.
We checked out of the hotel this morning (STAYCATION OFFICIALLY OVER!), I had an abused patient this morning in the clinic, I picked Kalia up in Omaha as I mentioned below and money is NOT GOOD right now and then I just had a run-in with someone puking up spaghetti (sorry for the visual but that is what happens in medicine).
And, we are now at home as I mentioned. The SAME home that I love at times but despise at others, such as now. I look around and wonder what did we do? Why did we buy this place? And, how has my mother kept it in her to come here each day to help us with it? She is here early in the morning and staying until late in the evening. She is working, cleaning, fixing, loving…whatever she can do and all I could do tonite when she left is cry.
So, I end this day with a prayer to God for strength. Strength for my patients that are weak. Strength for my family, especially my husband and my mother. And, strength for me so I don’t give up because I REALLY want to.