Dan's Sunday Six

Six (or more) things this last week that helped me smile:


Michelle – My loving wife who is concerned about me and helps me through when times are stressful and I don’t get enough sleep.

Michelle taking on the “Biscuits and Gravy after Stake Priesthood Tradition” that Edwin Lamoreaux made famous in Elliot Ward. Imagine 30+ young men and leaders at your house at 8:20 am on a Sunday. She used her considerable “feeding-a-crowd-and-make-them-comfortable-and-feel-at-home” skills to make it a great time.

Ward conference / Stake Priesthood meeting– Great talks (especially Max) reminders of the wonderful messages of conference, good teaching, recommitment to the Work.

Duty to God Reviews – meeting with all the Elliot Ward young men (almost every one!) their parents and leaders so that everyone is on the same page with their progress. It was long overdue as it was last May when we last met. It is good to get moving again on my Church job of YM Secretary, Scout Advancement Chairman, and Scout Committee Chairman

Lindsay and Boyd came for a weekend visit. It is fun to talk medical stuff with Lindsay. She gets a lot of the most recent stuff, so it is fun to get the latest on a lot of things. After they went to the Temple, they joined us for all of Bryce’s family birthday celebration. So much fun to have family around and just have the time to really visit.

Bryce’s birthday on Saturday was as fun for me as it was for him. What he really wanted was to go out shooting. I spent all week at the hospital looking out the big picture windows that look out on the Superstition Mountains in the hallway between the OR and the patient tower (those windows also make me smile) and longing to be out in the beautiful weather. It was so fun to go out to the desert and shoot all the guns in our arsenal rather than just looking at them in the gun safe. Then afterward, we all went to Cheesecake Factory for Bryce’s birthday dinner, yum!

Grandpa Porter was readmitted to the hospital (sad) because of pneumonia and a hematoma in his hip area, but it made me smile to see the good care that so many hospital staff and docs provided to him. Good to know that “my hospital” (Banner Gateway) is doing a good job. Maybe all those hundreds of hours of meetings do count for something.

I had a patient with Down’s syndrome that had condition that threatened his airway. I spent most of last Sunday with him and his family. The fact that we have a GlideScope video laryngoscope made taking care of his potentially very dangerous condition much easier, and that really made me smile. Also the patient has a very loving and extended family. It made me smile to see all their active love and support.

We had a successful Gateway Anesthesia Board Meeting on Tuesday night. It was with a new president of the board, Jon Nottingham, and although I felt that our old president, George Ryback, did a great job, the transition was smooth, and the work of the board is hitting its stride. Starting up a new company (GAA) is truly no easy task, and I am grateful for George’s guidance through that. I think that Jon will do well taking us through the next phase. The meeting still took almost 4 hours, though…it will make me smile when we get shorter meetings. SAA in Tucson eventually got to that point, and I guess GAA will too.

The Arizona Cardinals going to the Super Bowl!!

I was on OB call on Thursday (a 12-hour day at the hospital), but I had Barb Dvorchak as my CRNA that day, so that freed me up to do a lot of admin work for the Anesthesia Department and GAA, and I got started on a large backlog of work… I was able to meet with several administrators, partners and other docs, getting a lot of things done and that made me smile.

I took this whole week off after MLK day… It is a chance to work on a lot of other backed up projects, so that makes me smile.