week 7 recap

With the end of PFW last Sunday Tilly and I have been trying to get back in to our routine, trying to clean the house, trying to get back on our sleep schedule. All are work in progress as of now but we did go to story time today, something we are going to do on a weekly basis. She loves it! She was with 2 younger boys today and showed off her skills of climbing up some stairs and throwing the toys out of the bin, while they did their tummy time. It was a lot of fun, and gets us out of the house while Richard is studying or off on one of his many adventures.

On Monday Richard had a Student Council/Patient Memorial meeting (talking about how they will honor the people who donated their bodies for their anatomy lab). As the president of his class, he was invited to meet with US Representative Blumenauer, along with a few other executives of OHSU. Richard asked him if he would vote for a single-payer amendment if it came up in Congress, and he said he would! Richard spread this news to his fellow Physicians for a National Health Plan members, who were very excited. Afterwards, Richard went to meet with Dr Al Lewy about the study they did of Tilly's circadian rhythms when she was 6-9 weeks old. Richard had dug up some data and created an animated .gif of her rhythms as they changed during that time. Dr Lewy was excited about the new visualization, and said he was going to present it to some of his biorhythm colleagues at a conference next week. Later that night, he was trained on a diagnostic neuropsychological exam for ADHD, as part of his MRI research study.

Thursday was an exhilarating day, as Richard and one of his classmates joined a sit-in at the Blue Cross/Blue Shield building downtown. They had planned to sit in the offices until BCBS agreed to cover all the people they had denied coverage for due to a pre-existing condition. They were willing to risk arrest for the cause, but there were some complications as a few employees tried to muscle their way through the protest and claimed they were hurt and would push charges of assault. Once it became too risky, Richard and his friend backed down, but were overwhelmed with emotion watching their fellow protesters (11 of them) be carried off to jail. That night Richard and I went to our first doctors visit at the Family Medicine department.

Friday was a busy day for Richard as he went down to Salem with four classmates for the Archimedes Movement conference, put on by former Governor John Kitzhaber. Kitzhaber understands the intricacies of the healthcare system like only 20 or so people do in this country. He is one of the visionaries, and well-formulated plans for getting healthcare coverage for all Oregonians in the next 5 years.

Next Monday will be exam 3, so Richard is studying hard as usual.