Clinic Christmas Party

This week we are covering diabetes in excruciating detail. All four seminars from yesterday and today were about diabetes, and our PBL case is about the long-term complications of diabetes. So, it was only fitting that today was my clinic's annual office Christmas party. I got off easy with just bringing jello. Other people baked brownies, made homemade mashed potatoes, and someone even brought fried chicken. Oh, and I shouldn't forget about the macaroni and cheese. All of which, while completely delicious, are exactly the types of diabetogenic foods that are going to ensure that many of us partygoers will be the future diabetic and coronary artery disease patients who keep the Cleveland Clinic prospering for the next several decades.

The other nice thing about today is that I got about an hour and a half off between seminar this morning and the office party, so I got through with most of tomorrow's reading. Our FCM class today consisted of each of us meeting with the small group preceptor for about ten minutes. I got to go right at 10:00 as soon as the second seminar was over. Since my group's preceptor has been gone the last few weeks, I almost blew the meeting off altogether. But I decided I should probably stop by to see if he was there, and it's a good thing I did, because he did show up. These ten minute meetings are pretty pointless. They are supposed to be for us to get and receive feedback. But the feedback we get is useless because it's oral and can't be used for our portfolios. And giving too little feedback to the preceptor has never been a shortcoming of mine. He told me that I should try not to be so frustrated with the class. I wouldn't say I'm all that frustrated, but maybe I just expressed my feelings about these ten minute meetings a little more strongly than I intended. :-P

A few of our patients didn't show today, and the clinic was pretty quiet in general except that people kept coming by the break room to eat party leftovers. The nurses tried to get me to take some food home with me, but I didn't. I am sure the only reason I don't already weigh five thousand pounds is because I never bring any junk food home with me. That being said, I did manage to eat three brownies during the course of the afternoon.