Within two hours of me opening my twitter account last week, work restricted access to both it and facebook. The federal government employs thousands and thousands of people. Man, I really hope they're not basing what they restrict and don't restrict on what I'm checking out online. Cuz that would mean that they're also fully aware of the numbers of hours each day that I spend on non-work activities, such as email, blogging, booking airline tickets, etc. The thought actually had me freaked out at least long enough to restrict my web activity for a few hours last week. But then I got to thinking of how many emails I might have gotten during that period and that ended that. But anyway, there goes any chance of me keeping everyone updated on the minute-by-minute excitement of my life.
Road rage = driving behind an annoying blond chick driving 40 mph in a 55mph 2-lane highway, unable to pass, watching the huge truck in front of her even driving faster than her and finally disappearing into the distance, while already late for work. Wonderful way to start a Mon morning.
Sitting in on a hearing not too long ago:
A woman came in claiming various mental disabilities. She brought her 2-year-old son with her because of course its a great opportunity to bring in a little boy. Anyway, the claimant was a heavy black woman who seemed to have very little awareness of her own health care. And this fact being amazingly apparent early on in the hearing. The judge had a medical expert on the phone who had reviewed the lady's records and was prepared to reach some conclusions about her abilities based on the records. That's what he was supposed to do in theory anyway. The doctor is confused as to why additional tests weren't done -- I guess she had been referred for an MRI at some point and the results weren't in the record. The judge attempts to ask the claimant if she'd had the MRI done. Response: I don't know. I had some x-ray done for my back. During which time they might have also scanned her head without her knowledge??? Is that what she meant to say? Judge: Well, I can order that an MRI be done. Is that your recommendation, Doc? Doctor: Well, I don't know. The record also says she's HIV positive. Um, come again? Utter silence. The judge asks her if she's been recently told that she has AIDS.
And the woman bursts into tears. Like seriously, sobbing uncontrollably. I mean, I was confused by the relationship between HIV and getting an MRI also, but her reaction seemed a bit extreme. But no, actually, it turns out that the woman had no idea she was HIV positive!! Absolutely none. For the next five minutes, it's complete chaos in the hearing room. The woman is bawling. Fortunately, some one took the kid out of the room before he fully realized what was going on. The judge is trying to figure out how this woman could not know, and anyway, where does it even say in the record that she is HIV positive?
The medical examiner is unable to figure out where he got the information from, so there's a fair amount of searching. Finally, it all becomes clear. The doc was reading one line out of a 150 page record that identified the lady as having HTN (i.e. hypertension) and somehow got HIV out of it. Even though there was no other reference to it in the record, and there were plenty of references to her weight and blood pressure. Doh!
But I'm thinking this might give you an idea of the kind of people that come to our office. These definitely aren't your average I-know-when-I-got-my-last-HIV-test kind of people. Of course we do get the normal people too, who worked all their lives until being struck with some disabling conditions. But so far, most of the ones I've seen appear to missing a few screws. And its hard not to feel bad for them. In this particular case, the doc never even apologized for scaring the lady shitless. He moved on with a simple, "Oh I couldn't read the handwriting. But yes, an MRI might be in order." Fortunately for the claimant, I think the whole interaction kind of ruined the examiner's credibility, and the judge found the lady disabled based on the extensive other evidence.
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