tired

You won't hear him admit it, but Dan is tired.

I don't know exactly what his days entail, as he says he loves to come home and NOT have to talk about work. What I do know goes a little something like this.

He gets up at either 4:00 or 4:30 a.m., depending on the day. He packs his lunch and drives to work, Diet Coke in hand. Some days he gets to sit down and eat lunch, others he doesn't get to eat again until he tears into it during the drive home. He works until the work is done, which means he might come home at 4:30 p.m., he might come home at 8:30 p.m., or he might not come home at all. If he's lucky enough to make it home in the evening he eats, Skypes* with us, and goes to bed. He is on call 24-7 except for the weekends he comes home...so that's 12 days at a time. Some of his pages (in this Jetsons-age we live in) can be answered by phone using his laptop to download films; others require him to go back to work, no matter what time it is. The next day it starts all over again.

When he climbed into the van at the Indianapolis Airport last Friday night at nearly 11:30 p.m. I could tell by looking at his eyes that he hadn't slept in... awhile. He didn't want to answer my questions but finally admitted that his last night of sleep had been on Wednesday - though he was quick to point out that he'd caught an hour-long nap at some point on Thursday before he was paged back to work.

Dan doesn't talk about the children he meets at Texas Children's Hospital. I think that some of their stories are too sad to dwell on so he does his best to leave them in Texas when he climbs aboard his bi-weekly flights. After "sleeping in" on his Saturday mornings here (meaning he gets up at 7:30 or 8:00 a.m.....even though that's 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. to his body clock) he starts his work with our children. They take turns throughout our two days together, choosing what they'd like to do with Daddy. Emma usually chooses to have puzzle time with him. Daniel and Noah like to play sports in the backyard. They all play board games together --which is usually most successful when Luke is napping. Luke likes to wrestle on the floor and read stories.

Dan insists that I take a nap while he works through his rotation.

Between his Daddy-time appointments he fits in haircuts, "honey-do" list items and booking more airline flights home. He always exercises - often for the first time in the two weeks since he's been gone. He reads his Sports Illustrateds, The Indianapolis Star, and starts working through whatever medical journals have arrived. Our whole family goes to bed around 9 p.m. Saturday night to help him recoup some of the lost sleep. Too soon it's Sunday afternoon and we're on the way back to the airport. During the drive he always asks the kids to figure out the countdown to his next visit. He tells them to start making lists of all of the things they want to do together when he's here next time. Then he's gone.

I'm so proud of Dan for taking this year to train as a pediatric specialist. I've been told over the years that he does a great job explaining things to parents and answering their questions. Even more important to those parents, he talks or jokes with their sick children to try to put them at ease. It takes a special person to do his job day after day. Hats off to all of you who teach, heal, and tend children for a living. They're jobs that require lots of prayer to sustain with glad hearts.

I cringe when I hear stories about crass doctors, impatient doctors, or surgeons who don't look their patients in the eye when they meet. I wouldn't want to make excuses for purposely treating patients that way - ever. Having met lots of physicians during these 'training' years, here's what I can offer by way of possible explanation, if you ever have a less-than-fantastic interaction when you're at the doctor's office.

If your physician is ever a little "off," keep in mind that they might be ill, although of course they'd never tell you how they're feeling. I know our own (very special) pediatrician fought terrible all-day sickness for half of (each) of her pregnancies, seeing patients between her own vomiting sessions. I doubt many people are able to hide sickness as well as she did!

Sometimes your doctor may have a disorder of some sort that makes their bedside manner - eh- not great, but makes them a very meticulous surgeon. (Is obsessive-compulsive disorder necessarily a bad trait in your brain surgeon or your cardiologist?)

Maybe, sometimes, they're just tired.

Please keep Dan in your prayers this year. Thanks, in advance, from Team Fulkerson.