The project progresses nicely. I have now completed Tuesday and tomorrow should get started on Wednesday of the week in the diary.
Today I have added another 5155 words to the project, bringing the total at the moment up to 32299 words, and sixteen chapters completed.
I have also spent time on the draft of my sixth book in the 'Friends, family and love' series, 'Growing Love'. For this book I have nearly added another chapter and with this another 2329 words, bringing the word count for this book up to 125169.
And, just in case you would like to read another excerpt from the unedited draft of the #nanowrimo2018 project 'Diary of a Female GP', here it is:
My next emergency patient is the lady with hairloss I nearly forgot about. Fortunately she was able to accept the afternoon appointment and I hope she is not too angry with me for not being more accommodating towards her.
When Melanie enters, she appears extremely annoyed. I'm running a little late and she is seen six minutes after her appointment time.
"This surgery is rubbish. There are never any appointments available if I need one." Although I am tempted to point out several appointments were available last week when she claimed there weren't, I hold my tongue. "When I phoned this morning they told me you would ring back within an hour." I am quite certain the receptionists would never make a promise like that unless there was an emergency and in that case they would have warned me about this. "Instead, I was kept waiting for hours and when I then finally get an appointment for this afternoon, you keep me waiting another half an hour." Again I am tempted to point out I'm only six minutes late, but I bite my tongue again. She takes a deep breath before continuing, "This practice never does anything to help patients. I could have been dead already." Dead of hairloss? Really? That is not something I have ever heard about. "Really, I should put a complaint in and I think I will. You have seriously neglected my needs." She pauses for a moment, "Actually, perhaps I should go with the paper with this. That will teach you to treat people properly. You are a disgrace."
I take a deep breath, hoping to control myself before addressing the Melanie, "I am really sorry to keep you waiting and you have been able to get a suitable appointment. To be honest, I was not aware I was running behind half an hour already, but I do apologise for the inconvenience I've caused you. But now that we are here, perhaps you can tell me what seems to be the problem." Oops, I nearly pointed out that I was only six minutes late and that really might have blown up the situation.
"Well, it is like this doctor. Over the last two months I've been losing loads of hair. I'm convinced I'm going bald and you need to do something about that."
"When you say you're losing hair, how much is this? Are there clumps on your pillow, any bald patches you have noticed?" While I glance at Melanie, she appears to have a full head of hair, but I have not yet properly examined her.
"No, not clumps on my pillow, but there is a handful of hair in my hairbrush when I brush it after washing my hair. Surely that is not normal. I'm convinced my hair feels thinner as well."
After examining her hair, there is no sign of any bald patches or even thinning of her hair. I offer Melanie to perform a few blood tests to rule out some of the causes of hairloss and inform her that so far it does not appear likely she is going bald. My reassurances fall on deaf ears as Melanie still appears thunderous and when she leaves after advising her to return if things don't improve or if they get worse, I wonder if I will have another complaint on my desk in the next few days.
Joni
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