Park Rapids, MN

I love this place. I've been here for just over 24 hours now and I love it. Our cabin is just a hop-skip from the lake. The lake is clear, sun bright, jet ski fast, atmosphere relaxing. It's beautiful. This is the cabin that I'll be staying in for the next week.

NE Club

God really answers prayers. Let me tell you my story:
About a month ago I realized that the tags on my license plates were expired (Dec. 06) and wondered why no one had reminded me about it. After I realized there was no one else to blame but me (like I look at my license plates often), I thought that I would somehow miraculously be able to get to the DMV in Lincoln before it closed. I'm working an hour outside of town. I finally realized that I am never going to get off work soon enough to visit them in person, so I called the DMV myself last monday. When they pulled up my file they told me that I would have to pay for a whopping 2 years of registration as a penalty because I'd been driving it while it was expired. $92.36 :( Then they told me that the fine for having expired plates was $100. I told myself this must be pretty serious and decided to balance my checkbook and send them a check. But Thursday had come and I still hadn't sent for my license plate tags. I drove to Lincoln that night and parked in front of the US bank building downtown where I was attending a program sponsored by the pharmaceutical rep at the Nebraska Club (very nice place by the way). Great program, great food, great information, great contacts. I return to my car afterwards to notice a little pink envelope stuck underneath my windshield wiper.
Blast it.
I was confused. when you park downtown in the evening you don't have to put $ in the meters, right?!
$100 ticket
Blast it.
So I drove back to my apartment here in Lincoln and cried. Now not only did I owe the DMV $92.36 for new registration, I also owed the Lincoln police, or whatever $100 for a parking ticket. This would affect me negatively at any time, but especially this month when things aren't as liquid as I'd like.
This all happens the night before my last day at work. My preceptor was to evaluate me, I owed people money ($193.36), I had to pack up all my stuff and have it ready to come home, I was distraught. I prayed one of those prayers that a person feels guilty for - "God, I know it's my fault, but can you help me?" I slept 3 hours that night.
I was tired Friday. I think I fell asleep while we were in with a patient.
He gave me a good evaluation though, and everyone told me how wonderful I was (I love that)! Then as I was saying my goodbye's the doc pulls out an envelope and hands it to me. It was a check. God bless them. How did they know? Later when I opened it, it was more than enough to cover my ticket. God really does answer prayers, I am so thankful. Praise God!

p.s. how is it that after I had expired plates for 7.5 months already, I get a ticket no more than a week before I would have new stickers? Ironic? I think so.

hope you're not eating

Today we drained a cyst behind a guy's ear. When we cut into it all this pus came bursting out mixed with blood. It was about the size of a really large grape. So gross. Then we stuck this long q-tip with hydrogen peroxide and iodine on it into the huge hole (after squeezing it like a pimple) and cleaned it all out. After placing a piece of cloth-like flattened string half in and out (so as to let the wound drain) we put 4x4's over it and sent the guy home. Wow. I love my job.

Before and After

My friend Justin woke up swollen on the 4th of July. Not all over his body, thankfully, but his face was a little puffy. Here he is in the afternoon. If you know him, you can probably tell his face is a little larger than normal...the picture doesn't do him justice. Can you tell?

After fireworks and a little antihistamine. Doesn't he look better? (what happened to my eyes?)


On another note, I'm taking suggestions on what I could do for my two weeks of vacation. Any ideas?

Catch up from the 4th

stitches

Today in the office I took out stitches. There were about 17 of them from an ATV accident. He had a total of 52 stitches! But they weren't all ready to come out yet. This guy wasn't even a patient of ours, in fact, he was a drug rep! How about that.

On another note, it looks as though I'm going to have 2 weeks vacation coming up soon! Oh boy!

~nancy

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

life in the day

Monday
12:25am - set alarm, go to bed
5:50am - alarm goes off, snooze for 10 minutes
6:00 - jump in the shower before my roommate
6:10 - dry, pack, eat, iron
7am - leave for Friend
8am - the clinic opens, patients start streaming in
MORNING - Patients with hypertension, heart failure, diabetes, compression fractures, prosthetic mitral valves, depression, lacerations, ear infections
1:20 pm - Holy cow... it's that late already? I haven't eaten lunch. Run to car, find munchies.
AFTERNOON - see patient with dog bites, ingrown toenails, more hypertension, swallowed pennies, recurrent urinary tract infections, headaches, peripheral swelling, stitch removals, ulcerations on leg, wheezing, ovarian cancer. allergies, sinus infections.
5pm - whoa... we still have patients.
5:30 - finish up some paperwork
6pm - make soup for supper
6:30 - watch star trek (or something) with my supervising physician
7:30 - head outside for some fresh air, read some papers on lipid meds, make some phone calls
9 pm - feel sick, take shower and put on comfy clothes, crawl into bed, start entering my SPEED data from the patients that I saw today. Get distracted
10:20 - got blocked out of myspace. Does that happen? Apparently I'd been phished, and because of that... I'm blocked? Well, whatever. I need to go to bed. Tomorrow will be oh to early. nite nite