"But we can't pull that record to find out what that's about," one said, "because records that old have been destroyed."

Destroyed? Damn. Why would they do that? I just today went to our records dept. to retrieve charts on some patients who are up for discussion next week, all adults who had been operated on long, long ago. One of the patients was born here in the 1950s, and the chart contained everything straight back to his birth, with all the notes handwritten by MDs and RNs who were clearly in their 50s and 60s themselves and had been taught real fountain-pen penmanship in their childhoods (seventy, eighty years ago, now?).

The operative report my boss needed was there, 45+ years old and typed with a typewriter on onion-skin paper, after all these years both crisp and almost sticky, signed by a doctor my old boss had spoken of as a mentor who'd died long ago when he was young.

It'll all be destroyed eventually, after every page has been digitized. And I suppose there's no need for it, once it's been digitized, but it still feels a waste. All the work of all those hands, telling the story of bringing someone into the world and, bit by bit, patching all the little broken parts back together.

And I can't believe Hubby's hospital didn't even bother to scan it, just went and tossed it all. I give them and their fake maternity records the stinkeye.

I've become unfond of unusual nature patterns.

For reals! He could have a child he doesn't even know about!

For reals! He could have a child he doesn't even know about!

I don't think he was used for bizarre science fiction experiments, though someone may have wanted to play with his genetics, weird as they are.

I didn't think to ask if they'd been digitized, but I suspect not. I'm suspecting some combination of "We're out of space/weird idea about medical privacy/dear god, the storage space costs how much, and these people keep having how many kids?" at work.

out of emotional spoons for the day. goodnight.

Goodnight, msbelle. Hope you get some spoon restorative rest.

Sleep well, and gather more spoons

I've become unfond of unusual nature patterns.

Last night was one giant tornado watch-warning-watch-warning, severe thunderstorm warning and flash flood warning. Television last night consisted solely of radar. After I started trying to sleep, every hour either the weather radio went off or the dog decided he had to go out in case the noise was something dangerous. That usually entailed his barking until I got up and opened the door. Then he saw the rain and came back in.

There's a swath of damage across Georgia, but so far no deaths have been reported.

I know someone in Huntsville AL, and they had a tornado yesterday (they had 6 total) that followed the track of the EF5 tornado they had in April 2011!

At a certain point, I would consider moving. I said at work yesterday, "I hate tornadoes" and all the students laughed at me ("nobody *likes* tornadoes!") but seriously. They're horrible because there's almost nothing you can do to be prepared.

I saw a report that a house that had just been rebuilt from the April tornadoes was hit again.