Day 290 - deposed

I told our nurse practitioner student today that I feel something interesting is always happening in my life. Today was no exception; I did my deposition. I had never been deposed before and that was interesting. The county prosecutor and the public defender and the court stenographer (who recorded everything and will transcribe it probably from the comfort of her own home--nary a stenograph in sight) were there with me. The public defender asked me a whole bunch of questions, many of which were highly predictable, some of which were not. The situation is that I examined a patient after she was assaulted and the person who did it has been found and is on trial for it. My piece is really straight forward; is this your note? when did you see the patient? what did she tell you? then what? etc. Some of it was somewhat surprising to me, but probably shouldn't have been: what did you mean by [body part]? (he brought pictures from the internet and asked me if the circle was on the [body part]) He asked a lot of questions about could I tell how/when the wounds had been made? (nope, not my field of expertise) It was nerve wracking to not be able to figure out where he was going all the time. I also wished my note had been better, but there is nothing for that at this point. Now, I've had that experience and am hopeful that I never have to be deposed on my own behalf. Once we had a patient involved in a lawsuit at the Hospice House. I was not there the day they came with their stenographers and team of lawyers to depose him. He died soon after, but it had been an important life goal for him to do the deposition. It must have been exhausting.

Can you see the little bit of purple in the lower left above the grass stem? That is a pansy that made it through the winter under all the snow for an early start. We really got our money's worth out of that plant; this is its third year back. Pansies are *supposed* to be perennial.

I am thankful for being so naive about the legal system and hopeful that I can remain so. For you, I wish the same.