The Great Big Sea

Enough CLL for moment.

Tonight, I was at genuinely fun unpretentious folk-rock-celtic-trad concert from the best band to ever sail from the cold and rocky shore of Newfoundland, namely the Great Big Sea.

Newfoundland has always been a special place for me. Lived there for 3 months as a medical student in a fishing village that could only be reached by boat. Or helicopter if there was a real emergency. The road came decades after I had left. Worked at a tiny hospital in town and traveled up and down the foggy coast to tiny fishing hamlets where we held clinics in a classroom or someone's bedroom.

It was there that fell in love with being a family doctor.

That medical school elective changes my life forever. I was hooked by the scope and depth, the variety and the intimacy of a general practice.

And so that has been my path for the last 40 plus years.

The concert tonight was a total escape for me and an echo of some dormant memories, time off from work and sleep that I can hardly afford, and yet could hardly afford not to take. Hope these CBC videos gives you a reasonable facsimile of being there.

Catch them in concert if you can. They are on their 20th anniversary concert right now.

Enjoy a video or two that take less brain and more heart than my usual fare.

Clinic tomorrow, home the day after

Longaberger's Home Office, Newark Ohio

LA Kings lost. No solar eclipse to admire in Columbus. Some heartburn. Muscle pains and my pimple.


I am am not worried.


Little new to report, but tomorrow is a clinic day with lab and exam. Two weeks of ibrutinib, the magic pill for CLL.


Will let you know the latest.


Flying home on Tuesday and then onto Las Vegas to lecture to about 200 family doctors on CLL.


Then back here, then home, then back to Columbus, then to Orlando to lecture. All this takes place over about a 10 day period. Only then do I get to fly home for almost a month, the beginning of many monthly visits to Columbus.


It's worth all the hassle and stress for the results I am getting.


Fell in love with Columbus, but ready to return home to the Pacific coast and dip my toes in the waters and see my boys and my cat.


As a sweet parting nostalgic treat, saw Peter Noone with Herman's Hermits on Saturday in Newark, OH at the beautifully restored Midland Theater. Great fun. The crowd was not young (more than a few walkers), but we all had so much fun.


Drove to the nearby world famous Longaberger's Home Office. They make baskets if you were wondering why the choice of building motif. It's one of the classic Americana roadside attractions for sure. More fun.


The classic old central courthouse and waterworks castle with its turrets and the downtown murals of bygone days of skating on the canal and more were wonderful to see. but the architectural highlight has a disabused 98 year old corner bank by the important American architect, Louis Sullivan. Some real gems in this small Ohio town. I am loving central Ohio.