Hooray for Friday! Sleeping late, lounging on the couch with the laptop, performing medical research to change the world. Also, lounging out on the porch in the sun since it was about 75 degrees while studying for the MCAT. Chemistry and sunshine are a good mix - it makes the chemistry less painful.
Today was also a success in that I went shopping and I was actually able to find a pair of shorts that I like and bought! And Eddie Bauer replaced my sunglasses that recently lost a nosepiece - a straight across swap, with no argument required. A most excellent day all the way across the board.
31 March 2006
29 March 2006
Why are we here?
The last week has been incredibly slow on the ambulance. Partly because the company added another truck with a schedule that directly overlaps mine, and partly because there just isn't anything going on in the town I'm posted at. Yesterday, we did 2 calls all day, and in between we were posted at one of the hospitals with one of the other trucks, where we lounged in the sun (D got burned), listened to music and hung out. All we were missing was a hibachi and a cooler and we would've had quite the tailgate party. One of the trucks in the company posted in a city to the south did 9 calls yesterday, so it all depends on where you're at.
I'm at the point where I'm battling constant fatigue and feeling fairly certain that I'm never going to do well enough on the MCAT to make all this studying worth while, so it is hard to stay motivated to make it through this last month of torture. If I don't do well enough, I could re-take the exam in August, but the prospect of that many more months of complete insanity isn't settling well. Maybe I should just be a stay-at-home wife?
I'm at the point where I'm battling constant fatigue and feeling fairly certain that I'm never going to do well enough on the MCAT to make all this studying worth while, so it is hard to stay motivated to make it through this last month of torture. If I don't do well enough, I could re-take the exam in August, but the prospect of that many more months of complete insanity isn't settling well. Maybe I should just be a stay-at-home wife?
27 March 2006
26 March 2006
Children everywhere
Another slow Sunday leaves me some time for an update on my weekend. This weekend I got to be an observer during a Pediatrics clinic, as well as time in the Nursery and on the Pediatrics floor of a hospital. It is all part of the plan of a physician I've been working with to convince me that I want to be a physician and not something like a PA, or just giving up entirely.
I had a good time seeing all the kids in the clinic - lots of simple sniffles and ear infections. I even got to talk with one young woman who had injured her knee, so I got to do the patient history since I have lots of experience with knee injuries at this point. Saturday morning in the nursery was also fun as I got to see a pair of fraternal twins and a five-hour old baby. Not good for K as it reminds me that I think I want to have kids, but fun for me.
I also provided the clinic nurses with some excitement on Friday when I fainted in their hallway. I still don't know exactly why it happened (leading guess is currently too little food), but I was suddenly feeling very flushed and unwell, took one step backwards into the hallway and dropped into a dead faint. I managed to give myself a good headache, because of course the floor was cement covered by 1/8" industrial carpeting, but I was fine after some juice and crackers. I'm grateful that I was able to take that step backwards into the hallway, that way I didn't faint on the patient, who quite honestly had his own problems that day.
I had a good time seeing all the kids in the clinic - lots of simple sniffles and ear infections. I even got to talk with one young woman who had injured her knee, so I got to do the patient history since I have lots of experience with knee injuries at this point. Saturday morning in the nursery was also fun as I got to see a pair of fraternal twins and a five-hour old baby. Not good for K as it reminds me that I think I want to have kids, but fun for me.
I also provided the clinic nurses with some excitement on Friday when I fainted in their hallway. I still don't know exactly why it happened (leading guess is currently too little food), but I was suddenly feeling very flushed and unwell, took one step backwards into the hallway and dropped into a dead faint. I managed to give myself a good headache, because of course the floor was cement covered by 1/8" industrial carpeting, but I was fine after some juice and crackers. I'm grateful that I was able to take that step backwards into the hallway, that way I didn't faint on the patient, who quite honestly had his own problems that day.
23 March 2006
Punk be-yotch
Today was a different sort of day; D and I spent all day with just one patient. Ferrying him from home to a MRI, to a doctor appointment and back home again. It was weird spending that long with one person, and reminds me of why I don't want to be a nurse. Because people are annoying if you have to put up with them all day. So here's the shout-out to all the good nurses with the patience to deal with patients for long shifts.
This patient was also very different from our usual "raisin gathering" of geriatric patients. He was 20, partially paralyzed, seemed to think he was tough and/or a gansta, and very vocal. When we first walked in, he thought we were the police (in his defense, we do wear shiny badges), but once he figured out that we were with the ambulance, he opened right up and started telling us all sorts of things we didn't really need to know. He showed us many of his tattoos and harassed his friend about the one he overpaid for. He told us about being hit by the drunk driver and eventually getting the guy's vehicle and smashing it with a 5lb sledgehammer because that was as much as he could lift. About being on steroids. About all the "hot" nurses at the hospital we were taking him to and how he'd love to see a "Nurses Gone Wild" video. I'm fairly certain he and D had some sort of male bonding experience in the back of the ambulance while I was driving - and the only disappointment to me was that they didn't get to spend more time together. He actually apologized for offending me with his foul mouth at one point, and despite the fact that I hadn't been offended, he said he felt bad because he knew he shouldn't act that way.
One of the nice things was that D and I actually had time for lunch today. In a sit-down restaurant - which is truly unheard of at our company. But we'd been dispatched to stay with the guy and the MRI took nearly 2 hours, so off to lunch we went. We also found the antenna for the XM radio that D had been looking for so that we can actually have some decent music in the ambulance. So despite being the weirdest day yet on this job, I'm going to have to call it a success.
This patient was also very different from our usual "raisin gathering" of geriatric patients. He was 20, partially paralyzed, seemed to think he was tough and/or a gansta, and very vocal. When we first walked in, he thought we were the police (in his defense, we do wear shiny badges), but once he figured out that we were with the ambulance, he opened right up and started telling us all sorts of things we didn't really need to know. He showed us many of his tattoos and harassed his friend about the one he overpaid for. He told us about being hit by the drunk driver and eventually getting the guy's vehicle and smashing it with a 5lb sledgehammer because that was as much as he could lift. About being on steroids. About all the "hot" nurses at the hospital we were taking him to and how he'd love to see a "Nurses Gone Wild" video. I'm fairly certain he and D had some sort of male bonding experience in the back of the ambulance while I was driving - and the only disappointment to me was that they didn't get to spend more time together. He actually apologized for offending me with his foul mouth at one point, and despite the fact that I hadn't been offended, he said he felt bad because he knew he shouldn't act that way.
One of the nice things was that D and I actually had time for lunch today. In a sit-down restaurant - which is truly unheard of at our company. But we'd been dispatched to stay with the guy and the MRI took nearly 2 hours, so off to lunch we went. We also found the antenna for the XM radio that D had been looking for so that we can actually have some decent music in the ambulance. So despite being the weirdest day yet on this job, I'm going to have to call it a success.
21 March 2006
Hospice-tality
Some of the patients we pick up are going to die. Soon. Most of them know this, especially if they are coherent enough to have any idea what is going on. Today was a different type of experience. Instead of picking up the patient from the hospital or nursing home, we picked him up from a personal residence and he had no idea what was going on.
He was lying on a bed, with his rear on the pillows, his head pointed toward the foot, and his feet propped up on the portable commode. The tension in the house was nearly visible, with three men looking quite upset and one woman fussing around. The woman was really the only one who wanted to talk, and she just kept stressing "We just can't take care of him anymore", as though we were going to take one look at her and leave the patient there. She had a reason for everything, even though nobody asked.
When the patient saw us, he looked confused and spoke in French to the woman who told him something in return. She looked at us and confided that he doesn't know he's going with us. We told him he was going for a ride in the ambulance, his answer was "why?" D explained that his family needed help taking care of him, he responded "am I going to die?" We immediately looked to the family - who had all fled the room. We followed them out and it turns out that the patient was aware he had cancer, but apparently nobody told him that he was going to die soon, and one of them pointedly looked at D and said "you tell him."
We tried to argue that this was more appropriate to come from them, but no luck. With the collective guilt in the room, you might've thought they were sacrificing small children in the basement instead of asking for help caring for a very ill family member. Very weird all the way around. But quite frankly, with those folks, I think he's better off at the extremely nice hospice house we took him too.
He was lying on a bed, with his rear on the pillows, his head pointed toward the foot, and his feet propped up on the portable commode. The tension in the house was nearly visible, with three men looking quite upset and one woman fussing around. The woman was really the only one who wanted to talk, and she just kept stressing "We just can't take care of him anymore", as though we were going to take one look at her and leave the patient there. She had a reason for everything, even though nobody asked.
When the patient saw us, he looked confused and spoke in French to the woman who told him something in return. She looked at us and confided that he doesn't know he's going with us. We told him he was going for a ride in the ambulance, his answer was "why?" D explained that his family needed help taking care of him, he responded "am I going to die?" We immediately looked to the family - who had all fled the room. We followed them out and it turns out that the patient was aware he had cancer, but apparently nobody told him that he was going to die soon, and one of them pointedly looked at D and said "you tell him."
We tried to argue that this was more appropriate to come from them, but no luck. With the collective guilt in the room, you might've thought they were sacrificing small children in the basement instead of asking for help caring for a very ill family member. Very weird all the way around. But quite frankly, with those folks, I think he's better off at the extremely nice hospice house we took him too.
19 March 2006
Illin' in the hizz-ouse
Okay, so I haven't been sick all week, but there wasn't a lot that inspired me to write this week. Friday, K and I were supposed to be out snowboarding with FREE tickets (and yes, if you know me, FREE really is that important). It was just over 2h drive to get there, and over halfway there I started feeling unwell. As in, pull the car over somewhere so I can hurl on the side of the road unwell. And then, find me a bathroom, any bathroom right this minute unwell.
When we got to the hill, I stayed in the car, curled in the fetal position while K went out and enjoyed the nice weather and reasonable March snow. Finally, around 2p, I called him and told him that I had to go home. My vomiting was scaring small children in the bathroom and the toilets there were none too clean for the amount of camping out I had to do. I finally kept down some chicken broth that evening, but it was a challenge. K jokingly suggested maybe we should go out drinking and kill whatever bug I had, but the idea of throwing up expensive bar liquor wasn't really all that appealing after throwing up a dozen times that day. I was hoping maybe something I ate had disagreed with me, so that it would just be a one-day deal. No luck.
Saturday wasn't much better, only I got to be curled up in the fetal position on the couch and use my own toilet. Also, the good news is that there is FREE HBO and Cinemax this weekend, so I've seen a lot of so-so movies that I wouldn't normally spend $ on to see. Two doses of pepto didn't really slow things down, but I managed to keep down some applesauce and some more chicken soup. I called in sick this morning because I don't think it would be good to stop the ambulance halfway to the nursing home so I could go use some nasty gas station bathroom. Things are finally clearing up a little, at least I had an appetite this morning, although finding something I thought would stay down wasn't easy. With any luck, I'll be back to saving the world tomorrow - and if anyone vomits on me, I'll probably vomit right back.
When we got to the hill, I stayed in the car, curled in the fetal position while K went out and enjoyed the nice weather and reasonable March snow. Finally, around 2p, I called him and told him that I had to go home. My vomiting was scaring small children in the bathroom and the toilets there were none too clean for the amount of camping out I had to do. I finally kept down some chicken broth that evening, but it was a challenge. K jokingly suggested maybe we should go out drinking and kill whatever bug I had, but the idea of throwing up expensive bar liquor wasn't really all that appealing after throwing up a dozen times that day. I was hoping maybe something I ate had disagreed with me, so that it would just be a one-day deal. No luck.
Saturday wasn't much better, only I got to be curled up in the fetal position on the couch and use my own toilet. Also, the good news is that there is FREE HBO and Cinemax this weekend, so I've seen a lot of so-so movies that I wouldn't normally spend $ on to see. Two doses of pepto didn't really slow things down, but I managed to keep down some applesauce and some more chicken soup. I called in sick this morning because I don't think it would be good to stop the ambulance halfway to the nursing home so I could go use some nasty gas station bathroom. Things are finally clearing up a little, at least I had an appetite this morning, although finding something I thought would stay down wasn't easy. With any luck, I'll be back to saving the world tomorrow - and if anyone vomits on me, I'll probably vomit right back.
13 March 2006
Rainy Sunday
Sundays are almost always slow, but yesterday was a little ridiculous. Very very boring. We did one wheelchair van call in the morning and then NOTHING all day until an hour-drive transfer at 5p which of course made us late getting off work. Unfortunately, it was also a day where I didn't feel particularly well as I've recently started "exercising" again. I think it is more like slow torture for the masochistic because not only is it hard work while you're doing it, but it pains you with sore, knotted muscles for several days.
I can handle most of the sore muscles. It is the upper back and neck muscles that do me in. They knot up and give me a killer headache and nausea and even sometimes the vomiting just for kicks. It has been a life-long pattern and while some ibuprofen and heat can usually take the edge off, the only thing that really helps is sleep, I'm guessing because it allows my body to convince the muscles to relax a bit. So yesterday, just before the long trip, the headache sets in. This is bad. I have two options in the ambulance, I can drive or I can work with the patients. Neither holds appeal with a pounding headache.
This patient was only 6m old so she wasn't going to be a conversational problem, but mom was riding along and very chatty. Also, I actually knew where we were going, and D did not, so I drove. By the time we got to the admitting hospital, I was in active nausea-suppression mode, trying to convince myself I did not actually need to throw up. The bright headlights don't help anything, so D drove us home. Since we are in an ambulance, I at least had access to some disposable heat packs, which helped a little, and I got home after 8p so I only had to be awake a little while before crashing entirely.
Off-topic here...there is nothing more attractive in a man than compassionate care for others. It is one of the reasons that I liked being on the ambulance/fast squad calls with K, it gives that nice reinforcement of happy good feelings about how wonderful, sensitive and caring he is with people. I have to give both D and K gentlemen's gold stars for yesterday though. D was adorable in cooing at the baby and was insistent that we stop the ambulance so I could get the hot packs out of the back if there was any chance it was going to make me feel better. He even offered to wash the truck by himself so I could go home early. K made tasty pizza (by request) even though he went in for some overtime hours yesterday, and rubbed my sore neck and shoulders for a delightfully long time when I got home. Thanks guys!
I can handle most of the sore muscles. It is the upper back and neck muscles that do me in. They knot up and give me a killer headache and nausea and even sometimes the vomiting just for kicks. It has been a life-long pattern and while some ibuprofen and heat can usually take the edge off, the only thing that really helps is sleep, I'm guessing because it allows my body to convince the muscles to relax a bit. So yesterday, just before the long trip, the headache sets in. This is bad. I have two options in the ambulance, I can drive or I can work with the patients. Neither holds appeal with a pounding headache.
This patient was only 6m old so she wasn't going to be a conversational problem, but mom was riding along and very chatty. Also, I actually knew where we were going, and D did not, so I drove. By the time we got to the admitting hospital, I was in active nausea-suppression mode, trying to convince myself I did not actually need to throw up. The bright headlights don't help anything, so D drove us home. Since we are in an ambulance, I at least had access to some disposable heat packs, which helped a little, and I got home after 8p so I only had to be awake a little while before crashing entirely.
Off-topic here...there is nothing more attractive in a man than compassionate care for others. It is one of the reasons that I liked being on the ambulance/fast squad calls with K, it gives that nice reinforcement of happy good feelings about how wonderful, sensitive and caring he is with people. I have to give both D and K gentlemen's gold stars for yesterday though. D was adorable in cooing at the baby and was insistent that we stop the ambulance so I could get the hot packs out of the back if there was any chance it was going to make me feel better. He even offered to wash the truck by himself so I could go home early. K made tasty pizza (by request) even though he went in for some overtime hours yesterday, and rubbed my sore neck and shoulders for a delightfully long time when I got home. Thanks guys!