a long day in the life of research

Today was my first day at work without Jackie (she is off traveling the Andes in Chile!).  So it was a very long day since only our nurse helped collect patients in the morning, but it had a lot of meaningful/interesting interactions.  For anyone wondering what my days are like, here's an example of a hectic one:

6:40 wake up, breakfast with a cup of coffee
7:25 am take bus to office
8:35 interview first patient.  60 year old healthy man, first time getting his blood drawn and his pressure taken
8:50 go to cardiology clinic to drop of EKGs for the cardiologist to read.  End up taking a patient of his back to our office to include in our study.  She came in because she just developed a terrible dry cough from Enalopril (hypertension med), but she may have Chagas heart failure as well.
9:40 listen to a long spiel from the lady's daughter how I should go to their church
10:30 return results to a 71 year-old patient, who I diagnose with Chagas.  I am in my scrubs and she is wearing a headscarf, a purple hoodie, a jacket, and gloves!  have a very circular conversation with her about nothing in particular
10:45 start a third patient interview
11:25 check patient charts in the inpatient ward
12:05 leave for lunch because the patients get lunch and I don't want to bother then
12:15 drop off photocopies
12:25 order soup and baked chicken at a lunch place (they serve an option of two meal plates)
12:28 eat soup as always to start.  get a plate of fried chicken
12:29 remind waitress I ordered baked chicken
12:32 watch 3 other customers get baked chicken
12:34 waitress tells me there is no more baked chicken.  asks if I want fried chicken.  I say no way, mainly out of principal.
12:40 go around looking for another thing to eat.  end up eating junk.
1:15  check email at the project headquarters with internet.  find out Nate and I are both registered for the 2013 NYC Triathalon!
1:45 return to photocopier - they did my copies wrong.  no surprise there.
2:15 resume interviews with two of the inpatient men.  one has Cheyne-Stokes respirations on exam (sounds like a wind storm came and went during cardiac auscultation)
3:45  tell two interns that they don't have Chagas.  our boss allows us to run some free tests as favors, including to hospital staff or family members of patients
4:05 get asked to do an EKG for free on another man.  turns out he is crying because no one visits him, and he thinks I can understand him (I cannot, as he speaks rapid, soft Spanish through tears, but I will stand there)
4:30 get called away to give more results.  tell another two ladies that they have Chagas, and changes in their EKGs so they both get a cardiology referral
5:00 go visit a laboratory because Fernando, the guy who helps me draw blood sometimes, asked me to come by.  met some people at the laboratory who want to collaborate with us.  Fernando asks if I have to return to my family in the states.  I say "of course!" then he clarifies by "family" he meant "kids"
5:40 finally get things together and finish the EKGs on the men
6:15 finish inputting basic data into notebooks
6:25 print out the EKGs and give them to the inpatients to put in their chart
6:40 run into an old patient, who tells me about how he wishes more people would visit and bring him bananas and crackers.  make a mental note to bring a banana for him.  I try to chat with him (we talked about the hospital dinner was)
7:10 arrive back at the office headquarters.  Input more data, organize some of the completed questionnaires
8:40 go to dinner with our boss from Johns Hopkins who is in town.  talk about the project
10:20 leave dinner, find a cab driver who absolutely adored having a foreigner.  he chats and wears a huge child-like smile the whole ride back
10:40 looked over a scientific paper on Chagas.  Ate some chocolate.
11:15 started a blog post
11:35 posting blog post
11:45 still editing blog post?  why?
12:00 lights out!