Birthday Month Shuffle - 7th Edition Day 2

I don't know what it is about this song.  It's so depressing.  Sure, I knew I was no Homecoming Queen, but I don't think I ever felt as bad as the subject in this song.  But, something about its haunting lyrics has always reminded me of those pangs of growing up outside of the "in crowd."

I first heard it in my Mom's 1980's Oldsmobile Toronado; in the 8 Track(!) player it had.  She had a bunch she carried in a small suitcase, and I would get to pick which one we'd play next on our many road trips in that car.  This song was a mixed tape of "Easy Listening" favorites.

Man, that car... It was part car, part tuna boat.  And, I learned how to drive in that car with power everything.  So when I got my first car, what?!? I had to roll down my own windows?  And my rack in pinion steering was like trying to weight lift a keg when you'd gotten used to picking up light cans.  Don't know why I put in a beer analogy, but maybe because that big Toronado was just at the end of my high school life and leading into my college life.  

At seventeen, I snuck out of the house one time to go to a party which my mother didn't allow me to go to.  We had a single car garage, and my small car was in the garage and her hunking Oldsmobuick (10 pts if you get the reference) was parked in the driveway.  Climbing out the window was no problem.  We had an incline to our driveway so I just let the Toronado roll back and started it in the middle of the street then went off to the party.

No problem.  But, like most things done like that, I couldn't have a good time at the party because I was afraid that something would happen to her car: someone would run into it, I would have an accident, I'd get stopped by police, something (insert Ferris Bueller Cameron riff here.)  So I didn't stay long at the party, and when I got close to our house I sped up just a little and turned the car off just as I was rolling up the driveway.  I hadn't adjusted the seats, so all I had to do was quietly close the door so the dog wouldn't bark.  And, then I climbed back in the window.

I'm not sure if Momma ever knew I had done that.  Even as an adult, I was afraid to ask.  Even now I wonder...  

Anyway, about a year or so after I left for college, Momma sold that Toronado for a fun Dodge Ram jeep-like SUV.  We traveled a lot in that, but that's a story for another time...

Day 23 - I Weep For the Future

One of the best lines from the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."



I worked triage over the last couple of days during my ED shifts.  No where can you see the failure of the health care system, and society in my opinion, so readily as on the Front Line of medicine... the Emergency Department triage room.

- patient with three year history of stomach pain who came in because it hurt more the day before while they were driving but they couldn't get a ride to come to the ED until tonight and they came because their mother told them they should have it checked out because there might be something wrong.  Um...

- patient with very high blood pressure can't get needed prescription because insurance won't cover combination med.  Pharmacy has been calling cardiologist for over a week to get new prescription but no one returns their calls.  Insurance will cover meds separately so I write a prescription for them.

 - pregnant patient can't get doctor because they don't have MediCal yet and has to wait to be able to get into a practice that accepts MediCal.  She goes to a free clinic where she can get prenatal vitamins but none of the recommended blood work or other prenatal tests.  She's now almost 5 months' pregnant.

 - patient with kidney stone blocking their ureter gets sent home with scripts for antibiotics and pain medication and told to follow up in urology clinic to have stone removed.  They never get a follow up appointment because they don't have insurance and their MediCal application wasn't filled out because they neglected to do it.  They didn't fill their prescriptions because they "don't have any money to pay for medication."  Crystal meth, alcohol and "pain medication they borrowed from someone else with kidney stones" are what they've been using to help with the pain until tonight when 3 weeks later "the pain is like the first time."

 - patient with gallbladder pain who tells me they "can't just change my diet that easy" and who wants to see if they are "sick enough to have it taken out" because they are "tired of waiting for the referral from my doctor" to see a surgeon to schedule surgery.

 - child brought in with a cold.  They have a "runny nose and are congested."  Do they have a fever? "No."  Are they eating/drinking/peeing/pooping normally? "Yes."  What are you concerned about? "Well, I wanted them checked out."  Did you call your pediatrician? "Yeah, but they can't see them until Monday, and I didn't want to wait."

 - patient with chronic pain who was upset that they had to change doctors and insurance because of the ACA (affordable care act) and who now can't get the pain medication they were used to because it is no longer on their insurance formulary.  "Can you write me a script for it?"  Are you going to pay out of pocket for it?  "No, I don't have any money." Um...



**please read my disclaimer that these views are my own and do not reflect the medical groups for whom I work nor the professional organizations with which I am affiliated.

Birthday Shuffle a Deux #13

I couldn't find the scene in English, but you get the point.

Oh, Yeah by Yello

I love "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," and I know I have written about it before.  This song is just musician's having fun, and it's been used widely in movies and commercials.  I'll always remember it from the "Ferris Bueller" movie.  The Ferrari scene for sure, but also for the ending.  It's probably one of the first movie endings I remember being told to actually watch until the end of the credits. And, I did. And, I enjoyed...!
This is another one of those songs that didn't appear in the soundtrack and which I had to track down to add it to my collection. Again, thank you Napster...