You are 80% REAL Texan!!

You're way more Texan than average. You're parents were probably from here too. We're glad to have you. You probably go to the border for Christmas shopping and are well versed in BBQ, Mexican Food and .. well thats pretty much it.

How Texan Are You?

okay, now i want to see which ones i got wrong !!!

PS -- my parents aren't from Texas. But, I did live there for thirteen years.

Bah-humbug

The Christmas stuff officially went up at work on Friday. It made me ill. To anyone who's met me.. you know how much I HATE Christmas stuff being up BEFORE Halloween !!!! It's just so WRONG!! Grrrrrr. The entry way to the mall looks like Santa's workshop threw up out there.

Tales from the Chair Part 2

My last two contact lens checks [1 week follow ups] of the day (both at 5pm) both showed up late, one 20 minutes late the other FORTY minutes late... and neither one of them had their contact lenses on. The point of their visit being to check their contacts after they've worn them for a week... neither of them understood why i couldn't just give them another pair and check those. Sigh.

Friends who've known me longer

Wednesday through Sunday was the annual AAO conference. This year it was held in Tampa. You know what means... out of town friends coming to see me !! YAY !!

It's always nice when friends from back home come to visit, even if it's not directly to see me per se.

Thursday night I'd arranged dinner for two of my classmates and their husbands to meet me for dinner after their CE was over for the day. I met up with two of them and the other two were AWOL, no one had heard from them. Luckily, on the way out of the hotel we ran into another classmate and her friend so we dragged them into my car and out to dinner.

In true Tampa tradition we went to the Columbia restaurant. It's a Spanish and Cuban food restaurant that's been in Tampa since 1905. They have flamenco shows and really killer sangria. We opted out of the dancing in lieu of chatting, catching up on what's going on with other classmates, and a LOT of laughing. It was so great to see people who've known me longer than 2 years. Really fun.

It turns out Coopervision was sponsoring a dinner at the same restaurant that night. I ran into three professors. One acted like he had better places to be when I was chatting with him, when I had him as an attending three times and did two research studies with him. Huh. Then, I ran into two profs who are husband and wife (anyone who's been to UHCO knows who I mean) and they were lovely. They always are. Mrs Dr P even remembered to ask about my doggie. :)

I have pictures of the evening that I'll post when I get home. Srihari emailed them to me. Thanks Srihari !! (he's now a prof at PCO and I'm SO happy for him ! He was a grad student while I was at UHCO)

Tales from the chair...

On todays edition of "tales from the chair" we learn from a case of a patient with teh dumb. I didn't actually see this patient myself, it was told to me by a hysterically laughing Dr W who called my cell as soon as said patient left the office.

Patient X comes with with bright red eyes.

Doc W: So, what brings you in today ?

Patient: My eyes are really red and itchy.. irritated.

Doc: so when did this start ?

Pt: Well, they started getting red a few days ago and I thought they were getting infected. So, I went into my medicine cabinet and got out this medicine my VET gave me for my dog's bepharitis. And, I put that in my eyes thinking it would help.

Doc: your child's medicine ? or your dogs? (cuz patients use their kids medicine all the time)

PT: my dog's

Doc: and it didn't get better did it ?

Pt : no, in fact it got so red and ITCHY that I went to CVS and bought this anti-itch powder. I thought that would help so I put that in my eyes, too.



seriously kids, I don't make this stuff up.

Thanks, Suz!

I found this link through Suz's blog and decided to help. I am Emily X

When I was working a close to minimum wage job in California and going to school at night Planned Parenthood was there for my annual exam. Free of charge. When I needed my vaccinations for OD school, I called them... they ordered the shots for me and did them free of charge, also. I offered to pay and they refused.. saying " remember us when you're making doctor money"

When I finished optometry school and hadn't gotten on G's insurance yet, PP gave me a low cost annual exam. I paid, but much less than I would have had I gone to the OB/GYN I now use on my insurance. (I just looked, his full price is exam is $250... I paid $70 at PP)

So, Suz alerted me to this woman who works at PP. She blogs about her experiences working for PP and her daily battle with protesters outside her specific clinic. She set up the website to track how many protesters show up in the next 40 days. The more that show up.... the more money is being raised for Planned Parenthood. I pledged money per protester because I think it's great that they're making the best out of a negative situation. Everyone at PP was nothing but nice to me and they're great at what they do. So, I'm giving back. So, have at it protesters... the more of you there are the more I'm giving them. I hope y'all will, too.

Buccs game!

After much anticipation, the day of our Buccs game arrived !! G and I bought tickets early so we could get tickets to the game we wanted: Buccs/Titans. G knew I'd want to see Vince Young live. (what a good hubby)

We took at cab to the stadium to avoid traffic and parking problems. It's $25 to park at Ray Jay. The cab was 10 and I didn't have to worry about traffic, someone else did. Nice.

We got to the stadium an hour and a half early to walk around and explore. Saw the pirate ship, the food options, the expense of beer! ($7 for a Blue Moon!!!!) Good lord. Hot dog, beers, and a hamburger = $24.

We had seats on the 50 yard line.... on the very... last... row. WAY WAY up high. So high in fact, the national anthem fly over felt like it was right above our heads. (cuz it was)


I got some great pics !! It was SO HOT at the game. There was no shade unless you went back into the tunnel for the bathroom. G and I drank TONS of water. And, because we were at the game, Vince Young pulled a quad in the third quarter on a dinky play.
I blame the Madden curse.




All in all though,we had a GREAT time! We just decided we're waiting until November to go if we go next year.

Quiz Time!

Apparently the whole 2 week vs 1 month lenses thing is escaping the mental grasp of two of my techs. They're in college, so I just can't figure out how they can't do this. After the second or third mistake.. it's QUIZ TIME !!

Before patients showed up today I sat at my desk in my office and wrote up a contact lens quiz. It covers supply time lines, ordering info, insurance, red eyes, and a bonus question.

I've been very lazy this week. I'm just tired and I don't know why. I think it's because my week last week was so mentally draining. I had to let an employee go, I had two patients in a custody battle over a patient/child fighting with each other (through me) on the phone, and then I had to read the oh so lovely comment left for me below this post. Even though I know I am good at what I do, it still hurts to read something like that and realize that someone who's supposed to be a colleague could be so hateful. I was going to delete is, but figured I'd leave it to show y'all what I'm dealing with here.

I was invited to a movie last night with Lily, but decided I'd much rather sit on the couch and play with the dog.

I can finally go to the gym again ! I think this is improving my mood tremendously. I can't run, but I can do 30-40 minutes pain free on the recumbent bike. I'm not putting any weight on my Achilles that way and I can still get in my cardio workout. YAY!

Plans are in motion for when two of my classmates invade Tampa for the AAO conference in two weeks. We've got dinner plans, I just have to figure out where to take them. Hmmm decisions decisions.

Another week ...

And thus begins another week at work.

My CE class on Wednesday was rather dull. The lecturer was monotonous and hard to listen to. He took a topic that should/could have been interesting and sucked all the life out of us. I was trying to be polite and attentive because I know how hard it is to get up there in front of a few hundred people and talk but most others weren't being so considerate. (including others at my dinner table)

You can tell it's getting closer to the holidays.. the exam numbers are dropping off. If you ever want to get in to see an eye doc close to Christmas is a great time. People are spending their money on other things rather than exams and glasses. I still can't believe it's October already.

Don't even get me started on Saturdays Texas game. I'm a sad panda.

My weekend was quiet. I worked all day Saturday where we were actually very busy! Sunday morning G woke me up to fresh pancakes. I love G !! We spent most of the day on the couch watching football. He watched more football. I actually enjoyed reading a book with my windows open to the northeast breeze we had. It was a windy few days in Tampa and actually cooled off some.

Someone didn't like my 'attitude' in my last post. Apparently doctors are supposed to be saints. I'm not sure how many people would like it if you were trying to have a conversation with someone at work and the entire time the other person kept stopping to answer their cell phone and have a five minute conversation. It's RUDE and I was venting on my blog. That's what blogs are for. Doctors are humans and our feeling can get hurt just like anyone else.