Mr. Man in Red 2009

Jeff Poland, Man in Red, Charleston, S.C.

Busy days kids, but can't say they are boring!

Today was the grand finale of our Men in Red fundraising prank and it couldn't have gone more successfully. This is a play on the Red Dress being the national symbol for heart disease awareness. In our hospital the gentleman we raise the most money for has to wear a red dress through the hospital and have lunch in the cafeteria.

Woohoo! The women's services team had asked Jeff Poland from Robin's & Morton Construction to represent them. They raised over $2,500 in his name with bake and book sales. I almost died laughing when they did his promo pictures with all the nurses wearing construction helmets while he squeezed into his Goodwill evening gown.

This morning he paraded through the hospital passing out chocolate kisses, posing with the nurses and serving up cake to the staff. it was absolutely hilarious. What a great sport. He didn't know that his boss was going to show up to escort him.

Altogether we raised just over $17,000.00 for the American Heart Association just with this fun prank. Thanks Jeff!

Thursday Hodgepodge

Bird on a Wire....

We are long overdue for a hodge podge entry and it's been a hodge podgy week.

For my local bloggy friend Heather.

Click to watch what happens if you don't spay your kitty. They are breeding!

This tree trunk in Georgetown, SC looks like something, I'm just not quite sure what.

My Men in Red prank has raised over $17,000 for the American Heart Association. Wowza! We announced the winners (losers?) Tuesday afternoon and tomorrow the winning gentlemen have to put on the Red Dress and serve cake after making guest appearances throughout the hospital. This dainty character is the winner for the hospital I am based at and this southern belle is the winning contestant at our sister facility in town. Can't say these fellas aren't good sports for a good cause.

I admit, I took the bird photo on my travels but it might fly here.

Project Runway has two Charleston designers competing so had to take a pause. Off to bed kids. Y'all turn the lights out.

Medical Macgyver

King & Spring St., Charleston, S.C.

Is anyone else watching Royal Pains? It's like a medical MacGyver show. Someone collapses dead away in each show and dr. Hank revives them with hairdryers, fishing line and duct tape. There is no emergency he can't handle.

Any other good shows I should tivo?

An End to the Insurance Monopoly

Edisto Island, S.C.

I tend to keep things light on this blog but as anyone in working with the public in health care I clearly see the need for reform. This is a reprint of Dr. Marshall Newton's letter to the Editor in today's paper. He is a real doctor, trying to take care of real patients. Dr. Newton is the kind of doctor who takes care of families, hugs his patients and goes on mission trips. He is a doctor whose opinion we should consider.

Time to put an end to insurance monopoly
Wednesday, September 16, 2009

As a family medicine physician for 12 years in Charleston, deep in the trenches of primary care medicine, I find it hard to sit quietly by and listen to so many uninformed opinions about health care reform. Please know this, this system is very broken. Most of us have a for-profit insurance company in between us and our physician, often interfering in the plan of care in order to maximize profits. I see this every day.

About four months ago, a major insurance company in the Charleston market sent letters to physicians like myself stating that now a review board would have to agree before any significant radiology test would be allowed. Can you believe that? Medicare, the socialized medicine option for the disabled and citizens over age 65, has never attempted to block radiology studies that I've ordered. Since that day, just about every CT scan we try to order gets scrutinized and often blocked by this insurance company.

Ask my 58-year-old patient with a long smoking history with a 30-pound weight loss in three months for an unknown reason what he thinks about his CT scans being denied multiple times until approved at the last minute after lots of yelling and screaming. This is becoming the norm now and this is what some people are trying so hard to protect? Insurance companies are even asking for prior authorizations on generic medicines that I know can be purchased for $12 at the local pharmacy. Ridiculous. They need to get out of the way as neither the patient nor the doctor invited them to get between us.

There is a lot right about our system but let's correct the wrong while protecting what is right. Democrats and Republicans agree on the following major issues: No discrimination for pre-existing conditions, no huge out-of-pocket expenses/deductibles/co-pays, cover preventative services, no dropping of coverage for the seriously ill, no gender discrimination, no annual or lifetime caps, guaranteed insurance renewal.

Let's change the well-documented fact that two out of three bankruptcies are from medical bills. In this great country of ours, this is not right. And can you believe that three-fourths of the people who go bankrupt from medical bills had insurance? That shows the problem of being under-insured.

So let's find a way to get more competition in the insurance market so we can all shop around for choices. One thing is for sure, you can't right now. Most major health care markets have one insurance company that monopolizes the market. That is un-American. Let's change that. If the private sector cannot generate the competition, then perhaps a public health insurance option or co-ops are the only solution for now.

Let's make sure that some way, somehow, everyone can get affordable health insurance. And let's find a way to lower costs of medicines. Why can my patients get medicines for up to 75 percent less simply by mailing my prescription to a Canadian pharmacy? Let's allow Medicare Part D to be able to negotiate with these pharmaceutical companies the way the Veterans Administration office so successfully did.

It is time to get mad and demand action. It can be done.

E. MARSHALL NEWTON, M.D.
Tobias Gadsden Boulevard
Charleston

Can it be twenty years ago?

Awendaw Creek, Hwy 17 North, S.C.

Can it be twenty years? Twenty years since I had a name tag put on my wrist when I went to work at the hospital in case my body needed to be identified. Twenty years since every house on my street earned a new roof and boats were scattered over the peninsula? I used to think we should run shredded blue tarp up our flagpoles on the anniversary date of Hurricane Hugo since we all had them to keep the rain out of our wounded homes.

It still seems too recent to bear the thought of Charleston being hit by another major hurricane and thankfully we've been lucky this year. We didn't have digital cameras then, but many of us were taking pictures and the Post & Courier is looking for them. It's time to dust off your scrapbooks, scan in a few and forward them to the email listed below.

We Want to Hear from You
The Post and Courier and postandcourier.com are compiling stories and photos for the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Hugo. Do you have a story to tell? Send your story ideas, photographs and contact info to newstips@postandcourier.com.

Whoops...to clarify, this photo was taken this weekend. The boat landed there after Hugo and lays there still.

Before & After - Jasper St.

Jasper St., Charleston, S.C.

Isn't this an adorable little cabin? It's in the yard behind a main house on Jasper St. This is probably considered a roomy mansion by the Tumbleweed Tiny Home folks.

I'm off to my bed. Turn the lights out. If I lived in a tiny house I could turn the porch light out from my bed.

Church Photo in Lieu of Attendance

Cathedral St. Luke & St. Paul, 126 Coming St., Charleston, S.C.

Our Church Photo in Lieu of Attendance today is the beautiful cathedral of St. Luke & St. Paul. Find some of it's history here.

I found this evening's nonsense joke on Miss Cellania:

Squirrels had overrun three churches in town.

After much prayer, the elders of the first church determined that the animals were predestined to be there. Who were they to interfere with God's will? they reasoned.

Soon, the squirrels multiplied.

The elders of the second church, deciding that they could not harm any of God's creatures, they humanely trapped the squirrels and set them free outside of town.

Three days later, the squirrels were back.

It was only the third church that succeeded in keeping the pests away. The elders baptized the squirrels and registered them as members of the church. Now they only see them on Christmas and Easter.

Joan's Favorite Painted Walls of Charleston, SC

Planet Follywood, 32 Center St., Folly Beach, S.C.
Everyone needs their picture taken with Elvis.


Hominy Grill, Rutledge Ave., Charleston, S.C.
Yum, yum! Eggplant sandwich. Mmmm. This one was painted by David Boatwright.


Home of the Hand Wash, Line St., Charleston, S.C. Some days we all need a hand wash.


1st Class Cuts Barber Shop, 55 Spring St., Charleston, S.C.



Sheepman Graffiti, Folly Rd., James Island, S.C.
These are so incredible and cover the back of an abandoned shopping plaza on Folly Rd.


Next time by Fire, Crosstown, Charleston, S.C.


Liberty St., Charleston, S.C.


Hanks Seafood, 10 Hayne St., Charleston, S.C.
Yum, yum. Bonus Black Cab! I should get a discount for the number of times I have helped tourists find it.


First Federal Parking Lot
This one is tucked away. It's my secret find in the parking lot behind the Broad St. First Federal.


Hatman, Broad & Church St., Charleston, S.C.


Jacob's Alley. This one is painted over already but lives on in my picture.


Billy Joe, 747 Meeting St., Charleston, S.C.

What have I missed? I may be back to add a few more. Notice the bonus British Taxi Cabs.

Day of Caring, Charleston, S.C.

Day of Caring, Charleston, SC

Thousands of people have been swarming all over the lowcountry today participating in Day of Caring projects.

Our health system sends a team to help spruce up Windwood Farms a home for abused little boys where we usually paint and do landscaping projects.

The other project our hospital has taken on is making bags of necessities and goodies for foster children in the HALOS program. When a child is suddendly taken out a difficult situation to be placed in foster care they often go empty handed. Today we put together and decorated 425 bags for these kids.

Every time I went in the classroom employees were stopping by with donations and painting a design on the canvas bag. It's a project we can all feel good about. The HALOS bag project is all coordinated by my friend Stacy Dodds and I made her sit in her pile of goodies for a picture before they were loaded up.

This year they told us they had three projects. The third involved taking pictures of fundraising holiday ornaments for the Berkeley Citizens, Inc. Guess who that project got forwarded to? I am not set up for that type of photo project and spent Wednesday afternoon wrapping a blue shawl around a cardboard box and dangling ornaments on my porch to take pictures.

It's Going to be a Full Life!

Middleton Place Plantation, Charleston, S.C.

I've stolen this from my nephew Jesse's Facebook site because it charmed me so. I wasn't as clear about my goals when I was 19. I think he presents as an interesting, well rounded, energetic and ambitious person. It's listed as a first edition and he is open for suggestions. Do you have anything he should add?

My Bucket List (1st Edition subject to change)
Friday, August 21, 2009 at 6:43pm
Bucket List

Go to a SuperBowl
Go to a FIFA World Cup game
Mountain bike in the Himalaya Mountains
Visit England, Scotland, Ireland, and a couple countries in Africa
Russia-Lake Baikal-catch a taimen-Ride the Trans-Siberian Railroad
Canoe on the Amazon
Visit the Taj Mahal, Parthenon, and Victoria Falls
Go Grunion Hunting –San Diego
Learn how to speak 2 more languages (French being one of them so I can work for MSF)
Get my Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Work as a humanitarian aid worker in Africa
Live in the Rocky Mountains for a while
Read Ulysses, the Iliad, the Odyssey
Read the Bible at one sitting
Get through the Koran and a few other holy books as well
Figure out what I believe
Go spear fishing
Visit Petra
Visit the Inca City of Machu Picchu
Go Caribou hunting
Walk on the Great Wall of China
Scuba dive off the Great Barrier Reef
Write a book and have it published
Go on a food tour of Europe: Italy, Paris, London, Glasgow, Dublin, Venice
Do back-flips off the ground
Go zip-lining
Never be “out of shape” by my standards
Hit up the pyramids for a bit
See the Mayan Temples (Guatemala)
Run for 24 hrs w/o stopping
Work on a charter fishing boat for a season
Climb Mt Kilimanjaro
See U2 in concert (Dublin possibly?)
Ride across Canada by rail
Never go to Vegas
See the the Banaue Rice Terraces
Run around in "The Colosseum"
Hike the Grand Canyon (and camp there?)
Never go into debt more than $20,000 and for no longer than a year
Hold my breath under water for 2 minutes with no repercussions to my health
Die and then come back to life again (and then die again... hopefully)
Kick a 60 yard field goal (I'll do it, don't even worry about it)
(Make a Scrapbook about all of it!)

What do you think? Any suggestions?

Obesity on the Rise

King St., Charleston, S.C.

Yikes! This fella suddenly appeared next to the elevator in the parking building next the Francis Marion Hotel. Since I specifically walk so I won't look like this, I'll pass on my "you've been a good girl" little dish of post exercise ice cream this evening. I wonder if people take one look at him and decide to take the stairs instead of the elevator?

Reality was like a smack in the face today. Knew it would be. Always is. Notes, piles of paper crammed under my door, voice mail, email. If one more person said, "I came to see you but YOU weren't here..." I might have wept. As always it takes a week or two to catch up after a vacation.

But, I was filmed for a commercial spot today for our health system today. Heheh. This should be funny. I had one line which was filmed over and over and was presented with an attractive gentleman to play my husband. Once the caterer loaned me her sparkly new wedding ring we were all set. My tv husband had a rash on his arm I had to look concerned about. When I heard what some of the other roles were I felt pretty fortunate to be "rash wife".

Can "rash wife" go on my resume?

Night folks. I need to get some sleep tonight.

Top 10 Sidewalk Graffiti Art Images in Charleston, SC

Wow! Wet Cement
Someone else delighted in it as much as I do!


I Spoke Your Name For Many Days
I loved this one. I imagined an abandoned lover grieving. A reader recognized it as a fragment of a Phish song.

TWIST

I spoke your name for many days
Pronouncing it in several ways
And moving letters all around

And when you heard the end result
I told you it was not my fault

If you were here more of the day
It wouldn't twist around that way


Remember What You Saw, What You Heard
Message to the tourists?
Cumberland St., Charleston, SC


Don't Look Down On Me
If we hadn't, we wouldn't have seen it.
Vanderhorst St., Charleston, SC


Is This Legal?
They were probably talking about writing in cement but the cigarette in the picture added a new twist.
This one is across from the East Bay, Harris Teeter next to the liquor store.


I Love The Friends That We Have Gathered On This Thin Raft
This was an ambitious project on Pitt St. and has since been destroyed. Sob.
Pitt St., Charleston, SC

Some call it heavenly in its brilliance.
Others, mean and rueful of the Western dream.
I love the friends I have gathered together on this thin raft.
We have constructed pyramids in honor of our escaping.
This is the land where the Pharaoh died.
Jim Morrison, The Wasp


Thanks Uncle Willie
What did Uncle Willie do? Pay for the cement drive?
Elizabeth St., Charleston, SC



No Need to Stress If You Ship UPS
This is a cement graffiti masterpiece. Who loves a company enough to create this? Duncan St., Charleston, SC


Enjoy Being
Philosophy on Smith St.
Smith St., Charleston, SC


Love Is For All. You And Me
Wisdom found on Radcliffe
Radcliffe St., Charleston, SC

It was almost impossible to pick ten favorites. I keep finding new ones and odds are I've glanced down and found your name claiming a square of lowcountry sidewalk real estate.

What makes people write these things? Do they have something clever in mind ready to pounce when they spot wet cement? It isn't as easy as you would think. The cement must be at the right consistency and the artist quick and discreet. Not that I would know.

Charleston has clearly been home to a wealth of creative cement artists and philosophers. Thanks to all of you who have blogged the sidewalks in your cities, travels and sent me copies of pavement treasure finds.

It's not the end of course. I keep finding new ones to add to my collection. Meanwhile, walk on. Look down once and awhile!


The End.
East Bay St., Charleston, SC.

Tuesday Funny

Newton Farms, Freshfields Village, S.C.

I may be slow but I had never been to Freshfields Village at the entrance to Kiawah until very recently. Wow. I did a quick zip through but there appears to be plenty of high end shopping and dining to please the folks from Kiawah and Seabrook. It is a mini world of it's own.

Bonus frog joke in honor of the giant frogs:

A man walks in to a doctors office with a frog on his head.

The doctor leaps up and says:
"Good grief, how on earth did you get that great ugly thing!"

The frog looks down and replies:
"I dunno Doc, it started out as a little wart on my bottom!"

Harhar.

Home again, home again - photo dump

Portland, Oregon,

Home again, home again. I got in late last night and have my hours scrambled. I'm dopey headed but pleased to walk my territory again. Things change even in a couple of weeks. I picked up a lottery ticket just in case there is a chance I don't need to go back to work at all.

Couple of last shots from Portland today and then we will get back on track with lowcountry photos. The giant bicycle also served as a cool bike rack. We ate in the Firehouse restaurant in the background. The other wacky bike themed property wasn't too far from my daughter's house so I had to walk down to get it. Clearly bike related art is big. Even the sidewalk graffiti fit the Portland mood, "I am green, I am free, I am me."

It was good to see the dingo again. I assume she is still in that position mourning my departure. Heheh.

On the road - Portland, Oregon

Redwoods, California

Some people drive through, but I am a walker, right? We paid $4 for our drive through photo op. Had to do it.

Back in Portland being completely lazy. Adjusting to the time change flying east is going to be a bit of a shocker. Yesterday we ate a big fat brunch and I wandered all afternoon seeing Velveteria the black velvet painting museum, the 24 hour roadside church of Elvis museum, ate a doughnut at the VooDoo Doughnut shop (the magic is in the hole!) and ended at a crepe restaurant for dinner. Yummers.

I fly back tomorrow so will get back on track with the Charleston Daily Photo as usual. I was hoping they would get the dreaded Joint Commission hospital survey over with while I was away but it seems they haven't. Wonder if I can take another week or two off?

On the road - Roseburg, Oregon

Delfino Vineyards, Roseburg, Oregon

On our way back up the coast my daughter found a little cottage on the grounds of a winery to break our journey. Five dogs to greet us, a hot tub, a bottle of wine in the fridge and a beautiful walk up the hill to a meadow. It felt like a complete vacation. Maybe I won't come back home.