Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Another hospital trip upcoming.

I have appointments at the VA tomorrow and Thursday, and then another on Monday the 13th.

I'm not worried about this week.  I am a bit concerned about Monday's procedure.  But I'm very grateful that a good friend of mine will be there to pick me up after its over, since they won't let me drive myself.  They're going to give me some anasthesia.

They will be doing a transesophageal echocardiogram and a cardioversion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transesophageal_echocardiogram

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardioversion

The cardioversion doesn't come as a shock (pun intended) as my various cardiologists have been talking about doing one for almost ten years.  They're just finally getting around to deciding that they should do it, even though as time passes where you suffer from atrial fibrilation (irregular heartbeat, no wiki entry needed), the chances of a successful cardioversion remaining in place long-term go down.  My biggest concern that day is whether or not I can drive to the trivia game that night, so I'm obviously not all that worried.

The world is indeed a small place.  A man came into the office the other day and said he needed help with multiple years of tax returns.  He came back and we met about his issues yesterday.  Once we started talking I realized that I knew him.  I went to school with him.  His brother and I were close friends in my pre-teen years.  I've been in the house where he grew up.  I knew his father, and I'd been inside his offices (which are still there, although sadly his father has passed).  I know his mother although I haven't seen her in roughly 37 years.  Amazing.

The world is also an interesting place.  I wasn't supposed to work today.  But I have a client who needed to finish up and couldn't come in tomorrow (my last day before break).  So I agreed to go in and meet with her and get her all squared away.  After making that appointment I ended up scheduling two more, but was planning to be gone by 12:30 at the latest.  My second appointment of the day no-showed, but the third one came in early.  I waited a few more minutes and was about to leave when someone walked in and needed their taxes done.  The two preparers on the work schedule had clients so I punched back in and did one more return.  The walk-in client was very grateful and now she will come and see me to get her taxes done next year.  Because I was willing to spend a few extra minutes and serve someone, I get a client for next year and probably the foreseeable future.  I only hope that when I begin teaching again later this year, I can get my students to understand how important it is to remember that our clients are our only reason for having a business.

Did you see the sign that some Toronto Maple Leafs fan held up at game 3 of the Stanley Cup playoff series between the Leafs and the Boston Bruins?  It read "Toronto Stronger" and even had a blue/white ribbon on it.  What a total jerk-off.  He deserved all of the scorn he's received thus far on social media.