new house, dream, dr b

NEW HOUSE
last saturday we started a new house for the habitat for humanity
this one is larger at 1500 square foot with a 2 car garage
its is a nice neighborhood in a town near the location of the
first house

the family is a working mom with three children who has waited
for 3 years to get this house
she stated the process you go through is a long gruelling one to
be the one to qualify
but she feels like its all worth it now that she is about to get into her
new house with her kids
the economy downturn really delayed the process at the habitat
for getting loan approval
yep even they were affected by on the mess caused by our financial
institutions and by our congressman both democratic and republican
(both sides are equally responsible)

so the mom is excited
the same workers are there working
many have thousands of hours donated to building these houses
also the first day the same large group from a local company was
there to volunteer
the house was completely framed and squared off
now today we put up the osb sides and the trusses
we are working every day for 7 days to get a jump start on
this build as there is grant money that was donated but has
to be used before july 1

this one is number 50 for this group
congratulations mom

i learned yesterday ive been using the wrong hammer for years
no wonder it was so hard to nail all those hundred of nails over the
years
dropped a hint for a new hammer for fathers day
hint hint

DREAM
whoa had another aricept (donepezil) dream last night
thats one of the side effect of the medicine usually not a bad
one though
the dreams are so real
it sometimes takes me a few minutes to leave them and realize
that they are only dreams
the other side effect i have is insomnia that comes and go
(also is a side effect of the disease)
and seems to run in several day batches
im on one of those several day batches now
am glad im retired so i can catch up with the sleep im missing

just wonder if they have put too much aricept (donepezil) in those pills
sometimes i think thats what happened
just have no way to prove it without spending a lot of money
to find out
i just take the pills and go on

the dream last night was about 6 of my former patients who i
cared for when they were born and for several years afterwards
each one was vividly the same as in real life
these kids are all in their early 20s now
even their parents were in the dreams just as they were then
not now as they now look like someone who has been a parent
for  20 years

i opened a day care just to take care of babies who had been my
patients
one of my sons and my wife she helped me run the day care
after this dream i know i wouldnt want to run a day care or
work in one

thanks aricept (donepezil) for letting me see some of my former
patients
was better than facebook

DR B
dr b was one of my classmates from medical school
he was 6 years younger as were many of my classmates as i
started my educational career later in life after floundering around
for a few years
(parents dont give up on your kids)

dr b was remembered by me as a real nice guy
he had this talent that ive not seen before
we rotated in groups of about 15 people
he was in another group that got joined together to do our
obgyn rotation

we would stay up all night monitoring ob patients in labor and if
we were lucky they would let us deliver them
then the next morning we had to have all our rounds done
and all had to be dressed in ties and our pretty white jackets
to listen to a lecture from one of our professors
the head one was a jerk and he would go after you if he saw any
problems
dont dare go to sleep while he was talking or you would suffer

dr b's talent came into play very well for this situation
he could sit up and sleep with his eyes opened
you could flash your hands over his face and he would not blink
dont know if he ever got caught
he always got that extra hour of sleep on those days

dr b died suddenly last week of a dissecting aortic aneurysm
when they happen its sometimes hard to detect
dr b seems to have been loved by his patients
he was a good family doctor
if you liked me you would have liked him

condolences to his family

i think about dying a lot more now that i get older
i hope that when my time comes i go this way and
i and my family dont have to suffer with the end stages of alzheimers like
ive seen happen in my family

the organicgreen doctor

help, fires

HELP
no this is not about the movie which i havent seen yet
but its on my next to see movie (afer the movie bernie-more
on that tomorrow)
this is about the help i received that influenced me and
what i did with my life

my family while we were in high school and while i
was in college were probably at or near the poverty level
we did not have a lot of things at home and did a lot
of sacrificing to get through this period of time

those programs that helped me are probably not available
today and today i would have more difficulty making it
through the 4 years of college (married) and 4 years of
medical school (married with one child) and my 3 year
residency program (married with 2 children)

i think about this when i hear all the talk about program
cuts and what effect these may have on some boy or girl
that is in the situation i was in
will they have the same chance i had

i only hope they do

in high school a federal program was established to allow
high school students work at local hospitals in medical
areas with hopes that many would go into the health field
in our group mostly sophomores and juniors that worked
together in the summer and holidays many became nurses,
respiratory therapists, physical therapists, and doctors and
some how one became a lawyer
i was one of the ones that became a doctor

we were exposed to a lot of things during those years
we were paid minimal wages
for me it allowed me to have clothes and shoes to wear
and extra money to spend and save for school

i worked as what is now called a medical assistant in the
hospital but also got to see deliveries of babies, surgeries,
emergency room activities such as trauma, resuscitation, and
also death
this was an important experience for me both financially and
by stimulating my interest in medicine and later provided me
a means to work while in college

when i did eventually make it to college i was married and my
wife she and i both were in school together
we both worked 20-36 hours a week and attended school
full time
i worked in the emergency room as an emergency room technician
skills i had learned while working in the local hospital in high school
we were poor but happy
we also benefit from grants and scholarships that help pay our
way through college
we also had federal loans that we had to pay off later
probably half of our college was covered by federal programs
that probably dont exist now

for medical school we had no money but i went ahead and
applied and was accepted
on day one of school we had no income and only a minimal
amount of loan money available
thanks to one of my older brothers he loaned me enough
money to get started that year
even though my wife she was working we were not making enough
for all the expenses of living and for school

a federal program called the national health service was established
which i applied for and got accepted
it paid my tuition and books and gave me a monthly stipend
my sophomore year i also got a job which was also federal and
state funded which required being on call and working in the
summer time

after graduation from medical school and finishing my residency
program i then had a federal obligation to work in an underserved
area for three years which i did
that program was gutted by president reagan and only partially
exists today

as a physician practicing medicine for over 25 years i have paid in
taxes many times over the monies that were spent on me by
all of these programs
the last ten years i have paid close to $500000 in federal  taxes
a good investment by the feds i would say

so i am a product of these federal programs that are being
wacked away at
i would not have made it without them
how many kids are out there now that are in the situation i was in
will they get help
i sure hope so

FIRES
the large bastrop fire is 80% contained now
however
we are now setting new records for high temperatures for september
it is dry
now the winds are starting up again
this time from the opposite direction-originally they were from
the north
now they are coming out of the south
fire officials are slowing down the rentry to the burned areas
because of these conditions

rain please

the organicgreen doctor