Confused

Boy, did *I* get a scare this week.

I was happily working in the ED, treating patients, ordering tests, considering diagnoses, formulating treatment plans, and flirting with the nurses (the female ones, that is). I even managed to save a life this week, which was rather nice. Anyway, one of the nurses was showing off this little guy and how cute he was; he was about 2 years old and his mum was a patient. As they came by, I said hello, to which he looks at me, points to me and says,

“Da-da.”

You’d think after all the things I have seen and done in surgery and emergency, nothing would shock me – I mean, I have held someone’s *spleen* in my hand. But there I was, passed out flat on my back on the floor. When they finally found the smelling salts and brought me around, I had to laugh at how confused the poor kid was. I mean, never mind the fact that I was nowhere near Alice Springs a few years ago, there was one serious flaw in his logic of me being his daddy:

He was Aboriginal.

Anyway, I was working with a patient today from Wisconsin. She came over here for a 2-year contract to work at the US military base near Alice Springs (I could tell you the name of the base, but then I would have to kill you. But I digress.). She figured she would spend a few years, travel around and see the Land Down Under then head back to the good ol’ US of A.

That was 14 years ago.

I have met many people here that came to Australia for a bit and have just stayed. Now, before anyone gets concerned about having to come to Oz for my 50th birthday party or anything, I’ll point out that I won’t have that same problem.

Mostly because the Immigration Department has already served notice and reserved my plane ticket…

I finish up in Alice next Friday and fly out to Sydney, where I will spend the weekend before heading out to Washington, DC on Monday, June 20th. Next week the email will be live from Sydney, where I started this whole mess, and I plan on leaving the country the same way I came in:

Drunk and very, very confused.

And with that, it’s the weekend. There is a huge dune buggy race here this weekend; I’ll probably head out and watch part of it, in addition to hanging around the ED when I can – they say there is a lot of carnage and injuries with the race, so it should be a good learning experience. I’ll also farewell some friends and start thinking of packing. Not to mention flirting with the nurses…

As always, Love to All and keep working on your 101 List!
Bryan