Smells I Don't Like and My Medical Staff

I've been mulling this over for a while now. There are just some smells I cannot tolerate. One of them is the smell of fermenting garbage.

Back home, years ago [name that reference!], I was the backdoor receiver for a major grocery store chain. I loved that job. It had great hours for a single girl in her 20's. I was responsible for overseeing and checking in vendor deliveries at the backdoor during delivery hours and then managing the in-company deliveries making sure we weren't double charged, etc., for those. So you could say (and my boss also believed) that I was somewhat responsible for most of the inventory in the store. One thing I did not like about that job was the self-contained trash compactor located right outside my "office". Lots of times, the gaskets holding all the funk inside would start to deteriorate and the nasty would just drip right out onto the concrete penetrating all the vicinity air. *Blech* I mean, really. Gag.

Same thing with garbage trucks. Too much foulness just churning and leaking out and leaving a horrible gut-wrenching, trail of nauseating grossness. One time, when we were living in Stephenville, the garbage truck had to stop in front of our house in order to smash the load. And they left a big putrid mess right by the driveway. I ran into the house gagging, ordering Brian to do something about the smell and threatening to call the mayor and complain. It's just nasty.

Another thing: old food smells. Like cafeterias, lunch boxes, dining rooms of nursing homes(!), and break rooms that see lots of use. I can't explain it. I just don't like it. And this from a person who worked in a nursing home kitchen as a college student. I did not really care for that job, to be honest. It was gross on many different levels.

Moving on.

Next week brings us to Ear Tube Insertion #2 for Joshua. He just had the first set installed back in March. Already one tube is blocked and the other is on its way out. I wonder if we will get to go back and have this done every 6 months. I wonder about the cost of it all. Should I try to get a job at the hospital? Is there some employee discount, direct deposit thing I could work out? Which got me to thinking about our medical staff. We have a lot of doctors on our payroll. With the economy being what it is, I'd like to lay a few off.

Brian and I have a GP in Stephenville that we still go to, even though it's 45 minutes away. My OB/Gyn, which I only use for Gyn is also in Stephenville.

But it's the kids who employ the greatest number of physicians. We have the general pediatrician that we see at least 3-4x per month. When we're really sick, that may be 3-4x per week. Reagan and Joshua have a pulmonologist that works for us in Fort Worth. We only see him in the office every 6 months, but we see him regularly in the hospital during the fall and winter seasons. Reagan has a kind, but very busy opthamologist who just deals with little people and their eyes. Joshua has an ENT who inspects his ears and does us the favor of inserting tubes every 6 months. And then there's Darcy who has an allergist. A guy I can't even remember his name, but who spent a tremendous amount of time explaining how allergens affect the body and informing me of the futility of allergy testing my child.

It really seems like a lot, all these doctor's appointments and medical professionals. Oh, and the bills. They seem like a lot, too. I feel confident that as they get older they will outgrow some of this. I know they will outgrow a lot of this as they get older and their systems mature. Lily did. In the short term, I am grateful that Brian's insurance is good and that we can get our kids taken care of by good doctors. I'm also glad that none of them look like Patrick Dempsey or I would never hear a word they said...