Great, great shifts at work. Now in the fog of being underslept the details fade, but I have a clear recall of....well, mainly of a 600 pound woman. But there's a closet industry of doctors making fun of their fat patients and I feel no obligation to add my two cents. The good part of this patient's management were that the ED staff worked well as a team and that I somehow thought of ordering an ammonia level (really just checking off the boxes on the AMS algorythm) and was rewarded with a sky high reading of 170+. I knew it was pure luck, but I think I played it off in such a way that it appeared to be skill or, possibly, medical acumen. Also, one of my colleagues saw a Neisseria meningitis in a kid. Tapped him (pure pus) and loaded him on triple antibiotics. Saved his life. Undeniably. That is why my profession exists--I tap a hundred kids a month for the one in a thousand chance of finding the baby with bacterial meningitis. Ooooh--also saw a nice almost text book presentation of intussusception. I'll spare the line-by-line summary, but it was two good shifts. I always work like a dog at work. Always frantic and feeling like it takes all of my energy and attention to keep the wheels on the bus, and always leaving work an hour late pr so. But I always like it. I really like my job. Fuck it, I love my job. On Sunday I picked up the Biscuit and her mother and went to church with them. It's part of my campaign to win the old lady over. I know going to church in an effort to thaw out a future mother-in-law does not qualify as "religious devotion" in the strictest sense of the word, but a) I'm damn sure I'm not the only one whose ever done it and b) Jesus, I have no doubt, is down with this. Her church was in fine freaking form. It's "Charismatic" which is apparently a euphamism for "everything about Protestants that sets Catholics' teeth on edge." You wouldn't believe this stuff. Several times during each service I find my self looking heavenward and thinking "Look, I just want you to know, I'm just here for the old lady." And at those moments a beam of light rends the clouds and..... So, today they had a guest pastor and he was a Super Charismatic who manged to work disparaging Jews and Muslims into the first five minutes of his performance before moving on to some faith healing and self-aggrandizement. The Biscuit (and her Mom) walked out early on this buffoon and the three of us eased our disgust with the tender ministrations of the Chili's burger menu. Today....I have very humble goals that involve new Ikea furniture, a screwdriver, and probably some laundry down the line. U-561