Sunday, 17 May 2009

• Long Day

  Paul's wake/Celebration was today. I was delighted to hear the testimonials. Paul was a normal human with the flaws that go with that, but it's pretty clear he was a remarkable doctor. Both doctors and patients got up to talk about him. I knew he was good, but I didn't realize how much so. I think the story that made the most impression on me was from a local ob/gyn. He learned early that Paul would drop everything (even at 4 a.m.) to go help a patient. And when he assisted, he let the ob/gym do the main part of the surgery (while guiding and helping) and never took more credit than as an assistant. With Paul's help they saved the life of one woman, but the whole situation was (naturally) very traumatic to the woman and she fell into a deep depression and would not leave her couch. Without ever telling anyone, he went to this woman's home to encourage her. She wasn't even Paul's patient. How many doctors would do that? The ob/gyn only found out when Paul made a comment about how she was doing and he asked how he know. I get the feeling that Paul didn't think it particularly remarkable. He was just living up to the expectations he had of others. There were other stories like that from patients and a patient's husband.

  The event started at 2 p.m. and we got there at about then. The first hour was mingling. Since, other than my family, I knew only about six people, that was an uncomfortable time for me. I do OK when introduced, but my shyness kicks in when I have to introduce myself -- especially when I don't have a clue who's a doctor, a nurse, a patient or just a friend. Debie introduced me when she could, but people wanted to talk to her, so everything was OK.

  Follow up:

  Sunday night

  My long day got longer when my son got home and told me about his day. He was at the Celebration, but had to leave early. While I went home with my sister and chatted with friends, he left a bit earlier for Portland and dropped off resumes and looked at a rental house. We finally went to dinner after eight and ate after nine. It was after eleven-fifteen when we got home. Alex got home at about eleven-thirty. We had a nice visit. I really enjoy talking with Alex, but I was so tired and I got to bed at about three.

  I got up at about one-thirty. I really, really hope I'm not getting sick. I think it's just the dry air. You'd think Oregon would be humid, but if it's sunny and warm, it is also very dry. I felt so yucky that I had Iqbal go get me some Coke Zero to help lubricate my throat. I also had to take headache medicine. I need some of that now, too. I watched the WPS soccer game and then watered all the pots out front. Then Debie came with all her leftover rolls, cheese and veggies. (No brownies!) I ate quite a few carrots, tomatoes, peppers and broccoli. I tried not to eat too much cheese. I had no bread. We had a light dinner. I ate my leftover hazelnut sole and 4 spears of asparagus, though I'm not sure how much of some things I ate yesterday. I probably had four brownies, but they were thin for brownies. The rest was all fruit until dinner. I ate only half the dinner. Over all I think I ate OK.

  What bugs me now is the sore throat, fatigue and headache. I do NOT want to be sick. Some nice weather has arrived. I hope the Ibuprofen/Tylenol works.

  So... rather than go on about how lousy I feel at the moment and annoy everyone, I'll go take that Ibuprofen/Tylenol and either try to read or try to sleep.

  Currently The Spontaneous Healing of Belief: Shattering the Paradigm of False Limits By Gregg Braden see related

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