Saturday, January 30, 2016

More sitcom recs

My husband and I are once again out of TV shows to watch. We recently finished binge watching most of the episodes of a few really good series:

Master of None
Silicon Valley 
Brooklyn 99
Peep Show
Inside Amy Schumer
Nathan for You

Now we yet again need a 30 minute sitcom to fill in the gap. We want something that's funny and that is no longer than 30 minutes.

Any recommendations?

Here are some other examples of sitcoms that we have both liked:
Seinfeld
The Simpsons
King of the hill
The office
Friends
30 rock
Futurama

Sitcoms we have tried watching and not liked:

Bobs Burgers 
Community 
Arrested development 

The series should be available on Netflix streaming or Hulu. Also, don't bother recommending the Big Bang theory, how I Met your mother, or modern family. Those are all shows that I like that my husband won't watch.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Friday afternoon

Years ago, when I was a medicine intern on the consult service, I got a page from the PA on the vascular service at 4PM on a Friday afternoon, the second I had gotten home because I thought we were done for the day.

The PA said to me, "Gee, sorry to be calling such a late consult, but... we need help with this guy."

The PA explained he was a 75 year old man who was about to go for surgery for revascularization of the leg, but they cancelled it due to pneumonia.

"So do you need help managing his pneumonia?"

"Well, we already consulted pulmonary about that, so they're managing his pneumonia," the PA said. "Also, he's having some blood in his urine."

"So do you want help with the bloody urine?"

"No, urology is already consulting on that." Thoughtfully. "He also has vascular problems in his legs, but we're managing that...."

"So what is your question for US?" I asked. .. that you're calling late on a Friday afternoon for.

"Um.... I guess we just need help managing all his issues..."

"What issues? You already have pulmonary and urology on board, so what are we supposed to do?"

"We just want to make sure there's nothing we're missing."

"But I can't say that to my attending. You have to have a question for us."

"Oh."

"Is there anything specifically that you want us to manage?"

"Um...."

Finally, I tried to help him: "Do you want us to clear him for surgery next week?"

"Oh... uh, okay!"

Of course, it was totally ridiculous. I called my attending and I was like, "I don't really know why they're calling about this guy. All his issues are being managed. They want us to get him ready for surgery, but he's already on a beta blocker. It's kind of a bullshit consult."

My attending said: "Are you already home?"

I admitted that I was. But who would have thought I'd get a consult at 4PM on a Friday? Especially when it's a very non-urgent consult.

The attending was nice to me and admitted that it was a bullshit CYA consult. She said I didn't have to come back to the hospital. Thank you to the attending who didn't make me come back to the hospital at 4PM on a Friday for paperwork.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Read it over!

My husband has a history of sleep apnea and has had to use a CPAP for years. Recently, his doctor told him about an oral appliance you could use to replace it. Unfortunately, in order to get the insurance company to pay for it, he had to undergo a total of three sleep studies and other testing.

After the sleep studies qualified him for the device, he got a message from the pulmonologist's office saying that the insurance has denied the claim. When my husband asked for further information or to speak to the doctor, they said that the doctor didn't deal with insurance. End of story.

After a few more pissed off phone calls from my husband, the doctor agreed to write a letter to the insurance company on his behalf. But both of us got sort of irritated that the doctor clearly did the letter on a dictation program and didn't even bother to read it over:



Seriously, is this the way people practice medicine in this day and age?

Monday, January 18, 2016

New Stethoscope

I'm trying to decide if I should buy a new stethoscope.

I bought my Littmann cardio stethoscope during my second year of medical student, over 10 years ago, and I still use it to this day. I replaced the earpieces and the bell cover has fallen off, but it still works.  It just seems sort of… grimy.  Plus it's way heavy to carry around my neck considering how seldomly I actually need to use it (a few times a day, maybe).

Then again, it seems like a waste to buy a whole new stethoscope considering I don't use it very much.


Also, unrelated, The Psyching is free as a short story on smashwords. You can download it in any format.


Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Parking lot surprise

Yesterday when I was coming home from work, I saw something surprising in the hospital parking lot:

A used condom.

OK, I'm not entirely sure that it was used. I can't verify that. But it was out of its package and crumpled up on the sidewalk.

And this wasn't in the back of the parking lot either. It was in the second row of cars, right in the middle. Also, it definitely hadn't been there in the morning, which meant that the condom was abandoned during daylight hours.

All I can say is: wtf???

And you know what the worst part is? This is actually the *second* time I've seen a used condom in that hospital parking lot.

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Gifts?

When I was in residency, there was one resident who used to always buy Christmas gifts for all the attendings. Of course, we all thought he was a kiss up scumbag for doing it. I mean, who buys Christmas presents for all the attendings besides a kiss up scumbag?

I'd like to believe that the attendings all saw through his behavior, but I'm not so sure. Everybody likes getting presents, right?

As a full-fledged physician, I somehow find myself in a similar dilemma. I have a boss that I really like, but I don't get him a Christmas present because none of his other employees do. I mean, there are a lot of other people at work that I really like and I don't get them Christmas presents. Frankly, I feel like if I got a present for one person, it would go down some horrible road of "well, if I get a present for this person, then I must get a present for this other person" and so forth. And as much as some people enjoy getting presents, it's a much worse feeling to get left out of present giving. So I don't buy presents for anyone at work because I would inevitably manage to leave somebody out and hurt their feelings.

So essentially, if I got a present for my boss, I would only be getting a present for him because he's my boss.

And that would make me a kiss up scumbag, right?

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Art

Every day, the daycare gives me at least three or four pieces of my younger daughter's artwork to bring home with me. While it's nice to see her work, let's be honest here: I'm going to throw it out.  If I didn't throw out 99% of her artwork, my house would have dissolved into one of those hoarders shows where I'd have to navigate between mountains of popsicle stick towers and hills of macaroni art.  

I still feel really bad when I throw out her pictures though. I have to put them in a separate trash from the regular trash, so she doesn't find out.  Except one day my husband was changing our alternative trash can, and she saw all her pictures lying on top of the garbage pile.

"What are all my beautiful pictures doing in here?!" she cried, incredibly offended.  We then had to rescue all her pictures from the garbage.  (Don't worry, I threw them away again that night when she was in bed.)

I'm not sure what to do about this. Obviously, I can't save her artwork. But she seems so hurt the few times she's realized I've been throwing it all away.  Is this the sort of thing she's going to be describing 20 years from now in therapy sessions?