Typical Day
Griselda Flemming, age forty-two, wakes up at 5:15AM in her usual, dignified way. Griselda is a serious doctor and a serious lady. This is a work day, which means she has to be "in the zone." But her in-the-zone mode doesn't start so well, because this morning her cat, Patrick, walks unapologetically over her face. Griselda is dignified; Patrick...not so much.
Griselda works with sick people. Not only does she interact with these people on a daily basis, she's the one they look to for answers during what may be the most difficult period of their lives. Some patients are waiting for kidney transplants and could die without receiving them. A lot of the time she feels like a superhero, but this morning she just feels super-done with having her face walked on.
After fifteen minutes of cat-walking and snooze-hitting, Griselda turns the alarm clock off for good at 5:30AM. She gets out of bed, and within twenty minutes has completed her standard forty pushups and sixty crunches. That oughtta start her engine. "ZZZoooonee," she almost hums to herself as she walks downstairs, "zzzzonnnee zone zone zone."
By the end of her morning pump, she's absolutely ravenous. With the urgency and accuracy of a starving surgeon, Griselda whips up a hearty breakfast—an everything bagel topped with grapefruit, chive cream cheese, and lox.
When everything is ready and on the plate, Griselda runs to the front door to grab the paper, still in her robe and slippers. She lives in the suburbs of Chicago, but works in the city.
After hustling back in from the chilly outdoors, Griselda takes her time eating and reads the paper while Patrick prowls around her feet like a hungry fox, hunting viciously for scraps and nipping at Griselda's toes.
She gets dressed and zooms off to work, arriving at 7:00AM. As she walks in, the nurse reminds Griselda of her appointment with Mrs. Finsky, who was referred by her doctor because of some troubling urine test results.
Indeed, Mrs. Finsky appears to be a very sick woman, but after a brief question-and-answer session Griselda is about eighty-five percent sure Mrs. Finsky's troubles are being caused by a dubious diet supplement. She orders a few tests just to be sure, and recommends a new diet for Mrs. Finsky, free of Shady diet pills.
Yeah, they were literally called Shady diet pills. The guy who "invented" them was Bill Shady...but still.
Between appointments, Griselda reads up on recent findings for a research project she's running. She grabs a bell pepper, cabbage, and cauliflower salad with a cranberry juice to drink from the cafe down the street at 11:00AM. Seeing as much kidney disease as she does, Griselda always goes for the kidney-healthy options. Plus, she likes to keep meals light during the day.
Griselda returns to her office around 11:35AM, ready to tackle the rest of her appointments. Unfortunately, the rest of her day doesn't shake out so well. At 12:00PM she has to give a patient some not-so-great test results and set a meeting to discuss a difficult course of treatment. This patient will need to be placed on the transplant list.
Her patient has a less serious condition but seems about ten times as distraught. Jim Perkins is wailing in pain about a kidney stone. She's had her ultrasound tech check him thoroughly and is certain he will pass the stone safely, but that news doesn't seem to calm him down in the slightest.
Sometimes she forgets how scary these conditions can seem to those who haven't had much experience with them. Griselda does her best to comfort Jim, prescribes him some strong pain killers, and advises him to drink a lot of water and wait patiently.
A few more routine check-ups go by, along with plenty of paperwork, but finally Griselda is done at 6:00PM.
After sitting in an hour of rush hour traffic back to the suburbs, Griselda arrives home at 6:30PM. She takes off her heavy winter coat and kicks off her shoes. At 7:30PM, she receives a text from Terrence (her main squeeze), inviting her to dinner (Chinese) and a show (Ghostbusters, at his place). Griselda can't resist. It's a late start, but she needs to take some time to relax...and she loves Ghostbusters.