Thursday, November 13, 2008

Medic Students say the darndest things.

So in class tonight, we learned some new descriptive phrases – this is meant mostly as humor, and also evidence and reminder for the T-shirt or “remember this” list that we’ll be coming up with eventually.

Pulmonary function is now summed up in one word: Flowability. “Doc, the patient has bad flowability and we're CPAP'ing 'em"

And 12-lead interpretation got easier… if the ST segment looks like a smile from a smilieface… that is good. If it is a frown, it’s bad. So from now on, when we call a certain doc on the command line, we can say “I’ve got smiles on the ST segments and good flowability… I’ll see you in 10. Of course, if we get any other doc… this could be really bad.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

And Miles to go before I sleep.

So we use this program called FISDAP to track all of our clinical hours for school. We have 72 hours to enter in all our data, and we also need to turn in a paper form with our clinical preceptor's signature, etc. I was up until 0300 taking care of school paperwork. Today starts at 0500, working 0600-1400, then clinicals 1800-0000.

As I was typing last night, I thought back to a poem I once read... Robert Frost's "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening". I can appreacate some poetry, and I remember this one from middle school englis

The line that kept running through my head was "And miles to go before I sleep." Given my current schedule, sleep has become the "optional" part of my scheducle. So When I got to work this monring, I took several shorter naps, and probably slept for close to an hour.

Anyway.... I need more sleep.




Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here,
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer,
To stop without a farmhouse near,
Between the woods and frozen lake,
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake,
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep,
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
~Robert Frost

Monday, November 10, 2008

Monday again

So, I'm at work again.

Last night I had to fuel my car, and it was refreshing that a full tank of gas was less than $50! I remember cringing when I was payin $80+ for a full tank, so it is nice that the price is a little better.

I was just watching on TV that it's the Marine Corps birthday today, and Veteran's Day tomorrow. THANK YOU to everyone who is serving, or has served our great country!


Check this video out on YouTube:

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Wow.

I woke up this morning, hoping that last night was a bad dream. Nope. Obama won, it seems.


Anyway - yesterday was busy at work... Cardiac Arrest at the local "Skilled" Nursing facility... came in as "Unresponsive Person".... and we walk in and the CNA is doing compressions. It don't get any more unresponsive than that!

The arrest was wittnessed. We worked it into the ED and got ROSC on the way in... guy coded twice more in the ED before it was finially called an hour or two later.

We then got our butts kicked with 5 calls between 2 BLS trucks and the medic... and we had another BLS cover us for a 3rd call.

Monday, November 03, 2008

Daylight Savings Time

So... is Daylight Savings time really worth it? The inconvience of changing your body schedule an hour, twice a year isn't that much, in fact, to anyone used to rotating shifts (Read: most EMS, Fire, and Law Enforcement folks) it really isn't anything at all.

But why do we do it? I don't care if the sun comes out at 7:30 or 8:30... I've got to start work at 0600... so it is going to be dark when I get to work - all the time.

Then there is the inconvience of having to change all your clocks. And we have clocks on everything - Phones, radios, microwaves, DVD/VCR's, computers.

Then the government goes and changes the program... and screws up the time on any electrical device that is programmed to automatically change the time.