Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Melmar Is...

"A wonderful female pixie with goddess like beauty. She is known to be very cute (or kawaii as they say in japanese). She is also sweet and caring. Also known to have very adorable squeaks and say very cute grrr's.

Melmar is UBER-KAWAII!!!"

Don't believe me, check it out: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Melmar

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I need some extra cash. This is what I've come up with so far:
1. Cocktail waitress
2. Cocktail waitress at a strip club (clothed of course, barely but all naughty bits covered. That is until I get really drunk one night and slurr out "I kin do betterrr thaany of them slutzzz" and jump on stage.)
3. Do a quick photo shoot and submit a raunchy picture of myself to attempt to win a contest for the cover of a radio station calendar.
4. Fly to Florida and enter as many wet t-shirt contests as possible.
5. Set up a side bar, a paypal account and just ask people for donations.
5. Sell my eggs.

Friday, July 21, 2006

STAT

Because this shot is so pretty I'm keeping it at the top.



I found a nurse's blog that I read from time to time and I must say, I understood everything she wrote below and even concluded with the same treatment the doctor advised before I read it. I really am learning something in class.

3:45 am: My patient with the triple bypass surgery goes into a rapid atrial fibrillation at 150 beats per minute. Get EKG and vitals STAT.
3:50 am: Call Dr. T. and receive orders to give the patient a cardizem bolus IV. Heart rate still too high in the 150s with oxygen saturation dropping to 89% on 2L of oxygen per nasal canula. I try to administer the cardizem, only to discover that his IV, which worked one hour ago, was blown.
3:55 am: My colleague and I are still trying to start an IV.
4:00 am: My other patient's blood transfusion finishes and her IV machine is beeping annoyingly loud.
4:05 am: I finally get an IV and administer the cardizem.
4:10 am: The heart rate is still in 140s. I want it below 100. I proceed to start a cardizem drip to help reduce the heart rate.
4:15 am: Other patient's IV machine is still beeping.4:20 am: Bypass dude's oxygen saturation is still only 89% on 5L of oxygen. Heart rate is in the 110s. Lungs sound clear. WTF?
4:25 am: Um, can someone please turn off the beeping IV machine?
4:22 am: Wonderful colleague looks at my transfusion lady's orders and gives her lasix, flushes her IV, and turns off the machine.
4:25 am: Page Dr. T., and give update. Bypass dude has orders for lasix and a non-rebreather mask. Carry out orders.
4:30 am: Bypass dude's heart rate jumps into the 160s. Check on patient to find him standing up to pee into a urinal. Proceed to tell patient he shouldn't stand or else his heartrate will go up. Patient states he can't pee unless he's standing up.
4:33 am: Heartrate back into the 100s.
4:40 am: Heartrate up in the 160s again. Patient is standing up to pee again. Damn lasix.4:43 am: Get orders to insert foley catheter into bypass dude so he doesn't have to stand up to pee.
4:45 am: Transfusion lady spikes a fever of 101.2 F. WTF?
4:55 am: Patient #3 aka dude with heparin infusion starts bleeding from an old blood draw site and stains his gown and the bed. WTF?
5:00 am: Patient #4 aka has a blood pressure of 201/104. WTF?????5:01 am: Page Dr. K. for transfusion lady5:02 am: Page Dr. H. for patient # 4
5:03 am: Dr. T. calls me and asks for an update on atrial fibrillation dude.5:04 am: Doctors K. and H. call at the same time with orders.
5:07 am: Draw blood from heparin dude to check his PTT
5:10 am: Bypass dude's oxygen saturation is 99% on non-rebreather mask and heart rate is in the 90s. Whew.
5:14 am: Norvasc given to freakin' high blood pressure lady.5:20 am: Tylenol given to transfusion lady.
5:25 am: Clean up heparin patient, apply pressure dressing to bleeding site.6:00 am: Sit down and breathe.
6:15 am: Hypertensive lady's blood pressure is down to 178/84. Transfusion lady's temp is down to 99.8. Heparin dude has stopped bleeding. Whew.
6:30 am: Atrial fibrillation guy's heart rate converted to a normal sinus rhythm in the 80s. Oxygen saturation is 98% on a partial rebreather mask. Wheewww.6:35 am: Haul ass to audit charts and finish charting, which I normally complete by
4:00 am.
7:10 am: Give report to oncoming nurse, and say "peace out, don't call me if you need an extra nurse tonight."
7:45 am: On the way home, realize that the shift still wasn't that bad. Must be getting better at this nursing thing.

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Furniture Fiasco

Finally took delivery of our brand new couch & king size bed. Too bad the couch has 2 holes in it, the bed has 1 and they didn't deliver a bed frame. When I called to ask about the frame (before I saw the holes) the smarmy sales guy that sold us this shit half ass apologized and said ohh he didn't know we wanted one of those. Yeah b/c I want to have my brand new king size bed to just sit on my floor. But since we weren't charged for one I said I'd just go up the street from my house and buy one from a mattress store. He proceeds to give me tips on what to look for in a frame. Not only did reference the act of screwing on the bed when we were choosing one he did it again. He was telling me about what to watch for in bed frames and said “well you need to get the wheels that lock. You know why? I’ll tell you why, b/c you know, when, uhm, you and your husband are home at night on the bed and uhh, well you know, it can move around.” And he did it in a whisper voice all drawn out and smutty! I wanted to throw up on my desk. I still want to throw up on my desk.

So two questions remain about this furniture store. #1 How long will the store manager jerk us around before talking to us so I can demand brand new pieces sent (none of this "oh we can just repair it" crap)? and #2 What in the world will be damaged on our china cabinet that is on back order?

Thursday, July 20, 2006

New Hampshaaah












This is the "Wolfman". We took the kids to a very campy tourist trap that had trained bears, vintage museums, popcorn, ice cream, bumper boats and one of those Great America type photo shops where you dress up like saloon whores. In addition they have a real steam engine train that takes you through the woods. They warn you of the Wolfman. This guy rides on out along the train and scares all the little kiddies. Funny, or sad, thing is, this isn't a costume for this guy.




The best muffin I've ever had. Cranberry. I really can't stop talking about it. We happened to stop in at the Vermont General Store (in Vermont) to grab some coffee. These were still in the baking tin and the guy behind the counter knew everyone's name that came in and was overly cheerful to the point of being a little scary. Can't get this in Chicago...well you could but you'd pay $10 bucks for it and I can guarantee it wouldn't be as good and the person who sold it to you would act like you're some kind of an asshole.

Other food highlight was stopping at some random orchard to pick fresh blueberries.

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Update: I passed my midterm with a higher score then most of the class and I only studied for an hour on the plane ride home. My overall avg is tight and higher then the class.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Quickie

Yeah, it's been awhile. Just so much going on and so little time for it all.

I've been wrapped up between school, work and going out.

We just came back from New Hampshire. We were there over the weekend visiting family. I can't tell you how beautiful it is up there. So much so that we may just move out there, or somewhere like it. Funniest part of the whole weekend (besides my ass cheeks being covered in bug bites - picture not available) is how PE secures a whole row of seats to himself on an airplane.


Ohhh it works. It's either that or just sit in the middle seat.

Class is moving along. I learn how to pull people out of cars this Sat, next Sat is a shift in the ER and the Sat after that is a shift on the rig. I might be able to start IVs & take blood. Depends on the ER Dr. I get. I take my national exam end of August. Almost there and I'm still passing.

When my sis was in town we had some fun with the moonface mirrows at the Planetarium.




I have a wedding this Friday where I'll get to see my BFF VA out of staters. Can't wait for that! I'll get to make up for the last visit I made to them and show them I really can handle my booze. Especially since I'll have to be up at the ass crack of dawn the next morning.

It looks like next week Thur & Fri I'll be back in Minnesota. I have that Fri off with some free kick ass seats at the Cubs game so it may mean I won't be going. And yes I know how bad the Cubs stink but that doesn't mean the sun won't shine, make the beer flat or mean we can't root for the other team (St. Louis). Yea for me but we'll see. I KNEW they would schedule it on one of my days off.

I did, however, get a raise. Now that is a big yea. Makes it hard to make the leap. Prob won't for a while yet.

One of my other BFFs may be joining the forces here. For selfish reasons, I hope she accepts, then I can just go hang out in her cube and watch her blog all day.

PE & I walked around half of Lincoln Park zoo & felt bad for all the animals locked up in such small quarters. Highlights were watching a bear piss all over himself and the monkeys taking turns lifting up their tails digging around for bugs and when they couldn't grab it just diving in with their faces to munch away.

I finally have tan lines again. And finally found a beach buddy that can sit in the sun for as long as I can.

I can't even remember the other stuff. Hell it took me 3 tries to remember my password here.

I'll post more when I get around to it.