Darryll W Barksdale:  

Still on the Mississippi Gulf Coast healing the sick and curing the lame(minded). 22 years in the emergency dept but still do not know what I want to be when I grow up. While I love most of what I do, the intrusion of government will most likely run me away from medicine in the near future.......may become a front man for a rap group or something!!! Married to my New Orleans princess for 20 years. She is a counselor and thus can legally tell me what to do. She is truly my soul mate and my angel on this earth...and my greatest blessing. We lost everything but the clothes on our back...literally...to Katrina......and I mean everything!!! It has been the most difficult of times these last four years but we somehow keep moving forward. The spirit of the people here cannot help but impress you and give you hope to carry on. Could not rebuild on our island as we wanted; so, last year bought this house. It is nice to be back on the water but we still miss our island home something awful. Have two grandchildren.........I know, I know, I am too young to have grand kids....what can I say! Thankfully, although I have a bum heart, I am still very pretty. Any of you rich gals who want a boy toy, I can be bought! Katrina taught us to be resourceful!!! Wish you could hear my dearest laughing.......she is so rude sometimes!!!!!! Anyway, this is about it.....seriously......all I do is work and get rested to go back to work.....last two full weeks off was in '89. Such is life I suppose. Hope all of you are well and happy. Take care. UPDATE: Well, last Nov.09 I added three more cardiac stints to my collection. So, things are having to change somewhat. I have transitioned to the urgent care part of our ED where I just see the minor stuff. It has not been an easy transition mentally leaving what I loved doing and what I felt I did pretty well. But, to everything there is a season and perhaps this is mine to look for less stressful endeavors. Wife still puts up with me even I do not understand it. Take care of each other.... Everything is is pretty much the same. UPDATE: Well.........where do I start. The last 14 months have been......well.........shall we say, interesting. We lost my father in law in the Spring of 2012. He was from New Orleans and was one of the best men I have ever known. Still miss him and his outlook on life. On the way home from his funeral, we stopped at our best friends and God Daughter's house since they were not at the funeral and we could not get them on the phone. Once inside, Marcia and I found all three dead, including our most beloved 12 year old God Daughter, Pieper. It was a tragedy that we still relive daily and one that broke our hearts like nothing before in our lives. It was one of those tragedies that no one saw coming and one that still makes no sense on any level. We buried them and the entire town turned out.....it was heartbreaking yet still uplifting to see neighbors, once again just like after Katrina, come together to help us all overcome such an unimaginable loss. It has been most difficult to overcome but we had no other option but to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Then, last summer, our fantastic 9 year old grandson was struck with Muscular Dystrophy. He is a brave and smart young man..........wise beyond his years. And he has helped us all come to grips with his situation. Then, after a lovely day in October and a great meal at our favorite place, I woke up in congestive heart failure. Seems that my aortic valve decided to give up. So, in November, I went to New Orleans (only place that I know where you can get a fried shrimp poboy delivered to your ICU room) and let this band of roving cardiac surgeons have their way with me...........they ripped out my heart, plugged in a new pig valve, replaced my thoracic aorta and put in a few bypasses...............just cause they could. Had a pretty rocky recovery but had a great nurse at home that pulled me through. Worst part of the whole ordeal was that they really screwed up my beard......I had the full Santa Claus beard and was proud of it. But those surgeons do not know a dang thing about trimming a beard and it showed........badly. Finally, in January, my cardiologist had a sit down with me and told me to stay away from my beloved ER............and thus, my days in clinical medicine ended. Really pissed me off.........only t...Expand for more