A Work in Progress

One of the greatest parts of the movie, “What about Bob?” is when Bob learns to sail on lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. "I'm sailing! Did you see me? I sailed, I'm a sailor, ahoy!" Well, tie me to the mast and teach me to sail, ‘cause I’m moving north. New Hampshire may seem like a random choice, but the rent is so cheap that the equivalent in my hometown would rent me a nice cardboard box. I’ll be living with a couple of friends in the middle of nowhere. We visited the house last week, and the silence there was absolute and glorious. And what a state! No sales tax, no state income tax, and beer in the grocery store, what more could I ask for? I learned that thanks to NH, the world has Velcro, Tupperware, McDonalds hamburgers, and republicans. Well, the last two are not very useful, but all the same, a pretty cool state. And, although I will be a resident, I will still giggle a bit when I think of the state symbol used on their road signs, quarters, li...

Today it appears that my white cloud is back from spring break and hanging over my head once again. 10 hours, 1 call. Woot. I did get to attend a lecture about tasers to break up the day. It was pretty cool, especially when they asked for a volunteer. I thought, they wouldn't...they couldn’t...they did! They shot that guy with a taser! That was pretty awesome! Very useful tools, I especially like the barbed 'probes' that dig into the assailants’ skin. I also ordered a pre graduation, graduation gift, a new (desperately needed) stethoscope from my Godfather. Tomorrow, spring break starts officially for me, I'll be heading up north with the 'rents to check out the place where I’d like to work.

Don't tell, but I actually had patients that required care. The 1st call of the day was a rolled over dump truck with entrapment. No, seriously. Somehow the patient managed to roll the truck onto the drivers’ side, leaving him sitting where the drivers’ window should have been and leaning against the roof. The extrication was pretty sweet to watch. Once we got him out with the obligatory board and collar, it was revealed that he basically had nothing wrong with him, aside from a suspiciously low heart rate for someone his size, and for the fact that he was just pinned in a dump truck. So, we took him to (the obvious nearby hospital of choice) where I caught up with my other patient. After that we had a series of medical patients resulting in a near record three medication administrations. Three! A little lasix for our trouble breathing, some glucagon for our 43 blood glucose diabetic with no access, and a few baby aspirins for our quasi chest pain. Glucose checks, EKGs, 12 ...

I've had a very interesting last few days, pretty much starting with an asystole arrest in a nursing home notorious for killing its residents. As soon as I realized where we were, I said "Ooh, this place." When we got to the room, cpr was in progress, 4 rounds of epi 3 rounds of atropine had already been given, and to top it all off, it was a trach patient, so I didn't get my airway! We tried to pace him, unsuccessfully, both my preceptor and I went for EJs, unsuccessfully, but a few minutes later, we had return of spontaneous pulses. Wow. The patient had been down for 20 minutes, and pupils were fixed and dilated. We transported carefully. Shortly after, we had a patient, that, looking back at my paperwork now, I don't remember at all. I was trying to finish my Fisdap stuff and I couldn't remember a thing about them (do note the use of 'them' as I don't even remember that detail). Apparently, I even started an IV. Freaky. Then we had my f...

I've had a very interesting week, but no time yet to blog it. Sometime in the near future, I'll have stories in full. Here's a preview: quasi cardiac arrest, 2 story fall onto head, cops and belligerent drunks don’t mix, pinned under a dump truck, and some absolute classics: diabetes, trouble breathing, and chest pain. Pt. quote of the week: "Who's driving? It's not the girl, is it?" Partner quote of the week: "Minorities and bigots...I hate them both." (said just fast enough to throw you off)

I’ve had a few days of clinicals, hence the lack of updates, and the length of this one. I started out by hitting a new personal level of ghetto by taping the earpieces onto my stethoscope, classy. We had a very eclectic day, starting with a burn patient, marking the first time I got to give morphine, sweet! Later we basically had an interfacility GI bleed patient, pungent! The patient had a PICC line in and the sending facility had started a 22g; way to put fluids in, not. One call was for neck pain. A quick assessment, (looking at the patient) led to the discovery of a large abscess on her neck. Apparently the patient had shot up there and missed the vein, infiltrating heroin. Of course your neck hurts! Finally we had a, well, technically it’s outside of my scope of practice to diagnose, but we had a seizure faker. Tip to fakers: look up what ‘ails’ you before attempting to portray it. Accuracy helps. For example: seizure patients do not typically stop seizing to say ‘ouch...

Since last I wrote: EMS wise; 23 hours of work and about 13 calls, and 1 clinical yielding 1 call and 4 cancellations. Also, 2 cadavers for an airway class allowing for 2 intubations, 1 surgical crike and 1 needle decompression. School wise; 2 tests back, bizarrely with the same grade, and the score of my last bowling game, 97, marking the end of my phys. ed career. The best number of all: around 75 degrees, the high for the last 4 days. Needless to say, we’ve been kayaking twice. A few miles of flat water so Ewing can be properly acquainted with the new kayak. Flat water is great for honing our skills, edging, bracing, drawing, and my favorite, perfecting my forward stroke. Kayaking wise; smelled 1 skunk, spotted 1 fox, and about 20 geese. 0 impromptu swimming lessons. Today I ordered my cap and gown and the graduation announcements, leading us to the scariest number of all: 72, the number of days until graduation. Which leads us to the next scariest number, or perhaps the mo...

So, Ewing bought a new boat. Not like we really need an excuse to go out on the water but, new kayaks help. It was a bit of a brisk day, and the water was lower than usual making me wish that kopapa was equipped with a rock-crusher of some sort. Rocks on a shallow river not only get you stuck, sending you into a fit of rage, they also sometimes jump out in front of you. They should know that kayaks have the river right of way, but no. They’ll pop up when you least expect, causing you to be tossed one way or another, scraping the crap out of the hull, or in the case of Ewing and the new kayak, cause you to capsize. A particularly large rock jumped out of the water and grabbed the new kayak, forcing it underwater like a possessed marine animal, or something like that. After my initial shock, I grabbed his now rogue paddle and made my way to where he had finally emerged from the roughly 38 degree water. I had a towel so he could dry off a bit, and out of the kindness of my heart I...