07.19.2010 - Monday

Oh Monday. Why must you come so often! You could at least take a day off once a month and do us all a favor!

All things considered, though, it wasn't that bad of a day. I went down to the clinic before breakfast and did some emailing and attempted to get a blog post up. That didn't work out so well, and I tried a couple more times during the course of the day without luck. Hopefully tomorrow morning I'll be able to get a post up.

First order of business clinic-wise was the new laptop the clinic just got. For some reason, the screen was not turning on upon boot-up. Faith hooked it up to an external CRT monitor and I attempted to look up some answers to the problem. Before I started, however, I tried cold-booting the computer and putting it in sleep mode. Nothing made the screen turn on. I didn't see any easy fixes online, and I was kind of at my wits end. I'd seen some vague references to removing the battery or making sure the RAM was seated well, so I decided I would try both of those on a gamble just to see if they would help. I removed the battery and then removed and replaced both RAM sticks. Upon rebooting the computer, the screen worked fine. YAY! :)

After that, I helped Scott as he took one final look at the young lady with the abscess under her arm. The wound was looking wonderful, and he taped it up one last time before releasing her. Then it was on to general consultations the rest of the day. Nothing too terribly exciting, I'm afraid.

Leftovers for dinner, Joe, Grace, and I washed up the dishes. Went down and emailed for just a bit. The inverter was pretty low on juice, so I didn't stay on long. I basically just downloaded all my mail, then turned off the power. Grace and Betsy came along and asked me to run to the bakery with them so they wouldn't have to walk in the dark. I obliged them and then went back to the clinic and wrote a couple of emails. Before I went back up to the house, I turned the power back on and sent them. Tomorrow, I'll probably go down before breakfast again and write some more emails and try to get that silly blog post up.

I found that quote from C.S. Lewis today. “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” That. . . that is a fascinating quote. Definitely going up on my Facebook status tomorrow. I believe the quote is from Lewis' book, The Weight of Glory.

I also picked Scott's brain for Air Force/medical info. Found out that I would only owe the Air Force 4 years of service, not 4 active and 4 inactive like I previously thought. Also, my residency (which would include my general surgery licsensing), would be included in the 4 years I spend with the Air Force. Upon completion of medical school, I'd automatically be a Captain, and often about half way through the time commitment, you receive a promotion as the Air Force tries to entice you to stay on. Scott finished up as a Major. Sounds pretty good to me! :) I should check on pay rates for those ranks. Also, I need to ask Scott if you are paid full wages while attending medical school (I imagine you are) and what/how internships factor into the whole thing. I think that internships are part of the residency, but I'm not totally sure.