A Work in Progress

Had my first clinical of the semester yesterday. I was riding with a critical care transport unit. My first call was ‘in house’ moving a patient from the ICU to the angio lab. This was pretty cool, as I got to watch the angiography on his brain. (very generally angiography is when they put radioactive ‘ink’ in the bloodstream and x-ray it to identify problems with your vascular system) I was hoping that the bleed would be really obvious but it turned out to be this tiny little thing that was unnoticeable to anyone normal. My other call of the day was bad yet good; the circumstances tragic, the outcome unknown. (I’ll be watching the paper for the next few days.) For a full account you can rent my diary, but the price has gone up. Yet, somehow I got front row seats to a cut-down IV, chest tube insertion, needle decompression, and later a central line insertion. Even better, I understood nearly every aspect of the patients treatment, including drug therapy. Although I did little to nothin...

Oh, to be learning about heart blocks and types of shock! Sitting outside, armed with calipers and a thick packet of EKG strips, analyzing them until I went blind…those were the days! Gone are the times of intubation races, putting 18 gauges in my friends’ arms, memorizing assessment sheets, drip calculations…alas… Now, I’m stuck at my desk reading about peak load staffing, cream skimming, and economics of scale. What exactly is a public utility model, anyway? I’ve been trying to get ahead in my homework before clinicals officially begin for me next week. Unfortunately, I find some of the work…well, er, not engaging. Yeah, that’s nice. Classes are interesting, amazingly so, but that doesn’t necessarily transfer into homework. But in fact, (don’t tell the management students) I’ve actually learned stuff! And, enjoyed it! Other than that I’ve reacquainted myself with late-night, met a frog, found a kitten, worked the system, and ‘donated blood.’

After learning today of the president’s remarks concerning New Orleans, I decided to do a little research and break my rule of avoiding news. After a little googling, I discovered too much for comfort. It's truly overwhelming. The people affected are on my mind, and I hope that our government can sort this thing out and help in the return to normalcy.

Went kayaking today on the Chesapeake, launching from my roommates house on the bay. We went out for about three hours. I’d kayaked the area before, but this was kopapas first salt water experience. On the way back to the house we thought it would be an easier paddle but somehow it turned out that the waves were doing more harm for us than good. At one point it seemed I had been paddling for 10 straight minutes and hadn’t actually gotten anywhere. But riding the waves or, wakes, rather as there were many large boats enjoying Labor day, was good fun. It was a bit harder to get into my Zen kayaking mode because I had to pay attention to the waves, jet skis, Ewing, jellyfish, excessive sea vegetation, and the relatively constant threat of capsize. The day has rekindled my interest in going surf kayaking. Although I think I would fail spectacularly at it, I’d like to give it a try. As for school, all is going well. Then again, I’ve only had one day’s worth of classes so fa...