We Voted Today! And a neuro update.

When we arrived home from work, we discovered on the front page of the newspaper that there was a city vote on funding a new elementary school, so on Jasper's evening walk we headed over to our polling place. Though I can't vote for school budgets at home in Woodbury anymore, at least I can do my part here!

If you're looking for some amusement, take a look at Sappycards. Just flip through the various card options, but not if you're at work and laughing out loud would give you away! I got the link from a daily eco-email that I subscribe to called The Ideal Bite.

My neuro rotation is going well. I really enjoy working with the consultant (Mayo-speak for attending, or staff physician) who I'm paired up with this week. We're doing a combination of general consults for a variety of different neurologic problems, and screening appointments for patients who have come to see neurosurgeons. Today I did my first solo evaluation (don't worry, the consultant hears my presentation and then sees the patient himself before making any recommendations!). As always happens, what was supposed to be a fairly straightforward eval for headaches turned into a much more involved and complicated appointment which covered intensifying low back pain and a bunch of other medical problems. To top it all off, the patient, who was delightful, was also very chatty! I love talking to patients, and am happy to do it for hours, but one of the things that I'm working on this year is redirecting patients when they go off on tangents, since efficiency is important, too. Also, the consultants don't like it when you get them too far behind schedule! Anyhow, I was pleased to emerge with some exam findings that made sense in light of the patient's MRI (which I hadn't looked at beforehand) and were confirmed by the consultant. All in all, a valuable experience!