Nature is Boss

I had a lovely evening in Hanover. It snowed all day, and my ruler in the driveway says we got 8 inches. I got out of work on time, although I was still the last one on my team out. I'm still a bit slow writing my notes. It's almost like I'm not doing my patients justice unless I add every little detail. The reality is that few people read my notes even though there in the electronic chart. I always read the medical student's notes - I think they are the most thorough. 

Big snowstorms make me happy. They slow me down. They remind me that nature is boss, and that I can't control every little detail in life. I relinquish control quite easily anytime nature intervenes. I look forward to shoveling my driveway. However, I did only shovel enough so that I could get my car out in the morning and so the mailman could make it the box. The real lovely part of the evening is that I went for a night x-country ski. There is something very liberating about skiing out your front door. The plows were out in mass, cars were struggling on the road, and school was cancelled. But I can whip around the sidewalks and streets on skis. Everyone else is inconvenienced, and I'm having a ball. I finished my ski at Yama, a Korean restaurant in town, and picked up some yummy veggie udon soup. The Korean staff were entertained by my headlamp, and asked about my goggles which I had put on backwards. I thanked them for my soup, and glided 2 blocks home, soup in one hand, and ski poles in the other. I have an article to read about treating cancer pain, and I have a self-reflection to write for my palliative care elective, and I need to memorize the differences between morphine, oxycodone, hydromorphone, hydrocodone, and oxymorphine before my exam on Friday. Opioids - they all sound the same to me. Instead, I watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy, which is like candy. And I really need to get off the couch and go to bed, because I haven't caught up with that sleep debt. But I really want to watch more Grey's Anatomy and then sleep for 12 hours. But there are patients to be seen and learning to be done tomorrow. There will be a patient younger than myself there with metastatic melanoma. He doesn't have long to live. I was supposed to get him to fill out an advance directive today, but instead, Dr. B and I got him discharged so he could have a break from the hospital for a night. The advance directive is more important, and more difficult to confront. But I believe we spread some joy by giving him a night off.