Overall I have enjoyed a fantastic life. I have a wonderful family, I enjoy my work, and, save for a few bumps in the road, I enjoy excellent health. This past July, however, was not my best month. Nothing terrible happened. It was more of a collection of events that made me experience a torrent of negative feelings.

It all started with a driving mishap. In the past year my wife backed into a car in our driveway, and my daughter turned too sharply backing out of the garage and scraped the fender. Both events caused visits to my now good buddy, Jesse, at the local body shop. Neither episode was upsetting to me. This was not the case when I was the one to back into the kids’ car in the driveway damaging not one, but two, fenders. I was so mad at myself I could hardly see straight. I was inconsolable. If I’d had a fever, you would have done an LP on me. Eventually I got over it.

I had been working more and sleeping less than I usually prefer. This translated into a general grumpy attitude around home and around the ED. The nurses even complained. There were no outbursts or arguments, just a less than stellar attitude. This made me feel bad because I strive to be even tempered.

Finally, late in the month, I missed a diagnosis that I should have made. It was a busy day, I was trying to move things along, and I just missed it. Nothing bad came of it, but I was not pleased with myself.

By the end of the month, my self-image was suffering, and I was tiring of being with myself. Luckily, I had a week off coming and had signed up for the Michigan College of Emergency Physicians summer conference on Mackinac Island. A few months earlier my wife had shown me the brochure and wondered if the lineup of speakers interested me. It looked promising, so I signed up.

After finishing a day shift I put the bikes on the back of the car, and we traveled to northern Michigan. We stayed overnight in Cheboygan. I wanted to stay there because I enjoy saying Cheboygan. Go ahead, say it. Also, we wanted to visit a nearby winery, which we never found. The next day we made the scenic trip up the coast of Lake Huron to Mackinac City. This gateway to the Mackinac Bridge is loaded with interesting shops and has a Coast Guard vessel to tour.