Journal of Jeffrey R. Brant, MD

Well, everyone's been wondering whether or not we felt the earthquake yesterday morning. I slept through it, but it awoke Marlowe, Amanda, and Nancy. Marlowe felt her bed shaking and the headboard was banging against the wall. Then she noticed that her cat mobile, which hangs from her ceiling, was swinging back and forth. She flipped her TV on and began seeing reports of the ea rthquake. That really frightened her, so she came flying downstairs and into our bedroom, crying. She said it felt like her bed was going to fall through the floor.

Amanda said she thought someone was in her room shaking her bed back and forth, as a joke. It lasted about 20 seconds. She was so tired (she went to bed after 2am because she had to complete a school project), so she just went back to sleep. The earthquake was felt here around 5:00am.

The earthquake awoke Nancy. She heard all the cabinets shaking and saw pictures on the walls moving back and forth. She thought there was a big thunderstorm in the area. She got out of bed to look out the window after everything stopped shaking, but didn't see any rain or clouds. She didn't realize we had an earthquake until Marlowe came downstairs crying and telling her that we just had an earthquake.

We had no damage that we can tell. Our house is located about 35 miles SE of the quake's epicenter. I don't think there have been any reports of serious damage, although some power outages and downed trees were reported near the Georgia/Alabama border. They say people felt the quake in eight states. Amanda spends a lot of time at her friend's lake house which is located right on top of the epicenter.

For more information about this earthquake, please click here.

We are attending a dinner at Darlington Upper School tonight for Amanda's Cum Laude Society honors. I will have to really hustle this afternoon to get all the patients finished up in order to Rome by 6:30pm.

Well, back to work. Hope everyone reading this journal entry has a nice day!

Long day at work. Nancy spent the night in Americus, GA last night because she had some Medical Alliance meetings there and in Macon yesterday and today.

Expecting some thunderstorms here tomorrow. Maybe they will wash away some of the pollen.

Preparing for an office staff meeting that we are having in the morning. Speaking of office staff, I took our entire crew to the country club for lunch Tuesday in celebration of Secretary's Day or some such thing. Bought them all gifts, too. Here is a photo of our staff posing outside the country club. Missing from the photo are Kim (office manager) and Edna (optician):


Top row: Cindy (insurance clerk), me
Next row down: Tiffany (tech), Lisa (tech), Dr. Zhao
Next row down: Connie (tech), Louise (receptionist), Cheryl (receptionist), Sheila (secretary)
Bottom row: Lauren (tech), Beverly (optician), Jackie (receptionist), Brandy (tech)

I did find a picture of Kim:



And a picture of Edna:



Sheesh! Not only am I the only male at home, but I'm the only male at work. Even our dogs and cat are all female! (Hard to get a word in edgewise!)

Going to Belton, SC Saturday and returning Sunday. Taking Nancy and her parents to visit relatives. Also, Nancy's uncle is being honored Sunday by having a new stadium named after him at a high school where he was the atheletic director and head coach for years. Amanda's going to Six Flags (again) Saturday. She loves all the roller coasters there.

Well, off to bed... (Please keep in touch and have a great weekend!)

Due to "popular demand," I placed a somewhat higher quality version of my cataract surgery movie here for your viewing pleasure. If you have fast Internet access (DSL or cable modem), the file still streams very quickly. If you are on dial-up, forget it; stick with the low-quality version.

I keep hearing gripes about the crappy choice of music I put on the sound track, so I'll work on re-doing it with better music. Any suggestions? The music that is on there now is from a digital video editing program that I use a lot. It is license-free, so at least I don't have to worry about getting into trouble from the recording industry!

Nancy and I saw "The Pianist" Saturday night. Excellent, though very sad movie. I highly recommend it for everyone to see, except young children (due to the blatantly explicit violence). Especially appropriate now for those who wonder why we're doing what we're doing in Iraq. The movie is a true story and it really shows the unthinkable ways the Germans mistreated the Jews when they invaded Poland. We must never forget what happened and that unless we fight for freedom and basic human rights, it can happen again.

I get a hair cut tomorrow afternoon and then have a meeting with the president-elect of my Rotary club to help plan next year's agenda, since I'll be the president-elect this coming year (starting in June). Not that I want to be president, but they won't take "no" for an answer. Being the club secretary this year has been a pain in the tush. Nancy and I are going to a Rotary District Meeting in Nashville in a couple of weeks. Should be fun.

Very busy day today. We had two techs out (Tiffany's still on maternity leave for another few weeks and Brandi had a stomach flu), so it was really rough. Didn't leave the office till 7pm tonight.

We are taking our entire office staff to the country club for lunch tomorrow in honor of Secretary's Day (or Week or some such thing). We like to show how much we appreciate all their hard work.

Well, enough blabbing for now. Till next time, please keep in touch...

Hi! Hope all my friends and relatives who are reading these messages automatically sent to them through my journal entries are doing well. We are all fine here. Very busy at work. The weekends are too short! At least I didn't get called in for any emergencies this weekend. I go off call at 8:00am. Only one call from the ER Sunday afternoon.

We had a nice dinner tonight at our friends' house (Chuck and Paula Sidlow) in Cartersville.

I'm getting my vegetable garden ready for planting. I think I'm going to try my hand at corn and pole beans this year. We'll see what happens. (I just need to keep the deer out of it.)

I recently digitally captured some of my cataract/implant surgeries and decided to put together a short video. The movie documents all the steps of modern sutureless cataract surgery and shows me actually performing a case. The video was shot through the operating microscope. I converted it into a streaming Windows Media Player file, so you should be able to see it if you click here. If you have a dial-up connection, it may take a while for it to start, or you might have to download the file to your own computer first. If you have a fast Internet connection, it should start streaming within a few seconds. If you have any problems viewing the movie, let me know. It runs about 8 minutes. Because the file was compressed to save download time, the quality isn't as clear as the actual video that was initially captured. If anyone is really interested in seeing this movie in full-screen, very high quality, let me know. I can mail you (regular mail) a video CD of the movie that will play in most DVD players.

Well, it is really late here. I have to hit the sack so I can get up at 6:00. Have to be at the office at 8:00 to see my first appointments. Take care and be sure to keep in touch! (Remember that simply replying to this e-mail we send your message directly to me.) More later...

Well, the day started out mowing the front yard. Gracie loved her first rides on a lawn mower and a real tractor:


Then we went to Marlowe's piano recital this afternoon at Shorter College in Rome, GA. She played beautifully and received a gold cup trophy. Here she is standing with her teacher:

After that, we had an early dinner at Outback Steakhouse in Rome. Then we came home and I started cutting part of the front 6 acres.
Click here to see another small on-line photo album. It shows some pictures of Amanda and Marlowe sitting with our dogs, Mariah and Cocoa, outside, as well as more pictures of Marlowe's piano recital and Gracie. All of these photos were taken today.
Well, tomorrow is going to be very busy and hectic at work, so I better get this posted to my journal and hit the sack...

Gracie had some fun playing outside our house today. Click here for a small photo gallery of some pictures I took of her today. She is playing with Cocoa, one of our dogs (a black-and-tan hound). Gracie is a little over two years old and starting to have some of that "terrible 2s behavior," but she is so cute and fun.

I will need to spend some time shovelling pollen off the driveway. (Just kidding, but it seems like it at times; all the cars in this part of Georgia are now the same color: greenish-yellow!) Actually, plan on mowing the lawn and cutting the field in the morning. Fun.

A quick entry, then off to bed because I have to get up at 6am for surgery (4 cataracts). Today was relatively quiet for a Wednesday. I saw 33 patients in the office (usually I see around 45 on Wednesdays, but we have 3 staff people out this week for vacation). Installed a couple of security cameras in our optical shop after work tonight because we've had a couple of frames shoplifted recently. Hopefully, this will help.

Depressing lunch today in the doctors' lounge with other docs. Everyone's talking about the horrible mal-practice insurance crisis here and what's going to happen. Several doctors are leaving the state.

Well, off to bed. More later...

Just got home from seeing Billy Crystal live at the Atlanta Symphony Hall. He was great. Very funny!

Amanda had a GREAT time in NYC. She saw four Broadway musicals/plays: The Producers, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Cabaret, and Urine Town. (She walked out of the latter, as it wasn't good.) She really liked the other three, though. She visited several museums, Ellis Island, and the Empire State Building.

Saw my lid laceration patient from Friday night back in the office today. He is doing great. I will get his sutures out in a few days.

The office was a little quieter today (for a change), as a lot of people are on Spring Break. We are short-staffed this week because of this, too, so the schedule has been cut back somewhat.

I had to preside over my Rotary Club's meeting today, as our President was out of town and the president-elect had to also go out of town unexpectedly to take care of an ailing relative. I'm next in line (as secretary and next year's president-elect). Had to induct a new member and I also had the program today. I asked our hospital CEO to talk to our club about the upcoming major expansion to the medical center (a $40 million project). We have 80 members in our club.

Well, it's late so I better hit the sack. Have to be up at 6am for surgery cases. Later...

Because of Daylight Savings Time, it is already 1:45pm. Feels like only 12:45pm. Oh, well. At least I might get home before dark on weekdays once in a while.

Marlowe's friend, Tiffany, spent the night here. Her mother picked her up about an hour ago.

Marlowe and I are going to find something fun to do for the afternoon. Then we are going to Heather and Dane's house for dinner tonight.

I may work on plowing up my garden for the spring today, although the pollen outside is enough to choke you. I tried growing some cabbage, broccoli, and collard greens last fall, but I didn't do something right so they didn't grow too well. I just left everything there all winter. Now, the collard greens turned into something weird: they have 6-foot-high stalks with freakish flowers on the top of them! Learn something new every day, I guess. Oh, well. I'll probably just grow tomatoes (or as we say in the South, maters), cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and okra again this spring, because I was pretty successful with that last year. Especially the okra, which are easy to grow, as long as you can keep the deer from eating the plants.

More later...

Dropped off Marlowe at the movies where she was meeting two friends. She saw "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days." I picked her (and her friend who is spending the night here) up around 9:00pm, but a third friend's parents hadn't come to get her yet, so we sat there with her for 30 minutes until her folks finally arrived. Marlowe cooked macaroni and cheese for me for dinner tonight. She loves doing things like that.

I'm working on creating a mailing list that will send these journal logs out to all my friends and relatives automatically, but I'm having some problems with it.

Watching Saturday Night Live now, and will have to go change all the clocks in the house for Daylight Savings Time.

Last night was interesting. After we went to dinner at Provino's (in Rome), I fell asleep on the couch in the family room while looking through a pictorial book Nancy bought called "Shalom, Y'All" (which is about Jews living in small Southern towns). At 10pm, I was awakened by the ER calling me on my cell phone to come in a take care of a 17 year old dude who was (stupidly) running around in the dark outside, playing tag, at around 8:30pm. He ran into a tree limb which won the battle with his right eye. He had a full-thickness lower lid laceration, inferior conjunctival laceration, and a large corneal abrasion.

I got to the hospital around 10:45pm and spent the next two hours taking care of this kid. Got his eyelid repaired by placing two 6-O silk sutures to correctly re-approximate his lid margin, then a 6-O Vicryl to close the deeper tissues (tarsal plate and orbicularis muscle), and then several 6-O interrupted nylon sutures to close the skin. Luckily, his globe was OK internally. He should do OK. Will see him back in the office Monday. And amazingly, he even had health insurance (which is unusual for most of these ER cases). I got home around 1:00am.

Amanda is still in NYC on a trip with her humanities class. She comes home late tomorrow night. Nancy flew to Chicago for an AMA Alliance meeting this morning. She'll be home tomorrow night, too. So it is just Marlowe and me at home for the weekend. Heather had her wisdom teeth out yesterday, so we might go by and visit her sometime. Plus, they are having a troops support rally in Cartersville today that Marlowe and I might go to.

Well, that's all for now.

Just finished seeing my morning patients (19). All the post-ops are doing well. No big disasters yet, for a Friday. (Typically, patients wait all week with big problems, like retinal detachments, before finally calling in to be seen.) But the day isn't over yet. (Actual time of this post is 11:30am; the date stamp is wrong, because it took me till now to get the log posted to my ftp site.)