Bleh...

I signed up for a lot of hours yesterday.
In fact I think I doubled my paycheck for the next 4 weeks. Booyah!

This is good. John just gave a lot of our money to UAMS and we were left with $75.
Meep.

For some reason I was incredibly depressed yesterday morning. Maybe just tired, whatever the case I was very unmotivated. It was almost a t-shirt day. Anytime I wear a t-shirt to work its a signal. I don't give a crap. Its a little warning to everyone, plus it makes me work just a bit harder to make up for my sloppy appearance.
Plus t-shirts are comfortable with scrubs.

Nothing great for Friday the 13th. Sorry. Just not interested in much right now.
I'm readjusting to John not being around. I was so used to him always being here, now that he's always gone it's a bit odd. This is why I am going to start working 5 12 hour shifts. Of course this will simply have the effect of turning me into a big pile of "don't care." It's amazing how listening to people complain all day have that effect.

It's all good, my lil cat luz me.

H1N1 and NDM1 on a triple word tile!!

Wow, that's gotta be like 70 points!

My husband and I play scrabble.
Or as he corrected me the other day, "Words with Friends."

We used to play scrabble a lot, we even had a travel scrabble board for when we would eat out at "slower" restaurants. Then we took it to the pool, it warped and finally we both downloaded the iphone app. Now we can play scr- ahem... "Words with Friends" when ever we want. However, I tend to let several days lapse between turns.

The downside to "Words with Friends" is my husband and I like to play "Medical Scrabble" and extra 50 points or so if the word is medical. Or was it 10? 50 extra points seems a bit ridiculous for xiphoid (which already rakes in the money)

So when I logged into my google reader yesterday I was greeted with the happy news that the WHO has declared the H1N1 pandemic over and terrifying emergence of NDM1.
Ugh. Can't we ever get a break?

I'm sure everyone has heard of H1N1, the "swine flu" a poorly named virus that caused global panic, the slaughtering of pigs, and a national decrease in bacon sales (don't worry my bacon chapstick is still safe!) Many people are coming down hard on the WHO for their response to H1N1. When it was happening everyone was yelling about the fact that they we're not prepared, that they were not fast enough, that people were dying, that there weren't enough vaccines, that the vaccines were not safe and we were all going to die of mercury poisoning. Ugh. There is more mercury in a can of tuna than was in that aduvant.
ANYWAY.
NOW, people are mad at the WHO because they spent to much money, caused a global panic, there are excess vaccines that need to be destroyed, and people don't feel the pandemic was "really that bad."
Seriously people?

In other news, there's a pretty scary bit of enzyme running around now. NDM1 (If you google this you get pictures of guitars.) It's coming out of India and it's a enzyme making drug resistant bacteria even more so. So much the Lancet published a bit about "The end of antibiotics" (<-this is a link to The Guardian though.)
I don't like that phrase. In fact, it scares the C.Diff outta me. We've only had penicillin since the 1920s and already these little bacteria are kicking our vestigial tails in the evolutionary race. Not good people. Take ALL of your antibiotics and wash your hands!

Simple, simple things. No wonder so many people believe other people are stupid. We're killing ourselves because we don't take the 30seconds post potty to scrub-a-dub-dub.

So, easy take home message? Get your vaccines, wash your hands, and find me on "Words with Friends!" cxJvak

MedSchool Widow

I've been replaced.
Instead of me John gets to snuggle with large books all evening. Right now he's explaining how Cipro effects the twisting and untwisting to topoisomerase. Wow, this is day two of classes. He's got a quiz tomorrow morning too.

I spent the day doing delightfully whatever I wanted. Although I can see how once it gets cold and the pool shuts down this is going to be a lot less enjoyable. I keep holding out for payday because John just wrote a check for $20,000 and it's freaking me out just a little. Mostly because all of our bills are set to autopay so I'm not quite sure when they withdraw from our account... No harsh calls from the bank just yet.

Once I get away from work for a while I really start to fall back into my "Sam" habits. I'm not so obsessed with nursing. I'm trying to come up with interesting stories or facts or whatever. Nope, nada, not much.

Hmm, just to not be lazy I'll browse my inbox.
SciAm says MRSA infections are on the decline. This is good, who needs MRSA infections? Blood related hospital acquired MRSA infections have decreased 34% in the 4 years between 2004 and 2008.
Yay, go handwashing.


Now, THIS is interesting. How to make the Elixir of Life. Wow.
Thanks to Harry Potter we all know what the Philosopher's Stone is. (Or if you never heard of the British title, The Sorcerer's Stone) Here it is on eHow. com how to make your own! Of all the things in the past to make a comeback. (I thought 80s fashion was bad enough) Alchemy?

I know, I know. It's probably just a small subset of nutjobs that would actually believe this sort of pseudoscience to be true, but it just shows you how little rationality people possess. Even for a small amount of people to think they can brew this up and "improve their aura" etc etc. Think about it. If there are flat earthers, and alchemists out there. How far have we come into the future?


While we're at it, Where's my damn flying car?!

This was a big weekend for us! Here I am, super proud of John as he finally gets his White Coat.
Here's what I learned. The White Coat Ceremony has only been around since the 90s. It was instigated to impress upon Medical Students the importance they have as students. They're not yet doctors, but they're still viewed as medical professionals by the general public. Essentially, when you wear a white coat, people don't look at your name tag, they just assume you know what you're talking about. So, don't screw it up. The longer your coat is, the farther along in your education you are. So, my tall man in a short coat looks kind of silly. Who cares?! He did it!

I got to meet a lot of people as John introduced me to his classmates. I'll be honest, it has been a long time since I've been in a group of people near my age. It was nice. Being with peers, and even better that we could all be around the same level of education. The "Welcome to Hell" party was great fun. Very loud, but great fun.

Today John is actually in class. I'm home alone until he gets out, then he'll either go to a friend's house to study or they'll all come here.

I've really got this "learning Spanish" drive right now. I've had at least one Spanish ONLY speaking patient. It's really building up my confidence in this language I've never really gotten to use.

Right now I'm navigating the "downloadable" library of audiobooks at the library. Not a great selection and it takes FOREVER to actually get the audio.
I had to put my selection on hold, wait a week, now I have to download their "reader" install, download the audiobook, and now I'm trying to load it on my ipod. An HOUR per installment? It's only an 11 hour book. It will take longer to get the book transferred than to listen to it.
Bah, not doing this again...
Well, let's hope Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Killer is worth it.

I've got to stop doing this...

Normally when I use that phase it refers to either sitting on the couch all day playing video games, or getting french fries from the cafeteria, but this time it refers to how often I speak up when I should keep quiet.

So my first unit council meeting is the 19th. So far I've got 5 different topics to present on.
1. Positive reinforcement for meeting standards of care.
2. Change of shift meetings.
3. Stroke protocols
4. Chest pain flowsheets
And now...
5. A code summary of Aug 3

As I was trying to leave work two nights ago I walked into a circus of a code. Unfortunately the two doctors who would have discharged my pts were busy as well as the charge nurse so I couldn't get rid of my pts or give report.
So I hitched up my britches and did what I could to wrap up the code.

I'm not talking bad about the nurses or doctors that I work with, they did as well as they could with the equipment they had. Unfortunately, they didn't have the equipment they needed!
I found this as an opportunity to write a strongly worded and bullet-pointed (??) email to my manager trying to get us some funding to purchase some much needed supplies.
Now he wants me to present my case to the nursing council.
(The guy lived btw.)

I'm going to be so busy. These people are going to be sick of seeing my face...

Parties and Good News!

Had a wildly successful surprise party for my Dad's 5oth birthday!
Hooray!

We sneaked down to Springfield and helped my brother and sister-in-law set up their house where my Dad thought he was having a quiet birthday dinner. Little did he know we had a luau!

Great time was had by all.
He said of all his 5o years, the last 50 were the best. It was so hard not to blog about getting ready for the party. Secrets are hard to keep. Unfortunately now that school has started it will be a while before we get the chance to get back to Springfield so... see you all at Christmas!

In other news. As we were driving back we received a great phone call.
Brett made it into UMKC Dental school! AH! Can't hardly express how happy I am for him! Now he and Micah have 3 weeks to get packed and move to KC. Wow. Don't envy you for the blitz you have to look forward to.
I don't really know a more deserving person to receive this great news. Brett's worked in the same pharmacy for..6 years(?) Has volunteered on a dental truck for the disadvantaged for 1.5 years, has been his church's youth leader for at least 3 all while taking some of the hardest classes Drury had to offer. He's worked himself silly and finally gets his goal.
Congrats Brett.
You way than more deserve it.

Now John and Brett get to kibitz together about their various programs.
John's first day of UAMS is today. Can hardly wait to hear about it.

Running injuries

Yes, we all get them.
They slow us down, ruin our times, make training impossible and simply give us the grumps.

There's nothing worse than a running injury.
Life seems to be great then all of a sudden without warning you're back to square one, hobbling along. It's shameful and frustrating.
I am suffering from a running injury.

This can't be the normal injury, oh no! This must be in a league all its own. I can't have a simple twisted ankle or IT injury. No shin-splints for me.

I have a burn.
I swear an actual burn mark (that will scar) across my chest from my sports bra.

I look like I've had reconstructive surgery.

Ridiculous...