These hours are mostly covered in the email I sent to you previously:

I’ve done a lot of research on joint replacement care and found that most sources seem to say essentially the same thing, which, unfortunately, is not very much (hence, I suppose, the need for a more comprehensive Owner’s Manual). I’ve also looked at different medical manuals and a couple of owner’s manuals for general appliances to try to figure out how they’re generally organized and how it might make sense to put together the one we’re working on. From that, I’ve written a loose outline. In my mind, the Owner’s Manual will consist of both information gathered through interviews and research. I also feel like the interviews will point me toward where I should be looking for the research. I’ve been researching and studying interviewing techniques. I put together a list of questions that I think will be a good outline for interviewing patients and I’m working on one for health care professionals. I’ve also looked over the script for the documentary a few more times and I’m starting to think about how I would put together a presentation for that as we discussed earlier. I’ve thought a little about grants and where to look to apply for them, but I’m a little bit lost there–I don’t even know where to start looking.

My next thoughts are that I’d like to start interviewing people soon. If possible, I’d like to look over some of the interviews that you’ve done in the past, such as for the film–I feel like that will help me get a stronger feel for what I’ll be doing specific to this project and your past work.

I had also watched a few of the videos you have posted here with clips of the interviews, but wanted to focus more on what I’d be doing for my own since they were interviews with experts and I’ll be focusing primarily on patients (I’d still like to do a few expert interviews if possible, though).

Since the time that I sent you this email, I’ve revised my interview questions and made myself a bit more comfortable with the list for when we start doing interviews. I’ve also looked over the things you sent me–the script, your powerpoint, and the essay you sent more recently–a bit more, they were helpful when I was writing my questions. (It seems every time I read them, I have to look up a bunch of stuff again to really understand what’s going on! I get it at the time, but later it’s much more difficult to explain, even to myself, the more complicated medical things–but I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of a lot of it.)

I have a few questions that I need answers to:

[*]Does posting my hours weekly–let’s say on Mondays, since that’s when I posted my hours to date–work for you? As we discussed, I can include a list of tasks done with the hours, and now that we have this board it seems like it’ll be easier for me to write things up as I’m doing them.
[*]I know you wanted me to write an email introducing myself to Alison for the November 5th event; as I said, I’m a bit lost on what I should say in it. Can I get some guidance in that area?
[*]I had a family thing come up for tomorrow evening. Would it be possible to do our Thursday phone-meeting during the day rather than at 8pm? I should be available until around 6.
[*]Most importantly! When can I start interviews? I’m excited for them. (I’m also available for that tomorrow, if you have time–I picked up a recording device that seems functional.)

Let me know if there’s anything else you need me to do!