We all know work can be draining. We work hard and, if we're lucky, we get a few weeks out of the year where we can get away to relax and recharge the batteries. Those of you who know me well, know that my idea of "downtime" or "vacation" involves a lot of quiet time with friends and a good book or two. Several months ago, my wife was talking with some friends who graciously offered to allow us to use their lakehouse (boat and jet skis included) for a week to just get away. About the same time, my wife and her brother from California started talking about getting the family together over the summer (my wife's family = two brothers, two sisters and 12 nieces and nephews plus some of their children). I'm sure you already see where this is going... Yes, we ended up with her brother from California and his two children, her brother from Atlanta with his two children (one of whom lives in Minnesota and has 3 children) and my in-laws all at my friend's (well, at least we used to be friends) lake house for a week.
So you can all enjoy my misery and, perhaps learn from my mistakes, here's a quick synopsis of my "week in review":
The day after we returned home, I made that dreaded call. I called what I would expect to be my "previous" friend and had to share everything that happened, beg for forgiveness and offered to pay for whatever needed to be done to make it right. Have you ever had that patient where nothing goes right despite your best efforts? They show up on your busiest day and although you don't have them on the schedule, they have an appointment card with your staff's writing on it for that day and time. You do your best to work them in but somehow their paperwork gets shuffled or someone forgets to "check them in" on the computer and the next thing you know, they've waited for an hour. You finally bring them back but can't find their chart anywhere or their notes are in an old EMR system that hasn't been brought forward yet and the server is broken. You have no idea what contacts they are wearing, yet you fit them two years ago or you put fluorescein on top of the contacts because you didn't realize they were wearing them and had already done a refraction and were getting ready to check their pressure. When they come back a week later to pick up their contacts or glasses, you can't find their order anywhere. Sometimes, like my "vacation" week, despite your best efforts, you just can't do anything right. When it happens, I find that the best approach is to just say, "Sorry, this isn't the way it's supposed to work. I'm going to make this right." And then, the most important thing to do is to follow up and do your best to make lemonade out of lemons. Most often, I've found that, like my friends, folks respond with grace and forgiveness. Despite all of the chaos of the week, I will admit that it was nice to see my wife and her parents spend time with the family. That was a good thing! By the way, I am looking to take some time off this winter. Do any of you have a house in the mountains my family and I can rent?
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August 2019
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