Checking in

Since we've been back from Disney it's been pretty hectic at home and at work. My father went into the hospital with a wicked kidney stone. The surgery to remove it was not successful, so they have schedule Dec. 12 to perform the ultrasonic treatment where the stone will be crushed by sound waves. It's unfortunate it takes over a month to get on the schedule for that procedure. I'm not sure why it takes so long. It probably has to do with the failed negotiations between my company and Anthem. The hospital network I work for no longer accepts Anthem patients. I can not comment on the facts of the issues at hand. It is what it is. But if you look at the facts, you'll see who is right and who is wrong. The end result is the Kettering Medical Center network is serving many more patients than normal and I would bet this affects things like my Dad's long wait for the procedure.

My life as a network geek is getting more dificult. Projects are piling up, support issues keep coming and new facilities are opening. My small team is overwhelmed but taking it one day at a time. Frustrations are certainly mounting. I'm going to refrain from details - but the silver lining is that my experience and knowledge of Cisco technology is ever growing. And I always have the technology at my fingertips to design, implement and support. We have grown to over 600 Cisco devices in my network with over 1200 Wireless LAN devices going in over the next 6-8 months. I am currently planning for the netowrk growth needed to support 300 plus Wireless access points we will install at my home hospital by July 2006. I will need to devote nearly all my time well into 2006 to get everything ready for this important clinical wireless rollout. And with 3 new facilities opening in 2007 there is no end in sight to the massive hardware rollouts I'll take part in. It's intimidating, but well worth going all out to make the most of it.