August 7

I looked at the schedule for Thursday and didn't see an "L" in either the morning or afternoon sessions.  I got a major feeling of happy for whatever brought that good fortune my way.

Until I realized that this might be the date that court was rescheduled for.  Back in spring I got a notice to appear in court in Mansfield Township, for an incident that happened last fall, November possibly.  It was a weekend I was on call and a guy called stating he was a patient, he had been in the Emergency Room for seizures and was out of the medication he used, Alprazolam, and whatever the ER physician gave him didn't work.

Fortunately the practice was an early adopter of an electronic medical record system.  I looked this person up on my laptop.  By name.  By date of birth.  By telephone number.

Nothing.

Then his story shifted to "Well, I've signed up to be a patient, but I haven't come in yet."

A likely story.

So I told him that I was quite sorry, but he did not appear on our roster, we don't prescribe controlled substances on weekends and over the phone and if he was truly having a problem going back to the ER was the solution to his problem.

Then I wrote a short note about the incident and sent it to my collaborating physician, who forwarded it to the practice manager.  And she reported it to the local police.

It turns out that this scammer used his actual phone number.  hello?  Idiot, even I have watched enough 'Law & Order' to know about burner phones.

Then, not to waste any of my ever- dwindling supply of brain cells, I forgot all about it.  Until the summons arrived for a June 19 court date.

I had to go back and read the note I wrote to remember the details.  So here's to hoping for another postponement.